laura roslin doesn't make suggestions
The Captain's Hand
THIS IS GOING TO BE THE EPISODE THAT BREAKS ME INTO TINY LITTLE PIECES ISN'T IT. ISN'T IT. Cottle has been an abortion doctor all this time? I think I have changed my mind about him. (It doesn't really square with the guy who thought pulling a medical hail Mary to save a dying patient shouldn't happen because it was "unnatural," but I approve of this, so I'll go with it.)
Adama really skeeves me out in this episode. What Roslin does is immoral and not particularly useful, but she understands it's wrong and has thought through her reasons for doing it and doesn't in any way excuse it. Adama, though. All shocked and appalled that Cottle is performing abortions. HE IS A DOCTOR, WHAT DO YOU THINK HE DOES, ALTER HEMLINES? He doesn't actually say anything in support of the girl, either. He proceeds to walk in and loom over her, because apparently "doctor-patient confidentiality" is a four-letter word in space, and proceeds to try to shame her - "you're a stowaway on a military vessel"; she is either a Cylon suspect or a kid in need of help, but just standing there glaring down at her is not useful towards dealing with either of those scenarios - and then lecture her paternalistically about how her family is probably worried. If they cared so little about her she had to run away THROUGH OUTER SPACE just to get access to basic fucking health care, no, they're not worried, they just want to abuse her some more. Fuck them. Also his snotty little "she's not Billy," swipe at Roslin when she disagrees with him - what, just because he makes decisions based on personal attachments and not principle, everyone else does?
I'd have liked to continue imagining this as a society where abortion as a right is accepted, but that's more wish fulfillment than something that makes sense within the society. It does kind of make me suspicious that the Geminon delegation is really threatening to withhold their votes from her. Geminon is what, going to vote for Zarek and Baltar, who are unapologetically irreligious, over a prophet foretold in Scripture?
It hurts, it just hurts, to see Laura for the first time since we've known her make a political decision based on deeply-held feminist convictions rather than practicalities and then watch her convince herself that those convictions need to be subsumed. This has been seeded really well with the Sharon storyline, with Roslin clearly willing to force Sharon to terminate for the greater good, but it still hurts.
Unfortunately, it is just a rotten decision all around. THIS LAW IS OVERLY VAGUE AND WOEFULLY UNDERINCLUSIVE. There are really going to be SO MANY pregnancies that they're going to REVERSE THE EXTINCTION OF THE ENTIRE SPECIES? What happens when there's a significant life- or health-threatening issue? At this rate they're not going to make it long enough for the forced birth to be more effective in the long run than letting the woman survive to try again later. And does "interfere with the birth of a child" just include abortion? Are they going to start confiscating rubbers? How does Laura Roslin of all fucking people not think of this? (Actually, what are they still doing for birth control? Is there conveniently a fully-stocked pharmacy somewhere in the fleet? How do they never run out of ANYTHING? And don't they all run into each other there, 'cause of how they're all boning their subordinates? AWKWARD!) WHY NOT JUST START SOME HUMAN BABY CAMPS?
Actually, that is kind of a question. Why not set up legitimately attractive options for people? Coercion's just going to drive them all underground (somehow I don't see this law being too seriously enforced, but still) but I don't know, why not take over a floor of Cloud 9 to make it a voluntary fertility camp and see if there are any takers?
This is what I mean about invisible gender inequality. Not that childbirth is super-fun or anything, but their lives all suck anyway; if people are avoiding pregnancy so assiduously, it's because there are significant ramifications. It doesn't really matter if they're social issues like stigma or practical issues like lack of OB/GYN care, though clearly those two things are interrelated. Combining this with the appalling treatment of sex workers, you have a situation where work that's coded as female or done by women and connected to sex is not just undervalued but actively abhorred to the point of erasure. We're in this exceptionalist situation where the women we know and can be coded as masculine or at least un-feminine can be sexual and almost equal, but society at large, not so much.
