BSG 3.09 "Unfinished Business"
Dec. 3rd, 2006 03:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakSo, when Cylon-centric episodes broadcast, you inevitably get a part of fandom saying "this might be good or bad, but it's not what I'm watching this show for". I feel like that about Unfinished Business, mostly. Because Kara/Lee is so not what I'm watching this show for. (Kara and Lee, separately, on the other hand, can be elements of what makes BSG enjoyable to me. More about that later.) However, as opposed to episodes which bore me or leave me indifferent, this one left me with several things to say (other than about the Roslin scenes, I mean *g*), and definitely not in a rant way, so it probably fulfilled its purpose.
Though I must say, the emotional highlight, to me? ELLEN WAS IN THE FLASHBACK. Ellen/Saul, even seen in the background, so trumped the youngsters in term of my emotional involvement that it wasn't even funny.
Alas. After tentatively liking him again in s3, I've gone to - not even my late s2 indifference - but actual dislike. Considering he takes quite a pounding, bad pun intended, in this episode, this may seem odd, but you know, it goes back to the issue I had back when BTVS was broadcast to fanfic interpretations during s5 and s6 which suggested that Xander just was with Anya because he couldn't be with Buffy, and would leave her at once if Buffy showed interest. Leaving aside such things as no scene post s2 suggesting Xander still saw Buffy primarily in a romantic light as opposed to seeing her as his friend, this wasn't how I saw (or still see, for that matter) Xander. And the final flashback suggesting Lee married Dualla out of hurt, anger and spite re: Kara hit that nerve. Treating a woman as a consolation prize and proposing marriage (as in: making promises to love and cherish without meaning any of them) is probably one of my biggest anti-kinks ever.
Meanwhile, I did not have the same amount of problem with Kara marrying Anders because the show gave us enough reasons to suppose that she actually did love him (being ready to settle down with him and giving up flying, which she was already pre-night-with-Lee, is a big, big step, and while neither relationship got really fleshed out in s2, Kara/Anders still got more than Lee/Dualla), and I could see her panicking after waking up that way. Actually, Kara's characterisation throughout both in past and present made sense to me. There were some complaints that she snapped back to sanity too quickly after Adama's kick a few episode ago, but back then I didn't get the idea we were to assume she was completely healed, just that she was able to try and make a new start, with the healing process just having begun. Moreover, Kara consistently had and has a pattern of reacting to being pushed and hurt just as she lashes out, so Adama's speech would work with her. Similarly, what she did with Lee was basically another version of what she did with Adama, acting provocatively (back then by "well if you expect an apology..." and her whole attitude) in the hope of getting punished and pushed back, because that is something she understands. Another Kara pattern is allowing herself to love men who are out of reach - Zak by being dead, Anders by being on Caprica - while not really dealing that well when they're around, though the year on New Caprica would argue she was able to break that pattern to some degree with Anders. Right now, she's back to it full force, of course, especially with the Alienation!Sex.
(Don't ask me where Leoben fits in; this relationship - and it was one, no matter the lack of actual sex - was something she did not choose but was forced into.)
Now, I can see two ways of interpreting the ending: one, that Kara and Lee are back to being friends after having worked their issues (with each other) out, that this is what "I've missed you" refers to, and if that is the case, then while I would have chosen another way to get them there, I'm okay with it. If, on the other end, we're supposed to take the ending as the start of a Kara/Lee romance, and the next episode opens with them moving together or something on a similar note, then I'd call it the worst narrative decision for either character since all of a sudden Lee never had a single scene with Roslin anymore and started to get triangle storylines instead of political/ethical dilemma ones in mid s2. This show has yet to show me any way in which Kara and Lee are actually good for each other as a romantic couple. If you want to go back to scenes where they were good for each other, you have to go back all the way to s1 and the days of comraderie pre-Kara-in-a-dress at the end of Colonial Day. In other words, when they were friends. and not each other's love interests.
Incidentally, Lee wasn't the only Adama ill served by this episode. Now I can see Bill Adama seeking out punishment for any kind of things from leftover guilt about New Caprica happening on his watch to Bulldog-related guilt (see last episode), but doing that via Tyrol is just baffling, as is the "I let all of you get too close to me" argument, which frankly has nothing whatsoever to do with New Caprica; that was a presidential decision made after the public elected a new President to make just this very same decision - remember the democratic process, Bill? - and his part in making it possible was a) persuading Roslin not to steal the elections and b) accepting Baltar's order re: New Caprica - which, as I said, was Baltar actually fulfilling the promise he'd been mainly elected for, and as opposed to a great many of Baltar decisions neither an amoral nor an illegal one. Now, Adama certainly had some cozy nepotism going on on Galactica at times, but certainly not regarding the New Caprica issue.
