Canon vs. Fanon, part 19: Sarcophagus Use
Welcome to the latest edition of Canon vs. Fanon! Pull up your keyboard and join the fun. I've had lots of people wandering onto my flist of late, and you're all very welcome. :) If you're new to the Canon vs. Fanon series, you can read older entries via the tags or the LJ Index. 
Briefly, the purpose of these essays is to explore canon issues, contrast them with common fanon usage, and determine how far fanon strays from canon. Some fanon is completely unsupported by canon; some is actually contradicted by canon; and some is only a question of emphasis or degree.
The point is not to condemn authors who use fanon, or even to suggest that there is something wrong with extrapolation or common plotlines. The purpose is simply to reach an understanding of what is canon, and what isn't. You may apply my conclusions to your writing, ignore them completely, or even find them pretentious or ridiculous - the choice is entirely up to you. :)
In this case, I'm not entirely sure I have any conclusions. So I'm presenting you with the canon facts, and together, I hope we can come to a clearer answer of how much the sarcophagus corrupts, and when withdrawal should occur.
"We don't use the sarcophagus!"
Sam's blurted half-memory was the get-out-of-the-sarcophagus-free card for SG-1, and it was an excellent move. If the sarcophagus hadn't been taken away as a convenient option for cheating death, then there's no suspense, no drama, no tension. Just pop the dead guy into the sarcophagus for a wash-and-spin, and presto! Back to normal! Giving the sarcophagus such a drastic drawback - the loss of soul and self, the subsequent addiction - removed the easy way out for us. Definitely a good thing, all round.
On the other hand, it's difficult to figure out exactly where to draw the line, and in fanfic writing, it tends to be all over the place. So I invite you all to help me figure out exactly how this all works: how dangerous is sarcophagus use? When does it start to corrupt and destroy, and how long can it be used in relative safety?
We first meet the sarcophagus in Stargate: the Movie. It's important enough to be part of the story that the Ancient Egyptians drew on the walls, as Daniel mentions it when he reads the hieroglyphs to Jack. When Daniel is killed in Ra's throne room, the Eye of Ra he wears is enough to pique Ra's curiousity, and he orders Daniel revived. Daniel wakes up gasping, with unmarked skin below the tattered hole in his BDUs. Later, when Sha'uri is killed in the struggle to get the nuke back, Daniel rings back up to the ship and revives Sha'uri in the sarcophagus as well.
Repercussions: There don't seem to be any. Daniel is as idealistic as ever in the aftermath, and risks his own life when he fires the staff weapon at Ra instead of complying with the order to execute Jack, Ferretti, and the others. Sha'uri is shaken more than anything else, and does not exhibit any changed behavior.
Next: Hathor. We discover that the sarcophagus not only revives the dead, but also keeps the Goa'uld in indefinite stasis. The sarcophagus is brought to the SGC, and Hathor tracks it there, attracted by the naquadah in the Gate. She manages to strip Jack of his immune system before she flees through the Stargate (among other things...), and Jack is de-Jaffa-ied in the sarcophagus.
Repercussions: None, although Jack seems to think Sam is impressed by his stomach muscles, not the absence of a Jaffa pouch. "Crunches."
Things get a bit more murky with Within the Serpent's Grasp and The Serpent's Lair. Klorel rises from the sarcophagus like a vampire from his coffin, and we get the clear impression that he spends a lot of time in there - and not in stasis, either. Bra'tac revives Klorel after Jack shoots him to spare Daniel's life, and Klorel wakes up spitting mad: "Let us burn their world to ashes!" There is definite fury, although there isn't much suggestion that his anger is irrational or sarcophagus-inspired; it seems to be the natural reaction to being killed by Jack.
Apophis gives Klorel instructions about the attack on Earth, and Klorel hesitates: "Father, the host you chose for me is strong. I fear I may need more time in the sarcophagus to gain strength." This is our first indication that the sarcophagus not only heals, but also somehow helps the Goa'uld to subdue their hosts.
Daniel gets fatally shot - "Go, just go! I'll stay and watch your back." - and drags himself across the floor to the sarcophagus. He heals, rises, and dashes for the Stargate, diving through literally a second before the explosion that rippsed the ships to pieces.
Repercussions: We learn that Klorel uses the sarcophagus not only to heal Skaara's physical body, but also to control Skaara's mind. Daniel does not seem to suffer any after-effects.
Then comes Need, and SG-1 discovers that the sarcophagus isn't just a convenient medical box of tricks, but also a deadly addiction.
Pyrus has been using it for 700 years, to keep himself alive and perpetuate his people's belief that he is a Goa'uld himself. Pyrus was probably a decent man before he started using the sarcophagus. By the time we meet him, he is a paranoid obsessive with failing memory. There is no question that the sarcophagus gave him centuries of life, but he has deteriorated to a doddering old man who seems to live from sarcophagus to meal to sarcophagus again. It no longer works properly for him, and he dies of old age.
