Stargate: SG-1 Unending Cam, Vala, and that thing we shall not speak of.

[chase_acow]

I'm still kinda gobsmacked over it being over. I saved up the past three episodes and watched Family Ties through Unending tonight. Well, I watched Unending twice.



Hopefully I'll be more coherent later, but I wanted to post about it tonight this morning. Though mostly I'm gonna blather about Vala, Cam, and Daniel/Vala. Not very happy Daniel/Vala, just to warn any innocent shippers that wander in. I am a resolute Cameron/Daniel slasher and while - 1) Daniel/Vala is all very good in theory 2) I have read some very good D/V and even D/V/C fic 3) I love both characters and most of their interactions - I did not need to see it on TV.

Vala

Watching these last three eps all together without being spoiled put me in a special Vala place. I mean that in a totally innocent way, get your minds out of the gutter. It's just that I flip-flopped over her character this season, but I think these three eps have cemented my love for her. I can't wait to get my lonelytartsclub assignment now. More on that later.

Unending

Cam made this episode for me. I started watching SG-1 for Col. Mitchell, and he caught my attention the way few fictional characters have ever done. I'm glad that in the final episode, his character was focused, emotional, and very true to the ideal I've created of him. I might possibly have set him on a bit of a pedeistal, but Ben and the writers delivered.

I love seeing the nod to the time he spent with the Sodan. He's got such a close connection with the Jaffa part of Teal'c. I like that we saw Jack teach Teal'c to box (and I use the word 'teach' very loosely) but Teal'c and Cameron spar using the staffs. Cam jogging the hallways going stircrazy was a good character moment as well as fun eyecandy. ->

When he ran into Vala leaving Daniel's room, yeah that was the beginning of the end for me. All I could think was, Oh, poor Cam. You've missed your chance. It hurt that he immediately went to Landry to again plead for the chance for action and a sliver of hope for freedom. I find it interesting that this conversation is the one we are shown, not the first as Landry says something like "I'm not having this conversation again." We're shown this only after we know that Cam's seen Daniel and Vala take that last step.

What I got from watching this ep was that Cameron was just about the only one holding out hope for rescue. He wasn't going to do something he might regret or Daniel might regret, because they were going to get out of there. They would be free again. When he saw Vala come out of Daniel's room he knew first that he didn't have a chance for that happiness anymore. As far as he was concerned Daniel gave up in that moment and settled for their prison.

The only time I cried during the ep was when Cam was trashing his room. The raw emotion there felt so very real and entirely plausible for a character we've seen time and time again prefers action to any other option. I know the other characters must have broke down, but that scene with Cam and later with Vala crying was the meat of the sandwich. (I may be a little hungry.) I wish Teal'c would have had more of a part, I feel like I say that after every episode.

However, Cam came around. He grew and he was happy for his friends. The Christmas scene tells us that whatever he's feeling he still has the 'team' mentality. Whatever he has to do for them he will, even be happy when all he wants to do is scream.

When they were all old, I must have blinked because I didn't see Cam right away. I thought I bet he committed suicide. I don't know why, but Cam does things 100% I figured when he lost his hope it would be for real and it would be final.

Regarding Daniel/Vala:

Wow, that was a very cruel rant on Daniel's part. He must have been incredibly stressed and at the end of his rope to lash out at her like that. I felt so bad for Vala while she was crying, I would have slugged Daniel for her.

Well, we finally know what it will take for Daniel to sleep with Vala. Three months of insanity/boredom/stress/loss/seclusion and no hope for the future. Yes, that is my very cynical and not very nice take on the situation. However, they were adorable at the Christmas scene.

Taking a page from Holo!Thor's book:


Feel free to snag.

So, anything I said make sense? I'm hungry and sleep deprived so I'm guessing not. : )

Comments

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

You know, Daniel's rant actually struck me as right on. The way I see it, Vala has done nothing, ever, to demonstrate that she takes him seriously or isn't just yanking his chain all the time. Daniel, on the other hand, takes relationship very seriously. His wife's death is still something he carries with him as a burden and a tragedy and most likely as the standard to which he holds all relationships: not just in terms of how deep true love can be, but also in terms of love being essentially an opportunity for the deepest and most painful hurt.

