BSG 2.05, The Farm
Aug. 14th, 2005 09:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakThe short version? Galactica B-plot yay, Caprica A-plot hmmmm.
I was never really deep into X-Files fandom, though I did watch, and stopped watching even casually around the sixth season or so. And still I remember the ovaries of doom plot line. This being said, I wasn’t really surprised BSG would go there, not after all that emphasis on the Cylons being after hybrids and the obvious psychological scare value of the breeding facilities idea.
However, the execution requires a greater waving aside of logic than usual. Starting with the Cylons using a nuclear attack if they want to cross breed. Hitting a high, or low point with the “love is needed to procreate” theory. And ending with the “resistance” staying on Caprica. As Laura Roslin pointed out all the way back in the miniseries, the freakin’ war is lost. Nothing to gain on a planet that has been made inhospitable for humans without medication. Whereas they’re needed on Galactica. However, I’m willing to suspend disbelief here as I suspect there will be some shuttles to and thro in later episodes, hence all the set up with Anders; given all the lives lost in recent weeks, those 50 or so survivors will probably come in rather handy in a desperate emergency or the other.
Regarding Kara and Anders: no problem here. No big enthusiasm, either, but Kara’s impulsive, and I can see her falling for someone quickly, especially someone who has no baggage of a backstory with her.
And speaking of backstory: no, I don’t have a problem with the broken fingers. This was set up in season 1, Flesh and Bone, and ties Simon with Leoben. Both get (temporarily) under Kara’s skin by realizing this about her and her mother.
Also, the Mary Sue accusations are unwarranted here. Kara is not superwoman, escaping all on her own and dealing with a quip and a shrug; her horrible situation, and that of the other women, visibly scares her. She uses intelligence and her inner strength and successfully kills (one) Simon, but she’s clearly not up for a physical fight, has difficulty walking, and the Cylons would have recaptured her if the calvary hadn’t arrived.
You know what this episode reminds me of, more than any X-Files thing? The fourth season episode Prayer from Farscape. Which left me with the same dissatisfaction as far as the A-plot with Aeryn (captured by Scarrans, and ending up in, lo and behold, a breeding facility) was concerned – Claudia Black was great, but we didn’t really explore anything new about Aeryn, and “I love Crichton” as the final epiphany was as annoying as “chin up, Anders, I’m coming back for you” was for Kara here. But I loved the B-plot of Prayer which dealt with Scorpius and Crichton, and I did love the B-plot(s) of The Farm.
Firstly, Galactica. After weeks of just showing up to be comatose or enigmatic in dreams, E. Olmos finally gets something to do, and boy, does he come through. Adama, returned from his encounter with death more vulnerable and emotional, was great to watch. His scene with Tyrol and later with dead Galactica!Boomer (another Leoben tie) showed just why the crew has such strong feelings for him; he really does care for them in return, deeply. Adama wondering about the implication of Sharon having been a Cylon – what this means about the Cylons – contrasts with Baltar’s vision of him calmly drowning “the shape of things to come”; I’m very much looking forward to finding out how he’ll react to Caprica!Sharon and her offspring.
I’m not surprised he didn’t reprimand Tigh or change Tigh’s martial law orders; aside from Adama’s feelings about Tigh, he simply can’t afford to in the present situation. Much as he told Tyrol in Litmus, he needs a functioning XO at his side, and one the crew will listen to.
(Though the really smart thing would have been to negotiate with Roslin instead of declaring That Woman a fugitive, but hey. Adama is human.)
Same reason for giving Cally thirty days in the big for murder, I suppose. (On DS9, Garak got a few months for attempted genocide without the excuse of severely limited man and womanpower.) It still irks me somewhat, logic be damned. I mean, I like Cally. But I think murder warrants more than a slap on the wrist.
