Do Cylons dream of electric babies?
My parents had a very successful visit and are now back home. And last night, I finally got to see last Friday's episode of Battlestar Galactica, which I refused to watch while my father was here because I did not want to have to try to tune out his constant bitching (he doesn't like the show).
BSG 3.03 - "Exodus Part 1"
This episode really moved a couple of the show's central themes to the forefront.
The first, a theme that was bubbling under the surface with the Galactica Boomer and Sharon/Helo storyline but has really emerged since the occupation, is picking sides, and how much of who you are comes from what you're made of versus what you do. Sharon turned her back on her own kind when she chose to run with Helo on Caprica; she moved further along that path when she put herself in Adama's hands, and started helping the humans against the Cylons, but there was always that juxtaposition--helping the humans by plugging herself into the Galactica, using the distinctively non-human part of her physiology, something that set her apart and marked her as alien. I think the terrible irony of Sharon's current situation is that Adama never forgot that, because her alienness, the way he saw her as an other, was what let him take her child and lie to her with a clear conscience, and maintain those lies even as he developed a closer relationship with her. But Sharon has chosen her side, in part because of that relationship, and everything she's done so far has made her choice clear, which is why her sense of betrayal when she finds out that Hera's alive (and I'm not spoiled, but you know it's coming) is going to be so strong and have such terrible repercussions. (And while my sympathies are mostly with Sharon at this point, I don't think Adama's caution is exactly unwarranted either--he has a better reason than most to distrust what may be happening in the Cylon brain, not just their conscious choices but their unconscious programming. I could really believe that Dee never forgot the old man's blood on her hands, and that it informs her current distrust of the other Sharon, so that was a nice touch.) Six has also apparently made a choice--she tells Gaius he doesn't know what she's given up for him. Baltar seems to understand that, even above and beyond his previous role as human figurehead of the Cylon occupation, signing the death warrant for those people gets his hands directly dirty, puts him beyond the pale, separates him from humanity. For all the lines he'd previously crossed, he had his unshakeable sense of his own worth and specialness, and his sexual potency--now it seems he's lost even that, his opportunism is finally too much even for himself. And then there are the smaller, everyday choices humans make to cope with their situations--Gaeta by passing information on to the resistance, the members of the resistance risking everything to carry on the fight, Ellen Tigh betraying them in the hopes of keeping her husband safe, Jammer telling himself that he's helping by joining the Cylon human police force, rounding Cally up and then later freeing her, too little too late.
Another major theme is the continuity of generations, of hope and the future and children. Hera is the most obvious embodiment of this, a future the Cylons desperately want and the humans fear. The Oracle told Three that she would discover love when she held Hera, and the Cylons are all about trying to figure out love, quantify it and understand it and experience it. They think of Hera as their future because they're fulfilling God's command to reproduce, and maybe because it's the only way they know to truly become individuals, but she may also be the key to some of them being able to experience love. And there are also the family-like connections between the Galactica crew, plus Laura and now Anders, and the bond between Adama father and son. The miniseries ended with a note of hope, an addition to the whiteboard when a baby was born; the human race is in a tenuous position, and its survival depends not just on freedom but also reproduction. Adama's final pep-talk revolved around not what they hoped to accomplish in this mission, but on the way their success would reverberate through the generations as they became immortal in stories told down to children.
The generational theme ties back to the Moses theme, too--the episode title obviously refers to the humans escaping from Cylon slavery, but reminds me of the shots on Kobol of the bullrushes, and of Gaius's vision of Adama drowning the child in the river, and of the heavy weight both sides place on one little baby girl--Three haunted by dreams of her, Laura marshalling all the resources at her disposal to keep her hidden.
I haven't included Kaycee in any of this because I'm really not sure what to think of her. I was convinced after last week that Kara was playing Leoben, but this week, it looks more like the little girl might have been the final straw that tipped Kara over into a slow-moving breakdown. Leoben knew exactly what he was doing, bringing a little girl into that situation, playing on Kara's background, but he also seems to be oddly hypnotized by the sight of her with the child, fascinated by a display of emotion he can't share.
There was also a fair amount of religion on display in this episode--Three dreaming of Hera near a temple of the godS, consulting the Oracle, experiencing a moment of crisis of faith (and will it get worse when it turns out the Oracle is right?), the Galactica crew listening to a scripture reading and stepping in a line of salt before they leave on their mission.
