Torn
Well, that was a bit of break, wasn't it? I was on such a roll, too. But guess what? I finished school! Last week was awash in last minute project work and taking finals. But today is my first day of officially never having to take undergrad classes again (for real this time) so how do I celebrate? With BSG, of course. What do you take me for, anyway? The slight problem? I watched Torn way early in the week. Possibly even Sunday now that I think about it. And between then and now my brain has been through the ringer. I'm hoping my notes will jar my memories of this episode but, you know, wish me luck anyway.
Jump! (You have no idea how long I've been singing "Torn" in my head since I first watched the episode. I sang it while walking my dog today.)
1) Torn begins with 41,422 survivors, a thirteen person loss from the beginning of Collaborators. I'm assuming that all thirteen deaths were from Zarek's secret jury's convictions.
2) Torn is an episode of ambiguous time line placement. Why? Well, Baltar's on the basestar and they're still determining his fate. It's made to seem like it's only been a couple days since Collaborators. The rub? Fat!Lee is no longer Fat!Lee. He miraculously lost all that weight in a week. WTF? I'm not okay with this time line gaffe.
3) It looks like, from my notes, that Torn started with a lot of action on the basestar so why don't we concentrate on Baltar's story with the cylons. First: The cylons project. They are able to choose the way in which they see the world. For example, Caprica!Six chooses to see the world as a forest.
This new information about the cylons understandably worries Baltar. After all, he often has vibrant and real visions Head!Six and him in places other than where they are. Usually, they take place at his old house on Caprica but, if I'm remembering correctly, Torn starts with Baltar and Head!Six in front of a large body of water such as a lake or ocean.
If Baltar can so easily see the world around him differently than it really is, does he project like the cylons? And, if he does, does that make him a cylon?
4) Head!Six once again tells Baltar that she's an angel of God "sent here to help you. Just as I've always been." If she's an angel, then she isn't a projection, right? But is she an angel?
5) Interestingly, the cylons have a thriving eco system on the basestar. I think one of the cylons, Caprica, maybe, actually refers to it as an eco system. The cylons are machines but they're also kind of organic machines (not unlike humans, if you ask me). We know from past experience that the raiders are also organic. It's not a big leap to assume the basestars are as well. All I know is that they ca stick their hands into that water and directly communicate with the ship. Kind of cool.
6) We learn very early in this episode that the cylons are now looking for Earth because they want to make it their new home. Convenient, right? We thought the conflict between cylon and human was over with the absolute wreck that was New Caprica but nope. Now they're both trying to get to Earth. Great, right. I smell problems!
7) Back on Galactica, Lee grounds Kara because she disobeyed his order on a training mission and ran into Kat's viper, which causes damage to Starbuck's ship. But not only is Starbuck being more wreckless/un-focused than normal, she also refuses to see Casey, even though Casey's mom, Julia, tries to set up play dates. What gives, Starbuck?
8) The time has come, my friends, to speak of many things. Including the fact that Laura has some new outfits. I don't know why I didn't write down a description of her attire because I have no idea what it looks like (though I think it was just a skirt and blouse). But good for Laura! Maybe she can stop wearing her blue shirt of disco dancing.
9) Laura and Adama are consulting Gaeta about Baltar's progress in finding Earth. Gaeta reads from some scripture. Pythia, actually, because, as well all know, Pythia tells of the tribes' exodus off of Kobol and it gives the prophecy of the dying leader and all of that. How often did we hear about Pythia in the first and second season? About Laura's belief that she was the dying leader? A lot, right? Then why does Adama ask Gaeta about Pythia? WTF? Adama, start paying better attention! You read Pythia yourself, just last season!
10) Aside from demonstrating how horrible Adama's memory is, Gaeta does a good job tracing Baltar's progress. Unfortunately for all of them, Baltar's currently trying to save his own neck and is trying to prove to the cylons that he has a good idea of where Earth is. Gaeta tells Adama and Laura about the lion's head with the red and blue blinking eye just as Baltar tells Caprica and D'Anna.