Daniel is first healed by it, then uses it repeatedly when he is in good health, slowly deteriorating into "the man who would be king." He's barely recognizable by the time they go back to Earth, and he subsequently suffers from almost fatal withdrawal before he finally recovers.
Sam's memories of Jolinar warn her that the sarcophagus affects the khalak, or soul - a Goa'uld word, interestingly enough, for a species who prefers immortality to worrying about the afterlife. Certainly, Daniel goes from worrying about his friends, and his appeals to Shyla to spare them, to a person who is ready to dump not only his friends, but also his wife. There is still enough of Daniel left to coax Shyla into letting them all go back to Earth; but once there, and away from the sarcophagus, Daniel's withdrawal symptoms accelerate into not only a systemic shut-down, but also cruelty and violence.
Repercussions: We learn that the sarcophagus has limitations: without a Goa'uld symbiote, it can only preserve a human body for so long. And we learn that it has drawbacks: it destroys a person's soul, it is addictive, and the withdrawal symptoms can be nearly fatal. However, it seems clear that Daniel was only adversely affected when he entered the sarcophagus a second time, when he was healthy. After the first use, Daniel spends most of the conversation with Shyla trying to convince her to free the others, and he is clearly uncomfortable when he explains to Jack, Sam, and Teal'c what has happened. In fact, his behavior is no different than what we have seen after other occasions on which he was healed from fatal (or near-fatal) injuries. It seems that we should conclude - from this episode, at least - that sarcophagus use is only dangerous when it is used to prolong life, not to heal injuries.
The sarcophagus gets mentioned again in The Tok'ra, when Martouf confirms the Tok'ra aversion to sarcophagus use because it "drains the good from our hearts" and Daniel wryly adds, "I can vouch for that." We learn that a symbiote prolongs a human's life to approximately 200 years without sarcophagus use, although it is unclear whether this is because the symbiote heals all injuries and illnesses, because the symbiote somehow slows aging, or a combination of both.
In Serpent's Song, Janet tells Hammond that a sarcophagus is the only thing that could heal the symbiote. Janet also tells Martouf that Apophis is showing sarcophagus withdrawal symptoms. Apophis doesn't bother asking for one; instead, he asks for a new host. Either he doesn't know that his own snakey self is so badly injured; or he is confident that in a healthy host, he can heal himself; or he knows that the SGC doesn't have a sarcophagus, and he figures that a healthy host is his best chance under the circumstances.
We see Apophis deteriorate rapidly, his body aging decades in a matter of hours. It is unclear if this drastic acceleration is a natural result of a Goa'uld dying, an after-effect of the torture he suffered before he fled to the Tau'ri, or a lack of sarcophagus use. Saroosh/Selmac also showed extreme signs of age, which would lead me to theorize that all Goa'uld do show signs of age as they near death, and that the acceleration was caused by the symbiote's illness/suffering; but, as I said, that's certainly open to speculation.
After he dies, and the SGC gives his body to Sokar, Martouf tells the Tau'ri that Sokar will revive Apophis in a sarcophagus for the purpose of torturing him to death, over and over again. It is interesting that Martouf doesn't show any concern for the poor host who will suffer alongside Apophis, but in terms of repercussions, this is the first time SG-1 realizes that the sarcophagus can actually be used against someone's will, as an instrument of torture.
It is interesting to note that when the team and Martouf next encounter Apophis is The Devil You Know, the aging has been reversed. On the other hand, it seems that there are some things that it can't heal completely - Apophis has some kind of metal prosthesis/bandage on his face. Since he is still sporting a reduced whatever-it-is-when we meet him in Enemies, it can't be attributed to Sokar deliberately programming the sarcophagus not to heal Apophis completely, or Sokar inflicting some kind of wound after the final sarcophagus use. I think this detail deserves more attention than it gets, because the implication has always been that the sarcophagus can heal anything.
Of course, we know that Apophis has a sarcophagus in Enemies - not only do we actually see his Jaffa escorting it down the corridor, but he also used it on Teal'c. Teal'c was killed by a staff weapon blast to the back when he went after Tanith on Vorash, literally dying in Jack's arms. When we next see Teal'c, alive and whole, he is also serving Apophis as his First Prime again - when he was healed in the sarcophagus, he was also brainwashed.
Repercussions: We gain additional confirmation that the sarcophagus somehow weakens a person's personality and soul, as Apophis is able to brainwash Teal'c so thoroughly that he maintains that his every action since meeting the Tau'ri has actually been in the service of Apophis. Note that Apophis didn't regress Teal'c's memories; he reprogrammed him. We have ample proof of this in Threshold, when we learn how a younger Teal'c suffered from doubt for many, many years before he met SG-1 on Chulak.
The next time we see a sarcophagus is in The Tomb, where it was used as a particularly gruesome form of recycled execution. Jack calls it "officially the worst way to go," although our next direct encounter with the sarcophagus probably changed his mind...
