BSG: Occuprice. Precipation. You know, THAT episode.

[beccatoria]

This is a public service announcement.

LAURA ROSLIN SLAPPED TIGH ACROSS THE FACE

And dear Lord God Baby Jesus was it awesome. AWESOME I TELL YOU.

I'm going to start a tally. The Laura Roslin Bitch Slap List. Ron Moore? If you never let her slap anyone else I will weep. I will weep tears of BLOOD.

Okay, that said, here's some long, serious thoughts:

Laura Roslin: was awesome. I'm also going to start with her, cos she's my favourite, and she might kill me with her mind rays if I didn't. I felt sorry for her getting stuck with the weird diary voice over because that was kinda cheesy. But I figure it was mostly for newbies to catch them up, so it's a conceit I can live with. The rest? Oh, how much do I love this woman? Too much. Not enough. Both. She needs to slap more people. And sleep with more people. And just generally continue to grace my screen with her beautiful, beautiful presence.

She doesn't actually do much in this episode except be graceful in the face of despair and try to act as best as she can. I won't say she acts morally. I mean, she says straight up to Tom Zarek she wishes she'd stolen the election. But she acts honestly. According to her conscience. Just like Baltar. And Tigh. (Oh, gods, Tigh).

What sticks with me is her confrontation with Baltar. He asks her to look him in the face and say that she agrees with the suicide bombings. She doesn't. Won't. But it's not a moral victory for Baltar. In that instance I would probably have felt the need to say something - not to agree, but to say *something*. I kept expecting Roslin to come out with a clever line about how she doesn't agree but that it's also not the issue. But that's because I'd be afraid of being weak. Roslin's not afraid of looking weak. She's not afraid of shutting up. She's not afraid of letting people win. And being so unnerved by losing...she wins anyway. It's very powerful.

Also, she's clearly not going to be dead.

Kara Thrace: is screwed. So totally screwed. She doesn't want kids because she's terrified of becoming her mother. Then Kacey hurts herself and that's the position she's standing in. Guilt creeps in. Two things are absolutely true about Kara:

1) If you can get under her thick, thick armour, she's incredible vulnerable to emotional manipulation.

2) When she thinks she's hurt someone she loves, through her own weakness, the armour totally and utterly crumbles.

It's easy to say, she doesn't want kids, she'd refuse to bond with the child. Practically, the kid is right there, in front of Kara, needing someone to take responsibility for its welfare. I think the handgrab with Leoben was fairly calculated. I'm not sure whether her calling the kid "honey" was. I think it was relief. I think it was her being forced to see this kid as human rather than inhuman. The guilt broke through her depersonification of Kacey and when you believe a toddler is, in fact, a toddler, it takes a very hard person indeed not to want to make that kid feel safe and taken care of, no matter your personal demons and psychoses. No matter what terror has taken over your brain because you don't think you can cope.

What it boils down to is: after murdering Leoben, Katee Sackhoff could have played Kara's scene as a lot more badass and angry and in control. Instead, she looked about six years old. She looks so totally terrified, but pretending to have her shit together. It's the look she had in The Farm when she realised it was a Cylon hospital but magnified? No, silenced. It's that look masked by four months of existing in that moment.

Girl is screwed.

Leoben Conoy: fascinates as always. I'm so glad they got Callum Keith Rennie back, and not just because he completely made up for the lack of Laura Roslin to stare at. It was nice to hear reiterations of his personal religious philosophies we haven't heard from other cylons - nice to know they haven't been forgotten. "To know the face of God is to know madness."

I don't believe Kacey to be Kara's daughter. But that makes me disappointed in Leoben. I freakin' love the dude and I'm kind of a Kara/Leoben shipper because it's screwed up but kind of awesome at the same time. That said, disappointment because I was enamoured of the idea that Leoben told more truths than lies. I believe Kacey to be one big frakkin' lie. It's making me reassess my understanding of the character and which lies he will tell in service to his larger, mad truth. Still fascinating, but laced with a lot more sorrow.

