Aquarium 4.13, "Quarantine"

[hth]

I've said it before and I'll say it again,



But boy, jiminy, hello, do they ever know how to write that one. I can always rest fairly easy when the GateWorld spoilers tell me that it's an episode where Atlantis and/or a spaceship of some kind tries to eat them.

You know what I love? How never, at any point, in any way, not even a little bit, did they try that thing where Sheppard uses his Super Special Princess Powers to talk the city down from its freakout. They treated it like a mechanical problem. Bless.

Okay, I don't even know where to begin. Where to begin?

John's had a hard few months, you know? (I don't really know how the timeline works, but clearly it's been at least four trimesters since we last saw Teyla...) The whole gang is getting girlfriends, wives, and babies on him. Does NOBODY want to live in John's totally cool treehouse fort and play videogames and ride around in his spaceship with him until they all die? You know, I'm not tinhatty about OT4, like, in a funsexyorgy kind of way, but I do think that, kind of, you know, when John says "family," he's not talking about some crazy Pegasus-galaxy extended tribe family thing, he means, like, quit inviting more people to the family, we don't have enough card tables for all these jokers!

That said, I don't know which was cuter: John being all like, "because if this were a movie, WHICH MY LIFE TOTALLY IS, you would go into labor...now," or John offering to raise Teyla's baby if she dies. That's what he said, right? That's what I heard, at any rate.

Also, I like that instead of grinding along with the same old conflict endlessly, they've kind of switched it up so that John has his manic-cheerful bearings back and is now totally like, "Oh, no, no, this isn't going to change anything in any way! Twenty-four weeks' maternity leave, and then everything goes right back to normal for all of us!" You know, like it does when you become a mother. While Teyla has the sense to know that at this point, everything is different forever, without really being sure in what way and what, if anything, she needs to do about that. All of that seems really in-character and genuine and is leagues more interesting than that kind of silly, sitcom-level thing where OMG, the guys are so freaked out by the scary fragility of pregnant ladies and their itty-bitty invisible babies, won't you please sit down and stop jarring the baby's little head? I mean, yes, he wants her to sit down, but more because John's nerves can't take delivering a kid on top of everything else right now, which...fair.

Someone needs to write a college story about John and his friend the Lady Cop to Be. John Sheppard is one of those rare male characters on tv who is infinitely better at dealing with women as friends than as romantic prospects; I've found that charming about him from pretty much day one. I would totally wallow in a story about younger, presumably less traumatized and neurotic John and his cool, kickass friend that everyone thinks is his girlfriend because they spend so much time together, until he's given up even arguing the point. She probably knows karate and threatens all his dates with serious bodily harm if they ever cheat on him or make him frightened or confused in any way, because John is sweet and needs looking after. Then she got married and had a kid, and he was all on his own and ended up going out with this girl without his wingman, and then he somehow ended up married to her and, see, that would not have happened if Stephanie had been able to devote her full attention to the situation, so babies do cause lots of problems is all he's saying. Still, he loves Teyla's kicky little sprog. He can hardly wait the six more years it's gonna take before he can teach it to play golf.

Oh, John. How can I love you this much? How, how?

You know who I am a little vexed at, though, is Radek. I mean, maybe it's only fair, because for three and a half years, Radek has pretty much been right about everything and awesome in every conceivable way...so far be it from me to say he's not due an episode where he can bollocks things up terribly. We all have our moments, yeah? But seriously, the genius head engineer of Atlantis just...kind of jams his finger into lit circuitry and makes it explode? Was that meant to be kind of Radek's own personal mini-Trinity, where he was just that much more sure of himself than the facts could support? Or are we supposed to think he was overcome with the wonder of Sam's breasts and swung into some kind of crazy Pleistocene mode, his brain addled with the desperate need to prove that he is a good provider in order to increase his access to breeding females? Because that's, you know, not cool, either as a story device or for Radek as a person. Call me a radical utopian, but I feel like the guy *in charge of making sure Atlantis runs* (okay, sure, Rodney, but I'm not far wrong here...) is able to keep on firing those synapses in times of immediate personal and city-wide danger, even if there are breasts in the room. I just think that's part of the job description. And up to this point, I hadn't felt like I needed to worry on that count with Radek. So, grrrr.

"They are not for eating," was funny, though. I'm not sure if it was funny on the face of it or not, although the delivery was pretty good, or if it was just funny because it's like the third joke this show has made about eating people's pets. Funny Callback or Weird Issue? You decide. (Also, ten bucks says it was a Sesame Street shoutout, because the only other person on God's green earth who raises pigeons as a hobby is Ernie. Come on, Show, cough up Rodney's bottlecap collection. You know you want to.)

So the Awesome Heroism of Radek slithering through the airducts was kind of undercut for me by thinking the whole time, "Yeah, you better crawl, bucko. And next time, don't stick your finger in the goddamn motherboard!" Of course Sam wasn't angry at him, though, because Sam Carter remains the Virgin Fucking Mary of the Stargate universe, and I feel bad, you know, because I'd like to like her, and I don't dislike her, except that she's just so fucking earnest and good and smart and brave and patient and beloved and she kind of makes me want to eat somebody's pigeons just for fun, just to balance out the universe. (There's a chance I would feel the same way about Teyla, if she weren't a member of this particular team. I truly feel that being John and Rodney's friend is its own punishment. Also, Rachel is just innately, radiantly awesome in a way that I realize some people think Amanda is, but not so much me.) If Sam Carter were a real person, I'd wish her all the happiness in the world, because she seems truly lovely. As a character on a tv show, however, she's kind of insufferably one-note -- and this after eleven years of development. Apparently in the Stargate universe, men get to be complex and quirky and difficult and struggle with themselves and each other, while women get "don't worry, I'm not mad at you," like, you know, she's his fucking mom and not a colleague he just fucked over and endangered by jumping in and punching a hole in the thing she was fucking working on that very second. Do you think for one second Jack O'Neill would have put up with that behavior from a subordinate? Would anyone in their right mind expect him to?

