SGA 4.4, "Doppelganger"
Oct. 19th, 2007 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bironicWhee! Funny and scary and revealing and all kinds of great stuff.
YAY John being psycho!
I was going to say Heightmeyer's makeup and clothes made her look dead, but, um. Now she is, so it seems kind of tasteless. ...I mean, nice foreshadowing.
OMG, Ronon and John were so absolutely having rough sex when John clipped him in the forehead and they had to go to Keller for stitches. THAT is subtext, ladies and gentlemen. The looks they shared, the smirks, the "it's the middle of the night" comment, the "we're gonna have a rematch tomorrow" ... God.
Once again: John has very small shoulders. It's especially noticeable when he wears that flannel.
Speaking of which: leather jacket, open? Hot.
Lorne thinking John's a Replicator: it's so easy to believe John isn't what he says, part Pegasus paranoia, the stress of the war and constant threats on their lives, and part the fact that John's so laconic and secretive about himself.
YAY John being psycho!
Very happy to see that everyone's nightmares are personal after all: Teyla remembering her father's death and being convinced that nobody on Atlantis trusts her, in part because of her connection to the Wraith, and fear of Sheppard assaulting her as he did when he was possessed by the Iratus/Wraith retrovirus, and of being seen as romantically involved with or interested in Sheppard; Keller terrified of the threats Pegasus poses, the situations she's never been trained to handle and is now responsible for; Ronon being abandoned and running again and being betrayed by someone he thought was a friend (and, ooh, Sheppard knocking him out with the pipe is awesomely sexy-scary); Heightmeyer ... well, I don't know what that was – breaking down over all the stuff her patients unload on her? being cut off from her friends when she's the one who needs help?; Rodney with that delightfully ridiculous whale, resigned to the futility of his efforts, but still trying to get home through the storm past creatures trying to eat him; John afraid of his friends dying, turning against him, being relieved of duty, afraid of himself ... more on that in a minute.
Rodney's description of his daily nightmares = awesome. As was Ronon teasing him about the Moby Dick dreams never having stopped, and his lingering fear of Alien (which kept coming back, and back, and back, during the ep).
Argh, is it just around here, or is the Sci Fi Channel hiccupping all over the place? The music's all ooOOOOooeeeeeeeEEEeeooo and the picture's jumping. It's distracting.
YAY John being psycho!
ZELENKA. ♥ Why do you let Rodney push you around so? Still working off guilt over the 'jumper incident of "Grace Under Pressure"?
I continue to like Keller, a lot -- the way she speaks, the way she thinks (well, tonight at least; although she repeated herself a lot), the way it's easy to identify with her fear and sense of being overwhelmed -- and to not be bothered by Sam. It felt like watching a different show sometimes, though, when the two of them had scenes together, the newbies among the seasoned, familiar SGA crew. Not sure what to make of Keller supporting Carter after the PA announcement: women need support? women give support? (Why are the women's uniforms so tightly tailored and unzipped to the breastbone while the men's hang looser? Well, other than Rodney's lately. Fandom is beginning to make me more conscious of these things. The gender assumptions and inequalities, I mean; the shallow was always there.)
Didn't like all the references to things that happened on SG-1. There seem to be more of those lately. Come up with new ideas, writers! Don't repeat yourself from another show that most viewers have already seen and the rest of us don't really care about! The VR dream-entering idea would've been fine, but coming on the tail of those three or four other references to things Sam has seen before, it felt a bit ... unoriginal.
But: YAY John and Rodney hooking into each other's subconscious minds a la the VR in "Aurora" to save each other! And seeking each other out immediately upon waking before letting themselves go limp!
Twice the Sheppard, twice the fun. Imagine evil!John/Rodney/good!John threesomes! Hot Sheppard-on-Sheppard action! Loved the fight in the gateroom. Nothing like a little symbolic self-flagellation, eh?
"Good you or bad you?"
