sga 2x06: trinity, reaction pt 1

[cimorene]

i'm not nearly as upset by this episode as wax.  i... kind of enjoyed the tension although of course i don't like having my OTP up in the air. 

but it's not just how slashy this episode was.  it was so full of love--zelenka's and rodney's affection and a couple of quick glances between zelenka and sheppard, and of course all the intimacy, camaraderie, emotion, intense focus running back and forth between sheppard and mckay.

and oh my god, can i just say that trust issues are the hottest, biggest, most romantic thing ever.  they turn me to water.  they turn me wibbly.  in certain moods they reduce me to tears.  to me, absolute trust is the most important part of the relationships between my otps, and close absolute trust is the most romantic and most sexy thing about those relationships, and i see it as one of the biggest central issues for the characters too¹.

wax mentioned that sheppard had to fail to save mckay from himself for the purpose of dramatic irony--okay, mckay's character arc demands something like this.  but his action isn't a matter just of plot necessity.  sheppard couldn't possibly do anything else--he considers himself bound to trust mckay there as far as he possibly can.  i think he isn't unaware of the risk--i think he has a bad feeling about the whole thing.  but as i said in a comment to wax_jism's reaction post here,

mckay asked him to trust him. trust? is his THING. he believes in trust as a gesture as opposed to as an element of the real world that's affected by factors. (for him, John's Trust is the gold star you can pin to your shirt after you have jumped the proper hurdles into Being John's Friend, and after that, whenever you need it, you can call on it and he has to be there for you. it's a kind of emo teenie girl definition of it, but it also has a lot in common with that whole messy chivalry-honour thing.)

and on top of that mckay asked as a personal favour. he explicitly deliberately called on their special unspoken thing which whoa since they both know inside that their unspoken thing is giant beautipainful wangsty soul-tearing poetry-writing LOVE (whether platonic or otherwise). if you're gonna cash that tag in? you are gonna get a fuckload of chips.

i thought john's angst was (kinda paradoxically) greater than rodney's in the final scene of the episode.  the trust issues and the anguish were just like vibrating on the screen for me--i admit my personal whatsit colours that impression.  rodney's situation here is fairly simple.  i mean, obviously, unpleasant, but clearly delineated.  he has to get some humility somewhere and/or become slightly less oblivious.  he has to be crushed and broken.  and then he has to win back john's (and other people's) trust.  in contrast, john's situation is rife with internal conflicts for him.  throughout the ep we saw him struggling not to let his personal affection for mckay override the judgment he relied on for everyone's safety--including mckay's and his own.  he's acutely conscious of his failure to "save mckay from himself".  he blames, in part, his too-great, judgment-stealing affection, his powerful childish desire to trust mckay.  obviously he also blames rodney².  but i still saw his affection for rodney in that scene and how it pained him to pain rodney;  rodney's continued obliviousness makes it seem somehow crueller, makes him feel worse, and at the same time makes john more angry³.  what i read from john over all in that scene was a lot of self-deprecating black irony directed inward at himself.  he sees right through mckay's attempted bravado--kinda weak, yeah, mckay is nothing if not transparent. 

[21:19] giddy: and he just, his shoulders slump exctly the right degree and at the right moment
[21:20] cimmm: "i've already apologised to elizabeth!"
[21:20] giddy: and he's trying so hard!
[21:20] giddy: he apologized to people!
[21:20] giddy: he sent caldwell a nice email!
[21:20] cimmm: john's face
[21:20] cimmm: just crumples
[21:20] cimmm: when rodney's on "dimmed your faith in my abilities"
[21:20] cimmm: his nod with "that may take a while"
[21:20] giddy: he's like, look, john! OMG please forgive me!
[21:20] cimmm: it's like--self-deprecating.

he doesn't mean "that may take a while" as in, "start accumulating brownie points--i'm still pissed".  he says it like it hurts him too, like he's looking at himself and seeing with a lot of clarity that he probably doesn't want.  he's a doctor giving his own diagnosis.  he has to take a breath to say it.  rodney's still got some obliviousness; he still doesn't get it, which john also sees with clarity.  he's more like a spanked puppy;  john has a hint of tragic hero.  he sees where they are and exactly how bad it is and he sees the rest of the way down too.  he's not liking it, but there's nothing else he can do.  he's saturated with that irony.

i loved the A plot and the B plot mirroring each other (cause i love when A and B plots do that, in general.)  i loved teyla and ronon, too. 

