BSG: Daybreak, part 2
Let me tell you about a show I used to love. It was smart. More than that, it expected its audience to be smart, to keep up. It drew the outlines and expected us to realize that the real story took place in the spaces in between: in the fine gestures of Laura Roslin's hands, in the set of Kara Thrace's jaw, in the earnest pride that influenced Lee Adama's decisions, in the flash of self-loathing that preceded Gaius Baltar's narcissistic scramblings. These weren't good guys, or even bad guys. They were people trying to hang on to their humanity in untenable circumstances. And we watched them and wondered what we would do in their shoes, what would happen to our shiny, liberal ideals when the choice was between those ideals and the survival of the human race.
In this show that I loved, the bad guys weren't so bad at heart, but genocide is still hard to forgive. There was difficulty and nuance and above all subtlety and ambiguity. All of them, human and Cylon alike, were trying to negotiate the space between "can't live with them" and "can't live without them," and there wasn't a clear path. There were hints: prophecies and visions and angels, perhaps real, perhaps imagined, perhaps only ever as real as belief--or political utility--made them. One could never be sure. It was messy and unclear, and that was the point. It was a world in which being smart often meant being wrong, in which keeping people alive often meant depriving them of their rights, in which you fought until you couldn't fight any more.
I haven't recognized very much of that show in season 4.5, and I especially didn't recognize any of it in this preachy finale. I feel a bit like I've been whacked over the head with an anvil, yet I still don't have a lot of answers. What exactly was Kara? Why exactly was Hera so important? The Opera House sequence was very cool, but what in the world was the point? If you're going to play at providing answers, actually do so; if you're not going to provide answers, make it subtle and ambiguous. Somehow this finale failed fairly spectacularly at both.
Despite the fact that I think this may well top "The Truth" (X-Files) and "Endgame" (ST: Voyager) for the honor of Worst Finale EVER, there were bits that I didn't hate. The battle sequences were gorgeous, and the blocking and editing of the Opera House stuff, Kara using the song to jump to Earth--all of that was at least reminiscent of fine BSG tradition, though I wanted more payoff than we got from all of it. And the general bittersweet tone of the settling on Earth was very much in line with what I wanted and expected: some people got their happy endings, but not everyone. Too much had been lost for a true happily ever after.
What I didn't quite understand was the dispersal--so many characters left alone. (And I'm skipping right over the sheer WTF, ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? of the actual plan to distribute people around the globe, which is just actively idiotic, and just focusing on character.) Lee and Bill are the last family each other has, and they just said goodbye like that? A few weeks ago we learned that the person Saul Tigh loves most in the world is Bill Adama, yet they just part ways, as well? And Tyrol apparently loved Cally enough to avenge her death but not enough to continue to be a father to her son? I understand that some of these characters--and perhaps Adama and Tyrol chief among them--are too broken at this point to pick themselves up again, but from a character standpoint it didn't make a great deal of sense to me. Bill Adama is a selfish bastard, but he isn't good at being alone. It didn't make sense to me that Lee would be left to what is apparently a life of solitary exploring. He has always seemed to thrive on community and leadership, yet here at the end he has lost all the people he's ever been close to, yet seems content?
I came out of the whole thing most touched by Gaius Baltar, and I'm pretty sure that's a sign that something is amiss. (Though Baltar really did work for me here, except for the bit where he was preaching at Cavil. Why so much preaching, RDM???)
You will notice I have yet to say anything about Laura. I have been both expecting and dreading Laura's death for years now, yet I found myself strangely unmoved. I didn't cry. I didn't even get wibbly. I wasn't quite unhappy with the way it was handled, for the most part (the exception being the posthumous wedding ring thing because that is just NOT ON! last time I checked, marriage involved mutual consent; not one person taking possession of the other after her death--skeevy!), but neither was I pleased.
To a certain extent, it fulfilled the Moses trope: she did get to see the promised land, to see her people settled. But there was so little acknowledgment of what that meant. She saved them all by the skin of her teeth and the force of her will. She made decisions to keep them alive and earn their worship and their hatred. She was right and she was wrong and she was as central to the entire story as anyone else (I'd argue perhaps the most central, but I am a little biased...). Yet there was no hint of that full life and leadership in her death: only Bill mourns her. No doubt Lee does, as well, but we hardly see it. And the fleet moves on, perhaps forgets, their memories short.
I think I like the idea that the fleet forgot her, that she didn't have a state funeral with pomp and mourners. What I don't like is the sense I got around the edges of this episode--that I've been getting all through 4.5, implicitly and explicitly--that the show itself has forgotten her in her capacity as leader, that for her to die alone with Bill is supposed to be sweet or fulfilling or something. It makes me quite sad and angry--not simply that she died, because I've been expecting that, of course--but that it happened like this, without much tribute to who she was to anyone but Bill. I did, however, appreciate the phone call in the flashback, the decision to join Adar's campaign: all the way to the end, indeed.
