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Episode 254: Tao Of Rodney (SG-A 3.14) · Get Into Gate: A Stargate Podcast

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Get into Gate episode two hundred and fifty four talking Stargate Atlantis Gate Team that
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is here today, Mitchell pre is it, Maddy Dan Hoot and Britain the
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Bart face Yeah, you're about face ah. Season three, the complete third
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season I'm holding in my hand. Season three of Stargate Atlantis episode fourteen.
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Now is it the Tao towew Towel of Rodney? I called it Tale of
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Rodney. Oh but oh yeah, yeah, that's probably why I think that
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there is. There's a few things like Tao. I did google it.
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There was a bunch of things though, so I don't actually know what it's
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technically referencing. Actually, I forgot to mention that for last week too.
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I have no idea what the shroud meant, either the shroud of mystery,
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maybe the Shroud of the Odyssey. Perhaps maybe maybe this is a type of
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taw as well taw cruise. I mean, I'm in a radio station,
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I've got music in front of me, so and this is the one I
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just have to play? Is danged old mate? Yeah, I'll turn that
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off. A thing that envelops or obscures something shroud of mist. But they've
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also got a length of cloth enveloping a garment in which a dead person is
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shrouded. We should have this last week. Let's talk about it. But
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it's okay. We can mention that it's about learning from our mistakes. We've
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had a week to think about it, you know. In fair truly just
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realized what we didn't talk about last week, so we didn't think about it
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for a week. Dying declaration of love is that you love me. It
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feels like it feels like a Buddhist term though, yeah, yeah, that's
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all. When I read the it's not on the wiki, read the title
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and I was like, oh, that's that's the tale of Pooh. I
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think Tao in Chinese philosophy the absolute principle underlying the universe, combining within itself
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the principles of yin and yang and signifying the way or code of behavior that
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is in harmony with the natural order. The interpretation of Tao in the Tao
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teaching developed into the philosophical religion of Taoism. That makes sense. Yes,
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So again, my Google just being better than your guys Google something. I'm
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just realizing. Holding the delicious box set of season three of With Lembs in
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My Hands is everybody on this cover and we're talking the core fur and then
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we are is everybody reversed? Have a look at that, every single face
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and I want to say even body because we're she's got a watch on her
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right hand and I almost want to say that she's a traditionalist, and where's
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the watch on her left hand? I know she had it on the left
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hand, on the inside of her wrist. Okay, look at that she's
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wearing on the right hand. Everybody's face there looks just a little bit wrong
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because it's it's been mirrored. That's very strange, Like as I was pulling,
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because the stargates on the right cover, I reckon it just would have
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looked a little bit odd. It's great for an audio. I would put
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it up on the sosh, but it's you know, here we are.
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We're learning from mistakes from a week ago. And it was literally just something
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I saw in front of it because well, John's holding his gun left handed.
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If anyone who yeah, I mean it's just for anyone who's listening to
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the pod, maybe while they've got access to you, if you when you're
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watching a movie and they've blocked it wrong. Yeah, for a two dude
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has a broken nose the other way Australier. Yeah, we are holding her
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P ninety left handed too. Yeah right, come on, guys, like
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the gate could have been on the other side of the of the disc.
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You know. Anyway, it doesn't matter. We are We're going to move
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on to the old synopsis, which is usually where I'll be going for the
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old physical media season three. Don't have it before you move on, I
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have a promo promo picture of one delicious Tory Wiggins. Tory Higgins and Elizabeth
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We are wearing her watch on her left hand confirmed confirmed mirror. I watch
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on the inside receipts. Mate, it's on the episode. Bro, Well
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she's not the watch on the outside in this picture. Oh yeah, I
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don't get it because my watch faces on the outside inside. Holy shit,
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that was great, thanks guys. Episode fourteen, trying to preserve power by
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turning off all the non essential systems of the ancients, recently Activator before being
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killed by the replicators. This is three quarters of stops this guy's and really
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has nothing to do with it. McKay mistakenly is hit by an energy beam
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from a mysterious device. I mean, that's all so it's not spoiling anything,
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but Jesus Christ, the Good took a long time to get there.
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Yeah. Taoism or Taoism, is a diverse tradition indigenous to China, variously
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characterizes both the philosophy and religion. Taoism emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao,
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generally understood as being the impersonal, enigmatic process of transformation ultimately underlying reality.
