BSG: Rapture
Jan. 22nd, 2007 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccatoriaDude, how bummed was I that this episode didn't include a single person getting suddenly whisked off to heaven. Unless you count Three. And heaven is a great big room full of boxes...
That said, I did enjoy this episode, so I'll do my usual thang and break it down by plotline (instead of by character this time).
The Lee/Dee/Anders/Kara quadrangle was done slightly better than I was expecting. I felt that Lee's comment, "If she's dead I'll let you," was more bravado than anything else, but I also thought that there was some genuinely well crafted drama in the situation. I felt Lee's decision to have Dee try to save Kara was genuinely because he had to find some way to pacify Sam or the whole of the defence would fall apart more than wanting his wife to risk his life for his...whatever she is. I appreciated Dee's attitude too - she isn't going to be aware of the complex motivations Lee has in sending her on the rescue, and then her buddy gets shot to shit. I thoroughly enjoyed her attitude which I found to be professional if cold, and the slap she gave Kara was just perfect. Lee's face at the end when he was hugging Dee was also perfect - so lost and confused and relieved and did more to explain his feelings for his wife than dialogue could. Let's just hope it continues being this interesting next week.
Helo/Athena/Hera. I'm going to assume that Helo had to shoot his wife because suicide is a sin. I'm also going to assume that he shot her in the chest or something and not the stomach like it sorta seemed because...way to doom your wife to a slow and painful death there, bud. I'm going to assume that Hera recognised Athena through the same spyware frequencies that the cylons seem to use to tell each other apart.
I thought Adama's attitude towards Helo was a bit rich, what with the sensitive information, because really, he gave her all that and decided to trust her. That was always going to be a threat if she died. Perhaps now things are different because when he gave her that commission he didn't know she was suddenly going to be destabilised by the news her daughter was alive, but it's not like he relieved her of duty at that point.
Helo's words to Roslin were nice, though I'd have added that everything she's done to find earth from the moment she sent lieutenant Thrace to retrieve the Arrow of Apollo was also an act of faith, and some of those acts of faith split and threatened the entire fleet. Which could be rebutted by the fact that Roslin's the president and Helo's not, but...it would also be a good point in terms of the complex cylon/human/religious situations both characters find themselves in. Roslin did not disappoint me in her "Yeah, I take responsibility for what I did," attitude.
Boomer/Hera. I feel terrible for saying this, but I wish Grace Park were a better actress, or perhaps I should just wish I understood her acting more (since some people don't seem to have a problem with it). In the earlier seasons, I always felt she did better with Athena than with Boomer, but since the start of the second season her Boomer has really improved, and here I thought her Boomer was much better than her Athena. I was with Boomer when she was saying, "Take Hera, I'm done with her. I'm done with all of this." Because I could feel her anger and pain - it's exactly the same anger and pain that was with her in Downloaded, except she's slowly had every last target taken away from her.
Athena stole her life once, and now, waltzing back in, magically calming this child that Boomer's been struggling with for months, she's stealing it again. There's no point caring for the Chief, she thinks, it'll just hurt her more. She knows he's moved on; she's tried to make her peace, to help Cally, she does want to be a good person, but it's still gotta hurt inside. Knowing that your whole life is gone, and your new life sucks, and your attempt to recapture a tiny, tiny fragment of that old life was met with complete failure. So yes. I understand her viciousness and her bitterness and her statements that she doesn't believe cylons and humans can live together. Because whether or not she believes that and whether or not she still cares about the Chief really isn't the point. The point is she needs to needle and whatever she can, she hurts and she wants to spread that hurt because she's tired of keeping it inside and waiting for some miraculous karmic balance to be restored. It's harder to imagine yourself as a human when you've returned to them, and they've spat at you.
But still, I thought threatening to break Hera's neck was too much. If she's that broken I'd like to have seen it. Also, I think she was bluffing, angry that she's paying the price of being a cylon and Athena isn't. It felt like a forced recall to the mini series.
Caprica is developing a murderous streak, isn't she? I mean, sure she could have just tied her up, or left her unconscious?
Caprica, as always, I love. Focused more on the survival of the child, having always been in love with a human, having lead the cylons to New Caprica perhaps with more honest intentions because while it was with the expectations of regaining her love and a part of her life among the humans, she also probably didn't have anything like the baggage of Boomer, with the hundreds of people who knew and felt personally betrayed by her. Regardless, I think it perfectly in character for her to put the life of the child and the future first. I think she's still beautifully and tragically lost without Gaius. I think she doesn't care who wins anymore, humans, cylons, she's had her illusions of both shattered. Gaius was supposed to love her, and he left. D'Anna was supposed to love her, and she left. Also, CAPRICA!SIX IS ON GALACTICA! THIS IS SO AWESOME!
