ride into this world, all alone.

"i am the instrument of god."

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:38:47 GMT

I finally got around to watching “The Hand of God”. Unsurprisingly, since it’s on the same disc, I also re-watched “Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down” because I was in the mood for some humor. I’ll have review posts for “Colonial Day” and “Kobol’s Last Gleaming, Part I” (and probably Part II) up in the next couple of days. No sense in spamming, right?

Previously on Battlestar Galactica: Laura has cancer, Kara bitched Lee out about acting like the CAG, Tigh used some reverse psychology to get Kara out of Sickbay, Kara trained the nuggets, Doral and Six talked about Sharon and Helo.

Laura is giving a press conference, because the fleet is running low on fuel. They’ve been in space for 36 days and their tylium fuel reserves are down to %5. So you can imagine people are kind of freaking about this. The press is actually being really calm as they ask their questions, though, and it’s going rather well, until Laura starts hallucinating snakes on the podium (I AM TIRED OF THESE MOTHERFRAKKING SNAKES ON THIS MOTHERFRAKKING PODIUM! *cough* sorry couldn’t resist move along).

To quote the great Indiana Jones, “Why did it have to be snakes?” Ugh. I am not a snake person at all. They’re creepy. Laura’s look of terror agrees with me. Laura is struggling to answer their questions and the press is noticing something is up. Laura tries to compose herself and ends the conference. There’s a cool shot of Laura’s hands on the podium and there not being any snakes and then when we change back to her POV, the snakes are there.

Boomer and Crashdown are looking for tylium, because they are the old Racetrack and Skulls. And because they are the old Racetrack and Skulls, they find tylium! Except, again, because they are the old Racetrack and Skulls and bad things always follow a good discovery, the asteroid is crawling with Cylons. They hightail it out of there, sad that they are no longer heroes. :(

I have to say, I miss the days when Boomer and Crashdown were funny. It’s so sad to know that Crashdown cracks under the pressure and Boomer is, well, Boomer. They were kind of adorable, cheering about finding tylium, teasing one another.

Bill, Lee, Saul, and Gaeta are talking about the asteroid and how the Cylons are probably staking out any other fuel sources as well. Lee suggests sending the raptors out further, and Tigh derides it for using up all their fuel. Bill is silent until finally he says they’re going to fight the Cylons for the asteroid. Cue everyone looking at him like he has gone off the deep end. But he is the Commander and he is AWESOME so of course his crazy ideas will work.

Not that they know that yet, but I’m just saying. DO NOT DOUBT BILL ADAMA AND HIS CRAZY ASS IDEAS. They always work! Even when they shouldn’t! Because he is just. that. AWESOME.

Speaking of crazy ass ideas and just. that. AWESOME., Kara is giving a briefing to her nuggets. Bill comes in, because when you have a crazy ass idea and you need someone to come up with an equally crazy ass plan, you turn to Kara Thrace. I bet if Kara had been on Galactica instead of New Caprica, she could have helped plan the rescue and they wouldn’t have lost Pegasus. I’m just saying.

Laura talks to Priestess Elosha, played by the wonderful Lorena Gale. Elosha was so cool! I hate that they killed her off. It was pretty cool to see her again in “The Hub”, even if it was just a dream!Elosha or something. I wish dream!Elosha had stuck around, too, because she never would have let Laura just fade away like she did. (Even if it is kind of her fault that Laura became ALL ABOUT BILL ADAMA. See what Jane Espenson does to these characters? That is the reason I am worried about The Plan. I can handle massive retcon, but character!fail not so much.)

We get some exposition about Pythia and her prophecies, but as we all know now, Pythia got a lot of things wrong. But what oracle doesn’t get a few things wrong now and then? Besides, she was probably on chamalla and she was stuck in an asylum seeing scary blonde women in red dresses, not to mention dating Saul Tigh’s father, so she had a lot on her plate. We can forgive her a few mistakes, right?

Speaking of Pythia, I have not personally read the Final Five comics (because I cannot find it anywhere at any store that sells comics near to me), but I always thought the best crack idea ever was that Kara Thrace was Saul and Ellen’s granddaughter (through Daniel). I love that the comics proved me wrong and instead made Kara (or season four Kara, at least, who I think is supposed to be Aurora) Saul’s mother. That’s really just too hilarious, even if it isn’t really canon. It really should be, because the Cylons in the actual show weren’t messed up enough.

Also? If season four Kara is Aurora and Aurora is the Pythia Saul’s father marries and procreates with, that means Saul Tigh’s mom was a goddess. So Saul’s technically a demi-god. See? BEST CRACK EVER.

Anyway, back to the show. Lee is telling Kara their plan, over the glowy table with all the models and stuff. I forget what the table is called. Anyway, Kara is Not Impressed with the plan and says as much. Tigh is even less pleased with this whole thing since now Kara is involved and snarks about it. Starbuck being Starbuck snarks back about his marital problems, and Bill tells them to be quiet, because they have some important planning to do.

Starbuck begins telling us the plan, and we’ve been joined by Laura. She is concerned about casualties as well as the chance the Cylons might come while they’re getting the tylium. Bill gives one of his speeches and says, “Sometimes you gotta roll the hard six,” and Laura okays the plan.

Because Baltar is their Cylon Expert, he gets called in to look at recon photos of the base and tell them what they need to hit to destroy the base, but not damage the ore. If only he could tell them that his expertise lies with the tall, blonde humanoid models instead of things like tylium refineries. He retreats to his fantasy world to talk to Head!Six, who preaches about letting God into his heart so he can guide him or something. I am fascinated by Head!Six’s shoes, because my God, look at the heel on them! Seriously.

Gaius picks a place at random and points. Because he is one lucky son of a bitch, he is right. Head!Six tells him God doesn’t always speak in words and Gaius is actually really kind of worried because hasn’t he already nearly killed humanity? It’s kind of sweet, except this is Gaius and he has about 1246457452253453 more almost-redemptions to go through before he becomes a good guy for reals.

Starbuck, who is still suffering from her knee injury all the way back in “You Can’t Go Home Again”, is in the exercise room. She’s determined to be back in the cockpit for the mission, but Bill’s not having it with that injury. They have a little showdown, because she feels like she needs to be on the mission, but Bill nixes it.

Naturally, Kara goes to talk to Lee about the mission. She’s using Starbuck Psychology on him, but Lee doesn’t need someone telling him to not over-think something, because he’s Lee. I don’t know why Starbuck thought it was a good idea to do this, but there you go. Poor guy probably felt bad enough already, you know?

On Cylon-occupied Caprica, Helo and Sharon are in someone’s barn because they need a place to sleep for the night. They’ve also raided someone’s pantry and Helo is talking about what they want to eat. Sharon is feeling sick and Helo, being Helo, thinks she’s not taking her anti-radiation meds. Helo darling, you are such an idiot. While I can forgive you for not catching on to the fact that she’s a Cylon, you probably should have figured out the pregnancy thing a little quicker than this. (Though I guess I would have asked about the radiation meds too, but come on. You do remember that you had sex without any protection, right?)

Lee is hanging out at the hanger deck because he is concerned he will frak up the mission. Thank you for helping, Kara. Bill comes down and gives him an Adama Pep Talk, guaranteed to give him confidence. Oh, and a lighter his father used to carry into court cases, because Joseph Adama is apparently a superstitious man (seriously, pencil breaking and a lucky lighter). We also get the Adama theme, the proper name I don’t know but want to say is “Wander My Friends”, and it’s kind of awesome even if you do wonder why there’s all this Celtic music for this family.

Anyway. Lee bemoans that everyone feels like Starbuck would do better on the mission and Bill says he doesn’t, but I think he’s kind of lying, because Starbuck probably would do better on this mission but Lee is his son and he can’t say that. Which, honestly, I don’t think Lee would do bad on the mission either – and the show backs me up on this, duh – but he still wouldn’t do as awesomely as Kara would.

Back on Caprica, Helo and Sharon are sleeping sweetly. Then they hear Centurions and Helo looks out and sees a Six, who looks exactly like the Six that Sharon shot when she made her reappearance. Helo is freaked out, but Sharon is focused on getting out of there and hoping that will distract him from any questions. And it still takes him until the end of “Colonial Day” to realize she’s a Cylon. Oh, Helo.

Galactica jumps into position in the asteroid field. Also present are Gaius Baltar and Laura Roslin, because if there’s anywhere you want your president and Cylon expert, it’s on the battleship going into battle. Not even going to ask what the logic behind that one was.

Down on the deck, Galen is looking at something. Cally is chewing gum. Everyone is waiting. Boomer and Crashdown are in a raptor, watching the Cylons. They relay that the Raiders have taken the bait, and Bill orders Gaeta who tells Dee to launch Strike Force 1. The deck scurries into activity as pilots jump into vipers. Kara, using a cane, walks into the war room and asks how many Raiders.

She continues to worry about Lee and Bill tells her Lee isn’t the problem. The problem is that she’s not in control. Some more things are said, Kara snaps she never wanted this responsibility, and Bill points out the Cylons never asked them what they wanted. Crashdown reports 50+ Raiders have moved to intercept the strike force and Baltar immediately asks what that means. Starbuck clarifies it for him: “It means that a Cylon patrol spotted our attack force. The base sent out 50 more Raiders to intercept.”

Laura points out that the decoys were supposed to take care of that, and Bill says the Cylons were too smart. Kara curses, realizing her plan is falling apart. For a change, most of the action takes place off-screen. We see some of it, but for the most part, we’re stuck listening just like Kara is. Baltar is right when he says it sounds awful.

Bill aborts the strike force and the Cylons turn on the Galactica. The Cylons heard the recall and now the wave that was heading for the decoys is coming for them. Baltar asks when are they going to launch the reserve Vipers and Bill tells him everything is on the board already. See, this is exactly why you do not have the president on the battleship. I’m just saying.

Bill tells Starbuck it’s her plan and Kara walks to Gaeta and asks him to tell Dee to tell Apollo that “the back door is open”.

Out in space, a large thing detaches from one of the decoy ships and reveals another attack force. Laura asks Kara how come she didn’t say anything about it and Bill tells her he routinely restricts tactical details to those who need to know. “Old habits die hard.” Which I think is his own subtle way of burning her for thinking he was a Cylon back in “Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down”.

Anyway. Now it all pretty much rests on Baltar’s random guess. But it’s not quite that easy, because the Cylons are jamming the missile guidance systems and they can’t get close. Two of Kara’s nuggets get taken out. Apollo gets in for a closer look and decides to pull a Luke Skywalker/a trademark Starbuck retina-detaching move. It is the first time we ever see Apollo fly this good or come up with something this crazy since the miniseries. I kind of miss the days when Apollo got to be a hero.

We wait for the explosion. Lee confirms for the people on Galactica that Baltar was right and that the mission is accomplished. Everyone goes wild, cheering and clapping and hugging. Gaeta hugs Baltar, and isn’t that just the sweetest and saddest thing ever? Kara, without thinking, hugs Laura, and apologizes. Laura tells her not to apologize and then hugs her gently. One of the few times on this show a woman talks to another woman without it being about a guy or fighting.

The Celtic music is in full swing and Starbuck greets Apollo as he climbs out of his Viper. She tells him she couldn’t have done better herself and Lee teasingly makes her repeat it. Crashdown and Boomer drink champagne and smile, Boomer grinning and rolling her eyes when Ensign Davis runs into Crash’s arms. As Apollo lights up a cigar, he sees his father over Starbuck’s shoulder, and he tosses him the lighter. Bill smiles at his son, and Lee nods back.

It is a lovely moment.

In his fantasy world, Head!Six asks Baltar about the Pythian prophecies. He read them in the sixth grade and hasn’t thought about them since. She repeats the verse we first learned in “Flesh and Bone”, from Leoben: “All of this has happened before and all of it will happen again.” She quotes more scripture and Baltar comes to the conclusion that God wanted him to destroy the Cylon base.

“I am the instrument of God,” he says.

He strikes his Jesus pose on the balcony as we fade to black. Oh, Gaius darling, if only you knew just how much an instrument of God you are. What’s sad is that I’m pretty sure they weren’t terribly serious about Six being an angel and Gaius being an instrument of God at this point, it’s just what they wanted you to think. There’s just something that feels different to me about Head!Six and Gaius in this season versus the final one.

Now I’m going to watch “Colonial Day” and then “Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc.” Maybe not immediately afterward, I’m definitely going to watch it before the evening’s up.

honey, i'm home!

