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Home Part I
This is the first episode where we get to see Roslin truly acting as a commander-in-chief and making national security-type (species security?) decisions, and where we see Adama come to accept (once he gets told by a very brave Dee) that military might doesn't necessarily make right.
Specifically, Laura has to make the intelligence decision on what to do with Sharon and the military decision to approve Lee's plan for the Kobol mission, along with the political decisions of how to keep the fleet in line. Laura doesn't even know who Helo is and she accepts their word about Sharon. She and Kara seem to have a great, if brittle, understanding. I don't expect these two characters to always or even often agree, but they understand each other. She doesn't kill Helo, but her decision leads to the death of her only friend. Roslin may be on the road to becoming Zarek or Adama, able to commit to and rationalize horrible violence, but as of now she's owning everything she's doing, and everything she asks her faction to do. It could be dangerous. It could be a trap. And she doesn't have lots of guns and years of goodwill to keep her in charge if she's proven wrong. Of course, in some ways it's easier for her; she has only a few months of pain and pressure to lose, while Adama has decades and a whole family, especially (whatever he says) Lee.
I despised Zarek as a person but liked him as a character when he was set up to be Lee's dark mirror, but I admit to being absolutely fascinated now that he seems just as much set up to be Laura's. While it seemed plausible in the last couple of episodes, it's become very difficult to avoid.
Zarek's as much of a nonbeliever as Adama. He's picked his lot for totally selfish, and frightening, reasons. I absolutely love characters who do the right thing (and cooperating peacefully with a legitimate government authority is an enormous step up for Zarek) for the wrong, wrong reasons. We get a pointed glimpse into his real motivations in this episode - "he who has the guns makes the rules" - and his ability to rationalize. He wants to bring everyone freedom. The freedom to get shot for disagreeing with him! IOW, exactly the freedom they had under Tigh's interim authority (and, let us not forget because nothing has changed legally or socially upon Adama's return, the freedom they have now). But he has convinced himself, at least while he's talking to convince someone else, that it's about freedom. That's not all that different from Roslin's path to accepting herself as the prophecied messiah figure - she's sure in public, she puts out press releases claiming her destiny, but she still hesitates to bless the soldiers. It's wrong. She's not so sure. This hints at potentially terrifying developments for Roslin, since she's just as convinced of the primacy and correctness of her philosophy as is Zarek. She's a good person, an almost entirely selfless person, and she clearly doesn't have the absolute power that corrupts absolutely, but she does have some power, and that can be enough.
In this episode, Roslin and Zarek espouse just about exactly the same view of human behavior: that it doesn't matter if what you believe is true, it just matters what your beliefs make you do. Laura is of course talking about how Sharon says she loves Helo and so the threat to airlock him is enough to get the truth (while I don't doubt that she would airlock someone to get to someone else, I don't think she would do so to Helo specifically for this reason, since it would shatter the trust Lee and Kara have placed in her - I doubt the usefulness of the action, not that she would do it). Zarek's equivalence of "president or prophet" shows much the same belief about how the universe works, but on a large scale (not what convinces Sharon, but what convinces a critical mass of followers).
The critical difference, of course, is that Zarek is in it for himself and his sadistic desire to punish everyone even loosely connected with the people he feels oppressed him as a Sagittarion, while Roslin is - currently, and I do believe this is genuine - in it for humanity. But she could easily come to equate herself and her own fate with that of humanity itself, and go down Zarek's road. I don't think she will; I do think it's a danger she will have to (and maybe already is) guard herself against.
Is anyone surprised that I was once again not impressed with Adama for most of this episode? Choosing an officer based on loyalty to him personally - neither loyalty to humanity or the Articles, nor straightforward merit - is a politically authoritarian act. And that utter train wreck of a press conference. "The fleet has been divided." Note the passive voice and lack of subject. The fleet has been divided by the guys who staged a military coup, then used its ill-gotten gains to hunt down peacefully protesting civilians like dogs in the street. To distract the press (and himself) from the holes in his logic, he offers them platitudes - we'll stay together and rise - which in a period of protracted crisis are basically a way of saying I HAVE NOTHING OF SUBSTANCE TO SAY. (Well. I tend to think platitudes are pretty much always that, but that's neither here nor there.)
