SGA 4.16, "Trio"

[bironic]

Nothing profound tonight:

Physics and happy gay jokes! Physics and happy gay jokes at the same time! I love that both of "my" shows this week did not fear to go into this territory of men making half-jokes about sleeping with other men and appreciating their Shape Magazine-worthy bods. Still a ways to go, but at least they're only half-jokes now. And physics! Pulleys and levers and bridges, oh my.

Neil deGrasse Tyson all the way, btw.

Ah ha ha, and Rodney said Tyson stole one of his ideas. Didn't that show up in one of Pru's stories once?

Their gossip session was very cute. Rodney has proved many times over—including about half a dozen times in this episode alone—that he has, er, problematic approaches to women, wavering between utter cluelessness at social subtext (which Katie used to like about him, hm), wide-eyed adolescent appreciation (staring at Keller when she was halfway towards pulling her shirt off) and embarrassing misogyny (encouraging Carter to flash the kids). Watching him braid hair knot ropes and play games about boys with the two of them was just adorable, and also vaguely like training a puppy not to nip at people's hands.

Still, I fear that he will not take their advice and go after Katie to win her heart back before she ships out to Earth. Oh, Katie. Oh, Rodney. You broke her heart and think it's the best thing for her.

Loved Rodney straddling the space between seasoned field soldier Carter and greenhorn Keller. Keller's been a lot like early Rodney in her complaining and fear and eventual overcoming of them both, and tonight that comparison became explicit. Neat that they didn't let the trio remain a pyramid (Carter > McKay > Keller) like the one they tried to build but kept collapsing, but instead mixed it up, letting Keller come up with the bridge idea, injuring Carter so McKay had to chip in to save the day, combining weaknesses and strengths like McKay accidentally setting the room on fire and then using that error-gained knowledge to build a cannon, and having McKay save Keller's life but then having Keller remind Rodney that she won the beer bet. Each of the characters got to be well-rounded, too, alternating mental ingenuity with physical exertion -- even Rodney, who started out getting teased about not being in shape and then heeded Keller's advice about "you have to use your body" and swung into the mineshaft (with his injured hands and exhaustion) just in time.

Trio, see? Keller and Carter and McKay, not enough to bridge gaps on their own, but together, supporting each other, they succeed.

Grappling hooks! And by lots of field experience, Rodney means he has watched Batman do it a lot. Aw, he wants to be Batman so badly.

And a magician.

And John Sheppard.

Hee, Rodney/Keller BFF. She'll be good for translating women for him.

Hilarious how Carter and Keller just let Rodney babble on and on about what he did and didn't mean about their bodies. Sheppard would have shut him up in five seconds. Either they'll learn with time, they were amused, or they used it as a handy distraction while Keller set the break.

Also, poor Zelenka! He is an adorable man, and I thought Carter was at least amused to be stuck in there with him. Maybe she didn't appreciate having to calm him down so much and soothe him when he was embarrassed over his pigeons. Maybe there's something distasteful about him that we don't get to see on-screen. Like sniffing Keller's hair. Heh.

I do wish they hadn't shown the Keller-in-the-shaft/McKay-swinging-on-the-rope clip in the preview a thousand times, because for the 50 minutes the three of them were in the mine, we knew Keller was going to fall further and McKay was going to have to go down after her. Oh well. Heightened the tension.

Also, Rodney was sweet and hot (like the BBQ ribs we had tonight, yum) all clean in his t-shirt with his solid upper arms and action!hair and eyelashes and self-effacing jokes about f(o)etal positions and (mostly) bravely endured bandaged hands. I bet Ronon would like the wraps; they look like what you'd do before a fight.

I guess Rodney is in a pretty bad state if Keller, self-professed failed socialite, says he "really [is] bad at this."

Also: Sheppard/House/lollipop OT3.

Also: Rodney said something that reminded me of something on House, and now it's gone. Grr. Check back soon. ETA: Maybe his line about everything being a competition?

What else?



