Battlestar Galactica 4.11 Sometimes a great notion
Wow. That fulfilled all my worst expectations. Including 'will include some completely unpredictable implausible element' and 'will massacre Lee's characterisation in yet another way'.
I'm not going to discuss the plot holes. There were so many I don't know where to start. I'd love someone to explain to me how the Thirteenth Tribe can have been Cylons and how all their gear and bodies were right there on the surface even though they died 2000 years ago... and how Kara's body was barely decomposed at all. But I'm sure there will be plenty of other people tackling that. I'm concentrating on the character stuff.
Let's get the big things over with first:
1. Earth is nuked. (yeah, we know)
2. Ellen is the Fifth. (yawn, whatever, at least the suspense is over with--unless it's a fakeout)
3. The Final Five have literally been here before and apparently Anders was Bob Dylan. (LMAO)
4. Kara is deader than a dead thing that's really dead. (extremely annoying but predictable)
5. The characterisation is as bad if not worse than 4.0.
I had very little 'care factor' about much of the episode. Adama managed to annoy me. I guess that means his characterisation was still ballpark. His ineptitude as a father surfaced once again--'carry the ball' got me riled early on and then his reaction when Dee died solidified it. Wow, Adama, once again you have time for everyone (even dead people) except your own son.
I should have cared more about the Tigh-Adama scene. Tigh himself was in character and relatively interesting. But I found it tedious and predictable to see Adama losing it again--it was obvious he was going to try and goad Tigh into topping him. The 'sea' story was really boring and it was even more boring to see Tigh reenact it.
I had slightly more time for Roslin losing it. But I thought her speech would have been more powerful if she'd been the one who forged the Alliance with the Cylons and led them to Earth (rather than Kara and Lee playing big parts in that).
But my bigger complaint was... wouldn't EVERYONE lose it? In a much more full on way than this?! The degree to which people like Helo and Sharon and Gaeta and, well, everyone, dealt with this disappointment with relative ease seemed really implausible to me. I was expecting riots, despair, certainly people not working any more. I didn't think they'd just amble around waiting for Lee to write a speech and explain things for Roslin. I guess I expected a Fleet-wide existential crisis. Not only had they found Earth nuked, but they'd also tied themselves to the Cylons, and the double-whammy would surely mindfuck people well and truly.
Apparently it only REALLY mindfucked Dee. Adama rallied round in the end. Roslin still seemed shell-shocked but she's dying anyway. I guess the writers felt that having ONE character top themselves in relation to finding Earth was enough. Sorry, not really.
I had been spoiled (well, in heavy hints) that this episode would include something Lee/Dee related, but even if it hadn't the sudden random insertion of her in the previouslies was a massive tip-off that she was going to die. We've barely seen her for half a season! Why would anyone care about Dee's reaction to Earth if she wasn't going to top herself? And so I waited for it ... what i didn't see coming was the DATE. Dear, god! Where is the logic, people?
What happened to 'I believe you' or 'We'll walk those halls together'? When their dreams of Earth turn to dust, Kara and Lee, the people who we're supposed to believe, combined to bring the Fleet to this point, have NOTHING TO SAY TO EACH OTHER? Implausible. Sorry.
Apparently Kara's reaction is to go on a field excursion with ... Leoben. Um... I can't even begin to fathom what's going on in the writers' minds there. Actually I can.
This episode makes sense if you realise that the writers had two agendas:
1. Give Dee a poignant 'farewell' episode.
2. Have Kara alone for her big reveal to maximise the angst.
The third goal hovering in the wings was 'give Kara a reason to turn to Anders so that we can have our beloved Kara/Anders ship back'.
To achieve these goals they had to write some really unlikely material. It's not just Lee who should have been talking to Kara. What about Adama? What about Laura? Kara LED THEM HERE. Do they have nothing to say to her? What about Anders, who was at her shoulder in Revelations? Nothing? Ok. And how about Kara herself? I really expected her to lose it far more immediately. Instead she seemed relatively calm about nuked Earth until she found her own body. And don't get me wrong, that was a deeply disturbing and horrible thing for her to go through. But before that the field excursion chummyness with Leoben made no sense at all. I was dreading her turning to him for 'comfort' when she found her own body. She's very lucky he fled!
And then there was Dee... since she doesn't really have established relationships with many characters they had to show her interacting with Lee. But did they have to show them on a DATE!? I actually LAUGHED when he asked if she wanted a drink. Lee, darling, I'm glad you're coping with nuked Earth well, but is this the time to rekindle romance?!! Excuse me while I LOL. It made no sense. It only made sense to make Dee's death poignant and give Lee 'regrets'. WTFEVER.
