BSG: Sometimes a Great Notion
Jan. 17th, 2009 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccatoriaI should probably wait and let this episode settle before posting my big reaction, but frak it, I don't want to.
Firstly, I shall address the final cylon reveal.
As you know, I was terribly nervous about this because I thought (and it turns out I am largely correct) that any minor character would be a disappointment and I was convinced RDM wouldn't go for a major character.
So. Ellen.
I was actually spoiled for this a few days ago and I'm kind of glad because it gave me a chance to think about it and deal with my disappointment and get to a place where I feel I can comment more rationally. After thinking about it, my considered response is that it has potential (good and bad) and is certainly better than Gaeta or Dee, although in no way comparable to the awesome that would have been Roslin or Kara.
The good potential is that Ellen's at least a character I enjoy and she plays well off Tigh. I also kind of love the hilarity that THIS is the epic, time-spanning romance of the series. I very much hope if we actually, physically see her again that it's clear she didn't know who/what she was the entire time because a lot of why her character works even though she's a manipulative ho is that she's incapable of subtlety and that lends her vulnerability and comedy at the same time. But the idea of Ellen as a crazy puppeteer of all things in that past life (where she certainly seemed to have more of a clue as to what the frak was going on than the other four, unless she was just high on death endorphines or something) only to reincarnate (or whatever) as this Ellen Tigh is...kind of awesome even though I don't want to admit it.
The bad potential is that in some ways, the big, vaunted final cylon reveal is all about someone else, i.e. Tigh. Which is part of why I'd like to see her in some puppetteer role in her last life because that would help make her an interesting character in an independent way without destroying the hilarious issues this brings up re: Tigh's current feelings.
The other bad potential is if they actually physically bring her back. I'm very glad they stayed away from that at this point because if they did bring her back I would be...nervous re: Caprica Six getting dumped yet again which would just be awful to watch. Worse yet, I'd worry about her character getting yet more marginalised to make room for the Epic Love of Tigh/Ellen. And even though I'm in love with the Epic Love of Tigh/Ellen, I love Caprica too. And dammit, it's been THREE EPISODES since we even saw her, and dude, SOMEONE NEEDS TO HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE DAMN FLIPPERBABY. (They'd totally better not retcon that away somehow.)
Finally, if they bring Ellen back to life, I'd be...a little upset at the way it makes the New Caprica arc play in retrospect. Not show-destroyingly upset. Tigh still did what he did and went through what he went through. But I'm so attached to Totally Fucked-Up Tigh Who Murdered His Wife that I think watching him get a "do-over," because he only half-murdered her would be a little sad for me.
So. In sum. I love Ellen as the sekrit schemer of 2000 years ago if she STAYS DEAD and we learn more about this via flashback/Tigh going EVER MORE CRAZY. If she comes back in the flesh, I'll give the benefit of the doubt, but I shall be nervous.
I'm aware that it's a little odd to want the final cylon to be a dead character who stays dead but...there you have it. It's what I want. And if we get revelations about her role in the 2000 years ago hoojima and why they showed up again in the Colonies, I think that would satisfy the desire for her identity and role to be dramatically significant. But I fear I'm in a minority there.
NO WAIT.
There is one scenario in which I will be TOTALLY OKAY with Ellen being alive again. And that's if she is alive on Earth someplace (cus that's where she resurrected), and then after the Fleet leaves, she hooks up with D'Anna and shares her...I dunno, sekrit hoard of anti-radiation-med-laced algae burgers and moonshine, and then the two of them WANDER THE SURFACE OF NUKED EARTH FOR FORTY YEARS LIKE DRUNKEN ISRAELITES. THINK OF THE HIJINCKS.
Speaking of D'Anna, I hope that next episode they're still sort of at Earth and that we see her again, because she was in like, two scenes and dammit, if this is the last time I see Robot Xena it will make me sad. Although I did find her decision to stay there and "get off this merry-go-round," fascinating. I do like how the cycle of time and our ability to fight it is being called into question. And I was only half joking about D'Anna finding Ellen after the Fleet leaves and then the two of themwandering for 40 years showing up for the finale or something. Although I did feel like telling her she'd better take a boatload of pills, or a firearm with her cus otherwise she's in for one hell of a slow death from starvation.
Moving on to:
Kara and Leoben.
