BSG 4.12 A Disquiet Follows My Soul

[selenak]

In which we get some good character scenes, one retcon and political developments.



Among other things, this episode illustrates yet another reason why I can't ship Adama/Roslin. They don't balance each other, they enable each other, and not each other's good sides, either. I mean, it's not that I find it disbelievable that Laura finally had a breakdown. If she ever was going to, it would be after finding Earth a wasteland. But what she needs right now isn't someone who cuddles her but someone who does for her exactly what she did for both Adamas in mid-season 1 when Starbuck went missing - shame her into pulling herself together. Because what she does while understandable is completely irresponsible and incredibly dangerous. Basically, she acts EXACTLY like Baltar did during his short presidency - respond to the whole miserable situation with a mixture of depression, self-loathing and complete hedonism. One of the things that most infuriated Roslin about Baltar before she finally got confirmation about his role in the original Cylon attack was that he didn't live up to the responsibility he had for his people. (Remember her yelling "your people" in the torture episode?) Now she doesn't, either. Her dream sequences in the first half of this season among other things revealed Laura's moral standard has become "well, at least I'm way better than Baltar" . If Gaius Baltar is the standard to measure your moral superiority against, you're in trouble, and if even that doesn't work anymore...

Speaking of Baltar, though: see, this is why I continue to love this show. After the last episode visualized Roslin's breaking with her faith with the burning of the prophecies, played out as stark tragedy, this week we got the flipside scene, as is often the case when Laura and Gaius are paralleled and contrasted, by Baltar discovering the angry-and-dissappointed-railing-against-God side of faith in a scene that of course is played out as dark comedy. Don't worry, Gaius, it happens to all of us, and even C.S. Lewis called God a vivisectionist in an immediate post-death-of-wife outburst. Note that Baltar isn't rediscovering the atheism from which he started, no, he's all J'Accuse towards God and wants an explanation for this less than stellar outcome of all the visions and prophecies. Which is as self-centered as what Roslin and Adama are doing, but I can't help myself, I'm still having that double standard going.

Adama, while at least having an eye on the big picture this week, still continues to make no pretense at respecting democracy. See, if Laura is incapable of executing her office, and in her current state she evidently is, then either let the only elected official around here, which would be Zarek, take over, or if you really think that would lead to doom for the fleet, continue with the oligarchic solution you had the last time, i.e. Lee as appointed and not elected interim President. Lee being the only one who points out that yes, using Cylon tech and continuing the alliance does make sense, but THEY HAVE TO SELL IT to the fleet. Have to explain the why's and wherefore's instead of just working on the "oh, surely they'll see that Adama Knows Best" principle. But nooooo, Adama can't be bothered with that one. But then, he's given up to pretend this isn't a military dictatorship since season 3.

Stellar illustration of Bill Adama's complete inabiliity at empathy and imagination: he has come to terms with the fact his best friend is a Cylon, so clearly everyone else should. He has come to terms with the fact they need the Cylons to survive, so why should anyone else have a problem? This leads to the curious circumstance that while I'm totally on board with the Cylon alliance myself (not surprising, given that most of my favourite characters are Cylons) from a political pov, from a personal pov I'm sympathizing way more with Gaeta and Zarek than with Bill Adama. Even without the webisodes, it's more than understandable why Gaeta, after all that happened (and the scene with Starbuck was a great reminder for the audience, as well as working in terms of both characters and being a perfect mirror/contrast to the Kara and Gaeta lunch scene from Collaborators, finally had it with the Admiral. And why should he have faith in Roslin? She's failing her office most shamefully right now. As for Zarek, I could have done without Adama's successful corruption bluff because that smacked a bit too much of a plot device to ensure Adama looks better in the cell scene, but I'm glad he finally got scenes longer than one or two lines, and like Gaeta gets to make some good points, too. Because to repeat the above - neither Adama nor the AVOWL Laura has bothered to win support for the Cylon alliance, which of course is incredibly difficult to accept if all your experiences with Cylons were negative. (Which is true for Zarek, who spent most of the New Caprica occupation imprisoned in addition to having the usual fleet experience of being a part of hunted humanity.) Add to this the way Adama (and Tigh) completely disregarded the presidential succession when Roslin disappeared a few episodes back, illustrating that the legitimate way to achieve power isn't worth squat, and the fact Zarek never stopped being ambitious and it would be utterly ooc if he wouldn't finally use his opportunity. In short: Revolution? They so had it coming. Have they ever.