Way to sell out your people again, Baltar. Thumbs up!
11) On Tuesdays, I take a tai-chi class at one of the local YMCAs. I'm glad I don't take my class on the cylon basestar. I don't think I'd be comfortable doing naked tai-chi with the Eights.
12) And speaking of the Eights . . . Sharon gets a call sign! Well, she is a part of the fleet, right? She's a lieutenant, just like Boomer. But she can't be Boomer because that's totally awkward, considering Boomer's betrayal and shooting of Adama and participating in the occupation of New Caprica so Sharon gets a new name: Athena, goddess of wisdom of war (which comes courtesy of Hot Dog).
I'm so happy they finally gave her her name because whenever I write these reviews, I always slip and call her "Athena" and then have to say, "Frak! Not yet!" This helps me out a bit. So, thanks RDM and whoever wrote this episode.
13) Just as "predicted" in my review for Collaborators, Tigh and Starbuck are starting to create a fracture on Galactica between those who had been on New Caprica and those who had been off planet. It's basically them versus everyone else and Starbuck and Tigh refuse to look at the others as having suffered hardships. As Tigh says, "Forgive me if I don't get all misty over your 'sacrifices'" because, apparently, it was inexcusable for them befriend Athena while trying to work on the rescue mission.
I understand their bitterness. I do. And Tigh certainly never chose to go down to New Caprica. Adama made him go back at the end of Lay Down Your Burdens, literally about five minutes before the cylons came back. Starbuck, on the other hand, chose to go down there, presumably to be with Anders. So, in a way, I feel like part of her gripe is her anger at herself for putting herself in that position just by being down there.
But Tigh and Starbuck also need to widen their scope. I imagine that in times of extreme pain it's hard to recognize that you aren't eh other one suffering, but, really, Tigh and Starbuck aren't the only ones who suffered. Certainly what happened to Starbuck was disturbing in a unique way and it took a huge mental and emotional toll on her, but I wouldn't say she has more pain than anyone else. And yes, Tigh was tortured, but he certainly was not the only one. I believe about ninety-five percent of his rage comes from the fact that he killed Ellen. But I have news for Tigh: He actually did have a choice in the matter. Own up to that and stop blaming the people who helped you get off the planet.
14) Hey-oh! First mention of the Final Five in right here in Torn. Reoccurring question of the series from now on: Who the hell are these Final Five and why are they so important? As Caprica tells Baltar, "We don't talk about them. Ever." Oh, intrigue!
15) Sucks for Baltar, but he basically sent the cylons into a death trap. Something is killing the cylons on the basestar and the disease or infection can be transferred back to the resurrection ship which spells totally doom for the cylon race. Of course, Baltar gets blamed and, again to save his own neck, Baltar volunteers to take a raptor on auto pilot and do an investigation.
15) Before Baltar leaves, though, he gets to take a look at the hybrid. The hybrid is this half humanoid, half cylon tentacle thing that basically sits there all day in the cylon resurrection goop, speaking incoherently. Apparently, all basestars have one.
So what is she? Caprica tells Baltar, "She is the base ship in a very real sense . . . She swims in the heavens . . . Maybe Leoben is right . . . Maybe she does see God." To know the face of God is to know insanity, right? Leoben thinks that the hybrid's vocalizations have deeper meanings, that she communicates directly with God and that all she says is somehow connected to God's plan.
But she is the base ship in the way that she basically keeps it up and running. She jumps the ship, for example. I imagine that everything works because of her. She does not, however, have seniority, because she doesn't want to jump the basestar to the Lion Nebula but, as D'Anna points out, "She does't get a vote" and they override her and she has to jump anyway.
