Spoilers for Atlantis 3x17 - Sunday
BTW, managed to keep myself unspoiled despite the various bitching in peoples' LJ's about someone leaving. I actually managed to not know who was leaving or how, so this is a good thing. I did, however, see the writing on the wall pretty early on in the episode. BUT, still, seeing episodes like this unspoiled is a beautiful thing!
Anyway. Okay... I'm sorry, but as much as I loved this episode with a few exceptions, I can't help mourning the loss of the ethically-challenged guy Beckett used to be. You see, all along I've been hoping that we'd get some kind of follow-up, now that they're more connected with Earth via the Deus-ex-Daedalus and oversight people actually paid attention to things going on over in the Pegasus Galaxy. (This, by the way, would be why I'm a bad fan -- I wanted to see him get raked over the coals for pulling that shit!)
But, now that Beckett's died a hero's death, I doubt they'd go there at all. They've dabbled in dark, but not like that, and as far as I can tell the writing team's not up to the challenge.
Some points (pluses and minuses for ratings too!):
+++Shep's failed marriage! OMG he actually tried to pretend he was hetero? *giggles* This makes things even easier for us slashers to play with!
++Shep's nice curvy golf posture. (see above)
++Butt-Flag-Tag!!
++++The fact that Shep just comes out with 'or a man?' so easily. (see above again!)
++Grumpy yelling bed-head!Rodney
+I'm impressed by the lengths they went through to show that just one little decision can affect so many things. It was very convoluted and well done. It does make me sad that Beckett dies because Rodney weaseled out of the fishing trip, but it was well done.
+Rodney and Katie are cute and geeky and shy, but I don't see them as a real thing -- he's so painfully awkward with her, and after the events of this I can see being around her as being a reminder of what happened because he blew Beckett off.
+++Explosive Tumors! Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha!! Hahahahaha "The man you are working on has been infected by an explosive tumor!" *giggles*
---Explosive Tumors?! WTF?! No, seriously, Explosive tumors?! How did he get through that scene with a straight face?! Why didn't they pack it in dry ice or use a freezing spray on it? Or does that only work on detonator type explosives?
++Lorne paints! Cool! Anyone know if that was a real painting someone did, or was it just a photo someone doctored up?
+Rodney's voice breaking as he's talking to Ronon while packing up Beckett's stuff
--Best friend? No, sorry, I don't think so. No matter how bad they are at showing it onscreen, Shep is Rodney's best friend. The Tao of Rodney kinda hammers that one home, and I don't buy Beckett suddenly surpassing that.
----Elizabeth, please don't do any more eulogies without notes. Could have been worse, but "I can't remember anyone coming to me with a complaint against him, ever," was an AWFUL line. I cringed so much at that that I missed the rest of it at first.
+I actually thought maybe they were setting up Ascended!Beckett, and that at the end we'd see him float off and become a space jellyfish. But they didn't, it was just a touching goodbye scene. I liked the lighting and colours of that scene -- beautiful golden colours like early morning or late afternoon sunlight coming through at a low angle. Lovely. Until they pulled back and you could see they hadn't quite got the angle right on the CGI decking... Ah well, they tried, it was an ambitious shot, and they almost got it right.
All in all, it didn't suck, and I thought it was a pretty decent send-off for a character a lot of people liked. I didn't dislike him, but I definitely had a few O.o moments regarding his ethics.