4x12, spoils of war
What? C'mon, someone had to use that cut-tag.
Squee things:
1) John COMPLETELY just named a Wraith after his old college boyfriend. Completely. I imagine John and Todd, in the late eighties, with matching mullets, playing sports together and making out sweatily in the locker room afterwards. It is a touching picture!
2) Locker room locker room! And, apparently, a co-ed locker room. Either that or Teyla refuses to understand about gender-segregated space, which would also be pretty fucking cool.
3) John Sheppard being hugged: NEVER NOT HILARIOUS. He's getting better at it, though! He's had some practice! In the same way that he's had some practice with going down on his knees for Wraith Queens. By my count, he's actually gone down on his knees before a telepathic disco vampire more often than he's been hugged, but he is nonetheless getting better at both.
4) Further to (3) - I love how the show has a sense of humour about Sheppard on his knees. Just. It cracks me up. It's the first thing that happens in the scene! By rote! It's not even on the scripts anymore; everyone just knows that Joe will need a kneeling pad.
5) Dudes, I love Todd kind of a lot. When he was all, "I assume you didn't come all this way just to rescue lil' ol' me, but . . . " - I loved him so much. It is really John Sheppard in Wraith-form, which could not be funnier or more appropriate. I was worried about him at the end!
6) HI LORNE ILU
7) esp. when you said "I didn't even know you were datin' anyone!" <3!
8) Oh Teyla. Oh Teyla Teyla Teyla. I love you, and I love that you get to have skills and powers, and I love that you save the day and have an idea and fix things. And I love that your pregnancy is a reason to go out and fight, rather than a reason not to. That said, though:
Some things that I am less squee-y about:
1) Teyla apologised to John in this episode. Twice. Said, you were right. Twice. Guys, that is bullshit. In Be All My Sins Remember'd, John does not only yell at her - yelling at her is not the only thing he does wrong. He yells at her for not telling him about her body - for not making full disclosure to him about her body. S'her choice to make; if she'd wanted to keep her pregnancy a secret until month eight - and I don't think Sheppard would have ever noticed, by the way - she was within her rights to do so. Or, at least, up until her level of physical fitness meant that she could no longer pull her weight on the team, which with Teyla is not going to happen at three months.
The idea that the baby's safety is to be determined by the community or the team leader, and not by Teyla, is a BAD IDEA. If Teyla had wanted an abortion, would that be John's decision, too? Just sayin.
And, here's the thing: I was FINE with that, in the last episode, because it clearly showed that John was being a patriarchal dick and a bad friend, esp. by contrasting his behaviour with Ronon's. I loved it! But then, in this episode, we're supposed to believe that John has the moral high ground? wtf ever.
2) The episode (Spoils of War, now) tries to show us Teyla trying very hard to keep up, but having to realise, ultimately, that she can't. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with this; it fits Teyla's character, and certainly pregnancy does put a lot of strain on a person's body. But along with this plotline comes a plotline of John-was-right-Teyla-was-wrong, a sense that really she should've just listened to him when he made a decision about her body for her. And this makes me deeply uncomfortable.
The other thing that bothers me is that she has the realisation that she's not willing to put her child in danger - again, perfectly reasonable! Especially given that her boyfriend is missing and that the kid might be the last Athosian. But again, I get the feeling from the episode that the idea behind this is that Teyla should stay home for the sake of the baby, because the life of the baby is more important than, say, the lives of her team members. If they gave me an episode where Teyla weighed these things against each other, and found herself unwilling to save her team because of the risk to her child, I would be cool. But again, the tone here is: Teyla was wrong to not-want to stay at home. She was wrong to not-realise that her job as an incubator is more important than any other job she can do. She was wrong to not-realise that she must sacrifice herself, her desires, her loves (of course she loves her team) for the Future Generation.
I would like to hear what yall think about this, because it bothers me a LOT, and I wonder how other people viewed those moments.
3) The other thing that caused me a feminist eyeroll or two was the whole "Teyla's pregnancy enhances her Wraith-powers," because, COME ON. The whole episode is about pregnancy, with the ooky nightmare-inducing Wraith birthing chambers and all, so don't tell me we're not meant to see a parallel. The ooky female-ness of Teyla's pregnancy brings her closer to being Wraith-like, to being monstrous-female, etc., and dudes, that BLOWS. For further on this topic, see eruthros's post on Travelers.
OKAY, THE END! I really liked this episode a lot in terms of plot and pacing and ensemble-castiness (they're really getting better at expanding their character-net, giving Lorne some screen time, that kind of thing). I always want to pat SGA on the head whenever an episode is exciting and keeps me interested in the way that this one did. Aw, show!