"what the deuce?"

Jul 01, 2008 21:56

I've been recruited for driving duty tomorrow. Up to the City Hospital. Woohoo. I get to go past Queens and the Student's Union. Woop-de-doo. Anyways, it took longer than I thought to do this picspam. Partly because I was in a foul mood when I was picking out the caps at first but now, I'm excited about. Partly because I had a Mary!Movie day today - Woman Undone and Evidence of Blood. Seriously. WU is wicked awesome but it's not for the light-hearted.

Anyways. Picspam time. I made this one for the season two episode Epiphanies. I remember when I was in Lower Sixth and I did my Drama practical on the night of this episode airing here and I literally hot-footed it down home and I got into the living room when the Previously on Battlestar Galactica was being spoken. And I love this episode.







Doctor: I'm afraid the tests are positive. The mass is malignant. It's advanced well beyond the left breast. I'm afraid the test is positive. Ms. Roslin... the surgery, of course, to remove the mass...

Intro flashback to the miniseries. This was ultimately how we were introduced to the character of Laura Roslin. In an oncologists office. You see her sitting so still. So alone. And she literally jumps when the doc comes back in. And when you watch him explain it, you can see her fall apart. It's not a drastic internal combustion, but it's epic in terms of Laura Roslin. She tries to hold it together yet her face falters. And from the miniseries you kind of get the sense that she's somewhat accepting it but in this episode, you learn that she actually gets up and walks out of his office. Now that is heartbreaking. She's dealing with all of this alone and she's dealing with the whole situation again because her mother had it too. I don't know why but there is something about this sense that is so beautiful.

Mary of course performs it beautifully. We see Laura, not Laura Roslin, Madame Secretary. But there's an element of her thinking, "I'm the Secretary of Education, this is not happening, this cannot interfere with my job, I'm a professional". But of course, Laura Roslin tries to fix the world but can't deal with the important things in her own life and in the miniseries, she even feels guilty about worrying. Bless her.




A beautiful serene scene juxtaposed with the final journey to sickbay complete with beautiful harsh strobing ceiling lights. This scene goes from Caprica city to Galactica. To Roslin being so peaceful on the outside by a fountain to being on her death-bed. It's so interesting this dichotomy. The past versus the present. The Then and the Now. I love how they did this!



Stans: Secretary Roslin?
Roslin: Yes?
Stans: Naylin Stans from the education alliance. You said you wanted to talk?
Roslin: Yes. I'm sorry, Mr. Stans...
Stans: I have to admit, I was surprised to get your message.
Roslin: The President was surprised I sent it.

I love the shear colourfulness of Caprica versus the starkness of Galactica. It's like flashing back to a better time but you'd wonder how better is classified because she's only after just being told that she's going to die.

And of course this is the, "You are so busted" scene with Roslin noticing Six and Baltar. So totally busted! The look on her face is like, "Am I seeing this?" or else it's saying, "Get a frakking room!"



Cottle: Madame President? Can you hear me? Let's make her as comfortable as we can.
Roslin: Oh, gods

Enter heartbreak.
I love and hate this scene. Love it because it's so emotionally charged and I hate it because this actually tells the audience that this is it. This is Roslin. The gods are calling her number. This is the moment Roslin fans have been dreading for the past lough of months. It's also such a scary scene because they way they edited it, the lighting is coming and going, the lights are flashing and everything is kind of muffled. That would seriously scare the bejesus out of me. Doc Cottle's line, "Let's make her as comfortable as we can" doesn't really calm anyone down because that literally means, "There's nothing we can do" and that tells us, "Ok, she's going to go". We're hardly a minute into the episode and already the throat is beginning to constrict in fear and our lips are being bitten and a cushion is clutched up to us. It's going to be a long episode.



Adama: How's the President doing, Doc?
Cottle: She's dying... and she knows it. I offered her a shot of morpha to ease the pain, but...she wouldn't hear of it.

Adama checking up on her. He's being all formal. So sad despite the fact he kissed her at the end of the previous episode. But Cottle's line again just kills and then we find out that Laura is such a trooper. No pain relief? She must be made of steel to deny something like that. It's so poignant too. The show is going those that don't know about the pain of cancer a somewhat education. My uncle died of cancer over a week ago and this episode told me that there is pain involved because beforehand I was ignorant to what actually happened.

The fact that Laura knows that this is it is so poignant. She can't do anything. She can only lay there and wait. We can only speculate about whether or not she was afraid because she still maintained the President facade. I can only wonder how Mary felt doing these scenes. What thoughts were running through her mind? I know that if I was acting as if I was dying, it would scare me because I would be thinking about it all the time and the fact that I going to die soon would scare me something fierce. I can't actually articulate what I imagine it may be like.



