Inside Idiots' Heads -- SG-1

[hsapiens]

10.04 -- Craptastic Insiders

I hated that episode with the passion of a thousand burning suns. I cannot believe I have been mistaken for nine years; I thought that Sam was a member of the military, trained to deal with all sorts of unhappy situations, including torture and death.

How absolutely stupid is it to have her hand over the entirety of the Ancients' database (have we forgotten that they protected it just so that the snakes could never get their hands on it?) because Ba'al threatens to go in the other room and kill Barrett?!?!?!?!?! Yes, let me repeat: to go into the other room. And kill Barrett. So, what does she do? She hands it all over. That's right, she hands over everything so that life in the galaxy can be wiped out rather than bear the thought of the mere threat that Barrett might be killed. In the other room.

And she really does, "just hand it over." No tricks. I mean, it's not as if Ba'al checks to see that what he has is a list of gate addresses rather than, say, a stunning collection of Girls Gone Wild videos or Dr. Lee's fabulous footage of out of control plant growth. I kept waiting for her to reveal her clever plot because Ba'al, like me, should have been going, "Hey - that was too easy! What trick is she pulling?" Kind of like with the Aschen, where the first address links to the black hole gate. Or, that the program would fry the computer system (hey, it's sci fi and we ignore things like Dells are not, in fact, intergalactic plug and play machines.) But no, the episode ended and Sam handed over everything and Landry patted her wee, feeble head and told her that she made the right call. *barf*

I've bitched repeatedly that I hate Jack/Sam because of what it does to Sam. How it strips her of the intelligence and competence that I prize in her because the writers can't write her in a romantic scenario without giving her a lobotomy. I was, apparently, mistaken. The writers don't need 'ship to degrade and humiliate her. They can do it all on their very own. *sigh*

Really? If the suckitude of that scenario doesn't leap out and hit you, then my rant isn't going to make it any more obvious. This episode should be retitled to, "How Sam Misses Every Clue and Gives Away Tip Top Secret Data but the Men Pat Her on the Head Anyway." Seriously. This makes me so f'in angry that I'm still not coherent. I'll try again later but that just sucked.

Not even 20 Ba'als could save it for me. I adore Cliff Simon - though why he's running around in those god-awful gray jumpsuits is beyond me - but the character-rape was just too much for me to enjoy his turn on the stage.

I want the Sam who, facing death at the butt end of a staff weapon, pleaded with a drugged Martouf to resist. I want the Sam who resisted torture rather than reveal where Teal'c was in New Ground. I want the Sam who fought through some painful memories of Jolinar's escape to get her team and Dad out of Hell. I want Sam.

Comments

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

It's a shame, I thought the Sam content in the episode was rather good up till that moment. Why the writers didn't make it a trick (a dummy file or somesuch), I don't understand.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

The Sam content until then had me wondering how many plot holes they'd have - why is Sam surprised that clones would all have the same 13 genetic markers? Sam, you're intimately familiar with the shielding system and space physics, could there be a problem with bringing 20 copies of that signal into the SGC? Sam, maybe you should report that Barrett is acting off? - when it was over but I was enjoying the episode. Lots of Ba'als and the writer was certainly not holding back on the obvious puns. But, hey, Cliff Simon is fun to watch and 20 of him is 20 times the fun.

But then...then...I don't know what! I am unbearably saddened by what they've done to a character I love. I fully expect Daniel to become a megalomaniac galactic overlord, Teal'c to become a cowardly shyster, and for the Ancients to show up and make the galaxy a perfect place where the sun always shines and the birds sing. Because that was NOT Sam. I refuse to believe it. I've been dumped into one of those Alternate Realities.

If they really, really wanted to go this route, drug her up with super duper version of nishta that Ba'al stole from the Ori (or Space Corn!), slap a memory device on her, and pull the code out of her head. It didn't work for Pops in Hell but at least it could have been done in a manner that didn't require destroying her character.

[selmak.livejournal.com]

AGREED! Much applause!

They should have tortured her or SOMETHING. I was waiting for

A) Barrett to turn out to be the real ba'al symbiote

B) Sam to explain that she's just unleashed a major computer virus.

ERRR

It undid all that "I'm not in command of SG1" Cam comment mid-way through. I got so disgusted that I completely skipped SGA - and also because it was a Conan the Barbarian episode.