So that was my least favorite of the plot threads.

The Rodney thread -- I don't know, I think I liked it? Overall? There was stuff I liked and stuff I didn't, but I'm feeling right now like it skews positive.

First of all, as much as I might hope that they get married and Rodney gets to live happily ever after while she fusses over his cholesterol and he gives smug, patronizing advice on relationships to his friends, I pretty much knew that wasn't going to happen. So she didn't die tragically, which, thank fucking God, because the last thing this show needs is a woman in a refrigerator. Sam may be kind of dull, but at least she's breathing. And she didn't do what my real fear was, which is dump him over some kind of idiot misunderstanding, because the one thing this show does with Rodney that drives me batshit is to kind of have *fate* act like it's pissed at him, like, is there some special reason that the random crazy shit always happens to Rodney and nobody else? I know, I know, because Hilarity Must Ensue, and David's funnier than Joe and funnier than pretty much anyone you know, but it still creates this weird in-universe dynamic that undercuts what should be the neurosis of Rodney thinking life has it in for him specifically, because life does have it in for Rodney specifically. And by life, I mean the writers, which is the same thing on a tv show.

But anyway, the point is, they really tried hard to have the end of the Rodney/Katie relationship come out of a genuine character conflict and not some random contrivance: Good. They also really went out of their way to show that it was a tough situation for Katie, because this isn't someone she's sick of or irritated by or whatever cheap thing they could have gone for, but in fact someone that she really does love: Good. They even built a fairly interesting scene where you can literally watch the moment that Rodney could have saved his relationship (it's when she says "Don't you want to hear my answer?"), and did something rather interesting by not having him *blow* it, per se, as much as he simply misses it. He's thinking about other stuff. He's wrapped up in his own kind of drama queeny moment and he doesn't know what we know, that *now* is the moment she's waffling on whether or not he's a gamble with any chance of payoff, that *right now* he can still tip the balance just by saying, yeah, please, I really do care what you think and feel about the fact that someone just proposed to you, tell me. But he says some damn other thing instead, and it's over. It felt real to me -- like all those times when you look back and think, *God,* I should have said *that* right then, and who knows how it would all have gone differently from there?

I'm willing to buy that he doesn't. Rodney has come a very long way in the whole human relationships department; he's a guy who could and did hold together a *one and a half year* relationship, and that's not nothing. We've seen him, in the past, listen to waht Katie has to say, we've seen him be interested in her, more interested than he is in himself. We know he's capable of that. I can see people feeling like this was sort of Random Throwback Moment, like he was suddenly and spontaneously too fucking dumb to navigate what should be a not exactly masterclass-level interpersonal situation (like, seriously, act like this is an important moment, for the love of God -- at least sit up for this conversation!) I think it would feel that way to me, too, except that one of the things that's always been extremely consistent about Rodney's character -- much more so than whether he's brave or cowardly, much more so than whether he can shoot a gun -- is that RODNEY IS A CONTROL FREAK. Rodney is the *grandfather* of all control freaks. Rodney cannot function in a situation where he has no options and no resources. He simply falls apart, and always has.

The thing is, we don't see it that much, because when the crisis comes, he's usually punching keys. He's in control of his own actions, even if he's becoming increasingly frustrated and scared by the fact that his actions aren't successfully controlling the whole situation. When he doesn't have techy things to do, when he's really backed against the wall, he'll try things he *isn't* good at, just to be trying something -- he'll half-poison himself with Wraith enzyme so he can make a break for the Gate, or he'll go idiotically kicking down a warehouse door to carry his sister home bodily. Like Sherlock Holmes, after he's exhausted the possibilities, the utterly stupid is what he's left with (that may be a bit of a misquote, but you know what I mean). The reason Grace Under Pressure is such a good episode is that it confronts this particular aspect of Rodney's character, which is practically the fucking ur-level of Rodney, the one most ingrained fact about the way he thinks and acts: it pits Rodney's need to gogogogogo, to do something, anything and who fucking cares if it's desperate and stupid, against the fact that sometimes in life you just aren't in control and can't be and have to come to terms with it. It's Rodney v. Reality in an epic smackdown. And even in that episode, he fights and fights and fights until literally his last fucking *gasp,* before he subsides for just a minute, just long enough to make it through.

He's not a man who can handle being trapped. He's not a man who does helpless well. (There's some interesting mileage to be gained here -- in the dramatic, rather than the comedic sense this time -- from the way Rodney's hypochondria manifests at those moments when he's the most helpless and the most out of his element. He's not just randomly crazy, he's a guy who feels besieged by an out-of-control universe, who literally fears that everything is out to get him, that not even his own body is a safe zone. Normally that just keeps up at a low-grade buzz, but when Rodney's universe is at its most unremittingly hostile, he views his body as more hostile than normal, as well.) The only episode previous to this one where I can remember Rodney having literally *no* ability to make a plan, good or bad, and try to execute it, alone or with others, is The Hive, where he's literally bound hand and foot. And he pretty much spun out in that episode, too, collapsing into lethargic despair just like he did in this episode, until he was rescued by someone else. So honestly, yeah, I bought that Rodney spun out here. I bought that he was suddenly acting five times as crazy as he normally does -- because this situation was ten times worse for Rodney than any other given impending-death episode.

So my real concern with the breakup plotline is -- were they trying to suggest that Katie can't deal with his defeatism and despair, that she believes he'll deal with future problems they encounter together in this same neurotic, pessimistic way that will make his fantasized disasters self-fulfilling prophecies? Because...that's an interesting angle, except that I think she's wrong. Rodney would do anything to fix problems in their relationship -- he'd probably go totally overboard and drag her to couples therapy six times a week to work on the marriage. Rodney doesn't do passive voluntarily. Passive is Rodney's lowest point, the thing he'd do anything in his power to avoid, even stupid things. If she marries him, he's not just going to give up on her. Ever. So what they're doing here is putting Rodney in a situation that's dramatic because it's so rare and so on the edge of Rodney's zone of functionality, and then having the rest of his life hinge on that, which kind of makes the breakup a tragic mistake, rather than what it seems like they were going for, which was Katie realizing it was doomed all along.

