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selenakDue to the Telecom being stupid and the AP having a feud with them now, I wasn’t able to get online again before last night, and then briefly. However, now I am in possession of the latest BSG episode, which makes me happy.
I’m tempted to see the Cylon & Baltar storyline as the A plot and Kara & Tigh as the B plot; certainly the same screentime is given to both. As always when we get Cylon-centric – my favourite episode of season 2 was probably Downloaded - I’m fascinated. Doesn’t mean I don’t find the human storylines compelling as well, but yeah, gimme Cylons and Gaius Baltar.
Before I get to them, here’s a look at the self destructive duo on Galactica, about whom I’ve got plenty to say as well. Whoever said the problem with Tigh and Kara back in s1, the reason why they clashed so frequently, was because they were too similar at heart was right of course. Come to think about it, Kara might have been the one to say it, to which Tigh made his cutting “my flaws are personal, your flaws are professional” remark. Well, now it’s less about flaws and more about being wounded animals lashing out and making everyone hurt as well. Misery loves company, indeed.
When Tigh first thought he heard Ellen’s voice, I was wondering whether they’d do a Six-and-Baltar with him, but alas, no more Kate Vernon for us, and it probably would have confused the issue, given the other storyline of this episode and the importance of projection. Tigh is haunted by Ellen, because he wants to be; he’s punishing himself for what he did to her, and that is also one reason why he doesn’t shoot himself at the end. Too easy. What happened in Collaborators is crucial, I think; Tigh was hanging on a thread, the thread being the idea that he did what he head to do, and that all those other collaborators would be punished the same way. That killing Ellen was a terrible thing to do, but the right thing, the only thing he could have done. But Anders, the one who pushed for Ellen’s death, is the first one to walk out of the Circle, and now there is an amnesty, and everyone wants to move on to healing. (Well, save him and Starbuck.) In other words, he killed Ellen for nothing. She could still be alive, could still be with him.
Tigh and Kara both (used to?) worship the ground Adama (Senior) tread on. But there is a difference in the love and adoration. Kara is younger than Tigh, and she has also been imprinted on responding to parental punishment and scorn. Adama has been the parent who gave love and approval unconditionally, only withholding it when she revealed she passed Zak, and even then just temporarily, with reconciliation coming after Kara returned after a near-death adventure. This time, it won’t be so easy, and you can see why Adama playing out the parental card and shaming her works when the break-up with Anders and the argument with Lee don’t.
(Sidenote: while saying “you’re no more like a daughter to me” is a clear tactic on Adama’s part, you can argue on a symbolic level Sharon has taken that place of Kara’s, confirmed in this episode when she gets the call sign Athena, a nod to classic BSG – Athena as Adama’s daughter – as well as to Greek mythology – Athena as Zeus’ daughter, his favourite daughter in fact, not born of a human mother but of his head. Clever script.)
Now Tigh is also used to Adama providing love and support when no one else does (remember Home and “I fracked things up, Bill” responded do with understanding and sympathy?), but for one thing, Adama uses slightly different tactics with him – he doesn’t threaten to withdraw it, he asks Tigh to find the hero within instead – and for another, Saul is just too broken for that to work. Because the hero within, the man Adama asks him to find, that mean who lead the resistance on New Caprica – that was the man who killed Ellen. And it’s not that he doesn’t exist anymore but that he can’t allow him to exist anymore.
Compelling as those scenes were, however, and much as I felt for all of them, I was just that tad bit more enthralled when we were at the basestar, because this week it wasn’t just for cameos. The eerie atmosphere there is just right, and the idea of the Cylons being able to projecting their own environment in these ships makes so much sense given what we’ve seen of them, as well as their inability to understand why the humans on New Caprica weren’t willing to accept them. Emotional children indeed, used to create their own reality.
Two of the ongoing questions of fandom were addressed, sort of: what about the other five models, and: is Baltar a Cylon?