Kara finding her own dead body was pretty amazing. I really hope that is her and not a clone/copy/fake. I hope this for two reasons. 1) it confuses the boundaries between human and cylon, because Kara's not a cylon but apparently has resurrected somehow and 2) I really want there to be a genuine mystical component to Kara's journey and even if she died flying into the Maelstrom, this is still mystical because how did her ship and dead body magically get to Earth? No, wait, three reasons: 3) Kara burning her own body, by herself, was hardcore.
I'm a little perplexed at Leoben's behaviour. I mean, he's Leoben so I love him anyway, and I love that everyone had their faith destroyed in this episode, even him. But I'm not entirely sure why.
I mean, first of all, "You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace, you will lead them all to their end," didn't seem like something the Hybrid said particularly more quietly than the rest of the prophecy she spoke which everyone who was in that room was discussing. So why didn't Leoben know about this? Of course I did also wonder at the time why everyone conveniently left out that bit which, considering Kara's flashbacks to her, does make me wonder if the Hybrid like...wirelessly sent that straight into her brain or something?
Secondly, Leoben, dude, if anything you've just seen evidence that Kara is a miraculous angel type person. I suppose it's possible he never knew about her death in the Maelstrom in the first place. But even if he didn't, he basically confirmed that if Kara was resurrected, it wasn't an above-board Cylon plan using her ovary or something. And her ship inexplicably jumped across space and here is a perfect copy of her. So what, it's okay to resurrect as long as your'e a cylon and do it using a Hub? But not okay if it's an act of God?
I just fundamentally do not get why Leoben was weirded out by someone being resurrected, especially not when he already attributes religious significance on the level of an angel to that person.
Kara meanwhile, dude. Yes. That was rough for you. It was interesting to see that she was ready to confide in Lee. But I found myself really appreciating her for noticing how much pain he was in and choosing not to tell him what was happening in that moment. Although I wish she'd given him a hug, because dude, someone really, really needed to. And no one did.
Lee was such a hero in this episode. He really stepped up, and pushed through not only the tragedy of finding Earth wasted (which while devastating to him, didn't have quite the personal significance of failure it did to either Kara or Laura or, much as I hate to admit it, Adama), but he also kept it going through Dee's suicide which must not only have been devastatingly personally affecting, but also something for which he received absolutely no support, at least until the end scene with Kara, maybe.
I also have a secret glee that they showed Lee getting Dualla's belongings. The reason is this: way back in late season two/earliest season three, I had a thought that was odd, painful and danced in my head for a few weeks before I decided it wasn't going anywhere and it was this: people in the Fleet have personal effects. Who gets them? In general I imagine there's something of a communal sense of ownership over practical items like clothes, but still. With everyone dead, and new relationships forming so quickly... I had this image of Lee, if Dee died, getting all of Dee's things. Her entire life in a box, even though, really, he barely knew her. Now it's been years. It's not quite the same as it happening after a month or two of dating and a hasty marriage, but it reminded me of that. The people in the Fleet who must have found themselves the guardians of belongings and relics of people they barely knew, but still knew better than anyone alive. So yeah. Oddly prescient.
I don't...I don't know how to assess what happened with Dee. I know that I enjoyed her relationship with Lee more in this episode than I ever had before: that finally it felt healthy and safe and I was even sort of nostalgic for it even though y'all know how much I HATED the entire quadrangle back in S3. Which was, of course, the point. I also get that after Karl tries to calm her on the raptor, that's when Dee decides that she's gonna kill herself, and everything else is just saying goodbye. I get that someone had to respond this way: the exhaustion. One day you just snap. Frankly I'm surprised it never happened before to a character we knew and cared about. And in a weird way, I really get why it's Dee. It couldn't be a more major character, not yet. And characters like Gaeta, Hotdog, Racetrack, Seelix... They don't have the ties to the main characters to not make their inclusion weird or to make their death as impactful to our main characters.
At the same time, Dee just got refrigerated. And while I found her compelling in season one, I haven't really been able to connect to her for a while before this episode because suddenly she was All About A Man.
I'm glad she was finally given some agency of her own, but I'm not sure how I feel about her using it to kill herself.
