imagine vichy france, with unstable robots
I’m actually not wild about Barren Wasteland of Despair stories, (I wasn’t as thrilled as everyone else seemed to be about the Epitaph stories either, they were good stories but just didn’t do it for me) and what I really want is for the relationships and dynamics I was enjoying so much to start to repair themselves, so this episode wasn’t necessarily my favorite in and of itself, but I am so engaged with the stories it sets up.
Most notably. KARA. WHY. GET THE HELL OFF OF HER. And while I initially thought he was already raping her (“you look lovely tonight,” EW), any relationship would be completely non-consensual, since he’s holding her captive. He fully intends to rape her. Laura’s analysis of striking back as critical to morale rings true with Starbuck’s attack of Leoben. She doesn’t haul ass out of there like she would if it was her first time making a break for it, she’s just trying to get a few minutes between his horribleness.
Leoben is so fucking disgusting. Forcing her to parent a kid with him even after she escaped? Is the violation of Starbuck just NEVER GOING TO END? DOES EVERYONE WHO MEETS THIS GIRL NEED TO VICTIMIZE HER? JESUS. And EW. It is one thing for her not to want the kid to die, whether Kasey is her genetic offspring or not, but to show her taking his hand in the hospital is just validating his disgusting abusive viewpoint and I HATE IT. (And he did cause the accident with the kid, yes? Seeing as he’s been leaving her alone all the time with nothing going wrong.) Ugh, his horrible domestic fantasy where his dream woman just never happens to have the option to leave. GOD I HOPE SHE STABS HIM AGAIN AND AGAIN UNTIL THEY RUN OUT OF LEOBENS. STAB STAB STAB.
I was so hoping the source on the inside was Gaita, I just like that guy. And now I like him even more! Can’t believe they never put two and two together, though. I mean, it’d be one thing for them just not to say it out loud just in case, but Chief’s dressing down of him is completely ridiculous. And it, combined with the execution order, seems to be the thing that puts Gaita over the top. I do still kind of read that relationship as a little bit slashy, though, at least as a Gaita -> Baltar crush. Which. Felix, I like you, so allow me to express my support of your sexual identity with the following comment: YOU CAN DO SO MUCH BETTER.
Ah. So they’ve decided to show us Lee’s degeneracy by having him GAIN WEIGHT THE HORROR. Nice, show. Real nice. (Especially since it looks super-fake: the deliberately unflattering shots that obscure his face; the way he looks bigger in a uniform that’s made to flatter triangle-shaped male bodies; the caked-on makeup. It’d be one thing if the actor had gained weight and they felt the need to comment, still bad but less deliberate; this is using the character’s body against him. In a way that doesn’t even make sense, since we have seen Lee during a phase where the sum total of his activity consisted of pouring and pounding. Is there no sugar in their liquor? Dislike.) I don’t really understand what we’re supposed to think is personally so different about him, though. He’s always been sharp as a tack in a crisis, maybe not making good decisions but able to quickly assess a situation and put what he does know to use. It’s between spikes in action that he starts to lose himself - this more than anything was the issue in the central episodes of the second season. That’s been true since humanity parked on New Caprica. When he convinces Bill to jump away from the planet, and then again when he argues against going back, he’s on it, making solid arguments quickly and convincingly.
It’s the times in between that are killing him - sitting around waiting to be preyed on while his friends bail one by one, and then shepherding a few hundred survivors around, going through the motions until they’re all finally extinguished - it gets to him because there’s no conflict there, just dread. Dee’s a little right and a little wrong that he’s a soldier in need of a war, I think. I actually think he could leave the military behind in a heartbeat, if he was convinced it was okay to do so. (Read: if Bill said so.) But he is a person in need of a cause on which to make some progress, and if possible an antagonist to mold his edges against. That doesn’t need to be a war. He could be a politician or a lawyer or a cop or even an academic with no problem. But he needs something. Right now he’s back out where he was in Resurrection, staring at the vacuum of space all alone. Of course it’s driving him out of his mind.
