Exodus Part II
Phew! It's still before the weekend and we're about to finish the arc of New Caprican Greatness. Say bye to Laura's amazingly grunge sweaters and attitude. Say bye to Tigh's beanie. Say bye to all those weird handkerchief head bands the entire population of New Caprica wore all the time. But don't get too sad to see all of it go. I think we all know that what happens on New Caprica will not stay on New Caprica. I have a good feeling the consequences of humanity's doomed pit stop will reverberate for quite a while.
I'm going to see Barack Obama speak at UMich's commencement tomorrow so let's do this! Hurry! The gates open in 11.5 hours and I want a seat! Help me out and jump the cut!
1) Exodux Part II begins with Saul and Ellen's story and there's something about it that signaled for me, when I first watched it, that season three was going to be an entirely new beast of BSG gloominess. Not the suicide bombing. No, it was Saul killing Ellen for her collaboration with the cylons.
The episode basically opens with Sam bullying Tigh about Ellen giving the secret-meeting-map to the cylons, a betrayal that facilitated the death of three insurgents and, had Matthias not been lying in wait for lurking cylons, would have spelled complete and total doom for the humans because Sharon would have been killed which would have meant no launch keys and no surprise attack.
Sam basically tells Tigh that Ellen will be killed and it'd probably be better for everyone if Tigh's the one who does it.
2) Watching the scene I had two questions, the first being, "Did Ellen ever stand an actual chance of making it out of that place alive?" The answer quickly being, "No. Not likely."
It didn't matter that Ellen wasn't colluding with the cylons because she was trying to give them an advantage in the fight and that she was instead collaborating with the cylons in order to save the life of the man she loved more than anything else. When I was watching the part where Ellen is telling Tigh about how she got to Cavil and how she slept with him but how she would do it all again, the look on Tigh's face is something to behold. It can probably be read in multiple ways.
I read his face like he's thinking, "No, don't tell me you did it for me. Don't tell me you collaborated for my safety. Don't tell me they let me out because of something you did." Ellen was dead either way but I think it pained Tigh more to know she was doing it to protect him that made it even worse for him to do it to her.
The second question I asked myself was, "Does Ellen know that Saul is going to kill her?" No, I think.
I find it hard to believe that couldn't hear Sam's conversation with Tigh and I find it unlikely that Ellen thought she'd get away with a simple pat in the wrist. As Tigh's wife, she probably knew what typically happened to collaborators.
I assume she probably felt that, as Saul's wife and as someone doing anything they could to save their loved one's life, she would be spared.
I hope she didn't know he was going to do it, anyway.
3) According to Gaius Baltar, Laura and Zarek are missing, "at large, whereabouts unknown." That that, cylons!
4) One of things I find most interesting about this episode is D'Anna's reason for the cylons not ending the occupation. She basically tells Gaius Baltar that the cylons can't trust that if they leave that the conflict between humans and cylons will end. The humans would tell tales of the horrible cylons who killed their people and put them through hell, basically foster a collective memory that would compel future generations to move to the stars to seek their cylon enemies once more, in revenge.
She's probably right. Collective memory can be a dangerous thing.
Gaius Baltar tells her, "Blood for blood. It has to stop one day." But, Gaius Baltar, haven't you seen the name of this blog? Or read the scriptures? All this has happened before and all this will happen again. Remember? Can the cycle of violence and revenge really be broken?
5) For real, if I were fighting an insurgency (or just fighting a war), I'd so totally want Tory on my side. She's hyper efficient and she can get people to where they need to be.
6) Good detail: There are weapons caches underneath pyramid goals.
7) During the chaos of battle, Laura decides to be hardcore and dramatic and go take her ship back. Hell yeah, Laura! By the way, you look great in that wind breaker.
But here's what puzzled me as I was watching the scene: What's with the random and sudden friendship with Zarek? I know they were both slated for execution and she saved his life and that might bond people but . . . Dude, he's the reason they settled on New Caprica in the first place. Not even Gaius Baltar wanted to move in until Zarek convinced him it would win him the election. *Cough* Douche *Cough*
But even more implausible than their friendliness, I'm like, "What's with Zarek's sudden concern for Laura's safety?" Remember Colonial Day? A certain little assassination attempt against Laura? That everyone knows Zarek was behind? I get that in BSG world that happened a million years ago (a little less than two years, actually) and people change, but meh. Zarek's president if Gaius Baltar isn't. And I don't care what he does or says. I know his ultimate goal is power. I will remain suspicious of his motives for the time being.