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:15:07 GMT

I AM BACK, DARLINGS. DID YOU MISS ME?

I am ridiculously tired. Woke up at 6am, got a shower at 6:30, and we left around 7:30am. I think we got to Amanda's at around noon? IDK, I can't remember. Didn't get back home until 1pm, maybe? Argh, can't remember. Too tired.

Left the house at 1:30ish to go to the hospital because my Opa is sick. Stayed there until... okay, I suck at remembering times today. I think we got home at five or six? UGH. I THINK I AM GOING TO BED.

BUT, I had a great time. It was wonderful. The beach was awesome. Except for the sand, omg. Since I usually don't lay out on the beach, I forgot how sand travels in the wind. And there is no getting it off with anything except water.

The pool was great. It was small, because we were staying at a condo and not a resort, but I think most people went to the beach or just came down later than we did. I... would say more, but I am too tired to think of anything else.

Slowly working my way through my friends list. This is not made any easier by my tiredness. Need sleep ugh.

ALSO: TONY AWARDS. Anyone have Youtube linkage so I don't have to try to find it myself?

beach time! whoop whoop!

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 03:19:09 GMT

All right, I'm not leaving for the beach until Sunday, but I most likely won't be able to post anything tomorrow.

I'm going to be gone from Saturday to Thursday, probably not back on LJ until Friday or even the weekend, since I'm coming back to company. I might have internet access at the condo, but I'm personally hoping I'll be too exhausted to use it.

Try not to miss me too much. :P

♥

"don't frak with me, bill." "don't frak with me either, ellen."

Sun, 24 May 2009 23:02:07 GMT

I have a dirty little secret. When I first saw this episode, I loved it. It might very well be my second favorite episode of season one, the greatness that is “33” being my first favorite. I love that it’s not the standard Battlestar Galactica fare. It’s not serious or really important to the overall plot, or anything; it’s comedic and happy, even, and no one dies to immediately remind you things are ~*serious*~! (“Act of Contrition”, I’m looking at you.)

But that’s not the secret. The secret is that I hated Ellen Tigh. Hated isn’t even a strong enough word to describe how much I despised Ellen Tigh. I can’t even fully explain why, except she seemed so idiotic and she made Saul do stupid things, and there was the alcoholism. I hated her even more after the martial law debacle and worse still, I hated Saul himself because he was so cowed by her.

So how did I go from absolutely hating her to absolutely loving her? It started with New Caprica. My hate of Ellen dissolved, little by little, in four episodes (three and the beginning of the first act of the fourth one, if you want to get technical). Starting with “Occupation”, where we find out she’s frakking Cavil to get her husband out of detention, and culminating in her death, I grew to, well, not really love her yet, but I certainly liked her a hell of a lot more.

The New Caprica arc was the first time I knew she truly loved Saul, just as much (if not more than) as he loved her. “Why did he stay married to her?” Lee asks in this episode. “It’s obvious he loves her deeply,” Laura tells him, and Bill corrects, “Blindly.” I agreed with that assessment when I first saw the episode, but since then, I’ve come to realize Bill was wrong. Saul isn’t blind to her faults and flaws any more than she is blind to his; he loves her anyway, and she loves him.

In “Exodus, Part Two”, when Ellen tells Saul what she did and then asks for the drink, I started crying. No, seriously! Actual tears and everything, over a character I didn’t even really like. As a matter of fact, I cried more over Ellen’s death than I did Laura’s, and Laura has always been my favorite character. And damn it, I still cry every single time I watch “Exodus, Part Two”.

Anyway, as I mentioned above, I still wasn’t completely in love with Ellen yet. No, my complete and total love for Ellen Tigh wouldn’t come until she was revealed to be the Final Cylon. A part of it was that I did like Ellen now, and another part of it was that I love the Cylons. But one of the major reasons why I loved Ellen as the Final Cylon? She and Saul were the epic love story of Galactica.

I loved that. Apparently, I am a sucker for dysfunctional couples that really, really loved each other and are actually soul mates. I think another reason why I love Ellen so much is that, particularly after “A Disquiet Follows My Soul”, Laura fell from grace with me. I just couldn’t love her as much as I used to, and I needed someone else to look forward to seeing. Ellen got to be that character and I’m insanely glad she did, because she is awesome.

And so, that is the story of how I fell in complete and utter love with Ellen Tigh.

Now for the actual episode review. Like I said above, I really love this episode. It’s definitely one of my favorites, and no, not just because of Ellen. When I first watched it, I loved it in spite of Ellen. Seriously, have you seen that dinner scene? Best comedic moment in all of Battlestar Galactica (and I will not hear any arguments to the contrary, tyvm).

Previously, on Battlestar Galactica: Sharon switched sides, Tigh burned a hole into a photo of his wife (who did not look like Kate Vernon in the miniseries), a Leoben was found in the fleet, and he told Laura that Adama was a Cylon. Considering how similar Bill and Ellen are (well, similar personalities, anyway), I can see how he made the mistake.

Laura is perfecting her sneaking skills, which she will later use in “Unfinished Business” to surprise Bill at the boxing match. Something I have literally never noticed is that the crewman who’s sitting at the console-thingy stands up when Laura comes by, because, duh, she’s the President. But I have watched this episode at least one thousand times, and I have never noticed that. Go figure.

Hee, I love the little wave and then the scary face that comes after he stops looking at her. I also absolutely adore when Bill says people in sensitive positions should go first and Laura says, “I completely agree. How about you?” Laura is not one for beating around the bush. Or subtlety, for that matter.

Aw, Billy/Dee. Remember when Dee was adorable and awesome and not stuck in a horrible romantic plot with Lee? Weren’t those days wonderful? Sigh. Subtlety isn’t your strong suit, Billy. But that’s okay, because you’re sweet and cute.

And paranoia really doesn’t suit you, Laura. It’s unattractive. Stop taking the chamalla; it’s doing bad things for you. Of course, to end the teaser, we get Bill looking kind of creepy. As we all know, though, he is just brooding because Ellen Tigh is going to be coming back into Saul Tigh’s life, and Bill considers this a Very Bad Thing. Because Saul won’t love him anymore with his wife back from the dead. *eyeroll*

Okay, as much as I love this scene with Baltar, it annoys me that the Cylon detector takes eleven hours. It took, what, five minutes in “Flesh and Bone”? Plus, he’s complaining that about all these blood samples, but it takes nearly a day to get results, so he has plenty of time for other things, such as sleep. It doesn’t make any sense!

Unsurprisingly, Saul is sitting in his quarters with a bottle of booze. He pours what’s left of it out, and has just spontaneously caused Ellen to have a random heart attack. (Because he poured out booze *gasp*! ...Well, I thought it was funny.)

A single Raider, the B-plot of the episode because we have to try to have some seriousness in an episode of BSG, jumps in front of Apollo and another pilot. Because it is Apollo and not Starbuck, he cannot shoot the Raider down. Seriously. He is the frakking CAG and he cannot kill a single Raider. That’s just sad.

Let me just say right now, Ellen has the most awesome shoes ever in this scene. Those pink sparkly heels are so cool. I want them. I love that they sort of recreated this scene in “Deadlock”. Too bad that episode wasn’t nearly as amusing.

Adama: Colonel Tigh, allow me to present your wife.
Tigh: Ellen.

Thus begins the epic love story of Galactica and my OTP. ♥

Back on Cylon-occupied Caprica, Sharon and Helo are now really on the run since she’s on the side of the humans now. Poor dumb Helo. At least you’re pretty, bb.

Perhaps one of my favorite things about “No Exit” is that it answered who got Ellen off of Picon. Since I had always thought Cavil knew more about the Final Five than he let on, I theorized that he was the one who got Ellen off anyway, but it was nice to have it canonized.

Oh, poor Lee. If only you had said no. I imagine having dinner with his father was never very high on his list of things to do anyway, but he probably avoided it way more than usual after the dinner with the Tighs.

One of my favorite things about the scene where Tigh pulls away from Ellen and says he’s on duty is comparing it to the scene in “Deadlock”, where he tries (and fails) to tell Ellen about Caprica and Liam. I find it hilarious that he can pull away because duty calls, but can’t when trying to tell her about his son. Way to have your priorities straight, Saul. Of course, there are different circumstances, and it’s really one of those things that is funny only to me.

Ellen’s look after he leaves: Okay. Where does he keep the booze?

Laura: I’d very much like to meet your wife, Colonel.

That’s what you think, Laura. Hee.

This scene really used to make me cringe. I got very indignant over the fact that Ellen made him drink again. Now, I’m totally okay with it. Only BSG could make me approve of alcoholism. *facepalm*

(For the record, I don’t really approve of alcoholism. Alcoholism is a terrible, terrible thing that should always be taken seriously. /End of PSA.)

I just realized Ellen does things basically in the same order in this episode as she does in “Deadlock”. 1. Make out with husband, 2. Drinks!, 3. Cause trouble, 4. Hate Bill Adama. Except in this episode, number five is “Prove I’m not a Cylon (but I totally am!)” and in “Deadlock” it’s “Accidentally kill baby because Saul loves me more (but still less than Bill Adama :()”.

Starting over for the Tighs means exactly that: starting back at square one and doing the same thing over again. They have their own personal cycle going on, so it’s no surprise they really failed at stopping the cycle of violence. Seriously, on Earth 2.0, they undoubtedly do this same shit all over again. And I love them for it. Never change, darlings, never change. ♥

Ellen: Sure, there’s a lot of whining and complaining like you would expect, but the people I talked to are mostly hopeful and optimistic.
Laura: That’s good to hear.
Ellen: Mm. Well, there are a few people who still might wonder if a kindergarten teacher is really the right person to be president, but it’s just a tiny, tiny minority.
Laura: Wonderful, wonderful.

Hee, the dinner scene! This is the best scene ever and I totally think there should have been more dinner scenes. Not just in this episode, but in other episodes. Just random scenes of the Tighs, Adamas, and Laura having dinner together. It would have been awesome.

Anyway, it’s hard to say what my favorite thing about this scene is, because everything just rocks about it. From Ellen and Saul drinking, to Laura who looks likes she’s being forced to eat glass, and then the molestation of poor little Leemo. Speaking of Lee, how adorable is that little look he shares with Laura after she says, “Wonderful, wonderful”? Aren’t they sweet?

Because I am a horrible person, when Ellen wonders what Zak looks like, I always think “Hm, not very good since he’s been dead for two years.” I told you, I am a horrible, horrible person. On a less horrible subject, isn’t the sad little look Laura gives Bill so sweet? (Except Lee is right there and you really shouldn’t flirt with him and then flirt with his dad. That’s just cruel.)

Ahahaha, the molestation of Leemo begins. I love it. I love the way he stands up and looks at her as if she’s radioactive or something. And Laura’s little head jerk when he jumps up. Haha.

Also awesome is the look Ellen gives Laura when she says the need for secrecy is paramount. It’s so “Oh, is the schoolteacher talking to me?” Then Laura does the non-subtlety thing again, which is kind of adorable.

Ellen: A thing like that would travel fast, right?

Oh, Ellen. You have to love that she asks. And then the “boo!”, haha. And then how Bill basically just kicks them out. Way to be a gracious host, Bill.

Sharon and Helo are still running. Helo, being just a measly human, is getting tired while his “as human as possible” Cylon wife-to-be is not. Helo thinks it’s perfectly normal, because hey, adrenaline does crazy things to people, right? You are so lucky you’re pretty, Helo and that your wife-to-be is smarter than you. Well, sort of.

Back on the good ship Tighlon, they are trying to find their way home. Perhaps my favorite thing about this scene is that Bill completely failed at convincing Ellen that he knew the way to Earth. I mean, she is completely plastered, and still sees through Bill’s lie. Bill is a really bad liar. (Much like Ellen. See, see, I told you they’re basically the same person!)

So, you know what I love most about the meeting of Ellen and Gaius? The way Head!Six slides into frame. It’s awesome. Actually, the way Six looks in general during this scene is awesome, because I love that little look she gives Baltar (“I’d love to”) and then the look she gives Ellen is wonderful. And even though it takes them three whole seasons to pick up on it, I love Head!Six hinting that Gaius does need to pay attention to Ellen, because, duh, she’s a part of the Final Five.

...Of course, ideally she would also be hinting this about Saul, but never mind.

