Okay, maybe John was in so much pain that he wasn’t thinking straight. So, why didn’t Ronon or Teyla suggest it and we had to wait to get the dart idea from Kanaan. Was this some sort of redemption for Kanaan? Whatever the reason, it had me scratching my head over this one.

I think it was just an excuse to come across/find Kanaan — if they’d thought to take a dart, they wouldn’t have had to leave the hangar bay. Still, Gero could have had Kanaan come into the bay while they were deliberating ….

As for the Asgard beaming technology, yes, you can beam babies, clothing, etc. But the trick to it is that the ojbect to be beamed has to be tagged, ie: subcutaneous transponders. There was an SG-1 episode (the title escapes me at the moment) where the team had to physically tag all the Stargates that Ba’al had stolen before they could recover them and beam them aboard the Odyssey (or was it the Prometheus?).

Also in the episode Outcast, Sheppard had to slip a transponder into Poole’s coat pocket as well as tag the replicator in order to have the Apollo beam them from Earth. And Rodney had to grab hold of Jeannie (McKay & Mrs. Miller), making physical contact with her to have her transported up to the Daedalus with him.

I guess my question is, if John was touching the girder that was crushing him, why didn’t the girder come with him? (Or any rocks he was sitting on?) If it didn’t because it wasn’t tagged, then why would a baby come with without being tagged? Or clothes?

As Carter put it, “Petty, arrogant, and bad with people.”

I’m very amused by the fact that it’s actually Rodney telling himelf that. XD

-John being “the guy”, Jen hit the nail on the head.

-John respecting Carter more than his other superior officers. As Wolfie mentioned, “officer” is the key word here. John and Elizabeth had a close relationship and while she was the leader of the expedition, she wasn’t his military superior. And John has a history of disobeying his superiors, hence the mention of his respect for Carter. This was just a demonstration that while he was fixing to buck orders (yet again and to rescue someone else, ie: Capt. Holland), it didn’t mean that he didn’t like Carter on a personal level or didn’t respect her. There was no insinuation (nor was it meant to be that way) that he liked Carter over Weir.

-Missing jumper. This one’s going to come back and bite them in the ass in a BIG way! Though that’s not what I had a problem with or that Michael possibly stole it. What did bug me is why in the heck didn’t John think to take a dart himself? That’s what I thought of immediately. That’s also how John got himself, Teyla, and Ronon off the hive ship in the epsidoe The Hive. Heck, it was even his idea!

Okay, maybe John was in so much pain that he wasn’t thinking straight. So, why didn’t Ronon or Teyla suggest it and we had to wait to get the dart idea from Kanaan. Was this some sort of redemption for Kanaan? Whatever the reason, it had me scratching my head over this one.

-Beaming and jamming technology. After the first few successful attempts of using the Asgard beaming technology to send nukes onto hive ships, the Wraith devised jamming codes to prevent that from ever happening again (Seige, Pt. 3). The only way anything can be beamed over or beamed off is for the codes to be deactivated.

Rodney had created an emergency beam out device to get him the hell out of dodge while he was on a hive ship (Allies). One that didn’t work because even whilethe Wraith gave Rodney their jamming codes, they changed them later and the Daedalus couldn’t beam Rodney nor Ronon out.

As for the Asgard beaming technology, yes, you can beam babies, clothing, etc. But the trick to it is that the ojbect to be beamed has to be tagged, ie: subcutaneous transponders. There was an SG-1 episode (the title escapes me at the moment) where the team had to physically tag all the Stargates that Ba’al had stolen before they could recover them and beam them aboard the Odyssey (or was it the Prometheus?).

Also in the episode Outcast, Sheppard had to slip a transponder into Poole’s coat pocket as well as tag the replicator in order to have the Apollo beam them from Earth. And Rodney had to grab hold of Jeannie (McKay & Mrs. Miller), making physical contact with her to have her transported up to the Daedalus with him.

-Baby name. I think I pretty much had the same reaction in regards to Teyla naming the baby after her father as everyone else. I had never considered that Tagan was her mother’s name. Nice idea Wolfie!

