SGA 4x17 Midway

[zelempa]

The IOA is doing interviews with the aliens on the Atlantis team, and Sam, nervous about what Ronon will do in his, invites Teal'c to Atlantis to coach him on dealing with the IOA. Sam and John make me uncomfortable by declaring that they ought to have a lot in common. Oh, yes! They're two big musclebound non-Earthlings! Of course they will get along. Never mind that Teal'c is an aggressively calm know-it-all, and Ronon is an anti-authority iconoclast. Ronon of course resents being condescended to (I could have told you he would, Sam); he takes an immediate dislike to Teal'c. (Who is kind of insufferable.)

Anyway, Ronon and Teal'c set out for Earth on McKay's gate chain system, which means they have to spend twenty-four hours in quarantine together on the midway station. It's like a situation straight out of fanfic, except it's Ronon and Teal'c. Unbeknownst to the good guys, the Wraith have found a way to gate into midway, and shortly after Ronon and Tealc's arrival, they hijack the place and demand to be gated to Earth.

Of course Ronon and Teal'c learn to work together in the pursuit of destroying Wraith. In the ensuing adventures, some Wraith actually get to the SGC, Ronon and Teal'c trail them down and kill them (quarantine broken; everyone on Earth is going to a die of a Pegasus plague). Meanwhile, John and Rodney jumper over to midway to check things out, and there things get really tense!!! and dangerous!!! but I forget to pay attention because I am looking at pictures of Lee Adama for my laptop background. They end up blowing up the midway station.

• Sam tells Teal'c the military protocol on Atlantis is lax, which I choose to believe that's code for "DADT no longer applies."
  
• John persistently treats Ronon like a big puppy. "Ronon!" he scolds when he comes in on Ronon holding a gun to Teal'c in the mess. "Put--the gun--down!" Adorably, Ronon doesn't seem to mind it from him (and only from him).
  
• Ronon and Teal'c spar, and Chuck takes bets. Sam comes in to break up the fight, and I'm really cringingly uncomfortable here: I'm sure she's going to be like "Ronon, I expected this of you, but Teal'c!" and I'm already reacting to that with both indignant defensiveness on the part of Ronon and Teal'c; even though she doesn't really do that, I'm still so embarrassed for them both. It's just like, look at the funny aliens fight each other! Because they don't know any other way! Even Teal'c! Anyway, what I wanted to talk about here is that when John yanks back his contribution from Chuck, it's clearly $15 CAD. Has he been borrowing from McKay?
  
• John's puppying becomes intolerable even to Ronon:
  JOHN: Good boy.
  RONON: Hate you.
  
• Kavanaugh--his hair short and weirdly curly, his attitude still delightfully terrible--is working at the super-boring midway station. Oh, nobody deserves that.
  
• Ronon and Teal'c stand, arms crossed, watching "Three Stooges" with stony expressions.
  
• Rodney gets in some "John"s:
  
  • John has just told him to vent all the air in a part of the station which he (John) is still currently in.
    RODNEY: John, I'm not sure there's time to--
    JOHN: We don't have time to argue! Do it!
    RODNEY: (shiny darting eyes and sad, sad mouth)
    
  • Shortly later, Rodney tries radioing John to find out if he made it to the jumper before the air vented.
    RODNEY: Sheppard, can you hear me? ... John! Are you there!
    LEE: I think it's safe to repressurize.
    RODNEY: (devastated look)
    LEE: ... Dr. McKay.
    RODNEY: (devastated look)
    
  • Don't worry, later McKay stops just before going through the hatch as if drawn by some unknown force probably akin to his name being called over the moors and finds John in a space suit.
    RODNEY: Sheppard! How did you...
    JOHN: Get me out of here!
    Note use of "Sheppard" once he's out of danger. :P
  
  
• A-friggin-dorable moment at the end where Ronon wakes a sleeping Sheppard by touching his nose, and when that doesn't work, his lips. John swats sleepily at him and then jerks awake. Ronon laughs, one of those rare and pretty genuine smiles.

Comments

[nightspring.livejournal.com]

While Shep in the space suit was dramatic, how did he have time to crawl into one? And if he could get into one by himself, how come he couldn't come out of it? It would have been more realistic if he'd just ripped out the oxygen line from a suit and was breathing through that.

Oh, and I keep listening to that last bit, where the closed caption indicates Shep says "Get me out of here!" and can't make out anything more than a mumble that sounds like one, at most two words instead of a complete sentence. Another cc controversy, when the head Wraith starts calling to Sheppard through the vid screen, Rodney notices, pauses, and calls -- the cc says he calls "Sheppard!" but all I hear is "Shep!"

And while all the "John"s are adorable, I find I'm starting to miss the "Colonel"s. Has Rodney called John "Colonel" at all this season? Are they a thing of the past? Did something happen we should know about? ;D

[zelempa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the spacesuit thing doesn't make any sense.

I must have heard "Get me out of here," because I did my transcript from what I heard. And I listened to that other part again, and I think Rodney did say "Sheppard!", but with a lot of emphasis on the first syllable. Sort of "SHEPrd!"

I don't recall a "Colonel"! But I kind of like all the "Sheppard"s. You know, anything Rodney calls John is fine with me.

[nightspring.livejournal.com]

LOL, even with headphones, all I can make out is "mumble mumble" and "Shep!" But my hearing is way far from perfect, so if you say you can hear it, I believe you. Thanks for giving it another listen!

And yeah, John drops a lot more "Rodney"s and "McKay"s than Rodney, who tends not to call John anything -- so anytime he says any of John's names is fine with me too. But it's fun to speculate if any change in usage means anything significant. ;)

[zelempa.livejournal.com]

Well, clearly something was going on when he picked up "John." :D