Meanwhile, poor Tyrol’s life continues to get worse by the minute. Because not only does he have to live with the memory of having loved Sharon and of Sharon loving him, but now Adama has pointed out to him there are lots of ghosts of his dead love around, and we know one is heading towards his direction right now. Tyrol will see Sharon again, indeed, but a Sharon who loves Helo, not him (though presumably she has the memories of Galactica!Boomer having loved Tyrol – not the same thing, though, despite Adama’s “thoughts = love” equation), and a Sharon who always knew she was a Cylon, as opposed to the one he knew. I’m looking forward to seeing this as well, in a masochistic GIVE ME PAIN way.
And naturally, I’ve saved the best for the last. To wit, my beloved Laura Roslin, Lee, and Tom Zarek. Who had only three scenes this week, but those were ever so good. Say what you want, but Zarek is clearly having the time of his life. He can mindmess with Lee and play a complicated game with Roslin, and they’re both ever so much more interesting than the prison gang.
On a less frivolous level: Zarek has a point about the propaganda value Lee’s broadcast would have had. Naturally it’s better for Lee personally that he didn’t go through with it, but it would have been great propaganda, and ensured that even if Adama won this particular confrontation, he’d remain tainted in the eyes of many, so if your end goal is a pure power struggle, it would have been good. If, otoh, you hope for an eventual reconciliation with the military – not so much, but then, does Zarek?
As someone who always said that Laura is a politician foremost and approached her conversion to faith from a practical side – they need to get to Earth, the prophecies appear to come true, therefore, using them makes sense – I was delighted by her “I’m going to play the religious card” and her later “This is not who I am” unease in the blessing scene. I can see how this would be confusing if you take the “Laura has become a religious nut who wants to sent up a theocracy” approach, but then, that was never my interpretation of the character. She has started to believe from Kobol’s Last Gleaming, Part I onwards, yes. At the same time, she was constantly aware what a powerful force religion is, and the first episodes have only reaffirmed that to her. The alternatives “either cynical manipulative disbeliever or true believer/fanatic/ayatollah” are wrong and ignore pretty much the history of every major faith on this planet. Laura has come to see religion as something that is true for her, and as something that galvanizes people and enables her to motivate them at the same time. What I don’t think she realized in its full implications until the blessing scene, however, was that she cannot play “the religious card” without assuming a responsibility that goes beyond the fulfilment of the find Earth quest, which was her original motivation. Without becoming a religious icon in a way a political leader should not be.
As Elosha said, though, once you’ve said A, you’ll have to say B, and there is no way she can turn back now, so she has to go forward. And I think this will be where her problems will come from. The tomb of Athena may or may not yield the route to Earth. But people will expect her to give them miracles now, not just the one. They’ll want more. As is the case with all messiahs. And if she can’t provide any more miracles, how long before they scream for her crucification?
Meanwhile? I want Zarek/Roslin, Zarek/Apollo, and Zarek/Roslin/Apollo. Not necessarily in the sexual sense; UST and/or relationship exploration will do nicely. Now that we’ve done with Caprica until Kara makes that return trip, which hopefully won’t be until a few more episodes, can we get an A plot centring on these three, please?
I was never really deep into X-Files fandom, though I did watch, and stopped watching even casually around the sixth season or so. And still I remember the ovaries of doom plot line. This being said, I wasn’t really surprised BSG would go there, not after all that emphasis on the Cylons being after hybrids and the obvious psychological scare value of the breeding facilities idea.
However, the execution requires a greater waving aside of logic than usual. Starting with the Cylons using a nuclear attack if they want to cross breed. Hitting a high, or low point with the “love is needed to procreate” theory. And ending with the “resistance” staying on Caprica. As Laura Roslin pointed out all the way back in the miniseries, the freakin’ war is lost. Nothing to gain on a planet that has been made inhospitable for humans without medication. Whereas they’re needed on Galactica. However, I’m willing to suspend disbelief here as I suspect there will be some shuttles to and thro in later episodes, hence all the set up with Anders; given all the lives lost in recent weeks, those 50 or so survivors will probably come in rather handy in a desperate emergency or the other.
