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GAH! That was quite possibly the most
spectacular left turn a show has ever taken in TV history.
I've never seen a program create its own alternate
universe to live in. It's like if ENT had actually
stayed in the "Twilight" timeline but nobody
died. We're going to need seven months just
to digest all that! A dozen cheers to Ron Moore and
company for the brilliance and guts, and another three
to SCI-FI for letting them get away with it.
Not only are they putting cut scenes
into the Highlight Reel, they're putting different
versions of the cut scenes. The "I'm not leaving
you" scene with Lee and Dee was not the same as
last week. (Although I was surprised that the Highlight
Reel was so long it became the teaser; they rolled
credits immediately. And then went straight to Act
I, no ads!)
Hey, are they going to change the wording
of the credits next season, if the Colonials aren't
searching for Earth now? What about the survivor count?
So Kara did remember the Farms, because
she demands coup de grâce rather than return
to one, but she doesn't think she can rescue anyone
there?
I guess this does take place shortly
after "Downloaded," if Rebel Six and Boomer
were able to talk the rest of the group into leaving
Caprica at that moment. Although from various
contexts it's not the immediate morning after; I think
only a week or so may have passed.
I don't think the numbers for the rescue
team and rescuees on Caprica work out. Let's say 17
Raptors landed, with pilot, co-pilot, and two Marines
in each. That makes 68 people. Let's say a round half
went to find the Resistance, so 35. Even saying there
were 20 in Mr. UM's group, that's a total of 55. Did
all of them fit in that little stone bunker, or did
they lose a huge amount to the Cylon raid? And when
they sent out a "recon crew," there were
over a dozen people! Including Sharon! Why send so
many if they're all going the same direction? Why risk
their guide back?
We were mostly convinced by the one-hour
mark that Tori, Roslin's campaign manager, was a Cylon
by the way she encouraged Roslin to cheat. But then,
as Brother Cy pointed out last week, humans do terrible
things every day. Just because she suggests something
illegal doesn't make her a Cylon, doesn't make her
the enemy bent on our destruction. It just makes her
wrong. And yes, people are that stupid and short-sighted
to vote for the quick fix which is the spectacularly
wrong answer in the long run. It's just that you can
show the consequences of that much faster on TV than
in real life.
What a double-take we did when Dean Stockwell
showed up as the same priest character on Colonial
One and Caprica at the same moment! But the intrigue
didn't last long, because he was serving a different
purpose. (Which on Caprica I was expecting to be a
rain of shells on the suddenly uncovered heads of the
Marines and bowed heads of the entire group. The Lords
of Kobol will not care if you pray with your eyes open
and watching the terrain for enemies.)
Roslin was right to ask Baltar to set
aside the settlement issue in terms of the good of
the fleet -- which should, frankly, really be the biggest
concern of both of them -- but there was no way he
was going to give up his single issue and guarantee
losing the election. She was acting like a leader.
He was acting like a politician. It was when she stooped
to politics, and cheating, that she lost. And speaking
of politics, who did either of them choose for their
running mates? I can't imagine that Colonial policy
allows the president to choose a VP after the
election; Roslin choosing Baltar was provoked by Zarek's
motion in Quorum -- she didn't want to work
with him. Zarek was his campaign manager and never
mentioned as VP. Roslin needed to choose someone else
if she was running on a new slate when Baltar declared
his own breakaway candidacy. Political parties haven't
been mentioned on the show, but so far Colonial government
has worked pretty much like the U.S.'s, where each
party puts up one set of candidates for the top two
offices. If Roslin is running for her party, Baltar
has to be running under a different party. Even if
there aren't parties per se, it would be stupid to
have a system set up wherein a vice president could
run for president, lose, and still be vice president
to the winner. (And Roslin's real problem is, if she
wins by cheating and gets caught, she would still have
to resign...and let her vice president take over. Baltar
wins no matter what.)
Before the last half-hour I would have
worried now that Roslin has alerted Adama about Baltar
and Caprica Six, and Ghost Six realizes that Roslin
knows, but it's all water under the bridge at this
point....
At first I couldn't figure out why Kara
was so flustered to introduce Adama to Mr. UM (besides
his stunning lack of being interesting), but then I
remembered she was engaged to Zak and has/had a thing
for Lee, so she's introducing the replacement for two
of his sons. But Adama knows that even his dead son
has more charisma than this guy, so he's unruffled.
Wow, poor Sharon sunk harder and faster
than I anticipated. Unless she's suffering from some
sort of post-partum condition exacerbated by grief?