Unlike some, I never had a problem with the female body count in S4 because I felt it was more a result of there being more secondary female characters than male characters of equivalent importance. I'm not sure if I think this ought to tip the scales. I'm also not sure I entirely disagree with the dramatic decision, which is an uncomfortable place for me to be. Especially since they didn't just kill off a female character to give male characters motivation, they also killed off one of their most prominent characters of colour. Yes we still have Athena/the Eights and Bill Adama, but people of African-American heritage have a particularly stereotypical tendency to get offed.
And yet that's the closest BSG's brought me to crying in a while. Actually, that's not true: the Hub did that too with Laura and Baltar. But I'm not sure BSG had managed to do that before like...ever except perhaps when Tigh poisoned Ellen, because I'm not a crier when it comes to watching TV that much. I thought it made a valuable point and was good for the story, and I can't actually think of another character who would have served that purpose better. Perhaps it was racism and sexism that put her in that position in the first place (just-important-to-care-about-not-important-enough-to-save).
Blargh. *waves hands ineffectively* I don't know. I just don't know. So I'm going to cop out and move on to Bill Adama making Everything About Him.
Okay, Bill. That was...ridiculous. It was bad enough when you were either so ignorant or so selfish as to start playing the "who lost more?" game with your son when Kara died. To do it when that's his WIFE on the mortuary table is pretty fucking terrible.
Because really, that's pretty much what he did. Storm in on Lee's grief, not to hold him, to hug him, to be his father, or, hell his friend, but to respond with a rhetorical, angry line, that, for once in the episode, I thought EJO really nailed if he intended to come off as totally insensitive and angry and drunk and looking for someone to comfort him rather than to offer comfort (and I think that may actually have been the intention. I sure hope it was, because otherwise, ew.)
I get he was trying to show solidarity when he offered Lee a drink. But Lee refused and indicated that wasn't how he wanted to deal with his grief (which I really respect). The next thing we see is Lee leaving the morgue. I don't imagine it was because he was done spending time with his wife, but I wouldn't want to stay there while my drunken father made her death all about him and his failures either. I know that to Adama she was a symbol of his failure in a wider context and also someone to whom he was quite close. But it rang hollow because for one thing we haven't seen them interacting at all for like a season and a half even though she was his daughter-in-law, and for another, it's juxtaposed against Lee, who has so much more of a personal connection with her, not only holding his shit together, but effectively appearing to get kicked out of the morgue so his dad could emo it up on his own.
And just, yeah. Adama. We haven't seen you two talking since like, Home II. LET SOMEONE ELSE HAVE SOME ANGST. And at least give your son a hug. His wife just died, you know.
And then, on to Adama and Tigh. Oh dear lord, that scene was awful. Like, I actually laughed out loud so much that my husband showed up and asked me what was going on, when Adama was all "DO IT! DOOOOOO IT!" because WTF was he doing with his face?
I can't even be bothered to get into all the snark I could make about the qualities Adama admired in Tigh (like what? The alcoholism and total lack of objectivity he's currently emulating?) (well okay, maybe I can be a little bothered), because DUDE.
This is just...farce.
BSG is usually really good at subtle acting. But no. Not here. Adama's breakdown in Revelations was hilarious to me because I find Adama hilarious (and occasionally offensive), but I can at least acknowledge that if I liked his character, I would have been able to take that breakdown seriously (and indeed, parts of it I did, per my original response).
But this? What the fuck was this? I just...I have no frakking clue.
I will say that I found Lee adjusting the white board score to remove one more affecting that that entire scene and pretty much anything else in the episode. Let's hear it for Jamie Bamber there, and in his scene with Kara.
So, the only thing left to talk about is Laura!
Dude, Laura getting of the raptor was painful. I really thought she was going to say something. I really thought she was. I saw her gather herself up, try to put the words together, to pull herself together, and...break.
I think this will be hella interesting and potentially awesome. Because we've never seen her give up before. And yes, I think it makes sense that this is when it happens. And, after three and a half seasons of total selflessness and unwavering devotion to everyone except herself, she's really earned this storyline. She's so angry. That Mary McDonnell manages to convey this without ever raising her voice or acting anything other than numb and devastated speaks to her quality as an actress, but we all know that I'm in love with her already.
"Don't touch me."
Be still my heart.
And no, actually, not just because I hate A/R. Because that line had nothing to do with any romantic feelings she might have for anyone. If the show had gone with Laura/Lee and Lee had been there, or Laura/Maya and Maya had been there, whoever, that line would have been the same, and as perfect and chilling, anyway.
