Insiders, or,
Three Strikes And No Baals
This episode rated only 2 out of
5 from me: that was erring on
the generous side only because
Vala was so cool, we got some
nice insights into her and
Cameron, and Baal is just Super
Fly Goa'uld. I'll go
pretty easy on mediocre plots,
but I am not forgiving at all of
bad characterisation. I
find it hard to understand how
this writer could have got Vala
Mal Doran so right and Samantha
Carter so wrong. A great
disappointment.Daniel
I definitely liked the
episode providing a reasonable
explanation for Daniel's
absence. That hasn't
happened so often in the past.
Vala
Vala definitely had the best
of Insiders. I had to smile when the mere
mention of Daniel's name was
enough to turn Bored Now! into
Princess Perky in the opening
briefing room scene. Vala
is turning into quite the
one-man woman.
She was great in a poorly
plotted story, a saving grace;
vibrant, energetic, funny,
clever and cute. Stealing
centre-stage, demanding
attention, shredding everyone's
nerves. She also proved
herself to be resourceful and a
real
asset in a fight. She may
be high maintenance, but her
quickness and competence
are amply demonstrated.
The insights into her past
history as host to the Goa'uld
Qetesh were interesting and well
placed in a plot that was
generally in search of a point.
It was time for Vala to remind
us of her intimate knowledge of
the depths of Goa'uld depravity.
The mystery isn't how difficult
she is, but how well adjusted
she is after being exposed to
the "memories of a thousand
Hitlers" as Daniel put it in
Season 4's Absolute Power.
It appeared Vala survived this
experience because she was true
to herself. When Sam
informed Baal that she went by
"Vala" now, Vala chipped in to
assert that she pretty much
always had. I don't think
we needed the confirmation of
her individuality or her
strength of character, but it
was good to have that leavened
with some reminders of the
weight she carries from her time
as a host.
Her childish demands for
attention and validation remind
me irresistibly of Jack, but
those qualities are balanced by
her intelligence and the
intuition she put to good use in
determining Baal's true
intentions when he set about
stealing Stargates and stranded
SG-1. She handled herself
well when she tried to finesse
information out of Baal but
there was a line she wouldn't
cross with him that we know
she's crossed with other men,
and probably for less reason.
All in all, I thought Vala
fitted well with the team and
brought a lot of energy to it
all. Her presence greatly
lifted the action, even giving a
neat twist on using rings to get
into the pyramid ship by smartly
using Jaffa tactics against
them.
Oh, and even though Vala
wasn't actually present for the
discussion, I'd have to agree
wholeheartedly with General
Landry: she does only listen to
Daniel. Sometimes...
Cameron
If Vala had the best of
Insiders, there was also an
intriguing insight into
Cameron's character and his
decidedly ambiguous role as the
leader of SG-1. In that
scene with Landry, he came out
and stated for the record what
many of us have been discussing
on our lists, forums, blogs and
LJs: that he controls nothing.
He and Sam are the same rank,
Teal'c is an alien, and Daniel
is a civilian. In latter
Season 9, we saw Cameron making
some bad and foolish decisions,
even acting the buffoon quite
inappropriately. I much
prefer this quieter, capable
Cameron who gets to lead by
making the good decisions and by
making it possible for the
others to do their thing.
It was a very cool moment to see
the difficulty of Cameron's
position acknowledged. I
do hope we see this go someplace
in future storylines.
Sam
There were some cute little
moments for Sam, like her
impatient eye-roll when Vala was
demanding validation for her
improvisation, the look on her
face when Vala was demanding
compliments on her natty combat
gear, her reaction to Cameron's
rising testosterone level while
they were looking for their
Baals, and her teasing of him
over his carefully thought out
Baal joke.
I wish that were all...
My subtitle for this review
was "Three Strikes and No Baals."
I'm not going to argue that a
certain rigidity is out of
character for Sam, or that she
isn't prone to repeating
patterns and errors in
judgement. In fact, it
helps make Sam a more
interesting and dimensional
character because she is as
flawed in her own way as the
rest of us are.
What kills me is that
Insiders was Sam's third strike;
she is 0 for 3 on protecting
vital SGC data from deadly
enemies. First Linea in
Prisoners, then RepliCarter in
Gemini, now Baal in Insiders:
each and every one of them
kicking the SGC's ass and making
off with vital data handed to
them on a silver disc by Samantha
Carter. As written in
Insiders, she's learned *nothing*
from these grievous errors of
judgement. And she's not
going to learn anything this
time around, because again,
she's been allowed to get away
with it scot-free.