Then Ellen goes temporarily insane and lies about Bill touching her. I told you Ellen was a bad liar. Hee, even though she is temporarily insane, she still has the presence of mind to grab the bottle of booze before taking off. Have I mentioned that I really, really love Ellen? Yes, even when she is lying and really, really drunk. (Even when she’s accidentally causing the death of Caprica’s baby. Which is really Saul’s fault, when you think about it. Because he’s the one that stops loving Caprica. Of course, that’s only if you believe the crap about love = Cylon baby anyway, which I don’t, because that’s just stupid.)

Anyway, onto the second best scene in the entire episode: the lab scene! Because the Tighs, the Adamas, and Laura just weren’t awesome enough on their own, we add in Gaius to make it even more awesome! I can’t even quote a specific line, because they are all just so awesome. From Laura’s “My fault” to Gaius’s “That’s a thermonuclear bomb, for frak’s sake” to Bill’s “No! ...Yes. It’s complicated.” ♥ It is ridiculously great.

Oh, and in case you’ve forgotten about the Raider, it’s been playing with them the entire time. It goes on a suicide run or something but Saul is a good XO and launched the alert fighters so it gets shot down before anything can happen. LOL at Bill: “And we’re friends. I don’t want anything to come between that, not even Ellen.” Bill is such an idiot. What’s really sad is that three years from this point, he still will not have learned his lesson, and so we get the drinking scene in “Deadlock”. Ugh.

I love Tricia Helfer’s acting in this scene with Doral. The expression on her face is just so good, the way she breaks just a second and then gets her composure back somewhat. I love love love it.

Lee’s and Laura’s expressions at Ellen’s test results are priceless. You know Laura is inwardly cursing that she doesn’t get to throw her out of an airlock. Lee is totally thinking the same thing.

Then the thing with Gaius and Six that leaves it open for Ellen to be the final Cylon. I think there was some debate over whether Gaius knew Ellen was a Cylon or not after “Sometimes a Great Notion” aired, because of the whole thing with D’Anna and Baltar trying to identify the Final Five and not one mention of Ellen as a possibility. I think it’s possible by the time that happened, he forgot all about testing Ellen Tigh and what the results were. I mean, it is Gaius we’re talking about here.

somewhere in this there's truth. you care to take me to it?

Mon, 04 May 2009 01:07:00 GMT

I would have had this finished way earlier, but a severe thunderstorm came through at around noon and killed my power for a few hours.

"Litmus" is one of the few episodes I don't really care for. I don't absolutely hate it, like "Black Market" or "Deadlock", but I wouldn't normally watch it. It is kind of an important episode in the scheme of things, though. Also, just so there's no confusion, Sharon is future!Athena-Sharon or the Eights in general. Boomer is, well, Boomer.

Previously on Battlestar Galactica: In the last episode, the Cylons "kidnapped" Sharon. In the miniseries, Doral was suspected to be a Cylon and thrown off the Galactica. And that's it. Shortest previouslies ever?

I have always kind of liked the Dorals, even though we never really learn much about them. He has this sort of psychopath thing going on. Like, you'd never suspect him of being a Cylon or a suicide-bomber, but there he is. I'm not sure if his blood thirst comes from something the Final Five did to him or whether he learned it from his big brother Cavil, but Doral enjoys killing things. If he ever had a childhood, he would be the boy holding magnifying glasses over ants and putting his action figures in the microwave. Admittedly, all the Ones, Fours, and Fives possess a lack of empathy, but Cavil's torturing his parents and Simon is torturing babies, so the Fives get to have the real fun and blow things up and shoot stuff.

But Doral's just a plot device in this episode. The important Cylon(s) are the Sharons and Chief. Chief and Boomer were kind of adorable together, you know, except Tyrol is an idiot when it comes to her. Unfortunately so for Hera Agathon, because three years later Tyrol forgets the lesson he learned here. Anyway, I've always been a little curious about Galen and Boomer's history though, not just on the ship, but before when Galen was a scientist and Boomer was Number Eight too. It's not important at all, but I'm curious anyway.

You know what I love about the scene with Doral walking down the hall? Tigh sees him and intelligently calls for a security team. Bill sees him and dumbly shouts his name. I kind of want to hit Bill with a clue-by-four, because it's really only common sense to not draw the Cylon's attention before you can, you know, obtain him. Then Bill charges the Cylon with the bomb strapped to his chest. Sometimes, I'm not sure how Bill survived the first Cylon War, but then I remember he is Bill Adama and he kills things with flashlights and Glares of Doom.

And this is when my power went out. Like, Doral goes boom, and then my power went out. Seriously. I wonder what the point of Doral doing this was. Boomer is there to kill Adama, so what is Doral trying to blow up? Or is it just blowing things up for the sake of blowing things up?

Anyway, the point of the episode is getting the word out that Cylons look human. We get to see Sergeant Hadrian again at least. I like Hadrian, even with the vendetta she has in this episode. I don't know why I like her, but I think she's interesting. The actress always reminds me of someone, too, but I don't know who.

As much as the episode is about the Cylons, it's also about the deck gang. I've mentioned before how much I love the deck gang, right? Well, I do. I love the Chief being all Chief-y and they are so adorable and loyal to him. I can't even think of any of the deck gang we end up seeing in the end. I don't think any of them survived to the finale, besides Seelix, who was a traitor. I know for sure these three deckhands are all dead before the finale.

Cylon-occupied Caprica. Truthfully, one of the reasons I plan to watch Caprica is for the scenery. I love the buildings and stuff. Though Caprica does have some really big rats. Six, Doral, and Sharon are watching Helo, of course, and Six and Sharon bicker like sisters.

Six: He's very handsome.
Doral: You really think so?
Sharon: She says that about everyone.

Aren't they adorable in a we-killed-most-of-humanity way? And Six's line just makes me think of Ellen and I'm really becoming convinced that the Sixes are based on Ellen. (You really thought we'd get through this without at least one Ellen mention?) I don't know why the Sixes would be based on Ellen, and maybe it's not so much that they're based off her, but she managed to pass a lot of her traits on to the Sixes.

Sharon's so different here. She doesn't seem like Athena at all. What a change she makes once she's pregnant. While I wasn't a big fan of the Eights, I really liked the the storylines going on with Sharon and Boomer. They're on basically the complete opposite track. Athena becomes more human as she falls in love and Boomer becomes less human as she falls out of it.

To me, the Eights are the "child" Cylon. They're relatively clean slates, programmed with the ideas of their parents but still learning what to do about them, and what choices they want to make. I don't know when exactly Cavil killed the Final Five, but I think the Eights hadn't been around long before he did. I think that's why the Eights are so childlike; they didn't get the chance to learn from their parents. Because of this, the Eights learn as they go along, and make their choices and learn from their mistakes, so it looks like they're fickle.

The only real difference between Athena and Boomer is that Athena got to choose. Boomer had it taken away from her. Athena chose to betray her people for the man she loved and her child. Boomer didn't choose to shoot Bill; she was programmed to do so. She didn't choose to re-join the Cylons; Cally shot her and she downloaded back. From there, she becomes a pawn in D'Anna's and then Cavil's game. She forgot she was a person, that she was more than Number Eight. Boomer didn't get to pick her side and stick with it.

Athena's just beginning to learn it. She's Sharon Valerii, call sign Boomer, right now, but she'll be just Sharon later. Then she'll be Sharon Agathon, call sign Athena. She will be her own self: mother, wife, friend. The price she pays is her own heritage, but she chose her side and stuck to it, no matter what.

Okay, I have notes about the phone conversation between Bill and Laura, but I honestly can't be bothered to type them up, because I almost say the same thing as I did in the "You Can't Go Home Again" review. There wasn't much to say about Bill and Laura this time.

Hadrian's questioning our deckhands and unfortunately, they did not think to work out an alibi for the Chief. Or even themselves, really. I love 'em, but they are not too bright sometimes. They're also really horrible liars anyway, so even if they had a cohesive lie, they would suck at telling it. She talks to Chief and he also gives a different story. As she walks away, she is so not impressed by their shenanigans.

Laura: He evidently slipped aboard the Galactica with a civilian group, killed a marine guard, stole the explosives, and detonated them, killing three members of the crew, and destroying himself.

Something I noticed for the first time ever while watching the press conference is that Laura says "killing three members of the crew, and destroying himself". It makes sense that she'd make the distinction -- you don't kill a machine, you destroy them. Who would have thought how much would change in three years for these people and the Cylons?

Jammer: It's every man for himself now. You better watch your backs.

I wonder how much changed for Jammer to join the New Caprica Police. He got over that attitude, obviously, because joining the NCP because you think it would make a difference for others is a lot different from "every man for himself". Poor little Cally and her crush, too. I think her and Jammer traded places or switched a bit. Cally because of Boomer and Jammer because of New Caprica. I can't help but feel sorry for Socinus, too.

Starbuck: The bomber was on C-deck, right?
Baltar: Yes, I know, I heard the explosion. Very frightening.
Starbuck: Do you think that's where it was headed?
Baltar: I'm sorry, I don't follow you.
Starbuck: The Cylon bomber. Do you think that he was trying to blow up your project?
Head!Six: And you along with it?

I love the shadow of Six behind the curtain, it's kind of awesome and creepy. And I think Kara partially says those things just to make him leave her alone. You have to love Baltar's sense of self-preservation and ego, right? I know one thing, if anyone survived on Earth 2, it was definitely Baltar. Except I'm not sure why Head!Six thinks bomber!Doral was trying to blow up the detector. They don't even know about it, do they? How could they?

In the meantime, a Six is beating up Sharon. I think Six enjoys this a little too much, honestly. She had a little smile on her face after she said, "Sharon would put up a much harder fight." No wonder Sharon starts freaking out when she dreams a Six is going to take her baby.

Helo, unfortunately, has never been very bright. If Lee Adama is determined to do the right thing instead of the smart thing, Helo is probably his hero. But anyway, this whole scenario reeks of a set-up, but it never even occurs to Helo. In a way, you can't blame him. He doesn't know the Cylons look like humans. He doesn't have time to question why they would kidnap Sharon instead of killing them both. But sometimes I want to smack him, because why would they be dragging Sharon around? Why would it stand there and let Helo shoot it unless there was a bigger plan?

Adama: We're done here.
Hadrian: Excuse me, sir, but my questions are not finished.
Adama: You've lost your way, Sergeant. You've lost sight of the purpose of the law, to protect its citizens, not persecute them. Whatever we are, whatever's left of us, we're better than that. Now, these proceedings are closed. You'll be transported back to your ships, and we appreciate your help.

I never realized, but this is sort of the anti-"Crossroads". Hadrian is Roslin and the scorned New Caprica citizens and Tyrol and Boomer are Baltar and Bill gets to play the part of his son, or the other way around, really, and their messages are different. "We are better than that" versus "We are worse than that." And obviously, it's not on quite the same scale, but the similarities are there. And Bill is right, just like Lee is. Of course, Bill shutting the tribunal down is just a hint of what he'll become later.

I love this scene between Galen and Bill. Oh, and there's that ship. Hi, ship. You've got a long road and lots of repairs ahead of you, ship. Anyway, Bill's already figured out what the deck gang was lying about, I think. He knows Socinus is innocent, at least, and doesn't doubt it when Tyrol tells him. I love the music when Bill says, "I can't?" It's a nice little power moment, because Tyrol's forgotten his place.

Tyrol: One of my men is in the brig, confessed to a crime that he didn't commit to protect me, to protect us. Well, there can be no more us. No more secrets, no more lies, that's it. It's over.
Boomer: I can't believe you can just turn your back on us.
Tyrol: I put everything on the line for you, everything! I cover for you, I protect you! I risked my career, my freedom, my integrity, for what? So some innocent kid, one of my kids, can take the fall for me? No! We are not worth that!

This is Boomer's first burn. The Eights and their siblings were made to love. The Sixes felt it first, hearts able to love and love and love, but didn't understand it. The Sevens got it, turned what the Sixes felt into art and music, and died because his mother loved him for it. The Eights had to learn what it meant, like children, and Boomer was the first. Light-years away, her sister Athena is learning.

Boomer is an orphan. She thinks she survived something the rest of her family didn't and the only ties to humanity she has are this crew, this family. Her and Galen were going to get married, build a house on Picon, and both of them loved the dream of it. Her fairy tale has just been destroyed, killed. She's becoming something different before our eyes, a Razor, a better machine.

She's growing up and losing herself in the process.

sometimes you break the rules.