Or maybe that's not what they were going for. Maybe that's not even the crux of why she broke up with him. I think there was a lot of stuff going on in those scenes, and I'm not sure whether trying to tease everything apart will make it all much more complicated and dramatic, or just reveal that the writers didn't quite know what they were doing and threw a whole bunch of stuff against the wall to see if any of it would stick.

Although you know what? Even with all his many emotional issues, Rodney is and always will be smart enough to know that John knows fuckall about dating. (That is, assuming that his "women love it when you're late" schtick wasn't deliberate sabotage again -- because THE TREE FORT, MAN, WHAT OF THE TREE FORT??? There's nothing sadder than a man who always has to raise and lower his little rope ladder for himself. But, no, I kid. Because John's a dick and all, but I don't think he's *that* much of a dick. Sure, I think he would have resented Mrs. Dr. Brown-McKay until the day he died, but he still would've thrown Rodney a bachelor party [worst. bachelor party. ever.] and stuck by his story of being happy for Rodney until the inevitable heat death of the universe. Because that's what guys do when their buddies marry unwisely. THEY SAY NOTHING. It's just a hugely serious Forbidden Zone, and I think John is guy-rule-compliant enough to get that.)

All right, enough with the depressing stuff. Ronon.

Look, full disclosure. Here's my thing. I dislike Keller -- again, like Sam, not necessarily as a hypothetical human being, but as an addition to the SGA cast, because I think every move they've made with her has been dead fucking wrong. It's been an utter disaster, and I feel bad seeing it happen to Jewel Staite, who seems to be a nice kid and is a fine actress.

When they wrote Ford off the show and replaced him with Ronon, I saw the inherent logic in the choice, even before Ronon was actually a real character that I could like. I liked Ford, but he didn't fulfill a unique role on the team -- he wasn't going to out-raffish Sheppard, he wasn't a scientist, he didn't have the kind of emotional ballast that Teyla provided. He was just kind of a nice kid who went where Sheppard told him to go, and while it would've been nice if they'd built him from the start to be something more than that, I understood where the writers were coming from when they got to a certain point and went, you know, this isn't a character who's *doing* anything for our stories, he's not pushing things forward. So they explicitly set out to create a character who was outside the chain of command and who could pose a kind of narrative threat to the stability of the unit, and they did a good job of it -- Ronon did at the time and does now occupy an interesting insider/outsider space, loyal to Sheppard and yet potentially a subversive influence. He fills a role that Ford just wasn't built for and couldn't be moved into, so from a writing point of view, it was a sensible decision.

It bugs the HELL out of me that they've done nothing, not one thing, NOTHING with Keller that they couldn't have done or, in most cases, hadn't already done with Carson. Oh, she's kind of sheltered and out of her element in the kind of paramilitary adventure-world of the Pegasus Galaxy? Well, you know what? She knew it was like this when she took the job, and she can leave any time she wants, which makes me roughly a million times less sympathetic to her hand-wringing than I was to Carson's. Carson was a research geneticist who went overnight from developing retroviruses in a lab to being a battlefield surgeon in a hostile galaxy from which there was no escape; I loved him in first season, when I got to watch him struggle with a job he'd never imagined himself having to do, scared and desperate and totally in over his head. Some of that changed later on: he did get more settled with his physician role as opposed to his researcher role, and that first year forged connections with Atlantis that he chose not to sever once he could, which I also liked about him. And as usual, the writers often overplayed their hand with him, I think, going back to certain things a few too many times so that they lost a lot of their impact and became pointless and silly. But that whole element was at least in place for me from he very beginning: Carson struggling to bear up under a job he wasn't remotely sure he was qualified to do, under circumstances he wasn't sure he was able to endure. I liked that there was a struggle, and I liked the times he won and sympathized with the times he lost.

They seem to be walking Keller through a bizarrely illogical, watered-down version of Carson's character arc. Look, she's worried that she won't be good enough for this job! (Even though you'd think a fucking child genius who was qualified to go to Atlantis before she was thirty would have developed, at some point, some reasonable amount of confidence or the ability to fake it.) Look, she's a homebody who misses her dad and remembers summer camp as a terrifying ordeal! I mean, are they that out of ideas? If they thought we'd miss Carson so much that we'd need a new Carson, couldn't we just have kept the old Carson? And given that SGA has never wowed me with their use of gender anyway, seeing the same sets of vulnerabilities transfered from a male character to a doe-eyed, twentysomething, little-girl-lost makes me so, so very uncomfortable.

Also, they keep undermining her character by trying to give her backstory, but doing it on the heels of much, much more significant things from the main characters' lives. So it becomes, "My lover and my extended family and nearly everyone I've ever cared about have vanished and I may never see them again." "I'm scared of mosquitos! And it's been a long time since I've had a card from my dad!" Or now, apparently, it's, "The love of my life died in front of me and I've kind of been blaming myself for it nonstop for a decade now." "I never went to prom!" Like, you know, Keller? Shut up. She just comes off as oddly clueless and self-involved, in an icky meta way that suggests that the ordinary lives of middle-class white girls from Minnesota are totally the exact equivalent of the shit people live with in the Pegasus Galaxy. Inside, where it counts. I try not to blame her character for the writers' inability to grok that *anything* is more interesting than the personal lives of middle-class white people from Canada or Canada-adjacent regions, but without a lot of other stuff that we know about Keller, it's hard for that not to be like the first thing I think of when I think of her.

