Stargate Atlantis 1x14 "Sanctuary"

[oceana]

Urged on by the discussion of Atlantis slash a few days ago, I finally watched "Sanctuary".



Apart from the nipples and the jealousy, this episode was kind of cheesy.
I loved the "Kirk" comments, I thought that Elizabeth was either totally out of chracter, or that I had a totally wrong impression of her character from the beginning. But sometimes during the episode I really thought the plot was that Weir is possessed by an alien.

Turns out the plot was worse:
Alien girl wants to get laid and choses everyone's favourite Major. Not that I blame her. Sheppard was kind of cute. I liked that he didn't pretend to fall in love, it was pretty much clear from the beginning that he wanted to get laid. And see, I wasn't wrong with my assessment: even though there was no "love", and he certainly didn't expect to have any kind of future with her, he genuinely cared about the alien girl.
Who, btw, couldn't have been less attractive to me. I'm not saying she wasn't pretty by the usual standards, but she sure wasn't pretty to me. Her eyes were totally expressionless, almost dead. I kept wondering if they were supposed to be that way, if maybe she was working really hard to get that dead look, but I couldn't figure it out.

Anyway, I was going to tell you how I fell in love with Beckett.
Don't laugh.

I always liked Beckett. You can hardly not like him, he is funny and he has the best accent ever, and he has beautiful eyes. So far, I liked him, but that was all. He didn't leave a lasting impression.

This episode changed that.
Beckett examines alien girl, is terribly cute when he does it. The accent, the looks, the smile...it is really hard to resist.
Then he gets the results and talks to Weir and McKay, and that's when it happened.
When Weir asks him what is so weird about alien girls perfect health, he answers:

"Quite frankly, human life is more fragile than that."

And that little sentence moved me like no other of his actions had before.
Because he suddenly became real. He suddenly became more than a comic relief who happens to be the teams doctor.
He suddenly became a man who has seen people die, who has fought for lives, who is pretty much the most important person in all of Atlantis, and I suddenly realized how dman good he must be at what he does.
And what it took to get him where he is now.

I'm not sure if I any of you can understand it, and I can't explain it any better than I did right now.
I am suddenly in love with Carson Beckett. Because competence turns me on like nothing else. Competence and tragedy, and he's got both, in the same understated way that Jack has them. He just acts, and there is never any talk about how good he really is at what he does.
And the tragedy is part of his job, he lives with it, he feels it, but it isn't mentioned, because his job wouldn't be possible without it. (yes, I am talking about both of them now, Jack and Beckett.)

Funny, how such a small sentence can be such an epiphany.


I also noticed that some of John's gestures are pure Jack O'Neill.

I know, i'm late noticing these things, but i'm just starting to develop my Atlantis love. And my Beckett love. *g*