"Me me."
Ah, but John didn't answer – because he's both. He's sociopathic, tightly controlled, cold Air Force killer John Sheppard, and he's cares for his friends, saves lives, hurt and frightened John Sheppard. Evil!alien!John taunted him with the knowledge – the voice in his head, "I'm what you're afraid of," the coldness inside him, the one who sometimes hurts his friends, who can't always save them – and then John overcame the fear – sort of – and accepted that he contains both, even if he wants to throw the less savory part of himself through the Stargate (read: still viciously suppressing it).
Loved getting to see Sheppard trudging through the corridors after Rodney died. Man, he really looked sad. I never expected to get to see that on the show.
And again with John imagining something mundane, even dangerous, when he has complete subconscious control over his environment. See also: "Home."
They need to stop fluffing Rodney's hair. It looks like a hairpiece. We like his thinning hair! Let it spike naturally! It makes him look cute. And has the color darkened or what?
I, er. Liked his chest in the defibrillating scenes. It looked nice and squishy-solid. Better for some reason than the last glance in "Duet." Ten times better than Zelenka's in "Tao of Rodney" and Sheppard's in "38 Minutes." Just sayin'. Not sure what to make of the hair-plastered-to-head, no-neck, shirt-taut-over-bulky-shoulders-and-arms look in the dream.
And we have the calm-after-the-storm, gathering-after-being-shaken, team and then extended-team moment at the end. Love.
In other news: YAY John being psycho!
Super-handy list of preexisting fic/art
linabean's rxn, and friendshipper's, and aesc's screencappy, ficcy recap, and thingswithwings' feminist reading
"So Very Wrong (but so very good)" by telesilla (NC-17, semi-con)
YAY John being psycho!
I was going to say Heightmeyer's makeup and clothes made her look dead, but, um. Now she is, so it seems kind of tasteless. ...I mean, nice foreshadowing.
OMG, Ronon and John were so absolutely having rough sex when John clipped him in the forehead and they had to go to Keller for stitches. THAT is subtext, ladies and gentlemen. The looks they shared, the smirks, the "it's the middle of the night" comment, the "we're gonna have a rematch tomorrow" ... God.
Once again: John has very small shoulders. It's especially noticeable when he wears that flannel.
Speaking of which: leather jacket, open? Hot.
Lorne thinking John's a Replicator: it's so easy to believe John isn't what he says, part Pegasus paranoia, the stress of the war and constant threats on their lives, and part the fact that John's so laconic and secretive about himself.
YAY John being psycho!
Very happy to see that everyone's nightmares are personal after all: Teyla remembering her father's death and being convinced that nobody on Atlantis trusts her, in part because of her connection to the Wraith, and fear of Sheppard assaulting her as he did when he was possessed by the Iratus/Wraith retrovirus, and of being seen as romantically involved with or interested in Sheppard; Keller terrified of the threats Pegasus poses, the situations she's never been trained to handle and is now responsible for; Ronon being abandoned and running again and being betrayed by someone he thought was a friend (and, ooh, Sheppard knocking him out with the pipe is awesomely sexy-scary); Heightmeyer ... well, I don't know what that was – breaking down over all the stuff her patients unload on her? being cut off from her friends when she's the one who needs help?; Rodney with that delightfully ridiculous whale, resigned to the futility of his efforts, but still trying to get home through the storm past creatures trying to eat him; John afraid of his friends dying, turning against him, being relieved of duty, afraid of himself ... more on that in a minute.
Rodney's description of his daily nightmares = awesome. As was Ronon teasing him about the Moby Dick dreams never having stopped, and his lingering fear of Alien (which kept coming back, and back, and back, during the ep).
Argh, is it just around here, or is the Sci Fi Channel hiccupping all over the place? The music's all ooOOOOooeeeeeeeEEEeeooo and the picture's jumping. It's distracting.
YAY John being psycho!