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:25:38 GMT

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm doing something a little different for this recap. Considering how my "Act of Contrition" recap was horrible, I'm going to do less recapping and more watching and commenting on events. This is also partially because I hand-wrote the "recap" (I guess I should go back to calling it "commentary") instead of typing it. I might do "Litmus" and "Six Degrees of Separation" the same way, since I'm not particularly fond of them. But I'll decide next week, when I actually sit down to re-watch "Litmus". (The best thing about those two episodes? "Flesh and Bone" and "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" come next.)

I go right into the show, no discussion of the previouslies or what's going on. Basically, they've recovered Hotdog, but no Starbuck, and Bill and Lee are determined to find her. (Jsyk.)

One of the things I love (and hate) about Bill Adama is his love for people not related to him by blood. As cliche as it is, that is really his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. Despite Kara admitting indirectly that she is indirectly responsible for his son's death, he still believes she is alive and wants to save her, no matter what. The reason why I hate it is because it makes him do stupid things, like waste resources and endanger the Fleet. Plus, considering his troublesome relationship with Lee, you can't really blame Lee for asking what Bill would do if he was on the moon. Another thing about his love/capacity for forgiveness is that it only extends to you if you don't personally betray him, like Boomer and Gaeta did. (And to a lesser extent, Tigh and Kara post-New Caprica, when they're bitter and broken and causing trouble amongst the crew. He was right to be angry at them, but his lack of sympathy for them in the rec room, making it all about him as opposed to what happened to them on that planet, is sickening to me.)

(Something that occurred to me at some point after I had gotten over my bitterness regarding "Deadlock" and watched it was the similarities between Bill and Ellen. Because yes, I can make everything about Ellen, and I know it's a ridiculous trait of mine, but my God, stop and think about it. It's a little hard to make a perfect fit, but Bill and Ellen are the reverse sides of the same coin, or at least cut from the same cloth. Like I said, it's hard to make a perfect fit, because Ellen didn't even become a real person until season three, and even then it takes the fifteenth episode of the fourth season before she gets her real personality back, but it does work with a little allowance for drawing conclusions about Ellen. I'm going to write a post about it one day, honestly.)

My crazy ramblings aside, where "Act of Contrition" is pretty much all about Starbuck's guilt over Zak, this episode is about the Adamas' grief over Zak. I just wanted to point out the obvious, so you know that I'm not watching a completely different show. So... something I love about the moon is its atmosphere and that humans can't breathe it. It's a little thing, and it's only there for the clock, but how many planets on Star Trek were oxygen-based and perfectly fine for humans? Probably not nearly as many as I think there were, but it thrills me anyway.

I remember when I first watched this episode and Bill said to Gaeta, "It's time to start guessing," I realized how serious the situation was to Bill. Mainly because the conversation in "Water" was still in my head, when he tells Laura he prefers for his crew not to make guesses. In fact, Tigh even sort of calls him on it, in a way, saying, "A lot of assumptions you're making" during a conversation about when the Cylons might find them.

Laura: I've spoken with the other captains in the Fleet, they've agreed to give over their ships at your disposal if it'll increase the odds of finding her.
Bill: Frak the odds, we're gonna find her.

I love Laura's look at the phone when he says that. The sudden change that came into his voice when he said that, forgetting who he was talking to for just a moment. Laura's signing some papers for Baltar, I think for his nuclear warhead or something related to it, like he and Bill discussed back in "Water". Back when we didn't know what Head!Six was, I did wonder if she was a manifestation of Gaius's subconscious. It makes perfect sense for him to be thinking that it's foolish to waste all this on one pilot when the Cylons are coming, and also to be thinking that he never got to frak Kara.

Really, in this episode, she does seem more like his subconscious than angel. Also, I can't express my contempt for Six's blue dress. I hate it. But I love Gaius and Laura, and Gaius's hand twirling in the air and the way Laura follows it and it's just hilarious. I hate that Mary and James didn't get more scenes together, because they are awesome together.

We go to Cylon-occupied Caprica after that; Helo's been there for fifteen days. He and Sharon are still in the restaurant. I do love the amount of manipulation going on here with Helo. The Cylons never quite match this level of mastermind again, either, or have a plan go this well. The thing that amazes me though is how different the season one Centurions look compared to the season four Centurions.

Kara: Lords, it's Kara Thrace. I'm running a little low on O2 and I could use a lucky break. No? Okay, just thought I'd mention it.

I love her little prayer. I like it when Starbuck gets to be funny. And so much love for the Raider, as well! It's biological! It bleeds! I am curious about something though: humans built the Centurions, the Centurions built the Hybrid (or a prototype?), and the Final Five built the skinjobs. Did the Centurions build the Raiders as well? I guess I'll have to look it up on the Wiki.

Bill: Any report from the civilian ships?
Tigh: Nothing. They're spread pretty far out. We're gonna have a hell of a time trying to cover them if the Cylons pop in. We should consider pulling the civvies into a defensible formation.

I love that Tigh is the one who keeps bringing up how vulnerable they are to the Cylons and Bill just keeps ignoring him. But of course Tigh is the one thinking of these things. I'll admit, New Caprica gave me a lot of respect for Tigh's leadership skills, and I kind of wish we had gotten to see Saul commanding the Galactica in season four. I think he would have been good at it. Actually, he would've done fine in season two, if not for Ellen. (A part of me does wonder what it would have been like if Bill had died. I'm torn between thinking Saul would have pulled it together or that he would have been overcome by grief. It's an interesting AU to consider for him and the show, really.)

Kara: Are you alive?

I love that Kara repeats the question Six asks in the miniseries to the Raider. I don't know why, but I just do. Like I said in my "Act of Contrition" recap, the show's all about cycles. I don't think we know that yet, I don't think it gets mentioned until "Flesh and Bone" and even then it's let go until "Kobol's Last Gleaming".

I hate that Lee yells at the Chief. Like he doesn't have enough problems besides Lee going crazy on him. I like that Lee is having a harder time with this than his father, and by "this" I mean holding onto the facade that you're being professional. Lee's like his father in a lot of ways, though he'd sooner die than admit it. He was fighting with Kara, over the nuggets and the memory of Zak, before she went down. He doesn't forgive as easily as his father does because he's not old enough to get it yet, that family is the most important thing, but he loves Kara Thrace, in many ways and for just as many different reasons. He also has a tendency to conflate the personal with the political.

Tigh doesn't like Kara (again, too many similarities; there are several reasons to theorize that Daniel was her father, but I know one of the reasons I thought it was the similarities) but Bill does, and if it weren't for the Cylons, I don't think Saul would ever think of telling Bill to leave Kara behind. But Lee doesn't like Tigh (and I think its for the same reasons Ellen doesn't like Bill) and he is too close, making it personal when it isn't. Tigh's already annoyed enough over the situation, though, and he doesn't have the same respect for Lee that he has for Bill, so he's not afraid to say what he's wanted to say for a while now.

Lee: Bottom line: we can double the area we can search in the time we have left [if we pull the CAP].
Tigh: Starbuck would be the first one to tell you not to do this.
Lee: Nothing would make you happier would it? Leave her behind, get rid of the foul-mouthed insubordinate pilot that keeps challenging your authority.
Tigh: You are way out of line, mister, I'm not the one confusing personal feelings with duty.
Lee: Oh, yeah? What the hell does that mean?
Tigh: It means you are way too close to this because she is your friend--
Bill: Gentlemen!

(Pointing out the obvious again, but Bill interrupts there because he doesn't want to hear what Saul has to say. He knows he's acting irrationally, that he's too close to this because Kara's like a daughter to him, his dead son was going to marry her, but he doesn't want to hear it. And partially because Lee was probably about to deck Saul, taking a leaf out of Starbuck's book, and Bill can't afford to throw Lee in the brig.)

Bill gives the go ahead for Lee's plan and it's not long before Laura's calling to ask. She hasn't talked to Lee since Kara went down so she doesn't know that he's in the same state his father is. He's her military advisor, so she's calling to ask why Bill's redeployed the CAP. Her surprise when he says it was his idea fades as she catches on to the situation. She still doesn't know how dire this is, what exactly it means, but she's getting there. Lee lies through his teeth to her, says they'll stop looking when Kara runs out of O2 soon. I don't know if he knows he's lying; I think he doesn't want to even consider they might not find her before that happens.

Lee: His pilots mean a lot to him, to all of us. We don't leave anyone behind.
Laura: But we have left people behind, you know that.

She was a politician and now she's a president, her only concern is the safety of her people. She measures loss on a whiteboard behind her desk. 47,954 people are left and if one goes missing, she can't risk the lives of 47,953 people to save that one. They've left people behind before, she says, and thinks of a little girl on the Botanical Cruiser, wanting to get home to her parents and go to sleep. She has the name of a ship in her pocket, burned onto her heart, to remind her of what she must do to keep her people safe. They've left people behind before. Just never a person Bill Adama loved.

(I wonder if Laura felt a little angry about that, at his arrogance that the only people who matter are the people who matter to him, considering the choices she made. I don't imagine it was something she stayed angry about for long, but I do wonder if she was a little annoyed that because Kara Thrace means something to him, the other people don't matter. Those already dead and left aren't important. She's trying to keep them all alive and he's risking it on one person. Unacceptable.)

I do love the way EJO plays the conversation with Gaeta. It makes you feel a little ashamed for daring to be logical. I mean, sure, we know Starbuck is still alive on the moon. We're hoping they don't give up and that they find her or she saves herself. But I don't fault Tigh or Gaeta or Laura at all for thinking it's hopeless and foolish. I know I keep saying "I love" this and that, but I really do, and I especially love that Tigh got more defiant when Starbuck ran out of air. It's very "Okay, I was willing to humor you but she's dead and it's time to go", which is exactly where Laura gets in a minute. Except Bill outranks Saul and he doesn't have to listen to him, so he relieves him of duty.

Tigh: Time's up, she's out of O2.
Bill: The clock is a guess. We don't know for a fact Starbuck is out of air.
Tigh: Her tank only holds so much oxygen.
Bill: She could have a reserve supply in her survival gear.
Tigh: A reserve?
Bill: Yes.
Tigh: What, she just happened to pack an extra bottle today?
Bill: It's possible.

That's actually the problem I have with their friendship, the power imbalance. Bill is always going to be Saul's best friend, but he's also always going to be his commanding officer. I don't think it's so apparent after New Caprica, when Saul had to lead the Resistance with a civilian and a deckhand. When he made choices that would have made Bill's head spin, when he killed his own wife for the good of the people -- that's some Laura Roslin shit there, not Bill Adama's way of doing things. But for now, the power imbalance exists, and that's a problem for me. Ironically, and really this says more about Saul's character than theirs, but this same problem he has with Bill -- deferring to his leadership -- is the same problem he has with Ellen. Ellen was right about one thing, though; Saul could easily command the Galactica if he just stepped out of Bill's shadow.

(There I go again. I promise to not do that again, and if I do, I'll cut it out. Like I said earlier, I'll write a post about it one day soon and get it out of my system.)

Once again, back to the actual show and stuff that actually happens and exists outside of my insane mind. I'm pretty sure Kara shouldn't have that little atmospheric tester stick thing. She threw it away when she first pulled it out to test the moon. I guess she didn't throw it far, but still. *grumbles*

While Kara's gratefully breathing in the stink of a Raider, Laura's realized she's got to do something about Bill and Lee. She's finally gotten to the place of "the time for humoring you is over" when Bill says they're staying until he says otherwise. Kara's out of oxygen as far as Laura knows. They're endangering her people for a dead girl. Unacceptable.

I really hate the way Kara seals the hole. It just doesn't seem really well sealed, I guess. But I love her "safety tip". Hee. Kara got some of the best lines.

Something else I love? Laura and Saul. They also should have gotten more scenes together. Particularly post-New Caprica, you know? Though I think I just think Mary should have gotten to have more scenes with everybody, because she's just Made of Awesome. (She is so awesome, awesome is made of her, y/n?)

Tigh: It's complicated. It would take about three weeks to explain.
Laura: We've got about three minutes, talk fast.

♥

I like how the Adama men have finally found something to agree upon: rescuing Starbuck. I laugh every time at Lee's "I'm with you", because it's so funny to me and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because the idea that he and his dad could stand up to Laura Roslin, who's in Airlock Mode before she's even airlocked someone, is just really funny. Really, I don't have much to say about this scene, at least nothing I haven't already said about Mary McDonnell a hundred times. I mean, it's just beautiful watching her play this. I really miss this Laura, this awesome, kick-ass Laura who pwns Bill and Lee for breakfast and Cylons for lunch. I hate that 4.5 took that awesomeness away, though I'll always love Laura. If it wasn't for Laura, I never would have started watching this show.

