BSG 'Daybreak pt 1' Review
Review: BSG's 'Daybreak pt 1'
You know, for an ep with so little action, this was a highly enjoyable episode. Overall, I was rivited. The addition of backstory might seem odd, but this whole episode is about the people and their choices. What they have to loose, what they have lost for themselves, who the were.
The preview was amusing. We had a wonderful reminder of what Baltar is so utterly lost. Hera = Mozart. But what I LOVED about it was the transfer of people and equipment. I noticed an Eight directing a man with a box, who nodded to her and followed her pointing finger. Such a tiny, tiny moment yet it shows so much about Humans not all being “OMFG UR A ROBOT. EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN GIVE BIRTH AND DIE AND ALL.” Fun fun.
We open to what looks a helluva lot like the Milky Way to me. I don't know how common such star systems are, at least in appearance, but it was really pretty regardless. And then we see a planet that at first looks like Earth, but is in fact Caprica. Now, we have NINE (Screw you science, Pluto is a planet) planets in ours, but four Dwarf planets. Could this be a hint at placing this story in the distant future? Too bad we didn't get a good look at the Sun...could of placed the galaxy in our timeline..Just a note.
I like the look of Caprica city. Reminds me of San Fransico or L.A. Only clean like Tokyo. Anyhow, we see this is a flashback. A brief scene shows Adama, wearing a suit, having a tense conversation with an officer of the Fleet. He is listing his career movements, but the other man sighs and tells him he has to do it. What that is remains to be scene. I assume, since Zak is listed as being in Daybreak, that we will see a bit more of this. Another shot of PRETTY Caprica city, then on to our next scene..
Six and Baltar getting frisky in a Limo. How very normal for Gaius. Tricia is very cute in this scene, and also gives us some insights into her personality. Self-reliance being one of them, it was nice to contrast with how reliant she became and then how she threw that off reccently. That reminds me of Gaius's “I won't let you down” promise in the next second. Nice insert, because he lets her down so many times over the course of the series, and reminds us for later that Gaius has never being selfless, and now is crying wolf when the wolf is actually there. No one believes him.
Slip to Roslin's apartment. She is just wrapping up a baby shower for the middle sister of the Roslin girls. First of all, she looks fantastic, and it reinforces how dreadful she looks nearing her death. I loved seeing her in a normal, healthy life, since it is such a different Laura Roslin we see here. This is the woman we only see when Adama is with her, like on New Caprica. Bad girl, giving her sister champagne, but she is so playful and fun that I'll let that pass. Her youngest sister's age interests me, she looks my age. How far before the fall is this? Fifteen years or so?
Again we get a scene change, which at first seems to be Kara and Lee on a blind date. In reality, it is their first meeting. He brought flowers, being the naïve little sweetheart he sometimes is, and we get a nice scene of Kara in a healthy environment, like Roslin a scene earlier. She cooks, too, which shouldn't surprise me but does. The Mandala that has controlled their lives gets in a shot...did Lee just not notice it? Seems like that would be something he'd remember. Zak comes in later, after Kara tries to get Lee to play cards since he's such a bad liar. LOL. Zak...*melts* Damn Adama, you got some hot genes since neither of them look like Carolann. Can I have one of them? There's some cute horsing around before another scene change. Lee and Zak are so adorable as brothers, even if it bugs me that you can totally tell Lee is Caucasian and Zak looks Hispanic when they stand near each other. I'm fairly sure the darker complexion would trump. Buuuut I'm getting nitpicky.
Gaius's family is something I never expected to see, but it gives further proof of his insecurities and shame. Mr. Baltar is such a rough character, which probably links him in Gaius's mind to the “trash” he's gone so far to avoid. Remember him using his origional accent in a..season 3 episode I believe. Another references back. Gaius responds to his problematic father with predictable cruelty, while Six watches. If this is all she saw of Humans, no wonder she went through with genocide...Gaius accuses his father of a lot of faults that are good descriptions of Gaius himself. Very reminiscent of Edmund in King Lear, accusing his brother Edgar of all the things he himself is guilty of.