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Great job. So it was almost I guess with that, or you
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know, we like expand that out to so like, you know, something
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like that's how I've always on said Buddhism. I don't know too much about
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Taoism. Buddhism. It's always like, hey, you know, you might
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be right on the doorstep of nirvana. So live this life like it's the
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last step to get there. Right, Be nice to everyone, do everything
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right, because if you don't, you're going to get back to the start.
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So you look at this episode, it's kind of like a reversal of
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that where it's like he's about to ascend, he's learning to descend, and
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then right at the end he's like, oh shit, I've actually got to
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be nice to people and going to the right thing and make up for my
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mistakes. Possible English translations include way Road and technique. Tawis thought has informed
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the development of various practices within the Towers tradition and beyond, including forms of
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meditation, astrology, qui gong, fun shuai, and internal alchemy. A
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common goal of a Twis practice is the culture is a self cultivation, resulting
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in deep appreciation of the towel and thus a more harmonious existence. I could
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keep going. There's and I can't describe it. Can we talk about the
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lights? They're going around turning all the lights off, and we know,
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turn all the lights off, come on? It sounds like, yeah,
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we know that it costs a billion dollars to keep up the lights turned on
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in a Stargate program. We know this. Yeah, but they're running on
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or a Quadria generators and a ZPM. No that don't pay ship, That's
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what I mean. Like, why are they're worried about? Well? I
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did what you say? It was a power drain. I think you said
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it was a power drain, trying to stop the power drain from the ZPN.
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Yeah, but because the ancients came and turned all the lights on a
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yeah, bad guess. Systems and weird. He said, Well, what
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I'm trying to say here is that that they go to all that effort,
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but then the next scene is in the mess hall and there's lights, there's
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fountains, like turn the pumps off to the fountains. If it's like we
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said, so much of that place should be solar powered, but it's not,
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yeah at all. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. But like
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a ZBM, they talk about how much power that is. Yeah, it's
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like almost infinite, and they just baste them like triple a battery, but
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in classic two thousand and six style, not renewable energy. Apparently, like
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you know, you can't reach it's it's not a recharge. We're not it's
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an alkaline battery. We don't actually know. Well we never find out do
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if you can recharge, you can by putting it in doctors pussy. That's
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what she tried to. What I was going to get to was he says.
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Rodney says. Rodney says, the the lab was underwater until recently now
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not a spot of rust. Yeah, the floor was warming, which is
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cool. Well that that actually happened on set. They put some stuff down
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to weather and actually warped the floor for real, there's a couch, but
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it was it was kind of implied it was kind of a vegae. It's
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like, well until recently because it was damaged in the battle with the Replicators.
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Or have parts of the city been underwater since we got there, because
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I'm just trying to remember. In Rising there was the force field had gotten
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too its thinnest level around the entire thing. Is that the episode where we
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saw certain little buildings like decompressing, yes? Or was that the other future
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from Before I Sleep? Does that sound familiar to you? Mitched like us
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looking at the window of Atlantis wallets underwater and seeing like one other of the
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towers go a little I don't, don't you're the wrong person to ask,
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but you're also the only person in the room to ask it. So yeah,
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I could I could be thinking of Yeah, I could be thinking of
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either Tower of Rodney. Yeah, so I could be thinking of Before I
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Sleep when the when twenty is Yeah, you're right, or I could be
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thinking of a future thing. But it's like, none of the city should
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have been underwater from when we got there. But obviously, you know,
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Shepherd did fire a couple of drones under underneath, and Jack intention like there
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were those areas underwater? Yeah, say ten thousand potentially ten thousand years.
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Yeah, yeah, But I'm like, well, I don't think any of
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the city was technically like flooded when we arrive because the force field was active,
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it was down to its thinnest membrane or whatever. Did they ever try
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to kind of shrink it into the tower only or something like that. They
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may do that in an undisclosed number of episodes. An example, that episode
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is going to be mad they am I talking about the same episode a different
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good but it feels like it's going to be the idea of just a phallic
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shield. Yeah, just penetrating space. It looks like a giant winner.
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Yeah. Speaking of an undisclosed number of episodes, what I thought was interesting
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is this episode was actually filmed after Sunday. Yeah. Interesting, Yeah,
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this episode, this episode, Yeah, Sunday was filmed before this episode was
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filmed. So we'll talk about that in Sunday. Oh, we have to
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get that. We have to get that sound bite for that episode. But
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yeah, I thought that's it. We'll talk about it more during that episode.