I'm very glad that when she told Adama to leave her the hell alone, he just left her because a) I don't ship them but more importantly b) it means that the plotline can continue. Watching Laura have a crisis of faith and attempt defacto suicide is going to be awesome.
But I do think that Adama royally frakked that one up. What Laura actually needed at that point was for someone to say, "The hell I'm leaving you alone," and like, grab her in a bear hug no matter how much she yelled at them.
I mean, this is the lesser judgment I'm passing down on him because Laura's also an adult, and not his child, and playing the "leave me the hell alone," game which is less easy to deal with when you're also emotionally exhausted, as opposed to Lee who was trying to reach out. But I do think it continues Adama's habit of never really...confronting the people he loves when he needs to.
And finally, Tory, Anders and Tyrol. Dude! Tyrol found his own shadow burned into the wall! That's perversely awesome. Especially the way he looked so calm and at peace to have found it.
AHAHAHAHAAA, Anders is Dylan! And also it's a love song! Though I do wonder what the hell Tory meant by "you sung it for all of us"? Did she mean her, Tyrol, Tigh and Ellen as in, they all knew each other? Did she mean for whatever girlie-groupie-sex-whatever-they-ares that Anders used to have (eew)? Did she mean that Anders was a rockstar and she watched him on TV?
I like to think she wasn't so much speaking literally as metaphorically in that it was the song that called them home, whether that was an original explicit intention or not.
I also like the idea that Tory was the woman Anders loved back then.
And I think that's about it. I liked it, overall. I hated the Adama/Tigh scene, but the rest was fairly solid with some intriguing plotlines set up. Let's just see if they resolve them well. I do wonder if one of the reasons I'm not more concerned is that they're still asking questions rather than giving answers, which leaves me free to fanwank my heart out, like that Ellen will never come back and was secretly behind the resurrection of the Five but also resurrected herself as...well...Ellen.
I am also insanely proud of myself for managing to come up with a scenario that allows me to find this reveal cool rather than boring. GO MY BRAIN.
Oh wait - totally random comment: what was with everyone (i.e. emo extras) suddenly being emo and hanging around in the corridors. They didn't used to do that. Did Galactica shrink or something?
Now I just have to wait for someone to upload next week's trailer onto YouTube because scifi.com won't let me watch it from my location. PERHAPS NEXT WEEK SOMEONE WILL REMEMBER CAPRICA EXISTS.
Firstly, I shall address the final cylon reveal.
As you know, I was terribly nervous about this because I thought (and it turns out I am largely correct) that any minor character would be a disappointment and I was convinced RDM wouldn't go for a major character.
So. Ellen.
I was actually spoiled for this a few days ago and I'm kind of glad because it gave me a chance to think about it and deal with my disappointment and get to a place where I feel I can comment more rationally. After thinking about it, my considered response is that it has potential (good and bad) and is certainly better than Gaeta or Dee, although in no way comparable to the awesome that would have been Roslin or Kara.
The good potential is that Ellen's at least a character I enjoy and she plays well off Tigh. I also kind of love the hilarity that THIS is the epic, time-spanning romance of the series. I very much hope if we actually, physically see her again that it's clear she didn't know who/what she was the entire time because a lot of why her character works even though she's a manipulative ho is that she's incapable of subtlety and that lends her vulnerability and comedy at the same time. But the idea of Ellen as a crazy puppeteer of all things in that past life (where she certainly seemed to have more of a clue as to what the frak was going on than the other four, unless she was just high on death endorphines or something) only to reincarnate (or whatever) as this Ellen Tigh is...kind of awesome even though I don't want to admit it.
The bad potential is that in some ways, the big, vaunted final cylon reveal is all about someone else, i.e. Tigh. Which is part of why I'd like to see her in some puppetteer role in her last life because that would help make her an interesting character in an independent way without destroying the hilarious issues this brings up re: Tigh's current feelings.
The other bad potential is if they actually physically bring her back. I'm very glad they stayed away from that at this point because if they did bring her back I would be...nervous re: Caprica Six getting dumped yet again which would just be awful to watch. Worse yet, I'd worry about her character getting yet more marginalised to make room for the Epic Love of Tigh/Ellen. And even though I'm in love with the Epic Love of Tigh/Ellen, I love Caprica too. And dammit, it's been THREE EPISODES since we even saw her, and dude, SOMEONE NEEDS TO HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE DAMN FLIPPERBABY. (They'd totally better not retcon that away somehow.)