But okay. You know, here's my thing: Ronon likes her. Ronon thinks her hair smells nice and she's nice to him when she sews him shut twice a week, and here is my general, all-purpose rule of life when it comes to Ronon. Are you ready? Grab a pencil, write this down.

WHATEVER MY BABY WANTS, HE SHOULD GET.

That's it. That's the rule. Because Ronon's life SUCKS SO BAD in so, so many ways, that there is basically no limit to the amount of happiness he could theoretically receive now, and it probably still wouldn't set the scales in his favor. If what Ronon wants is Jennifer Keller? Okay, what the hell. Give me my little flag or my lapel pin or whatever I need to have; I'll be a Ronon/Keller shipper. As long as he's happy. Whatever it takes. That's the All-Purpose Rule.

I feel certain that I'll have ample opportunity in the future to mull over the specifics of the Ronon/Keller relationship. For the time being, suffice it to say that he was awesome and adorable trying to MacGyver (does MacGyver exist in the Stargate universe? *Trippy.*) his way out of the infirmary using Sheppard's DVD collection.

I was a little -- concerned or fascinated? Can I be both? -- by the early suggestion that Ronon was getting hurt on purpose/self-injuring so that he had an excuse to come get taken care of by Keller. Because that's, you know, awful and dysfunctional and creepy. And it's also kind of dreadfully understandable, given that Ronon is a basically gregarious, affectionate person who went from being utterly starved for human contact, straight into living with a surrogate family who are kind of emotionally defective for the most part. He probably doesn't get a lot of touch, a lot of tending, a lot of simple contact from someone who wants to know how he is and how he could get better -- unless he's been bounced to the infirmary because he's been hurt again. Make the caretaker in chief suddenly a pretty girl, and you'd find yourself getting injured a lot more often, too. It could be either intentional or subconscious and still work. But then the script kind of implies that this episode is the turning point between Ronon thinking she's weak and Ronon thinking she's cool, so maybe that wasn't what we were supposed to be inferring at all.

Also, it's just too fucking adorable that Ronon's go-to move is to kind of scooch closer little by little and see if she seems cool with that. Almost as adorable as his little thing in the cafeteria where he's like, "D'oh, she's coming over here! Sit up, get your feet off the chair! Act like a grown man!" Ah, relax, sweetheart. When you seduce a woman by strongarming her into helping you try to blow a door off its hinges using a move you saw in a Spielberg movie, it's not only too late to come off suave, but it's a pretty good bet that suave is not what she's here for.

IN SUMMATION:
Poor Rodney and his broken heart. Poor John and his sad little rope ladder. Teyla is such a stone badass that she will seriously consider scaling four stories straight up while eleven and a half months pregnant. Ronon has a beautiful smile. Next time there's an ion storm, stock up on milk and bread at the store. Bad Radek, no cookie. I will miss Katie. YES, WE UNDERSTAND, THE CACTUS IS SHAPED LIKE A PENIS, IN A WAY. This is not an easy show to watch with your feminism turned on. Ronon has a canonical thing for poorly socialized science nerds. (I'm just saying.) Maybe if John liked a sport that was less boring than golf, people would love him back. (I'm just saying.)

Comments

[calligrafiti.livejournal.com]

The reason Grace Under Pressure is such a good episode is that it confronts this particular aspect of Rodney's character, which is practically the fucking ur-level of Rodney, the one most ingrained fact about the way he thinks and acts: it pits Rodney's need to gogogogogo, to do something, anything and who fucking cares if it's desperate and stupid, against the fact that sometimes in life you just aren't in control and can't be and have to come to terms with it.

I hadn't looked at it this way, but now that you mention it, yeah, you're totally right. And I think this is one of the aspects to Rodney's personality that resonates with John's, because John is very overtly gogogogogo, what with the flying fast things and so on. (Even if he's generally laid back when he's not flying or shooting.)

I was under the impression that the thing Radek shoved his fingers in was a normal fiddle-with-it point, and was unexpectedly messed up by whatever messed up the rest of Atlantis. Of course knowing that the rest of Atlantis was messed up should have given some pause but if you're gonna fix things you've gotta fiddle with something.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

That's kind of odd to me, because honestly if I had to choose one million words to describe Sheppard, "gogogogogo" would not be on the list. He's usually so mellow I want to snap my fingers under his nose to wake him up! (I also find it interesting that in spite of his claim to love high speeds, his calling in the Air Force seemed to be as a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot, not the fast-shiny-fighter-jet type of pilot. I wonder if that was something he chose, or if he would rather have done the jet thing.)

As for Radek, it might have been a normal thing to do under most circumstances, but it still bugs me that he did it while his boss was shouting at him to stop. Sam clearly knew it was a bad idea, and he was either not listening to her or choosing to ignore her -- either way, not his finest hour, I think.

[ratcreature]

Does NOBODY want to live in John's totally cool treehouse fort and play videogames and ride around in his spaceship with him until they all die?

Bwah, that is so true. Also for some reason I now envision Sheppard's poor parents as as beleaguered as Calvin's from Calvin and Hobbes. I mean, Sheppard's love for terrifying speeds for one totally fits... and yeah, the treehouse.

I actually wasn't sure Rodney and Katie had really broken up at the end. I thought they might just have gone back to whatever they had before. But then I'm not completely sure what that even was. I would have loved to see some Rodney/Katie when they weren't discussing their relationship in an incredibly awkward way, but in a situation within their couple comfort zone, whatever that might have been.

(PS, wasn't it Bert who kept pigeons rather than Ernie?)

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

I think Rodney wanted to go back to an earlier stage of their relationship, but that very sad "goodbye" from Katie definitely screamed to me that she didn't see it as something they could do much to save. I think Rodney caught onto that at the very last moment, too. They seemed pretty comfortable to me in "Tabula Rasa" -- a little keyed-up, but more in the way where they hardly ever see each other so they were hyped, not really in a nervous way. But overall you're right, I think they only brought Katie on when she could get a sharp reaction out of Rodney, so we never really saw their baseline, which is a pity, because it wouldn't have been that hard to do.