ZELENKA. ♥ Why do you let Rodney push you around so? Still working off guilt over the 'jumper incident of "Grace Under Pressure"?
I continue to like Keller, a lot -- the way she speaks, the way she thinks (well, tonight at least; although she repeated herself a lot), the way it's easy to identify with her fear and sense of being overwhelmed -- and to not be bothered by Sam. It felt like watching a different show sometimes, though, when the two of them had scenes together, the newbies among the seasoned, familiar SGA crew. Not sure what to make of Keller supporting Carter after the PA announcement: women need support? women give support? (Why are the women's uniforms so tightly tailored and unzipped to the breastbone while the men's hang looser? Well, other than Rodney's lately. Fandom is beginning to make me more conscious of these things. The gender assumptions and inequalities, I mean; the shallow was always there.)
Didn't like all the references to things that happened on SG-1. There seem to be more of those lately. Come up with new ideas, writers! Don't repeat yourself from another show that most viewers have already seen and the rest of us don't really care about! The VR dream-entering idea would've been fine, but coming on the tail of those three or four other references to things Sam has seen before, it felt a bit ... unoriginal.
But: YAY John and Rodney hooking into each other's subconscious minds a la the VR in "Aurora" to save each other! And seeking each other out immediately upon waking before letting themselves go limp!
Twice the Sheppard, twice the fun. Imagine evil!John/Rodney/good!John threesomes! Hot Sheppard-on-Sheppard action! Loved the fight in the gateroom. Nothing like a little symbolic self-flagellation, eh?
"Good you or bad you?"
"Me me."
Ah, but John didn't answer – because he's both. He's sociopathic, tightly controlled, cold Air Force killer John Sheppard, and he's cares for his friends, saves lives, hurt and frightened John Sheppard. Evil!alien!John taunted him with the knowledge – the voice in his head, "I'm what you're afraid of," the coldness inside him, the one who sometimes hurts his friends, who can't always save them – and then John overcame the fear – sort of – and accepted that he contains both, even if he wants to throw the less savory part of himself through the Stargate (read: still viciously suppressing it).
Loved getting to see Sheppard trudging through the corridors after Rodney died. Man, he really looked sad. I never expected to get to see that on the show.
And again with John imagining something mundane, even dangerous, when he has complete subconscious control over his environment. See also: "Home."
They need to stop fluffing Rodney's hair. It looks like a hairpiece. We like his thinning hair! Let it spike naturally! It makes him look cute. And has the color darkened or what?
I, er. Liked his chest in the defibrillating scenes. It looked nice and squishy-solid. Better for some reason than the last glance in "Duet." Ten times better than Zelenka's in "Tao of Rodney" and Sheppard's in "38 Minutes." Just sayin'. Not sure what to make of the hair-plastered-to-head, no-neck, shirt-taut-over-bulky-shoulders-and-arms look in the dream.
And we have the calm-after-the-storm, gathering-after-being-shaken, team and then extended-team moment at the end. Love.
In other news: YAY John being psycho!
Super-handy list of preexisting fic/art
linabean's rxn, and friendshipper's, and aesc's screencappy, ficcy recap, and thingswithwings' feminist reading
"So Very Wrong (but so very good)" by telesilla (NC-17, semi-con)
no subject
Date: Oct. 20th, 2007 03:41 am (UTC)Oh, and how much love for Rodney being dead ... how many times? At least twice. And John's look of utter disbelief the first time -- "It wasn't supposed to happen this way. Everything was supposed to work out, the way it always does."
Loved the rowing dream. I thought it was really well done -- the storm, the boat, Rodney by himself, rowing desperately to try and get ... where? Home? The City, just out of reach, and no matter how hard he rows, it never comes closer. Just an excellent scene.
I'm afraid I'm still not quite sure how they figured out the entity was in Rodney -- at first I thought it was another dream, when Rodney came to the isolation chamber and Radek said he had to go.
