BSG: Revelations
Jun. 15th, 2008 06:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccatoriaSo, I watched this Saturday morning, then spent the rest of the weekend going to a Bruce Springsteen concert (which was awesome, and he dedicated the encore to Tim Russert), playing insanely cracktacular games that didn't really help my non-crack objectivity re: this episode, and visiting my aunt in west wales, and my cousin blew my mind. None of that is really relevant, I just thought I'd tell you all! :)
But, on with the show!
This wasn't really a thinking episode. It wasn't an episode about self-discovery or self-examination or faith or destiny or education or, even, revelation, despite the title. It was an episode about fallout. It was an episode about disappointment.
Sure there were actual revelations. The Four. Earth. But that's not what it was about. It was about reaching the end of your journey and discovering it's worse than where you were before. The crushing sense of betrayal that you went through so much crap: the things and people you sent to their deaths, the things and people you left behind, the things and people you loved who turned out dead or destroyed or cylons, the things and people you betrayed and the terrible gambles you took with their fates. You bet everything to get to Earth because it was a divine fucking mandate and there is no surer bet than that, and you didn't roll the hard six, you rolled snake eyes.
The end of the episode: that's where the story is. The rest is just getting there.
I was surprised and oddly touched by Baltar's gratitude to Laura and her reluctance and shyness and inability to say either 'you're welcome,' or 'never speak to me again.'
I feel bad for Tory. I believe that 1) she genuinely wanted to make sure the President got her medicine, and also it genuinely was safer for the fleet than continuing to piss off D'anna, and 2) in her situation you ride the cylon train or you face a lifetime of self-denial and to be honest, you make that sort of jump, and you have to really commit to it. To quote Athena, you pick your side and you stick, otherwise you end up with nothing, no home, no family, no life to call your own. Tory picked, and she chose not to be the cylon among humans spending a lifetime in apology, or the cylon among cylon spending a lifetime in ambivalent guilt. I think her brutality is borne of desperation. I think her denial of Roslin is borne of a need to cast off something, to make some sort of grand gesture, to reassure herself that this is her home. To embrace the one group of people who will validate her existence as a blessing. HOWEVER, 3) I think she may be losing the plot. Rather, I think she lost it a while ago, and that makes me sad.
OH SAUL TIGH.
I started loving you during New Caprica, and somehow you have become one of my absolute favourites. You're like my anti-Oldama. I remember way back in season one when I liked you in that, "oh, interesting issues, interesting plot potential, but you'll never be a favourite," way. When he was a drunk ass and I had that revelation after half a dozen episodes that it takes acting talent to pull off that sort of character but that it's probably a rather thankless job since the role (at the time) didn't really include display-piece material. And...I tried to pay a bit more attention to him, but even during his tenure during that whole martial law incident at the start of season two it was - how can I say it? - he was interesting to watch because of the chaos he was creating, not because he, himself, was interesting. He was still an alcoholic who made dumb mistakes and who usually made you want to bang your head against the wall rather than try to understand on a complex level. Because at the time, he was probably the most static of all the characters. There was little suggestion that he would change or ever have a storyline more interesting than Saul Tigh gets drunk and is manipulated by his wife. Again.
OH BUT SEASON THREE.
And now. Yeah. Nothing will eclipse Laura Roslin as my absolute favourite. But damn if Tigh isn't climbing the ranks quickly and no one is more surprised than my season-one-and-two-era-self.
But yeah, Tigh in this episode. SO NOBLE. SO AWESOME. SO HILARIOUS WHEN BILL REFUSED TO BELIEVE HIM. Because honestly, I wouldn't have either. I would have been like, "Yeah, this is another of those 'music in the walls of the ship' and 'confessing to murder on the witness stand,' and 'knocking up the prisoner' moments, isn't it?"
But for real, Saul Tigh's crazy, bug-eyed messiah impression when he throws his arms wide and declares himself to be one of the final five and how Adama has to threaten to "throw MEEEEEEEE out an airlock!" was just so much better/more hilarious/more moving than any messiah impression Baltar has ever given us.
Standing straight-backed in the airlock. Amazing. Finally, for the first time, Saul Tigh has discovered the man he wants to be, and is being that man, absolutely, unequivocally, with such integrity. It's effortless. It's beautiful.