Was it Bert? Did he have pigeons AND bottlecaps? That guy was one eccentric dude! Or did Ernie have bottlecaps? Man, my childhood is so far behind me -- it's all become a comfortable blur....

[souliesoul.livejournal.com]

does MacGyver exist in the Stargate universe? *Trippy.* - I'm fairly sure Sam makes a reference to MacGyvering something together at one point, so yes (and no, I'm not thinking of the awesome spoof outtake from the one where Jack and Sam get stuck in that ice cave).

Very nice walk-through of all the issues raised in the ep! I agree about Keller and Ronon - yes she's underdeveloped and a Carson!copy, but Ronon needs something to be happy about and enjoy, and if that's a relationship with Keller, well great and hey, maybe they might do a bit more with her character (not that I'm holding my breath).

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hope they'll try to get some emotion out of us other than "pity" when it comes to Keller. At least she won't vanish suddenly in some horribly traumatic way like a more temporary character might (*cough* Katie *cough*), so if only for that reason, I'm glad Ronon bagged himself a Recurring Guest Star!

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

What a great positive reading of the episode. You even made me forgive them the sudden needless hypochondriac!Rodney, because that was the scenes I disliked the most. I'm not a crazy Rodney fan (no, the crazy's for Sheppard alone :), but I was unhappy with the way he was the only one who not only didn't try to do anything but also couldn't even join forces with Katie. She on the other hand drove me nuts. I liked her a lot until this ep anyways, but something about her naive optimism (which was true, of course, but only when you realize they're in a show rather than looking at the odds as they would actually be inside their diegetic world so to speak) rub me the wrong way. It's like she became a red shirt simply because she was a character who lets others do the rescuing.

So, I kinda like your reading where Rodney's upset because he's paralyzed into not being able to do anything, but I think he'd TRY rather than lie on his back and give up... That's the part that bugged me. And I think you're totally right about this being a great example of their basic incompatibility...I think crises either bring couples closer together or break them. And given that I don't want John alone in his treehouse, I wasn't too unhappy that their incompatibility came through... [I still would have liked to see Rodney at least *try* and despair over that rather than his non existent disease...I mean, couldn't he at least have been allergic to her plants???]

[elbomac.livejournal.com]

I would say: (onset of hypoglycemic feeling + power of suggestion = Rodney thinks he's caught whatever's out there) x (no computer access + no radio + his belief that his changes to the system are impregnable) x he's the only one who can save the day = total helplessness and certain death.

Probably there's a more elegant way to express it, but that's what I saw.

[fanofall.livejournal.com]

There is no possible way for you to be righter than this. THANK YOU for putting my thoughts about this episode, which were jumbled and inexpressible, into words.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks! It's always nice to know you've reached the Pinnacle of Rightness. *g*

[tabby333.livejournal.com]

Great review!! I enjoyed your review far more than I enjoyed the episode. I had a difficult time with the whole Rodney giving up and just lying there. I feel a need to buy into your interpretation (and thank you for sharing it) not only because I don't want to hate the show for regressing Rodney and for not knowing how to end his relationship, but because it makes sense. I try to stop myself from asking why they even bothered to keep the relationship alive after Carson died since it thus far has served no dramatic purpose.

You have the best read on John ever with his tree fort and rope ladder.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Well, if you feel like it makes sense, feel free to buy into it! And I'm glad they did continue the relationship into s4, if only because their interactions in "Tabula Rasa" were about my favorite part of a very good episode, and I did begin to feel really confident at that point that Rodney *could* be an excellent boyfriend. Always nice to know!

[not-sally.livejournal.com]

A world of yes to all you've said.

Sometimes it feels like (and Teyla will always be the exception to this rule) you need to try and work to like the female characters in the SGA 'verse, because why shouldn't you? but there are little things that keep bugging the hell out of you, though you can infer certain awesome qualities they may or may not possess...

Anyway: I will miss Katie. I think I really loved her. She never stood a chance against John.

I don't like Keller. I really, really want to, but she annoys me so much. I do love her if Ronon does. Kudos on the "WHATEVER MY BABY WANTS, HE SHOULD GET" it shall become my new motto.

Teyla is even more kick-ass than John because she would climb out of Atlantis pregnant, but smart as Rodney to not actually do it, because that's just fucking crazy.

<3 you.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

I think that's an excellent way to describe Teyla altogether: "As smart and kick-ass as any of these guys, only not fucking crazy."

[lamaudite.livejournal.com]

Oh, my. I love it when you do this. Hit bang on on every note.

And I don't like Keller either, but I agree: Ronon deserves to be happy. If she's the one he wants, so be it. :)

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I feel like Ronon's mom all of a sudden -- smiling and nodding for all I'm worth, even though, really? *This* is who he's bringing home? *Really?*

But like moms all over the world, I figure she'll either go away eventually, or I'll grow to love her. Although if she breaks his heart, don't think I won't find someone to punish for it.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I didn't get the impression that Katie and Rodney had broken up. He took back the proposal, which in TV world usually means the end of a relationship, but he's very earnest about it, and she seems to get it and agree, and then they made plans for lunch, didn't they? It might have been a break-up, but it looked to me like an acknowledgment that Rodney was premature (heh) and an expectation that they'd continue dating.

I didn't anticipate the Ronon/Keller, but it kind of makes sense to me. I haven't seen "Sateda" in a while, but Ronon's dead fiance/girlfriend was a petite blond woman who was also a doctor. Kind of exactly like Keller. So he either has a type or he's sort of still hung up on his fiance, but it really makes sense that he'd go for Keller. And who wouldn't go for Ronon, really? I love that he completely blew any chance of keeping this infatuation a secret and not being teased about it, though.

