Thoughts on "A Disquiet Follows My Soul"
I'm sort of cheating here, because I've had a couple of days to not only digest everything that happened, but also to read other reactions and talk to some people about this episode. My reaction is still somewhat mixed, but my feet are planted firmly in the "great episode" camp.
I'm not going to talk a lot of the direction of the show or the symbolism of certain things, because I'm no good at analyzing that sort of stuff. I know that symbolism plays a very fundamental role in the series and it's one of the things that makes it so great, but honestly? I barely see the stuff that's right in front of me, so the only way I can see deep symbolism in anything is if it's pointed out to me in very plain language. I'm going with the episode just as is.
This was an odd one, because while there's only one specific thing that I absolutely did not like (and most of you can probably figure out what it is), one thing that I was a bit meh over, and a whole bunch of other things that I did like, I'm still struggling a bit to see exactly what this episode is setting up.
Of course, I should be used to this with Ron Moore, because there was an episode of Deep Space 9 called "Penumbra." I guess I should say, to remind those of you who have forgotten and mention to those of you who don't know, that the last season of DS9 ended with a ten-episode arc leading up to the series finale. "Penumbra" was the episode that kicked off "Deep Space 9: The Final Chapter." And like, "A Disquiet Follows My Soul," there was a definite feeling of moving piece A to position C and setting up the rest of the series. The overwhelming majority of these set-ups worked for me, but there were a few that felt a bit forced and I guess I'll start with them.
I know most people say, "I'll start with the bad and then save the good stuff for later." I hesitate to call it "the bad," with the exception of the first thing I'm going to address. The rest of it, I don't want to pass judgment until I see the inevitable explosion that was being set up.
The first thing that I didn't quite get is Gaeta. I mean, I did understand him, but that's only because nnaylime clued me in to what was going on in the webisodes. I'm assuming that the showrunners were stuck between a rock and a hard place when it came to the webisodes and where they should fit in (not with regards to series continuity). I've been told that they did air, once, on Skiffy, but in a classic move of Skiffy shooting it's most valuable commodity in the foot again, there wasn't much promotion and they didn't bother telling us that knowing what happened in the webisodes was essentially important if you wanted to understand Gaeta's character arc throughout the rest of the series. So, I owe a big thanks to nnaylime for helping me avoid a huge WTF in regards to Gaeta.
I'm of two minds when it comes to the unholy alliance between Gaeta and Zarek. In no way am I giving either of these characters a free pass, but it's so clear to me when I look at these people where they're coming from. Gaeta has been backing wrong horse after wrong horse ever since he went down to New Caprica to become Baltar's aide. It honestly breaks my heart to think that the nerdy yet brilliant earnest young officer we met in the miniseries has come to this place. But I can see how he got here. All he was doing, at almost every turn, was trying to help. He just kept putting his trust in the wrong people. He put his trust in Baltar on New Caprica and got burned. He put his trust in the Eight, only to find out that she was using him to kill more innocent humans, which makes me very frightened of the role of the Eights in this new alliance. It might be better if that entire model (except Athena and Boomer) were simply wiped out, because they have absolutely no concept of loyalty or true decency, unless they've learned it from an outside source (Athena learned loyalty from Helo).
Gaeta then put his trust in the Resistance, who turned around and tried to airlock him because they didn't look closely enough. And think of what's happened to him since then. To be honest, I'm surprised he didn't just take that gun discarded by Dee and blow himself away with it. I think it was absolutely appropriate and in-character for Gaeta to dog Starbuck the way he did. In "Torn," she came over to him without being invited and started kicking him when he was down, so I love to see that little bit of karma come back and bite her in the ass. Starbuck being Starbuck, she completely misses the point and plays right into Gaeta's hands by storming away to sulk (or find some poor innocent to take her anger out on, which is classic Starbuck) and giving Gaeta the opportunity he needs to start recruiting people against the Cylon/Human alliance.