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But yeah, I thought this is very interesting that this was shot after
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that. Yeah, that is. I like this episode. It reminds me
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of the one where he's losing his memory. Yes, I always forget,
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so the one from last season where he blows up half or three quarters or
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seven eighths of the solar system. This episode and then the other, which
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I think is called the Shrine. I can never remember which one's which I
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just and even the shroud the Shrine, then you get it was called Trio
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or something like that was, but then I can, oh, yeah,
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that's later, but I confuse that with yeah, Trinity or whatever. It
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is, No Trinity, sorry, Trinity was the one where he blows up
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the solar system. Trio is the one from next season, the underground one.
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I confuse those, and then I confuse this with the Shrine all the
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time. So it's like always. I always enjoy it when I watch it.
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It's a fantastic episode, but I can never remember which Rodney episode it
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is, Like I know McKay and Missus Miller because it's got Missus Miller in
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the but all the other ones are like, oh, I know it's a
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Rodney episode, but I just can't remember which one I remember, just knowing
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the title and going, I love this. It's a Rodney episode. Yeah,
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obviously its name is in the title. Apparently Major Lawn's team were under
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attack by twenty get it enemies, did you notice? And enemies? What
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enemies? Twenty enemies? Twenty enemies, that's the line what they were.
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Really, they were under attacked by twenty enemies. That was Lorne's message,
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and then Rodney when they came back from that to rescuing Lawn, Rodney says,
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so Lawn's team were under attack by the bad guys and they had them
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pinned down. Do you know what that feels like? That feels like that
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feels like a placeholder in the script where they're like, they're like, this
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is just the draft. I'm going to put that in there, and then
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we're going to change that to deny or replicators or subtle Wraith or something like
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that later once we confirm that we're allowed to be having a fight with them,
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and then it never got changed. Yeah, there's just enemies in the
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bad guys. There's no explanation as to why Lawn was there, how he
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got in that situation. Who they were I feel it would have to be
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gay, But Rodney knew that their guns would stop working. That was the
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thing. Well jam, I'm pretty sure that you just jam, and it's
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like, well, replicate. A weapon can't jam because it's energy based.
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Same with the race. Their weapons can't jam. So we're like, yeah,
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to me, it would have to be Jeni. Yeah that's what I
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mean. Or it's just another generic you know, people with guns, you
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know, but it's but it's like the only people we've seen with guns that
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can jam in this universe, in this galaxy are like Ronan's people, and
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that's a big deal if Ronan can find more more Setedins or the Geni,
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So like you would have to be the Jeni, you would. They didn't
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name. That was the weirdest part of because I had to rewind it.
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Did Lawn say it? Because yeah, that's weird. Maybe because maybe it
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was going to be Jani. And then because kind of we're kind of with
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Redeemed least, we're kind of at peace with them, we have kind of
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like a and is dead, So yeah, yes, maybe maybe it was
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written as Jani and then they went, well, we'll put something else in
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there, and then never did because imagine if Robert Darby got his way in
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the last episode and Colia did survive, or at least the fact that we
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clearly see that he didn't die or whatever. And then the next time we
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hear they're fighting the Jani years of viewer going holy is Colier Like is he
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back out again? Ponytail? Ponytail survived. It's him, yeah, and
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the guy with the GIMPI wrist. What I thought was funny was when McKay
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goes through the machine like speaking of weapons and stuff, the sound effect of
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like the DNA machine like advancing him. It's the Ari ship weapons sound yeah,
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right, really yeah, if you listen back to it, it's it's
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that just slightly modified a little bit. And I'm just like, wow,
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they're just getting real lazy. They use the same bloody village set and now
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they're just reusing sound effects as well. They did save money though, because
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all those donut gags were real. So all the gags with like Rodney using
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his telepathic telecandibilities to move the the donuts and stuff, that was all like
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in camera effects. So Martin Wood explains it in the in the audio commentary.
