McKay Month of Meta Post: RODNEY MCKAY and the GREAT SPACE WHALE
A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a picspam for “Doppelganger” (found here: http://dark-orion.livejournal.com/19662.html), and dark_orion’s commentary sparked the idea for this meta rambling. As a Master’s student studying psychology, I was inspired to expand upon dark_orion’s statements, and when I saw the McKay Month of Meta, I was finally spurred into action! So here I present to you:
The three main episodes which feature McKay and the whale are “Grace Under Pressure” (2x14), “Echoes” (3x12), and “Doppelganger” (4x04).
SECTION I: CANON
Sections from episode transcripts (all taken from Gateworld) that feature “the whale”
A: Grace Under Pressure: We first meet the whale.
i. (He looks down at the tablet, then stares up in shock as a peculiar sound begins. It's a strange, echoing combination of a groan and a wail but obviously isn't coming from the Jumper itself.)
McKAY: Hello? (The echoing groan/wail continues. It seems to be coming from outside the Jumper. Rodney gets to his feet, looking nervous as he realises that the sound is coming from some kind of creature swimming around outside.) Are you angry, or are you hungry? ‘Cause I am pretty sure that this thing is an instant case of indigestion, you know? (The creature outside wails again. Its noises sound similar to whale song. Rodney stares as it dawns on him what's happening.) It's the transmitter! It must be broadcasting at a, at a frequency you can hear!
(He smiles as the creature groans again. His smile soon drops when the Jumper shakes as if struck by something. He grabs onto the side panels to keep his balance.)
McKAY: Poor little fella. Poor little fella. I'm, uh, I'm sorry if I'm buggin' you but, uh, but I kinda need to leave this thing on for a bit, you know? Maybe you could, uh, tell my friends where I am, you could, uh, could you do that, huh? Could you go for help, huh? Could you do that? (The Jumper creaks, but the creature's groaning stops. Rodney realises what he has just been saying.) What am I doing?! (He answers himself.) Well, I'm, uh, treating an alien whale like Lassie! (The creature groans again. Rodney shouts at it angrily.) Look, OK, if you're not gonna help, then just swim on by!
ii. JUMPER 6. Rodney is up to his neck in water. He's freezing cold and barely conscious. Outside, the sea monster groans.
McKAY: What? What do you want from me? Just, just, just, go away. (Sam moves closer to him, looking up nervously.) I think he's ... I think he's just waiting to eat me. (The creature groans again.)
iii. (As the three of them leave the Jumper, the sea monster wails. They look up and see the creature -- an enormous beast similar to a humpback whale but much larger -- swimming over the top of the shield.)
McKAY: Oh -- see, pal. Sorry you don't get to eat me today.
SHEPPARD: He's the reason we found you.
McKAY: Really?
B. Echoes: The whale makes a return, and gets named after Samantha Carter.
i. McKAY: Check it out. Found it in the Ancient database. They have a whole subsection on indigenous Lantean animal life. Did you know that there was a lobster-like crustacean down there the size of a Buick?
WEIR: Hmm! (She points at the tablet.) And what is that?
SHEPPARD: That’s Rodney’s whale friend.
McKAY: Ah, but not actually a whale. Whale-like, but not a mammal. It’s a fish. It’s a big, big fish.
SHEPPARD: Did the Ancients have a name for it?
(Rodney smile fades.)
McKAY: Yeah. Flagecallus. (Off John’s and Elizabeth’s looks.) I know -- they were terrible at naming things. I’ve just, um ... I’ve just called it “whale” for now.
WEIR: And why are you studying this?
McKAY: Oh, ‘cause he’s out there right now, circling the city. Sheppard and I saw him. Probably the very same whale that saved me last year when I was trapped in that submerged Jumper.
SHEPPARD: I thought Zelenka and I saved you?
McKAY: Well ... you did, technically, but only after Sam led you to me.
(John and Elizabeth stare at him.)
WEIR: Sam?!
McKAY: Uh, it’s the whale. I named him -- after Sam ... antha Carter. Personal reasons.
SHEPPARD: You named him after Samantha Carter?!
McKAY (defensively): Well, Sam’s a boy’s name too.
C. Doppelganger: Where we learn that McKay has had nightmare about whales his whole life
i. McKAY: Really? You think you can't control a person's dreams? My father read me "Moby Dick" when I was seven years old. I mean, seriously, what was the man thinking? D'you have any idea how long I had nightmares about being eaten by a whale?
