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]

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. ;)