Suspicion Week

[em_kellesvig]

Sheppard and Bates, toe to toe.



1. Alpha male posturing.
2. Sheppard finally getting pissed enough with Bates to establish the chain of command. (They were Sumner's men, not his.)
3. Bates finally getting pissed enough with Sheppard to force him to establish the chain of command. (He was Sumner's senior NCO, not Sheppard's.)
4. Weir deliberately playing divide and conquer with the military?
5. Weir inadvertently playing divide and conquer with the military?

Seriously, Weir appointing Bates as Head of Security makes no sense. That was Sheppard's purview. And I can't see Sheppard neglecting security to the point where Weir felt she had to do an end run around him to address the issue. So what happened?

Maybe this: Sheppard orders Ford to set up a rota for security patrols. Ford does. Either Weir or Bates or both decide that's not good enough. Without consulting Sheppard, Weir appoints Bates as Head of Security, thus undermining Sheppard's authority with the marines. Bad move. Never bypass the military chain of command. Sheppard lets it stand but so not to undermine Weir, but he knows he'll have to slap Bates down and remind him who's the ranking officer -- and it's not Weir. She's the head of the expedition. Sheppard's the acting military commander. Bates reports to him, not to Weir.

Weir should have known better. If she thought the city needed a Head of Security, she should have talked to Sheppard first.

Bates should have known better. He's the senior NCO, and whether he likes Sheppard or not, he knows not to screw with the chain of command. It's bad for morale.

Is Sheppard blameless in this? Actually, yes, he is. Just that one statement from Weir about making Bates head of security proves it. Had she said, "This is why I asked you to make Bates head of security..." we would have known Sheppard was part of the decision process. He wasn't.

Did she know she was creating a division in the ranks? I'd like to think she didn't but she'd done a turn as head of the SGC. She couldn't be that naive. She didn't quite trust Sheppard, played divide and conquer with Bates as her willing accomplice, and forced Sheppard to firmly establish his position as military commander.

Right here, this move on Weir's part would come back to bite her in the ass several times over. She lost a measure of John's trust as his CO and she was never able to earn it back. He could no longer trust her to give him sound orders. She no longer had his unquestioning obedience.

They could and did still work together and even remained friendly. He mourned her loss. But he never forgot this. And neither did she.





"Suspicion" 1x05

Comments

[melagan.livejournal.com]

I love the thinky thoughts.

I also love a good alpha male challenge *g*

[em_kellesvig]

It's hard to have thinky thoughts on one cup of coffee but it's too hot for two.

So, what are your thinky thoughts on this?

[melagan.livejournal.com]

er, you mean a thinky thought that doesn't involve thigh holsters?

*coff* I'll get back to you on that.

[hoktauri]

Hmm, I guess I read the situation differently. I thought Weir had appointed Bates Head of Security long before they even got to Atlantis. Therefore, she wouldn't have asked for Sheppard's input; she might have asked for Sumner's though, we just don't know.

Bates was wrong about Teyla, but he was doing his job--expressing security concerns. If he hadn't expressed those concerns, they never would have found out the necklace was also a transmitter. I think Sheppard *was* allowing personal feelings of friendship towards Teyla to enter the mix, but I don't think he should have acted any other way. I think Weir handled their animosity rather well. ("Why don't you see how Lt. Ford is doing?" wasn't exactly a suggestion.)

I do like the alpha male posturing though. I could watch them stare each other down all day. *g*

[em_kellesvig]

If Weir felt the expedition needed a head of security, all she had to do was tell Sheppard, "We need a head of security. Appoint someone." Instead, she went around him. She wouldn't have gone around Sumner. She would have trusted him to take care of it on his own or would have discussed it with him.

Even if Bates had been made Head of Security before Sheppard had been brought on board, that was Bates' CO's decision to make, not Weir's. She bypassed chain of command. Sumner wouldn't have stood for it; he had the rank to call her on it, and Bates, as his senior NCO, wouldn't have taken her orders over Sumner's.

This is how the military works. It has to work this way to maintain order and discipline.

Weir undermined Sheppard's command authority by going behind his back and making a military decision that wasn't hers to make.

Was Bates in the wrong? Yes and no. Having been given the job, he did it. But he shouldn't have taken the job in the first place and he knew it. He should have deferred to his CO, Sheppard, and let the "higher ups" sort it out between themselves. He, too, bypassed the chain of command.