Laura: Colonel Tigh, how much aviation fuel has been expended in this operation?
Tigh: 43% of reserves.
Laura: Almost half. That's unacceptable. And operations in the moon's atmosphere have put one-third of your fighters out of action. That is also completely unacceptable.
Bill: Crap. Unacceptable. Whatever it is you feel about this, the recovery of one pilot is a military matter.
Laura: All right... it's military, fine. And you're both officers and you're both honorable men and you're both perfectly aware that you are putting the lives of over 45,000 people and the future of this civilization at risk, for your personal feelings. Now, if the two of you, of all people, can live with that, then the human race doesn't stand a chance. Clear your heads.

If I hadn't already loved Laura from the moment I first watched, then I would have fallen in love with her in this moment. This is my Laura, the Laura who cares for her people. The Laura who would not sit idly by while Tom Zarek and Felix Gaeta prepare a mutiny. For me, it's not about how her relationship with Bill became important to her. It's that she completely forgot about her people -- the people she was willing to assassinate Cain over, the people she was willing to steal an election for, the people she yelled and screamed and threatened Gaius Baltar over. In the end, I stopped caring about the civilians because the show did.

But there I go again, talking about events that haven't happened yet and aren't even relevant to the episode I'm watching. Just wait for "Flesh and Bone" and "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down", because I know I'm going to cover cycles as much as possible for "Flesh and Bone" and "Tigh Me Up" is going to be when I talk about "No Exit" and "Deadlock". If you think I talk a lot about Ellen Tigh now, just wait until you see what happens when an episode is dedicated to her. (Especially one as important as her introduction.)

Starbuck: Okay, so it either works or it doesn't. (tries it and it does work. Laughs) Okay, okay... That's power, roll, pitch, and yaw. We have control! Take me home! (the Raider lifts off the ground and she laughs again) Oh, you stink, but you're one hell of a flying machine!

I miss Starbuck, too. Not because Kara goes *poof* in the end. But did we even get to see her in a Viper at all in season four? Besides when she came back and when she sat in the cockpit in "Revelations"? I am one of the few people happy with Kara's arc, though there were some missteps, but even though I like Kara, it doesn't stop me from missing Starbuck.

Lee: I need to know something: why did you do this? Why did we do this? Is it for Kara? For Zak? For what?
Bill: Kara was family. You do whatever you have to do. Sometimes you break the rules.
Lee: And if it was me down there instead?
Bill: You don't have to ask that.
Lee: Are you sure?
Bill: If it were you... we'd never leave.

I actually have nothing to say about that, because I've already talked about Lee and Bill's relationship in the "Bastille Day" post and all throughout this commentary, though certainly not as much as I thought I would. (I have much more fun comparing Bill and Ellen, obviously.) Plus I've taken forever to type this up and it's now midnight and I should have finished ages ago. Sorry.

Starbuck's Raider shows up on DRADIS and Lee's the only Viper who gets to launch 'cause there's a problem with Hotdog or something. Basically it's just a plot contrivance to get Lee to be the only one out there. The only problem I have with this scene -- which is otherwise amusing and awesome -- is when did Starbuck write her name on the side? It just makes no sense. How did she write it anyway? I've never been able to tell if that's like tape or paint or what. But then Kara proves she's the better pilot no matter what's she flying and they do a cute wing waggle that's a wink to the original series. (Or so I've read. Having never actually seen the original series, I don't know first hand.)

I'll close with the final conversations, 'cause I love them:

Tyrol: (to the Raider) Now your ass belongs to me.
Kara: Like my new toy?
Lee: Boy, when you take a souvenir, you don't screw around. Oh, my Gods, you smell like a latrine.
Kara: Mm... you wanna give me a bath?

I giggle every time at Tyrol's joy at having a new thing to play with. I'm not surprised he knew all about Cylon technology in 4.5. I expected as much, because this is what he does. This is who he is. I also love Kara's flirtatious line while she's lying banged up on a stretcher about to be wheeled to Sickbay. Even if I don't ship them, as I said in "Act of Contrition", I do like these little moments.

Bill: How you feeling?
Kara: Been a hell of a lot worse. Don't have any ambrosia, but the Doc can fix you up with some really nice stuff. It's not bad, is it? The knee?
Bill: Doc says it's too early to tell, but know you, you'll be fine. Kara...
Kara: Yeah?
Bill: You did good... You did real good.

Katee Sackhoff was a little rough in the miniseries, trying too hard, I think, but by this point? She's gotten Kara. The way she plays this is wonderful. (I don't want to make another empty promise; I'm never going to stop saying that about this cast.) The last time she talked to Bill, she was telling him she killed his son. She's not sure what to expect; her mother believed suffering was good for the soul and so she learns from pain.

Sometimes, it takes love to learn from our mistakes. Family is family, and sometimes, you break the rules.

the bottom line is your son didn't have the chops to fly a viper.

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:41:09 GMT

Yes, I'm aware this is ridiculously late. I did consider waiting until Sunday and watching "Act of Contrition" and "You Can't Go Home Again" back to back. While that would certainly have been better for me (I can't stand watching one part of a two part episode), that's not really in the spirit of the epic BSG re-watch. (Besides, I already did that with "33" and "Water", so I should at least try to watch everything else in the proper order. At least until next season.)

Unlike with "Bastille Day", I'm not going to give you three paragraphs of talking about how much I love the episode, Tom Zarek, and Captain Apollo. I do enjoy "Act of Contrition" (and "You Can't Go Home Again"), but I don't think it inspires me to ramble like "Bastille Day" does. I don't know why, I'm just weird that way. So onto the show.

As opposed to just starting the show now, I really could have already started it and typed all that up while the intro/previously on played. /Random. The previouslies recap: Kara telling Lee that his brother, Zak, failed basic flight but she passed him anyway; Helo and Sharon on Caprica finding an emergency beacon (or something); Laura telling Lee about her cancer; and Kara telling Lee he hasn't changed either (from their conversation in the brig in the miniseries).

The episode properly begins with something that will become a common trick for BSG, at least in season two. Fittingly for this series where cycles mean everything, we start at the ending: Starbuck in her Viper, falling through the atmosphere of a red moon. Alarms are chirping at her and she struggles to reach for the joystick.

Flash. Back to the beginning. Pilots' quarters: Lee puts a helmet down on the table, Kara laughs. "You are so unprepared," she teases. He playfully tells her to shut up. "You're the worst CAG in the history of CAGs, actually." In the hangar, Flat Top lands the Raptor for the thousandth time, and his fellow pilots come to congratulate him. He smiles as they hoist him on their shoulders, singing.

Lee runs into the room, carrying a can of red paint. Kara asks for a brush and Lee repeats her, dumbly. Kara nods and says it again, while Lee gives an embarrassed chuckle. Kara rolls her eyes, "You're the worst. The absolute worst!" Lee holds up his finger and dips it into the paint. They're adorable in this moment, exactly how I like them: Apollo and Starbuck, the CAG and the hotshot pilot, not quite brother and sister and not quite lovers.

I'm not much of a Lee/Kara shipper, honestly. I hate unrequited love stories, but if there was ever a couple that needed to stay unrequited to me, it was Lee and Kara. I like the tragic aspect that they just aren't good for one another, that it's just never the right time, that there's always something between them. I like it when they're friends with sexual tension underneath. I hate they never really made it past what happened on New Caprica, though I do adore in "Islanded in a Stream of Stars" (I think, or is it "Someone to Watch Over Me"?) when Lee tells her it doesn't matter what she is. He knows who she is; she's Kara Thrace. Starbuck. The hotshot problem pilot. In my ideal series finale AU scenario, Kara doesn't disappear and Sam isn't hybridized and Lee accepts that loving Kara and Kara loving him is enough; they don't have to be in love. They'll always be there for one another, but she loves Sam, and she won't divorce and he won't cheat.

(All right, so this episode makes me ramble some. Also, I haven't mentioned it, but I adore how Kara looks in these scenes. She's just completely adorable in her little cap. Back to the show.)

The Chief barks at one of his deckhands for not telling him it was Flat Top's thousandth landing and orders her to get him a wagon. "Now we look like idiots!" he says. "Someone get me a wagon!" The pilots are still celebrating in the background, singing. It's joyous, something to cheer about after so much death. And we don't know it when we first watch this episode, only four episodes in and too new to the show to know what happens next, but BSG rarely lets people be happy without some sucker punch to follow it up.

Back to Kara and Lee, Adama comes for them. "You're not ready yet?" he asks, and Lee accidentally knocks the paint can to the floor. It spills, bright red across the floor. Kara laughs; Bill frowns, "Someone's going to have to pick that up." Kara points at Lee and Lee points at Kara, laughing when he looks at her, and she giggles, slaps his finger. Bill shakes head, "Let's go."

Chief finds a wagon, pushes it over to the pilots, and Flat Top sits in it. They're still singing.

Kara, Lee, and Bill walk through the halls of Galactica, Lee carrying the helmet. Kara asks in a sly tone, "So, did the Commander tell you what happened on his thousandth landing?" Bill grumbles, "I don't remember telling you what I did." Kara grins, "Yeah, whatever." Kara begins to tell the story, with Bill adding, "This has all been over-exaggerated." They're sweet, a little family. Dad, son, pseudo-daughter. I wish Zak hadn't died, because I think this would have been an awesome family, even with Lee and Bill butting heads every five seconds.

When we go back to the hangar, deckhands watching the pilots push Flat Top around, we linger on a rack of drones. The music picks up, drums beat. Something's going to happen. The dread still builds in my stomach every time I watch this. This is the first time we see deaths due to an accident, just a cruel twist of fate.

Kara's still telling the story. Lee chuckles and even Bill's smiling a bit. We cut back to the pilots, spinning around, and Flat Top's laughing, wearing a sash. 1000th. We linger on the drone again, the music pounding. It goes silent when we move back to the Adamas. It picks back up when we return to the hangar. We watch them spin in circles, we watch as a strap breaks on the drones. One falls a little, catches.

The music's going crazy now. We spin with Flat Top, the pilots' faces blurring, and they're clapping and laughing along. Flat Top raises his arms in victory, the drone falls to the floor. Ignites, bright yellow and orange fire, and flies through the air. Flat Top barely has time to react to the sight before it hits him and the others.

Galactica rocks, red lights flash in warning. A woman (subtitles identify her as Dualla, but I'm pretty sure it's not Dee) announces a fire in the hangar. Bill, Lee, and Kara run toward it. End of the teaser.

The theme music is appropriately somber before we get to the blipverts. I never had a real problem with the blipverts, though I do feel they were particularly spoilery in the earlier seasons. In the later seasons, I feel they didn't show quite as much, or something. I'm not really sure, though I did stop watching the blipverts for 4.5. (Such a shame, because if I had watched the blipverts for "Deadlock", I would have turned the TV off right then and saved myself a lot of heartache.)

After the credits, we once again see Kara in her Viper. She's gasping, struggling. Another flash and we're back in the hangar deck. Master-at-Arms Sergeant Hadrian checks out the rack, declares to Chief Tyrol that it happened because of metal fatigue, old equipment.

Hadrian: Worn strap fails, drops a million cubit drone to the deck. Kills thirteen pilots and lands seven more in Sickbay.

Chief Tyrol is stunned as he follows her. They walk over to the site, there's black burns on the floor, on the Raptor nearby. Hadrian says they got lucky; if it had been a missile instead of a comm drone, it could have taken out the side of the ship. Chief says he never had a death on his deck before. I want to hug him, he's so shell-shocked.

Lee's still sporting his bruises from last week. He's telling what remains of his pilots about services for the dead. We get to see how empty the room looks. It's staggering. Kara sits next to Boomer, and there's a friendship I wish we had gotten to see more of. I wish we got to see Kara and Athena being friends, too, because I think at some point they would have become friends, even if we didn't see it (except for a scene in "Unfinished Business", and I can't remember if that's only in RDM's version or not). Certainly after New Caprica, after Kara came back from the dead, after the Demetrius. And I know there probably just wasn't time, but as much as I love season 4, I feel like there was so much more they should have done with these relationships and they just didn't.

It's ridiculously frustrating, especially since RDM is so "It's about the characters, stupid!" Well, clearly someone should have had that revelation back before the finale, because God knows a lot of season four just blatantly ignored character relationships. But this is all really for another post and I should just focus on this episode.

