so sucked in! SO sucked in.
SHORTEST ENTRY YET FUCK IT I AM SO SUCKED IN. Kind of difficult to split this up since the two episodes belong together more than the other two-parters we've seen, so this is even less organized than usual.
Part I
Laura looks so nervous! She's good at making decisions, she's not so good at convincing and being in front of people. ALSO I LOVE HER MORE THAN ANYTHING SHE IS HILARIOUS. SHE HAS THE GIGGLES. Love the shot of her collapsing into giggles on Adama's arm. Mostly it just makes me think Darkness is Looming, but I still love it. Probably apropos of nothing in particular, but her "there he goes again" at Gaius is, IIRC, almost word-for-word a phrase that Reagan used to use in his debates with Carter.
Gaius is deliciously extra-loathsome in this episode, and not just because he's up against Laura ALTHOUGH THAT DOES NOT HELP. He's somehow destined to protect the baby? He didn't just want to? He's just never responsible for anything IS HE. He also hasn't learned to control himself around headSix, though, to the point where he's talking back to her out loud in front of Zarek, going so far as to specifically refer to the hand of a singular god in front of Tom. Again, not that it matters; Zarek's goal is destabilization, not working towards any actual secularist convictions, but Baltar is less and less interested in keeping his delusions a secret. Also a little unhappy that the moderator let him get away with interrupting Roslin. UNACCEPTABLE.
As for his campaign, it's amazing that he's openly associating with Zarek and that's not hurting him; it should be. Fun resonance with Colonial Day, where Roslin gave him his start in politics in order to contain Zarek. It's not that easy. He's glib and full of platitudes, but Tori might be right that they're exactly what people want to hear. The thing about an empty suit is you can imagine just about anything is inside of it. His open lies about being a man of faith are pretty clearly calculated, but people who are actually voting based on religious affiliation will almost certainly vote for Roslin no matter what. Like the abortion controversy in the last episode, he's just really good at momentarily defining himself as in opposition to Roslin.
There is some nice resonance to the end of the first half of the season, which ended with the threat to Adama's authority. I don't think Gaius is ultimately any less dangerous than Cain, though the biggest issue with him would be just how unsuited he is to what he's doing, as opposed to Cain's single-mindedness. Lots of referring to certainties that as a viewer look like anything but - of course Roslin will carry the election; of course the Chief isn't a Cylon.
Basically that "of course you aren't a Cylon" looks like a dead giveaway to me, but I suppose I'll find out soon enough. But the Chief. Poor kid. Goes to the worst possible person to help him as well - a priest who neither believes in therapy nor prayer. If he wanted cryptic, useless lecturing he could have gotten that on Galactica.
I think they're overplaying the ominous sense of doom with Sharon's "something dark is coming." They're in the middle of something dark, it just feels calculated to scare us. Without it the episode does a pretty good job of it on its own.
I love that Kara gets her way on going back to rescue the survivors. Unlike Lee - "I hope you find him" indeed - I think she has a lot of reasons for going back; part of the reason she cares so much about Anders is her attachment to all of those reasons. She knows what awaits humans that gets captured, and she wants to take back some of the power she lost early in the season. She wants to do something, accomplish something, believe in some greater purpose than fighting just to fight. I'm impressed with all of the pilots for going along with it, even with Sharon involved - we know her, but they don't, and they have every reason to be suspicious. There's really no such thing as a volunteer-only mission with those kids, though; it's What You Do.
Part II
Even before the reveal of the priest, it's not a good sign that they were following Sharon's lead when they walked into the trap. Then keeping the guy's cover is just a terrible decision. As for the priest, like the reveal with Three and the doctor before him, it just doesn't feel earned. He shows up for one episode, earns suspicion and irritation, and then is a bad guy. The shock of the reveal of Sharon at the end of the miniseries, after she had established relationships with the crew and the audience, is fantastic and hasn't been matched since. There are only a small handful of these reveals and I want them to be ABSOLUTELY GUT-WRENCHING, GODDAMMIT. It'd be unrealistic for all of them to be absolutely terrible, but for three in a row now to be mediocre is a disappointment.
This olive branch is a ridiculous fake-out. Or maybe a renegade? But I don't think for a moment they mean it. Maybe Sharon and Caprica Six got into a programming center somehow? Ultimately it looks like he's meant to be paralleled with Baltar - claiming to offer peace and espouse rationality over religion, but as ultimately ineffectual as Gaius.
Overall, I'm not even sure why he went there or tipped his hand to begin with. Why wouldn't the Cylons use a model the humans already knew about? They are awfully generous about not killing Sharon Valeriis. The long scene with the Chief serves to bring out the character and his misgivings about his humanity and the nature of humanity in general. (I'm not really taken in by "tough love," especially not to the extent he claimed to be giving Tyrol, since IMO people who dish it out are usually just people who enjoy being cruel and want to twist the bullying knife by convincing the victim that "it's for your own good," but maybe we were supposed to have a different reaction? Though the sequence did serve to tell us that there are therapists in the fleet, which. THEIR SKILL SET IS WOEFULLY UNDERUSED.)