Baltar/Three/Crackiness. Bye Three. I'm really going to miss you. I also still have a really strong desire to vid "The Future" by Leonard Cohen to you, but I fear I'll lack the clips, the time, and the ability to cut down the song. Perhaps in a few months. I also hope you're not boxed indefinitely. Still, the cylons are running out of models pretty quickly. I mean, I really hope they explain to us WHY they aren't in contact with the final five. Plus now they've only got six of them left, four dudes and two girls, and one of the dudes never seems to show (Hi Simon!).
I don't have anything particularly deep to say about this because while I enjoy the bizarre messianic relationship between Baltar and Three, it was more of the same. Awesome, but still more of the same. Big tease about the final five and then a worldclass pistol-whip. GO CHIEF!
Starbuck/Destiny/Helo. This I enjoyed. I thought Katee Sackhoff's acting was very strong here. She takes to her "destiny" with bitterness and sourness but an almost disturbing focus. She doesn't deny it as I thought she would. (Though the naysayer in me would point out that if Tigh's assertion that "you've seen one supernova, you've seen them all," combined with the relative ease with which you can find images of the cosmos in our, less-spacefaring society, suggests that she could have seen that picture anywhere).
The point is, her overarching reaction was, "Yes. This makes sense. I believe this." This is what Leoben told her, and his sway over her is still huge.
Kara's always been screwed-up, and this season it's even more so. I've seen a lot of people over the net saying it's gone beyond now, and it's getting daft and too "emo". I disagree actually. It's like, if anything, I felt a little that way in some sections of the second season (never hugely, never enough to detract from anything), but in the third, I finally feel that the shit she's gone through and the issues she's been left with serve a purpose beyond generating sympathy for a maverick. It's leading somewhere and I feel this is a massive vindication of this. But it's someplace pretty...dark.
I said in my reaction posts to the first run of episodes this season that I thought Tigh needed to fail at redemption, that that was the ultimate, tragic and fulfilling end to the way he totally broke himself as a functioning human. I'm still disappointed that that hasn't happened, though I hold out some hope. He's pretty much gone back to his previous role of non-functioning human, but this time with an added eyepatch and minus a wife. When was the last time he did anything interesting? He was thrown completely outside of his minimal parameters of functionality when he returned to Galactica because of what had happened (see earlier posts), and all that's happened is he's been shoved back into those parameters and they're still a bad fit. We don't seem to be seeing that with Tigh (and I think we deserve to), but we ARE seeing that with Starbuck, who had much the same thing happen to her.
And I'm willing to consider that Starbuck's story neither has, nor needs, a happy end. Though considering she's a main character, I'm not totally sure how that'll play out. Either way, I predict strife. Yes, strife.
Next week - DUDE! Laura, I love you. And that is all.
That said, I did enjoy this episode, so I'll do my usual thang and break it down by plotline (instead of by character this time).
The Lee/Dee/Anders/Kara quadrangle was done slightly better than I was expecting. I felt that Lee's comment, "If she's dead I'll let you," was more bravado than anything else, but I also thought that there was some genuinely well crafted drama in the situation. I felt Lee's decision to have Dee try to save Kara was genuinely because he had to find some way to pacify Sam or the whole of the defence would fall apart more than wanting his wife to risk his life for his...whatever she is. I appreciated Dee's attitude too - she isn't going to be aware of the complex motivations Lee has in sending her on the rescue, and then her buddy gets shot to shit. I thoroughly enjoyed her attitude which I found to be professional if cold, and the slap she gave Kara was just perfect. Lee's face at the end when he was hugging Dee was also perfect - so lost and confused and relieved and did more to explain his feelings for his wife than dialogue could. Let's just hope it continues being this interesting next week.
Helo/Athena/Hera. I'm going to assume that Helo had to shoot his wife because suicide is a sin. I'm also going to assume that he shot her in the chest or something and not the stomach like it sorta seemed because...way to doom your wife to a slow and painful death there, bud. I'm going to assume that Hera recognised Athena through the same spyware frequencies that the cylons seem to use to tell each other apart.
I thought Adama's attitude towards Helo was a bit rich, what with the sensitive information, because really, he gave her all that and decided to trust her. That was always going to be a threat if she died. Perhaps now things are different because when he gave her that commission he didn't know she was suddenly going to be destabilised by the news her daughter was alive, but it's not like he relieved her of duty at that point.
Helo's words to Roslin were nice, though I'd have added that everything she's done to find earth from the moment she sent lieutenant Thrace to retrieve the Arrow of Apollo was also an act of faith, and some of those acts of faith split and threatened the entire fleet. Which could be rebutted by the fact that Roslin's the president and Helo's not, but...it would also be a good point in terms of the complex cylon/human/religious situations both characters find themselves in. Roslin did not disappoint me in her "Yeah, I take responsibility for what I did," attitude.