8) HOLY FRAK SHIT MOMENT OF THE SERIES: Galactica frakking jumps into the planet's atmosphere and drops like a flaming tarantula-shaped rock towards the surface.
Not only is that visual so incredibly awesome, it tops itself by launching vipers at the same time.
Hell yeah, Adama!
As Hotdog says, "Well, this ought to be different."
9) With aid from the vipers, the insurgents manage to break into the detention center to rescue all the detainees. And whoa! He finds Kara, unconscious on the floor of her creepy cylon apartment, left by Leoben after he punched her in the head.
Sam the rescue, right?
10) Full disclosure: One of my favorite moments in BSG history, one that never fails to give me chills, happens in this episode. And it's a Lee moment.
NOOOOOOOOOOO! (I said that much as Darth Vader does when told his beloved wife Padme had been killed by his own hand.)
But when Galactica is getting bombarded on all side by cylon nukes? And Adama's like, "So this is it. It's been an honor" and resigns himself to the fact that Galactica isn't going to make it? And the camera pans out and you can see how small Galactica and the basestars are compared to the vastness of the universe? And the music gets really melancholy?
PEGASUS TO THE RESCUE! (Lots of capslock for this review, apparently.)
I've never been happier to see Pegasus and never do I love Lee more than at the moment, as he sweeps in to give Galactica some cover so they can get out alive, sacrificing his command at the altar of the greater good.
You done good, Lee. You done good. For now.
11) Meanwhile, back in cylon detention, Kara's conscious and dammit, Sam, you forgot about Casey!
12) D'Anna gives Gaius Baltar a choice to evacuate New Caprica with the cylons, which is rather generous considering. He was, after all, right when the rest of them were wrong and that should count for something.
13) Gaeta versus Gaius Baltar is one of the more interesting scenes in this episode and I think that's saying something.
Gaeta, finally getting the guts to not be himself, pulls a gun on Gaius Baltar and threatens to kill him. Gaius Baltar encourages his train of thoughts, telling him he wants Gaeta to kill him.
I listened to the commentary to this episode a few days ago and Ron Moore says that Gaius Baltar is completely sincere when he begs Gaeta to kill him. I, however, am not completely convinced.
I do know that Gaius Baltar would never kill himself. He doesn't want to die bad enough to do it himself. But if someone else does it? That could work.
But there's something about the scene that feels like Gaius Baltar is trying to manipulate Gaeta into letting him go. Like, with reverse psychology or something.
Still, as far as Gaius Baltar knows, D'Anna's a couple minutes from setting of a nuke and blowing New Caprica City to smithereens with Gaius Baltar included. But he also knows he can go with the cylons, too. And that's why I'm not sure if Gaius Baltar is sincere when he begs Gaeta to kill him.
I know Gaius Baltar has crippling guilt (the disaster of New Caprica added to his old guilt about the destruction of the colonies) but I think his ego and love of self is still too big to sincerely want to die.
14) Back up in space, Pegaus crashes into and annihilates the basestar. I had a flashback to Return of the Jedi when the Super Star Destroyer is disabled in some way and crashes, pointy end first, into the Death Star.
Pretty epic.
15) Sadly, Maya was killed during the evacuation but, miraculously, baby Isis/Hera is still alive and her cries lead Gaius Baltar and Caprica!Six to her rescue.
D'Anna, before going and blowing the city to pieces, heads to the tent of the oracle to speak to her harshly about lying about Hera. But, what do you know? She hears Hera's crying, too!
I've kind of always loved D'Anna because she's so low-key evil, but I really love her in the moment where she holds Hera for the first time. Lucy Lawless plays it so well. Just as the oracle foretold, D'Anna knew true love when she held Hera in her arms.
Still, this can't be good, can it? Hybrid!Hera is in cylon hands.
16) Oh, but what I also love about this scene is that, when D'Anna leaves with Hera, Gaius Baltar pulls a gun so he can shoot her in the back, probably thinking he's going to be heroic and save humanity.
Caprica is like, "No, dude. Not necessary. She has Hera. She isn't going to drop the bomb with baby on board."
The one opportunity Gaius Baltar actually tries to take to be a hero (except, I concede, when he refused to sign the execution order) and he's foiled.
17) Laura gets Colonial One back! She's so cool. She goes and sits in her old chair and unzips her bitchin' wind breaker to reveal her gloriously torn sweater to pull out her collection of journal records. She calmly situates them in front of her and says, even voiced, "Alright. I'm ready to go." Damn straight you are!
I love you, Laura. I just wanted to tell you. Once. (C'mon, there have to be The Office fans lurking around here somewhere, right?)