A few random observations:
* While the parallels to Iraq are pretty obvious, I also think there is a fundamental dynamic to any supposedly benevolent occupation that is universal, including the internal struggle of the carrot and the stick--the Doral advocating for wiping the human race out with a nuclear bomb and ending the trouble they cause versus the Doral who told Gaius that they key to winning human trust was providing better toilet paper--advantages, services--and all the degrees of coercion in between.
* I would have a LOT more appreciation for the "one hour earlier" device in this episode--where it was at least used to some effect--had Ron Moore not abused it so egregiously last season. You're on thin ice here, Moore.
* I am still really loving the way they have drawn Ellen's betrayal as a terrible and desperate choice made by a very human woman, and I also appreciate that Anders figured out right away that she was the traitor and spared us an extended "there's a traitor in our midst!" plot.
* Going back to Galactica has become the same as going home. Since Adama planted the seeds by lying about Earth, that has been their ultimate goal; any attempt they make the deviate from it will end in disaster, especially now that they have a map. It was something they had to learn for themselves. The fleet, their means of getting there, is a part of that home.
* I really liked the conversation between Dee and Helo. Generally, I wish Dee's scenes with Lee weren't such a ball of suck (it doesn't help that I can't take Lee seriously AT ALL in the fat suit) because when she's interacting with other people, she's both interesting and sympathetic. There were a lot of lovely little snippets of character interaction that gave a nice picture of life for the remnants of the fleet who'd stayed on the ships, and the kinds of bonds they'd formed, like the scenes between Racetrack and Kat.
* There was a great shot of Kat alone in the pilot's rec room (I think that's what it's called), sitting alone, waiting for the call to go, that contrasted strongly with how noisy and boisterous and crowded it had been last season, and also drove home that it's Kat's space now, that Starbuck had ceded it and was now gone.
* I do not see how they're going to be able to get Kara away from Leoben when they make a break for it, especially since nobody seems to know what happened to her or even if she's still alive. That concerns me.
* * * * *
I am continuing to enjoy Heroes--Hiro is fabulous, but I also really like his friend Ando, who is the perfect sidekick, and seems to have learned a great deal of his English from action movies. Hiro was great even before he showed up from the future. As a ninja. AWESOME. But I think one of the things that makes the show interesting is that these people with these abilities are struggling with how to use them--they have this power, and not a lot of constraint on it other than their own sensibilities, and their own sense of responsibility, and they're all experimenting, Hiro by cheating at gambling, Claire by realizing that she has to do something about the date rapist and settling, because she's (somewhat) invincible and he isn't, on a gruesome death for him. I see them making mistakes before they discover a balance, and some of them never finding it. I'm feeling a little out of step with my flist, though, in that I find Mohinder neither interesting nor hot. He's mostly just overdramatic and ineffectual. I also think that Nikki was the only unconnected piece, so it was good to see that final connection falling into place when she met the Congressman.
And during Heroes there was a promo for this Thursday's episode of The Office--I have snagged the YouTube link from sweet_ali--and I have already squeed about it with brynnmck, and will be repeating myself here, but EEEEEEEE! I don't expect much more than a brief, awkward phone conversation that doesn't accomplish anything, but I'm excited to see Jim and Pam talk at all. I suspect this is the first time they've talked since Jim left. Any interaction between them at all is an important first step. I suspect Jim is moving on with Karen, and I'm fine with that for the time being, because as much as he put Pam on the spot with his declaration, I understand his need to get on with his life in the face of her rejection, and Pam needs to figure out who she is on her own. But I miss Jim's interactions with all of them--especially Michael and Dwight. There's a piece missing from what was once a flawless ensemble dynamic with Jim gone, and I suspect that's deliberate, a part of a constructed story arc. I'm speculating that they're going to fold the Stamford branch in with the Scranton branch, and the elephant in the room is what happened between Jim and Pam on casino night, and if they can talk to each other, it will bring Jim into closer orbit with the Scranton office as a whole. Yay! I hope it doesn't blow up in their (and my) face.
* * * * *
On KQED, the local NPR station, one of the two hours of Forum today was devoted to Michael Zielenziger and his new book Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Has Created Its Own Lost Generation, which is about the opportunities available to young Japanese people in Japan's current cultural and economic climate and the phenomenon of hikikomori--young people, mostly men, who literally shut themselves in their rooms and don't come out for years. The program is archived here. It was really interesting, and I recommend it to anyone interested in Japan. I'm putting the book on my library list. I'm not sure I agreed with all of his points, but some of the things he said helped me explain to myself some things I observed when I was there.