Roslin: Mr. President, we should at least speak with the strikers before sending in the troops. They're teachers, not terrorists.
Adar: They're acting like thugs. They're last demonstration put two policemen in the hospital. Six of them have chained themselves outside the hall of education. As far as I'm concerned, they're criminals.

Ah the much mentioned President Adar. He doesn't look like much. Now obviously you can't tell what he looks like from the caps but in the dialogue in this scene, he's a bit of a prick to be honest. Oh I'm president, I can do what I want. What does this button do? And the way he says, "One of the most interesting things about being president is that you don't have to explain yourself...to anyone." That pause before "to anyone" is interesting because it allowed the audience to see that there is something between the two and that she doesn't get any special treatment anymore.



Baltar: She's really not in a fit state to do anything... let alone conduct any government business.
Roslin: Don't talk about me as if I'm not here. There'll be plenty of time for that soon enough.

Aww Roslin *hugs* don't say that.
In this entire scene you could tell how much of a struggle it was. I remember reading that Mary did her back out-well damaged it- whilst doing this episode due to the laboured breathing and I'm sure the way she spoke is this scene didn't help matters. I remember when Laura Hughes took us for Voice we learned how to use to resonating chambers of the body and if I had to guess, I'd say that Mary was using the one from her throat and/or chest. And I'm sure that stiffing her body up to get that timbre didn't exactly help her back either. Damn, that woman knows no bounds. But it really really paid off in the scene and you could almost feel her pain.

And look at Adama. Even though he's in Admiral mode, he's letting Bill taking a turn at the wheel.



Stans: Madame secretary? Considering the stakes, you don't seem particularly engaged.
Roslin: The stakes are what we decide to make them, Mr. Stans. If the President uses troops to enforce us back to work order, people will get hurt. Even die.
Stans: Some causes are worth dying for.
Roslin: Not this one.
Caprica Doctor: (different flashback) The mass is malignant.
Roslin: (in her bed on Galactica) Doctor.

It's happening so fast. Caprica, past-er Caprica and Galactica.
Like seriously, look at the way Roslin is contorted in that bed. It's like I'm watching Sean-Paul again in Metamorphosis when I was on work-experience. Mary is so athletic that she's not afraid to do that. But it is as scary as fuck for us to watch because the viewers have gone on this journey with Roslin since the miniseries and we've seen her battle this and now here we see that it is actually winning. It's like she's fighting on a battlefield and she's just been struck. It is scary. It's the moment that the fact that Roslin is incredibly close to death finally hits home. And the viewer can't so squat either. It's so painful to watch too.



Billy: Mr. Vice President, President Roslin insisted on your taking the tour. She'd like the transition to go as smoothly as possible.
Baltar: What are these?
Billy: Cylon agent suspects, sir.
Billy: That number means everything to her. Represents hope, that's our future
Baltar: Yes, yes.
Billy: Being the President is, uh, a lot of responsibility. It's tradition for outgoing Presidents to leave a letter for their successor. It's usually opened on the first day of the new term, but the next few days are liable to prove...hectic, so...
Baltar: Well, let's just pray that she gets better.
Billy: Let's.

The first time I saw this scene I literally wanted to scream, "Get the fuck away from that desk!" From the very start we've always seen Roslin behind that desk. We've even seen her face down on it but it was always hers. And for Baltar to be this close being behind it was scary. Especially since he did help the cylons almost destroy all of humanity. And that number on the whiteboard. I feared that it would be one less by the end of the episode *tear*

let's just pray that she gets better Bollocks!!! You just want to be President so that more women would be attracted to you cuz you have more power and you will doing every little thing that head!Six says to you.




ajsgdlajgfdksjghfklajgfsdgjfs GINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BITCH!!!!



Adar: Laura, come in. I didn't like the way we left things this morning.
Roslin: Richard, I-
(They embrace and start kissing.)
Adar: I know. You've been thinking this is a mistake for a while now.
Roslin: I just met with Stans. The education alliance is going to back off.

Ah so Roslin-lady's story's starting to make sense now. Well of course we already knew that something was going on from the miniseries and from the ways she mentioned him throughout the series. But she was actually seeing him!!! Laura, Laura, Laura. What am I going to do with you girl? But it really does show how Laura feels about romance and relationships. She doesn't have them exclusively because it would mean too much exposure. Of herself, of her emotions, of her feelings. She doesn't want to be that raw. And so she goes for the relationships that can't ultimately work and that won't be deep and fulfilling. That is, until she meets Bill Adama of course.