(I wonder whether it would have worked better for me if they had him fight Tigh instead of Tyrol, that would certainly have made a stronger parallel to what Kara was doing with Lee, and it would have made sense for Adama to still feel guilty because of all that happened to Tigh on New Caprica, and it would have given Tigh a chance to vent, too. Otoh, both of them would not have treated the ship to the spectacle of the two most senior officers beating each other up, no matter how "off the record" all the boxing matches were supposed to be.)
And then there's Bill completely ignoring Lee's reaction to the Kara-got-married news. Now I know the man's supposed to be not the world's most insightful father, and usually better with the adopted kids than the actual ones, but still, he's neither deaf, dumb nor blind, all of which one would have to be to ignore the signs here, and at this point in the timeline, he and Lee were on pretty good standing with each other, too. Presumably this scene was written that way to make us sympathize with poor gobsmacked Lee all the more, but personally, I think the same effect would have been reached if Adama had been allowed to show he knows or guesses Lee's feelings, putting a silent and sympathetic hand on Lee's shoulder. (Plus of course not having the next but one scene, aka the one where I start to dislike Lee for what he does to Dualla, but that's not an Adama issue.)
Where Adama Senior did make sense was with Roslin. Who was her usual great self, wistful and charming in the flashbacks and commanding in the present. Something else I found interesting (and useful for fanfic): as opposed to the five minutes or something at the end of s2 which were supposed to show us life on New Caprica sucked even before the Cylons arrived, these flashbacks presented New Caprica in an attractive light, and not just in terms of sun light. You can understand why people, to quote Gaeta, "believed in the dream of New Caprica". Which has the additional benefit of not making the lot of them, including, btw, Tom Zarek who first suggested it, look like idiots for choosing the planet to settle down on. I doubt Laura really was wondering whether this would be the rest of her life - in a hypothetical scenario where the Cylons never show up, I can't see her stay away from politics, especially given the problems the settlements was having, and she'd have trounced Baltar at the next elections, which is assuming Baltar would have still run at all - but deciding to accept this moment as a break and a short experience in "what if?" Makes complete sense.
All this being said: I want my Cylons and my Baltar back next episode. Pretty please?
Though I must say, the emotional highlight, to me? ELLEN WAS IN THE FLASHBACK. Ellen/Saul, even seen in the background, so trumped the youngsters in term of my emotional involvement that it wasn't even funny.
Alas. After tentatively liking him again in s3, I've gone to - not even my late s2 indifference - but actual dislike. Considering he takes quite a pounding, bad pun intended, in this episode, this may seem odd, but you know, it goes back to the issue I had back when BTVS was broadcast to fanfic interpretations during s5 and s6 which suggested that Xander just was with Anya because he couldn't be with Buffy, and would leave her at once if Buffy showed interest. Leaving aside such things as no scene post s2 suggesting Xander still saw Buffy primarily in a romantic light as opposed to seeing her as his friend, this wasn't how I saw (or still see, for that matter) Xander. And the final flashback suggesting Lee married Dualla out of hurt, anger and spite re: Kara hit that nerve. Treating a woman as a consolation prize and proposing marriage (as in: making promises to love and cherish without meaning any of them) is probably one of my biggest anti-kinks ever.
Meanwhile, I did not have the same amount of problem with Kara marrying Anders because the show gave us enough reasons to suppose that she actually did love him (being ready to settle down with him and giving up flying, which she was already pre-night-with-Lee, is a big, big step, and while neither relationship got really fleshed out in s2, Kara/Anders still got more than Lee/Dualla), and I could see her panicking after waking up that way. Actually, Kara's characterisation throughout both in past and present made sense to me. There were some complaints that she snapped back to sanity too quickly after Adama's kick a few episode ago, but back then I didn't get the idea we were to assume she was completely healed, just that she was able to try and make a new start, with the healing process just having begun. Moreover, Kara consistently had and has a pattern of reacting to being pushed and hurt just as she lashes out, so Adama's speech would work with her. Similarly, what she did with Lee was basically another version of what she did with Adama, acting provocatively (back then by "well if you expect an apology..." and her whole attitude) in the hope of getting punished and pushed back, because that is something she understands. Another Kara pattern is allowing herself to love men who are out of reach - Zak by being dead, Anders by being on Caprica - while not really dealing that well when they're around, though the year on New Caprica would argue she was able to break that pattern to some degree with Anders. Right now, she's back to it full force, of course, especially with the Alienation!Sex.
