Battlestar Galactica 4.02. Six of One
Apr. 13th, 2008 05:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakGiven Ron Moore is far from the only Star Trek veteran in the writing staff of this show, the title of this episode makes it impossible not to ask: so... when can we expect Seven of Nine?
Predictably, about the only scene I did not like, not in the sense of finding it badly played or ooc in that particular situation, but in the sense of rolling my eyes and saying "I thought we were done with that... please?" was the kiss. This being said, I did like the brig scene otherwise, particularly Kara saying "you're Zarek's wing man!" (something tells me![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
likeadeuce should make a Lee icon saying "Zarek's wing man" soon) and Lee stating that yes, Zarek has an ego as big as a house, but he kind of looks forward to him as a mentor in politics. Ah, the times, they are changing, and yet somehow, you can see the road from Bastille Day. Also, does that mean we'll finally see the invisible Zarek again? With good scenes? Here's hoping. What's it with the big goodbyes for Lee, though? I mean, not that from a Watsonian pov I can't understand they gave him both the party and the salute, plus it was nice for Lee to see all that respect, but from a Doylist pov the character isn't leaving, so I found the sheer length of those scenes for that purpose a bit... excessive?
On to Adama Senior. And Kara. And Laura. Those were some emotionally scarring scenes, and the actors all were awesome. Wow. And as in the best dramas, you can see everyone's pov. Kara is more than a little crazy (and acting like it) at this point, and Katee Sackhoff brings out the sheer rawness of her emotions so well - this is also Kara at her most childlike, in confrontations with her parent figures. And yet with her absolute conviction that is the fleet's only chance to find Earth, how can she act otherwise? In a wonderful bit of continuity, we see her referring back to going to Caprica because Roslin asked her based on a vision in the s1 finale, and point blank asking whether Roslin's visions are the only believable ones. And then we get a repetition of Athena handing her weapon to Adama in a demonstration of "kill me or trust me", except that you don't pull that particular stunt with Laura Roslin and expect her not to shoot. Because she really, really doesn't trust returned-from-the-dead Kara.
Which is also understandable, and leads us to the scene wherein Roslin and Adama both hand out wounding truths to another while Adama gets drunk and Roslin confronts her own mortality again. "Get out of my head" indeed. And again, something fans have been debating and wanting to see referred to ever since Epiphany comes up - does Roslin still see herself as the "dying leader"? What if she is not? "What if your death is as meaningless as anyone else's? And then Mary McDonnell's expression. This is the first big argument they've head since... since the s1 finale, actually. Because their other two disagreements, re: election stealing and the verdict for Baltar, weren't really arguments but Adama stating his opposite view. This, on the other hand, was an argument because the truths they were both saying were hurting and designed to hurt.
In between, there was the Kara and Adama scene, and Lords of Kobol but that was emotionally messed up to the nth degree, too. Not just because of Kara's backstory with her mother, but because simultanously she was more childlike than in any other scene with Adama and yet that was the first time I got a Freudian vibe from these two. Not in the final scene, though. Which was a direly needed soothing counterpoint. Incidentally, I take it Helo is off with Kara on the Demetrius?
All this being said: my favourite plotline in this episode was the Cylon civil war. Which has been a long time coming. And again, adresses something fans have wondered for a good long while - about the hierarchy between the human-shaped Cylons and the "old" Centurions and Raiders, and the human-shaped Cylons essentially repeating what the humans did to them all those decades back. Ever since Downloaded, there were more and more debates within the Cylon society, and now things went to a breaking point. Figures that a Cavil would be the proponent for basically the "pigs are more equal" side of things (and how come I never thought of Orwell's Animal Farm in the context of BSG before?) and a Six as the leader for the "change and equality now" one. (BTW, I know from the advance publicity this Six model is nicknamed Natalie; I hope we actually hear the name out loud on screen, because with Gina we didn't until Razor.) It's nearly a gender divide between the models, with the Cavils, Simons and Dorals taking one side, but only nearly; the Leobens siding with the Sixes and Sharons - and Boomer crossing the line as the one Eight model to side with Cavil (btw, is this because Caprica Six snapped her neck or because she really thinks they need the Raiders to defend themselves and because she believed herself to be human for the majority of her existence sees them as machines and non-sentient as opposed to herself anyway? - diffuses this again. Given Leoben was always the Cylon closest to the, depending on your definition, crazy or inspired state of the hybrids, this doesn't surprise me. And I hope for scenes with CKR and Tricia Helfer now. Please? We haven't really seen Leoben models interacting with other Cylons save briefly in A Measure of Salvation and here.