BSG 3.03 - "Exodus Part 1"
This episode really moved a couple of the show's central themes to the forefront.
The first, a theme that was bubbling under the surface with the Galactica Boomer and Sharon/Helo storyline but has really emerged since the occupation, is picking sides, and how much of who you are comes from what you're made of versus what you do. Sharon turned her back on her own kind when she chose to run with Helo on Caprica; she moved further along that path when she put herself in Adama's hands, and started helping the humans against the Cylons, but there was always that juxtaposition--helping the humans by plugging herself into the Galactica, using the distinctively non-human part of her physiology, something that set her apart and marked her as alien. I think the terrible irony of Sharon's current situation is that Adama never forgot that, because her alienness, the way he saw her as an other, was what let him take her child and lie to her with a clear conscience, and maintain those lies even as he developed a closer relationship with her. But Sharon has chosen her side, in part because of that relationship, and everything she's done so far has made her choice clear, which is why her sense of betrayal when she finds out that Hera's alive (and I'm not spoiled, but you know it's coming) is going to be so strong and have such terrible repercussions. (And while my sympathies are mostly with Sharon at this point, I don't think Adama's caution is exactly unwarranted either--he has a better reason than most to distrust what may be happening in the Cylon brain, not just their conscious choices but their unconscious programming. I could really believe that Dee never forgot the old man's blood on her hands, and that it informs her current distrust of the other Sharon, so that was a nice touch.) Six has also apparently made a choice--she tells Gaius he doesn't know what she's given up for him. Baltar seems to understand that, even above and beyond his previous role as human figurehead of the Cylon occupation, signing the death warrant for those people gets his hands directly dirty, puts him beyond the pale, separates him from humanity. For all the lines he'd previously crossed, he had his unshakeable sense of his own worth and specialness, and his sexual potency--now it seems he's lost even that, his opportunism is finally too much even for himself. And then there are the smaller, everyday choices humans make to cope with their situations--Gaeta by passing information on to the resistance, the members of the resistance risking everything to carry on the fight, Ellen Tigh betraying them in the hopes of keeping her husband safe, Jammer telling himself that he's helping by joining the Cylon human police force, rounding Cally up and then later freeing her, too little too late.
Another major theme is the continuity of generations, of hope and the future and children. Hera is the most obvious embodiment of this, a future the Cylons desperately want and the humans fear. The Oracle told Three that she would discover love when she held Hera, and the Cylons are all about trying to figure out love, quantify it and understand it and experience it. They think of Hera as their future because they're fulfilling God's command to reproduce, and maybe because it's the only way they know to truly become individuals, but she may also be the key to some of them being able to experience love. And there are also the family-like connections between the Galactica crew, plus Laura and now Anders, and the bond between Adama father and son. The miniseries ended with a note of hope, an addition to the whiteboard when a baby was born; the human race is in a tenuous position, and its survival depends not just on freedom but also reproduction. Adama's final pep-talk revolved around not what they hoped to accomplish in this mission, but on the way their success would reverberate through the generations as they became immortal in stories told down to children.
The generational theme ties back to the Moses theme, too--the episode title obviously refers to the humans escaping from Cylon slavery, but reminds me of the shots on Kobol of the bullrushes, and of Gaius's vision of Adama drowning the child in the river, and of the heavy weight both sides place on one little baby girl--Three haunted by dreams of her, Laura marshalling all the resources at her disposal to keep her hidden.
I haven't included Kaycee in any of this because I'm really not sure what to think of her. I was convinced after last week that Kara was playing Leoben, but this week, it looks more like the little girl might have been the final straw that tipped Kara over into a slow-moving breakdown. Leoben knew exactly what he was doing, bringing a little girl into that situation, playing on Kara's background, but he also seems to be oddly hypnotized by the sight of her with the child, fascinated by a display of emotion he can't share.
There was also a fair amount of religion on display in this episode--Three dreaming of Hera near a temple of the godS, consulting the Oracle, experiencing a moment of crisis of faith (and will it get worse when it turns out the Oracle is right?), the Galactica crew listening to a scripture reading and stepping in a line of salt before they leave on their mission.