Meanwhile, we get a retcon to ensure Hera is still the only Cylon/Human hybrid. Cally/Hotdog doesn't make much sense, though given that her marriage with Tyrol happened on very short notice - i.e. Tyrol never showed any kind of romantic interest in her (as opposed to friendship, he had treated her as one of his "kids" in the mechanics crew from the start, while her crush on him was evident from at least the start of s2 onwards) until she woke him up from his nightmare and he beat her, which made the marriage look like a big gesture of atonment - I could see her having a casual relationship with someone else until that nightmare/violence event suddenly changed everything. However, knowing that Nicky isn't Tyrol's son makes nonsense of a crucial motivation in her big depression after finding out Tyrol was a Cylon. Bah. On the other hand, Tyrol drafting Hotdog to take turns in watching Nicky was great to see.

Speaking of children: the knowledge that Ellen, as a Cylon, must still be somewhere seems to have cheered up Tigh to no end. He's not-self loathing and downright nice (for Tigh) with Caprica, whose joy in being pregnant was a little heartbreaking, given I'm still afraid it can't end well. (Unless my crack theory is true and her foetus is actually Ellen waiting to be reborn.) Important point about what this means for the Cylons, though, and the fact it chilled the nurse was effectively conveying how your avarage colonial has to feel about the prospect of Cylons as a people. Again, massive failure on the part of Adama and Roslin in not promoting the alliance properly and give the people a chance to voice their grievances and to get to know the rebel Cylons instead of being dictated, which has to bring back New Caprica memories...

ETA: BSG composer Bear McCreary's blog has some really interesting stuff about this episode, including the fact Tom Zarek gets his own musical theme there, and some good quotes from Richard Hatch and Alessandro Juliani.

Comments

[abigail-n.livejournal.com]

Like you, I understand the political necessity of allying with the Cylons, but I'm sympathetic to Zarek and Gaeta's position not simply because the Roslin government has, yet again, completely failed to lead the fleet (and once again I notice that Lee has become completely passive, no doubt so that a few episodes down the line he can reemerge as our hope in dark times with a stirring speech). That the Cylons are demanding citizenship and free access to the fleet is staggering to the point of absurdity, and yet another illustration, if one more was needed, that they just don't get it - the magnitude of what they did to the human race and what they have to atone for. You see it as well in the ultra-sound scene. When Caprica sees the nurse's pained expression after going on obliviously about the survival of her race, she makes the familiar Six 'why is this person so mean to me?' face because she genuinely doesn't understand why a human would have trouble offering a Cylon succor and support (see also the Six who killed Barolay justifying herself by saying that Barolay killed her on Caprica despite the fact that Six had done nothing to her).

It's a common failing of Galactica that it focuses on inter-human politics as if these exist in a vacuum and aren't constantly responding to the Cylons' actions. This episode takes that approach to its illogical conclusion - it's not just the Colonial government that needs to sell the fleet on the idea of partnering with the Cylons but the Cylons themselves, by acknowledging the full horror of their actions and begging their victims' forgiveness before they start demanding equal right and privileges.

(As for Cally - now all the fans who had fun calling her a slut can really go to town. I'd like to believe that she was having a casual relationship with someone else when she hooked up with the Chief but I'm not sure the timeline works. She had just discovered her pregnancy around the time of the "Unfinished Business" flashbacks, and my impression was that these took place several months after the election and the Chief's assault on her.)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Cally: according to Ron Moore, she definitely had the relationship with Hot Dog before Tyrol proposed, because the interviewer (M. Ryan) asked whether she cheated on Tyrol and he said no, absolutely not. (Also he confirmed that this retcon was to preserve Hera's status as the sole Cylon/Human hybrid. Which, you know, wouldn't have been necessary if the Chief hadn't been picked as one of the final five, but there you go...)