18) Starbuck goes back to the apartment to retrieve Casey, but Leoben has her. Earlier in the New Caprica arc, he told he that he had seen that Starbuck would tell him she loved him and would kill him. Apparently.
And so it comes to pass.
But I'm unimpressed with Leoben's visions. He sees things that come to pass, sure, but they come to pass because he manipulates everything and everybody around him so that they can come true. He saw that Kara would tell him she loved him. So what does he do? He constructs this warped reality where he and Starbuck have a daughter and after Kara accepts this child as her own, he withholds the child from her until she'll say she loves him.
And that's the thing about Leoben. He'll construct these realities to hear what he wants but it's not like Kara actually said, "I love you" and meant "I love you."
I'm not sure visions count as visions if you are consciously manipulating reality to fit the vision.
19) As it turns out, Casey is not actually Starbuck's daughter. It's just pretty much the ultimate Leoben mind frak.
20) One of the more gut wrenching moments of the series is the look on Tigh's face when he steps out the raptor and back onto Galactica. Gods, I just want to hug him.
21) Tory tells Laura that Maya and Isis didn't make it off the planet.
Another reason to love Tory: "I'm so sorry. I let you down and I know that." She basically lives to please Laura. I can relate.
Laura seems to accept this. She tells Tory, "This is bigger than us. This is life."
I love Laura.
22) Adama shaves his mustache! And he has less of a mullet!
We're returned to normalcy. The Galactica has a crew, the fleet has ships and civilians, Laura isn't president but she's pretty much the person everyone looks to for leadership, and Adama has a fleet he can lead to Earth.
23) You may have noticed that for the last three reviews I've been referring to Baltar as Gaius Baltar exclusively. I don't know if anyone noticed but me, but I was amused with my own little joke which I started in deference to Colonel Tigh's inability to call Baltar anything else but "Gaius Baltar". Now that we're off the planet and Baltar's missing from the fleet, I'll resume my normal usage of "Baltar" when I refer to him.
And there it be! New Caprica! It's been a brilliant set of episodes, as far as I'm concerned, that's really pushed the show in new ways that works to test the comfort zone and boundaries of the BSG audience. While Exodus Part II is the conclusion of this arc of episodes, it's really only the beginning of the chaos and conflict this fleet will face as it learns to live with the consequences of their settlement. It was a great prelude to the coming journey, right? I'm going to give Exodus Part II 5 out of 5 airlocks.
I'm going to leave you with Bear McCreary's Someone to Trust which is what I consider to be the theme for Kara Thrace. We heard it play several times during this arc and I think it's hauntingly beautiful.
I'm going to see Barack Obama speak at UMich's commencement tomorrow so let's do this! Hurry! The gates open in 11.5 hours and I want a seat! Help me out and jump the cut!
1) Exodux Part II begins with Saul and Ellen's story and there's something about it that signaled for me, when I first watched it, that season three was going to be an entirely new beast of BSG gloominess. Not the suicide bombing. No, it was Saul killing Ellen for her collaboration with the cylons.
The episode basically opens with Sam bullying Tigh about Ellen giving the secret-meeting-map to the cylons, a betrayal that facilitated the death of three insurgents and, had Matthias not been lying in wait for lurking cylons, would have spelled complete and total doom for the humans because Sharon would have been killed which would have meant no launch keys and no surprise attack.
Sam basically tells Tigh that Ellen will be killed and it'd probably be better for everyone if Tigh's the one who does it.
2) Watching the scene I had two questions, the first being, "Did Ellen ever stand an actual chance of making it out of that place alive?" The answer quickly being, "No. Not likely."
It didn't matter that Ellen wasn't colluding with the cylons because she was trying to give them an advantage in the fight and that she was instead collaborating with the cylons in order to save the life of the man she loved more than anything else. When I was watching the part where Ellen is telling Tigh about how she got to Cavil and how she slept with him but how she would do it all again, the look on Tigh's face is something to behold. It can probably be read in multiple ways.
I read his face like he's thinking, "No, don't tell me you did it for me. Don't tell me you collaborated for my safety. Don't tell me they let me out because of something you did." Ellen was dead either way but I think it pained Tigh more to know she was doing it to protect him that made it even worse for him to do it to her.
The second question I asked myself was, "Does Ellen know that Saul is going to kill her?" No, I think.
I find it hard to believe that couldn't hear Sam's conversation with Tigh and I find it unlikely that Ellen thought she'd get away with a simple pat in the wrist. As Tigh's wife, she probably knew what typically happened to collaborators.
I assume she probably felt that, as Saul's wife and as someone doing anything they could to save their loved one's life, she would be spared.