I also kind of loved that everyone, even Radek and Carter, were like "We don't have to do anything! McKay'll fix it!" Especially since the whole point of "Grace Under Pressure" was McKay struggling with the fact that his team can fix things too, he's not the only one capable. And there are no computers in the botany lab? Seriously?

And yes, MacGyver does exist in the Stargate universe. Carter mentions the show in the pilot of SG1.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Your read on their current relationship status matches the actual words they said, but I find it impossible to watch the way they both look by the conversation's end and read that "goodbye" as anything other than a relationship Katie has totally given up on ever working out. From Rodney's face at the end, I think he gets it, too.

I hope Ronon's thing for Keller isn't just some weird transference thing from Melena, because then it'll really collapse at the point where he has to confront the fact that she can't be the Reincarnation of Melena for him and is, in fact, her own totally separate person. And that'll be sad! I'm sad enough about *Rodney's* relationship failure; I'm not ready for Ronon's just yet.

I agree that it was totally cool to have everyone start out by saying "No problem! We'll just wait for McKay to do something!" I don't think there were no computers in the botany lab -- I think there were several rooms within the botany lab, and they were trapped in a greenhouse while the computers were in the main lab space outside.

[linabean.livejournal.com]

The only episode previous to this one where I can remember Rodney having literally *no* ability to make a plan, good or bad, and try to execute it, alone or with others, is The Hive, where he's literally bound hand and foot. And he pretty much spun out in that episode, too, collapsing into lethargic despair just like he did in this episode, until he was rescued by someone else. So honestly, yeah, I bought that Rodney spun out here. I bought that he was suddenly acting five times as crazy as he normally does -- because this situation was ten times worse for Rodney than any other given impending-death episode.

Actually, "The Hive" was the one where he just wouldn't give up, to the point of going crazy on Wraith-zyme. It is true that in "No Man's Land" he got tied up on a hive ship, and there he was just a ball of despair--but that struck me as OOC at the time, too (http://linabean.livejournal.com/32059.html#cutid1). Even once Ronon got him out of the cocoon and Rodney was free to move around to see what he could do, and even as Ronon explicitly reminded him, "Hey. If you get your mind right, you still have a chance to think of something," Rodney just couldn't stop going on about the hopelessness of their situation and whining about how uncomfortable he was.

So, in that situation, and I think in this episode too, he didn't actually have to be as helpless as he'd convinced himself he was. A lot of this stuff *is* mindset. If you make yourself think, "Okay, well, how can this be fixed?" and "What's the next step?", then you're much, much more likely to find the things you need to help yourself, and at the very least you're not going to sink into despair. Those are the things Ronon's constantly asking, and it's why he survived all those years as a Runner. Now, sometimes, Rodney asks those questions, and it's meant he saves himself, the team, all of Atlantis, etc. Episodes very often hinge on his being able to do that--the way he's able to take doing that for granted in those episodes makes it seems like it should be a basic part of who he is (in contrast to people like Carson and Keller, say). But then there are episodes where someone else can save the day, and the writers want something to go on with Rodney's personal relationships or want him to be comic relief, so Rodney suddenly can't do this anymore.

I mean, I agree, it's going to drive Rodney crazy if he feels like there's nothing he can do in a situation--but that's exactly why I think he wouldn't have been so defeatist in "No Man's Land," once freed, or in this episode. He could have kept bustling around, focused on looking for a solution, seeing what there was at hand. He could have said, "Hey! An opportunity to practice Leadership!" when it was clear morale could use some support. Rodney's always been one to realize, "No, this particular avenue is hopeless," but in the episodes where we're supposed to admire him, he keeps moving on to, "But what about this? And what about this?" In the episodes where he's supposed to seem mock-worthy or incapable of interpersonal skills, he's ready to convince everyone to lie down to die with him.

I guess I just don't feel like there's a way to square those things up within one person in a way that's psychologically realistic--I mean, yeah, people do have good days and bad days, and some situations are more challenging than others. But I do think it's generally a fundamental difference in personality, not in circumstance, that determines whether a person's going to try to keep fighting or will lie down and wait to die. Sure, circumstances can finally get bad enough that someone who's always been a fighter before can decide, "Well, this is enough," but I just don't see the crisis in this episode, even with the psychological turmoil Rodney's been through up to this point, as being severe enough to be that breaking point for Rodney. And, if it is, it really should be framed as a breaking point, where he realizes he's gone through such a rough patch lately that he needs to step up the therapy just in order to be able to do his job.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

I've heard several people mount this argument, that Rodney "gave up," or "quit trying," but I've yet to see anyone suggest anything he was supposed to not give up trying to do. If you're in a locked room with a bunch of ferns, there's *nothing to do,* no matter how smart you are. He does the same thing in "Progeny," when everyone is like, Rodney, how are you going to get us out of here? And he looks at them like they're fucking crazy and says, I'm not going to, there's nothing I can do, are you kidding me with this? If Rodney judges the situation impossible, he's not going to be like Ronon and fritter his time away trying to pry the door open with his teeth; he's going to call it impossible.

I know it's tough to mount an argument from canonicity for SGA characters, because they do kind of bop around the map, and it's terribly easy to say, well that one doesn't count, it was OOC, too. But the thing is that this is a pattern that I *do* think is well-established: give Rodney a computer and he'll try every trick in the book, no matter how desperately last-ditch it seems, but take away his tools and his resources, and over and over again you see him not be able to do anything, and more importantly, to *know full well* that he can't do anything. The question isn't why did Rodney all of a sudden become a defeatist when trapped -- he's *always been* a defeatist when he's trapped, and he's *always known* the difference between trapped and not-completely-trapped. I don't even remotely read it as a basic personality change.

[elbomac.livejournal.com]

I love, love, love your take on Rodney here. I started copying bits of it to quote back, and then realized this comment would be a mile long, so suffice it to say: YES. Brilliant. (I would love to see a story that went all meta with Rodney realizing the writers have it in for him, and dealing with that.)