As to the later, trusty readers, you know I don’t think so, mostly because Baltar’s function in the overall narrative depends on him being human. However, I don’t expect the show to give us – or Gaius - a definitive answer until later. Near the end of his time with the Cylons, I’d say. For now, he’s wondering, and so he should, given what he’s heard. Incidentally, my own take on the similarity of what he’s doing in his head and what the Cylons are doing would be that when Caprica Six died in the miniseries, some of her, well, soul in lack of a better term, and Baltar’s spilled over in each other when she started to download in a new body. Hence not only their invisible friends but them adopting traits of each other. Of course, we don’t know that Baltar didn’t daydream before Caprica got nuked, but it’s a reasonable assumption, given how shocked he was when Six-in-red first started to appear to him.
Baltar and the Sixes: the one in his head insists she’s an angel of God, Caprica Six tries to be cold and distant (methinks this is both because near the end on New Caprica, the other Cylons had stopped listening to her and did not respect her anymore because they saw her entirely dependent on Baltar – see Doral shooting her – and she has to regain the status she used to have in their eyes both for her own survival and his; and because she’s genuinely angry with him; it’s probably not a coincidence that he gets to say her line from “Exodus I” – “Do you have any idea how hard it’s been for me to do what I did for you” back to her, and doesn’t realize it). And then there is the black-haired dying Six, who resembles no other variation as much as Gina, as Gaius first saw her in that cell. And his first frantic impulse is “I’ll help you”… only for Dying!Six starting to accuse him of being the origin of her fate and either deliberately goading her into killing him (what Gina tried to do at first, in vain) or just accusing him because. And Gaius snaps and kills her. This is only the second time he killed someone in person – the first time being in Fragged - and while there is one similarity – in both cases you have a tense, frantic situation, and Gaius Baltar’s survival instinct riding over everything else – there is also a crucial difference: this time, the person he kills (and I don’t think Baltar ever thinks of the Cylons as non-people) is a variation of not one but two women he had feelings for.
As for his decision not to tell the Cylons about the ancient device he found (or the blood samples he took – he still has those), hmmmm. I think it’s both about survival – being afraid they’d make the same accusation as the dying Six – and about keeping an ace on his sleeve. Of course, such a device could potentially wipe out the entire Cylon race, leaving the humans victorious (and equally genocidal). Is Baltar ready to try and buy himself his way back on the fleet with that? Not yet, no. One of the ironies about Gaius Baltar is that for all the terrible damage he inflicted on humanity at large, he did not plan or intend any of it (as opposed to, say, denounce Doral as a Cylon in the miniseries when for all he knew the man was human, one very intentional action), so the question as to whether he’s capable of intentional genocide, which giving this weapon to the humans would be, is open. Maybe if he could persuade himself the humans wouldn’t actually use it but use it as a deterrent, a threat, but I think he’s not self-deluding enough for that any more.
And Caprica Six: now that she has discovered he kept silent and lied, she’s essentially in the same position Baltar was in at the start of it all. He gave her access to the defense grid, though believing she was working on behalf of a firm which wanted contracts; post-Apocalypse, he kept silent for fear of what would happen to him if the humans found out, and by his silence made other events such as Boomer’s shooting of Adama possible. If she keeps silent now to her fellow Cylons, she’s responsible for whatever happens to them once Baltar decides what he’ll do with that knowledge. If she denounces him, on the other hand, he’s done for.
Why isn’t it the next weekend yet?
I’m tempted to see the Cylon & Baltar storyline as the A plot and Kara & Tigh as the B plot; certainly the same screentime is given to both. As always when we get Cylon-centric – my favourite episode of season 2 was probably Downloaded - I’m fascinated. Doesn’t mean I don’t find the human storylines compelling as well, but yeah, gimme Cylons and Gaius Baltar.
Before I get to them, here’s a look at the self destructive duo on Galactica, about whom I’ve got plenty to say as well. Whoever said the problem with Tigh and Kara back in s1, the reason why they clashed so frequently, was because they were too similar at heart was right of course. Come to think about it, Kara might have been the one to say it, to which Tigh made his cutting “my flaws are personal, your flaws are professional” remark. Well, now it’s less about flaws and more about being wounded animals lashing out and making everyone hurt as well. Misery loves company, indeed.
