BSG: Someone to Watch Over Me

[beccatoria]

Right, I'm gonna start with something of an analysis of the half-season so far versus the first half of the season, trying to work out why I'm responding differently; what I like, what I don't, where the difference is because the more I think about it, the more similarities I see.

Basically I loved the first half of the season and this half I'm...ambivalent about. I don't dislike it. I think I'm frustrated because there's so much good stuff here and I feel I'm missing out on fully enjoying it because...little things keep niggling.

I think the only difference might be that the 80% awesome 20% dodgy ratio in 4.0 kept the 20% dodgy to sections of the show I care less about.

So like, conceptually, I'm fine with 4.5. That's the frustrating thing.

In almost every instance, I'll love half of what they're going for. Which makes it frustrating because I can't just ditch it and move on because half of something awesome is tangled up in it.

So like, the SHAPE of this season, I'm really okay with. It's just...the execution sometimes.

For instance, the mutiny episodes, dudes, I loved the brutality, the senseless violence, the anger behind it. While I'm not as invested in this stuff as I am the magical Cylon stuff they were really good episodes. I believed them, they were painful. In terms of the shape of the show, they really did change the tone to something so much more nihilistic. It was a necessary story to tell and it made it simultaneously believable and utterly joyless that the Galactica was now forced to become a mixed ship and use the Cylon as part of their CAP and deck gang. Not some wonderful moment of acceptance (even though, obviously, were I in charge of Galactica I'd've welcomed them all with a party!) just...exhaustion.

But then, this great middle-ground of punishment - not killing but shipping off the mutineers to the prison ship so there is action, it's not forgotten, and has lasting consequences, is glossed over; and much more than that, we have Laura, in a moment I have been waiting, quite literally, the entire damn show for (screaming bloody vengeance and declaring war on humanity from the helm of a Cylon basestar) and I can't enjoy it because apparently Laura now only cares about her drunken, senile boyfriend. And yes, I can and do retcon it in my head that she's mad at Zarek for daring to suggest her surrender is for the "good of the people" but still. I'm not...happy about that.

Or take No Exit and Deadlock. The former I have only good things to say about. The latter...I'm not sure I'll ever be able to rewatch because it's so painful. But again, it's not an irredeemable piece of crap. In this instance it's not the characterisation but the actual plot that bothers me. Oddly I don't see much of a conflict between the Ellens of recent episodes. She's kind of drunken and she's a social manipulator, it's just that now she's a Cylon she's good at it. She was using it for "good" in No Exit and evil in Deadlock but status and relationship to those involved in both episodes was...entirely different and yeah, I'm kind of okay with her being the kind of petty person who flips out on people at times. There was so much amazing character work and character interaction in Deadlock (Drunkdama notwithstanding) but I do not understand the point of anything that happened. And I still don't.

Perhaps the simple truth of the matter is this: I'm too invested in this damn thing. This whole thing is one long story and I honestly, honestly believe that it'll soar or collapse based on the finale. Everything I dislike is redeemable (okay, perhaps not wholesale, but to a point where it no longer wounds the story as a whole). The question is whether I'll feel it has been redeemed.

The question is how I respond and write-up these episodes when I'm so acutely aware it's like reviewing chapter by chapter and I get more nervous with each one because CRUNCH TIME is coming. Sometimes I want to be horribly optimistic about everything so I don't feel like a depressive jackass when the finale comes and saves it. The other half of me wants to manage expectations so that I don't crash when the finale is a disappointment.

It's always in the last three or four episodes of a season (and the first arc of the next one, though in this instance that's not an issue *sniffle*) that everything starts becoming amazing again. Always.

So like, this episode is the start of the endgame. And they haven't let us down before.

*puts on the Hat of Optimism*

So, the actual episode!

Clearly I was always going to love it because it's a) about cylon mysticism, b) features mystic!Kara which is the Kara I love best and c) has a piano.

I was left very confused about Slick the piano player. The moment at the end with the finger shooting the key was clearly meant as some kind of reveal that he was really a hallucination of her dad or something, but I did have trouble believing that Starbuck wouldn't remember her own father. My Nana died when I was five but I'd recognise her if I saw her, I'm certain. Then again I guess I do have pictures of her, but I don't look at them frequently, but then again again, Kara's dad clearly held a lot of significance to her to the point that his music was what she wanted most out of everything in her bombed out apartment.

Interviews and the podcast, though, confirm that he was indeed meant to be Dreilide Thrace, Kara's father and that she simply didn't recognise him because she was so young, but also because she may have even been repressing that information. Which I guess I can buy; especially since the memories we see of hers focus on his hands and the playing and omit his face, perhaps suggesting that Kara chooses not to remember that because it's so painful.

Basically, I still find it kind of silly but am willing to go with it because I don't want to make the episode less awesome.