Really liked the ending, with the team/family slowly coming together around the table.
And absolutely YAY for John being psycho! ;-D
no subject
Date: Oct. 20th, 2007 03:49 am (UTC)I'm afraid I'm still not quite sure how they figured out the entity was in Rodney
I thought it was a dream too at first, especially with Rodney's claustrophobia and paranoia. I guess -- they theorized the entity was traveling through the ducts, but all the evidence we saw was that it passed from person-to-person contact, so I guess it got in Rodney when Ronon slapped him on the shoulder after the staff meeting (was Rodney the next one? or was it Heightmeyer and then the thing went into the ducts?) and planned to hibernate until Rodney fell asleep, and Zelenka picked it up on the scanner because they figured out
-- pause to watch That Scene on USA from "97 Seconds" --
right, um, because they figured out how to track the signature in the live crystalline entity they brought back, and they picked it up in Rodney, and didn't touch him.
And John's look of utter disbelief the first time -- "It wasn't supposed to happen this way."
Yes! Even though it still hasn't happened that way, technically. I wonder if it'll leave him shaken up a little, make him a little more careful with Rodney or with everyone on the next few missions.
no subject
Date: Oct. 20th, 2007 04:02 am (UTC)1) They started late and my recorder cut off the very end! I missed the team bonding - ARGH!
2) TOTAL Teyla/Heightmeyer undertone in the scene where Keller finds out H is dead. If I recall correctly, Teyla didn't say "I came in and found her," she said something like "Heightmeyer hadn't reported for duty and I couldn't wake her up." Poor Teyla, waking up next to your lover dead :( (PS. Who wears a bra to bed? or was that a camisole?)
no subject
Date: Oct. 20th, 2007 04:05 am (UTC)Has Rodney ever been that open with John before? I thought it seemed like a really big step for Rodney -- actually admitting, out loud and with no joking around, that he has problems. Problems that other people could make fun of him for, but that he's willing to admit to John.
I just thought that was an interesting scene.
no subject
Date: Oct. 20th, 2007 04:06 am (UTC)(If we count, I think we get Teyla/Heightmeyer, Teyla/Sheppard [what was up with that hug?], Sheppard/Ronon, Sheppard/McKay, Keller/Ronon, Keller/Heightmeyer, Keller/Carter, McKay/Carter... Am I missing any?)
They did start and end late! :( Last week, too. What gives with your poor timing and skippy recording, Sci Fi Channel?
no subject
Date: Oct. 20th, 2007 04:11 am (UTC)I hadn't thought of it as being a big step for Rodney to admit how screwed up he is, especially on the tail of his eager description of his nightmares and embarrassing moments earlier. Interesting. I'd read it as more of a preemptive strike against Sheppard making fun of him for whatever they ended up experiencing in Rodney's twisted subconscious. But I like the thought that he was warning him, or admitting to a weakness, very seriously.
no subject
Date: Oct. 20th, 2007 07:32 am (UTC)Didn't like all the references to things that happened on SGA.
I'm guessing you mean SG1? ;) I quite liked them. The show's got a long history, and even SG1 used to recycle ideas and plot lines. In this case, it was handy to skip over 'attempts to fix this that aren't going to work' quickly, rather than have to show them in the episode. From a writing point of view, it let them focus on the characters rather than the macguffin-solution, which I liked. I don't want to see much more of it, but one of the good things about having Sam there is that she really has seen it all before, and hopefully they can skip some of the 'let's try this; oh dear it doesn't work' stuff and get straight to more interesting solutions.
The 'I'm pretty screwed up' line was the one that made me flail the most. I think it works on both levels - Rodney being defensive and trying to protect himself from mockery when Sheppard sees inside his head, but also being honest and vulnerable, because Sheppard's going to see inside his head. For me, the way DH played it, he got both senses in there, especially with that look on his face...
