BSG: Unfinished Business
Dec. 4th, 2006 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccatoriaI'm posting this before I've read a lot of opinions on the episode because...because I think that I want to get my surprisingly neutral thoughts down before stepping into the melee I anticipate the episode caused.
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asta77 is prescient and totally told me what was going to happen between Kara, Lee & Anders (really, really accurately) weeks ago and I've acclimatised to that fairly non-shocking revelation. Sooo, there wasn't really much else in the episode.
It was like Flight of the Phoenix, downtime with everyone getting antsy and taking it out in boxing instead of by building something, which is a valuable episode type.
One thing this episode did well was hammer home the, "This is going to be our life. This is it," mentality that New Caprica engendered. The reality of that and the change in perspective it would necessitate kind of hit me more here than it did when they jumped a year ahead, mainly because at that point the overwhelming feeling was, "You idiots, now look, you're trapped by the Cylon!"
I'm not certain what to make of the Adama/Roslin scenes. I actually came into this series as an Adama/Roslin shipper - from way back in the mini. I jumped ship basically because I stopped finding Adama at all compelling. In the mini series I respected him and his totalitarian, cranky ways. How he maintained control and was also able to see reason. I miss the Adama that sat next to Roslin and spoke with the heart of a civil rights lawyer. The one who told her he was concerned about using the military as a police force, because the job of the police is to police the people and the job of the military is to defend against the enemies of the state and when you combine the two the people tend to become the enemies of the state. I mean, that's an observation you don't usually get from the mouth of a military commander on TV.
But now we get speechifying and guiltifying and him being all cranky about how he let everyone get too close, while, in the next sentence talking about keeping his "family" together. His beef with the Chief seeme forced. More and more I think his key problem is inability to differentiate between subordinates and family. He recognises the problem in this episode, but then, what, how did that speech solve anything? If immediately after saying people got too close and he can't be their friend, he uses the term "family" is anything really going to change? The frat regs seem pretty frakked (Chief/Cally, Lee/Dualla). We've already seen the ugly side of him encouraging Kara to be his "daughter" and then falling back into "commander" mode when she disappoints him.
On the one hand this is the most dynamic he's been since he stopped having awesome observations about civil rights and started talking about unquantifiable "losing your soul," stuff and "having cancers go straight to your heart," and since he replaced his silent certainty with rage at anyone who dares defy him. On the other hand, I think I was supposed to find him awesome. Which I did not.
Laura Roslin looked smoking. Literally. Yes, she does indeed look good in that colour. She is trying very, very hard to get me to play for the other side.
Am I the only one who thought Adama had some very obvious hair dye going on in those flashbacks?
I should probably note at this point that my current shipping goes a little like: Laura/Lee and Kara/Leoben, and possibly Laura/Maya or Tory because I'm all for SOMEONE other than Adama realising how gorgeous that woman is.
But I'm kind of resigned to the fact that the show's producers and writers ship Adama/Roslin and Kara/Lee and this show was the biggest indicator of that (I'd still be holding back some hope that the A/R wasn't necessarily going to happen).
I don't have any earth-shattering comments about whose fault what was. Kara treats Anders like shit and picks a fight with Lee when she knows she's wrong, and I think there's more to it than the usual "I need to be punished." She's actually mad with Lee. Others will probably explain the toxic cocktail of guilt and lashing out and desire to destroy that which has seen her vulnerable that creates that situation.
Basically I found the whole thing to be more fodder for my, "Kara's totally and utterly screwed up and is acting like a crappy human being because NOBODY HAS LISTENED TO A DAMN THING THAT'S HAPPENED TO HER OR OFFERED HER ANY COMPASSION SINCE SHE GOT BACK TO GALACTICA AND NOW SHE'S SPINNING OUT," theory. And at first she was spinning out a little more publically, but then Adama made it clear that her desperate cry for help was not welcome so she shut up and pretended to be a Viper Pilot again.
So here she is attacking Lee to get his attention and to make herself feel better in a sanctioned environment.
I know, I harp on. But I've actually started finding her downward spiral very compelling. I want to see how far she'll fall before anyone notices. Also I choose to believe that this is intentional, and that it's actually a very subtle and protracted exploration of the fallout of her experiences.
Which leads me to Tigh who I now fear they are trying to rebuild. Which I not only find hard to believe at this point, but also don't want to happen. Like, the character deserves something better than that. I went over this ad nauseum last post so I won't again except to say, Tigh's first major social event out of his quarters and he gets to referee the "illegal" boxing match.
We'll see what happens with Tigh. We'll see.
I feel bad for Lee in this episode. Cos, dude, that bites. It's also why he should totally shack up with Laura. That's what's always appealed to me about the pairing. She's the only character I've ever seen take the time to listen to him as him. I don't believe that she's the great love of his life as set up by the show or possibly even in reality. But then I don't believe in loves-of-lives or love-at-first-sight in reality either. I believe that she'd be healthy for him and she brings out the side of him that has political ideals and a sense of purpose and identity he's sorely needing and looking for - usually in all the wrong places because he thinks he needs to find it in the military or in some "happy ever after" family life he keeps trying to fit his relationships into.