Helena

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

I knew that Barrett couldn't be a goa'uld because Sam, Teal'c, and Vala should have been able to sense that.

Last night's hour was just nothing more than a series of events carried out by some characters played by actors who also happen to play SG-1. Because it was not my SG-1. What a damned travesty of a show.

I just don't know. Hopefully in a week I'll have my enthusiasm back up but I have to say that I can't really imagine wanting to see another episode I hated it so much. I know I'm still in my melodrama phase of disappointment and disgust. But really? That sucked snake eggs and there was no excuse.

[ml-spikie.livejournal.com]

Hi - wanted to stop by and say hi and comment. I have to say that you use the most gorgeous colors in your icons. It is okay to snag if I properly credit, right? pretty please.

Anyhow, I have to say I was dumbfounded about that part too. I mean really, Sam is brilliant. Surely she could have figured out how to put some meaningless data on there just like you said. Grrr.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

Welcome again. I believe that you have commented before but you're always welcome here. :) Thanks so much for the compliments. I really need a smile today after last night's gutting so the timing is excellent. :)

Sam is so much more clever - and so much stronger - than that! I'm not saying that I want her to be infallible because then she's just boring but she should mess up in ways that are totally "Sam" and not "gee, we need this to happen so Sam gives in and..." When RepliCarter wanted the data on the Ancients' weapon, she went after Daniel and she got it. By digging around in his head and taking it. But he got to fight back -- and die. Nobody but nobody had to tell him that he, "made the right call." Puh-leez.

Oh! What if one of the symbiotes had left one of the Ba'als and gone into Sam? Now there's a perfect way to get the info without it being that Sam is a caving wuss! It was so do-able with 2 seconds of thought.

[ml-spikie.livejournal.com]

It always amazes me that fans are so much more in tune to what is out of whack for the characters. Many times I find myself talking out loud to my TV saying, "WTF?(insert character name) WOULD NEVER DO THAT!" Grrr again. I mean really - Agent Barrett? Go ahead - shoot him. Now, if it was Janet - totally different story. And, I will spare you from that rant.

Thanks for being welcoming. I suddenly couldn't remember if I'd commented in your journal or not. *shakes head at memory issues*

Yes, this icon is really especially gorgeous. Until I learn how to make icons myself, I will continue to shamelessly use other people's! :) Someone else complimented me on it. I, of course, told them it was created by you! Hey, since we're talking to each other, may I friend you?

[ml-spikie.livejournal.com]

BTW - I already did snag some of your icons. I think I found them in the Stargate icons LJ? hmm. Or, I could be mixing you up with someone else. In any case - if not ok with you, please let me know and I'll remove them. Thanks!

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

Oh no, you're welcome to go in, root around, and take anything that isn't marked as "for jalabert only." Those tend to be Godzilla and Aiden Ford, so I suspect you didn't even see those. :)

Thank you for asking but I linked to my Scrapbook and declared everything adoptable unless otherwise labeled. I *am* surprised to see this icon out and about but that's because I think you're the first to take me up on the offer to root around rather than wait for me to post. I'm very happy for you to do that!

I love that icon you're using. I'm not normally enamored of my work, that old self-criticism thing, but that came from a pic with excellent resolution and so it held detail beautifully. I just love how it came out and I'm thrilled you find it worthy of using.

[ml-spikie.livejournal.com]

I am always respectful of any icons marked "don't take," or anything along those lines. hee - yeah - really kind of have mostly Sam and Janet, and SG-1 in general. I have recently picked up some more SGA now that I figured out how to increase my userpic space!

Go ahead - be enamored of your work. Take a bow! It really is stunning! *bows to your genius*

ps - I'll be taking that Janet one!

[superbadgirl]

I'm so glad I didn't watch it. I think it would have totally put me off as well...well, more put off than I already am. :( It's depressing.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

If you haven't yet seen LAST week's episode, "Pegasus Project," I'd recommend it. It still has problems -- Teal'c is less than wallpaper and Vala is curiously "along for the ride," -- but it had some excellent Daniel being the clever geek time and both Sam and Cam were good. I personally liked that Cam prefers his own geek to the Atlantis geek. I'm not so big on being mean to Rodney but if he were a real life character (and I went to college with a lot of guys like that), then he really would get treated with a certain level of annoyance by others. So...all in all, I very much enjoyed last week's episode. Especially in light of it being a non-S1-4 episode.