EXCITING FLEET POLITICS YAY. The people are used to living in a state of crisis, Laura is going to live, and people are losing trust in the religious narrative that's carried her this far. It looks like she's going to have a show campaign against Zarek, but he has other ideas in Baltar. Zarek is clearly playing to Baltar's ego and playing down a few important things. The first being, of course, that the worst thing that could happen to Baltar's scientific insights is Baltar having his time and energy taken up with day-to-day political details. The other is that aside from the quest to find earth (which, might as well be going somewhere, they haven't found anywhere safe and habitable yet), Roslin's decisions are rationally unassailable. Baltar's entire campaign is based in disingenuous double-talk.
Baltar makes my skin crawl, using the decision as a launchpad for launching his own candidacy, as if he could give two shits about that poor girl.He's exactly the kind of person that will appeal to smarmy superior types, though, given that he is one himself. This is the kind of episode that makes me wonder if Six isn't a bit more than a hallucination. Gaius doesn't want decision-making power, he wants recognition. He especially shouldn't want to be drawing public attention to himself, since his relationship with her would still come to light under public scrutiny.
Zarek for sure did know exactly which buttons to push with him, but it just goes to show how volatile and craven Baltar is that he's susceptible to Zarek's manipulations here. He knows exactly what Zarek is, and that he's just doing what he's doing to destabilize the government because he's a chaos-loving sociopath, but Baltar is all YOU MAKE A POINT ABOUT THE LACK OF WORSHIP OF MEEEEEEEEEEEE. And if he's openly colluding with the Cylons to soothe his pissy ego, he's obviously going not going to have a lot of problem working with Zarek. (This episode, ultimately, illustrates what I mean about Zarek resonating with my picture of Laura more than Lee. The last thing Lee would ever want to do is be the man behind the man. Laura would, and in fact has, as long as she was convinced the objectives were worthwhile. Laura is Order, tailoring all of her actions to that number on her dry erase board, and Zarek is Chaos, looking out for Number One. But they have the same chilling ruthlessness and knowledge of social dynamics.)
And then there is the Pegasus storyline, which is way less fun than politics but it has lots of 'splodey things so okay. Lee is so susceptible to daddy figures, poor kid. All he needs is a rant about how KIDS THESE DAYS DON'T KNOW HOW HARD IT WAS TO FLY THIS BATTLESTAR UPHILL BOTH WAYS and he's putty in the guy's hands. Man, Bill is a great officer, but he must have been a terrible father. What Lee's going to do now that he is the daddy figure, though, is anyone's guess.
The Pegasus commander is revealed to have been a reprehensible decision-maker in the tradition of Pegasus commanders before. He disregards Kara just because she won't sufficiently (that is, entirely and every moment of every day) submit to his authority, and then takes it upon himself to try to overrule Adama. He seems to be fostering a general conflict between Pegasus and Galactica, since his crew is willing to carry out an illegal arrest after he's revealed himself as refusing to listen to reason on the rescue mission that wasn't. Also, why the hell didn't he take an oxygen tank into the crawl space? They have to have oxygen they can transport! What in the world made Adama put this guy in charge? They must be really far up shit creek.
Kara's a little older and wiser, but she's found her authority-hostile old ways while not being too bad of a leader herself. "I was venting. Accurately." She's probably acted out of line as well, or would have if she'd been there for more than what, a few days?, but the commander is undermining her at every turn, restricting information to "Pegasus crew." Since there probably aren't a whole lot of people on the ship who aren't on the crew, this is just pettily leaving her out of the loop so she can't do her job. She's completely right about him.
But mostly it is a Lee situation. Even the previously on segment is all about Lee and not the guy who gave his life trying to save Lee. Uncool, show. BILLY GETS DEAD AND ONE MENTION AND LEE GETS LAID AND PROMOTED TWICE? THIS IS THE WORST.
