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3x17: Sunday
Ow. Just ... ow. On so many levels.
Okay. Obviously, I had seen THE big spoiler for the season (who hasn't?) and so I was, sort of, expecting this. I even knew that it would probably happen in this episode (due to a number of OMG SUNDAY AHHHGH) type posts in various message forums over the last couple of months).
I just wasn't expecting the OW to be so very, very OW.
And I *know* there is going to be a lot of doom and gloom over this, so I want to say one thing. I'm very, very curious about where the show is going to go from here. I'm honestly curious about the new character(s) that will be brought in and what she/he/they will add to the mix. I want to see how everything is going to be affected by all of this. I truly believe that in TV or books or movies or life, to be static is to die. Not every change will be good, but I honestly would rather see the show change and evolve than keep the status quo for umpteen seasons. I have *always* liked that about the Stargate universe, even when it gave us things like Daniel's death which was part of what made me stop watching the show for a while. I really, truly LIKE that the series changes and evolves. See, SG-1 right now? If you'd asked me if Daniel could die and Jack could leave and they could bring in new actors on the core team, if I'd still be watching -- I would have said "No." But here I am in season 10, watching the show again and really enjoying it. And Daniel's back, and Vala's awesome, and I actually like Cam! And I started off with an irrational hate of both Ben Browder AND Claudia on Farscape ... yes, I know, it makes no sense, but I was predisposed to dislike them and my initial reaction when I heard they were both going to be on SG-1 was "Oh God, not THEM!!!" And now I adore Vala, and Cam is a kick in the pants!
Okay, that was more than one thing. ;-) But you know what I'm trying to say. I honest-to-goodness WANT to see the show change and evolve, even if some of those changes really hurt. As a writer and a fan and just as a person, I want to see that. I'm not glad Carson's dead, but I'm glad that this show is not afraid to kill characters and shake up the status quo. And I am really, truly curious and even eager to see what happens next.
All right now, having said that, I'm going to move along to my usual rundown of the various squees and the occasional WTF? for the episode.
The squee:
We actually got a BIG tidbit of Sheppard backstory! He was married! I mean, this is actually quite a big thing.
The first half of this episode was just a barrel of happiness. There were so many awesome little moments. Ronon called Sheppard "John"! Lorne PAINTS! Zelenka kicks ass at chess! (Which means he is probably better than Rodney ... *dies of squee*) The characters have friends and acquaintances outside the core group, and it was just so, so awesome to see that. We got to see Sheppard and Ronon bonding and hanging out, which was just beyond awesome. Everyone in casual clothes! My cup of squee runneth over!
And then there was the second part ...
On a very personal level, I had a few problems with the second part.
Yes, I know. Carson died and that's ... probably going to take me some time to come to terms with. But that honestly wasn't the ONLY problem that I had with it.
This is all VERY much IMHO and totally plays into my own personal preferences. Bear this in mind and please read the following with a grain of salt.
I felt as if there wasn't ... enough. In some ways it was similar to how I felt after Sirius died in the Harry Potter series. (I hope I'm not spoilering anyone there, but I really would be shocked if nobody knows that by now...) I was quite involved with the books at the time, and it was such a HUGE thing that she was going to kill off a character in that book -- and then the actual death was this tiny little, accidental thing, and we saw hardly any aftermath at all, and I just ended up feeling angry and cheated.
I'm not really *angry* in this case, but I feel as if there was incredibly little aftermath for having killed off *that* major of a character. Fade to white, then a couple of brief interludes days later -- that's all we get? No initial reactions, and such a small sampling of individual scenes with the characters? Excuse me, but ... VEX! Very much VEXATION here! I mean, this is honestly the biggest thing that's happened to the cast since they've been in this galaxy. We could have had much less funeral and much more individual reactions to the death, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Thing Two was that scene at the end with Rodney and Carson. Okay, it broke my heart, as it was no doubt intended to. But ... I didn't understand what under the sun we were supposed to be looking at here, and that really detracted from my enjoyment of the scene. Was this a dream that Rodney was having? Was he dreaming this on Earth? Atlantis? Was it something else entirely? The fact that there was no scene-setting whatsoever for this -- you have no clue where in the timeline it falls, if this is right after they step through the gate or a month later, if this is Rodney asleep in his quarters dreaming or if he'd actually used some kind of Ancient device or what -- it made the scene feel incredibly tacked-on and cheap to me. I didn't know what I was supposed to be seeing or how I was supposed to be reacting. I mean, it obviously makes a tremendous difference if this is happening 6 hours after Carson dies or three weeks later! I could not place this scene into the timeline of the episode. That bugged me.
Thing Three is entirely, 100% personal and has to do with my own all-consuming bias for Sheppard-McKay interaction and the fact that I insist on seeing them as best friends and ... yeah. Very, very vexed that we got darn nearly nothing with them after Carson's death (except that little sideways look over the coffin).
