Insiders

[gateslacker]

Okay, stupid, stupid plot (and did I mention stupid?) but I am sure I will watch again for all of the character squeeing I did. I am such a fangril. It has been reinforced to me that you can never truly have enough Ba'als! ;-) So cunning, so sinister and at least one of the Ba'als had this strange used car salesman vibe going on. Maybe it was that gray suit that did that to me.  All of the interrogation scenes were so much fun, especially Mitchell's. And Vala's scene with Ba'al certainly made me sit up a but straighter. As some others on my f-list have said, I would certainly like to have the Ba'al/Quetesh back story but why was Ba'al talking about Quetesh's alliance with the Tauri? The Goauld is gone....Or is she? (insert ponderous thoughts!) Despite that wildly delicious speculation on my part, I am sure Ba'al just doesn't know Quetesh is no more.

Landry was my hero throughout this episode and I have to mention once again how much I like his character.

Barrett was very weird. That banging on the table scene was so over the top I had to engage in some active eye rolling. I usually really like his character and really didn't in this ep. Am I to assume this was the mind control? But he did have a great line, "So, I hear you have a few extra Ba'als"

Teal'c and Vala arm wrestling. I was in stitches! As much as I LOVE the Daniel/Vala dynamic, I rather enjoyed the Sam/Vala dynamic, the Teal'c/Vala dynamic, the Landry/Vala dynamic..Humm, I sense a pattern here. Strangely, the Mitchell/Vala dynamic is less appealing and isn't that the strangest thing!?! Perhaps it is a conscious effort on the part of all concerned to keep John and Aeryn out of it. It was nice to see Vala interacting out of the Daniel context and I think the viewer needed to see that. I also am really enjoying the friendship vibe we are getting from Mitchell and Sam. They truly interact as equals and I love the Sam I see there. And seeing that Sam makes me feel all warm and fuzzy towards Mitchell because he really portrays a certain charming, gentlemanly deference and respect to her.  I loved it that Mitchell freely admits to Landry that he has no control over the team.

Comments

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

Oh, that wasn't my take on the whole Qetesh thing at all. I think Ba'al was well aware that Vala is no longer host to Qetesh (and presumably Qetesh is dead), but since the Goa'uld view themselves as superior and the hosts as nothing, he was determined to call Vala "Qetesh"--because it was in Vala's body that he knew Qetesh in the first place (or at least most recently). But note Sam's, "She goes by Vala now" in that early scene (Sam and Vala: ex-hosts unite!!!). And Vala is willing to manipulate the fact that Ba'al thinks of her as Qetesh in order to help with the interrogation.

As we saw with "The Powers that Be" last season, Vala is far more willing to use her ex-host status than we've seen before. In my opinion, this is probably the absolute coolest part of Vala's character, and perfectly fitting with the sort of moral relativism that I think she represents. So naturally I was thrilled to see the whole Qetesh thing come up again!!!

[gateslacker.livejournal.com]

Oh, but isn't it a wonderfully delightful speculation. I have always really wanted to see a human whose will is so strong that the Goauld symbiote would be unable to control them. It never happened but wouldn't Vala be the perfect candidate? I am not a fic writer but I can speculate with the best of them...LOL. Anyhoo, I do want more Quetesh backstory. I also noticed that when Sam said, "She goes by Vala now" Vala said, "I Always did"...or something to that effect. I'll bet Vala *was* a formidable host to control. I agree Vala's willingness to exploit her previous host status is a cool aspect of her character but I suspect that she knew going in that she would not be able to out manipulate Ba'al. She did it anyway, and did so in that delightfully goauldy political manner. I find that fascinating!

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I think I'd be really, really annoyed if they tried to pull an "oh wait, Qetesh isn't really gone!" I mean, if she showed up as host to someone else, that would be cool, but I don't want her in Vala anymore! What I find so fascinating about Vala is precisely the ex-host element. Plus, they'd be undermining a lot of years of developing the way the Goa'uld work and all that. Not, of course, that undermining established plot/character conventions has ever stopped them before... ;)

I really need more Vala icons!!