(ooh, wouldn't it completely suck if the Cylons figured
out how to reproduce sexually with humans, but then
every time a Cylon gave birth, she went into post-partum
psychosis?) I did not expect that she would even turn
on Helo. Maybe she's just lashing out in her anguish
and despair. We didn't see her a year later, so we
don't know if she's even alive, and if she is whether
Adama has kept her in the brig for a year.
The scene with Kara getting progressively
drunker with Mr. UM was really sad. I can't bear being
around drunks, so I don't find it particularly funny.
Kara was being childishly ostentatious for Lee's benefit
(Mr. UM has no way of knowing their history unless
she told him, so he can be forgiven for just responding
to what she was doing). He's an athlete who has just
been saved from the end of civilization, so he's going
to go a bit overboard in his celebrations. Between
them it was a sloppy, excessive mess (although it was
only immature, not irresponsible). And poor Lee gets
the shaft again, plus she insults Dee, so no wonder
he walked off in quiet disgust. He tried to join in
if they would have let him -- they offer him a drink
and he says "sure, why not" -- but Kara was
more interested in showing off how she didn't need
Lee and she'd succeeded at something at last,
and Mr. UM was just so damned glad to be alive he'd
probably have licked the Raptors clean if that had
been the price.
"Oopsie! That whole genocide thing?
A mistake. And hunting you folks to the brink of extinction?
Our bad too. But we're big enough to admit it. So we'll
just let bygones be bygones, whaddya say?" Good
grief, did they really think that was going to fly?
(Which makes the majority of the Fleet even stupider
for believing it.) "We spent forty years
evolving ourselves to pass for you so we could come
back and annihilate you, and nine months later we've
called it off because we changed our minds"? Even
if the characters don't know the Cylons well enough,
the audience shouldn't be swallowing this. Then both
copies of Brother Cy start saying there isn't even
a Cylon god, let alone the Lords of Kobol. That can't
have been from the War Heroes Rebel Six and Boomer
-- or at least, it can't be what Rebel Six really believes,
since the Sixes are so relentlessly fundamentalist.
The whole thing smelled wrong. (But it was supposed
to.)
Note Brother Cy says "You've been
given a reprieve," not "we've called
a truce" or "we want peace" or "the
war is over." That alone should have clued them
in. Even a year later, with Baltar nominally in charge,
Adama should not have stood down after hearing that.
I understand Roslin's desperation, and
how she would act in what is genuinely the best interests
of the Fleet and the species even though it's cheating.
It's unfortunate that the two leaders are then faced
with a choice between what's moral and what's right.
If they steal the election or stage a coup, they open
the door for someone else to do the same. If they admit
to the cheating, Baltar wins, which (as they predicted)
turns out to be a disaster. I admired Roslin's calm
bravery in admitting her deeds. Adama concurs with
her ends, but not her means, and respectfully pulls
her up short. She respects Adama, and rule of law,
enough to capitulate without a drawn-out fight. (Mary
McDonnell so deserves an Emmy for that scene.)
Doesn't anyone get punished? Reprimanded?
I imagine Tori's fired (which is just as well; I didn't
care for her much), but Tigh and Dee and the NPC grunts
were also involved. I guess Adama was disgusted enough
with Baltar's win that he figured it was sufficient
punishment for everyone. I'm not surprised that Tigh
trusted Dee as his assistant -- she's smart and discreet,
especially if she's carrying on with the CO of Pegasus.
"I suggest that you take your victory,
and leave it at that... Doctor," Adama
rasps. I love the underlying implication -- yeah, I did actually
make you president, and I can take it away too.
Why New Caprica? Just because Baltar
lived there? Was it the capital planet of the colonies
or something?
Now, this was the one-hour mark, and
here I was sort of musing "I can't believe there's
still another half hour to go. They could have ended
it right there." Little did we know...
I felt really bad for Gina in her last
scene with Baltar. (Which was tempered somewhat afterwards.)
She has to prostitute herself -- still covered in scars,
still vulnerable, still afraid -- to soothe the fuss
so that Baltar won't suspect her of anything, and the reason she
needs to deflect suspicion is that shortly she's going
to annihilate herself and lots of other people. Gina's
had a rough incarnation. With the Resurrection Ship
gone, this is also her last. Her sad repetition of "I'm not going
to New Caprica" is poignant in retrospect. And
let's take a moment to admire the writing of a show
where we can sit here and discuss our sympathies for
a suicide bomber who took out not just the luxury cruiser
she was on but at least two other ships and a shuttlecraft
as collateral, and whose manner of death/suicide/homicide
left a flag for the rest of her species to find the
humans. (I think that was deliberate on her part. I
don't know how far in advance that sort of thing could
have been planned for, but I have little doubt that
she intended for the other Cylons to find that radiation
signature. The Six in the final scene kind of swallowed
in horror at the mention.) But really, did Baltar think
that he could bring down a Cylon model to the planet
where all the other humans were and not get caught
somehow? With humans who do know what Sixes look like?
