McShep-ish review of 5x04 - 5x06 (mainly The Shrine)
Note: This is almost 10,000 words long. Just so you know what you're getting into ;)
5x04 The Daedalus Variations
What I really liked about this episode was that it was a team episode, a classic "something happens, team goes to check it out, team gets in trouble, team gets out of trouble, team returns" story. I think the last time we really had the team together doing stuff together was before Teyla announced her pregnancy. Or at least it feels that way. And I really missed it. The stories that focus on individual members or parts of the team or split them up are all nice to delve a bit more closely into those characters or relationship, but I just don't want to see only such episodes.
This episode was an alternate universes/timelines episode, but in many ways it wasn't. AU/T episodes in Stargate (and other TV shows) mostly use the opportunity to show us how life for the protagonists would look like if circumstances were different. It's a great way to show us a side of them we haven't seen. The Daedalus Variations explicitly avoided that. Very explicitly. The team that they found? Dead and they even discuss how they don't know anything about them. The only person we got to see was John and he was shown in such a generic way it might as well have been our John (same rank and all). We didn't even get to see if he has a different haircut.
And poor John, who never gets the credit that he deserves. I think the order in which he compliments himself is quite telling. Great integrity. Dedicated commander. Skilled pilot. It's even more telling because what he witnessed was mostly just the flying. John Sheppard, much more than a flyboy indeed.
What more is there to say. I loved that they had Lorne in civilian clothes first and him and Zelenka interacting (backup Sheppard & McKay ;)
In terms of John/Rodney there was what we've become used to by now. When things happen they seek eye contact (and I'll never get tired of that). There's snark and there was Rodney dismissing John out of hand which made me cringe (checks who wrote this episode: Alan McCullough). I just... well, okay, we know that Rodney trusts John with his life, but maybe the fact that he built this thing gave him delusions of grandeur, getting him into "I built it, only I can possibly fix it" mode.
However we do have something in the end. At the beginning of the episode we learn that Rodney dropped Torren and isn't allowed to hold him anymore. At the end, Teyla brings Torren to Rodney in the infirmary and when she says "You're gonna make an excellent father some day." and Rodney and John exchange this look... I got a really, really strong established relationship vibe. I can't even describe it. But it was certainly happy making :)
5x05 Ghost in the machine
So, I try to remain spoiler free, but I look at episode pictures (since they are mostly quite general and don't give away the ending and don't touch upon relationship stuff for the most part; and really it's because I download them to my HD and am paranoid they might be gone by the time the episode comes around).
The episode promos for this episode made it look like it was just another Replicator episode, which was why I was pleasantly surprised that it was about Elizabeth.
When we last saw her I thought it was a great set-up for an Elizabeth as their main opponent in S5 arc. It would have been wonderfully ambiguous having her use her powers to fight for good, but being corrupted by it and forcing the Atlanteans to fight someone they love. I still liked this episode because it gives us at least some form of closure there.
I thought they came up with a credible way to have her played by another actress, who did an increasingly good job, I thought, as the episode progressed (and I won't get into behind the scenes politics here). I thought the story was quite nice and interesting and the ending very fitting. I've seen someone comment on why they didn't just turn around and get Elizabeth back, but I think her fate was tied to the replicators. She was their leader, she allowed them to take that wrong step and suffer and she now made the tough decision to freeze all of them simply because she cannot guarantee that they won't be a threat. They were looking for ascension, like she did. They have become her people and you don't leave your people behind especially since as far as we know they might all be innocent (if you can say that of machines). I can't see her happily going her way towards ascension after condemning the others with the same goal to be Popsicles in space. So I do think it's fitting.
In terms of John/Rodney I made several notes that say "looks at Rodney" and "looks at John". We had a lot of that in this episode. One moment I'd like to point out is where Rodney says he owes it to Elizabeth and looks at John as if wishing for his support. John doesn't really react. One possible explanation is that has his own guilt to deal with while seeing the danger of the situation and not wishing to make the same mistake again. There's also the fact that they were in front of Woolsey. John feels awkward comforting people (though less so with Rodney, because there'll be no hugs and it's more a "Cheer up, buddy" kind of thing) but doing it in front of their new commander that they hardly know? I could imagine that he talked to Rodney at a later point, telling him that he gets how he feels.
Also: Rodney falling asleep at the desk is canon. Do people really do that? I know I have managed to crawl to bed every time even when I stayed up late. Then again, my bed is five feet away.
Oh, and crashing the gate was about the coolest thing ever!
5x06 The Shrine
General things
The cold opening here was very effective. The structure was very effective, even though it also poses some problems, which I will get into in the next part.
Woolsey recalling seeing his Dad was touching however for some reason it fell flat to me. I think one reason was that I knew it was to tell Ronon that he's just imagined it, which he didn't and the other reason might have been that we've gotten Woolsey character moments in just about every episode. This is not a bad thing. However we now know what he does in his free time, that he had a wife and a dog, but no kids and now a Dad with Alzheimer's. Again, it's cool to get to know new characters, however after six episodes (and he only really appeared in four) we basically know as much if not more about his background than Teyla's or Ronon's, which seems a bit off.
The "They taught you to hunt at six!?!" moment was funny as hell though. And his scene with Amelia was awesome. (And hey, she got a name! We have a pretty, recurring, named, female character who has a good chance of not being romantically linked to any male character :)
I loved the Jeannie and Ronon scene. I loved Jeannie, both her weakness and strength. And it was good to see Ronon understand her. Ronon and Teyla fought what they believed was right. Keller's fear that it would be torture was obviously justified and a decision like this always has an element of being about those watching rather than the patient, but I also think it's fair to assume that in the end Rodney wouldn't have held it against them and even appreciated the chance to have another picnic with his friends and family as himself. So, go Ronon and Teyla!
When Ronon told us about the shrine, my first thought was "Oh, I bet this somehow does something to the parasite." Now, I'm not the kind of person who sees super plot twists way in advance. But this was really a no-brainer. And I'm not just talking about that they would fix Rodney (which was a no-brainer), but simply that within the context of the show it should have been clear that the magical sounding thing turns out to be tech. It's only the whole premise of the franchise! So that was pretty annoying. If you keep thinking "idiot" at 5/6th of your main cast that's just not a good thing. I also found the explanation on how the Shrine kills a bit flimsy (though upon re-reading the transcripts I guess it makes sense, it just didn't come across that way to me). And I don't know why they didn't have Rodney fix up the LSD instead of Jeannie. But all right, minor points compared to what the episode managed to do as a whole.
John/Rodney, the last scene and its implications
Okay, when reading episode reactions there was a slightly surprising (to me) divide between those squeeing about Rodney/Jennifer and those criticizing/venting. (And I should point out that I'm talking about episode reactions by John/Rodney shippers.) In any case, since the reaction isn't uniform and the sides rather opposite, I feel that I should warn ahead what kind of review this is.
There'll be no squeeing about Rodney/Jennifer in this review. While I have eventually found something positive about it, I do not support a positive portrayal of a romantic Rodney/Jennifer relationship on the show or subsequent movies.
That doesn't mean I hate Keller. I will only discuss her at length in the context of her relationship with Rodney.
Okay, that out of the way, let's get to the reaction. It's been two weeks since I watched the episode and every review and fic I read has given me more insight into the various ways to interpret what we saw. And I changed my mind. Several times and quite radically. That in itself is not unusual (I have my fair share of "Oh wow, did I really think/say that?!" moments). But for an episode reaction it's not the norm.
But then "The Shrine" is far from a normal episode for a shipper.
I've decided to put up my reactions in chronological order, because I think all of them are valid interpretations (not that you can have invalid interpretations... it's their very nature that they take what's not in the text and as such can never be proven wrong and can only feel implausible to someone else) and because they convey my feelings on the subject matter.
1) Denial - You've got to be kidding me!
"I love you. Sounds very much like a friend thing. She's become one of the people he loves."
This is what I first wrote on that last scene in my "write as I watch" notes.
I just don't buy it.
Let's go back to the Rodney/Katie relationship for a moment. Rodney/Katie suffered greatly from any lack of build-up or consistency. She was the invisible girlfriend. Their interaction on screen was so ambiguous and lacking sexual chemistry that it was very easy not to see them as an actual couple. Eventually we had to be downright told that, yes, they are in fact a real couple and have been for over a year. And even then it was very hard to believe when her absence was glaring in scenes like when Rodney had the alien thing inside of him in Doppelgänger where his girlfriend of half a year was neither present nor even mentioned.
Now, Rodney/Jennifer is not the same. They interact regularly and are friends. They also have a certain amount of sexual chemistry, however the same could be said for a lot of combinations of people on the show. I think one of the problems here was the Ronon/Jennifer interaction in the beginning of season 4 culminating in the near kiss in "Quarantine". This wasn't followed up on and Joe Mallozzi pointed (rightly) out that a near kiss doesn't have to mean anything.
However this is where the past presentation of romantic relationships bit the makers in the ass. After all, when Katie returned she suddenly simply was Rodney's girlfriend. That FBI or whatever woman that Jack was sleeping with on SG-1? We never got to see how that happened. Teyla and Kanaan? The first we heard about that was in the same episode where she turned up pregnant. (Okay, I don't blame the writers for that one since they were handling Rachel's real life pregnancy here, but to the viewer it doesn't change what happened.) This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I think considering those other relationships it wasn't very far off for the viewer to assume that the Ronon/Jennifer thing actually did mean something and led to more.
There is a deleted scene in "Trio" in which Jennifer explains that Ronon doesn't make a move on her despite what happened (something to that effect at least). I think it would have helped them a lot if they had kept that in, because at least that would explain what happened there. Now back to Rodney/Jennifer.
As I said they built up a friendship between Rodney and Jennifer (just like Teyla and Jennifer). Then they sprung the end of "Trio" on us out of the blue. Jennifer asks Rodney to ask her out on a drink. He is completely surprised but happy. This could have been a hint that he has romantic feelings for her, however in that same episode they had his interest in her getting out of her shirt paired with trying to get Sam to show her breasts. Also, the drink is never followed up on, so after the Ronon/Jennifer thing it's understandable if we then thought that this drink didn't mean anything more and that Rodney's happiness was really not about Jennifer per se, but being flattered in general, which is pretty much how I see it now (and wow, I just read my reaction to "Trio" and I've changed my mind about almost everything I wrote there).
