(no subject)
BSG 4.12 - "A Disquiet Follows My Soul"
The last episode was about the geography and the scale of the cycle between humans and Cylons. This one is about its engines: the thousands of individual wrongs and grievances, each person's individual rage and grief, and how they're turning the wheel again, because they won't allow for a settlement; they'll always push for punishment and defense against the other side. That's what has to change, and it's wonderful and ideal to be able to see the big picture and move beyond the past, but it's also a little inhuman to be able to do so easily.
Adama has more or less accepted Tigh as his XO, because Tigh always gets a free pass from him, and that hasn't changed. Cottle treats Caprica just like he treated Athena: as a patient. Some part of the leadership has figured out that they have to work with the Cylons, that they're all in this together, and the Cylons have figured it out too: what more profound way to join a democratic society than as voting members, with representation? (And making the Quorum of Twelve into the Quorum of Thirteen would establish the Cylons as the thirteenth colony, after all, and now that Caprica is carrying an entirely Cylon child, it's one that can sustain itself.) They want to become insiders, so that their only enemies are external. But Adama, as usual--this is his old failing, one that goes back to the very beginning of the show--thinks that he can issue an order and make it so, and he is wrong. People don't accept outsiders--especially enemies--into their societies easily. It has to be something that everyday people agree to do, because they see the advantages; Zarek's not wrong about that. But Zarek is a political opportunist and reckless idealist who would rather see them all go down in flames than compromise his principles, especially if those principles coincide with his rise. He's playing chicken with the human race again.
Gaeta's positioning as the everyman in that debate was at times awkward, but he made the arguments effectively, he pointed to the flaws. His argument with Kara was awful, and, I think, dangerous for her. But I also think it points to what's going on with Kara: that she doesn't know which side of the line she falls on now, or what she is. She didn't want to have that conversation, but when Gaeta pushed it, she made it as unpleasant for him as possible. And, more than that, she's always pushed other people into punishing her for her sins, and she seems to be isolating herself and seeking that kind of punishment here.
asta77 and I were trying to figure out the symbolism of Adama's tooth-brushing. Was he brushing away the plaque of despair? Attacking the gingivitis of bad morale? But less facetiously, I do think that's exactly what he was doing: pushing himself to maintain the routine, the outward signs of normalcy; picking up the litter in the corridors. It's how he makes himself carry on. And I think his reaction, the details of his hygeine, make an interesting contrast to Laura, who has missed her (scheduled, routine) diloxin treatment, who is stretching her body in new ways, deciding to take pleasure from the thing she's been fighting this entire time. Her surrender is painful and beautiful to watch: she's been propelling herself forward this entire time using the fuel of her destiny as the dying leader, and behind it all, she expected that when they did find Earth, she'd be finished. Then they found Earth and she wasn't finished after all; she couldn't put down the weight of all that responsibility. But she isn't the dying leader of the prophecy anymore; she burned the pages that defined her previous role; she's trying something new. Of course, it's horribly problematic that she's doing that while she's still president; there's a visible power vacuum in the middle of the show now, with Adama and Zarek stepping into its edges and warping and pulling everything into the wrong shape.
I thought the drama with Nicky's paternity came out of left field; we really don't have much information about what happened on New Caprica leading up to Tyrol and Callie's relationship and her pregnancy, so I guess I don't have much of a problem believing she was involved with two people at once for a while. And on one level, I'm pleased that Nicky isn't another hybrid, because that was messy. I'm also pleased that they didn't try to insert the Callie/Hot Dog relationship in the previouslies. But again I think Ron Moore is going for the symbolism of the thing and not doing it particularly gracefully. The ties between these Cylons and the humans are complicated and hard to break. Tyrol stepped aside when he found out he wasn't Nicky's father, but he didn't leave; he said he'd be back to take the second shift. The news that he isn't the child's father doesn't change the past two years he's spent raising him, any more than the news that Tigh is a Cylon has changed his history with Adama in the end.
Off to brunch at Citizen Cake now. Mmmmmm. 10:30 seems like a horribly late time to be eating. Perhaps it wouldn't if I could sleep past 6am these days...
