beccatoria | BSG: Deadlock: Okay so I caved. :(

So, yeah, I caved and watched it. I was right and it was better to just get it over with. It was both better and worse than I was expecting. Worse because it broke my heart and better, no wait, perhaps also worse because...there was some good, heartbreaking stuff in here but for reasons I cannot narratively comprehend.

Anyway, this isn't a proper review cus I'm basically only talking about one thing.

I'm attempting to understand the narrative logic behind killing ~~Flipper~~ Liam. I still hate it and think it shuts down complexity and reinforces boundaries rather than exploding them.

I still think it's unspeakably sad and cruel to do this to Caprica and and pretty much clinging to the fact that Tricia Helfer said she was happy with Caprica's ending in some interview.

I also think that even if either of these options are true, it was still a giant narrative cocktease because we didn't need to introduce Flipper for nine episodes to underscore either of these points, but. Maybe I'll rest easier if I at least contextualise the decision and hope that the show really did have a logic beyond, "OMGS ANGST."

Flipper's existence was clearly doing something to the Cycle of Time because he apparently stopped the visions of the Opera House.

Personally I've always found those visions to be extremely ominous and kind of thought they represented the continuation of the Cycle of Time, like...a locked in future that Athena fears so much she'll shoot a Six with entirely the wrong hair colour.

In which case, was Flipper a manifestation of something new that knocked the Cycle of Time off track? In which case, did he die because the Cycle of Time was reasserting its control and its no-cylon-babies policy? If the series ends with them breaking the Cycle, does that open the door for magical flipperbabies for ~~everyone~~ Twos, Sixes and Eights everywhere?

Obviously I'm in favour of this interpretation because I love robots and robot babies and think that hybridity as a goal doesn't have to be the only achievable goal and in fact exploding the boundary between machine and biological organism by giving the Cylon the ability to biologically reproduce amongst themselves is kind of awesome and is alien enough that it doesn't quite fall into the pattern of slowly taking away all that made the Cylon "other" in order to "humanise" them and make them "good" (you shouldn't live forever; you shouldn't share memories; you shouldn't have threesomes because they kill babies - literally!). Also the fact that while they might be doing it human-style, those kids would still be robots.

The other interpretation is, sadly, I think more likely. It's interesting because I hadn't previously thought that the Opera House visions could be a good thing, but depressing because of its implications for awesome Cylonicity.

The thirteenth tribe began reproducing biologically at some point, and perhaps, as now, that was the key event that made them decide to split permanently from the humans. As Tigh said, pure human or pure Cylon society doesn't work and represents a continuation of the Cycle of Time/Violence. If the Cylon in this cycle of time develop the ability to reproduce autonomously, then they'll leave the Fleet and the Cycle of Time is a lot more likely to be locked in. And in this case, Hera - as the future of blended society and perhaps something new and the Opera House visions represent an escape from that Cycle.

Mainly I dislike this version of events because it means we'll never see robot babies outside of the Final Five (who presumably were once robot babies themselves) and that seems terribly inequitable since we're not off killing all the human children because they aren't currently contributing to some blended future. Galactica herself is blended now, literally in the case of the ship but simply mixed in terms of her inhabitants (Hera and, I hope, Kara aside.)

Denying the Cylon an ability that humans have puts them in a much darker and more subserviant role in terms of this mixed society. They have to sacrifice "purity" while the humans, in theory, do not. (Note: 'purity' here is not a value I put much stock in; I desperately want the end game to have something to do with everyone eventually being half robot and half human; that would be awesome. I just also think that robot babies are thematically valuable and in no way detract from that end goal.)

Basically what it boils down to is this:

Ron Moore owes me: at least one mutant flipper baby, a satisfying ending for Caprica Six that preferably incorporates the fact her character arc has consisted of getting treated like crap repeatedly forever, more Cybrids, a Laura Roslin who pwns the universe, and I would not be averse to someone setting Ellen Tigh on fire. It's not that I entirely dislike her and her hilarious hijincks, but I'd really like to see her aflame right now.

Finally, I think we can all agree, Flipper and I would have enjoyed both No Exit and Deadlock about a million times more had Ellen decided to be drunk, manipulative and bitchy in the former and a serene Cylon alpha-mother in the latter. And she thinks Sam has bad timing.

Also this icon is now officially the saddest thing in the universe. I kind of want to change it, even though I love it, but I have no other Caprica icons.