Jack O'Neill/ Sam Carter - Part of a team, not a ship

[Frostfox]

Yes, I agree, that is a great scene. There are some good Sam scenes after season 3, but generally too few for me to bother traversing the rest of the episodes there. I rewatch 1-3 and then a select few from the other seasons. The rest is AU, in my universe

Ah! You have the love dodecahedron in your sig!!!

I liked both Sam and Jack throughout the show. I just wish I could have been free to enjoy them without the 'Dreaded Drowning of Violins by Syrup' intruding into the real plots now and then.
I like Jack less in later seasons. My patience for Dumb!Jack is very, very limited.

FF

[EvenstarSRV]

"Thirding" the S/J friendathon. So refreshing to see my 2 favorite characters in non-shippy stories.

Popping in to 'fourth' the Sam/Jack friendathon. Lovely fics, a nice mix of humor, angst, action.

I think in the early seasons we got a good team dynamic with Sam and Jack. It might be fun to remember some of the good times. What are people's favorite examples of them working well together, joking or generally being non-shippy?

Some of my favorite moments by season:

Season 1: Jack teasing Sam in Broca Divide about the tank top and Sam teasing Jack about his telescope in Singularity. Working together in Hathor, the hug and ceremony for Daniel in Fire and Water, all of Solitudes.

Season 2: Sam biting Jack in Serpent's Lair. Jack's concern for Sam in In the Line of Duty, Sam's concern for Jack in Message in a Bottle, Jack's confidence in Sam's plan in Matter of Time.

Season 3: Sam going back for Jack, Jack saving Sam from Hathor, then working together to find the generator in Into the Fire. Jack teasing Sam about finding naquada reactors fun in Learning Curve and Nemesis. Sam handling slightly crazy Jack in Legacy. Jack reassuring Sam that they'll rescue Jacob in Jolinar's Memories.

Season 4: Jack teasing Sam about not being 'dumb' enough to help the Asgard in Small Victories. The bet in the Light, Jack trusting Sam in Tangent, and reassuring Sam (as Thera) in Beneath the Surface, and joking about blowing up suns in Exodus.

Season 5: Jack kinda teasing Sam about having a date in Ascension, Jack's confidence in Sam in Red Sky, Fail Safe and P-90 scene in the Warrior. Both of them running and gunning with Daniel and Sam's 'welcome to my life' in Enemies. Sam shooting Jack in Proving Ground, and coming close to getting arrested for wanting to go back for Jack in the Fifth Man.

Season 6: Sam confiding her concerns to Jack about solving the problem and the phasers line in Redemption, the flooding scene in Descent, joking about naming the ship Enterprise and Sam picking up on Jack's intentions in Unnatural Selection.

Season 7: Sam reluctantly agree with Jack that the plan was crazy in Homecoming, Sam teasing mini-Jack in Fragile Balance, the crossword in Lost City, Jack comforting Sam in Death Knell, Sam keeping Jack's surprise a secret in Avenger 2.0, Jack offering Sam a yo-yo and teasing about space-time continuum in Grace.

Season 8: The pro/con conversation about Jack becoming SGC commander, working together in It's Good to be King, talking about the wedding and avoiding the wildlife in Sacrifices, Jack trying to lessen Sam's guilt trip in Gemini, (for me) Jack comforting Sam at Jacob's deathbed and both of them fishing in Threads.

Season 9-10: Sam working with Jack to surprise Landry in Beachhead, and the two working together in the Shroud.

I agree more with the idea of Sam filling the "we must have a woman character" slot than that her purpose was to be 1/2 of a ship. She, of course, had to not only be a soldier and scientist, but beautiful also. Luckily, imho, AT is very believable.

Isn't it interesting that (generic) we think in terms of the woman's purpose being for ship but not the guy's. And the guys won't exactly break any cameras. I'm just saying.

I agree that the Sam Carter was created to fill the female character slot, rather like I think Teal'c was initially created to provide some ethnic diversity, and luckily both characters were allowed to grow beyond those roles.

As for the beautiful part, with American TV at least, I think every character seems to need to meet a certain level of attractiveness. I wouldn't be surprised if the casting for the Daniel, Jack, or Teal'c characters included some requirements of the men being handsome.

[jckfan55]

Popping in to 'fourth' the Sam/Jack friendathon. Lovely fics, a nice mix of humor, angst, action.