Then he loses his patience with the press, and says exactly the wrong thing when he tells them that the stories they're printing doubt of his knowledge of Earth are slander, and implicitly threatens them with jail time ("freedom of the press doesn't extend to slander"). Not only is he tipping his hand that they've hit a nerve, he's going straight down Tigh's road. With more charisma and a slightly longer fuse, but still. In his own way, Adama's belief in himself as a principled person is as potentially dangerous as Roslin's certainty that she's a holy instrument. Tigh didn't have any illusions about the wrongness of what he was doing, but he was set to destruct the moment Adama was shot. Adama, so far, has been able to rationalize the things he does as principled actions, even if his actual behavior is in direct violation of the stated principle - ie his citation of freedom of the press to threaten the press.
But he does come around thanks to OH MY GOD, Dee. He's sitting there going on calmly about his rage to her (painting the model boat, which did make me laugh for real). They are alone in the room, when she is the person on the ship most responsible for Roslin's escape, and by both projection and extension Lee's defection. She's just waiting for that rage to be turned on her. And she does not bat an eyelid. I'm impressed by her telling him the truth so clearly and dispassionately; I'm astounded that she can do it under those circumstances.
He doesn't quite get it entirely, though. His words at the end are "I'm putting the fleet back together. I'm putting our family back together." Not just "this ends now," not "let's find them," but effectively "I'm ending this." As if it's entirely up to him. The whole point of the last half-season is that it isn't up to him alone. It's his responsibility to create certain conditions that allow the fleet to stick together; it's not his unilateral choice whether the fleet sticks together. That is the thing that has to change in order to stop the same thing from happening over and over, worse every time.
I keep going around and around on the Boomer-Lee-Kara scene in the makeshift brig and dude, it's really upsetting. I'm trying not to be too hard on Lee because I don't know that I'd behave any better if someone hurt my family, but this episode does not show him developing in a good direction. I don't blame him for pulling his weapon when he first sees Boomer - he doesn't know that Kara and Karl know what she is, so it's his duty. However, he doesn't need to go down to the cell while she is contained and wave a gun at her. Whatever she is, whatever he knows about Cylons, he knows this isn't the Sharon who shot Bill. He doesn't know what we know, pointing towards Sharon being a good-faith defector from the Cylons - if Caprica Six is right and we are as we choose to do, Sharon is the most human of them all, as hard as she fights for it. And I don't think he's going to shoot her, I think he's enjoying the power trip of terrifying her.
Then he grabs Kara, shakes her, and pushes her into a shelf. Say what you will about him (and I do), up until now he's consistently focused his feelings towards the proper target. His problem is that it's either too little, too late, or he can't go through with what would need to be done to achieve his objectives. He backed down off of Tigh, and wasn't able to shoot Zarek (who was a legitimate threat and will be one until he dies and probably longer).
Why does every. single. dude on this show feel the need to throw women around? In this episode it's Lee, deciding that shaking Starbuck and throwing her against a wall is an appropriate way of dealing with his concern for his father. He doesn't know what we know, of course - he thinks she's upset, not that she's been physically and emotionally violated - but it's still a vicious overreaction to "don't shoot the handcuffed pregnant lady who could help save all of our lives." As seems to be one of the show's definitive statements on humanity, he's taking out his violent impulses towards Sharon on Kara, because she happens to be there. Kara is also probably the most distressing target for this kind of threat, because she's a childhood abuse survivor. She's used to being physically unsafe around people who say they love her. I don't know whether Lee knows about this - if he does, she either let it slip while drunk, or he's sussed it out, I don't see her talking about it or even letting herself remember the worst of it - but as a viewer, it's distressing.
