(no subject)

[merelyn]

I put this up at sga_noticeboard, but there were spoilery comments for "Trinity" on it, and the post got accidentally deleted instead of the comments (and actually, I don't think you're supposed to have discussions on there anyway, oops, just links). Anyway, I was asked to repost it, and decided to put it up here and link to it.

I have a random question about "Condemned":



Okay, so after I watch the episode on Friday, I was talking to my sister about it, and both of us were kind of confused as to what was going on with Rodney fixing the Puddle Jumper. I re-watched it, and I'm still confused. The different reviews I've read seem to say to different things about it as well.

Was he bluffing about not being able to fix it? If so, what for? The jumper was pretty much a sunk cost, and powering up the gate for the convicts wouldn't have been that bad; it certainly wasn't presented as such in the episode.

Did he know how to fix it but didn't realize it consciously, and somehow Eldon and John picked up on it better than Rodney himself?

Or is it a case of everyone assuming that Rodney could fix it, and him honestly not being able to (which you know, is technically true, because he *couldn't* get the thing the fly). Was Torrell's comment about Rodney waiting to fix it at the last minute in order to make himself out to be a bigger hero completely off the mark or not? (Considering that Torrell nailed him pretty well otherwise?)

What do you think?

Comments

[sivib.livejournal.com]

I see Rodney as a true-blue pessimist. I live with one of those, so I like to believe I have something of an idea of how they think. My husband is constantly talking himself out of things, imagining all the things that could go wrong with a given scenario to the point where he gets paralyzed. I call it throwing up roadblocks, because it has about the same effect on his life.

If Rodney thinks at all like that, then he probably truly does not see all the alternatives, no matter how smart he is (hubby is one smart cookie, too). He'll be too busy seeing how something *can't* work to find a way to *make* it work, until someone tears down his roadblocks and shows him a way, or at least a route to a way. In my marriage, this is my job. With Rodney, I suspect it is John's job mostly, and after him Radek. I don't think Teyla or Weir quite understand the mindset well enough to counter it, yet, and only see the annoying foot-dragging.

Just my 2p worth.

[merelyn.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I definitely see Rodney as that type; he's definitely hyper-aware of everything that could be out to get him, from citrus, to dangerous levels of sunlight, to Power Bar shortages.

Still, I think he has genuine scientific curiosity, I guess I'll call it, working against that. If Rodney always let his thinking be limited by traditional views on what should and shouldn't work, I don't think he'd have been able to come of with some of the things he's been able to- though obviously, he's had help.

I see a lot of Rodney's behavior as a kind of conflict between these two forces, if you will: his instictive "Oh god oh god we're all going to die" feelings and his brain's ability to come up with those crazy, brilliant "Rodney McKay kind of plans". And you're right- he often needs a push in the right direction. In "Condemned" I definitely saw him getting that from John; it's only John's reaction that still has me confused.