at least me and regina george know we're mean!
Deadlock
I was so excited during the teaser because it was so clear this was a JE episode even before the credits showed up (“How many dead chicks are out there?” is so great, not least because it’s one of the few times the show nods to its own total unreality, and it being Hot Dog is one of those little touches with background characters that she does to such entertaining effect) and THEN it was clear it was going to be a Baltar- and Ellen-heavy episode, which can only result in funny. But though the humor was strong, the episode also had a lot of dramatic heavy lifting to do, and I ended up kind of disappointed with it.
Maybe I’m just overall less thrilled with the plot than I was for the first three and a half seasons. I don’t seem to have quite gotten over the loss of Earth either, or maybe it really started with Laura’s cancer returning. I’m engaged with the characters more than ever and I’m invested in all of their stories. I can’t imagine the show could do anything that would make me stop wanting to jump in the screen and run Laura’s re-election campaign or have drinks with Ellen or go out dancing with Kara or argue policy with Lee or give Helo a noogie. But I’m thinking almost entirely about who they are, and hardly anything about what is happening around them.
We finally pick up the thread of Boomer again, which is something that’s been missing for me recently. I like Athena quite a lot, but she’s clearly someone who’s distinct from Boomer, who I was very fond of in S1. It kind of breaks my heart that she “Sharon” as a call sign. She doesn’t say “Boomer.” Sharon is her nickname now. Then again, regrettable shooting situations all around, maybe she wants to keep that under wraps. Then Boomer, who ABSOLUTELY DID NOT CHOOSE to shoot Adama, gets sent to the brig while Tigh, who POISONED Ellen, gets smoochies. I SO COMPLETELY DISAPPROVE.
However, I always approve of Ellen fabulousness, and it seems being back on Galactica and with Tigh has brought Mean Girl Ellen to the surface, with the way Ellen leans on alcohol the way she and Tigh always have (but Bill’s the one who provides it for her now) and their gross boning on the conference table, though she’s clearly not abandoned her mission. (I laughed: “I’m still Ellen, you know.” *patented Roslin death glare* “Mm.” Like, I KNOW, THAT IS THE PROBLEM.) Her manipulative “it’s okay, I’m not mad” when she asks who Tigh was with while she was presumed MURDERED is almost exactly what Six used to say to Baltar. She’s pissed at Tigh for exactly the wrong thing when he spills about Caprica, though - “she’s our daughter” must make it gross to Ellen, since the Cylons consider building as close to bio-parenthood as they’ll get, but for as many other issues as I have with this storyline, if anything Tigh thought Caprica was the senior Cylon there.
I WAS THINKING OF YOU THE WHOLE TIME! WE WERE ON A BREAK! IT DIDN’T MEAN ANYTHING! so much troubllllle…..And then he doesn’t tell her about Caprica’s pregnancy. Though Tigh’s avoiding as best he can (and he’s pretty good at that) the situation throws the triangle into sharp contrast. Turning to Caprica was about desperation, and about rock bottom for even someone who’s been an alcoholic for millenia. I believe he cares about her; I believe he is good to her; I believe he would have done his best by her and any kids they’d have had. He did love Ellen, at least until the occupation. The pregnancy isn’t about love, that was a myth they told themselves. So (unless Cavil decided making Ellen unable to conceive was part of the punishment, which I could easily see) it’s not that they evolved, it’s that they’re evolving.
Except it doesn’t work out just yet. What was even the point of Caprica’s pregnancy? It was one thing when there was a chance it was going to be a fundamental change, or mark some evolution, for the Cylons, or when Ellen was plausibly gone and Tigh didn’t have any connections to the world except for Bill. But having a pregnancy resulting in a miscarriage now just feels like someone yelled CAPRICA AND TIGH! THEY’RE FUCKING! without picking at the enormous power abuse involved in what we’re clearly supposed to think was a relationship. And why bother giving them fifteen minutes to get worked up about an impossible “pure Cylon civilization”? Though it was just kind of an awkwardly funny exchange between Roslin and Caprica about “is this child important?” it’s pretty telling that the question never gets answered. (“Of course. All children are important.” *barely suppressed eyeroll* LAURA MY GIRL FOREVER, though Caprica more than holds her own in that conversation.)