It's especially unfortunate that this happens in the same episode as the hello kiss as well as Lee's statement that he loves Kara - their relationship gets some development. Their relief at seeing each other is heartwarming, and Lee's half-playful theft of Kara's toy and then Kara's teasing at but clear enjoyment of his confession of love are some of the best portrayals of genuine, relaxed closeness we've seen in the show so far. I like the shot of the two of them leaning against each other's backs, and Kara sinking into the fence a little bit when he stands. They depend on each other. Which is why friends should help each other out, not fling traumatized friends into walls.
The throwing-of-lady-associate is a worrisome pattern. Helo shook and pushed Sharon when he figured out she was a Cylon. Fine, robot, betrayal, blah blah. Then Tigh in his cabin with Ellen. Yeah, she was manipulating him and wanted to get him to lose it so he'd forget that he was onto her so she was probably braced for it, but it doesn't erase the fact that he did it. Then Tyrol. Then Lee. Even Adama's decision to stage the coup happened just after the victory party dance. Any one time might be disturbing for the viewer (and triggering for some viewers, which I don't think should be taken quite so lightly) but explicable in context; however, this is turning into a very ugly pattern.
I feel like this is the "don't hit girls" rule and its arbitrary "but everything else is fair game if the bitch pisses you off" clause, which doesn't recognize that relationship violence happens in context. None of the women on this show, except probably Roslin in her brutally weakened condition, can't take a punch; they are soldiers. It would make me angry to see, but depending on the context, it wouldn't have to be like this. If Lee and Starbuck were in a full-out fistfight outside of Boomer's jail cell, I really doubt that it would bother me. That would be in character, it would be on the show's scale of violent overreaction to emotionally wrought situations, but it wouldn't be scary. Neither of them thinks before they do stupid or potentially hurtful things; each is the only person the other can let loose with; there's probably not much or any of a physical strength differential. The scary thing about it isn't the pain. It's that when someone latches on to someone else and either throws them or looms over them so that they cannot escape, it's a reminder that I can do whatever I want to you. I'm not doing it yet. But I can. That, and the fact that it happens so often, and is not recognized as a violent power play (because technically, there's been no hitting), is what scares me. It's not that it's dark. I don't mind dark. But it has to be recognized as such. Genocide and rape are terrible crimes, but they're recognized as terrible crimes. This is being presented as a reasonable and uncontested power differential in male-female relationships. Uncool, show.
Home Part II
"We may have gone down separately, but we're going to come back together." EEEEE! More to the point, Adama seems to have needed some time to come around to the Roslin-Zarek view of human nature, which is that it's the resultant actions born of beliefs that matter, not the beliefs themselves. Tigh and Gaita's laughter at Laura's visions is understandable but comes off as callous, like they're trying to show Adama they're on his side when he's told them it's not about sides any more.
The Gaius-Six storyline is regaining some of its interest for me. Gaius starts to openly wonder what headSix is, and to take proactive steps to find out what she is. He doesn't come any closer to figuring it out, except to come to the realization that there's no physical chip, but her hallucination statement seems as plausible to him as her angel one. She can't be trusted either way - the conversation has come after he's thrown in his lot with humanity, and she tries every tool in her book to demoralize him. You're losing it. You're losing it with guilt. Your efforts are futile, because you're all going to die. Whatever she is, even if it's just his subconscious, things she has told him (Sharon's baby being born in the manger brig) are starting to become plausible.
Billy's bit in the episode is very nice, starting with his scene with Adama. The idea that he reminds her of Adar, her lover, is of course a little Oedipal, but their relationship has always seemed warm and wonderfully platonic to me. Of course, Adama can't be trusted right now, he's trying to buoy Billy up to be able to do his job, but still. He's picked up on Laura's esteem of Billy and Billy's deep affection for her. Billy's statement that Laura "wasn't too happy with [him]" when he decided not to go with her seems to speak more to his own ambivalence than to Roslin's actual words. Her "I wish you well" may have seemed or been frosty to someone who knows her well, but it read to me as a heartfelt farewell. And once they see each other again - all won't be forgotten, but there's not even talk of forgiveness. They did what they needed to do, and they care for each other, and they're happy to be reunited. Laura can't afford to dwell on the past; she needs to make every moment count.
