Parting is such sweet sorrow *snicker*

[trinityofone]

YAY CALDWELL! I am so very very glad to have him back. Although would it have killed them to explain how he got all Goa’ulded in the first place? One line of exposition, guys: “It really sucked when those NID peeps beat me over the head with wiffle bats and dragged me into an alley,” or, “I should never have gone into the bathroom at Popeye’s.”* But whatevers: he owned this episode. *is proud of own decision to put him in We Have Lingered* *resumes sekritly shipping him with Elizabeth* *when not shipping Elizabeth with Zelenka* *or Ronon* *or Lorne*

Other than that...meh? And I feel an almost instant need to disclaim that: I’m not negative about everything! Really! SGA is my favorite favoritest show! But that’s why I want it to be as good as it can be, and when it’s weird and nonsensical, I want to talk about it. Endlessly.

Still with me? Okay. I think the biggest problem with this episode was that I’m sure the writers were thinking, “Yay! We can do our cursory Elizabeth episode!” (And seriously: why do the cursory Elizabeth episodes always involve old people? What’s up with that? And what’s planned for S3: Elizabeth visits an Ancient retirement home?) Only--this wasn’t an Elizabeth episode. It was an Elizabeth’s body episode--a Torri episode, sure--but Elizabeth herself was out of the picture for most of it. The only character development for Elizabeth we got was: 1) still feels guilty about the events of ‘Critical Mass’ (duh); 2) will most likely feel guilty about shooting Ronon (duh); 3) is willing to flirt vaguely with Caldwell (after showing such a fab, take-charge attitude, who can blame her?). That’s nothing. We get more interesting teases about John. Or maybe we don’t, but at least with Shep I have a feeling--I am positively convinced, whether by writing hints or just Joe Flanigan’s pretty, moody eyes--that there is loads going on beneath the surface. With Elizabeth, the only hints I’m getting are repeated assurances that she’s boring.

SHE SHOULDN’T BE. She doesn’t have to be. This is so frustrating, and sometimes I just feel like writing loads and loads of Elizabeth gen because, sheesh. Give us something to work with, guys! No wonder I’m a slasher now.

Speaking of shippy stuff, the John/Teyla really kicked the John/Elizabeth’s ass in this, didn’t it? I mean, the latter had a kiss--a full-fledged kiss!--but neither of the bodies was occupied by its actual...occupant, and it was a sneaky hate kiss at that. Caldwell’s line at the end and J & E’s reactions could I guess be twisted in a shippy light, but to me the reaction seemed much closer to everyone at the end of ‘Duet,’ where John is Carson, Elizabeth is Rodney, and Caldwell is John, jealous jealous jealous. ;-) And then for John/Teyla there is one line, and it blows everything else out of the water. If my tastes ran that way, I would have been doing cartwheels at that point.

Also, did anyone else notice that after not!John’s “He cares for you more than you know,” there’s a completely pointless cut to Rodney working away at his computer? He shudders, shakes himself. Then back to Teyla.

These editors, man. Do they know something I don’t? *g*

I also have to admit that I completely misread not!Elizabeth’s line to Caldwell--“Oh, please: even Weir thinks you’re hopeless”--as “Oh, please: even Weir thinks you’re hopelessly in love with her.” No, seriously: I thought he was being called on his blatantly obvious crush. I still like my reading better. *pouts*

As for the other folks...hm. Well, Teyla was pretty cool in this ep, although again, we didn’t really learn anything new: her reactions in the “To shoot or not to shoot?” scene were pretty much exactly what I would have expected. Ronon...well, that was a little more interesting. It was pretty stupid of him to trust Sheppard, but it also seemed in character: Dex loves his leader, doesn’t he? Now, though, the show has to follow through with it, show Ronon as less trusting in the future, as less willing to follow blindly. He could use a lesson or two from Skinner Caldwell: Trust no one, Mr. Dex!

John, like Elizabeth, wasn’t actually there for most of the episode. When he was, I liked his reluctance to play host--although he can be scary persuasive a lot of the time, I can definitely see him as occasionally unable to launch a better argument than “don’t wanna.” And to go back to the “he cares for you more than you know” comment: hell yes, he does. He cares for everyone in Atlantis, more than he’ll ever tell them, more than he’ll ever show them outside of risking his life for theirs. It terrifies him how much he cares for them. *sniff* Oh, John. *snuggles him*

As for my boyfriend Rodney...this just wasn’t a very interesting episode for him? Not that I mind watching him bitch and complain, then make woobie eyes, then save his boyfriend John at the last minute, but in case it isn’t clear by now, I am a WHORE for character development. And there wasn’t much here. The one interesting thing was the contrast between how Rodney reacted under Caldwell’s leadership and how he usually reacts under Elizabeth and John’s. I don’t think Rodney has anything against Caldwell, or was even that concerned about the recent Goa’uld thing, but he clearly doesn’t respect him (yet) the way he does Elizabeth and John. Rodney doles out respect in small, precious doses, and it says a lot about the people on the receiving end if they’ve earned it. Probably the only reason I’m able to take Elizabeth seriously as a leader is because Rodney does. So it was interesting to see the inverse of that.

And yeah, I liked the Jeopardy! conversation, mostly because of everything kalpurna says here, but also because I’m now picturing Rodney mocking Alex Trebek. Okay, Rodney and Darrell Hammond’s Sean Connery mocking Alex Trebek. Sometimes it’s fun inside my head.

In conclusion, I think I said it best at the beginning: Caldwell owns. YAY CALDWELL. The end.


*True story:

trinityofone and family are in Washington, D.C., near the Ford Theater.

trinityofone: *spots Popeye’s Chicken* I need to use the bathroom.
Trinity’s Mom: Not in there! You’ll prick yourself on a needle and get AIDS!

Not her finest parenting moment. ;-) But a funny one!

Comments

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I thought Caldwell's "I'm not going to tell you what to do" was the right move. Because he couldn't do anything, and she would probably react badly to being told, "You don't know me all that well, but I would like you to shoot your team leader and friend now." Instead he showed trust in her to make the right decision, which was the best leadership choice, and the most human one, IMO.

Rodney is the king of the angsty reaction shot. *snuggles him*

[iamtheenemy.livejournal.com]

I don't agree, because when it's that many people's lives at stake, it becomes more than not wanting to pressure Teyla into hurting her friend. He's putting Teyla in charge of the lives of those expedition members, and they're not even her people. Teyla's a very empathetic and moral person who probably has a lot of affection and respect for the people in the expedition. Regardless, I think the outcome of that confrontation would have gone differently if Elizabeth had managed to endanger the Athosians instead of the Atlanteans.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Actually, that would have been interesting, 'cause I don't for a second believe that Teyla would have reacted all that differently. HOWEVER, if she still hesitated for John's sake when the Athosians were at risk, that would at least have said something interesting about her character and its progression. I think the Atlanteans (especially her teammates, yes, but all of them) have come to mean more and more to her, and that just as Atlantis is becoming more of a home to, say, John or Rodney, than Earth was, so too is it becoming a home to Teyla. She is Atlantean just as much or more than she is Athosian. The Atlanteans ARE her people.

*resolutely does not think about her breasts*

[iamtheenemy.livejournal.com]

*resolutely does not think about her breasts*

But they're such NICE breasts, and she works so hard to show them off. :)

[marici.livejournal.com]

I kinda felt the only right reaction is to let him free (really, not to have used zip strips in the first place), because if they were powerless to kill him Whatsherkidney wouldn't bother to gas the hostages. Of course, that strategy only works if Phoebus doesn't hear you plot it, so he may have been hoping Teyla would leap to it or by inaction do it herself.