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Arg. More "previously" clips
which never happened! That really annoys me. Granted
that it's useful to the narrative, why couldn't they
have run it last time when it actually was supposed
to occur? On the other hand, I'm not as peeved by the
time card saying such-and-such happened an hour earlier,
and giving us the same scene from a different angle.
Seeing it the second time, nice echo
of Tigh's single eye, staring wide-eyed at Lady MacTigh.
And it looks like she's about to confess when Tyrol
barges in...
Okay, Mr. Underwear Model has been given
enough to do that he can have his name now. He's still
fairly bland-looking, but the various pilots and redshirts
aren't any more or less interesting, and at least he
has some function right now as a resistance head.
Maybe I just didn't hear it last week
when Sharon says to Anders "It's been a long time" and
he answers "Funny, I feel like I see you every
day." I caught her wry expression, but not his
remark.
Why "Breeders Canyon"? what
bred there? And it looks helluva lot more temperate
and inviting than the Mongolian desert steppes where
New Caprica was stuck. Why didn't they put the city
in the canyon instead? Does that little crick flood?
Several layers in this episode show Sharon's
loyalty is now truly with the Colonials: she sends
part of her team off to locate where she guesses (correctly)
the bullethead ambush will be, she legs Threena and
supports Adama, and refuses to give up her dog tags
even though it could compromise her safety. What will
happen if she finds out about her daughter? (Does Adama
actually know? or did Roslin and Cottle keep it even
from him? The transfer happened on Colonial One.)
Jammer took off his mask during the Death
Row convoy raid and ran off...wonder where to?
So Roslin is calling Zarek "Tom." In
extremis? Since Baltar is beyond ever being trusted
again, is she going to eye Zarek as a new political
partner? At least possibly the respected opposition?
He did refuse to work with the Cylons, so that should
earn him some points with the populace if they ever
get off this rock.
Awww, poor Brother Cy, shot in the gut
and left to bleed in the sun. I suppose it doesn't
make any difference that he was carting fifty-odd people
to a remote location to be gunned down like sheep at
the time...
What is that thing on the baby's face
in Threena's dream? It looks like she has a gypsy moth
caterpillar crawling into her mouth. (Do Cylons dream
of cloned sheep? Now we know.)
Awww, poor Baltar can't get it up, even
for a resurrected Rebel Six! (and that answers my question
from last week about whether they'd reconnected.) Is
his guilt and fear finally crushing even his vaunted
sense of self-importance? But then Rebel Six starts
to grouse, much like Brother Cy does, about how much
she's given up for Baltar. He sneers wearily that "with
the occupation and everything, I can't say I've given
it much that much thought." The Cylons really
do think this forced occupation and torture counts
as "living in peace with humans." They genuinely
believe that it's just the ornery, obstinate, heathen,
toilet-paper-lacking humans who are thwarting the Cylons'
attempt at harmony. And what has Rebel Six given
up, anyway? Prestige? Power? She's still in the inner
circle, it seems. She hasn't been boxed yet. What does
she have to complain about?
Katee Sackhoff, slightly embarrassed
to pick up her paycheck this week. Callum Keith Rennie's
agent, slavering over the "special guest star" credit
for a non-speaking flyby...
James
Randi, professional skeptic and paranormal debunker,
frequently points out that people delude themselves
into thinking they have some kind of predictive or
telepathic ability, or that a horoscope means something,
because they remember the "hits" (the instances
which are right) but they always forget the hundreds
of other times which were wrong. Threena does that
here: the Oracle on Delphi Street sucks her in with
a vague prophecy (although in the show's mythos,
the Kamala actually does give real visions) and then
tacks on a warning at the end -- Threena will hold
the baby and know true love, but will lose everything
-- and Threena only bothers to pay attention to the
part she likes. There's another Greek term for that: hubris.