"Act of Contrition" is written by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, two writers who would go on to write most of the Kara-centric episodes and, really, some of the best episodes of the show period (in my opinion, of course). TWoP's Jacob sort of absolutely hates them, for reasons I'm not sure of. I do have some problems with their episodes and I'm not overly keen on any Adama and Tigh scenes they do, but, come on, they wrote "Downloaded", which is awesome. Both parts of "Exodus". "Maelstrom", which is probably more of a YMMV, but I liked it. "Revelations". And "Sometimes a Great Notion", which is perhaps the best episode of Battlestar Galactica, ever. It is the one episode out of season four that I think is on par with the New Caprica arc AND season one of the show.

(Of course, this is all IMO and YMMV, and so on. Plus that's not all the episodes they did and I'm not saying those weren't any good, but I listed the ones that I often think of as great BSG, and those are it. Well except for maybe "Maelstrom", but I did like it.)

ANYWAY. I promise to talk about the episode now. Bill comes into the briefing room, touches the picture on the wall. I love that picture. It's so beautiful and heartbreaking and I swear if I ever went to the set, I would have stolen it. Or if I had the money, bought it.

Focus on Kara, flash. A flicker of the past: an airfield, Bill walking toward her. It fades and she closes her eyes, submerging us in the flashback. Bill walks toward her and she salutes him, he salutes her. "Are you Lieutenant Thrace?" he asks. We're back in the present, Bill standing at the podium. He's doing his commander thing, building the troops up when they're broken into pieces. Kara's still seeing flashes, remembering the day she met the man who was going to be her father-in-law.

He introduces himself and she apologizes, says she was going to come see him before the funeral. Bill tells her it's all right. Back to the present and the funeral. Everyone's dressed in their dress grays and Elosha is presiding over the funeral. Kara stands next to Lee and we fade back to the past: Zak's funeral. Kara stands next to Bill; Lee stands next to his mother, holding her as she cries. Zak's coffin is between them.

I love how this funeral scene looks. You have to say, BSG did the best funeral scenes ever, and Zak's is lovely in this too bright quality that it has, but there's still these shadows, like on Lee's face. (Also, how gorgeous is Lee in those dress grays with those blue eyes? Yum. I mean, um, sadness, because this is a funeral sequence, and stuff.)

In the past, Bill holds her hand at Zak's graveside. Kara remembers being in bed with Zak, a memory within a memory, blue shadows and just a little too much light giving it a dream-like quality. I really love the editing here, going between the two funerals, and the music, and the gun salute. It's great.

After the funeral, Bill hands Kara a glass of water. They toast to the memory of pilots they've known and before he sits down, Bill says he wants her to train new pilots. She was a flight instructor, once, and if that's not a terrifying thought, I don't know what is. Can you imagine having Kara Thrace for a teacher? Don't get me wrong, she was a great flight instructor (as we later find out, the Zak thing aside), but it's Starbuck. STARBUCK. I would hate to be one of her students, because God(s) know(s) she'd be one hard teacher to please.

She laughs because she knew it was coming. "I don't think I'm the right person for this," she says, and he asks if she knows someone better. "No. No," she chuckles, because she's Starbuck, and there's no better fighter than her. Lee could do the job I'm sure, but he doesn't have her instincts. That little bit of crazy recklessness that makes her perfect.

Bill: I know what this is about. It's about Zak. It was not your fault. You had nothing to do with what happened. It was an accident.

Kara looks away when he says that, flashes back to a conversation with Lee, back in the miniseries. "Lee? Zak failed Basic Flight." Lee's confused and Kara explains what she did. "His technique was sloppy and he had no feel for flying, but I passed him. Because he and I... Because I felt something and I let it get in the way of doing my job. And I couldn't fail him." It's sweet, really, and sad. She loved him so much and he wanted to be a pilot so much, because of his father, and she couldn't tell him he wasn't good at it. I wonder if she thought he'd get better, that she'd help him get better as time went on? Or if someone else would fail him down the line and then it wouldn't be her fault.

Back in the present, Kara and Bill take a drink at the same time. Well, it's basically the same time. It's close enough to make me giggle, because I like things like that. I mean, they're not even looking at each other, but they still very nearly drink in sync. Sometimes, I'm really easy to please, okay?

Bill stands and tells her Zak passed Basic Flight and that it was an accident, could have happened to anyone. "I need new pilots. And I want you to train them," he says. "I can do that," Kara says, finishes her glass and stands. Bill walks to her and puts his hands on her shoulders, looks at her like a daughter. Hugs her and doesn't see her distraught face.

In the future, Starbuck's still struggling in her Viper.

In the present, smoke rises from a cigar as Crashdown and Boomer make a bet. Starbuck and Dr. Baltar are playing cards. Gaeta watches, 'cause where Baltar goes, he goes. Kara's mind isn't on the game, she's thinking of Zak, of them. Crashdown asks Gaeta about the Cylon detector and he plays dumb while Boomer looks on. Kara's still lost in her memories; she reassures Zak he passed Basic Flight, "By the skin of your teeth, but you passed." He tells her he doesn't want any special treatment from his father, and certainly not from her.

Then some other things happen and she puts down her cards, leaves. Crashdown calls after her, having just lost money thanks to her walking out. Boomer grins as she picks up the cubits.

On Cylon-occupied Caprica, it's raining and dark. Helo and Sharon have followed the military signal to a restaurant. They look around, trying to find the source. They walk down some stairs and find an empty bomb shelter. Food and medical supplies, and Helo's overjoyed. This is all a part of the plan, the Cylon plan, of course. As Helo opens up what looks like a rice cake and Sharon takes a bite out of it, a Six walks by the restaurant in what is one of the most beautiful shots ever.

On Galactica, Laura sits on a bed in Sickbay. She's wearing a gown and Doc Cottle (♥!!!) pulls back the curtain. He leaves the curtain open and Laura is quick to ask him to close it, snapping her fingers and everything. She leans over to look out, make sure no one is watching her, and wondering what the President is doing in Sickbay.

Cottle: You are obviously an intelligent, well-educated young woman. Would you mind explaining to me why you waited five years in between breast exams?
Laura: Yes, I would mind. It's none of your business. I was busy.

I'm sorry, have I mentioned how much I love Cottle? No? Well, I love him to pieces. I love him svfm, and I love Laura, and I love their scenes together. I love that Cottle smokes around his patients. Cancer patients, pregnant patients (remember, in "A Disquiet Follows My Soul", he lights up around Caprica? ♥. And Ishay gets all frown-y and it's awesome, except of course she doesn't even like Caprica or little baby Liam, so it's kind of hilarious. But she's a nurse and those are just her instincts, so it doesn't matter that she personally wants to airlock Caprica, you still don't smoke around the pregnant woman, Doc.)

ANYWAY. Laura's face is also very hilarious here, when he lights up. She's all "WTF?" and probably really jealous 'cause you know she wants a cigarette too but has none.

Laura: Do you mind?
Cottle: I do, actually.

And then they talk about her cancer. Too late to operate, talks about Doloxan, and alternate treatments. I love his "Oh, Gods. You're one of those." It's just awesome. Both of them are also awesome. And I love them and they were awesome in the finale. :(

Kara is reading a list of people she's going to train. "Boonie jumpers. Shuttle jockeys. And a Fleet Academy washout. This is the best that you could come up with?" she asks Lee. "Diamonds in the rough," he says, and she scoffs. He tells her they're the most qualified pilots in the Fleet. Kara sarcastically says, "Great!" and then we see her walking into the briefing room.

"Attention on deck!" she calls and looks as they continue talking. Then she becomes scary. "That means get on your feet, nuggets!" In the first row, the three pilots who will become Chuckles, Hot Dog, and Kat sit. They'll be familiar faces, later, and I really miss Kat. She was awesome, too.

Starbuck: Pilots call me Starbuck, you may refer to me as God.

Perhaps one of my favorite Starbuck quotes EVER. She tells them about the Viper Mark II and we see Hot Dog doing this really cool flippy thing with his pen that I just love. He leans over to Chuckles and says, "She's laying it on a little thick," and they chuckle. "Costanza, right?" Starbuck barks and he's quick to answer, "Yes, God, sir."

"Not anymore," she says, walking over and getting in his face. "From now on, your name is Hot Dog. And when God speaks, Hot Dog, you listen." In the background, Kat grins. "Maybe if you had learned that at the Academy, you wouldn't have washed out," Starbuck clicks her tongue and winks. Then she looks over at Chuckles and pulls the beanie off his head, points at one of the other nuggets and orders them to sit up.

We cut to them in Vipers. Kat's trying to land and Kara tries to talk her through it. "Don't chase the lights. Watch the numbers and correct with thrusters." Kat's nervous and fumbles the landing as the LSO orders her to wave off. Sparks fly as the bottom of her Viper scratches the deck, metal screaming. "Punch it, Kat!" Kara orders and we cut to her in the briefing room.

Starbuck: Worse than awful. Wretched beyond belief, actually. You call yourselves pilots? It's gonna take a week for the knuckle draggers to pound your divots out of the flight deck.

Kat says she's being unfair, and Chuckles chimes in with "It's only our first day." Kara looks at them, tilts her head. "No. It's your last." She walks out and goes to the rec room for a cup of coffee. Lee comes in, disbelief on his face and in his voice when he tells her she can't wash them out on their first day. Kara doesn't look at him, "I just did." Lee says, "Look, I have 40 Vipers and twenty-one pilots." They're still getting water off the ice moon and can't even maintain a CAP. "Gods forbid if the Cylons show up," he says, and she tells him to bring in the next group of candidates.

"The next group has never been in a cockpit," he says, and I think you can hear a bit of Jamie Bamber's real accent when he says "been". It's cute. I like his real accent. And I hope we're nearing the end of this ep, because I'm getting kind of tired of this. I don't know why I even decided to do this, considering I knew I wouldn't have as much to say on this ep. Plus "You Can't Go Home Again" is much more interesting to me.

Anyway, Lee tells Kara this isn't a request, and she tells him she won't pass another student who isn't ready. Lee realizes it's not about the nuggets; it's about Zak. Kara tells him to be careful and steps closer, and he orders her to step back. She leaves and we flash forward, her in her Viper, reaching for the eject lever. She reaches it and ejects into the atmosphere of the red moon.

In Adama's quarters, Bill says to Lee, "Starbuck says they can't cut it, they can't cut it." Lee points out it's only their first day, but Bill trusts Kara's instincts. He says Kara is the best pilot he's ever seen (and probably doesn't even think about the fact he's saying this to his son, who never really wanted to be a pilot but did it anyway, because that's what Dad expected him to do). Lee says he's not arguing that, but says he thinks she's letting her feelings about Zak cloud her judgment. Bill says they've talked about that and Lee's confused.

As Bill continues to speak about how they talked, Lee gets a little annoyed. He thinks Bill knows Kara's secret and that he has forgiven her for it. When Bill finishes, Lee rises from the chair with an angry "Okay." He almost starts to leave, but he says, "You should talk to her." He adds that he thinks she's taking out her guilt over Zak on the nuggets. Bill's confused, now, asking what she did for Zak. Lee's realized his mistake, "I thought you just said..." and Bill asks again, "What did she do?"

Lee: It's not my place to say and I've already said more than I should have.
Bill: Captain, just...
Lee: Dad, you have to ask her.

More memories of Kara and Zak, staring at the photo of them and Lee together. Adama summons her and she goes. He tells her about what Lee said and Kara denies it. Bill comes around his desk and looks into her eyes. "He said you might have been feeling guilty about something you did for Zak. What did you do for him?" This is Kara's nightmare and she tries to sidestep it. He asks her not to do that, that he loves her like a daughter and deserves more than this. She stammers, before telling him. Bill gets scary now, his face and eyes contorting.

Another flash, Kara and Bill walking in the airfield. Bill talks about a letter Zak wrote him, asking for him to come to his graduation, that he had a surprise about Kara. Kara doesn't want to tell him, says it's not important. Bill guesses they were engaged. Back into the present, Bill says, "You did it because you were engaged," and Kara begins to cry. She says she made a mistake and she loved him, and it's heartbreaking. Katee Sackhoff is amazing. Bill orders her to reinstate the trainees and Kara says, "I will, sir. But I want you to understand..." but he says, "Do your job. And walk out of this cabin while you still can."

