Rising Pts 1 and 2- 'I'll take you back to the start...'

[marguerite_krux]

 "I had to find you,
Tell you I need you,
Tell you I set you apart

Tell me your secrets,
And ask me your questions,
Aww let’s go back to the start..."

-Coldplay, 'The Scientist'

Random thoughts as I rewatch Rising:

I always think the start of SGA sucks. Who are those two randoms gazing at each other so intently and why do we care? Enough of doomed romances several million years ago already! [I just realized she might be the Ancient chick from an SG-1 ep, Frozen-?- but meh]

The first main character we see is Weir, so I kind of imprinted on her [much as ducklings are wont to do when they first hatch] as soon as she walked in. Doing the Pointless Accepting of Reports that Lisa Cuddy has also perfected in House. Seriously, she’s just turned up and this overzealous chick has a report waiting for her already.

Prescient, much…?...oh and HA, she signs it without looking and then ditches it on the table. Poor forgotten report, we hardly knew ye...

I know, I know, you’re wondering- why all this rambling? What relevance does it have to the ship? I’m getting to that:

Personally, I fall in love with strong-female-character first, then if she has chemistry with a gorgeous, charming, witty colleague, I ship them. The hero worship is born, then the shipping follows. ;) So the above was merely me setting the stage. And commenting on her crazy charisma. She just enters the room and everyone flocks to her!

And she captured my interest with the way she deflates McKay. Halfway into a rant about cute Scottish dude’s disliking for Ancient technology, all, ‘He’s not even trying, he wishes he never had the gene, oh god, why am I denied the glories of mutated DNA and this ungrateful voodoo worker is blessed with it?’ she just smirks and effectively shuts him up with the delightfully wry, ‘We could always test you a *third* time, Rodney.” Score!

[Btw, why the hell doesn’t she have the gene? If they weren’t going to have her go in the field and shoot guns, why not give her the gene so that she could defend the city? That would have been so cool, seeing her spin around in the chair, raising shields, activating devices and whatnot. Stupid writers. She definitely doesn’t have the gene, right? Hmph. I want a fic with her and some Ancient device, just for the heck of it.]

The wasted possibilities:

Grr, I can’t believe Elizabeth said she needed Shep [for his genes, not his body, but minor technicality that] and he turned her down! More than that, I’m annoyed we didn’t get to see this scene. Their first conversation went unrecorded for posterity. *pouts*

But you know what I totally missed the first few times I rewatched this? Just as Elizabeth shouts, “Can I have everyone’s attention, please?” his grim face melts into a smile! She’s behind him at this point, so he’s just smiling at the sound of her voice, which is so sweet. I have no clue what to make of that, because they’ve only met once and he refused her request, but cool!

Shep: I don't wanna be here...

Shep: Wait, whose lovely voice is this I hear?

And just in case I thought I was imagining it, as she walks past him, the other corner of his mouth quirks up even more for a fuller smile!

 
Cute, he's crushing on her already!

Then he proceeds to win my heart in the following exchange:

Sumner [dourly]: You remember who’s giving the orders.

Shep [smug]: That would be Doctor Weir, right?

HA! Defending her honor from the very first ep!

[Though as much as I ship Sparky, I still love the Weir/Sumner kiss outtake! I'd've hated it if it were for real, but it's just so funny!]

My favorite moment is when they've reached Atlantis, and  Elizabeth picks up the wine bottle courtesy of O’Neill, when she turns around to find Shep’s gaze fixed intently on her. He acts a little shy, licking his lips and looking away for a moment, like he’s embarrassed she caught him checking her out, lol, and then he does the Nod of Solemnity that signifies a Moment of Bonding. She holds his gaze, smiling a little but mainly with her sparkling eyes, and nods back. *squees*

 

It’s like they formed a partnership from that point- Sumner hails her on the radio [god, I’m glad they replaced those clunky things with the elegant earbuds] and he follows her immediately. Aww! It’s interesting how the eye!sex begins from the very start. McKay says the excessive power consumption could lead to DEATH and Shep immediately looks over at Elizabeth. Okay, I’m extrapolating, but she’s in his line of sight, and a second later, she looks straight in his direction, so it’s not that farfetched.

I like that she must have guessed Sumner wasn’t too keen on Shep, because of that black mark on his record and all, and that she forces Sumner to take Shep along. I mean, she told him to assemble a team, and he was walking away, using the- crap, I hate trying to describe these things, do you call it the radio, the comm…? Anyway, he obviously wasn’t taking Shep, so she has herself a power play in assigning Shep to the mission. And this leads to what is my equally most favorite moment in this ep [shut up, I can have two!] where he waves at her before going out the gate.

She looks so- like she's trying to be strong, but she's worrying about him already.

I never understood the reason behind the wave before, I loved it but I didn’t know why he was specifically acknowledging her, but I’m certain it’s because she gave him the opportunity to go out with the team. I’m noticing a lot of subtle undertones I totally missed before, now that I’m going through it again!

I think the real moment of power play that I jokingly referred to above actually came into play when Sumner eyes Shep with this look of muffled loathing, when Shep strolls up and joins the team nonchalantly, and Sumner then looks up at Elizabeth, as if for confirmation, like 'Are you out of your freakin' mind, woman?'. She just lifts her chin and stares him down, and he has to go along with it, because she eats military commanders for breakfast, HA.

Now I’m forwarding through most of the ep, mainly because I hate the overtness of the Sheyla intrusion. The whole necklace thing irritated me, because it’s so intimate and the music’s the fluting music that gives me ‘sheik-with-a-harem-woman’ vibes. He’s actually like, stroking her! *shudders* Fast forwarding again…mentally substituting Elizabeth in that scene all the while…yay, fic!