I'm so happy that they give Tricia Helfer something meaty to do again, acting wise; as with Gina, who wasn't Head!Six, and Caprica Six, who isn't either, she manages to create yet another version of Six who comes across as a distinct individual (and yet with enough shared traits you can see she started out as the same basic model), and her showdown with Cavil was fantastic. I do wonder about the follow-up, though, since I assume the Sixes, Twos and Eights (incidentally, thank you for giving us more numbers to the corresponding models) do not intend to box the Ones, Fours and Fives, which means this is just a temporary solution. And of course now that the Centurions have been given equality, there is no way of guaranteeing they'll continue to side with the Sixes when their own state of sentience isn't at stake as it was in the Natalie versus Cavil situation. What I think is pretty certain: while the currently executed models download, the others will reactivate the boxed Threes. And not just because Lucy Lawless was on the s4 publicity photos; the Threes might have shown to be obsessed with their own agenda before the common Cylon good, but D'Anna is the only one to have seen the Final Five, and now that the Cylons have become aware that the Final Five are with the Colonial Fleet, now that this has become the incendiary point of open conflict between them, they'll want to know who they are.
Which leads me to the Fab Four. And Tigh reminding us all of his not-so-tragic side when saying Tory should sleep with Baltar for information. I wonder whether he's aware that this is essentially telling Tory to do what Ellen did with Cavil, only Ellen did it to save Saul's life? Not so sure what I make of Tory actually going through with it (though she's currently in a fit of self-loathing due to having discovered her Cylon nature, so it's not completely implausible), but it leads to some neat character stuff. On the funny side of things, Baltar now getting advice from a Head!Baltar either instead of or as well as a Head!Six was surrealistically inspired, and among other things showed again James Callis has great comic timing. On the more serious side, it's interesting that Baltar's quintessential selfishness apparantly doesn't prevent him from paying attention to his partner when he's having sex with someone. (Last time we saw Baltar having sex, as opposed to just being in before or after stages, was the scene with Kara in the teaser for the s1 finale, and then the focus was on Kara's reaction and her "oh, Lee!", but that would break the mood in any case.*g*) Leading to asking Tory about her tears, which in turn leads to his statement that yes, Cylons have emotions and feel as deeply as humans (incidentally, I think the first time Baltar said something like this was to Tyrol in early s2, in the episode where Cally shot Boomer), which oddly enough is what Tory needed to hear far more than the identify of the Fifth Cylon (which Baltar doesn't know anyway). And we get more confirmation he does believe in the Cylon god now. Hmmmm.
Predictably, about the only scene I did not like, not in the sense of finding it badly played or ooc in that particular situation, but in the sense of rolling my eyes and saying "I thought we were done with that... please?" was the kiss. This being said, I did like the brig scene otherwise, particularly Kara saying "you're Zarek's wing man!" (something tells me
likeadeuce should make a Lee icon saying "Zarek's wing man" soon) and Lee stating that yes, Zarek has an ego as big as a house, but he kind of looks forward to him as a mentor in politics. Ah, the times, they are changing, and yet somehow, you can see the road from Bastille Day. Also, does that mean we'll finally see the invisible Zarek again? With good scenes? Here's hoping. What's it with the big goodbyes for Lee, though? I mean, not that from a Watsonian pov I can't understand they gave him both the party and the salute, plus it was nice for Lee to see all that respect, but from a Doylist pov the character isn't leaving, so I found the sheer length of those scenes for that purpose a bit... excessive? On to Adama Senior. And Kara. And Laura. Those were some emotionally scarring scenes, and the actors all were awesome. Wow. And as in the best dramas, you can see everyone's pov. Kara is more than a little crazy (and acting like it) at this point, and Katee Sackhoff brings out the sheer rawness of her emotions so well - this is also Kara at her most childlike, in confrontations with her parent figures. And yet with her absolute conviction that is the fleet's only chance to find Earth, how can she act otherwise? In a wonderful bit of continuity, we see her referring back to going to Caprica because Roslin asked her based on a vision in the s1 finale, and point blank asking whether Roslin's visions are the only believable ones. And then we get a repetition of Athena handing her weapon to Adama in a demonstration of "kill me or trust me", except that you don't pull that particular stunt with Laura Roslin and expect her not to shoot. Because she really, really doesn't trust returned-from-the-dead Kara.
Which is also understandable, and leads us to the scene wherein Roslin and Adama both hand out wounding truths to another while Adama gets drunk and Roslin confronts her own mortality again. "Get out of my head" indeed. And again, something fans have been debating and wanting to see referred to ever since Epiphany comes up - does Roslin still see herself as the "dying leader"? What if she is not? "What if your death is as meaningless as anyone else's? And then Mary McDonnell's expression. This is the first big argument they've head since... since the s1 finale, actually. Because their other two disagreements, re: election stealing and the verdict for Baltar, weren't really arguments but Adama stating his opposite view. This, on the other hand, was an argument because the truths they were both saying were hurting and designed to hurt.