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But it's like as McKay's walking towards the screen, he has like a
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real donut in his left hand, but it's kind of like hidden behind his
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leg, and he used his right hand and like whips to the left like
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that to like say, he's gonna grab the donut. And then the camera
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pans over to the donut, and while it's not on Rodney, he just
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lifts up and puts the other doughnut in his hand and puts his arm back,
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and then when the camera picks whips back he goes like that and then
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just starts eating it. Nice. That's cool. Yeah, I love in
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camera effects. They need to do way more. Martin would is so good
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at that kind of stuff, So good at that. And for some reason,
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someone someone confirmed on on the trivia and stuff that they they're definitely Tim
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Horton's donuts. Yeah. I read that, which is weird, but that's
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a I guess for all the Canadians out there. It's a very popular like
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Canadians NHL chain, Oh is he and He's dead? I know you're talking
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about like in effects and stuff, but I sent it something around one of
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our chats a few weeks ago, Fati Alvarez talking about the upcoming alien Romulus,
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and there was a face hugger and it's a practical face hugger, and
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it's just like on a remote control car, remote control car, and as
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it rolls, it must move its legs. But they were like firing this
16:22
thing along the set and it was movie you can get and that looked frightening
16:26
as all hell because it looks like a real goddamn face hugger. And those
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things can move, as we can see in the movies, but generally latex
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tail behind it. You can get like like remote control car sized ones of
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those, like from like toys, r Us and stuff, where it's like
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a spider, it's like a big tarantula and the legs. But this is
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obviously the way more advanced version of that. Yeah, no thanks, but
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like you would use that, you use your practical effects and then just kind
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of tinker it with a bit perfect Yeah, yeah, I supposed it complete
16:52
relyle on that sort of shit. Like remember back in Metamorphosis with old mister
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Hanky and and the guy getting in his eye hole and stuff like that.
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What sh are we talking about? When Ny was experimenting on all those monkey
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face and one of them stopped a bullet, They stopped like a p ninety
17:11
bullet and that was purely because Peter Delawize just like glued a P ninety bullet
17:15
to a piece of perspects and held it up in front of the camera so
17:18
it looked like the the bullet was just floating in mid air. I love
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that ship so good. Yeah. Yeahs like the matrix. They revolutionized the
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way they did it to do a practical effect. The bullet can look like
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it. But then in the sequel they just did completely CGI characters the same
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things and ridiculous. C O is not capable of doing that. I don't
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think it is. Yeah, if you watch some of the early Harry Potter
17:47
films when like when they're doing quidditch, Oh yeah, how rubbery Daniel roy
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Cliff looks. Yeah, it looks like the book. Looks like you watching
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a video game. Actually, there's one bit on the brain. He sort
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of stopped and his hair goes forward and it's like it's in slow motion,
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but it wasn't shot. Yeah, it's like, guys, come on,
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we can do that. We put people on wires and shit. Yeah,
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so impressive and it was crazy if Yeah. I just love practical effects.
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Yeah, so good. Something I loved about this episode was the fact that
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Rodney went the absolute opposite of Jack. Like Jack went nonverbal when he was
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like, you know, had all the knowledge of the ancients. Rodney went
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ultraverbal speaking, which not speaking is one of my anxieties. Shut up.
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I just thought, yeah, that was so good, Like just the how
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pissed would you be to be David Hewlett when it's like, oh, so
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when Richard Anderson gets you know, Mega evolved, he doesn't have to learn
18:52
a single line of dialogue. I have to learn twice as much as what
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I normally spout on this freaking show. David, don't pretend you love it.
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Well, I do love it. I do love it. I'm just
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saying I'm just different the screen time. I have to not have to learn
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so many lines. God, he's so good man character watching it at the
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moment because Kingdom of the Plane of the Apes come out a couple of weeks
19:17
ago and I'm watching Rodney go on, it's all your fault, man,
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You want such a dickish neighbor. That monkey would have tried to get out
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there and bash up and be taken off to other apes where he got pissed
19:26
off and other humans that decided to break out and sell this other stuff and
19:29
then you were the one who got the disease and then went and you were
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a pilot and you coughed and then a man. Yeah it was three movies
19:34
ago, but it's all Rodneys. Why did Elizabeth Weir think she was like
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an expert in ascension just because she can like but there was just there was
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one line and she's like, I'm just it was it wasn't this is not
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a vata, but it was something on the lines of almost like I just
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I don't understand why you didn't come to me to ask I'm like, why,
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like why what funk would he? Like? Why would he? Well,
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well that's the thing that is no one else that he could actually go
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to, like, so they can't like and like of a lot from the
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guy who spent six months with the ancients. Well yeah that's true. Well
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he did. He did say there are a bunch of pansies and like that
20:08
was funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but then I said that,
20:15
like you know, they said multiple times the writers didn't know what to do
20:19
aside from Brad right, no one knew what to do with Weir. So
20:22
I think that would leave that was demon Kingley just going well, she can
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read ancients. I guess she knows about it, you know, Daniel Jackson.
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Yeah, Like, but I read the reports as she First, I'm
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like, oh, that's right, yeah, because you know you you hung
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around with the ancients. And then I'm like, no, it wasn't you.