(Don't ask me where Leoben fits in; this relationship - and it was one, no matter the lack of actual sex - was something she did not choose but was forced into.)
Now, I can see two ways of interpreting the ending: one, that Kara and Lee are back to being friends after having worked their issues (with each other) out, that this is what "I've missed you" refers to, and if that is the case, then while I would have chosen another way to get them there, I'm okay with it. If, on the other end, we're supposed to take the ending as the start of a Kara/Lee romance, and the next episode opens with them moving together or something on a similar note, then I'd call it the worst narrative decision for either character since all of a sudden Lee never had a single scene with Roslin anymore and started to get triangle storylines instead of political/ethical dilemma ones in mid s2. This show has yet to show me any way in which Kara and Lee are actually good for each other as a romantic couple. If you want to go back to scenes where they were good for each other, you have to go back all the way to s1 and the days of comraderie pre-Kara-in-a-dress at the end of Colonial Day. In other words, when they were friends. and not each other's love interests.
Incidentally, Lee wasn't the only Adama ill served by this episode. Now I can see Bill Adama seeking out punishment for any kind of things from leftover guilt about New Caprica happening on his watch to Bulldog-related guilt (see last episode), but doing that via Tyrol is just baffling, as is the "I let all of you get too close to me" argument, which frankly has nothing whatsoever to do with New Caprica; that was a presidential decision made after the public elected a new President to make just this very same decision - remember the democratic process, Bill? - and his part in making it possible was a) persuading Roslin not to steal the elections and b) accepting Baltar's order re: New Caprica - which, as I said, was Baltar actually fulfilling the promise he'd been mainly elected for, and as opposed to a great many of Baltar decisions neither an amoral nor an illegal one. Now, Adama certainly had some cozy nepotism going on on Galactica at times, but certainly not regarding the New Caprica issue.
(I wonder whether it would have worked better for me if they had him fight Tigh instead of Tyrol, that would certainly have made a stronger parallel to what Kara was doing with Lee, and it would have made sense for Adama to still feel guilty because of all that happened to Tigh on New Caprica, and it would have given Tigh a chance to vent, too. Otoh, both of them would not have treated the ship to the spectacle of the two most senior officers beating each other up, no matter how "off the record" all the boxing matches were supposed to be.)
And then there's Bill completely ignoring Lee's reaction to the Kara-got-married news. Now I know the man's supposed to be not the world's most insightful father, and usually better with the adopted kids than the actual ones, but still, he's neither deaf, dumb nor blind, all of which one would have to be to ignore the signs here, and at this point in the timeline, he and Lee were on pretty good standing with each other, too. Presumably this scene was written that way to make us sympathize with poor gobsmacked Lee all the more, but personally, I think the same effect would have been reached if Adama had been allowed to show he knows or guesses Lee's feelings, putting a silent and sympathetic hand on Lee's shoulder. (Plus of course not having the next but one scene, aka the one where I start to dislike Lee for what he does to Dualla, but that's not an Adama issue.)
Where Adama Senior did make sense was with Roslin. Who was her usual great self, wistful and charming in the flashbacks and commanding in the present. Something else I found interesting (and useful for fanfic): as opposed to the five minutes or something at the end of s2 which were supposed to show us life on New Caprica sucked even before the Cylons arrived, these flashbacks presented New Caprica in an attractive light, and not just in terms of sun light. You can understand why people, to quote Gaeta, "believed in the dream of New Caprica". Which has the additional benefit of not making the lot of them, including, btw, Tom Zarek who first suggested it, look like idiots for choosing the planet to settle down on. I doubt Laura really was wondering whether this would be the rest of her life - in a hypothetical scenario where the Cylons never show up, I can't see her stay away from politics, especially given the problems the settlements was having, and she'd have trounced Baltar at the next elections, which is assuming Baltar would have still run at all - but deciding to accept this moment as a break and a short experience in "what if?" Makes complete sense.
All this being said: I want my Cylons and my Baltar back next episode. Pretty please?
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 02:44 pm (UTC)People said WHAT? Fandom makes me cry sometimes.
Interesting take on the episode, as I thought Kara was served worse by the writing than Lee was -- though neither of them very well. But I can see the argument that, while they both cheated and then married the other person, we've seen what Kara/Anders see in each other (and, IMO, why they're basically good for each other) and Lee/Dee has never made any sense from the get-go.