Some of my favorite moments by season:

Season 1: Jack teasing Sam in Broca Divide about the tank top and Sam teasing Jack about his telescope in Singularity. Working together in Hathor, the hug and ceremony for Daniel in Fire and Water, all of Solitudes.

Season 2: Sam biting Jack in Serpent's Lair. Jack's concern for Sam in In the Line of Duty, Sam's concern for Jack in Message in a Bottle, Jack's confidence in Sam's plan in Matter of Time.

Season 3: Sam going back for Jack, Jack saving Sam from Hathor, then working together to find the generator in Into the Fire. Jack teasing Sam about finding naquada reactors fun in Learning Curve and Nemesis. Sam handling slightly crazy Jack in Legacy. Jack reassuring Sam that they'll rescue Jacob in Jolinar's Memories.

Season 4: Jack teasing Sam about not being 'dumb' enough to help the Asgard in Small Victories. The bet in the Light, Jack trusting Sam in Tangent, and reassuring Sam (as Thera) in Beneath the Surface, and joking about blowing up suns in Exodus.

Season 5: Jack kinda teasing Sam about having a date in Ascension, Jack's confidence in Sam in Red Sky, Fail Safe and P-90 scene in the Warrior. Both of them running and gunning with Daniel and Sam's 'welcome to my life' in Enemies. Sam shooting Jack in Proving Ground, and coming close to getting arrested for wanting to go back for Jack in the Fifth Man.

Season 6: Sam confiding her concerns to Jack about solving the problem and the phasers line in Redemption, the flooding scene in Descent, joking about naming the ship Enterprise and Sam picking up on Jack's intentions in Unnatural Selection.

Great choices.

As for the beautiful part, with American TV at least, I think every character seems to need to meet a certain level of attractiveness. I wouldn't be surprised if the casting for the Daniel, Jack, or Teal'c characters included some requirements of the men being handsome.

And the shallow part of me is happy for that. In what episodes is Jack particularly smokin'?--oops, wrong thread.

[Frostfox]

Popping in to 'fourth' the Sam/Jack friendathon. Lovely fics, a nice mix of humor, angst, action.

SG1 has some refreshingly tallented fanfic writers.

Some of my favorite moments by season:

Season 1: Jack teasing Sam in Broca Divide about the tank top and Sam teasing Jack about his telescope in Singularity. Working together in Hathor, the hug and ceremony for Daniel in Fire and Water, all of Solitudes.

Season 2: Sam biting Jack in Serpent's Lair. Jack's concern for Sam in In the Line of Duty, Sam's concern for Jack in Message in a Bottle, Jack's confidence in Sam's plan in Matter of Time.

Season 3: Sam going back for Jack, Jack saving Sam from Hathor, then working together to find the generator in Into the Fire. Jack teasing Sam about finding naquada reactors fun in Learning Curve and Nemesis. Sam handling slightly crazy Jack in Legacy. Jack reassuring Sam that they'll rescue Jacob in Jolinar's Memories.

Season 4: Jack teasing Sam about not being 'dumb' enough to help the Asgard in Small Victories. The bet in the Light, Jack trusting Sam in Tangent, and reassuring Sam (as Thera) in Beneath the Surface, and joking about blowing up suns in Exodus.

Season 5: Jack kinda teasing Sam about having a date in Ascension, Jack's confidence in Sam in Red Sky, Fail Safe and P-90 scene in the Warrior. Both of them running and gunning with Daniel and Sam's 'welcome to my life' in Enemies. Sam shooting Jack in Proving Ground, and coming close to getting arrested for wanting to go back for Jack in the Fifth Man.

Season 6: Sam confiding her concerns to Jack about solving the problem and the phasers line in Redemption, the flooding scene in Descent, joking about naming the ship Enterprise and Sam picking up on Jack's intentions in Unnatural Selection.

Season 7: Sam reluctantly agree with Jack that the plan was crazy in Homecoming, Sam teasing mini-Jack in Fragile Balance, the crossword in Lost City, Jack comforting Sam in Death Knell, Sam keeping Jack's surprise a secret in Avenger 2.0, Jack offering Sam a yo-yo and teasing about space-time continuum in Grace.

