SGA 4x20: "Last Man"
Mar. 9th, 2008 03:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xparrot(or is it "The Last Man"? anyway...) My immediate response here (and here, have a couple ep tag drabbles) and now coherent-ish review series of babbles:
Mallozzi, sorry, still don't think you should be allowed to draft any script, but Paul Mullie, you can write an ep for me anytime you want. "Travelers"? Totally forgiven.
Yeah, in case you couldn't tell, I liked the ep. This is mostly because I'm easy and this was practically a previously unwritten favorite fic made glorious flesh; the whole story was pushing some of the biggest fan buttons I have. Alternate timelines, spitting in destiny's face, risking all to change history for the better? Yup! Long-term presumed dead (well, actually dead but let's not quibble as it gets fixed)? Yes! Holograms not able to touch but oh-so-wanting to? Right-o! (Hey, I was a Quantum Leaper back in the day...)
First things first - David Hewlett is always great but here - he knocked this one so far out of the ballpark that I think it broke orbit. His eyes. And his voice, oh man but he could be a VA, what he does with his voice...not any obvious aged quaver, but the weariness of it, and how that grows as the ep goes on, as if telling Sheppard is sapping the hologram's power...
(also soul-shattering heartbreak is a good look on Rodney--especially in his flashback, he was gorgeous.)
The music! Usually SGA's score is serviceable at best, but this time they went for the Epic, at least in some moments, that overwhelming Who-sian orchestration that I am such a sucker for. The scene with Sam on the last flight of the Phoenix was about the first time that I've watched the show that I've sat up and gone OMG OST WAAANT~!
The direction, the lighting! The lights coming on and off on Atlantis was just such an eerie and effective effect, and the red glow and the sands and the eeeeee!
To get my two quibbles with the ep out of the way:
The end...it felt like A.I., kept reaching good endings, several times, and then not ending. I kinda wanted it to end with Sheppard getting put into cold storage, or else with him coming back through the gate. I don't find the cliffhanger that hanger-y, especially knowing casting spoilers; while I'm curious how they're going to get out I'm fairly certain they will, and probably not with as much h/c along the way as I'd like (though it is Gero writing the premiere, so...)
And Zelenka! What happened to Zelenka? We see him for that brief moment on the Phoenix (and that silently offered coffee mug was so much squee I cannot contemplate it long without asphyxiating) but never hear what happened to him. Missing scene? This bothers me a bit because at the end, Rodney/Jennifer worked wonderfully for me, but only as the last survivors, and if Radek were around, too...I'm wondering if there might be a cut line/scene there, as it seems an odd omission, after we get Todd and Lorne and all. (Or did I miss a line? I've not had the chance to rewatch the whole ep.) It makes sense in some ways, holo!Rodney was only answering the questions John asked him, pretty much, but...I still wanted to know!
Otherwise - otherwise, pure, pure squee.
The frame story! This whole season we've noted that they seem to make a particular effort to give us a Sheppard-McKay scene every ep. So to top it off they give us an entire ep - no alien princess, just the two of them alone in an empty future and talking. And oh, the look John gives Rodney, when he realizes what 48,000 years means - it's everyone, of course, and John's focusing on Rodney because it's Rodney/not-Rodney standing before him and it's too big to handle otherwise, but the way he's looking him up and down, the "you're..." that he can't finish, we've seen that breaking in John's eyes before, that's the "Doppelganger" look, that's "Miller's Crossing"...
Teyla, and the look on Rodney's face...
Sam!! Oh oh oh, if she had to go, what a way to, down with her ship and her crew survives and the score and oh! And before that, assembling the Phoenix (My twisted little Carter/McKay heart read things into the moments we saw between them there, I will spare you, but they made me burble happily. Also, hug! Rodney has rarely needed them so badly.)
TODD!! I am sad he didn't ally himself with Michael to help take over the galaxy, but being a (hacker-style, Rodney-style) guerrilla warrior was the next best thing, and he and Ronon are PURE JOY. Up until the point they blow up real good and aww and ouch and that's yet another empty coffin Rodney buried.
Rodney's supposed to be the egotistical one but he doesn't want to talk about himself; John has to drag it out of him. And John has to know, because Rodney matters.
Rodney+Jennifer is something I never want to see on the show proper (preserve us from canon pairings, I like my show platonic and my ships subtext) but they were beautiful here, the last survivors clinging to the last bit of happiness.
And then Jennifer is the straw that breaks Rodney's mind (how much do I love the "I thought I would go mad, and then I had the idea" and really the distinction is pure semantics). I barely see any actual romance in their relationship - love, yes, but the love of friends, of family, holding on. No rings and only the single kiss. And Rodney is so willing to let their relationship go without a blink or a second thought, because it's about escaping from pain and he's going to fix it so there's nothing to escape from.