The Laura Roslin 500th Anniversary Symposium fic has now been jossed, and that is unfortunate, I think, because I've been looking forward to that fic for a couple of years now. But there is another story, perhaps, of the stories told around campfires, generations of oral history about a leader, prophet, oppressor, tyrant, goddess. She will be Lilith, and she will be Eve.
As for Kara, I don't even know where to start. WHAT??????? Was she an angel? Was her father really Daniel, Cylon #7? If not, how did she know the song? Just because she was an angel? Was she always an angel with a destiny? What changed when she died? The only thing that seems clear is that she is really a pigeon. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND!!!! And I don't like it.
I would also like to report in on the dead woman list at this juncture: in the finale we lost Boomer, Racetrack, Tory, Kara, and Laura (am I missing anyone?). As for the men, Anders and Skulls. Well, and the Cavils, Simons, and Dorals, I guess. (Again, am I forgetting anyone?) Technically equivalent numbers, but somehow the lists do NOT feel equivalent. And while I do not agree with the writer of that Slate article that Cylons are somehow second-class female characters, it does bear mentioning, I think, that almost ALL of the human women whose names we know are dead. Paulla, Jean, Ishay, and Captain Whatsherface. Everyone else is dead. And I love Caprica liek whoa, and I'm glad that Ellen and Athena each get their happy endings. But this has always been in large part a show about what it means to be human, and apparently to be human and female is to be dead.
R. started hitting herself in the head with a pillow during Lee's colonialist speech of doom ("we can give them the best parts of ourselves" my ass!!! how did you bring yourself to say those words, Jamie Bamber???), and I can't say I blame her. And the less said about the coda the better, because ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME, RON MOORE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
I am perhaps most boggled by the fact that so many of the people involved in the show claimed to be so pleased by the ending! And not just EJO, who always seems to be living in an alternate reality from the one I'm living in, as far as this show is concerned, but people like Mary McDonnell, whose opinion of the show and of her character I've always really liked and agreed with. Um.
"The Oath" was a really strong episode. But it was the only strong episode of 4.5. As a result, I think my rewatches will end with "Revelations." The show has been spotty since the exodus from New Caprica, but 4.5 has been a nosedive. I'm not sure I've ever been more disappointed in a show overall. It's enough to make me want to swear I'll never invest in a show like this again--but I suspect that's one of those claims one should never make. I'm sure I will fall in love with other shows, and have my heart broken by other shows in the future, just like I've loved other shows before this one and had my heart broken by them, as well.
A number of people have been talking about being done with fandom, period, now that the show is over. As I said in my post yesterday, this was not my first fandom and it won't be my last, and I certainly don't intend to go anywhere. And I'm not finished with this fandom just because the show has finished airing: I'm actively working on one fic now, and I've got a couple of others I would like to write. I'm also planning to do a rewatch, which I'm sure will involve more episode commentary and meta. But there is a chapter ending now, and the saddest part of that will be if it means some of you will be wandering away, because I've very much enjoyed falling in love with this show alongside many of you.
In this show that I loved, the bad guys weren't so bad at heart, but genocide is still hard to forgive. There was difficulty and nuance and above all subtlety and ambiguity. All of them, human and Cylon alike, were trying to negotiate the space between "can't live with them" and "can't live without them," and there wasn't a clear path. There were hints: prophecies and visions and angels, perhaps real, perhaps imagined, perhaps only ever as real as belief--or political utility--made them. One could never be sure. It was messy and unclear, and that was the point. It was a world in which being smart often meant being wrong, in which keeping people alive often meant depriving them of their rights, in which you fought until you couldn't fight any more.
I haven't recognized very much of that show in season 4.5, and I especially didn't recognize any of it in this preachy finale. I feel a bit like I've been whacked over the head with an anvil, yet I still don't have a lot of answers. What exactly was Kara? Why exactly was Hera so important? The Opera House sequence was very cool, but what in the world was the point? If you're going to play at providing answers, actually do so; if you're not going to provide answers, make it subtle and ambiguous. Somehow this finale failed fairly spectacularly at both.
Despite the fact that I think this may well top "The Truth" (X-Files) and "Endgame" (ST: Voyager) for the honor of Worst Finale EVER, there were bits that I didn't hate. The battle sequences were gorgeous, and the blocking and editing of the Opera House stuff, Kara using the song to jump to Earth--all of that was at least reminiscent of fine BSG tradition, though I wanted more payoff than we got from all of it. And the general bittersweet tone of the settling on Earth was very much in line with what I wanted and expected: some people got their happy endings, but not everyone. Too much had been lost for a true happily ever after.
What I didn't quite understand was the dispersal--so many characters left alone. (And I'm skipping right over the sheer WTF, ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? of the actual plan to distribute people around the globe, which is just actively idiotic, and just focusing on character.) Lee and Bill are the last family each other has, and they just said goodbye like that? A few weeks ago we learned that the person Saul Tigh loves most in the world is Bill Adama, yet they just part ways, as well? And Tyrol apparently loved Cally enough to avenge her death but not enough to continue to be a father to her son? I understand that some of these characters--and perhaps Adama and Tyrol chief among them--are too broken at this point to pick themselves up again, but from a character standpoint it didn't make a great deal of sense to me. Bill Adama is a selfish bastard, but he isn't good at being alone. It didn't make sense to me that Lee would be left to what is apparently a life of solitary exploring. He has always seemed to thrive on community and leadership, yet here at the end he has lost all the people he's ever been close to, yet seems content?