Finally, if they bring Ellen back to life, I'd be...a little upset at the way it makes the New Caprica arc play in retrospect. Not show-destroyingly upset. Tigh still did what he did and went through what he went through. But I'm so attached to Totally Fucked-Up Tigh Who Murdered His Wife that I think watching him get a "do-over," because he only half-murdered her would be a little sad for me.
So. In sum. I love Ellen as the sekrit schemer of 2000 years ago if she STAYS DEAD and we learn more about this via flashback/Tigh going EVER MORE CRAZY. If she comes back in the flesh, I'll give the benefit of the doubt, but I shall be nervous.
I'm aware that it's a little odd to want the final cylon to be a dead character who stays dead but...there you have it. It's what I want. And if we get revelations about her role in the 2000 years ago hoojima and why they showed up again in the Colonies, I think that would satisfy the desire for her identity and role to be dramatically significant. But I fear I'm in a minority there.
NO WAIT.
There is one scenario in which I will be TOTALLY OKAY with Ellen being alive again. And that's if she is alive on Earth someplace (cus that's where she resurrected), and then after the Fleet leaves, she hooks up with D'Anna and shares her...I dunno, sekrit hoard of anti-radiation-med-laced algae burgers and moonshine, and then the two of them WANDER THE SURFACE OF NUKED EARTH FOR FORTY YEARS LIKE DRUNKEN ISRAELITES. THINK OF THE HIJINCKS.
Speaking of D'Anna, I hope that next episode they're still sort of at Earth and that we see her again, because she was in like, two scenes and dammit, if this is the last time I see Robot Xena it will make me sad. Although I did find her decision to stay there and "get off this merry-go-round," fascinating. I do like how the cycle of time and our ability to fight it is being called into question. And I was only half joking about D'Anna finding Ellen after the Fleet leaves and then the two of them
Moving on to:
Kara and Leoben.
Kara finding her own dead body was pretty amazing. I really hope that is her and not a clone/copy/fake. I hope this for two reasons. 1) it confuses the boundaries between human and cylon, because Kara's not a cylon but apparently has resurrected somehow and 2) I really want there to be a genuine mystical component to Kara's journey and even if she died flying into the Maelstrom, this is still mystical because how did her ship and dead body magically get to Earth? No, wait, three reasons: 3) Kara burning her own body, by herself, was hardcore.
I'm a little perplexed at Leoben's behaviour. I mean, he's Leoben so I love him anyway, and I love that everyone had their faith destroyed in this episode, even him. But I'm not entirely sure why.
I mean, first of all, "You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace, you will lead them all to their end," didn't seem like something the Hybrid said particularly more quietly than the rest of the prophecy she spoke which everyone who was in that room was discussing. So why didn't Leoben know about this? Of course I did also wonder at the time why everyone conveniently left out that bit which, considering Kara's flashbacks to her, does make me wonder if the Hybrid like...wirelessly sent that straight into her brain or something?
Secondly, Leoben, dude, if anything you've just seen evidence that Kara is a miraculous angel type person. I suppose it's possible he never knew about her death in the Maelstrom in the first place. But even if he didn't, he basically confirmed that if Kara was resurrected, it wasn't an above-board Cylon plan using her ovary or something. And her ship inexplicably jumped across space and here is a perfect copy of her. So what, it's okay to resurrect as long as your'e a cylon and do it using a Hub? But not okay if it's an act of God?
I just fundamentally do not get why Leoben was weirded out by someone being resurrected, especially not when he already attributes religious significance on the level of an angel to that person.
Kara meanwhile, dude. Yes. That was rough for you. It was interesting to see that she was ready to confide in Lee. But I found myself really appreciating her for noticing how much pain he was in and choosing not to tell him what was happening in that moment. Although I wish she'd given him a hug, because dude, someone really, really needed to. And no one did.
Lee was such a hero in this episode. He really stepped up, and pushed through not only the tragedy of finding Earth wasted (which while devastating to him, didn't have quite the personal significance of failure it did to either Kara or Laura or, much as I hate to admit it, Adama), but he also kept it going through Dee's suicide which must not only have been devastatingly personally affecting, but also something for which he received absolutely no support, at least until the end scene with Kara, maybe.