And John, in the future, worries about changing that, worries about Rodney losing a chance for happiness even if the price is the loss of Atlantis and Pegasus and almost everyone he cares for and John, oh John, how you love your team, how you love Rodney, beyond all sense or reason.
Jeannie is such a brief mention, but so much heartbreak, what it must have taken for her finally to turn her back on her brother (if ever she really did.)
I kinda loved the future computer even if the VR glove should've been lighter and simpler (well, maybe computer tech goes retro again, or maybe Rodney could only afford an old model).
Lorne decorates his office with a painting of Atlantis! (also, was there anyone still stationed on Atlantis by then, or was Rodney was sent through to an abandoned city?![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gnine and I couldn't decide.)
What happened to Rodney after he installed the hologram on Atlantis? Because (unless you followfriendshipper's cracktastic theory) I doubt he long outlived the completion of his life's work. I'd like to think he actually died on Atlantis - the only one who did, out of all of them. (save possibly Carson, but as with Zelenka we don't know; they might've brought him back to Earth.)
I want to see when John came out of the coldsleep, when Holo!Rodney bade him goodbye, bade farewell to 48 millennia of pain and loss.
Then, John coming through the gate at the end, breathless and panicked like John never gets, not in front of people, and he's been gone for twelve days but Rodney isn't even relieved to see him, because you can see him wondering if this is really John; that if it is, something's gone wrong enough that he doesn't know how to handle it.
And now we have to wait - until the summer, or longer - and aaaahhhhhhh don't wanna! But at least we're guaranteed a fifth season (the cliffhanger would've sucked as a series finale, definitely...!)
(and if you don't want the squee to be over yet, don't missnaye's picspam here!)
Mallozzi, sorry, still don't think you should be allowed to draft any script, but Paul Mullie, you can write an ep for me anytime you want. "Travelers"? Totally forgiven.
Yeah, in case you couldn't tell, I liked the ep. This is mostly because I'm easy and this was practically a previously unwritten favorite fic made glorious flesh; the whole story was pushing some of the biggest fan buttons I have. Alternate timelines, spitting in destiny's face, risking all to change history for the better? Yup! Long-term presumed dead (well, actually dead but let's not quibble as it gets fixed)? Yes! Holograms not able to touch but oh-so-wanting to? Right-o! (Hey, I was a Quantum Leaper back in the day...)
First things first - David Hewlett is always great but here - he knocked this one so far out of the ballpark that I think it broke orbit. His eyes. And his voice, oh man but he could be a VA, what he does with his voice...not any obvious aged quaver, but the weariness of it, and how that grows as the ep goes on, as if telling Sheppard is sapping the hologram's power...
(also soul-shattering heartbreak is a good look on Rodney--especially in his flashback, he was gorgeous.)
The music! Usually SGA's score is serviceable at best, but this time they went for the Epic, at least in some moments, that overwhelming Who-sian orchestration that I am such a sucker for. The scene with Sam on the last flight of the Phoenix was about the first time that I've watched the show that I've sat up and gone OMG OST WAAANT~!
The direction, the lighting! The lights coming on and off on Atlantis was just such an eerie and effective effect, and the red glow and the sands and the eeeeee!
To get my two quibbles with the ep out of the way:
The end...it felt like A.I., kept reaching good endings, several times, and then not ending. I kinda wanted it to end with Sheppard getting put into cold storage, or else with him coming back through the gate. I don't find the cliffhanger that hanger-y, especially knowing casting spoilers; while I'm curious how they're going to get out I'm fairly certain they will, and probably not with as much h/c along the way as I'd like (though it is Gero writing the premiere, so...)
And Zelenka! What happened to Zelenka? We see him for that brief moment on the Phoenix (and that silently offered coffee mug was so much squee I cannot contemplate it long without asphyxiating) but never hear what happened to him. Missing scene? This bothers me a bit because at the end, Rodney/Jennifer worked wonderfully for me, but only as the last survivors, and if Radek were around, too...I'm wondering if there might be a cut line/scene there, as it seems an odd omission, after we get Todd and Lorne and all. (Or did I miss a line? I've not had the chance to rewatch the whole ep.) It makes sense in some ways, holo!Rodney was only answering the questions John asked him, pretty much, but...I still wanted to know!
Otherwise - otherwise, pure, pure squee.
