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Battlestar Galactica 4.09 The Hub
In which as I hoped the combination of The Roslin Wing, The Cylon Show and Life of Gaius produceds great results. Mostly. Also, Jane Espenson finally writes a BSG episode that is worthy of her BTVS episodes. (Her previous ones haven't been bad, just not up to the standard I was used from her back when she was writing for Joss.)
Come on, other people must have thought it, right? While Intervention is mostly remembered for the Spike/Buffybot shenanigans and the twist from comedy to drama when he went self-sacrificial on Dawn's behalf and had what is still one of my favourite scenes between those two with Real!Buffy at the end, there was the entire subplot with Buffy going to the desert for a spirit quest of sorts. Caused by her fear that being the Slayer, being a leader has made her more and more inhuman, has made her cut herself of from emotion, especially love. This led to a cryptic encounter with the First Slayer who told her she hadn't lost the ability to love but was full of it. "Love, give, forgive." And that death was her gift. Not answering Buffy's question whether that meant a gift she was going to give to others, or receive.
...you're seeing where I'm getting with this, right?
Except that I have to use one caveat: I'm not sure "just love" as an advice from a spirit guide and the result worked as well in the case of Laura Roslin for me as a viewer. Because the BSGverse is different from the Jossverse, because Laura is a 50 something adult woman, and because, well, I've known villains a plenty who were able to love someone else tenderly and completely and still be incredibly ruthless and horrible to other people. See also: Arvin Sloane, devoted husband to his wife Emily, being the main villain in the first two seasons of Alias simultanously. But you don't have to branch out to other shows. I'd say Caprica Six loved Gaius Baltar (in the full knowledge of his nature), but this didn't stop her from fulfilling her mission and aquiring the access codes for the Cylons in the miniseries. It took her quite a while to get to the point where she concluded that genocide was wrong. Ellen Tigh loved Saul Tigh, and vice versa. Passionately. This did not stop them from having an Edward Albee style marriage, and it was the reason why Ellen risked the lives of everyone on New Caprica. To save her husband. Love for one person does not automatically give you empathy for others, or compassion.
This being said, I think the episode actually goes for something more complicated than that. Roslin has transformed herself into a ruthless leader because she had to. Everyone went to extremes over the years on this show. Adama and Roslin went to two different ones. His tendency to put the personal above all, personal ties, personal loyalty, got maxed and just led to the conclusion we saw in the last episode. Roslin, otoh, has applied "the end justifies the means" more and more, and since the end was saving the rest of humanity, the allowable means became practically everything. They need balance. Also, while she might have restrained herself in getting close but not too close to Adama in the past, there was one emotion Roslin has been giving into completely for a while. It just wasn't love, it was hate. For Gaius Baltar. Baltar brought out the extremes in Roslin; see "Take away all your troubles" in s3, when she has him tortured, and the last episodes of that same season, when she wants him judged and executed, and it doesn't even occur to her he might not be guilty as charged because she's so absolutely certain he deserves to die.
Now, neither the torture session mid-season 3 nor the trial gave Roslin the other thing she wanted from Baltar, an admission of guilt. She gets it now. Because he's under morphine, because, as opposed to the s3 situation, he has finally found a way to absolve himself. (Baltar's earlier ways of dealing were: denial, then hoping to be a Cylon which would give him an out, then while accepting he's not a Cylon still clinging to the idea of himself as a victim of deceit.) Maybe even because some part of him wants her to know; remember that s3 dream where he imagines her forgiving him? She's the representative of humanity to him, I think, and the most merciless judge he knows. If she agrees with him that he's forgiven, then he truly is. Not that he'd risk it when not under drugs, but the morphine helps, and she has just helped him.
It's a great, great scene, masterfully played by both actors; Callis in this episode goes from the comedy earlier to this without a problem, and Mary McDonnell is of course beyond awesome, with the physical revulsion and the horror Roslin feels at finally hearing out loud what she thought was true but didn't with absolute certainty know, the hatred that causes her to rip off the bandage from Baltar again. And we get another blood drop imagery; I think the first time they used it was when Boomer was shot, but this time it's coupled with the twisted cruxificion imagery they're using for Baltar (he has the spear wound now, but on the wrong side). Baltar's reaction - just whispering "please don't do this" again and again instead of shouting or trying to persuade her otherwise - is another thing that makes this scene so very effective.