So he puts up with Vala's come-ons, and he shoots her down, and she acts like it's a big joke. He does care for her, though, which is what makes it so aggravating for him. I think that what Daniel was trying to say there was that yeah, he would totally go for it if she really did care for him, but she doesn't, and every time she teases him about it it's another relationship he can't pursue, and another reminder of how falling in love could be a big fat heartbreak.

What he was saying was that he wouldn't sleep with her just because he was going through three months of boredome and etc. That's what he thought she wanted, and it pissed him off, and he was just stir crazy enough to tell her how he felt. Which broke her heart, because that wasn't what she meant at all; he saw that, and realized the truth, and the rest is history. Or. Not history, since now it has never happened. :P

So, in context of that, I believed it, and I felt badly for both of them in that scene.

However! I like to think that we've also now seen why Daniel hasn't pursued Mitchell. Mitchell shows affection for Daniel, but from Daniel's point of view it could seem like that's just how Mitchell is with his team. And with all of the don't ask don't tell baggage of the military, and Daniel's EXTREME aversion to putting himself into any situation where he might get his heart broken...honestly, I think that if Cameron had been the one to hit on Daniel first that Daniel/Vala scene would have instead been the penultimate Daniel/Cameron scene, and Vala would have had to mend her heart with someone else on that ship. In my alternate universe, that's exactly what happened, too. :P (Incidentally, I think Carter/Vala would have been a distinct possibility in that case. Um. Maybe Carter/Vala/Teal'c, because I kinda want everybody to be happy...)

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

*flails and points at this comment*

Exactly. I'm of the opinion that Daniel was ready to fall in love again, starting in S8. Could have been Jack or Cameron or any of the women that he actually flirts with in that season, but Vala was smart and beautiful and there and she kept pushing. And he really gets to like her but he can't believe that her feelings are anything like serious, because her way of keeping herself safe is to pretend that nothing matters. But then when she cried and he looked at her, he realized that she wasn't fucking around with him and this really did matter to her.

If Cameron had been pushier, yeah, he could have been the one ending up with Daniel.

[chase-acow.livejournal.com]

Poor unpushy Cameron. : (

I love you take on Daniel here. I can totally see that being what's going on in Daniel's head. He's just said no to her for so long, and I was not mentally prepared for what was going on. I didn't know they ended up reversing time, and it definitely freaked me out. I think I did a knee-jerk, 'oh no, now one of them is going to have to die!' ala Joss.

[chase-acow.livejournal.com]

I understood his rant specifically the words, and I would believe them quite easily. He just had a total freakout and yelled (which is a personal hot button I do not like pushed) which hurt because I didn't think that he'd ever be that cruel on purpose. Though really, I understand that I have a hard time giving Daniel the credit for being loud and obnoxious so perhaps this is a logical conclusion.

I haven't even seen all of the early seasons where Daniel is searching for Shau'ri, but I'll hear a song about heartbreak and think, 'oh yeah, that's totally a Daniel song'. My Daniel playlists are kinda sad, and I can't seem to get over that quirk in my imagined Daniel character. I love the speculation now that Daniel is ready if only he didn't have to take the first flying leap hoping to land on solid ground. I think that as soon as I have a few days to sit down and process (not freak out of RL) this might drastically change 'my' Daniel.

It would still take way too much character searching to get Daniel and Vala (two characters the most most bogged down with baggage) to a happy place together. I'll have to be content with my fluff driven drivel.

Or. Not history, since now it has never happened. :P

And let me just say "a-men" because I have not liked onscreen romance since my youthful Buffy/Angel days. Oh, how tiny I was in the way of fandom...

[lmichelle599.livejournal.com]

Where was Mitchell's kiss for Daniel under the mistletoe? ;)

[chase-acow.livejournal.com]

Well, it woulda been nice to see, know doubt. Alas for television standards.

Though, I'm sure you were perfectly happy! : )