a few words about "Be All My Sins Remember'd"

[hth]

Overall I thought it was pretty dull, but then I inevitably feel that way about the later parts of their multi-part episodes. They did that thing where they just kind of threw everything and the kitchen sink at the plotline and ran around like chickens with their heads cut off for an hour, so that things that you'd imagine might have some genuine weight -- Atlantis forging an alliance with the Travellers, Rodney and Radek getting into the AI biz -- only got about two and a half minutes of screen-time. It's especially a letdown after "This Mortal Coil," which managed to kick the Replicator plotline forward and still also be a good story about something difficult happening to people and what they do about it. Oh, season 4, why are you sometimes so freaking good and sometimes...you know, you again?

I do think, awkwardly dropped into the middle of the episode as it was, the John/Teyla/Ronon pregnancy scene was great. (I love how cliquey the three of them are together. There should be a million times more threesome fic with them than there is.) OBVIOUSLY John flipped out and yelled about it. There was roughly a 99.992% chance that John was going to flip out and yell. (I started a story, ages ago, about Teyla getting pregnant. It's been so badly jossed in so many ways by now that I'll probably never finish it, but take my word for it, I had John yelling at her, too. It's a GIMME, characterization-wise.) I do kind of wish the writers had let her yell back at him, because Teyla really shouldn't be the kind of person you can bully around that way -- but at the same time, I'm willing to buy it, because I can see her being just so startled that her dear friend, who's normally this lazy, laid-back kind of guy, is all of a sudden about to blow a gasket. It could take a few minutes to process that and bounce back, I suppose.

And then of course Ronon was AWESOME, because alone among the entire cast of this show, Ronon is actually at his best when someone around him is in emotional distress and needs a warm, comforting presence -- for the very reason that he's the guy who can go check up on Rodney after Carson's death and quietly try to convince him that this isn't Rodney's fault, of course he's the guy who can stay by Teyla's side and quietly try to convince her that Sheppard's just being dumb and that actually, this is kind of neat and it's okay to be happy about it. He should totally be her lamaze coach.

The new all-time winner of the Bizarre Line-Reading Decisions by the Flan has got to be at the end when he says "all's right with the world," or however he phrases that. Because he doesn't sound snarky, he sounds INSANE. He sounds like he's about to go on a shooting spree from the spires of Atlantis. And, you know, I could buy that he's really feeling that stressed, but it's weird because *the rest* of the scene doesn't really feel like he is. More and more, I come to believe that John has *no idea* what he's feeling at any given moment, that he just doesn't even have a mental vocabulary to use on the big ball of undifferentiated Feelings he keeps in the pit of his stomach. He doesn't really know the difference between "angry" and "scared" and "helpless" and "lonely" and "hungry," so whenever he feels any of them, he just heads down to the cafeteria and gets a sandwich. It's easiest, and sometimes it fixes the problem!

Oh, John. You make life so difficult on both of us.

Comments

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

I spent the episode going, "What is *that* expression?" wrt JF.

I agree wrt Ronon. Best Guy Friend ever.

- Helen

[harriet-spy.livejournal.com]

There was roughly a 99.992% chance that John was going to flip out and yell.

I think a mere non-Atlantis boyfriend would be enough to make John flip out and yell. It's a wonder he didn't run around in tiny circles until he died.

[elbomac.livejournal.com]

He doesn't really know the difference between "angry" and "scared" and "helpless" and "lonely" and "hungry," so whenever he feels any of them, he just heads down to the cafeteria and gets a sandwich. It's easiest, and sometimes it fixes the problem!

Hee! And, yes.

Also, I do feel like the Ronon characterization is something they're carrying through somewhat consistently, and I love it. The little smile on Ronon's face, holding Teyla's hand as they walked away - so sweet! I love it.

[callmerizzo.livejournal.com]

I could be way off here in my intepretation, but it seems to me that ever since "Missing," Teyla has been acting very differently -- I think she's basically walking around numb from grief from the loss of her people. I strongly suspect that Rachel is deliberately playing her that way, because the loss of the Athosians (and of her baby's father specifically) is so devastating to Teyla that if she gives into any emotion at all, she's going to fall apart completely. In "Missing" we saw her suppress her pain and grief, closing herself off as if to contain it, and I think her response (or lack thereof, really) to John's reaction to her pregnancy is a continuation of that.