Saul Tigh: is broken, quite possibly irrepairably. I believe this completely and mean this honestly, and I will be utterly desolate should they not stick with this character track for him. I've never *liked* Tigh, but I've always had a great deal of respect for Michael Hogan, the actor who portrays him. He comes across as incredibly real. This is an interesting path for a character in need of an interesting path. This show has flirted with the sins one can take onto oneself so that others can live - becoming the devil to save the majority. Tigh does this unflinchingly. He has justifications that justify and that not even Roslin can argue with except to say, "We are talking about people blowing themselves up." Which we are. And Tigh says, why is it okay in vipers but not here? And we have no answers.

None of which is an arguement for suicide bombing because "we are talking about people blowing themselves up," and in a show where the ultimate, the sacred thing is the whiteboard count, lives are all we have. Lives are what we rig elections for, lives are what we restrict human rights for, lives are what we abandon people to slow deaths at the hands of cylons and radiation poisoning for, and what we airlock sentient beings for, and what we blow up civilian liners for. Lives are at the bottom of every damned attrocity and sin and crime of conscience there has been on this show, with one exception. Tigh. He had people shot on the Gideon in service to maintaining the law, and now he's sending people to die in service to freedom. And to him, maybe it's the same damned thing.

I had actual love for this man, during his speech about how nothing matters but the distraction, about how it's his job to do the best he can with the resources he has and he will frak his own morals and conscience because they're not important. He's as dispensible as any soldier. He's imploding. But I love him, in the way you have to love someone who's going over the edge, who you can't save, because that's all you can do for them now. It's the love you have for someone with minutes to live.

I'm not sure Saul's coming back from this one. And this has nothing to do with whether he lives or dies.

Ellen Tigh: is just as frakked as her husband. But she doesn't realise it and she never chose it, which makes it a bit sadder. She loves Saul very much, but I haven't doubted that since the beginning of season two.

Galen & Cally Tyrol: were okay, I guess. I like Tyrol a lot. I think the actress who plays Cally is great on occasion (like in Fragged) but struggles somewhat at other times. I liked that Tyrol was trying to mitigate Tigh's attitudes and also work with what he had. I enjoyed his scenes. But really, they were just...going on, going on, enjoyable, going on.

Samuel T Anders: is bitter. And you know what? He totally deserves to be sarcastic and bitter about the prospect of Adama coming back for them when he was one of the people abandoned on Old Caprica (...Old Caprica. OC. The OC. My brain shouldn't go there...) It was nice and surprising to be reminded of that. I hope he doesn't die. How odd.

Gaius Baltar: is a very gentle person who does terrible things. I've always enjoyed Baltar. He's very weak, and undoubtedly a coward and has done attrocious and selfish things. But he's...soft. He's gentle and bizarrely innocent. I think he might have believed no one was being tortured. I want, desperately, for his relationship with Caprica Six to work out in some bizarre attempt to save each other, but I doubt it will.

Now, here is an interesting point. I actually think the best thing Baltar could have done in the death warrant situation was sign them. Nothing was going to prevent them from getting signed. And him getting a bullet in the brain and having a new president within the hour to sign them instead? Doesn't help. Heck the cylons would have, if pushed, just shot the people anyway. This way, the blame all sticks with Baltar. He's a nice sacrificial lamb. He was doomed before signing, doomed afterwards. Six-in-his-head makes a great point about his death accomplishing nothing. Difference between Baltar and Tigh or Laura is that he doesn't realise he's "being the bad guy" to save others from that necessary role.

Caprica Six & Boomer: weren't really in this enough for a deep opinion. I kind of "got" their issues with the other cylons, but would have liked to see how they convinced them in the first place. Clearly they didn't explain their ideas very well... I wasn't overly enamoured of the Boomer & Cally scene. Neither came off as particularly smart or intelligent about how best to talk to the other. I did enjoy Caprica Six getting shot in the head. Interesting after the comment about her caving in Xena's head with a rock. Is this becoming more common? If so, it's a freakin' dark turn. This casual murder. This way of getting someone to shut up.

