BSG: Face of the Enemy Webisodes.

[beccatoria]

In like, two days, no one will give a shit about these anymore, so I'd better get off my ass and write up my response.

I have something of a problem with webisodes because while I like the concept, I often feel, while watching them, the constraints they are under in terms of budget, scope and time. This was no different.

To compare them to the Resistance webisodes is interesting because I actually think that these webisodes were more ingenius, better planned and generally a higher quality production than the Resistance webisodes. They're more dramatic and try for a bigger, grander ending, with more significance to the series. Which is great. Problem is, while the Resistance limited its scope to Jammer's motivations (and Duck's to an extent), and while that meant there was a lot of boring wandering around, I actually think that they did a really good job of characterising Jammer and making the argument for why someone would collaborate.

This series, however, fell down in the last act.

I was actually reasonably surprised that they managed to keep such tension going on with the murders in such a small space; I was wondering how that could possibly work. I liked the revelation about the relationship between Gaeta and Eight and I was totally on board with her being the killer for cold, pragmatic reasons.

What I totally did not understand were the following:

1) Why in the hell she was killing folks back on New Caprica. It wasn't necessary to reveal that to have her be the killer and I'm not sure what it accomplishes. Even more than that, the explanations she gives don't seem to make any sense. Gaeta is giving her lists of people he believes are already in custody, and she's freeing them. Or, apparently, killing them. I guess - although if this is the case it should have been explained better - that perhaps he was giving lists of people who were simply missing, in case they were in detention, and he was worried about them because they were members of the Resistance, so Eight was using him to get info about who was in the Resistance and then off them. But that seems awfully convoluted since Gaeta's main intention really did seem to just be to find people he hadn't seen in a long time and was worried about.

Even more than that, it goes against the Big Frakking Deal that was made of Baltar signing death warrants. At this point, there were detention blocks, but the Cylon seemed existentially scared of just offing people quietly, or they never would have gotten Baltar to sign that thing in the first place. And if he'd signed death warrants before...well that wasn't the impression I got from that scene. It is, of course, possible that this Eight was totally off-the-reservation and was just going around all murder happy because these people were, "important" to Felix and he was her "enemy" against the express intentions of the Occupation. But then it's shitty that we didn't get like, any exploration of that, and it also undercuts the "cold necessity," and "I chose you," crap that they seem to be trying to play sincerely.

All in all, I just found her characterisation in 8 - 10 to be a complete mess.

ALSO:

2) In concept, tying what happened with this Eight into Baltar's season three Whisper of Doom is a great idea, but...why did Gaeta try to stab him in the neck with a pen like Baltar had some secret that could destroy him if at that time, he still believed Eight had been acting truthfully. And if he didn't, why did we have the reveal in the webisodes? I can buy that it was something Baltar found out on the Basestar which would help with the problems I'd have with him knowing that on New Caprica, but even then... You can't have Gaeta find out someone he trusted was a mass murderer, and then have him flipping out because Baltar's threatening to expose he colluded with a mass murderer WHEN HE DIDN'T KNOW THAT YET.

I hope I'm just being dense and missing something really obvious that will help with that timeline freakout. Like he was reacting against the notion that Eight had killed those people and got it confirmed the webisodes, but I don't remember Gaius saying anything near that complicated in the whisper. It was more like, "you already know what I mean, bitch!"

So...there.

The Resistance: Boring storyline, but surprisingly good characterisation of Jammer. Managed to say someting in spite of being boring.

Face of the Enemy: Exciting storyline, but surprisingly confusing ending/characterisation. Managed not to say anything in spite of being exciting.

Comments

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

You liked the Resistance webisodes? I did too despite the poor production values. It still seemed odd to me that they'd write this big one year leap and then only spend a handful of episodes there. It's an experience that changed the entire show and many characters' lives, I was glad to get a glimpse of what it had been like. I didn't really care for Jammer all that much but I still enjoyed them. Oh, and Michael Hogan was totally awesome in them. :-)

As for The Face of the Enemy, I have thought about it and can not think of good reasons of why the Eight did what she did. Unless there are things we don't know yet. I don't know why she slept with Gaeta (she already had the names) or why she was on some sort of single-minded killing spree on New Caprica. It is odd.

As for Gaeta. I think that they are trying to imply that Gaeta's memory is now totally unreliable. That he's been traumatized so deeply that there is much information in his subconcious that he can not access. Like after webisode 9, you realize he knew that the Eight was wrong all along. Baltar told him. If he was conscious of that fact, he should never kissed her, maybe he should have killed her earlier and more of the raptor people would be alive. But the webisodes certainly argue for some blindness there. Like he can't handle the truth or it will break him.

Finally, I've been thinking of your post a few weeks ago. I hate to speculate this close (tomorrow!) but it does seem they may be telegraphing Gaeta for the final Cylon. I'm very unspoiled but it would make this make sense a bit more. The Eight confesses trying to bring Gaeta to awareness. He can't remember things like Boomer never remembered things she did. Maybe. It still wouldn't explain all of, whom I sometimes call, the crazy Eight's motives.

I really enjoyed the webisodes despites some of their failings. I loved Gaeta and Hoshi and loved seeing more of Gaeta whose characterization I really understood. It was also more . . . fun in a way. Somewhere along the line, I gave up trying to think too hard about them. Just enjoyed Racetrack's glee at helping Hoshi, Tigh's great acting eye, and one of my favorites growing braver and more badass toward the end despite his recent trauma. I think these will be interesting after the premiere.

What did you think of the Razor webisodes? I'm curious.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

I think it's in Michael Hogan's contract that he always gets to be awesome. ;)

I wasn't a big fan of Jammer as a character either, but I did think the psychological twist Five pulled on him and his reasons for going along with it were really well done, even though, as you say, as a whole the webisodes were kind of low in production values and story in general.