As for Teyla naming the child after John as opposed to Rodney? Seriously? Was there any doubt on that? Waaaaaaay back in the beginning with the first episode, John was the one who took the time to befriend Teyla and to get to know her and her people. Sumner most certainly didn’t. And the way in which John did it (treating Teyla as an equal and a human being), earned him Teyla’s respect. He’s also been the first one to defend her as well as trust her and demonstraight that to her repeatedly. Bates never trusted her and saw her as a liability, and even Weir was skeptical of Teyla at times.

And let’s face it, while Rodney and Teyla are friends and teammates, he’s not necessarily a people person. He keeps people at a distance (and can you blame him with his childhood?) and wasn’t even close to his own sister. As Carter put it, “Petty, arrogant, and bad with people.” That’s Rodney’s defense mechanism and how he copes. Granted, he’s gotten much better as the show has progressed, but that’s not something most people want to deal with. He’s basically not as personable as John and isn’t as trusting. It’s kind of hard to make and cultivate close relationships that way.

I’ll try to keep this in mind as I read future reviews but I hope you give Woolsey a chance. After all people had to give Rodney a few chances to get to like him after his first few episodes.

Unlike Rodney, though, it’s not just the *character* that’s my problem. But I’ll try.

lysambre Says:

I think that’s the best hair we have seen her with in 4 years, and I’m hoping we will see more of it!

Yeah, that wig is *awful* most of the time. XD

Yep, I will still be a McShepper, but honestly I think I would take about anyone with John as long as it’s not Larrin. John/Larrin is just too incestuous for me to ever be able to accept it. And in any case the Stargate writers as very well known for encouraging all ships but never actually going through with any (Sam/Jack in SG1 anyone ? Even when they kind of got them together they left an out by not ever properly showing it), which in my opinion is the only way to handle things, as it make everyone happy and help produce many many great fanfic as to “how it happened” .

Yes, I do think handling it that wasy seems to be the only way to not piss an entire faction of the fans (be they shippers or anti-shippers) off. It would rock my worl if they had an AU Rodney or John look at our Rodney and John and be like, “Wait, what, you two aren’t married here yet?? We just had our three-year anniversary!” McSheppers get their moment, yet it’s not in the main conmtinuity, so anti-McSheppers can still insist that there’s nothing between them in this universe.

I don’t really care much about Woolsey, but I am sad to see Sam go. I do understand Amanda Tapping’s choice of course, but I still think Sam was the best person at the head of Atlantis (plus I liked how the relationship between her and Rodney became much easier and friendlier, I liked how she didn’t butt head with John and that they seemed to go along quite well, that she wasn’t scared to tell Ronon off at the beginning, that she was slowly forming a friendship with Teyla). I’ve always liked Sam since SG1 and I’m sad to see her go.

That’s exactly how I feel — I think she was much better in the position than Weir. Hell, I think that she was better than Jack was as general at the SGC!

“Even after all the heartless things he’s done, I still feel deeply sorry for him — the Atlantians have wronged him twice, and have played a large part in shaping him into the mad scientist nutjob he’s become. ” See that’s one point where I can’t agree. Everyone around me is all “awww, poor Michael, you’ve got to feel sorry for him”. In all honesty this situation reminds me of the situation of Germany just before WW2. Nobody did anything against Hitler for such a long time because they had been “wronged” after WW1 (of course it’s not the only reason, but I just can’t help making this parallel when everybody’s feeling sorry for Michael even as he’s committing genocide on entire planets !). Yes Michael was wronged by Atlantis twice, does that excuse Genocide and harm ? Not in my books. Many people all over the world are wronged and if all of them answered the same way he does, well let’s just say that the human race would no longer exist.

Maybe I’m taking this too seriously, certainly more seriously than is intended by the writers, but with all the wars going on at the moment, including some with genocides all over again, I just cannot feel sorry for this character. I will admit though, that Connor Trinnear is doing a great job ! .

I see your point — and I do agree that the atrocities that were committed against him don’t excuse the things that he did after — they just explain them. But we also have to consider the fact that the Wraith aren’t human, and can’t really be held to human values, even if Todd does act rather honourable. At any rate, I have to concede that Michael might well have been as ruthless even if nothing had ever happened to him — he just wouldn’t have had something to inspire/drive him to such lengths. Still, I can simultaneously hate what someone does and still feel sorry for them.