The polarity of Lee's character is on full display in this episode. He does a great job in the moment of crisis when he has to take over Pegasus, competently managing the catastrophe with minimal casualties, and you can tell he's taking his job exceptionally seriously, because he's more terrified giving orders than he is when the ship actually gets hit by a bomb. He's got a tough job cut out for him as an outsider (and the Admiral's son) suddenly placed at the top of the heap on Pegasus. While it looks as if he's gone a ways toward earning their respect, he's still in a treacherous hornets' nest. Unlike Bill, he doesn't have a second in command he can trust implicitly, and that's going to hurt him in dealing with the crew and in making decisions. (His smarmy "that's her opinion" or whatever slap at Kara when Bill is analyzing his report is more than a little patronizing, and I see him as far more likely to sugarcoat something than Kara is to be vindictive toward someone who can't hurt her any more. She'll lash out, she'll hold a grudge, but it's about self-protectiveness, not superiority. Suggests that he's completely capable of circling the wagons to protect someone's reputation, over telling the truth.)
The interpersonal stuff, though, makes me rage at him. Kara loves him so much. Whether you read it as platonic or romantic, she just loves him so much. It is so clear in her face and voice every moment they are on screen together. And he's terrible to her. YES THERE WAS THE UNFORTUNATE SHOOTING INCIDENT but that was so incredibly not her fault, which he absolutely knows, and as he finally admits after she bares her soul to him, it wasn't about that at all. He just lets her punish herself, and openly throws it in her face, knowing how deeply broken up she is about it. He couldn't possibly punish her any more than she's punishing herself, but he's damn well going to try, just to show he can. (She does get a good shot in with "poor Lee, your life is so hard." I LAUGHED FOR ABOUT SIX AND A HALF YEARS.) He and Kara generally have the same kind of way of displaying affection as he has with his father, with the most genuine moments covered by seemingly-heartless jokes, but he has to take it a step too far with her and watch her face collapse. YOU ARE BACK ON NOTICE, JUNIOR.
Having thought about it, and despite all I've written just now, this really isn't any better an episode than Black Market or Scar. It relies very heavily on explosions instead of the philosophical and ethical quandaries that are the show's strong point. Roslin's decision is completely irrational and therefore out of character; Adama's behavior and opinions don't make any more sense for an atheist who proudly introduced himself as the son of a civil liberties lawyer. It just feels like it's shoehorning Roslin into a spot where she's making a decision she might really punish herself for. That said, the incredible performances of and chemistry between MM and EJO make it much more enjoyable than the other mediocre episodes. MORE LAURA = BETTER EPISODE. SCIENCE!
Downloaded
The world of the show keeps getting bigger, to the extent that now the Cylons on Caprica are being shown deliberately as individual characters, distinct even from the other copies of themselves. And the threat of "boxing," like the destruction of the resurrection ship, exists to raise the stakes for the characters we're starting to know enough about to get legitimately attached to.
Specifically, the Six and Sharon who were exposed to humanity are in sharp relief against the other Sixes and Sharons. Sharon even comments on how Sixes are usually "so hard-core," unlike the Six who is cautiously doling out her emotions about Baltar, but who seems to mean them all the same. Sharon's little sister teenage adjustment issues are also fairly distinct from mother-Sharon on Galactica. I do wonder if this Caprica Six is the same as the Caprica Six we saw shadowing Sharon and Helo throughout S1 - her contempt for Sharon would be more like jealousy and repression than the coldness it looked like.
With this Six suddenly vulnerable and human-sympathetic, Three is taking over as the threat and the true believer in the Cylon plan. She doesn't seem as overtly religious as Six did, though, talking more in terms of war and fighting than of God's plan. She's fairly clearly fucking with both Six and Sharon - Six didn't know Baltar had survived; Sharon doesn't seem to know Adama made it. (Funny that Baltar made it onto Galactica because he switched places with Helo in the first place, then, though I doubt that was intentional.) There's still no clear leader of the Cylons, it's just a fearful "they."
