#ep. michael

[dr-futbol-blog]

No Man's Land, Pt. 6

Still in the cockpit of his F-302 outside one of the hives, Sheppard is preparing himself to strike. His oxygen is depleting, the hives may jump back into hyperspace at any moment, and he knows that he has to make a move. Sheppard seems to be going through the motions of a pre-flight check, flicking switches and checking gauges, something he has likely done so many times in his life that he is doing it by rote -- even if this is likely only the second time that he is behind the stick of their newest fighter-interceptor model. This is what he has been trained to do. The Sheppard that had perished in the bottom of the ocean 10,000 years ago in Before I Sleep (S01E15) had boasted that he would be able to fly anything, and in this the Sheppards are alike, likely due to his background as a test pilot once upon a time. The thing to note here is his hierarchy of concerns, of what the most important thing to him is: that McKay is going to be alright. He first wants to know that he is not accidentally going to hit McKay, to make sure that the hives do not get away (with McKay) second, and what ever else follows as a distant third. He explicitly asks Michael to assure him that he is not going to accidentally blast them.

Sheppard: Are you sure McKay and Ronon are nowhere near the area I'm about to light up? Michael: I'm certain. Good luck. Sheppard: Thanks!

Sheppard mentions McKay and Ronon, this time feeling comfortable enough to mention McKay first (or being compelled to mention him first because he needs to make sure that McKay is not anywhere near where he is going to shoot his load -- this time), seeming to double check that they will not be hurt by what he is attempting to do. Mentioning Ronon, the whole reason for Ronon to accompany McKay on the hive, serves to obscure the fact that it is McKay who is at the heart of everything that Sheppard decides to do or to keep from doing. Sheppard's whole reason for having hitched a ride with the hive had to do with McKay, needing to know what had happened to him and wanting to make sure he was alright. In fact, the whole reason that Ronon is even on the hive with McKay is because of Sheppard's concern for McKay.

Michael may or may not know of McKay's importance to Sheppard, especially since it seems like Sheppard had purposefully kept McKay away from him during Michael (S02E18), but he is choosing to trust Michael here, and he is trusting him with a lot. Of course Michael hardly has a reason to lie about this because if he wanted to kill McKay, there would be easier ways to do it than to trick Sheppard into blasting them from outside of the hive, but he still has no real reason to trust Michael. He takes this leap of faith likely because Michael had told him the answer to the question that had been eating him up before: McKay was still alive. Somewhere inside the hive, McKay was still breathing. Michael continues being polite and courteous, even wishing Sheppard good luck. This is also a time when we hear Sheppard say something that we rarely hear him say, which is "thanks" -- albeit he once more makes it sound sarcastic to get some emotional distance to the situation.

Sheppard: [It'll] be a walk in the park... a very scary park, filled with monsters who are trying to kill me. Michael: I don't understand. Sheppard: Never mind.

What we see here is indication of Sheppard being with the wrong person. Michael does not understand what he says and cannot appreciate it. He probably does not even know what a park is, let alone what the phrase "walk in the park" means. We cannot even be sure how the translation algorithm of the gate would have translated it.

What is curious is that momentarily McKay has the same experience with Ronon. He throws out a mildly amusing line only for it to fall flat because Ronon does not get the reference, he does not have the cultural framework to appreciate it. It is not that Sheppard would have necessarily (or even likely) thought that what McKay says is a riot either but he would have gotten the reference. These scenes together emphasize the shared cultural context of Sheppard and McKay, impress on the viewer how they are both with the wrong person when they belong together. If Sheppard was on the phone with McKay, he would understand exactly what Sheppard meant, what he was saying and what he was not saying, and what he was trying to imply besides.

In addition to being a turn of phrase indicating that something is very easy, a walk in the park is also frequently a romantic venture, something that couples do together -- both those who are freshly falling in love but also elderly married couples. Through this reference to a scary park filled with monsters, Sheppard is painting a distorted vision of something that is usually quaint and comforting. Taking flight with the aircraft, new though it is to him, is a walk in the park for Sheppard -- it is easy. But the context in which he is asked to do it here is strange, new and terrifying, and he knows that the bogies that will be coming for him are going to be literal monsters. By saying it out loud, Sheppard is once more using levity to make the situation seem lighter, to make it seem less serious to himself, trying to talk himself into doing it. In effect, Sheppard is ridiculing his own fear with the hopes of making it go away.

