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sabrina_il asked for thoughts about Battlestar Galactica’s Anastasia “Dee” Dualla in the Impromptuthon, but one hundred words wasn't likely to do this fantastic character justice. Though the prompt was for meta, I've mixed it in with a picspam; she'll know why ;)
Dee has been one of my favourite Battlestar characters from the start and there’s so much to celebrate about her arc. When we meet Dee in the mini-serires, she's a Petty Officer serving aboard the Battlestar Galactica, in Communications. She functions as an everyman for a great deal of the first season; it's through her we make several discoveries that are key to the culture of the show, such as the Memorial Wall. Dee dates; Dee works hard; and she never stops. So much of her storyline goes unrecognized, buried in the romantic story arc that dominates the third season and bleeds into the second and fourth, but I'll never forget the woman who told a flustered Billy Keikeya "In or out."
(Thanks to http://www.niciasus.com/ and http://www.frak-that.com/ for the caps.)
Petty Officer 2nd Class Anastasia Dualla and later
Lieutenant Anastasia Dualla. We never learn much about her rapid rise from a non-com to the XO of the Pegasus, although it seems pretty surefire that it had everything to do with the military exodus to New Caprica and likely, her relationship and marriage to Lee. Did she ever plan on becoming an officer? What did trading in the old uniform mean to her? Once aboard the Pegasus, did she find that she had a taste for command? Did Lee, whatever his motives, encourage her to take the promotions and post, or was it Dee’s idea? Did Bill have a hand in any of it? How did she feel going back to the Galactica after the Pegasus was lost?
Anyone who’s seen even an episode of the show can tell you that life in the fleet wasn’t easy. In her owns words:
D’Anna [after the Galactica gets attacked] Does this ever get any easier?
Dee: No, ma'am. It gets harder.
Dee may not have had a lot of lines or screentime when compared to the main cast, but she was always there, a steady presence in the CIC through the thick and the thin of it. I missed her terribly in 4.5!
“Bastille Day”! While the bulk of the episode is devoted to Apollo and Zarek, it also gives us a window into Dee’s past that’s never fully explored.
Dee: (About Tom Zarek) I'm from Sagittaron and that man does not speak for all of us. He blew up a government building and there's no excuse for that!
Dee: Because it's the truth. Zarek and the SFM do not care about justice -
Billy: How can you say that? His people - your people - have been exploited -
Dee: You cannot tell me about my people.
Billy: I'm not telling you about your people.
(Actually yes, Billy, you are :P)
“Final Cut” elaborated.
Biers: How did your family respond?
Dee: My dad went crazy when I enlisted. He thought the military was a joke. Refuge for emotional cripples and patriotic fools.
Biers: But you signed up anyway.
Dee: I guess I just wanted to believe in something.
D'Anna: Did you ever come to terms with your dad?
Dee: I wouldn't let him. The last time we talked, it got...heated. I told him I never wanted to see him again. Three weeks later, the cylons attacked.
So much and so little! Why did Dee turn away from religion? Coming from a planet full of anti-military pacifists, how did she even get turned onto the idea of joining the fleet? Was it a spontaneous act of rebellion or something she planned for years? Where were her mother, her grandparents, in this discussion? Did Dee have any siblings? Did she find an adopted family at the academy or later, in the fleet and did any of them outlive her?
It's not clear when it happened, but Dee and Gaeta developed a friendship either before the series or during it. There's a cut scene from the third season that features the two of them giggling over the idea of Laura Roslin and Bill Adama being an item.
I'm not sure I could get sick of watching this scene; the actors play it so well and Tigh is the perfect deadpan counterpoint to their giggling. I wish we'd been able to keep the scene in the season proper, because we saw so little of Dee in the third season outside of the love square... quadrangle... whatever we're calling it. At least we got this on the DVDs.
She must have found the time to get close to the Agathons as well - maybe during the New Caprica arc , though at the time Dee disapproved of Bill's move to grant Sharon amnesty and a commission - for them to trust her with their daughter. (You know, the Sharon murdered for and who kept getting kidnapped?) How did we get from there to here?
Regardless of whatever else was going on in Dee's life, we do know one thing: she married into the Adama family tree. Dee has complex relationships with both men, though I think the bond between she and Bill got more and more overshadowed after "Home". I wonder sometimes what she thought of having the Old Man as a father-in-law, but I like to think that, on the whole, it must have been a good relationship.
It's hard to judge from his grief after her suicide, because it was about so much more than Dee.
But I'm getting off topic! Let's talk about some of the key, but quiet, unrecognized-by-history roles that Dee played in shaping the fleet's future. She functioned as an advisor to both Adamas at various points during the series - sometimes entirely by accident.
In the mini, Roslin may have been the one to outright state that they had better start having babies.
But she wasn't the one to drive the point home. (What an unexpected kiss in a hallway and the awkward fallout can do!)
In "Home", the link is much more obvious.
Dee: You let us down... you let us down. You made a promise, to all of us to find earth, to find us a home... together. It doesn't matter what the president did or even what Lee did because everyday that we remain apart is a day that you've broken your promise.
Adama: The people aboard those ships made their own decision. It was their decision not mine. Thank you Petty Officer, you may leave now.
Dee: (gets up to leave then hesitates) You asked to talk to me sir, maybe because you think I don't have anything to say... but I do.
(moves closer to Adama and grabs his hand)
Dee: It's time to heal the wounds commander. People have been divided...
Adama: I said that's enough!
Dee: Children have been separated from their parents!
Adama: (Finally looks at her, gets up and leaves)
I wouldn't have wanted to hear this either. She was also absolutely right and doesn't get nearly enough credit for her role in that plotline.
Here's where things get grim.
I really like that the show never never spells out why Dee commits suicide. It was a heartbreaking scene for so many reasons and I think it works all the better for having been so bewildering.
It's heavily implied that Dee didn't have religious faith; I wonder what she thought about the possibility of an afterlife.
There are a million other things I could talk about. Her relationship with Billy. How she never gave up her loyalty to the fleet for him. Her relationship with Lee. Speculation on how she might have acted during the mutiny arc. Whether she would have fought for Hera or not. What I do know is this:
I'm glad that we had her <3