BSG 3.04, Exodus II
Oct. 22nd, 2006 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakSecond post in a day, because I've seen Exodus II now and will be on the road again tomorrow.
Oh, Saul. Oh, Ellen. This is the first time BSG has made me cry, with all the emotional stuff which went on in earlier seasons. But what a scene. I'm not completely sure whether or not Ellen knew what was in the cup, because of the way she said "I could use a drink", but at the moment, I tend to think she knew or at the very least guessed, and accepted it anyway. That was the most tender action we ever saw Saul Tigh perform, and by the time he said "I love you", I was sobbing.
It says a lot about the class of the episode that everything after didn't feel like an anti climax. Though upon rewatching, I think I'll focus on only a few scenes, because while those battle manoeuvres are neat to watch, they never tend to hold my attention for more than once, as opposed to character stuff. Plus you know, Lee coming to the rescue was kind of predictable, as was the Adama/Adama reunion.
However: loved, loved, loved the three Baltar scenes - the one with the Cylons and particularly Three, the one with Gaeta, and the final one with Six, Hera and Three. The first and the last very much related to the Kobol scenes early in season 2. Three asking him sarcastically what they should do, Baltar's reply, her reply and then his final "the cycle has to end somewhere"? Reminded me at once of Baltar's conversation with Head!Six on Kobol where he says "so you kill us, and we kill you, and you kill more of us, and we kill more of you - what is the point? And why would any god want to bring a child in a world like this?" And then the last scene, paying of Baltar's vision of the child and Three's at once. It's also the reverse of his dream on Kobol, where Adama took the child from him, appeared to drown it, and Baltar tried in vain to find it in the river any more. (Moses, and this episode is called Exodus.) Which prefigured what happened in Downloaded. But now Baltar is able to find the child, hears it among the corpses, rescues it and gives it to Three, thereby breaking, at least this once and for her, that cycle of mutual killing. Three does not detonate the nuke; she loses, as has been predicted by the Oracle, everything she had come to New Caprica for, but she is able to break the cycle. If Hera is the shape of things to come, then this time, she is a hopeful shape.
(Sidenote: does this make Three Pharao's daughter?)
In between, you have the scene with Gaeta. And we couldn't be further from Baltar at the start of the show, outwardly charming, only concerned for himself, and easily frightened, and Gaeta, hero-worshipping the famous scientist. Both men are changed. In season 1, Gaius' agreement with Gaeta's assessment of himself would have come across as Gaius playing for his life, saying anything to placate the man with the gun. Here, you get the sense that it's not just that he agrees but that he really is past the point of seeing his life as the most important thing in the universe - and that he makes his point about the nuke threat not to disarm Gaeta but to get that information across. He's not Richard III, saying "pick up this gun again or pick up me"; nor is he suddenly a hero, but he is someone who does not want to be responsible for the death of thousands for the third time in a row.
Kara and Leoben: the explanation for Kaycee was the one which made most sense, but the pay-off for the Leoben storyline felt a bit weak, if that was what it was, but it might not have been. What's one more death to him?
Lastly: Ron Moore is mean, giving us only one Zarek scene per episode, but hey! It's him and Roslin being protective of each other. *ships* Also, here's a thought: as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vaznetti pointed out, Baltar - with Zarek as his VP - got legally elected. Baltar being disqualified for collaboriation with the Cylons, this makes Zarek, not Roslin, the current legal President. Mind you, I do think he and Roslin might work out a deal with him getting the VP job again because let's face it, New Caprica was his idea to begin with, but he did get elected. And she still didn't. And he knows it.
Oh, Saul. Oh, Ellen. This is the first time BSG has made me cry, with all the emotional stuff which went on in earlier seasons. But what a scene. I'm not completely sure whether or not Ellen knew what was in the cup, because of the way she said "I could use a drink", but at the moment, I tend to think she knew or at the very least guessed, and accepted it anyway. That was the most tender action we ever saw Saul Tigh perform, and by the time he said "I love you", I was sobbing.
It says a lot about the class of the episode that everything after didn't feel like an anti climax. Though upon rewatching, I think I'll focus on only a few scenes, because while those battle manoeuvres are neat to watch, they never tend to hold my attention for more than once, as opposed to character stuff. Plus you know, Lee coming to the rescue was kind of predictable, as was the Adama/Adama reunion.
