The Real World (306)

[vaberella]

OK as I am not really wanting to watch this can someone actually give a more detailed review? I know most don't until much later but please I really need to know if I should be bothering with this ep.

Also some info on Jack would be nice and yes was there any McKay in this?

Please.

Sorry. here's a not so brief summary...

Weir wakes up in a room, in a mental hospital thinking she's just gotten back to earth, when in the dream scape she never even left earth. So the Doc guy, is Ferris Bueller's best bud, yeah the one that trashed his dad's car! He's tell her she never left the planet and she had a mental break down, after Simon = Narim, was killed after they came home from a dinner date. At least he didn't go on an empty stomach.

She doesn't believe it. She proclaims that she was from Atlantis and can't believe that she dreamed up 2 years of her life. Then FB's bud is like saying, 'Yo, dog. A dream can live a lifetime, but no probs, you only got 2years out.'

She's like...'I wanna see jack, that's my boy! He'll be letting me know the 411.' So she tells FB's bud that she needs Jack O'Niell, and Jack doesn't get what's going on, since the last time he saw her was during a meeting for non-proliferation treaty. So needless to say, Jack is no help and totally weirded out. Of course these things are nanites attacking her---oh this comes out later. Any-ways, computer glitch and Weir get's her first glimpse besides not believing them, that something might be up. So she's like, 'Adios Jack, you can't help me dog.'

She tries to escape the first time...and then she b**** slaps an orderly but gets drugged and dragged back. She then meets her mom who has great taste in clothes and starts believing that maybe Atlantis is not real. She plays along, as my sister said....'Finally she catches on.' But she's being drugged the whole time.

We also see Weir is deathly afraid of plastic coverings, shadows behind fuzzy glasses and possibly sheets. But no worries, every one can predictably guess that the shadow was John. Yes...it was John or it could be Beckett or Mckay. I say this for early on, because we're given a masculine shadow and all three of them were haunting around the bed. Ronon wasn't that keen on getting too close. Probably afraid of cooties!

Anyway we find out in that scene, when we're back on Atlantis..Beckett gets a whole new hospital wing which is all dark and mysterious..and I wasn't sure if Weir was behind glass or plastic, we find out it's plastic. Anyway, the new hospital wing or quarantine section was rad. And we find out that Weir is infected by nanites that Niam put in her when he attacked her at the end of Progeny. Beckett gets this great idea, it was like woahgasmic, to get rid of nanites in her system we give her a Wraith skin flap.

Me, I said have Teyla touch her, but unfortunately that wasn't used. The idea was have the skin flap there since the asurans were nanites meant to target wraith. It sort of worked..but I'll get into that later.

We go through several boring minutes of Weir walking around and talking to people, sleeping and kissing her dog, lots of Jack/Weir here.... I mean we see her and her mum, Jack, and she's pretty much living like she never left. Then shadowman reappears, your guess is as good as mine, as too who it could be?! Maybe it was Grodin?!

Then she walks to where the shadowman was and sees a weird looking closet in some room, opens it and sees blue liquid. She's weirded out, and wants to walk in...but surprisingly, or unsurprisingly; the orderlies take her back.

She wakes up and Jack is there...I love Jack/Weir...yes lots of Jack---that's a power ship right there. Anyway she couldn't believe it... Then we go back and John is talking to her and stuff.

Oh there was a moment where she dumped the drugs the doctor gave her cause she was taking it during the day; John's motivational speaking came through and showed her the light in her dark.

Personally, I strongly believe that John should take on a future career as motivational speaker, because his comments of discomfort were soothing and enspiring for Weir. For me, he was just sexy---plenty of zpm shots. Onwards and forwards.

So she starts figuring out, because they did that whole nanite zap like HZ, and it killed 95%, it seems apparently these nanites are pretty smart and didn't fall for the red herring or Wraith skin, sooooooooo; they were in her brain and started replicating. But this was the great part, so we see that Weir's immune system is back up because now majority of the nanites are gone and her immunity can fight off the other replicating ones.

John then gets pissed...as per his usual. He talks to her some more, she becomes Rambette and gets out of some arm bands they give her, kicks an orderly in the chest, runs to elevator a la terminator, and goes down to SG1 underground place...or whatever.

She's fighting her way, flash to Beckett's new wingn and John get's pissed per his usual; he goes into infected area, touches Weir's arm, sends out of prayer...'Fight Lizzie, you can do it..break the bonds that are you tieing you down'---paraphrasing. He gets pulled out by some hazmats and put in quarantine. But it was enough to show her the light and she follows John's---now visible manifestation through the tunnels of SG1, and shows up at the gate.