Regarding Kara and Anders: no problem here. No big enthusiasm, either, but Kara’s impulsive, and I can see her falling for someone quickly, especially someone who has no baggage of a backstory with her.
And speaking of backstory: no, I don’t have a problem with the broken fingers. This was set up in season 1, Flesh and Bone, and ties Simon with Leoben. Both get (temporarily) under Kara’s skin by realizing this about her and her mother.
Also, the Mary Sue accusations are unwarranted here. Kara is not superwoman, escaping all on her own and dealing with a quip and a shrug; her horrible situation, and that of the other women, visibly scares her. She uses intelligence and her inner strength and successfully kills (one) Simon, but she’s clearly not up for a physical fight, has difficulty walking, and the Cylons would have recaptured her if the calvary hadn’t arrived.
You know what this episode reminds me of, more than any X-Files thing? The fourth season episode Prayer from Farscape. Which left me with the same dissatisfaction as far as the A-plot with Aeryn (captured by Scarrans, and ending up in, lo and behold, a breeding facility) was concerned – Claudia Black was great, but we didn’t really explore anything new about Aeryn, and “I love Crichton” as the final epiphany was as annoying as “chin up, Anders, I’m coming back for you” was for Kara here. But I loved the B-plot of Prayer which dealt with Scorpius and Crichton, and I did love the B-plot(s) of The Farm.
Firstly, Galactica. After weeks of just showing up to be comatose or enigmatic in dreams, E. Olmos finally gets something to do, and boy, does he come through. Adama, returned from his encounter with death more vulnerable and emotional, was great to watch. His scene with Tyrol and later with dead Galactica!Boomer (another Leoben tie) showed just why the crew has such strong feelings for him; he really does care for them in return, deeply. Adama wondering about the implication of Sharon having been a Cylon – what this means about the Cylons – contrasts with Baltar’s vision of him calmly drowning “the shape of things to come”; I’m very much looking forward to finding out how he’ll react to Caprica!Sharon and her offspring.
I’m not surprised he didn’t reprimand Tigh or change Tigh’s martial law orders; aside from Adama’s feelings about Tigh, he simply can’t afford to in the present situation. Much as he told Tyrol in Litmus, he needs a functioning XO at his side, and one the crew will listen to.
(Though the really smart thing would have been to negotiate with Roslin instead of declaring That Woman a fugitive, but hey. Adama is human.)
Same reason for giving Cally thirty days in the big for murder, I suppose. (On DS9, Garak got a few months for attempted genocide without the excuse of severely limited man and womanpower.) It still irks me somewhat, logic be damned. I mean, I like Cally. But I think murder warrants more than a slap on the wrist.
Meanwhile, poor Tyrol’s life continues to get worse by the minute. Because not only does he have to live with the memory of having loved Sharon and of Sharon loving him, but now Adama has pointed out to him there are lots of ghosts of his dead love around, and we know one is heading towards his direction right now. Tyrol will see Sharon again, indeed, but a Sharon who loves Helo, not him (though presumably she has the memories of Galactica!Boomer having loved Tyrol – not the same thing, though, despite Adama’s “thoughts = love” equation), and a Sharon who always knew she was a Cylon, as opposed to the one he knew. I’m looking forward to seeing this as well, in a masochistic GIVE ME PAIN way.
And naturally, I’ve saved the best for the last. To wit, my beloved Laura Roslin, Lee, and Tom Zarek. Who had only three scenes this week, but those were ever so good. Say what you want, but Zarek is clearly having the time of his life. He can mindmess with Lee and play a complicated game with Roslin, and they’re both ever so much more interesting than the prison gang.
On a less frivolous level: Zarek has a point about the propaganda value Lee’s broadcast would have had. Naturally it’s better for Lee personally that he didn’t go through with it, but it would have been great propaganda, and ensured that even if Adama won this particular confrontation, he’d remain tainted in the eyes of many, so if your end goal is a pure power struggle, it would have been good. If, otoh, you hope for an eventual reconciliation with the military – not so much, but then, does Zarek?