In fact in "The Last Man" (and again in "The Shrine") they confirm that nothing happened after that drink and that flirting over the fruit cup in "The Shrine" seemed playful to me and not serious. The talk about dating could have maybe led to another drink, or it could have just been forgotten. I didn't see any real intent behind it on either side.
Going back to "The Last Man"... We were presented with an alternate timeline where they were isolated on a ship for several weeks after all of their friends including John were dead. They then had a relationship and were happy for several months until Jennifer died which drove Rodney over the brink. I think even the show itself didn't try to tell us that it was just Jennifer's death that pushed Rodney to dedicate his life to save her (mainly because he didn't just try to save her, but everyone, especially of course John).
It's hard to put that into a proper context, because as far as Rodney's concerned none of it happened. We saw that he can be in a romantic relationship with Jennifer, but the circumstances were basically pushing them together. Put that against a canon where he did not pursue a romantic relationship with her although she asked him to (or at least signaled her interest) and to me it seemed fair to assume that in this timeline their relationship is only one of friendship.
On top of that, the beginning of season five didn't manage to convince me of Rodney's particular interest in her either. When she wanted to take care of him in "Search and Rescue" he just sent her off to Lorne (okay, rightfully, but he could have looked regretful about it) and later he's pretty much only annoyed with her. Then of course "The Seed". Jennifer was dying. It was the chance to show us how Rodney really feels about her, if he feels anything other than friendship. But I got nothing more than that from this episode. He's worried, sure, she is a friend after all, but other than that... I actually went back yesterday and watched a few scenes of "The Seed" and to me his behavior still remains completely devoid of anything that could imply he is in love with her.
When they first want to test the serum, he doesn't volunteer. When they need to bring it to Jennifer, he does volunteer, but of all the three people who did (which in itself misses to chance to make Rodney's feelings stand out) he looks like he really doesn't want to and only did it because it was expected and the right and selfless thing to do. Later, when John takes the serum and goes in after Ronon got tentacled, Rodney says that he can't go because of the quarantine. John's trying to save the woman Rodney loves from certain death and he talks about protocol?? My interpretation obviously is that he simply didn't want John to risk his life, but that's the John/Rodney interpretation, what about the Rodney/Jennifer one? (I should say that in general Rodney seemed OOC in The Seed and very uncaring not just towards Jennifer but also John.) I can't recall any Rodney/Jennifer interaction from the Ronon episode and I don't think Jennifer was even in the following two.
Then comes "The Shrine", with Rodney crying out for John repeatedly, and we're supposed to believe that Rodney loves Jennifer. For some time now. I'm sorry, but no, this just doesn't compute. When Rodney tells Jennifer he loves her, to me it only makes sense as friendship, if you consider the context of what came before.
Of course, I won't deny that the scene was meant to be seen as romantic. However it's not impossible to interpret it differently. Rodney is awkward and hesitating. But that could simply be because he tries to think of how to say "I really like you, you're a good friend". Then he gets sure of himself because he realizes he loves her (as a friend). Sunday implied to me that Rodney has taken a very long time to understand that his team and others on Atlantis are actually really his friends. And I think it's not unbelievable that it's still a surprise to him and something that he cherishes. So he tells Jennifer he loves her, because he does and it's a great thing and more than that he realizes that he's actually felt like that for a while, that she has managed to become a close friend very quickly, which is even more surprising to Rodney and enough to make him wistful about it.
2) Acceptance - You're doing it wrong!
Well, denial is a time-honored shipper's way of dealing with things. However, I'm a "Zweckpessimist", i.e. while I hope for the best I try to expect the worst. And my denial aside, it's pretty obvious that the PTB intended the declaration to be one of romance not friendship.
My mind immediately started to conjure up fic ideas in which Rodney and Jennifer are together (like I kept thinking of Rodney/Katie, even when it was still quite ambiguous). So I figured I might as well deal with it properly to prepare myself for the coming battle so-to-speak.
I tried to look at it from the view of a casual viewer. Jennifer asked Rodney out on a drink in "Trio". "The Last Man" showed us that they are meant to be. And now in "The Shrine" they go back to talking about dating and finally, in the face of death, Rodney admits that he loves Jennifer. It's wonderfully perfect, isn't it? We all can't wait to see them get together, right?
Yeah, well... I don't have to go into what I outlined above. TPTB didn't manage to convince me that Rodney had any feelings beyond friendship for Jennifer before this episode. But let's forget about all that came before. After all, they're just making it up as they go along, so maybe when they shot "The Seed" they simply didn't know that Rodney has been in love with Jennifer for some time. Let's just take a look at "The Shrine" and then try to figure out how we can interpret the canon that Rodney loves Jennifer in a way that makes it possible for me to believe that he and John belong together.
[And this is the point where I feel the need to point out that I'm doing this because as someone who's fanfic mindset is mostly based on current canon (unless it's an AU), I have to do this in order to get a handle on how to deal with it in my fic.]
However the longer I thought about the episode and read reactions and fanfic, the more frustrated I got.
The thing is, I look at the episode, at what they canonically showed us and while at first glance it looks like the perfect big step towards a fulfilling Rodney/Jennifer romance, it just isn't. Yes, Rodney told Jennifer that he loved her, but the two main John/Rodney scenes tell us something else.
Let's go back to the structure of the episode. It's told in a non-linear way, giving us a cold opening that packs an amazing punch and dropping the boring exposition into spots in between. It gives a writer more control over how people will react to certain parts of the story. E.g. if you begin a story with the unhappy end, you can prepare the user and avoid false hope (like in American Beauty and something that they missed in The Perfect Storm, which pissed me off to no end because of that).
"The Shrine" used it to put the emphasis of the episode on the surprise reveal at the end (although they already showed us the beginning of the scene in the middle of the episode, as a teaser so to speak). That's the thing we walk away with from the episode, that's what makes us go "Wow, Rodney loves Jennifer" afterwards.
The problem is changing the order of events in the presentation doesn't change what happened, only how it appears to the viewer. Rodney tells Jennifer that he loved her for some time now, but when he woke up alone, in total panic that he was losing himself, he didn't go to the woman he loves, who also happens to be his doctor. His immediate reaction is to run through the halls of Atlantis, shouting for John.
This alone is pretty telling, although one might say that he ran to John because John was (apparently) at his bedside when he fell asleep (although Rodney says "everyone" was gone and not John in particular). However, Day 15, is absolutely striking in what it says about his relationships with John and Jennifer respectively.
He's agitated and asking for John. Jennifer tells him, "He just had to go away for a few minutes." Rodney starts calling for John and Jennifer tells him, "Rodney, I'm your friend. I'm right here," without any impact on him at all. He keeps shouting for John. While Jennifer is right there.
Rodney is in love with Jennifer. But what kind of love is it? Well, we know what it's not. It's not that all-encompassing love where the other person becomes the center of your world. Because that apparently is John. When he wakes up all alone at night, scared, he runs to John. When he's losing himself and the world around him falls apart he's shouting for John. When he stops understanding everything, he still trusts John.
Rodney is in love with Jennifer, but it's an intellectual love. He's thinking he's in love with her and when he stops thinking, there's just John. And suddenly, going back to Katie Brown, this explains quite a bit.
For most viewers the Rodney/Katie relationship never worked. They never felt like a couple, even though they were supposed to be. And this is really key here. Rodney and Katie were supposed to be a couple. He was supposed to be in love with her. He was supposed to be ready to marry her. And I've stopped talking about the viewers POV and started talking about Rodney now. This difference between what he feels and what he thinks he should feel is brought up in "Miller's Crossing". Jeannie asks if he will marry Katie. Rodney doesn't want to talk about it. Jeannie points out that they've been dating for over a year and Rodney says, "I'm aware of that, thank you." Jeannie asks if he thinks he'll find someone better and he answers, "No, it's not that."
It's not that, but it's something. Rodney doesn't want to marry Katie. But he is aware of the fact that he should. Four episodes after that he had bought a ring and set out to propose to her. We know how it ended. We know that the two of them realized that this could never work. Even though Rodney wasn't quite as aware of it being the end. There is no reason for us to believe that Rodney wanted to propose to someone that he didn't love. He loved Katie. Or at least he must have thought he did.
And there we are again. I'd like to mention two other moments here that hint that Rodney has a very set idea of how love/attraction is supposed to work.
In "Trio" when Keller asks him Newman or Redford, if he had to choose, his answer is, "So I'm to choose which one of those guys I would wanna force themselves on me". Way to miss the point of the game, Rodney. As Jennifer points out it's just a dumb game, but instead Rodney makes a point about the straightness of these two guys (instead of his own, but that's a whole other point). Later he plays along with the game, but his first reaction was still to bring in logic.
Then in "Harmony" when Harmony asks about love and tells him she thinks she's in love with John, Rodney points out that a lot of people fall for John's "good looks and charm" and when she asks him not to come between her and John, he tells her, "You're a lot more mature than the women he usually falls for," with a certain amount of frustration. Again, I think this hints at Rodney's idea of how you fall in love. Good looks and charm is what is generally accepted as being attractive, even though it's just something superficial. The latter statement is more about who he thinks John should fall for, namely women who are more mature. I really enjoyed this because it shows that Rodney cares about John as a friend, but in the context of Rodney's view on love it implies the believe that you can somehow control who you fall in love with (or the frustration that you can't).
What I'm trying to say with all of this is that I think Rodney has a set view of who he should be in love with. It should be an attractive, charming, intelligent woman. Katie was one. And Jennifer is one too. On top of that he has a much better rapport with Jennifer, feels more ready to be himself and she's quite tolerant of Rodney's sometimes difficult attitude. All of this makes her a much better choice for Rodney than Katie. The problem is that you can't just take someone who should be perfect for you and then just be in love with them. It doesn't work that way.
The thing is, Rodney knows that. In "Quarantine" he eventually acknowledged that he wasn't ready to marry Katie. With Jennifer we have hints that he knows it too.
Rodney says that he loved her for some time now. And yet, when she told him to ask her out on a drink, he did, but never followed up on it. Why? They're friends. She has signaled that she'd be interested in taking the relationship to another level. What more could he possibly need if he loves her? It makes no sense to me at all. After he tells Jennifer he loves her, he smiles awkwardly and goes back to logging his progress. He's not looking for her reaction. Combined with not pursuing a relationship prior to this episode this tells me that he doesn't see a romantic relationship between them. He could have reasons why he thinks they might not work out, but what I really think is that deep down Rodney knows his love for Jennifer is a product of his mind, not his heart, exactly like his love for Katie was.