[gateslacker.livejournal.com]

Well, since the Goauld are ancillary bad guys now, the whole thing would be an afterthought really and not relevant to the current season. Back in the day, though, it is something I always wondered about. I don't think it is totally beyond the realm of possibility since we started with, "nothing of the host survives." and moved on to Kendra and Share being able to "influence" their symbiotes.

Other than Sam with Jolinar, whose sacrifice had to have altered her perception a bit regarding being taken over by a symbiote, we really didn't get to see how a regular and recurring character adapts after having been a host to a Goauld (Skarra anyone? I always wanted to be able to see the ramifications of having been a host to Klorel.) Actually,I really do love it that we get to see this in Vala so I am not really disagreeing with you there, rather, I had a stray thought run amok and it is always so much fun to go with them.

My Vala icons are pretty limited as well. I suspect as the season progresses I will have to locate more of them!

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

I, too, am annoyed that they never really followed up on Skaara, especially because he's the one piece of the puzzle that doesn't really fit as well into the otherwise fairly convincing development of the symbiote/host relationship.

We first hear that nothing of the host survives. But of course that info is from the Goa'uld themselves, so therefore not trustworthy. Then we meet Kendra and learn that the host can survive, but she's hardly a shining example of sanity and well-adjustedness--and I'm really glad she's not because it seems to me that being a host would be rather traumatic!

Then Sam, who, despite Jolinar's sacrifice and her being a Tok'ra and all, is still rather traumatized by the whole thing. Her feelings are mixed, of course, but it's still a Huge Ordeal--something we see not only at the end of ItLoD but also with the things like Jolinar's Memories and TDYK.

Then Sha're and Skaara. We learn that Sha're influenced the Goa'uld through the hand device, but no indication of how she would have reacted to being freed. After the trauma of Kendra and Sam, Skaara's sort of "hey, I'm fine. yay!" attitude is the one I find a bit dubious.

We only see about a minute of de-Goa'ulded Sarah Gardner (but oh, how I wish they'd bring her back!), but she's rather upset at that point. And then we get Vala--obviously somewhat well-adjusted, but I would argue that she still has major issues with the whole thing, and I hope we get to see more of that.

My solution in terms of explaining the difference between the various hosts is largely just a personality thing--people react differently--but also perhaps a cultural thing. Americans really value individualism; consequently, for people like Sam and Jack, and probably Sarah, to be taken over entirely, not to be in control of your own body, is a deep, deep fear. Whereas Abydonian society seems far less individualistic; and after all, they'd only recently stopped worshipping Ra. So perhaps the experience--while still undoubtedly traumatic--didn't shake someone like Skaara quite so much to the core of who he is. Gross generalizations, I know, but that's how I explain it, anyway.

It's still one of the most interesting aspects of the show, though, as far as I'm concerned. ;)

[scarym1.livejournal.com]

I liked "Irresistable". I found parts to be quite funny especially Sheppard and Beckett.

I enjoyed Insiders more then I thought I would. I am not that big a fan of BA'AL. I felt sorry for Agent Barrett. I always liked him.

It was great to see how Vala interacts with the rest of the Team. I really liked it when Cameron gave that speech about how he is not in control of SG1.

I agree with you about the friendship vibe between Cameron and Sam. That was nice to see.

[gateslacker.livejournal.com]

Not a big fan of Ba'al!! Are you mad? ;)

Well, I think you are the first person I have seen who liked Irresistible. I did skip it though and watched Sateda and LOVED it!

[scarym1.livejournal.com]

Over at GW in the "Irresistible" Ep discussion thread, quite a few people liked the ep. Did you read Isabelles comments on it? A number of poster on GW felt like she does but I never saw it that way. For me it was a mostly fun if somewhat odd ep. Like I said I especially enjoyed Beckett and Sheppard in this one.

Wasn't Sateda just wonderful? When TPTB said we were going to get some character moments in S3, they weren't kidding. We hit the jackpot. : )Everyone had their moments. I now love Ronan more then I did before.