BSG: The Oath

[beccatoria]

OMG SRSLY PEOPLE WHY ARE YOU ALL STILL ASLEEP SO THERE IS NO ONE TO TALK TO ABOUT THIS EPISODE?

Basically, my entire reaction is that it made me ENORMOUSLY blood-thirsty. I now want like, everyone to die horribly. Next episode. Not because I dislike them or anything. Just because they need to die. But probably I have other thoughts too. I shall try to find them.

Laura is always a good place to start. The A/R was not so eye-gougingly horrifying as last time. I still dislike the little almost fanservicey moments like Tigh's reaction to Laura walking out in her bathrobe or "I'll have it ready," re: dinner. I really didn't like that. I know she was being sarcastic and teasing him, but just, blah. Hanging a lantern on the situation doesn't actually make the situation okay. Fortunately the rest of the episode helped change the situation.

I was also glad that everyone had the decency to look embarassed for Laura because she had to kiss that dumb old dude before getting on the raptor instead of Lee Tory Maya Baltar ANYONE ELSE. At least, that's my reading and I'm sticking to it. Although I have to admit, weirdly, the raptor-kissing scene bothered me a lot less than the dumb joke in his quarters. I guess like, the kissing seemed more along the lines of what I was mentally prepared to cope with?

Like for instance I actually liked the awesome way Laura called Adama out on his passive aggressive behaviour. Echoes of earlier in the season when she did something similar and he lashed out and left her crying and pulling out her own hair.

But anyway, moving on to the MORE AWESOME PARTS, Laura, you're back. Sort of. Mainly because that look when Lee and Kara come to get her and she just knows that this is her own damn fault. And, as she always does, she gets up, and tries to deal with it.

And now she's going to be on the Basestar. With CYLONS. FOMENTING CHAOS AND REVOLUTION AND POSSIBLY DECLARING WAR ON THE COMMANDEERED GALACTICA. For real, I did not know how awesome an idea that would be until it occured. I love it. I only wish that Kara and Lee and all my favourite brigged-up cylon had gone with her.

I also enjoyed her scenes with Baltar. And Baltar's scenes with his cult. Mainly because he seems to be back in that mode of playing the role for his own benefit and you guys, you have no idea how much of a relief it is to see Baltar going back to being All About Baltar instead of being All About Being Your Saviour. *shudders*

THE CYLON IN THE BRIG! DON'T HURT THEM! Yes, I know this is at odds with my bloodthirsty desire to see everyone dead, but I'll get to that later. Suffice to say I don't want these guys dead yet.

I'm really not sure why Helo and Sharon didn't lock the door when they heard shooting but whatever, Helo is still a freight-train of stand-up morality, Hera is still adorable, and Athena is still entertaining me with her advice to Sam and eye-rolly response to Caprica.

One of my fondest hopes for next episode (although I'm sure it will be dashed) is that Caprica will break out of the brig using only her DEADLY STILETTO HEELS but until then, I will be satisfied by her making hilariously inappropriate and proselytizing speeches about procreation and freaking out the robotic children.

Also, Hera finally got a hug from a Six that didn't end in DEATH.

It looks like they cut the footage of Caprica getting captured which I'm quasi-grateful for becuase I really can do without the stress of seeing Pegasus rapists beat on her, but at the same time, her capture might have shed light on where she was living. I mean, I assume with Tigh, but who knows.

(I sekritly hope that her new shawly thing is actually Ellen's and that later we'll see her in ridonkulus PINK clothing, but again, I expect my hopes to be dashed.)

KARA AND LEE! I will confess, I didn't know how much I missed those two as the Twins until I saw them again. I didn't even mind the kiss. Kind of like their previous S4 kiss I felt it was completely appropriate and intepretable in numerous ways. For those of you who think it was romantic, well, I agree that was the authorial intention, and don't even have a problem with that, really. I just think that the way in which it was loving also plays into the whole best-friends-grew-up-together-adrenaline-rush-cus-we're-alive dynamic they have that I also love.

How else did I love them? I loved Lee refusing to give up on democracy, and while, yes, Zarek played him, he didn't totally play him. Lee went to get his own information - to find out the facts on the ground. I loved Lee the pragmatist. Lee who is still so furious with the Cylon but also knows that this is the only option left.

No, sorry, as he pointed out in one of the most heartbreaking exchanges of the episode, the only option the Cylon left them with.

I say, as someone who is completely on Team Cylon, who loves and adores this show largely because of the wonderful, complicated Cylon, Lee is absolutely right here.