His relationship with Dee is fracked (and while I think he tries his best, he shouldn't have treated her the way he did, and the fact that she shouldn't have treated Billy the way she did either doesn't really excuse the situation), his relationship with Kara is intense and I believe they absolutely love each other, but I don't think it's at all healthy (and usually I'm well up for unhealthy relationships; I shipped John/Aeryn). His relationship with his father is terrible or at least terribly complex. There's no one else he really talks to. He used to talk to Laura, and before he realised she was capable of political assassination, they seemed to have a genuine respect for each other. Like around her, he had space to breathe and be respected as Lee Adama, not William Adama's son or Zak Adama's brother.
I think that's always been Lee's problem. In isolation, he doesn't know who he is. Or at least, he doesn't feel like he knows who he is. (He's principled, follows his conscience, assesses situations independently and decides on the best course of action, he is competant, he is a good leader, he is practical. But he doesn't realise this.)
I also loved Roslin's out of the blue love of fighting, Cottle being a spectator, and I missed the basestar.
Signing off. :)
asta77 is prescient and totally told me what was going to happen between Kara, Lee & Anders (really, really accurately) weeks ago and I've acclimatised to that fairly non-shocking revelation. Sooo, there wasn't really much else in the episode. It was like Flight of the Phoenix, downtime with everyone getting antsy and taking it out in boxing instead of by building something, which is a valuable episode type.
One thing this episode did well was hammer home the, "This is going to be our life. This is it," mentality that New Caprica engendered. The reality of that and the change in perspective it would necessitate kind of hit me more here than it did when they jumped a year ahead, mainly because at that point the overwhelming feeling was, "You idiots, now look, you're trapped by the Cylon!"
I'm not certain what to make of the Adama/Roslin scenes. I actually came into this series as an Adama/Roslin shipper - from way back in the mini. I jumped ship basically because I stopped finding Adama at all compelling. In the mini series I respected him and his totalitarian, cranky ways. How he maintained control and was also able to see reason. I miss the Adama that sat next to Roslin and spoke with the heart of a civil rights lawyer. The one who told her he was concerned about using the military as a police force, because the job of the police is to police the people and the job of the military is to defend against the enemies of the state and when you combine the two the people tend to become the enemies of the state. I mean, that's an observation you don't usually get from the mouth of a military commander on TV.
But now we get speechifying and guiltifying and him being all cranky about how he let everyone get too close, while, in the next sentence talking about keeping his "family" together. His beef with the Chief seeme forced. More and more I think his key problem is inability to differentiate between subordinates and family. He recognises the problem in this episode, but then, what, how did that speech solve anything? If immediately after saying people got too close and he can't be their friend, he uses the term "family" is anything really going to change? The frat regs seem pretty frakked (Chief/Cally, Lee/Dualla). We've already seen the ugly side of him encouraging Kara to be his "daughter" and then falling back into "commander" mode when she disappoints him.
On the one hand this is the most dynamic he's been since he stopped having awesome observations about civil rights and started talking about unquantifiable "losing your soul," stuff and "having cancers go straight to your heart," and since he replaced his silent certainty with rage at anyone who dares defy him. On the other hand, I think I was supposed to find him awesome. Which I did not.
Laura Roslin looked smoking. Literally. Yes, she does indeed look good in that colour. She is trying very, very hard to get me to play for the other side.
Am I the only one who thought Adama had some very obvious hair dye going on in those flashbacks?
I should probably note at this point that my current shipping goes a little like: Laura/Lee and Kara/Leoben, and possibly Laura/Maya or Tory because I'm all for SOMEONE other than Adama realising how gorgeous that woman is.
But I'm kind of resigned to the fact that the show's producers and writers ship Adama/Roslin and Kara/Lee and this show was the biggest indicator of that (I'd still be holding back some hope that the A/R wasn't necessarily going to happen).
I don't have any earth-shattering comments about whose fault what was. Kara treats Anders like shit and picks a fight with Lee when she knows she's wrong, and I think there's more to it than the usual "I need to be punished." She's actually mad with Lee. Others will probably explain the toxic cocktail of guilt and lashing out and desire to destroy that which has seen her vulnerable that creates that situation.
Basically I found the whole thing to be more fodder for my, "Kara's totally and utterly screwed up and is acting like a crappy human being because NOBODY HAS LISTENED TO A DAMN THING THAT'S HAPPENED TO HER OR OFFERED HER ANY COMPASSION SINCE SHE GOT BACK TO GALACTICA AND NOW SHE'S SPINNING OUT," theory. And at first she was spinning out a little more publically, but then Adama made it clear that her desperate cry for help was not welcome so she shut up and pretended to be a Viper Pilot again.
So here she is attacking Lee to get his attention and to make herself feel better in a sanctioned environment.
I know, I harp on. But I've actually started finding her downward spiral very compelling. I want to see how far she'll fall before anyone notices. Also I choose to believe that this is intentional, and that it's actually a very subtle and protracted exploration of the fallout of her experiences.