I came out of the whole thing most touched by Gaius Baltar, and I'm pretty sure that's a sign that something is amiss. (Though Baltar really did work for me here, except for the bit where he was preaching at Cavil. Why so much preaching, RDM???)
You will notice I have yet to say anything about Laura. I have been both expecting and dreading Laura's death for years now, yet I found myself strangely unmoved. I didn't cry. I didn't even get wibbly. I wasn't quite unhappy with the way it was handled, for the most part (the exception being the posthumous wedding ring thing because that is just NOT ON! last time I checked, marriage involved mutual consent; not one person taking possession of the other after her death--skeevy!), but neither was I pleased.
To a certain extent, it fulfilled the Moses trope: she did get to see the promised land, to see her people settled. But there was so little acknowledgment of what that meant. She saved them all by the skin of her teeth and the force of her will. She made decisions to keep them alive and earn their worship and their hatred. She was right and she was wrong and she was as central to the entire story as anyone else (I'd argue perhaps the most central, but I am a little biased...). Yet there was no hint of that full life and leadership in her death: only Bill mourns her. No doubt Lee does, as well, but we hardly see it. And the fleet moves on, perhaps forgets, their memories short.
I think I like the idea that the fleet forgot her, that she didn't have a state funeral with pomp and mourners. What I don't like is the sense I got around the edges of this episode--that I've been getting all through 4.5, implicitly and explicitly--that the show itself has forgotten her in her capacity as leader, that for her to die alone with Bill is supposed to be sweet or fulfilling or something. It makes me quite sad and angry--not simply that she died, because I've been expecting that, of course--but that it happened like this, without much tribute to who she was to anyone but Bill. I did, however, appreciate the phone call in the flashback, the decision to join Adar's campaign: all the way to the end, indeed.
The Laura Roslin 500th Anniversary Symposium fic has now been jossed, and that is unfortunate, I think, because I've been looking forward to that fic for a couple of years now. But there is another story, perhaps, of the stories told around campfires, generations of oral history about a leader, prophet, oppressor, tyrant, goddess. She will be Lilith, and she will be Eve.
As for Kara, I don't even know where to start. WHAT??????? Was she an angel? Was her father really Daniel, Cylon #7? If not, how did she know the song? Just because she was an angel? Was she always an angel with a destiny? What changed when she died? The only thing that seems clear is that she is really a pigeon. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND!!!! And I don't like it.
I would also like to report in on the dead woman list at this juncture: in the finale we lost Boomer, Racetrack, Tory, Kara, and Laura (am I missing anyone?). As for the men, Anders and Skulls. Well, and the Cavils, Simons, and Dorals, I guess. (Again, am I forgetting anyone?) Technically equivalent numbers, but somehow the lists do NOT feel equivalent. And while I do not agree with the writer of that Slate article that Cylons are somehow second-class female characters, it does bear mentioning, I think, that almost ALL of the human women whose names we know are dead. Paulla, Jean, Ishay, and Captain Whatsherface. Everyone else is dead. And I love Caprica liek whoa, and I'm glad that Ellen and Athena each get their happy endings. But this has always been in large part a show about what it means to be human, and apparently to be human and female is to be dead.
R. started hitting herself in the head with a pillow during Lee's colonialist speech of doom ("we can give them the best parts of ourselves" my ass!!! how did you bring yourself to say those words, Jamie Bamber???), and I can't say I blame her. And the less said about the coda the better, because ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME, RON MOORE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
I am perhaps most boggled by the fact that so many of the people involved in the show claimed to be so pleased by the ending! And not just EJO, who always seems to be living in an alternate reality from the one I'm living in, as far as this show is concerned, but people like Mary McDonnell, whose opinion of the show and of her character I've always really liked and agreed with. Um.
"The Oath" was a really strong episode. But it was the only strong episode of 4.5. As a result, I think my rewatches will end with "Revelations." The show has been spotty since the exodus from New Caprica, but 4.5 has been a nosedive. I'm not sure I've ever been more disappointed in a show overall. It's enough to make me want to swear I'll never invest in a show like this again--but I suspect that's one of those claims one should never make. I'm sure I will fall in love with other shows, and have my heart broken by other shows in the future, just like I've loved other shows before this one and had my heart broken by them, as well.
A number of people have been talking about being done with fandom, period, now that the show is over. As I said in my post yesterday, this was not my first fandom and it won't be my last, and I certainly don't intend to go anywhere. And I'm not finished with this fandom just because the show has finished airing: I'm actively working on one fic now, and I've got a couple of others I would like to write. I'm also planning to do a rewatch, which I'm sure will involve more episode commentary and meta. But there is a chapter ending now, and the saddest part of that will be if it means some of you will be wandering away, because I've very much enjoyed falling in love with this show alongside many of you.