seldear | SGA 2.16 - The Long Goodbye

An excellent ep. I think it might be my favouritest ep ever.

stef94? You wanted a big long posty? You gotcha a big long posty!

SGA 2.16 - The Long Goodbye
(also known as the 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith' episode)

acting

Okay, full and total props to Torri for a brilliant job acting as Phoebus. Liz is usually a rather toned-down character, rarely in fully-fledged 'power' as the word goes, but in this one, Torri really got to stretch her wings and give us a completely different character.

Similar props to Joe Flanigan, whose part as Thalen didn't require as much acting difference - I gather that Thalen was as much of a soldier as John is, and their mindsets and attitudes were much the same. Also, Thalen spent a lot more time trying to convince people he was John, so he had to take on more of John's attributes. Either that, or JF doesn't have quite the acting range as Torri.

I thought Rachel Luttrell's acting was excellent, both appropriate to Teyla and the situation in which she found herself. As a total Teyla-fan I love the fact that Teyla was the hingepoint of the episode, even if the conflict between Phoebus-in-Liz and Thalen-in-John was the focus.

Serious love for Mitch, David, Paul, Kavan, and Jason (as Caldwell, McKay, Beckett, Lorne, and Ronon) - they did brilliant jobs with their characters.

plot

This was incredibly cool. As Torri said in an interview, it's essentially "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" for Atlantis. And, oh my, does it ever work!

If you're reading this, I'm guessing you're already spoiled, so there's no point in me saying anything more. You know the story, what you're going to get are my interpretations and thoughts.

Thoughts on the Ep

I love it. I wasn't sure I would, but I love it. The acting, the plot, the dialogue, the characterisation, the interactions, the dynamics - it all works so solidly for me. Damien Kindler has, on occasion, needed his head examined ('Chimera' anyone?) but in this ep he packed a firm punch and did a fantabulous script that was made all the more brilliant by the cast.

Teyla

I've already mentioned how much I love that Teyla is the hingepoint of the episode. She is the character around whom the actions circle at the end: Thalen-in-Shep's keeper and Phoebus-in-Liz's negotiator. She's the one who Phoebus-in-Liz thought would bring Thalen-in-Shep down - possibly the one whom Thalen-in-Shep admits is the only one he's worried about? Teyla is the one who elicits Phoebus' admission as to the cause of the hatred between them, she is the one who is left with the decision to kill a friend or let him live knowing his life cost others their death. Subsequently, Teyla provides John (no longer Thalen) with the stunner with which to shoot Phoebus-in-Liz, and is the one who kicks it from his hands afterwards. She is also the one who gives the order for John not to be released until after Beckett has cleared him.

I love this girl. A part of me wants to say that people who don't like her must either be stupid or...no, actually, I think stupid covers it. [/seriously biased comment]

I know, I know. It took me this long last season to warm to Liz. But once I was sold, I was sold. No half-measures for me, thank you very much!

Shep/Ronon

I'm teetering on the border of Shep/Ronon slash now. Of course, the plotbunnies have to get through the Liz/Ronon and Shep/Teyla bunnies first, so you're probably safe from any slash. Unless they keep doing this, of course. In which case, there is no hope.

Thalen-in-John uses Ronon, who trusts John too easily. I wish that there would be fallout from this ep, but knowing TPTB, it's not likely. Still, there should be serious trust issues from Ronon to John after this and I expect the Shep/Ronon slashers will have a field day. Now if I could only find someone who would write them gen!

I'm a huge sucker for Ronon's comment that he doesn't know how Liz thinks at all. It's so male/female battle-of-the-sexes that it charms and disarms me.

Phoebus-Liz/Thalen-Shep

I am of the same camp as Caldwell: everything Phoebus said was all a ruse to get them to allow Thalen into someone else's body so she could have her last hurrah face-to-face. My opinion is that the choice of John was deliberate - not for the kiss, but for the kill. Phoebus picked both a fighter/warrior type personality, as well as someone that the Atlanteans would have difficulty taking down for reasons both professional and personal. And she picks someone who'll give her a bit of a challenge - Phoebus is the vengeful sort, she wants Thalen to know that he could stop her - but she holds all the aces in Liz's authority.