We had learned of Sheppard's love of Ferris wheels in Rising (S01E01), being a staple on fairgrounds. We had further learned of his fear of clowns -- something which he had been saying as a smartass remark but which appears to be true nonetheless based on what we see of his nightmares in Doppelganger (S04E04) -- in The Hive (S02E11), which is also a distortion of what is generally seen as amusing into something terrifying. In North American popular culture fairgrounds, carnivals, amusement parks and fairs are frequently used as fodder for horror and mayhem. While this may go back to the roots of Commedia dell'Arte, the Danse Macabre of the Middle Ages or even further to the Roman Saturnalia where social norms and roles were temporarily overturned as a vent for social tensions, most of the popular conceptions of scary carnivals owe specifically to Ray Bradbury's 1962 novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the film version of the book from 1983. The novel takes its name from Shakespeare's Macbeth, and we have noted that several titles of episodes on the show owe their origin to Shakespeare's writings -- something that the writers seem to have held in high regard. They are known to make intentional intertextual references.

What makes this novel relevant to Sheppard and McKay is that it features two boys who are best friends, one reserved and the other rebellious, with some seriously homoerotic undertones ("...is an unrecognized gay novel"; "They are quite obviously in love, with an instinctive, inevitable bond, as integral to their world as the rhythms of school and home and swimming-holes and rock-strewn lanes, accepted without question by children and adults alike"). The boys have to survive a traveling carnival come to their town, a very scary walk in the park, and in order to survive they have to learn how to combat their fear, which is also what Sheppard and McKay both have to do, to continue doing for the course of the show.

The monsters of the carnival in the novel feed off of the life force of the people in entraps, not unlike the wraith. It is entirely possible for Sheppard to have read this novel as a young boy, given his apparent love of literature, yearning for a bond such as these two boys had (not dissimilar to McKay apparently having watched Lassie on television, as we learned in Grace Under Pressure (S02E14), where a similar close friendship between two boys was featured). Obviously it is not Sheppard's intention to make a reference, and Michael would not get it even if he did, but he is obviously dipping into something in his subconscious to retrieve this imagery, and desiring now to save the boy that he loves from life-sucking aliens certainly may have reminded him of the book.

Sheppard: Operation "This Will Most Likely End Badly" is a go.

Having finished with his pre-flight check Sheppard reattaches his oxygen mask, which is meant to force air into his lungs to help him survive the "Gs" and to fight off hypoxia, and we may recall that Sheppard had explained to McKay in The Intruder (S02E02) that at these speeds, the pilot is going to feel the tight turns even with the inertial dampeners. While in the episode there was once more a comedic beat in McKay supposedly being a big wuss in contrast to Sheppard's big damn hero, experiencing flight in a fighter jet can easily feel like having a car parked on one's chest that McKay, unlike Sheppard, would have been completely unprepared to experience at the time. Regardless, Sheppard is alone this time, which is even emphasized by him giving himself a "go," not just for the take-off but for the whole endeavour.

Sheppard continues trying to make himself feel better by naming the operation "This Will Most Likely End Badly," which does not follow any actual USAF guidelines for naming military operations -- although some of the operation names used in Afghanistan by the Pakistani are similar to this (e.g., Operation "I Will Teach You a Lesson," translated from Pashto). USAF operations are usually no longer than two words, the first word describing the object of the mission and the second the means of achieving it. Regardless, Sheppard is not intending for this to be as an actual operation name, he is just being glib. He hopes for the best but prepares for the worst, and in this he is actually doing something very similar to what we have seen McKay do before -- it is better to say that something might fail and then succeed than it is to promise to do something and then fail. It takes the pressure off, and Sheppard may well have learned this from McKay. What is more, now that Ronon and McKay were roaming the hallways of the hive, McKay might just as easily have named what they were doing Operation "This Will Most Likely End Badly." Sheppard and McKay are on the same page even when they are not physically with each other.

Sheppard: Target is destroyed. Michael: Disable the second hive as quickly as possible. Their fighters will already be headed your way. Sheppard: OK, how about some of this help you were talking about? Michael: I told you to target the hyperdrive. Sheppard: I already knew that! Michael: There is nothing I can do.

Sheppard takes off and destroys one of the hyperdrives with a missile, disabling the hive that is housing McKay and Ronon from being able to get away. A swarm of darts descend on him, and it is obvious Sheppard had no contingency plan for what to do after he disabled the hyperdrive. Facing overwhelming odds Sheppard seems to panic enough to actually ask Michael for help, but where Sheppard and McKay are on the same page, Sheppard and Michael seem to be at cross purposes even when they are trying to work together. Michael thought that he had been helping Sheppard where Sheppard thought that Michael's help was yet to come.

