BSG: Thoughts on Kara and Tigh in "Hero"
Nov. 29th, 2006 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccatoriaSo, I had a couple of thoughts on Kara and Tigh in Hero which didn't really fit into the last overall babbling nonsensical review.
The last scene, with Tigh showing up at Adama's quarters for a drink and Adama offering him some forgiveness. I'm very glad that Tigh didn't accept a return to duty. I hope he meant it when he said he wasn't there for that. I believe that he told Bulldog the truth because he thought he needed to hear it, but I also sense in him a different attitude towards Adama - the old Tigh would never have told. I think perhaps this is because Tigh finds this aspect of Adama dishonest. Adama's shooting down of Bulldog was comparable to some of the things Tigh endorsed while on New Caprica. Not killing his wife, perhaps, but killing his own people, yes. And in this instance, Adama didn't even shoot down his own man as part of an ongoing war, but to preserve the secrecy of a possibly war-mongering spying attempt.
So yes, I can see Tigh feeling that Adama's moral high ground towards him is bullshit. (Not that Adama took the moral high ground because of what Saul did - he never got the chance to find out and take the moral high ground - but Tigh is defensive, that much is palpable.)
"Oh look, Adama does this shit too, but he still spouts idealistic crap about reconciliation and a ship being a family." Back at that same old point - do the ugly things, and own it. Be that ugly person. Be the evil man in the garden of paradise. Don't do it and claim you're anything else. Don't do ugly things and act like it was all right. Don't act like a whole boatload of guilt will make what you did less evil. It'll just make you more useless.
In many ways, Adama's belief that a ship should be a family is hypocritical. It's also a terrible way to run a ship despite the great qualities it might suggest in the man. Look at where the confusion between "friend/family," and "military/subordinate," got him and Kara. And him and Tigh. When it works it works well. When it doesn't (and all families fight) it's godsdamned ugly.
Speaking of Kara, anyone else find it fascinating that she goes to Tigh with her realisation about Bulldog's escape. Not Adama, but Tigh, the drunken ex-XO who doesn't even have an official title anymore. Why did she do that? Oh yeah, she's still fucked. Which is a storyline I'm probably too invested in to be objective about, but was a comforting piece of continuity.
Also, Tigh with Ellen's dresses. Lords. It's like, every time he does that, the magnitude of that mistake is unavoidable.
It will really piss me off if the conversation Adama and Tigh have after the cut at the end of the episode is where Tigh confesses to murdering his wife or where he starts to put himself together and reconnect with his friend. Partly, yes, this is because I'm less interested in watching his "redemption" to the pointless background character he was in 2.5. He doesn't get much conflict as Adama's best buddy. Partly it's my biased opinion that "That man's gone, Bill, and you won't be seeing me again," was delivered so beautifully and with such conviction that you need to give it space (more than two episodes) to be real.
But it's mostly that I don't believe Tigh's emotionally at that point yet, and if he is, dammit, we deserve to see the start of that journey on screen. We deserve to see him confess to murder on screen. So yeah. If that was what we missed, me=angry. So I'll just hope it's not the case.
And now, to bed!
The last scene, with Tigh showing up at Adama's quarters for a drink and Adama offering him some forgiveness. I'm very glad that Tigh didn't accept a return to duty. I hope he meant it when he said he wasn't there for that. I believe that he told Bulldog the truth because he thought he needed to hear it, but I also sense in him a different attitude towards Adama - the old Tigh would never have told. I think perhaps this is because Tigh finds this aspect of Adama dishonest. Adama's shooting down of Bulldog was comparable to some of the things Tigh endorsed while on New Caprica. Not killing his wife, perhaps, but killing his own people, yes. And in this instance, Adama didn't even shoot down his own man as part of an ongoing war, but to preserve the secrecy of a possibly war-mongering spying attempt.
So yes, I can see Tigh feeling that Adama's moral high ground towards him is bullshit. (Not that Adama took the moral high ground because of what Saul did - he never got the chance to find out and take the moral high ground - but Tigh is defensive, that much is palpable.)
"Oh look, Adama does this shit too, but he still spouts idealistic crap about reconciliation and a ship being a family." Back at that same old point - do the ugly things, and own it. Be that ugly person. Be the evil man in the garden of paradise. Don't do it and claim you're anything else. Don't do ugly things and act like it was all right. Don't act like a whole boatload of guilt will make what you did less evil. It'll just make you more useless.
In many ways, Adama's belief that a ship should be a family is hypocritical. It's also a terrible way to run a ship despite the great qualities it might suggest in the man. Look at where the confusion between "friend/family," and "military/subordinate," got him and Kara. And him and Tigh. When it works it works well. When it doesn't (and all families fight) it's godsdamned ugly.
Speaking of Kara, anyone else find it fascinating that she goes to Tigh with her realisation about Bulldog's escape. Not Adama, but Tigh, the drunken ex-XO who doesn't even have an official title anymore. Why did she do that? Oh yeah, she's still fucked. Which is a storyline I'm probably too invested in to be objective about, but was a comforting piece of continuity.
Also, Tigh with Ellen's dresses. Lords. It's like, every time he does that, the magnitude of that mistake is unavoidable.
It will really piss me off if the conversation Adama and Tigh have after the cut at the end of the episode is where Tigh confesses to murdering his wife or where he starts to put himself together and reconnect with his friend. Partly, yes, this is because I'm less interested in watching his "redemption" to the pointless background character he was in 2.5. He doesn't get much conflict as Adama's best buddy. Partly it's my biased opinion that "That man's gone, Bill, and you won't be seeing me again," was delivered so beautifully and with such conviction that you need to give it space (more than two episodes) to be real.
But it's mostly that I don't believe Tigh's emotionally at that point yet, and if he is, dammit, we deserve to see the start of that journey on screen. We deserve to see him confess to murder on screen. So yeah. If that was what we missed, me=angry. So I'll just hope it's not the case.
And now, to bed!
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Date: 2006-11-30 07:57 am (UTC)I understand that repeating stuff the audience already knows might not be dramatically fulfilling and it's the fallout that counts. But I guess I figure that a significant part of the fallout to this particular news will be the immediate reaction. Also, I wish we'd gotten a clue as to whether or not Tigh was going to spill. I didn't get the sense he was emotionally ready; everything else in this episode spoke of such anger and disdain still.
As I said, I'm probably more invested in Tigh's story currently than most so perhaps given what the majority of the audience would want to see, it was a sensible place to cut. But I'm still hoping he said nothing "revelationy"! :)