The frame story! This whole season we've noted that they seem to make a particular effort to give us a Sheppard-McKay scene every ep. So to top it off they give us an entire ep - no alien princess, just the two of them alone in an empty future and talking. And oh, the look John gives Rodney, when he realizes what 48,000 years means - it's everyone, of course, and John's focusing on Rodney because it's Rodney/not-Rodney standing before him and it's too big to handle otherwise, but the way he's looking him up and down, the "you're..." that he can't finish, we've seen that breaking in John's eyes before, that's the "Doppelganger" look, that's "Miller's Crossing"...
Teyla, and the look on Rodney's face...
Sam!! Oh oh oh, if she had to go, what a way to, down with her ship and her crew survives and the score and oh! And before that, assembling the Phoenix (My twisted little Carter/McKay heart read things into the moments we saw between them there, I will spare you, but they made me burble happily. Also, hug! Rodney has rarely needed them so badly.)
TODD!! I am sad he didn't ally himself with Michael to help take over the galaxy, but being a (hacker-style, Rodney-style) guerrilla warrior was the next best thing, and he and Ronon are PURE JOY. Up until the point they blow up real good and aww and ouch and that's yet another empty coffin Rodney buried.
Rodney's supposed to be the egotistical one but he doesn't want to talk about himself; John has to drag it out of him. And John has to know, because Rodney matters.
Rodney+Jennifer is something I never want to see on the show proper (preserve us from canon pairings, I like my show platonic and my ships subtext) but they were beautiful here, the last survivors clinging to the last bit of happiness.
And then Jennifer is the straw that breaks Rodney's mind (how much do I love the "I thought I would go mad, and then I had the idea" and really the distinction is pure semantics). I barely see any actual romance in their relationship - love, yes, but the love of friends, of family, holding on. No rings and only the single kiss. And Rodney is so willing to let their relationship go without a blink or a second thought, because it's about escaping from pain and he's going to fix it so there's nothing to escape from.
And John, in the future, worries about changing that, worries about Rodney losing a chance for happiness even if the price is the loss of Atlantis and Pegasus and almost everyone he cares for and John, oh John, how you love your team, how you love Rodney, beyond all sense or reason.
Jeannie is such a brief mention, but so much heartbreak, what it must have taken for her finally to turn her back on her brother (if ever she really did.)
I kinda loved the future computer even if the VR glove should've been lighter and simpler (well, maybe computer tech goes retro again, or maybe Rodney could only afford an old model).
Lorne decorates his office with a painting of Atlantis! (also, was there anyone still stationed on Atlantis by then, or was Rodney was sent through to an abandoned city?
gnine and I couldn't decide.)What happened to Rodney after he installed the hologram on Atlantis? Because (unless you follow
friendshipper's cracktastic theory) I doubt he long outlived the completion of his life's work. I'd like to think he actually died on Atlantis - the only one who did, out of all of them. (save possibly Carson, but as with Zelenka we don't know; they might've brought him back to Earth.)I want to see when John came out of the coldsleep, when Holo!Rodney bade him goodbye, bade farewell to 48 millennia of pain and loss.
Then, John coming through the gate at the end, breathless and panicked like John never gets, not in front of people, and he's been gone for twelve days but Rodney isn't even relieved to see him, because you can see him wondering if this is really John; that if it is, something's gone wrong enough that he doesn't know how to handle it.
And now we have to wait - until the summer, or longer - and aaaahhhhhhh don't wanna! But at least we're guaranteed a fifth season (the cliffhanger would've sucked as a series finale, definitely...!)
(and if you don't want the squee to be over yet, don't miss
naye's picspam here!)
no subject
Date: 2008-03-09 05:28 pm (UTC)Ummmmmmm. Of course, they obviously missed the "Goodbye, John" as Sheppard "went into status" (sic!!) too, so - maybe they were watching a different show than I was? Hmm. Annnnnnnyway. It's fandom. ♥
he was perfectly content to have that part of his life (as well as everything else about him) totally forgotten like it never happened.
Exactly. He was NOT perfectly happy with his team dying. He was never okay with Sheppard disappearing into the year 50K and dying there, but even for Rodney... it took 25 years to get it right, and he had to invent a whole new kind of math just to be able to work on it! I mean - it's not like he just didn't want to push the magic "get Sheppard back" button. No sane man would ever have come up with the plan he hatched - it had to come from that moment when he
cracked for goodhad his idea.(PS - have read
no subject
Date: 2008-03-10 08:26 pm (UTC)I just wrote a 1500 word rant about this. Um oops?
(we didn't even hardly discuss the spoilers on the phone! Oops again! But no heartbreak, right? ^^)
no subject
Date: 2008-03-10 08:30 pm (UTC)Anyway, OOPS, yes. Crazy person, you need SLEEP! Gah! Sleep is good, and I worry. *hugs*
(No heartbreak! I'm really curious to see what they'll do, though...!)