Michael mentions that he did offer Sheppard advice but even though Michael giving him the same advice as what he had been planning on doing anyway had convinced him that Michael might be for real in wanting to help him, he now whines that Michael is telling him something he already knows. Complaining out loud probably serves to relieve some of the pressure Sheppard is feeling. What is especially jarring to Sheppard is that he is used to working with McKay and hence knows what he can expect from McKay. But their communication is exceptionally efficient and expecting other people to know how to deliver him information in the way that McKay has learned how to deliver it to him is setting the expectations way too high. Even if Sheppard and Michael were the same species, they would never be able to communicate as efficiently as Sheppard and McKay. Also, McKay is the how person. Sheppard is telling Michael that he already knows what to do, he wanted him to tell him how to do it. It is not even a question of Michael purposefully being unhelpful because he genuinely seems to want to help Sheppard in order to save his own bacon, he simply lacks understanding of both Sheppard and the capacity of the fighter-interceptors to be able to give him any advice.

Sheppard: Like hell there isn't! Call off the darts. Michael: They won't listen to me. Sheppard: This is not helpful, Michael!

Sheppard sounds indignant more than betrayed by Michael not being able to provide him with help, like it is him not even trying that offends him more than that he had actually expected some help to arrive. He had not been counting on Michael's help but it would have been nice to get some, especially as things seemed to be going fubar and fast.

Sheppard uses an expletive to emphasize his point, and while it is not unusual, and Sheppard is obviously not intending to make any references here, this might be in homage to Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (1926) where not only is the word "hell" said an awful lot, probably in every possible configuration of the word, but he also uses the formulation "The hell there isn't!" specifically. In the book it is preceded by the line "There is no reason why because it is dark you should look at things differently from when it is light," which seems applicable not just to Sheppard's current predicament but may apply more generally to the narrative. This is ironic in the sense that the first two seasons adhered much more to Hemingway's "iceberg theory" of writing than this season where things are spelled out much more frequently. I had discussed Hemingway's description of bravery as "grace under pressure" in connection with Grace Under Pressure, and while Sheppard is not precisely graceful in this moment, he is retaining his composure despite running his mouth. Like with McKay, running his mouth seems to just serve to distract him from his own terror.

Sheppard's line to Michael telling him to call off the darts probably knowing full well that it is impossible for him to achieve it has a comedic beat to it, seeming the kind of wisecracking line that a too cool for school hero might say. His delivery of the line resembles Rick O'Connell's line in the beginning of The Mummy (1999), where he is facing execution and as his last wish tells the guard to let him go. It is the obvious thing to say while it being just as obvious that the other person is not going to and cannot comply with it, which is also what happens here. We are also again reminded of the fact that Michael is somewhere between a wraith and a human by him pointing out that the other wraith are not going to listen to him, both wraith and humans finding him suspicious.

And so there is nothing either Sheppard nor Michael can do, and Sheppard is blasted by one the darts that manages to clip his wing entirely off, and he is left hurtling uncontrollably in space while we see him likely lose consciousness when his head smashes against the dashboard of the F-302. Sheppard is a good pilot but he is not evading hundreds and hundreds of darts at the same time good. His fate remains open but we are left fearing for the worst -- again. With his wing clipped and the oxygen escaping in sparkling particles of pixie dust, Sheppard seems almost like the magic fairy come on the wings of imagination for their rescue -- but whether McKay gets his wish and is saved by him remains to be seen.

Continued in Pt. 7

[sewaryka]

regular jon sims tuesday

[everkinshi]

Michael jumpscare

[lissa]

abbot looking at robby | THE PITT 1.14

+ bonus under the cut

[sherlock-is-ace]

ok hear me out

[chleckypecky]

Tmagp episode 8, the best goth and ruthless grandma

[brettanomycroft]

on a scale of "threw myself off a cliff for money 🤑" to "was thrown down the stairs of my murder dungeon by my interdimensional doppelganger 💀" how Darrien are you?

[avatarofthetired]

TMA names are so goofy because we have:

- People named after the creators friends

- People with cool sounding names like Evo Lensik and Carlos Vittery (idk I like them)

- BARNABAS BENNET

- Michael, Michael, Michael, Michael, and Michael

[n-fblog]

how many bllk fans ACTUALLY read epinagi be fr

[sic-vita]

GOOD OMENS + Aziraphale's excitement over his magic

[dr-futbol-blog]

Allies, Pt. 5

The wraith queen and her entourage make their way through Atlantis from the promontory where their ship had touched down to the gate room where the welcoming committee is waiting for them. As already mentioned, McKay is not there with them. In fact, out of everyone that had been in the meeting room discussing this, he is the only one not welcoming the wraith queen to Atlantis. And what makes it even more striking, makes it all the more strange that he is not participating in it is that he seems nonetheless interested to see her. We find McKay hanging out at one of the doorways along the way of the entourage, trying to get a good look at her, craning his neck and probably standing on his tippy-toes and everything.

