The I didn't like Pete Shanahan Thread

[Iawen]

Not sure how anyone else here feels about Pete Shanahan, but I really really hate him. He was only in a few episodes, but man.... grrr!!!

The two worst things about Pete for me:

#1: In the first episode he was in, he interrupts Sam while she's on a stakeout. He's supposed to be a cop! He should have known better. Curiosity aside, as a police officer he would have recognized that she was on a stakeout, and not knowing what the situation was about he had absolutely no business interrupting her. I find it really annoying that she wasn't at all mad about that, considering that he interrupted her as she was going in to back up Jack and Teal'c. His interruption endangered the lives of her three best friends and herself, and even himself as well. (He is the one who got shot.)

#2: It seemed to me that every episode he was in, his presence in the episode took away from other characters of SG-1 that I would have preferred to see. For example, in his first episode, I believe it was called Chimera, he and Sam going out and developing a relationship became the A plot of the episode, when it should have been what was going on with Daniel, especially since it turned out to be Sarah's last episode, and that particular plot was dealing with what Daniel could potentially remember from his time as an ascended being and the search for the lost city that turned out to be Atlantis. THAT, in my opinion, should have been the real focus of the episode, and then there would have been more of the SG-1 team working as a team. I feel this way about every episode Pete is in.

That all said, I don't have a single problem with David DeLuise. (I want to clarify that I understand that even if I did have a problem with him I couldn't express it here, but I genuinely don't.)

[misskitten]

I agree with you about Pete. One of the most important things when you enter a relationship with someone is to trust the other person, without trust you might as well not try at all. Pete did not trust Sam, he did a background check on her because she was honest enough to let him know she wasn't allowed to tell him about her work.

He came with this line "How can we have a future if you won't share your life with me." But I could counter with "How can you have a future together if you can't get yourself to trust her?"

Pete annoyed me from the start with the way he was and moreso it bothered me that Sam didn't even get angry with him for following her like he did (I would have been pissed off). Though I am a Sam/Jack shipper, I never minded any of the other Sam romances, I loved her bond with Martouf/Lantash, with Narim, and with Orlin. But Pete I just couldn't stand. I just didn't understand why would want to date him when he showed so little trust and confidence in her...

[Iawen]

I'm a Jack/Sam shipper too, and I also loved Sam with Martouf and Narim. I also liked her chemistry with Barrett. But Pete... *shudder*

[NotANumber]

I think the whole thing came too out of the blue for many people. The relationship and engagement were very poorly handled from the start, a further example of TPTB messing personal relationships up.

And I've got nothing against David DeLuise either, but every time he was onscreen all I could think was that Peter was really trying to stuff his whole family into the show in some way, shape or form.

[jasminaGo]

I found Pete to be a necessary evil. A good idea gone wrong. The whole "dead men around Sam" deal was getting really ridiculous, so it was a good thing to make a progress on Sam's character outside of the SGC, and show some emotional growth for her, not as a scientist or a soldier but as a woman. However, IMO it could have been handled a million times better then it was, and his character shouldn't have come back after Chimera.

[LizzieAnne]

I agree with all the above but for me I think the problem was the lack of chemistry between the two. There was none, nada, zilch. If the sizzle had been there all the other things would have taken a back seat... would have been less important and obvious. As it was, the whole relationship seemed forced and contrived. A pity.

I would have loved to have seen Sam with a guy who she was aching to be with and Jack standing on the sidelines realising he was about to lose her.But I suppose that would have defeated the whole 'she really wanted Jack but was going for a poor subsitute' thing.

[Iawen]

I didn't see Pete as being a "she really wanted Jack but was going for a poor substitute" thing. What happened in Chimera was set up in Grace, when she was on the ship alone and seeing everyone in her head. Jack told her he was the safe bet; that felt to me like the writers were trying to tell us that Jack was too safe. That's also why I hate Pete, LOL. I really don't like when writers try to change the dynamic of one couple to make another couple work.

[LizzieAnne]

I didn't see Pete as being a "she really wanted Jack but was going for a poor substitute" thing. What happened in Chimera was set up in Grace, when she was on the ship alone and seeing everyone in her head. Jack told her he was the safe bet; that felt to me like the writers were trying to tell us that Jack was too safe. That's also why I hate Pete, LOL. I really don't like when writers try to change the dynamic of one couple to make another couple work.

