BSG 4.17 - Someone to Watch Over Me
Now that I've stopped crying and shouting at the tv, here are my semi-incoherent thoughts on this excellent ep (which I will probably never watch again):
I was massively spoiled for the Kara storyline in this ep, and I thought it was done very well. I loved that it tied in to Hera's Crayon Prophecies, that the "stars" Hera was drawing were musical notes and, no doubt, the map to the "new" Earth, since the "old" had been pretty much destroyed.
The opening sequence was one of the most beautiful and informative of the season, if not the series. There was a very definite feeling of the passage of time. You know the old saw "show, not tell?" This opening montage showed and told and I loved that.
Helo buying back all of Starbuck's old stuff? Awesome. Starbuck with Hera? Awesome. That she only took her dad's concert out of all the stuff and Helo being taken aback by that? Awesome.
There was so much to love in this ep, at least for the non- Helo/Athena, Kara/Sam, Tyrol/Boomer shippers. Alas, I am all three. *sob* But even for us, there were things to love. Like Boomer showing Tyrol the house they'd planned, introducing the poor guy for the first time to projection. Like Kara being at Sam's side every chance she got, every chance Cottle allowed her, and laying on his chest with Daniel's her father's music playing (and I'm fairly sure, although it could just be shipper glasses, that there was an audible blip in Sam's monitors when Cottle told Kara she had to get on with her life). Even Helo with Boomer showed us Helo/Athena shippers how it is with Helo and Athena (too bad the frakking PTB only show it to us like THAT).
This episode was a ton of Jacob's (from TWoP) "everything you want in the worst possible way."
I'm almost to the part where I talk about the things that had me sobbing through the last half of the ep, but first...
Is Laura DEAD??? Please tell me she's not dead. But that guy feeling for a pulse and the way they cut away from that scene... it's ambiguous. But that means it's a red herring, right? She was just overwhelmed by the shared dream? She fainted, right????
Is Hotdog DEAD??? Was that explosion the result of Boomer jumping too close to Galactica or was it the result of him being to freaked to pay attention, getting too close, and ramming into the ship? Please tell me Hotdog isn't dead.
And did Tyrol KILL that poor, random Eight?
*sigh*
Which brings us to the reasons I may never watch this ep again, even though I thought it was an amazing episode.
When I saw Pegasus for the first time, I was massively spoiled for what happened to Sharon, and I was glad of it, because I was able to prepare myself for the scene. My only preparation for what happened to my beloved Agathon family was when greycoupon showed me something that said the big spoiler for StWOM was "Amber alert."
From the time Tyrol hit that Eight with the wrench (shown to be a deadly weapon in the BSG 'verse) until the ep ended, I was shouting things at the tv and just generally a mess. (Yes, I get a little wrapped up when I watch the show. Sue me. You know most of the rest of you do, too. :P) I hated Tyrol for a little bit right then. Not so much now, but then? Yeah. Poor Eight. Poor Tyrol.
Laura warned him, but he had his love back and was terrified for her life. He watched her die once and did nothing, could do nothing. So this time, he was doing everything in his power to save her, since death would be permanent. I understand what he did to help her escape, even as I called him a murdering bastard while he did it. That scene when he realized he'd been played, and that Helo and Athena and Hera were paying for it... *guh* Aaron played that so incredibly well. And that look on his face made me forgive the poor guy for his part in Cavil's evil plan. I still wouldn't want to be him if Karl or Sharon ever find out about it, though. Of course, knowing him, he'll probably tell them.
I've seen comments around bagging on my Helo for not knowing it was Boomer. To which I have to cry bullshit. It's the same argument from season one when all the h8ors were baggin on for not know the woman he was with was a Cylon.
He had no reason, in either case, to suspect that any such thing could be. In season one, he didn't know the Cylons were more or less human (and I love that projection really does set them apart, makes them alien in such a subtle way); here, he didn't know that Tyrol had sprung Boomer from the brig. As far as he knew, that was his wife. And she didn't react the way he thought she should, at first, and he called her on it. But Boomer then did everything to allay any suspicions that he may have had.