Laura seems to be a sort of spymaster for the insurgency - her “I want those names” implies that she knows how to get them and would be able to do something about it when she does, and she certainly knows exactly where to find the military wing of the insurgents, though she’s not going to be directly involved in any attacks any time soon. She’s never going to be able to go back to being a teacher entirely, I don’t think. Partially she likes the excitement and power of her new life, but she also genuinely wants to help.
Baltar, weirdly, seems to want not only her public support but also her approval on some level. He goes personally to talk to her in jail, but is really only keeping her there to ask for her help. She won’t give him the satisfaction of standing up publicly to the insurgency, even if she agrees with him on principle about the suicide bombings, as she trusts and respects him even less now. And she, oddly enough like Zarek, seems to know that as soon as she gets on the collusion radar she’s at even more risk from the government as soon as she gets out of line.
Exciting Zarek appearance! Looks like he found a conscience after all. He’s exactly the kind of person to suddenly discover his principles in this situation as well. While he will always be able to garner a little bit of power in a tenuous, slightly anarchic human situation in space, he knows he’s not going to be able to gain any sort of power or traction with the Cylon regime. He who has the guns makes the rules, and he’s never going to be able to outgun the Cylons on New Caprica. And of course his time aboard the prison ship probably hardened him toward the idea of detention. I don’t think it’s entirely cynical, but I don’t think for a moment that he’s reformed, either. The fact that Gaius named him vice president kind of cracks me up. I love the little conversation between him and Roslin, although it’s probably going to come back to bite her when things re-stabilize (as they must).
The conversation about the election does bring up some more worrying signs for Roslin, though. I do have every expectation that she’ll return to power in some capacity (and probably as president) now that she’s their Churchill. She went from never questioning the righteousness of her one goal, the protection of humanity, to experiencing a sliver of doubt over the abortion issue. Having talked herself out of the only idealistic stance she took since before the attacks, she’s then calmly suggesting infanticide, and presenting herself as having gone through with it, only not doing it because she’s convinced it’s unnecessary. She didn’t do it, but it doesn’t change the fact that she could easily bring herself to consider the possibility. Then she decided going through with the theft of the election was a bridge too far and she backed off, and look at the terrible consequences of that.
All of her experience in the past couple of years strongly suggests that her “by whatever means necessary” stance was right and when she abandoned it things went terribly wrong. And that in and of itself doesn’t need to be questioned to look at the possibility that she’ll start being able to convince herself that what she’s doing is necessary when in fact it’s not. She hasn’t yet, but she very well may swing too far in the direction of eliminating risk.
This sets up something that I generally like about the BSG universe, which is that it takes all hypothetical moral dilemmas and examines them as if they were real. The most clear was in Flesh and Bone, when Leoben claimed to have set up a ticking time bomb scenario. The show turned the hypothetical on its head when it was determined (through just letting him talk and run out the clock, no less) that there was no bomb and he isn’t going to be a useful source of information. But also, the election issue. Public figures do like to push the idea that their opponents are traitors, therefore any means by which to defeat them is acceptable. But it’s always a bullshit lie; red meat for the base and distraction from legitimate issues. (I’m reminded in particular of John Kerry, who actually had a Purple Heart, and was treated like a traitor for not sleeping with it under his pillow or something. WHATEVER, it was sophomore year, I WAS DRUNK THAT DAY.) But what if you did know that your opponent was the worst kind of traitor? It’s not excused, but it’s not exactly written off as a moral hazard either. So far, Roslin hasn’t succumbed to taking her fears and making them an excuse for whatever she wants to do. It doesn’t hurt that she’s a genuinely decent person with laudable motives. But knowing the extent of the risk she’s taking every time she doesn’t take the hard line could serve to shift her farther away from the critical, rational, moral kind of utilitarianism she’s showed thus far.