I had thought it would be Anders that died a martyr's death and thereby became an obstacle to the Kara/Lee, because Lee could never live up to his memory. Instead, they flipped that around and made Dee the thing that came between Lee and Kara. Because they needed another moment of mistiming and misunderstanding! *eyeroll* Of course Kara won't tell Lee that she's dead now. Of course she'll run to Anders. Of course it's all Lee's fault.
But it actually isn't either Lee's fault or Kara's--it's the writers'. Why didn't Kara and Lee speak to each other on Earth? Why did everyone let Kara stay down there with the Cylons and Leoben? Why did Kara not skedaddle back to tell someone--Lee?--when she found her body? Why did Lee weirdly have heaps of time to amble around getting drunk, composing a speech and implausibly flirting with his ex? Why wasn't he getting mobbed with people asking wtf was going on?
The Lee/Dee scenes made no sense to me. Briefly:
- Dee never read Lee right. She constantly misread him, so that's nonsense.
- Lee could ALWAYS have 'done it' without Dee--that too, is nonsense.
- The last person Lee needs a pep talk from at this point in time is Dee. He should be having this conversation with Kara--they are the ones who should be leading the fleet if Adama and Roslin can't cope.
- Why would Lee be rekindling something with Dee? He appears otherwise untraumatised or else I'd say it's a shock reaction. Dee's motivation clearly stems from shock. But Lee's is less easy to excuse that way... I will have to fanwank that Kara has formally turned him down because the last romantic moment Lee had was him telling Kara that he was available if she wanted him. I guess she didn't.
It is WAY past the time when the show should be showing Kara and Lee not-quite-connecting. Either just let the whole thing go, or have them actually be together. As a shipper, of course, I think it would make more sense for them to be a couple by now. But here we have the proof in this episode that they're not. They're never going to be. Yep, they'll do the 'I'm a ghost'/'It's ok, I love you anyway' thing in the finale, but frankly it's meaningless. The writers are incapable of showing these characters in a real relationship, one where they turn to each other and support one another. If they were going to ever show it, now was the time. In reaction to nuked Earth, they could have shown Lee and Kara supporting one another, Adama and Roslin supporting one another... characters turning to each other for comfort and trying to find a constructive way to move on. Instead they just opted for more misunderstanding and forced drama that doesn't make sense from a character perspective.
Yawn. It's going to be a long season.
Jamie looked scrumptious. And Kara looked beautiful as she watched her body burn, and in a better show I would have found that scene heartbreakingly chilling. There! I found one and a half good things.
ETA: I found a BSG thing that made me HAPPY!. It's a miracle!!
I'm not going to discuss the plot holes. There were so many I don't know where to start. I'd love someone to explain to me how the Thirteenth Tribe can have been Cylons and how all their gear and bodies were right there on the surface even though they died 2000 years ago... and how Kara's body was barely decomposed at all. But I'm sure there will be plenty of other people tackling that. I'm concentrating on the character stuff.
Let's get the big things over with first:
1. Earth is nuked. (yeah, we know)
2. Ellen is the Fifth. (yawn, whatever, at least the suspense is over with--unless it's a fakeout)
3. The Final Five have literally been here before and apparently Anders was Bob Dylan. (LMAO)
4. Kara is deader than a dead thing that's really dead. (extremely annoying but predictable)
5. The characterisation is as bad if not worse than 4.0.
I had very little 'care factor' about much of the episode. Adama managed to annoy me. I guess that means his characterisation was still ballpark. His ineptitude as a father surfaced once again--'carry the ball' got me riled early on and then his reaction when Dee died solidified it. Wow, Adama, once again you have time for everyone (even dead people) except your own son.
I should have cared more about the Tigh-Adama scene. Tigh himself was in character and relatively interesting. But I found it tedious and predictable to see Adama losing it again--it was obvious he was going to try and goad Tigh into topping him. The 'sea' story was really boring and it was even more boring to see Tigh reenact it.
I had slightly more time for Roslin losing it. But I thought her speech would have been more powerful if she'd been the one who forged the Alliance with the Cylons and led them to Earth (rather than Kara and Lee playing big parts in that).
But my bigger complaint was... wouldn't EVERYONE lose it? In a much more full on way than this?! The degree to which people like Helo and Sharon and Gaeta and, well, everyone, dealt with this disappointment with relative ease seemed really implausible to me. I was expecting riots, despair, certainly people not working any more. I didn't think they'd just amble around waiting for Lee to write a speech and explain things for Roslin. I guess I expected a Fleet-wide existential crisis. Not only had they found Earth nuked, but they'd also tied themselves to the Cylons, and the double-whammy would surely mindfuck people well and truly.
Apparently it only REALLY mindfucked Dee. Adama rallied round in the end. Roslin still seemed shell-shocked but she's dying anyway. I guess the writers felt that having ONE character top themselves in relation to finding Earth was enough. Sorry, not really.
