Boudica
Um, didn’t want to spoil above the cut for my whole f-list, but there’s obviously going to be discussion of the sexual abuse of Gina, and also homophobia. It’s contained under the CAIN/GINA heading if anyone needs to skip.
I almost didn't want to stop to watch this! I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS with the Cylons on board! And if Kara was for real! And if anyone got to SLAP THE SHIT OUT OF LEE FOR PICKING ON MY GIRL! Does Helo think Cylon baseships smell like daisies, or exhaust fumes! SUSPENSE! But I am really glad I watched it. I should not have jumped or gasped as many times as I did during an hour and a half of flashbacks - watching genre with me is a multimedia experience, y’all don't even know the half of it - and granted I am a little punchy but that was absolutely fantastic! EVEN WITH ALL THE ADAMA DRAMA and you know how that makes me eyeroll. And now this is just completely out of control so I am posting even though I actually think I could say even more.
Cain and the Pegasus crew
SO GREAT TO SEE CAIN AGAIN even though obviously she is terrifying and morally reprehensible. We get a more in-depth picture of her than we did in the Pegasus/Resurrection arc, but it turns out she’s even more frightening than we thought she was - she didn’t just attack when she had capabilities and/or no other option, she sought out combat. It doesn’t seem that she was entirely created by the attack on the Colonies - her crew is utterly terrified of her well before they see her shoot her XO - she’s just found a direction to focus that drive and let the ferocity within loose. She’s considered violence to be necessary to survival since she was very young. She has changed, though; her XO seems quite comfortable with her, calling her ”Helena” in her quarters and suggesting that she’s something of an auntie to his kids. Which is a little bit strange, though not totally unsurprising.
But when the Cylons strike, all that goes out the window. War is our imperative. If not victory, then revenge. None of this touchy-feely I know where Earth is bullshit. We're going down and we're going to take as many of those fuckers out with us as we can. So say we all. It’s possible that, as she said in her officers’ quarters, this wasn’t where she intended to end up any more than Bill intended to actually search for Earth. But her statement in the heat of emotion is what jives with her actions. And her later nihilism shows up in this very first address to her crew, when she tells them that running and hiding are the easy choices. We’ve seen the struggles on Galactica and to a lesser extent the civilian population. Living is a struggle; wanting to live even more so. This is giving up, and hoping not to be too terrified on the way down. It was probably easier for Bill initially because there were civilians around him, to give him someone to protect, but once Cain finds the civilians, she’s set her course and won’t turn back. They’ll get in the way of attacking, they might make her question the wisdom of her chosen course, and so they have to go. The FTL drives are more of a rationalization than a reason.
Cain gets her own shadow in the form of Kendra, who, I have to say, was fascinating. Kendra wasn’t any kind of fighter when she showed up to be Cain’s aide, she was a Classics student, and she doesn’t actually dispute Cain’s read on her as having non-military ambitions. Of course, it turns out she was completely right about her job being a stepping-stone to a better one; she never dreamed of being a major and an XO. (Also, her first day and she gets sent straight to Cain and the Cylons attack. I'm not sure which would scare me more, TBH. No wonder she snaps.) The Cylons made Cain in both of their attacks; Cain made Kendra all on her own. Unclear why Cain thought to grab Kendra right away; maybe she was just the closest person left alive and conscious, maybe Cain instinctively saw something promising in Kendra and ran with it.
Nobody can compare to Cain for Kendra. She adopted Cain as her role model, not as a hero to emulate but as the only acceptable standard. She’s a soldier. Perfection or death. Cain’s comment to Kendra after the attack about not being afraid any more is just as true in her relationships to others as it is in her role as a soldier - nobody but nobody is as scary as Cain, so it’s not worth even putting on a show of respecting them. Also. "You're a step up." SEEING AS HOW LOLING AT LEE IS A WAY OF LIFE FOR ME, I LIKE THIS BITCH. Her assessment of Lee isn’t actually that bad; she’s acknowledging the difficulties he’s going to face rather than pointing out any actual shortcomings. And yet the daddy’s boy discussion hits him where it hurts anyway, because who Lee is is much more difficult for him that what he does.