This one should be consigned to the bowels of Hell as far as I'm concerned.

[superbadgirl]

I caught parts of it, but I'm afraid I just cannot overcome the illogic of Vala being there at all. I tend to let it color my whole mood when watching (my issue, clearly), which makes it difficult to see anything positive.

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I hated the Vala parts of this episode so much that I barely noticed the Sam stuff, but if did bother me a bit, especially this:

And she really does, "just hand it over." No tricks.

I thought that it was surely a trick, until they seemed to reveal that it wasn't. I was waiting for that reveal like you were, only it didn't come. ::sigh::

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

If they hadn't gone for the character assassination, I'd have been writing a review that said something along the lines of, "Ba'al was smoking hot despite unfortunate costuming choices; Where are all the OTHER employees of the SGC?; Why is Landry written to be so hapless even as he declares he doesn't trust goa'uld?; What is Vala doing leading a group of our military and giving them hand signals?; Why did they do that stupid farce of an attempted seduction?" and so on. But I'd also have been going, "hey, but Vala and Sam got some time together which is something I've been wanting (not nearly as well done as cofax7's version, of course, but it wasn't as bad as the pointless Space Corn episode and its gigantic plot holes."

But I really do love Sam and the crap on my screen overrode and other comments I could make. In fact, I've manages to forget a good portion of what else went on in my fit of pique over their ham-fisted Sam killing. Hell, Space Corn gave me MS in leather and for that, Ic an be grateful. This episode made me think that Emancipation looked like an episode worthy of rewatching.

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

Hell, Space Corn gave me MS in leather and for that, Ic an be grateful.

I thought those scenes were cute, if damaging to the Mitchell character and also making everyone look stupid. I'm not really a fan of the leather look, though. It was cute to see them all in leather a few times this year as something different, but I just think, "Doesn't that chafe?" And also, "They're wearing dead animal skin! Ew!" *g* (Yeah, I'm weird. I'm grossed out by that. *g* It doesn't apply to shoes, of course, because I pretend I don't know about that. *g*)

This episode made me think that Emancipation looked like an episode worthy of rewatching.

It is! *g* No, really. There are some really cute and adorable Daniel scenes. When I watched it again sometime in the last year, I thought they probably could have edited the entire episode down to about 15 - 20 minutes and it would have been a tighter story, though nothing could help what was essentially wrong with the story in the first place. Either way, considering it was their first real episode, it wasn't too bad and it was fun to see everyone again as they were back then. hehe I'm not saying I'd want to watch this over and over, but it's worth a look maybe once a year or so. heh

[majorsamfan.livejournal.com]

AMEN! Everything that pi$$ed me off about the episode!

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

I thought of you as the horror unfolded. I knew you'd be as heartbroken and angry as I was. That was beyond the pale. I know that the actors will never give us their real opinions but I'd dearly love to know what Amanda, indeed even Michael and Christopher, think of the directions these stories are taking character-wise.

[betacandy.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. God. I'm so glad I stopped watching last year.

It's like they listened to all the complaints about how the RepliCarter fooled her, and thought to themselves, "How can we show those jerks how wrong they were? I know - let's have her REALLY get easily fooled, so they'll know the difference."

Just horrifying.

Mind if I link to this on Hathor? It's a site I run that examines really bad portrayals of women on TV and in film.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

(You're welcome to link. I figure a public post is exactly that. Permission is never required but I understand and appreciate the etiquette of asking.)

Now, with RepliCarter I could kind of fan wank it. Not that I thought it was truly within her character but I know lots of superintelligent people and there is a level of hubris amongst some of them. Granted, they tend to be in their late teens and 20s but some superegos survive what life throws at them. I could see Carter not only assuming that she could outsmart herself but that she could appeal to that part of herself that is a good person within the RepliCarter. I could fan wank myself there. Also? The pleasure of watching AT's craft in making it immediately obvious whether she was Carter or Replicarter was enjoyable.

I hated that her character, one who had obviously the experience to be more than wordly, would be suckered in like that but I could make it not so horrible. I hated that Jack patted her wee head and I'd really have fallen in love with the storyline if Sam had struggled a little with confidence afterwards -- and then made some changes as a result of a screw up. THAT is what I want to see. I don't mind my characters making mistakes but I do want to see some fall out and growth as a result.