Season 8: The pro/con conversation about Jack becoming SGC commander, working together in It's Good to be King, talking about the wedding and avoiding the wildlife in Sacrifices, Jack trying to lessen Sam's guilt trip in Gemini, (for me) Jack comforting Sam at Jacob's deathbed and both of them fishing in Threads.

Season 9-10: Sam working with Jack to surprise Landry in Beachhead, and the two working together in the Shroud.

Some great examples, thank you. I really should watch SG1 again, must be a couple of years since I saw most of it. I particularly liked Sam shooting the P-90 in Warriors, I like to see Jack's pride in his 2IC.
I adored the pro-con talk in It's Good to be King, I love teamy goodness, and I say that as a slash fan. For me, no pairing, S/J, D/J, D/S or poor Teal'c takes precedence over team, that's what fanwriting is for, to fill in the blanks and to tweak to our tastes.

I agree that the Sam Carter was created to fill the female character slot, rather like I think Teal'c was initially created to provide some ethnic diversity, and luckily both characters were allowed to grow beyond those roles.

As for the beautiful part, with American TV at least, I think every character seems to need to meet a certain level of attractiveness. I wouldn't be surprised if the casting for the Daniel, Jack, or Teal'c characters included some requirements of the men being handsome.

This is very true; SG1 was made within the very tight boundaries of a mainstream, made for US TV, primetime audience. The parameters of what is acceptable to TV executives with an eye only for advertising revenue is very limited and constraining. We were lucky the show was as good as it was.

FF

[EvenstarSRV]

SG1 has some refreshingly tallented fanfic writers.

It does, and I liked seeing that the authors of this friendathon were a nice mix of both S/J and non-S/J shippers.

Some great examples, thank you. I really should watch SG1 again, must be a couple of years since I saw most of it. I particularly liked Sam shooting the P-90 in Warriors, I like to see Jack's pride in his 2IC.
I adored the pro-con talk in It's Good to be King, I love teamy goodness, and I say that as a slash fan. For me, no pairing, S/J, D/J, D/S or poor Teal'c takes precedence over team, that's what fanwriting is for, to fill in the blanks and to tweak to our tastes.

Thanks, I've made up similar lists for the other characters when I've been bored in class. My mind wanders easily....

I like the team over any pairing too, which usually leads me to see any shows of concern and/or affection between the characters as friendshippy unless I'm given an overt reason not to.

In my limited experience in fandom, I've personally grown wary of 'gen' writers since most seem to only write for Jack, Daniel, or Jack/Daniel. I've been burned by a few too many fics labeled as gen and ended up being J/D slash, or one that was labeled a Sam fic and ended up being 90% Daniel whump and J/D slash.

So I've resigned myself that if I want to read actual Sam fic, it's usually going to come from the Sam/Jack writers because they seem to be only ones who want to have her central to their story. It does mean that there's usually various degrees of S/J UST, but at least I get to read about Sam, and not get blindsided by slash coming out of nowhere, so it works for me.

This is very true; SG1 was made within the very tight boundaries of a mainstream, made for US TV, primetime audience. The parameters of what is acceptable to TV executives with an eye only for advertising revenue is very limited and constraining. We were lucky the show was as good as it was.

Yeah, which is why I don't think too much of an issue should be made about the Sam Carter character needing to be beautiful. Of course she did, just like Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c probably had to be handsome.

[Frostfox]

It does, and I liked seeing that the authors of this friendathon were a nice mix of both S/J and non-S/J shippers.

Oh yes. Some names I recognised but others were new to me.

Thanks, I've made up similar lists for the other characters when I've been bored in class. My mind wanders easily....

I like the team over any pairing too, which usually leads me to see any shows of concern and/or affection between the characters as friendshippy unless I'm given an overt reason not to.

In my limited experience in fandom, I've personally grown wary of 'gen' writers since most seem to only write for Jack, Daniel, or Jack/Daniel. I've been burned by a few too many fics labeled as gen and ended up being J/D slash, or one that was labeled a Sam fic and ended up being 90% Daniel whump and J/D slash.

So I've resigned myself that if I want to read actual Sam fic, it's usually going to come from the Sam/Jack writers because they seem to be only ones who want to have her central to their story. It does mean that there's usually various degrees of S/J UST, but at least I get to read about Sam, and not get blindsided by slash coming out of nowhere, so it works for me.

As J/D is my default setting, it doesn't bother me. Though I really wish there was more Sam and Daniel stories out there, not romantic, but friendship stories.

Yeah, which is why I don't think too much of an issue should be made about the Sam Carter character needing to be beautiful. Of course she did, just like Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c probably had to be handsome.

Oh yeah, not that I will complain about the eye candy on either side, I can be shallow as the next fan!

FF

[Callista]

I've always been fond of the part in "Crystal Skull" where she's talking about neutrinos passing through things (including Jack) "no matter how dense". I like them walking to the elevator in that episode as well even if I do feel a little sorry for out-of-phase Daniel wanting them to keep working to find him.

In rewatching "Heroes, part 1", I found a little scene between Jack and Sam that I liked. I enjoyed their talk about their interviews with Emmet Bregman. Him saying that Mary Steenburgen is hot and Sam starting to mention a memo and he just gives her a look to remind her how he feels about memos.

Unfortunately, then there's the weird little Sam interview scene after that....

Until this current rewatch, I hadn't really realized how much shipping (subtle or not) there was in season 7. It pops up in the strangest places and is brought up by people when I can't see any reason those people would have noticed it even if it was there (unless Sam and Jack are flirting a lot off-screen). The Jaffa woman in "Birthright" assumes Sam and Jack are having a relationship and Emmet Bregman seems to think so as well and both actually ask Sam about it. In both those instances I was just watching along all happy-go-lucky and they bring it up and I think "What?! Those people just met them. Why would they ask something like that?! Are they really being that obvious about it in front of perfect strangers?"

It's especially strange since RDA is absent so much in that season that the little screen time he does have seems to be largely taken up with shippy stuff. (Or at least stuff that could be construed as shippy.) Maybe having Sam talk about Jack a lot was supposed to make us not notice that he's hardly ever there?

[Frostfox]

I've always been fond of the part in "Crystal Skull" where she's talking about neutrinos passing through things (including Jack) "no matter how dense". I like them walking to the elevator in that episode as well even if I do feel a little sorry for out-of-phase Daniel wanting them to keep working to find him.

Oh, loved that scene. Loved lots of 'Crystal Skull'.

In rewatching "Heroes, part 1", I found a little scene between Jack and Sam that I liked. I enjoyed their talk about their interviews with Emmet Bregman. Him saying that Mary Steenburgen is hot and Sam starting to mention a memo and he just gives her a look to remind her how he feels about memos.

Those are the Jack & Sam interactions I like.

Unfortunately, then there's the weird little Sam interview scene after that....

Until this current rewatch, I hadn't really realized how much shipping (subtle or not) there was in season 7. It pops up in the strangest places and is brought up by people when I can't see any reason those people would have noticed it even if it was there (unless Sam and Jack are flirting a lot off-screen). The Jaffa woman in "Birthright" assumes Sam and Jack are having a relationship and Emmet Bregman seems to think so as well and both actually ask Sam about it. In both those instances I was just watching along all happy-go-lucky and they bring it up and I think "What?! Those people just met them. Why would they ask something like that?! Are they really being that obvious about it in front of perfect strangers?"

Yep, subtle they weren't, but it was the great love affair and of course, we fans lapped it up and adored every sparkly moment!
I wonder if the writers, actors etc realise how the fans really feel?
At conventions, some fans cheer at videos of S/J. Does that mean the bulk of the fans like it? Of course not, it just means that those of us who don't like it are too polite to boo or otherwise show how dire it is. Same with the actors, would I boo Amanda when she makes pro S/J statements in Q&A? Of course not. So silence is taken as assent.
The squeaky wheel gets the most oil. If I was TPTB, I would be really, really wary of putting too much weight behind any idea of a universal fan wave in support of S/J.
How many members on GateWorld? 40,000? How many regularly post? 1000? How many regularly post in the Pro S/J thread? 20? 30? That's a tiny, tiny proportion of the board. GW itself is a miniscule number of fans compared to regular viewers of the show.
Online fanac gives a very distorted view of all fanbases, TPTB should be cautious or film three is going to be a critical laughing stock, which would be an ignoble end for the show.

FF

[quasar]

TPTB should be cautious or film three is going to be a critical laughing stock, which would be an ignoble end for the show.

FF

Personally, I watched Stargate for the team interactions and Daniel's non-military adventures throughout the galaxy. Friendships are much more interesting to watch because the bonds are longer lasting than most romances.
If TPTB focus the third film around a J/S romance I think the age of the actors involved would make it less appealing to most of the audience. I don't mean this disrespectfully, but young love with all its passion is perhaps more exciting than love with the senior set.

[EvenstarSRV]

As J/D is my default setting, it doesn't bother me. Though I really wish there was more Sam and Daniel stories out there, not romantic, but friendship stories.

I just feel it's a bit disingenuous to label a fic gen if it's really slash, so it irks me. I don't have anything against slash, but I'd like it to be label as such so I can avoid it if I want to. I feel the same about fic labeled as gen that end up with Sam/Jack ship.

I agree about more Sam and Daniel stories, though I've read a few really good ones by Rowan Darkstar and Annerb, who are usually S/J writers.

Yep, subtle they weren't, but it was the great love affair and of course, we fans lapped it up and adored every sparkly moment!
I wonder if the writers, actors etc realise how the fans really feel?
At conventions, some fans cheer at videos of S/J. Does that mean the bulk of the fans like it? Of course not, it just means that those of us who don't like it are too polite to boo or otherwise show how dire it is. Same with the actors, would I boo Amanda when she makes pro S/J statements in Q&A? Of course not. So silence is taken as assent.
The squeaky wheel gets the most oil. If I was TPTB, I would be really, really wary of putting too much weight behind any idea of a universal fan wave in support of S/J.
How many members on GateWorld? 40,000? How many regularly post? 1000? How many regularly post in the Pro S/J thread? 20? 30? That's a tiny, tiny proportion of the board. GW itself is a miniscule number of fans compared to regular viewers of the show.
Online fanac gives a very distorted view of all fanbases, TPTB should be cautious or film three is going to be a critical laughing stock, which would be an ignoble end for the show.

Personally, I think the TPTB are very aware of how divided an issue S/J is, they know they'll likely lose fans either way they go, which is why, IMHO, they haven't resolved it yet.

Personally, I watched Stargate for the team interactions and Daniel's non-military adventures throughout the galaxy. Friendships are much more interesting to watch because the bonds are longer lasting than most romances.
If TPTB focus the third film around a J/S romance I think the age of the actors involved would make it less appealing to most of the audience. I don't mean this disrespectfully, but young love with all its passion is perhaps more exciting than love with the senior set.

I really don't think too much of a deal should be made about a possible J/S romance in the third film. From what I've read, it's suppose to be a Jack-centric film with a possible shippy scene, so I highly doubt the whole film is going to revolve around romance. Stargate has never had an episode that entirely revolved around romance as far as I can remember, so I doubt they'll start now.

As for young love vs the 'senior set', IMHO, the Adama/Roslin romance in BSG beat all the other 'younger' ones hands down for me.

[discodiva]

I really don't think too much of a deal should be made about a possible J/S romance in the third film. From what I've read, it's suppose to be a Jack-centric film with a possible shippy scene, so I highly doubt the whole film is going to revolve around romance. Stargate has never had an episode that entirely revolved around romance as far as I can remember, so I doubt they'll start now.

Well you're far more optimistic than me.....


I'm not looking forward to this film whatsoever.....as far as I'm concerned one second of S/J ship is a second too much.....


Deeds xx

[EvenstarSRV]

Well you're far more optimistic than me.....

I'm just going by what I've seen in the Stargate episodes so far. As far as I can recall, they've never had a Jack-centric episode that was entirely focused on romance (S/J or otherwise), so I can only assume they won't suddenly write one now.

[Frostfox]

Personally, I watched Stargate for the team interactions and Daniel's non-military adventures throughout the galaxy. Friendships are much more interesting to watch because the bonds are longer lasting than most romances.
If TPTB focus the third film around a J/S romance I think the age of the actors involved would make it less appealing to most of the audience. I don't mean this disrespectfully, but young love with all its passion is perhaps more exciting than love with the senior set.

It's not the age which bothers me (I'm older than Sam/AT, trust me, we still have passion over the age of 30 ) but I do think that a large part of their target audience either don't care or actively don't want to see people old enough to be their parents or grandparents presented as 'love's young dream'.
Ageism, is sadly, alive and well but given the lack of a mature and believable relationship between Jack and Sam so far, I can't possibly conceive of one showing up in film three. They had eight years to convince me of a relationship between the characters and failed miserably, I doubt that will change in 90 minutes now.

I just feel it's a bit disingenuous to label a fic gen if it's really slash, so it irks me. I don't have anything against slash, but I'd like it to be label as such so I can avoid it if I want to. I feel the same about fic labeled as gen that ends up with Sam/Jack ship.

I agree about more Sam and Daniel stories, though I've read a few really good ones by Rowan Darkstar and Annerb, who are usually S/J writers.

There are Sam and Daniel stories out there, they are just hard to track down. And the first hint of Sam 'n Sir and I hit the back button so fast I leave skid marks. Shudder.

Personally, I think the TPTB are very aware of how divided an issue S/J is, they know they'll likely lose fans either way they go, which is why, IMHO, they haven't resolved it yet.

I always felt that the main reason they never went there in the show was respect for the USAF, rather than respect for the fans or common sense writing of their characters. I would be very, very surprised if they didn't retire Jack before they do anything solid with the romance. But I think they know that retiring Jack will be the end of his story, so I'm not sure they are willing to do this yet, he is a money spinner for them and while RDA is still willing to be in the show, it would be daft to cut that course of income off. And the rumor is that he's been promoted?

I really don't think too much of a deal should be made about a possible J/S romance in the third film. From what I've read, it's suppose to be a Jack-centric film with a possible shippy scene, so I highly doubt the whole film is going to revolve around romance. Stargate has never had an episode that entirely revolved around romance as far as I can remember, so I doubt they'll start now.

Yeah, billing the film as a grand romance will be miss selling it. I have a feeling that the Sam and Jack fans will build up whatever romantic scene we get lumbered with way beyond what TPTB will deliver. Hence my fear that they will annoy those who don't care about the pairing and those who do.

As for young love vs the 'senior set', IMHO, the Adama/Roslin romance in BSG beat all the other 'younger' ones hands down for me.

But BSG had the advantage of being written/produced by Ron Moore, I rest my case.

Well you're far more optimistic than me.....

I'm not looking forward to this film whatsoever.....as far as I'm concerned one second of S/J ship is a second too much.....

Deeds xx

If we don't like it, we don't buy it, simple as that. I'm hoping it won't be that bad (that's damning with faint praise, isn't it) and for some Jack and Daniel interaction.

I'm just going by what I've seen in the Stargate episodes so far. As far as I can recall, they've never had a Jack-centric episode that was entirely focused on romance (S/J or otherwise), so I can only assume they won't suddenly write one now.

If they do, it will be completely dire and the subject of much derision, fans and critics can be brutal.

FF

[MerryK]

But BSG had the advantage of being written/produced by Ron Moore, I rest my case.
FF

Or rather, it was written as an older, more mature relationship. No melodrama, and even though they hinted at it for seasons, it didn't feel teased. And it felt appropriate to their characters (even if there were similar objections about whether they should be getting together, because of their positions)

[jckfan55]

I

In rewatching "Heroes, part 1", I found a little scene between Jack and Sam that I liked. I enjoyed their talk about their interviews with Emmet Bregman. Him saying that Mary Steenburgen is hot and Sam starting to mention a memo and he just gives her a look to remind her how he feels about memos.

Yeah, that was a nice one. She says "Mary Steenburgen?" and he says "Well she's hot" . It was kind of a nice, "we know each other" moment.

Unfortunately, then there's the weird little Sam interview scene after that....

Until this current rewatch, I hadn't really realized how much shipping (subtle or not) there was in season 7. It pops up in the strangest places and is brought up by people when I can't see any reason those people would have noticed it even if it was there (unless Sam and Jack are flirting a lot off-screen). The Jaffa woman in "Birthright" assumes Sam and Jack are having a relationship and Emmet Bregman seems to think so as well and both actually ask Sam about it. In both those instances I was just watching along all happy-go-lucky and they bring it up and I think "What?! Those people just met them. Why would they ask something like that?! Are they really being that obvious about it in front of perfect strangers?"
In Birthright, didn't they make SAm jump to the romantic conclusion when Mala(?) said "special relationship?" Ick. Very good point though about Bregman. Sam had said admiring things about him in response to his question, but in a "service to his country" or world! way. Grrr.

It's especially strange since RDA is absent so much in that season that the little screen time he does have seems to be largely taken up with shippy stuff. (Or at least stuff that could be construed as shippy.) Maybe having Sam talk about Jack a lot was supposed to make us not notice that he's hardly ever there?