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It was a version of you that then stayed in for five minutes,
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and I'm like, oh, what would this show have actually been better?
20:45
If not better, but like, would weird be different for the show and
20:51
better for the show if this was the ten thousand years frozen and she's now
20:56
out of state, was like an ascended being and this is going to be
21:00
way out there, but it's kind of like an Andromeda thing where she comes
21:03
in and is like a guy or a spirit of the earth helping them would
21:07
have been interesting. Yeah, and then she could have been doing the ancient
21:12
stuff, but the knowledge and whatnot. Yeah, Like I come back to
21:17
human form season two with Carter and John john S. Was it Season two?
21:25
Season two, episode two? Yeah, I was gonna say yeah,
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And like from then on it was understandable why someone would go to her and
21:32
ask her questions about gold or about before and then they never mentioned sure,
21:37
yeah, yeah, but like I can't detect a want Joel, I just
21:44
kept going up. I mean, thankfully, I said, John, I
21:45
don't know what I was talking about. Sorry, three Star, but like,
21:49
had that have happened? And then it happened once, even if they're
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like hate come then into body spirit of this whatever helps her out and then
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disappears again, and it's again this show referencing something that SG one did and
22:00
she is a version of and can be asked about ancients and stuff, because
22:07
yeah, that line just really came off as as quite strange, as like
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I'm the extra doesn't have any knowledge about it. No, it was it
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was Old Weir that spent time with the ancients. But I don't know the
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ancients had figured out how to ascend at that point. I'm pretty sure that's
22:22
kind of a thing, like that's why those ancients just went back to Earth.
22:25
Yeah that's true. Yeah, they're in the sand obviously. Well,
22:30
yeah, they had the cimeter or whatever it is. Yeah, so John
22:34
would naturally be the person to go to. But yeah, he was obviously
22:37
just not a good teacher because he didn't buy into any of it. So
22:40
that was from Stargate SG one. Oh that's right, that was the little
22:45
thing that detected how far along you Well, so, yeah, that was
22:47
the thing. Later on, the piece of technology they got from SGY.
22:49
I had this shipped over from SGC. Yeah, that was the centimeter,
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but not the actual device that actually advanced him. That was the advance ometer
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or whatever it was, the DNA. We can call it the fires of
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machine. Yeah, you're rippling my pond. My favorite part of this episode
23:10
was the fact that, even though you mentioned it several times, Rodney refused
23:15
to accept the fact that Zelenka grew up poor and disadvantage. He's like,
23:19
I'm sure you were fine. It would have been fine. We'll stop stop
23:23
bringing up things that are irrelevant. Yeah, which I really he said,
23:27
it's super relevant given that he's you know, he's like, check that part
23:32
of the world at the moment is a is a rough area? Yeah moment?
23:37
Oh right, yeah, And Zelenka is just like, yeah, you
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know, I didn't have running water and there was no plumbing and no way
23:47
he grew up. And Rodney's just like, it's fine, Well, the
23:49
bard has changed all the time over there, so you never know he would
23:52
have grown up on still the USSR we Brendan and I have spoken about this
23:57
a lot, and this is mainly for Mitch is we say that Roddye McKay
24:00
has probably the most character growth out of any any character in all the Star
24:06
Game. I feel like this is one of those episodes that really does give
24:10
a lot of his character growth. Yeah, and like I feel like that
24:12
at the moment where he realizes he's going to die or probably going to die
24:15
for the next five even, oh no, maybe I can send and then
24:18
just make myself human again, that's a side of McKay we've seen before.
24:23
I do that, but that's what I'm trying to do. I can check
24:26
the system. I'm smart enough. But then post that where he goes around
24:30
and sort of says his final goodbyes or just in case goodbyes to each member
24:34
and how different they all were. Yeah, I like the t service with
24:38
Taylor. Yeah, like that was like we didn't have to see don't sing,
24:45
Please don't sing. But when he went to Zelenka and it was just
24:48
like, hey man, I've been a real prick. And you know I
24:49
always say that I'm so much smarter than you are. You are brilliant,
24:52
And it's not even like please tell me you forgive me. It's like,
24:56
I hope that one day you will find it in you. I'm not going
24:57
to be here, but I hope that you can. I'm like, oh,
25:00
that's really nice. That'll be the nicest thing that he does. And
25:03
he went to Taylor and it was like, hey, look I had asked.
25:06
It wasn't even like I got I got told and I cheat him away.
25:07
I had to ask some questions to find out. And you know,
25:11
this would be really important for you, and I'm going to play a role
25:15
in it for you if you would allow me the honor to do it.
