The Captain's Hand
We have definitely hit a poor patch of episodes, haven't we? I mean, season 2.5 has consisted of, up to this point, seven episodes, and I've only enjoyed three of them. Ouch. (Well, that's not to say I didn't enjoy Epiphanies. I was just supremely disappointed in it.) Sadly, I wasn't exactly pleased with The Captain's Hand either, though it was a small improvement on Sacrifice. And, to be fair, a bad BSG episode is still better than most anything else on television. Sometimes.
But, the thing about The Captain's Hand is that is almost makes me physically ill. I was watching it last night and I wanted to ralph. Intrigued much? Find out why under the cut.
1) The Captain's Hand begins with 49,584 survivors, six less than Sacrifice.
2) Our fun time line continues. We learn that it's been a month since Sacrifice took place. I suppose, if we put all the time line pieces together, we're between six and seven months from the initial attack.
3) So, in recovery from his gunshot wound, Lee's been having lots of sex with Dee.
I am not okay with this pairing. Not only because it felt like it came out of nowhere when they first started introducing it earlier in the season, but there seems to be no reflection from Dee on Billy's death. Obviously, we're a month out from that, but I'm upset that the show just went by it so casually.
At the very least, Dee was Billy's girlfriend and he died trying to save her. Where are the ramifications? When she and Lee started their relationship in earnest, did she have mixed feelings? Extreme guilt? Anything at all? Because this episode made it seem like she and Lee have just been having lots of cramped sex in the officer quarters.
4) But aside from Laura gazing lovingly at a picture she has of herself and Billy on her desk and one line from Bill, Billy isn't a factor at all. I suppose it's jarring to see Tory doing what Billy would have normally been doing (though I'm okay with that since I'm Team Tory all the way and we'll get to why when we get to why), but I'm actually kind of pissed off that they skipped so much time in the time line because I want to know how Laura dealt with the death of her near-son. I want to know if she and Dee ever exchanged any words. Does she know about Lee and Dee? Does she know Dee rejected Billy's proposal?
I know BSG hates it when Laura interacts with other women so I suppose they threw up a little in their mouths at the thought of having some kind of emotional scene between her and Dee (what's with all my throw up references in this post?), but that's exactly the kind of character development I want to see the most on this show! Ever since Laura was cured of her cancer, it almost feels like her details no longer matter to The Powers That Be. We never got to see her deal with her cure and we never get to see her deal with Billy's death.
And no, much as I wish otherwise, this isn't the Laura on Colonial One in the Fleet That's Protected by the Battlestar Galactica show. But a little character development that has nothing to do with her impending death or prophetic nature would be nice.
5) So, Lee's been promoted to Major. Why he was promoted, I don't really know. I suppose he was all heroic during the hostage situation in Sacrifice. Maybe that had something to do with it?
6) Fun detail alert: Tory used to work for the Federalist Party in Delphi. The Federalist Party. I think it's cool to know the names of the various political parties and I think this is the only time we do get a name. I may be a history nerd but I suck at American history (too boring and not old enough) so I'm trying to remember who was a Federalist. Thomas Jefferson?
7) Doc Cottle is totally a liberal! Not only is he pro-choice, which totally gives me a permanent place in my heart, but he's also the person who suggests Raia apply for asylum aboard the Galactica so she can be protected from her parents. I mean, let's be real. If she was sent back to them she would, essentially, be kind of like a political prisoner and I did worry about what they would do to her if she came back no longer pregnant.
8) Okay, so here's some good Laura background I can appreciate: She fought her "whole career" for women's rights and, particularly, a woman's right to control her own body.
9) Bill is seriously hung up on Laura's, "We need to have babies" line from the miniseries, isn't he? I'm not going to blame her for Laura's horrible executive decision later on in the episode (I'm not even going to blame Baltar), but it didn't help.
10) But speaking of Baltar and Laura. What the hell is Laura doing not verifying Baltar's demographic data? Are you kidding me? When it's something that important and your vice president has such a huge chip on his shoulder towards you.
Verify Baltar. Verify.
11) And speaking of Laura's horrible decision . . . This is the part of the episode where I had to hold my stomach in agony.
Let's work through this.
There are a few positives I can take away from the scene where she says abortion is no longer legal. I can at least respect that it wasn't a political maneuver to gain the approval of the religious groups, like the Geminese. Laura obviously believes that she has to ban abortions in order for the human race to continue long term. And I can understand that and respect that, at least on one level.