However: loved, loved, loved the three Baltar scenes - the one with the Cylons and particularly Three, the one with Gaeta, and the final one with Six, Hera and Three. The first and the last very much related to the Kobol scenes early in season 2. Three asking him sarcastically what they should do, Baltar's reply, her reply and then his final "the cycle has to end somewhere"? Reminded me at once of Baltar's conversation with Head!Six on Kobol where he says "so you kill us, and we kill you, and you kill more of us, and we kill more of you - what is the point? And why would any god want to bring a child in a world like this?" And then the last scene, paying of Baltar's vision of the child and Three's at once. It's also the reverse of his dream on Kobol, where Adama took the child from him, appeared to drown it, and Baltar tried in vain to find it in the river any more. (Moses, and this episode is called Exodus.) Which prefigured what happened in Downloaded. But now Baltar is able to find the child, hears it among the corpses, rescues it and gives it to Three, thereby breaking, at least this once and for her, that cycle of mutual killing. Three does not detonate the nuke; she loses, as has been predicted by the Oracle, everything she had come to New Caprica for, but she is able to break the cycle. If Hera is the shape of things to come, then this time, she is a hopeful shape.
(Sidenote: does this make Three Pharao's daughter?)
In between, you have the scene with Gaeta. And we couldn't be further from Baltar at the start of the show, outwardly charming, only concerned for himself, and easily frightened, and Gaeta, hero-worshipping the famous scientist. Both men are changed. In season 1, Gaius' agreement with Gaeta's assessment of himself would have come across as Gaius playing for his life, saying anything to placate the man with the gun. Here, you get the sense that it's not just that he agrees but that he really is past the point of seeing his life as the most important thing in the universe - and that he makes his point about the nuke threat not to disarm Gaeta but to get that information across. He's not Richard III, saying "pick up this gun again or pick up me"; nor is he suddenly a hero, but he is someone who does not want to be responsible for the death of thousands for the third time in a row.
Kara and Leoben: the explanation for Kaycee was the one which made most sense, but the pay-off for the Leoben storyline felt a bit weak, if that was what it was, but it might not have been. What's one more death to him?
Lastly: Ron Moore is mean, giving us only one Zarek scene per episode, but hey! It's him and Roslin being protective of each other. *ships* Also, here's a thought: as
vaznetti pointed out, Baltar - with Zarek as his VP - got legally elected. Baltar being disqualified for collaboriation with the Cylons, this makes Zarek, not Roslin, the current legal President. Mind you, I do think he and Roslin might work out a deal with him getting the VP job again because let's face it, New Caprica was his idea to begin with, but he did get elected. And she still didn't. And he knows it.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-22 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-22 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-22 05:57 pm (UTC)No kidding! What's up with Roslin taking the
throneseat of office like it belonged to her? What kind of claim to it does she have? Unless she's the one staging a millitary coup now.Baltar so rocked in this episode.
does this make Three Pharao's daughter?
Hera is certainly accumulating parents. What's she up to, five? And that's if you count the different models of Six and Sharon as only one each.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-22 06:16 pm (UTC)Hera and her multiplying parents: this actually supports my theory that "the shape of things to come" is a good not a bad thing and the way out for humanity and the Cylons, because that's, in a small model, what could ultimately end of hostilities - shared parentage.
Mind you, once Sharon finds out that a) Hera didn't die back then and b) Hera is supposed to have died on New Caprica now while basically in Roslin's care, she might rethink her support for humanity again. But she can't go back to the Cylons now, either... so she'll stay on Galactica.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 06:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-22 07:46 pm (UTC)To pick one of many things to point out about this episode -- the look on Six's face when Baltar hands the baby to Three, seeing as (if I'm interpreting correctly) she's essentially the same Six who broke the human baby's neck way back in the miniseries.
I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen next, but I'm on board.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 06:16 am (UTC)And so say we all!
no subject
Date: 2006-10-22 09:24 pm (UTC)Oh, indeed! Tragedy junkie that I am, I had firmly concluded by the end of Exodus I that I was not going to be happy if Ellen's arc ended any other way. I am overjoyed that the show followed through - and that it did so in such a moving scene.
I was also quite moved when Adama and Tigh were reunited. Oh, Great Maker, the significant looks! My Adama/Tigh 'shipper streak kicked into high gear when Adama, as he was being carried away on the shoulders of the crowd, looked back at his friend. I think Adama knows that Tigh, ever loyal, was largely responsible for keeping the torch burning throughout the New Caprica ordeal, even if he's probably not truly aware of just how much humanity Tigh was willing to sacrifice in the service of said loyalty.
Tigh is the reason Adama can be a fleet icon. As I remarked to
no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 06:13 am (UTC)