When Tigh first thought he heard Ellen’s voice, I was wondering whether they’d do a Six-and-Baltar with him, but alas, no more Kate Vernon for us, and it probably would have confused the issue, given the other storyline of this episode and the importance of projection. Tigh is haunted by Ellen, because he wants to be; he’s punishing himself for what he did to her, and that is also one reason why he doesn’t shoot himself at the end. Too easy. What happened in Collaborators is crucial, I think; Tigh was hanging on a thread, the thread being the idea that he did what he head to do, and that all those other collaborators would be punished the same way. That killing Ellen was a terrible thing to do, but the right thing, the only thing he could have done. But Anders, the one who pushed for Ellen’s death, is the first one to walk out of the Circle, and now there is an amnesty, and everyone wants to move on to healing. (Well, save him and Starbuck.) In other words, he killed Ellen for nothing. She could still be alive, could still be with him.
Tigh and Kara both (used to?) worship the ground Adama (Senior) tread on. But there is a difference in the love and adoration. Kara is younger than Tigh, and she has also been imprinted on responding to parental punishment and scorn. Adama has been the parent who gave love and approval unconditionally, only withholding it when she revealed she passed Zak, and even then just temporarily, with reconciliation coming after Kara returned after a near-death adventure. This time, it won’t be so easy, and you can see why Adama playing out the parental card and shaming her works when the break-up with Anders and the argument with Lee don’t.
(Sidenote: while saying “you’re no more like a daughter to me” is a clear tactic on Adama’s part, you can argue on a symbolic level Sharon has taken that place of Kara’s, confirmed in this episode when she gets the call sign Athena, a nod to classic BSG – Athena as Adama’s daughter – as well as to Greek mythology – Athena as Zeus’ daughter, his favourite daughter in fact, not born of a human mother but of his head. Clever script.)
Now Tigh is also used to Adama providing love and support when no one else does (remember Home and “I fracked things up, Bill” responded do with understanding and sympathy?), but for one thing, Adama uses slightly different tactics with him – he doesn’t threaten to withdraw it, he asks Tigh to find the hero within instead – and for another, Saul is just too broken for that to work. Because the hero within, the man Adama asks him to find, that mean who lead the resistance on New Caprica – that was the man who killed Ellen. And it’s not that he doesn’t exist anymore but that he can’t allow him to exist anymore.
Compelling as those scenes were, however, and much as I felt for all of them, I was just that tad bit more enthralled when we were at the basestar, because this week it wasn’t just for cameos. The eerie atmosphere there is just right, and the idea of the Cylons being able to projecting their own environment in these ships makes so much sense given what we’ve seen of them, as well as their inability to understand why the humans on New Caprica weren’t willing to accept them. Emotional children indeed, used to create their own reality.
Two of the ongoing questions of fandom were addressed, sort of: what about the other five models, and: is Baltar a Cylon?
As to the later, trusty readers, you know I don’t think so, mostly because Baltar’s function in the overall narrative depends on him being human. However, I don’t expect the show to give us – or Gaius - a definitive answer until later. Near the end of his time with the Cylons, I’d say. For now, he’s wondering, and so he should, given what he’s heard. Incidentally, my own take on the similarity of what he’s doing in his head and what the Cylons are doing would be that when Caprica Six died in the miniseries, some of her, well, soul in lack of a better term, and Baltar’s spilled over in each other when she started to download in a new body. Hence not only their invisible friends but them adopting traits of each other. Of course, we don’t know that Baltar didn’t daydream before Caprica got nuked, but it’s a reasonable assumption, given how shocked he was when Six-in-red first started to appear to him.
