Stargate Atlantis #411 - BE ALL MY SINS REMEMBER'D - Spoiler review

[wraithfodder]

 My spoiler-ridden review of Stargate Atlantis' "Be All My Sins Remember'd" episode is under the cut.

Alas, too late right now to stay up another hour, so shall watch Joe Flanigan's "FBI Guy" episode of WOMEN's MURDER CLUB tomorrow :)

BE ALL MY SINS REMEMBER’D

Episode #411 of Stargate Atlantis

 

Just some overall comments… I’d give it a B to B+. I have yet to see an episode where I scream “OHMYGAWD, THAT WAS GREAT!” I know a lot of folk have posted elsewhere that this was the best episode since Cheese Whiz, but, eh, not for me, not quite yet.

 

First, since it’s the biggest thing making people squee about this being the best episode since Cheese Whiz hit the grocery shelves - great SPX and space battle stuff. The fanboys will be in ecstasy ;) If TPTB are smart, they’ll submit this episode to the Geminis under the special effects category.

 

Rodney made a toaster! When that block first formed, I thought, gee, it looks like a toaster. Made me think of Ghostbusters and the slime-possessed dancing toaster.

 

FRAN was marvelous. A friend joked, “Rodney created a Fembot!” Bwahahhaah! And perhaps he’s finally over his infatuation with Carter; he like brunettes now ;) And I was sorry to see Fran go, but hey, she had no problem with it. Talk about job satisfaction J And he maybe felt a little emotional about sending his pretty toaster off to death. Aw…..

 

Ronon was sooo right about the puddle jumper and wraith meet-up. Bad idea, etc. But they were lucky it worked out. Did like the Wraith going “we had to stun him several times.” I always thought one stun would take down Ronon? Hmm….

 

Larrin…. Eh, still so-so on her. She still dresses to show off her, er, assets (which is effective against the male of the species) and I think her presentation (acting, whatever) is adequate. I can only assume she’s into bondage, what with her tying up Sheppard like that (but hey, he seems to like if he wants to keep in contact with her – oh, the fanfic that could come out of that!) ;) And if Sheppard had just slouched, he could have slithered out of that chair so easily…. ;)  But Larrin, if she doesn’t come back, no problem.

 

Liked that the Wraith honored their end of the deal, but now, I would expect we’re back to being the main course at the meal, and judging by next week’s spoilers, brunch, at least. It will be interesting if we’ll see the “Common ground” wraith again and if it will come down to kill or be killed between him and Shep. I wouldn’t mind seeing that only because when Shep and Kolya finally had that showdown, it was rather anti-climatic.

 

Teyla’s pregnancy. Ah, FINALLY addressed (and notice that Ronon is the one who really seemed to notice she was ‘off’). I could understand Sheppard’s reaction – he’s from the US military, where you do not send pregnant females into harm’s way, which is what he considers going through the gate to be. I didn’t see any jealousy over who the dad was, but I did see him feeling hurt (and also angry) by her not confiding this information to him. But I wish the writers had addressed it more (maybe next week?) as it seems to just have been washed away after that scene (such as her comment that she tried to tell him but that must have been in between episodes). I loved how Ronon reacted – he’s from the neighborhood so he knows safety is all relative in the Pegasus Galaxy. And “Ronon, it’s a good name, boy or girl.” HA!  And I guess Rodney will find out about this all off-screen (sigh) or will Sheppard have told him at dinner?? “Oh by the way, Teyla’s knocked up and I took her off duty.’ And will Sheppard feel a bit guilty about biting her head off and not even saying ‘congratulations’?? Where’s the fanfic? I don’t know if the show will give us this next week, cuz if they don’t, the opportunity will have passed. Oh, and watch Ronon’s face when Sheppard relieves her of active duty. It’s like “is he joking?”

 

Anyway, I think this was one of the best scenes in the episode due to the emotional impact. And it shows in some respects that Sheppard is a bit disconnected from what his team does off-duty, but that Ronon is more observant. Hmm....

 

Sheppard putting himself between the wraith and Larrin’s trigger-happy people.

 

Loved the Rodney and Zelenka scenes, and Zelenka’s reaction to Rodney’s ‘compromise’. Ha!

 

It seems, at least to me, that the team dynamic has changed because of Carter being in command. Sheppard is almost in a sorta ‘boy’s club’ (aka military) where he, carter, Ellis, Caldwell are all on the same scorecard, and Rodney is back to being on the outside (at times). I’m wondering if we’re going to see Sheppard have any conflict with the military anymore, or will he just be gung-ho to follow orders and blow things up (despite Rodney going “hello, you’re not looking at the long-term here!”)

 

Oh Godzilla. I love the lizard. Love the reference to Godzilla sized replicator. I just envisioned a Godzilla built out of Legos….