We finally start to hit on the complications of the MAGIC LOVE SPLOOGE crap. ”Sometimes love must not be enough, because he loved you.” How anyone in this universe could believe love causes anything to happen in this context (as opposed to influencing how it happens) baffling, and the show seems to understand that. I mean, Bill and Carolann? Starbuck’s mother? I think the subversion of that with Caprica’s miscarriage despite all the lovey-dovey shouting is quite brutal, but equally necessary if we’re going to figure out what it is that’s going on with the Cylons.
I have to cop to being a little annoyed that we flash on Caprica’s broken-hearted face for one second after the miscarriage (oh god poor dear) and then we spend HALF A SEASON in Bill’s quarters listening to Tigh’s grief. He’s allowed to grieve, don’t get me wrong, but the pregnancy only happened because of his disgusting abuse of his authority, and it serves to minimize Caprica's trauma. It’s as much about the Bill-Saul friendship as it is about the miscarriage, maybe more, proving to some extent Ellen’s allegation that Bill Adama is his true love, more than her or Six. I think it’s more than that, though; Bill is Tigh’s connection to humanity. Unlike the relationships with Caprica and Ellen, who he was drawn to (consciously or unconsciously) by his Cylon nature, the Bill-Saul broship is really his touchstone for humanity, for the man he wants to be.
The interactions of all the Cylons continue to be disappointing and inconsistent with the characters as we’ve known them. There was all this build-up and now they’re just irrational and boring. “It needs to be all of you or none of you….you need to vote, and the outcome will bind all of you.” TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY! Why did the four of them even accept that? They didn’t actually have to; it’s not like Six and Eight are going to axe murder them. The four of them have no stake in it being an all-or-nothing decision, and that’s a choice they really don’t have the right to make for each other.
It just feels contrived, and then it feels contrived that there was ever even a question. Ellen, it appears being on Galactica has brought out some of her less noble traits; Tory clearly likes being a Cylon because it strokes her superiority complex. But the idea that Tyrol is up for leaving? That is a huge false note, especially after Boomer has showed up. It’s pretty heavily implied that he’s helping Hot Dog with Nicky, and knows that dude probably shouldn’t be trusted to be a single father even if he weren’t a pilot who is even more susceptible to dying any minute than the rest of them.
It’s not even like he has the legit complaint of being pissed at Bill any more, WELL NO MORE SO THAN ANYONE ELSE, since he got his wish on having a Cylon repair crew. Tyrol bailing on Boomer, a kid, and his crew - when he’s fought so hard through so much - doesn’t make sense. “It’s not safe here” doesn’t cut it; he hasn’t had illusions about being safe for years now.
Most importantly, what is there at all for him on the base star? Sharons everywhere who aren’t Boomer would just make him miserable. He’d like to learn from the Cylon technology, sure, but Tyrol is a person who (admirably) always wants to put his skills to good use and that’s a hell of a lot more likely on Galactica than it is on the base star. He doesn’t like being a Cylon the way Tory does; it made him want to jump off a ledge when he thought it was even possible. The man is a union leader, the last thing he should want is for folks to splinter off like this.
Really, leaving Galactica would just be giving up on what he loves and giving in to something he doesn’t want and never has. (I suppose if you read his and Lee’s friendship as having been much stronger than what we saw, this seemingly unresolvable problem could sour him on staying, but though I like the idea of the two of them having had each other all this time, I don’t have enough to go on there.) Tyrol’s better than that.
Sam, for that matter, wouldn’t want to leave even if it wasn’t for “don’t leave the fleet.” He did more up close and personal fighting with the second generation than any of them, including Tigh; he won’t want to spend the rest of his life looking at faces of those who spent years trying to kill him. Good on Tyrol for at least recognizing that even though he knows Sam would disagree. (WHOA for the children trying to destroy the parents in context of Sam as guerrilla fighter.)