One thing I will say, though, is that I wish they'd left out, "Gods, you're just like my father!" because it hangs too much of a lantern on the absurdity of her not recognising him. If not for that line, I could be left with the very lovely, very strange, very sad interpretation that she knew him from the start, and knew he wasn't real, but went through that dance with him anyway, never calling out what he was in case...in case he went away? Because she was so angry? Because she felt there was no point? I'm not sure, but I do know that I thoroughly believe that Kara Thrace at this point in her life, if faced with a hallucinatory person, would shrug, exhausted, and just accept it and move on. And I'd kind of love that. If there'd just been some line at the end where she calls him, "Dad," like she knew all along. But hey.

I'm going to focus on, Dreilide Thrace live at the Helice Opera House.

Basically at this point, I feel kind of like I did about Liam's death, in that this episode raises a lot of questions but doesn't answer them and that there needs to be major Addressing Of This Issue before the end of the series. But I'm not specifically pissed that we didn't get lots of answers Here and Now. As long as we do eventually get them.

I mean, at this point, Dreilide = Daniel is just so blindingly obvious I'm worried that it's too obvious and they'll decide to leave it "open to interpretation" forever. I don't know. Come up with some cylons-cloned-you-from-your-ovary story to explain Starbuck's resurrection and never address her Father ever again, just have it as some weird personal-peace-making character interlude and not really address the fact that her dad taught her magical music.

And while I'd prefer they left it open to interpretation rather than actively shutting down that avenue of interpretation, I also want Starbuck's half-robotness explicated in the text. Badly. If that's what's going on. I think it would be cheap not to do that.

Fortunately, I also think that a lot of my nervousness on this point is just that I'm still kind of freaked out at having "called" this so...completely (with the creepy name coincidence and all) and that has made me so overinvested in it I'm paranoid of declaring victory too early and thus jinxing it.

I will say it still doesn't fit with the Nicky Tyrol retcon. Unless RDM was worried about somehow having to write in Nicky's connection to the music too or something. But dude, he's younger. He could just...slobber and look cute in the background or something.

I was entertained that Starbuck is like, "Guys, my DAD taught me this TWENTY YEARS AGO." And they're all, "You know what, HERA must be really important. Good thing Starbuck's dad could read her musical scribbles TWENTY YEARS BEFORE SHE EVER DREW THEM. We need to go find Hera."

The scene with Kara lying on Anders playing him the music at the end!

*flails*

WAKE UP, ANDERS! WAKE UP.

(Or, you know, let the Eights plug you into the datastream. But that worries me because what if you wake up and you're not Anders anymore. I WOULD BE SO SAD. Unless you were secretly Liam. That would just be funny. Not that I actually want or believe that to be the case.)

For some reason I am absurdly in love with the shot where the Final Five Four Three all hear the starts of the piano music before it really means anything to them and turn their heads ever so slightly. I just love it.

And Ellen Tigh is absurdly gorgeous in that shot. First she steals all of Laura's awesome bitchery and now she's being pretty? NO. I CALL FOUL. I WANT YOU TO BE HOT, ELLEN, BUT I MEAN HOT AS IN AFLAME.

Speaking of...I...liked her in this episode again. I still hate her for what she did to Caprica, and that anger is still mostly tied up in the fact that as I already mentioned, I didn't want to have to be mad at her, I didn't want to dislike that episode the way I did.

But I will give the show this: I was skeptical of Ellen Tigh as the final cylon and of what that would do to Tigh's character arc, etc., etc., etc. But they've mostly sold me on it. They've certainly sold me on Ellen Tigh as awesome (although I also loved her in S3). Though how the rest works out, like everything else, is still kind of up in the air.

TIGH. *hearts* It's so awful to see him off the wagon again, although also...I'm grateful to the writers for showing him as such a mess. I'm even grateful to Ellen for being so defensive of him.

I'm not grateful to the writers for failing to include even a single mention of Caprica and what the hell's going on with her. While I'm grateful that they didn't just make her the baby crazy person who made off with Hera or something, I do want to know, well, anything about where she is and what's going on and whether she's a catatonic mess. Is she still living with Tigh? Did she go back to the baseship? I mean, it would be in keeping with this show - and I wouldn't even be upset with it - if it was still horribly unresolved, with Tigh living with Caprica and in love with Ellen and everyone being an unholy mess. But I would like to see some of that, please.

I like the new Six, Sonja, obviously, because I like Sixes, but dammit, Tricia Helfer is in the weird position of being the only main credited cast member who has no main character. Grace Park had Boomer in S1 and Athena in S2 - S4. But Helfer is in the weird position of playing musical chairs with a number of B - D list characters. Even HeadSix who used to be in basically every episode isn't around much anymore, is probably not even real, and was always restricted to scenes with Baltar in where the same wasn't true for him.

Caprica is like...the main Real Six character we have, but her actual screentime is kind of laughable. Thus I am sad.

That said, I really didn't miss Baltar or Lee this episode, or yet more shots of drunken Adama. Or even Laura that much because I feel, as pellucid has mentioned in the past that at least if she's not around that much they're not screwing her up.

I kind of love that the show is increasingly becoming about these minor members of the ensemble cast. Tigh has probably gotten more play and screentime than most of the credited main cast members so far this season which I think is kind of hilarious and awesome.