Then we getdivine intervention in the form of another jump and Head!Elosha. Who tells Roslin that it's not that Baltar did more good than bad, which he didn't, but that you can't judge humanity's survival on a case by case basis. The interesting thing is that Roslin, if her later conversation with Head!Elosha is anything to go by, interprets this as meaning that if she saves Gaius Baltar from the death she has just condemmed him to, she'll save humanity. "I thought I was earning humanity's right to survive!" she complains to Elosha when Gaius is saved but Deanna still won't tell her who the final five are or where Earth is, and gets told it doesn't work that way (though she gets Adama instead). No, it doesn't. When Frodo spares Gollum in "Lord of the Ring", it's not because he knows that some months later, when he himself is overwhelmed by the Ring, Gollum will bit off his finger and thus save Middle Earth. Nor does he do it because Gollum has done something to indicate he "deserves" forgiveness and his life. Gollum hasn't. He does it because of compassion. So, Roslin saving Baltar (and has anyone written the compare and contrast for Gollum and Gaius yet?): an attempt to bargain with whichever force Head!Elosha represents, with destiny, coupled with not wanting to become a murderer in the end? I'd say yes, but there is one detail which throws me a bit, it's that she calls him Gaius. The only other time she did that before was when she wanted to intimidate him in their latest cell scene. Here, it's my one indication she might actually have internalized that even Gaius Baltar, who cost so much of humanity their lives, does not deserve to die.
On a lighter level: the earlier squabbling between Roslin and Baltar about the Hybrid was Jane E. bringing on the comedy in a priceless fashion. Ditto for the Baltar-and-the-centurion scenes, though these are interpretable in so many ways - is he trying to sow dissension in the ranks? Is he just genuinenly spreading the word because he wondered about the centurions? Who knows. Best of all, though, was the face-off between D'anna and Roslin. Oh Lucy Lawless, you are still wonderful to behold on my tv screen. Three has never been a sympathetic model, but always an interesting one, and she brings on the snark as few can, first with Cavil ("until they see something shiny"), then with Helo and the Eight, and then with Roslin. Few characters can hold their own next to Laura R., but it looks like Three can. Including a little mindfrak just because. (With the audience as well as Roslin. Though I think that settles the "is Roslin a Cylon?" debate, because given the reverence D'Anna experienced when seeing the Final Five, I doubt she'd treat one of them this way.) Please don't die on us now you're mortal,Three. It's tough enough my tiny tiny hope Natalie downloaded and would get rescued before the Hub is destroyed was crushed, but at least there are more Sixes around.
Meanwhile, Helo really appears to be married to the entire production line (tm Roslin and Jane E.) For the first time, we get an Eight other than Athena and Boomer with more than one or two lines, and while Grace is not as skilled as Tricia in making each version of her model their own individual, I find this Eight interesting and hope we'll see more of her. I also think her scenes both reminded Helo of the essential otherness of the Cylons (downloadable, shareable memories) and of the fact they are like humans in many other ways. Down to the ability to make him feel shame about double crossing on Roslin's orders, and the eerie, eerie moment when he sees all the Eights in the pools which now will never activate and become.
Speaking of the destruction of the hub: in a way, a Cylon apocalypse on the same scale for them as the destruction of the colonies was for the humans, no? The music was appropriate.
In conclusion: a good episode, though I didn't get my wish of seeing Roslin hit Adama over the head with that book for being a selfish prat who deserts the fleet, but then, she doesn't know what happened in her absence yet.
Come on, other people must have thought it, right? While Intervention is mostly remembered for the Spike/Buffybot shenanigans and the twist from comedy to drama when he went self-sacrificial on Dawn's behalf and had what is still one of my favourite scenes between those two with Real!Buffy at the end, there was the entire subplot with Buffy going to the desert for a spirit quest of sorts. Caused by her fear that being the Slayer, being a leader has made her more and more inhuman, has made her cut herself of from emotion, especially love. This led to a cryptic encounter with the First Slayer who told her she hadn't lost the ability to love but was full of it. "Love, give, forgive." And that death was her gift. Not answering Buffy's question whether that meant a gift she was going to give to others, or receive.
...you're seeing where I'm getting with this, right?
Except that I have to use one caveat: I'm not sure "just love" as an advice from a spirit guide and the result worked as well in the case of Laura Roslin for me as a viewer. Because the BSGverse is different from the Jossverse, because Laura is a 50 something adult woman, and because, well, I've known villains a plenty who were able to love someone else tenderly and completely and still be incredibly ruthless and horrible to other people. See also: Arvin Sloane, devoted husband to his wife Emily, being the main villain in the first two seasons of Alias simultanously. But you don't have to branch out to other shows. I'd say Caprica Six loved Gaius Baltar (in the full knowledge of his nature), but this didn't stop her from fulfilling her mission and aquiring the access codes for the Cylons in the miniseries. It took her quite a while to get to the point where she concluded that genocide was wrong. Ellen Tigh loved Saul Tigh, and vice versa. Passionately. This did not stop them from having an Edward Albee style marriage, and it was the reason why Ellen risked the lives of everyone on New Caprica. To save her husband. Love for one person does not automatically give you empathy for others, or compassion.