So much love for Baltar and his inept followers. “His name is Gaius? WHAT A COINCIDENCE, I KNOW A FELLOW NAMED GAIUS. GETS AROUND, HE DOES. Are you hungry? Is he hungry? Do children eat? I find scenery to be quite delicious, myself, but perhaps children require sugary cereal. Would you like to stroke my shawl? Yes, it’s quite nice, isn’t it? I got it from a woman, very lovely, oh, I can’t remember her name, she looked extraordinarily like the star of Covert Affairs - OH THAT WAS YOU! Well, isn’t this an experience brought to us by the great and inexplicable God. Here, have some food; it is so much fun to give away things that are not mine to give, THIS HAS NEVER ENDED IN AN APOCALYPSE BEFORE.”
LAURA IS DYING AND BILL IS JUST BOOZING IT UP. I know it sucks to be him right now and all, but I’ve officially crossed from immune to his Bill Pain to openly aggravated by it. She has pulled herself together enough to be helpful even though she has taken care of wrapping up her responsibilities. Bill, though, he is still THE ADMIRAL ALL SHALL BOW BEFORE HIS MAJESTY. And we have not seen him stand upright in weeks! Saul is like HEY BUDDY, LET’S LEAVE SOME FOR THE SPACE FISHES. He would smack anyone else around for this! By which I mean, he HAS smacked people around for less. I feel like Bill’s mopiness here is an attempt at emotional manipulation, but because IDGAF about Bill, it’s not even doing that.
I’m trying to reserve judgment on this because a huge strength of the show is the way it’s really not afraid to show us a character’s true lows before pulling them up again. But this incredible self-centeredness is a giant part of how Bill relates to the world at his best, I don’t know how or even if he can be rehabilitated for me. Bailing on people when they need him most, WHAT DO YOU KNOW, ALL OF THIS REALLY HAS HAPPENED BEFORE! oh god poor Lee this is the responsible parent NO WONDER HE IS SO FUCKED UP I AM SORRY BB I WILL BE NICER. WELL I WILL TRY. SOMETIMES I FUCK UP, YOU KNOW HOW THAT IS.
Since I’m on it, even though it’s not real relevant to this episode, I honestly don’t see any reason to believe Bill gives a flying fuck about Lee as Lee the way he seems to care about Saul and (apparently to a MUCH lesser extent) Laura. I think he cares about HIS SON the student/pilot/president. You see yourself reflected in their eyes. You’re my son. I didn’t know you were interested in law. Y’ok? It’s all about him, and as long as he can pretend Lee is easily and successfully those things in the way Bill thinks is right, he doesn’t even try to dig any deeper. I freely admit this is a giant sore spot for me, but that doesn’t mean Bill doesn’t poke it. (For various reasons this is a terrible day to suggest that if Bill angsts about HIS SON enough it counts as giving a shit about Lee, or that Lee could’ve done anything to deserve the way Bill treats him and/or should Get Over It like it’s nothing; please don’t.) Lee, by contrast, adores him and tries to be what Bill thinks is right. Because if he’s thoroughly Bill’s Son, then Bill will love him enough for that to be able to pretend it’s the same thing as loving him for him. I think he’s starting to be able to accept that for what it is so he can accept himself as he is, but my heart is twisting for him all the same. HAVE SOME BILLPAIN ABOUT THAT, YOU PRICK.
WANT MORE STARBUCK. Her line about how “it’s like watching my parents make out” is funny but also jarring; she’s never mentioned parents before, just her mother, I kind of assumed she didn’t know her father. Where the fuck has she even been, at the bar all this time? I know there’s not a whole lot for her to do just now, but still. I miss getting to see her be a pilot. It’s like she really did lose the thing she counted on when she was sent to Earth, and now she’s somewhere doing something but not being particularly dynamic or happy about it. I don’t know when she stopped being Starbuck and started being Kara for me. Helo has never been Karl; Lee has never been Apollo; but I’ve totally changed how I even name this character and I don’t know when or why.