25:17
And I'm like, oh my god, that's the best thing it was.
25:19
And I'm like it just kept getting bigger. But a lot of them he
25:25
was he was doing nice things for people. Yeah, but I feel like
25:27
specific with the Zelenka thing, it was the most self aware that he was.
25:30
Yeah, that's true, Raddick. I think it's safe to say that
25:36
I am at times a petty, vindictive, even jealous man. I supplement
25:42
my own anxieties or feelings of inadequacy by creating a bubble of hostility around myself
25:48
relatable. I know that you probably would anyone else have had to go the
25:52
brunt of the hostility. You don't have to, actually I do. Here's
25:56
the thing. You're brilliant scientist and a decent human being. I mean,
26:03
you should not have had to enjoy the kind of abuse that you've taken from
26:07
me in the past few years. Hope you can find a way to forgive
26:11
me for all the things I've said and done to You deserve much better than
26:15
that. So I wanted to know that. Hmm. Yeah, I love
26:26
that because he's just yeah, he's just so self aware. And it's not
26:30
just him complimenting him and saying you're a great sign, and it's starting with
26:34
him being aware of himself and going, I treat you like a piece of
26:37
shit and this is why I do it. Yeah, And then so I
26:41
think that's and it doesn't. It's not like he resets to zero at the
26:44
end of the episode and forgets it all and doesn't doesn't grow like that was
26:47
where I was worried watching all this, And I'm thinking, yeah, but
26:49
the last time we saw you have any big movement like this or potential form
26:56
movement, the very next episode was like it had never happened. Yeah,
27:00
And I remember you talking about that. Yeah, I was pissed off about
27:03
that because it was kind of the like obviously the point, but like we
27:07
it was so in his face, not even just snails in his face,
27:11
where he is faced with a better version of himself, and it's like,
27:15
oh, that's what I could be, and we saw the benefits of him
27:18
being the way that he is. But also it's like, you could be
27:22
like that and you get along better with everybody, and if you're better to
27:23
everyone else, that makes like it helps helps you. It helps you when
27:29
you were better to everybody else in ways that you don't even have to necessarily
27:32
be aware of. And then the next episode, like within two minutes,
27:36
it was like they were trying to undo that. Yeah, it was McCain
27:41
missus Miller, where he had great character growth there realizing he was a bad
27:44
brother and all that kind of stuff as shrine so he was better to his
27:48
sister and then better to his friends and that kind of stuff. And then
27:52
the next episode was Phantoms where he was just being walking on the trail and
27:56
he was just being wingy and bitchy and snappy and all that kind of stuff.
27:59
I mean, given that we know that these are obviously showing out of
28:02
order. I guess it would make sense that from episode episode he kind of
28:06
does. And like we were saying before, like progress isn't linear, you
28:08
know, he takes a step forward, but then he takes a step back.
28:11
But I think when you look at the Rodney we met in like season
28:15
what four, season six of SG one to the Rodney we see at the
28:21
end of Atlantis, I think that's when you'll see like his full character and
28:26
you'll be like, I can't imagine that character we were introduced to back then
28:30
being this this person, and maybe like it might be to be a cheat
28:33
way of watching it in hindsight, trying to fix some stuff, but I
28:36
want to, like I hear that with Zelenka and then with everybody as he
28:40
does after that, and like you said, he's self aware and well hang
28:42
on, no, but the last couple of episodes, you've been a dick,
28:45
and it's like, well, maybe that was a turning point with his
28:48
sister, and maybe he's just always thinking, well, I've got plenty,
28:52
Like I guess what everyone does in your life, you always think you've got
28:55
time. I will be I will be better, I will do better,
28:57
But I've got plenty of time to make up for it. And then he's
29:00
facing the prospect now you might only have days, and he's like, ah,
29:02
shit, well I go home or I go back to my quarters every
29:06
night, and I think about I didn't need to say that. Yeah,
29:08
I didn't mean to do it. I shouldn't have I shouldn't have done that.
29:11
You know, I would have done it a month ago, but since
29:12
that little incident where I was facing a better version of myself, I wouldn't
29:15
do that now, and yet I did it. But in the moment,
29:18
he's always trying to think about what he can achieve and how much he can
29:21
help, and even if it's from a selfish point of view, what can
29:23
I do, my brilliant, genius intellect, what can I do to help
29:27
this situation? And then to big note myself, And then it's like he's
29:30
faced with it. No, you're not going to have it tomorrow or you're
29:33
not going to have it next week. You've got to start making amends now.