This being said, I think the episode actually goes for something more complicated than that. Roslin has transformed herself into a ruthless leader because she had to. Everyone went to extremes over the years on this show. Adama and Roslin went to two different ones. His tendency to put the personal above all, personal ties, personal loyalty, got maxed and just led to the conclusion we saw in the last episode. Roslin, otoh, has applied "the end justifies the means" more and more, and since the end was saving the rest of humanity, the allowable means became practically everything. They need balance. Also, while she might have restrained herself in getting close but not too close to Adama in the past, there was one emotion Roslin has been giving into completely for a while. It just wasn't love, it was hate. For Gaius Baltar. Baltar brought out the extremes in Roslin; see "Take away all your troubles" in s3, when she has him tortured, and the last episodes of that same season, when she wants him judged and executed, and it doesn't even occur to her he might not be guilty as charged because she's so absolutely certain he deserves to die.
Now, neither the torture session mid-season 3 nor the trial gave Roslin the other thing she wanted from Baltar, an admission of guilt. She gets it now. Because he's under morphine, because, as opposed to the s3 situation, he has finally found a way to absolve himself. (Baltar's earlier ways of dealing were: denial, then hoping to be a Cylon which would give him an out, then while accepting he's not a Cylon still clinging to the idea of himself as a victim of deceit.) Maybe even because some part of him wants her to know; remember that s3 dream where he imagines her forgiving him? She's the representative of humanity to him, I think, and the most merciless judge he knows. If she agrees with him that he's forgiven, then he truly is. Not that he'd risk it when not under drugs, but the morphine helps, and she has just helped him.
It's a great, great scene, masterfully played by both actors; Callis in this episode goes from the comedy earlier to this without a problem, and Mary McDonnell is of course beyond awesome, with the physical revulsion and the horror Roslin feels at finally hearing out loud what she thought was true but didn't with absolute certainty know, the hatred that causes her to rip off the bandage from Baltar again. And we get another blood drop imagery; I think the first time they used it was when Boomer was shot, but this time it's coupled with the twisted cruxificion imagery they're using for Baltar (he has the spear wound now, but on the wrong side). Baltar's reaction - just whispering "please don't do this" again and again instead of shouting or trying to persuade her otherwise - is another thing that makes this scene so very effective.
Then we get
On a lighter level: the earlier squabbling between Roslin and Baltar about the Hybrid was Jane E. bringing on the comedy in a priceless fashion. Ditto for the Baltar-and-the-centurion scenes, though these are interpretable in so many ways - is he trying to sow dissension in the ranks? Is he just genuinenly spreading the word because he wondered about the centurions? Who knows. Best of all, though, was the face-off between D'anna and Roslin. Oh Lucy Lawless, you are still wonderful to behold on my tv screen. Three has never been a sympathetic model, but always an interesting one, and she brings on the snark as few can, first with Cavil ("until they see something shiny"), then with Helo and the Eight, and then with Roslin. Few characters can hold their own next to Laura R., but it looks like Three can. Including a little mindfrak just because. (With the audience as well as Roslin. Though I think that settles the "is Roslin a Cylon?" debate, because given the reverence D'Anna experienced when seeing the Final Five, I doubt she'd treat one of them this way.) Please don't die on us now you're mortal,Three. It's tough enough my tiny tiny hope Natalie downloaded and would get rescued before the Hub is destroyed was crushed, but at least there are more Sixes around.
Meanwhile, Helo really appears to be married to the entire production line (tm Roslin and Jane E.) For the first time, we get an Eight other than Athena and Boomer with more than one or two lines, and while Grace is not as skilled as Tricia in making each version of her model their own individual, I find this Eight interesting and hope we'll see more of her. I also think her scenes both reminded Helo of the essential otherness of the Cylons (downloadable, shareable memories) and of the fact they are like humans in many other ways. Down to the ability to make him feel shame about double crossing on Roslin's orders, and the eerie, eerie moment when he sees all the Eights in the pools which now will never activate and become.
Speaking of the destruction of the hub: in a way, a Cylon apocalypse on the same scale for them as the destruction of the colonies was for the humans, no? The music was appropriate.
In conclusion: a good episode, though I didn't get my wish of seeing Roslin hit Adama over the head with that book for being a selfish prat who deserts the fleet, but then, she doesn't know what happened in her absence yet.
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