I kind of like the introduction of the hybrid. It's such a strange thing that it works really well. I find her very image to be cool. It's almost like she was the first humanoid cylon attempt that never quite worked out. That's not the case (as far as I know), but it is kind of fascinating that she does have the upper body of a female human.
16) Once Baltar gets to the infected basestar, he finds dead cylon bodies scattered all over and actually finds a small metal device that a dying Six tells him they brought on board because they jumped in and found it.
The Six thinks that it's a marker, left by the thirteenth tribe as a clue as to the route to Earth, and I'm pretty sure she's right. Unfortunately, thinking that it was a marker left by humans who infected it deliberately enrages her and she basically has a verbal go at Baltar who ends up crushing her throat.
Way to add to your list of sins, Baltar. Though it was probably better for that Six's sake that she didn't have to suffer through more of the infection.
17) Back on Galactica, Adama is fed up with the discontent Helo tells him is being sowed by Tigh and Starbuck so he goes to tell them off.
It's a great scene, really. Probably the best in the episode. Bill calls Kara a malcontent and a cancer and tells her she has a choice: cut the shit or get off the ship. Oh, did I mention he gives her the choice after he kicks her chair to the floor with her on it?
He gives it just as hard to Tigh (that's what he said). Says Tigh is full of bile and hatred, a one-eyed drunk sowing civil disobedience. He gives Tigh less of a choice and more of a paternal scolding: Tigh can go back to his quarters and think about what he's done and he can't come out until he's willing to be less of an ass.
18) Adama's words obviously get through to Starbuck who symbolically cuts off her long hair with a knife and goes to see Casey. Tigh also does what Adama says, but he also acknowledges to Adama that he's never going to be the same guy he was before New Caprica and that he's pretty much done. Tigh's going to be in his quarters for a long time.
19) Athena is apparently the new Skulls (actually, Athena is more like the new Racetrack because Racetrack was the pilot and Skulls was the ECO so, really, Racetrack is the new Skulls) because she and Racetrack find the lion's head and the basestar.
First, can I just say how ridiculous it is for them to have landed so close to the basestar? And, while we're at it, for the cylons to have found that tiny marker? If two people jump to the same coordinate quadrant in space, I find it seriously unlikely that they'd ever find each other so easily. And a tiny marker? That registered on dradis?
I know I shouldn't harp because if they didn't also jump to the exact same points, the fleet would never jump together and the cylons would never find them. But really. You know how improbably this whole pursuit is when you think of how vast space is? To have jumped to the exact same coordinates was unlikely though, but to have landed right on top of the wreckage is crazy.
But here's the actual point of the scene: Athena gets kind of creepy and says, "When God's anger awakens, even the mighty shall fall."
Hm. Interesting. What does it mean? I'm sure we'll find out. But it's times like these when the audience is reminded that Athena is a cylon, not a human, and that's she's kind of locked into a plain that's a bit higher than ours. Remember back in the second season when she told Helo she had a feeling something dark was coming? Cue Baltar's election win and the miserable existence on New Caprica, pre and during the occupation.
Trust her. She knows these things.
I think considering I haven't seen this episode in a million years, my memories came back well enough. I feel kind of discombobulated at the moment, like I've had one beer too many, but I swear, I haven't had a drink since last Thursday. (And by that I mean April 29th.) I am listening to Paul Simon's Rhythm of the Saints, so that's helped because Paul Simon is so awesome.
I've gone off on a tangent, haven't I? Not unusual. But if this review seems off, there's your explanation. It didn't help that Torn wasn't my favorite episode of the season, either. It wasn't bad or anything, but compared to the first five episode, it was a little weak. That's why I'm going to give it 3 out of 5 airlocks.
Jump! (You have no idea how long I've been singing "Torn" in my head since I first watched the episode. I sang it while walking my dog today.)
1) Torn begins with 41,422 survivors, a thirteen person loss from the beginning of Collaborators. I'm assuming that all thirteen deaths were from Zarek's secret jury's convictions.
