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A decent episode, executed better in
the details than the overall plot, I think -- Billy's
death was telegraphed from the Highlight Reel music,
for pity's sake. And it was unnecessary. Why not have
a romantic triangle? (for a little while, anyway.)
Why not have Dee struggle with two very different men,
with
different
goals,
skills,
and flaws? Why not weave in potential conflicting loyalties
as she gets closer to Roslin's side of operations through
Billy? If Billy had to die a Stupid Heroic Death, why
not leave Dee in the lurch and feeling guilty about
having the choice between them made for her? Combining
the abrupt triangle with the hostage situation was
too pat and too formulaic.
And Kara -- she oughta be demoted, pronto.
The woman's never met a risk she couldn't take, consequences
be damned. She was ordered to send someone on
a recon mission. She didn't even bother to ask for
volunteers among the Marines. She went in armed. She
knew Ellen Tigh was in the room, and even if she didn't
know Ellen's particular frailties, Ellen is a civilian
in a hostage situation and cannot be counted upon in
the tactical sense to behave in a military (i.e., controlled)
fashion. Kara should not have banked on keeping her
cover. Engaging in a firefight did take out one of
the kidnappers, but it also cost her two Marines' lives,
injured a third, and severely injured a Viper pilot
who just happens to be her former wingman and just
happens to be the son of the officer who ordered
her to do a recon mission and not go in firing! Friendly
fire isn't. If she had followed orders and one of the
Marines had gotten the lay of the land, they might
have been able to figure out a better tactical solution
which would not have cost lives.
Since I do pause to read screens, I was
annoyed that Abinell was murmuring her list backwards
as she was typing. What was she writing if she was
reading back up the list she'd already written? And "sleep
deprivation" as an assault tactic of the Cylons?
Where did that come from?
Now we know, at least, that the Fleet
did finally figure out that Pregnant Sharon is aboard,
although I'm not sure if they know that she is pregnant.
If they knew, all they had to do is look for the baby
bump on the corpse, never mind the autopsy Y. But Abinell
lists "impregnation and reproduction" as
one of the MO points, so maybe they know about the
Farms?
Are Adama and Roslin going to take Billy's
very good advice and come clean about their tactical
goals? (I wouldn't mention the cybrid sprog, though...)
A proposal? Boy, that really came
out of left field. Maybe I'm just accustomed to Trek
romances being a lot more obvious, but these two have
hardly been in one another's company for months. We
have very little clue what their relationship is. Last
we saw was a cuddling date -- how do we know it's advanced
beyond that? And there was the business with Lee --
was she dating both of them? I thought she was just
acknowledging an attraction and then dealing with it
decisively. In fact, until Billy came up to them in
the restaurant, I didn't know there was an actual
triangle. I thought she'd been pretty clear and forthright
with both of them and not left either one hanging.
I'm disappointed. I really thought that for once, we
had one character who was upfront about what she did
and what she felt and wasn't going to get involved
in any soap-opera dances.
A jalapeño pepper in a martini
glass? What kind of drink is that?
I guess Tigh is used to it, but I still
think it's weird for a married woman to get dressed
up and go out, alone, to a bar to hang out and drink.
And again we have the faint metallic stink of arbitrariness,
that it just happens to be Ellen (Tigh's wife)
and Lee (Adama's son) and Billy (Roslin's heart-son)
who are all hostages.
Speaking of hostages -- what did Abinell
and her friends think was going to happen to them after
they took out the Cylon? Did they not expect prison
time? Or did they not care? This isn't the first time
we've had a standoff at gunpoint in the series either,
which either means the Colonials typically joined the
NRA at age five or the writers have a limited bag of
Drama-Creating Tricks.
Actually, that led us into a discussion
about why the civilians had guns in the first place.
Moogie asked, why aren't all the guns kept locked up,
only to be used by security personnel? Why isn't everyone
searched when they come on board a ship? My response
was that if the Colonies are based on the U.S., which
they seem to be thus far, then they have the equivalent
of the right to bear arms. There is currency, there
is a black market, there are objects and people of
high value, and they all have to be protected. People
will demand the ability to take care of themselves
because even two battlestars don't have the personnel
to be policing everyone everywhere. Fifty-thousand-odd
people have to be spread over a few hundred ships.