Speaking of Sam/Kara/Lee, how is this ever going to be worked out in a few episodes? It’d be so unsatisfying to see Kara/Lee never come to anything. Unfinished Business, though it was a good episode (well, the uncut version, anyway) that explained a lot, still left the whole thing unfinished. I don’t care if two characters fuck once. That’s not Twoo Wuv, that’s Mardi Gras, and it has pretty much nothing to do why their dynamic is so interesting to me. I care if they give enough of a shit about each other to try to make it work and become part of each others’ lives. That is something special. I’m back to my S1 Lee/Kara lock-it-down-or-shut-it-down frustration, WHICH IS NICE THAT IT HAS ALL HAPPENED BEFORE VERY CIRCULAR I GET IT, but too much has happened with them for it to ever entirely go away.
miscellaneous
- Whatever happened to the Blackbird? And shouldn’t they have made more of them? Why weren’t they making planes that first year on New Caprica?
- The banner on Tigh’s wall says ‘vigilantes.” SO appropriate.
- All of them have such perfect skin! I’m impressed that they thought to bring a FOUR-YEAR SUPPLY of Neutrogena for a routine deployment; I can hardly remember to pack a toothbrush half the time I go anywhere.
- Did everyone notice about how I managed not to go on a five-hundred word tangent on the use of the phrase “unborn baby”? SO MANY COOKIES FOR ME. ALL THE COOKIES.
- Another unrelated thought: I know I’m supposed to <3 Tigh now, and I don’t want to punch him every time he shows up anymore, but I see no reason to forgive him for abusing his power over Ellen or Six. Aside from the unnecessary Nicky thing (why does Hera have to be the only one again? what good does evolution even do if there’s just one genetic standout?), the Tyrol retcon is my favorite. The two incidents that jolted me out of the otherwise reasonably likable picture of Tyrol I had in my head are not at all what they seemed. (a) Those memories are locked in his subconscious the same as they are for Anders, and (b) Cavil can fuck with him; therefore, (a) finding out consciously that Boomer was a Cylon, and subconsciously knowing how dangerous she could is because he made her himself, could have easily jolted him into the bad behavior at the beginning of 2.0, and (b) we can surmise if not know Cavil was fucking with his head during the sleep-beating. I still have MAJOR ISSUES with the show for deploying those things so readily in its already-problematic context, don’t get me wrong, but it smooths out my picture of the character in a way that I had given up any hope of seeing.
- Serious question: WHEN did I get so sweet on Lee? Because I hated him at first. I think every one of my S1 posts contains the phrases “I HATE YOU LEE” and “SHUT UP, LEE” multiple times over - I really hated him at the beginning of this season, for that matter - and now I’m thinking about him even when he’s not there. Somehow he moved from Emo Kid mopery with flashes of something underneath to a three-dimensional character struggling with legitimate and relatable issues, even if his story from a plot perspective is more than ever about giant things that happen to him because he is Lee Motherfuckin Adama rather than things he does. Maybe I just wanted to see him finally stand on his own. Or, I don’t know, I hate to put stuff on actors, because stories go through SO many other people before they have anything they can wrap themselves around, but given that his arc was fairly apparent pretty early on, I wonder if there was an uptick in performance quality somewhere along the line? Whatever, someone or a bunch of someones found their feet with him along the way and I’m really happy about it.
- So…I just spent twenty minutes looking for the epic MAN PAIN post from last summer and, though I disagree with the writer’s take on my baby WWP, damned if Bill Adama isn’t a hugely prominent example. SO MUCH MANPAIN. Basically my Bill Issues are my Angel Issues are my Don Draper Issues, but Bill is eating up the story of so many characters I identify with it’s not even worth the trying I did with those two. Mopey, aggressive, self-styled-alpha males are first against the airlock when the revolution comes. Then everyone gets a Simon Tam and/or a Zoe if that’s more your style, and we live in peace and harmony forevermore. BLAMMO, WORLD AWESOME. WHAT UP.