Which leads me to Tigh who I now fear they are trying to rebuild. Which I not only find hard to believe at this point, but also don't want to happen. Like, the character deserves something better than that. I went over this ad nauseum last post so I won't again except to say, Tigh's first major social event out of his quarters and he gets to referee the "illegal" boxing match.
We'll see what happens with Tigh. We'll see.
I feel bad for Lee in this episode. Cos, dude, that bites. It's also why he should totally shack up with Laura. That's what's always appealed to me about the pairing. She's the only character I've ever seen take the time to listen to him as him. I don't believe that she's the great love of his life as set up by the show or possibly even in reality. But then I don't believe in loves-of-lives or love-at-first-sight in reality either. I believe that she'd be healthy for him and she brings out the side of him that has political ideals and a sense of purpose and identity he's sorely needing and looking for - usually in all the wrong places because he thinks he needs to find it in the military or in some "happy ever after" family life he keeps trying to fit his relationships into.
His relationship with Dee is fracked (and while I think he tries his best, he shouldn't have treated her the way he did, and the fact that she shouldn't have treated Billy the way she did either doesn't really excuse the situation), his relationship with Kara is intense and I believe they absolutely love each other, but I don't think it's at all healthy (and usually I'm well up for unhealthy relationships; I shipped John/Aeryn). His relationship with his father is terrible or at least terribly complex. There's no one else he really talks to. He used to talk to Laura, and before he realised she was capable of political assassination, they seemed to have a genuine respect for each other. Like around her, he had space to breathe and be respected as Lee Adama, not William Adama's son or Zak Adama's brother.
I think that's always been Lee's problem. In isolation, he doesn't know who he is. Or at least, he doesn't feel like he knows who he is. (He's principled, follows his conscience, assesses situations independently and decides on the best course of action, he is competant, he is a good leader, he is practical. But he doesn't realise this.)
I also loved Roslin's out of the blue love of fighting, Cottle being a spectator, and I missed the basestar.
Signing off. :)
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 12:47 am (UTC)Kara makes me so sad. This is kind of how I see it as well, being completely in love with her and all. ;)
I agree about Tigh, I will be pissed if suddenly he and Adama are BFFs again. It makes no sense... and I totally LOVE his character now, since NC, and would hate for him to regress.
And I cannot stand Adama anymore. Geesh.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 08:02 am (UTC)It's the same reason I hope they don't "fix" Tigh without a lot of work. With the added problem that unlike Kara I actively found Tigh kind of boring by episode 2.06 and I really don't want them to take away this fascinating character!
I can...stand Adama. I'm lucky in that I don't really dislike anyone on the show but I don't find him as compelling or coherent as I once did. I feel that the more I get to know Roslin the more responsible and practical and intelligent she becomes. The more I get to know Adama the more he's built upon a veneer of "tough guy" act over a whole bunch of insecurities and fixed preconceptions. Which is a very interesting character, except I think Adama might be fooling the writers and producers as well as his crew... ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 03:31 am (UTC)You know I could go on and on and on as to why Lee and Laura would be good together, so I shall just point out that the healthiest relationship Lee has had on this show is with Laura.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 08:06 am (UTC)I agree, but still, that's a kind of...brutal example to set. I mean I know I'm not in the military and all and I know that Tyrol put his dogtags in but...eh. I'm close to saying that because he put his dogtags in, I don't find the behaviour "wrong" because Adama was doing what everyone else was doing - blowing off steam by beating on someone. Except rank's not supposed to matter, and he used his rank to get in the ring without entering his dogtags to be challenged by anyone, and he used his rank to set himself up for that speech and he used his rank to end the Dance so I'm not sure where I stand, except that I'm probably being far too picky about this because of my insane irritation with Adama for said stupid speech. ONCE YOU WERE SMART, ADAMA! WHAT HAPPENED?!
After organizing The Dance to let them blow off steam he then attacks them for not being good little soldiers. And follows that with he can no longer be their friend, but they need to keep the family together.
...yeah. Just yeah. A coherent speech would have been nice. *headdesk*
You know I could go on and on and on as to why Lee and Laura would be good together
Someone needs to.
so I shall just point out that the healthiest relationship Lee has had on this show is with Laura.
Word.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-05 04:59 pm (UTC)Also, you are so right that Adama's speech made absolutely no sense whatsoever. I actually paused the show during it and couldn't start watching again for over a half hour because I was so WTF about it. I get it a little better now, but as Asta says, it makes no sense for him to ream them out about letting some steam off when it was his idea in the first place.
And Laura is so totally smoking in that red thing. Wow.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 08:12 am (UTC)I don't think she has. In a way I also figure that since she's not telling anyone, they don't have any way of knowing quite how screwed up she is, and so it's, again, her own damn fault. But it doesn't change the underlying issue. She won't discuss what happened and until she does she's frakked. Especially since what happened ties directly into her childhood abuse that she's still not really dealing with which makes the whole issue huger.
Helo is the best best friend in the whole universe and yes. He needs to sit on Kara and make her talk. And then I shall mourn the fact that he will probably forever hate Roslin and my adoration for her will be a major barrier to our becoming BFFs too...