“The Powers That Be” is episode five of season nine of Stargate SG-1.
In the previous episode, “The Ties That Bind”, despite a complicated attempt to get help in countering the effects of the Jaffa bands that Vala put on Daniel in “Avalon: Part 1”, it seems that the only thing that will eventually fix it is time. Which means SGC, and Daniel, are stuck with Vala, if Daniel (and Vala, for that matter) wants to keep breathing.
Vala is bored. She’s stuck in the SGC, so she suggests a mission to a planet to help counteract the efforts of a Prior of the Ori. Mitchell agrees as, when Vala says that the locals trust her, he says that anyone who trusts Vala is obviously in a great deal of trouble. It turns out that Vala had been pretending to be their god, a Goa’uld System Lord, and the one to which she was the former host.
The Ori have gained followers, and Vala is packing up everything valuable. Daniel convinces her to expose herself as a false god in order to stop the Ori. The natives do not take it well. They are talked around into giving her a trial, but they also consider her to be guilty of the actions of the Goa’uld. When convinced otherwise, the trial still fails to go well. Then the Prior arrives, the man who tried to burn Daniel and Vala to death in “Origin” and was then promoted to Prior. The Prior makes a convincing case.
Daniel asks a good question – Why do the Ori require worship?