Lee is actually an interesting counterpoint to Racetrack. Because at first I wasn't on board with her being on board with the mutiny. But actually Racetrack got smacked down by Kara for bitching about Helo. Racetrack got betrayed by Boomer. Racetrack helped save Roslin because she believed in the civilian government or in Laura's visions, not because she was in any way Cylon-friendly. Racetrack was actually - once I thought about it - a good reminder that, like Lee, you can be very, very anti-Cylon without being Connor. Without being one of the Circle. Without also thinking every human collaborator is just as bad as a Cylon. You can have high ideals about democracy and the rights of the people and choose to take arms against your superiors to defend those when it becomes a moral issue and still come down on one side during the start of season two and the other during the end of season four and your morals don't need to have changed in the middle.

Racetrack, again, is committing mutiny because she wants to restore the person she sees as the rightful leader of the people to a position of power.

It's fascinating that she is, in many ways, doing the exact same thing as Lee and has all the same ideals (at least she could, I guess we don't really know), but lacks his cold pragmatism and his understanding that the mutineers will commit worse atrocities here and so...is on the other side.

But to get away from my Racetrack tangent, KARA! OH HONEY. YOU'RE BACK AND IT INVOLVES KILLING PEOPLE AND BEING VERY SCARY AND AWESOME.

I don't have a lot to say except she was perfect. The way she took charge and just decided to singlehandedly put down a shipwide mutiny. The way she just decided, almost Cain-style that she was taking not shit from anyone and started shooting, and yeah. She would have killed Racetrack. Racetrack who she's flown with for three years. Racetrack who she trusts. Racetrack. She'd've shot her. Without a second thought. And as awesome and Kara-Thracey as that is, my friends, that is also terrifying.

It's also a rational response to the situation because Zarek and Gaeta made it this scary.

This mutiny is the Galactica's Pegasus moment. Made easier to swallow by the reintroduction of all the Pegasus crazies, but it's not them leading the charge. It's not even really Zarek.

Because guess what? Zarek and Gaeta don't have good points. Not a single frakking one. No better than Cain's "good point" about how Gina was a machine so it was cool to rape her. All of Zarek's points are about manipulating people for a power grab. All of Gaeta's are about rage.

Lee is the one with the good points here. That it's not fair, that it's not just all they have left but all they've been left with. That it sucks this is their only option. That it doesn't earn an iota of forgiveness, or quench an ounce of anger.

The only true point Gaeta and Zarek have is that people are angry and aren't going to stop being angry just because they also want to live. But their response and their justifications are as useless as Cain's justifications for shooting the civilians on the Scylla. For what happened to Gina. For ordering Adama's assassination.

When they're more insane than the situation that precipitates them, they stop being good points and start being one more symptom of the nihilistic, broken world you've chosen to make.

Galactica is turning into Pegasus as we watch.

Here is the point where they just quietly go mad and decide the body count is immaterial, what matters is somehow exerting control.

What matters is Seelix leading two marines up to Sam, watching them beat the shit out of him, and deciding that the pain of watching them do it is less then the pain of watching them stop. What matters is Skulls deciding it's better to make a cruel joke about Laird's death than consider what it means. What matters is Gaeta turning into Cain and salving his conscience by ordering up the same kind of kangaroo court trial for the Admiral that Cain had for Helo and Tyrol.

It's kind of amazing that I understand it, and that I don't really feel it comes out of nowhere. It comes out of the same loss that precipitated Pegasus' breakdown. With the loss of Earth, they lost their worlds again.

But it also makes me bloodthirsty in a way I can't justify.

It's not that I hate any of the characters, but I just want everyone to die. Like I want the ship to be retaken by the "good" guys, and for Gaeta and Seelix and Zarek and Connor and Narcho and Skulls and maybe even Racetrack (though that might actually upset me) to stand trial for treason and mutiny and get executed. Or gunned down horribly.

I want a body count, because dammit, they went brutal on us here. The show started it, so it damn well better finish it. We're in the final season. There's no more room for escalation.

And I know, if they execute every damn one of the people involved in this mutiny, they won't have enough people to run the ship. I don't care. I want to see it happen.

Not because I think that this particular crime is deserving of such punishment. Not because I think they deserve less leniency than the people who got a blanket pardon after New Caprica, or the people who helped Roslin with her insurrection in season two, or any of the other billion and three mutinies or acts of treason we've seen over the course of the series. Of course they're just as deserving of forgiveness.

Maybe in some ways that's the point. I just...I can't see it working. Gaeta cannot ever, ever go back to being an officer in CIC. Narcho can never be just another pilot. Even on New Caprica, it somehow stopped short of actual murder (although only through sheer luck) and even if that execution had happened, somehow it was off the sacred ground of the Galactica herself. It was under duress of the enemy, in a snake pit, and the culprits were at least ashamed enough to stay masked.