I think Gaeta's rage towards the rebel Cylons is very telling as to exactly how far the Eight pushed him down in the webisodes. He now knows exactly how dangerous it is to trust the Cylons, even one of the rebel Cylons, and damned if he's not going to open his mouth about it at every opportunity. But, taking a page from Baltar's book, we never saw him tell anyone WHY he doesn't believe the alliance can work, so I'm going to assume that he never mentioned it.
Come to think of it, that's also strange. How many people died on that Raptor with Gaeta and the Eight, and not one single word is mentioned? Was the body count updated to include them, because there were at least four people in that Raptor. And according to Gaeta (I know, currently not the best source of the 411), suicides are up. I'm pretty sure the body count was less than ten or eleven when compared to last week. Out of thirty thousand people, five suicides in one week is up from the norm? In circumstances like this? This might be a case of "Shame on you, continuity monkeys!" Or, "Shame on you for not being able to see the future and know these webisodes would be written!" I jest, though. Not a huge biggie in the grand scheme of things.
As for Zarek, I think we're looking at a man who's had enough of being marginalized. This is a man who likes to be listened to, who likes having power, and all the military's been doing since New Caprica is cutting him off at the knees, humiliating him, and refusing to deal with him. We do know that he is corrupt, because of his dastardly dealings in Colonial Day and the Kobol arc and the fact that he took over the black market for at least a little while after "Black Market" (*shudder*). I'm not saying the SOB isn't dirty. But in this show, who isn't? Whether by action, or reaction, or nonaction, every character on this show has plenty of dirt on their hands, including my beloved Bill and Laura.
Everyone's been making such a big stink about the "mutiny" of the tyllium ship and Zarek's part in encouraging them to defy the military, but what some of us seem to be forgetting is the fact that the Quorum voted to allow each ship in the Fleet a choice in the matter. I'm not saying it was the right choice to make, but no matter which choice they made, it was the legal choice. The tyllium ship is not a military vessel, therefore the word "mutiny" doesn't apply in this case. The military had no right to arrest Zarek, because all they could prove he was doing was advising the tyllium ship captain of their rights.
I also don't think Zarek is quite as dirty as Bill would have everyone else believe. There's just too much past character development in the other direction to justify this sudden about-face. I think this is a return to the Zarek of old, the man he was before we met him in Bastille Day, who was a prisoner of conscience and stood up for what he believed in. However, when you take this character's virtues, you've got to consider his poorer qualties as well. He's got an annoying penchant for digging his heels in, his "all or nothing" attitude just smacks of major entitlement issues, and he turns to violence far too often for me to be able to stand up and say, "Yeah, I'm on his side."
I actually sort of AM on his side, but he (and Gaeta) both lost me when they started planning mutiny. The most aggravating thing is that you can totally understand what's happening here, with both men. Zarek has done everything right, everything according to procedure, while Laura is off having her little vacation from reality, and Bill just simply won't budge. He's just as stubborn and narrow-minded as Zarek can be and the negative qualities these two men have in common are the reason Zarek decides that Bill has to be removed from command.
It's totally understandable that tensions have reached the boiling point, but I still can't get over how these webisodes really should have been aired and promoted, because without that backstory, Gaeta all of a sudden is an asshole picking on the poor Cylons.
What Gaeta and Zarek are planning, however... But I think I'll wait to consider that question for next week.
Cally/Hot Dog/Nicky: Hated it. Even RDM says it was a "retrofit," which is pretty much another word for "retcon." Add another to the list of reasons why I HATE that the Chief is a Cylon. Cally was never a cheater or a slut and RDM's clumsy explanation for the Nicky bait-and-switch tells me that he didn't put any thought into this at all.
Starbuck: Honestly, I couldn't care less about why she has that nasty attitude if I tried. Yes, there are good reasons for her being the way she is and she's probably still processing what happened to her last week. But I find myself hoping that she finds herself on the wrong side of an airlock very soon, because her spiel is beyond old.
Ugh. Right now, my brain is fried, so I think I'll come back later with the good and the best (Bill and Laura, obviously!).
Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to seeing Damar declare independence from the Dominion next week.
Whoops, wrong show.