"Stay in the land of the living!!"
Quarantine - What a subtle, fantastic character episode for Rodney! Finally, Katie Brown has some use other than a plot device. Just by being her hopeful, calm self, she becomes a perfect mirror for Rodney. It's amazing how easy it was to render Rodney helpless - he's escaped from the Wraith, he's blown up replicator planets, he's effected several ridiculously impossible save-the-day scenarios, but lock him in room full of plants without a computer and spook him into thinking there's a virus and he ends up laying down on the floor, dizzy and short of breath. Quarantine showed both Rodney's hopelessness and comfort in being a catastrophist - but also his arrogance - if he can't save the city no one can. I think what it also showed was how much Rodney relies on who he's with to inspire him - or to threaten him into action - when he gets stuck. Katie is not that person, but I think Keller is.
Trio - Speaking of Keller! Trio was three excellent character perspectives in one episode! I could hardly believe it. And subtle, again! Small moments of showing us who these characters are in relation to one another. Sam and Jennifer playing Who Would You Rather, and Sam asks about Brian Greene versus Neil de Grasse Tyson and Jennifer just....looks at her. Rodney is stubborn with the grappling hook, but then Sam is stubborn when they climb Keller's bar trick - and that addressed a major problem I've had with the fourth season: Sam and Rodney are generally the deus ex machina of scientific save-the-day moments. So, how, with BOTH of them in one place, could there still be any problems that they couldn't solve? They've collectively blown up, repaired, reverse-engineered and decoded more impossible things than I can even count - and somehow there are still issues that the two of them can't resolve? It's ridiculous and breaks the rules of the world as they've been shown to us. However, in an episode like Trio, both Rodney and Sam are shown to have character flaws that get in the way of their own successful rescue. And Keller is the one to find the way out, though the resolution only comes out of their collective abilities to encourage each other to save each other. It's an excellent counterpoint to Quarantine - imagine Rodney holding a person on the end of a rope by sheer force of will, looking down at his bleeding hands and Katie Brown assuring him he can do it two more times. Rodney needed Jennifer and Sam to convince him of his own strength.
The Shrine - Oh, David Hewlett. How are you such an awesome actor? I love getting to see Keller save the day, especially after she's the one who insisted they not risk going to the Shrine - because she wanted to save Rodney her way, with medicine, both because she thought it was her fault in the first place, and because she loved him (or we see her watching his confession of love to her and I think it's pretty clearly implied.) Also, I want fic from the time when Keller and Rodney start making his memory tapes. I thought Jeanne was sorely underused, and I thought some of the non-chronological time with the team and Woolsey discussing the Shrine was confusing, but otherwise, RODNEY.
First Contact - OMG BOYFRIENDS. Daniel and Rodney are so totally exes. There's no other way they would be both so comfortable with and so snarky at each other. I'm not really sure what else happened, really, because most of the episode was the "Danny"/Rodney contest over who's better/happier/doing more interesting work, and who can piss the other one off more without giving up anything themselves. we get confirmation that John is second in command, which I thought was a bit of a given, especially since from the premiere, Woolsey is so clearly a figurehead and John's the one who actually knows what's going on in the city. We found out John has "baggage" with Todd, which, again, only reinforces the episode's theme of BOYFRIENDS. Ronon tries to out-boyfriend Rodney by going with Keller to the Daedalus (and I like Ronon/Keller, though not nearly as much as Rodney/Keller. But what I absolutely hate the idea of the boys fighting over her, like she's a prize. It's in the background enough that it's not quite as cringe-worthy as it could be? Still, it's annoying, and could be written in a much more engaging and angsty-inducing way that didn't have anything to do with fighting over who gets the girl.) Also, the gate blowing up? Pretty awesome cliffhanger. The only thing that would make the next episode better would flashbacks to Rodney and Daniel's dysfunctional dating relationship. Or possibly John and Vala bitching to each other about Rodney and Daniel.