The power of this story is its nihilism. It needs a pointless, horrific, nihilistic end. Obviously, I'm willing to be proven wrong, but I don't think that a grand speech from an Adama or the President about healing wounds and how few they have left will cut it this time.

I want a bodycount. I want Gaeta, Zarek and at least the other major ringleaders like Connor to stand trial and die. And for it to be an empty, hollow experience for everyone involved.

And dammit, really, I don't know what's gotten into me to make me this bloodthirsty.

Comments

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually read what you said yet, and I'm still processing because I just finished watching five minutes ago, but

MY GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is all right now. There will be more later. *bounces* OMG!

[mymatedave.livejournal.com]

Brilliant commentary, and I almost feel sorry for Gaeta, he's worked so very hard all these years to be the perfect offficer, the honest man and every time he's been beaten down, he's even lost his leg.

And just when he's getting angry about these things, Adama forces this on the fleet. It's like you said, he decides to something about it.

[sabaceanbabe.livejournal.com]

You've just expressed thoughts about this ep I didn't realize I had. :P

Added to memories to save forever and I'll be back later with actual thoughts. :)

[cujoy.livejournal.com]

Really good post. I've been going around arguing that Gaeta and Zarek's motivations and rationale aren't really as forthright or justified as they seem on the surface because of Zarek's underlying power-hunger (which has always been there, he cloaks it with his talk of "revolution" - as though revolution were actually relevant in their situation with actual survival in the balance) and Gaeta's underlying rage. You said this far better.

[emmiere.livejournal.com]

One of my fondest hopes for next episode (although I'm sure it will be dashed) is that Caprica will break out of the brig using only hear DEADLY STILETTO HEELS

This!!! *wishes hard*

Ok, rambly thoughts time. You've summed up so many things about the episode that I passed over entirely last night in my show excitement.

My review was a lot more glee-filled, because there are so many things I'd been missing that the show gave to me wrapped in a scary, awesome package. I mean, Laura, Kara, Lee, and Chief(!) all being ridiculously amazing and kicking ass! Roslin and Baltar having a conversation about truth and manipulation. If there had been more Cylons, it would have kind of given me everything I didn't even know I wanted to see. And I'll continue to be excited I think, but I'm a lot more thinky in the morning than I was last night.

Here is the point where they just quietly go mad and decide the body count is immaterial, what matters is somehow exerting control.

Yeah, I think you've really hit on all of the scarier implications, the mutiny has fully crossed the line and it's not really even about the alliance anymore (if it ever really was more than the excuse), it's about causing pain and hurting people so they'll share your loss. It's just rage now. Connor, especially, has always been about this. I'm so sad for the Galactica mirroring Pegasus here, but it was awfully appropriate that we saw Gage again for the first time since that arc too.

I want a bodycount. I want Gaeta, Zarek and at least the other major ringleaders like Connor to stand trial and die. And for it to be an empty, hollow experience for everyone involved.

And I think we're likely to get something like this. There won't be an easy patch for this time, and whitewashing it away isn't going to do anything. *sad for my show* I don't really want more pain and suffering for these people, but I'm not sure I'd buy it if we get anything else after the show's taken us here.

Also, best analysis of Racetrack's motivations.

[indigo419.livejournal.com]

I love this review (I love your ep reactions, pretty much across the board, and you usually say everything so I'm left tongue-tied - oh, and apologies in advance for quoting half your post) - but the part I love best is this:

You can have high ideals about democracy and the rights of the people and choose to take arms against your superiors to defend those when it becomes a moral issue and still come down on one side during the start of season two and the other during the end of season four and your morals don't need to have changed in the middle.

You've given me back Racetrack. I was just as dumbfounded and sad as Lee to see here there, but you help me understand how she got there and why she's not beyond hope.


I only wish that Kara and Lee and all my favourite brigged-up cylon had gone with her.

"Cylon" as both singular and plural! LOVE. :D


how much of a relief it is to see Baltar going back to being All About Baltar instead of being All About Being Your Saviour.

I was never so giddy to see him looking out for number one!!


No, sorry, as he pointed out in one of the most heartbreaking exchanges of the episode, the only option the Cylon left them with.

I teared up again just reading this line. And then:


Lee is the one with the good points here... That it sucks this is their only option. That it doesn't earn an iota of forgiveness, or quench an ounce of anger.

Lee was one of the best things about this awesome episode. Sometimes he can overthink things, but here he's brilliantly clear about what he does, and why, and there's not a second of wasted motion in his actions.