Looks like the Cylons were serious about the downloading process; I didn't know if that was actually true or if they were just taking it on faith. That said, it seems to be much more of a last-ditch resource than something they do lightly or easily. It's taking Six months to get used to her new body, though that seems more psychological than physiological. The rebirthing process seems absolutely terrifying, though maybe it's especially so for the two we see because of their emotional attachments to their humanity. And it seems that they can both be trusted at the end when they decide to take their 36 hours and change everything for the better.
Baltar has the same hold over Six that she does over him, which is fascinating! What did they do? Aside from the obvious. This is ending up being a fascinating, twisted love story, taking place in two very damaged minds. Six's Baltar is much more insightful and less strategic than his Six, mostly helping her to reach Sharon and avoid the pitfalls set by Three.
The resistance fighters on Caprica are seriously grayed up, though whether you want to call them terrorists or guerilla ressistance fightesrs I suppose depends on your perspective. Either way, nice to see Griff is still alive.
The baby saga on Galactica plays itself out, though I am a little intrigued that they did actually work so hard to save Sharon. (Cottle's tiny crack about "upgrading the plumbing" just sounds like his cantankerous self, but actually it makes perfect sense - the Cylons would just expect to be able to operate, leave the biological mother for dead, and have her uploaded.) She's not guaranteed to be quite so useful after she's come to term, especially since she thinks they've murdered her baby. But there doesn't seem to have been any question about it from anyone, which is heartening but interesting. Sharon and Helo seem to be bending a little towards one anothers' religious views; with Helo saying "it's almost enough to make you believe in the Cylon god" and Sharon utterly cooing the name "Hera." Even knowing about what the end of the episode holds for them that scene just makes me smile. So sweet.
Why is Baltar suddenly invovled in the planning sessions now that he is a political threat as well as a national security one? It looks like he's not even in on the decision to take the baby from his conversation with Six. If Roslin does still suspect him of collusion, she might well be taking the opportunity to use him to seed the untrue rumor that Hera is dead.
Laura's still completely herself, and keeping her goals in mind, but she's changing. "I don't make suggestions. If I wanna toss a baby out an airlock, I'd say so." She's just been destroyed by last week. If she can say this so casually, and mean every syllable of it, she's faced and completely embraced the fact that she is willing to do anything. But still, not unless she deems it completely necessary; she does take the calculated risk of letting the baby live. Did they think to Cylon-test the adoptive parent? Because yeah.
Ultimately the decision to put the girl in foster care doesn't bother me; it seems like the least risky of the options that don't involve killing the baby. It's terribly sad, but it's the least unethical. If Cylons don't have rights, then they might as well be kidnapping a puppy; if they do, then Hera has the right to be raised in a safe environment, and Galactica is anything but, both because it's a war zone and because of the huge threat posed by potential Cylon kidnappers. Sharon's information, though, may well be a loss to them, unless they're willing to start threatening her.
Other thoughts
- Are characters randomly assigned to home planets, or are we supposed to be looking for meaning in the star signs? Like, was having been a Tauron supposed to say something about Cain? SHE IS STRONG LIKE BULL, maybe. (I actually should know enough about being a Taurus to answer that since I am one and all, but I actually can't remember what those traits are supposed to be.) Oh my GOD can you imagine Cain's face if she knew Lee Adama took over her ship? HOMICIDAL! But also funny.
- OTHER THINGS THEY SHOULD BE OUT OF: Is Roslin's hair getting darker? They have hair dye? Also, how does nobody ever even need a trim?
- I wish one of these days whatever's creating gravity on the ships would break instead of the oxygen lines. I wanna see Tigh floating around on thin air. Hee!
- This season is so uneven. It takes you from amazing episode to terrible episode to fantastic arc so fast your head spins. The good episodes are just phenomenal. And then some episodes look like an intern wrote them the night before shooting.