A few random observations:
* While the parallels to Iraq are pretty obvious, I also think there is a fundamental dynamic to any supposedly benevolent occupation that is universal, including the internal struggle of the carrot and the stick--the Doral advocating for wiping the human race out with a nuclear bomb and ending the trouble they cause versus the Doral who told Gaius that they key to winning human trust was providing better toilet paper--advantages, services--and all the degrees of coercion in between.
* I would have a LOT more appreciation for the "one hour earlier" device in this episode--where it was at least used to some effect--had Ron Moore not abused it so egregiously last season. You're on thin ice here, Moore.
* I am still really loving the way they have drawn Ellen's betrayal as a terrible and desperate choice made by a very human woman, and I also appreciate that Anders figured out right away that she was the traitor and spared us an extended "there's a traitor in our midst!" plot.
* Going back to Galactica has become the same as going home. Since Adama planted the seeds by lying about Earth, that has been their ultimate goal; any attempt they make the deviate from it will end in disaster, especially now that they have a map. It was something they had to learn for themselves. The fleet, their means of getting there, is a part of that home.
* I really liked the conversation between Dee and Helo. Generally, I wish Dee's scenes with Lee weren't such a ball of suck (it doesn't help that I can't take Lee seriously AT ALL in the fat suit) because when she's interacting with other people, she's both interesting and sympathetic. There were a lot of lovely little snippets of character interaction that gave a nice picture of life for the remnants of the fleet who'd stayed on the ships, and the kinds of bonds they'd formed, like the scenes between Racetrack and Kat.
* There was a great shot of Kat alone in the pilot's rec room (I think that's what it's called), sitting alone, waiting for the call to go, that contrasted strongly with how noisy and boisterous and crowded it had been last season, and also drove home that it's Kat's space now, that Starbuck had ceded it and was now gone.
* I do not see how they're going to be able to get Kara away from Leoben when they make a break for it, especially since nobody seems to know what happened to her or even if she's still alive. That concerns me.
* * * * *
I am continuing to enjoy Heroes--Hiro is fabulous, but I also really like his friend Ando, who is the perfect sidekick, and seems to have learned a great deal of his English from action movies. Hiro was great even before he showed up from the future. As a ninja. AWESOME. But I think one of the things that makes the show interesting is that these people with these abilities are struggling with how to use them--they have this power, and not a lot of constraint on it other than their own sensibilities, and their own sense of responsibility, and they're all experimenting, Hiro by cheating at gambling, Claire by realizing that she has to do something about the date rapist and settling, because she's (somewhat) invincible and he isn't, on a gruesome death for him. I see them making mistakes before they discover a balance, and some of them never finding it. I'm feeling a little out of step with my flist, though, in that I find Mohinder neither interesting nor hot. He's mostly just overdramatic and ineffectual. I also think that Nikki was the only unconnected piece, so it was good to see that final connection falling into place when she met the Congressman.
And during Heroes there was a promo for this Thursday's episode of The Office--I have snagged the YouTube link from sweet_ali--and I have already squeed about it with brynnmck, and will be repeating myself here, but EEEEEEEE! I don't expect much more than a brief, awkward phone conversation that doesn't accomplish anything, but I'm excited to see Jim and Pam talk at all. I suspect this is the first time they've talked since Jim left. Any interaction between them at all is an important first step. I suspect Jim is moving on with Karen, and I'm fine with that for the time being, because as much as he put Pam on the spot with his declaration, I understand his need to get on with his life in the face of her rejection, and Pam needs to figure out who she is on her own. But I miss Jim's interactions with all of them--especially Michael and Dwight. There's a piece missing from what was once a flawless ensemble dynamic with Jim gone, and I suspect that's deliberate, a part of a constructed story arc. I'm speculating that they're going to fold the Stamford branch in with the Scranton branch, and the elephant in the room is what happened between Jim and Pam on casino night, and if they can talk to each other, it will bring Jim into closer orbit with the Scranton office as a whole. Yay! I hope it doesn't blow up in their (and my) face.
* * * * *
On KQED, the local NPR station, one of the two hours of Forum today was devoted to Michael Zielenziger and his new book Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Has Created Its Own Lost Generation, which is about the opportunities available to young Japanese people in Japan's current cultural and economic climate and the phenomenon of hikikomori--young people, mostly men, who literally shut themselves in their rooms and don't come out for years. The program is archived here. It was really interesting, and I recommend it to anyone interested in Japan. I'm putting the book on my library list. I'm not sure I agreed with all of his points, but some of the things he said helped me explain to myself some things I observed when I was there.