Ah, yes, the drama doesn't end there....there is more to await for it can't be so easy to end the ep. Anyway, she makes it to gate at SG1, yes this is all in her dream world-----she has a vivid imagination. Right, so onwards, she is confronted first by Jack, and she's like, 'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice---well you can't fool me twice', paraphrasing. Then Jack turns into Ferris Buellar's bud, and he's like, 'You can't go, we're just getting to know one another.'
Then he changes to, Niam and is like...'No, your here to stay, I love you Lizzie, don't leave me like this.' She's like, 'Your not cute enough for me,'----paraphrasing--Shep's waiting . Then she walks through him...it was really sad, he turned to dust--she walks through the gate.

That's when she opens her eyes, ala sleeping beauty, to the wonderful face of her princes in waiting....yes you guessed it. Mckay and Beckett. They worked real hard to save her life---and John gave moral support. And we got Weir back from--never never land.

Oh then, surprises of all surprises, it appears Weir went shopping in the dream and came back with this super cute black top. She looked great, had a touching quarantine moment....a la balcony with Shep---where they talked about being quarantined and what the food was like.

Hope that helps WC!

Actually through my recounting which was fun and, I came to appreciate it more..it has now gone up my estimation to a shocking of all shockings...

5/10

Teyla in a McShep Sundae!!

[Captain-Peregrine]

Anyway, to get to the exclusive content

http://www.scifi.com/pulse/
go to MOST VIEWED - choose SGA season 3 trailer (you must choose SGA)
twiddle thumbs as video loads
in bottom right hand corner you get a column, find SGA content - click on that
next, choose EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

and voila! has spoilers for THE RETURN

Joe talks, Torri talks, the dog talks, er, well, it's there

Thanks, I hope this works for me 'cause I've been trying to get into it all night.

As for the episode, which I'm rewatching right now, I actually really liked it. I love Elizabeth Weir so I've been looking forward to a Weir-centric episode since day-one. The only thing that sort of bugged me--and it's a silly thing--is that Weir was doing her best to convince these people, but she didn't even try looking up John Sheppard or Rodney McKay or Carson Beckett or any of those folks to see if they were real and see if they knew each other at all. That just seemed a little silly to me--that's what I would have done right off the bat, but then, that's just me... lol

Otherwise, I loved it. It definately had that strange nightmarish quality to it which made it really creepy and surreal. Plust I love character-centric episodes and, like I said, Weir is among my favorites.

On an actor's note, I thought Torri did a bang-up job. It's hard to play a decently crazy person (I personally thought Micheal Shanks was the only person who could pull it off in SG-1), but she really pulled it off well. I was so impressed and I just so enjoyed it.

[vaberella]

Now, if only the same could be said of Teyla. Hello, PTB, please remember you've got two kick-ass females on the show. Don't forget either one, please!

Heh, no worries..Teyla gets one ep for sure dedicated to her, I know of. And there is supposedly another and I think one more---we see heavy all Teyla.

Teyla--totally McShepping!!
Naughty, Naughty!!

[stubadingdong]

In a nutshell, I thought they wrote well around a weak plot and bad science. The acting was great. It did drag a little, but weak plots will do that I suppose. It was a great opportunity for Torri and that was fun to watch.

As others have mentioned, it couldn't quite shine in the afterglow of SG-1's 200.

[the fifth man]

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Loved RDA being in it as much as he was, and Weir was great in it. I'd give it a solid 8/10.

[sparklegem]

Code's working now. Maybe they were waiting for west coast to see it?

[Ironic]

Heh, no worries..Teyla gets one ep for sure dedicated to her, I know of. And there is supposedly another and I think one more---we see heavy all Teyla.

Teyla--totally McShepping!!
Naughty, Naughty!!

I'll hold my breath, but the second half of season two is so frakking long away! Who's brilliant idea was it to delay the second half by six months?!

Anyway, it's nice to hear that Teyla is getting an episode (decidely will not grumble about the fact that it's so far away, and only one episode, but . . . ) Err, what was I saying? Oh yes, I truly hope that they give Teyla a meaty episode like this one! Torri hit this one out of the park, and I loved Weir's representation. I honestly think the PTB are finally getting a hang of her character, especially Carl Binder. His protrayal of Weir is unparalleled, and you can tell he honestly loves writing her character! I hope the same can be said when they do the Teyla episode!

[khd]

I thought this episode was great. Weir seemed so fragile. Usually she's very strong; though at times timid of it, she is always in control of her power, but in this episode she was so out of control that we got to see another aspect of her.
Also, Rick was great in this episode. It was the first time that I've seen the "Real" O'Neill since season 8.

[Chailyn]

Thank you very much. That was an awesome description, a lot of imagery used and I loved reading your perspective.

Thanks for that Chailyn!

You're welcome.

This wasn't my favorite ep of the season, but I still enjoyed it. I really liked that we got more characterization on Weir--watching her get ready to start negotiations again, kicking some serious butt (even if it was all in her head ), etc. I also liked that they put the card game in there. After all, we know she likes to play cards on her laptop. The game was a clever detail. Mainly, I appreciated that they didn't just ignore last week's episode and move on to the next idea. Niam grabbing her had repercussions. Obviously, the Asurans weren't just telling him to strangle her.

