#sga: hide and seek | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dr-futbol-blog · 12 days

Text

38 minutes

The episode 38 Minutes (S01E04) is a strange one. This is the first time we see the team on an away-mission (and we see this only in flashbacks), and yet there is this established dynamic within the team and between the characters that would be much more at home later on in the season. They all care too much, they trust each other too much. There's an intimacy to their interaction that is difficult to explain.

The functioning of the puddle jumpers is deconstructed when we have barely learned how they work in the first place. We learn obscure Wraith lore when we've barely scratched the surface with them. And then there's the question of the strange almost-confession from Sheppard to Weir that is left hanging at the end of the episode.

There are some parallels between this episode and the previous, Hide and Seek (S01E03) that kind of provide a motivation for them happening in sequence, the episodes mirroring each other. I suppose a modern binge-watching audience might spot such parallels much more readily than one would have watching episodes in a weekly schedule and if these two had been separated by more episodes between them, but it is still weird.

There are in both episodes, for one, the subtle and private touches, unnoticed by the others.

Both lead characters also end up unconscious on the floor at the end of the episode, tended by the medical staff. There's also the innuendo: where Sheppard referenced dicks ("That's [size not mattering] a myth!") in a tight spot, here Rodney describes John's bug bite as a hickey. How ever you want to interpret their relationship, these off-hand comments reveal that they sure do think about each other in sexual terms.

Where Rodney has his Big Hero Moment and saves everyone, Sheppard is saved by everyone. They all work so hard so save the man who believes he has to save everyone even if it kills him but does not believe himself worth saving.

It is very touching but it would have made more sense and carried more weight later on in the season, perhaps after we had seen him save the day and the others a bunch of times. Now we start deconstructing the hero myth right from the outset.

But it's actually the almost-confession that I want to dissect here.

Often when homoerotic subtext was used end employed in mainstream shows, especially during this era, the more something was in fact hinted, the more the main-text had to compensate by showing or referencing something over-the-top heterosexual. It's the plausible deniability. There sure is something gay going on in here so we'll distract the normative viewer with bells and whistles elsewhere (cf. the nurse at the end of this episode; Sheppard smiles at her and the mainstream audience is going to interpret that as sexual interest -- after all, nurses are sexy in Western culture. But note also Rodney side-eyeing her as she walks away. What this is is another case of Sheppard using his charm to get someone to do something for him -- in this case, making sure that he gets sick bay privileges). We sure don't want to make John Q. Public uncomfortable. They have to be given the chance to read the text in a normative way.

John Sheppard and Elizabeth Weir are the main characters of the show. It is easy to read their relationship as a friendship but a kind of a will-they-won't-they dynamic was also inserted into it. There are looks, there is unexplained tension, we are clearly meant to see them as close even if the nature of their closeness remains unexplained. All of this is of course true of Rodney and Sheppard, as well. It keeps things interesting, narratively speaking.

In the episode, there is this strange throughline of Shappard wanting to make what equates to a death bed confession of some kind. It is not an offhand remark but something that is returned to time and again:

Weir: Hang in there, Major. We're working on the problem. Sheppard: I know you are. Listen. I'd like to say something while I still can. Weir: Don't! You're gonna get through this.

...

Sheppard: What I wanted to say was... Weir: Save your strength, John, and tell me in person. Sheppard: This is important.(Weir sighs and closes her eyes.) Weir: I'm listening.

...

Weir: By the way, what were you going to say? Sheppard: When? Weir: Before, when you thought, you know ... Sheppard: Oh, that. Weir: I didn't want you to say it at the time, but now I'm curious. Sheppard: I was going to say, um ... take care of each other. Weir: That's nice. Sheppard: Yep. McKay: And, uh, indeed, we did. Sheppard: Yes, you did. Thank you. Again. McKay: You're welcome.

Weir: You weren't really going to say that, were you? Sheppard: I have no idea what you're talking about. Weir: I didn't think so.

Clearly, this means something.

Is this meant to be romantic? It can be interpreted as romantic. The mainstream audience likely will interpret it as romantic because that's what they are primed to do. Man, woman, something unsaid = unresolved sexual tension, unrequited love. Right?

Only, this interpretation makes no goddamn sense.