It is very obvious that McKay wanted to see her, and yet he is the only one of the senior staff, of the people that had been in the meeting where they had decided to go ahead with this, and even largely due to his excitement over the prospects -- and yet he is not allowed to come meet her. It is very clear that he is not allowed to be there, that Sheppard will not let him. While they have the hallways lined up with guards, the soldier standing in front of McKay and blocking his way with his finger on the trigger of his P-90 is symbolic of why he is being kept away, of why McKay had apparently had to sneak in to get peek. In fact, McKay is the first of them to get a look at her.

It is not as though McKay is not important enough to be included, that he has to hang out with the plebes watching from the sidelines while everyone else is invited to welcome her. It is also not a case of him having been too busy or otherwise occupied to attend because evidently he is not. It is clear that it had been Sheppard's decision to exclude McKay from the proceedings, not his. And it is not because he is being ostracized or what ever people think is happening here. McKay is an important asset, both to Atlantis in general and to Sheppard personally. We get confirmation here for the fact that Sheppard has a tendency to remove McKay out of the way of unnecessary risks.

Weir: I'm Doctor Elizabeth Weir. Welcome to Atlantis.

The wraith queen saunters in with Michael and another wraith in tow, looking not unlike a drag queen. The welcoming committee is coming down the stairs to meet them, apparently having stayed on the Control Platform near the monitors up until it was time to meet with her personally, the Lanteans coming down as the wraith climb up as though to meet in the middle. As mentioned, Ronon and Teyla are both present for this, and you could argue that Ronon is there to secure Sheppard and Teyla is there because of her connection to the wraith and her personal connection to Michael. But then Caldwell is also present, the captain of the ship they are hoping is sheltering them from the hive, all of the key personnel here to meet up with her. Apart from McKay. It is no so much the absence of McKay that is peculiar as it is the presence of everyone else but him when he so obviously wanted to see her.

Note the way they come down the stairs with Sheppard walking slightly behind Weir and to the opposite side of her from the wraith. He has to go around her to come face to face with the queen. This means that they are going out of their way to show us that Sheppard is not putting his body between Weir and the wraith, that Sheppard is not guarding her with his life, is not offering up himself as a human shield to protect her. This is made all the more pertinent by the fact that there is an actual scene later where they make it clear that protecting one's superior is something to be expected from members of a leader's entourage, their companions. Later, when McKay has finally been allowed to meet the wraith personally with the apparent stipulation that no one lays a hand on him, they have the following exchange:

Dex: You don't touch him! McKay: He was guiding me down the hall, not sucking the life out of my shoulder! We are sorry. Say you're sorry! Wraith: That will not be necessary. He was protecting his superior. I would have done the same.

We are explicitly told that being protective of the one that is most important, most prized is instinctive behaviour to both the wraith and to humans. It is one of the things that is common to both species being that, according to Michael, humans are more like the wraith than they would like to admit. And we have seen that Sheppard is capable of being protective, of offering up his own body and his life in keeping others safe. We have seen him do it, after a fashion, with Norina in Inferno (S02E19) and genuinely with Avrid in Epiphany (S02E12). But most often we have seen him do it with McKay. McKay is the person Sheppard has an instinctive drive to protect with his own life, with whom he does not have to think about putting up his own body between him and danger. He does it unthinkingly because McKay is the most important thing in his life. And so we see him very obviously not put his body between the wraith queen and any of the people marching down the stairs by his side, even though we are able to see how on edge he is by how his hand lands on the handle of his gun, holding on to it like a security blanket.

And so Sheppard stands face to face with the queen and unlike the others -- possibly, although not certainly, excluding Ronon -- he has actually faced off with wraith queens before, and he does not exactly have warm and fuzzy memories about these previous encounters. We had learned previously that the queens are powerfully telepathic, and as the queen now looks around the gate room, likely the first wraith queen ever to set foot in it, we see how the soldiers lower their weapons as she looks at them. She may have compelled them to do it or they were just impressed by her sheer presence for, as a female of Sheppard's stature, she is indeed an impressive sight to behold.