Sharon is at her most fascinating in this episode. Her "and you ask why" just chilled me to the bone. Adama's attack of her is emotionally understandable, but, like Lee's threat in the jail cell in Part I, is based in a desire to hurt and scare, not in any genuine fear. I didn't actually buy that she was going in for Zarek's buddy's plan to take out Lee, or especially that she would draw Helo into it if she did, but it made for some fun suspense. He does nail her two weak spots - concern about her future child, and her (clearly understandable) fear that she will never be accepted among the humans. She does seem genuinely thrown that Galactica Sharon was murdered, but she doesn't seem to know the particulars, so it's driven slightly more of a wedge between her and the crew. She wants to think humans are good, even though she knows otherwise. Sharon taking him out anyway is a thing of beauty, even if it doesn't actually help in her cause to be accepted.
Sharon, instead of Six, has become the voice of Cylon theology in the show. She still doesn't seem anywhere near as convinced of her righteousness as Six is. "We believe in one true god" isn't an I believe. It's a recognition that she's a Cylon and that's what they do. "We know more about your religion than you ever will" is an interesting perspective on human polytheism as well, and an important reminder that we don't have all of our questions answered concerning scripture even if Roslin's visions have lined up with prophecy so far.
The crew isn't quite back together yet. Helo's under suspicion based on his relationship with Sharon, as well as his long, isolated stay on Caprica. The fact that he survived has to have looked a little suspicious (though of course if they were both Cylon agents Starbuck would never have made it back alive). Adama wouldn't entirely trust her if she mentioned Zarek's friend's intentions, but he wouldn't disbelieve it, either, and of course she didn't let Helo in on the plan so he couldn't explain if he wanted to. But they're healing.
I don't know why I love that Starbuck is the one that figured out that they were standing on Earth, but I do. The whole transport to Earth scene raises the question of whether Sharon's and Bill's view of prophecy is correct - it's an old oral tradition - or whether it's completely true. The fact that Laura's physically there seems to defy the letter of the prophecy, since now the dying leader has made it to Earth (unless she is wrong and she is not the leader, which seems unlikely) whatever else she does or doesn't do, but the important thing to all of them is that there's a light at the end of the tunnel (Scorpio, to be specific).
Zarek, much to my delight, is alive and an even greater threat than before. He clearly hasn't given up on his desire for power - he didn't see anything wrong with going after Lee, it just wasn't the time. He's wormed his way into the inner circle, though, standing in the front row with Kara and Lee at Roslin's reinstatement. I thought for sure he had tipped his hand by running over once his friend was shot. I don't think Laura and Bill have let him in for any more idealistic reasons - they can't very well say we all stand together except for the Saggitarion freedom fighter who stood by the president. It would make the reconciliation look suspect on everyone's part.
Obviously my heart just burst with LOVE at the Roslin/Adama reconciliation. They've really recognized their importance to each other - well, I think Laura has recognized it on a conscious level for longer than Bill has, but he's the one to verbalize it, and very very beautifully no less. Bill is both generous and arrogant when he says he forgives Laura. He doesn't seem like someone who's wild about recognizing that he was wrong. Laura takes it completely in stride (and in character) when she points out that she didn't ask for his forgiveness. She's not sorry. She did what she had to do. (It probably doesn't hurt that she's about to be proven right about the arrow and the tomb, either.) She also pointedly doesn't mention the coup, not to ask him for an apology or grant forgiveness. It's part not wanting to ruin a truly beautiful moment, but she also doesn't seem like she'll completely forgive him, even if she puts it behind her with grace and ease. Laura's strange blend of importance and humility comes through when she says that every day is a gift from the gods - she feels certain of that because she's an agent of the gods, but also because it genuinely doesn't occur to her to take credit for the good that's come of their survival. Bill's more secular take on it - that it's a gift of the goodness and wisdom of Laura - comes from rationality and what looks like genuine love. OH MY GOD, YOU GUYS.