So, this is my explanation for why Rodney tells Jennifer he loves her (because he believes it to be true).
But lets take his love as true for a moment. Maybe he genuinely loves Jennifer with all his heart. He still cried out for John, completely ignoring her presence on Day 15. So how are we going to interpret that? I think the best way to explain it would be to assume that the reason Jennifer cannot comfort him in this situation is because they aren't actually together yet, after all being in love with someone doesn't mean that you are close to them. In fact you can love someone without ever even meeting them. Loving someone from afar is a cliche. So maybe it's just that and as soon as Rodney and Jennifer start dating things will be different.
The problem with that is that Jennifer actually is a friend. We've seen her join the team for lunch. They crack jokes and are at ease around each. But the implications of "The Shrine" would be that he's still holding back around her, basically splitting up his love for her in a part of himself that's loving her from afar and staying detached and the normal friendship (which pales in comparison to John's).
To summarize, Rodney has been secretly in love with Jennifer, but he doesn't believe he should pursue a relationship, despite her signaling her interest. He keeps up a friendship with her, but doesn't let it become something deep, instead loving her from afar.
The thing is... I'm actually reaching here. I'm trying to come up with plausible explanations (other than "Oh, the parasite happened to zap the part of his brain where he loves Keller, but left his need for John completely untouched.") And even so, we'd still have to explain why exactly Rodney didn't think a relationship with Jennifer was worth pursuing. And we'd have to believe that if they got together it would so radically change their relationships that it could change the fact that when Rodney was losing his mind he didn't care about Jennifer and only called for John.
Because as it is now, Rodney might believe he loves Jennifer, but the most important person to him is still John. Are we supposed to accept that as normal? Is it supposed to be best friends forever and over anything and anyone, even the woman you love? I'm trying to imagine a future scenario here where Rodney is injured and so out of his mind that he can't think anymore. Right now I'd have to expect him to shout for John. How would that feel for Jennifer? I can't for the life of me imagine that she wouldn't be affected by it. Hell, even in "The Shrine" there were hints that she was aware of John's importance to Rodney and didn't like it. That was my subjective impression when she didn't want them to take Rodney to the shrine and she told him John was just gone for a minute and that she was here.
And that's another thing. Jennifer has seen Rodney's need for John. It was clear as daylight in the first scene. Which makes it even harder for me to get a warm fuzzy feeling about Rodney/Jennifer.
If you look at it from her perspective, she's been interested in Ronon, but shot down. Then she's interested in Rodney, who buys her a drink, but doesn't follow up on it either. Then suddenly he's all sweet and flirty and hints he might ask her out again. It turns out to be a parasite and she feels guilty, but then Rodney tells her he loves her. She must have been floored by this. She obviously didn't act on it immediately, because Rodney's dying, but she watches the scene repeatedly, probably in hopes to hear Rodney say those words again when he's okay. Then Rodney gets worse and frustrated. He completely ignores her in his distress while desperately calling for John. He deteriorates further to a point of losing almost all comprehension. He smiles when he sees her, but when John comes in he lights up and when John asks him to go, he agrees. She still hopes to save Rodney so she keeps on fighting, but in the end the decision is taken out of her hands and they go and Rodney gets better. They can save him. She goes and watches his declaration of love again.
I'm not sure about you, but what I feel here is not so much "Yay, Jen, go get your man!", but "Oh Jennifer" and the need to give her a hug. Because what she had, that wonderful moment that painted a bright future for her, was completely fleeting.
What is really bothersome about this as an intro into future Rodney/Jennifer bliss is that it really didn't have to be this way. First of all "The Seed" was the perfect opportunity to show that Rodney's feelings for Jennifer go beyond friendship. And in "The Shrine" itself, how hard would it have been not to make that first scene all about John. (And yes, I can't believe I'm saying that either. This is what they make me do to see some sense in this whole mess!) He could have shouted "I wanna go home. Please, Jennifer." or something else. And in the scene where he looks for John at night, he could have said that he didn't want to wake Jennifer.
But then, I'm probably seeing this completely wrong. While writing this review I went ahead and made a video of "The Shrine" in chronological order and for that and in general I also referred to the transcript on Gateworld. This transcript includes the following:
McKAY: Ah, I guess if I had to choose the people I would spend my last day with, then ...
(Jeanie smiles, assuming that he means her, but Rodney looks across to Jennifer, who is scanning the central column again. Jeanie also looks at her, a little startled. However, before that line of thought can go any further, Rodney notices Jen's expression.)
Okay, what I saw happening in that scene was Rodney beginning to agree that he was with the people he loved when Jennifer's scanner beeped, he looked over, frowning, and, seeing what she's doing, asks what's going on. But I'm not pointing this out to discuss the impossibility of being neutral or the challenge of avoiding any assumptions while still bringing across what happens on the screen.
What I'm trying to show is that what we see when we watch a TV show can not only be influenced by the episode itself (through music, framing and order of scenes), but also by the greater context of TV in general and society as a whole. So maybe the problems that I'm seeing with the portrayal of Rodney/Jennifer and the things that make it impossible for me to endorse them as a couple (other than being a John/Rodney shipper) are just not there for the "normal" casual audience.
They'll be shocked to see Rodney's state at the beginning. They'll remember that Rodney dedicated his life to saving Jennifer in "The Last Man", so they'll see the hints and go "Oh, are they finally doing this now?" They'll hopefully be excited about how the hell they're going to save Rodney, see the team vs. Jennifer, understanding both. They'll fondly watch the John/Rodney scene, two straight guys, best friends. And eventually the last scene rolls around and the reveal comes and they'll think, "Wow, so he really does love her for some time now."
Two weeks after watching the episode for the first time, I still see new things and change my mind about my personal interpretation of it. This is not what a casual viewer will do. They'll watch the episode once and that's it. What they saw in that version is their canon. That Rodney ran through halls to John or ignored Jennifer, calling for John, after he declared his love for Jennifer doesn't matter because for them it did not happen afterwards.
ETA:
I'm not sure if that came across clearly here. What I'm talking about is blindness to slash in comparison to het. I'm 100% certain that if either John or Rodney were a woman they'd have been given the same treatment as Sam/Jack, i.e. a bunch of fake ways to get them together and some actual meant to be recognized (sub)text.
But even forgetting everything that might have happened before, they simply couldn't have done this episode if John were a woman. Rodney shouting for her in the beginning? Rodney running to her room, her getting out of bed and the two of them grabbing each other like that in her quarters at night? And then of course Rodney fighting to say his goodbye's to her. There's no way in the world that they could have done that without every single viewer getting at the very least a "Wait a minute..." moment.
They're relying on viewers not to see John/Rodney as a viable option, because if they did, they might see what I saw.
End ETA
So this is really just my problem. I try to anticipate a Rodney/Jennifer romance and from how I saw the episode, they'd have to address Rodney's feelings towards John vs. those for Jennifer. They'd have to make us believe that at some point since "The Shrine" Rodney has changed and that now Jennifer is more important to him. They could make him choose Jennifer over John in a life-threatening situation or Jennifer could be in danger and he wants to go out and rescue her against John's objections.
Of course the problems with is that it would pit a heterosexual romantic relationship against the long lasting friendship between the two main characters of the show. So that's not really desirable either.
But as I mentioned, it's not as if anyone's going to see things the way I did, even though I really think they're there. So I guess I'll just have to resign myself to the fact that what happens on screen doesn't really make sense to me and try to interpret it in a John/Rodney friendly way as well as I can.
3) Revelation - How I learned to stop worrying and love the last scene of The Shrine
If you've followed me so far, you might have thought at one point or another, "But you don't know what the PTB are going to do."
Well, I always try to prepare for the worst and since this is the third time the relationship was brought up and since it was done so explicitly (not as playful as the drink and not an AU as "The Last Man"), I don't see any reason for them not to go ahead and pursue this.
Maybe not in the next episode, but this seems like a thing that would eventually need to be resolved. So there'll be a Rodney/Jennifer romance. Or will there?
After becoming completely frustrated with the fact that the whole episode and the relevant bits that came before have layers and layers of issues that need to be dealt with, I suddenly remembered Katie Brown again.
I remember my frustration there. How what I saw on screen simply wasn't a happy couple with a bright future ahead of them. I remember after knowing nothing about the episode Quarantine, except that Katie would pout at Rodney at one point and Rodney saying "It's what I do" that I feared they'd use that chance to give their relationship some tension with the purpose to release that tension and have them come out stronger (because what other reason do you have to show fights). Way back then I feared they'd get engaged and then the clip that confirmed Rodney's intentions made the rounds and I was ready to go into full angst mode. Look how that turned out.
My personal interpretation of that, my dissatisfaction with it, was put on screen. Fanon became canon.
I have to admit that the first week of thinking about the Shrine I had a total blind spot towards Jennifer. When either John or Rodney are shown in anything like a romantic entanglement or something that could become one, my brain just switches into shipper mode and I only see them and anything that might be useful to interpret their actions in a John/Rodney friendly way. To that end what the woman feels it completely irrelevant. And when they showed us Jennifer watching the clip leading up to Rodney's confession, she stopped being Jennifer and became just a potential problem. (I know this sounds horrible, but it's how my brain works.)
So it took me a while to realize that while Jennifer's feelings are irrelevant to interpret Rodney and John, they are not irrelevant to what will happen next. I read in another episode commentary that Jennifer doesn't even necessarily look as if she's going to pursue this thing for her part. Together with my realization that Rodney/Katie actually turned my personal interpretation into canon, I suddenly tried to forget all expectations and worries, tried to just see the episode as what I saw.
What I see is Rodney thinking he's in love with Jennifer, but knowing deep down that it's not real. That's why he never pursued a relationship with her even after she told him to buy her a drink. That's why when he tells her he loves her it's completely without expectation.
What I see is John, having loved Rodney for longer than Jennifer even knows him, always being there for him. What I see is a friendship that developed quickly and grew over the years beyond what either Rodney or John probably imagined, a friendship so strong that for both men the other is the center of their world.