First of all, Elizabeth Weir was still in a relationship at this time. Granted, she didn't know whether she would ever be able to return to earth, she had not broken up with her man. It would make romantic interest in Sheppard morally dubious at best.

Second, by this time they barely knew each other. A confession of undying love would be wildly out of place, and a confession of interest would fit ill with the direness of the situation.

Third, for mainstream television, Elizabeth is too old to be Sheppard's love interest. Yes, they're practically the same age and the actress is technically the younger of the two, but this is how the world of entertainment works. If they had pursued this, it would have been a May-December romance of the wrong variety for the general audience.

Fourth, the question of the chain of command. Given that the expedition had civilian leadership, the major had been thrust into a command he had not signed up for, there existed a rather precarious chain of command on Atlantis at this time, as it was. Adding romantic entanglements into it would have been a Really Bad Idea. And the chain of command coming between a pair romantically interested in one another was something that was true of the entire franchise. Sam and Jack only got to have each other in some alternative situations, never in the main text. We all knew they loved each other but their position in the military would not allow them to get each other.

While they were both military, we have the same dynamic with Daniel Jackson and Vala, who are both civilians. They got to have each other in a timeline that was erased but in the main text their professional relationship precluded them from consummating their relationship.

And note that this franchise knew how to do unspoken romantic tension perhaps better than any other, it was their bread and butter. This wasn't it.

But wait, I hear you say. Isn't this true of Sheppard and McKay as well?

Yes and no. Yes, there is a chain of command. No, neither of them cares about it in text. That is, the chain of command between them, not chain of command in general.

First, there is the infamous scene in Miller's Crossing (S04E09) where Sheppard attempts, as a last resort, to pull rank on McKay with very little luck.

Sheppard: You're an invaluable of my team, and you report directly to me. McKay: Really? You want to talk about chain-of-command right now? Sheppard: You are not doing this.

Not only was McKay going to do this, the fact that he didn't do it right away had more to do with his respect for Sheppard as a person than a respect for the chain of command. But there's an even more incriminating scene in Harmony (S04E14):

Harmony: Tell me: which one of you is the superior officer? McKay: You mean, who outranks who? Harmony: Yes. McKay: I'm a civilian; I don't have a rank, but basically we're equals. Sheppard: Technically I'm in charge. Harmony: I thought so. You have all the makings of an excellent leader, John.

They are basically equals, John is technically in charge. This, according to them. Of course in reality being in charge of McKay is like being in charge of a bag of cats, but that's another thing entirely.

So what was Sheppard going to say to Weir? I would venture a guess, based on the episode Letters from Pegasus (S01E16) toward the end of the season, that what he wanted to say had something to do with Col. Sumner. That was the thing that was weighing on him this whole time. At this time we knew nothing of Sheppard's family back home or even if he had one -- and he certainly didn't feel he had anything to say to any of them when they were sending their final messages to earth.

Where other people are sending messages to people they love back home, Sheppard's focus is entirely different: "I'm not sure if Colonel Sumner's parents are still alive. I'm not sure he even has a family back there -- not all of us do. But if he does have a family, they should know that he died with honour and courage in the performance of his duty."

At the end of the day, when the chips were coming down, when they were sending their final messages to their loved ones, this is what John Sheppard wanted to say. In the episode he tells Elizabeth that what he had to say was important. This is important. Much more important than any confession of feelings could ever be.

But what did Elizabeth think he was going to say? That remains unclear. What is really curious, though, and notable, is that McKay seems real tense when they're waiting for John's answer. He stands there with what can only be described as baited breath. And it is his reaction -- not Elizabeth's -- that we get to what John says, lying about it though he clearly is.

What is that about? Why do you care so much my guy? Why do you have an investment in this?

Dear God, he's almost as relieved here than he was when they had just saved Sheppard's life.

Like I said, this would have made much more sense further on in the season. But as it is, the dynamic between these two characters got to a really intense start!

