BSG 3:11 The Eye of Jupiter
I was wrong. I was wrong about almost everything but how good this show is. Suddenly all those pieces that didn’t seem to fit anywhere just fall into place.
Sooner or later, the day comes when you can no longer hide from the things that you've done.
I’d loved Adama the elder in each of the previous three episodes individually but was having trouble making his characterization join up.
In Heroes he was suffused with regret for past remembrances and that made sense to me because the last line of his improvised retirement speech had always felt character-defining and the neglect of his son, which was the nearest possible reference for it then, didn’t feel big enough. After Heroes I’d thought that regret might have its source in the political, in membership of the pro-war military-industrial elite (and I feel so young again typing those words) that Laura hinted at when forcing that medal on him.
In Unfinished Business he used the Chief to go badass on the crew and point out that he was their not their friend but a military leader and they were there to make war not love. Then in The Passage sitting pre-shiva as Kat died he seemed right back to playing the father as if they were all one big family.
In this episode all those apparent contradictions came together in the closing seconds with the nukes turned and set to fire on his own men, his own son. The brinkmanship, now I think of it, is a more full blooded version of Bulldog’s mission and the point of it is that Adama is right there making the same choices all over again. He does love his crew like his family but his job is to send them out to be killed. He sent Bulldog, he sent Kat, he sent Lee and Kara and all the others. These are the things that he’s done, the things he will do and although probably something will happen to rescue at least some of the party I don’t believe for a moment that that something will be Admiral Adama flinching from duty.
All of this has happened before and all of it will happen again
So much in this episode could fit that quotation. I’ve been uncomfortable with the von Daniken/Tomb Raiderness of the Arrow of Athena and now the Eye of Jupiter but it’s working for me now. The lapsed Catholic/Calvinist/insert sect of choice reaction of Chief Tyrol (suddenly remembers Tyrol's seemly unprecedented dreams of being a cylon at the end of S2 also co-inciding with a Cavil's appearance) to finding his father’s faith apparently validated makes it feel real. It does all seem too much to dismiss a co-incidence but I’m also reminded of Lebonen manipulating events to make his own prophecies come true. Something out there is doing the same thing on a much bigger scale and if Head!Six is its Angel I’m interested to meet it.
I’m no pilot shipper but I also loved the way the whole religious angle was introduced by Kara’s superstitious dread of divorce, which I think is entirely genuine and indicative of another gulf between her and Lee the atheist. I liked it also because I like Apollo when he’s struggling intellectually with moral quandaries and ethical positions and I liked it when he was prepared to sacrifice the stranded Starbuck. Just like his Dad (as Dee already said). I like the way the episode matched the two of them making the hard decisions and the way it recalled an earlier parallel when both were willing to sacrifice themselves and their ships for the greater good in Exodus II.
Laura Roslin had her own version of being caught up by the things that she’s done as Athena, Helo and Adama discovered the truth about Hera. It was interesting how this discovery immediately preceded Adama’s decision to bring on the nuclear option. It’s as if she’s his conscience at some level, when she relaxes her guard he drops his (as on New Caprica) when she’s hardheaded he’ll match her point for point.
D’Anna is clearly heading for a fall but I’m not sure what Baltar’s up to other than following the dominant female’s lead. Although it seem as though he thought the hybrid was addressing him as the chosen one, I’m not sure that’s what he wants. From his behaviour on the Galactica he seems more than anything to want to go home and I wonder if he has some back-up plan to achieve that if the whole chosen one thing doesn’t work out. He’s got nothing his own people would take him back alive for. Or maybe. He promised to be there for Hera and why show them together? Could the baby be a bargaining chip he might use with Roslin? He’d have to get hold of her first.
Sooner or later, the day comes when you can no longer hide from the things that you've done.
I’d loved Adama the elder in each of the previous three episodes individually but was having trouble making his characterization join up.
In Heroes he was suffused with regret for past remembrances and that made sense to me because the last line of his improvised retirement speech had always felt character-defining and the neglect of his son, which was the nearest possible reference for it then, didn’t feel big enough. After Heroes I’d thought that regret might have its source in the political, in membership of the pro-war military-industrial elite (and I feel so young again typing those words) that Laura hinted at when forcing that medal on him.
In Unfinished Business he used the Chief to go badass on the crew and point out that he was their not their friend but a military leader and they were there to make war not love. Then in The Passage sitting pre-shiva as Kat died he seemed right back to playing the father as if they were all one big family.
In this episode all those apparent contradictions came together in the closing seconds with the nukes turned and set to fire on his own men, his own son. The brinkmanship, now I think of it, is a more full blooded version of Bulldog’s mission and the point of it is that Adama is right there making the same choices all over again. He does love his crew like his family but his job is to send them out to be killed. He sent Bulldog, he sent Kat, he sent Lee and Kara and all the others. These are the things that he’s done, the things he will do and although probably something will happen to rescue at least some of the party I don’t believe for a moment that that something will be Admiral Adama flinching from duty.
All of this has happened before and all of it will happen again
So much in this episode could fit that quotation. I’ve been uncomfortable with the von Daniken/Tomb Raiderness of the Arrow of Athena and now the Eye of Jupiter but it’s working for me now. The lapsed Catholic/Calvinist/insert sect of choice reaction of Chief Tyrol (suddenly remembers Tyrol's seemly unprecedented dreams of being a cylon at the end of S2 also co-inciding with a Cavil's appearance) to finding his father’s faith apparently validated makes it feel real. It does all seem too much to dismiss a co-incidence but I’m also reminded of Lebonen manipulating events to make his own prophecies come true. Something out there is doing the same thing on a much bigger scale and if Head!Six is its Angel I’m interested to meet it.
I’m no pilot shipper but I also loved the way the whole religious angle was introduced by Kara’s superstitious dread of divorce, which I think is entirely genuine and indicative of another gulf between her and Lee the atheist. I liked it also because I like Apollo when he’s struggling intellectually with moral quandaries and ethical positions and I liked it when he was prepared to sacrifice the stranded Starbuck. Just like his Dad (as Dee already said). I like the way the episode matched the two of them making the hard decisions and the way it recalled an earlier parallel when both were willing to sacrifice themselves and their ships for the greater good in Exodus II.
Laura Roslin had her own version of being caught up by the things that she’s done as Athena, Helo and Adama discovered the truth about Hera. It was interesting how this discovery immediately preceded Adama’s decision to bring on the nuclear option. It’s as if she’s his conscience at some level, when she relaxes her guard he drops his (as on New Caprica) when she’s hardheaded he’ll match her point for point.
D’Anna is clearly heading for a fall but I’m not sure what Baltar’s up to other than following the dominant female’s lead. Although it seem as though he thought the hybrid was addressing him as the chosen one, I’m not sure that’s what he wants. From his behaviour on the Galactica he seems more than anything to want to go home and I wonder if he has some back-up plan to achieve that if the whole chosen one thing doesn’t work out. He’s got nothing his own people would take him back alive for. Or maybe. He promised to be there for Hera and why show them together? Could the baby be a bargaining chip he might use with Roslin? He’d have to get hold of her first.