#I get why they're doing this but the implementation is PAINFULLY bad | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

dr-futbol-blog · 18 days ago

Text

The Pegasus Project, Pt. 9

They are preparing to implement McKay's plan, and we find McKay pacing behind Carter while she is relaying some last-minute advice to Teal'c before giving the go-ahead. Even as he paces, we may note that McKay is keeping his hands behind his back, and it very much seems like McKay does not want to touch Carter even by accident and does not want to give off the impression that he might gets handsy with her, this being the kind of gesture that a man might make when they purposefully want to give off the air of being harmless, to project how not-predatory they are. For McKay the gesture is probably largely subconscious, resulting from feeling uncertain around Carter and needing to boost his own confidence through the posture, and also to ease the discomfort coming from not knowing what to do with his hands. We have seen McKay with his hands behind his back e.g., in Sanctuary (S01E14) and Trinity (S02E06), both times as he had been approaching Sheppard to have a difficult conversation. And he seems nervous here too, albeit for a very different reason.

Carter: Maintain a good, safe distance, Teal'c. There's a possibility we could vaporize the gates on both ends if we get this wrong. McKay: It's like five percent, maybe seven. He'll be fine. Carter: That's a comfort, Rodney. Thank you.

McKay seems worried about whether the plan is going to work or not. Just like Carter, he is worried also for Teal'c's safety but because he does not really know the man, his worry for him is largely abstract. The first time he had worked at the SGC, he had not had a lot of contact with Teal'c because his entire purpose there had been to provide a scientific excuse for why they should give up trying to save Teal'c. McKay had genuinely believed that just based on the Physics of it all, their resident alien was probably dead already and holding up the gate with attempts to recover him from the buffer was only wasting money and resources. He had turned out to be wrong and Carter had been right, which is what the "Carter" that McKay had hallucinated in Grace Under Pressure (S02E14) had pointed out to him: every time they had worked together he had been wrong and Carter had been right. McKay is painfully aware of this fact.

And so McKay is very much hoping that his plan will work out now, that he will be right -- and not just so that he could get a "W" over her for once. He needs Carter's approval because he respects her so much. But because McKay probably remembers what had happened during that time, how Carter had angrily told him to go suck on a lemon when she had discovered what his actual purpose had been and why he had been brought over, and so McKay is trying to make up for it now by actually being concerned for Teal'c and his safety. McKay sounds glib as he mentions that the probability of vaporizing both gates is relatively low but what is significant here is that he seems actually to have calculated the risk. However, we should note that even back in 48 Hours, although McKay had clearly been brought on as a foil for Carter, he was not exactly a bad guy. He seemed to genuinely have cared about what happens to Teal'c, he had been worried that trying to rematerialize him would have caused him unimaginable pain that Carter had never even considered. They had the following exchange:

Carter: The event horizon is what dematerializes you and sends you into the wormhole. And maybe we don't need to connect to a wormhole to form an event horizon. McKay: Maybe. Somehow. Somewhere. Carter: All we need to do is get the rematerialization process to work. McKay: Major, even if you managed to create a viable event horizon without connecting to a wormhole, you'd never get the gate to reintegrate Teal'c. Carter: Why not? McKay: The crystals that retain the energy pattern before reintegration are not like magnetic hard drives. Carter: I know, they're crystals. McKay: But you can't just ignore the laws of thermodynamics. Entropy dictates that the crystals won't retain their energy patterns permanently. I've measured it. It's what's called quantitative evidence. Carter: I think the energy itself is unimportant past its initial imprint on the crystals. McKay: And this fantasy is based on? Carter: I suspect the gate is storing its ones and zeros on a subatomic level within the structure of the crystals. So even though the energy is dissipating, the most recent pattern still exists. McKay: You suspect? Carter: We're dealing with a level of quantum physics here that is way beyond us. McKay: More than a third of the energy pattern the gate required to reintegrate Teal'c has almost gone. Carter: I don't think so. McKay: You're guessing wildly, like you always do. Maybe you could find a way to fool the gate with reintegrating whatever it has stored in the memory. But I say you won't like what comes out. Carter: Well, we'll see. McKay: Major, Teal'c is dead, and this argument is a waste of time, because the Pentagon is going to order Hammond to resume operations in what... sixteen hours. Carter: That's where they came up with the forty-eight hour deadline, isn't it? You told them Teal'c would already be dead! McKay: That's why it's called a deadline.