What I see is Jennifer, facing the challenges of one of the most difficult jobs on Atlantis and what the Pegasus Galaxy throws at them. What I see is a young woman proving herself and finding friends far away from home. What I see is someone looking for love and being disappointed only to have a good friend declare his heartfelt love for her. What I see is Jennifer struggling to hold onto that Rodney, to fix her mistake, to save him. What I see is Jennifer watching it all fall apart in front of her eyes and when they've finally brought Rodney home and he's all right, she realizes that they're back to how things were before in more ways than one and that the only thing that remains of her dream is the memory and a recording.
What I see is Rodney stuck in his way of thinking, stuck with believing in what should be, so much that he's blind to his own feelings, that he can only show them when he stops thinking. What I see is a great love between two people who don't know how to come to terms with what they're feeling, who either can't see it or can't express it, who reach out to each other in the only way they can. What I see is two men so in love that it hurts to watch them stumble blindly towards each other.
And this is something that I couldn't say with as much conviction before.
If I could decide how they continue this on the show, I'd have Rodney asks Jennifer out on a date. She could gently let him down, saying she doesn't think this will work out and after he leaves, she can look sad, because she would have liked to see what they could have become, but she knows it's not going to happen. Certainly not as long as John is there. Or you could have a situation where she's in danger and Rodney can express his distress over it. Ronon could then be the hero who saves her and Jennifer could be grateful to him and Rodney could be jealous, but also resigned. John could take him out on a beer, comforting him (in a manly untouchy way obviously), and later we could have Rodney and Jennifer reconnect as friends, the only way it really can be between them.
Of course, if that's how it goes down, why bother with bringing it up at all. After all SGA is not a soap. They've managed to keep relationships to a minimum and would have survived without it.
And then I suddenly had a crazy epiphany. (I could note that this is the point where I leave the realms of reality, but fantasies aren't bad per se.)
Paradoxically it turns out that in such a scenario the one purpose of the last scene is to move the John/Rodney relationship to another level.
Okay. I can see you slowly backing away at this point, looking for a way to call the nice people with the straight-jackets. Didn't I just try to first deny that the last scene happened, then go on for thousands of words on why it's wrong?
Yes, I did and I still do. But what makes the last scene problematic for a future Rodney/Jennifer relationship makes sense when what you're after is John/Rodney.
My personal canon for John is that he's in love with Rodney and has known this for a while now. With Rodney things weren't as easy. While "Sunday" established my belief that John is aware of his feelings for Rodney, the same episode made things difficult for my interpretation of Rodney. His talk to Katie was so innocent and genuine. He wants to find the right person to marry and have a family with. Back then I thought I had the choice between a Rodney who is blind to the possibility of John being that person, probably because he considers himself straight, and a Rodney who doesn't think he could ever have John.
For various reasons I tended to lean towards the first interpretation. Oblivious Rodney fits well to Pining John. It makes any and all interactions with women easily explainable and it's a whole lot less depressing than Rodney knowing he loves John, but having no hope to ever be with him.
I've always felt that John's feelings for Rodney were very apparent, which made it easy to stay firm in my belief that John's in love and knows it. Scenes like the one in "Miller's Crossing", the ending of "Tabula Rasa" and the fact that nobody's ever more important to John than Rodney make it easy to see how he feels.
With Rodney, it's not as clear-cut. Rodney shows his emotions much more than John. Yes, he's worried about John when he's in danger, but I personally mostly don't see a difference between Rodney being worried about random red shirt and Rodney being worried about John. (I believe Joe puts a lot more nuances in his acting there.) I wanted to believe that Rodney loves John or that he could at least if he only opened his eyes to it, but I didn't have that moment that made me go, "Yes, this is it, this is the proof that John is it for him."
Along comes "The Shrine". From the beginning to almost the end, the episode was one long declaration of love from Rodney to John. He's used his name more often in this episode than in all previous episodes combined. (I haven't counted, but I'm quite certain of this.) He's run to him at night, he's called for him in desperation, he wanted to tell him how he feels, and his face lit up at the sight of him, much more brightly than for any of the others. Even Jennifer put an emphasis on John when she told Rodney he had visitors. And when Jeannie wanted to know what happened to her brother, she mostly addressed John.
All of this would have been wonderful in and of itself. But all it would have proven was that John is Rodney's best friend, which I feel was established a while ago.
It's Rodney's declaration that he loves Jennifer that puts it all into a whole new context. Now the scene where he calls for John while Jennifer tries to calm him down doesn't just mean that John's his best friend. It means that Rodney is more emotionally attached to John than to the woman he professes to love.
I've been waiting for years to be able to say to myself, "Rodney loves John in my personal canon." But I never really was until he said those words to Jennifer Keller.
The funny thing is, as a John/Rodney vehicle the last scene is pretty damn brilliant. And actually it's not just that. I've been complaining about the inconsistency of Rodney/Jennifer this season, but the John/Rodney/Jennifer love triangle (that's triangle not threesome) has actually been there since "The Last Man". That episode featured Rodney beginning a relationship with Jennifer after John is gone. When Jennifer gets sick, Rodney goes a bit crazy and puts his plan into action to return John from the future. Jennifer asks him not to. Obviously this is about not seeing Rodney obsess over something impossible all his life. But it also means that she's asking him not to save John.
Then there's "Search and Rescue" with the pretty significant John and Jennifer scene. He believes Rodney's dead. He can't look at her. Then he learns Rodney's alive and he and Jennifer are right there together, two people glad that Rodney made it. Then it turns and he fights to get out of the infirmary. It is about John wanting to act instead of lying useless in surgery, but it's still a fight between them.
Similarly in "The Seed", where there's obviously no confrontation between them over Rodney, hell, John volunteers to test the serum to save her (and the rest of them), but we still have the very powerful image of him pointing a gun at her while her tentacles attack and eventually stab him.
In "The Shrine" itself there are undercurrents of John vs. Jennifer, but the main battle is very wisely between Jennifer and Ronon. If this had been between Jennifer and John it would have tipped the precarious balance of her actions between doing what's best for Rodney and letting her own feelings get the better of her towards the latter. Still we had the two of them trying to persuade Rodney to go or not go to the shrine, we had their confrontation about what to do with Rodney, moving into working together to save the man they love (although I doubt that Jennifer actually loves him at this point).
It's always amusing to me when the shipper's view of things seems to make more sense to me than a straight-forward interpretation. In this case however it's more than amusing, it's deeply satisfying.
Now I'm under no illusion that this was the set-up for a big Jennifer vs. John confrontation. However if they wanted to give us John/Rodney in a way that was quite profound and yet invisible to advertisers, young male viewers and everyone else who would feel disturbed by the notion of John and Rodney together, they did it brilliantly. Of course that wasn't their intention. But it doesn't matter.
Even if the next episode has Rodney awkwardly asking Jennifer out and we can watch them have a cute date and then kiss, even if they really get together as a couple, seemingly happily, I can easily have it as my personal canon that Rodney's just lying to himself and that he managed to convince Jennifer to join his willful blindness. Because everything in this episode said that while Rodney might want to be in love with Jennifer, John is the one who matters the most to him.
And that is something that they can't ever take away from me.
John/Rodney
Okay, I'm approximately 7500 words into this review, so I'll keep the rest short.
This episode was chock-full of John/Rodney goodness. Things that would normally be highlights fall completely on the sidelines here and I'll just mention a few things that haven't already been touched upon, which means mainly John's POV.
Poor John. He's completely unwilling to accept what's happening. This is how it works for him. He can't afford to break down. He has responsibilities. When Ronon simply tells their boss "You're wrong and I'll take him to a Wraith infested planet", John tries to mediate. It's not easy, but he's holding on.
But we can see how hard it is for him. We can see it in the way he keeps looking at Rodney after denying him a goodbye. We can see it in how he looks at Jeannie when he tells her it doesn't matter what she says. And of course it's there towards the end, when Jennifer won't let them take him to the shrine.
One thing about this episode and about John dealing with Rodney in particular is that we never get to actually see him take care of Rodney (other than in the cave and when Rodney runs to him). Yet, it's implied that he was at Rodney's bedside until he fell asleep. And when Jennifer says that he is only gone for a minute we can only assume that before that, John was pretty much a steady presence at his side. This is a wonderful image to me and I would have loved to see a bit of it.
John touched him in the infirmary (nothing big in this episode, but it was before they knew something was wrong with Rodney).
Then there's the thing about the jacket. crysothemis posted a nice investigation into the jacket that Rodney is wearing. And yes, that would be one jacket, because the one that he's wearing at the cave is the same he wore out on the pier, the one that John gave him, the one that lay in John's room.
There are two explanations: 1) It's Rodney's jacket, which he got out of in John's room for some reason (ha!) and forgot there until that day. 2) It's John's jacket, which he kept all those days and finally wore on the day he went to die (in that context note that Teyla also put on her personal clothes and not her normal uniform). The idea that John's jacket is making him feel safe is just so lovely I can't even put it into words.
The last thing I want to mention is a bit of John/Rodney subtext from Rodney's side. In the traumatic situation when he finds out he only has a day as himself, when John asks him what he remembers, what Rodney shoots back is "I remember you not wanting me to say goodbye then."
*Ouch* Of all the things he remembers, his first reaction is his anger at not being allowed to say goodbye to John.
I've mentioned before that way back in "Sunday" I was faced with deciding between Oblivious Rodney and Pining Rodney as my personal canon. One of the reasons that I find it much harder to do Pining Rodney than Pining John is the way they express their perceived unrequited love. John can suffer so beautifully. But with Rodney, the feelings are much more stark. His hopelessness is much more bleak, pushed so deep that he's hiding it from himself. And then it comes out in moments like the end of "Travelers" with his completely irrational display of jealousy or with this.
John couldn't have kept him from saying "I love you", but Rodney still couldn't say it against John's will because unlike with Jennifer he wanted a reaction there. I think he wanted the acknowledgement of what they meant to each other. They are friends. The pier scene illustrated that in a lovely way, but for once Rodney wanted to put into words how much beyond a normal friendship this goes. And I'm not talking about being in love. I (finally) think he is, but I think he simply wanted to be able to say, "John, I've never been as close to anyone in my life as I've been to you and that's both completely fucked up and beautiful and I wouldn't have it any other way." Except that at times like this he would. At times like this it would be nice if John could let go.
Then again, I believe if that ever happened, we'd quickly get to a point where even Rodney wouldn't be able to lie to himself any longer. As it is, I think moments like his anger at John here hit their mark pretty close to home.