(Ronon glances at John, then looks at Rodney pointedly.)
DEX: They haven't stopped, have they?
McKAY (embarrassed): No.
ii. KELLER: Have yo had ny nightmares recently?
McKAY: Huh! Not a night goes by! Last night I dreamed that Colonel Carter invited me to her quarters for dinner ...
TEYLA: Maybe you shouldn't be telling us this, Rodney.
KELLER: Yeah, I said "nightmare," not "delusional male fantasy."
McKAY (indignantly): Wait, and listen! Turns out she was serving lemon chicken. I mean, lemon! And the only reason she invited me to dinner was to tell me that she was promoting Zelenka over me.
DEX: That's it?
McKAY: ... Then I was eaten by a whale. Don't ask ho that appened.
iii. McKay’s nightmare, where the rowboat is eaten by a giant whale
II. INTERPRETATION OF CANON.
Here’s what dark_orion had to say:
No wonder he was so freaked out by Sam the whale at first. Not only was he stranded in a Jumper at the bottom of the ocean, but he also got up close and personal with the source of a persistent childhood fear. And, huh, how funny is it that he named this creature of which he was so terrified after Sam Carter--does that mean he's terrified of Sam, too? Maybe of what she has always represented, a threat to his intellectual dominance and his position as top geek?
Rodney: Then I was eaten by a whale. Don't ask how that happened
Oh, God, was it Sam?! Wow, Rodney's whole infatuation with Sam/fear of whales/Sam the whale thing is making my brain hurt. This i Freudian rapped in Jungian nside Horneyian, with a side order of fucked up.
These are all fascinating points that I’d never really considered before stumbling across dark_orion’s post. The writers have always kind of played the “Sam the whale” thing for laughs (“Sam is a boy’s name too!”) and as a sort of in-joke referring back to the episode in which the sea monster first appeared. But I think dark_orion raised some really interesting points, and so I’d like to go into a more thorough examination of the nature of McKay’s relationship with both the women in his life as well as the space whale.
Jeannie Miller and Sam Carter
McKay has contentious relationships with significant women in his life-specifically, his sister Jeannie and most relevant to this essay, Samantha Carter. (It’s interesting to note that his relationships with two other significant women in his life are fairly normal-his interactions with Teyla and Elizabeth Weir don’t seem strained at all. Perhaps this is because his relationships with them are more professional-Elizabeth is his boss, and we never got enough Rodney/Teyla interaction to determine if Rodney was close enough with Teyla to consider her anything other than a close coworker and teammate.)
Jeannie and Rodney had a big falling out and were not on speaking terms for several years after she informed him that she was leaving her Ph.D. program to get married and have a child. But although they haven’t spoken in several years, when McKay thinks he’s about to die (specifically in the episodes “Hot Zone” and “Letters From Pegasus”) he mentions his sister and wishes they could be closer. It appears that it was his fault their relationship was ruptured in the first place, but he also appears to want to make things better between them in the future (and thankfully he succeeds).
However, I think it’s McKay’s relationship with Samantha Carter that is really the most interesting. On a surface level (especially in the episodes with McKay in SG-1), we see McKay as a boorish, pretentious asshole. He hit on Sam relentlessly and acted in a condescending manner towards her throughout “48 Hours.” Even in subsequent episodes, he resorts to petty put-downs, calling her “Blue Eyes”, “Blondie”, and “a dumb blonde.” However, he also admitted in “Redemption, Pt. 2” that “You're an artist, Major. Maybe the best I've ever seen. I'm just critical because I'm jealous.” This is part of why I find the McKay-Carter relationship so interesting and so tumultuous; McKay simultaneously has a cringe-worthy lust for Sam Carter and is immensely jealous of her intellect.
McKay cites “personal reasons” for naming the whale after Carter. We the viewers know that the name is in reference to his hallucination of the Lt. Col. while he was trapped in the puddlejumper in “Grace Under Pressure.” However, it’s interesting to entertain the notion that McKay might feel so threatened by Carter that he subconsciously named the creatures of his chronic nightmares after her.
Linking the women with the whale
However, the title of this meta essay isn’t “McKay and the Many Problems He Has in Interpersonal Relationships”, although that would make another great essay. It’s time to tie things together and come back to the space whale. It’s interesting to consider the idea that McKay’s issues with women are mirrored in his relationship with the whale.
