Earth is where you make it
I had to watch this episode again before I could write about it, because--!!!!! And that required being indoors, which I tried to do as little as possible this weekend. We're having the most gorgeous run of weather right now.
BSG 4.11 - "Sometimes a Great Notion"
This episode was all about the cycle: of death and rebirth, the wheel coming around again, and what I suspect will be the theme of the end of the series, what they do this time to make it different. So Kara burns her own body in a funeral pyre, while Laura sets a match to the book of Pythian prophecy and her entire identity as the dying leader who leads them to Earth, and second-guesses every decision she's made since telling Adama to get the fleet and run, everything that made her her. Leoben sees that ship, and knows Kara's not a Cylon, and realizes everything he's believed in up to now is wrong. Sam and Tory and Tigh and Tyrol remember their deaths. What comes after death? For these people, at least, rebirth. (Not for Dualla, though; she got off the merry-go-round for good.) Kara's there again, even if she doesn't know what she is; Laura will pick up the pieces and forge a new identity as she and Bill lead the fleet again; as Sam points out, the fleet Cylons couldn't have lived the entire time and forgotten 2000 years; Ellen actually uses the word when she tells Tigh that they'll be reborn together.
I'm still not sure what it means that the 13th tribe was Cylon, but it seems to have broken down the final barrier between the Cylon and human experience. Already, the models who were traveling with the fleet are mortal, because there's no resurrection ship. Now they have their own experience of armageddon and flight; they remember it, and now it's part of who they are. And now we know the Cylons weren't always the aggressors, that some kind of cosmic see-saw tipped each side up and down each time the cycle came around again. They all work together to explore Earth; Kara and Leoben find her ship and her body; Adama's rage at Tigh is just a ploy to get him to put him out of his misery, and just like old times, Tigh tells him what he has to do instead. In the end, Adama talks about the thirteen tribes setting out and finding a new home, and he invited the Cylons along for the ride--in their desolation, in what's left of their purpose, they're all the same now.
Now we just need to find out whether all of that happened before. I am more than ever convinced, after Kara found herself, and after D'Anna's speech to Tigh about how they're trapped, that the end Kara will bring is to the cycle, rather than to them.
I do wish I had better pinged to the fact that there was something deeply wrong with Dualla. It was all there, in her freak-out on the raptor, and I saw it when I re-watched the episode. But the first time through, all I could think was that the writers were re-treading a botched relationship, engineering them coming together clumsily again, not giving us anything to work with when it came to Dualla's motivations. I wish I hadn't lost that trust the last time through, because this time the writers actually deserved it.
* * * * *
It turns out that the Babylon 5 Season 4 DVDs have the most disturbing morphing character menus yet. Why am I not surprised.
Babylon 5 4.01 - "The Hour of the Wolf"
Victory always seems to have a terrible price on this show. The Shadows have been defeated, or at least driven back, but they're still out there. The League of Non-Aligned Worlds is falling apart, all of the members retreating to lick their wounds and look after their own. Londo's political maneuverings to put Cartagia on the throne have come back to bite him, because Cartagia has made his nightmare come true: offered the Shadows a place, made it so that their ships fill the Centauri sky. I'm glad that Londo has finally decided to act, and even more so that he's enlisted Vir, because Vir is suprisingly good at that kind of thing, and even better, he's actually trustworthy.
I love that G'Kar considers Garibaldi a true friend, and that he's determined to search for him. The two of them have really come through for each other over the seasons, and it's entirely like G'Kar to take that sort of obligation seriously. Between him, and Delenn and Ivanova and Lennier going after Sheridan, and Londo's realization that his emperor is mad, it seems like everyone's on a rescue mission now.
Also, it appears that Morden is not only crazy but also a horrible guest, because it just is not polite to pick your flaking, burned skin all over someone's carpet!
Babylon 5 4.02 - "Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?"
I really, really liked this episode. Between the better production values this season and the performances and the dialogue, it really didn't have any off moments, which is a rarity for this show. Well, okay, the Centauri jockey uniforms do make me snicker a little bit, but that's it. That said, I'm not sure I have much to say about it, because it seemed like it was establishing a bunch of things that are about to happen, but haven't yet. I hadn't really twigged to what a huge risk G'Kar was taking in leaving the station to find Garibaldi; and there was no narrow escape for him. How bittersweet that his only hope is Londo now, that they both need each other for something, that finally, under these terrible circumstances, they're both working for the same thing, the good of their people, and that that thing is no longer in conflict. The scene between them in G'Kar's cell was amazing.
I'm also not sure what's going on with Sheridan, but there's something about Lorien that seems almost... elemental. Like he's some kind of force much bigger than the Shadows, older, and that he's connected to that philosophy of creative destruction, the side of chaos. In listening to him, it seems like Sheridan might very well be making a deal with the devil.
Also, it appears that I was sort of right and sort of not tha Kosh is still alive--but I certainly didn't call him having put a part of himself in Sheridan.
I picked up on the fact that Garibaldi's captor was wearing a Psi Corps uniform (in fact, I could swear he sounded like Bester), and I'm excited to see them back in the mix, because it seems like they have an important part to play in the post-war (if we are indeed done with it) world, and they've already moved a lot of pieces in place in preparation.
* * * * *
I'm so excited about tomorrow, though I think I'm going to be either on the train or in a meeting during the inauguration itself and won't be able to see it live. But I can console myself with the Lego version. The SF Weekly has a wonderful slideshow of Legoland's inauguration scene.