Oh, also? I loved one of the Six's comments, "We agree. Well, most of us." Ha! She's at war with herself. That whole scene was interesting actually, suggesting the models roughly band together and 'speak as one' in terms of voting and suchlike.

Cavil: gets his own entry simply because of his airquotes. AIRQUOTES! Also, the dude is extremely interesting. I can't quite get a handle on him, but he's...yeah, interesting. I hope, since he's a big name guest star, they don't have terrible difficulty getting him back ever again.

William Adama: came off kind off immature here. I didn't applaud his "fat ass" comment to Lee. I thought it was a terrible way to respond to an entirely legitimate point about the troop maneuvers - a point Helo even agreed with, so it's not like we can put it down to 'whining'. Plus whining? LOOK AT YOUR EMO TALK WITH SHARON! "NOOO ONE UNDERSTANDS ME BUT YOOOOU!" Please. Emo and entitlement central.

It's not that I don't like Adama. It's just that in this instance, I think he's becoming blinkered. Perhaps Lee is also having issues and shouldn't be so pessimistic but to say that Adama is right and needs to insult Lee into action is...simplistic.

Lee raises an excellent point. What right does Adama have to risk the lives of the civilians? The suggestion that he's going back to salve his own conscience (much as he wanted to fight for the same reason at the end of the mini series) is very valid. And while, according to the sacred whiteboard count mentioned above, there is a compelling reason to save as many as possible, that's not really what the discussion is about.

What right does Adama have? He never answers. All he says, basically, is, "I'm going back because *I* want to." In the end, he insists on leading Galactica on what might well be a suicide mission. And yes, that is his perogative. But when all the evidence suggests that Galactica might well not return (because despite his pessimism, Lee brought up good points in the rescue planning scene), I don't see that his desire to stage a glorious last stand is inherently more noble than Lee's depressed understanding of reality: that they need to protect the people they have left.

Maybe that's what it's about. Hope versus depression. Adama's hope becomes bitter. Lee's depression makes him afraid of losing the few things he has left.

Lee Adama: is still Lee. I discussed him a lot in the Adama section so I won't go over everything again. But basically, I thought he was a) depressed, but b) still smart.

I never thought he was arguing against any kind of rescue at all. I thought he was arguing against rescue plans he was certain *wouldn't work well*. Okay, he didn't immediately throw in a better suggestion, but to say that means he was against the idea is flawed. Me and my friend might want something that's on the other side of a canyon. My friend says, "Let's jump and hope we make it." I say, "It's thirty miles, we never will." Just because I don't have an alternate plan doesn't mean I don't really, really want whatever's on the other side. I just also want to live.

The conversation about whether his father has the right to risk the fleet is not triggered by the very idea of a rescue mission. When Dee tells Lee that there's an officer going as a liaison, Lee acts like this is normal. His bad reaction is to the choice of officer (Sharon) and not that there's a rescue party being sent at all.

Clearly Lee has issues. I think he probably never fully recovered from his depression in season 2.5 and that he threw himself into command and his relationship with Dee and, apparently, eating, to cope with his disillusionment and fears. Some of that depressed attitude was evident in this episode. But not to the detriment of his command ability. And certainly I didn't think he was entertaining the notion that they should abandon New Caprica lightly, nor do I find it, in itself, distastful, considering the decisions made in the mini series. It's a point of view that needs consideration as much as Adama's.

Anastacia Dualla: is creepy. Dee? Some advice: don't go telling your husband you married him cos he's a lot like his dad. Neither he, nor his dad, nor I, will appreciate it.

Karl C. 'Helo' Agathon: deserves hugs from small children and a puppy. He's tall and imposing and stoic, and that's really all I have to say there. Oh, that and Adama better hope he genuinely doesn't know Hera Agathon is still alive.