As for David Hewlett, he told us at Meet the Hewlett (it was one of the question asked, I posted a vid of it ) that Jane had to have an emergency C-section, meaning there was no ‘natural’ birth to take his cue from.

Yeah, I knew about the c-section, I just meant, teasingly mind, that I wonder if David was as *panicked*/excitable, even if he wasn’t in the room when Baz was “born”. I think *I* would have been.

So far from what they’ve shown and tell, they can beam pretty much whatever they want, however they want. Maybe the person doing the beaming can draw some sort of bubble around the stuff they want beamed?

I just had a sudden image of someone sitting there with a Wacom tablet, using the lasso tool around what they want beamed. XD

Agree, I would have liked the mention of Rodney, but from the beginning Teyla and John have had a strong friendship, and I think she might have named her son after John even if this had not happened.

That’s a very good point — I think she probably would have.

“I would have rather had Caldwell brought in full-time” same, except that if they had brought him back full-time they would have had him butt head with Sheppard constantly, and that would have pissed me off to no end after seeing how the character has evolved since season 2. So we’ll see how it is with Woolsey, I’m not hoping for much, this way I wont be disappointed.

True, true, I wouldn’t have liked seeing him head-butting with John constantly again; I like how he’s grown/mellowed.

PS : I did wonder if you would be back with your commentaries, I’m glad you are as I love them

Awww, thanks for reading! #^^#

“Teyla looks really beautiful with her hair like that!” she so did ! I think that’s the best hair we have seen her with in 4 years, and I’m hoping we will see more of it !

“and I’d take her paired with John over Larrin being paired with him any day of the week. Rodney’s still my number one choice for John though. *Wink*) ” Yep, I will still be a McShepper, but honestly I think I would take about anyone with John as long as it’s not Larrin. John/Larrin is just too incestuous for me to ever be able to accept it. And in any case the Stargate writers as very well known for encouraging all ships but never actually going through with any (Sam/Jack in SG1 anyone ? Even when they kind of got them together they left an out by not ever properly showing it), which in my opinion is the only way to handle things, as it make everyone happy and help produce many many great fanfic as to “how it happened” .

“(I can’t decide if it’s because Ronon doesn’t want John to worry unnecessarily, or because he really doesn’t think that it’s a big deal!) ” I was thinking it might be both. In any case there was little point in saying it was a very bad wound due to the fact that they could not do anything about it right away. And Ronon is not known for losing time to say useless anything .

“Not at all happy to see Woolsey, I’m afraid.)” I don’t really care much about Woolsey, but I am sad to see Sam go. I do understand Amanda Tapping’s choice of course, but I still think Sam was the best person at the head of Atlantis (plus I liked how the relationship between her and Rodney became much easier and friendlier, I liked how she didn’t butt head with John and that they seemed to go along quite well, that she wasn’t scared to tell Ronon off at the beginning, that she was slowly forming a friendship with Teyla). I’ve always liked Sam since SG1 and I’m sad to see her go.

“Even after all the heartless things he’s done, I still feel deeply sorry for him — the Atlantians have wronged him twice, and have played a large part in shaping him into the mad scientist nutjob he’s become. ” See that’s one point where I can’t agree. Everyone around me is all “awww, poor Michael, you’ve got to feel sorry for him”. In all honesty this situation reminds me of the situation of Germany just before WW2. Nobody did anything against Hitler for such a long time because they had been “wronged” after WW1 (of course it’s not the only reason, but I just can’t help making this parallel when everybody’s feeling sorry for Michael even as he’s committing genocide on entire planets !). Yes Michael was wronged by Atlantis twice, does that excuse Genocide and harm ? Not in my books. Many people all over the world are wronged and if all of them answered the same way he does, well let’s just say that the human race would no longer exist.
Maybe I’m taking this too seriously, certainly more seriously than is intended by the writers, but with all the wars going on at the moment, including some with genocides all over again, I just cannot feel sorry for this character. I will admit though, that Connor Trinnear is doing a great job ! .