And after all, we still need something left for us to do in fanfic ;)
5x04 The Daedalus Variations
What I really liked about this episode was that it was a team episode, a classic "something happens, team goes to check it out, team gets in trouble, team gets out of trouble, team returns" story. I think the last time we really had the team together doing stuff together was before Teyla announced her pregnancy. Or at least it feels that way. And I really missed it. The stories that focus on individual members or parts of the team or split them up are all nice to delve a bit more closely into those characters or relationship, but I just don't want to see only such episodes.
This episode was an alternate universes/timelines episode, but in many ways it wasn't. AU/T episodes in Stargate (and other TV shows) mostly use the opportunity to show us how life for the protagonists would look like if circumstances were different. It's a great way to show us a side of them we haven't seen. The Daedalus Variations explicitly avoided that. Very explicitly. The team that they found? Dead and they even discuss how they don't know anything about them. The only person we got to see was John and he was shown in such a generic way it might as well have been our John (same rank and all). We didn't even get to see if he has a different haircut.
And poor John, who never gets the credit that he deserves. I think the order in which he compliments himself is quite telling. Great integrity. Dedicated commander. Skilled pilot. It's even more telling because what he witnessed was mostly just the flying. John Sheppard, much more than a flyboy indeed.
What more is there to say. I loved that they had Lorne in civilian clothes first and him and Zelenka interacting (backup Sheppard & McKay ;)
In terms of John/Rodney there was what we've become used to by now. When things happen they seek eye contact (and I'll never get tired of that). There's snark and there was Rodney dismissing John out of hand which made me cringe (checks who wrote this episode: Alan McCullough). I just... well, okay, we know that Rodney trusts John with his life, but maybe the fact that he built this thing gave him delusions of grandeur, getting him into "I built it, only I can possibly fix it" mode.
However we do have something in the end. At the beginning of the episode we learn that Rodney dropped Torren and isn't allowed to hold him anymore. At the end, Teyla brings Torren to Rodney in the infirmary and when she says "You're gonna make an excellent father some day." and Rodney and John exchange this look... I got a really, really strong established relationship vibe. I can't even describe it. But it was certainly happy making :)
5x05 Ghost in the machine
So, I try to remain spoiler free, but I look at episode pictures (since they are mostly quite general and don't give away the ending and don't touch upon relationship stuff for the most part; and really it's because I download them to my HD and am paranoid they might be gone by the time the episode comes around).
The episode promos for this episode made it look like it was just another Replicator episode, which was why I was pleasantly surprised that it was about Elizabeth.
When we last saw her I thought it was a great set-up for an Elizabeth as their main opponent in S5 arc. It would have been wonderfully ambiguous having her use her powers to fight for good, but being corrupted by it and forcing the Atlanteans to fight someone they love. I still liked this episode because it gives us at least some form of closure there.
I thought they came up with a credible way to have her played by another actress, who did an increasingly good job, I thought, as the episode progressed (and I won't get into behind the scenes politics here). I thought the story was quite nice and interesting and the ending very fitting. I've seen someone comment on why they didn't just turn around and get Elizabeth back, but I think her fate was tied to the replicators. She was their leader, she allowed them to take that wrong step and suffer and she now made the tough decision to freeze all of them simply because she cannot guarantee that they won't be a threat. They were looking for ascension, like she did. They have become her people and you don't leave your people behind especially since as far as we know they might all be innocent (if you can say that of machines). I can't see her happily going her way towards ascension after condemning the others with the same goal to be Popsicles in space. So I do think it's fitting.
In terms of John/Rodney I made several notes that say "looks at Rodney" and "looks at John". We had a lot of that in this episode. One moment I'd like to point out is where Rodney says he owes it to Elizabeth and looks at John as if wishing for his support. John doesn't really react. One possible explanation is that has his own guilt to deal with while seeing the danger of the situation and not wishing to make the same mistake again. There's also the fact that they were in front of Woolsey. John feels awkward comforting people (though less so with Rodney, because there'll be no hugs and it's more a "Cheer up, buddy" kind of thing) but doing it in front of their new commander that they hardly know? I could imagine that he talked to Rodney at a later point, telling him that he gets how he feels.
Also: Rodney falling asleep at the desk is canon. Do people really do that? I know I have managed to crawl to bed every time even when I stayed up late. Then again, my bed is five feet away.
Oh, and crashing the gate was about the coolest thing ever!
5x06 The Shrine
General things
The cold opening here was very effective. The structure was very effective, even though it also poses some problems, which I will get into in the next part.
Woolsey recalling seeing his Dad was touching however for some reason it fell flat to me. I think one reason was that I knew it was to tell Ronon that he's just imagined it, which he didn't and the other reason might have been that we've gotten Woolsey character moments in just about every episode. This is not a bad thing. However we now know what he does in his free time, that he had a wife and a dog, but no kids and now a Dad with Alzheimer's. Again, it's cool to get to know new characters, however after six episodes (and he only really appeared in four) we basically know as much if not more about his background than Teyla's or Ronon's, which seems a bit off.
The "They taught you to hunt at six!?!" moment was funny as hell though. And his scene with Amelia was awesome. (And hey, she got a name! We have a pretty, recurring, named, female character who has a good chance of not being romantically linked to any male character :)
I loved the Jeannie and Ronon scene. I loved Jeannie, both her weakness and strength. And it was good to see Ronon understand her. Ronon and Teyla fought what they believed was right. Keller's fear that it would be torture was obviously justified and a decision like this always has an element of being about those watching rather than the patient, but I also think it's fair to assume that in the end Rodney wouldn't have held it against them and even appreciated the chance to have another picnic with his friends and family as himself. So, go Ronon and Teyla!
When Ronon told us about the shrine, my first thought was "Oh, I bet this somehow does something to the parasite." Now, I'm not the kind of person who sees super plot twists way in advance. But this was really a no-brainer. And I'm not just talking about that they would fix Rodney (which was a no-brainer), but simply that within the context of the show it should have been clear that the magical sounding thing turns out to be tech. It's only the whole premise of the franchise! So that was pretty annoying. If you keep thinking "idiot" at 5/6th of your main cast that's just not a good thing. I also found the explanation on how the Shrine kills a bit flimsy (though upon re-reading the transcripts I guess it makes sense, it just didn't come across that way to me). And I don't know why they didn't have Rodney fix up the LSD instead of Jeannie. But all right, minor points compared to what the episode managed to do as a whole.
John/Rodney, the last scene and its implications
Okay, when reading episode reactions there was a slightly surprising (to me) divide between those squeeing about Rodney/Jennifer and those criticizing/venting. (And I should point out that I'm talking about episode reactions by John/Rodney shippers.) In any case, since the reaction isn't uniform and the sides rather opposite, I feel that I should warn ahead what kind of review this is.
There'll be no squeeing about Rodney/Jennifer in this review. While I have eventually found something positive about it, I do not support a positive portrayal of a romantic Rodney/Jennifer relationship on the show or subsequent movies.
That doesn't mean I hate Keller. I will only discuss her at length in the context of her relationship with Rodney.
Okay, that out of the way, let's get to the reaction. It's been two weeks since I watched the episode and every review and fic I read has given me more insight into the various ways to interpret what we saw. And I changed my mind. Several times and quite radically. That in itself is not unusual (I have my fair share of "Oh wow, did I really think/say that?!" moments). But for an episode reaction it's not the norm.
But then "The Shrine" is far from a normal episode for a shipper.
I've decided to put up my reactions in chronological order, because I think all of them are valid interpretations (not that you can have invalid interpretations... it's their very nature that they take what's not in the text and as such can never be proven wrong and can only feel implausible to someone else) and because they convey my feelings on the subject matter.
1) Denial - You've got to be kidding me!
"I love you. Sounds very much like a friend thing. She's become one of the people he loves."
This is what I first wrote on that last scene in my "write as I watch" notes.
I just don't buy it.
Let's go back to the Rodney/Katie relationship for a moment. Rodney/Katie suffered greatly from any lack of build-up or consistency. She was the invisible girlfriend. Their interaction on screen was so ambiguous and lacking sexual chemistry that it was very easy not to see them as an actual couple. Eventually we had to be downright told that, yes, they are in fact a real couple and have been for over a year. And even then it was very hard to believe when her absence was glaring in scenes like when Rodney had the alien thing inside of him in Doppelgänger where his girlfriend of half a year was neither present nor even mentioned.
Now, Rodney/Jennifer is not the same. They interact regularly and are friends. They also have a certain amount of sexual chemistry, however the same could be said for a lot of combinations of people on the show. I think one of the problems here was the Ronon/Jennifer interaction in the beginning of season 4 culminating in the near kiss in "Quarantine". This wasn't followed up on and Joe Mallozzi pointed (rightly) out that a near kiss doesn't have to mean anything.
However this is where the past presentation of romantic relationships bit the makers in the ass. After all, when Katie returned she suddenly simply was Rodney's girlfriend. That FBI or whatever woman that Jack was sleeping with on SG-1? We never got to see how that happened. Teyla and Kanaan? The first we heard about that was in the same episode where she turned up pregnant. (Okay, I don't blame the writers for that one since they were handling Rachel's real life pregnancy here, but to the viewer it doesn't change what happened.) This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I think considering those other relationships it wasn't very far off for the viewer to assume that the Ronon/Jennifer thing actually did mean something and led to more.
There is a deleted scene in "Trio" in which Jennifer explains that Ronon doesn't make a move on her despite what happened (something to that effect at least). I think it would have helped them a lot if they had kept that in, because at least that would explain what happened there. Now back to Rodney/Jennifer.
As I said they built up a friendship between Rodney and Jennifer (just like Teyla and Jennifer). Then they sprung the end of "Trio" on us out of the blue. Jennifer asks Rodney to ask her out on a drink. He is completely surprised but happy. This could have been a hint that he has romantic feelings for her, however in that same episode they had his interest in her getting out of her shirt paired with trying to get Sam to show her breasts. Also, the drink is never followed up on, so after the Ronon/Jennifer thing it's understandable if we then thought that this drink didn't mean anything more and that Rodney's happiness was really not about Jennifer per se, but being flattered in general, which is pretty much how I see it now (and wow, I just read my reaction to "Trio" and I've changed my mind about almost everything I wrote there).