BSG 4.11 - "Sometimes a Great Notion"
This episode was all about the cycle: of death and rebirth, the wheel coming around again, and what I suspect will be the theme of the end of the series, what they do this time to make it different. So Kara burns her own body in a funeral pyre, while Laura sets a match to the book of Pythian prophecy and her entire identity as the dying leader who leads them to Earth, and second-guesses every decision she's made since telling Adama to get the fleet and run, everything that made her her. Leoben sees that ship, and knows Kara's not a Cylon, and realizes everything he's believed in up to now is wrong. Sam and Tory and Tigh and Tyrol remember their deaths. What comes after death? For these people, at least, rebirth. (Not for Dualla, though; she got off the merry-go-round for good.) Kara's there again, even if she doesn't know what she is; Laura will pick up the pieces and forge a new identity as she and Bill lead the fleet again; as Sam points out, the fleet Cylons couldn't have lived the entire time and forgotten 2000 years; Ellen actually uses the word when she tells Tigh that they'll be reborn together.
I'm still not sure what it means that the 13th tribe was Cylon, but it seems to have broken down the final barrier between the Cylon and human experience. Already, the models who were traveling with the fleet are mortal, because there's no resurrection ship. Now they have their own experience of armageddon and flight; they remember it, and now it's part of who they are. And now we know the Cylons weren't always the aggressors, that some kind of cosmic see-saw tipped each side up and down each time the cycle came around again. They all work together to explore Earth; Kara and Leoben find her ship and her body; Adama's rage at Tigh is just a ploy to get him to put him out of his misery, and just like old times, Tigh tells him what he has to do instead. In the end, Adama talks about the thirteen tribes setting out and finding a new home, and he invited the Cylons along for the ride--in their desolation, in what's left of their purpose, they're all the same now.
Now we just need to find out whether all of that happened before. I am more than ever convinced, after Kara found herself, and after D'Anna's speech to Tigh about how they're trapped, that the end Kara will bring is to the cycle, rather than to them.
I do wish I had better pinged to the fact that there was something deeply wrong with Dualla. It was all there, in her freak-out on the raptor, and I saw it when I re-watched the episode. But the first time through, all I could think was that the writers were re-treading a botched relationship, engineering them coming together clumsily again, not giving us anything to work with when it came to Dualla's motivations. I wish I hadn't lost that trust the last time through, because this time the writers actually deserved it.
* * * * *
It turns out that the Babylon 5 Season 4 DVDs have the most disturbing morphing character menus yet. Why am I not surprised.
Babylon 5 4.01 - "The Hour of the Wolf"
Victory always seems to have a terrible price on this show. The Shadows have been defeated, or at least driven back, but they're still out there. The League of Non-Aligned Worlds is falling apart, all of the members retreating to lick their wounds and look after their own. Londo's political maneuverings to put Cartagia on the throne have come back to bite him, because Cartagia has made his nightmare come true: offered the Shadows a place, made it so that their ships fill the Centauri sky. I'm glad that Londo has finally decided to act, and even more so that he's enlisted Vir, because Vir is suprisingly good at that kind of thing, and even better, he's actually trustworthy.
I love that G'Kar considers Garibaldi a true friend, and that he's determined to search for him. The two of them have really come through for each other over the seasons, and it's entirely like G'Kar to take that sort of obligation seriously. Between him, and Delenn and Ivanova and Lennier going after Sheridan, and Londo's realization that his emperor is mad, it seems like everyone's on a rescue mission now.
Also, it appears that Morden is not only crazy but also a horrible guest, because it just is not polite to pick your flaking, burned skin all over someone's carpet!
Babylon 5 4.02 - "Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?"
I really, really liked this episode. Between the better production values this season and the performances and the dialogue, it really didn't have any off moments, which is a rarity for this show. Well, okay, the Centauri jockey uniforms do make me snicker a little bit, but that's it. That said, I'm not sure I have much to say about it, because it seemed like it was establishing a bunch of things that are about to happen, but haven't yet. I hadn't really twigged to what a huge risk G'Kar was taking in leaving the station to find Garibaldi; and there was no narrow escape for him. How bittersweet that his only hope is Londo now, that they both need each other for something, that finally, under these terrible circumstances, they're both working for the same thing, the good of their people, and that that thing is no longer in conflict. The scene between them in G'Kar's cell was amazing.
I'm also not sure what's going on with Sheridan, but there's something about Lorien that seems almost... elemental. Like he's some kind of force much bigger than the Shadows, older, and that he's connected to that philosophy of creative destruction, the side of chaos. In listening to him, it seems like Sheridan might very well be making a deal with the devil.
Also, it appears that I was sort of right and sort of not tha Kosh is still alive--but I certainly didn't call him having put a part of himself in Sheridan.
I picked up on the fact that Garibaldi's captor was wearing a Psi Corps uniform (in fact, I could swear he sounded like Bester), and I'm excited to see them back in the mix, because it seems like they have an important part to play in the post-war (if we are indeed done with it) world, and they've already moved a lot of pieces in place in preparation.
* * * * *
I'm so excited about tomorrow, though I think I'm going to be either on the train or in a meeting during the inauguration itself and won't be able to see it live. But I can console myself with the Lego version. The SF Weekly has a wonderful slideshow of Legoland's inauguration scene.