It gets taken away from him.
What do you do when you miss the moment you discover you existed for? It's the question of every single person in the Colonial Fleet. Of Romo Lampkin: he didn't die with his wife and daughters. Of Lee Adama: he didn't die floating in space. Of Kara Thrace: what do you do after your destiny? After you've died and come back and convinced everyone to follow you on some madcap chase for Earth, and you come back with cylon allies - what do you do then? Go back to being CAG? It's the question of Laura Roslin. What happens after you stop being the dying leader? The Fleet abandons the search for Earth and lands itself on a snake pit called New Caprica. What happens if you're not the dying leader at all, and you do set foot on Earth, and it's covered in ashes?
Saul Tigh had the perfect, redemptive moment to die. But he didn't. And he's still him: the alcoholic spouse-murdering one-eyed robot XO. He doesn't get to die saving the Fleet, proving his loyalty and worth, to himself as much as to anyone else. He survives. And he's the drunk man, alone, the drunk who has to deal with his screwed-up robot girlfriend and the loss of the only place he's known in his life.
Instead of proving his worth by dying for the Fleet, he's saved because his worth was actually tied to finding Earth. His worth was tied to the most crushing disappointment of all. It's two weeks too late to be talking about sine qua non, but really, Earth is the Fleet's. And if the episode Sine Qua Non was about finding yours and holding onto it (and The Hub dealt with that question for Laura), then this is the episode about losing it.
What the hell am I supposed to do now? It's Saul's question. Now they're at Earth, it's everyone's question. It's always the question, once immediate survival has been dealt with.
Though you know whose question it isn't? Bill Adama's. Maybe that's why I feel like he's trapped in a world where everyone he loves is transforming in strange ways he can't understand, and can't stop by demanding it.
Bill's never lost his sine qua non and been forced to turn into something new to deal with it. Every time it's been threatened, something - usually his own blind obstinacy and (apparently correct) belief that if he refuses enough times, the universe will capitulate - saves him from having to confront it.
Until now. Or at least, for a span of a few hours he thinks that's the case (though really, it still isn't, maybe, if he can get over Tigh being a cylon). Honestly, what's his sine qua non really? He has to consider nuking his son, and he's stoic. He deals with Kara's death and he cries and breaks his ship then gets back to work. He has to deal with nuking Laura on the baseship and again, stoic. But when Tigh is "lost" to him?
AHAHAAHAAHAHAAHAAHAA!
OH BILL ADAMA NEVER CHANGE.
I love his old man love for Tigh. Because - the best thing about this entire damn episode - without question - is that drunken crazy drooling state he gets himself into?
TAKES HIM FIFTEEN MINUTES.
It happens in the time it takes to escort Tigh from Adama's quarters to the airlock. And I don't think that they finally sent Lee to check on Adama after hours of waiting for instructions since D'anna was airlocking hostages every fifteen minuts. So either Adama got himself into a state where his son had to drag him across the floor in fifteen minutes, or he got himself into a state like that while people were being executed instead of doing something about it.
OH ADAMA NEVER CHANGE!
I've discovered my zen about you, and now I love you, Bill. Never, ever change.
Though I have to say, much as I found it hilarious, I turned on a dime when Bill started gasping, inconsolable about all those people. Sure, Tigh's revelation may have been the catalyst, but EJO was spot on with that delivery and it suddenly spun the entire scene out into perhaps the first time we've seen Adama shaken to his core. It's all going to hell, and it's not just about losing his friend, there are all those people he sent to die. He didn't know that was what he was doing at the time, but it was and damn it, Adama preached, from day ONE, in both the mini series in response to the First Cylon War and in response to the Olympic Carrier incident, that you make your choices and you live with them either way. But this is the first damn time I've ever seen him really feel the weight of that, rather than dealing with the weight of it by ignoring it, suppressing his emotions.
And seeing Lee step up, take care of his dad, tell him he was going to fix it and kissing him on the head was...quite beautiful. Though Adama will never mention this again. But it was a great moment for Lee's character.
So yeah, I find the reasons and ways Adama got into that state hucking filarious, but the end of it was...powerful, actually. All those people. What has he done? It's all right, it's all right: Lee will take care of it. Because he makes those choices now, and he doesn't flinch, or there'll be more kids in body bags going out that airlock.