I also have a secret glee that they showed Lee getting Dualla's belongings. The reason is this: way back in late season two/earliest season three, I had a thought that was odd, painful and danced in my head for a few weeks before I decided it wasn't going anywhere and it was this: people in the Fleet have personal effects. Who gets them? In general I imagine there's something of a communal sense of ownership over practical items like clothes, but still. With everyone dead, and new relationships forming so quickly... I had this image of Lee, if Dee died, getting all of Dee's things. Her entire life in a box, even though, really, he barely knew her. Now it's been years. It's not quite the same as it happening after a month or two of dating and a hasty marriage, but it reminded me of that. The people in the Fleet who must have found themselves the guardians of belongings and relics of people they barely knew, but still knew better than anyone alive. So yeah. Oddly prescient.
I don't...I don't know how to assess what happened with Dee. I know that I enjoyed her relationship with Lee more in this episode than I ever had before: that finally it felt healthy and safe and I was even sort of nostalgic for it even though y'all know how much I HATED the entire quadrangle back in S3. Which was, of course, the point. I also get that after Karl tries to calm her on the raptor, that's when Dee decides that she's gonna kill herself, and everything else is just saying goodbye. I get that someone had to respond this way: the exhaustion. One day you just snap. Frankly I'm surprised it never happened before to a character we knew and cared about. And in a weird way, I really get why it's Dee. It couldn't be a more major character, not yet. And characters like Gaeta, Hotdog, Racetrack, Seelix... They don't have the ties to the main characters to not make their inclusion weird or to make their death as impactful to our main characters.
At the same time, Dee just got refrigerated. And while I found her compelling in season one, I haven't really been able to connect to her for a while before this episode because suddenly she was All About A Man.
I'm glad she was finally given some agency of her own, but I'm not sure how I feel about her using it to kill herself.
Unlike some, I never had a problem with the female body count in S4 because I felt it was more a result of there being more secondary female characters than male characters of equivalent importance. I'm not sure if I think this ought to tip the scales. I'm also not sure I entirely disagree with the dramatic decision, which is an uncomfortable place for me to be. Especially since they didn't just kill off a female character to give male characters motivation, they also killed off one of their most prominent characters of colour. Yes we still have Athena/the Eights and Bill Adama, but people of African-American heritage have a particularly stereotypical tendency to get offed.
And yet that's the closest BSG's brought me to crying in a while. Actually, that's not true: the Hub did that too with Laura and Baltar. But I'm not sure BSG had managed to do that before like...ever except perhaps when Tigh poisoned Ellen, because I'm not a crier when it comes to watching TV that much. I thought it made a valuable point and was good for the story, and I can't actually think of another character who would have served that purpose better. Perhaps it was racism and sexism that put her in that position in the first place (just-important-to-care-about-not-important-enough-to-save).
Blargh. *waves hands ineffectively* I don't know. I just don't know. So I'm going to cop out and move on to Bill Adama making Everything About Him.
Okay, Bill. That was...ridiculous. It was bad enough when you were either so ignorant or so selfish as to start playing the "who lost more?" game with your son when Kara died. To do it when that's his WIFE on the mortuary table is pretty fucking terrible.
Because really, that's pretty much what he did. Storm in on Lee's grief, not to hold him, to hug him, to be his father, or, hell his friend, but to respond with a rhetorical, angry line, that, for once in the episode, I thought EJO really nailed if he intended to come off as totally insensitive and angry and drunk and looking for someone to comfort him rather than to offer comfort (and I think that may actually have been the intention. I sure hope it was, because otherwise, ew.)
I get he was trying to show solidarity when he offered Lee a drink. But Lee refused and indicated that wasn't how he wanted to deal with his grief (which I really respect). The next thing we see is Lee leaving the morgue. I don't imagine it was because he was done spending time with his wife, but I wouldn't want to stay there while my drunken father made her death all about him and his failures either. I know that to Adama she was a symbol of his failure in a wider context and also someone to whom he was quite close. But it rang hollow because for one thing we haven't seen them interacting at all for like a season and a half even though she was his daughter-in-law, and for another, it's juxtaposed against Lee, who has so much more of a personal connection with her, not only holding his shit together, but effectively appearing to get kicked out of the morgue so his dad could emo it up on his own.
And just, yeah. Adama. We haven't seen you two talking since like, Home II. LET SOMEONE ELSE HAVE SOME ANGST. And at least give your son a hug. His wife just died, you know.