Weir: My people are willing to work with some of your scientists, but no more than three wraith will be allowed on this base at any given time. Sheppard: They'll be subjected to extensive searches that we'll perform at random intervals. Any harmful weapons or materials found on your-- your fellow wraith...

Next, we find that the wraith queen has been escorted to Weir's office ("Really, your office?") where she is seated opposite Weir, not really like they would treat any foreign dignitary that they have usually brought into the meeting room but more like someone that had been brought in to be reprimanded. Weir and Sheppard seem to be laying down the law, recounting the conditions they have for this relationship to proceed. There are armed guards standing behind the wraith queen, not unlike there had been when they had allowed the Genii Ladon to come negotiate with them in Coup d'État (S02E17) but in contrast to that, Weir herself has agreed to sit down with her, a courtesy that she had not given the Genii. Weir is a world class diplomat and likely understands that, while they are taking some obvious precautions here, it is important to meet someone where they are for negotiations to bear fruit.

What is interesting is that Sheppard remains standing -- and many people have interpreted this as Sheppard "standing by" Weir, as though him standing next to her was some significant indicator of his feelings for her. However, observe how his pelvis is turned away from her like it always is, the masculine display of his assets here directed toward the wraith queen (not intended to entice her but to challenge, an attempt to measure up against her). Sheppard is keeping his hands on his hips but although his hands are akimbo like they had been when he caught up with Teyla earlier, they are now held lower and more loose on his hips, this posture emphasizing his... precision missile in a way that the earlier pose did not. While you can bet your bottom dollar that Sheppard is not sexually or romantically interested in the wraith queen, his energy is nonetheless directed toward her, she is the natural focus of his attention. Sheppard is also standing at the side of Weir's desk which forms a kind of a barrier between him and both ladies. Note also that Sheppard seems unable to force the words "your people" out of his mouth, having to amend it to "your fellow wraith." They are all struggling with this.

Sheppard: We'll consider it an act of aggression and immediately destroy your ship. Weir: We are also monitoring all of your transmissions... Wraith Queen: All we want is the retrovirus. It is the key to ending a civil war that could go on for centuries. Impose whatever conditions you wish. Let us begin.

Weir and Sheppard are laying out the conditions the Lanteans have for allowing any wraith into the city and, being that Sheppard is responsible for security, we can presume that most of these conditions and stipulations come from him, are precautions that he had insisted on taking. They are aware that this requires them to go out on a limb but they are once more faced with the same dilemma as McKay had faced in Trinity (S02E06) and Beckett in Michael (S02E18) of whether the potential rewards outweigh the risks.

We end the scene with Sheppard looking at the wraith with an inscrutable look on his face, possibly trying to weigh the risks in his mind, to go through everything they had thought of to see if there was something he had missed. The queen presents this as an opportunity to end a war, be that she is referring to one internal to the wraith, nonetheless managing to dangle a worm on the hook that looks very appetizing to all of them. At the same time, her reference to imposing conditions in order to end a strife may also remind Sheppard of something else, something more personal. Even though it seems clear that Sheppard and McKay have reconciled, we cannot be sure what had finally resolved the issues that had been keeping them apart. Perhaps one or both of them had had some conditions they had to impose, and we do see both of them make an effort to do things in a way that is considerate of the other's feelings in this episode. McKay staying away when it was not necessary for him to be present may have been one of them.

Continued in Pt. 6

[beaulesbian]

It's nice to tell someone about the good things you've done, now that I'm not reporting to Heaven.

[izhunny]

rewatching Bab5 and this banger little maxim delivered by Sinclair needed to be blogged

[shinelikethunder]

You asked me to teach you chess, and I've done that. It's a useful mental exercise. Through the years, many thinkers have been fascinated by it. But I don't enjoy playing. Do you know why not?

Because it was a game that was born during a brutal age when life counted for little and everyone believed that some people were worth more than others. Kings and pawns.

I don't think that anyone is worth more than anyone else. I don't envy you the decisions you're going to have to make. And one day I'll be gone, and you'll have no one to talk to. But if you remember nothing else, please remember this:

Chess is just a game. Real people aren't pieces. You can't assign more value to some of them than to others. Not to me. Not to anyone. People are not a thing that you can sacrifice.

The lesson is: Anyone who looks on the world as if it were a game of chess deserves to lose.

— Harold Finch, not knowing how to explain to his AI offspring that it should care about people (but doing his best), Person of Interest 4x11 “If-Then-Else”

[notsocasualenjoyer]

"MY mother was a SAINT! The only person who truly cared about me and now she's GONE! And I have nothing left."

[eyepatchcrow]

will somebody PLEASE get this man a hug. and then several years of therapy