I had been spoiled (well, in heavy hints) that this episode would include something Lee/Dee related, but even if it hadn't the sudden random insertion of her in the previouslies was a massive tip-off that she was going to die. We've barely seen her for half a season! Why would anyone care about Dee's reaction to Earth if she wasn't going to top herself? And so I waited for it ... what i didn't see coming was the DATE. Dear, god! Where is the logic, people?
What happened to 'I believe you' or 'We'll walk those halls together'? When their dreams of Earth turn to dust, Kara and Lee, the people who we're supposed to believe, combined to bring the Fleet to this point, have NOTHING TO SAY TO EACH OTHER? Implausible. Sorry.
Apparently Kara's reaction is to go on a field excursion with ... Leoben. Um... I can't even begin to fathom what's going on in the writers' minds there. Actually I can.
This episode makes sense if you realise that the writers had two agendas:
1. Give Dee a poignant 'farewell' episode.
2. Have Kara alone for her big reveal to maximise the angst.
The third goal hovering in the wings was 'give Kara a reason to turn to Anders so that we can have our beloved Kara/Anders ship back'.
To achieve these goals they had to write some really unlikely material. It's not just Lee who should have been talking to Kara. What about Adama? What about Laura? Kara LED THEM HERE. Do they have nothing to say to her? What about Anders, who was at her shoulder in Revelations? Nothing? Ok. And how about Kara herself? I really expected her to lose it far more immediately. Instead she seemed relatively calm about nuked Earth until she found her own body. And don't get me wrong, that was a deeply disturbing and horrible thing for her to go through. But before that the field excursion chummyness with Leoben made no sense at all. I was dreading her turning to him for 'comfort' when she found her own body. She's very lucky he fled!
And then there was Dee... since she doesn't really have established relationships with many characters they had to show her interacting with Lee. But did they have to show them on a DATE!? I actually LAUGHED when he asked if she wanted a drink. Lee, darling, I'm glad you're coping with nuked Earth well, but is this the time to rekindle romance?!! Excuse me while I LOL. It made no sense. It only made sense to make Dee's death poignant and give Lee 'regrets'. WTFEVER.
I had thought it would be Anders that died a martyr's death and thereby became an obstacle to the Kara/Lee, because Lee could never live up to his memory. Instead, they flipped that around and made Dee the thing that came between Lee and Kara. Because they needed another moment of mistiming and misunderstanding! *eyeroll* Of course Kara won't tell Lee that she's dead now. Of course she'll run to Anders. Of course it's all Lee's fault.
But it actually isn't either Lee's fault or Kara's--it's the writers'. Why didn't Kara and Lee speak to each other on Earth? Why did everyone let Kara stay down there with the Cylons and Leoben? Why did Kara not skedaddle back to tell someone--Lee?--when she found her body? Why did Lee weirdly have heaps of time to amble around getting drunk, composing a speech and implausibly flirting with his ex? Why wasn't he getting mobbed with people asking wtf was going on?
The Lee/Dee scenes made no sense to me. Briefly:
- Dee never read Lee right. She constantly misread him, so that's nonsense.
- Lee could ALWAYS have 'done it' without Dee--that too, is nonsense.
- The last person Lee needs a pep talk from at this point in time is Dee. He should be having this conversation with Kara--they are the ones who should be leading the fleet if Adama and Roslin can't cope.
- Why would Lee be rekindling something with Dee? He appears otherwise untraumatised or else I'd say it's a shock reaction. Dee's motivation clearly stems from shock. But Lee's is less easy to excuse that way... I will have to fanwank that Kara has formally turned him down because the last romantic moment Lee had was him telling Kara that he was available if she wanted him. I guess she didn't.
It is WAY past the time when the show should be showing Kara and Lee not-quite-connecting. Either just let the whole thing go, or have them actually be together. As a shipper, of course, I think it would make more sense for them to be a couple by now. But here we have the proof in this episode that they're not. They're never going to be. Yep, they'll do the 'I'm a ghost'/'It's ok, I love you anyway' thing in the finale, but frankly it's meaningless. The writers are incapable of showing these characters in a real relationship, one where they turn to each other and support one another. If they were going to ever show it, now was the time. In reaction to nuked Earth, they could have shown Lee and Kara supporting one another, Adama and Roslin supporting one another... characters turning to each other for comfort and trying to find a constructive way to move on. Instead they just opted for more misunderstanding and forced drama that doesn't make sense from a character perspective.
Yawn. It's going to be a long season.
Jamie looked scrumptious. And Kara looked beautiful as she watched her body burn, and in a better show I would have found that scene heartbreakingly chilling. There! I found one and a half good things.
ETA: I found a BSG thing that made me HAPPY!. It's a miracle!!