The last episode was about the geography and the scale of the cycle between humans and Cylons. This one is about its engines: the thousands of individual wrongs and grievances, each person's individual rage and grief, and how they're turning the wheel again, because they won't allow for a settlement; they'll always push for punishment and defense against the other side. That's what has to change, and it's wonderful and ideal to be able to see the big picture and move beyond the past, but it's also a little inhuman to be able to do so easily.
Adama has more or less accepted Tigh as his XO, because Tigh always gets a free pass from him, and that hasn't changed. Cottle treats Caprica just like he treated Athena: as a patient. Some part of the leadership has figured out that they have to work with the Cylons, that they're all in this together, and the Cylons have figured it out too: what more profound way to join a democratic society than as voting members, with representation? (And making the Quorum of Twelve into the Quorum of Thirteen would establish the Cylons as the thirteenth colony, after all, and now that Caprica is carrying an entirely Cylon child, it's one that can sustain itself.) They want to become insiders, so that their only enemies are external. But Adama, as usual--this is his old failing, one that goes back to the very beginning of the show--thinks that he can issue an order and make it so, and he is wrong. People don't accept outsiders--especially enemies--into their societies easily. It has to be something that everyday people agree to do, because they see the advantages; Zarek's not wrong about that. But Zarek is a political opportunist and reckless idealist who would rather see them all go down in flames than compromise his principles, especially if those principles coincide with his rise. He's playing chicken with the human race again.
Gaeta's positioning as the everyman in that debate was at times awkward, but he made the arguments effectively, he pointed to the flaws. His argument with Kara was awful, and, I think, dangerous for her. But I also think it points to what's going on with Kara: that she doesn't know which side of the line she falls on now, or what she is. She didn't want to have that conversation, but when Gaeta pushed it, she made it as unpleasant for him as possible. And, more than that, she's always pushed other people into punishing her for her sins, and she seems to be isolating herself and seeking that kind of punishment here.
asta77 and I were trying to figure out the symbolism of Adama's tooth-brushing. Was he brushing away the plaque of despair? Attacking the gingivitis of bad morale? But less facetiously, I do think that's exactly what he was doing: pushing himself to maintain the routine, the outward signs of normalcy; picking up the litter in the corridors. It's how he makes himself carry on. And I think his reaction, the details of his hygeine, make an interesting contrast to Laura, who has missed her (scheduled, routine) diloxin treatment, who is stretching her body in new ways, deciding to take pleasure from the thing she's been fighting this entire time. Her surrender is painful and beautiful to watch: she's been propelling herself forward this entire time using the fuel of her destiny as the dying leader, and behind it all, she expected that when they did find Earth, she'd be finished. Then they found Earth and she wasn't finished after all; she couldn't put down the weight of all that responsibility. But she isn't the dying leader of the prophecy anymore; she burned the pages that defined her previous role; she's trying something new. Of course, it's horribly problematic that she's doing that while she's still president; there's a visible power vacuum in the middle of the show now, with Adama and Zarek stepping into its edges and warping and pulling everything into the wrong shape.
I thought the drama with Nicky's paternity came out of left field; we really don't have much information about what happened on New Caprica leading up to Tyrol and Callie's relationship and her pregnancy, so I guess I don't have much of a problem believing she was involved with two people at once for a while. And on one level, I'm pleased that Nicky isn't another hybrid, because that was messy. I'm also pleased that they didn't try to insert the Callie/Hot Dog relationship in the previouslies. But again I think Ron Moore is going for the symbolism of the thing and not doing it particularly gracefully. The ties between these Cylons and the humans are complicated and hard to break. Tyrol stepped aside when he found out he wasn't Nicky's father, but he didn't leave; he said he'd be back to take the second shift. The news that he isn't the child's father doesn't change the past two years he's spent raising him, any more than the news that Tigh is a Cylon has changed his history with Adama in the end.
Off to brunch at Citizen Cake now. Mmmmmm. 10:30 seems like a horribly late time to be eating. Perhaps it wouldn't if I could sleep past 6am these days...