SPEAKING OF: LEE AND LAURA MADE UP! OH HOW HAPPY WAS I THAT LAURA REMEMBERED HER LESSON FROM LAST EPISODE OUGHT TO APPLY TO MORE THAN JUST BILL ADAMA! I loved how proud she was of him. And how grateful and relieved he seemed to have her approval. Because she's right, he did a really good job.
Re: the metaphysical cycle of time. I have no problem with this being a repeating cycle, or with something orchestrating it, but I found the whole viper thing a bit weird. Mainly because the idea that it magically changed and suddenly started picking up this message seemed like a bit of a...massively weird deus ex machina. Worse than Starbuck appearing in a new viper, I hear you ask? Yes, actually, because that was so huge it tied into mythic archetypes. A magically changing piece of machinery is a bit weirder. Because it stops being a never ending series of coincidences and subtly manipulated causes and effects and starts being RANDOM MAGIC EVENTS! So I prefer the idea that the beacon was only just activated by someone/thing, or that the viper previously wasn't in range to pick up the signal, or that the signal had been travelling through space for years and years and only just got this far. Basically anything that means that the signal would have been there regardless had anyone thought to look at it, it's just the Final Four were like...road signs, or alarm clocks.
Though again, do the Final Four come from Earth or not? Oy, I'm just going to wait for RDM's explanation for now. Though DAMN, 2009? WTF? It's just... I'm sort of ready to have my life back. Like, it'll fade into the background again in a few months, I know. And I'll wait and it'll all be fine. But I've made my peace with the fact this is the last season and...I want to be able to look at it all. I want to draw conclusions from the whole series. Dammit, I'm ready and I have to wait another six months at least.
Regarding the ending and the truce. Wow.
Well firstly, I loved that D'anna actually said, it doesn't matter: they'll never forgive us for the twelve colonies. Because it's true. I mean, I know that literally, you could forgive, but I don't believe it'll ever happen.
But that doesn't mean I don't believe this truce or that Lee would offer up the information or that human and cylon can wander around the surface of Earth oddly trusting, bound by the wounding revelation that it wasn't worth it.
Because when given that information, practically, it makes most sense for D'anna, for the time being, to co-operate. She has what she wants. She still has a final card up her sleeve (the Fifth). She knows that three of the Four won't willingly come with her and hurting the hostages would make them even less willing. Killing the hostages would provoke an all out combat that would probably obliterate both parties. There's nothing to piss over anymore and D'anna has a slight advantage (the Fifth).
Because it comes down to this: the Rebel Basestar is the Cylon equivalent of the rag-tag Fleet. A single warship, wounded, on the run from an impossible number of enemies, reduced to a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of their former strength, with no home to return to. Because the ones, fours and fives may not be able to resurrect, but they still have basestars and basestars and basestars and twelve colonies full of models (perhaps even versions of the twos, sixes and eights. While the rebels spoke for all of their model number it seems unlikely EVERY baseship became segregated and was destroyed. After that one ship went rogue, I could either imagine all the other versions of that model being boxed, or I could imagine them deciding that the actions of their siblings were regrettable and beginning to tow the party line again because they'd rather live).
But I'm digressing. The point is: the rebel basestar has taken up the fight on, sort of, the side of the Colonials. At least in that they are actively opposing the impossible Cylon war machine. They wounded themselves horribly, in front of, in conjunction with the Colonials. It's not forgiveness. But on this tiny scale it is, perhaps, a truce. A tiny measure of shared experience that means they can wander the scarred face of Earth and realise that every one of them is experiencing the same horrifically bitter disappointment.
I don't know what to make of the ending itself. It was mildly surprising but not utterly shocking, though perhaps I should have been shocked. A civilised Earth of either ancient past or far-flung future would have been...too easy. They would have stayed, and it's only half way through the season. I mean, I believe this is Earth. But it had to be "not right" somehow. And this makes sense, story-wise.
Though I have no idea why it's like this.
I also don't know what's going on with Roslin standing on it. The dying leader isn't supposed to set foot in the promised land, I thought. Perhaps Earth is not the promised land. But then again, introducing the secret "other" promised land at this point would be lame. So it's a tricky balancing act. They can't go back to the twelve colonies because the other cylon are still there. And even though they're mortal now, they're horribly outnumbered and I refuse to believe that one damaged basestar and one damaged battlestar have a hope in hell of reclaiming twelve occupied worlds.
