Top Ten Episodes

[em_kellesvig]

Oh, this is hard!

10. Grace Under Pressure. Forty two minutes of Awesome Hewlett being Awesome!

9. Rising. "I told you not to touch anything!"

8. Trinity. They were happy! And then they weren't. Oh, boys!

7. Aurora. They weren't happy, but they got better.

6. The Defiant One. "What do I do now?" "Reload!"

5. Echoes. Slashiest episode ever.

4. Sateda. Never leave a man behind.

3. Miller's Crossing. "I can't."

2. The Shrine. "John! John!"

1. Vegas.

Comments

Madison's Top 10 SGA episodes Pt 2

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

S3
5) Common Ground

This on the surface of it, doesn't seem to be a pivotal episode. It is really a stand-alone ep in many ways but this is one episode that I keep coming back to (I think I've written 3 tags for it). We have John being tortured on camera for all of Atlantis to see. Tortured in a way that is everyone's worst nightmare. We get to see Rodney's woobie face as he watches what is happening to John, and then the determination to go out an be a part of the rescue team, when really, he should have had no part of that! And John! Slowly being sucked dry by the Wraith, but firm in telling Elizabeth not to give into Koyla's demands. Okay, fine, that's what he's been trained to do. But in the cell, he is *still* thinking about how to get out and how to move on--not freaking out about how much he's aged so far or what this might mean to his future in Atlantis if he survives this. It is so *John* and I love him for it. Even when he thinks Todd is going to kill him in the end, his defiance is still there. Oh, John. And when Rodney bitches about how John looks even younger than when he set out? That is the sort of inappropriate statement people make when they are relieved that their worst fears have not been realized.

S4
6)Doppleganger

I've probably watched this one S4 ep more than any other. There is the whole aspect of seeing what everyone's worst nightmares might be (along with the whole reinforcement of the idea/fear that if you die in your dreams then you will really die in RL). Again, we have John making an intuitive, out of the box leap in thinking to SAVE RODNEY. We also get bad-ass Evil John, which is simply downright creepy--Joe Flanigan did an outstanding job of introducing that element into the Dream John. There's that look of utter hopelessness and stunned failure on his face when he thinks that Rodney is dead and then we find out John's nightmare is to be the last man standing in a deserted Atlantis. *shivers* That this theme is echoed in The Last Man is one of the stellar moments of continuity in the whole series. When Rodney shows up at the end, coming down the stairs, all smug and Rodney? I cheered. When Rodney questions why John's subconscious doesn't contain any hot girls, John should too. *beams*

7) Miller's Crossing

All of the team that can reasonably come to Earth to help Rodney rescue Jeannie *does*. Rodney is in a terrible position (he had to *break* his sister's legs to keep the nanites occupied so they wouldn't kill her while they solved the problem). He has to come up with a solution before Jeannie dies and he doesn't have one. He might get one with Todd's help, but Todd needs to eat. At that one moment, Rodney places a higher value on his sister's life than anything else. I find it interesting, though, that he confides his plan to John. He didn't have to. He could have just done it. On some level though, I think he knew John would come up with a solution (though if I had been Rodney, I would have been afraid John would decide HE was the solution). Instead, as it has been pointed out elsewhere so elegantly, John talked someone else into killing himself instead. It is that ruthless streak in John, that only comes out when the people he cares about are threatened, that keeps John Sheppard from being a two dimensional character. Love, love, love it.

Re: Madison's Top 10 SGA episodes Pt 2

[em_kellesvig]

Ack! Common Ground! Doppleganger! Tabula Rasa! *points at you!*

Re: Madison's Top 10 SGA episodes Pt 2

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

No, see, I left off Tabula Rasa! But it should be on there! I thought about it the other night when Flanigan tweeted he was writing important phone numbers on his arm before going out on the town with Jason.