Agent Barrett was brainwashed
into a breach of interrogation
protocol that Baal used to his
advantage; the full weight of
narrative retribution came down
on his head. Sam Carter
downloaded data *vital*
to the operation, the very
existence of Stargate Command
and the safety of its personnel
and handed it over to Baal.
This is a staggering breach of
faith and for it to have
happened not one, not two, but *three*
times without *any*
career consequences whatsoever
for Sam is simply ludicrous.
I don't have a problem with
Sam's flaws. I like Sam's
flaws just as I like Daniel's
and Vala's. What I do have
a problem with is a writer who
exploits those flaws to drive a
dubious plot and then doesn't
have the guts to have the
character face the very real
consequences of her actions.
The full weight of narrative
retribution should have fallen
on Sam's head here. The
dramatic integrity of the story
demanded it. Sam richly
deserved it. When it comes
to her personal growth and her
character arc, the lack of angst
on her part, the failure to
mention her previous error with
RepliCarter and everything
*that* led to, was criminal.
Instead, we got a pat on the
head from Landry and joke to
take us into the credits.
I can hardly bring myself to
mention Sam's spineless
surrender to Baal.
Clearly, the writer doesn't know
Sam's (or the show's) arc and
history all that well. If
he'd ever seen Jolinar's
Memories or The Devil You Know,
he would have seen her steely
resistance to torture and
threats when people much closer
to her than Agent Barrett were
being used as leverage by an
enemy.
We're to believe that in ten
years, not only has Samantha
Carter not learned anything
from previous errors, she's
capable of less?
It wasn't pretty, but if it
had at least been used to
generate some genuine character
insight or growth, Sam's
recognition of her own repeating
patterns, or so that some dramatic
conflict such as
a reprimand, demotion,
probationary period, *anything,*
had to be resolved by Sam, the
team and the SGC, then it could have made for some
interesting directions to take
the character.
Instead, it meant nothing, it
went nowhere, it was a real
disservice to the character of
Samantha Carter, losing her
balls and her Baals are part of
her history forever and I'm
angry at the waste of it all.
The hacker who once boasted
she could get the prescription
of Martin Lloyd's glasses if she
wanted couldn't even come up
with a ruse to stall Baal.
Nada. Nothing. Zip.
Criminally bad
characterisation.
Sez me.
Teal'c
I loved his barely contained
anger and earnest assurance to
Baal it wasn't only the clones
that wanted to kill him. I
loved how he refrained from
killing Vala on the spot when
she was cheeky about his lack of
enthusiasm over her appearance.
And I loved the weary expression
on his face when she was trying
to arm-wrestle him into
submission. I saw the
weight of every one of his one
hundred plus years. I
think he misses Daniel too.
Plot, pacing and
that other stuff
I hardly know where to start.
What *was* the point of
it all?
Except to humiliate the
character of Sam Carter,
obviously.
How did Baal know SG-1 were
pursuing Merlin's secretly
secret so secret it's in another
secret dimension written in
secret code secret weapon?
I can quite understand why Baal
would want Merlin's secretly
secret weapon. What I
can't understand is why he
didn't use his mind whammie on
Agent Barrett to keep tabs on
SG-1 until *they* found the
bugger, and then swooped in to
take it. Now he's lost a
valuable intelligence asset,
tipped off the SGC to what he's
up to and got himself a few
thousand planets to poke around
in the dark looking for -
well...he knows not what.
Or indeed where.
Woo. If you're anything
like me, you were probably
wondering all the way through
Insiders why Baal didn't just
get the mind whammied Agent
Barrett to quietly download him
a copy of the Ancient addresses
on some plausible, authoritative
NID-oversight-of-the-SGC-type
pretext. Admittedly, it
might have taken Barrett several
seconds to come up with a number
of plausible pretexts for doing
just that - and all without Baal
risking life, limb and campy,
menacing fabulousness in an
unflattering blue jumpsuit or
Sam Carter misplacing her spine.
It could hardly have been less
compelling than what we actually
got, and would at least have
made *sense,* something
that patently eluded Insiders.
Also, all the other times SGC
personnel have been compromised,
it's NEVER occurred to
ANYONE, EVER, to lock
out their command codes or
deactivate their swipe cards so
they can't download mission
critical data or roam the base
at will?
Watching Sam
trying to hack her own un-hackable
security system to buy time and
save lives would have been fun.
And in character.
Watching Sam hold out against
Baal and have him kill Agent
Barrett or some other hostage
and her having to live with the
weight of that would have
offered great potential for
angst and character growth.
Imagine the scene where Landry
tells her "you did the right
thing" in *that* context.
My assessment: Insiders is a poorly conceived episode
that's short on narrative
imperative, long on character
assassination and avoids even
common sense.
The special effects guys
juggled their Baals with aplomb,
which is more than I can say for
the story. |