We get another reference to the sarcophagus in Summit, when Jacob tries to convince Daniel that the hosts of the System Lords are beyond help: "The human host of a System Lord has been through the sarcophagus countless times. We know the toll that takes. They're hundreds, sometimes thousands of years old. Never mind the psychological damage they suffered; physically, without the Goa'uld sustaining them, they'd die anyway." The rapid aging and subsequent death of Apophis' host in Serpent's Song seems to confirm this.
In Abyss, Ba'al first heals Jack after Kanan abandons him, then repeatedly tortures him to death for information, reviving him in the sarcophagus each time for the next round. Daniel passionately begs Jack to ascend, rather than let the sarcophagus strip him of his goodness: "This is not your life we're talking about, Jack! This is your soul!" When Jack finally escapes and makes it back to Earth, Sam tells Teal'c and Jonas that Janet "says he'll probably suffer withdrawal symptoms from so much time in a sarcophagus."
Repercussions: Despite Daniel's open admission that Ascension doesn't lend omniscience, he does confirm for us again that the sarcophagus destroys a person's essence, as he warns that after too many cycles in the sarcophagus, Jack wouldn't be able to ascend even if he wanted to do so. And despite Jack being either dead or near-dying each time he was put in the sarcophagus, he is expected to undergo withdrawal. It should be noted that other than Janet's stated assumption, there is no proof that Jack actually suffered addiction. Nevertheless, this is the first time it is suggested that sarcophagi are just as dangerous when used for healing fatal injuries as they are when they are used to prolong life.
We learn more about sarcophagus limitations for the Goa'uld in Fallen/Homecoming. Yu has become irrational and irritable, and Oshu, his First Prime, tells Teal'c that Yu spends much of his time in the sarcophagus. It may have taken millennia instead of centuries, but Yu is in much the same position as Pyrus - he needs to use the sarcophagus constantly, and is getting old and infirm. Oshu tells Teal'c that he believes Yu has "has reached the point where he is incapable" of taking another host. On the other hand, Yu has always been the Goa'uld most willing to work with the Tau'ri - partially because his domain doesn't really clash with Earth's part of the galaxy, and partially because he's supposed to be a more decent Goa'uld, for whatever value of "decent." That does tend to contradict the general trend of the sarcophagus causing a deterioration in goodness.
Repercussions: The Goa'uld, like non-blended humans, suffer a limit to just how long the sarcophagus can prolong their lives. We are also offered the speculation that aging symbiotes might not be able to change host bodies. This seems to contradict Ra, who was the Supreme System Lord and whose host body was that of a child's; on the other hand, show canon supersedes movie canon, and Ra could have risen to supremacy even if Yu was much older.
We don't see the sarcophagus again after this, but we do learn a little more about it in Evolution, when the SGC and the Tok'ra are trying to figure out the Kull warriors (aka "supersoldiers"). The sarcophagus was invented by the Goa'uld based on the Telchak device, and the Tok'ra have always hoped there was some way to refine it further to get the sarcophagus benefits without the bad side effects. Since the Kull warriors were created with sarcophagus-like technology, they hope that by tracking down the device, they might be able to engineer a weapon to defeat them.
Daniel and Bill Lee find the Telchak device and are promptly abducted by Rafael and his merry men. When Rafael randomly pushes enough buttons to trigger the device, he rapidly shows signs of extreme addiction: he claims to be feeling better and more powerful, he kills his own subordinate for arguing with him, and is nearly demented when he finally catches Daniel after his escape. The device - either because it is more primitive, or because it isn't in an enclosed area like the sarcophagus - reanimates dead tissue, but brings Chalo back to zombiehood instead of actual life.
Repercussions: We now know that the sarcophagus - and its more powerful/primitive predecessor, the Telchak device - can reanimate living tissue that is now dead with varying degrees of success, but can't animate tissue that was never alive in the first place.
One last mention of the sarcophagus in Death Knell, when Jacob and Hammond discover that the Tok'ra Council went behind Selmac's back and sent an operative to a certain System Lord. Jacob tells Hammond that the Tok'ra agents "take special precautions to ensure that the brain is not left intact" if they are captured, and that "no revival is possible" by a sarcophagus. This puts the events of Deadman's Switch in rather alarming perspective, actually: what was going to happen when Korra tried to bite down on a capsule that would have left his brain so badly destroyed that he couldn't have been revived by a sarcophagus? And how far would the blast radius have gone?
So, to sum up the various repercussions we've uncovered:
Unblended humans: The sarcophagus heals injuries - even fatal ones - and prolongs life. With the exception of Abyss, which in itself is uncertain, the healing/revival process does not seem harmful. But using the sarcophagus with a healthy body for the purpose of prolonging life is unquestionably dangerous to the person's soul and sense of self: the user will be invigorated and powerful, but he will also be warped and changed in personality. There is a limit to how long a life may be prolonged; in the case of Pyrus, it was approximately 700 years.