“(Cool, another ass-kicking female in sci-fi!)” Meh, I’m not convinced yet. To be honest, as much as one part of me would like more women in every show (for the equality part of things), another part of me just can’t stand the idea. I don’t really like shows that are about women (not that SGA is becoming one, but better safe than sorry) as most of them becomes about feeling and gna gna gna crap. I’ll keep my judgment until the “all female team” episode. So far apart from Sam and Teyla I haven’t liked any of the female roles the writers have done, so time will tell.

“Michael says he needs them alive. (For experiments? Bargaining chips? What?)” Well given what else he’s done : to turn them into zombie!part-wraith as he did with Kanaan. This way it’ll give him something to brag about when talking to Atlantis, it’ll give him blackmail to use against Teyla, and it’ll give him everything he needs to take over Atlantis.

““Been a pleasure,” John tells Ronon after a moment. Ronon is clearly touched before he manages, “Same.” (That was beautiful — I’m all choked up myself! Definitely one of my fave moments in the ep.) ” Fantastic scene ! Loved it !

“(Awww, love Rodney’s concern; once upon a time, he wouldn’t have even thought to make an offer to risk himself in John’s place like that!) John gives him a dirty look. (All of this sequence is yet another fave moment.)” Instant favourite of mine too

“what the heck is in the water at the Bridges studio?? Anyway, I’m sure Luttrell drew upon her own experience, and I wonder if Hewlett’s performance reflected his own at all ….)” It’s the strangest phenomena when all those women get pregnant at the same time, when I was a postwoman I had about 60 colleagues, half of them women, and 7 of those got pregnant in less than 2 months, almost unbelievable. As for David Hewlett, he told us at Meet the Hewlett (it was one of the question asked, I posted a vid of it ) that Jane had to have an emergency C-section, meaning there was no ‘natural’ birth to take his cue from.

“(That begs an interesting question about how the beaming tech works — it would beam their clothes and Teyla’s baby, but not the beam that was crushing John?)” So far from what they’ve shown and tell, they can beam pretty much whatever they want, however they want. Maybe the person doing the beaming can draw some sort of bubble around the stuff they want beamed ?

“The hand holding his firearm is crossed interestingly over his other hand, which hold a flashlight in a backwards sort of grip but aimed ahead of him. Is this a Rodney McKay thing, or is he trained to do that?” This is definitely trained, that’s what police officer (and other trained military) does with a gun and a flashlight. And if we go back a few seasons when Rodney could barely handle a gun, it had to be trained into him how to behave properly with guns (same as Daniel in SG1).

“Not to mention that she’s just a bit closer to John than Rodney, in general. Besides, maybe she will make Rodney the Athosian equivalent of a godfather or something ….)” Agree, I would have liked the mention of Rodney, but from the beginning Teyla and John have had a strong friendship, and I think she might have named her son after John even if this had not happened.

“I would have rather had Caldwell brought in full-time” same, except that if they had brought him back full-time they would have had him butt head with Sheppard constantly, and that would have pissed me off to no end after seeing how the character has evolved since season 2. So we’ll see how it is with Woolsey, I’m not hoping for much, this way I wont be disappointed.

PS : I did wonder if you would be back with your commentaries, I’m glad you are as I love them

*wince* yeah I probably shouldn’t have said as much as I did. I keep forgetting that just because he mentions it on his blog or talks about it at a con it doesn’t mean it should be repeated by anyone.

I think the intent is for us to dislike Woolsey — I don’t think we *are* supposed to like him, at least not for a while.

Oh I’m sure – I’m just pointing out that I happen to like him and have liked him for a while…

(And, I confess, I also have personal reasons to not be thrilled about seeing Picardo full-time, but that’s entirely my own bias.)

I’ll try to keep this in mind as I read future reviews but I hope you give Woolsey a chance. After all people had to give Rodney a few chances to get to like him after his first few episodes.

And yeah, they totally played out his injury for drama — but then that’s a pretty typical scenario for action plots. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen people be injured in action films and wondered how the heck the character keeps going/why aren’t they dead.

But at the same time, it is *possible*, however unlikely it may seem, to get a gut wound that hits nothing vital — I’ve known people it’s happened to. Sometimes the intestines and whatnot just get kind of moved aside by the object, so the only real damage is torn muscle and capillaries, and the only real danger form the wound being the introduction of foreign particles and bleeding.

