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A whole lot of "business" going
on, or at least there was a lot of business started
back on New Caprica which might or might not have been
resolved. If they didn't have to rebuild the New Caprica
sets, this qualifies as a bottle show, a purely character
piece, with barely a breath of the Cylon threat, and
it's as engaging and interesting and involved as any
of the political machinations we've seen in the last
year.
But I still don't like boxing.
This particular episode actually benefited
from the inside-out flashback storytelling. The Memento technique
doesn't always work, but here we got the sense of what
each person or pair was really fighting about, literally,
and the "show the end at the beginning" shots
gave the scenes between Lee and Kara especially more
punch. (heh. Sorry.)
I'm glad Tigh was the referee. It shows
he's getting himself back into society, into the life
of the ship's crew, and he probably run these matches
before New Caprica. Even if he's no longer the official
XO -- and what are his duties now, anyway? -- he still
has the presence and authority of having been in charge
of the crew for two years, and people will respect
his decisions.
ew, Kara doesn't even shower after shagging?
she jumps right into her clothes and heads off to go
boxing? gross. Although I guess there's a certain symmetry
there, that she fled from Lee's side to marry Anders
and is now fleeing Anders to go to "the dance" with
Lee. ooh, and I even managed not to work any body fluids
into that paragraph.
The circle-with-wing tattoos that Kara
and Anders sport are in lieu of wedding rings, according
to Katee Sackhoff at a TVGuide photo shoot,
but what's with the ziggurat on her shoulderblade?
You can't say "I'm not ready" for
marriage after being married to the guy for a year.
She's really grasping at straws. Poor Anders doesn't
deserve this any more than Dee does. He turned out
to be a decent guy after all, once the writers gave
him something to do, but like Dee he has no
particular chemistry with the main character spouse.
We're not pulling for them to be together. Actually,
I should say that I'd like to see Kara try to work
things out with Anders if only to make her grow up
a bit. She's an immature person, and trying to suck
it up and make the best of an impulsive decision (to
marry Anders) which went sour would go a long way towards
making her more responsible and adult. But they may
want to keep Starbuck as a crazy loose cannon, so who
knows. I think it could be good drama to make her stick
it out, though.
What was with Athena's rude comment to
Kara? "Late to the party as usual"? Did she
have a bet on Kara? Why should she care when or if
Kara shows up?
I do not grasp the appeal of people beating
one another to a bloody pulp. It's not a sport. It's
organized brawling. And for Roslin to find it
appealing?! At least Cottle was on hand to stop people
from continuing if they're in bad shape. Although given
the critical position some people hold, you'd think
the Admiral, the only Admiral in the Fleet,
would be forbidden from indulging in such a violent,
dangerous, potentially deadly recreation. There could
be other Majors (Apollo) or XOs (Helo), but Adama should
not be allowed to risk himself that way. Especially
when he's just recovering from Bulldog walloping him
upside the head last week, and was shot and had major
abdominal surgery a year ago. Now, I do get the idea
that it's better to blow off steam in an ordered setting
rather than letting slights fester into feuds, and
I approve of that. Maybe it's a testosterone thing
-- I just don't understand why the physical expression
has to be so damaging.
An interesting juxtaposition: Lee and
Kara put their dog tags into the box, signifying not
only that they're "in the fight" but the
idea that ranks don't matter in the ring (that is,
you can't be afraid of being punished for hitting a
superior officer), and then turn around and hiss "Captain" and "Major" at
one another like insults.
These teasers are getting longer and
longer. I don't mind -- I just forget that it's the
teaser and and not Act I!
I like the contradictions of the folks
on the ground of New Caprica. You have the cynics like
Starbuck (cynical about both Baltar's "new tomorrow" and
about never being able to fly in a fun way again) and
the people who have made the choice to stop running
(or flying) and to embrace life planetside, like Chief
Tyrol and Cally. Adama obviously wasn't there yet,
at only four months or so into the settlement, since
he instantly dismisses Chief's request at first. But
over the course of the evening we see in the flashbacks,
he switches sides, or at least gives up the fight to
keep people on a war footing when they've already chosen
to walk away from ship life. Roslin seems to be someone
who lives in the present reality, whatever that is
-- the presidency, teaching, an insurgency, a leader.
She probably had the least trouble (other than knowing
how badly Baltar was going to frak things up) adjusting
to the new way of life on the planet.
Roslin and Adama flirt like adults. How
refreshing.
In Starbuck's first fight, Lee is watching
her -- well, glaring at her, really -- and Dee is supposed
to be rubbing the tension out of his shoulders. I know
how to give a shoulder rub, and all she's doing is
moving the sweat around on his collarbones. You gotta rub,
girl, you gotta move the muscles under the skin and
press hard with the thumbs.
Amusing that in a culture with so many
Greek and Roman mythological references in their names,
when they're dancing in the square the music is by Gaelic
Storm.