Back to Laura, we get the hearbreaking scene we all knew was coming since seeing her living sisters in her home. That policewoman has all the emotional sensativity of a teaspoon/Ron Weasley. Her line was stiffly delived, and I hope that was just bad delivery. If someone told me my dad and sisters were dead like that, I'd hit them. Laura becomes Roslin for a moment, the calm face we recognize as her Presidential fascade. Her leaving the door open as she ran and that fountain scene was..wow. Hiding in the water to hide her tears hurt to watch. Mary, you deserve an Emmy, you really do. On a side note: Are you telling me, people of Caprica city, that NO ONE has ever just gotten soaked in that fountain? NO ONE? Wow, you people are boring. I'd do it if it was hot enough.
Flashback to the Present. HAI COTTLE ILU <3. Meanwhile, Lee is showing his remarkable heart again as he and the same knuckledragger that Gina-ish Six saved discuss the removal of the Viper launch systems. Poor old girl.
I cracked up at the sight of “This side up” on the boxes Adama was packing. It's so real to our world, I had to laugh. Such a mundane sentence fragment, so normal. And yet nothing about this is normal. There is nothing in his quarters. Nothing. I want to cry because I love that space so much. A nice feeling of home, mostly from the brown colors and the piles of books on the floor that also describe my bedroom. I suppose that is why I like Adama and his quarters so much. Then that glimpse of the tag displaying where on the basestar the Admiral's quarters will be. World is continuing to change, and it's freaky.
Short cut to the Nymph Squad talking about their representation and how they're being treated badly. Blah blah blah. I hate every scene with these women, mostly since they're following sheep and, with a few exceptions, weak women, but also because Gaius has gone back to not giving a shit unlike in his realization during the mutiny. It's like he resets every episode, and it's obnoxious. Failure of Gaius on purpose or a frak-up by someone writing? Who knows, but I still hate it.
Again flashback! Still fun to watch. 'Gaius = womanizing asswhole ' scene, you know, in case we forgot that fact in the last two seconds. Six is so wonderfully SIX in this, the good side of her model/self. She fixes up Julius Baltar in a place where he can be the farmer he once was. She is so insightful and considerate in doing that. And it so fits with who she is in the series.
It might be of interest to note a few things I looked up bout the names Julius and Gaius. Not only did my history professor mention Gaius in class this week, but both that name and Julius appear several times in history in the Julio-Claudian Dynasty. One of them, Gaius Julius Ceaser Octavious, became Emperor Augustus. He lead Rome into a age of peace. Another was Emperor Tiberius. Finally, and the one I think is the most important reference, is Gaius Julius Ceaser Germanicus. We know him as the nutjob Emperor Caligula. Apparently he did ok for two years, then went nutters, being known for cruelty, being obsessed with weath, and sexually WEIRD. Sound familiar? (sidenote: Our tour guide in Pompeii suggested the fact that lead was used to make water pipes might have been a cause of this transformation. Wonder if that plays into anything).
Next! Kara does math and doodles music notes. I'd love to see someone tell me what that equation is.
Adama will be in a VIPER. YAY! I can't wait to see him fly that last Viper before the ship is stripped of launchers. Lovely.
Chief realizes he's a dupped moron. Wow, that's a bit late. And welcome back Bitter!Galen. We were beginning to think awesome!Chief was back, but nope. He's deriding the Cylons as blow up dolls and being an ass. I'm dissapointed here. I never wanted to see this “oh woe is me” Chief again. He could be so much more, but he isn't and it's annoying.
Next! Hotdog being a daddy, and Adama stopping to help him. It's a photo of some of the unclaimed pilots. Sweet of you, Hotdog, but so so sad that these people are truly dead. Like Gilgamesh's fear, they are dead because they're names are lost. Totally reminded me of Gilgamesh's obsession with being remembered. Thank you, show, for making me remember my history. So Adama walks off, see's Hera's pic, probably put up by Athena, walks away. Kind of overdramatic solo lightling and then Adama goes Papadama and melts over the little girl. Sucker for small children, someone note that.