But on the other level. No. I'm not okay with Laura's decision. It made me want to crawl into my computer screen so I could shake her. And aside from my obvious kind of normal issues with it (like, how it only penalizes women but men get off scott free and how it might be better to prevent a birth than to let a baby be born to people who don't want it or can't take care of it), but what good is society if you can't protect what was great about that society? When you restrict rights, you're restricting much more than that. So, Laura may be trying to save the human race in the long term but if you strip away the culture, you aren't saving much.
12) And going back to Baltar for a second . . . I really don't like him anymore. After reading Laura's note at the end of Epiphanies, he's been a real asshole. Hell hath no fury like a Baltar scorned, right? And now he's running for president and not because he think he'd be particularly good leader but because he's a vindictive, egotistical asshole that's been spurred on by Tom Zarek, Fleet Weasel, who has no interest in the fleet's welfare.
Baltar's always been a bit of an egotistical asshole but vindictiveness just doesn't suit him.
13) Why, hello there Kevin McCallister's dad! I see you're playing Commander Garner. I have to tell you, you seriously need to chill. Commanding a battlestar is not the same as running the engine room, as important as that work is.
14) I seriously laughed out loud during this episode, which rarely happens when I watch this show since it's so, you know, depressing. But I love when Starbuck is getting dressed down by Garner in front of Lee about how she called Garner incompetent and paranoid and she looks over to Lee and says, "I was just venting. Accurately."
15) A few raptors go missing after being duped by a fake cylon distress signal and Garner incompetently ignores Starbuck and Lee's advice and takes the entire Pegasus to the location to retrieve them. Lo and behold, a basestar jumps in and shoot the shit out of them. The FTLs are damaged.
Lee, always sharp tells the crew, after Garner leaves to go take care of the pressure problem that is preventing the FTLs from being fixed: "We need those FTLs fixed soon or we're dead." Thanks, Lee. Or should I say Major Obvious? (Or Commander Obvious?)
16) I do kind of find Lee's promotion to commander ridiculous and not just because I can't stand Lee. I honestly don't think he should be in command of a battlestar. No, I can't really make a suggestion as to who should be the new commanding officer of the Pegasus, but still.
And I really don't like that the military is turning into some strange Adama dynasty. Which I realize makes me sound kind of like Tom Zarek and, for that, I'd like to apologize.
And there it is. A Plain Jane average episode with a horrible Laura moment. But it was better, over all, than several episodes in this half of the season so I'm going to give The Captain's Hand 3 out of 5 airlocks. Reluctantly.
But, the thing about The Captain's Hand is that is almost makes me physically ill. I was watching it last night and I wanted to ralph. Intrigued much? Find out why under the cut.
1) The Captain's Hand begins with 49,584 survivors, six less than Sacrifice.
2) Our fun time line continues. We learn that it's been a month since Sacrifice took place. I suppose, if we put all the time line pieces together, we're between six and seven months from the initial attack.
3) So, in recovery from his gunshot wound, Lee's been having lots of sex with Dee.
I am not okay with this pairing. Not only because it felt like it came out of nowhere when they first started introducing it earlier in the season, but there seems to be no reflection from Dee on Billy's death. Obviously, we're a month out from that, but I'm upset that the show just went by it so casually.
At the very least, Dee was Billy's girlfriend and he died trying to save her. Where are the ramifications? When she and Lee started their relationship in earnest, did she have mixed feelings? Extreme guilt? Anything at all? Because this episode made it seem like she and Lee have just been having lots of cramped sex in the officer quarters.
4) But aside from Laura gazing lovingly at a picture she has of herself and Billy on her desk and one line from Bill, Billy isn't a factor at all. I suppose it's jarring to see Tory doing what Billy would have normally been doing (though I'm okay with that since I'm Team Tory all the way and we'll get to why when we get to why), but I'm actually kind of pissed off that they skipped so much time in the time line because I want to know how Laura dealt with the death of her near-son. I want to know if she and Dee ever exchanged any words. Does she know about Lee and Dee? Does she know Dee rejected Billy's proposal?
I know BSG hates it when Laura interacts with other women so I suppose they threw up a little in their mouths at the thought of having some kind of emotional scene between her and Dee (what's with all my throw up references in this post?), but that's exactly the kind of character development I want to see the most on this show! Ever since Laura was cured of her cancer, it almost feels like her details no longer matter to The Powers That Be. We never got to see her deal with her cure and we never get to see her deal with Billy's death.