Hosts with symbiotes:The sarcophagus can be used as a stasis chamber, and heals injuries - even fatal ones - and prolongs life. A human playing host to a symbiote will live for some 200 years; with the sarcophagus, that number is increased exponentially, but not indefinitely. When a symbiote with a healthy host uses the sarcophagus, it not only prolongs life, but it also helps subdue the human mind. The Tok'ra's refusal to use the sarcophagus, and their avoidance of what the sarcophagus does to the soul of both human and symbiote, is the greatest explanation of why they are not evil like the System Lords.
Let's take a look at another difficult question: How long does it take the sarcophagus to work? Minutes? Hours? There doesn't seem to be any clear canon for this. Actually, there is canon for this! Unfortunately, it doesn't make any sense. :)
Stargate the Movie. Ra tells Daniel that one of the reasons he chose a human as his host is that humans are so easy to repair. While we can't know how long Daniel's revival took, we do know that Sha'uri was in the sarcophagus for less than two minutes. Jack set the timer on the nuke for seven minutes before Sha'uri was killed, and there was a less than a minute left when she and Daniel ringed back down. Subtract time for her death, for Daniel to ring up to Ra's ship with her body, for Daniel to carry her to the sarcophagus and back to the rings again afterward, for Ra to catch them and ribbon Daniel half to death... In fact, the movie shows us the timer at 4:14 right after Daniel puts her inside the sarcophagus, and the timer at 2:12 when Ra starts ribboning Daniel, after he's carried her back to the rings.
Hathor. When Teal'c, Sam, and Janet place Jack in Hathor's sarcophagus in order to restore his immune system, here's barely time for the sarcophagus to close before two drugged airmen show up and start a firefight. Janet goes down, Teal'c goes down, Sam takes cover behind the sarcophagus, and Hathor yells at her mindless minions to be careful not to hit her shiny new Jaffa - although she doesn't hesitate to try to ribbon him, which subsequently destroys the sarcophagus. But Jack couldn't have been inside for more than 30 seconds! Granted, the sarcophagus was healing his immune system, not bringing him back to life. Still, that is a very quick job.
The Serpent's Lair. Bra'tac claims it will "take time" for Klorel to be revived by the sarcophagus, because his "wounds were great." Apophis doesn't dispute this. How long was Klorel in the sarcophagus, then? The conversation between Samuels and Hammond suggests well over eighteen hours from the time the shock grenade was set off (after Klorel's death) to the time when the ships started moving again, after Klorel rose from the sarcophagus! Contrast this with Daniel's experience in the same device: nearly half his chest was blown away, yet he's in the sarcophagus for less than five minutes before he gets up, fully healed, with a repaired, blood-free jacket thrown in at no extra change. (Sam reported they had six minutes left about the time Daniel was dragging himself towards the sarcophagus; when he awakened, he checked the timer and saw there was one minutes, fifteen seconds left. What is is with Daniel and sarcophagi and timers, anyway?)
Why the drastic difference? Do multiple gun-shot wounds really cause so much more damage than third-degree burns, major blood loss, and missing skin/muscle/who knows what else? Or does the need to revive human body and symbiote take that much longer?
There is no other episode in which we can tell exactly how much time it took to heal a person in the sarcophagus, so those four incidents are all the canon we have on the subject.
My personal fanon opinion? I can't say there's much of one. :) Regarding sarcophagus use, I would suggest that Janet's concern about Jack suffering withdrawal proved unfounded. There is no actual canon proof that Jack was addicted; Daniel does reassure him that he's going to be all right, but that could have easily been an assurance on the emotional (and soul) level, not the physical one. And if we dispense with Abyss, at least we have a relative level of consistency to match Jack's experience with the sarcophagus in Hathor and Daniel's experiences in the movie, The Serpent's Lair, and his first round in Need: if there's actual death, a near fatality, or a serious injury, the sarcophagus heals without doing damage to the soul.
I am very much intrigued by Apophis and his not-quite-healed face in The Devil You Know and Enemies. As I noted above, it seems to be the only canon incident in which the sarcophagus does not heal someone completely. Any theories for this one?
But sarcophagus timing...? The best I can do is use Ra's line: humans heal easily, which might mean that Goa'uld symbiotes don't. The only Goa'uld we ever see use the sarcophagus due to injury is Klorel, and his healing took over 18 hours. Contrast that with Sha'uri's two minutes, and Daniel's five minutes, and Jack's handful of seconds. The differences are so huge that either my theory is correct, or... or I need someone else to come up with a better idea. :)
I absolutely refuse to come up with a rational explanation for why, in The Serpent's Lair, the sarcophagus not only healed Daniel, but also restored his BDUs to their formal pristine condition. After all, it didn't happen in Stargate: the Movie, or in Abyss, either, where Jack was definitely sporting acid-eaten holes in his brown turtleneck. Was Daniel's jacket freshly laundered, too? How about his weapon? Did it suddenly acquire extra bullets? Unless someone wants to theorize that Klorel had the Extra Special Edition...? I'll be happy to accept all suggestions, no matter how ridiculous, since this little bit of canon is pretty ridiculous on its own!