Yes, I can hear you all saying, but they had sex! He should have known then, if not before! He knew Fangirl wasn't Athena! (Duh. Of course he did. Athena was on Galactica.) Tyrol knew it was Boomer just from looking at her! (Dude. Tyrol is a Cylon. Boomer is a Cylon. Guess what? Athena is a Cylon and knew it was Boomer just by looking at her, too, even though she was dressed as a random Eight, many of whom are on Galactica and pilots and thus entitled to be in that particular head.)
Boomer was on that baseship when Athena downloaded and took Hera back to the fleet. Caprica killed her. Boomer downloaded again on that same baseship. You want to seriously and believably tell me that some random Eight is the only one who uploaded Athena's memories? That Boomer, who had way more reason to do so, wouldn't have? And even if that weren't the case, do you seriously think that there was only one place those memories were stored? And do you seriously think that, even if Boomer didn't WANT to access Athena's memories, that Cavil wouldn't have had her do it anyway, considering the main point of her returning Ellen to Galactica seems to have been to kidnap Hera?
Boomer and Athena are not the same person and then stopped being the same person the minute Athena uploaded Boomer's memories and then went down to Caprica to implement the Cylon plan for Helo. But they can both, for a time, convince anyone that they're the other, made even more convincing if one has access to the other's memories and experiences.
While it's devastating to both Helo and Athena that Boomer played him just as well as she did Tyrol, it's in no way unbelievable. Not to me, anyway. And you know Helo is beating himself up for not seeing it right away more than even Athena could. And that girl can hold a grudge.
*sigh*
That all being said, I am so happy that it wasn't Caprica who took Hera. And I really believe they're setting it up for her and Baltar to be the ones to finally bring her home. I just hope they bring her home to both of her parents, rather than having to become her parents because my Agathons are dead. *whimper*
I haven't seen the scenes for the next ep yet, but I have no problem with them being mentioned or discussed here, if they're pertinent to the things I've brought up.
I was massively spoiled for the Kara storyline in this ep, and I thought it was done very well. I loved that it tied in to Hera's Crayon Prophecies, that the "stars" Hera was drawing were musical notes and, no doubt, the map to the "new" Earth, since the "old" had been pretty much destroyed.
The opening sequence was one of the most beautiful and informative of the season, if not the series. There was a very definite feeling of the passage of time. You know the old saw "show, not tell?" This opening montage showed and told and I loved that.
Helo buying back all of Starbuck's old stuff? Awesome. Starbuck with Hera? Awesome. That she only took her dad's concert out of all the stuff and Helo being taken aback by that? Awesome.
There was so much to love in this ep, at least for the non- Helo/Athena, Kara/Sam, Tyrol/Boomer shippers. Alas, I am all three. *sob* But even for us, there were things to love. Like Boomer showing Tyrol the house they'd planned, introducing the poor guy for the first time to projection. Like Kara being at Sam's side every chance she got, every chance Cottle allowed her, and laying on his chest with Daniel's her father's music playing (and I'm fairly sure, although it could just be shipper glasses, that there was an audible blip in Sam's monitors when Cottle told Kara she had to get on with her life). Even Helo with Boomer showed us Helo/Athena shippers how it is with Helo and Athena (too bad the frakking PTB only show it to us like THAT).
This episode was a ton of Jacob's (from TWoP) "everything you want in the worst possible way."
I'm almost to the part where I talk about the things that had me sobbing through the last half of the ep, but first...
Is Laura DEAD??? Please tell me she's not dead. But that guy feeling for a pulse and the way they cut away from that scene... it's ambiguous. But that means it's a red herring, right? She was just overwhelmed by the shared dream? She fainted, right????
Is Hotdog DEAD??? Was that explosion the result of Boomer jumping too close to Galactica or was it the result of him being to freaked to pay attention, getting too close, and ramming into the ship? Please tell me Hotdog isn't dead.