McKay had basically been brought on as the villain of the episode but it was not even that he was wrong. His assessment of Carter seems spot-on, and he is one of the few people with not just the expertise but the wherewithal to call Carter on her reckless seat-of-her-pants approach to science. She is beautiful, lovely and smarter than most people she works with, which means that she gets away with things that most people would not get away with, things that McKay knows that he would never be able to get away with himself because he had to become to best in his field to gain the kind of acceptance that seems to come naturally to Carter. McKay envies this about her, but we should make one thing very clear here: the reason that McKay is in a position to act as a foil for Carter is because he is not attracted to her, unlike most people she has worked with. That was the whole point of him, and people fail to see this because they had taken what he said at face-value when that was not his intention.

It is because McKay is able to review her work neutrally and his conduct toward her is not influenced by hoping against hope to one day maybe be given a chance to romp with her, unlike most people she has worked with, that allows him to actually view her as a colleague, as an equal. We have seen Carter's struggles at being taken seriously because she is a woman in a male-dominated field, and although McKay definitely has his own issues with women, in spite of explicitly telling her that he basically views her as a dumb blonde sex object instead of a brilliant scientist, that he sees her as a pair of boobies instead of a colleague, McKay thinks the opposite of that. He says out loud the thing that most men who work with her think and would never say but he actually means the contrary of that -- and all of this is because McKay is gay.

And although Carter finds McKay's behaviour exasperating, she definitely does not appreciate being subjected to very public objectification, it seems like Carter had at least come to understand why he behaves the way he does toward her. And even here, even though Carter uses a sarcastic tone in telling McKay that his attempts at reassuring her are comforting, she does actually probably think it. She is grateful that he is being thorough about his work and calling her on her wishful thinking, which is something that McKay might find familiar given that it is exactly the kind of thing that Sheppard might have said to him. And it is possible that McKay catches on to this himself, as he momentarily opens his mouth as though to say something in response, and he looks a little lost as he looks at her. A sarcastic yet genuine admission of trust in and appreciation of McKay is one hundred percent Sheppard.

Carter: Coordinates are set. Beaming the warheads in five, four, three, two, one, mark. Teal'c: The second attempt was also unsuccessful. However, energy did pass between the Stargate and the Supergate. Mitchell: Close but not enough. Teal'c: Indeed.

Carter calculates down "on her mark," which is something that may further have reminded McKay of Sheppard and made him feel homesick, as it is something that we have heard Sheppard say before. The previous time Sheppard had counted down to "on his mark," had been in No Man's Land (S03E01), and although McKay had not been around to hear it personally that time, it is something that Sheppard frequently gets to say, it is very much "like a Sheppard thing to do."

McKay shields his eyes in preparation for the nuclear blast, which is also something that we have seen him do before, and this too unfortunately often in connection with Sheppard riding bombs. McKay had told Sheppard in Hot Zone (S01E13) that he has "been around more EMPs than anyone," which indeed suggests that the man who had prepared a non-functional atom bomb for his grade six science fair exhibit, as he had told Ford in Underground (S01E08), has indeed seen more than a few nuclear bombs go off in his life. And as such McKay is not too cool for school not to cover his eyes -- even if Teal'c's alien physiology may somewhat shield him from the effects. It does tell us that McKay is a cautious fellow, one who is not reckless or act rashly. And we may note that McKay continues not looking at Carter but is, in fact, doing exactly what he had been brought on to do, which is the science.

In the meanwhile, Jackson and Vala are still continuing their search in the hologram room on Atlantis, and their dialogue again seems interesting with regards to Sheppard and McKay, especially with Jackson as a mirror for McKay. We had noted that Sheppard vanished from the episode after he had passed the lemon on to Mitchell, not to be seen again for the duration of the episode. But that does not mean that his presence is not felt. As discussed previously, it is entirely possible that McKay and Sheppard had been in communication before the Odyssey went out of communications' range. And because Jackson and Vala had been paralleled with McKay and Sheppard, his dialogue here is interesting:

Daniel: I know you're still here. There's no point in hiding! Vala: I don't think she's coming back, Daniel. Especially if you shout at her. Daniel: Oh, yes she is. She's come this far, she's going to finish what she started! You're not fooling anybody anymore!