In between, there was the Kara and Adama scene, and Lords of Kobol but that was emotionally messed up to the nth degree, too. Not just because of Kara's backstory with her mother, but because simultanously she was more childlike than in any other scene with Adama and yet that was the first time I got a Freudian vibe from these two. Not in the final scene, though. Which was a direly needed soothing counterpoint. Incidentally, I take it Helo is off with Kara on the Demetrius?
All this being said: my favourite plotline in this episode was the Cylon civil war. Which has been a long time coming. And again, adresses something fans have wondered for a good long while - about the hierarchy between the human-shaped Cylons and the "old" Centurions and Raiders, and the human-shaped Cylons essentially repeating what the humans did to them all those decades back. Ever since Downloaded, there were more and more debates within the Cylon society, and now things went to a breaking point. Figures that a Cavil would be the proponent for basically the "pigs are more equal" side of things (and how come I never thought of Orwell's Animal Farm in the context of BSG before?) and a Six as the leader for the "change and equality now" one. (BTW, I know from the advance publicity this Six model is nicknamed Natalie; I hope we actually hear the name out loud on screen, because with Gina we didn't until Razor.) It's nearly a gender divide between the models, with the Cavils, Simons and Dorals taking one side, but only nearly; the Leobens siding with the Sixes and Sharons - and Boomer crossing the line as the one Eight model to side with Cavil (btw, is this because Caprica Six snapped her neck or because she really thinks they need the Raiders to defend themselves and because she believed herself to be human for the majority of her existence sees them as machines and non-sentient as opposed to herself anyway? - diffuses this again. Given Leoben was always the Cylon closest to the, depending on your definition, crazy or inspired state of the hybrids, this doesn't surprise me. And I hope for scenes with CKR and Tricia Helfer now. Please? We haven't really seen Leoben models interacting with other Cylons save briefly in A Measure of Salvation and here.
I'm so happy that they give Tricia Helfer something meaty to do again, acting wise; as with Gina, who wasn't Head!Six, and Caprica Six, who isn't either, she manages to create yet another version of Six who comes across as a distinct individual (and yet with enough shared traits you can see she started out as the same basic model), and her showdown with Cavil was fantastic. I do wonder about the follow-up, though, since I assume the Sixes, Twos and Eights (incidentally, thank you for giving us more numbers to the corresponding models) do not intend to box the Ones, Fours and Fives, which means this is just a temporary solution. And of course now that the Centurions have been given equality, there is no way of guaranteeing they'll continue to side with the Sixes when their own state of sentience isn't at stake as it was in the Natalie versus Cavil situation. What I think is pretty certain: while the currently executed models download, the others will reactivate the boxed Threes. And not just because Lucy Lawless was on the s4 publicity photos; the Threes might have shown to be obsessed with their own agenda before the common Cylon good, but D'Anna is the only one to have seen the Final Five, and now that the Cylons have become aware that the Final Five are with the Colonial Fleet, now that this has become the incendiary point of open conflict between them, they'll want to know who they are.
Which leads me to the Fab Four. And Tigh reminding us all of his not-so-tragic side when saying Tory should sleep with Baltar for information. I wonder whether he's aware that this is essentially telling Tory to do what Ellen did with Cavil, only Ellen did it to save Saul's life? Not so sure what I make of Tory actually going through with it (though she's currently in a fit of self-loathing due to having discovered her Cylon nature, so it's not completely implausible), but it leads to some neat character stuff. On the funny side of things, Baltar now getting advice from a Head!Baltar either instead of or as well as a Head!Six was surrealistically inspired, and among other things showed again James Callis has great comic timing. On the more serious side, it's interesting that Baltar's quintessential selfishness apparantly doesn't prevent him from paying attention to his partner when he's having sex with someone. (Last time we saw Baltar having sex, as opposed to just being in before or after stages, was the scene with Kara in the teaser for the s1 finale, and then the focus was on Kara's reaction and her "oh, Lee!", but that would break the mood in any case.*g*) Leading to asking Tory about her tears, which in turn leads to his statement that yes, Cylons have emotions and feel as deeply as humans (incidentally, I think the first time Baltar said something like this was to Tyrol in early s2, in the episode where Cally shot Boomer), which oddly enough is what Tory needed to hear far more than the identify of the Fifth Cylon (which Baltar doesn't know anyway). And we get more confirmation he does believe in the Cylon god now. Hmmmm.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 03:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 05:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 03:51 am (UTC)Also, head!Baltar! That was for me the most jaw-dropping moment of the episode. Agreed about the brilliance of Callis playing against himself. I have nooo idea what it means that Baltar now has head!Baltar, but it is way frigging cool.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 05:17 am (UTC)Yes. Say what you want about the Sixes, but they aren't hypocrites; and as she perceived the injustice and hypocrisy of what Cavil was doing, she had to act, and also pragmatically speaking, the Centurions were the only way she and her allies could override Cavil and his allies.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 01:59 pm (UTC)(Now I'm starting to think about BSG as a morality play for an era with no fixed morality. Hm.)