It’s shocking to see Kendra’s quick shift from aide to killing machine. She idolizes Cain, really, deciding that the worst thing is fear, and Cain’s never afraid, so she’s going to become Cain. She’s not even afraid of Cain after the attack - she doesn’t even need to be asked for her input before she confesses that she gave Gina her code. Seeing the calm with which she shoots the child - choosing her victim for maximum shock value to get it over with - is absolutely horrifying. Her fear and revulsion maybe weren’t such terrible things, they’re there to keep us from making awful mistakes like this one, but she stomps them out and doesn’t look back. The massacre of the civilians, like so much of the shadowing of Galactica’s crew, is chilling. Is it more or less scary that Tigh allowed this same thing to happen? Morally, Cain chose to do this, she’s far more in the wrong, but she is in control of the situation. And an out-of-control military is at least as dangerous as a controlled one, even if that control is misused.
Kendra gets the ending Cain couldn’t quite bring herself to have. After seeing this, I’m even more convinced that Cain was trying to talk Starbuck into killing her if Adama ordered it during the “don’t flinch” talk. Cain couldn’t straightforwardly commit suicide, it would be disgraceful; neither can she stand the idea of being taken down by the enemy (though that’s eventually what happens). Kendra goes down in a literal blaze of glory, choosing to be the one who carries out Lee’s order. You know damn well why. Because all she can do is fight. Because she doesn’t want to fight any more. Because dying alone is preferable to living with herself. Because she’s a soldier, and it destroyed her and now that’s all she is, and this is what she does.
What’s great about Cain in relation to the main story, though, is that she makes Bill, and to a lesser extent Laura, so much more interesting, and reveals how close to the edge both of them really are. Really, she’s the most dangerous characteristics of both Bill and Laura in one person, without their moral checks and more importantly without each other.
On the surface, she has that BITCHES GET SHIT DONE attitude that Laura has. She decides she has to do it, and she fucking does it. She lacks Laura’s humanism, rationality, and to some extent spirituality. Cain’s reasoning is weak where Laura’s is strong because Cain, like Bill, defines “what I have to do” as “what I want to do.” Laura wanted to airlock Gaius, but she didn’t HAVE TO, so she gave him (and the people) a trial. Cain would have decided she HAD to have Baltar drawn and fucking quartered. If he was lucky. Cain’s “have to” is geared towards the acquisition and use of tools of rage, because she wants those capabilities so she can go out in some fuckin fireworks. Laura’s “have to” is geared towards keeping enough people alive that they can continue. While on some level all “have tos” are “want tos” depending on one’s priorities, there’s a point where the dichotomy paradox fails for all practical purposes, and “want to” meets “have to.” For Laura, Cain is a cautionary tale, showing what she could become; however, their determination and dogged competence is morally neutral. It’s what they put it towards that counts, and that’s where Laura will never be Cain. And she has close relationships, especially with Bill, to keep her from veering too far away from why they fight, on the few occasions she’s in danger of that.
Bill, though; Bill is a different story. Bill finally has the opportunity to sit down with Cain’s logs, and he tells Lee that he doesn’t know if he would have done the same things Cain did. Bill is well aware that they abandoned civilians as much as Cain did, but while he and Laura made their decision as a pure defensive maneuver to protect people, Cain made hers as to prepare for more attacks. Because he lacks Laura’s conviction concerning their ends, he’s focused on and unnerved by the similarity of the means. Cain makes decisions based on rage the way Bill does, and doesn’t have anyone to reason with her. She did, but she blew his brains out instead of using them to her advantage. Bill was relieved to see Cain, and completely on board with her plan to strike back. Would he have done the same thing as Cain? Certainly not with Laura around to contain him; probably not without; and quite possibly if Lee had died in the attacks along with everyone else.
That’s what’s really underlined with the repetition of “you can’t do it on your own.” Cain tried. Kendra tried. But because of the way they channeled their connections to others - Cain to Six; Kendra to Cain - they both go down. But it’s not just that. You can’t make good calls on your own, because you’ll never be challenged, or you’ll go around in circles challenging yourself forever.
I really appreciate the new dimensions to Fisk’s story about Cain having shot her XO to force the random jump during the attack. Instead of Cain panicking, which wouldn’t excuse it or her later actions, might go a way towards explaining, we have her enforcing the first order of her suicide mission by kicking off the human casualties herself. Fiske’s lie makes sense. He can’t bring himself to question Cain too much in front of Tigh. He can’t make himself think of his role in the offensive and then the massacre on the civilian ships. He can’t make himself realize that Cain has become as much of a murdering machine as the Cylons she despises.
