SGA 5x13, Inquisition

[fiercelydreamed]

The meaty stuff:

I give this episode a B -- B+/A- if I'm grading on the curve established by previous episodes, but B- on the curve of my hopeful expectations at minute 5:00 relative to the results at minute 43:00. The question of Atlantis' culpability in the events since they showed up in Pegasus begged to be raised, and the writers went at it more directly than they ever have before. I thought the accusations against Atlantis, and John's style in responding to them, felt like a pretty sharp allegory to a certain kind of American self-interested, cowboy, interventionist, might-makes-right international political strategy that has seen some prominent use in the last 75 years. That parallel established, the episode didn't realize my worst fear for it -- that the wise leadership of Atlantis expedition would manage to educate the short-sighted natives enough to understand that the expedition's interference really was God's gift to the Pegasus galaxy -- but it played out in a way that supported John and Woolsey's eventual conviction that the coalition was only important in its strategic implications for the expedition's aims, and did not deserve any consideration from the expedition as a rightfully legitimate authority in Pegasus. So, meh on that.

I really wished they'd used Ronon and Teyla more -- I wish we'd had scenes back in the cell of Ronon and Teyla trying to point out to John and Rodney that while they didn't agree with the conclusions the coalition had drawn, the question bore asking. I wish we'd gotten the team having tense conversations about whether or not Atlantis actually was culpable, with the Pegasus half of the team and the Earth half experiencing the dissonance of their different perspectives. I also really wished that instead of having Woolsey tap John out, Teyla had been the one to serve as defense. I think it would've been far better diplomatic strategy for them to use their staunchest Pegasus ally to defuse the conflict by signaling a willingness to defer to a Pegasus representative, and I think it would've created the opportunity for some great character moments for her, particularly as she has canonically challenged the high-handed, isolationist, preemptive tactics the expedition leadership has employed. I was periodically disappointed and even offended for Ronon and Teyla that the writers completely backgrounded them -- Ronon having no opinion on the situation beyond making plans to escape, really? Teyla smiling mildly at John like she was in total agreement with his views and tactics, really?

I was glad they brought Woolsey in, but my pleasure at that dimmed when he got to the line, "Believe me, I can handle three tribal elders with a stack of papyrus." (And Teyla and Ronon nodding along to it! Come on, show.) My aggravation at his lacking all cultural relativism and perpetuating the episode's ethnocentrism (terra-centrism?) was somewhat mitigated by the explanation that he was a lawyer by background, not a diplomat as I'd assumed. However, I continue to eye-roll at the SGC's decision to furnish their only transgalactic base with consistently B-list diplomats. (And with the senior staff of Atlantis all heading off into enemy territory like a big vulnerable clusterfuck waiting to happen, but that's another story.) Woolsey's decision to ignore the question of the trial's legitimacy and approach it as a game of strategy to be won made sense for his motives and background, so I accepted it even though I'd hoped the episode would handle things differently. I also was sad they missed the opportunity to have him realize the parallels between this and the IOA's interrogation of Elizabeth a couple of seasons back, because there could've been some comedy gold in giving him a sarcastic, weary throwaway line about it.

In summary: glad they did it, a bit sad they didn't do it better.

The trivial stuff:
1. I have to admit that as soon as I realized what the episode was about, I had the completely self-involved thought that it was like someone sent the writers the summary line from "Pegasus Ethics."

2. Show, you have just refuted my personal canon that by S5, John Sheppard had been doing first contact and field missions long enough to actually become decent at diplomacy. There's a throwaway line at the start of "Who's Left and Who's Leaving" about John running a training seminar ”Diplomacy in the Pegasus Galaxy,” which he privately thinks of as “Eighteen Simple Rules for Probably Not Getting Shot”. John? Hi. Officially fired from teaching that course. Really, if you think the way to deal with a coalition of allied forces who have brought you to trial on reasonable grounds (if not under reasonable circumstances) is:
a) snark,
b) pseudo-cute condescension, and
c) communicating through body language, implication, and direct assertion that you refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of their authority while you and your teammates are under their complete power,
then I'm shocked that people haven't shot you more.

3. Also, JFlan: I know at some point a couple seasons back you realized you were underacting for the shot depth that they standardly use on this show, but since then they've started shooting you in close-up, and when David Hewlett told you that in acting bigger was better, he meant for him. (And even there he wasn't 100% accurate.) As I said to tropes, Flanigan was doing his version of chewing the scenery in this half of the episode, but he was doing it in slow motion and it was really more like he was gumming it.

4. There's some complaints to be made about the sole female member of the trial court being in a low-cut dress making the emotional argument, but tropes made them on the phone to me already, and she did it funnier.

5. There's some snark to be cracked about the writing staff getting all jazzed up for a "year in review" theme, but whatever, blah blah, you all know where I'd go with it so I'll skip it.

And, last but not least,

6. When Woolsey handed John the cigar at the end and John gave it the fish-eye, all I could imagine John was having trouble reminding himself to take the situation at face value because every other time a commander had handed him a glass of whiskey and a smokable phallic object, it was as a direct prelude to trying to sleep with him.

And then John and Woolsey got all cavalierly loose and gentlemen's-club conspiratorial in a way that my brain couldn't help but find vaguely slashy, and I had to stop thinking about it because I squicked myself out.