Thanks.

I'm sure that there is some sort of job -- possibly a useful talent in espionage?

---

Jericho-fans, It looks like the nut-sending folks were successful

OMG, and Strega gets to deal with them now!

I wonder how much overlap there is with Daniel Jackson fans...

---

Aha, it's definitely "Numero Cinco." Almost identical to the top shot here: [link]

possibly a useful talent in espionage?

I was thinking that I could at least win some bar bets, but I suspect that even if I win, I am still the loser.

ETA

Strega gets to deal with them now!

Ha! But no, they will be Someone Else's Problem. Assuming it's true, which I'm still having trouble with.

---

Well, would they start recapping again if it came back? I imagine that's not necessarily automatic. (And Strega's replacement really seemed to enjoy the show.)

---

OMG, I finally watched the Life on Mars finale! Wow. That was great, just really satisfying. I *loved* the shot of Sam on top of the building in present-day Manchester, looking around, making his decision, and walking, then running, then leaping off, so joyful and free. I mean, I assumed from pretty early on that he was going to choose 1973 over 2006, but it just made me really happy to see him finally do it. I liked that what finally did it for him was the fact that he couldn't betray his friends and leave them to die, no matter if they were all in his head or not. And I agree with Dana that once he left them in danger, it was obvious that the best choice he could make -- for himself -- was to go back and save them. So I definitely see it as a happy ending.

And yet... I also agree that it is kind of fucked up that we're meant to see Sam's choice to kill himself as the positive choice. But I still cheered. It was a leap of faith, and it was the only way he knew of to get himself back to where he was happy. It was unfair, and awful, to the people in 2006 who loved him and had waited so long for him to come back. But he couldn't stay there, because he wasn't the same person he was before the car accident, and it wasn't his world anymore. ita said, "I still think it may have been more unfair to him to keep living, and that's his call to make," and I find myself agreeing strongly with that.

Jon said, "So his girlfriend left him and his job is boring -- Oh Boo-fuckin'-hoo! Did he even try to get help for his depression? if he did, we're not shown it. We can only assume that he was depressed and, rather than get help, he jumped off a building hoping to go back to his fantasy world for a brief moment before he went splat. And the creators presented that as a happy ending. I think that's messed up." But would the ending have been satisfying, from a narrative perspective, if it showed Sam waking up in 2006, recovering from his injuries, getting some therapy, having a few brief interactions with characters we've never seen before, and deciding to stay there -- all in the span of about 10 minutes? I agree that from the POV of the people waiting for him in 2006, it would have been much better. But we don't know those people. We know Sam and his POV, and we know and care about Gene, Annie, Chris, Ray (well, maybe not Ray), and the rest of them in 1973. So 1973 is where my sympathies lie.

I could have bought an ending in which Sam learns how to live in 2006 again, but it would have taken a lot longer than 10 or 15 minutes of getting to know that world for me to feel that it was where he'd be happiest. Maybe if the last episode or two had been all about his recovery in present-day... but I think they still would have had to incorporate some of Sam's life in 1973 into his present-day life, otherwise... what was the point of him spending all that time there to begin with?

I also liked the idea that maybe Sam waking up in 2006 was also all in his head. Or maybe he really was an amnesiac who was on an undercover assignment from Hyde (um, and he could see the future), and he created the waking-up-in-2006 scenario in his head in order to convince himself that 1973/A-Division was where he really belonged.

(I do wonder why DCI Frank Morgan tried to get him to believe the whole amnesiac-undercover story. (Totally loved the M.A.R.S. bit, by the way.) Was that Sam's subconscious, trying to tell him that 1973 was the real world (and thereby get him to stay), or was it actually Dr. Frank Morgan, reaching out to Sam the only way Sam's mind would allow him to appear... or was it the truth? I didn't really believe it, but I liked the idea that the explanation for Sam's situation might be something totally different than anything he had considered. Also, when Sam confesses to everyone that he's been undercover all this time, and they react with genuine dismay, I think that's meant to show that people *do* like and trust Sam in 1973 -- that he doesn't have to go back to 2006 to find a (continued...)

---

( continues...) place where he belongs.)

I think what it comes down to, for me, is that, from Sam's perspective, there was enough ambiguity about his whole situation (was he crazy in 2006? crazy in 1973? in a coma? a time-traveller? an amnesiac DI from Hyde? who could see the future?) that I could see him not being sure anymore which reality was *most* real, and in the end, he had to go where he was going to be happiest. My own take on it is similar to ita's: that he was really in a coma in 2006, but by the time he got out of the coma, he'd been in there too long and was either brain-damaged, or crazy, or simply too attached to the world he'd created -- at any rate, he was no longer fit to go back to his old life. But I also agree with Dana, who said, "The creators claim that they never intended it to be ambiguous about whether he was actually mad, in a coma, or back in time, but I think the show itself never really answered that question, and I much prefer it that way." Because by the end, *from Sam's POV*, I think it was definitely unclear what the real explanation was, which is what allowed him to make the choice that he did.

Wow, I had a lot to say about that.

---

Being the slacker that I am, I just watched this past weekend's SG-1 and Atlantis. Unfortunately I had been spoiled for the latter by an idiot ficcer who put the info in their summary. Grr.

---

Unfortunately I had been spoiled for the latter by an idiot ficcer who put the info in their summary.

I'm astonished that anyone managed to remain unspoiled this long. I spoiled myself back when I saw a headline that said "SGA Cast Member Leaving Show!", because I had to know, but I would have been spoiled a million times over in addition to that.

People are idiots.

---

Oh, I knew about the casting changes, but didn't know how they would do things in-story.(I also know about the big casting spoiler for season 4 thanks to TVSquad)

---

I can't remember how I got spoiled, but I don't think I knew who it would be... but there were only so many choices, really. Then once the ep started, well, it was obvious.

Kate - re: LoM series finale: I made up my own interpretation for the end of LoM, (and, I think, in the process, dumbfounded Jon B with the extent of my la-la-la-la I can't hear you, living out here on the Nile - so pretty here!)

I agree that, narratively, it would have been hard to sell his ending up back in 2006 permanently, and I was happy that he ended up with his 70s peeps, too .

---