Rodney telling Carson that he was his best friend ... oddly, aside from a pretty huge initial OW, that ended up not really bothering me on the Sheppard/McKay front because that actually, oddly, DOES fit with the way that their relationship seems to work (although I had to think about it, and maybe I'm totally rationalizing here). In fact, it kind of finally made the differences between the Rodney/Sheppard and the Rodney/Carson friendships pop out for me.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
with_apostrophe recently described Rodney and Sheppard as "accidental, unaware" best friends. And I totally, totally think that is true. I think that canon has amply showed us by now that in a personal crisis, Rodney goes to Sheppard, and that Sheppard, for his part, spends a good part of his time pestering Rodney. The relationship that the two of them have is incredibly deep, but it defies easy characterization and I don't think either one of them really understands it, and it really *doesn't* lend itself to emotional displays at ALL. Rodney's friendship with Carson is more emotionally open and goes back a lot farther, and as a friendship, it's simply more *conventional*. I'm not sure if Rodney is entirely aware that he's friends with Sheppard, but he knows for sure that he's friends with Carson. And Carson may well have been the first really close friend that he's ever had. And it makes perfect sense, both for Rodney's personality and in keeping with the way that I've sometimes seen friendships go, that he would have decided early on that Carson was his best friend, and still think of him that way. I have seen people insist that (x) was their best friend despite the fact that (x) lived in a different state and their personal interaction was almost entirely with different people now. With Rodney and Carson, it's nowhere near that extreme. But I think that his relationships with other people have moved on in a way that his relationship with Carson hasn't really. This isn't to say that he isn't close with Carson, doesn't care about him. Obviously, so very obviously, he does. But ... like Sheppard's "... except for McKay" caveats to his declarations of friendship, the fact that Rodney tells Carson he's his best friend kind of tends to imply to me that Sheppard is.
Strange, that ....
Anyway. Let me move along to my favorite bits of the ending. I had two favorite things, and both, rather unusually for me, involved Ronon.
One was the scene in Carson's quarters where Ronon asks Rodney if he's okay. That was incredibly powerful -- much more so, I think, than if it had been someone who was more emotionally open (like Teyla) or someone he had a stronger bond with (Sheppard). The fact that it was Ronon speaks volumes for how close those two have actually become over the course of season 3.
The second thing, which didn't actually hit me 'till after the credits rolled, was: Ronon just went to Earth. Considering his reaction to the whole idea in "Return", that was an incredible testament to how he felt about Carson, how much he respected him. We didn't specifically get a Ronon mourning scene, but that was ... wow. And the tag potential here is just incredibly, incredibly huge.
I really, really hope that there is fallout from this in the next episode(s). I truly do hope that the next episode doesn't just go back to being "plot-of-the-week" with no mention whatsoever of Carson's death, because I think that I really WOULD feel cheated then.
*ahem*. Moving on now.
Okay. Obviously, I had seen THE big spoiler for the season (who hasn't?) and so I was, sort of, expecting this. I even knew that it would probably happen in this episode (due to a number of OMG SUNDAY AHHHGH) type posts in various message forums over the last couple of months).
I just wasn't expecting the OW to be so very, very OW.
And I *know* there is going to be a lot of doom and gloom over this, so I want to say one thing. I'm very, very curious about where the show is going to go from here. I'm honestly curious about the new character(s) that will be brought in and what she/he/they will add to the mix. I want to see how everything is going to be affected by all of this. I truly believe that in TV or books or movies or life, to be static is to die. Not every change will be good, but I honestly would rather see the show change and evolve than keep the status quo for umpteen seasons. I have *always* liked that about the Stargate universe, even when it gave us things like Daniel's death which was part of what made me stop watching the show for a while. I really, truly LIKE that the series changes and evolves. See, SG-1 right now? If you'd asked me if Daniel could die and Jack could leave and they could bring in new actors on the core team, if I'd still be watching -- I would have said "No." But here I am in season 10, watching the show again and really enjoying it. And Daniel's back, and Vala's awesome, and I actually like Cam! And I started off with an irrational hate of both Ben Browder AND Claudia on Farscape ... yes, I know, it makes no sense, but I was predisposed to dislike them and my initial reaction when I heard they were both going to be on SG-1 was "Oh God, not THEM!!!" And now I adore Vala, and Cam is a kick in the pants!
Okay, that was more than one thing. ;-) But you know what I'm trying to say. I honest-to-goodness WANT to see the show change and evolve, even if some of those changes really hurt. As a writer and a fan and just as a person, I want to see that. I'm not glad Carson's dead, but I'm glad that this show is not afraid to kill characters and shake up the status quo. And I am really, truly curious and even eager to see what happens next.
All right now, having said that, I'm going to move along to my usual rundown of the various squees and the occasional WTF? for the episode.
The squee:
We actually got a BIG tidbit of Sheppard backstory! He was married! I mean, this is actually quite a big thing.
The first half of this episode was just a barrel of happiness. There were so many awesome little moments. Ronon called Sheppard "John"! Lorne PAINTS! Zelenka kicks ass at chess! (Which means he is probably better than Rodney ... *dies of squee*) The characters have friends and acquaintances outside the core group, and it was just so, so awesome to see that. We got to see Sheppard and Ronon bonding and hanging out, which was just beyond awesome. Everyone in casual clothes! My cup of squee runneth over!
And then there was the second part ...