In fact in "The Last Man" (and again in "The Shrine") they confirm that nothing happened after that drink and that flirting over the fruit cup in "The Shrine" seemed playful to me and not serious. The talk about dating could have maybe led to another drink, or it could have just been forgotten. I didn't see any real intent behind it on either side.
Going back to "The Last Man"... We were presented with an alternate timeline where they were isolated on a ship for several weeks after all of their friends including John were dead. They then had a relationship and were happy for several months until Jennifer died which drove Rodney over the brink. I think even the show itself didn't try to tell us that it was just Jennifer's death that pushed Rodney to dedicate his life to save her (mainly because he didn't just try to save her, but everyone, especially of course John).
It's hard to put that into a proper context, because as far as Rodney's concerned none of it happened. We saw that he can be in a romantic relationship with Jennifer, but the circumstances were basically pushing them together. Put that against a canon where he did not pursue a romantic relationship with her although she asked him to (or at least signaled her interest) and to me it seemed fair to assume that in this timeline their relationship is only one of friendship.
On top of that, the beginning of season five didn't manage to convince me of Rodney's particular interest in her either. When she wanted to take care of him in "Search and Rescue" he just sent her off to Lorne (okay, rightfully, but he could have looked regretful about it) and later he's pretty much only annoyed with her. Then of course "The Seed". Jennifer was dying. It was the chance to show us how Rodney really feels about her, if he feels anything other than friendship. But I got nothing more than that from this episode. He's worried, sure, she is a friend after all, but other than that... I actually went back yesterday and watched a few scenes of "The Seed" and to me his behavior still remains completely devoid of anything that could imply he is in love with her.
When they first want to test the serum, he doesn't volunteer. When they need to bring it to Jennifer, he does volunteer, but of all the three people who did (which in itself misses to chance to make Rodney's feelings stand out) he looks like he really doesn't want to and only did it because it was expected and the right and selfless thing to do. Later, when John takes the serum and goes in after Ronon got tentacled, Rodney says that he can't go because of the quarantine. John's trying to save the woman Rodney loves from certain death and he talks about protocol?? My interpretation obviously is that he simply didn't want John to risk his life, but that's the John/Rodney interpretation, what about the Rodney/Jennifer one? (I should say that in general Rodney seemed OOC in The Seed and very uncaring not just towards Jennifer but also John.) I can't recall any Rodney/Jennifer interaction from the Ronon episode and I don't think Jennifer was even in the following two.
Then comes "The Shrine", with Rodney crying out for John repeatedly, and we're supposed to believe that Rodney loves Jennifer. For some time now. I'm sorry, but no, this just doesn't compute. When Rodney tells Jennifer he loves her, to me it only makes sense as friendship, if you consider the context of what came before.
Of course, I won't deny that the scene was meant to be seen as romantic. However it's not impossible to interpret it differently. Rodney is awkward and hesitating. But that could simply be because he tries to think of how to say "I really like you, you're a good friend". Then he gets sure of himself because he realizes he loves her (as a friend). Sunday implied to me that Rodney has taken a very long time to understand that his team and others on Atlantis are actually really his friends. And I think it's not unbelievable that it's still a surprise to him and something that he cherishes. So he tells Jennifer he loves her, because he does and it's a great thing and more than that he realizes that he's actually felt like that for a while, that she has managed to become a close friend very quickly, which is even more surprising to Rodney and enough to make him wistful about it.
2) Acceptance - You're doing it wrong!
Well, denial is a time-honored shipper's way of dealing with things. However, I'm a "Zweckpessimist", i.e. while I hope for the best I try to expect the worst. And my denial aside, it's pretty obvious that the PTB intended the declaration to be one of romance not friendship.
My mind immediately started to conjure up fic ideas in which Rodney and Jennifer are together (like I kept thinking of Rodney/Katie, even when it was still quite ambiguous). So I figured I might as well deal with it properly to prepare myself for the coming battle so-to-speak.
I tried to look at it from the view of a casual viewer. Jennifer asked Rodney out on a drink in "Trio". "The Last Man" showed us that they are meant to be. And now in "The Shrine" they go back to talking about dating and finally, in the face of death, Rodney admits that he loves Jennifer. It's wonderfully perfect, isn't it? We all can't wait to see them get together, right?
Yeah, well... I don't have to go into what I outlined above. TPTB didn't manage to convince me that Rodney had any feelings beyond friendship for Jennifer before this episode. But let's forget about all that came before. After all, they're just making it up as they go along, so maybe when they shot "The Seed" they simply didn't know that Rodney has been in love with Jennifer for some time. Let's just take a look at "The Shrine" and then try to figure out how we can interpret the canon that Rodney loves Jennifer in a way that makes it possible for me to believe that he and John belong together.
[And this is the point where I feel the need to point out that I'm doing this because as someone who's fanfic mindset is mostly based on current canon (unless it's an AU), I have to do this in order to get a handle on how to deal with it in my fic.]
However the longer I thought about the episode and read reactions and fanfic, the more frustrated I got.
The thing is, I look at the episode, at what they canonically showed us and while at first glance it looks like the perfect big step towards a fulfilling Rodney/Jennifer romance, it just isn't. Yes, Rodney told Jennifer that he loved her, but the two main John/Rodney scenes tell us something else.
Let's go back to the structure of the episode. It's told in a non-linear way, giving us a cold opening that packs an amazing punch and dropping the boring exposition into spots in between. It gives a writer more control over how people will react to certain parts of the story. E.g. if you begin a story with the unhappy end, you can prepare the user and avoid false hope (like in American Beauty and something that they missed in The Perfect Storm, which pissed me off to no end because of that).
"The Shrine" used it to put the emphasis of the episode on the surprise reveal at the end (although they already showed us the beginning of the scene in the middle of the episode, as a teaser so to speak). That's the thing we walk away with from the episode, that's what makes us go "Wow, Rodney loves Jennifer" afterwards.
The problem is changing the order of events in the presentation doesn't change what happened, only how it appears to the viewer. Rodney tells Jennifer that he loved her for some time now, but when he woke up alone, in total panic that he was losing himself, he didn't go to the woman he loves, who also happens to be his doctor. His immediate reaction is to run through the halls of Atlantis, shouting for John.
This alone is pretty telling, although one might say that he ran to John because John was (apparently) at his bedside when he fell asleep (although Rodney says "everyone" was gone and not John in particular). However, Day 15, is absolutely striking in what it says about his relationships with John and Jennifer respectively.
He's agitated and asking for John. Jennifer tells him, "He just had to go away for a few minutes." Rodney starts calling for John and Jennifer tells him, "Rodney, I'm your friend. I'm right here," without any impact on him at all. He keeps shouting for John. While Jennifer is right there.
Rodney is in love with Jennifer. But what kind of love is it? Well, we know what it's not. It's not that all-encompassing love where the other person becomes the center of your world. Because that apparently is John. When he wakes up all alone at night, scared, he runs to John. When he's losing himself and the world around him falls apart he's shouting for John. When he stops understanding everything, he still trusts John.
Rodney is in love with Jennifer, but it's an intellectual love. He's thinking he's in love with her and when he stops thinking, there's just John. And suddenly, going back to Katie Brown, this explains quite a bit.
For most viewers the Rodney/Katie relationship never worked. They never felt like a couple, even though they were supposed to be. And this is really key here. Rodney and Katie were supposed to be a couple. He was supposed to be in love with her. He was supposed to be ready to marry her. And I've stopped talking about the viewers POV and started talking about Rodney now. This difference between what he feels and what he thinks he should feel is brought up in "Miller's Crossing". Jeannie asks if he will marry Katie. Rodney doesn't want to talk about it. Jeannie points out that they've been dating for over a year and Rodney says, "I'm aware of that, thank you." Jeannie asks if he thinks he'll find someone better and he answers, "No, it's not that."
It's not that, but it's something. Rodney doesn't want to marry Katie. But he is aware of the fact that he should. Four episodes after that he had bought a ring and set out to propose to her. We know how it ended. We know that the two of them realized that this could never work. Even though Rodney wasn't quite as aware of it being the end. There is no reason for us to believe that Rodney wanted to propose to someone that he didn't love. He loved Katie. Or at least he must have thought he did.
And there we are again. I'd like to mention two other moments here that hint that Rodney has a very set idea of how love/attraction is supposed to work.
In "Trio" when Keller asks him Newman or Redford, if he had to choose, his answer is, "So I'm to choose which one of those guys I would wanna force themselves on me". Way to miss the point of the game, Rodney. As Jennifer points out it's just a dumb game, but instead Rodney makes a point about the straightness of these two guys (instead of his own, but that's a whole other point). Later he plays along with the game, but his first reaction was still to bring in logic.
Then in "Harmony" when Harmony asks about love and tells him she thinks she's in love with John, Rodney points out that a lot of people fall for John's "good looks and charm" and when she asks him not to come between her and John, he tells her, "You're a lot more mature than the women he usually falls for," with a certain amount of frustration. Again, I think this hints at Rodney's idea of how you fall in love. Good looks and charm is what is generally accepted as being attractive, even though it's just something superficial. The latter statement is more about who he thinks John should fall for, namely women who are more mature. I really enjoyed this because it shows that Rodney cares about John as a friend, but in the context of Rodney's view on love it implies the believe that you can somehow control who you fall in love with (or the frustration that you can't).
What I'm trying to say with all of this is that I think Rodney has a set view of who he should be in love with. It should be an attractive, charming, intelligent woman. Katie was one. And Jennifer is one too. On top of that he has a much better rapport with Jennifer, feels more ready to be himself and she's quite tolerant of Rodney's sometimes difficult attitude. All of this makes her a much better choice for Rodney than Katie. The problem is that you can't just take someone who should be perfect for you and then just be in love with them. It doesn't work that way.
The thing is, Rodney knows that. In "Quarantine" he eventually acknowledged that he wasn't ready to marry Katie. With Jennifer we have hints that he knows it too.
Rodney says that he loved her for some time now. And yet, when she told him to ask her out on a drink, he did, but never followed up on it. Why? They're friends. She has signaled that she'd be interested in taking the relationship to another level. What more could he possibly need if he loves her? It makes no sense to me at all. After he tells Jennifer he loves her, he smiles awkwardly and goes back to logging his progress. He's not looking for her reaction. Combined with not pursuing a relationship prior to this episode this tells me that he doesn't see a romantic relationship between them. He could have reasons why he thinks they might not work out, but what I really think is that deep down Rodney knows his love for Jennifer is a product of his mind, not his heart, exactly like his love for Katie was.
