Meridian, Jack, and the whole Jonas thing
So, you might be wondering, what made me decide to write about what is arguably the most hated episode in Stargate SG-1 history? As usual, it’s because I’ve been stirred up by something I’ve read. Make that several somethings, actually. I read a lotTo understand where I’m coming from, you should know that I did the "Meridian" transcript for
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I've actually wondered about that a little bit, but that goes along with my pet theory that Oma may not be as nice as she's been made out to be. I mean, the Ascended let Anubis walk around destroying everything, and he's kind of their mess - shouldn't they clean him up?
I also can buy the fear thing, too. Training as a soldier gets you to act first, think later, and forget about self-preservation to a certain extent. Daniel's had on-the-job training in that (and, as we've seen from the movie on, has absolutely NO self-preservation instinct...which is actually interesting, but a whole 'nother topic). Jonas hasn't.
Even if Jonas just froze, I don't think he was responsible for Daniel's death. Daniel, being Daniel, would have been unlikely to LET Jonas do what Daniel did. Daniel's much more ready to risk death to save people than to let someone ELSE do so, especially someone he doesn't know well. He's a protective kind of guy.
(Personally, I think they could have had more dramatic effect from it if they had just had Daniel go through the window first, and have less of the cowering from Jonas - just a momentary freeze would have been enough. But that's me.)
he lobbied so hard to be on SG-1, not out of a sense of entitlement, but because he desperately wanted to continue Daniel’s work.
I think that's dead-on for the character. Either way you interpret it, Jonas' whole reason for pushing to be on SG-1 is to try to fix things and make them right. Of course, when he translates the passage that allows them to find Daniel, that's essentially exactly what he does. His mistake has been fixed, and as a result, he has to leave the thing he loves most. Because, come on, does ANYONE think he wanted to leave SG-1 and go back to Kelowna? If you think about it, it's a pretty tragic tale: guy makes terrible mistake, gets something that makes him really happy while trying to fix it, and when he DOES fix it, has the thing that makes him happy taken away. It's like being punished for doing the right thing.
I personally feel bad for Corin Nemec; they saddled him with a really tough job. I think he tried very hard in his performance to make Jonas different from Daniel; unfortunately, the writers chose to saddle him with too many similarities. Of course, from a character perspective, you could argue that he was working so hard to fill Daniel's shoes that he adopted every aspect of Daniel's persona. You may call it creepy - I just think it's really sad.
Like I've said, I came late to the Stargate party. Daniel's my favorite character. At the same time - perhaps because I don't have the ties to the extremely emotional upsurge that came from Daniel's death; everything had happened and was over before I started watching - I really like Jonas. I think he injects a different and an interesting energy to the team. I especially liked the way he and Daniel played off each other in "Fallen" and "Homecoming" - they had the best chemistry since, well, Daniel and Jack. Now that RDA will be largely off the show, I'd like to see them bring him back as a fourth; I think he could bring an interesting buzz to the team.
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That's a BIG part of the problem I have with Daniel's ascension storyline. I can't help thinking that Oma sold him a bill of goods, and Daniel went with her because he didn't realize she had an agenda of her own (which I firmly believe she did). As for the Ascended, they let Anubis run around freely, causing all kinds of havoc -- but stopped Daniel when he tried to save lives on Abydos. There's a real double standard there that I don't like at all.
Even if Jonas just froze, I don't think he was responsible for Daniel's death. Daniel, being Daniel, would have been unlikely to LET Jonas do what Daniel did. Daniel's much more ready to risk death to save people than to let someone ELSE do so, especially someone he doesn't know well. He's a protective kind of guy.
Have to disagree with you here. Daniel isn't into self-sacrifice if there's another way, so I don't think it was an instinctive move. Instead, he saw the others back off and knew someone needed to act, so he did. There didn't appear to be any regret afterwards, but I do think that if Jonas had acted first, Daniel wouldn't have stopped him.