On a very personal level, I had a few problems with the second part.
Yes, I know. Carson died and that's ... probably going to take me some time to come to terms with. But that honestly wasn't the ONLY problem that I had with it.
This is all VERY much IMHO and totally plays into my own personal preferences. Bear this in mind and please read the following with a grain of salt.
I felt as if there wasn't ... enough. In some ways it was similar to how I felt after Sirius died in the Harry Potter series. (I hope I'm not spoilering anyone there, but I really would be shocked if nobody knows that by now...) I was quite involved with the books at the time, and it was such a HUGE thing that she was going to kill off a character in that book -- and then the actual death was this tiny little, accidental thing, and we saw hardly any aftermath at all, and I just ended up feeling angry and cheated.
I'm not really *angry* in this case, but I feel as if there was incredibly little aftermath for having killed off *that* major of a character. Fade to white, then a couple of brief interludes days later -- that's all we get? No initial reactions, and such a small sampling of individual scenes with the characters? Excuse me, but ... VEX! Very much VEXATION here! I mean, this is honestly the biggest thing that's happened to the cast since they've been in this galaxy. We could have had much less funeral and much more individual reactions to the death, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Thing Two was that scene at the end with Rodney and Carson. Okay, it broke my heart, as it was no doubt intended to. But ... I didn't understand what under the sun we were supposed to be looking at here, and that really detracted from my enjoyment of the scene. Was this a dream that Rodney was having? Was he dreaming this on Earth? Atlantis? Was it something else entirely? The fact that there was no scene-setting whatsoever for this -- you have no clue where in the timeline it falls, if this is right after they step through the gate or a month later, if this is Rodney asleep in his quarters dreaming or if he'd actually used some kind of Ancient device or what -- it made the scene feel incredibly tacked-on and cheap to me. I didn't know what I was supposed to be seeing or how I was supposed to be reacting. I mean, it obviously makes a tremendous difference if this is happening 6 hours after Carson dies or three weeks later! I could not place this scene into the timeline of the episode. That bugged me.
Thing Three is entirely, 100% personal and has to do with my own all-consuming bias for Sheppard-McKay interaction and the fact that I insist on seeing them as best friends and ... yeah. Very, very vexed that we got darn nearly nothing with them after Carson's death (except that little sideways look over the coffin).
Rodney telling Carson that he was his best friend ... oddly, aside from a pretty huge initial OW, that ended up not really bothering me on the Sheppard/McKay front because that actually, oddly, DOES fit with the way that their relationship seems to work (although I had to think about it, and maybe I'm totally rationalizing here). In fact, it kind of finally made the differences between the Rodney/Sheppard and the Rodney/Carson friendships pop out for me.
with_apostrophe recently described Rodney and Sheppard as "accidental, unaware" best friends. And I totally, totally think that is true. I think that canon has amply showed us by now that in a personal crisis, Rodney goes to Sheppard, and that Sheppard, for his part, spends a good part of his time pestering Rodney. The relationship that the two of them have is incredibly deep, but it defies easy characterization and I don't think either one of them really understands it, and it really *doesn't* lend itself to emotional displays at ALL. Rodney's friendship with Carson is more emotionally open and goes back a lot farther, and as a friendship, it's simply more *conventional*. I'm not sure if Rodney is entirely aware that he's friends with Sheppard, but he knows for sure that he's friends with Carson. And Carson may well have been the first really close friend that he's ever had. And it makes perfect sense, both for Rodney's personality and in keeping with the way that I've sometimes seen friendships go, that he would have decided early on that Carson was his best friend, and still think of him that way. I have seen people insist that (x) was their best friend despite the fact that (x) lived in a different state and their personal interaction was almost entirely with different people now. With Rodney and Carson, it's nowhere near that extreme. But I think that his relationships with other people have moved on in a way that his relationship with Carson hasn't really. This isn't to say that he isn't close with Carson, doesn't care about him. Obviously, so very obviously, he does. But ... like Sheppard's "... except for McKay" caveats to his declarations of friendship, the fact that Rodney tells Carson he's his best friend kind of tends to imply to me that Sheppard is.Strange, that ....
Anyway. Let me move along to my favorite bits of the ending. I had two favorite things, and both, rather unusually for me, involved Ronon.
One was the scene in Carson's quarters where Ronon asks Rodney if he's okay. That was incredibly powerful -- much more so, I think, than if it had been someone who was more emotionally open (like Teyla) or someone he had a stronger bond with (Sheppard). The fact that it was Ronon speaks volumes for how close those two have actually become over the course of season 3.
The second thing, which didn't actually hit me 'till after the credits rolled, was: Ronon just went to Earth. Considering his reaction to the whole idea in "Return", that was an incredible testament to how he felt about Carson, how much he respected him. We didn't specifically get a Ronon mourning scene, but that was ... wow. And the tag potential here is just incredibly, incredibly huge.
I really, really hope that there is fallout from this in the next episode(s). I truly do hope that the next episode doesn't just go back to being "plot-of-the-week" with no mention whatsoever of Carson's death, because I think that I really WOULD feel cheated then.
*ahem*. Moving on now.