So, this is my explanation for why Rodney tells Jennifer he loves her (because he believes it to be true).
But lets take his love as true for a moment. Maybe he genuinely loves Jennifer with all his heart. He still cried out for John, completely ignoring her presence on Day 15. So how are we going to interpret that? I think the best way to explain it would be to assume that the reason Jennifer cannot comfort him in this situation is because they aren't actually together yet, after all being in love with someone doesn't mean that you are close to them. In fact you can love someone without ever even meeting them. Loving someone from afar is a cliche. So maybe it's just that and as soon as Rodney and Jennifer start dating things will be different.
The problem with that is that Jennifer actually is a friend. We've seen her join the team for lunch. They crack jokes and are at ease around each. But the implications of "The Shrine" would be that he's still holding back around her, basically splitting up his love for her in a part of himself that's loving her from afar and staying detached and the normal friendship (which pales in comparison to John's).
To summarize, Rodney has been secretly in love with Jennifer, but he doesn't believe he should pursue a relationship, despite her signaling her interest. He keeps up a friendship with her, but doesn't let it become something deep, instead loving her from afar.
The thing is... I'm actually reaching here. I'm trying to come up with plausible explanations (other than "Oh, the parasite happened to zap the part of his brain where he loves Keller, but left his need for John completely untouched.") And even so, we'd still have to explain why exactly Rodney didn't think a relationship with Jennifer was worth pursuing. And we'd have to believe that if they got together it would so radically change their relationships that it could change the fact that when Rodney was losing his mind he didn't care about Jennifer and only called for John.
Because as it is now, Rodney might believe he loves Jennifer, but the most important person to him is still John. Are we supposed to accept that as normal? Is it supposed to be best friends forever and over anything and anyone, even the woman you love? I'm trying to imagine a future scenario here where Rodney is injured and so out of his mind that he can't think anymore. Right now I'd have to expect him to shout for John. How would that feel for Jennifer? I can't for the life of me imagine that she wouldn't be affected by it. Hell, even in "The Shrine" there were hints that she was aware of John's importance to Rodney and didn't like it. That was my subjective impression when she didn't want them to take Rodney to the shrine and she told him John was just gone for a minute and that she was here.
And that's another thing. Jennifer has seen Rodney's need for John. It was clear as daylight in the first scene. Which makes it even harder for me to get a warm fuzzy feeling about Rodney/Jennifer.
If you look at it from her perspective, she's been interested in Ronon, but shot down. Then she's interested in Rodney, who buys her a drink, but doesn't follow up on it either. Then suddenly he's all sweet and flirty and hints he might ask her out again. It turns out to be a parasite and she feels guilty, but then Rodney tells her he loves her. She must have been floored by this. She obviously didn't act on it immediately, because Rodney's dying, but she watches the scene repeatedly, probably in hopes to hear Rodney say those words again when he's okay. Then Rodney gets worse and frustrated. He completely ignores her in his distress while desperately calling for John. He deteriorates further to a point of losing almost all comprehension. He smiles when he sees her, but when John comes in he lights up and when John asks him to go, he agrees. She still hopes to save Rodney so she keeps on fighting, but in the end the decision is taken out of her hands and they go and Rodney gets better. They can save him. She goes and watches his declaration of love again.
I'm not sure about you, but what I feel here is not so much "Yay, Jen, go get your man!", but "Oh Jennifer" and the need to give her a hug. Because what she had, that wonderful moment that painted a bright future for her, was completely fleeting.
What is really bothersome about this as an intro into future Rodney/Jennifer bliss is that it really didn't have to be this way. First of all "The Seed" was the perfect opportunity to show that Rodney's feelings for Jennifer go beyond friendship. And in "The Shrine" itself, how hard would it have been not to make that first scene all about John. (And yes, I can't believe I'm saying that either. This is what they make me do to see some sense in this whole mess!) He could have shouted "I wanna go home. Please, Jennifer." or something else. And in the scene where he looks for John at night, he could have said that he didn't want to wake Jennifer.
But then, I'm probably seeing this completely wrong. While writing this review I went ahead and made a video of "The Shrine" in chronological order and for that and in general I also referred to the transcript on Gateworld. This transcript includes the following:
McKAY: Ah, I guess if I had to choose the people I would spend my last day with, then ...
(Jeanie smiles, assuming that he means her, but Rodney looks across to Jennifer, who is scanning the central column again. Jeanie also looks at her, a little startled. However, before that line of thought can go any further, Rodney notices Jen's expression.)
Okay, what I saw happening in that scene was Rodney beginning to agree that he was with the people he loved when Jennifer's scanner beeped, he looked over, frowning, and, seeing what she's doing, asks what's going on. But I'm not pointing this out to discuss the impossibility of being neutral or the challenge of avoiding any assumptions while still bringing across what happens on the screen.
What I'm trying to show is that what we see when we watch a TV show can not only be influenced by the episode itself (through music, framing and order of scenes), but also by the greater context of TV in general and society as a whole. So maybe the problems that I'm seeing with the portrayal of Rodney/Jennifer and the things that make it impossible for me to endorse them as a couple (other than being a John/Rodney shipper) are just not there for the "normal" casual audience.
They'll be shocked to see Rodney's state at the beginning. They'll remember that Rodney dedicated his life to saving Jennifer in "The Last Man", so they'll see the hints and go "Oh, are they finally doing this now?" They'll hopefully be excited about how the hell they're going to save Rodney, see the team vs. Jennifer, understanding both. They'll fondly watch the John/Rodney scene, two straight guys, best friends. And eventually the last scene rolls around and the reveal comes and they'll think, "Wow, so he really does love her for some time now."
Two weeks after watching the episode for the first time, I still see new things and change my mind about my personal interpretation of it. This is not what a casual viewer will do. They'll watch the episode once and that's it. What they saw in that version is their canon. That Rodney ran through halls to John or ignored Jennifer, calling for John, after he declared his love for Jennifer doesn't matter because for them it did not happen afterwards.
ETA:
I'm not sure if that came across clearly here. What I'm talking about is blindness to slash in comparison to het. I'm 100% certain that if either John or Rodney were a woman they'd have been given the same treatment as Sam/Jack, i.e. a bunch of fake ways to get them together and some actual meant to be recognized (sub)text.
But even forgetting everything that might have happened before, they simply couldn't have done this episode if John were a woman. Rodney shouting for her in the beginning? Rodney running to her room, her getting out of bed and the two of them grabbing each other like that in her quarters at night? And then of course Rodney fighting to say his goodbye's to her. There's no way in the world that they could have done that without every single viewer getting at the very least a "Wait a minute..." moment.
They're relying on viewers not to see John/Rodney as a viable option, because if they did, they might see what I saw.
End ETA
So this is really just my problem. I try to anticipate a Rodney/Jennifer romance and from how I saw the episode, they'd have to address Rodney's feelings towards John vs. those for Jennifer. They'd have to make us believe that at some point since "The Shrine" Rodney has changed and that now Jennifer is more important to him. They could make him choose Jennifer over John in a life-threatening situation or Jennifer could be in danger and he wants to go out and rescue her against John's objections.
Of course the problems with is that it would pit a heterosexual romantic relationship against the long lasting friendship between the two main characters of the show. So that's not really desirable either.
But as I mentioned, it's not as if anyone's going to see things the way I did, even though I really think they're there. So I guess I'll just have to resign myself to the fact that what happens on screen doesn't really make sense to me and try to interpret it in a John/Rodney friendly way as well as I can.
3) Revelation - How I learned to stop worrying and love the last scene of The Shrine
If you've followed me so far, you might have thought at one point or another, "But you don't know what the PTB are going to do."
Well, I always try to prepare for the worst and since this is the third time the relationship was brought up and since it was done so explicitly (not as playful as the drink and not an AU as "The Last Man"), I don't see any reason for them not to go ahead and pursue this.
Maybe not in the next episode, but this seems like a thing that would eventually need to be resolved. So there'll be a Rodney/Jennifer romance. Or will there?
After becoming completely frustrated with the fact that the whole episode and the relevant bits that came before have layers and layers of issues that need to be dealt with, I suddenly remembered Katie Brown again.
I remember my frustration there. How what I saw on screen simply wasn't a happy couple with a bright future ahead of them. I remember after knowing nothing about the episode Quarantine, except that Katie would pout at Rodney at one point and Rodney saying "It's what I do" that I feared they'd use that chance to give their relationship some tension with the purpose to release that tension and have them come out stronger (because what other reason do you have to show fights). Way back then I feared they'd get engaged and then the clip that confirmed Rodney's intentions made the rounds and I was ready to go into full angst mode. Look how that turned out.
My personal interpretation of that, my dissatisfaction with it, was put on screen. Fanon became canon.
I have to admit that the first week of thinking about the Shrine I had a total blind spot towards Jennifer. When either John or Rodney are shown in anything like a romantic entanglement or something that could become one, my brain just switches into shipper mode and I only see them and anything that might be useful to interpret their actions in a John/Rodney friendly way. To that end what the woman feels it completely irrelevant. And when they showed us Jennifer watching the clip leading up to Rodney's confession, she stopped being Jennifer and became just a potential problem. (I know this sounds horrible, but it's how my brain works.)
So it took me a while to realize that while Jennifer's feelings are irrelevant to interpret Rodney and John, they are not irrelevant to what will happen next. I read in another episode commentary that Jennifer doesn't even necessarily look as if she's going to pursue this thing for her part. Together with my realization that Rodney/Katie actually turned my personal interpretation into canon, I suddenly tried to forget all expectations and worries, tried to just see the episode as what I saw.
What I see is Rodney thinking he's in love with Jennifer, but knowing deep down that it's not real. That's why he never pursued a relationship with her even after she told him to buy her a drink. That's why when he tells her he loves her it's completely without expectation.
What I see is John, having loved Rodney for longer than Jennifer even knows him, always being there for him. What I see is a friendship that developed quickly and grew over the years beyond what either Rodney or John probably imagined, a friendship so strong that for both men the other is the center of their world.