The much-hyped-up kiss isn't between Liz and Shep - Phoebus-in-Liz plants one on Thalen-in-Shep. Why? Well, we're not quite given to know. I gather that the relationship between Phoebus and Thalen was, if adversarial, also fraught with a little UST. That John was cute as well as all the things she wanted in an opponent probably helped Phoebus' choice, and she used Liz's known fondness for John to achieve it. (Less questions from the others than if she'd picked Rodney, Carson, or Caldwell.)

Interestingly, John shows a great deal of reluctance to be possessed by Thalen so Phoebus can have her final goodbye. He also is very markedly not looking at Liz at the end of the ep during recovery, playing on his PDA. (Or whatever it is - an Ancients' version of a Game Boy?)

I admit to bias as someone who can't stand Shep/Weir. (I love the characters, I just can't stand the 'ship'.) Most of the Shep/Weirs on my f-list will probably trash my following opinion because of that; well and fine. I have tried to stand back and not view this through blatantly 'anti-Shep/Weir' lenses, but it still doesn't come out well to me.

In that last scene, neither Shep nor Liz are comfortable with the kiss. It's not 'Oh no, we betrayed ourselves to an independant person' - embarrassment that the cat is now out of the bag - so much as embarrassment that it happened at all and 'let's never mention it again, okay?'

John's half-wince as he looks at Liz is not that of a man who's thinking, 'Okay,we've been caught out in a non-regs situation, let's deal with this,' it's more of a 'I have to deal with you tomorrow and this is not going to be pretty'. Liz's sink into her bed runs along the same lines, very much an, 'Oh, God, I wish the earth would swallow me and never spit me out again. I am so humiliated!' reaction.

So that big damn Shep/Weir ep? I saw Phoebus/Thalen UST, but not so big with the Shep/Weir.

Shep/Teyla

Moving on to Thalen-in-Shep telling Teyla that Shep cares about her more than she knows. Like the Phoebus-in-Liz request for John to be possessed by Thalen-in-Shep, this is most likely a ruse to get Teyla to stay her hand.

However, the fact that Thalen-in-Shep used this card against Teyla means he (and therefore Shep) had reason to think that this might work to hold Teyla back. Since I've already admitted that Phoebus used Liz's known fondness for John to get her way in the choice of host for Thalen, it's not a big issue for me to say that Thalen used John's friendship and interest in Teyla to try to stave off his own death.

In short, TPTB are still playing us.

As for Teyla being willing to shoot Thalen-in-John as a sign that she doesn't care about John? No different to Jack firing that second zat-shot at Sam in the SG-1 episode 'Entity'. Sometimes duty and responsibility must outweigh friendship and care.

I'm just sayin'.

I guess I could be considered a bad shipper. Much as I love Shep/Teyla possibilities, frankly, I'm more excited by the fact that Teyla was one of the main final players. Thalen's words to Teyla are a cool fillip to the whole biz and balances out the Phoebus/Thalen kiss, but DANG I love the little non-shippery things about this ep.

Oh, and I adore that Lorne obeys Teyla so easily. "You got it." I hope they keep Lorne in the show as a kind of Siler or Walter character. He'd better not go the way of Makepeace! That sucked big monkey balls.

Quotations

There are far too many of them:

"Well, they're headed straight for a divorce."
~ Carson, of Phoebus-in-Liz and Thalen-in-Sheppard ~

"Got all the time in the world and there's only one of them I'm worried about."
~ Thalen-in-Sheppard ~

"Because I know how he thinks, I don't have the slightest clue how she thinks."
~ Ronon, speaking of John and Liz to Teyla ~

"He cares about you more than you know."
~ Thalen-in-Sheppard to Teyla ~

Anything that Rodney says. At all.

Ah, heckit. The whole episode rocks like Things With Rocks In.