As someone who always said that Laura is a politician foremost and approached her conversion to faith from a practical side – they need to get to Earth, the prophecies appear to come true, therefore, using them makes sense – I was delighted by her “I’m going to play the religious card” and her later “This is not who I am” unease in the blessing scene. I can see how this would be confusing if you take the “Laura has become a religious nut who wants to sent up a theocracy” approach, but then, that was never my interpretation of the character. She has started to believe from Kobol’s Last Gleaming, Part I onwards, yes. At the same time, she was constantly aware what a powerful force religion is, and the first episodes have only reaffirmed that to her. The alternatives “either cynical manipulative disbeliever or true believer/fanatic/ayatollah” are wrong and ignore pretty much the history of every major faith on this planet. Laura has come to see religion as something that is true for her, and as something that galvanizes people and enables her to motivate them at the same time. What I don’t think she realized in its full implications until the blessing scene, however, was that she cannot play “the religious card” without assuming a responsibility that goes beyond the fulfilment of the find Earth quest, which was her original motivation. Without becoming a religious icon in a way a political leader should not be.
As Elosha said, though, once you’ve said A, you’ll have to say B, and there is no way she can turn back now, so she has to go forward. And I think this will be where her problems will come from. The tomb of Athena may or may not yield the route to Earth. But people will expect her to give them miracles now, not just the one. They’ll want more. As is the case with all messiahs. And if she can’t provide any more miracles, how long before they scream for her crucification?
Meanwhile? I want Zarek/Roslin, Zarek/Apollo, and Zarek/Roslin/Apollo. Not necessarily in the sexual sense; UST and/or relationship exploration will do nicely. Now that we’ve done with Caprica until Kara makes that return trip, which hopefully won’t be until a few more episodes, can we get an A plot centring on these three, please?
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-14 03:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-14 03:20 pm (UTC)Prayer could have been Aeryn's Won't Get Fooled Again, but it wasn't, precisely because of that season 4 reducement to "I love Crichton". Hence the annoyance, despite Claudia Black's excellent performance.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-14 03:39 pm (UTC)The thing that I didn't like about Prayer was the follow-up, the fact that the powerful moment where Aeryn basically says she'll make a deal with the devil to save her baby, was never followed up on. Crichton saved her the next episode, without her having to do anything, really.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-14 04:01 pm (UTC)(And don't get me started on her and John reconciling with that stupid "dear, I had to pretend to dislike you because bad Scorpius is listening in" scene. Because Scorpius would never have guessed that John would do anything for Aeryn because of the previous three and a half seasons.)
But, as I said, I loved Aeryn again in PKW and am prepared to believe that if we had gotten a fifth season, the development there would have explained some of the season 4 stuff.
Prayer.
Date: 2006-01-06 01:07 am (UTC)Agreed. The greatest disappointment of season 4 for me.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-14 03:39 pm (UTC)PodAeryn or !NotAeryn! *shudder*
Some things are best forgotten.
Tyrol will see Sharon again, indeed, but a Sharon who loves Helo, not him (though presumably she has the memories of Galactica!Boomer having loved Tyrol – not the same thing, though, despite Adama’s “thoughts = love” equation), and a Sharon who always knew she was a Cylon, as opposed to the one he knew. I’m looking forward to seeing this as well, in a masochistic GIVE ME PAIN way.
I cannot wait for this scene. I am hoping for a very interesting conversation/conflict between Helo and Tyrol. Can you really love someone who exists in multiple copies? Are you not a race traitor if you accept your genocide committing cylon lover? Because it seems that Helo is taking a different path than Tyrol if the embrace at the end of the last episode means reconcillation.
Oh, yes, bring on the pain!