[20:52] cimmm: and dude
[20:52] cimmm: the fact that teyla and ronon are mistaken for a couple
[20:52] cimmm: when the b plot is such a clear allegory-mirror-blah for the a plot

watching a second time, it was clear to me when the lie comes into being--when teyla asks whether kel was a friend and ronon's friend glances at him and starts making something up; you can see it in ronon's face when he decides to go along with the story.  at first, informed by my star trek ideal of complete trust omg, i wondered indignantly why ronon didn't take teyla into his confidence and trust her to help him.  but of course two milliseconds of reflection cleared that up.  however well she understood his reasoning (and would have done the same in his position! heart), teyla would never have gone along with his pre-meditated plot; that was more a matter of personal honour for him, as it would have been for her in the situation she describes. 

in contrast, in the A plot at this time mckay is happily cracking up.  hairline fractures are appearing everywhere and there are these ominous little straining noises.  hewlett's face deepens in colour, he's constantly shouting--but he doesn't shout indiscriminately but with all this thoughtful and properly measured emphasis.  ronon's decision is reasoned (although not entirely free from cracking up--that I'm A Big Teddy Bear, or A Very Tall Little Boy scene when she puts him to bed drunk?  he's so woobie) and aware.

[21:11] cimmm: oh, teyla's delivery was awesome on "ronon, what have you done?"
[21:12] cimmm: her voice broke
[21:13] cimmm: i love this scene
[21:13] giddy: i did too
[21:13] cimmm: because like--this stuff--it's a mirror! this stuff informs the sheppard/mckay plot, even though it's not in it

it's pretty easy for teyla to judge his situation here.  it's presented so simply, but i totally buy how fast she processes and admits she might act the same--although also, how cool is that?  very cool, because teyla is cool.  but i have a feeling that that is a pretty significant admission for her.  obviously, being sneaky and endangering teyla was not the kind of behaviour she would pride herself on--but she might do it!  i really like the relationship developing between them--even with the little mirror-rift here.

of course it is nowhere near as easy for john; he wouldn't have done as rodney did. 



1.(kirk/spock, esp. "the menagerie"; also "the naked time", "the deadly years", "the tholian web".)(fraser/kowalski, "mountie on the bounty".)  (and now that i've started thinking of this episode in conjunction with "mountie on the bounty" i just can't stop.)

2.  (although i think mostly the people blaming him are overreacting--not that they shouldn't react!  but they went into that situation totally complicit and now want to turn around and claim they were coerced.  their eyes were open.) (i think mainly they are experiencing a giant alienation reaction, seeing rodney topple from his pedestal and having to realign their worldviews.)

3.  not saying i thought his behaviour in this scene conveyed anger--beyond the most tightly controlled and covered up.


eta: some historical background-oriented meta by goluxexmachina. sga: trinity, or: harry daghlian is dead, or: how i learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.

Comments

[sinden.livejournal.com]

I really loved this episode. For everything you mentioned but also for the fact that for the very first time we had a truly happy, laughing McKay and it shined. Even with the inevitable fall, the joy in doing something he loved was palable.

My issues weren't so much with the John/Rodney thing but with, yet again, Weir. Caldwell may be a bit of a hardline bastard, but's he's blunt and to the point and doesn't try to hide his motivations -- and still backs it up with actions and contingencies.

