Feeling feelings
In trying to fill in the holes created by my sporadic viewing of Stargate, I ended up realizing that I somehow missed the majority of season four. Since it seems to be entirely about Jack and Sam, by which I mean Jack/Sam, its past time I caught up.
2010 was beautifully done and especially disconcerting because it was easy to believe how such a discovery could lead to such a radical change in the human race. I also loved how clear it was that the reason Jack was in a cabin all alone was because Sam didn't listen to him about the Aschen - and got married to some other guy. It's just the way Jack brings up the guy without naming him, and Sam's reaction, the way the subject ends their interaction almost immediately. It was also written all over the scene with the ambassador and Jack where he asks Jack to keep Sam out of the message-sending mission and Jack just agrees. It amazes me how a plotty episode like this can end up having the strongest moment be all about Jack and Sam.
I also watched Beneath the Surface, which I vaguely remembered seeing before and which made a much stronger impression on my this time around. The episode turns on the idea that taking away everything that makes them a team does not actually take away the fact that they're a team. The memory-wipe scenario, however, also allows them to address things they could address when they were SG-1. "There are things about this place that I like," Sam-as-Thera says, leaning her head on Jack-as-Jonah's shoulder, something she couldn't do with Jack if they were their real selves. He tells her he remembers, "Feeling feelings," and its the way they look at each other that says the most, the familiar tenderness that isn't usually allowed to be shown but is familiar nonetheless.
At the end of the episode, Jack and Sam address each other a Colonel and Major and it stings. Sam calls him "Sir" again and Jack acknowledges it in this sad echo and its all they need to put everything that happened between them aside and return to their fine balance of just not talking about it. Its one of the things that fascinates me the most about Jack and Sam, that there is not some outside force keeping them from one another. The only thing standing between them is their own sense of duty, and they repeatedly choose their responsibility to the Stargate program. and their team relationship with one another over any other kind of relationship they might be able to have.
If it stops snowing, I'm going to the eye doctor today to pick out a new pair of glasses, and then, since it seems more likely than not that Sam Carter will win out against all other productivity, I might as well give in and start watching season 4 of Stargate Atlantis, so I can refresh my memory of what it was like to have Sam on Atlantis.
2010 was beautifully done and especially disconcerting because it was easy to believe how such a discovery could lead to such a radical change in the human race. I also loved how clear it was that the reason Jack was in a cabin all alone was because Sam didn't listen to him about the Aschen - and got married to some other guy. It's just the way Jack brings up the guy without naming him, and Sam's reaction, the way the subject ends their interaction almost immediately. It was also written all over the scene with the ambassador and Jack where he asks Jack to keep Sam out of the message-sending mission and Jack just agrees. It amazes me how a plotty episode like this can end up having the strongest moment be all about Jack and Sam.
I also watched Beneath the Surface, which I vaguely remembered seeing before and which made a much stronger impression on my this time around. The episode turns on the idea that taking away everything that makes them a team does not actually take away the fact that they're a team. The memory-wipe scenario, however, also allows them to address things they could address when they were SG-1. "There are things about this place that I like," Sam-as-Thera says, leaning her head on Jack-as-Jonah's shoulder, something she couldn't do with Jack if they were their real selves. He tells her he remembers, "Feeling feelings," and its the way they look at each other that says the most, the familiar tenderness that isn't usually allowed to be shown but is familiar nonetheless.
At the end of the episode, Jack and Sam address each other a Colonel and Major and it stings. Sam calls him "Sir" again and Jack acknowledges it in this sad echo and its all they need to put everything that happened between them aside and return to their fine balance of just not talking about it. Its one of the things that fascinates me the most about Jack and Sam, that there is not some outside force keeping them from one another. The only thing standing between them is their own sense of duty, and they repeatedly choose their responsibility to the Stargate program. and their team relationship with one another over any other kind of relationship they might be able to have.
If it stops snowing, I'm going to the eye doctor today to pick out a new pair of glasses, and then, since it seems more likely than not that Sam Carter will win out against all other productivity, I might as well give in and start watching season 4 of Stargate Atlantis, so I can refresh my memory of what it was like to have Sam on Atlantis.