Baltar’s own story is both terribly appalling and terribly sad. Nice to see that he doesn’t have to live in his own Hoovervilles, of course, but still. He went from seething with resentment at feeling like Roslin’s puppet to actually being the puppet of the Cylons in a way that tears at even his conscience. He tried to convince himself that he wasn’t a puppet by going along of his own free will with everything they brought up to him, but the death warrants were too far even for him and he had to be forced. Unfortunately for his future prospects, people saw him as a traitor long before that, so they’re not going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Tigh is way the hell out of control. He might be right that an attack would help distract the Cylons for a rescue effort, but doing so without coordination is just striking back. He is where Roslin could go, striking out and using post hoc justifications for whatever bloodshed he wants to cause. He wants revenge on anyone. He’s more pissed at human collaborators than Cylons, starting with Baltar. He’s also never really left the military, even when Adama sent him off ship. He’s lost sight of whatever small view of complexity he has, telling Roslin she’s either an ice queen or kindergarten teacher, when of course the beauty and success of Roslin is that she is both. She’s good with kids because she can turn the caring on and off, which also means she has to be able to lock it down. I actually do take his point about morally equating suicide bombers with ordering pilots out on one-way missions - they’re not any less people when they put on a uniform, and if anything the insurgents know even more thoroughly what they’ve signed up for. But the number of civilian casualties belie any tough-but-necessary arguments on his behalf, since he actually just wants to lash out at the Cylons and anyone in his way.
The priest’s air quotes around “God” were funny the first time but now they’re just LOOK AT HIM NOT BELIEVING AND DOING THIS SHIT ANYWAY! LOOK! Done with this asshole. I don’t feel like there was much of a trick to him besides his being a particularly bloodthirsty wolf in priest’s clothing, and since that’s been revealed he’s just grating. I mean obviously I hate him too, what with his running the SS and all, but he’s also annoying. The sexual abuse of Ellen is…appalling and upsetting to watch, but at the same time, it’s perfectly in the tradition of the sleazy power-mongering of the character.
I know the development with Adama choosing to use Sharon in charge of the rescue mission is important, but I’m not sure what it means just yet. As Sharon tells us herself, we don’t really know what she’s going to do. She seems sincere in her talk with Helo, though. (He annoys me a little with his YOUR UNIFORM IS A SIGN OF YOUR SOUL crap, as if she needs a talking-to because she hasn’t been in the military all this time? But whatever, we need the talk to give us some indication that Sharon isn’t going to cross back over, and Helo obviously cannot go a half an hour without giving someone a Heartfelt Lecture, so whatever. I like him, but can you imagine having to live with that guy? I’d want to throw him in jail too.) Of course there is TWOO WUV on Our Heroes’ side, so, that’s good I guess?
Overall, it’s kind of irritating that everyone has to be married. I get that it’s to show time has passed and these people are still in their relationships and trying to build a normal life, but I don’t need Kara and Anders to fling around MY HUSBAND and MY WIFE to see that they’re working out. Neither do Dee and Lee need to be all WE ARE MARRIED, DO YOU HEAR US, MARRIED, when they’re sitting casually together in Lee’s officer’s quarters. Sharon and Helo I buy because, clearly.
Laura and Bill are the only couple that I’m a little surprised didn’t try to build something to hold them together, since Baltar’s election eliminated their work connection, but it also stands to reason that these people have defined themselves and their entire relationship by their jobs for so long that they don’t think they have anything else between them THOUGH CLEARLY THEY DO. SO MUCH LOVE. There is A/R there if you squint, though - he’s going back to get Laura, because there’s no Laura around to tell him to be ruthless like there was in the very beginning. I don’t know if she needs him to this extent, but he definitely needs her.
other thoughts
- The music is so beautiful and perfect. I love it. I could sit and listen to the soundtrack to this episode.
- Not lost on me in the least that Baltar didn’t even mean his “way forward” crap; he named the planet New Caprica. The past keeps folding over on itself to happen over and over again.