Weir, on the other hand, yeah. Um. So she has no problem with trusting McKay to keep the city safe while under attack, and almost working him to death in the process, but when it comes to something that he -- admittedly, in a lot of respects, wants for himself -- she doesn't trust him ad has to save him from himself? Wtf?

Sure, his mistake wipes out most of a solar system, but you don't have the luxury of not taking chances. You still have to push forward and find ways to defend yourself because the ruse isn't going to last for long. Oh, I'm sorry, you expect the military contingent to do that for you? I guess it was just interesting that Weir wasn't willing to trust McKay to do it -- given that she knows him -- and yet Sheppard did. Even if they were both wrong about that, because McKay truly believed he could.

I'll stop babbling now and go back to my vid. :)

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i thought everyone's caution about the weapon was understandable if a little off-center: like i couldn't believe the suggestions of not testing it at all, but then when they started, i was astonished they didn't just slow down and delay those trials, make him run more simulations if they were that worried, instead of mumbling uselessly about actually stopping him when i think it was pretty clear they would give in. they just wanted to be assured it would be okay by mckay so they would not have to take the responsibility of that worry on themselves. like, exactly as you say--being reluctant to find ways to defend themselves is just ridiculous! when they are under this constant looming threat of danger, and she doesn't want to take risks in investigating them?

and in the end what they are mostly mad at him about is for not having infallible judgment, which is the silliest thing ever. i mean, nobody in the universe is capable of having infallible judgment--the fact that rodney claims to know everything should not be enough to convince anybody that he *literally* does. on top of that, it was explicitly clear they were aware of taking a giant risk, since they spent much of the episode angsting about what a big risk it was. yet when something bad does happen, they are angry at him for not believing it was going to. granted he very emphatically insisted that nothing bad was going to happen, but aren't they adults? didn't they have zelenka's fairly expert testimony to listen to, and didn't they make their own decisions to take the risk and listen to him (when it was clear he was losing his perspective)? i mean, they don't have the luxury of not taking chances, and they take it and--they know they're taking a chance! they scream it from the rooftops how chancy it is. sheppard and elizabeth both openly acknowledge their intent to monitor rodney and "save him from himself"--so they both know that he is losing perspective, too.

and although he deliberately manipulates--calling on sheppard's trust, maneuvering for military pressure to get elizabeth to give in--he truly believes, like you say, all his own press, so it's not like he ever lies to them about the situation with the weapon. he's wrong about his ability to contain it, but that isn't a[n intentional] lie.

i should stop babbling too, as i'm not entirely sure i have a point in there.

but yay for finished vids! and the fact that you got premiere to work and everything!

[sinden.livejournal.com]

Okay the 'saving him from himself thing' drove me bonkers. I wanted to kill for that line. It wouldn't have mattered who had said it. Just, yes. Also, I think Sheppard, while having reservations, also knew that McKay had to make his own mistakes. I wish they would get over this need to have Weir micro-manage everything. It drives me barmy. Such bad leadership, especially for a group of scientists.

I think the thing that makes it so hard to quantify McKay through this whole episode is the depth that DH gives him. It's not just ego or arrogance, it's true belief, so it makes it more like hubris. Plus there's joy and not wanting to let anyone down and the need to protect eeryone he cares about. It's all there, so you can't really say that Rodney had one defining purpose or intent, it was a mixture of everything.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I wish they would get over this need to have Weir micro-manage everything. It drives me barmy. Such bad leadership, especially for a group of scientists.

it's true, that is irritating, and i think it's mostly bad writing. at least it rings oddly, because sometimes it reads like they want you on her side, and sometimes they want you to think she's wrong, but it sort of goes back and forth. and any idiot can see how, well, she's not the best person to judge about the ancient tech because she doesn't understand what it's doing.

that's a really good point about the difficulty in pinning down mckay! i will go with that in great relief. i've been struggling, but it's so difficult--he's so complex in this one. wow.