You know what show is really quite good? Stargate Atlantis.
I watched this episode as it was happening, which is very rare for me - and I suddenly understood all the real-time journaling people do. That was amazing!
I was sitting here smugly amused by the golf video game - which was stylin' like a 1988 Nintendo Duck Hunt - cracking up at the thought of John tricking Rodney into playing "golf" by getting him to write a new game for them when they couldn't keep playing Ancient Battleship. Then Rodney pulled out that ring, and I literally gasped.
And then The Flan! Busting out with 17 different facial expressions in one sitting! I love how he was TOTALLY surprised - even when he saw that the box held a ring, he didn't realize what Rodney was going to do. A ring? Why would any guy buy his girlfriend a ring? You know that when JShep got engaged it was a total accident - he was like wrapping a bandaid around the finger of Shirl - this experimental fighter pilot he knew from the Academy - and they had had a couple of drinks, sure, and that one time she gave him a blowjob and didn't mind when it took him like 20 minutes to come - and she said "you know what finger that is, right John?, and he'd said yes (because it was the finger with a cut!) and she had looked at him and said "Yes." and he said "Yes?" wondering what she was talking about, and she'd said yes again in a horribly confident and happy voice, and then started crying and kissed him and it all spiraled outward from there.
Anyway, in the face of all that internal chaos, he flipped through his whole emotional deck and managed to come out with something supportive in the end. Because he does love Rodney. The way a friend loves another friend. If that friend has a hot ass. Oh John. What will you do? Teyla has an invisible boyfriend and a baby she might love more than you, Ronon turned you down for Jaws II 'cause he's going to take Keller, and now Rodney is proposing to Katie! You're loosing your family!! And you just learned how to hug like a week ago!
And after all that he was adorable with Teyla too! (I don't understand. Is there ongoing emotional continuity happening as John and Teyla try to figure out what her pregnancy means to all the different aspects of their friendship? This is so weird!) And then he was just a total fucking stud climbing the tower. Way to go with the upper body strength there, Johnny. Even Lorne thought so. "Where did you come from, sir?" indeed!
And speaking of Lorne, I also loved the way he asked Sheppard why he had set the self-destruct sequence in a perfectly normal voice right after they rolled their eyes at each other when the alarm went off. You know how all the various incarnations of Star Trek, particularly the movies, were chock full of people setting off the self-destruct on the Enterprise in Very Dramatic Situations? (that is, when they weren't doing a saucer-separation). Atlantis is like the anti-Trek! They like to keep the lid on the suicidal drama unless its Sheppard alone in the Study with the Wrench.
(BTW - I've always thought the Enterprise self-destruct was totally sketch-o-rama. Like - a Starship costs some boku bucks - if you must weaponize it, you can run it into a planet or a star or an evil Romulan vessel or whatnot - don't go around setting up a program that gets hijacked every other week by alien computer viruses or just invading baddies who will destroy it for their own nefarious purposes. Do you think that nuclear subs have self-destructs? And if not, is it just cause we haven't met the Borg yet?)
But we haven't seen it used a lot on Atlantis, right?...maybe once? And it was in John's replicator dream, right? But Lorne's casual attitude about it, and then all the pauses when people were discussing what to do (Sam, "So it could go off at any time." pause pause pause "Great" pause pause - pained looked from Sheppard.) made me think that all the Events between Episodes on Atlantis are chock full of self-destruct shenanigans that never result in explosions - so people are ultimately pretty relaxed about it. And actually, it's so retarded that only Rodney's secret password would shut it off (what if he's dead? or controlled by an alien? or off-world on a routine Tava gathering mission?) that I secretly believe, like, Wednesday of this week there was some elaborate practical joke that involved the self-destruct, and Rodney lost ten years of his life to the adrenaline, and locked them all out until they've learned their lesson! (ie: tonight)
(Err - back to Lorne - also HILARIOUS his shrug at the inadequacy of his C-4 stash. Hey, you didn't bring your own bottle to the party, did you, Batman? So quit whining and go blow something up with Lorne's stuff.)
The whole rest of the episode was just as gratifying. I loved that when Sam and Zelenka were trapped in the elevator they just assumed that Rodney would fix the problem. Sam has really become a good leader for Atlantis and her relationship with Rodney has played out SO MUCH BETTER than I expected. I loved her public praise of Radek at the end, just as much as I loved her super-quick coding in the elevator.
Then I was totally entertained by the way John and Lorne yanked the transporter doors open, because I had a total meta-flash of the writers being like: "But how are we actually going to get them out? Oh, better go back to that earlier scene and tell everyone that the doors are like sort of light - not light enough for Sam and Radek - but definitely light enough for John and Lorne - and definitely lighter than all the other doors too, or Ronon would be able to get out of the infirmary by himself, no problem."
Speaking of Ronon and the infirmary - why yes, ladies and gents, that IS my cold black heart broken open and bleeding all over Ronon's story about Melena, and the way his voice cracked, and the way he tried to smile in a little boy that-didn't-hurt way while he talked about her. I am only a medium fan of Keller (I was pissed off when she didn't haul ass after Teyla on that rope bridge back in the day) but by the time they got to the end of the scene I was yelling "Kiss! Kiss!!" at the screen.
And speaking of kissing...
Oh Rodney. Why couldn't you take advantage of being locked up with your girl to try a little kissing? (actually - have we ever seen them kiss? I don't think so - and now I guess we never will.)
I would like to say, in Rodney's defense, that until John took his death-defying wall climb, and Lorne pulled out the C-4 he had stuffed his bra with, and Zelenka crawled through the air shaft, they really were facing certain death. He wasn't wrong about that.
And I would like to say in the writers' defense - as awkward as I find their work whenever they are trying to be "funny" with Rodney's cowardice or hypochondria, those things have been totally consistent (and indeed unattractive) character traits throughout the entire series. And they worked almost note-perfectly in the scene with Katie - incredibly, it was clear that there were different things that he could have done in that scene, things well within his demonstrated scope of bravery and communication, that would have made her say yes. Kudos to the actress, for making her heartbreak and the slow realization of her disappointment so real. Because we know that Katie doesn't mind the hypochondria - their first trip to the infirmary during the real plague episode made that clear. What ultimately drives her away is that Rodney just doesn't see her - doesn't hear her, and doesn't respond to her when he has himself to think about. He's convinced he's sick, convinced he's dying - but his fear isn't the problem - the problem is the way he becomes so absorbed in himself that she almost doesn't register with him at all, even when she finds the ring and asks him to propose. She's right not to marry him, and she's right to break up with him - which is clearly what happened in that achingly well written, well acted and well shot final scene.
Awww. Rodney. He's lucky that John knows the answer to life the universe and everything. Maybe he can help mend Rodney's broken heart.