I was wondering what Tori's backup plan was, but ouch. With Laura's tacit approval no less, but they could have stepped back for plausible deniability. Seems like she did have that but couldn't make herself live with it. Instead, Adama covers her so she can pull out, but not well enough that Baltar doesn't figure out what happened, which just makes him (for once fairly, even if he does let it influence his decisions to an unforgivable extent) even more haughty. But they're both going to have to live with it. Roslin's ruthlessness is ultimately proven to have been founded in truth, as she's now living through a Cylon attack on Baltar's colony.
Baltar is just terribly petulant and not at all equipped to make these kinds of decisions. He used New Caprica as a distraction during the election, and he's doing it now to distract from the nuclear attack. He's priding himself on not having had any attacks in the last year, while of course he's completely responsible for the last attack of Roslin's presidency. I do wonder why Six detonated it, though; she's still carrying out her Cylon missions. Funny, too, that they make a point of saying they were a light year away; they've known where the humans were this whole time.
It's excruciating watching the slow but sure decommissioning of Galactica. As much as I've wanted them all to find some peace, it's hard watching this family be broken up and most of these people lose their purpose. All I could think about Adama sending Tigh off was that THIS IS A TERRIBLE MISTAKE. I didn't think it would be revealed as such so soon, but it is clearly a terrible mistake.
The contrast between Baltar and Roslin couldn't be more stark. He drinks and screws while Rome freezes, but she gets back down to work and does the other thing she knows how to do. Sweet to see the baby's foster mother working along with her, even if it seems like a strange risk to be taking. She's genuinely great with the kids, even if she clearly misses her life of comfort and power.
The crew all feel sort of aimless on New Caprica, even the ones that aren't wafting through space waiting for an attack that's already come. Tyrol as union leader, and Callie as right-hand-woman and soon-to-be parent are kind of a nice sight (if you can put the beating scene of the first part of the episode, and Callie's honestly too-easy forgiveness of it, out of mind) but their efforts feel totally futile up against Baltar's self-indulgent impatience. Gaita seems to have become disenchanted with the military and is also one of the few Baltar can trust. Gaita's dedication to Baltar seems to be based in an effort to remind himself that reporting on the theft of the election was the right thing to do, rather than any partiality or convictions; and of course he's used to taking orders. Wonder what happened to Zarek? I'd guess he just kept to himself on a small ship. Warmer that way. New Caprica only seems habitable in the technical sense, and they still don't have any kind of shelter except for tents.
Kara/Sam is fucking cute. What happened between Kara and Lee that he would let someone die to get back at her? Just that she got married and didn't spend her whole life wandering around an empty ship? GOD WHAT A TOOL. I'm a little impressed with him that he could see they needed to pull out of the world, but still, I suppose Adama has connections there that he just doesn't any more.
Six is dressed the same as Caprica Six when we last saw her; is this her and Sharon's idea of changing things for the better? Minimizing bloodshed? The priest obviously didn't mean it when he offered the truce. The Sharons may well have all collapsed in on each other.
It kind of makes me uncomfortable that I'm way, way more forgiving of Roslin in this episode than I was of Adama at the beginning of the season, though we're dealing with very similar issues. I'm not sure if I have reasons or rationalizations, and I suspect it's a bit of both. Obviously Adama went through with it, while Roslin didn't; point, Laura. Adama went after a dying woman with his freaking army; election fraud is a terrible crime but hardly treason executed by kidnapping at gunpoint. Roslin also seems far more conflicted about what she does. Adama just flew into a pique of anxious masculinity when Starbuck called him on his bullshit and went back to Caprica. Roslin was miserable and conflicted about what she'd done.
I'm not sure if I feel the way I do because I obviously like one character more than the other or if the differences in actions occur because of the character traits that I like in Laura and don't so much love in Bill. Ultimately, I like characters who are honest with themselves about why they do what they do, who have morally good goals and always keep those goals in mind. Laura is all three of those things; Bill is only one of them. (Says something about Bill that he could be talked into assassination but not election theft. Laura, not so much, because she's a lot more honest about the fact that her guiding principle is "whatever needs to be done.") Or then, I might just be reacting to the way that Adama's decision was ultimately proven catastrophic, resulting in the Tigh dictatorship, while we know Roslin was right about her mistrust of Baltar and concerns about New Caprica in particular. (That gets a little tautological, though, because gauging an action based on its outcome is very Roslin. So.)
Other thoughts
- Is the number in the title credits the number on Roslin's board, or the actual number?
- Why the drop in ten thousand people? Were there that many aboard Cloud 9?
- Ellen does have all the clothing in the world, which doesn't surprise me in the least.
- LEE WHAT IS WITH YOUR HAIR? THESE PEOPLE NEED TO TRUST YOUR DECISION-MAKING SKILLS, LEE. HOW CAN ANYONE FOLLOW THAT TERRIBLE HAIR INTO BATTLE. FIX IT.