I could not love Ronon more than I did in this episode, and I agree 100% with your golden rule. I also love that he's once again functioning as the base psychologist.

John will be relieved that Rodney will once again be available for good times in the tree fort.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

They should totally get Ronon and office and a couch! I love how he doesn't have to be *told* when someone is unhappy; he's just automatically like, look, I can see you're not handling his very well, and I just wanna say... (cf. Teyla in "The Hive," Rodney in "Sunday," now Keller.) I can't even tell you how much I'm looking forward to "Outcast" in two weeks -- I won't spoil it for anyone here, but if you haven't seen anything about it, you should totally go to Gateworld and check it out! It looks like it's going to be the motherlode of Ronon as Emotional Support episodes. Eeee!

[linabean.livejournal.com]

Now, having said all that--I think it's possible that Rodney actually has been feeling metaphorically trapped in the relationship with Katie. She's such a great person, and they like each other a lot and have fun together, and so--that means they should get married, right? Right? That's what Jeannie said--he won't get any other chance--and Jeannie's really happy, right? Right? (Note: I don't actually believe Jeannie's as fabulously secure and happy with our choices as the writers seem to be trying to set her up; I never did get around to writing up my reactions to "Miller's Crossing." But I definitely buy that Rodney thinks she is.) So I do think Rodney (like too many people, *cough* my sister's planning an elaborate wedding, for the second time) has gotten focused on this idea of What He's Supposed To Do, and the dissonance between that and what actually makes sense for him and Katie is making him feel unhappy and trapped. And, so then, when he's literally trapped in a room with her, and the only thing he can think of when she's asking to be cheered up is, "Well, I was going to propose! Um! Uh...! It's not making *me* feel better to think about that; are the walls closing in?"

So--I guess that is a way to make some sense of his sweaty, defeatist despair in this episode. But, well, in the first place, that still doesn't square up the Rodney who knows how to keep fighting with the useless Rodney in "No Man's Land." And, in the second place, well--it just means the writers suck that much more for setting up a situation where commitment to a woman is a trap that pretty much renders Rodney impotent. I mean, hey, we *can* put that into the slash narrative, so--whee, I guess--plus, I actually do believe that expectations about marriage are a trap for too many people. But it's not going to sit great for me when this show already has the track record it does with women, and when Rodney's really the only one who gets to have problems with feeling trapped, while Katie just has problems with Rodney not doing enough for her. I just can't say I'm a fan of the storyline!

That is, assuming that his "women love it when you're late" schtick wasn't deliberate sabotage again

Oh, no, I think it definitely was, and unlike some of John's other pranks, I thought it was pretty funny, because Rodney was so prepared to take it in the spirit it was given--his response was basically, "Yeah, you're deliberately talking out your ass because you think it's cute and you don't actually care about what I'm saying, but let me tell you why you should be paying attention to me instead of making your little jokes." Aw, I was just so heartened by Rodney's matter-of-fact little, "No, they don't." He knows this about women now! Good for Rodney.

[aurora]

re: Keller: I'm so amused (sort of) by the fact that the writers gave her mostly-fanon!Rodney's backstory.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

That is pretty great! They almost had to, though; Staite is only 25 years old, and while they could conceivably try to convince us she was a bit older than that, she's still visibly young enough to make the question of how she got to the pinnacle of her profession so young kind of the elephant in the living room. I actually have a WIP where she mentions doing her first year of residency at 18; you kind of can't get away without it.

[margec01.livejournal.com]

Thank you for expressing my thoughts about Rodney just like I saw it. This is the SG-1 Rodney we haven't seen for a long time, because NOW Rodney just keeps working away to solve the problem. And because he's had many successes, that success and the work slow his freaking out enough so that he CAN work.

But put him in a little room with no access to computers, no way to know what's really going on, and no way to even TRY to fix it--well, this must be Rodney's idea of hell. And then stick Katie in there with him.

I also exactly saw the moment where he could "fix it" with Katie--thank you, I'm not alone! But I don't think her take is necessarily wrong when she gives up on him. Not because they couldn't make a marriage work. I do think they could have made an "okay" marriage work. Rodney and Katie could have had the 2.5 kids and the white picket fence, and even have stayed together because that's what you do. But I think his self-centeredness and worrying would have made Katie very unhappy in the long run. Rodney needs someone strong to stand up to him and say, "Get over it!" Whether you want gen or slash, John or Ronon can fill this bill. Lorne, too! And Carson, when he was there. But we never saw a Katie who could do this.

I also really dislike how they've handled Keller. To me she seems like a whiny little girl. "Oh, poor me, I've been so underpriviledged." Pah! But it was so nice to see Ronon enjoying her company. I guess anyone who can put that soft, sweet look on his face gets a pass from me, too.

Edited for typos.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

I guess your read on Katie and Rodney's future is the same one Katie had, but I still find it a little frustrating, just because -- you know, he's NOT always like that. This really WAS Rodney's own personal hell, and I defy you to find anyone who could get stuck in their worst nightmare and still come off like someone you'd want to up and get married to the next day. If we were all judged for our romantic fitness when we were at our lowest point, nobody would *ever* be in a relationship.

It just seemed to me like Katie was ready to say yes to his proposal initially -- which implied that over the past *year and a half,* she'd decided he'd make good company for the rest of her life. Does seeing him at his worst have to override all of that? The romantic in me just resists the idea that someone who loved Rodney wouldn't decide that he was loveable in spite of the way he really lets her down this one time.

Not all relationships work out, and like I said, it's not like I didn't know this one wouldn't last. But I find myself sad about it, because Katie had a gentleness with Rodney that I do think he needs, that made him very visibly happy, and that most of the people in Rodney's life really don't show him. John and Ronon and Lorne know how to protect themselves by biting back when Rodney bites at them, and you could even argue that they spur Rodney onto his best work (though I always thought that was kind of an odd argument; Rodney wouldn't try very hard to avert weekly disaster if John weren't hanging over his shoulder barking orders at him? Really?), but they have rarely showed a lot of open affection toward Rodney. Not that I think they don't like him; I think they very much do (well, maybe Lorne is indifferent, but the others...), but I do still think Rodney is losing something really valuable when he loses the way Katie looks at him all starry-eyed and smitten.