CAIN/GINA
I don’t even know how to start dealing with this relationship. It’s thrilling in a scary way. These two characters might be the most single-and-bloody-minded ones we know, and the idea of the two of them together is simultaneously perfect and terrifying. It looks as if Six was deployed a few months before the attack to Cain specifically, though it’s not entirely clear why that is. Perhaps Cain was simply so high up in the military that she merited an agent all on her own. Of course, if Galactica also had three Cylons on board that we know of, and nobody would have found that crew to be a threat, maybe it’s more likely that there are enough copies that they could have just planted a couple on every ship in the fleet just in case. The more interesting question is why the Pegasus’ drive was down at the time of the attack. If Cain was enough of a threat to merit her own Mata Hari, then she’s certainly someone who shouldn’t have been a priority for the Cylons to exempt from the genocide, so I think the implication is that Six saved Cain like she saved Baltar. There does seem to have been some awful twisted love there on both ends.
It’s absolutely shocking that we see Cain order Thorn to start the rapes - "pain. degradation. fear. shame" - but the show didn’t back away from the truth of that. It was fairly clear from the Pegasus/Resurrection arc that Cain’s treatment of Gina was about making sure that her crew distanced themselves as brutally as possible from the humanoid Cylons. But it’s also about ensuring that Cain herself was distanced from Gina as brutally as possible. The crew, at least the officers, knew about their relationship, and so Cain decides to use that to destroy Gina, telling herself that it will destroy what she thought they had as well.
SHOW ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO DO THIS TO ME. The first same-sex relationship we have seen on screen AND IF THE WEBISODES WERE THAT IMPORTANT TO YOU, THEY WOULD BE ON NETFLIX, ERGO DQ'd EVEN IF IT WAS MY BB GAETA is really really really going to be between one party who is a spy who is (a) actually not human and (b) actually in love with a dude, and a second party who is a murderous career bitch whose only personal style is that she brought enough Shane Motherfuckin McKutcheon eyeliner to wear it every day after the apocalypse? I mean. Hot. Don't get me wrong. But WTF???!?!
Cain: Frak me.
Gina: You’re not my type.
Okay. Gina is allowed to be furious and say whatever she wants, don’t get me wrong. But for the show to put those words in her mouth and then have these two with all the attendant baggage represent the lady-love is problematic. Because! Cain is a high-achieving, dark and stunning, dangerous on the surface and even more dangerous underneath, deeply broken person who trusts no one but herself. She is exactly Six’s type. EXCEPT NO DICK. HOLY UNFORTUNATE IMPLICATIONS, BATGIRL.
Don’t get me wrong. It is great that it is no big deal that Six walks around going “la! totally nailing the HBIC!” and other characters don’t even blink. I like it, I love it, I want some more of it, especially IRL. But the context in which this relationship exists pretty strongly suggests that decision-makers around this show - though I have no reason not to believe they are consciously decent gay-rights-supporting people personally - either have some subconscious issues about queer sexuality and lesbians, or on some level are willing to play to biases held by the audiences.
Basically what I am saying is MOAR LESBIANS. I WOULD NOT HAVE TO CARE IF WE WEREN'T ALL DADT ON GALACTICA, YOU KNOW. Well, I probably would care about the “you’re not my type” exchange but the relationship itself is a fascinating idea. It's not that these two characters shouldn't be together because they aren’t a happy, healthy couple. It's that there aren't same-sex relationships which are positive for any amount of time, so it's this taboo, violent thing. (Even counting whatever happened in all 25 minutes of webisode, I BET THAT WAS A ROMANCE FOR THE AGES, they still take place off-ship, giving a NIMBY vibe to the whole thing.) Sabotage, attempted murder, murder, gang rape, and systemic torture.
OMG the Cain/Six Lee/Kara parallels. Like the big kids as shown by Cain, this is an example of just how twisted and terrible this relationship between two stubborn, violent people can get. It won’t, but there’s no forgetting that lurking around the obvious affection between them is the darkness of them both.