29:36
And it's stuff he has been thinking about, not just like, oh,
29:38
well I need this to make myself feel better before I die in an
29:41
hour. I don't get that, but we haven't yeh What I love about
29:45
this too is that, like at the end of the episode, when he's
29:48
talking with Weird and everything, and he's like reading some of the work that
29:51
he's written down, He's like, I don't understand any of this. I
29:55
wrote it, and I don't understand it. It was also clear when I
29:56
wrote it, but now I'm not smart enough to understand it. Yeah,
30:00
so you almost feel like, well, you could almost apply that to all
30:03
the progress he made with all the people around him that he loves. He's
30:07
not going to be this touchy feely Rodney next week. He's going to make
30:11
those mistakes, which makes him a very human character. He's going to make
30:15
those same mistakes over and over again. But this was just a little a
30:18
little step forward. Yeah. Yeah, you have the instinct and your natural
30:22
reactions to certain things. It's a fun thing to write in. Like when
30:26
he's sitting there was with Weird and she's like, what are you working on?
30:29
He's like, Oh, I'm just I've just written a new version of
30:30
math. It's gonna it's just going to change the entire way that we can
30:37
see the perceive the universe. So and I was like, oh, I
30:40
can't wait to see how this is undone And I actually thought, I'm like,
30:42
is it going to get to a stage where yeah, he loses this
30:47
intelligence and enhancements and now he can't even understand his own workings because otherwise this
30:52
is going to have to change a lot of things. Again, Yeah,
30:56
I was gonna say to me it was a it was an easter egg to
30:59
that with O'Neil with his Base eight math and Carl was like, oh my
31:03
god, this is a whole new way to bulah. Yeah. But my
31:06
favorite part of this episode, and it's one of my probably favorite parts of
31:10
the show in total. I remember getting goosebumps the first time I watched this
31:15
bit. Those scars on your back from your encounters with the wreaths, you
31:18
know, with the tracking device. Are those like a badge of honor for
31:25
you? Or are they're just a constant reminder of something you'd rather forget?
31:30
Now? I know it's not my business. I just I try not to
31:33
learn things I can't change part of me. It's most deep run has ever
31:37
been. It's very healthy, allowed to be. Yeah, it's just profound,
31:41
just dropping knowledge, no sound effect, no little wishy magic sound effects.
31:49
Ever, actually doing again doesn't doesn't telegraph it, just a hug.
31:53
Yeah, I hope it on my I just killed them, and I think
32:04
that works either way. Like you said, there's no sound effect. And
32:07
I thought, I wonder whether the growth in this particular scene is that he's
32:12
not doing something because he can or because it will make him feel better.
32:15
The growth is him understanding that, like Ronan just said, I don't need
32:19
these to be gone, Like I just I can't do anything about him,
32:21
and it helps me. I'm trying to live and push on and move on
32:25
from it. And he's it's a metaphor. You think he's asking Rodney about
32:30
his scars as a metaphor for what he's going through. And then Ronan drops
32:34
the knowledge, saying, well, I don't let it bother me because it's
32:37
something I can't change. I just accept it. And you think, oh,
32:40
that's Rodney making one step closer towards the fact that he's accepting that he's
32:45
going to die soon and he needs to ascend if he's going to, you
32:49
know, make it worthwhile. But then you realize it we no, it
32:52
was. It was a whole different conversation they're actually having to what we thought
32:55
they were having, and he actually just did this, and he'll disc that
33:00
was kind of fun, and then walked away. Didn't didn't wait for a
33:02
thank you, didn't wait for a anything like that. Just I've healed them
33:07
for you. This is my gift to you. If that's hope, it's
33:09
okay. Yeah. I actually never thought about it the other way that you.
33:15
I always thought that he I always thought it was nice because he's obviously
33:19
off camera, he's thinking, all right, what's something I've done something for
33:22
everyone else? What can I do for Ronan's mines? Yeah? What the
33:27
hell am I going to? Oh? Yeah, I'll give you two guns
33:30
so we don't always have to go about. And he was only like,
33:32
oh, I could heal his scars. Normal Rodney would just go up and
33:36
heal it. You wouldn't even ask that. I think the fact that he
33:38
approached him and asked him, is it a badge of honor? Thinking,
33:42
yeah, all right, Ronan might like these scars. Is it a badge
33:46
of honor or something that you don't want to think? He does think Roddy
33:50
would normally do. Is he put himself in the other person's position. He
33:52
thought about how they would feel about something, not just go well, I'm
33:54
Rodney, I'm right, so you should think this about it. I can
33:58
heal and want them actually stopped a thing. Would Ronan actually want them to
34:01
be healed? But yeah, I liked the writing and that to me,
34:05
it just felt very subversive. Like I going into that, I didn't think
34:08
Rodney was asking do you like your scars because I want to heal them.