She goes, hands over her head, sobbing. Another flash into the future, and we watch her eject again. In the nuggets quarters, she tells them they're reinstated. She's Starbuck again. The nuggets are thrilled. Flight maneuvers and Hot Dog's doing good except: "You left your leader behind." It's fun and in the CIC, Tigh says, "What's gotten into Starbuck? She sounds like a real instructor for a change." Bill just looks at him.

Over the comm., Starbuck exclaims, "Holy crap, we've got incoming." There's a flurry of activity and Kara orders the nuggets to go back to Galactica. Starbuck's asks about the alert fighters, but they're two minutes out. The eight Raiders are getting closer, and she orders the nuggets to go on. She turns around to face the Raiders. Hot Dog comes back and kills his first Raider.

Starbuck orders him back and asks what he's doing. "You said never leave your leader!" he replies, and Starbuck says, "I also said never disobey an order." He gets nicked by a Raider and loses all three mains, leaving him floating. Starbuck says he did a good job and there's one Raider left, on her tail. She says she has it covered as we go back into CIC.

We watch her blip disappear from DRADIS. Dualla says they lost Starbuck's transponder. The alert fighters find Hot Dog, but no Starbuck. She's still chasing the Raider and she shoots, kills him, but he doesn't explode. He hits her Viper, sending it into a tailspin, and they fall into the moon.

We end where we began: Starbuck, struggling in her Viper. She ejects into the clouds, and tumbles toward the ground. To be continued.

God, that was long. I'm glad I didn't decide to do two episodes. Anyway, I should return to my normal BSG-watching schedule Sunday. Maybe. Also going to try to watch Caprica tonight or tomorrow and get my thoughts on that.

Other news:

» Going to watch Caprica at some point and give a review of it.

» Not going to bother with Heroes, because "I Am Sylar" didn't grab my interest enough for me to comment on it. Except I was wrong about it being the season finale. I misunderstood the promo for it the week before. Next Monday is the season finale; I'm not as excited as I should be.

» Have no clue what's happening on 24. Except I read that someone died and I kind of hate that. Oh and Kim came back or something.

» Looking for a new layout, but can't find one I like. Well, I like the ones at milou_veronica, but I haven't found one I like as my layout.

» That untitled Laura + Ellen fic is now 4,395 words. Ellen decided to monologue about the children (all eight of them). The good news is that I can save that for future reference; the bad news is that I'm probably going to have to cut it out of the fic itself. Which really isn't that bad if I do later use it in another fic, but it always makes me a little sad to cut such things.

» Also, I feel as if Laura and Ellen are not actually discussing things as I wanted them to. They touched on humans and Cylons, a little bit about Bill and Saul, but that life and death and living and dying with the choices you make? Not so much. Head, meet desk.

» Added two new icons the other day. Laura in the Opera House and Kara and her father playing the piano. I can't decide what I want to be the 15th icon. There's so many great ones and stuff.

» Annnnnd I think that's it.

it's always better when the oppressed don't fight back, right?

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:10:54 GMT

Since I have the house to myself today, I've decided to watch "Bastille Day". (Sigh, I remember when I planned this re-watch and Tuesdays were going to be my watch day. Then Wednesdays. Now, it's just whenever I have the house to myself.)

I'm actually loathe to call this a commentary, because I kind of think it's mainly going to me squeeing and pointing out how young everyone looks and how awesome they were back then compared to how awesome (or not) they are now, etc. But oh well.

Before I start the show, I want to say "Bastille Day" is an episode I really enjoy, though I didn't like it too much at first. It really grew on me when I re-watched it and could appreciate some of the things it set up. Plus, I love this Lee. I hate that this Lee fell by the wayside in season two and then came back at the end of season three, only to be ignored in season four. This Lee could have made the mutiny arc even more interesting, setting up a third side, the "well, Zarek and Gaeta have a point, but mutiny wasn't quite the way to go" side. The side that should have made Adama and Laura realize they were wrong. (Yeah, I'm one of those people who largely disagreed with Zarek and Gaeta's methods, but the idea was right.)

I also enjoyed the introduction to Zarek, who I kind of love to hate. He brings another political aspect to the show that I wish we had gotten to see more of. Even though Laura's the civilian government, she's also kind of detached from the actual civilians (and kind of has to be, considering she's trying to keep them all alive and has to make very hard decisions based on survival, not what the civilians want). Zarek is the opposite, the guy who "knows" what the civilians wants and wants to focus on that. At least, partly; as shown by the mutiny, Zarek is willing to listen to the civilians only to an extent. (Contrast this with Laura trying to steal an election and then deciding democracy is too high a price to pay for what she knows is right, and suddenly Laura and Zarek are inverted.)

And okay, I just rambled on for two paragraphs and haven't even started the show yet. I clearly need to stop reading Television Without Pity's BSG recaps. I might be turning into Jacob. So onto the show! (I promise I won't babble on about Zarek vs. Laura, their similarities, and their differences again. I'm probably also the last person who should be doing it, considering it's been a while since I've watched the whole series through, am probably forgetting tons of stuff, and my brain has a tendency to make connections that don't actually exist.)

I always forget how different the season one opening is from the later ones. I really missed the opening thing in 4.5. The previously reminds us of what happened in "Water", with some careful re-dubbing over the Astral Queen's actual prisoner count, as well as brings us up to speed with Helo and "Sharon" on Caprica.

Then a lovely shot of the Fleet in front of the ice planet and Gaeta doing revelry. Now Tigh with his booze. It's always sort of weird for me, seeing early season(s) Tigh. I'm so used to season three/season four Tigh. I adore this scene with drunk!Tigh and Chief, Cally, and Socinus. It's hilarious. And after season four, I really miss Chief!Chief with his deckhands.

From the crazy drunk uncle to the parents, aka Adama and Laura. "Bastille Day" also brings the awesome hair of awesomeness, as Laura has apparently found a hair stylist in between "Water" and now. Which is perfectly all right with me. Now if only she'll find the shopping mall ship and burn the outfit she's wearing. It's a lovely color on her, but the style is horrible. Oh, the point of this scene is Lee wants to use the Astral Queen prisoners to get the water off the ice planet. Not Laura's new hairstyle or ugly jacket. But it's much more fun to talk about Laura's new hairstyle and ugly jacket.

ANYWAY. PapaAdama is not pleased with his son's suggestion. Lee gets to look very surprised and hurt when Bill says he wants someone from the Galactica to report directly to him about this. Poor Lee. But this allows for the completely adorable moment of Billy suggesting Dee and Laura gets to try not to smirk. And sort of fails adorably at it. ♥ Lee now looks five kinds of annoyed and even though Bill is the one who says "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get to the CIC", Laura and Billy start to leave. Oh, wait, Bill was leaving too. Okay.

Also, this is the first mention of Cottle, right? I heart Cottle.

Laura: Petty Officer Dualla. Conversant in technical details.
Billy: Thinking entirely of the mission.
Laura: Uh-huh.

I love you two so much!!! Poor Billy. I just want to huggle him. And possibly keep him as a pet. He's so adorable. Why did you have to leave, Paul Campbell? WHY? (Though think how different things would have been if he had survived. Billy never would have given Baby Hera away. Or tried to steal an election. But he would have made a v. v. interesting Final Fiver. Plus, how adorable is it to think of him as a scientist? I bet he and Sam would have gotten into great philosophical debates and stuff. I don't know why I think that, haha.)

See, the reason I have to talk about this is because we haven't gotten to the interesting bits of the episode. We haven't even gotten through the teaser yet. But I'll talk about what's happening now. Bill's being a bit of a jackass, as usual. Now, I love season one Bill, and season two Bill, and really any Bill that isn't season four Bill, though I liked season three Bill a lot less than season 1/season 2 Bill. But I hate Bill with his son, because it's like was there ever a worse father/son relationship than these two?

Bill: Every man has to decide for themselves which side they're on.
Lee: I didn't know we were picking sides.
Bill: That's why you haven't picked one yet.

I do kind of adore that exchange, though. 'Cause it's true (and in a way, sets up Lee's floundering-ness in season two). Lee has a tendency to not see sides, he sees the whole. When he realizes the system is broken, he doesn't see it as Adama/Roslin vs. Baltar (or Zarek, later on), he sees it as the entire system is broken and needs to be rebuilt. Or something. I don't know if any of that actually made sense.

Finally, we see Zarek and we get to see that he's the "in charge" guy, so to speak. Dee also tells us he's a terrorist, just so Billy can argue that he's a freedom fighter so we know that opinions are divided on him. Well, actually, that stuff happens after the credits. We made it to the end of the teaser, yay.

The season one credits seem different than the later seasons. Did they change the track in some way? I know season two dropped the blipverts before adding them back, but there's something else that seems different to me. But I only pay attention to the opening credits half the time.

Anyway. Billy and Dualla are doing their exposition conversation and Lee decides to talk to Zarek.

Now we're on Caprica. I liked the Helo/Sharon on Caprica storyline when I first watched the show, but now I find it kind of boring. But at least Helo's nice to look at, right? And technically the father of us all, so this is important to our survival. Also this episode is written by Toni Graphia, who wrote "Flesh and Bone" and "Resistance", two episodes I also adore. (On another note, "Bastille Day" and "Flesh and Bone" provided two of my favorite chapters for my NaNo epic BSG/Sailor Moon crossover.)

Doral and Six are, of course, watching Helo and Sharon. Considering what we now know about the Significant Seven, I really love their conversation about being the children of humanity and "parents have to die so their children can grow into their own". While I guess "The Plan" could reveal things that change this, I love the idea that Cavil's the one who implanted the whole notion of parents dying so children reach their full potential. I like that it retroactively fits, because of course, at this stage, the writers had no clue about the whole Final Five/Cavil storyline. Cavil probably hasn't even been created at this point.

Back to the Astral Queen. Lee visits Zarek in his cell. Some stuff happens with the prisoners and the guard. Lee talks about Zarek's book, reading it even though it was banned, and some other stuff. I really do love it, but it's hard to watch and then talk about it at the same time. Anyway, the guard takes down another guard and I think opens the cells or something? The warden notices something's up and Billy and Dee are still arguing over Zarek. I kind of wish we had gotten to see more of Billy and Dee discussing it, if only because that sort of stuff interests me. (Hey, I liked the class issues in The Woman King and Dirty Hands.)

The music's gotten all dramatic and pound-y as we go back to Lee and Zarek.

Lee: All I want, the President wants, is to offer you a chance to earn your freedom.
Tom: Now you've said the truth. Freedom is earned.

And then the cell doors open and prisoners come pouring out.

Tom: Stay where you are, Captain. It'll all be over soon.

Lee comes out, fighting of course, and it's really awesome. I really love this scene, even if you know there's no way Lee is going to win. I also love Zarek just watching and sitting back down. Lee is eventually knocked out and when he comes to, Zarek and his men are in the control room thingy, and Billy, Dee, and Cally are in separate cells. I also love how Dee and Cally are just kind of calm about this, and Billy looks really worried.

We cut to Galactica, where Baltar is... roaming the halls? Is he looking for Adama's quarters? Anyway, Starbuck and Boxey (the little kid. Yeah, I don't really remember him either.) come walking by, allowing for this little exchange which I also really love:

Baltar: Lieutenant Thrace, good to see you.
Starbuck: Good to see you, too.
Baltar: Really?
Starbuck: No. *laughs*

Hee. I really missed this Starbuck. She's really rough around the edges and I do adore the later Starbuck/Kara, but I also have a soft spot for this Starbuck. The one who wears aviator glasses and smokes cigars and is really kind of mean.

Back to Lee and Zarek, briefly. I love Lee's look when Zarek says they're going to talk about his father. It's priceless.

We move back to Galactica, with Baltar and Zeus himself. Baltar, who doesn't want to be having this meeting, compliments a painting in Adama's quarters as Number Six's theme starts. Adama wants to know about the Cylon detector and Baltar tries to bullshit his way through this. Head!Six helpfully points out that Bill isn't buying it. Baltar then tries to say he isn't the right man for the job, and Head!Six begins to get scary while Bill gets a little pissed off, particularly when Baltar drops his glass.

I really love that moment when Head!Six is in his face and just screams "AND THROW YOUR BODY OUT OF AN AIRLOCK!" I also love that of course Six mentions airlocking, four episodes before Roslin airlocks Leoben. (It helps both episodes are written by the same person, I'm sure, but still.) And the way the music goes scary when she yells "Say it!" And Baltar's look at "nuclear warhead". Hee.