And even the bleeding’s not an entirely immediate concern. When I had my heavy bleeding problem, I got to the point in the hospital where I though “I’ve lost so much blood, I’m a goner”, and they still didn’t give me a transfusion until almost a full day after I went in to the emergency room. I ended up getting four units of blood over the course of the weekend, bringing my hemoglobin from 7.5, when I came in, up to 10 two days before I left, nearly a week later. (They told me the ideal was 14. I had to take a horrific iron supplement for a while after that — bleargh!) But I went in very late Thursday night, and I was on my feet that Saturday night, and walking around the entire floor Sunday — they *told* me to go walk — when I’d only had two units at that point …

Yeah, the birthing wasn’t all that realistic, but then they only had so much time to get it done in terms of teh story — hence my being glad they hung a lantern on it by having Rodney *say* that it shouldn’t be happening so fast. To do it properly, they would have had to split the rescue into two parts, and have pretty much a whole ep dedicated to Rodney helping Teyla and ducking around the ship, and Sheppard and Ronon keeping the hybrids off their tail. (That kind of story would have been better planetside, methinks …) But really, I’d glad it happened fast — that’s not a story I’m particulalry comfortable watching, much less interested in, since I have never wanted children, and can’t have them now anyway. XD

Yeah, I considered mentioning that Jane had had a c-section, so poor Jane and David didn’t get to go through the typical birthing process — thank Gaia little Baz and his mum made it through okay! But I figured that was a little too personal for the article ….

Honestly I think it makes the women look weak that they put that much emphasis the role of the person who delivered her when really it’s THEM who did all the work. The guy just happened to be there at the right time.

Totally agree with you there. Much as I love Rodney, all he did was keep the baby from hitting the floor — nice that he was there, yes, but not a necessity. Women have had babies alone, in nature, many a time — it’s usually done in a squatting position in those cases ….

I think the intent is for us to dislike Woolsey — I don’t think we *are* supposed to like him, at least not for a while. (Although I do agree that he at least leooked unhappy about having to basically fire her, so he’s at least got that small bit of sympathy going for him.) I think his purpose is to give us a leadership dynamic we haven’t really had before, not with Hammond, Landry, Weir, Jack, nor Sam — something more akin to the tension that has been there in small doses with Sumner, Caldwell, Ellis, etc, but much more prolonged. I think they’re taking that beaureaucratic but mostly faceless frustration they’ve had with the IOA (and the NID) in the past, and amping it up significantly. So I actually think that was a perfect introduction to Woolsey for the inetnt — I’m just not really looking forward to that particular dynamic, even if I do recognise the potential for drama. (And, I confess, I also have personal reasons to not be thrilled about seeing Picardo full-time, but that’s entirely my own bias.)

Espcially since like you said here: especially since it was an accident of circumstance that led Rodney to deliver her baby, not intent.

And this is ALWAYS the case with these kinds of situations. Am I supposed to believe all of these women didn’t already have names picked out? Am I supposed to believe that these women are so grateful that they’ll just randomly name the baby after the person who delivered the baby for that reason alone? Honestly I think it makes the women look weak that they put that much emphasis the role of the person who delivered her when really it’s THEM who did all the work. The guy just happened to be there at the right time.

Yeah I realize I’m probably way more bothered by this than I should be but really it just seems like the people complaining the most have no respect for Teyla at all.

I loved the episode too but I have to admit I had to completely ignore John’s injuries in order to watch the episode. There’s NO way at all he would have survived long with that kind of injury. Especially since Ronon had to pull something out of his gut – there was probably some serious internal damage going on that needed to be fixed ASAP. Fans are of course putting the blame on Keller for letting him go but really it’s another example of the writers not really understanding medical stuff enough to write anything convincing when it comes to medical issues …

I agree with you about it being better that Rodney stayed away from Lorne in that scene. He couldn’t have done anything to help! The only reason he helped Sam in Trio is because Keller was right there telling him EXACTLY what to do and how to do it. Plus there’s also an element of “needs of the plot” going on here – in Trio they had to make Sam’s injury more dangerous to make the plot more exciting. In this episode Lorne’s injury didn’t have much of an effect on the plot overall. Plus I loved Rodney’s method of holding back his fears by working – yet another example of my feelings about what he needs when he’s panicking – to be working or snapped at to work, not to be coddled.