It's known that the Six from Pegasus escaped.
For a genius, he's spectacularly blind about certain
things when he doesn't want to admit that something's
in his way. And he's so completely ruled by his little
weasel that all she has to do is strip -- shaking,
ashamed, scarred, frightened -- and he hones in like
a magnet.
The acting was amazing all around, but
I'd also like to take a moment to salute Hair & Makeup
and Costuming for how they transform Tricia Helfer
so that she really looks like different people.
Helfer is the one who brings the haunted looks or shaky
smile to Gina and Rebel Six. But Ghost Six is seductive,
in clingy outfits, with white-platinum tresses. Rebel
Six has toned-down makeup and buttoned-up shirts. Gina
has brown roots and burns. The visual cues allow us
to see the actress becoming another character.
Something else which occurs to me: in "Resurrection
Ship part 2," Gina puts a gun in Baltar's hand
and begs him to kill her. "Suicide is a sin, but
I want to die," she tells him. But she sets off
the bomb while sitting next to it, which clearly results
in her death. How did she rationalize that? It was
a bomb meant to take out Cloud Nine, and she
just happened to be there? She was willing to risk
the sin? Had she been blowing smoke to Baltar earlier?
If Baltar was insistent that "every
last single one of us is going to New Caprica," why
were there still crewed ships in orbit? Only the battlestars
are "military"; the rest are civilian ships.
I would have liked to have seen that fight. (Well,
I would have liked to have seen any and all of the
intervening year! But it's okay that we didn't.)
Contrasting Baltar's oathtaking with
Roslin's in the credits is a little unsettling. Okay,
a lot unsettling. Especially how he lied through his
teeth about having no "moral reservation or mental
evasion." (Then he signs his first official executive
order, for settlements on New Caprica, and Gina sets
off the bomb directly on its heels. You can almost
hear Roslin cackling just for a second "Didn't
happen on my watch, buddy!")
Kudos to James Callis for the little
touches like tearing up over Gina's death. Baltar is
amoral and breathtakingly selfish, and his tears are
really more for himself than for her, but a truly hard
and evil man wouldn't be able to cry over her death
(or her suffering last season). I like the nuance,
even in our traitor. Then he quietly states to Adama "I
don't have to listen. I'm the President," and
the least flicker of goodwill we might feel for him
is smothered by the resurgence of his cold-blooded
arrogance. It's a difficult balancing act, and Callis
is doing a marvelous job.
Did Baltar reward Gaeta with an assistantcy
because he discovered the faulty ballots, was it based
on his devotion from "Six Degrees of Separation" back
in S1, or did Gaeta volunteer?
I didn't realize until second viewing
that if Baltar landed and is still living in Colonial
One, the room which is behind the Octagon Office
chair was the one Roslin used for a press briefing
room. He turned it into his bedroom. And look
at the contrast in the other furniture: Roslin had
a plain metal desk; Baltar's is heavy dark wood. He's
added comfy chairs, luxurious bookcases, executive-style
desk accessories, and a benevolent-despot portrait
of himself to the Office. He's wallowing in his power
and doesn't care about answering to the people who
gave it to him. (and what "pills" is he taking?
Plain old uppers? Viagra? Something more sinister?)
Adama has a mustache? Oh no, it's
the return of Lt.
Castillo!
When Adama stops by the flickering light
in the hallway, I remembered that in the miniseries, Galactica is
about to be retired to a museum piece. She wasn't meant
to hold together so long. Without constant maintenance,
she's showing her age again.
New Caprica City was a real shock. The
apparent poverty, the desperation, the lack of supplies
and resources, the scrabbling for survival. Roslin
predicted it all. I imagine these conditions, having
boiled for a year offscreen, will be part of the spark
of any coup movement.
Moogie asks, why is everyone living in
tents a year later? Granted that they didn't cannibalize
the ships the way the colony did in "Twilight," since
the vessels are still in orbit. But were there absolutely
no trees for lumber? They have dirt, they can make
mud, is there not even enough sunshine to make bricks?
Is it supposed to be another indirect measure of Weaseltar's
incompetence that his people are still living in collapsible
shelters rather than actual buildings while he gallivants
with bunnies?