The best thing Farscape ever did was find John Crichton a way home to Earth in (oh snap!) the middle of the final, fourth season, and then have him carry on after that. So carrying on after Earth has the potential to be incredible. But then again...that same question: What the hell am I supposed to do now? John Crichton already knew the answer. Knew it so well he never, ever intended to stay. The Fleet doesn't. So I'm...intrigued to find out.
I wouldn't have liked it to end right here, because there are too many unanswered questions: why is Earth like this? Who is the Fifth? What's up with the Final Five? But at the same time - like the end of season three - I could have lived with it.
The last montage is...beautiful. I find myself fascinated by the shot choices. Tory reaching out to Sam is an interesting choice. Kara is shot closer to Leoben than either Lee or Sam. I loved Laura's delivery of the scene's only word. Caprica walking to Tigh in a shot that shows her not walking towards Baltar is clearly deliberate. And I was grateful to see her if only briefly because I'm a little miffed we didn't get a scene with her and Tigh cus...boy that's a conversation I'm a little pissed I missed out on. Also yay! She has a jacket and has been let out of jail! I really wish that I weren't vaguely invested in this Frankenstein's Monster of a relationship because it cannot possibly end well, and yet, I find myself oddly touched by it. I want to believe she's not just jumping on the next desperate chance to get someone to love her; I want to believe that Tigh could ever love her for who she is, not who he wishes she'd be. The cold, hard facts are that it's a horrifically dysfunctional relationship full of secrets and violence, and I'm not sure it can be fixed in a way that won't be horribly unbelievable or horribly sexist, even though I want it to be fixed desperately. I AM DOOMED.
Also: 2009?! I AM DOOMED.
But, on with the show!
This wasn't really a thinking episode. It wasn't an episode about self-discovery or self-examination or faith or destiny or education or, even, revelation, despite the title. It was an episode about fallout. It was an episode about disappointment.
Sure there were actual revelations. The Four. Earth. But that's not what it was about. It was about reaching the end of your journey and discovering it's worse than where you were before. The crushing sense of betrayal that you went through so much crap: the things and people you sent to their deaths, the things and people you left behind, the things and people you loved who turned out dead or destroyed or cylons, the things and people you betrayed and the terrible gambles you took with their fates. You bet everything to get to Earth because it was a divine fucking mandate and there is no surer bet than that, and you didn't roll the hard six, you rolled snake eyes.
The end of the episode: that's where the story is. The rest is just getting there.
I was surprised and oddly touched by Baltar's gratitude to Laura and her reluctance and shyness and inability to say either 'you're welcome,' or 'never speak to me again.'
I feel bad for Tory. I believe that 1) she genuinely wanted to make sure the President got her medicine, and also it genuinely was safer for the fleet than continuing to piss off D'anna, and 2) in her situation you ride the cylon train or you face a lifetime of self-denial and to be honest, you make that sort of jump, and you have to really commit to it. To quote Athena, you pick your side and you stick, otherwise you end up with nothing, no home, no family, no life to call your own. Tory picked, and she chose not to be the cylon among humans spending a lifetime in apology, or the cylon among cylon spending a lifetime in ambivalent guilt. I think her brutality is borne of desperation. I think her denial of Roslin is borne of a need to cast off something, to make some sort of grand gesture, to reassure herself that this is her home. To embrace the one group of people who will validate her existence as a blessing. HOWEVER, 3) I think she may be losing the plot. Rather, I think she lost it a while ago, and that makes me sad.
OH SAUL TIGH.
I started loving you during New Caprica, and somehow you have become one of my absolute favourites. You're like my anti-Oldama. I remember way back in season one when I liked you in that, "oh, interesting issues, interesting plot potential, but you'll never be a favourite," way. When he was a drunk ass and I had that revelation after half a dozen episodes that it takes acting talent to pull off that sort of character but that it's probably a rather thankless job since the role (at the time) didn't really include display-piece material. And...I tried to pay a bit more attention to him, but even during his tenure during that whole martial law incident at the start of season two it was - how can I say it? - he was interesting to watch because of the chaos he was creating, not because he, himself, was interesting. He was still an alcoholic who made dumb mistakes and who usually made you want to bang your head against the wall rather than try to understand on a complex level. Because at the time, he was probably the most static of all the characters. There was little suggestion that he would change or ever have a storyline more interesting than Saul Tigh gets drunk and is manipulated by his wife. Again.