Back to Lee and Zarek, with Zarek asking if Lee got to be the personal representative to Laura because of his father. Lee's, of course, like "Hell no." Zarek reminds Lee that he read his book and said he respected him, and Lee's like, "Yeah, but then you took me hostage, so that lost you some points." Zarek then says the line that he will always say, because no one wants to argue it because they're afraid they'll look like idiots:

Zarek: It's always better when the oppressed don't fight back, right?

He will seriously use this line for everything, ever. It doesn't matter if he's killing the Quorum, he will bring up the oppressed fighting, because most people won't point out that when he's killing the Quorum, he's not the oppressed fighting back. And honestly, while I do think Zarek is a freedom fighter, he's also a terrorist, and see that about killing the Quorum because they wouldn't make him President? He wants freedom, but he wants the sort of freedom where everyone agrees with him.

Then back to Head!Six, Baltar, and Adama. Adama is not too keen on this whole warhead thing. I also just made this connection, but I imagine figuring out resurrection probably went the same way for the Final Five. A Head!being talking to Ellen, telling her, "You need this. Figure out the rest for yourself" and then comes the intuitive leap. (Why yes, I can make everything about Ellen and the Final Five.)

Anyway, Baltar tells Adama what he needs the plutonium for. It's kind of cool, really, watching him figure it out. Though Adama seems surly about it at first, he then says he will give Baltar a warhead. Head!Six smiles at Baltar, "Good boy," and Baltar, doing that multiple conversations thing I love, replies, "Thank you... Commander."

And in case we've forgotten this is a continuation of "Water", Chief and Boomer are having a conversation about the locker she stole the explosives from. Except they don't know she's the one who stole them, so Chief's just telling her the master-at-arms doesn't know who did it. He hugs her when she sort of freaks out at this, just in time for Tigh to come in. He then freaks Boomer out some more by telling her, "You don't think you've been fooling anyone" or something, until she realizes he's talking about her and the Chief. The relief on her face is palpable, but instead of wondering what she's relieved about, Tigh tells her to end the relationship.

Considering future events and stuff, I find Tigh's line, "We let everyone get away with murder [back when the ship was going to be decommissioned]", ironic now.

Anyway, because Zarek is giving a speech, Tigh is summoned to the CIC. Zarek's making his conditions known, something about Roslin resigning and open elections. He also mentions "the children of humanity's future", which I wonder if the writers just threw in there as a possible line to pick up later, in case they wanted to make him a Cylon. While I know some people wanted Zarek to be a Cylon, thinking on it now, I'm rather glad they didn't go that route. Zarek, like Laura and Baltar, works best as a human. Zarek also says something about "the first day of a new era", which I always liked as a line, because it reminds me of "Be Prepared" from The Lion King. And I like the word "era".

Roslin and Adama then discuss Zarek. Bill, in his usual Bill-ness, says no one is going to listen to Zarek because he's a terrorist. Bill does not understand that the people in the Fleet are idiots and Zarek is v. v. charismatic. Laura, who is better with people, tells him as much. She then asks when he's going in (*cough* that's what she said) and Bill says he thought she was going to talk to him. Laura, once again demonstrating she's the better people person, nails Zarek's character on the head. It will take Lee the entire episode before he realizes this. But Leemo was always a little slow, as much as I love him.

Starbuck and Tigh are discussing the plan. (No, not that one. The assault plan.) Tigh doesn't want Starbuck going with the team, because he hates her and thinks giving her guns just encourages her behavior, and Bill kind of agrees. Then Starbuck points out she's the best shot in or out of the cockpit, and Tigh actually says she's right. "For once." Even Bill comments on this, "Wonders never cease."

Except, if Tigh KNOWS she's the best shot, why the hell is he arguing about her going? (Obviously, so she can tell US that, but I have to point it out anyway.) I have no problems with her being the best shot, though. It's Starbuck; of course she's the best shot. Kara Thrace knows how to do three things better than anyone else: Fly, frak up, and fire a gun.

Back to the Astral Queen. Dee wonders how she drew this detail. She's got a point; she's the Uhura of the ship, and when did you ever see Uhura go on a mission? Really, she's just being coy, though, because Billy's in the cell next to her. Billy's sheepish about admitting it's his fault, though, 'cause, you know, they're sitting in cells.

Dee: On the other hand, it's nice to get out of the CIC. Break up the day, meet new people.
Billy: Yeah.

Meanwhile, Mason has decided to pick on Cally 'cause he's a creepy rapist. Billy and Dee watch, while Cally tries to play it tough. This is just building up to what's going to be our climax. We watch Starbuck and the Marines load up, then cut back to Lee and Zarek, who really aren't in this episode as much as I thought, honestly.

Zarek wants to know who voted for Laura Roslin and Lee's annoyed, because Zarek's trying to use the law of democratic elections while ignoring the part of the law that allowed Laura to be sworn in as President in the first place. Lee's so over it, he's under it, and asks Zarek, "What is it you want me to say? You want me to say she shouldn't be President? We need a government. We need rules, we need a leader." This is the Lee who shows up for Baltar's trial, a little different, and trying to remake a broken system instead of hold it together.

Zarek, of course, just wants to be "free men and women". He then says, "Otherwise, we're no different than the Cylons", which I'm not sure makes a whole lot of sense. Especially considering if you're drawing parallels to the Cylons, you probably don't want to be the person who blew up a government building, you know?

Lee walks away and sits down. Zarek's not finished, yet, though Lee very clearly wishes he was. He's probably counting down the minutes in his head until the assault teams arrive. Zarek begins going on about his call sign, "Apollo", and Lee, who I imagine abhorred the call sign when he first got it, says, "It's just a stupid nickname." Zarek goes on about opposing forces and mentions sides and asks, "Have you picked a side, Apollo?"

Adama chooses this time to call. Lee gets to tell him they're okay. Zarek isn't an idiot and knows Adama's going to storm the ship. Adama says there's still time to work this out, but Zarek's not budging unless Laura steps down. "That's not going to happen," says Zeus, and Zarek replies, "I look forward to meeting your men."

Picking back up on the foreshadow-y Mason/Cally thread, Mason enters (an apparently sleeping) Cally's cell. Cally quickly sits up. Mason tells her to stand and leads her away. Billy asks what's going on and Mason pulls a gun. Dee asks where he's taking Cally. Dee tries to assure Cally it's going to be okay while Billy screams for Lee.

Lee finally comes to the realization that Zarek wants to be made a martyr. I actually said above Laura figures Zarek out, but I forgot she doesn't actually realize he wants to be a martyr. So my bad, though she did pretty much hit his character on the head. The assault teams cut through the hull and enter the ship while Zarek explains he's still going to get what he wants, even if he ends up dead. Dee says Cally can take care of herself, trying to reassure both Billy and herself, and Cally screams.

Starbuck and the assault teams move quickly as they hear a gunshot, and Zarek and Apollo follow the screaming. Cally's been shot, but she's managed to wound Mason as well; she bit his ear off. Apollo is trying to convince Zarek to open the cell. The teams are moving in position and Apollo finally punches one of Zarek's men in the throat and grabs his gun, shooting Mason twice. Then he forces Zarek to his knees.

Starbuck watches from her position, Lee in the way of her shot. Lee tells Zarek he is going to tell his men to work with them to get the water off the moon and that they're going to earn their freedom. Then, he says, he will get his elections. Zarek is surprised. Lee tells him he's right about democracy and consent of the people. Zarek and Lee talk a little longer about choices and reaping what you sow and last stands, and Zarek agrees. Apollo gets in to Cally's cell, checking on her. Starbuck prepares her shot and Lee pulls Zarek out of the way just in time. Lee orders a ceasefire as Starbuck curses.

On Colonial One, Lee has apparently told Laura and his father the terms of agreement. Laura is stunned; "I don't believe this." Bill is angry; "It's unacceptable." Lee is firm in his belief of doing the right thing instead of the smart thing; "It's done." Bill and Lee argue back and forth about the threat of the ship, etc., and Laura points out Lee's committed her to holding elections in a year. What he doesn't know is she's thinking she'll be dead by then, anyway.

Lee tells her she's serving the remainder of Adar's term and that in seven months, the law says there's an election. (Never mind that the timeline gets screwed up.) "I only committed you to obeying the law." Both Laura and Bill are upset by that; Laura says, "You were not authorized to make a deal", while Bill shouts, "You sound like some kind of lawyer!" Lee, who is exactly in lawyer-mode, responds.

Lee: I swore an oath to defend the Articles. The Articles say there's an election in seven months. Now if you're telling me, we're throwing out the law, then I'm not a captain, you're not a commander, and you are not the president. And I don't owe either of you a damned explanation for anything.
Laura: (to Bill) He's your son.
Bill: He's your adviser.

Hee. I love that bit. Bill's, of course, still pissed off about the whole thing. Laura's realized Lee is right, though, and she's okay with it now. I have to say, I miss this Laura. The Laura who cared about democracy. Sigh.

We make another cut back to the Galactica, with Starbuck and Tigh. Starbuck has brought a flask and grabs two cups, pours the liquid into them. Tigh is kind of confused, and probably wondering if she has poisoned whatever it is. I know I wondered that when I first watched. Kara clinks the cups together and then drinks; Tigh follows, and then asks what is it. Water? Kara confirms it as she pours some more.

Kara: Um, I have my flaws too.
Tigh: The difference is, my flaws are personal, yours are professional.

Kara, surprised, nearly chokes on her water. It's kind of sad, really, the way she was about as apologetic as Starbuck ever gets, and then Tigh's just mean to her. Then he dismisses her and she just sort of nods and leaves. :(

Chief visits Cally in sickbay, an all too common occurrence for this couple later on. Really though, this scene is cute. Also, we apparently do not get to see Cottle in this episode. Is it not until "Act of Contrition" that we see him? I can't remember. Hmm.

Back to Colonial One, Laura is reading a book when Lee knocks. He's adorably flustered by her at first, in a robe and nightgown. Then he explains he wasn't being disloyal, and she tells him she admires him upholding the law, and Lee says, "I believe in you. In what you're doing. And for what it's worth, in seven months you'll have my vote." And see, they're just so cute, and I really hate that they're storyline was just dropped in the middle of the second season.

(And I totally ship them, though I'm not entirely sure how that happened, considering I was shipping Adama/Roslin before anything else. But only season one/season two Laura/Lee. Probably because of the dropped storylines and stuff, but I just can't get my head around the idea of season three/season four Laura/Lee. It just doesn't work, in my mind. Plus the canonization of Adama/Roslin sort of makes Laura/Lee incestuous, and God knows there's enough incest going on in those seasons with the Cylons. Of course, if you want to be technical, Kara and Lee are sort of incestuous. But um, I guess I should get back to the show now.)

Laura tells Lee she might not be here in seven months. Lee, adorably, asks if she's planning a vacation. ♥ Lee's face when she tells him she has cancer is kind of heartbreaking. Actually, so is Laura's. Particularly as she tells him about how she wants the people to have hope and so on, and that's why she's being secretive about the cancer.

Lee: You can count on me.
Laura: I know I can. You're Captain Apollo.

See how cute they are? I love them. And that's the end of the episode! And according to Microsoft Word, this is eight pages long (in Courier New, size 10). It also became something more of a recap than a commentary, but oh well. At least it isn't a lot of squeeing? But when I do "Act of Contrition", I'll drink a lot of Coke, eat a lot of chocolate, and stay up until midnight. Then it should be sufficiently incoherent and squee-filled.

Now I'm going to get something to eat because I haven't eaten anything except for some chips and Cookie Dough Bites.

barack obama president-elect of the united states.

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:13:24 GMT

Wow. So this is what watching history in the making feels like.

now that she's back from that soul vacation, tracing her way through the constellation, hey.

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:42:15 GMT

And I'm back, bbs! Sadly. I so didn't want to leave. None of us did. It went by WAY too quickly. But it's great to be back home in my own bed and I did miss my other friends. But this one week holiday ain't gonna cut it. Two weeks or nothing, baby!

I, uh, didn't really keep a travel diary. I've got a couple of pages I wrote the morning before we left, but I never finished it. I thought about writing on the plane, but couldn't be bothered. God, it was so much fun. It was great seeing them again.

Insert more talk about the great vacation here. I'll talk more about it later. Or maybe I won't. You never know with me.

let's freak out, life's just a party.

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:08:16 GMT

Gone to Aruba! Be back in eight days! ♥