Since I’ve dragged Kara into this anyway, I’m really intrigued at the use of Kara as romantic stand-in for Six. We saw her with Gaius at the beginning of KLG, and while she’s the one to let slip about her feelings for Lee, it’s also pretty heavily implied that as the resident mean, overachieving blonde, he’s attracted to her because she reminds him of Six. Recalling the Pegasus-Resurrection arc, the scenes with Starbuck and Cain have some vibes to them as well, with Cain flattering Starbuck and pouring her a drink and excusing things she would normally never excuse. (Or maybe it’s just that Katee Sackhoff does not even seem to be trying to control the vibeage? IDK.) It’s not just that they’re both lovely blondes. Six and Starbuck are true believers. They are warriors. They love despite themselves, and destruction follows in the wake of their hearts. They’re each other’s physical matches in a fight, a rare thing for either of them. There’s some interesting stuff going on with the two of them; it’ll be interesting to see it develop.
Galactica crew
I really liked the use of the main cast as framework except not enough Laura. “History will have to make its judgments” is quite the line for a flashback movie, and it works.
This is the best we've ever seen Bill be to Lee. They’re much better-suited to function officer to officer, rather than father to son. Lee has to make almost exactly the same call Bill will make over the Eye, and Bill puts him though a test not really unlike the one Cain put Kendra and Fiske through. Are you willing to put aside everything inside you other than dedication to your mission? And both of them are.
Surprisingly little Kara in this episode. We get to see a little bit of fun, edgy Starbuck, both because she has the driven Kendra to play off of and because it’s before the trauma of New Caprica. She can still be flip about Leoben. "Guess you're stuck with me 'til the end." Kara is what, some Viper Pilot of the Apocalypse? DOESN'T SHE HAVE ENOUGH TO DO ALREADY? My notes actually say the following: Dude, Lee does not need Kara as his CAG, he needs her as his XO. Nobody else will call him on his bullshit. OH SNAP. I STAND SCHOOLED.
HUSKER! That name is such an embarrassing yearbook photo. Oh, Lee, sweetheart, I think you win that one. I love that they found an actor who looks like Bamber to be young Bill. He's got EJO's inflections down pat too. It’s even more intriguing that the flashbacks happened exactly 41 years ago - just before they would have built Tigh. I almost wonder if Tigh is the apocryphal Cylon hybrid. LOL@SUPERWEAPON TIGH.
Baltar and Tyrol. The name-drop of Tyrol is so perfect here. Six as network administrator, far more than Six as Cain’s lady associate, shows what allowed the Cylons to bring the Colonies down. Agents in routine, unnoticed, but crucial positions, are a deadly peril to security. And while Six could control her actions and maybe did a little, Tyrol couldn’t have as long as he didn’t know.
The episode further bolsters my conviction that Lee's not a warrior and he never has been. He's a politician. And I don't think that's bad. It’s the trying to be something else that is killing him and everyone around him AND ESPECIALLY ME LEE ADAMA WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS??@?! He actually does a pretty decent job with his acceptance speech upon his promotion - full of platitudes and obvious statements and not a little bit of moral posturing; very diplomatic. Then he makes his XO choice based on the way he needs the crew to feel, rather than as a tactical decision.
Miscellaneous thoughts:
- This is the Season 4 set already! I DON'T WANT THE SHOW TO EVER BE OVER. *clings*
- Where’d Lee get a couch for his quarters?
- unf that voice I am NEVER GOING TO GET OVER IT. I just basically have a GIANT CRUSH on everyone on this show except for Cavil, Tigh, and Bill.
- 723 more than a 1/4 of crew...they have what, 2800 people/battlestar? at least at the beginning.
- OMG I LOL'D AT THE CENTURIONS.
- Any other Bravissimo girls in the house? And if so, have you considered HOW UNFORTUNATE THOSE UNIFORMS WOULD ACTUALLY BE? terrible terrible.
- I definitely remember commenting on some wild Cain/Roslin/Adama vibes back in 2.5(1) and being like “lol my dirty mind whatever.” But now that Laura is canonically lady-appreciative and Cain is canonically lady-oriented it seems either in fantastically bad taste or just fantastic. I THINK THIS SHOW HAS THE DIRTY MIND. I REPORT, YOU DECIDE.
- This episode was so jam-packed that I both meant to re-watch to see if I missed anything, and had so much that anything more would be unwieldly; please have at anything I missed as well!