#stargate atlantis #sga #sga meta #john sheppard #sheppard is bi #rodney mckay #rodney is gay #ep. 38 minutes #ep. harmony #ep. hide and seek #ep. letters from pegasus #ep. miller's crossing

42 notes · View notes

sga-owns-my-soul · 11 months

Text

did rodney just happen to come across john after he got the shield initiated and asked him to help him test it or do u think he specifically sought out john bc he figured he would be the most likely to agree to shooting a civilian for a science experiment

#i think it’s funnier if he sought him out #johns still all intimidated by everything #and then suddenly the head scientist approaches him #and asks him to shoot him #and john is like wtf is this a test #and rodney’s like yes it is a test i want to test this shield are u even listening #they’re friendship is so dumb i love them #john sheppard #rodney mckay #sga hide and seek #sga #stargate atlantis

129 notes · View notes

acabspocky · 1 year

Text

#i couldn't help myself #im so sorry im not sorry #goncharov #stargate atlantis #sga #john sheppard #teyla emmagan #elizabeth weir #sga s1 e3 #hide and seek

256 notes · View notes

twotales · 7 months

Text

I love how Elizabeth is like, get the plants out of here, like it's very important compared to everything else xD

#sga #twotalesrewatch #hide & seek #elizabeth weir

24 notes · View notes

carsonsweebabyturtles · 1 year

Photo

Dr. Beckett, Your Bad Practice/Dodgy Ethics Is Showing!!!! (3/?) -

McKAY: Well, why now? I mean, if it's possible, we need as many people with the gene as we could get.

BECKETT: Well actually, without proper F.D.A. approval, it was virtually impossible on Earth to... Let's just say it's, uh, legal here in the Pegasus Galaxy.

Oh for the love of... Ding ding ding, That’s the sound of warning bells there Rodney ”I’m the smartest man in two galaxies” McKay. Score on the Dodgy AF metre 1000/10. *sigh*

1 2

#Stargate Atlantis #sga #stargate #carson beckett #paul mcgillion #rodney mckay #david hewlett #hide and seek #gif by me #i loves him

76 notes · View notes

lightthewaybackhome · 1 year

Text

Stargate-Atlantis S1: E2: Hide and Seek

We're still really seeing Atlantis through Sheppard's eyes at this point. He seems so young. He smiles more, tell the kids stories, eats popcorn. He's not the sterner man he will become later in the series after brushes with death, torture, injuries, war, and losing people. He smiles more.

This is also Rodney's first real introduction. We see that he's whiny, annoying, full of himself, hungry, and when the chips are down, incredibly brave.

We can see the start of Rodney and John's relationship because what better way to earn Sheppard's respect than risking your life to save everyone? I love how they contrast John and Rodney. They're both brave, both willing to risk it all for their people, and both smart. Rodney is loud, abrasive, and arrogant. John is quiet, snarky, and deadly. They make great friends and are the cornerstone of the show. Almost every episode is John and Rodney compared and contrasted, constantly saving each other.

#stargate atlantis #sga #john sheppard #rodney mckay #friendship #currently rewatching #that cheeky smile #sga s1 #hide and seek

17 notes · View notes

hero-in-waiting · 1 year

Text

here is my unhinged i should be in bed sga hc of the moment.

john and teyla have fucked.

they absolutely spent a few nights having the goddamn time of their lives. filthy, dirty glorious sex. john learned things. teyla learned things. they had the goddamn time of their lives,

I'm thinking around hide&seek through childhoods end era and then at some point post childhoods end, they just stopped. never talked about it, but neither o them are mad about it. they were talking during the day as friends and fucking at night, and then the talking during the day turned to talking at night and soon they didn't even bother getting naked.

john and teyla both know the burden of command in a place they didn't expect to be. and maybe it was teyla coming in post suspicion that started it as she lamented losing her people bc of suspicion, but choosing to stay in atlantis. and john deals with the burden of command and learning how to deal with a bunch of military who are only following him bc their training outweighs their dislike of him. maybe it was the two of them coming to terms with what happened in underground.

whenever it was, they may have fucked but they soon realized they wanted to be friends and fucking was fun, but they were doing it out of the split second of attraction they had, fueled by adrenaline. they're good memories, fond ones they think back on often when they have a moment alone, but neither of them want more. unless ur me and u love ot4 like its ur second child

so yeah, idk where to end this. but. john and teyla had some nasty, delicious sex and now they're best friends forever.