I hope she didn't know he was going to do it, anyway.
3) According to Gaius Baltar, Laura and Zarek are missing, "at large, whereabouts unknown." That that, cylons!
4) One of things I find most interesting about this episode is D'Anna's reason for the cylons not ending the occupation. She basically tells Gaius Baltar that the cylons can't trust that if they leave that the conflict between humans and cylons will end. The humans would tell tales of the horrible cylons who killed their people and put them through hell, basically foster a collective memory that would compel future generations to move to the stars to seek their cylon enemies once more, in revenge.
She's probably right. Collective memory can be a dangerous thing.
Gaius Baltar tells her, "Blood for blood. It has to stop one day." But, Gaius Baltar, haven't you seen the name of this blog? Or read the scriptures? All this has happened before and all this will happen again. Remember? Can the cycle of violence and revenge really be broken?
5) For real, if I were fighting an insurgency (or just fighting a war), I'd so totally want Tory on my side. She's hyper efficient and she can get people to where they need to be.
6) Good detail: There are weapons caches underneath pyramid goals.
7) During the chaos of battle, Laura decides to be hardcore and dramatic and go take her ship back. Hell yeah, Laura! By the way, you look great in that wind breaker.
But here's what puzzled me as I was watching the scene: What's with the random and sudden friendship with Zarek? I know they were both slated for execution and she saved his life and that might bond people but . . . Dude, he's the reason they settled on New Caprica in the first place. Not even Gaius Baltar wanted to move in until Zarek convinced him it would win him the election. *Cough* Douche *Cough*
But even more implausible than their friendliness, I'm like, "What's with Zarek's sudden concern for Laura's safety?" Remember Colonial Day? A certain little assassination attempt against Laura? That everyone knows Zarek was behind? I get that in BSG world that happened a million years ago (a little less than two years, actually) and people change, but meh. Zarek's president if Gaius Baltar isn't. And I don't care what he does or says. I know his ultimate goal is power. I will remain suspicious of his motives for the time being.
8) HOLY FRAK SHIT MOMENT OF THE SERIES: Galactica frakking jumps into the planet's atmosphere and drops like a flaming tarantula-shaped rock towards the surface.
Not only is that visual so incredibly awesome, it tops itself by launching vipers at the same time.
Hell yeah, Adama!
As Hotdog says, "Well, this ought to be different."
9) With aid from the vipers, the insurgents manage to break into the detention center to rescue all the detainees. And whoa! He finds Kara, unconscious on the floor of her creepy cylon apartment, left by Leoben after he punched her in the head.
Sam the rescue, right?
10) Full disclosure: One of my favorite moments in BSG history, one that never fails to give me chills, happens in this episode. And it's a Lee moment.
NOOOOOOOOOOO! (I said that much as Darth Vader does when told his beloved wife Padme had been killed by his own hand.)
But when Galactica is getting bombarded on all side by cylon nukes? And Adama's like, "So this is it. It's been an honor" and resigns himself to the fact that Galactica isn't going to make it? And the camera pans out and you can see how small Galactica and the basestars are compared to the vastness of the universe? And the music gets really melancholy?
PEGASUS TO THE RESCUE! (Lots of capslock for this review, apparently.)
I've never been happier to see Pegasus and never do I love Lee more than at the moment, as he sweeps in to give Galactica some cover so they can get out alive, sacrificing his command at the altar of the greater good.
You done good, Lee. You done good. For now.
11) Meanwhile, back in cylon detention, Kara's conscious and dammit, Sam, you forgot about Casey!
12) D'Anna gives Gaius Baltar a choice to evacuate New Caprica with the cylons, which is rather generous considering. He was, after all, right when the rest of them were wrong and that should count for something.
13) Gaeta versus Gaius Baltar is one of the more interesting scenes in this episode and I think that's saying something.
Gaeta, finally getting the guts to not be himself, pulls a gun on Gaius Baltar and threatens to kill him. Gaius Baltar encourages his train of thoughts, telling him he wants Gaeta to kill him.
I listened to the commentary to this episode a few days ago and Ron Moore says that Gaius Baltar is completely sincere when he begs Gaeta to kill him. I, however, am not completely convinced.
I do know that Gaius Baltar would never kill himself. He doesn't want to die bad enough to do it himself. But if someone else does it? That could work.
But there's something about the scene that feels like Gaius Baltar is trying to manipulate Gaeta into letting him go. Like, with reverse psychology or something.
Still, as far as Gaius Baltar knows, D'Anna's a couple minutes from setting of a nuke and blowing New Caprica City to smithereens with Gaius Baltar included. But he also knows he can go with the cylons, too. And that's why I'm not sure if Gaius Baltar is sincere when he begs Gaeta to kill him.