And my favorite line of the ep..."Zeus has returned to Olympus"...cheeky, wonderful, bastard.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-14 04:13 pm (UTC)Oh, me too. Because their Sharons are the same yet different, and so were their reactions to them. Though they both went through the "you're a machine, you're software, you can't feel" denial when their Sharons told their emotions were real.
Additionally, Caprica!Boomer poses a different dilemma than Galactica!Boomer did. G!Boomer thought of herself as human for most of her existence - till the end, I think. I mean, obviously intellectually she had to acknowledge she was a Cylon, but I don't think she ever felt something for the Cylons, a sense of belonging. C!Boomer always knew she was a Cylon and despite having committed herself to Helo still shares a Cylon outlook on life - God's plan, etc. If Helo loves her, he can't tell himself "she doesn't know" or "she doesn't want to be". And of course the time of denial is over.
It will never happen, but I'm also voting for Gaius Baltar as another participant in the debate about men and the Cylons who love them.*g* (More seriously, he was the first to tell Tyrol what was between Tyrol and Boomer was love. And his entire blackmail/interogation of G!Boomer was based on the conviction that Cylons can indeed love, deeply and more strongly than they are committed to the Cylon aim.)
And my favorite line of the ep..."Zeus has returned to Olympus"...cheeky, wonderful, bastard.
Yep. I'm waiting for him to come up with an appropiate simile for Laura now. Because Hera, she's not.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-14 04:54 pm (UTC)Which reminds me that we have yet to explore the male cylon capacity for love. So far, we have Leobolen and Simon's religious inspired reactions to Starbuck but not (that we know of) a true relationship.
The Kevin Spacey cylon seemed unimpressed by the whole business.
Gauis' doesn't know how to love anyone but Gauis. But he does recognize its power and that Cylons love, passionately, and in contradiction to the mores of their society. Afterall, aren't humans somekind of abomination that must be elimated because they reject God.
Its why I don't quite understand the Cylon willingness to procreate with humans to achieve God's command. Won't they sully the race?
Ron Moore is reaching for some big issues. What is life, what is love, choice, free will. Civilian vs military vs religious, the conflating of all three. Its all so fascinating.
Its nice to have a show again that inspires such thoughts.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-15 08:42 am (UTC)Aside from the practical reason - if they can't procreate biologically amongst themselves, they need someone who is compatible, and presumably animals aren't - I don't think it's that simple. So far, we got only a few scenes where Cylons talk among themselves with no human present (because what Six tells Gaius is doubly suspect, a) since she has an agenda, and b) because she might be a hallucination after all). But we did get these conversations - between one of the Caprica Sixes and Doral, and at the end of the miniseries. At the end of the miniseries, the Cylons claim that the need to wipe out the human race is so important because if humans survive they will come back and annihilate the Cylons; there is no way to coexist due to "human nature". This is not a "humans as abomination" criteria.
And in the conversations between Six and Doral, you get "I feel sorry for them; they are our parents, after all" - "But children must kill their parents", and of course the big discussion about the human capability of love. Again, there is no mention of humans being an abomination per se. They are dinosaurs, their time is over, they rejected God, sure; but there is no reason why they can't be used to help the Cylons continue, since they do have capabilities God approves of (the ability to love, and the ability to procreate), and they are "parents", ancestors.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-15 08:45 pm (UTC)Well put. I guess that's cylon thinking in a nutshell.
I think I'm confusing Six's fundamentalist religious passion with all cylons.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-14 08:15 pm (UTC)And I was a bit depressed, because it suggested that there's a large part of the audience who probably does expect everything to be just that black and white -- i.e., if she's aware that religious fervor is a dangerous thing to stir up in the populace, why then, she must be entirely cynical and secular. Otherwise, of course she'd be 100 percent on the ayatollah side of the ledger.