Anyway, I'm sorry, but that just happens to be how I feel about it. What do you think?
Briefly, the purpose of these essays is to explore canon issues, contrast them with common fanon usage, and determine how far fanon strays from canon. Some fanon is completely unsupported by canon; some is actually contradicted by canon; and some is only a question of emphasis or degree.
The point is not to condemn authors who use fanon, or even to suggest that there is something wrong with extrapolation or common plotlines. The purpose is simply to reach an understanding of what is canon, and what isn't. You may apply my conclusions to your writing, ignore them completely, or even find them pretentious or ridiculous - the choice is entirely up to you. :)
In this case, I'm not entirely sure I have any conclusions. So I'm presenting you with the canon facts, and together, I hope we can come to a clearer answer of how much the sarcophagus corrupts, and when withdrawal should occur.
"We don't use the sarcophagus!"
Sam's blurted half-memory was the get-out-of-the-sarcophagus-free card for SG-1, and it was an excellent move. If the sarcophagus hadn't been taken away as a convenient option for cheating death, then there's no suspense, no drama, no tension. Just pop the dead guy into the sarcophagus for a wash-and-spin, and presto! Back to normal! Giving the sarcophagus such a drastic drawback - the loss of soul and self, the subsequent addiction - removed the easy way out for us. Definitely a good thing, all round.
On the other hand, it's difficult to figure out exactly where to draw the line, and in fanfic writing, it tends to be all over the place. So I invite you all to help me figure out exactly how this all works: how dangerous is sarcophagus use? When does it start to corrupt and destroy, and how long can it be used in relative safety?
We first meet the sarcophagus in Stargate: the Movie. It's important enough to be part of the story that the Ancient Egyptians drew on the walls, as Daniel mentions it when he reads the hieroglyphs to Jack. When Daniel is killed in Ra's throne room, the Eye of Ra he wears is enough to pique Ra's curiousity, and he orders Daniel revived. Daniel wakes up gasping, with unmarked skin below the tattered hole in his BDUs. Later, when Sha'uri is killed in the struggle to get the nuke back, Daniel rings back up to the ship and revives Sha'uri in the sarcophagus as well.
Repercussions: There don't seem to be any. Daniel is as idealistic as ever in the aftermath, and risks his own life when he fires the staff weapon at Ra instead of complying with the order to execute Jack, Ferretti, and the others. Sha'uri is shaken more than anything else, and does not exhibit any changed behavior.
Next: Hathor. We discover that the sarcophagus not only revives the dead, but also keeps the Goa'uld in indefinite stasis. The sarcophagus is brought to the SGC, and Hathor tracks it there, attracted by the naquadah in the Gate. She manages to strip Jack of his immune system before she flees through the Stargate (among other things...), and Jack is de-Jaffa-ied in the sarcophagus.
Repercussions: None, although Jack seems to think Sam is impressed by his stomach muscles, not the absence of a Jaffa pouch. "Crunches."
Things get a bit more murky with Within the Serpent's Grasp and The Serpent's Lair. Klorel rises from the sarcophagus like a vampire from his coffin, and we get the clear impression that he spends a lot of time in there - and not in stasis, either. Bra'tac revives Klorel after Jack shoots him to spare Daniel's life, and Klorel wakes up spitting mad: "Let us burn their world to ashes!" There is definite fury, although there isn't much suggestion that his anger is irrational or sarcophagus-inspired; it seems to be the natural reaction to being killed by Jack.
Apophis gives Klorel instructions about the attack on Earth, and Klorel hesitates: "Father, the host you chose for me is strong. I fear I may need more time in the sarcophagus to gain strength." This is our first indication that the sarcophagus not only heals, but also somehow helps the Goa'uld to subdue their hosts.
Daniel gets fatally shot - "Go, just go! I'll stay and watch your back." - and drags himself across the floor to the sarcophagus. He heals, rises, and dashes for the Stargate, diving through literally a second before the explosion that rippsed the ships to pieces.
Repercussions: We learn that Klorel uses the sarcophagus not only to heal Skaara's physical body, but also to control Skaara's mind. Daniel does not seem to suffer any after-effects.
Then comes Need, and SG-1 discovers that the sarcophagus isn't just a convenient medical box of tricks, but also a deadly addiction.
Pyrus has been using it for 700 years, to keep himself alive and perpetuate his people's belief that he is a Goa'uld himself. Pyrus was probably a decent man before he started using the sarcophagus. By the time we meet him, he is a paranoid obsessive with failing memory. There is no question that the sarcophagus gave him centuries of life, but he has deteriorated to a doddering old man who seems to live from sarcophagus to meal to sarcophagus again. It no longer works properly for him, and he dies of old age.
Daniel is first healed by it, then uses it repeatedly when he is in good health, slowly deteriorating into "the man who would be king." He's barely recognizable by the time they go back to Earth, and he subsequently suffers from almost fatal withdrawal before he finally recovers.
