Geek Ramblings...

Non geeks may want to skip this post...

My geeky guilty pleasure is currently Stargate: Atlantis. I haven't watched it much this season... I think I've missed more episodes that I've watched... but I totally downloaded this week's episode from iTunes (that's right... iTunes... so don't call me a TV killing pirate!). I have a sneaky way of getting onto the US iTunes store and I was bored... so... 'The Shrine' seemed like a good idea.

Now, my grandmother, who had dementia for the past few years, passed away this spring. I have no clue why I thought watching 'The Shrine' would be a good idea. I mean, I still have my grandmother's inheritance sitting in my bank account because I can't bear to spend it because it's all I have left of her. I pretty much lived with her during high school and watching her deteriorate was horrible... I still vividly remember the last time she knew who I was. I still vividly remember the first time it was obvious that she wasn't sure who I was.

Needless to say... I was crying about two scenes into the episode. It continued pretty much all the way to the closing credits.

I thought the episode was a genius way to give us some character background. I've always said that Atlantis is at least as good as SG1 but that it lacks the character moments/team chemistry that SG1 had. I don't think that it was a coincidence that Brad Wright (king of SG1 character moments) wrote this episode.

While I thought that it was a smart move, I also had some issues... they weren't with the episode itself -- more with the episodes that led up to 'The Shrine'.

In school, I remember having a conversation with a fellow student about audiences making assumptions while reading/watching something. We talked about something very interesting... how there's a difference between an assumption made via reasonable jumps (from info previously given... hints... etc) and a blind assumption. Blind assumptions end up leaving viewers/readers feeling a bit empty and maybe a bit cheated. If you have a character do something where the obvious/only assumption is X, but you haven't given any reason for X to be true, you're missing part of your story and your audience will feel it. If this was a math test, your answer would be wrong (without proof) and you'd fail.

So... I had a few issues with 'The Shrine'. If Rodney is going to tell Jennifer that he loves her and run screaming to John's quarters in the middle of the night (screaming his given name), we need to be able to make reasonable assumptions, not blind assumptions, as to why he would do that.

Jennifer admits that Rodney has only ever bought her a drink... they haven't even dated. Now, we know that Rodney and Jennifer did have a relationship... in a previous time line (!!!). But nothing in this time line has ever given us even a hint of Rodney loving Jennifer. They had a drink! And I hate to admit it, but I've never seen any sort of intense friendship between Rodney and John. I thought the scene on the pier was gorgeous... and the whole 'Arthur' thing cracked me up and made me cry at the same time... but when I really thought about it, I couldn't figure out why Rodney would run screaming for 'John' in the middle of the night. Why he always wanted John. I just didn't get it.

What I did get, though, was Rodney's terror over losing his mind and his need to spend those final moments where he knew who he was with someone he cared about. I just didn't understand why it was John that he chose. Here's the scene:



Also... I thought that the switch back to Rodney being Rodney highlighted the changes in him and how obvious they should have been to Jennifer and his team. I really thought that couldn't have been shown better and I thought it was a brilliant scene.

I thought that an episode like this was just what Atlantis needed to get us in a bit deeper with the characters and I still think it was a great episode that gave us great insight (Rodney's mom), but prior to this episode, we should have been given the means to make reasonable assumptions instead of blind leaps of faith. I know I haven't seen and memorized every single episode like all of the crazy Atlantis fans... but even so, there was just something missing.

So... on Anon's scale of love... I give 'The Shrine' 4 out of 5 Rodney McKay Rants. It loses points because I had to make blind assumptions, but it gains points because it made me cry (alright, sob) and because we got some much needed character development.