 

Quibbles…

 

The military attitude of once again going in and blowing up the replicator homeworld (guess they forgot what happened the last time.) I was happy, though, to see that science won out (even if at the last minute) because otherwise, it’s like tossing rocks at a hornet’s nest. You kill a few and get stung badly. And there’s this new handy-dandy Asgard beam thing. Gah, wish I could keep pulling neato-cool stuff like this out of my hat to save my ass ;)

 

Carter. Okay, still dislike her outfits (so she changes into her Barbarella black leather outfit everytime she goes out on a ship where all she does is sit? Where is the logic in that?) and will probably never like her uniform (regular one) as well, it’s not flattering. However, at one point, during the Rodney lecture scene, her voice just sounded off, like she’d just gotten off crying or something. It was just weird or maybe that’s just the way Tapping is going to play her from now on. I don’t ever recall hearing that particular tone when she was on SG-1. And…. Just a gripe, the planet is about to go KABOOM and Carter says “we should tell the fleet to jump to the rendezvous point.” “Should??” I think it’s the writers just making her polite, or something, but  ‘should’ leaves you with an option of’ well, I guess I should but I don’t have to.’  However, I liked that she spoke up for Rodney after Ellis reamed him out but (oh, sorry sorry) Weir would have done it so much better.

 

It was GREAT to see RepliWeir at the end but I was rather surprised to see Torri’s name in the end credits, not front, as they’d done with Tapping when she had her 10 second guest spot on “Letters from Pegasus.” It will be interesting to see if the writers actually follow up and bring RepliWeir back. I’m not holding my breath though. Is this the end of her supposed four episodes in season 4? Even two seconds counts as appearance and I don’t know if we’ll see her again. Sigh.

Oh, did you notice that WEir is wearing Carter's outfit? I mean, heck, the vertical stripes on the shoulder at the same bu tin black leather. Same tailor? or a veiled statement that Weir is now the new dark influence??

 

Not a quibble: To see Weir as an adversary – not necessarily an enemy – who KNOWS so much about Sheppard and Rodney that she could use that knowledge against them. If she was a bad RepliWeir (and I’m assuming she is a RepliWeir as I’m not certain how the human one could escape), this could make for great drama. I hope the writers go with it and don’t miss out on this great opportunity.

 

Okay, a bigger quibble really. When Weir was around, I recall (someone can correct me if I’m wrong) but Atlantis was always referred to as a city. Carter refers to it as a ‘base,’ which to me, means it’s under military rule. Again, I want to see that addressed in the series. We get some conflict (mostly with Rodney) but it would be interesting to see if they can get perhaps some other scientists involved. I’d like to see some stuff like “38 Minutes” where you get a bunch of people working together, but not necessarily agreeing.

 

 

Things I detested:

 

The damn ads for Ghost Hunters they laid in the bottom left corner (gee, that sure obscured Teyla's belly!), and the purple banners as well. Are the DVDs out yet??

 

Otherwise, that was it.

 

Oh, and the much-hyped (on gaming sites) Stargate Worlds ad was, um, er, really short. But the Loch Ness ads were fun J

 

 

Comments

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

Okay, I loved the scene with Teyla telling Ronon & John, but damn it - when the hell was she supposed to have told the guys? Because, that was never addressed on-screen prior to this week's ep. She wasn't in Miller's Crossing & in The Seer, she was still like, "I'm not gonna tell them yet..." I don't remember anything being said in TMC, but I was like dealing w/ laundry last night at the time. Bah! Easy out on the writer's part - trying to shove all the guilt off on Shep.

Yeah, Teyla being sick - huge clue to the guys - Teyla's never sick - she's almost healthier than the guys in many respects. :-p

Ronon's reaction was good - I like the fact that he took Teyla by the hand to walk her to the infirmary afterwards and the gentle teasing for a name.

I got to talking with a friend on John's reaction - he's pissed and I think he's got a right to be - there are just too many things that can go wrong when you're pregnant and when you add in the type of trouble our guys tend to get into... oh hell yeah is he gonna pull her off the team.

I want to see/read Rodney's reaction to this news. Because yeah, that needs to be addressed! (Much room for ficcage here!)

AM: I agree with you totally on the costuming of AT - why stick her in something that only shows to highlight that yes, she's not got a perfect abdomen - she hasn't for like 5 years now. (Even before she had Olivia, she was in great shape elsewhere except for like her waistline - that was the one spot she really carried any weight.) Bad costuming. I only hope that Rachel doesn't get stuck in something as bad next year. (But then, Teyla's usually done like a blend of the Atlantis uniform & her own clothing, so there's hope for Rachel yet! :-p)

Carter's stomping of Ellis - it so needed to be done, since Ellis was like a big dog trying to stake out new territory and looking for the weakest member to quite literally piss on. (very verbally in this case!) So, Sam very much needed to set the boundries, because she's the alpha dog, as it were, in Atlantis.

Sheppard's comment about liking Ellis - WTF? I didn't think he'd like such an uptight character. At least Caldwell has mellowed out a bit towards Sheppard, but Ellis? Why? Is it because his first contact with the Atlantis team was to blow up the replicator homeworld and that appealed to John's unknown inner pyromaniac? Bah! :-p

I miss Liz.... I really do. :( She would have stopped Ellis long before he got started on Rodney.

Radek - heee! I love him. He is such a perfect foil to Rodney. :)

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

"Sheppard's comment about liking Ellis - WTF?"

It's because when Ellis arrived in First Strike, he commented on Sheppard doing a good job, didn't get all up in his face and - basically - was all around nice to John. After taking major crap (like from Col. Everett) and minor crap from higher-ranking officers, of course Sheppard would find favor with the guy who praised him rather than put him down.

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhh! That makes sense. Brain non-functioning here. :)

BTW - great job on new fic. :)