Sam's memories of Jolinar warn her that the sarcophagus affects the khalak, or soul - a Goa'uld word, interestingly enough, for a species who prefers immortality to worrying about the afterlife. Certainly, Daniel goes from worrying about his friends, and his appeals to Shyla to spare them, to a person who is ready to dump not only his friends, but also his wife. There is still enough of Daniel left to coax Shyla into letting them all go back to Earth; but once there, and away from the sarcophagus, Daniel's withdrawal symptoms accelerate into not only a systemic shut-down, but also cruelty and violence.
Repercussions: We learn that the sarcophagus has limitations: without a Goa'uld symbiote, it can only preserve a human body for so long. And we learn that it has drawbacks: it destroys a person's soul, it is addictive, and the withdrawal symptoms can be nearly fatal. However, it seems clear that Daniel was only adversely affected when he entered the sarcophagus a second time, when he was healthy. After the first use, Daniel spends most of the conversation with Shyla trying to convince her to free the others, and he is clearly uncomfortable when he explains to Jack, Sam, and Teal'c what has happened. In fact, his behavior is no different than what we have seen after other occasions on which he was healed from fatal (or near-fatal) injuries. It seems that we should conclude - from this episode, at least - that sarcophagus use is only dangerous when it is used to prolong life, not to heal injuries.
The sarcophagus gets mentioned again in The Tok'ra, when Martouf confirms the Tok'ra aversion to sarcophagus use because it "drains the good from our hearts" and Daniel wryly adds, "I can vouch for that." We learn that a symbiote prolongs a human's life to approximately 200 years without sarcophagus use, although it is unclear whether this is because the symbiote heals all injuries and illnesses, because the symbiote somehow slows aging, or a combination of both.
In Serpent's Song, Janet tells Hammond that a sarcophagus is the only thing that could heal the symbiote. Janet also tells Martouf that Apophis is showing sarcophagus withdrawal symptoms. Apophis doesn't bother asking for one; instead, he asks for a new host. Either he doesn't know that his own snakey self is so badly injured; or he is confident that in a healthy host, he can heal himself; or he knows that the SGC doesn't have a sarcophagus, and he figures that a healthy host is his best chance under the circumstances.
We see Apophis deteriorate rapidly, his body aging decades in a matter of hours. It is unclear if this drastic acceleration is a natural result of a Goa'uld dying, an after-effect of the torture he suffered before he fled to the Tau'ri, or a lack of sarcophagus use. Saroosh/Selmac also showed extreme signs of age, which would lead me to theorize that all Goa'uld do show signs of age as they near death, and that the acceleration was caused by the symbiote's illness/suffering; but, as I said, that's certainly open to speculation.
After he dies, and the SGC gives his body to Sokar, Martouf tells the Tau'ri that Sokar will revive Apophis in a sarcophagus for the purpose of torturing him to death, over and over again. It is interesting that Martouf doesn't show any concern for the poor host who will suffer alongside Apophis, but in terms of repercussions, this is the first time SG-1 realizes that the sarcophagus can actually be used against someone's will, as an instrument of torture.
It is interesting to note that when the team and Martouf next encounter Apophis is The Devil You Know, the aging has been reversed. On the other hand, it seems that there are some things that it can't heal completely - Apophis has some kind of metal prosthesis/bandage on his face. Since he is still sporting a reduced whatever-it-is-when we meet him in Enemies, it can't be attributed to Sokar deliberately programming the sarcophagus not to heal Apophis completely, or Sokar inflicting some kind of wound after the final sarcophagus use. I think this detail deserves more attention than it gets, because the implication has always been that the sarcophagus can heal anything.
Of course, we know that Apophis has a sarcophagus in Enemies - not only do we actually see his Jaffa escorting it down the corridor, but he also used it on Teal'c. Teal'c was killed by a staff weapon blast to the back when he went after Tanith on Vorash, literally dying in Jack's arms. When we next see Teal'c, alive and whole, he is also serving Apophis as his First Prime again - when he was healed in the sarcophagus, he was also brainwashed.
Repercussions: We gain additional confirmation that the sarcophagus somehow weakens a person's personality and soul, as Apophis is able to brainwash Teal'c so thoroughly that he maintains that his every action since meeting the Tau'ri has actually been in the service of Apophis. Note that Apophis didn't regress Teal'c's memories; he reprogrammed him. We have ample proof of this in Threshold, when we learn how a younger Teal'c suffered from doubt for many, many years before he met SG-1 on Chulak.
The next time we see a sarcophagus is in The Tomb, where it was used as a particularly gruesome form of recycled execution. Jack calls it "officially the worst way to go," although our next direct encounter with the sarcophagus probably changed his mind...
We get another reference to the sarcophagus in Summit, when Jacob tries to convince Daniel that the hosts of the System Lords are beyond help: "The human host of a System Lord has been through the sarcophagus countless times. We know the toll that takes. They're hundreds, sometimes thousands of years old. Never mind the psychological damage they suffered; physically, without the Goa'uld sustaining them, they'd die anyway." The rapid aging and subsequent death of Apophis' host in Serpent's Song seems to confirm this.