Sheppard had vanished from the episode. He is not fooling anybody anymore, even though he had clearly been attempting to throw the newcomers off their scent. The subtextual narrative is also still there, so there is no point in hiding it even if they cannot go full hog maintext with it. It is also possible that there was something that Sheppard had started before McKay was forced to leave for the Odyssey that they did not get to finish for lack of time and McKay taking his sweet time doing things, and McKay is very much going to hold Sheppard to what ever promises had been made before he had to go. But alas, it does not seem like he can return home quite yet, because the plan, whether it had been devised by McKay or McKay together with Sheppard, did not work.

Teal'c: The second attempt was also unsuccessful. However, energy did pass between the stargate and the supergate. Mitchell: Close but not enough. Teal'c: Indeed. McKay: There's still two more bombs. I say we increase the yield to maximum, try it again. Carter: You were the one who said a maximum-yield blast would vaporize both gates. McKay: We've only got one more shot at this. What difference does it make? Mitchell: Man has a point, Sam. Emerson: Each attempt is forcing the gate closer to the event horizon of the black hole.

They seem able to achieve ejaculation but but cannot get both of the gates to come (online) at the same time, they do not succeed in using McKay's plan that he may or may not have conceived together with Sheppard in making the wormhole jump from one gate to another, to get the Chihuahua to mount a St. Bernard. It is now seemingly McKay's turn to throw caution to the wind, although we have to note that he is prepared to do it only as a last resort.

McKay is not a "by the books" kind of a guy, his issuing of caution was based on his current scientific understanding -- and having lost several colleagues in the past when things had gone awry. But he also knows that sometimes the greater good requires them to make sacrifices, and what ever discussions he had with Sheppard when they "talked about it for a very long time" to resolve the issues between them, he certainly seems to have come to appreciate the fact that sometimes needs must. This time, it is the captain who tries to issue caution because he is responsible for all of their lives. We may also note that this time it is Mitchell who sides with McKay, perhaps in this subtle display of support for McKay betraying the fact that he may indeed have made some promises to Sheppard that he would take care of his scientist while McKay was in his custody.

Emerson: To keep safe beaming distance, I'm going to have to bring the Odyssey in even closer. Carter: And the closer you get to the black hole, the more systems are affected by its effects. Emerson: Sub-light engines and beaming technology are fine, but communications and sensors are all out of whack already. Mitchell: We're flying blind? Emerson: Not quite, but close.

Perhaps owing to the fact that this had been his plan, and possibly his plan together with Sheppard, making him feel somewhat defensive over it, McKay keeps quiet as the others argue over the merits of whether they should go forward with it or not. McKay does believe in the plan but he does not want the others to go along with it because he has managed to brow-beat them into it. He wants the others to come around because they truly see the merits of the plan and believe in it as much as he does, which again suggests that Sheppard may have more than a little to do with it, explaining why McKay is as subdued as he is in spite of clearly thinking that this is their only course of action.

Note also the way they describe the effects of being in the vicinity of a black hole here. The gravity that is pulling matter toward it is not unlike the strong attraction felt between two people who are very much in love, and the concept of having one's systems affected by the black hole the closer one gets to it might also explain how Sheppard behaves when he is near McKay, and how McKay is when he is close to Sheppard. This is foreshadowing what happens later on in the season in Phantoms (S03E09) and which culminates before the events of Sunday (S03E17), as Sheppard discovers that he is no longer able to perform his duties when he is completely compromised by his love for McKay, when he is no longer able to concentrate when McKay demands so much of his focus without ever meaning to.

Because they are the centres of each other's worlds, they become distracting to the other and make each other irresponsible, they start making mistakes because their focus is on each other. It is possible that we already see it here with McKay throwing caution to the wind because he needs this to work, he needs this to work to save mankind from the Ori, yes, but also because he wants to go back home. McKay and Sheppard may not be flying blind yet but they are getting close to it. Their communications and senses are already affected. They have never been as close to each other as they are now, and unbeknownst to them it is becoming dangerous not just to the two of them but to everyone around them.

Continued in Pt. 10

8 notes · View notes