Either way you interpret it, Jonas' whole reason for pushing to be on SG-1 is to try to fix things and make them right. Of course, when he translates the passage that allows them to find Daniel, that's essentially exactly what he does. His mistake has been fixed, and as a result, he has to leave the thing he loves most. Because, come on, does ANYONE think he wanted to leave SG-1 and go back to Kelowna? If you think about it, it's a pretty tragic tale: guy makes terrible mistake, gets something that makes him really happy while trying to fix it, and when he DOES fix it, has the thing that makes him happy taken away. It's like being punished for doing the right thing.
I think it's a complicated issue. Jonas wanted to continue Daniel's work, and he knew the only way to do that was on SG-1. Once he got the job, though, it wasn't easy. It took time for Sam to adjust to his presence, and Jack's preference for Daniel was on constant display. Jonas realized he was literally taking another man's place (not to mention his office), and with that came expectations, which I don't think he thought he ever truly lived up to. In addition, when he went back to Kelowna for the first time, it was obvious they considered his past behavior treasonous, and he wasn't welcome -- unless there was something he could do for them, like betray a mentor. That had to cut pretty deeply.
When Daniel finally returned, I imagine Jonas was pretty much at sea. He had completed his "mission," which meant the SGC didn't really need him anymore. OTOH, he'd pretty much burned his bridges with Kelowna. The last-minute offer to go back there as a hero was his best option, and he knew it; if he'd stayed on Earth, it wouldn't have been the same.
So, while I don't see his story as tragic necessarily, it is kind of sad. The "wild winds of fortune" really knocked him around, didn't they?
I especially liked the way he and Daniel played off each other in "Fallen" and "Homecoming" - they had the best chemistry since, well, Daniel and Jack.
I agree completely. "Homecoming" is actually my favorite Jonas episode. If they brought him back and paired him up with Daniel again, I wouldn't object at all.
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I agree with you on many of the things you said, but my Jonas problem is different. It's not that I hate Jonas, it's that the writers were shoving him down our throat, know what I mean? I wasn't done being sad and Angry over Daniel's fate and here we have Sam accepting him already and so on. It was infuriating. Had he been different from Daniel but with the same agenda, I think I would have accepted him more. I only stopped disliking him when Daniel came back, when I knew he's coming back for sure, Until that point I just couldn't look at Jonas.
As for Jack, you said it well. I think his reaction was perfect for the character.
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Cool! I made someone's list. :)
As for Jack, you said it well. I think his reaction was perfect for the character.
Thanks!
Now, as for Jonas: I understand what you're saying. It's a short walk from being angry at the way the writers/producers handled the situation, to actively hating the character himself. Many of us took that path.
The problem is, there are a lot of other factors which frequently come into play, and which made the whole Daniel situation that much worse. These are the "politics" I didn't want to get into, but include the way various PTBs felt about the character and the actor, the way the actor was treated, how the Jonas arrives/Daniel ascends storyline was handled, etc. I hated Jonas as much for the way he was "presented" to me in the press as for the way he actually behaved. I, personally, was only able to let that part of it go when Daniel returned.
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Of course, I sometimes think I'm the only Stargate fan in the world who just was never all that in love with Daniel. I like the character fine, and I was happy than things worked out for him to come back. But he was never my favorite SG-1 character, and I never had a problem with Jonas beyond feeling the transition was handled in a clunky manner that was unfair to Corin Nemec.
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BTW, offline I'm the only Daniel fan I know :)
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Sure, I understand. The fans didn't all hate Jonas, not by a long shot. But I was part of a good-sized group that did. I called the character names, and blew raspberries whenever he appeared on screen. I blamed him completely for what happened to Daniel.
My post here was simply to express amazement that such a small shift in the storyline could change my feelings about the character so dramatically. I'm also deeply disappointed in the writers; if I (of all people) could go from hating Jonas to a moderately pleasant acceptance, surely they could have written the episode differently and avoided a great deal of that anger in the first place.
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