Okay, their first fight. *sighs* They haven’t even kissed yet and they’re on the verge of breaking up. I love how Elizabeth fully grabs him by the arm and tugs him along with her. The look of confused outrage on his face is priceless.

Now I love Elizabeth with all my heart, but the way she was desperate for a gate address to dial to, then when Shep suggested Jinto could help, she made the condescending remark that ‘he’s just a child!’- it rubbed me the wrong way. [It’s funny that Torri believes Elizabeth would be good with children, display the same affection and nurturing she does with Sedge, when she has this disdainful attitude working here!] Even a kid is taught their name, phone number and home address, you know. And they need the help, it’s not time to point out his age. But Shep makes it all better, when Jinto introduces himself, he snarks, “Yeah, she’s pleased to meet you.” Score!

Damn Jinto. If that freakin’ kid hadn’t been there, Shep would’ve been the one to catch her instead of Ford. It could have been Aeryn and Crichton in Moya all over again! We could’ve had a snapshot of her in his arms in the opening credits the way Farscape did with J/A!

 
Ahh, the hawtness.

After the city's risen, [thanks to AU!Elizabeth] she says softly“I was hoping for another day. Looks like we just got a whole lot more than that. Let’s not waste it.”

 

And Shep smiles at her. [I’m unreasonably fixated on his smiles. I guess because we don’t see him do it much for the rest of the show’s history.] I guess that fight is over!

I’d have to say the part where they discover the balcony is my second favorite moment. Second because they start fighting again, damn it. But the first few moments of wonder, when they’re enthralled by the view, where they ‘mirror’ [heavy-handed pun] each other’s movements- walking out onto the balcony in perfect sync with each other [even their steps are in time!], standing with their hands on the railing, looking down into the sea…pure gorgeousness.

 

I just wish we could’ve kept the bonding thing going on his part- the constant smiles in her direction, the shadowing her around the city, the shared body language. Once he threatened to undermine her authority, it changed things before they really had a chance to settle in place. Joe and Torri were totally setting up this ‘friendship’ vibe, and then the characters had to go and snipe at each other.

From reading her face accurately enough to gauge her thoughts, Shep makes the fatal error of completely messing up his pitch. ‘Elizabeth, come on, let me go on this half-assed rescue mission doomed to failure and lead the Wraith back to destroy the city because it’s the right thing to do…Why? Because- it- is!’ For a soldier, he has a poor grasp on tactics. Those guys are dead anyway, secure the safety of the people in the here and now instead of jeopardizing them needlessly! Dude! *shakes head*

Damn it, as she argues with him, blatantly attempting to manipulate him by calling him, ‘John’, he also sabotages the potential for first-name-gasms by stubbornly calling her ‘Doctor’. We got a looong way to go. [When was the first ep he called her ‘Elizabeth’ anyway?]

 

I really am frustrated with him for compromising the expedition’s safety by bringing back Random Dirty People who could possibly be snitches for the Wraith. He refuses to even concede Elizabeth’s point, which makes me want to cry. And he brutally shoots down her suggestion of negotiating with the nasty aliens. Which I could put down to his over-protectiveness of her and lack of desire to lose another commander, but…wishful thinking, much? Let me get away with that anyway. ;)

[OMG, I want the SGA book where Elizabeth negotiates with aliens. For once, someone recognizes her credentials!]

But at the end of the ep, Elizabeth comforts him [with words, not sex, as the ZPS recappers would wish] after he admits that he was wrong. Okay, he says he’s beginning to thinks she’s right, which isn’t an outright apology, but still a step on the right track. He’s dismantling walls between them, he can be himself around her instead of this perfect super-hero who never sets a foot wrong, he can admit a mistake with the security of knowing she’s not going to kick him while he’s down. It shows trust. It shows progress. And it makes me happy.

 

Unhappy Shep

Caring Elizabeth

And while he's not exactly beaming with joy, the tension is gone and he seems like he's considering her words, like he's working through forgiving himself sometime in the future.

And she's letting him know she's there for him. What a leader. I am impressed that she always knows the right thing to say to him. She does a great job of bolstering his self-confidence.

Then Teyla gatecrashes their little lovefest and ruins the moment by putting her hands on him, damn it. What was she doing, eavesdropping like that anyway? And she promises to make them more friends, but she should be sued for negligent misrepresentation because I see no evidence of new friends, and a whole heap of new enemies, thanks to her. *blows raspberry* The thing is, with her- I get ‘one-dimensional vibes of Sexy Alien Chick’ from her. Shep isn’t even interested, by the looks of him, which I adore, because he’s a one-woman man and totally picked Elizabeth FIRST, so Teyla can just go jump Ford.

Shep’s interaction with Elizabeth has more facets to explore, it’s more rounded, I can’t find the word to explain what I mean but Teyla’s coming off as the token hot girl that catches guys’ attention, whereas Elizabeth is the one that quietly but surely takes up a spot in your heart, blindsiding you all of a sudden when you realize how much you care about her. She’s the one he has real chemistry with- they lock eyes intently, they fight passionately, they make up and banter cutely…I just see so many more possibilities for expansion and depth in their relationship.

The ep ends with my equal second most favorite moment, where he and Elizabeth are leaning on the internal balcony together, chatting amiably. Ahhh, perfect. Everyone else has cleared off wisely, the scent of matchmaking in the air in the act of leaving them alone together. Hee! Damn cute couple they are, too.