Baltar and the Sixes: the one in his head insists she’s an angel of God, Caprica Six tries to be cold and distant (methinks this is both because near the end on New Caprica, the other Cylons had stopped listening to her and did not respect her anymore because they saw her entirely dependent on Baltar – see Doral shooting her – and she has to regain the status she used to have in their eyes both for her own survival and his; and because she’s genuinely angry with him; it’s probably not a coincidence that he gets to say her line from “Exodus I” – “Do you have any idea how hard it’s been for me to do what I did for you” back to her, and doesn’t realize it). And then there is the black-haired dying Six, who resembles no other variation as much as Gina, as Gaius first saw her in that cell. And his first frantic impulse is “I’ll help you”… only for Dying!Six starting to accuse him of being the origin of her fate and either deliberately goading her into killing him (what Gina tried to do at first, in vain) or just accusing him because. And Gaius snaps and kills her. This is only the second time he killed someone in person – the first time being in Fragged - and while there is one similarity – in both cases you have a tense, frantic situation, and Gaius Baltar’s survival instinct riding over everything else – there is also a crucial difference: this time, the person he kills (and I don’t think Baltar ever thinks of the Cylons as non-people) is a variation of not one but two women he had feelings for.
As for his decision not to tell the Cylons about the ancient device he found (or the blood samples he took – he still has those), hmmmm. I think it’s both about survival – being afraid they’d make the same accusation as the dying Six – and about keeping an ace on his sleeve. Of course, such a device could potentially wipe out the entire Cylon race, leaving the humans victorious (and equally genocidal). Is Baltar ready to try and buy himself his way back on the fleet with that? Not yet, no. One of the ironies about Gaius Baltar is that for all the terrible damage he inflicted on humanity at large, he did not plan or intend any of it (as opposed to, say, denounce Doral as a Cylon in the miniseries when for all he knew the man was human, one very intentional action), so the question as to whether he’s capable of intentional genocide, which giving this weapon to the humans would be, is open. Maybe if he could persuade himself the humans wouldn’t actually use it but use it as a deterrent, a threat, but I think he’s not self-deluding enough for that any more.
And Caprica Six: now that she has discovered he kept silent and lied, she’s essentially in the same position Baltar was in at the start of it all. He gave her access to the defense grid, though believing she was working on behalf of a firm which wanted contracts; post-Apocalypse, he kept silent for fear of what would happen to him if the humans found out, and by his silence made other events such as Boomer’s shooting of Adama possible. If she keeps silent now to her fellow Cylons, she’s responsible for whatever happens to them once Baltar decides what he’ll do with that knowledge. If she denounces him, on the other hand, he’s done for.
Why isn’t it the next weekend yet?
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 09:21 am (UTC)*Needs an Apollo and Athena icon*
no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 03:29 pm (UTC)Oooh, I like that -- otherwise I'm just nodding a lot. I was slightly stunned when Adama's speech worked (if only partially and temporarily, at least I hope) on Kara and not on Tigh, but that makes all kinds of sense for the reasons you mentioned.
My reaction post (http://likeadeuce.livejournal.com/664915.html) is here, where I'm mostly squeeing about Helo calling Apollo "Slim" because I'm easy like that.
Glad you're back online, at least for the present, and I'm trying to round up that comic I mentioned for you.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 04:05 pm (UTC)Also: good pick up on Athena being born not of woman, but of Zeus' head. Hadn't thought of it beyond the obvious old!BSG reference.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 05:11 pm (UTC)See, I noticed the "Slim" and of course remembered Scott's early nickname, but I've discovered that if he's not involved in political storylines and/or arguments about ethical dilemmas, I tend to fast forward through Lee scenes, mentally. This hasn't anything to do with last season's developments, though at first I thought so, because back in s1, Hand of God, the Lee-does-Star-Wars episode, left me not very touched as well, as opposed to Lee in Bastille Day or Kobol's Last Gleaming.
I'll try to comment to your great emailed Scott/Emma/Xavier observations.*g*
no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 05:20 pm (UTC)Did you have to write it out like that because now my brain is in a scary place.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 05:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 08:49 pm (UTC)It's better that we don't see Ellen, though, because then I would have to come up with a new theory as to why Baltar has an internal!Six.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-07 01:21 am (UTC)