. “Ronon points out that none of them saw it coming. “Yeah, but I’m ‘The Guy’,” Sheppard insists. “You know? Like … ‘The Guy‘.” (Has Sheppard been taking ego lessons from McKay? *Snicker*) Ronon points out that they all knew what they were doing was dangerous, so Sheppard shouldn’t beat himself up.

He’s talking about being “the guy in charge” and therefore the team and everything that happens to them is his responsibility. And really it’s typical John – taking the blame for everything that happens to his team. People always talk about Rodney’s guilt complex and his insecurity issues but I think John’s are just as bad if not worse. John is just better at hiding it behind jokes and charm. I think it’s also partly why John goes out of his way to tease Rodney more than he should sometimes – he’s trying to keep a distance from Rodney because he doesn’t want to get that close and risk losing another friend.

John says that he has more respect for her than any commanding officer he’s ever had. (Weir fans, note that he says commanding officer, so please don’t get your knickers in a twist. Even if I do prefer Sam to Weir by a Grand Canyon-wide margin, I don’t think John is saying that she’s better than Weir at all — he probably holds them in equal esteem.)

It’s too late for that Weir fans are already saying that the show did it as a slap to Tori for baling and other obnoxious things. Honestly they’re not even THINKING they’re just reacting emotionally because their favorite character is gone. Personally I think mistakes were made on BOTH sides (the producers and Tori) and that there’s way more going on than we’ll ever know and continuing to blame the producers for everything is getting old very fast.

The birthing scene … First I have to admit I think David Hewlett over played it just a tad – I still liked him in it but I think his freaking out went on a bit longer than it needed to even by Rodney’s standards. Not out of character really, but just a little much. Anyway I do love how when after he was telling his story about the kidney stone and Teyla screamed he went right to her side and tried to help even as he was freaking out. And that he basically listened to everything Teyla said. I also love that Rodney got to deliver the baby! GO RODNEY! :O)

I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the reports from the “Meet the Hewletts” convention in England but apparently David has said that he and Rachel didn’t like this scene at all because it was completely unrealistic. He also tells the story of how when Baz was born the baby almost died because the cord was wrapped around it’s neck. And I’m sure Rachel didn’t have an easy time of it either so I don’t blame either of them for not liking the scene.

The name …. okay seriously I have to admit I’m not really happy to be a Rodney fan right now with the way people have freaked out about Rodney not getting the baby named after him. I’m actually offended on TEYLA’s behalf right now because they are once again making it all about “Poor little abused Rodney who doesn’t get enough respect!!!!”

The baby is TEYLA’s she can name him whatever she wants to! Therefore if she want’s to name the kid after her father and the first (and for a while the ONLY) person from Atlantis to show her any respect and the person who’s been her friend for all these years it’s her right to do so!

Rodney is getting closer to Teyla but he’ll never have the connection to her that John does. Even when he defended her from Bates in the first season it was only because he had hard evidence that she wasn’t involved. For him it wasn’t ever “I don’t believe she could have done it” but rather “she didn’t do it because we found this tracking device!” (I don’t think he ever actually suspected her but he wouldn’t have said anything unless he got hard evidence either way).

Okay let’s talk about Woolsey… I do think the writers made a mistake having Woolsey tell Sam right then and there about her not being in charge of Atlantis and that he would be taking over because it makes Woolsey the enemy to a lot of people. Though I bet they didn’t have much of a choice since Amanda had to go start working on the other show…

HOWEVER and maybe it was just me I do think he looked rather upset at having to tell her everything – like he had something painful in his mouth that was making it hard to talk.

Also I think I’ve said this before but I really do like Woolsey and really he’s not any worse than Rodney was in his first SG1 episodes and look at what’s happened! Yes Woolsey is an interfering pain in the ass but at the end of the day (the episode) he has ALWAYS backed up either SG1 or Atlantis – EVERY time. That and when he was interfering he was being used as a function of the plot to make things complicated. I’m looking forward to what they do with the character because I think it’s going to be fun watching him deal with the misfits of Atlantis. And who knows maybe he’ll fit right in once he relaxes a bit.