Lee is awesome again! Calls Gaius on his utter selfishness the whole fraking show. He's very right to feel Gaius is incapable of being genuine, and it's a sign of how much of a frakker he is that Gaius gets upset over it and acts like he has a right to be upset. Gaius is crying wolf for the last time, the one time it matters, and no one believes him. Show, you really are awesome. I'm thinking of my old pink book of fairytales now <3. The one with the Princess and the Goatskin and the Boy Who Cried Wolf.
Speaking of being really awesome, Adama tells Kara he knows who she is: “You are my daughter”. Wow. There's some character development for you. Remember Saul's revelation = breakdown. This time, he just accepts what he has in front of him. I totally melted at that line, too. I LOVE Papadama. LOVE.
Sam spends a flashback with the media. Unclear if he actually remembers or this is just a flashback for randomness. Best line from this? “Perfection of Creation”, hand down. Cuz it isn't perfect, the Cylons are failable. We are failable. Message recceived, writing staff!
Sam then gives Adama and Kara some Hybrid mutterings, including a reference to the Challenger explosion AND a ninteen year old RAF lad who died in WWII “and slip the surly bonds of Earth...”(the rest is changed to mirror the perfection comment):
“"Oh I Have Slipped
The Surly Bonds of Earth...
Put Out My Hand
And Touched the Face of God"
How did these lines become so famous? Because they are a classic case of a speechwriter having the appropriate quotation to hand at the right moment. On 28 January 1986, in his TV broadcast to the nation on the day of the space shuttle Challenger disaster, President Reagan concluded: `We will never forget them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.'
This immediately sent people the world over on fruitless journeys to their quotation books. Reagan was quoting `High Flight,' a sonnet written by John Gillespie Magee, a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force in the Second World War.”
I was born the year after the loss of the Challenger, but we grew up knowing about it, so it was cool to get that reference.
Tell me what the point was of the pidgeon a drunk!Lee chases around? Adama boys can't handle their drink for crap apparently.
Athena is frak'd up. And it hurts.
Roslin overhears Adama's plan, flashbacks to sushi eating many months after her dip in the fountain. Yum. I'm hungry now, too bad those looked like California rolls (I...had a bad experience. No one told me about wasabi.) Adar's campaign mention, and Laura adamant about not wanting to be a politician. She did mention that in the mini (yay tying in the past seasons!). Sean Allison = date. Someone mentioned Narcho having that surname. Interesting. Return to the present and the small, powerful scene of Roslin simply putting her wig on hit me. We've never seen her doing that before...something about it...
The Deck, second to last and most important scene. Seeing all those people together was so cool. This is Adama's family, choosing their fates. Speaking of Bill Adama, I now officially admit I have a terribly inappropriate crush on the character. Where the HELL is my Bill IRL? Am I going to have to track one down with a dart gun?
Sorry, distracted. The scene gets frakin' sweet soon, but my first thoughts were A. what if not everyone knows Port and Starboard (I don't) and B. How can either exist in SPACE?! Back to the point though, Ellen steps up with Saul and Caprica. Doctor Sherman (*giggle*) Cottle is asked to stay behind by Adama, and looks slightly pissed off about it. Caprica looks Adama in the eyes, and Roslin shows up and makes her stand, assisted by her de-facto husband and Kara. Cute, awkward Kara at first doesn't know what to do, but slips her arm into her space!Mommy's and hold her hand.
Meanwhile, Racetrack and Skulls, who apparently have been incarcerated along with other mutineers-Adama forces them into the final mission-are back to being hilarious, commenting on the fact that every uber-suicidal mission finds them out in a raptor while taking pics of the Colony. Yes, you two, you are there are were imprisoned for being assholes who actually enjoyed mutiny and nearly murdered the Admiral's last blood relative. HA, HA.
Meeting. Go Time. Toss in some Time Lord technobabel about naked singularities and tada, epsiode over. That, was confusing.
Overall rating: 8/10
NEXT WEEK: Guess what hits the fan? Again?