And did Tyrol KILL that poor, random Eight?
*sigh*
Which brings us to the reasons I may never watch this ep again, even though I thought it was an amazing episode.
When I saw Pegasus for the first time, I was massively spoiled for what happened to Sharon, and I was glad of it, because I was able to prepare myself for the scene. My only preparation for what happened to my beloved Agathon family was when greycoupon showed me something that said the big spoiler for StWOM was "Amber alert."
From the time Tyrol hit that Eight with the wrench (shown to be a deadly weapon in the BSG 'verse) until the ep ended, I was shouting things at the tv and just generally a mess. (Yes, I get a little wrapped up when I watch the show. Sue me. You know most of the rest of you do, too. :P) I hated Tyrol for a little bit right then. Not so much now, but then? Yeah. Poor Eight. Poor Tyrol.
Laura warned him, but he had his love back and was terrified for her life. He watched her die once and did nothing, could do nothing. So this time, he was doing everything in his power to save her, since death would be permanent. I understand what he did to help her escape, even as I called him a murdering bastard while he did it. That scene when he realized he'd been played, and that Helo and Athena and Hera were paying for it... *guh* Aaron played that so incredibly well. And that look on his face made me forgive the poor guy for his part in Cavil's evil plan. I still wouldn't want to be him if Karl or Sharon ever find out about it, though. Of course, knowing him, he'll probably tell them.
I've seen comments around bagging on my Helo for not knowing it was Boomer. To which I have to cry bullshit. It's the same argument from season one when all the h8ors were baggin on for not know the woman he was with was a Cylon.
He had no reason, in either case, to suspect that any such thing could be. In season one, he didn't know the Cylons were more or less human (and I love that projection really does set them apart, makes them alien in such a subtle way); here, he didn't know that Tyrol had sprung Boomer from the brig. As far as he knew, that was his wife. And she didn't react the way he thought she should, at first, and he called her on it. But Boomer then did everything to allay any suspicions that he may have had.
Yes, I can hear you all saying, but they had sex! He should have known then, if not before! He knew Fangirl wasn't Athena! (Duh. Of course he did. Athena was on Galactica.) Tyrol knew it was Boomer just from looking at her! (Dude. Tyrol is a Cylon. Boomer is a Cylon. Guess what? Athena is a Cylon and knew it was Boomer just by looking at her, too, even though she was dressed as a random Eight, many of whom are on Galactica and pilots and thus entitled to be in that particular head.)
Boomer was on that baseship when Athena downloaded and took Hera back to the fleet. Caprica killed her. Boomer downloaded again on that same baseship. You want to seriously and believably tell me that some random Eight is the only one who uploaded Athena's memories? That Boomer, who had way more reason to do so, wouldn't have? And even if that weren't the case, do you seriously think that there was only one place those memories were stored? And do you seriously think that, even if Boomer didn't WANT to access Athena's memories, that Cavil wouldn't have had her do it anyway, considering the main point of her returning Ellen to Galactica seems to have been to kidnap Hera?
Boomer and Athena are not the same person and then stopped being the same person the minute Athena uploaded Boomer's memories and then went down to Caprica to implement the Cylon plan for Helo. But they can both, for a time, convince anyone that they're the other, made even more convincing if one has access to the other's memories and experiences.
While it's devastating to both Helo and Athena that Boomer played him just as well as she did Tyrol, it's in no way unbelievable. Not to me, anyway. And you know Helo is beating himself up for not seeing it right away more than even Athena could. And that girl can hold a grudge.
*sigh*
That all being said, I am so happy that it wasn't Caprica who took Hera. And I really believe they're setting it up for her and Baltar to be the ones to finally bring her home. I just hope they bring her home to both of her parents, rather than having to become her parents because my Agathons are dead. *whimper*
I haven't seen the scenes for the next ep yet, but I have no problem with them being mentioned or discussed here, if they're pertinent to the things I've brought up.