#tv: sga #john sheppard #teyla emmagan #my meta #meta

45 notes · View notes

sga-mcshep-4ever · 7 months

Text

#mcshep #sga #stargate atlantis #john sheppard #rodney mckay #joe flanigan #david hewlett #1x03 hide and seek

87 notes · View notes

dr-futbol-blog · 11 days

Text

Suspicion

Suspicion (S02E05) is a Teyla-centric episode but it has some very interesting moments.

First, while we have to wait several seasons to hear McKay call Sheppard by his given name, which he only uses in tense situations, Sheppard does the exact opposite. He calls him Rodney most of the time but changes to McKay when things get serious.* The episode starts with McKay getting hit straight in the face with a wraith stunner, Sheppard quickly jumping in to check up on him. For the third episode in a row one of them winds up unconscious on the floor, albeit now at the onset of the episode.

This episode also marks the beginning of giving the audience a glimpse of how the private time between Sheppard and McKay differs from how they behave toward each other when other people are around. Sheppard shows that he cares about McKay ("You seem nervous"; "You still seem nervous") and twice in the episode makes sure that he is okay following a wraith attack (verbally and through touch). You could claim that he cares more about the safety of McKay because the other two members of his team are capable fighters, and surely that's a part of it. McKay is also a valuable asset for the expedition. But these things don't explain the tenderness Sheppard displays privately and how this turns to near flippancy the moment other people are within ear shot.

There's also a pattern emerging in that Sheppard is shown looking at McKay do sensual things (in the sense of relating to the senses). In the previous two episodes, we watched Sheppard watch McKay wolfing down a power bar, which might be interpreted as phallic.

In this episode, he watches McKay first drool from his mouth on the hospital bed and later, rub his foot on the table in the meeting room, and even later on, he is seen watching McKay's hands on two separate occasions.

What are you doing, Major?

The thing is, we are actually invited to watch Sheppard look at these things. He is making note of them. He pulls faces when he makes note of them. Sure, we can interpret Sheppard finding these things distasteful. Learning the idiosyncracies of his new team member, new friend. At the very least, we're supposed to find these moments humorous.

But he sure is paying attention to these things. Even when he's in a world of pain he's making note of them. Noticing and mentally cataloguing things that someone does is also a classic sign of attraction. One could also describe Sheppard as having an oral fixation as he brings up Rodney's mouth even completely unprompted: "At least your mouth still works fine."

We are actually asked to connect these things to sex in that Rodney is also stuffing his mouth during the "Size doesn't count" conversation in Hide and Seek (S01E03). The use of food as metaphor for sex is also lampshaded in this very episode:

Zelenka: I just can't bear the same meal day after day after day. McKay: Well, buck up a little. I'm trying to run a diagnostic. Zelenka: Sorry! McKay: I mean, we are stranded with limited resources in another galaxy. Come on, the nearest Bob's Big Boy is three hundred million light years away. We have to make do. If that means you have to eat my favourite food two days in a row, so be it. Zelenka: You enjoy military rations? McKay: I know. It's weird. Hospital food too. The only reason I don't like airplane food is you can't get seconds and I'm an absolute ...

But it's not just the mouth that Sheppard's fixed on, it's Rodney's whole entire body. His bodily functions. Which are also connected to food in the episode (as in, Sheppard graphically describes functions of the body and then jumps straight to food):

Sheppard: Without inertial dampening we'd be hit by so many gees our eyes'd pop, the skin'd pull away from our faces, our brains'd squish up to the back of our skulls and our internal organs would be crushed into these chairs... What about that sandwich?

In the beginning of the episode, Beckett tells McKay in front of Sheppard: "Your body experienced a full overload to its sensory and motor nervous system." It was the wraith stunner that did this to McKay but Sheppard seems to be suffering from a similar predicament just from observing the other man.

By the end of the episode the concept of hunger is highlighted through the captured wraith. Sheppard tells him (and bringing up someone's name unnecessarily is also a classic sign of attraction): "I wonder what hurts more: the gunshot wound or the hunger? Because I'd love to help out but how did McKay put it? We can't meet your dietary requirements."

They have every intention of starving the wraith. But the wraith is not the only one starving here. Sheppard is hungry for something that a turkey sandwich cannot satisfy.