34:13
It was just it was a metaphor for something else, but something that Rodney
34:19
couldn't say outright to Ronan, so he used the scars as a metaphor to
34:24
ask about his condition. That so it was a shock to me when and
34:30
like I said, they don't telegraph it by doing a glowy light or a
34:32
sound effect or anything like that, because when he heals Zelenka they have like
34:37
a light effect. I'm pretty sure there's a sound effect as well. There's
34:43
none of that. So it was just a shock to me that I was
34:45
like, oh shit. But the thing, the thing that ruined it a
34:49
little bit for me is in the auto commentary, they go, well,
34:53
Jason Momoa was a very attractive man, and we'd like to get him in
34:57
the show with his shirt off more often, but we keep remembering that we
35:00
have to then apply scars and make up to his body. So it's like,
35:06
if we can do this, then we can get him shirtless more often
35:08
and not. And that's literally what they said we can do without any Yeah.
35:13
I picked that up as well. Oh really I thought about that as
35:15
well as a production thing, because anything like that, like, for example,
35:20
he got his tattoo in real life, that the one where they're using
35:24
some kind of bullshit tattoo. It's like a traditional old school ship. Yeah
35:30
they've got new stuff now, not in at LATAs, No, no,
35:36
not not in that, but yeah it's nice. Yeah, I just like
35:40
that whole thing. And just because we haven't heard from our queen this episode
35:45
one of my other favorite bits. I mean, Brennan hasn't yet said what
35:47
he's been saying last couple of weeks. I'll wait for this. We all
35:55
agree the ancients were pretty screwed up. We do. All the ones I
36:00
met were arrogant kind of sending and not for good reason. They made giant
36:04
mistakes and never fixed. They were still human then they were all those crazy
36:08
rules. Those only came after they ascended what happened. Maybe this thing doesn't
36:14
work on everyone who knows, but we do know what works on it has
36:17
only been a day. Assuming it's safe. I'll be honest, even if
36:22
it's not, if we can get a significant vantage of the rates in the
36:24
replication, John, I agree, this device may have great potential. It
36:28
was great potential, responsibility, a lot of other things we have found in
36:31
this cit technology. For all we know, it could also be very dangerous.
36:37
Saying yes you can be next. Thank you, that's good, Like
36:42
she knew what he was like, yeah, you know, if you're compiling
36:44
the list, did we stay focused? I love that. Does it make
36:51
your breath spell better? It's funny how like he had all these paths that
36:57
he ended up not locking. And in the end, is that the the
37:00
hearing and the mind reading and full mel Gibson, Yeah, yeah, we're
37:05
walking through the missile was like, oh thank you, oh him, Oh
37:09
you meant of course talking about was that the brunette with the long hair from
37:15
the from the opening scene because I wasn't looking at background characters because you know
37:19
later on that they were referring or they were referring to a scientist or someone
37:22
and they go which one is that? In the link is like, oh,
37:24
the brunette with the long hair, and Sheppard goes, oh, the
37:29
one with the great the cute little, the cute little, and he's like,
37:32
I was gonna say smile, Sure you were. And so then when
37:36
she pops up having a crush on McKay, I was like, oh this
37:42
is and also looking at her, I'm like, you can do better.
37:45
She is very I was like, she's very she's very cute America, very
37:50
very cute. Please smile. Put her and Andrew's dress. Yeah, and
37:54
Draper and the Atlantis like love it. He wrote a book for doctor Weir
38:00
for her about her? What was the book? It was about her that
38:04
I was like a memoir. It's like all the good things that she did
38:07
on It's gonna be short, short story about Rodney, didn't she say?
38:12
It's like of bullshit. Most of it was brad Wright. Release the book,
38:21
Release the book, Release the book. Luck, good luck. I'll
38:27
buy the first copy, probably the only copy. Don't like dr were How
38:31
annoying can you be? Uh, doctor Weir? Yes, my reproductive walkins.
38:40
I do wear my watch on the inside, Doctor Weir, I don't
38:47
really care. A biography by Roddy McKay Get into Gate get into the gate
38:55
Stargate podcast. Get into it now before too late.