In “Grace Under Pressure”, he’s informed that the creature that he believed to be waiting to eat him was actually the reason that Sheppard and Zelenka found the downed jumper. Something he thought was malicious was actually acting like an “alien Lassie”, leading the rescue party straight to the jumper.
In “Echoes”, McKay and Sheppard both refer to the sea creature as McKay’s “whale friend.” The whales play an ambiguous role in this episode. In one sense, they are helpful-warning the Lanteans about the impending solar flare. But in another sense, they are incredibly harmful-they emit an “intense low-frequency pulse, like a sonar, as well as an E.M field” that’s extremely damaging to the Lanteans, so much so that McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, and Elizabeth all fell seriously ill, and a Marine sergeant actually died from the effects. While the whales were only trying to help, they actually are causing a significant amount of harm, enough that Col. Caldwell suggested a “military solution” to the alien whale problem.
In “Doppelganger”, when the subject of whales is brought up, no one makes a reference to Sam the whale. This could perhaps be due to the fact that Col. Sam Carter is now the expedition leader-things that were previously okay to joke about (like McKay naming a whale after his crush) are no longer acceptable topics of conversation. Instead, in this episode we get several references to whales being McKay’s lifelong fear. As dark_orion pointed out, this fact throws the events of “Grace Under Pressure” into a whole new light. Not only was McKay stuck in a sinking puddlejumper and facing a watery grave, but he also got “up close and personal with the source of a persistent childhood fear.”
It’s interesting in this episode that McKay never mentions the positive interactions he’s had with his “whale friend”, the whale who led the rescue team to him and who first alerted the Lanteans about the solar flare. Instead, he’s focused entirely on his persistent nightmares-although to be fair, this is understandable given the context of the episode.
What we can learn from fears
McKay’s bluster and arrogance are likely defense mechanisms, meant to keep others from getting close to him. I think he’s afraid of intimacy, and thus avoids forming close relationships with others by being such a raging asshole that nobody wants to get close to him.
It’s likely that he’s particularly scared of intimacy with women. McKay’s infatuation with Carter comes across loud and clear. However, as dark_orion noted, McKay is likely terrified of Carter on a subconscious level because he sees her as a threat to his ego (and here I mean ego in the Freudian sense-the ego is the “sense of self”, the aspect of oneself that is under conscious control). I think it’s really telling that McKay names the whale, the sea creature of whom he has been terrified his whole life, the creature that he believed was waiting to eat him in “Grace Under Pressure”, after the woman he is afraid will usurp him professionally. I really do believe that he is subconsciously terrified of Sam Carter and so names the whale after her; and he covers that subconscious terror by loudly and blatantly avowing his infatuation with her.
Early development
In “Doppelganger” he says that it was his father who read him Moby Dick as a child, even though he knew it gave his son terrible nightmares. I wonder if it wouldn’t be more fitting if it had been his mother who read it to him instead. I’m not very well-versed in theories of developmental psychology, but I’ve read enough to know that children’s relationships with their primary care-givers (especially their mothers) often form the basis of their relationship style throughout their life. If his mother had been cold and uncaring towards him (and I don’t see how repeatedly reading Moby Dick to a child who is admittedly terrified of whales is anything other than cold and uncaring), it would explain so much about his psyche, and could quite possibly be the cause of his difficult relationships with other women in his life.
And boy could I write another several thousand words on what McKay’s childhood might have been like…but that’s the subject of another meta essay, certainly.
In summary
McKay’s interactions with others are mirrored in his interactions with the great space whale. In particular, his tumultuous relationships with significant women in his life are echoed in his relationship with the whale, a link that is only strengthened when McKay explicitly names the whale after his rival/crush Samantha Carter. While the writers of Stargate Atlantis probably didn’t intend to give us this psychological insight into McKay’s character, I’m certainly glad they did.
I’m looking forward to reading the comments on this meta essay-I can’t wait to hear what you all have to say! Thanks for reading!
Sources:
dark_orion's post, the one that started it all: http://dark-orion.livejournal.com/19662.html
all transcripts taken from gateworld.net
and the whale art is taken from here http://www.nerdesque.com/2010/03/15/amazing-hitchhikers-guide-galaxy-illustrations/