2) Torn is an episode of ambiguous time line placement. Why? Well, Baltar's on the basestar and they're still determining his fate. It's made to seem like it's only been a couple days since Collaborators. The rub? Fat!Lee is no longer Fat!Lee. He miraculously lost all that weight in a week. WTF? I'm not okay with this time line gaffe.
3) It looks like, from my notes, that Torn started with a lot of action on the basestar so why don't we concentrate on Baltar's story with the cylons. First: The cylons project. They are able to choose the way in which they see the world. For example, Caprica!Six chooses to see the world as a forest.
This new information about the cylons understandably worries Baltar. After all, he often has vibrant and real visions Head!Six and him in places other than where they are. Usually, they take place at his old house on Caprica but, if I'm remembering correctly, Torn starts with Baltar and Head!Six in front of a large body of water such as a lake or ocean.
If Baltar can so easily see the world around him differently than it really is, does he project like the cylons? And, if he does, does that make him a cylon?
4) Head!Six once again tells Baltar that she's an angel of God "sent here to help you. Just as I've always been." If she's an angel, then she isn't a projection, right? But is she an angel?
5) Interestingly, the cylons have a thriving eco system on the basestar. I think one of the cylons, Caprica, maybe, actually refers to it as an eco system. The cylons are machines but they're also kind of organic machines (not unlike humans, if you ask me). We know from past experience that the raiders are also organic. It's not a big leap to assume the basestars are as well. All I know is that they ca stick their hands into that water and directly communicate with the ship. Kind of cool.
6) We learn very early in this episode that the cylons are now looking for Earth because they want to make it their new home. Convenient, right? We thought the conflict between cylon and human was over with the absolute wreck that was New Caprica but nope. Now they're both trying to get to Earth. Great, right. I smell problems!
7) Back on Galactica, Lee grounds Kara because she disobeyed his order on a training mission and ran into Kat's viper, which causes damage to Starbuck's ship. But not only is Starbuck being more wreckless/un-focused than normal, she also refuses to see Casey, even though Casey's mom, Julia, tries to set up play dates. What gives, Starbuck?
8) The time has come, my friends, to speak of many things. Including the fact that Laura has some new outfits. I don't know why I didn't write down a description of her attire because I have no idea what it looks like (though I think it was just a skirt and blouse). But good for Laura! Maybe she can stop wearing her blue shirt of disco dancing.
9) Laura and Adama are consulting Gaeta about Baltar's progress in finding Earth. Gaeta reads from some scripture. Pythia, actually, because, as well all know, Pythia tells of the tribes' exodus off of Kobol and it gives the prophecy of the dying leader and all of that. How often did we hear about Pythia in the first and second season? About Laura's belief that she was the dying leader? A lot, right? Then why does Adama ask Gaeta about Pythia? WTF? Adama, start paying better attention! You read Pythia yourself, just last season!
10) Aside from demonstrating how horrible Adama's memory is, Gaeta does a good job tracing Baltar's progress. Unfortunately for all of them, Baltar's currently trying to save his own neck and is trying to prove to the cylons that he has a good idea of where Earth is. Gaeta tells Adama and Laura about the lion's head with the red and blue blinking eye just as Baltar tells Caprica and D'Anna.
Way to sell out your people again, Baltar. Thumbs up!
11) On Tuesdays, I take a tai-chi class at one of the local YMCAs. I'm glad I don't take my class on the cylon basestar. I don't think I'd be comfortable doing naked tai-chi with the Eights.
12) And speaking of the Eights . . . Sharon gets a call sign! Well, she is a part of the fleet, right? She's a lieutenant, just like Boomer. But she can't be Boomer because that's totally awkward, considering Boomer's betrayal and shooting of Adama and participating in the occupation of New Caprica so Sharon gets a new name: Athena, goddess of wisdom of war (which comes courtesy of Hot Dog).