OH BUT SEASON THREE.
And now. Yeah. Nothing will eclipse Laura Roslin as my absolute favourite. But damn if Tigh isn't climbing the ranks quickly and no one is more surprised than my season-one-and-two-era-self.
But yeah, Tigh in this episode. SO NOBLE. SO AWESOME. SO HILARIOUS WHEN BILL REFUSED TO BELIEVE HIM. Because honestly, I wouldn't have either. I would have been like, "Yeah, this is another of those 'music in the walls of the ship' and 'confessing to murder on the witness stand,' and 'knocking up the prisoner' moments, isn't it?"
But for real, Saul Tigh's crazy, bug-eyed messiah impression when he throws his arms wide and declares himself to be one of the final five and how Adama has to threaten to "throw MEEEEEEEE out an airlock!" was just so much better/more hilarious/more moving than any messiah impression Baltar has ever given us.
Standing straight-backed in the airlock. Amazing. Finally, for the first time, Saul Tigh has discovered the man he wants to be, and is being that man, absolutely, unequivocally, with such integrity. It's effortless. It's beautiful.
It gets taken away from him.
What do you do when you miss the moment you discover you existed for? It's the question of every single person in the Colonial Fleet. Of Romo Lampkin: he didn't die with his wife and daughters. Of Lee Adama: he didn't die floating in space. Of Kara Thrace: what do you do after your destiny? After you've died and come back and convinced everyone to follow you on some madcap chase for Earth, and you come back with cylon allies - what do you do then? Go back to being CAG? It's the question of Laura Roslin. What happens after you stop being the dying leader? The Fleet abandons the search for Earth and lands itself on a snake pit called New Caprica. What happens if you're not the dying leader at all, and you do set foot on Earth, and it's covered in ashes?
Saul Tigh had the perfect, redemptive moment to die. But he didn't. And he's still him: the alcoholic spouse-murdering one-eyed robot XO. He doesn't get to die saving the Fleet, proving his loyalty and worth, to himself as much as to anyone else. He survives. And he's the drunk man, alone, the drunk who has to deal with his screwed-up robot girlfriend and the loss of the only place he's known in his life.
Instead of proving his worth by dying for the Fleet, he's saved because his worth was actually tied to finding Earth. His worth was tied to the most crushing disappointment of all. It's two weeks too late to be talking about sine qua non, but really, Earth is the Fleet's. And if the episode Sine Qua Non was about finding yours and holding onto it (and The Hub dealt with that question for Laura), then this is the episode about losing it.
What the hell am I supposed to do now? It's Saul's question. Now they're at Earth, it's everyone's question. It's always the question, once immediate survival has been dealt with.
Though you know whose question it isn't? Bill Adama's. Maybe that's why I feel like he's trapped in a world where everyone he loves is transforming in strange ways he can't understand, and can't stop by demanding it.
Bill's never lost his sine qua non and been forced to turn into something new to deal with it. Every time it's been threatened, something - usually his own blind obstinacy and (apparently correct) belief that if he refuses enough times, the universe will capitulate - saves him from having to confront it.
Until now. Or at least, for a span of a few hours he thinks that's the case (though really, it still isn't, maybe, if he can get over Tigh being a cylon). Honestly, what's his sine qua non really? He has to consider nuking his son, and he's stoic. He deals with Kara's death and he cries and breaks his ship then gets back to work. He has to deal with nuking Laura on the baseship and again, stoic. But when Tigh is "lost" to him?
AHAHAAHAAHAHAAHAAHAA!
OH BILL ADAMA NEVER CHANGE.
I love his old man love for Tigh. Because - the best thing about this entire damn episode - without question - is that drunken crazy drooling state he gets himself into?
TAKES HIM FIFTEEN MINUTES.