Oh, a miscellaneous thought from "Outcast" while watching the rerun earlier: I said last week that I wished the Replicator plot had had more to do with John's reaction to his father's death and his eventual decision to go back home and talk to his brother, but it did connect. You had the "brilliant scientist" Richard playing father Frankenstein to the Replicator man, and Ava also said "he was like a father to me" about him. In the warehouse, Richard tried to convince the Replicator—who had dark hair and a nice physique like Sheppard—to do as he said, calling on the Replicator's memories of when Richard-father had been there for him before. But the Replicator-son wouldn't have it: he rebelled, expressing all his pent-up anger, albeit to the ultimate extreme: he killed him. (Did John sometimes wish that he could do the same, growing up?) And then later, in the lab, which I'd forgotten, Ava said that line about not knowing what the people closest to you are thinking, and clearly John was mulling over Dave's claim that his father had regretted their estrangement, and John had never known. That must have factored in to his going home again.

There's of course more to it than that, but not up to it at the moment.


ETA: linabean, friendshipper

Comments

[thedeadparrot.livejournal.com]

See yeah, I liked the way the replicator plot intersected with the John's dad plot, but it felt like they stopped trying halfway through and went off in a different direction. But yeah, I did like the connections they made.

I haven't seen the new ep yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I suppose given a choice between being hit over the head with a connection and having not enough of a connection, I'd take the second. Still.... maybe another viewing and actually paying attention this time will uncover something more.

I think you'll find something to like in tonight's ep. Er, can't think of anything else to say that won't sound spoilery, so, yes. Enjoy!

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

I liked the episode overall, but I have to admit I got a wicked case of vertigo from the sudden transition in the last minute from DANGER!DANGER!DANGER! to SAFE!SAFE!SAFE!

And I liked the little kids who wouldn't help because they were afraid they'd get in trouble, and who brought their friends to look at the helpless people trapped in the hole. Because that's the way kids can be, and that's one of the incredibly stupid ways people can die. I think House would have appreciated those scenes.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I wanted to smack those kids. They were funny, and what the trio ended up doing to try to coerce them was even funnier, but mostly I wanted to smack them. Especially when they came back with their friends.

Hm. What would House have done if he'd been down there in the mine?

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Heh. I didn't think they were funny, really ... I just thought they were more realistic than idealized hero-kids. You know -- like in "perfect" stories, the hero says "Go get help!" and the kid runs off and gets help. Whereas in a quasi-realistic world, the kid is too scared of his/her parents/other authorities/whatever to do anything, and the hero perishes ignominiously, and the great legend/myth never gets written.

What would House have done if he'd been down there in the mine?

He probably would have devised some way for the others to save themselves, and then made them leave him behind, because it would have been logical.

*g*

[jadesfire.livejournal.com]

[Hey, lookie! I'm only a few hours behind this week... :D]

I just adored the character dynamics in this, mostly because there was no way it could ever really be 2 against 1. If it had been, say, Sheppard, Ronon and Rodney, the 2+1 would have grated. But this gave them all a chance to shine.

I like Keller, but she's confusing me. In Quarantine, we learned that she's always thought of herself as a social misfit who skipped grades and went to college early etc etc, and in this one, she's talking about getting free beer - something that Carter and Rodney, who are also hyper-intelligent social misfits are clueless about. I feel the need for fanfic to fill that gap, about her learning those kinds of tricks to fit in. Or something like that. But I just adore the way she handles Rodney. Kind of tolerant, kind of 'looking up to' and kind of exasperated, but actually caring as well. It's nice :)

On a more shallow note, I too wrote down "hair!" in my episode notes ;D

I hadn't seen the previews, so that solution was a surprise to me, and was a great relief, because I couldn't see how on earth they were going to get out otherwise. On another trivial note, Rodney's the only one of them who reads Genii? Interesting. I wonder how many other languages he reads...

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know there was a Genii language until last night. I guess he picked it up when he was helping them build the nukes; probably had to read some schematics and whatnot. I think he can also read a little Ancient and Wraith, and maybe French? Being from Canada?

On a more shallow note, I too wrote down "hair!" in my episode notes ;D

:D I've been meaning to mention the action!hair for a few weeks now, but I kept forgetting. It looks like he plugged himself into an electrical socket, or is imitating Rod, as if fluffing his hair makes him more heroic. Personally, I like it normal or sticky-uppy (like in "Tao of Rodney") better -- this way it's just kind of funny.