So, what's the converse of a moral center? An amoral center? Because that's what Baltar is, and it's getting more and more amazing to watch as it gets harder and harder to define.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 03:31 pm (UTC)I'd go even further and say many of the characters get their turn to play the moral voice - Lee obviously during Crossroads II in the speech at Baltar's trial, Cottle quite often, Dualla in Home I when she had her scene with Adama where she asked him whether he just wanted someone to hold a speech to or whether he really wanted her opinion, and then told him just this, Tyrol in Dirty Hands, etc. Perhaps even Head!Leoben when talking to Kara in Maelstrom.
Mind you, with Adama it very much depends on the episode how I take his speeches. I really hated - well, I hated pretty much everything about Unfinished Business except his scenes with Roslin in the New Caprica flashbacks, but his present day scenes and that weird boxing with Tyrol was as bizarre as the Over The Topness of Kara/Lee in that episode. On the other hand, in episodes like the s2 finale, when he found out about the vote stealing, I understand where he's coming from and he's a believable ethical voice to me.
I continue to be amazed what they do with Six in all her variations. From the miniseries onwards, because at first the audience could be pardoned to think, oh, robot femme fatale, two cliches at once, and then we get the scene with the baby. Kudos to Tricia Helfer for making that come across not as Six being extra evil but morally ambiguos.
No idea of how to define Baltar, but then, he never fit in any the categories.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 03:54 am (UTC)This seems to be general consensus. I'd be worried he'd be getting killed off soon if I wasn't absolutely convinced he's the Joshua to... ? Whomever plays Moses.
All very interesting. I spend far too much time trying to decode the hybrid's prophecies, however. (Also: did the show make sure to match all the new numbers up to the models? I didn't catch half of them.)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 05:11 am (UTC)Numbers: Cavil is One, Leoben is Two; we already know D'Anna is Three; I think we had an earlier reference to Doral being Five, which makes Simon Four; then there is Six, of course, and the Sharons are Eight. What is interesting is that Seven is already one of the Final Five.
Hybrid: I thought "they will not harm their own" was referring to eventual Cylon-Human merging as the solution of the conflict actually, though the Cylons interpreted as meaning that the Final Five are in the Colonial Fleet and that was why the Raiders broke off the attack, which is of course (also?) true.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 05:41 am (UTC)Lucky number seven? Hm. I wonder if it's one of the four, or if I should be looking for someone with quite a bit of luck. (Also, I guess that shoots down the 'age of the model' theory.)
Hybrid: Yes. And there was all that bit about two divergent lines of evolution being not as strong as one... etc.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 04:32 am (UTC)HAHAHHA. IT'S LIKE YOU KNOW ME!!
Upon seeing that bit, I MAY have paused the show and sent a Twitter, "I DEMAND FIC ABOUT LEE AND ZAREK PICKING WOMEN UP IN BARS TOGETHER!" (because of an idiomatic use of 'wing man,' if you're not familiar). Then I turned it back on and saw Lee & Kara kissing and almost turned the ep off. But fortunately I stuck with it and the rest of it was great. I am SO impressed with Tricia Helfer's versatility; I keep thinking we've seen it all and then she pulls out something new.
Really, all the actors were stellar in this ep, though I found Kara's scenes almost too painful to watch. I'm looking forward to the Starbuck/Helo road trip, though.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 05:07 am (UTC)No, I wasn't familiar with that use of "wing man". And I am so happy that item after item of my s4 wishlist comes true (save for the kissing) - in this case, letting Tricia Helfer have deserved screentime and important scenes again. But I really loved all the actors in this one.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 09:54 am (UTC)I’m feeling almost Jossed (Morred?) by this as I’ve had a brain vid to “Working Class Hero” on the backburner for a while that was going to use the same twist of the revolutionaries becoming the new masters (“If you want to be like the folks on the hill”). And now the subtext looks to be totally becoming text – is Natalie Gorbachov then?
I thought Boomer’s betrayal was filled with almost Gina levels of bitterness – she hates her own free will so much now she’s willing to cut it out of anything else. Both as revenge and to save them from what she’s had to go through.
And it hadn’t occurred to me but I think you’re absolutely right about the motive for reactivating D’anna and possibly all the threes.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 12:20 pm (UTC)Your explanation for Boomer makes sense!
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 12:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 06:18 pm (UTC)I loved it when Kara asked Roslin why her visions were more trustworthy than hers and I kind of expected her to mention that Laura's visions were drug induced. Like you I think the farewell to Lee was a bit dragged out but it made a bit more sense when Laura mentioned to Bill that in addition to eventually losing her he was also in a sense losing Lee.