Rewatch: Miller's Crossing

[twinsarein]

Rodney McKay is continuing to work on solving the problems with the replicator nano code and finally gives in to Zalenka's request that he contact his sister Jeannie for help. He sends her an e-mail but that same night, she is kidnapped and taken to a private medical facility where she is expected to use nano technology to save the life of a

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Comment 3B

[helenkacan]

Okay, it's time for us to get our heartbeats down again. John is meeting with Henry in a cell. He says that Jeannie will die if the guest expert doesn't get to eat. He shows Henry the pictures of Kaleb and Madison. Okay, I actually disagree with what Henry says next: "I never meant for any of this to happen." Sorry, Mister, I do NOT believe you. You're a wealthy and powerful man who thought he could fix things by force. You chose to inject your daughter and, then, knowing how dangerous the nanites were, you killed Jeannie, on a time-delayed basis. I'm not buying your lies. Thankfully, John reminds him that Rodney's blaming himself for the entire situation though John and Henry know better

[twinsarein]

Ick, I didn't like this guy on Desperate Housewives, and I don't like him here. I can understand his desperation, though, and even though his efforts are misguided and wrong, I have to admire the fact that he's willing to do anything to make his daughter better.

Of course, then we learned that it's his fault for giving her nannies - a tech they didn't really understand. I wonder who was stupid enough to tell him that they had them all figured out. Suuuure you did.

Jeannie wants to get the problem solved, and Rodney is focused on getting them out of there. He's got such a good plan, but then gets lost on the way out. They get recaptured, and Rodney is quite blunt with the crazy, desperate man. Not his smartest move. Jeannie gets injected with the same nanites that Henry injected into his daughter, Sharon.

Now, the thumb screws are being tightened.

Closing thoughts: A

[helenkacan]

Too tired for these last night, but I have to write about them in the light of day (even though it's barely past a dull dawn).

First of all, there's the concept that desperate people will do desperate things. I believe that one's personal morality will allow someone to go only so far. Henry Wallace's personal morality was, shall we say, flexible. He believed saving his daughter justified kidnapping, though it was interesting to see that his hired goons did the least amount of damage to Malcolm ... so he wasn't killed. Kaleb and Maddie hadn't been harmed either. Just in case we don't see the comparison, we can feel so reassured that the people who kidnap first instead of asking don't only live in Pegasus. Don't you feel so much better knowing that? Nah, didn't think so

Closing thoughts: B

[helenkacan]

Getting back to being rich, because Henry was unhappy with the limited span of knowledge the SGC was giving him, he decided to dig for more facts. I wonder how much instability and potential calamity his actions caused. How many others are like him, those who will dig to learn more? [For these tantalizing questions, stay tuned to Season 5!] And I'll return to the issue of security between the SGC and Jeannie. Where are the multiple encryptions on her computer - like nonexistent - so that strangers can monitor her transmissions? Or did the bad guys break in when the entire family was out and bug the computer AND the house? The SGC should have had a stronger security system in place to handle a special circumstance such as hers. Such as whatever the I.O.A was using, as their people were high-ranking civilians.

When we examine Rodney and John and death, we also see how they're different from the way the bad guys operate. Rodney's been on the receiving end of people sacrificing themselves to save him (the "Barcelona McKays" pilot in

Closing thoughts: C

[helenkacan]

Okay, so Jeannie will force Rodney to eat vegetarian (without complaining about it; ha! that'll be the day), read Maddie more stories and buy the family a car. Is that all? Nope, she'll still never allow him to forget what happened. Which was NOT his fault. She should learn to direct her anger in the right direction, aka the SGC and the bad guys.

She should just STOP nagging Rodney about his love life. She's been on Atlantis and knows he has a family (though it was brutally inadequate in that episode, until the ending). Is focusing on Rodney's shortcomings (emotional AND physical) a way to bolster his confidence ... his chances ... or merely yet another way we now know the elder McKays screwed up their children, where everything had to be a competition. Anyway, it's just bad manners and she should know better. Is that how she's raising Maddie? And, for the record, I think "Did you bring me a present" from the previous episode is a terrible expression to come from a young child's mouth! Writing fail for the sake of a cheap laugh

[that_which]

You ever notice that pretty much all the episodes where a female character behaves shabbily towards Rodney and he's supposed to be grateful that she's willing to forgive him for his unworthiness and acknowledge his existence were written by Martin Gero? We're talking The Brotherhood, Duet, both of the Jeannie episodes where she treats him like a meanspirited thirteen year old (The Shrine was someone else), and Brainstorm, all Gero.

Dial forward to today, and he's making The LA Complex, starring Jewel Staite as an embittered aging ingenue who once knew science fiction stardom in her youth but has now tossed her scruples aside to try to get her career back, and he's hired Carl Binder, the guy who wrote the Jennifer tied up in the woods in a tight shirt episodes of season 5, to write for it.

I think it's why the poor kid dislikes his viewers so much. Television is the therapist who never got an unlisted number, and we're butting in to his Very Private inner drama. Which is, you know, on our televisions.

[helenkacan]

I did not know any of that (but it gives me an excuse to use my pissed-off Rodney icon). It helps explain a lot. ::sighs::

But why should I even be surprised, considering how much evidence these guys left behind of their fumbling of character development.