Boomer/Hera. I feel terrible for saying this, but I wish Grace Park were a better actress, or perhaps I should just wish I understood her acting more (since some people don't seem to have a problem with it). In the earlier seasons, I always felt she did better with Athena than with Boomer, but since the start of the second season her Boomer has really improved, and here I thought her Boomer was much better than her Athena. I was with Boomer when she was saying, "Take Hera, I'm done with her. I'm done with all of this." Because I could feel her anger and pain - it's exactly the same anger and pain that was with her in Downloaded, except she's slowly had every last target taken away from her.
Athena stole her life once, and now, waltzing back in, magically calming this child that Boomer's been struggling with for months, she's stealing it again. There's no point caring for the Chief, she thinks, it'll just hurt her more. She knows he's moved on; she's tried to make her peace, to help Cally, she does want to be a good person, but it's still gotta hurt inside. Knowing that your whole life is gone, and your new life sucks, and your attempt to recapture a tiny, tiny fragment of that old life was met with complete failure. So yes. I understand her viciousness and her bitterness and her statements that she doesn't believe cylons and humans can live together. Because whether or not she believes that and whether or not she still cares about the Chief really isn't the point. The point is she needs to needle and whatever she can, she hurts and she wants to spread that hurt because she's tired of keeping it inside and waiting for some miraculous karmic balance to be restored. It's harder to imagine yourself as a human when you've returned to them, and they've spat at you.
But still, I thought threatening to break Hera's neck was too much. If she's that broken I'd like to have seen it. Also, I think she was bluffing, angry that she's paying the price of being a cylon and Athena isn't. It felt like a forced recall to the mini series.
Caprica is developing a murderous streak, isn't she? I mean, sure she could have just tied her up, or left her unconscious?
Caprica, as always, I love. Focused more on the survival of the child, having always been in love with a human, having lead the cylons to New Caprica perhaps with more honest intentions because while it was with the expectations of regaining her love and a part of her life among the humans, she also probably didn't have anything like the baggage of Boomer, with the hundreds of people who knew and felt personally betrayed by her. Regardless, I think it perfectly in character for her to put the life of the child and the future first. I think she's still beautifully and tragically lost without Gaius. I think she doesn't care who wins anymore, humans, cylons, she's had her illusions of both shattered. Gaius was supposed to love her, and he left. D'Anna was supposed to love her, and she left. Also, CAPRICA!SIX IS ON GALACTICA! THIS IS SO AWESOME!
Baltar/Three/Crackiness. Bye Three. I'm really going to miss you. I also still have a really strong desire to vid "The Future" by Leonard Cohen to you, but I fear I'll lack the clips, the time, and the ability to cut down the song. Perhaps in a few months. I also hope you're not boxed indefinitely. Still, the cylons are running out of models pretty quickly. I mean, I really hope they explain to us WHY they aren't in contact with the final five. Plus now they've only got six of them left, four dudes and two girls, and one of the dudes never seems to show (Hi Simon!).
I don't have anything particularly deep to say about this because while I enjoy the bizarre messianic relationship between Baltar and Three, it was more of the same. Awesome, but still more of the same. Big tease about the final five and then a worldclass pistol-whip. GO CHIEF!
Starbuck/Destiny/Helo. This I enjoyed. I thought Katee Sackhoff's acting was very strong here. She takes to her "destiny" with bitterness and sourness but an almost disturbing focus. She doesn't deny it as I thought she would. (Though the naysayer in me would point out that if Tigh's assertion that "you've seen one supernova, you've seen them all," combined with the relative ease with which you can find images of the cosmos in our, less-spacefaring society, suggests that she could have seen that picture anywhere).
The point is, her overarching reaction was, "Yes. This makes sense. I believe this." This is what Leoben told her, and his sway over her is still huge.
Kara's always been screwed-up, and this season it's even more so. I've seen a lot of people over the net saying it's gone beyond now, and it's getting daft and too "emo". I disagree actually. It's like, if anything, I felt a little that way in some sections of the second season (never hugely, never enough to detract from anything), but in the third, I finally feel that the shit she's gone through and the issues she's been left with serve a purpose beyond generating sympathy for a maverick. It's leading somewhere and I feel this is a massive vindication of this. But it's someplace pretty...dark.
I said in my reaction posts to the first run of episodes this season that I thought Tigh needed to fail at redemption, that that was the ultimate, tragic and fulfilling end to the way he totally broke himself as a functioning human. I'm still disappointed that that hasn't happened, though I hold out some hope. He's pretty much gone back to his previous role of non-functioning human, but this time with an added eyepatch and minus a wife. When was the last time he did anything interesting? He was thrown completely outside of his minimal parameters of functionality when he returned to Galactica because of what had happened (see earlier posts), and all that's happened is he's been shoved back into those parameters and they're still a bad fit. We don't seem to be seeing that with Tigh (and I think we deserve to), but we ARE seeing that with Starbuck, who had much the same thing happen to her.
And I'm willing to consider that Starbuck's story neither has, nor needs, a happy end. Though considering she's a main character, I'm not totally sure how that'll play out. Either way, I predict strife. Yes, strife.
Next week - DUDE! Laura, I love you. And that is all.
