BSG 4.09 The Hub
Yay, I'm on the road to Earth again! I just finished watching 4.09, or "The Hub" (should've been "The Tub" for the role D'anna's unboxing played) and though some of the finer points may have escaped my first screening, here are Roslin was the most central character in this episode, she gets to go first.
Laura' visions between the baseship's jumps were really mighty interesting. In the beginning, she was pretty freaked out, towards the end of the episode, annoyed and resigned. No wonder, with Elosha talking to her so harshly. "Don't you just hate these people? ... You don't love them either... You don't love people, Madam President" - that was severe! I couldn't even focus on the "backdrop", i.e. Kara, Lee and Adama because I was so stunned by this dialogue. I felt like they were really just props, a foil to Roslin summoned by Elosha somehow to make her point. And she was justified to her criticism. Roslin did turn from a caring, smart school-teacher who got propelled to presidency by accident or fortune, whichever, in S1 to a power-hungry bitch during S4. The way Elosha implores her "Laura, just love someone" just before head!Roslin dies and Roslin witnesses Adama's reaction to her death actually made her realize what she would lose
Helo's reprimanding Laura for dishonesty in dealing with the cylons actually echoed Elosha's reprimand. I was impressed with Helo in this episode.
Laura's interstitial visions, as I'd like to call them as opposed to the opera house visions, made me think of Kara. I'm not sure yet whether these visions have any prophetical property or mainly serve to clarify a situation or carry a message - I guess we'll only find out in 2009. Yet, it seems like there is a place between life and death from where the dead - or the "not yet quite dead" - can be retrieved from. D'anna went there extensively and learned about the Final Five there. Kara apparently went there, too, and returned with her vision of "Earth" - which turned out to be the cylon baseship carrying the mission to destroy the Hub and bring death to the cylons. (Ironically, she isn't even directly involved in the destruction of the Hub). Maybe even Baltar went there during his many close shaves with death. All of them have grown and transformed through their visions. Kara has definitely become much calmer, determined and more focused. Baltar has turned from arrogant twerp scientist to ridiculous religious twerp. Roslin re-learned to love again within this episode, even panicking to save Baltar after initially removing his bandages as a reaction to his confession. "Please don't go, Gaius" - unheard of for Roslin!
(Could somebody please make a list of who saved Baltar's life and when?! Has he 9 lives like a cat (!) or even more than that?)
Baltar was ridiculous, on the plus side comic relief from all the heaviness of the show. His squibbling with Roslin over how to talk to the hybrid ("I just opened myself up to it on a spiritual level") and his pathetic banter about God with the centurion are unsurpassed in comedy in this show. Ironic how he is once and again saved by a cylon/centurion who shields him from the blast. However, his confession to Roslin made my ears perk up. His sober and earnest talk about guilt being transformed by God and especially invoking Pythia and the flood that comes (analoguous to him giving the cylons the codes to destroy most of mankind) and rejuvenates mankind may well get to the very heart of the show.
In this episode, I felt that the issue of cylons actually wanting to become more like the humans was also pretty central.
The hybrid refers to "the makers", i.e. the humans, in the beginning - implying a certain respect for the humans as creators of the cylons.
Then, there's this scene with the Eight telling Helo that she tapped into Athena's database to gain access to her memories re. Helo and Hera. That was creepy! I was glad when the Hub was finally destroyed, no more of this downloading and privacy infringement going on! And the Eight stated so herself: "It's a good thing" (though Helo looked a bit wistful, probably remembering the time when he shot Athena so that she could bring back Hera)
Then there's D'anna: "You said I'd never have to go through this again" - implying that resurrection is actually rather unwelcome to a cylon. We've seen before that it is painful and all but it always seemed like they'd accepted this pain of transition as a necessary evil. Now D'anna implies that if she'd had a choice, she'd have preferred to stay boxed (or am I getting this wrong?).
Even the centurions, the obvious Machines, are being portrayed with more and more human traits in s4, cocking their heads in a faint show of subtler emotion. They aren't so terrifying anymore (I remember S1 when a centurion could almost make my heart stop!)
Finally, the main image sticking in this respect is the raiders (cylons) tugging the vipers (humans) toward the destruction of the Hub (the demise of the very definition of their cylonness).
I loved it when D'anna killed Cavil. Cavil is such an arrogant, obfuscating character - "We are not to know about the Final Five" - it's like he's the keeper of all cylon secrets. Yay for D'anna for snapping his neck! The irony of it, too - when he brought her back "to heal us". I guess that's just what she's beginning to do?
Some more random thoughts:
- Where are the other cylon models? Doral, Simon? Why don't we see them somewhere on the baseships?
- Why is Boomer actually different from the other Eights who all pledge trust to the humans?
- BSG sure doesn't have a problem with explicit display of particularly gory wounds.
- Adama waiting in his raptor - how likely was it that the baseship would return to this same spot? This in the context of this episodes and esp. Elosha's counseling made me feel something to the extent that love is the driving and uniting force in the universe of BSG, you can trust it blindly and it will bring out the good, always. Cf. Baltar, or Helo, or Kara (though I am not so clear which relationship of hers would benefit from this most).
