Speaking of homages, somebody...
Speaking of homages, somebody has been watching
The Fly (or cramming some
Kafka). Poor Sheppard caught a bug that nearly turned him into a bug after he was bit by a crazy lady under the influence of Beckett's retrovirus. First he outhustles Ronon in the corridors of the city, then he turns a sparring match with the sticks into an excuse to make a pass at Teyla (although why it took Beckett's virus strain to get Sheppard interested has yet to be explained). Once again, it's personality-change time in Atlantis. Weir tries to cheer up the manic Sheppard, but comforting words aren't her forte. "'We're going to beat this'?" Sheppard mimics incredulously. "You really suck at this whole bedside manner thing, but I appreciate the effort." (I would've been cheered just by the sight of
Torri Higginson in a T-shirt, but then I've never morphed into an insect.) To be fair to Elizabeth, she doesn't have much to work with. Later on in the story, Sheppard greets her with "My body's turning into a bug. How are you?" There aren't many good responses to a line like that. Sure, you could make a comparison to
Keith Richards, or say something like "If there's one person who won't have to worry about nuclear fallout, it's you," but I doubt it would brighten Sheppard's spirits any. By the time he prowled about in that hood, John looked like Emperor Palpatine. He got better.