What I see is Jennifer, facing the challenges of one of the most difficult jobs on Atlantis and what the Pegasus Galaxy throws at them. What I see is a young woman proving herself and finding friends far away from home. What I see is someone looking for love and being disappointed only to have a good friend declare his heartfelt love for her. What I see is Jennifer struggling to hold onto that Rodney, to fix her mistake, to save him. What I see is Jennifer watching it all fall apart in front of her eyes and when they've finally brought Rodney home and he's all right, she realizes that they're back to how things were before in more ways than one and that the only thing that remains of her dream is the memory and a recording.
What I see is Rodney stuck in his way of thinking, stuck with believing in what should be, so much that he's blind to his own feelings, that he can only show them when he stops thinking. What I see is a great love between two people who don't know how to come to terms with what they're feeling, who either can't see it or can't express it, who reach out to each other in the only way they can. What I see is two men so in love that it hurts to watch them stumble blindly towards each other.
And this is something that I couldn't say with as much conviction before.
If I could decide how they continue this on the show, I'd have Rodney asks Jennifer out on a date. She could gently let him down, saying she doesn't think this will work out and after he leaves, she can look sad, because she would have liked to see what they could have become, but she knows it's not going to happen. Certainly not as long as John is there. Or you could have a situation where she's in danger and Rodney can express his distress over it. Ronon could then be the hero who saves her and Jennifer could be grateful to him and Rodney could be jealous, but also resigned. John could take him out on a beer, comforting him (in a manly untouchy way obviously), and later we could have Rodney and Jennifer reconnect as friends, the only way it really can be between them.
Of course, if that's how it goes down, why bother with bringing it up at all. After all SGA is not a soap. They've managed to keep relationships to a minimum and would have survived without it.
And then I suddenly had a crazy epiphany. (I could note that this is the point where I leave the realms of reality, but fantasies aren't bad per se.)
Paradoxically it turns out that in such a scenario the one purpose of the last scene is to move the John/Rodney relationship to another level.
Okay. I can see you slowly backing away at this point, looking for a way to call the nice people with the straight-jackets. Didn't I just try to first deny that the last scene happened, then go on for thousands of words on why it's wrong?
Yes, I did and I still do. But what makes the last scene problematic for a future Rodney/Jennifer relationship makes sense when what you're after is John/Rodney.
My personal canon for John is that he's in love with Rodney and has known this for a while now. With Rodney things weren't as easy. While "Sunday" established my belief that John is aware of his feelings for Rodney, the same episode made things difficult for my interpretation of Rodney. His talk to Katie was so innocent and genuine. He wants to find the right person to marry and have a family with. Back then I thought I had the choice between a Rodney who is blind to the possibility of John being that person, probably because he considers himself straight, and a Rodney who doesn't think he could ever have John.
For various reasons I tended to lean towards the first interpretation. Oblivious Rodney fits well to Pining John. It makes any and all interactions with women easily explainable and it's a whole lot less depressing than Rodney knowing he loves John, but having no hope to ever be with him.
I've always felt that John's feelings for Rodney were very apparent, which made it easy to stay firm in my belief that John's in love and knows it. Scenes like the one in "Miller's Crossing", the ending of "Tabula Rasa" and the fact that nobody's ever more important to John than Rodney make it easy to see how he feels.
With Rodney, it's not as clear-cut. Rodney shows his emotions much more than John. Yes, he's worried about John when he's in danger, but I personally mostly don't see a difference between Rodney being worried about random red shirt and Rodney being worried about John. (I believe Joe puts a lot more nuances in his acting there.) I wanted to believe that Rodney loves John or that he could at least if he only opened his eyes to it, but I didn't have that moment that made me go, "Yes, this is it, this is the proof that John is it for him."
Along comes "The Shrine". From the beginning to almost the end, the episode was one long declaration of love from Rodney to John. He's used his name more often in this episode than in all previous episodes combined. (I haven't counted, but I'm quite certain of this.) He's run to him at night, he's called for him in desperation, he wanted to tell him how he feels, and his face lit up at the sight of him, much more brightly than for any of the others. Even Jennifer put an emphasis on John when she told Rodney he had visitors. And when Jeannie wanted to know what happened to her brother, she mostly addressed John.
All of this would have been wonderful in and of itself. But all it would have proven was that John is Rodney's best friend, which I feel was established a while ago.
It's Rodney's declaration that he loves Jennifer that puts it all into a whole new context. Now the scene where he calls for John while Jennifer tries to calm him down doesn't just mean that John's his best friend. It means that Rodney is more emotionally attached to John than to the woman he professes to love.
I've been waiting for years to be able to say to myself, "Rodney loves John in my personal canon." But I never really was until he said those words to Jennifer Keller.
The funny thing is, as a John/Rodney vehicle the last scene is pretty damn brilliant. And actually it's not just that. I've been complaining about the inconsistency of Rodney/Jennifer this season, but the John/Rodney/Jennifer love triangle (that's triangle not threesome) has actually been there since "The Last Man". That episode featured Rodney beginning a relationship with Jennifer after John is gone. When Jennifer gets sick, Rodney goes a bit crazy and puts his plan into action to return John from the future. Jennifer asks him not to. Obviously this is about not seeing Rodney obsess over something impossible all his life. But it also means that she's asking him not to save John.
Then there's "Search and Rescue" with the pretty significant John and Jennifer scene. He believes Rodney's dead. He can't look at her. Then he learns Rodney's alive and he and Jennifer are right there together, two people glad that Rodney made it. Then it turns and he fights to get out of the infirmary. It is about John wanting to act instead of lying useless in surgery, but it's still a fight between them.
Similarly in "The Seed", where there's obviously no confrontation between them over Rodney, hell, John volunteers to test the serum to save her (and the rest of them), but we still have the very powerful image of him pointing a gun at her while her tentacles attack and eventually stab him.
In "The Shrine" itself there are undercurrents of John vs. Jennifer, but the main battle is very wisely between Jennifer and Ronon. If this had been between Jennifer and John it would have tipped the precarious balance of her actions between doing what's best for Rodney and letting her own feelings get the better of her towards the latter. Still we had the two of them trying to persuade Rodney to go or not go to the shrine, we had their confrontation about what to do with Rodney, moving into working together to save the man they love (although I doubt that Jennifer actually loves him at this point).
It's always amusing to me when the shipper's view of things seems to make more sense to me than a straight-forward interpretation. In this case however it's more than amusing, it's deeply satisfying.
Now I'm under no illusion that this was the set-up for a big Jennifer vs. John confrontation. However if they wanted to give us John/Rodney in a way that was quite profound and yet invisible to advertisers, young male viewers and everyone else who would feel disturbed by the notion of John and Rodney together, they did it brilliantly. Of course that wasn't their intention. But it doesn't matter.
Even if the next episode has Rodney awkwardly asking Jennifer out and we can watch them have a cute date and then kiss, even if they really get together as a couple, seemingly happily, I can easily have it as my personal canon that Rodney's just lying to himself and that he managed to convince Jennifer to join his willful blindness. Because everything in this episode said that while Rodney might want to be in love with Jennifer, John is the one who matters the most to him.
And that is something that they can't ever take away from me.
John/Rodney
Okay, I'm approximately 7500 words into this review, so I'll keep the rest short.
This episode was chock-full of John/Rodney goodness. Things that would normally be highlights fall completely on the sidelines here and I'll just mention a few things that haven't already been touched upon, which means mainly John's POV.
Poor John. He's completely unwilling to accept what's happening. This is how it works for him. He can't afford to break down. He has responsibilities. When Ronon simply tells their boss "You're wrong and I'll take him to a Wraith infested planet", John tries to mediate. It's not easy, but he's holding on.
But we can see how hard it is for him. We can see it in the way he keeps looking at Rodney after denying him a goodbye. We can see it in how he looks at Jeannie when he tells her it doesn't matter what she says. And of course it's there towards the end, when Jennifer won't let them take him to the shrine.
One thing about this episode and about John dealing with Rodney in particular is that we never get to actually see him take care of Rodney (other than in the cave and when Rodney runs to him). Yet, it's implied that he was at Rodney's bedside until he fell asleep. And when Jennifer says that he is only gone for a minute we can only assume that before that, John was pretty much a steady presence at his side. This is a wonderful image to me and I would have loved to see a bit of it.
John touched him in the infirmary (nothing big in this episode, but it was before they knew something was wrong with Rodney).
Then there's the thing about the jacket. crysothemis posted a nice investigation into the jacket that Rodney is wearing. And yes, that would be one jacket, because the one that he's wearing at the cave is the same he wore out on the pier, the one that John gave him, the one that lay in John's room.
There are two explanations: 1) It's Rodney's jacket, which he got out of in John's room for some reason (ha!) and forgot there until that day. 2) It's John's jacket, which he kept all those days and finally wore on the day he went to die (in that context note that Teyla also put on her personal clothes and not her normal uniform). The idea that John's jacket is making him feel safe is just so lovely I can't even put it into words.
The last thing I want to mention is a bit of John/Rodney subtext from Rodney's side. In the traumatic situation when he finds out he only has a day as himself, when John asks him what he remembers, what Rodney shoots back is "I remember you not wanting me to say goodbye then."
*Ouch* Of all the things he remembers, his first reaction is his anger at not being allowed to say goodbye to John.
I've mentioned before that way back in "Sunday" I was faced with deciding between Oblivious Rodney and Pining Rodney as my personal canon. One of the reasons that I find it much harder to do Pining Rodney than Pining John is the way they express their perceived unrequited love. John can suffer so beautifully. But with Rodney, the feelings are much more stark. His hopelessness is much more bleak, pushed so deep that he's hiding it from himself. And then it comes out in moments like the end of "Travelers" with his completely irrational display of jealousy or with this.
John couldn't have kept him from saying "I love you", but Rodney still couldn't say it against John's will because unlike with Jennifer he wanted a reaction there. I think he wanted the acknowledgement of what they meant to each other. They are friends. The pier scene illustrated that in a lovely way, but for once Rodney wanted to put into words how much beyond a normal friendship this goes. And I'm not talking about being in love. I (finally) think he is, but I think he simply wanted to be able to say, "John, I've never been as close to anyone in my life as I've been to you and that's both completely fucked up and beautiful and I wouldn't have it any other way." Except that at times like this he would. At times like this it would be nice if John could let go.
Then again, I believe if that ever happened, we'd quickly get to a point where even Rodney wouldn't be able to lie to himself any longer. As it is, I think moments like his anger at John here hit their mark pretty close to home.
And after all, we still need something left for us to do in fanfic ;)