Adama hears Tyrol telling his assistant
to give up on the ship he's repairing for the night
-- letting him slack. And he picks that moment to decide
that everyone's still "too soft," that the
changes in attitude which allowed people to muster
out off Galactica and settle planetside and
the subsequent the deprivations of the occupation have
resulted in people who are too cozy with one another
to remember the chain of command, or to properly prioritize
their duties. I don't entirely disagree, because even
on Voyager (the other ship in similar circumstances)
there were occasional problems with people (ahem,
Tom) mistaking familiarity and affection with permissiveness.
Even when it's only one ship, you still need discipline.
On the other hand, these people have been through extraordinary hardships,
they've forged very close bonds, and this event is
specifically structured to be without military structure.
It is the one place where everyone's allowed to drop
ranks and be equals; it's a place to blow off steam.
If things are quiet enough to have this "dance," for
the Admiral, the XO, the former XO, the CAG, the ship's
physician, several pilots, and the President of the
Colonies to attend, then things are quiet enough to
let that ship sit another few hours. Of course, Janeway
was merely traveling towards a home they knew existed,
through space which was only intermittently dangerous,
and Adama is being actively chased by homicidal fundamentalist
robots while hoping to find a refuge he's not even
sure is there to begin with. She had 140-odd people
on one ship to care for, while Adama has two battlestars
of crew and forty thousand civilians scattered across
uncounted ship. He complains that he let everyone get "too
close," and that's made them lax, but they have to
be close in the face of all they've suffered. Janeway
only had a few children on board (if you don't count
the adolescent Icheb and infant Miral, then Naomi was
the only one), while Adama is categorically the leader
of a tribe -- one which needs to reproduce,
proliferously. The Colonials see one another as a
group of extended and intertwined families, with Adama
as a kind of patriarch. Ultimately, he does have more
reason to demand more discipline, but I think he picked
a strange moment for it. And honestly, his speech didn't
make a hell of a lot of sense -- "When you stand
on this deck, be ready to fight; when you fight a man,
he's not your friend; I let this family drift apart"?
How do those connect?
Kara literally drank Anders under the
table hee hee hee
I give Lee full credit on the beach.
He stepped up and bravely took the chance. He asked
the hard question: "Is this how you want to spend
the rest of your life? Is this who you want to spend
it with?" He took the risk, gave Kara every chance
to back out, and when he recognized his feelings, he
was literally willing to shout them to the rooftops.
(Going back to Dee afterwards and not telling her...
not so brave.) Kara acted according to her character:
id. She slept with Lee because that emotion came to
the surface. When she awoke with him the next morning,
the first thing she felt was fear -- she panicked
at the thought of having to commit to this,
to commit to being vulnerable, to commit to staying
with someone who truly knew her and wasn't afraid of
her and couldn't be threatened or chased off -- and
she ran. She married Anders not to commit to him,
but to put an obstacle between herself and Lee, and
what Lee represented. Kara is frightened of letting
people get close. She loved Zak, and he died. She loved
Adama as a father, and he's slapped her down and betrayed
her (when she discovered he was lying about Earth).
When she admits that she loves Lee -- the horror that
spreads over her face when she realizes what she's
done should have told Lee everything. Anders is safe.
He's unexciting, he's stable, he's reliable, and he
doesn't challenge her. Sadly, Anders is also a person,
not a shield. (Now, given all this, let's think back
to the end of S2, when we see Anders has pneumonia,
and Kara calls up to Pegasus -- Dee hands off
the phone, saying "it's for you" --
quietly pleading with Lee for antibiotics. Adds a whole
new flavor, doesn't it?)
Dee knows. (Anders says of their boxing
match "They're trying to kill each other," and
Dee responds bitterly "That's one perspective.")
She knows Lee came from shagging Kara on the alluvial
beach and returned to her, rather than staying
with Kara, thus the triumphant smile/smirk. But she
also knows it's not exactly over -- Kara is just too
much person to kick out of one's heart like that, even
if Kara herself is trying to run. And they were best
friends for years anyway, and she was nearly his sister-in-law,
so no matter what, Kara is going to be entangled with
Lee. I feel bad for Dee, because she hasn't done anything
wrong and she's a pleasant enough character on her
own, but there's no real chemistry with her and Lee.
If they split up there are no tears to shed from the
audience. The character doesn't deserve the heartache,
but she's also done nothing to earn our loyalty to
the couple. We just don't care if she's married to
Lee. She's a competent officer and a good friend and
has a lovely smile. But there's no passion there. I'm
still not sure if I want Lee and Kara to pair off officially,
but it looks as though if they do, it will still be
written intelligently and with respect to the integrity
of the characters, so I'd be okay with that. I'm just
so relieved they've kissed and made up. Starbuck and
Apollo are supposed to be best friends. The actors
play wonderfully off one another. Let's see them work
together again, as impish siblings, forbidden flirting,
lovers, whatever.
Oh, and I would just like to say that
I got the soundtrack CDs for seasons 1 and 2 (thanks
to my dear sister), and they are AMAZING. Hie thee
to the nearest store or to Amazon or iTunes and go
get 'em. Bear McCreary's work is marvelous in context,
but still lovely even just as music. (Plus there's
an aria and musak. No really. "Battlestar Musaktica.")
And the haunting theme from the Opera House on Kobol
is there too, called "Passacaglia." |