...at which point my brain melted and I missed the beginning of the next scene while I recovered ;)
The gateroom fight was awesome, just brilliant choreography. Because I'd just watched it, the exchange afterwards reminded me really strongly of "Home" - where Rodney says that he'd expected more naked women and Sheppard agrees. In "Home", he has a line about 'all the things I could have imagined'. I'm not sure whether it's repetition or consistency...
One thing that struck me, although it's possible that I'm overthinking: In Rodney's nightmare, when they're in the boat, he finds it hard to believe John when he's just talking to him. Words aren't really John's strong point, and with two of them talking to him, you can forgive Rodney for not being convinced. And so John does something - he takes the other oar, which is much more of a John thing to do than just talking. At which point, the entity tries to kill Rodney and leaps into John. Maybe because it wasn't getting what it needed any more? Just a thought.
Do you think we could put in a request for more psycho!John in the future? Because it definitely deserves a repeat performance.
no subject
Date: Oct. 20th, 2007 01:47 pm (UTC)Ha, oops. Fixed.
I don't want to see much more of it, but one of the good things about having Sam there is that she really has seen it all before, and hopefully they can skip some of the 'let's try this; oh dear it doesn't work' stuff and get straight to more interesting solutions.
Good point; and Sam does offer a vast array of personal experiences Elizabeth didn't have on hand, so she can offer solutions instead of merely listening to everyone else's suggestions. Still, I think that they could have achieved the same ends by just having Carter bring up the VR connection without needing to also have her and others bring up additional shared experiences first (alien possessions, etc.).
Thinking about it more, it feels like Sam may be bringing up SG-1 stories as a way to cope with being dropped into the middle of the tight-knit SGA team after being on a tight-knit team of her own for ten years -- like how when you go to university, you find yourself talking to your maybe-new-friends about everyone you knew and everything you did in high school.
Because I'd just watched it, the exchange afterwards reminded me really strongly of "Home"
Yes, absolutely (did I mention that in the post? I think I ... yes). You can totally hear John thinking the same thing last night: "I could have dreamed anything I wanted, but here we are, me and Rodney and evil!me, in an empty gateroom. Dammit." I guess it's harder to manipulate one's environment when you're already being manipulated by a creature preying on your own insecurities.
And so John does something - he takes the other oar,
Very true, John being a Man of Action and not a Man of Words. Interesting idea that the creature abandoned Rodney for John because John convinced Rodney not to be afraid, and that it wasn't just the defibrillator that made it flee (when Rodney's heart rate kicked up because of the stress of the whale eating them, etc.). Hmmm.
I am fully on board with more psycho!John. Ever since I saw Joe Flanigan on CSI: Miami yelling and attacking a car with a baseball bat, I have wanted Sheppard to go berserk too. Because it is hot.
no subject
Date: Oct. 20th, 2007 02:04 pm (UTC)I hadn't thought of that - that's exactly what it feels like. There's a strong element of 'this is why I'm in charge' about it, I think. But it was a bit clumsy, like the writers were saying 'yes, we know you've seen this kind of thing before' to the audience. Kind of covering themselves, but ending up sounding a bit odd.
Interesting idea that the creature abandoned Rodney for John because John convinced Rodney not to be afraid, and that it wasn't just the defibrillator that made it flee (when Rodney's heart rate kicked up because of the stress of the whale eating them, etc.). Hmmm.
Well, Rodney's dream didn't go on for as long as the others' did, which I put down to John at least helping with the fear, so that the creature was forced to go straight for killing him instead, and leaping into John. The fact that the clown pops up in the boat also suggested it to me.
And damn, I'm going to have fun with all the episode tag fics from this :)
no subject
Date: Oct. 23rd, 2007 06:26 pm (UTC)(I'm not... totally lazy, I just happen to be in very clear and concise agreement. Also, linking to this.)
no subject
Date: Oct. 23rd, 2007 06:51 pm (UTC)Ooh, link! Thanks!