And then, on to Adama and Tigh. Oh dear lord, that scene was awful. Like, I actually laughed out loud so much that my husband showed up and asked me what was going on, when Adama was all "DO IT! DOOOOOO IT!" because WTF was he doing with his face?
I can't even be bothered to get into all the snark I could make about the qualities Adama admired in Tigh (like what? The alcoholism and total lack of objectivity he's currently emulating?) (well okay, maybe I can be a little bothered), because DUDE.
This is just...farce.
BSG is usually really good at subtle acting. But no. Not here. Adama's breakdown in Revelations was hilarious to me because I find Adama hilarious (and occasionally offensive), but I can at least acknowledge that if I liked his character, I would have been able to take that breakdown seriously (and indeed, parts of it I did, per my original response).
But this? What the fuck was this? I just...I have no frakking clue.
I will say that I found Lee adjusting the white board score to remove one more affecting that that entire scene and pretty much anything else in the episode. Let's hear it for Jamie Bamber there, and in his scene with Kara.
So, the only thing left to talk about is Laura!
Dude, Laura getting of the raptor was painful. I really thought she was going to say something. I really thought she was. I saw her gather herself up, try to put the words together, to pull herself together, and...break.
I think this will be hella interesting and potentially awesome. Because we've never seen her give up before. And yes, I think it makes sense that this is when it happens. And, after three and a half seasons of total selflessness and unwavering devotion to everyone except herself, she's really earned this storyline. She's so angry. That Mary McDonnell manages to convey this without ever raising her voice or acting anything other than numb and devastated speaks to her quality as an actress, but we all know that I'm in love with her already.
"Don't touch me."
Be still my heart.
And no, actually, not just because I hate A/R. Because that line had nothing to do with any romantic feelings she might have for anyone. If the show had gone with Laura/Lee and Lee had been there, or Laura/Maya and Maya had been there, whoever, that line would have been the same, and as perfect and chilling, anyway.
I'm very glad that when she told Adama to leave her the hell alone, he just left her because a) I don't ship them but more importantly b) it means that the plotline can continue. Watching Laura have a crisis of faith and attempt defacto suicide is going to be awesome.
But I do think that Adama royally frakked that one up. What Laura actually needed at that point was for someone to say, "The hell I'm leaving you alone," and like, grab her in a bear hug no matter how much she yelled at them.
I mean, this is the lesser judgment I'm passing down on him because Laura's also an adult, and not his child, and playing the "leave me the hell alone," game which is less easy to deal with when you're also emotionally exhausted, as opposed to Lee who was trying to reach out. But I do think it continues Adama's habit of never really...confronting the people he loves when he needs to.
And finally, Tory, Anders and Tyrol. Dude! Tyrol found his own shadow burned into the wall! That's perversely awesome. Especially the way he looked so calm and at peace to have found it.
AHAHAHAHAAA, Anders is Dylan! And also it's a love song! Though I do wonder what the hell Tory meant by "you sung it for all of us"? Did she mean her, Tyrol, Tigh and Ellen as in, they all knew each other? Did she mean for whatever girlie-groupie-sex-whatever-they-ares that Anders used to have (eew)? Did she mean that Anders was a rockstar and she watched him on TV?
I like to think she wasn't so much speaking literally as metaphorically in that it was the song that called them home, whether that was an original explicit intention or not.
I also like the idea that Tory was the woman Anders loved back then.
And I think that's about it. I liked it, overall. I hated the Adama/Tigh scene, but the rest was fairly solid with some intriguing plotlines set up. Let's just see if they resolve them well. I do wonder if one of the reasons I'm not more concerned is that they're still asking questions rather than giving answers, which leaves me free to fanwank my heart out, like that Ellen will never come back and was secretly behind the resurrection of the Five but also resurrected herself as...well...Ellen.
I am also insanely proud of myself for managing to come up with a scenario that allows me to find this reveal cool rather than boring. GO MY BRAIN.
Oh wait - totally random comment: what was with everyone (i.e. emo extras) suddenly being emo and hanging around in the corridors. They didn't used to do that. Did Galactica shrink or something?
Now I just have to wait for someone to upload next week's trailer onto YouTube because scifi.com won't let me watch it from my location. PERHAPS NEXT WEEK SOMEONE WILL REMEMBER CAPRICA EXISTS.