Okay, end line here.
Laura' visions between the baseship's jumps were really mighty interesting. In the beginning, she was pretty freaked out, towards the end of the episode, annoyed and resigned. No wonder, with Elosha talking to her so harshly. "Don't you just hate these people? ... You don't love them either... You don't love people, Madam President" - that was severe! I couldn't even focus on the "backdrop", i.e. Kara, Lee and Adama because I was so stunned by this dialogue. I felt like they were really just props, a foil to Roslin summoned by Elosha somehow to make her point. And she was justified to her criticism. Roslin did turn from a caring, smart school-teacher who got propelled to presidency by accident or fortune, whichever, in S1 to a power-hungry bitch during S4. The way Elosha implores her "Laura, just love someone" just before head!Roslin dies and Roslin witnesses Adama's reaction to her death actually made her realize what she would lose
Helo's reprimanding Laura for dishonesty in dealing with the cylons actually echoed Elosha's reprimand. I was impressed with Helo in this episode.
Laura's interstitial visions, as I'd like to call them as opposed to the opera house visions, made me think of Kara. I'm not sure yet whether these visions have any prophetical property or mainly serve to clarify a situation or carry a message - I guess we'll only find out in 2009. Yet, it seems like there is a place between life and death from where the dead - or the "not yet quite dead" - can be retrieved from. D'anna went there extensively and learned about the Final Five there. Kara apparently went there, too, and returned with her vision of "Earth" - which turned out to be the cylon baseship carrying the mission to destroy the Hub and bring death to the cylons. (Ironically, she isn't even directly involved in the destruction of the Hub). Maybe even Baltar went there during his many close shaves with death. All of them have grown and transformed through their visions. Kara has definitely become much calmer, determined and more focused. Baltar has turned from arrogant twerp scientist to ridiculous religious twerp. Roslin re-learned to love again within this episode, even panicking to save Baltar after initially removing his bandages as a reaction to his confession. "Please don't go, Gaius" - unheard of for Roslin!
(Could somebody please make a list of who saved Baltar's life and when?! Has he 9 lives like a cat (!) or even more than that?)
Baltar was ridiculous, on the plus side comic relief from all the heaviness of the show. His squibbling with Roslin over how to talk to the hybrid ("I just opened myself up to it on a spiritual level") and his pathetic banter about God with the centurion are unsurpassed in comedy in this show. Ironic how he is once and again saved by a cylon/centurion who shields him from the blast. However, his confession to Roslin made my ears perk up. His sober and earnest talk about guilt being transformed by God and especially invoking Pythia and the flood that comes (analoguous to him giving the cylons the codes to destroy most of mankind) and rejuvenates mankind may well get to the very heart of the show.
In this episode, I felt that the issue of cylons actually wanting to become more like the humans was also pretty central.
The hybrid refers to "the makers", i.e. the humans, in the beginning - implying a certain respect for the humans as creators of the cylons.
Then, there's this scene with the Eight telling Helo that she tapped into Athena's database to gain access to her memories re. Helo and Hera. That was creepy! I was glad when the Hub was finally destroyed, no more of this downloading and privacy infringement going on! And the Eight stated so herself: "It's a good thing" (though Helo looked a bit wistful, probably remembering the time when he shot Athena so that she could bring back Hera)
Then there's D'anna: "You said I'd never have to go through this again" - implying that resurrection is actually rather unwelcome to a cylon. We've seen before that it is painful and all but it always seemed like they'd accepted this pain of transition as a necessary evil. Now D'anna implies that if she'd had a choice, she'd have preferred to stay boxed (or am I getting this wrong?).
Even the centurions, the obvious Machines, are being portrayed with more and more human traits in s4, cocking their heads in a faint show of subtler emotion. They aren't so terrifying anymore (I remember S1 when a centurion could almost make my heart stop!)
Finally, the main image sticking in this respect is the raiders (cylons) tugging the vipers (humans) toward the destruction of the Hub (the demise of the very definition of their cylonness).
I loved it when D'anna killed Cavil. Cavil is such an arrogant, obfuscating character - "We are not to know about the Final Five" - it's like he's the keeper of all cylon secrets. Yay for D'anna for snapping his neck! The irony of it, too - when he brought her back "to heal us". I guess that's just what she's beginning to do?
Some more random thoughts:
- Where are the other cylon models? Doral, Simon? Why don't we see them somewhere on the baseships?
- Why is Boomer actually different from the other Eights who all pledge trust to the humans?
- BSG sure doesn't have a problem with explicit display of particularly gory wounds.
- Adama waiting in his raptor - how likely was it that the baseship would return to this same spot? This in the context of this episodes and esp. Elosha's counseling made me feel something to the extent that love is the driving and uniting force in the universe of BSG, you can trust it blindly and it will bring out the good, always. Cf. Baltar, or Helo, or Kara (though I am not so clear which relationship of hers would benefit from this most).
Okay, end line here.