That is very true about how those three characters never consistently ganged up two against one, but instead kept shifting.

we learned that she's always thought of herself as a social misfit who skipped grades

That confused me too. She said she never went to parties and never knew quite how to relate to people because of all the socializing she missed out on, and yet last night she knew that party trick and teased Rodney for being so clueless. Inconsistency or ...?

[jadesfire.livejournal.com]

The electrocuted!hair look doesn't do much for him, it's true. I'm claiming that as the reason why I noticed.

The Genii thing was another "whut?" moment - I hadn't thought about it too hard. But then, the languages thing always ties them up in knots anyway, what with everyone speaking English and all *rolleyes* Even the steps of Atlantis are written in English (Ancient Alphabet, English words, and yes, I am sad enough to go in search of screencaps...)

I'm thinking it's lack of communication between the writers on Keller's exact backstory, and am sticking with my 'things you learn in order to fit in' explanation.

...oh dear...looks like I'm adding 'Keller backstory' to the list of things I want to write *facepalm*

[bironic.livejournal.com]

the languages thing always ties them up in knots anyway, what with everyone speaking English and all *rolleyes*

I know! I love how Pegasus societies are differentiated by slight variations in accent and diction. As if that's the only change they'd have gone through in more than 10,000 years. And if we're dealing with some gate- or in-some-other-way-managed universal translation device, why the variation at all?

And FWIW, I love you for becoming a scholar of Ancient. :)

[jadesfire.livejournal.com]

And if we're dealing with some gate- or in-some-other-way-managed universal translation device, why the variation at all?
I know! I'd love to write something about that, except I think other people have already done it better - 'Athosian for beginners' is one of my favourites.

I love you for becoming a scholar of Ancient
I can now write it well enough to take sermon notes in Ancient on a Sunday morning...intervention may be required at some point...

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Hee. So, is it a language or just a letter-for-letter transliteration of English?

[jadesfire.livejournal.com]

That's a tricky one. I'm using it as a transliteration, which is pretty much how it's used on the show - most of the 'Ancient' is actually English. Incidentally, you can also tell that the alphabet was developed by someone at a computer, as it's almost impossible to write. If you compare the two pieces at the end of 'Written by the Victors', I use one fairly similar to the second, adapted so that I can write it quickly.

There's all kinds of things written round the set - I'm fairly sure the steps have something like the Gettysburg Address written on them, but I can't find a clear enough screencap to read everything.

There are various lists of 'Ancient' words, which are variously corrupted Latin phrases. Wiki and other sources have a list of words spoken and approximate translations. *coughs*It's entirely possible that I have written some poetry in 'Ancient', for which (if I'd done that) I might have used something between Medieval and Classical Latin. If I'd done that*coughs* Basically, there's never been the drive to develop it (like, say, Klingon) so they basically seem to be making it up as they go along!

Just don't get me started on the numbers, which you could never really use to do maths by hand...

[mbbthebest.livejournal.com]

That confused me too. She said she never went to parties and never knew quite how to relate to people because of all the socializing she missed out on, and yet last night she knew that party trick and teased Rodney for being so clueless. Inconsistency or ...?

Maybe aside of scamming people out of beer, Dr Keller learned some dating tricks at those parties. And one of them could have been playing 'grade-skipping social misfit' as pick-up line to make silent loner types as Ronon feel more at ease. :-P
Although neither really fits with her first appearance when she told Dr. Weir she was underqualified and could only temporarily replace Dr Becket.

Or maybe she *did* go to the parties, but was a wallflower and only observed the games ("no beer under 16" and all). And now she uses that knowledge to be the center of attention, and pretends to carter and Mckay that she has always been like that.


I was more confused how they had her now sort of asking Rodney out at the end, when they tried so hard to sell her dating Ronon in the previous episodes.
But over-all, I thought it was nice that Dr Keller still had the chemistry and teamwork with McKay that she had in the beginning (Adrift?) when they worked together on the Nanobots to save Dr Weir.


MBB