(However, I do think that when she finally snaps out of it, John's gonna have some 'splainin' to do. *g*)

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

My unpopular fannish opinion?

John had every right to flip out.

Teyla lied to him--not just as a friend, but as her team leader. She had information that could have affected her ability to respond in a combat situation, and she deliberately concealed that from him.

Yes, she says that she tried to tell him, but someone needs to smack the writers upside the head until they understand that from the audience's point of view, if we don't see it, then it didn't happen. If Teyla had tried to tell John and he blew her off, then show that. Speaking of which, I'd bet money that we'll never see Teyla or anyone else telling Rodney--next episode, he'll just know.

It also makes a lot of sense to me that John's fucked up more than usual. He's just had it confirmed that Elizabeth is dead, and being John, he's probably beating himself up for not disobeying Sam and trying to go off after Elizabeth after episode 3. He's also recently made a seriously questionable ethical decision that's probably keeping him up nights. And to top it all off, he's gone from being the top-ranking military guy on Atlantis to having Sam and now Ellis and Caldwell, both of whom outrank him and one of whom wanted his job.

Of course, the writers can't mention any of that ever again, because that would mean character development was more than just filler, but I like to think that after everything that's happened this season, John's stretched to the breaking point. Since he never knows how to deal with that, he ignores it--it'll sort out eventually, right? Right? Hey, Rodney, let's go eat!

Why do I think that Rodney's not the one eating because he's unhappy...

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I agree--it was pretty dull. The plot can be summed up as and then they go to this planet and talk to these people, and then they go to that planet and talk to those people... Now, if they'd spent an episode negotiating with the wraith, and another episode with Rodney and FRAN, then it could have worked. But so much of that episode felt like going through the motions just so they could have an excuse for a huuuuge space battle. Maybe it's just me, but I like a little more in my space opera than lasers! piew piew!

[lamaudite.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. On everything. ]
(wow, do I have a mind of my own? ::goes to check::)

[witling.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the standout scene was the Teyla reveal. I loved Ronon and John's responses--it's particularly nice to see Ronon get to do something other than look grim and warlike. Momoa has a beautiful smile (sez I). Nice to see it.

John, on the other hand--yes, we saw that blowup coming. Abrupt revelations don't sit well with him, particularly when he doesn't have Rodney there to step in and technobabble them down a notch. I sincerely hope there's going to be an apology scene in John's future, after he's had some time to kick it and brood about what a jerk he was to his good friend and ally.

Agreed, it would have been nice if they'd written Teyla's response a bit stronger. I'm willing to let it go, as long as they revisit this at some point. (And I guess they're going to have to, since I think Luttrell is in basically the whole season, expanding steadily.)

I have no idea why JFlan emotes the way he does. We actually rewound a couple of times in his scenes with the Truly Awful Laren. The scene where she points her breasts at him, and he basically flinches, and then the one in the meeting where she hits on him in front of everyone and he gives her this look that's totally transparently Oh God ew what the fuck who are you do I have to? He looks trapped and miserable and uncomfortable, even when he's flirting (?) with her in the last scenes. Compare with how he is with Rodney, a scene later--relaxed, at-ease, familiar (if somewhat stilted, yeah.) Srsly, JFlan, the hell? Is one of those complex Sheppard backstories in your head the one where Sheppard is GAYGAYGAY?

Not that I'd be complaining, if it were. I just wish they'd stop throwing Laren and Katy Brown at us in a desperate attempt to straighten the place up.

Anyway, yeah. The Teyla reveal was great--I've forgotten everything else already.

[dovil.livejournal.com]

I'm never quite sure with Flannigan, sometimes I think he manages this interesting and multi-layered preformance for a character that could easily fall into being a two-dimensional character but doesn't, other times I wonder if he turned up to work drunk. I joke, but sometimes he can go from fantastic preformance to pantomime all within a couple of episodes.

I don't buy canon Sheppard as gay (just reading witlings comment above) but I can understand that there can be considered to be some ambiguity considering the, erm, acting choices, or you know, continuial grimaces, frowns and eye ticks whenever he's paired off with someone who isn't a regular cast member.