In Abyss, Ba'al first heals Jack after Kanan abandons him, then repeatedly tortures him to death for information, reviving him in the sarcophagus each time for the next round. Daniel passionately begs Jack to ascend, rather than let the sarcophagus strip him of his goodness: "This is not your life we're talking about, Jack! This is your soul!" When Jack finally escapes and makes it back to Earth, Sam tells Teal'c and Jonas that Janet "says he'll probably suffer withdrawal symptoms from so much time in a sarcophagus."
Repercussions: Despite Daniel's open admission that Ascension doesn't lend omniscience, he does confirm for us again that the sarcophagus destroys a person's essence, as he warns that after too many cycles in the sarcophagus, Jack wouldn't be able to ascend even if he wanted to do so. And despite Jack being either dead or near-dying each time he was put in the sarcophagus, he is expected to undergo withdrawal. It should be noted that other than Janet's stated assumption, there is no proof that Jack actually suffered addiction. Nevertheless, this is the first time it is suggested that sarcophagi are just as dangerous when used for healing fatal injuries as they are when they are used to prolong life.
We learn more about sarcophagus limitations for the Goa'uld in Fallen/Homecoming. Yu has become irrational and irritable, and Oshu, his First Prime, tells Teal'c that Yu spends much of his time in the sarcophagus. It may have taken millennia instead of centuries, but Yu is in much the same position as Pyrus - he needs to use the sarcophagus constantly, and is getting old and infirm. Oshu tells Teal'c that he believes Yu has "has reached the point where he is incapable" of taking another host. On the other hand, Yu has always been the Goa'uld most willing to work with the Tau'ri - partially because his domain doesn't really clash with Earth's part of the galaxy, and partially because he's supposed to be a more decent Goa'uld, for whatever value of "decent." That does tend to contradict the general trend of the sarcophagus causing a deterioration in goodness.
Repercussions: The Goa'uld, like non-blended humans, suffer a limit to just how long the sarcophagus can prolong their lives. We are also offered the speculation that aging symbiotes might not be able to change host bodies. This seems to contradict Ra, who was the Supreme System Lord and whose host body was that of a child's; on the other hand, show canon supersedes movie canon, and Ra could have risen to supremacy even if Yu was much older.
We don't see the sarcophagus again after this, but we do learn a little more about it in Evolution, when the SGC and the Tok'ra are trying to figure out the Kull warriors (aka "supersoldiers"). The sarcophagus was invented by the Goa'uld based on the Telchak device, and the Tok'ra have always hoped there was some way to refine it further to get the sarcophagus benefits without the bad side effects. Since the Kull warriors were created with sarcophagus-like technology, they hope that by tracking down the device, they might be able to engineer a weapon to defeat them.
Daniel and Bill Lee find the Telchak device and are promptly abducted by Rafael and his merry men. When Rafael randomly pushes enough buttons to trigger the device, he rapidly shows signs of extreme addiction: he claims to be feeling better and more powerful, he kills his own subordinate for arguing with him, and is nearly demented when he finally catches Daniel after his escape. The device - either because it is more primitive, or because it isn't in an enclosed area like the sarcophagus - reanimates dead tissue, but brings Chalo back to zombiehood instead of actual life.
Repercussions: We now know that the sarcophagus - and its more powerful/primitive predecessor, the Telchak device - can reanimate living tissue that is now dead with varying degrees of success, but can't animate tissue that was never alive in the first place.
One last mention of the sarcophagus in Death Knell, when Jacob and Hammond discover that the Tok'ra Council went behind Selmac's back and sent an operative to a certain System Lord. Jacob tells Hammond that the Tok'ra agents "take special precautions to ensure that the brain is not left intact" if they are captured, and that "no revival is possible" by a sarcophagus. This puts the events of Deadman's Switch in rather alarming perspective, actually: what was going to happen when Korra tried to bite down on a capsule that would have left his brain so badly destroyed that he couldn't have been revived by a sarcophagus? And how far would the blast radius have gone?
So, to sum up the various repercussions we've uncovered:
Unblended humans: The sarcophagus heals injuries - even fatal ones - and prolongs life. With the exception of Abyss, which in itself is uncertain, the healing/revival process does not seem harmful. But using the sarcophagus with a healthy body for the purpose of prolonging life is unquestionably dangerous to the person's soul and sense of self: the user will be invigorated and powerful, but he will also be warped and changed in personality. There is a limit to how long a life may be prolonged; in the case of Pyrus, it was approximately 700 years.