As for pet peeves, mine is of course the Ralph Bellamy thing [ie, when you know love interest A is doomed because the story requires B & C to get together -- not because of anything inherent in the story itself]. I thought Anders and Dee both got treated that way in this episode while, for the most part, they haven't in the past. (By fandom, yes, but not by the show). I'm a little more pacified since I heard Trucco was signed as a regular, which means he isn't getting the Billy treatment any time soon. Maybe he can be Zarek's new protege. . .*daydreams*
I agree there were nice things about this episode, a lot of small moments and the general sense that there was hope at some point. And forget Lee/Kara. . .isn't Roslin/Adama basically canon at this point?
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 02:53 pm (UTC)I'd say so. They so had sex that night, too. (Perhaps that was why Adama was so utterly oblivious? He was still in post coital thrall himself?)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 03:15 pm (UTC)I don't know. I'd like to believe that they did, but I think the episode's silence indicates that Bill (the idiot) never made his move.
If we are meant to assume they had sex, then I'm even more annoyed. We get ten minutes of Lee and Kara cavorting on screen buck naked, but not so much as first base from Bill and Laura? I don't need to see Bill topless, but the thought of him having a love scene isn't exactly disgusting.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 03:48 pm (UTC)They could show us Bill and Laura engaged in sexual activity - with each other or with other people, since I'm not actually 'shipping them - without Bill getting topless, as it's not his TOP Bill would need to remove.
Seriously, I thought that looked like a post-coital cuddle, but of course I could be utterly wrong. And I was going to agree with you about age discrimination but then I remembered that we saw Tigh and Ellen making out several times and intensely (I'm thinking of that scene in early s2 in particular), so....
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 05:20 pm (UTC)True, but any level of interaction between those two, especially in the earlier seasons, was always meant to elicit disgust. I don't think there was ever a romantic scene between them that was intended as straight-up erotic.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 07:05 pm (UTC)Erotic as intent: and here I pause to think wistfully of shows that manage to include scenes intended as erotic featuring characters over 40, or at least as erotic in the same way scenes featuring the younger characters were supposed to be. (Ah, Prime Suspect. Hmm, Helen Mirren. And mmmm, Alias.) BSG, alas, isn't one of those. I will say, though, that they at least give their older characters as many interesting scenes and storylines as the younger ones.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 03:05 pm (UTC)I wish the episode had been about the promise of New Caprica, instead of yet another iteration of the Lee/Kara dance of messed up romance. Watching the episode, I could actually see the bones of an interesting story, contrasting a day that was full of happiness and hope - people getting married, having babies, building houses, dancing, drinking, contemplating sex with people they had previously not been able to consider having sex with - with the outcome of that choice to reach for something better - everyone back where they were, fighting for their lives, some of them even worse off than they were before.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 06:59 pm (UTC)A not Kara/Lee centric episode about the promise of New Caprica: yes, that would have been my preference as well.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 04:53 pm (UTC)But Lee going ahead and marrying Dualla came out of nowhere to me. (though am still watching Season 2.5, the second half, so maybe I've missed something)
I love Roslin so very much. I loved her and Bill on New Caprica and that quiet tension between them. ::squee::
I liked this episode but I agree. Where are the Cylons? I want my Gaius/Six love, please, kthnx. I find the Cylons my favorite part of the show, and I can get my shippiness in fanfic if I need it (though, hi, I would so ship Kara/Leoben) and so I want my Cylons back.
So I'll use this icon, because, yay.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 07:09 pm (UTC)http://scriggle.livejournal.com/169716.html
And yeah. Cylons. We wants them, precious.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-03 06:07 pm (UTC)Me too.
Also, my interpretation about Bill not seeing Lee's discomfort? Bill Adama was tokin' up earlier in the episode and possibly -- but probably not -- having crazy sex with Roslyn all night. Let's just assume he went out for an early morning toke, got dragged along to a wedding and then ran into his kid, yeah?
no subject
Date: 2006-12-04 12:44 am (UTC)I think Bill knew about Lee and Dee's relationship and in no way wanted to make any sort of stand against or for it, so he remained outwardly neutral; parents shouldn't involve themselves in their adult children's love lives.
Or he can see the Lee/Dee/Kara trainwreck acomin', and is ensuring he's the heck out of the way.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-04 01:18 am (UTC)Blind, Deaf and Dumb By Jessie (http://alocalband.livejournal.com/24858.html)
Billy didn't see Kara/Lee comming a mile away, and other things he did not see.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-04 08:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-04 07:19 pm (UTC)Thanx, as usual to you and all the responders, for the insight...
no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 06:50 pm (UTC)Adama Sr.'s fight with Tyrol made no sense to me, and I agree that Lee and Kara and their spouses were ill-served by this 'reveal'.