By sheer numbers, there just isn't enough to go around,
so people have to be able to protect themselves against
the inevitable lawless element (or possible Cylon boarding
party). And if Galactica can't control the medicine
and food stores among the fleet, how in hell could
they possibly control all the guns? Also, some ships
are going to be stricter than others. Cloud 9 is
an open port (which apparently has sloppy security).
Some ships will probably be like the "boomer" ships
on ENT were supposed to be -- generational long-haulers
who govern themselves for the most part. Those people
will have spent lifetimes together. The captain will
say that s/he knows the people and trusts them to keep
their guns and behave rationally. So I didn't find
it odd that a few civilians would have weaponry.
Regarding the interstitial promo with
the cybrid baby: I would just like to point out that
the only times we've seen a Cylon spine light up is
when Sharon and Six were gettin' busy with their respective
human boytoys. Do we really need to know that
much about fetal sex life?
Um, dry ice in a drink? isn't that extremely
bad for you?
Ellen says "let me talk to them," meaning
the kidnappers. Then all she does is screech and wail
for her life! This is her idea of talking to them?
Was it a drunken show of bravado for Lee?
I'm sort of torn regarding Pregnant Sharon
and how Adama treats her. On the one hand, one has
to imagine even Cylons have limits, and at some point
Adama's doubts are going to piss her off and she's
going to stop cooperating. On the other hand, a person
who turned on her race is a person who turned on her
race -- can she ever truly be trusted? As I
mentioned in a prior commentary, she has a habit of
only revealing critical information when it's convenient
to save her ass. They do need to treat her with a certain
respect as a tactical source, but if they give her
too much leeway, she can indeed play them. The kidnappers
aren't wrong to be worried about Adama, and thereby
the rest of the fleet, being taken for a ride. We still don't
know if she cut herself off from the groupmind by choice
and can therefore reconnect.
Sharon grabs her stomach when the baby
kicks (from what I hear, that's not supposed to be
painful. Maybe the kid's titanium skeleton hasn't grown
a covering of tissue yet?), then when she's standing
up, her right hand is just slightly out of view. Did
she just lean on her knee to stand, or did she slip
something under the table and attach it? We weren't
sure.
If Gaeta knows that Kara and Lee are
both on Cloud 9, plus the nameless Marine redshirts,
why don't they know Dee is there also? She's a petty
officer (i.e., she's not a non-commissioned officer
or a plain crewperson) and a Bridge officer. The others
were there on R&R just like she was. Isn't she
worth worrying over?
I was surprised not to hear some comment
about "so-and-so is a soldier and knows that s/he
might die in the service of the Colonial fleet blah
blah" when discussing killing hostages. But then,
given that my major complaint about this ep is that
it's formula, I suppose it's a good thing that they
chose not to throw in the typical line.
They're in a bar. There's all that ice for
the drinks. Think that might have been a good thing
to put on Lee's wound?
Adama curiously asks Sharon "If I
asked you" to identify the various Cylon agents
in the fleet, rather than directly asking her. Like
he doesn't want to force her to lie, or put her in
a bad spot, or make her choose sides. So: why doesn't
he? Why not make her declare her allegiance? Why not
ask her why she's helping them? For Helo? For
the sprog? It's easier to trust someone when you know
her motives.
I thought Adama's gamble was pretty good
-- I would have gone for the same thing -- but they
could have taken a minute for Doc Quack to put some
fake skin and a little makeup over the autopsy incision.
They can't assume the kidnappers are that stupid
not to pull back the sheet beyond the corpse's chin.
And if they kept going and saw the big bullet hole
where Cally shot her, Abinell had the press clippings
of the Jack Ruby moment, so she would know immediately
which corpse it was.
So why did Roslin lean over oddly and
touch the morgue wall with her fingertips before leaning
over Billy? I thought she was collecting condensation
for some kind of Last Rites, but then she touches her
face and then brushes a few stray bangs off his face.
If she wanted to clean blood off his forehead, she
would have used spit and a handkerchief like a mom.
Okay, the blocking, framing, and light
on Kara as she leaves Sickbay looking over her shoulder
at Dee and Lee is exactly the same blocking, framing,
and light as was used on Lee when he walked out of
the gym looking over his shoulder at Dee and Billy.
C'mon, folks.
What was the final shot of Sharon about?
I am completely confused. |
