SGA: 5x18 "Identity"

[xparrot]

Hmmm. Okay, the bit of Zelenka h/c at the beginning was pretty much worth the rest of the ep right there. Rodney & John in Woolsey's office, looking so concerned, awws. (What can I say, I'm easy to please these days.)

The rest of the ep. I didn't hate it. I definitely didn't love it, but it didn't inspire any particular rage. I was more confused, really. (McKeller fans probably want to stop reading now...)

The thing is? Far as I can tell, Carl Binder has not abandoned the Ronon/Keller. He is the one who christened that particular 'ship, and it looked to me like he's going down with it. Ronon is as concerned for Keller as Rodney is, if not more. He realizes something's wrong with her at least as fast as Rodney does, when he wasn't even with her that we saw; and on the planet he's very gungho to the rescue, while Rodney is whining about the long walk. Maybe it's just friendship. But it could be more. I'm not really on that 'ship myself anymore, but, hmmm.

Ironically, I actually could see the Rodney/Keller in this ep better than just about any previous. Rodney actually seemed reasonably comfortable around her at points, sounding mostly himself (if too eager to second-guess himself, assuming he's done something wrong...) And they were going to the movies together, which is still standard dating rather than real bonding, but at least it's something vaguely hobby-related. And Keller likes James Bond! She likes something!

The irony is, of course, that it wasn't really Keller for most of the ep. And yes, I know I'm biased, but DH and this actress had some actual chemistry, where I've never been able to see any with Rodney & Keller. The Neeva character was only supposed to be faking it, but she still came across as more interested in actually touching him, and he in getting touched, for all Rodney was supposed to be turned off. I'm not sure what made it work better, whether it was the direction or the acting, but, yeah, the scene in the jumper had a bit of a spark, and their first conversations came across as more comfortably close, too.

More than that, though, the end of the ep underlined why I can't see this relationship working in the longterm, no matter what certain writers want (and I don't think it's all of them; I'm thinking that Binder isn't seeing Rodney/Keller as a permanent thing after all, but as another Katie Brown, by the way he's handling it.) Because yeah, Rodney was making a sweet romantic gesture at the end, and it is out of character for him, and I don't blame Keller for being either surprised or touched by it.

But thus far in their relationship, the only things we've ever seen Keller touched about in Rodney are such gestures - those things which don't come naturally to him, the clear displays of affection that he has to put a great deal of effort into and can't often be bothered to (witness his treatment of Zelenka at the end, for all we know he was genuinely worried for Radek.) Rodney can be sweet, but not in obvious, normal ways; affectionate gestures are hard for him. And yes, he is working on it, but it's always going to be work; I doubt being "sweet" by any standard definition is ever going to come naturally to him.

And Keller wants sweet. She likes sweet, she likes the romantic tropes and gestures, going to the movies and lying under the stars together. There's nothing wrong with that, a lot of women love such things. The thing is - a lot of men love them, too. Plenty of guys are hopeless romantics; they enjoy making the gestures as much as some women like receiving them. While as it's cute that Rodney makes the effort for her, but it's also exhausting watching him try to fit into that ideal, try to figure out how to do this the "right way," because that's what she wants (maybe what he thinks he wants, too; he did tell Katie Brown he dreams of the 2.5 kids and all.)

But that's not the kind of guy he is, by nature. And the guy he naturally is doesn't really seem to be anything Keller's interested in. Rodney's an extraordinary man - extraordinarily obnoxious, extraordinarily egotistical, extraordinarily brilliant. But Keller seems to like best those aspects of him which are more ordinary, stunted and undeveloped. It's sweet that she can help him develop those traits - but it shouldn't be all she's there for. It's not fair to Rodney, letting him go on thinking that the only parts of him that are lovable are those parts that he doesn't measure up to many other men, when by other measures he's so much more. And it's not fair to Keller, either, that she's settling for these little bits of what she wants, when there're guys out there who could give her so much more, who would be suggesting picnics under the stars for the first date, instead of only after the idea is put into his head by an alien intruder.

(Interestingly, ironically, Ronon has a suppressed romantic side, according to certain cut scenes; he used to be a poet and an artist, before he was a Runner. And there's his fascination with movies, too. If only he'd had a chance to explore that aspect of himself again, finally let it out...)

A few other non-squeeish points about the ep:

Oversensitive fangirl alert: okay, I have had it up to here with Rodney being the most undesirable, awful man in the universe. Yeah, he's obnoxious. We know. But to have Sheppard agreeing with an alien antagonist that it's hard to believe he's dating Keller, to have Keller be told she could do better and she doesn't even snap a "Hey!" in protest - yeah, I'm so done with this. Is it too much to ask that his best friend or his loving girlfriend exhibit a modicum of loyalty?

Why did Beckett come with them on the rescue mission? In the end it was useful for him to be there (though it would've been cooler if Keller had had to operate on "herself") but what logical reason did they have to bring him along to begin with?

I was mopey that Neeva and her subs henchmen got killed off. The universe can always use more teams of amoral rogues. (Unless the hot black dude didn't actually shoot her, in which case they can go find a new guy to complete their threesome and run off to plunder another day.)

Lastly, Carl Binder as Keller's dad, hee. (Or else creepy, depending on your view of the SGA writers' room, but as I only see Gero & Mullie as the drooling fanboys, and Binder more a guy who actually dares attempt to write female characters - hee.)

Comments

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's because he knows how their romance might end from the future he saw and he never told Rodney... Well, I at least hope that it'll end that way again, even if we don't see it. I used to like Keller but the Mary-Sueism reached epic ridiculous proportions lately.