Perhaps that's why I didn't make the jump to Pete being 'the one' It just didn't feel right with all the previous history that Sam and Jack shared. I still think the writers missed a trick there. If the chemistry between her and her new boyfriend had been hot and she still gave him up for Jack then that would have made a much bigger statement and had a bigger impact. As it was IMO I thought Pete became the safe option and Sam decided that it was pointless.

[StoneJackal]

Perhaps that's why I didn't make the jump to Pete being 'the one' It just didn't feel right with all the previous history that Sam and Jack shared. I still think the writers missed a trick there. If the chemistry between her and her new boyfriend had been hot and she still gave him up for Jack then that would have made a much bigger statement and had a bigger impact. As it was IMO I thought Pete became the safe option and Sam decided that it was pointless.

The way I took that Jack was Sam's "safe choice" from her conversation with her hallucination in "Grace", was that if she focused on her attraction to him, someone who was unattainable (at least at the time) she could/would 'protect' herself from trying to work on any other romantic possiblities that came along.

That said; I didn't like Pete. I felt he was a bit of a flat character, I didn't like the fact that he couldn't just trust Sam (when she told him she couldn't talk to him about her work, and he ran a background check on her), and I didn't see the kind of chemistry between him and Sam that I had come to expect as 'romantic chemistry'. Of course, I'm basing that assessment on Sam/Jack. Heck, I think that Sam and Daniel have/had more chemistry together than Sam and Pete.

And I will admit, at least part of my dislike for Pete had to do with the fact that he threw a direct obstacle into my Jack/Sam ship; something they didn't need anymore of. Perhaps if there had of been some kind of chemistry between the two of them (Pete and Sam), I might have been able to accept them as a couple, but I just wanted Pete to go away.

[hedwig]

While I like David DeLuise, I just shudder when I think of the whole Pete Shanahan fiasco. He seemed like a one (maybe two) dimensional character (more of a cartoon than a real person) that was simply thrown into the story line so Sam could have some kind of relationship with somebody else besides Jack. It seemed like nearly every time Pete was in an episode or onscreen he was making a joke out of everything, taking nothing seriously, somebody totally goofy to give Sam something to put her attention on for awhile outside of work. I had no objection to her being given a relationship besides with Jack, but whoever that character was, it seems like they could have been given a more grown up, adult persona.

And don't even get me started on the whole background check/stalking issue. I just want to scream when I think about that and what he got away with without even a slap on the wrist.

[Seythia]

I like David. Even though after he played Pete, I had a VEY hard time to like his character in Wizards of Waverly Place.

Pete was, in my eyes, an obsessive stalker who wants to fit Sam into his own idea of a perfect life.

There is one thing I like about him:

The fact that Sam needed HIM to realise where her heart truely lies.
And I believe that their engangement had a huge, positive impact on Jack's behaviour, too.

So while I hate Pete, I do not wish he had never existed.

He was a necessary evil.

[Iawen]

I don't really agree that Pete was a necessary evil. A lot of J/S shippers would have been more okay with Martouf or Narim.... if Pete had been written and executed better (no actor could have saved him) then he would have worked. Considering how little they show of the characters' personal lives, I don't really see why they thought he was necessary.

[Rachel-Kree]

I like David. Even though after he played Pete, I had a VEY hard time to like his character in Wizards of Waverly Place.

Pete was, in my eyes, an obsessive stalker who wants to fit Sam into his own idea of a perfect life.

There is one thing I like about him:

The fact that Sam needed HIM to realise where her heart truely lies.
And I believe that their engangement had a huge, positive impact on Jack's behaviour, too.

Woooah great thread i've found here ! thanks you said almost everything.... he was indeed a stalker if he really was secure about his relationship he wouldn't have stalked her, of course that he had noticed that was something wrong happening to her ... no woman who is in love with a guy have so many doubts about the marriage...

[CaramelMonkey]

Woooah great thread i've found here ! thanks you said almost everything.... he was indeed a stalker if he really was secure about his relationship he wouldn't have stalked her, of course that he had noticed that was something wrong happening to her ... no woman who is in love with a guy have so many doubts about the marriage...

That's very true. I agree with everything you said...Lmao.

Ooooh! I like your siggy! I've met Brooke Fraser! She's a New Zealander, like me! (: