Collateral Damage

[ankh]

Over on OS I voted 'Good'. [changed vote from 'Excellent' This ep does no rewatch well]
BenB and the actor playing his father most impressed me but everyone did well. I found the story interesting though the 'lead guy gets the alien babe' made me groan - I guess it's one of those 'rite of passage' things all characters have to go through. Hopefully we won't have to see it again for a while. Like others have said, the guy playing Mitchell's dad was a perfect choice both for his acting as well as his
physical likeness to BenB. I'm hoping we see him again, as someone that's still alive and well rather than in flashbacks. Mitchell has needed some filling out as a character and this was a good story in which to shine. BenB get to show us a little of what he can do as an actor rather than the action hero. We got to see Mitchell's stubborn nature, where it came from (his dad's accident linking nicely to Mitchell's own accident pre-Avalon), that Mitchell won't take the easy and tempting path to save his own skin but would rather take a personal risk in order to find out the truth. I thought the others did a good job of making it clear they were there for him and I loved their total belief in his innocence despite the evidence saying otherwise.




Storywise, I liked that they didn't try to make the audience believe Mitchell had done the deed but instead made it about a fight to prove his innocence. I do feel the Emissary probably knew who really murdered the scientist and his 'shifty bugger' behaviour was due to that rather than any direct involvement in the murder. I do think he was the person behind the framing of Mitchell. I can easily imagine he was the person who found the ex-husband murderer and convinced him to plant the false memories for the good of the project. I like the fact it's a possibility but we don't know for sure, sometimes people do get away with Bad Things.

Comments

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

Over on OS I voted 'Excellent'.

I voted "good," but I also loved the Mitchell scenes with his dad. I thought Ben was great in this episode.

Mitchell won't take the easy and tempting path to save his own skin but would rather take a personal risk in order to find out the truth.

That's a very good point. I was thinking more that he was being stubborn, but I like your take on it better.

OTOH, didn't get a team feeling from this one at all. :-(

I love your pic! :-)

[ankh-lj.livejournal.com]

"That's a very good point. I was thinking more that he was being stubborn, but I like your take on it better."

I think also that a big part of it was that if he did simply go home, the murderer would go free, and the woman was someone he really liked. When they have him recall the nice evening he had rather than the murder he says 'thanks' and I think part of it was thanks for letting him have that memory again rather than simply thanks for taking away the horrible fake memory.

"OTOH, didn't get a team feeling from this one at all. :-("

I agree. I did get that they cared about what happened but they spent most of the episode apart. Their belief in his innocence was nice and I liked Daniel's line about not having worked with mitchell for very long but he knew how he'd react. They need to go off and bond as a team.

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I think also that a big part of it was that if he did simply go home, the murderer would go free, and the woman was someone he really liked.

That's right. I was thinking that when I was watching it, but forgot about that later.

Team feeling:
I agree. I did get that they cared about what happened but they spent most of the episode apart. Their belief in his innocence was nice and I liked Daniel's line about not having worked with mitchell for very long but he knew how he'd react. They need to go off and bond as a team.

I actually didn't like that line of Daniel's because I thought it sounded a bit odd. I'm not sure what I would have preferred him to say--maybe nothing about how long he has or hasn't worked with Mitchell and just include the other part. heh (Yeah, such a nitpicker! hehe)

And, yes, they need to go off and bond as a team.

[ankh-lj.livejournal.com]

"That's right. I was thinking that when I was watching it, but forgot about that later."

I was thinking about how it would have looked to the viewer if Mitchell had simply gone back home, knowing a women he'd had some intimacy with had been murdered and her killer allowed to get away with it. I find the parallels with Meridian interesting. In Meridian, Daniel was set up and blamed by the Kelownan's for the explosion but, being the gosh-darn nice people they are *cough*, Daniel was allowed to go home and die horribly in peace for the good of diplomatic relations. Since Daniel was unable to do much more than lie in bed waiting to die, it was up to Jack to say 'Over my dead body will you get away with this'. As viewers we got to cheer Jack and the SGC didn't have to compromise their principles because Jonas stole the naqadria, so no negotiations and destroying Daniel's reputation were required. In the case of CD, Mitchell himself was able to demand that the truth be discovered with SG-1 there to cover his back. This time it's unclear whether Earth eventually negotiated with these people but, for me, it's good to know Landry is the kind of general who would let political considerations take second place to the reputation of his people - no matter how unrealistic and unlikely it is. :-)

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting parallel. I always thought it was odd, though, that Jack would leave Daniel on his deathbed, for any reason--or that Hammond would ask him to--or that he would go even if ordered. It would be one thing if it were going to be days or weeks or months, but it was a matter of hours...

I do understand what you mean, though.

I was thinking of what a few people at OS posted, though, that their allowing Mitchell to return home took away a lot of the tension and urgency from the episode. From that point of view, it also made it less believable to me, too, that Landry would let him stay because it becamse all about him (Mitchell) and there wasn't a need for it other than to satisfy his need to know and his need for justice.

They made it personal to Mitchell, but in a way that reflected oddly on his character. Is his own personal need for justice worth more than the safety of everyone else on SG-1? Worth more than relations with these people? Worth more than all other considerations?

OTOH, if he'd just left, as you said, that wouldn't have looked good for him either. It would have seemed that he cared only for his own skin. OTOH (the third one *g*), if Landry had simply ordered him home, which seems more logical from all standpoints, it wouldn't have been Mitchell's choice and thus wouldn't reflect on his character at all. (Then we'd have had no episode, though--or maybe just a very different one.)

I think the writers wanted to say something about Mitchell with this point--making it personal--but I'm not sure I like it. Between that and him going off to have sex with a strange woman he only just met (even on Earth, I wouldn't admire that) and who was an alien to boot--and practically telling Landry about it ahead of time--I'm not quite sure what they're trying to portray.

So far, I've really liked Mitchell. He's not too perfect, he's fun, he has a personality, he's smart, he likes Daniel (*g*), he's interested and enthusiastic. I'm not sure that I like what we learned about him in Collateral Damage the more I think about it, though. (Actually these things bothered me even in the first viewing, but I still thought the episode was fun to watch, for the most part.) It's not anything that will cause me to dislike him, exactly, but... Between this and the odd way the other characters were written in this episode, though...it makes me wary of the rest of the season. I know...it's only one episode. I'm willing to wait and see, though I get a lot of enjoyment out of gnashing our teeth over the spoilers. *g*

[ankh-lj.livejournal.com]

"That's an interesting parallel. I always thought it was odd, though, that Jack would leave Daniel on his deathbed, for any reason--or that Hammond would ask him to--or that he would go even if ordered. It would be one thing if it were going to be days or weeks or months, but it was a matter of hours..."

I never thought of that. I guess it does seem odd. I think Jack is used to fighting, and since he couldn't fight what was killing Daniel, he went off to fight something that was hurting Daniel that he *could* battle against. Maybe he even thought it would bring Daniel some comfort. :-(

"I was thinking of what a few people at OS posted, though, that their allowing Mitchell to return home took away a lot of the tension and urgency from the episode. From that point of view, it also made it less believable to me, too, that Landry would let him stay because it becamse all about him (Mitchell) and there wasn't a need for it other than to satisfy his need to know and his need for justice."

I thought letting Mitchell return home was rather clever and I didn't feel it was the kind of episode that required tension. We know Mitchell isn't going to be sentenced to death and we've seen 'member of SG-1 held in cell' on numerous occasions. Politicians can be utter weasels and setting it up so that, logically, Mitchell and the SGC would take Mitchell away, thus enabling Planet Kelowna Clone to cover up a murder and despicable actions by making an innocent man their scapegoat felt realistic. What I find a tad unrealistic is that a USAF general wouldn't do the political thing but I'm used to the SGC generals being ethical - just look at Holiday. Realistically, Machello would now be working for the US government and Daniel would be long dead. If Landry had listened to SG-1's advice regarding Mitchell's wish to remain and find out the truth, then turned around and said 'No way, bring him home and let's make an alliance with these people' I would think considerably less of the character. I didn't like it when Jack was seemingly unwilling to hear anything negative against the potential allies in The Other Side, and if Jack had turned a blind eye to what was going on in order to make an alliance and gain their technology I probably would have been turned off the character.

"I'm not sure that I like what we learned about him in Collateral Damage the more I think about it, though. "

Heh. I liked everything we learned about him. :-) I liked the fact he was distraught over killing innocent people, even if it wasn't his fault. I like his persistence that the true killer needed to be found, even after his name was cleared (which told me it wasn't just about clearing himself), because if he's prepared to do that for a woman he knew for a few hours or days, then his team can expect the same. From what we saw, I believe if Meridian were to happen again, Mitchell would be right there, fighting to prove Daniel innocent and unmask the real culprit(s).

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

just look at Holiday. Realistically, Machello would now be working for the US government and Daniel would be long dead.

I never thought of that. It never occurred to me that they'd allow anything like that to happen. I'm still living in Original BSG land. ;-) Oh, that would have been so evil! (OTOH, Daniel as Machello--er, Machello in Daniel's body--was very cute. *g* I don't know if I'd have liked him as much if he'd been *that* character all these years, though.)

If Landry had listened to SG-1's advice regarding Mitchell's wish to remain and find out the truth, then turned around and said 'No way, bring him home and let's make an alliance with these people' I would think considerably less of the character.

I would, too, although higher-ups could order that to happen. I was thinking that logically Landry would order them all home and then they'd decide what to do, if anything. I don't think it would be Landry's decision to make--whether they'd continue negotiations or not. Honestly, though, I wasn't thinking things through that far.

I didn't like it when Jack was seemingly unwilling to hear anything negative against the potential allies in The Other Side, and if Jack had turned a blind eye to what was going on in order to make an alliance and gain their technology I probably would have been turned off the character.

Me either and me too! ;-) I know I may view the episode differently from others, but I always felt that Jack was feeling a lot of pressure and that's why he didn't share it with Daniel or the rest of the team. He knew what he was doing was wrong. Jack's not stupid. He knew something was up right from the start. I think that when he got so upset with Daniel, it was because he was pointing out things that Jack already knew and Jack wanted to pretend it wasn't so. By Daniel saying it, Jack couldn't continue to ignore it and tell himself that nothing was wrong. Also, I think that Jack was really angry with himself and taking it out on Daniel.

But yeah, if he'd ignored the most blatant evidence, I would also have thought less of Jack. That's something that has always bugged me about the simplistic military vs. civilian argument. I never saw it that way on the show. In Enigma and Spirits and other episodes like that, Jack was spearheading "doing the right thing," and Daniel looked to him for that. I never thought their relationship was adversarial at all--not really. It was heated and intense and thus argumentative at times, but not adversarial at all. Maybe I'm just splitting hairs. hehe (I know, OT, but it's obviously on my mind from the convo at OS. *g*)

I liked the fact he was distraught over killing innocent people, even if it wasn't his fault. I like his persistence that the true killer needed to be found, even after his name was cleared (which told me it wasn't just about clearing himself),

I don't know... Maybe I'm looking at it wrong. It just seems that he made it all about him rather than about her.

OTOH, I'm with you on the Meridian. I also believe that Mitchell would be right in there trying to fight to prove Daniel's innocence.

As I said, I don't suddenly dislike Mitchell. I still like him very much--even love him. But I wonder what this means about how they view his character. OTOH, I know for sure that the writers don't view Daniel the way thatI do. ;-) So we'll see. :-)