Sharon Agathon: can be shortened to Shagathon, which I didn't make up but totally wish I did. Her relationship with Adama is creepy, but not without precendent. He had a weird fixation with her corpse and her betrayal. He brought her to his quarters to talk to her on several occasions. We saw him staring at his surgery scars.

I think it has something to do with acknowledging his own lack of judgement? With being unable to handle his very real emotional feelings for Boomer that didn't disappear when she shot him or when she turned out to be a cylon? Adama deals poorly with failure. Apparently the fallout can be creepy. All that said, while I find it hard to articulate, I do kind of "get" this relationship between the two. Like, on a weird level, it makes sense. I just can't quite put it into words. And no, I'm not sure it's healthy.

Re: Sharon herself, I think we'll never *ever* be able to be sure of her loyalties to anyone other than her family unless it turns out she *is* playing them all. Because no amount of good behaviour and loyalty will ever be enough to convince us the possibility of her recanting, or having played us all along, has reached zero. And yes, I think this is kind of right and fair given the devastation caused by previous cylons.

It's the sick twist, isn't it? Judge a cylon as a machine instead of something sentient and you get attrocities like Gina. But ignore the fact that they are, in fact, fundamentally different to you and *machines* and you risk something just as bad and aimed at *you*. Ignore the pre-programming possibility, and you get Sharon the Manchurian Candidate.

For the moment I think her loyalty is assured because she'll do anything for Helo and Helo just told her in no uncertain terms that he expects her to respect the oaths she took to Adama.

Suicide Bombers: deserve their own brief entry. Most of the politics of it is discussed in Roslin & Tigh's sections. However, I thought it worth noting I was glad the suicide bombings were a little better planned than I originally thought. Because my first response was, "Hang on, you kill one of your own to blow up a bunch of cylons who will just RESURRECT?!" But doing it with the intention of killing Baltar (I'm assuming he was originally going to have been shaking hands with the graduates?), or taking out a power station (again, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they couldn't have planted explosives there?) made a bit more sense.

It still smacked a little bit of "Let's Be Topical!" but I forgive much to see Tigh step over these lines. You know, the lines where the deaths of civilians honestly don't matter anymore because all that's left is the desire to cause confusion and choas. To *disrupt*.

When a three year old throws a temper tantrum and is made enough to destroy his favourite toy, he's doing that because this honestly might be the maddest he has ever been. I mean, literally, in his short life, this might be the worst thing he has experienced. Give that rage to an adult with as much to hate as Tigh, and with enough experience with emotions to channel it, and yes. There it is.

There you have it. I liked it a lot. And apparently I'm in love with Tigh.

Great. I'm in love with Tigh. Poor, doomed, tragic Tigh who's probably irredeemable.

Oh well.

Comments

[asta77.livejournal.com]

Roslin's not afraid of looking weak. She's not afraid of shutting up. She's not afraid of letting people win. And being so unnerved by losing...she wins anyway. It's very powerful.

Roslin better than anyone sees the big picture. In the mini series we had both Adama and Tigh wanting to, with one battlestar, lead an attack on the Cylon fleet. She made what to most of us was a common sense statement, "The war is over. We lost." And then she moved on. There would be no big victory only a slim chance of survival and that needed to be their focus. It's the same on New Caprica. Baltar is working to stop suicide bombings and, even if she agreed with them and helped put them to an end, it's not going to stop the rebellion and the fight for their freedom and, ultimately, survival.

Katee Sackhoff could have played Kara's scene as a lot more badass and angry and in control. Instead, she looked about six years old. She looks so totally terrified, but pretending to have her shit together.

And it dawns on me that Kara may very well think that this is the end of the road for her, this is her life. We don't know if she knows the fleet took off or was destroyed in orbit. Either way she may believe there are no ships coming back to rescue them. And what does Anders know? Did they tell him she was dead and, therefore, he's not looking for her? Or does she believe that without medicine, he died and now she is completely alone? God, I'd be scared shitless if I was in her position.