If there's one thing BSG consistantly fails to do well, it's characterise the "rest of the Fleet," who keep forming these odd groups with odd motivations. At least it seems in a recent interview, RDM admitted that they'd never had time to explore the culture of the Fleet and that meant when they tried, they kind of failed. But I thought Jammer showed how quickly and how well they could add depth to a civilian movement (the secret police) that could potentially have been as nonsensical as the saboteurs who wanted to Demand Peace, or the random way Baltar became a religious icon.

I do find your comment about taking the webisodes as a sign Gaeta's totally unstable and doesn't know what he remembers as fascinating, mind. If that's true, and he's actually, literally, losing it all, that could be very, very interesting.

(I'll be honest, I still don't know why he doesn't seem to have told everyone about how he lost his leg. There's a deleted scene where Kara claims it was an accident and then Adama's like, "We'll see what Gaeta says when he gets out of surgery," but we never...find out what he says. I hope that doesn't get dropped, much as I love Sam.)

I also understand why you liked these. If you're in it for the front-and-center Gaeta-ness; the prominence of fairly minor characters like Racetrack and Hoshi, and such, then yes. It was actually a GOOD STORY if the Eight thing didn't go against the characterisation of the Cylon Occupying forces and contradict what Gaeta knew and when. I still think a better reveal would be that she was lying to him about killing those people because she knew he'd have to kill her to get more air to survive and wanted to make it easier on him. That's kind of my HeadRetcon.

Oh, another thing that just occured to me - her justification for killing those people is that you kill the people who are important to your enemy, i.e. Gaeta. HOWEVER she says this concurrently with being all, "I chose you! I save you even though I killed everyone else! OVER MY OWN PEOPLE!" which is just...yeah. Crazy Eight.

But um, the original point was, I see why you liked them. There was a lot there if you discount the weird explanation for Eight's behaviour.

The Razor webisodes I'm pretty much meh about. Basically because a) they're all about Adama who I don't care much for and b) with the exception of the first two they were almost entirely incorporated into the broadcast and extended versions of Razor where I think they fit better. They're servicable and kind of interesting if only because I really did feel the actor they got nailed young Adama's voice and self-important gruffness. But...they're kind of part of Razor in my head rather than a standalone mini series.

[asta77.livejournal.com]

Why in the hell she was killing folks back on New Caprica.

Yeah, I couldn't figure that out either. Maybe it's just that she's another 'weak' Eight, going off on her own, and exerting her individuality in a bizarre and murderous way. What I have to remind myself is the webisodes were written by Jane Espenson who repeatedly has shown she does not understand these characters. Hell, she reverted to a Buffy storyline for Laura in 'The Hub'. So, I don't think we should waste time trying to figure out Eight's motivations since it's Jane writing her and Jane doesn't know what she's doing. Maybe listening to her webisode commentary would help, but I guess I don't care enough.

As for #2, huh, I didn't think about Baltar pissing Gaeta off with a piece of information he wouldn't have had yet. Sigh.

While I agree that the Resistance webisodes were less exciting, even boring sometimes, I enjoyed them more. They did, in fact, add something to the episodes themselves and had believable character development.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know much about Espenson. I don't have quite the problems with The Hub that you do, but I think that's mainly because I a) love the scene with Baltar and b) thought that the "love" plotline was something that sounded like an edict from the entire writers room, but it's very interesting if you say it's actually a close copy of a Buffy storyline. I do appreciate the humour she puts in, but if these webisodes are any indication then yeah...there's not so much of the sense-making in Eight's motivations.

I'd actually be more interested if I thought it was that the Eights go of and invent their identities in totally psychotic ways cus they're weak because it might tie in well with the fact that Athena is...just at nuts in many ways and is now actively trying to murder members of her own species just for being...members of her own species, but it didn't play like that much thought went into it, honestly.

[emmiere.livejournal.com]

Why in the hell she was killing folks back on New Caprica.

I'm reusing this quote because, really, the 8's characterization in this is the sticking point behind why these bother me. I do like Gaeta, so having the webisodes set him on a very specific path for the upcoming season (tomorrow! OMG!) was an interesting idea to me going in. But there wasn't a way to do this logically? I agree with all of your points above about what didn't make sense. I think 8 really was just a plot device in this and I don't think they bothered to give her any real motivation for the New Caprica killings, at least. I'm usually a big fan of the flashbacks with this show, but I want them to make sense! And be consistent with previous episodes! I'm really not that hard to please on this. The simple backstory of how he knew her worked fine.

I didn't see the Resistance webisodes until right after the NC arc ended, so I think that contributed to my really enjoying them. I liked Jammer and Duck's parallel journeys and how consistently their characters behave based on the little we knew about them. I do feel like the Face of the Enemy wanted to set up something similiar for Gaeta, but I wonder if we even need the extra information. The guy has plenty of valid reasons to hate Cylons and distrust the alliance without being broken down further.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Oooh, interesting way to watch the Resistance webisodes. I do agree they probably play better in context. I hope that these webisodes play better in the context of season four. Maybe they will. Although, like you, I have serious problems with Eight's behaviour.

Which is a shame, because as you say, conceptually there were a lot of great ideas there, and until the "reveal" the whole thing was shaping up to be a great little mini adventure.

BOO, BSG, you are not allowed to ever disappoint me!

[projectcyborg.livejournal.com]

let us just celebrate our BSGversary. :)

it was on the occasion of your post about The Resistance that we first made friends!

*feeds you cake*

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

*twirls*

MWAH!