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