But no, what we see is a woman screws up, hands over the Galaxy for destruction AGAIN, and again gets told by her male boss that it's all okay, don't worry her widdle head over it. Makes me sick.

[betacandy.livejournal.com]

I'm in a minority of people who kind of liked Gemini. If you watch it outside the context of eps that came later, it was clear to me that PDL was sending a different message about Sam and M&M or RCC generally send.

Sam screwed up with RepliCarter because she's in denial of her own desires - for power, maybe for Jack, etc. Instead of facing that she wants things but can't have them, she denies she wants them. (This is NOT true when DK wrote her in Grace, but that's why she's inconsistent: RCC thinks everything she does rocks, M&M only let her do rockin' stuff, and when PDL and DK try to make her more real, they get "overruled" by future eps by the more powerful other writers). Because the RC was NOT in denial of what she and Sam both wanted in terms of ambition, she was able to play Sam.

This is a very human flaw. I could sympathize. And while many people complained about Jack and Teal'c not letting her take sole responsibility, they DID screw up, too. And at no point did Sam STOP taking responsibility, which I admired. I'll never forget the moment after the RC got through the gate. I was totally expecting Sam to take no responsibility whatsoever, because I feel the writers never let her. Instead, she said, "My God, Teal'c, what have I done?" and I loved her all over again.

It's when you get this episode juxtaposed against Threads, in which RCC drools over how fantastic and worthy Sam is of anything she wants, that it loses what PDL was trying to say. And I LOVED what PDL was saying! Finally, letting her have real personality flaws like the guys have!

This just undermines it yet again. To me, this is the deepest and most powerful form of misogyny. Jack would've called Ba'al's bluff. Daniel would have at least tried to trick him. But Sam can't make the hard choices because she's a woman, my gosh. So she's going to screw up to service the plot, but then the writers will tell us it's okay. Meta-message: "Women really ARE incompetent and all that, but boys, we've been told we have to let them in the workplace, and that just means we're all going to have to work a little harder to clean up their mistakes. But that's okay, because they're hot, and maybe we can get some booty out of the whole deal."

And honestly, I've NEVER seen this sort of mollycoddling of women in the workplace in my life. More often, it's the TV's target young white male audience who gets cut extra slack.

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

I'm still fuming. I got up and walked out of the living room and slammed my bedroom door shut. Roomie and his friends thought I was pissed at them. Till I walked out and ranted for five goddamn minutes, informing them that no goddamn LTC in the USAF operating under a secret installation would *ever* do what the fuckhead writers made her do.

And they're going to do it again. In "Company of Thieves." I want revenge.

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

PS -- two things. 1. I love that icon. 2. OT, sorry, but I really like the layout and color of your LJ. I may be pissed off, but I'm not blind. ;)

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

lol! Thank you for the design compliments. That means a lot knowing that you have impressive graphics chops.

I wrestled with the icon and woke up in the middle of the night with the wording I wanted. I had to come in, make it, and edit the post to include it because I wanted something Sam-based that expressed how the real Sam (the one that I know and love, anyway) would react to that pathetic "Sam."

Thank you! I like the LJ style and it's easy on my fatigued eyes. Lots of other peoples' talent led to it and this is normally where I'd give you all the links because I'm overly fanatical about giving credit where it is due but I think that's lots more info than you wanted. If you do, I'd be more than happy to share but otherwise I'll stick with, "thank you!"

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

*snort* I can just imagine how the roomies were trying to figure out what they'd done. :)

Seriously, though, the destruction they're wreaking on Sam demoralizes me. I know this is a relatively new writer for the SG-1 'verse but...but...wait, there is no excuse. This guy is presumably a professional. The plotting was lame and he clearly has no knowledge of women or the military so he's just going to have to suck it up and accept that he screwed the pooch. If I were him, I'd change my name and slink off to a burger joint, where those talents (sic) would be better suited.

And they're going to do it again. In "Company of Thieves." I want revenge.

WTF?!?!? Thank you for that heads up. I will now scrub that episode from my "to be watched" list. Not even ogling the pretty men will make me willing to watch any further episodes in which Sam is replaced with a brain-free, spine-free clone. I'm just not willing to go there.