Oh, and Torri rocked. She amazed me.

[Arative]

Good episode, some powerful material for Torri to work with and I thought she pulled it off rather well. I know a lot of people had been making comparisons to SG-1 episodes but I just didn't see it, other than the gate in the door scene. I am confused as to why the nanites were gone when she won. Perhaps subconsiously the nanites were making her immune system not react to them by making her take her meds and think the stargate program wasn't real, least that is the only thing I can think of.

I liked Shep in this episode, carries over from Sateda, where he considers them his family and will do anything for them and never give up on any of them.

Anyone else want gate symbol playing cards like me? Although we probably wouldn't be able to play with a full deck.

[Sela]

I thought it was a good episode. Torri did a fantastic job and I could really feel her stress. I did like finding out that the watch that sits on Elizabeth's desk is from her father. Just a little backstory touch that was neat.

Did like John breaking the barrier when everyone else seemed unwilling to touch her. No nanites for him? Uh, I guess I can let that pass.

Elizabeth defeating the nanites thru sheer will power, I can suspend belief for that. Don't like it, but I will let it pass.

Loved how Sheppard/shadow kept appearing in her dream world. Loved how when he was yellling at her to fight she was dumping the pills in the toilet. And the biggest "LOVED" part for me was when she had to choose between Jack (Earth) and John (Atlantis). She still wasn't sure which was the Real World but she went with her gut feeling.

Did like seeing Sedge. She is a great little actress doggie.

I can't explain why I did like this episode since the two of the main action parts need a suspension of belief, but it somehow struck a chord for me.

I agree with everything you said about this episode. There were some things you just had to let go of and when you did, the show worked for you.

The writers gave Torri some great material to work with and she was able to show some real depth in this part. What's up guys? That's some quality writing there in the last few episodes. I hope you're not getting our hopes up for the good stuff continuing and then let us down...

Loved the way Jack was worked into the story. It didn't feel forced and he and Weir worked well together. Interesting, doncha think, that her mind associated Jack with home?

Oh and just for the record, I know the show is called "Atlantis" but if I had John at one end of a hall and Jack at the other....oh well.

I'm just saying...he's not called the Silver Fox for nuthin'.

[Verity5]

This must be the most boring episode ever. The Weir character has absolutely no chemistry with either JF or RDA. Sadly, Ms Higginson is a very good actress, she did fine, but this story reeked.

Nothing was really revealed about Weir's essential character. Poor Sheppard was once again the cheerleader willing to die for his team (we have known this since season one, that horse is dead people). The entire 1st half had none of the regular cast in it, and the "nanite virus" was a very weak link. Giving more thought and air time to the cause and fight of the nanites may have helped, but who knows?

And yet again we have another "linked" show. What happened to revealing character through actions, as was done in the first eight seasons of SG1. There have been precious few stand alone episodes.

I am truly disappointed with this episode. Maybe next week will be better.

V5

[RoryJ]

Then he changes to, Niam and is like...'No, your here to stay, I love you Lizzie, don't leave me like this.' She's like, 'Your not cute enough for me,'----paraphrasing--Shep's waiting .

OMG, that made me spit out my tea.

As to the pace and action: I just thought of something while posting in another thread. I get how someone who's watched the gates for a long time can get bored with this episode, because it really doesn't have nearly the amount of action or effects of an average episode. But it was a slow-burn episode, one very akin to Elizabeth's personality. Look at the frenzy of words that was Duet or the hectic GUP for Rodney - both very compatible with his slightly neurotic personality. Sateda was just blasting away with action, and almost oppressively silent most of the time as well. Again, this is very much who Ronon is - a man of action, not always a man of words. And so TRW felt very fair to who Elizabeth is - it unraveled slowly, intensely, every moment being felt and questioned. It just felt right to have her personal episode go down like TRW. In many ways it felt similar to SG-1's Grace, which is another episode that I adore. You see right into the core of two women who don't usually reveal too much about themselves; you can see the wheels turning in their heads. Loved it.

[ToasterOnFire]

I dunno, there's a very fine, subjective line between a slow burn ep and a dull one. A well written and executed drama/internal conflict ep can be just as gripping as an ep with guns and space battles ("I do not understand why everything in this script must inevitably explode" ). I just don't feel like RW had enough there to keep my interest, and the whole explanation or lack thereof of the nanites was very poorly handled.

[L.A. Doyle]

Oh and just for the record, I know the show is called "Atlantis" but if I had John at one end of a hall and Jack at the other....oh well.

I'm just saying...he's not called the Silver Fox for nuthin'.

I know! Jack or John? John or Jack? Decisions, decisions.

Torri was amazing in this episode! I really liked it.