beccatoria | BSG: Face of the Enemy Webisodes.

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.