Starbuck -- with long hair! Starbuck
-- married! (Starbuck calling Mr. UM a moron...not
a shock.) Moore lost no opportunity in changing the
lives of whomever he could in this completely open
frontier. Kara is married. Dee is a lieutenant, and
we imagine still with Lee. Helo on Galactica's
bridge -- where's Sharon? Could she have been left
in the brig for a year? Chief and Cally are at least
a couple if not married also. Roslin -- I'm such an
idiot; I completely forgot she was a teacher before
she was a politician, and once a teacher always a teacher.
Where is Zarek? Baltar would never permit
a "power behind the throne" kind of thing.
If Gaeta is Baltar's assistant, is Zarek a VP? a secretary
of some kind? Did he keep his Quorum seat? I think
if Zarek still has some power -- if he's still the
representative for Sagittaron, making him sort of a
governor of one of 12 states -- then he'll stay on
Baltar's
side. But if Baltar doesn't even want his allies to have any say over
anything, then Zarek is going to return to his prole-revolution roots and take
up with Chief, or his counterparts. Zarek wants to be a leader, he wants to be
in the inner circle, because he feels that he has a unique connection to The
People and can speak for them when TPTB won't. If he's shut out of that, he'll
fight
his way in.
I'm glad Chief is now union leader. At
least it means he's got his confidence and some semblance
of a life back. (and with a roundly pregnant Cally
beside him, it looks like he's got a life and a half.)
Was it because of or in spite of the advice he got
from the priest who turned out to be a Cylon? ("I
know you're not a Cylon, because I'm a Cylon
and I haven't seen you at any of the meetings!" Wow,
he wasn't kidding!) He's giving a fairly typical union
speech in the background, but then we connect the dots
and realize that when Gaeta brought the message to
Weaseltar about "the unions," he meant Chief
Tyrol, and this sets up a potential crisis. I assume
we'll see next season what has brought such a patient
man to such measures.
How desperate have things become that
Kara willingly hugs Tigh and is genuinely glad to see
him...and the feeling seems to be mutual? How low has
everyone sunk? (At what point did Helo pass Baltar in
a hallway and kick himself for giving up his space
on his Raptor in the mini so that guy could be saved?)
Maya as Roslin's assistant: good choice.
Maya would believe that Roslin, fortunes fallen, would
come to her, and it allows Roslin to keep her eye on
a very valuable resource. (Which I also presume Baltar
was not told about. As president he should have been,
but I agree that such information should be kept from
that individual.) And Roslin is a believable elementary-school
teacher too -- the right mix of chivvy and leading
and praise and enthusiasm and real affection for her
students. The only problem with the scene is that Hera
(or whatever she's called now) is supposed to be over
a year old, and Maya was holding an infant of six months
or so. Hera would be nearly walking, not still swaddled.
I have to assume we'll learn in flashback
next season how Kara and Lee fell out? And again we're
back to Starbuck and Apollo barely on speaking terms?
:(
Then, before we're barely had a chance
to absorb this wild new world we're in, the Cylons
resurface. And the Adamas make the same choice that
Bill Adama and Roslin had to make in the mini: run
to save ourselves, because if we stay to protect the
others we will all die. In that one brief scene we
do get a glimpse of how father and son have grown into
a comfortable working relationship as Commander and
Admiral -- Lee is respectful, but the tone is still
intimate; Adama is calm and clear-headed, but warmer
than if he were speaking to Tigh.
I love Ghost Six's little smirk after
she quietly announces "Judgment Day" to a
panicking, wild-eyed Weaseltar. She did preach this
a while ago...
Is the Leoben looking for Kara because
she's important to Adama, or because she has some "special
destiny," or because they have the results from
her stolen ovaries? And Mr. UM should recognize him,
if he's not delirious.
Is it Rebel Six and Boomer who are with
the Doral to demand Weaseltar's surrender? Or is this
Six somehow in possession of Rebel Six's memories,
or even Ghost Six's? If they are Rebel Six and Boomer,
are they going along with this Doral to pacify him
and are planning to turn on him? (A traitor human working
with traitor Cylons...the mind boggles.) If the War
Heroes wanted to stop the fighting, why seize the human
colony?
That's a good general question, actually.
Are they keeping the humans penned up so they can't
bother the rest of the galaxy or re-spread? Are they
going to set up another breeding farm? Revenge for
their own slavery? Divine mission?
The final statement over the end credits
was the kind of deliciously frightening doubletalk
which is going to echo for the whole season to come.
I can't wait. (oh, man, October?) |