I was glad to see them remembering that Laura has a weird tie to Hera and her collapse at Hera's kidnapping. I do wonder what's up with her though. She's not allowed to die before reclaiming her Awesome in the Opera House, dammit!

Speaking of, I dislike Hera 3.0. I know I'm probably going to hell for saying it, but she's nowhere near as cute as either Hera 2.0 or Hera 1.0. What's with all the recasting, guys?!

I have decided that clearly Hera 2.0 knew where this shit was headed and hired an impersonator. Next episode, Hera 2.0 will crawl out of those vents Tyrol was crawling through and resume her crayoning of doom, safe in the knowledge that she has already learned from the best (Laura Roslin) and realised that nearly all of life's problems can be solved with applied baby-snatching.

I also really have to hand it to Grace Park. I'm often ambivalent about her acting; I don't think she's bad but sometimes I have trouble connecting with her. But the bit at the end where Athena screams and starts hitting Helo was really, really painful. And I feel very bad for the people for whom this will be as traumatic as poor Liam's demise was for me.

I just don't know what to make of Boomer and Tyrol. I still...I want to give Chief a huge hug and I feel so hurt for him. But at the same time, dude, I think he killed that other Eight. Not knocked unconscious so that they'd realise later, but killed. Which...DUDE. CHIEF. NO. On the other hand, I'd love to see Chief in this mental state and Tory have a conversation about what happened to Cally. (And no, I'm not baying for Tory's blood. I heart Tory, hilarious cylon supremacy and all.)

And BOOMER. Oh.

On the one hand I'm upset, really upset because I wanted her to actually be forgiving Ellen. It was such a great moment. And I've always liked Boomer best of the Eights. And also I don't...I'm not entirely sure I get it. I don't understand what she still sees in Cavil. I don't understand where her anger at Ellen comes from unless she learned it from Cavil entirely, which I guess she could have, but it's still disappointing.

That said, I'm not ready to dismiss it as bad characterisation.

There's something valuable to this type of story too, especially when you contrast Caprica and Boomer's trajectories from that moment where they clasped hands in Downloaded. It's not actually like we often see stories about people who break so profoundly they can never be fixed on TV.

It's sort of what I've always said I wanted for Tigh albeit not with him going evil, just with him going insane. I still kind of want that but damn him I now also love him so much I just want him to learn to be okay.

The point is, I don't know what to do about Boomer. She certainly isn't helping my feeling that the Eights aren't really so much with the concepts of forgiveness or moving on and are scary, bitter people and the whole sweet and innocent thing is the thinnest of facades. Even if they often don't realise that themselves.

I'm not sure what the hell Cavil wants with Hera though. Unless Boomer's assistance of Ellen's escape was genuine and when she realised it wasn't going to go well she decided to run back to Cavil with something to convince him to take her back.

Or Cavil wants Hera as a bargaining chip for the five to rebuild resurrection.

Or just because he's a pissy, pissy little bitch and he's out for revenge justice.

Final note: OMG, the Cylon have a representative on the Quorum! And they decided to institute capital punishment which is hilarious and sad.

Also, the teaser owned my soul. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

Comments

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yes, I definitely felt like she was at least subconsciously aware of who he was the whole time. (One of the reasons I wish they'd cut the "You sound like my father!" line; it was unnecessary and kind of ruined the subtlety for me.)

I think the reason I'm super-eager for them to make it clear what Kara is, just beyond my own over-investment in the story, is that it's a real loose end otherwise. And I'm actually happy to accept just "it was mystic" a lot of the time. Like before these episodes (like, before No Exit), I would honestly have been willing to accept us never knowing and having it be some magical, mystical event that was never explained. But now that they're teasing us with all this stuff about Daniel and Dreilide and stuff it's gonna feel like a real cop out if they stop short of making it clear.

It's not giving us a mystic set up and saying, "explain it yourself," at that point. It's giving you 80% of the answer and witholding the final 20% of it like a carrot on a stick. *nervous!*

Srsly. Plus, SHE CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD AND LED THEM TO THEIR FORMER HOMELAND. Why will no one figure out how special my girl is??

One thing I totally forgot to mention up there is Kara's tie to the music. And the Final Five. And specialness.

Because yeah, she doesn't just have a destiny, she has one specifically tied to the Cylon Race and the CREATORS of the current Cylon race.

Okay, so maybe Hera magically knew this song on her own while Kara had to be taught it by someone else, but she appeared in the nebula that sang that song to the FF. Yeah they'd been hearing it for a while, but at the crisis point, there's Kara in her beautiful viper, and given that it was the song that made them return to that viper again, and given that, as you point out, the whole thing Kara lead them to, in hindsight, WASN'T the promised land for humans but the former home of the Cylon... Dude, Kara like...is that music.

Heh. Yeah, I liked Hera 2.0 better, but maybe she was getting too big? The new one just had too much makeup on, I think.

I guess due to the break in filming that could be true, but then again, this kid looked older than the last Hera to me.

And yes! The make-up! I couldn't put my finger on what looked wrong with her, but yeah, she looked like she was wearing blusher and stuff and on a three-year old that's kinda creepy. And not in the awesome Hera 2.0 way either...