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[deelaundry]

Man, that episode sucked. Random thoughts in semi-chronological order:

- WATCH OUT FOR FALLING EXPOSITION BRICKS!
- Dave Foley looked ill, bloated as he was. He didn't look fat; he looked that kind of bloated people get when they've got something wrong with them. : (
- Did TPTB want Sheppard to seem jealous of Keller? Or does Joe Flanigan only have one expression to cover all forms of anxiety?
- I wish we could've seen Ronon and Sheppard surfing. Mmm.
- As has been pointed out already in fanfic, Rodney curbs himself around Keller but not in a healthy way, I think.
- None of this gels! Bill Nye is doing an OK job, but he doesn't fit with Rodney. I get it that nobody's supposed to like McKay, but it's as if the actors are in different shows that happen to be happening on the same soundstage.
- Keller's dress is cute but her boots are ridiculous.
- At 60 degrees the women wearing sleeveless dresses would be really, really cold. Complaining, goose pimples, rubbing arms.
- I hate Jewel Staite's squeaky voice.
- What reasonably intelligent person would think dozens of scientists attacking an immediate problem without a single guiding hand would naturally cooperate and work together? Of course they're going to all go in their own directions! That's what they do! You're the one who mis-read the situation, and then you lecture them? Nice, Keller.
- Send the woman in the three-inch heels to go "run" to where there's cell reception? Dumb.
- The final kissing scene was actually nice, with good chemistry. Too bad Keller would've been in the hospital, given that her heart had stopped not long ago.

I'm not anti McKay/Keller (really, I'm not), but the whole development of this relationship has been forced and rushed. It's like it was in someone's contract that they had to hurry up and get the two characters together before the series ended. It's weird.

PS. Pogrebin mentioned nerd high school wish fulfillment, and it reminded me. I've heard somewhere that the writers for the show have admitted that they are vicariously experiencing their dreams through McKay. Which is fine with me, as long as we the viewers are all entertained, too.

I think that's partly why Sheppard has seemed more and more gay for Rodney as the show has gone on. The other half of the male nerd fantasy is for the popular, athletic, charismatic guy who everyone likes to become best friends with him and appreciate and admire his unique qualities. Pretty girl girlfriend plus super cool best friend plus lots of technology to mess with = paradise.

Comments

[theninth.livejournal.com]

Did TPTB want Sheppard to seem jealous of Keller? Or does Joe Flanigan only have one expression to cover all forms of anxiety?

I think he's supposed to be jealous. I know, I know. I've got slash goggles semi-permanently attached, but if you go back and look at "The Last Man" and a few episodes from the start of the season (can't think of the name of the ep) when someone asks Sheppard if he knew Woolsey would be taking over and he says "that wasn't the weirdest thing about the future" and looks from McKay to Keller. There are also places in The Shrine where he looks about ready to kill Keller for putting Rodney in danger. It doesn't HAVE to be interpreted as romantic/sexual love, but Sheppard undeniably loves Rodney.

It makes me sad that there's no chemistry between McKay and Keller. I think the biggest problem with the relationship is that it's so Freudian. There's a superficial resemblance between Keller and Jeanie McKay, which supposes there's some superficial resemblance between Keller and Mother McKay. Keller is also drifting into "dominant mother" territory -- telling McKay to change his behaviour with her "let's try to be humble" and flat out telling him to stop it when he admits to her that he's abrasive and petty ... and McKay just shuts up and looks whipped.

I think we just learned way more about McKay's parental issues than they meant to tell us.

I can just see future!McKay turning into the milquetoast husband who just says "yes dear" when his wife plans his entire schedule. "Oh, sweetie, I know you wanted to go to that physics symposium at Princeton, but my cousin's youngest daughter's baby is being christened and I promised we'd be there."

I also find the fact that she parroted his words in "The Shrine" back to him to be more than a little creepy. McKay probably has no idea he said that. And considering how far gone he was at that point, did he even know who he was saying it to?

