SGA 2x14 - Grace Under Pressure
ETA: Er, I just realized my lj-cut text might have incorrectly suggested that there were no spoilers in the actual post, when what I meant was I was trying to avoid reaction spoilers in the lj-cut text itself. Um. Anyway, just to be clear --
OMG, they filmed Merry's story!
I really don't know what to say aside from just bubbling with joy. The jumpers as submersibles! The sea monster. (Lassie!) Rodney making out with Sam! John *utterly determined* to save him! Zelenka, who didn't even want to fly in the jumper at the best of times, going on the rescue mission after all. *full of delight*
They really, they just, they did everything right. There was that one moment when Rodney started to giggle and freak out, and I was tensing up with fear that they were going to do the mortification-humor thing with him again, and then hypoxia. It was perfect -- they got the joke without making him look like an idiot, without undercutting the seriousness of the situation, and utterly in character -- because of course Rodney would know all about hypoxia and every other potentially fatal condition he might possibly have, and diagnose himself with it, and then know how to fix it.
I have to say, though, that this just completely confirms me in my feeling that this is a stronger and a better show when they take some of the irons out of the fire. If they'd had to work in Ronon and Teyla and Beckett into this episode, it just couldn't have been as good; Rodney and John and Elizabeth and Zelenka and Sam and Griffin were absolutely the right characters to have on stage for this story, all of them in exactly the right places (okay, yes, true, I would probably have expired of joy if John and Rodney got stuck in a jumper on the ocean floor together, but I think it was a better gen story with Rodney down there alone in the dark hallucinating and John being action hero to get him back).
It was a lot like Defiant One, and is warring with that as my favorite SGA episode ever. They used extra characters just brilliantly to show us things about the main characters, to advance the plot and the mood; they sidelined the regulars who weren't necessary (not entirely offscreen in Defiant One, but Ford and Teyla coming to the rescue and Elizabeth sending them were only used as much as they needed to be, really); they told a sparkling, crisp story.
And sure, obviously I have my bias, Rodney and John are my favorite characters and I'd be happy if every week were the John and Rodney show, but honestly, I would so gladly accept episodes with little or no Rodney, like Poisoning the Well, in exchange for having all the episodes tell tighter, sharper stories like this, with all the characters only used where they *should* be.
They still need more for Elizabeth to *do* in a crisis beyond run around to people and say, "Now please tell the audience what you're doing!" -- but that said, I really liked the scene with her and John and Zelenka, because that felt absolutely spot-on, where John is all, "You're coming whether you want to or not!" and she just gave him that look and made Zelenka *want* to. Also, despite the instant!audience!exposition of it, that scene with her and John where he was going on about the winch was the cutest damn thing ever, and *Rodney and John have been hassling her to try a jumper as a submersible*.
Plus the way John is all, "Radek! We're underwater! It's SO COOL!" and trying to get him to share the excited squee like you know Rodney would be, and Radek is all, "Uh, yeah," . (Merry's STORY!)
Also, Griffin! I loved Griffin. However, I am now thinking there must be a kind of secret club among everyone who has to work with Rodney where they have a running competition to see who can drive him into a frenzy. Like a drinking game -- make him yell you get one chocolate bar, make him correct you on facts get one M&M, get him to insult your intelligence two, bring him to the point of mentioning how much more brilliant he is than anyone else three, etc.
("Yes! Of the Barcelona McKays!")
And Sam. Sam, Sam, Sam. I just adore the whole idea that Rodney has her somewhere in his head, a still, small voice speaking of loyalty and trust and faith, and it just breaks my heart that he has such an incredibly hard time listening to that voice, and how much he wants to listen to it at the same time, because all her fervor and energy are his fervor and energy. My love for her in this episode is pure and has nothing to do with the fact that omg so hot to watch Rodney making out with her.
Also I adore that he argues with himself over who had the idea first! And that he is aware that he's petty and arrogant and bad with people, and, uh, kind of doesn't care, and that he in some corner realizes that none of that is what matters so much as his issues with trusting other people, or for that matter trusting to anything but his own intelligence, to logic and hard cold fact.
Basically the only way this episode could have been better would have been if they actually showed us the scene in the puddlejumper on the slow way back up (slow to keep Rodney from getting the bends) where John and Zelenka take off their clothes and snuggle Rodney to bring up his body heat.