I know Gaius Baltar has crippling guilt (the disaster of New Caprica added to his old guilt about the destruction of the colonies) but I think his ego and love of self is still too big to sincerely want to die.
14) Back up in space, Pegaus crashes into and annihilates the basestar. I had a flashback to Return of the Jedi when the Super Star Destroyer is disabled in some way and crashes, pointy end first, into the Death Star.
Pretty epic.
15) Sadly, Maya was killed during the evacuation but, miraculously, baby Isis/Hera is still alive and her cries lead Gaius Baltar and Caprica!Six to her rescue.
D'Anna, before going and blowing the city to pieces, heads to the tent of the oracle to speak to her harshly about lying about Hera. But, what do you know? She hears Hera's crying, too!
I've kind of always loved D'Anna because she's so low-key evil, but I really love her in the moment where she holds Hera for the first time. Lucy Lawless plays it so well. Just as the oracle foretold, D'Anna knew true love when she held Hera in her arms.
Still, this can't be good, can it? Hybrid!Hera is in cylon hands.
16) Oh, but what I also love about this scene is that, when D'Anna leaves with Hera, Gaius Baltar pulls a gun so he can shoot her in the back, probably thinking he's going to be heroic and save humanity.
Caprica is like, "No, dude. Not necessary. She has Hera. She isn't going to drop the bomb with baby on board."
The one opportunity Gaius Baltar actually tries to take to be a hero (except, I concede, when he refused to sign the execution order) and he's foiled.
17) Laura gets Colonial One back! She's so cool. She goes and sits in her old chair and unzips her bitchin' wind breaker to reveal her gloriously torn sweater to pull out her collection of journal records. She calmly situates them in front of her and says, even voiced, "Alright. I'm ready to go." Damn straight you are!
I love you, Laura. I just wanted to tell you. Once. (C'mon, there have to be The Office fans lurking around here somewhere, right?)
18) Starbuck goes back to the apartment to retrieve Casey, but Leoben has her. Earlier in the New Caprica arc, he told he that he had seen that Starbuck would tell him she loved him and would kill him. Apparently.
And so it comes to pass.
But I'm unimpressed with Leoben's visions. He sees things that come to pass, sure, but they come to pass because he manipulates everything and everybody around him so that they can come true. He saw that Kara would tell him she loved him. So what does he do? He constructs this warped reality where he and Starbuck have a daughter and after Kara accepts this child as her own, he withholds the child from her until she'll say she loves him.
And that's the thing about Leoben. He'll construct these realities to hear what he wants but it's not like Kara actually said, "I love you" and meant "I love you."
I'm not sure visions count as visions if you are consciously manipulating reality to fit the vision.
19) As it turns out, Casey is not actually Starbuck's daughter. It's just pretty much the ultimate Leoben mind frak.
20) One of the more gut wrenching moments of the series is the look on Tigh's face when he steps out the raptor and back onto Galactica. Gods, I just want to hug him.
21) Tory tells Laura that Maya and Isis didn't make it off the planet.
Another reason to love Tory: "I'm so sorry. I let you down and I know that." She basically lives to please Laura. I can relate.
Laura seems to accept this. She tells Tory, "This is bigger than us. This is life."
I love Laura.
22) Adama shaves his mustache! And he has less of a mullet!
We're returned to normalcy. The Galactica has a crew, the fleet has ships and civilians, Laura isn't president but she's pretty much the person everyone looks to for leadership, and Adama has a fleet he can lead to Earth.
23) You may have noticed that for the last three reviews I've been referring to Baltar as Gaius Baltar exclusively. I don't know if anyone noticed but me, but I was amused with my own little joke which I started in deference to Colonel Tigh's inability to call Baltar anything else but "Gaius Baltar". Now that we're off the planet and Baltar's missing from the fleet, I'll resume my normal usage of "Baltar" when I refer to him.
And there it be! New Caprica! It's been a brilliant set of episodes, as far as I'm concerned, that's really pushed the show in new ways that works to test the comfort zone and boundaries of the BSG audience. While Exodus Part II is the conclusion of this arc of episodes, it's really only the beginning of the chaos and conflict this fleet will face as it learns to live with the consequences of their settlement. It was a great prelude to the coming journey, right? I'm going to give Exodus Part II 5 out of 5 airlocks.
I'm going to leave you with Bear McCreary's Someone to Trust which is what I consider to be the theme for Kara Thrace. We heard it play several times during this arc and I think it's hauntingly beautiful.
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