McKay's Determination (Spoilers)

[Athgar]

Totally agree. To find something to totally obsess yourself with is quite a typical reaction to major stress but to be able to sustain it for 25 years takes real strength of character. What makes it all the more poignant is that he would know there's every chance he and Keller would never hook up and their love would never have been in the revised timeline

I also agree that Rodney in a very meaningful sense was the last man, the only one that remained dedicated to a cause everyone else had failed either through death or thinking it was a lost cause

[garhkal]

That is true. He kept at it even when his sister, who does seem to be smarter in some respects told him it was futile, and eventually succeeded. It also was very remenicient of how he stayed at his post doing everything he could to save just one more person in Before i sleep.

Though i still wonder if that 'new math' he made in Tao of Rodney could have helped out here..

[Bray]

Not many people could handle losing 5 of their best friends (not including Beckett and Wier previously) in the space of about a year without having a mental breakdown or something.

I would have said that his need to go back and change the past was a mental breakdown of sorts, I mean he forsaked his entire life so that he could go back (or forward) in time to change events so his friends didn't die etc.

I would count his obsession with attaining this goal as a mental breakdown. Just not the kind of mental breakdown where he sits in a corner crying for the rest of his life, it just manifested in a different manner.

That's my thoughts anyway.

[Ruffles]

I'm going to use a different word. I think of it as conviction. He knew that things should be different. He believed in what he was doing. Some would call it obsessive (I probably would if I was one of his work colleagues). He won't move forward. He won't have a life. The McKay we've seen in the past was focused on personal accolades. He throws it all away to fix what I'm sure in his mind was his greatest failure.

He helped create Michael.

I have to think that somehow what happened in Pegasus bled over to the Milky Way based on his comments to General Lorne. This is more than just losing family and friends. This is devastation on a galactic scale because he wasn't able to help find Teyla in time. And he knows he's smart enough to fix it because a glitch in the gate system saved Sheppard from dying with the rest of them.

What I'd like to know is what happened after he set up everything in Atlantis? He died without knowing if he was successful. He had no life to go back to - no family or friends. Now that his life's work was complete, what does he do? He had to continue to obsess. You can't work on a single project for that long and just let it go. I'm sure he thought of every tiny thing he overlooked, should have done, forgot to ask. I think at that point he might very well have lost his mind.

[umopapisdn]

He probably used that as a reason for living and the determination of it actually helped him psycologically, he was so focussed on that that he didn't worry about anything else in the world. So perhaps it was less determination than him doing it because it helped him and his desire to help his freinds.

[Lauriel]

The thing that really got me when watching this episode is how tough McKay is.

Sheppard gets sent 48 000 yrs into the future, Teyla is murdered, Sam sacrifices herself fighting 3 hives and Ronan blows himself up. After all this Woolsey is put in charge and Rodney disagrees with his decisions about running Atlantis so much he goes back to Earth. Things look up a bit when he starts going out with Keller, but then he has to watch her slowly die of a horrible disease.

Not many people could handle losing 5 of their best friends (not including Beckett and Wier previously) in the space of about a year without having a mental breakdown or something.

But McKay instead spends the next 25 years of his life working on a way to try and save everyone. Now that is what I call dedication.

This episode really made me see Rodney in a new light. Not many people could work for 25 years after going through all that, without giving up. It shows how much time he had for his friends.

What do you guys think?

I agree with you. I think it showed incredible determination. And guts. However, I also agree with Bray.

I would have said that his need to go back and change the past was a mental breakdown of sorts, I mean he forsaked his entire life so that he could go back (or forward) in time to change events so his friends didn't die etc.

I would count his obsession with attaining this goal as a mental breakdown. Just not the kind of mental breakdown where he sits in a corner crying for the rest of his life, it just manifested in a different manner.

That's my thoughts anyway.

I agree! Okay- so I'm agreeing with two alternate theories? Not really. The fact that the causal motivation may have been from a psychologically unhealthy corner doesn't mitigate his bravery, determination, devotion or courage. I do think it's a good point to raise though, and an interesting one. Given Rodney's tendency in the earlier years to try and bury things, and dive into his labwork as a way of handling grief, I think this shows an important change in him. He's come a lot further around to John's 'leave no man behind' philosophy.

Also, Bray, just to be a bit nitpicky, the past tense of forsake is 'forsook' and the past participle is 'has forsaken'. But forsaked gave me a good giggle.

[Dr. Dredd]

What I'd like to know is what happened after he set up everything in Atlantis? He died without knowing if he was successful. He had no life to go back to - no family or friends. Now that his life's work was complete, what does he do? He had to continue to obsess. You can't work on a single project for that long and just let it go. I'm sure he thought of every tiny thing he overlooked, should have done, forgot to ask. I think at that point he might very well have lost his mind.

Actually, I can see him dying shortly after completing the project. If he was that obsessed, he probably wasn't eating right, exercising, or doing all of the healthy things Jennifer would have insisted on had she still been alive. I've seen terminally ill people stay alive against all odds to achieve a certain goal, and then die after it's done. That's one possibility. Another, darker one, is that Rodney would lose his will to live after completing such a monumental undertaking. I don't think he'd deliberately kill himself, but he might subconsciously seek out deadly situations that he couldn't extricate himself from.