Aquarium 4.09 -- "Miller's Crossing" commentary

[hth_the_first]

The other day Mary said to me, "So you can flag offensive content on lj now," and I said, "SWEET! I'm starting tomorrow!" But then she explained to me that you have to have a specific reason, and that "Rodney is a secret cutter fic" and "misuse of the word 'canon' in a sentence" are not on the list. Once again, warnings labels never cover the

Comments

[darkrosetiger]

I enjoy interviews and commentaries with Gero because he talks really seriously about trying to get at the core of the characters and figure out what they would and wouldn't do, and he's really interested in how you create change and growth in a character over time.

He's interested in change and growth in Rodney. I honestly don't get the sense, from listening to his commentaries, that he always remembers that it's supposed to be an ensemble show and not the David Hewlett With Some Other People Show. I'm only half-joking when I say that he needs to give David a blowjob and get the man crush out of his system.

My beef with Ronon in this episode is that we've had three really brilliant character episodes with Ronon this season ("Tabula Rasa", "Doppleganger", and "Reunion") in which Ronon got to be more than "guy who points a gun at people". But in this episode, he went back to "First Strike", where he says that "if you want someone dead, then I'm your guy". Okay, we know that's what he does best--but having him repeat it here seemed like a step backward. Especially with Teyla's absence not being referenced at all, I wondered what he was doing there, because there didn't seem to be much point.

I think Jeannie's empathy with Henry and Sharon's suffering and her willingness to take a risk for them is hugely admirable, and it's believable but frustrating to see Rodney deride her as stupid for it.

He didn't actually say she was stupid--he said she was naive. And that was true. She assumed that the man who'd had someone physically attack her husband and drag her off at gunpoint instead of, you know, ASKING for help, would be perfectly reasonable and let them go. I'll agree that it's admirable that she was still willing to help, but I honestly don't think it's fair to brand Rodney as selfish. He didn't come across as just concerned about himself--he was worried sick about Jeannie, and he'd been the whole time. And you know...if someone broke into my house and hit telesilla over the head and dragged me off at gunpoint? I'd be ready to fucking kill him. At that point, I wouldn't give a shit about his daughter--my concern would be that he hurt the person I love in order to gain something for himself. The fact that Wallace was perfectly willing to deprive Madison of one or both parents (what would have happened if they'd fought back?) for the sake of his kid? That's selfish.