And again, what "everything" is
being lost? Is keeping the humans under their collective
thumb like this part of the Cylon plan which the credits
keep reminding us of? I thought interbreeding with
humans to create the next generation of God's children
was a major part of "the plan," but Sharon
and Helo's baby was the only proven success (I'm not
counting Kacey). If that's the goal, why aren't they
setting up breeding camps? The only Cylon male we know
is sleeping with a human female is the Brother Cy shtupping
Lady MacTigh, who's well beyond breeding age. The Cylons
keep emphasizing to one another what they've lost and
given up in this occupation. Creepy as it is, the Doral
in the High Council is right: they could just wipe
the planet clean if they wanted to.
Speaking of Sharon and Helo's baby, Moogie
pointed out that if Threena is looking for her as
"the child of two peoples," then clearly Kacey is not
any kind of chosen one -- more evidence that she's
not a cybrid as Buckin' Leoben claims.
Whoa, can the Colonials afford to waste
salt by dumping it on the deck like that? or is a necessary
part of the ritual they did? And are those all the
pilots and engineering staff left on the two battlestars?
Why 18 hours? Howinhell do they expect
to evacuate thirty-seven thousand people off
the planet and away from the Cylons in less than a
day? I was figuring like two weeks before a rendezvous
with Pegasus! (then we started taking bets on
how long Lee will wait past the deadline before he
jumps back to New Caprica to save Adama.)
I find it a little revolting that Threena
so casually talks to Jake the dog, whose bowl was used
as a signal to the insurgents. But I imagine we're
supposed to feel that way.
If Brother Cy is griping about his third
download, Leoben has got to be either some amazing
actor or one tough SOB to be so casual about Kara killing
him five times in a row.
Yet another flip of audience identification:
until now, we've cheered as the Colonials/New Capricans
struck back at the Cylons, but then Sharon walks through
the city and someone throws a bottle at her, and we
wince with her. And she can't identify herself, of
course, and it might not help even if she did. Who
would believe her?
Hera (sister and wife to Zeus, king of
the Greek gods) is now called Isis,
who was sister and wife to Osiris, the Egyptian god
of the dead. Isis bore and reared a son. Horus, in
secret to hide him from her brother, and she had all
manner of mother-protector
imagery. Just some food for thought.
Was the scene with Roslin and Anders
current time, or a few months ago? Moogie thinks it
was a flashback to establish where Maya and Isis have
been the last few months, but she's wearing the same
hat and looks the same age. (I know, child actor.)
So not only has Roslin organized all
thirty-seven-thousand-odd people to evacuate, she's
had them run dress rehearsals?! They should re-elect
her on the strength of her organizational skills alone.
Then again, if she can keep kindergarteners in line,
several thousand panicking adults should be a walk
in the park.
Lady MacTigh is so screwed. We
figure the Tighs are done for. If she didn't have
a history of sleeping around, and could have held it
together to tell Tigh calmly that she was acting for
tactical reasons, he might have bought it. But for
her to betray him with a Cylon -- and to protest with
her usual crying-wolf hysteria -- she's gone.
Okay, so all the launch keys are kept
in one box in one room in one building which can be
accessed by one voiceprint? Even with an armed insurgency
going on? Which features folks who aren't afraid to
blow themselves up? Not very tactically sound of the
Cylons.
I'm beginning to think the Cylons are
like the Q -- none of them have names, but they can
all identify one another as individuals on sight. Maybe
they all smell different, or they can see in infragreen
or something and have some sort of unique frequency
only visible in a part of the spectrum we can't see.
Threena looks at Sharon and knows her instantly.
And from Sharon's remarks, both in legging
Threena and in connecting with the database to find
out where the launch keys are, we have more evidence
that there isn't an ongoing groupmind, but more likely
some gestalt which memories get uploaded to when a
personality dies, and which get shared to other copies
of that number when the new units download. It doesn't
explain the "we agree"s of the High Council,
but that could just be a royal we or a mouthpiece we.
Tyrol is an insurgency head. None of
the rebels think it's odd that he's seen talking with
an Eight?
That is a great speech Adama makes, about
the people serving beside you and telling the tale
to grandchildren, but he's damn good at making speeches.
(And Moore and Co. are damn good at writing them, let's
point out. And applaud.) |