Hosts with symbiotes:The sarcophagus can be used as a stasis chamber, and heals injuries - even fatal ones - and prolongs life. A human playing host to a symbiote will live for some 200 years; with the sarcophagus, that number is increased exponentially, but not indefinitely. When a symbiote with a healthy host uses the sarcophagus, it not only prolongs life, but it also helps subdue the human mind. The Tok'ra's refusal to use the sarcophagus, and their avoidance of what the sarcophagus does to the soul of both human and symbiote, is the greatest explanation of why they are not evil like the System Lords.
Let's take a look at another difficult question: How long does it take the sarcophagus to work? Minutes? Hours? There doesn't seem to be any clear canon for this. Actually, there is canon for this! Unfortunately, it doesn't make any sense. :)
Stargate the Movie. Ra tells Daniel that one of the reasons he chose a human as his host is that humans are so easy to repair. While we can't know how long Daniel's revival took, we do know that Sha'uri was in the sarcophagus for less than two minutes. Jack set the timer on the nuke for seven minutes before Sha'uri was killed, and there was a less than a minute left when she and Daniel ringed back down. Subtract time for her death, for Daniel to ring up to Ra's ship with her body, for Daniel to carry her to the sarcophagus and back to the rings again afterward, for Ra to catch them and ribbon Daniel half to death... In fact, the movie shows us the timer at 4:14 right after Daniel puts her inside the sarcophagus, and the timer at 2:12 when Ra starts ribboning Daniel, after he's carried her back to the rings.
Hathor. When Teal'c, Sam, and Janet place Jack in Hathor's sarcophagus in order to restore his immune system, here's barely time for the sarcophagus to close before two drugged airmen show up and start a firefight. Janet goes down, Teal'c goes down, Sam takes cover behind the sarcophagus, and Hathor yells at her mindless minions to be careful not to hit her shiny new Jaffa - although she doesn't hesitate to try to ribbon him, which subsequently destroys the sarcophagus. But Jack couldn't have been inside for more than 30 seconds! Granted, the sarcophagus was healing his immune system, not bringing him back to life. Still, that is a very quick job.
The Serpent's Lair. Bra'tac claims it will "take time" for Klorel to be revived by the sarcophagus, because his "wounds were great." Apophis doesn't dispute this. How long was Klorel in the sarcophagus, then? The conversation between Samuels and Hammond suggests well over eighteen hours from the time the shock grenade was set off (after Klorel's death) to the time when the ships started moving again, after Klorel rose from the sarcophagus! Contrast this with Daniel's experience in the same device: nearly half his chest was blown away, yet he's in the sarcophagus for less than five minutes before he gets up, fully healed, with a repaired, blood-free jacket thrown in at no extra change. (Sam reported they had six minutes left about the time Daniel was dragging himself towards the sarcophagus; when he awakened, he checked the timer and saw there was one minutes, fifteen seconds left. What is is with Daniel and sarcophagi and timers, anyway?)
Why the drastic difference? Do multiple gun-shot wounds really cause so much more damage than third-degree burns, major blood loss, and missing skin/muscle/who knows what else? Or does the need to revive human body and symbiote take that much longer?
There is no other episode in which we can tell exactly how much time it took to heal a person in the sarcophagus, so those four incidents are all the canon we have on the subject.
My personal fanon opinion? I can't say there's much of one. :) Regarding sarcophagus use, I would suggest that Janet's concern about Jack suffering withdrawal proved unfounded. There is no actual canon proof that Jack was addicted; Daniel does reassure him that he's going to be all right, but that could have easily been an assurance on the emotional (and soul) level, not the physical one. And if we dispense with Abyss, at least we have a relative level of consistency to match Jack's experience with the sarcophagus in Hathor and Daniel's experiences in the movie, The Serpent's Lair, and his first round in Need: if there's actual death, a near fatality, or a serious injury, the sarcophagus heals without doing damage to the soul.
I am very much intrigued by Apophis and his not-quite-healed face in The Devil You Know and Enemies. As I noted above, it seems to be the only canon incident in which the sarcophagus does not heal someone completely. Any theories for this one?
But sarcophagus timing...? The best I can do is use Ra's line: humans heal easily, which might mean that Goa'uld symbiotes don't. The only Goa'uld we ever see use the sarcophagus due to injury is Klorel, and his healing took over 18 hours. Contrast that with Sha'uri's two minutes, and Daniel's five minutes, and Jack's handful of seconds. The differences are so huge that either my theory is correct, or... or I need someone else to come up with a better idea. :)
I absolutely refuse to come up with a rational explanation for why, in The Serpent's Lair, the sarcophagus not only healed Daniel, but also restored his BDUs to their formal pristine condition. After all, it didn't happen in Stargate: the Movie, or in Abyss, either, where Jack was definitely sporting acid-eaten holes in his brown turtleneck. Was Daniel's jacket freshly laundered, too? How about his weapon? Did it suddenly acquire extra bullets? Unless someone wants to theorize that Klorel had the Extra Special Edition...? I'll be happy to accept all suggestions, no matter how ridiculous, since this little bit of canon is pretty ridiculous on its own!
Anyway, I'm sorry, but that just happens to be how I feel about it. What do you think?