It looked to me as if she either did believe, or had at least come round, say, ninety percent to the side of belief; but that doesn't mean she checked her knowledge of human history and political power at the door. It doesn't mean she can't be troubled. The idea that there might be a more subtle calibration of where she stands than, as you note, cynical manipulator or full-throttle believer... is that so strange? Or are people just unused to television tackling complex themes?
You always hear stories about how TV executives want to dumb things down and make them black-and-white, and if you're like me you say to yourself, "They're selling the audience short!" But maybe they're not. Maybe they know that after decades of spoon-feeding their audience simple formulas, everything really does have to be telegraphed.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-15 08:33 am (UTC)Meanwhile, I'm enjoying Roslin's storyline. And snark occasionally about either/or mentality...
no subject
Date: 2005-08-15 11:59 am (UTC)While I can buy, and even like the idea, her sleeping with Anders so quickly, I didn't believe she had fallen in love with him that deeply that soon at all. The Kara we've seen doesn't let people get that close to her easily. I think she's been shown as being scared of loving someone again. That whole scene rang false for me because of that, and the lunacy of him staying behind. JMO
But I think murder warrants more than a slap on the wrist.
How can they charge her with murder for killing a machine?
I’m looking forward to seeing this as well, in a masochistic GIVE ME PAIN way.
Poor Tyrol! I can't wait to see it. :)
As is the case with all messiahs. And if she can’t provide any more miracles, how long before they scream for her crucification?
Good point! :)
no subject
Date: 2005-08-16 12:02 am (UTC)But I *do* see where people are coming from with "Kara Sue" -- the only reason we aren't there is because Katee Sackhoff is so good. It's too much backstory, too patchwork, convenient and extreme: almost a pro athlete AND an abused child AND the daughter of a concert pianist AND a painter and and and. It's not so much that I can't put those pieces together into a whole as I worry that they're going to keep throwing things out there, more dramatic and extreme all the time, until the Starbuck I thought I knew becomes eclipsed. Here's hoping not.
And my real problem with the show since the S1 finale is the behavior of Tigh and Adama. The coup against Roslin in the finale was SO ill-advised and so unmerited that I found it almost incomprehensible that Adama would ever have contemplated such a thing, much less undertaken it. Tigh's screw-ups since I could deal with, though I find his reliance on Adama to be frighteningly total and sycophantic. I thought that, when Adama returned to himself, we'd see him appalled at how far things had gone. Instead, he's just Tigh without the drinking problem. What's going on here? It's going to be tough for me to respect Adama after this -- I don't see the doubts or the intelligence that I do with Roslin -- and I don't know how BSG works if you don't respect Adama.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-16 03:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-16 04:34 am (UTC)All agreed -- though it DOES make me want Multiverse-style Kara/Mal Reynolds. Because who else gets shot in the stomach and walks around like that?
I thought I'd have more coherent things to say, but apparently I'm too tired. I think you've hit it right on the head, as usual. gee, i'm boring tonight.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-16 05:25 am (UTC)Bill Adama?
Not that Kara/Mal would be a bad idea, mind.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-16 10:03 pm (UTC)Half of Starbuck's scenes during "Farms" I was thinking of Mal, and half the time I was thinking of Buffy in "Normal Again." All of which are probably just signs that I want her to go back to Galactica and interact with Lee (which of course WON'T HAPPEN for ages -- wonder how long they're going to delay that reunion? it's certainly one way to keep the shippers at bay. . .)
no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 08:18 am (UTC)I wonder if G!Boomer's memories downloaded into C!Boomer or into some other Boomer. For that matter, I'm not completely sure that the Boomer with Helo and Starbuck now is pregnant!Boomer and not another Boomer copy sent by the cylons to infiltrate Galactica. And yeah, sucks to be Tyrol.
Adama crying over Boomer was really touching. I kept thinking of the scene just before Adama was shot, when he praised Boomer as a way of putting down Apollo and saying she did better than he did. Guess all his children have failed him now.
And yes, bring on the Zarek/Roslin/Lee in every possible combination.