Cylons: well, you have to consider that they did make one big and massive gesture already - they gave up their immortality for the humans by giving them the Hub, and fighting with them to destroy it. As gestures of atonment go, forever giving up the ability to resurrect yourself is a big one. And Natalie killing the Six who killed Bardolay was a similar gesture. In a negative way, D'Anna got it very well, see her argument with Baltar in early s3 where he said "why don't you just leave?" and she said "say that we did, how long before you and your children would come after us for revenge?". All this being said, I would agree that most of them - Caprica and Leoben come to mind - do not get it in its full implication.

[abigail-n.livejournal.com]

Cally: according to Ron Moore, she definitely had the relationship with Hot Dog before Tyrol proposed

But that would mean that Tyrol proposed before the wires came off her jaw, which means that that relationship was even more twisted that I'd previously thought. And it still doesn't absolve Cally of lying to Tyrol.

I'm not sure I'd call any of your examples gestures of atonement so much as expediency. When the Cylons suggest the resurrection hub as a target, they've already been cut off from the resurrection ship. If Cavil catches up to them they'll die permanently and they desperately need allies. It's no skin off their nose, by that point, if the rest of the Cylons stop being able to resurrect. Similarly, Natalie kills the Six who kills Barolay as a way of keeping the alliance with the humans from shattering, and does so with disgust, as though merely humoring the humans' bloody-mindedness. Even D'Anna's acknowledgement that the humans would never forgive them doesn't necessarily imply a realization that there's something to be forgiven for.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

No points for guessing what excited *me* in this episode. I think I noticed that RDM wrote and directed this episode himself (which I think hasn't happened that often recently?) and it really shows, with the emphasis on political arguments in which everybody has both valid points and flaws. I wish we'd gotten at least one scene with just Lee and Zarek (if I grasped the canon well enough to try writing fic, I'd be tempted). The corruption conversation didn't bother me that much, because Zarek has definitely been depicted as corrupt -- working with the black market, etc -- and it makes sense that Bill would use it. I don't think it took away from the illustration that Zarek has a valid point of view and is doing a better job of making his case. I really really hope he stays around as a major player, but of course I've been saying this since season 1.

I actually expected the father of Cally's child to be Baltar, when I saw Tyrol walk into the room; I like the Hot Dog solution, though, and how Tyrol handled it -- even if the retcon probably shouldn't have been necssary.

In short, I really really liked the back-to-basics feel of this episode, which it did for the most part without sacrificing continuity.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I think I noticed that RDM wrote and directed this episode himself (which I think hasn't happened that often recently?)

Nope. He wrote a couple in s1, but after that I don't think there were many, and none in the last two. As for directing, this was his debut. And yes to the emphasis on political arguments as a giveaway for a RDM script. Oh, you'll enjoy this quote from an interview:

Interviewer: But you know, looking at Adama and Roslin in a different light, just politically, as Zarek is talking in that Quorum scene, I was thinking, “This guy is making a lot of good points.”


RDM: Sure!


Interviewer: His argument is not really fair in some regards, but it’s hard to argue with the points he raises about the way they’ve ruled and the way they’ve led.

RDM: I thought he was actually very fair. I wanted his argument to be really solid, he had a very strong case to make. If you were in Colonial One, sitting in that council chamber, you’d be going, “Yeah, wait a minute. Where’s this Adama-Roslin [administration] taking us? Because it has not taken us any place good.”


And hey, I hear you on major player Zarek; as you know, we're of a mind there.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

Of course, Zarek and Baltar led the fleet to the New Caprica disaster, but I guess nostalgia must have a factor there. In comparison with the present suicidal circumstances, people must be thinking "man, before the Cylons showed up, New Caprica was heaven on Earth."

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I was thinking as I watched it, "Based on what Zarek knows, his position makes a lot of sense." And that ties into what you're saying about Roslin and Adama not being good politicians in this case -- not that Zarek would necessarily be persuadable, but as it is he (and the people and the quorum) hardly have a chance to make an informed decision, because the case for cooperating with the Cylons hasn't really been put before them.

I do rather hope the series ends with Lee as president, because of all of them I think he deserves and is ready for it.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

This show is a big mess. I'd quit watching but ... at less than nine episodes to go, it's no skin off me to stick to the end.

Also, sigh: poor Cally. Were there ever such a martyr for fandom misogyny as poor Cally?