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SGA 3x14 (or possibly 3x15): The Tao of McKay
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... yeah. Incoherent.
Now that I've managed to come back down to planet Earth ... this was weirdly like an SG-1 episode -- the whole feel of it, the weird changes happening to a team member (I never realized just how OFTEN that sort of thing happened to SG-1, compared to how often SGA has to deal with it, 'til we went back and rewatched SG-1 season 1 recently), and most particularly the team interactions. I ... guh. I mean, I NEVER thought we'd get anything like this in SGA. In a weird way, it kind of threw me a little bit. You know how it is, when you want something and then you get it and you're not absolutely sure that you wanted it after all ...? There were moments that felt a teeny bit out of character for Rodney. I know he's dying and all, but things like ... the scene in Teyla's quarters ... I just don't know if I could see him *doing* that. If it happened in a fanfic, I would have thought it was OOC.
On the other hand, maybe when you scrape away all the layers of sarcasm and defenses ... this is what you're left with. A genuinely nice person. I mean, yeah, we always knew Rodney was a decent guy deep down ... but this is the first episode where we see more than just glimpses -- where he's actually *been* nice and managed to keep it up for a significant part of the episode.
I have this wishlist for SGA. Things I'd love to see in an episode that I thought I never would. I ... think it's quite possible that very nearly everything on that list happened in this episode. There is exactly ONE item I can think of that wasn't in this episode. (In case you're curious ... Sheppard performing CPR on Rodney. Or vice versa. But I don't think we'll ever see that in this series. Everything ELSE, however ...)
The *one* thing in the whole episode that didn't make me DROP DEAD ON THE FLOOR was the not-so-subtle hints of McWeir. But you know what ... Rodney being Rodney, I can actually see the scene at the end as his attempt to make light (and make sense) of an utterly incomprehensible thing to him -- having a bunch of people tell him they love him. He has to rationalize it away as sexual desire, simultaneously feeding his ego *and* his insecurities. And in the end, they go to lunch as friends. Just like before.
There's really no point in listing everything I liked about the episode. Just start at the first scene and run through to the last. But there were two real standouts for me. When he's going through and doing his goodbyes and making amends ... there were two scenes in there that really made me ... well, stop and stare. And I think the timing of the whole sequence is entirely deliberate. Those two scenes are the bracketing ones, his goodbye to Zelenka and to Sheppard.
Zelenka's the very first one, because Zelenka is the person he has the most to make up for -- and while I kind of got the impression with some of the others that he was just trying to come up with something, ANYTHING that he could do for them, with Zelenka there really *was* something that needed to be done ... probably the hardest thing in the world to do: Apologize for being an ass for the last two and a half years. And he did it, and it was truly heartfelt.
The other scene was the one with Sheppard. Throughout all the rest of it, I kept thinking, "I can't WAIT to see what he does for Sheppard." But what made that scene stand out was that he didn't have to do anything at all. There was nothing between the two of them that needed to be said or done. Everything they needed had already *been* said or done. They were good. End of story.
I ... *still* can't quite get my mind around this episode. I think I will go die of squee now. see ya ...
no subject
It probably *is* difficult to be in Radek's position, but we know from past episodes that he likes and cares about Rodney, and that he tends to hear what Rodney *means* more than what he says...
Right. I also wonder if this is the first time that Rodney as actually become friends with one of his "underlings." Thinking back to his sycophants comment in "The Return Part I" I tend to think that in the past Rodney never has fully trusted the people working for/with him. It could be that in part that Radek does yell back - or at least mutters back - that Rodney likes, respects and trusts him. Radek has no problem telling him when he is being an jerk - or when he thinks that Rodney is barking up the wrong tree. And for Rodney, that is how you earn his trust and (as long as you have the facts to back you up) his respect.
Or Radek's somewhat subtle defense of Rodney to Jeannie in McKay & Mrs Miller -- just the fact that he understands and accepts that Rodney tries to hog the glory, and doesn't even really seem to mind.
Right. I think that Radek does see through most of Rodney's defenses. He knows that Rodney will try and hog the glory - he will also work tirelessly to save save all of them form the treats of the Wraith, the human-form Replicators or any other threat the PG may throw at them.
no subject
Actually, that's an angle on the Rodney/Radek friendship that had really never occurred to me. And with both of them, it seems like the generally vertical nature of the relationship (Rodney being Radek's boss) doesn't have much of an effect on the way they interact. Radek certainly doesn't let censor himself out of fear of being punished or fired. He treats Rodney as a colleague and equal rather than a boss -- and Rodney, perhaps, treats Radek as an equal (to the extent that he's capable of it) rather than a subordinate.
I did love that comment in Return. I think that Rodney really does *want* the people who work for him to push back and to tell him when he's being an idiot, and resents it when they don't. It's possible that this is one reason *why* he's never really formed relationships with the people he works with ... I suspect that sycophantism is one of the cardinal sins in Rodney's world. Even as far back as "48 Hours", as many personality flaws as he has at that time, sucking up isn't one of them. True, whatsisface (Q) is showing favoritism towards him in that episode, but I don't really get the idea that he seeks it out as such -- he just thinks it's his due for his obvious genius. ;)