Galactica is turning into Pegasus as we watch.

...

What matters is Seelix... deciding that the pain of watching them do it is less then the pain of watching them stop.

Gods, I love this show. Bear McCreary said next week makes this week look slow by comparison. *joins you on the bloodthirsty train*

[coffeejunkii.livejournal.com]

i thought kara was absolutely amazing, too. the best she's been in a long time, like she said herself.

while i appreciate bsg's bleakness, i most certainly do not want a nihilistic ending. that would leave me really devastated. while i think that gaeta et al deserve what's coming to them, i still want a "good triumphs over evil" ending overall.

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

I am awake! I can't sleep on BSG mornings! And I'm not used to you not being like a billion hours away in Korea!

she just knows that this is her own damn fault. And, as she always does, she gets up, and tries to deal with it.
Mom has had her day off and now it's time to go pick up the kids at the hospital. Unfortunately, they aren't doing so well . . . I don't know if she can really get them back.

I only wish that Kara and Lee and all my favourite brigged-up cylon had gone with her.
I don't know why they didn't go. Except maybe no one wants to blow the Galactica. It is home. Or they want to go hook up where Cylons aren't around. We'll see. :-)

I just think that the way in which it was loving also plays into the wholebest-friends-grew-up-together-adrenaline-rush-cus-we're-alive dynamic they have that I also love.
I LOVE THEM!!!! Yep, I think that's all I have to say on that. :-)

KARA! OH HONEY. YOU'RE BACK AND IT INVOLVES KILLING PEOPLE AND BEING VERY SCARY AND AWESOME.
HOW MUCH DO I LOVE MY GIRL RIGHT NOW?? THIS MUCH!!!!!

The only true point Gaeta and Zarek have is that people are angry and aren't going to stop being angry just because they also want to live.
I actually did think they had a point. I had been uncomfortable with Adama and Roslin's leadership a bit since they were torturing Baltar in season 3. Now they are ignoring the Quorum. I don't love the Quorum members but you can't just dismiss the voice of the people when they disagree with you. But you're right, the deeper point is people are angry and disappointed. The Quorum only represents this. I'm curious as to what Gaeta and Zarek will do differently now. How to satisfy that anger? Kill the Cylons? What? Would that even work? I'm really curious where they are going with this.

Ooh, interesting Gaeta as Cain. I don't think so. But it's an interesting thought. Has war forged Felix Gaeta into a Razor? I don't know.

You want death! I think I do too. Not my boy, not really. But. I want him to go all the way. I think it's time. And you are right. We've got seven eps left and they have to count. Through the ep, I just wanted him to follow through and not back down and he didn't! I found it very awesome. And if they kill him, they better frakking kill every last mutineer too. And Zarek. And the captains of the rebel ships. I don't want blood, but if they take my boy I want them all to go down with him. Damn it.

The blood-thirtiness is infectious! No. :-) I think the show is building somewhere and we don't want it to end somewhere lame. I really want my boy to live. I can even see it being possible. If there is a line he won't cross. He can still turn it around, maybe. No, not be in CIC again. But who can you ever trust ever again? Why is Adama trusting Tigh? There is no trust. No hope. We know this. Maybe we just want to finally see that take shape on screen.

Sigh. I'm in denial, the boy is practically dead and buried isn't he? But more than I want him to live, I want his death to mean something. Maybe they will realize what they were becoming as a result of this. Honestly, I can't see Adama running this fleet again. Or Roslin. It's all broken now and we aren't going to get it back.

I love this show. I keep saying it because I do. :-)

[asta77.livejournal.com]

or "I'll have it ready," re: dinner.

I hated that. Actually, I hated her playing the role, however briefly, of The Girlfriend. Ack.

Like for instance I actually liked the awesome way Laura called Adama out on his passive aggressive behaviour.

One of the best A/R moments EVA! And soooo relieved it wasn’t Adama, as I feared, but Lee who snapped her back to reality and made her realize she has to save her people!

you have no idea how much of a relief it is to see Baltar going back to being All About Baltar instead of being All About Being Your Saviour.

I do, I really do. And it was like a (good) reset had been hit and all the characters were back to being the people we know and love and being their awesome selves…accept, of course, for Adama. ;)

One of my fondest hopes for next episode (although I'm sure it will be dashed) is that Caprica will break out of the brig using only hear DEADLY STILETTO HEELS

That is the only reason for her to be wearing four inch stiletto heels. IT MADE NO SENSE!

her capture might have shed light on where she was living. I mean, I assume with Tigh, but who knows.

I wouldn’t assume with Tigh, but I would assume not in the brig.