And no, much as I wish otherwise, this isn't the Laura on Colonial One in the Fleet That's Protected by the Battlestar Galactica show. But a little character development that has nothing to do with her impending death or prophetic nature would be nice.
5) So, Lee's been promoted to Major. Why he was promoted, I don't really know. I suppose he was all heroic during the hostage situation in Sacrifice. Maybe that had something to do with it?
6) Fun detail alert: Tory used to work for the Federalist Party in Delphi. The Federalist Party. I think it's cool to know the names of the various political parties and I think this is the only time we do get a name. I may be a history nerd but I suck at American history (too boring and not old enough) so I'm trying to remember who was a Federalist. Thomas Jefferson?
7) Doc Cottle is totally a liberal! Not only is he pro-choice, which totally gives me a permanent place in my heart, but he's also the person who suggests Raia apply for asylum aboard the Galactica so she can be protected from her parents. I mean, let's be real. If she was sent back to them she would, essentially, be kind of like a political prisoner and I did worry about what they would do to her if she came back no longer pregnant.
8) Okay, so here's some good Laura background I can appreciate: She fought her "whole career" for women's rights and, particularly, a woman's right to control her own body.
9) Bill is seriously hung up on Laura's, "We need to have babies" line from the miniseries, isn't he? I'm not going to blame her for Laura's horrible executive decision later on in the episode (I'm not even going to blame Baltar), but it didn't help.
10) But speaking of Baltar and Laura. What the hell is Laura doing not verifying Baltar's demographic data? Are you kidding me? When it's something that important and your vice president has such a huge chip on his shoulder towards you.
Verify Baltar. Verify.
11) And speaking of Laura's horrible decision . . . This is the part of the episode where I had to hold my stomach in agony.
Let's work through this.
There are a few positives I can take away from the scene where she says abortion is no longer legal. I can at least respect that it wasn't a political maneuver to gain the approval of the religious groups, like the Geminese. Laura obviously believes that she has to ban abortions in order for the human race to continue long term. And I can understand that and respect that, at least on one level.
But on the other level. No. I'm not okay with Laura's decision. It made me want to crawl into my computer screen so I could shake her. And aside from my obvious kind of normal issues with it (like, how it only penalizes women but men get off scott free and how it might be better to prevent a birth than to let a baby be born to people who don't want it or can't take care of it), but what good is society if you can't protect what was great about that society? When you restrict rights, you're restricting much more than that. So, Laura may be trying to save the human race in the long term but if you strip away the culture, you aren't saving much.
12) And going back to Baltar for a second . . . I really don't like him anymore. After reading Laura's note at the end of Epiphanies, he's been a real asshole. Hell hath no fury like a Baltar scorned, right? And now he's running for president and not because he think he'd be particularly good leader but because he's a vindictive, egotistical asshole that's been spurred on by Tom Zarek, Fleet Weasel, who has no interest in the fleet's welfare.
Baltar's always been a bit of an egotistical asshole but vindictiveness just doesn't suit him.
13) Why, hello there Kevin McCallister's dad! I see you're playing Commander Garner. I have to tell you, you seriously need to chill. Commanding a battlestar is not the same as running the engine room, as important as that work is.
14) I seriously laughed out loud during this episode, which rarely happens when I watch this show since it's so, you know, depressing. But I love when Starbuck is getting dressed down by Garner in front of Lee about how she called Garner incompetent and paranoid and she looks over to Lee and says, "I was just venting. Accurately."
15) A few raptors go missing after being duped by a fake cylon distress signal and Garner incompetently ignores Starbuck and Lee's advice and takes the entire Pegasus to the location to retrieve them. Lo and behold, a basestar jumps in and shoot the shit out of them. The FTLs are damaged.
Lee, always sharp tells the crew, after Garner leaves to go take care of the pressure problem that is preventing the FTLs from being fixed: "We need those FTLs fixed soon or we're dead." Thanks, Lee. Or should I say Major Obvious? (Or Commander Obvious?)
16) I do kind of find Lee's promotion to commander ridiculous and not just because I can't stand Lee. I honestly don't think he should be in command of a battlestar. No, I can't really make a suggestion as to who should be the new commanding officer of the Pegasus, but still.
And I really don't like that the military is turning into some strange Adama dynasty. Which I realize makes me sound kind of like Tom Zarek and, for that, I'd like to apologize.
And there it is. A Plain Jane average episode with a horrible Laura moment. But it was better, over all, than several episodes in this half of the season so I'm going to give The Captain's Hand 3 out of 5 airlocks. Reluctantly.