Me and my friend might want something that's on the other side of a canyon. My friend says, "Let's jump and hope we make it." I say, "It's thirty miles, we never will." Just because I don't have an alternate plan doesn't mean I don't really, really want whatever's on the other side. I just also want to live.

Hee! Great analogy. You know, all parties had four months to work up a plan and no one came up with anything until Tyrol was finally able to make contact with the raptor. Now when a suggestion is made and Lee voices concern that it ain't gonna work he get's slammed for being the voice of dissent when he's really trying to mitigate the loss of life. If Adama goes back to New Caprica ill prepared his chances of success go from slim to none.

As for suicide bombers the one difference, to me, between sending one of them or sending a pilot out in a viper on a dangerous mission is the pilot does have a chance of coming back. It's a fine line, but it's a line most people want to stay on one side of.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

And it dawns on me that Kara may very well think that this is the end of the road for her, this is her life. We don't know if she knows the fleet took off or was destroyed in orbit. Either way she may believe there are no ships coming back to rescue them. And what does Anders know? Did they tell him she was dead and, therefore, he's not looking for her? Or does she believe that without medicine, he died and now she is completely alone? God, I'd be scared shitless if I was in her position.

That's an excellent point. I mean, I'd understood how helpless she might feel and how much she might not know - even to the point of Anders possibly being dead. But to not know whether or not the fleet (and her beloved Adama) survived? Heavy. Also, after four months of no outside contact. Well, yeah. I'd be scared shitless too. And her actually contemplating this as the rest of her life... At some point, yeah, she'd have to start doing that, she'd have to give that possibility some thought. And despite her desire to survive, Kara might give that though sooner rather than later because she is so supremely vulnerable to situations like this.

he get's slammed for being the voice of dissent when he's really trying to mitigate the loss of life. If Adama goes back to New Caprica ill prepared his chances of success go from slim to none.

Exactly. Adama's re-enacting the mini series and basically admits it when he tells Lee to stick with the rest of the fleet. They've put the civilians at risk or defenseless (mostly) for big operations before. That they won't this time suggests to me that Adama knows this might well be a last stand with no results.

As for suicide bombers the one difference, to me, between sending one of them or sending a pilot out in a viper on a dangerous mission is the pilot does have a chance of coming back. It's a fine line, but it's a line most people want to stay on one side of.

Three things in response to this, first is: I agree about that line, so does Roslin, that's why it's so shocking. Second is: I can see how, to Tigh, that line is a comfort and an illusion we're undeserving of. Perhaps he's actually sent people off on genuine suicide missions. Either way his point is you expect to go into a war and trade lives for the lives and resources of the enemy and if you're not willing to acknowledge that, bluntly, for what it is, you'll lose. And he's right about that fact even as I can't bring myself to agree about the suicide bombings. Third thing is: this is movie land so I'm sure they could have snuck explosives into the graduation class or the power station if the writers hadn't wanted to explore suicide bombings. However, since they did want to explore that, at least they had them bomb places with security, etc., or a specific moving human target, where sneaking explosives in *on a person* might have been the only option, and where the person with explosive might then not have had enough time to set them. The whole thing *is* a little...obvious. But not as poorly done as it could have been.

[brandil.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed your thoughts very much.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yay! And thank you. :) Glad to entertain.

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

Wonderful thoughts. I've just caught on BSG and I'd love to friend you if that's ok.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Hey, of course. :) I don't always talk about BSG here but I do really, really love it so I'll probably be doing episode reviews at least. I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. ;)

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

if you're like me you talk about everything under the sun - I still do meta and fic about Buffy/Angel; music reviews; stories about my devil spawn and satiric reviews of 24. In addition to anything else that strikes my fancy. I just did my first BSG deep thoughts post.