.* We actually have to wait until the next episode to hear Sheppard use the name "Rodney" (in a non-tense situation, as it were) but it is implied that he is already using it by this episode in McKay's line "Oh, really? I thought you said, 'Rodney, you don't have to do this'," in which he refers to something he wishes Sheppard said and presumably communicating it in a way that Sheppard would say it. At the very least, in this episode McKay gives Sheppard the permission to use his... chosen name.

#stargate atlantis #sga #sga meta #john sheppard #sheppard is bi #rodney mckay #rodney is gay #ep. suspicion #ep. hide and seek #ep. 38 minutes

25 notes · View notes

sga-owns-my-soul · 11 months

Text

wait okay i’m rewatching hide and seek (i know shocker) and i just had the thought- what if when john tries to grab the shield and says “just checking” it was bc he still doesn’t fully understand this whole ‘ancient gene’ thing and he’s like maybe i can take this shield off with my freaky mutant powers 😭😭😭😂😂😂

#johns having a Magical Girl™️ moment #and thinks if rodney can’t maybe He Can bc he’s A Magic Girl #this is so stupid but i’m nothing if not consistent #john sheppard #rodney mckay #sga hide and seek #sga #stargate atlantis

23 notes · View notes

texasdreamer01 · 7 months

Note

WIP Wednesday!!

Idiot’s guide: 💡😄

Theorems: 💡, 🎭, 🤝

Idiot’s guide: 💡😄

💡 What gave you the idea for this one?

Radek pinwheeling at something sparking in front of him, and Carson also panicking about it, when he's off-world and John just asking him if it's his first time off-world. It really kind of gave me the impression that Rodney - maybe? - did that at first, but while he still gets all wound up with anxiety, he still realizes all the overhead dangers of doing his job during a mission and prioritizes accordingly.

I don't really see very many people from the science departments going outside Atlantis for anything, and really, what kind of training do they have? Who would train them? Probably Rodney, and probably whatever he thinks is most important to know, since he's not only on the flagship team but their CSO - John can't really do it other than advise on what skills he thinks someone on a gate team would need to know as a civilian, and Elizabeth has only second- and third-hand context about the realities of a gate team.

😄 What part are you most excited to write?

It's so far my only fully-outlined fic in SGA haha, so I'm excited to write all of it. But, without giving a good chunk of plot away, I'm really looking forward to Rodney playing hide-and-seek.

Theorems: 💡, 🎭, 🤝

💡 What gave you the idea for this one?

The Last Man, and wondering 1) how much detail John gave about being so far in the future - probably a fair amount, given everyone's reaction to Woolsey, and 2) what lessons Rodney believed he learned about that, with the assumption that Rodney would take every one of those alternate universe deaths personally because so far that tracks (see: Doranda, personal shield device, the siege, the ascension device, etc).

🎭 What do you hope readers of this fic are going to feel?

This is my main fic for figuring out Rodney as a character, so from my end it feels very clumsy, but I want to see Rodney without the canon writers' lens and how he actually fits in as a person to Atlantis. He works closely with Elizabeth, he's on the flagship gate team with the military commander and the expedition's XO/main cultural liasion (Teyla), he's responsible for everything technological about the city to literally keep it floating and institute safety protocols for anyone touching potentially hazardous technology (even if he ignored it for himself- also, why did he do that?), he's the boss of maybe(?) a third of the expedition before things get to Elizabeth.

What does all of that mean for how he's perceived? Dramatic yelling to people before Tao of Rodney aside, how does he interpret his own job? What does he think is needed of him, and how does that colour his interactions? Who is he, when you strip away all of those little societal obligations and nuances? What kind of person is he, after that, when you throw him into circumstances that tests his mortality? I want readers to think of those questions while reading this, and if we come to the same or similar conclusions.

🤝 Share a snippet that describes a physical sensation

The memories of McKay's voice in his ear when he had been delirious from fever haunted him, in the same way the touch of his parents' kisses upon his brow haunted him, or the press of a pen into his skin instilling new patterns. It was familiar, and soothing, and McKay had known exactly what to say.

#spurious #thanks for the ask!

4 notes · View notes