That's what forced the stand off when Weir and Bates didn't want to open the shield for Teyla and Ford.

As for handling the animosity between Sheppard and Bates, she's the one who escalated it. She interfered with Sheppard's command of the marines. He was the only Air Force officer with the expedition and, until Sumner's death, was outside the chain of command. With Sumner's death, Sheppard became ranking officer and acting military commander. Just the interservice rivalry alone would have been enough for the marines to resent Sheppard. That Sumner died during the rescue led by Sheppard made matters worse. The fact that Sumner made it clear to his marines that he didn't approve of Sheppard and Sheppard made it clear to Sumner that he answered to Weir, not Sumner, sealed his fate with Bates.

So yeah, Weir screwed up. Bates screwed up. Sheppard? Sheppard trusted Teyla, as he should have done.

Did it all work out for the best? In the short term. Bates did the job he was given, Teyla was proven innocent, and the problem was solved. Sheppard reestablished the chain of command with Bates and with Weir.

But Weir's actions damaged her relationship with Sheppard. How many times did she say to him, "You have to trust me, John"? This is where she lost his trust.

Never fuck with the chain of command.

[hoktauri]

Never fuck with the chain of command.

Weir was at the top of this chain, full stop. The Expedition was civilian-led, not military-led, so while discussing with Sumner or Sheppard or even O'Neill would have been advisable, it wasn't a requirement. As Expedition leader, it was her job to appoint Head of Security, just as she appointed all senior staff. She says as much to Kavanagh in 38 Minutes and to Sheppard himself in Hot Zone--that's why Sheppard's orders to Bates in that episode undermine Weir's authority. Despite the fact that Sheppard is in command over Bates, he and Bates are both under Weir's command, such that her orders would supercede Sheppard's in a conflict.

Furthermore, Bates was on the lead security team in Rising, so it's definitely not a stretch to think Weir appointed Bates with Sumner's full backing, before Sheppard was even there.

My understanding of Weir's constant requests for John's trust fall to his prior chain-of-command breaches and problems with authority, not Weir's.

YMMV, of course.

[popkin16]

You raised some excellent points that I never thought about before, re: Weir appointing Bates, bypassing Sheppard. It was never really a scene I gave all that much thought to, besides the fact that it meant problems for John, since Bates so clearly didn't respect Sheppard and only followed orders because he had to. But Weir really didn't have any right to appoint Bates to that position.

I think what really brings it home is your response to hoktauri, where you mention the times Weir had to ask John to trust her. Because that trust was damaged, wasn't it? And what probably makes it worse was the fact that all this happened when they were still relatively new to each other, where their relationship was still settling.

I find this all so interesting. But then, I adore meta :)

[em_kellesvig]

Good point on how early this happened. It was very much a vote of no confidence by Weir.

There's an uglier side of this I really didn't want to point out: If Weir hadn't lowered the shield for Teyla and Ford, both would have been killed. Ford would have been killed, Bates' platoon leader and the only other officer besides Sheppard.

And with Weir and the marines on his side, how hard would it have been for Bates to marginalize or even kill Sheppard, leaving him in command?

Answer: Not very.

Did the writers realize they were setting up this scenario when all they really wanted was a little dramatic tension? I doubt it. But that's what's on the screen: a military coup in the making. Good thing the writers didn't decide to kill two of their main characters five episodes into the series. *facepalm*

[popkin16]

Your thoughts on the episode have stuck with me :) I'm in the middle of watching Hot Zone, and I find it fascinating that Sheppard orders Bates to open the doors so he can leave the gym and stop Peterson from getting to the control room, and infecting those there. And Weir orders Bates not to open the doors.

Bates follows Sheppard's orders.

Of course, this is *after* The Storm/The Eye, where Sheppard nearly single handedly handled the Genii. I imagine that has gone a long way toward tempering some of the dislike/disrespect the other soldiers held for John. He may not be their original CO, he may be a zoomie, but damn does he know how to handle himself.

[em_kellesvig]

You might be interested in this post from 2005: John as a PJ. It explains so much, including why he's so good on the ground for a rotor pilot.

[popkin16]

Oh wow. I've never come across this before - I came to the fandom late and have no idea where to go to find meta. Thank you so much for this link, and hello new head!canon.