It happens in the time it takes to escort Tigh from Adama's quarters to the airlock. And I don't think that they finally sent Lee to check on Adama after hours of waiting for instructions since D'anna was airlocking hostages every fifteen minuts. So either Adama got himself into a state where his son had to drag him across the floor in fifteen minutes, or he got himself into a state like that while people were being executed instead of doing something about it.
OH ADAMA NEVER CHANGE!
I've discovered my zen about you, and now I love you, Bill. Never, ever change.
Though I have to say, much as I found it hilarious, I turned on a dime when Bill started gasping, inconsolable about all those people. Sure, Tigh's revelation may have been the catalyst, but EJO was spot on with that delivery and it suddenly spun the entire scene out into perhaps the first time we've seen Adama shaken to his core. It's all going to hell, and it's not just about losing his friend, there are all those people he sent to die. He didn't know that was what he was doing at the time, but it was and damn it, Adama preached, from day ONE, in both the mini series in response to the First Cylon War and in response to the Olympic Carrier incident, that you make your choices and you live with them either way. But this is the first damn time I've ever seen him really feel the weight of that, rather than dealing with the weight of it by ignoring it, suppressing his emotions.
And seeing Lee step up, take care of his dad, tell him he was going to fix it and kissing him on the head was...quite beautiful. Though Adama will never mention this again. But it was a great moment for Lee's character.
So yeah, I find the reasons and ways Adama got into that state hucking filarious, but the end of it was...powerful, actually. All those people. What has he done? It's all right, it's all right: Lee will take care of it. Because he makes those choices now, and he doesn't flinch, or there'll be more kids in body bags going out that airlock.
SPEAKING OF: LEE AND LAURA MADE UP! OH HOW HAPPY WAS I THAT LAURA REMEMBERED HER LESSON FROM LAST EPISODE OUGHT TO APPLY TO MORE THAN JUST BILL ADAMA! I loved how proud she was of him. And how grateful and relieved he seemed to have her approval. Because she's right, he did a really good job.
Re: the metaphysical cycle of time. I have no problem with this being a repeating cycle, or with something orchestrating it, but I found the whole viper thing a bit weird. Mainly because the idea that it magically changed and suddenly started picking up this message seemed like a bit of a...massively weird deus ex machina. Worse than Starbuck appearing in a new viper, I hear you ask? Yes, actually, because that was so huge it tied into mythic archetypes. A magically changing piece of machinery is a bit weirder. Because it stops being a never ending series of coincidences and subtly manipulated causes and effects and starts being RANDOM MAGIC EVENTS! So I prefer the idea that the beacon was only just activated by someone/thing, or that the viper previously wasn't in range to pick up the signal, or that the signal had been travelling through space for years and years and only just got this far. Basically anything that means that the signal would have been there regardless had anyone thought to look at it, it's just the Final Four were like...road signs, or alarm clocks.
Though again, do the Final Four come from Earth or not? Oy, I'm just going to wait for RDM's explanation for now. Though DAMN, 2009? WTF? It's just... I'm sort of ready to have my life back. Like, it'll fade into the background again in a few months, I know. And I'll wait and it'll all be fine. But I've made my peace with the fact this is the last season and...I want to be able to look at it all. I want to draw conclusions from the whole series. Dammit, I'm ready and I have to wait another six months at least.
Regarding the ending and the truce. Wow.
Well firstly, I loved that D'anna actually said, it doesn't matter: they'll never forgive us for the twelve colonies. Because it's true. I mean, I know that literally, you could forgive, but I don't believe it'll ever happen.
But that doesn't mean I don't believe this truce or that Lee would offer up the information or that human and cylon can wander around the surface of Earth oddly trusting, bound by the wounding revelation that it wasn't worth it.
Because when given that information, practically, it makes most sense for D'anna, for the time being, to co-operate. She has what she wants. She still has a final card up her sleeve (the Fifth). She knows that three of the Four won't willingly come with her and hurting the hostages would make them even less willing. Killing the hostages would provoke an all out combat that would probably obliterate both parties. There's nothing to piss over anymore and D'anna has a slight advantage (the Fifth).