I didn't even mind the kiss. Kind of like their previous S4 kiss I felt it was completely appropriate and intepretable in numerous ways. For those of you who think it was romantic, well, I agree that was the authorial intention, and don't even have a problem with that, really. I just think that the way in which it was loving also plays into the whole best-friends-grew-up-together-adrenaline-rush-cus-we're-alive dynamic they have that I also love.

I’m shocked! We read the scene the same way!

Racetrack helped save Roslin because she believed in the civilian government or in Laura's visions, not because she was in any way Cylon-friendly. Racetrack was actually - once I thought about it - a good reminder that, like Lee, you can be very, very anti-Cylon without being Connor.

I agree. In many ways Lee and Racetrack are on the same side – they both want civilian rule – but Lee is trying to work Laura and the system to ensure that happens and Racetrack and others have grown impatient waiting for the president to lead them.

And we are meant to be shocked by Racetrack’s choice because, really, you just never know about people. You think you know them, Lee was reeling form the thought of his friend standing by while he was about to be executed, but even though Racetrack accepted Athena, has flown missions with other Cylons, and has been the person you can count on to have your back, she’s lost as much as anyone else to the Cylons. And to suddenly be told that you are not just going to have to live with them, but they are going to be part of your government, they are going to have a hand in making laws that dictate how you live, and it’s all being foisted upon you seemingly by one man, well, it was more than she could take.

Racetrack, again, is committing mutiny because she wants to restore the person she sees as the rightful leader of the people to a position of power.

And with Laura resigning the presidency without actually resigning the presidency, leadership, to the minds of the mutineers, falls to Tom Zarek. He’s not a good choice, but he’s seen as their only choice.

[asta77.livejournal.com]

When they're more insane than the situation that precipitates them, they stop being good points and start being one more symptom of the nihilistic, broken world you've chosen to make.

And Zarek seems to have forgotten that a basestar armed with nukes is outside his front door. Really, this was never a winnable situation.

It comes out of the same loss that precipitated Pegasus' breakdown. With the loss of Earth, they lost their worlds again.

Excellent observation! That aspect had escaped me.

The power of this story is its nihilism. It needs a pointless, horrific, nihilistic end. Obviously, I'm willing to be proven wrong, but I don't think that a grand speech from an Adama or the President about healing wounds and how few they have left will cut it this time.

People do have to die this time. Yes, humans killed humans on New Caprica, but that was driven by fear of losing their own life or a misguided belief they were doing the right thing or just having no other options. There were choices to be made this time. They aren’t trying to garner support from the fleet. The mutineers aren’t just taking hostages. They aren’t trying to use those hostages to try and negotiate. They are just gunning people down at random. This isn’t the Cylons doing, this is their own doing. And, yes, I think people need to die. At some point you have to stop forgiving or the people will just continue to do whatever they damn well want because there are no consequences. Maybe Zarek and Gaeta will die in a firefight or by their own hand, but part of me thinks they really need to be blown out an airlock.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

This is a little too smart for me right now because all I want to do is SHOUT ABOUT MY GIRLFRIEND KILLING PEOPLE AND BEING A BADASS.

But I like a lot of what you say here.

Definitely was not a fan of the "making dinner" jokes. Blegh.
And Caprica's ridiculous evening wear. (PONCHO?! SRSLY?)

I've never liked Racetrack and while she may be just as "right" as Lee and not as "into the circle" as Gaeta or Connor. She was going to let that marine shoot Lee. That's just wrong. I was very surprised this epsiode that we didn't have one of the longtime folks have second thoughts about turning against Adama/Tigh/Lee/Laura/Kara. I mean that no-name marine--yeah whatever.

I'm so glad Baltar is sick of the cult. Because so am I.

[projectcyborg.livejournal.com]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: THANK YOU FOR H8ing on A/R!

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I want a bodycount. I want Gaeta, Zarek and at least the other major ringleaders like Connor to stand trial and die. And for it to be an empty, hollow experience for everyone involved.

Ditto. Except for the trial part. I want them to go out in a hail of Kara and Athena produced bullets. And then I will go on the internets and yell "THERE'S YOUR DEAD MEN, NOW SHUT UP AND LET ME ENJOY THE SERIES!"

[nightxade.livejournal.com]

Oh and Lee/Kara: I just don't like her, but reading your comment, and the Wonder Twins iconage too, I accept the idea and think about Booth and Bones on Bones and how I would have liked Lee/Kara a lot more if they hadn't messed things up by making them romantically involved. Awesome friends works for me! (They could still have worked a jealousy angle with Anders and Dee with that rather than going with the all out... but alas, by gones)