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

I can just see future!McKay turning into the milquetoast husband who just says "yes dear" when his wife plans his entire schedule. "Oh, sweetie, I know you wanted to go to that physics symposium at Princeton, but my cousin's youngest daughter's baby is being christened and I promised we'd be there."

Yes, this, and I finally realized what that reminded me of -- one of those 1940s/50s "screwball" comedies where the husband is brilliant but dithering and his wife secretly (or not so secretly) runs his entire life.

Which is okay for the 1940s and 50s, but this is 2008, and while I like watching old screwball comedies, I don't necessarily want to see those old tropes repeated here.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Interesting analogy! I think I actually could put up with that kind of relationship between McKay and Keller, if (a) she didn't actively lecture him; and (b) it was funny. I can put up with a lot if it's funny. Unfortunately, McKay/Keller's not funny.

[theninth.livejournal.com]

One of the main reasons the trope doesn't work here is because we already know Rodney isn't that kind of person. In the screwball comedies, it's established that the guy has always been the dithery, easily led guy, or the poor sod who gets steamrolled by the women in his life (and then the film usually ends with him learning to stand up for himself).

Great. Now I want to write a post-Atlantis fic where hijinx ensue and sad-sack!Rodney takes on the Cary Grant role.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Sheppard clearly loves Rodney, although whether it's meant in a subtexty way or a BFF way, I'm unsure about. And I think Sheppard's supposed to be meant to be jealous of McKay, but it never seems to quite come thorugh that way.

Keller's better for Rodney than Katie Brown, but yeah, she does seem domineering around him. "I like you; now change."

I have hated Rodney's words in "The Shrine" ever since they came out of Rodney's mouth. What an overshoot on the writers' part! I would've bought "I've been interested in you," or "I think we have potential together," but there had been no hint in canon that Rodney loved her!

The future!ep doesn't count, because that wasn't something Rodney experienced in the main timeline! Stupid. And for her to parrot it back... yuck, as you said.

[theninth.livejournal.com]

It counts for Sheppard's feelings, though. He was the one squicked out by the thought of Keller and Rodney, and that's what he was talking about when he said that Woolsey wasn't the weirdest thing he'd seen.

[theninth.livejournal.com]

I can sort of see him saying "I love you" in that state, though. He was losing what he had, getting more childlike, and might have just opted for that because he knew those words. Also, McKay is notably bad at relationships. He probably DOES make the leap from infatuation to "I love you" very fast.

Especially if there are mommy issues at work. I wish they'd have intentionally given us more backstory about his parents.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

I had mixed feelings about the episode. I was delighted to have a Rodney-centric episode (I love watching DH), but I could have done without the McKay/Keller romance (which I agree lacks chemistry). It would have been more interesting, IMHO, to have seen Rodney dealing with old colleagues/rivals on his own, or with someone like Teyla with him, who would have encouraged him to take the lead in resolving the situation rather than, like Keller, trying to hold him back and prevent him from being himself.

I was hoping I'd like the McKay/Keller pairing, since I kind of like Keller (I was never a big Beckett fan), and I knew that the show would never validate McKay/Sheppard. However, I really don't like the tendency she has of trying to run his life and change him. That type of approach to a relationship spells disaster and isn't healthy for Rodney. No wonder Sheppard looks so anxious about the way things are going!

And I totally agree with theninth's comment that Keller's parroting of Rodney's declaration in "The Shrine" was creepy. It felt invasive and wrong.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I love Rodney-centric as well, but the new characters/people didn't click with him. I know they're not supposed to be his friends, but they didn't even seem to be in the same TV show as him. (To me.) Disappointing for a nearing-the-end-of-the-series show.

[hannahrorlove.livejournal.com]

I am suddenly very happy I lost interest in the show around the beginning of the third season.

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

The only part of that sorry episode that I saw was the beginning shots of Sheppard and Ronon...I assumed the rest would be a waste, but I totally agree with you,
I would have loved to have seen them hit the surf