First - I love you for writing out the retcon so clearly. I still haven't had a chance to rewatch, and holy frakking frell, that was a lot of information at once.
Laura. I saw *half* of that scene in a sneak-preview clip and really freaked out. It's astounding how much better it plays once we've seen her and Lee mourn the quorum more. That said, it does nothing to assuage my Laura Roslin characterization issues this season. You're so right about the metatextual problem. If she had left the presidency in 4.0, the season where we actually saw her dealing with her illness, it might've felt right. But, aside from A/R (which does make this whole thing seem like, I haz my man; who cares about the rest of it), she has given up on her recovery as well. And coming on the heels of saving the fleet for what was definitely presented as "I will act the role of president for Adama, but the fleet no longer truly concerns me," I just... I can't believe that they're asking us to believe that *this* is Laura. Because, it ISN'T. Even if she's lost it because of disappointment in Earth, even if she's coming to terms with her mortality, even if she is questioning what human/cylon relationships should look like, well... at the very least there's more to it than they're showing. The fact is if Laura characterization resonated in any way that felt authentic, we wouldn't feel the need for more information to support what they're telling us.
As always, I love the Laura/Lee relationship, and for that the exchange was pitch perfect. But, without context, it's difficult for me to love it in any form.
Cylon runner. I DO enjoy Ellen Tigh 2.0. I suspect that is because they stole a lot of Laura's awesome and gave it to her. I am somewhat concerned about Ellen 1.0 is a total sexpot, and Ellen 2.0 has become cylon-mother. If I'm generous, I can call it a shift of personality based on a shift of knowledge (either she was acting out before, or she takes her role as F5 pretty srsly, IDK). I'm hoping next episode offers some Ellen integration, cuz as much as I enjoy Ellen 2.0, I'm having a hard time reconciling the personality transplant. As best I can tell, the only commonality is social pwnage.
Ellen's characterization DOES raise quite a few issues re: knowledge for me. Besides the fact that how she behaves directly corresponds with her self-awareness and a larger-world-perspective, we're still left with the question: why does she know who she is once she resurrects? Does this mean that if any of the other F5 died and had the ability to resurrect, they would suddenly know everything they had forgotten? She doesn't wake in the goo bath, freak out, and then say "omgs I'm a cylon." She KNOWS. There are a dozen ways to explain it, but I'd like a canon explanation to really explicate what they're saying about the relationships between knowledge, rebirth, behavior, etc.
Now for flailing: OMFGS YES I KNEW THERE WERE 8 (though I feel like at this point, didn't everybody?) and CYLON RUNNER WAS AWWWESOME. I love that Cavil is even *more* of a sociopath than we ever knew, including mommy issues! But more, I love that his embodiment angst is so incredibly human, even if he won't see that.
- Yes. Yes, Cavil. Your body is absurd. We are all absurd. We exist in an absurd universe. THIS HAD ME LOLLING SO LOUD PEOPLE IN THE OTHER ROOM WERE LIKE, WUHSOFUNNY?!
I STILL cannot believe how creepy awesome it is that you intuitively went with Daniel = #7, anddd I think you already know that I desperately want Kara to be the first cylon/cylon hybrid.
Oh and Caprica/Tigh scene was definitely creepy. I am SO TIRED of them not showing me the things I want to see; why don't we get more internal Caprica information? even if it's not presented in her POV (although at this point, i think actually playing a scene from her POV would be a nice gesture to show the blurring of cylon-human us-them lines...) I just... *sigh*
I am not as invested in 8s as I feel like I should be, but I *reallllllly* want an Athena/Boomer scene this week.
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Laura. I saw *half* of that scene in a sneak-preview clip and really freaked out. It's astounding how much better it plays once we've seen her and Lee mourn the quorum more. That said, it does nothing to assuage my Laura Roslin characterization issues this season. You're so right about the metatextual problem. If she had left the presidency in 4.0, the season where we actually saw her dealing with her illness, it might've felt right. But, aside from A/R (which does make this whole thing seem like, I haz my man; who cares about the rest of it), she has given up on her recovery as well. And coming on the heels of saving the fleet for what was definitely presented as "I will act the role of president for Adama, but the fleet no longer truly concerns me," I just... I can't believe that they're asking us to believe that *this* is Laura. Because, it ISN'T. Even if she's lost it because of disappointment in Earth, even if she's coming to terms with her mortality, even if she is questioning what human/cylon relationships should look like, well... at the very least there's more to it than they're showing. The fact is if Laura characterization resonated in any way that felt authentic, we wouldn't feel the need for more information to support what they're telling us.
As always, I love the Laura/Lee relationship, and for that the exchange was pitch perfect. But, without context, it's difficult for me to love it in any form.
Cylon runner. I DO enjoy Ellen Tigh 2.0. I suspect that is because they stole a lot of Laura's awesome and gave it to her. I am somewhat concerned about Ellen 1.0 is a total sexpot, and Ellen 2.0 has become cylon-mother. If I'm generous, I can call it a shift of personality based on a shift of knowledge (either she was acting out before, or she takes her role as F5 pretty srsly, IDK). I'm hoping next episode offers some Ellen integration, cuz as much as I enjoy Ellen 2.0, I'm having a hard time reconciling the personality transplant. As best I can tell, the only commonality is social pwnage.
Ellen's characterization DOES raise quite a few issues re: knowledge for me. Besides the fact that how she behaves directly corresponds with her self-awareness and a larger-world-perspective, we're still left with the question: why does she know who she is once she resurrects? Does this mean that if any of the other F5 died and had the ability to resurrect, they would suddenly know everything they had forgotten? She doesn't wake in the goo bath, freak out, and then say "omgs I'm a cylon." She KNOWS. There are a dozen ways to explain it, but I'd like a canon explanation to really explicate what they're saying about the relationships between knowledge, rebirth, behavior, etc.
Now for flailing: OMFGS YES I KNEW THERE WERE 8 (though I feel like at this point, didn't everybody?) and CYLON RUNNER WAS AWWWESOME. I love that Cavil is even *more* of a sociopath than we ever knew, including mommy issues! But more, I love that his embodiment angst is so incredibly human, even if he won't see that.
- Yes. Yes, Cavil. Your body is absurd. We are all absurd. We exist in an absurd universe. THIS HAD ME LOLLING SO LOUD PEOPLE IN THE OTHER ROOM WERE LIKE, WUHSOFUNNY?!
I STILL cannot believe how creepy awesome it is that you intuitively went with Daniel = #7, anddd I think you already know that I desperately want Kara to be the first cylon/cylon hybrid.
Oh and Caprica/Tigh scene was definitely creepy. I am SO TIRED of them not showing me the things I want to see; why don't we get more internal Caprica information? even if it's not presented in her POV (although at this point, i think actually playing a scene from her POV would be a nice gesture to show the blurring of cylon-human us-them lines...) I just... *sigh*
I am not as invested in 8s as I feel like I should be, but I *reallllllly* want an Athena/Boomer scene this week.
*breathes*