Obligatory leg loveage. How the fuck does she walk around in those toe-pokers??? The pain that women go through for shoes is unreal - worth it - but unreal. No wonder Roslin takes them off by the fountain. No wonder Mary jumps out them and jumps into her uggs when they say 'cut'.




Ooooo barracuda. Watch out Adar. Laura Roslin is out to smite you.
Time to smite a bitch.



Cottle: Notify the Admiral.

Oh shit!!! Once Bill is notified, let's just say, she's fucked!!!
Even Cottle looks scared.
I was petrified with this scene because you just have to look at the shear angle of Mary's body and you know. You get a tension in your chest and your throat constricts and you whisper 'no' to yourself in comfort. And you also whisper 'don't go - don't give up'.




Two words - you are so fucking frakking busted. That's more like five words. Roslin knows.
Even though the way I've coloured these caps make her eyes seem blue, the way her eyes are in the caps are so beautiful. They are so green and luminous that you get intranced by them. And Mary is that kind of actor that uses every single inch of her body to communicate. Every nerve is stimulated and her use of her eyes is awe-inspiring! She's wonderful.



Cottle: I'll be damned.
Baltar: Madame President?
Roslin: Dr. Baltar? (She points at Baltar)
Baltar: It's so very good to see you. No, no, don't-don't move. Don't move. Madame President, very good.

She was so going to tell and I'm sure she's like in her head, "If I could talk clearer, you'd be thrown into the brig so fast it'll make your head spin" but luckily for Baltar she's a bit dosed.

When Roslin convulses in this scene, I swear to you, it really scares the heck out of you. I can't really explain why but it does. You're like, oh shit it's not working, she's reacting violently to it, it's all going to pot, what's gonna happen next?!?! You know, your thoughts are going a hundred miles a minute and then her condition improves. The snotty-nosed-posh-cylon-loving-bastard came through. He saved her. It almost makes it a shame that she's going to blow the trumpet on him.

All seriousness aside, in the coloured versions, Roslin kind of reminds me of an alien. I know that's evil to say but she looks so alien when her head is between Baltar's hands. Her hair is all over the place, her skin looks translucent, she's got beads of sweat everything and she has a tube up her nose. It's so far removed from the collected President with the redundant wardrobe that we know and love.

Mary. In this scene she really goes to a place that many wouldn't or couldn't go. She's fearless. And for that I love her. And those on my f*list who don't . . . better get the show on dvd or else you'll have a psychotic episode from seeing all the Mary fangirliness on this lj. Just a warning and an order suggestion. Seriously, she is definitely worth being a fan of. Watching her in anything will seriously change you.



Adama: How's she doing, doctor?
Cottle: I've never seen anything like it. It'll be a while before she's a hundred percent, but...her scans are clear. Cancer's gone.
Adama: Are you sure?
Cottle: It's gone.
Adama: Thank you.
Cottle: Thank you. Admiral.
Adama: You seem better.
Roslin: Much. Are you still holding the spokesman from the new faction in the brig?
Adama: Yes.
Roslin: Would you take me to him, please?
Adama: Certainly.
Roslin: Thank you.

She's alive. It'll be a while before she's a hundred percent. You don't know Laura Roslin mate cuz two seconds after you say that, she's asking to go to the brig and speak to the prisoner. That dame does not know the meaning of the word 'rest'.

I know the bottom image is repeated but Adama is so happy his woman is going to be ok. Yay *throws confetti in preparation for the wedding*



Jahee: As I told you the Admiral, I have had no direct contact-
Roslin: Genuine negotiations require trust. Do not lie to me.
Jahee: I'll talk to my people. Make them understand.
Roslin: Excellent. And I'll listen... maybe even act. But if you renege, I'll insist the Admiral hunt you and your friends down, without mercy.

Oh, the bitch is back. Hardly five minutes out of sickbay and she's already making men cower in fear. I like it. It's like she has a command over every man. Jahee can't lie to her. As well he shouldn't cuz if he did Roslin would have to airlock a bitch. And I think he's powerless cuz he got a flash of leg. Lucky ponce.

And of course, Adama is there making sure she's alright and that Jahee doesn't do anything. He's being all protective. They are so made for each other. ♥




Cute, cute, cute. Roslin feels a connection with the wee babee. And look at Roslin's face. Makes you smile that same smile too.

And although I haven't included the letter that Roslin wrote Baltar, I just want to say, HA-HA!!!!

bsg episode: s2-epiphanies, tv: bsg, fangirl: laura roslin, picspam: bsg

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