Because it comes down to this: the Rebel Basestar is the Cylon equivalent of the rag-tag Fleet. A single warship, wounded, on the run from an impossible number of enemies, reduced to a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of their former strength, with no home to return to. Because the ones, fours and fives may not be able to resurrect, but they still have basestars and basestars and basestars and twelve colonies full of models (perhaps even versions of the twos, sixes and eights. While the rebels spoke for all of their model number it seems unlikely EVERY baseship became segregated and was destroyed. After that one ship went rogue, I could either imagine all the other versions of that model being boxed, or I could imagine them deciding that the actions of their siblings were regrettable and beginning to tow the party line again because they'd rather live).
But I'm digressing. The point is: the rebel basestar has taken up the fight on, sort of, the side of the Colonials. At least in that they are actively opposing the impossible Cylon war machine. They wounded themselves horribly, in front of, in conjunction with the Colonials. It's not forgiveness. But on this tiny scale it is, perhaps, a truce. A tiny measure of shared experience that means they can wander the scarred face of Earth and realise that every one of them is experiencing the same horrifically bitter disappointment.
I don't know what to make of the ending itself. It was mildly surprising but not utterly shocking, though perhaps I should have been shocked. A civilised Earth of either ancient past or far-flung future would have been...too easy. They would have stayed, and it's only half way through the season. I mean, I believe this is Earth. But it had to be "not right" somehow. And this makes sense, story-wise.
Though I have no idea why it's like this.
I also don't know what's going on with Roslin standing on it. The dying leader isn't supposed to set foot in the promised land, I thought. Perhaps Earth is not the promised land. But then again, introducing the secret "other" promised land at this point would be lame. So it's a tricky balancing act. They can't go back to the twelve colonies because the other cylon are still there. And even though they're mortal now, they're horribly outnumbered and I refuse to believe that one damaged basestar and one damaged battlestar have a hope in hell of reclaiming twelve occupied worlds.
The best thing Farscape ever did was find John Crichton a way home to Earth in (oh snap!) the middle of the final, fourth season, and then have him carry on after that. So carrying on after Earth has the potential to be incredible. But then again...that same question: What the hell am I supposed to do now? John Crichton already knew the answer. Knew it so well he never, ever intended to stay. The Fleet doesn't. So I'm...intrigued to find out.
I wouldn't have liked it to end right here, because there are too many unanswered questions: why is Earth like this? Who is the Fifth? What's up with the Final Five? But at the same time - like the end of season three - I could have lived with it.
The last montage is...beautiful. I find myself fascinated by the shot choices. Tory reaching out to Sam is an interesting choice. Kara is shot closer to Leoben than either Lee or Sam. I loved Laura's delivery of the scene's only word. Caprica walking to Tigh in a shot that shows her not walking towards Baltar is clearly deliberate. And I was grateful to see her if only briefly because I'm a little miffed we didn't get a scene with her and Tigh cus...boy that's a conversation I'm a little pissed I missed out on. Also yay! She has a jacket and has been let out of jail! I really wish that I weren't vaguely invested in this Frankenstein's Monster of a relationship because it cannot possibly end well, and yet, I find myself oddly touched by it. I want to believe she's not just jumping on the next desperate chance to get someone to love her; I want to believe that Tigh could ever love her for who she is, not who he wishes she'd be. The cold, hard facts are that it's a horrifically dysfunctional relationship full of secrets and violence, and I'm not sure it can be fixed in a way that won't be horribly unbelievable or horribly sexist, even though I want it to be fixed desperately. I AM DOOMED.
Also: 2009?! I AM DOOMED.
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Date: 2008-06-18 07:54 pm (UTC)Re: Lee. I think it's interesting to note - though it doesn't entirely address your concerns - that Lee's always actually been very, very hostile to the Cylon. Like, more so than his father, and more personally pissy about it than even Roslin. Ever since Sharon shot his dad, he doesn't trust her as far as he can throw her until sometime way later in season three. He's entirely, no holds barred for the genocide plan in A Measure of Salvation. Lee's a pissy bitch when it comes to anything Cylon...
YAY TIGHCON! I LOVE IT SO!
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Date: 2008-06-19 01:19 am (UTC)And I now stand corrected sort of on Lee. He was willing to blow up Starbuck, which was the right decision (though dad was all, no I'm pulling rank.. you're decision was right but mine was righter, nyah). So I know he could have airlocked Tigh etc, however I still think it was the wrong decision and he was basically about to sacrifice a large chunk of peeps... perhaps because he really just wanted to airlock Tigh for making his dad drool on him.