In conclusion: YAY.
OMG, they filmed Merry's story!
I really don't know what to say aside from just bubbling with joy. The jumpers as submersibles! The sea monster. (Lassie!) Rodney making out with Sam! John *utterly determined* to save him! Zelenka, who didn't even want to fly in the jumper at the best of times, going on the rescue mission after all. *full of delight*
They really, they just, they did everything right. There was that one moment when Rodney started to giggle and freak out, and I was tensing up with fear that they were going to do the mortification-humor thing with him again, and then hypoxia. It was perfect -- they got the joke without making him look like an idiot, without undercutting the seriousness of the situation, and utterly in character -- because of course Rodney would know all about hypoxia and every other potentially fatal condition he might possibly have, and diagnose himself with it, and then know how to fix it.
I have to say, though, that this just completely confirms me in my feeling that this is a stronger and a better show when they take some of the irons out of the fire. If they'd had to work in Ronon and Teyla and Beckett into this episode, it just couldn't have been as good; Rodney and John and Elizabeth and Zelenka and Sam and Griffin were absolutely the right characters to have on stage for this story, all of them in exactly the right places (okay, yes, true, I would probably have expired of joy if John and Rodney got stuck in a jumper on the ocean floor together, but I think it was a better gen story with Rodney down there alone in the dark hallucinating and John being action hero to get him back).
It was a lot like Defiant One, and is warring with that as my favorite SGA episode ever. They used extra characters just brilliantly to show us things about the main characters, to advance the plot and the mood; they sidelined the regulars who weren't necessary (not entirely offscreen in Defiant One, but Ford and Teyla coming to the rescue and Elizabeth sending them were only used as much as they needed to be, really); they told a sparkling, crisp story.
And sure, obviously I have my bias, Rodney and John are my favorite characters and I'd be happy if every week were the John and Rodney show, but honestly, I would so gladly accept episodes with little or no Rodney, like Poisoning the Well, in exchange for having all the episodes tell tighter, sharper stories like this, with all the characters only used where they *should* be.
They still need more for Elizabeth to *do* in a crisis beyond run around to people and say, "Now please tell the audience what you're doing!" -- but that said, I really liked the scene with her and John and Zelenka, because that felt absolutely spot-on, where John is all, "You're coming whether you want to or not!" and she just gave him that look and made Zelenka *want* to. Also, despite the instant!audience!exposition of it, that scene with her and John where he was going on about the winch was the cutest damn thing ever, and *Rodney and John have been hassling her to try a jumper as a submersible*.
Plus the way John is all, "Radek! We're underwater! It's SO COOL!" and trying to get him to share the excited squee like you know Rodney would be, and Radek is all, "Uh, yeah," . (Merry's STORY!)
Also, Griffin! I loved Griffin. However, I am now thinking there must be a kind of secret club among everyone who has to work with Rodney where they have a running competition to see who can drive him into a frenzy. Like a drinking game -- make him yell you get one chocolate bar, make him correct you on facts get one M&M, get him to insult your intelligence two, bring him to the point of mentioning how much more brilliant he is than anyone else three, etc.
("Yes! Of the Barcelona McKays!")
And Sam. Sam, Sam, Sam. I just adore the whole idea that Rodney has her somewhere in his head, a still, small voice speaking of loyalty and trust and faith, and it just breaks my heart that he has such an incredibly hard time listening to that voice, and how much he wants to listen to it at the same time, because all her fervor and energy are his fervor and energy. My love for her in this episode is pure and has nothing to do with the fact that omg so hot to watch Rodney making out with her.
Also I adore that he argues with himself over who had the idea first! And that he is aware that he's petty and arrogant and bad with people, and, uh, kind of doesn't care, and that he in some corner realizes that none of that is what matters so much as his issues with trusting other people, or for that matter trusting to anything but his own intelligence, to logic and hard cold fact.
Basically the only way this episode could have been better would have been if they actually showed us the scene in the puddlejumper on the slow way back up (slow to keep Rodney from getting the bends) where John and Zelenka take off their clothes and snuggle Rodney to bring up his body heat.
In conclusion: YAY.