I'd like to believe there's a way for Rodney to have someone who is *both* openly loving and also able to put their foot down at some point and stand up to his moods. I think it's why I like writing Rodney with Ronon; we've at least seen Ronon be sweetly affectionate with *other* people, if not Rodney, so it's easier for me to imagine!

[rogue-planet.livejournal.com]

does MacGyver exist in the Stargate universe? *Trippy.*)

Yes, it totally does. First ep, first season Sam says something about MacGuyvering up the dialing computers. To Jack.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Heh. Oh, Stargate. Nice to see they've never been above the easy pop-cultural joke. *g*

BRILLIANT!!!!

[yinkawills.livejournal.com]

Ooohhh, Im a BIG hth fan!
Love your fics!
Love this episode review!
Teyla IS a stone badass!

Ronon DOES deserve as much love and affection as he can get. Though I do think he gets a lot from his team. Teyla and he have a special vibe, and he was lovely to her in recent eps re the baby, unlike idiot!Shep.
Rodney he loves to manhandle...and we were told last season in the Sateda ep that they have a 'special bond' (the Rodney-Carson convo). And he has a big brother/taskmaster thing with John,bonding over sparring and weaponry.
Keller? Bah! Loved the actress in Firefly. They've given her very weak material, and killed off Carson for nothing.

I wondered how they were going to stop the Rodney/Katie relationship, without killing her off. Thank God they didnt. But I knew that-whether subconsciously or semi-consciously - the writers tend to have John and Rodney going steady, with the odd blip like an ascended woman or a feisty alien hottie of the week(Larrin)to refresh John's heterosexual love god image.

Re: BRILLIANT!!!!

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Hey, I have a fan! Awesome. *g*

I think Ronon is very much loved by his whole team -- I mean, I think their feelings for him are strong and genuine. I just don't think they're very good at showing it; normally when there's a sweet moment, it's one that Ronon has initiated -- congratulating Teyla the other week, appealing to John's friendship in "Tabula Rasa," bear-hugging Rodney at the end of "Tao of McKay." It would really just make me happy if, one of these days, one of THEM would make the first move to take care of Ronon! Although I can see how the way he's often sort of cocky and brash would make him seem like a guy who doesn't want or care about anything like that, I really think he does. Viewed in that light, like I said, it's easy to see why he would fall hard for Keller, as someone who's already locked into his head as a caregiver.

[sgatlantislight.livejournal.com]

Oh, you have so put into words my exact problem with Keller. Thank you! I'll admit I loved Carson, but I tried to like her because it was Kaylee! But she... I just can't stand her. Honestly, I'm kinda hoping Ronon finds his happiness somewhere else, 'cause I still don't like her, even with the soft smiles on Ronon's face.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

I'm working on learning to love Keller. If I come up with anything that helps, I'll totally let you know! *g*

(Also, OH MY GOD, I miss Carson. I need to write the story where Ronon really is self-injuring to get his human contact through medical care, although I need to do it in the AU where Carson didn't die. For my own SANITY, at this point, I need to write that.)

[inkscribe.livejournal.com]

Great analysis and basically one I agree with on all points.

Despite adoring Carson to bits, I was prepared to like Keller. I like Stait's portrayal of Kaylee in Firefly and Serenity a lot. Her first big ep, when she was offworld with Teyla? Sooooo much loathing.

Honestly, I felt like I'd gone back to the Sarah Jane Smith episodes of Doctor Who. Every bloody moment there was a whinge of one sort or another, the first being the 'oooh, my ankle'-type complaint. It skyrocketed from there.

And yeah, her tragic backstory is so painful(ly bad) I just wince whenever we hear any of it, even in this ep.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really tried, too. And I am still trying, but good Lord, they don't make it easy. Introducing her by having her tell Elizabeth how unqualified she is made it really hard from right off the bat. Seriously, on a whole base full of brilliant doctors, how am I even supposed to believe that the department head is like the one person there who didn't *want* the job? How could she be that young and that successful and have so little ambition that she spent her whole first episode trying to give her promotion back? I just don't get what they're trying to do with her, really, but I'm still holding out hope that they're headed somewhere in particular, rather than just making her Wee Baby Kitten Keller forever.

[violetvision78.livejournal.com]

As for the Ronon rule, I feel the same way. When Ford anounced he was leaving the show to do a Friends type show, I did not like the idea. I kept thinking that if they did replace him that they needed someone manly and deep voiced to balance things out.

I thought Ronon has had so many things happen to him that if a lovely girl who reminds him of his lost love helps him heal...I will back that also. I did not like Keller, but said before this ep and before I knew this was where they were going that if he wanted her then I would be ok with it. I think her sheltered take on life helps Ronon remember what it was like back before the Wraith destroyed his planet. It might help him feed on that kind of thinking from Keller to release some of the hurt of years and years of being alone (makes me think of "I am Legend").

I think Keller is a follower and not a leader because she can tell that on Atlantis she is out of her element. I think that over time she will get some strength and know how from Ronon and that Ronon will get some healing from her simple way of trusting all is right with the world. I think that in the end, they will heal and help eachother gain the things they lack and it will make them better. I think that was in direct contrast with McKay/Katie...I don't know if McKay knows how to let Katie in.

[ainsley.livejournal.com]

I wish I had something more to say than that you are brilliant, but as I don't...you're brilliant.

[ariadne83]

I got the impression that *Katie* doesn't like being helpless either. Rodney wasn't listening to her; nothing she did (or tried to do) had any effect. I think she was confronted with the fact that *she* might be the one that failed, rather than Rodney, and it freaked her out so she let him tank the relationship