I'm so happy they finally gave her her name because whenever I write these reviews, I always slip and call her "Athena" and then have to say, "Frak! Not yet!" This helps me out a bit. So, thanks RDM and whoever wrote this episode.
13) Just as "predicted" in my review for Collaborators, Tigh and Starbuck are starting to create a fracture on Galactica between those who had been on New Caprica and those who had been off planet. It's basically them versus everyone else and Starbuck and Tigh refuse to look at the others as having suffered hardships. As Tigh says, "Forgive me if I don't get all misty over your 'sacrifices'" because, apparently, it was inexcusable for them befriend Athena while trying to work on the rescue mission.
I understand their bitterness. I do. And Tigh certainly never chose to go down to New Caprica. Adama made him go back at the end of Lay Down Your Burdens, literally about five minutes before the cylons came back. Starbuck, on the other hand, chose to go down there, presumably to be with Anders. So, in a way, I feel like part of her gripe is her anger at herself for putting herself in that position just by being down there.
But Tigh and Starbuck also need to widen their scope. I imagine that in times of extreme pain it's hard to recognize that you aren't eh other one suffering, but, really, Tigh and Starbuck aren't the only ones who suffered. Certainly what happened to Starbuck was disturbing in a unique way and it took a huge mental and emotional toll on her, but I wouldn't say she has more pain than anyone else. And yes, Tigh was tortured, but he certainly was not the only one. I believe about ninety-five percent of his rage comes from the fact that he killed Ellen. But I have news for Tigh: He actually did have a choice in the matter. Own up to that and stop blaming the people who helped you get off the planet.
14) Hey-oh! First mention of the Final Five in right here in Torn. Reoccurring question of the series from now on: Who the hell are these Final Five and why are they so important? As Caprica tells Baltar, "We don't talk about them. Ever." Oh, intrigue!
15) Sucks for Baltar, but he basically sent the cylons into a death trap. Something is killing the cylons on the basestar and the disease or infection can be transferred back to the resurrection ship which spells totally doom for the cylon race. Of course, Baltar gets blamed and, again to save his own neck, Baltar volunteers to take a raptor on auto pilot and do an investigation.
15) Before Baltar leaves, though, he gets to take a look at the hybrid. The hybrid is this half humanoid, half cylon tentacle thing that basically sits there all day in the cylon resurrection goop, speaking incoherently. Apparently, all basestars have one.
So what is she? Caprica tells Baltar, "She is the base ship in a very real sense . . . She swims in the heavens . . . Maybe Leoben is right . . . Maybe she does see God." To know the face of God is to know insanity, right? Leoben thinks that the hybrid's vocalizations have deeper meanings, that she communicates directly with God and that all she says is somehow connected to God's plan.
But she is the base ship in the way that she basically keeps it up and running. She jumps the ship, for example. I imagine that everything works because of her. She does not, however, have seniority, because she doesn't want to jump the basestar to the Lion Nebula but, as D'Anna points out, "She does't get a vote" and they override her and she has to jump anyway.
I kind of like the introduction of the hybrid. It's such a strange thing that it works really well. I find her very image to be cool. It's almost like she was the first humanoid cylon attempt that never quite worked out. That's not the case (as far as I know), but it is kind of fascinating that she does have the upper body of a female human.
16) Once Baltar gets to the infected basestar, he finds dead cylon bodies scattered all over and actually finds a small metal device that a dying Six tells him they brought on board because they jumped in and found it.
The Six thinks that it's a marker, left by the thirteenth tribe as a clue as to the route to Earth, and I'm pretty sure she's right. Unfortunately, thinking that it was a marker left by humans who infected it deliberately enrages her and she basically has a verbal go at Baltar who ends up crushing her throat.
Way to add to your list of sins, Baltar. Though it was probably better for that Six's sake that she didn't have to suffer through more of the infection.
17) Back on Galactica, Adama is fed up with the discontent Helo tells him is being sowed by Tigh and Starbuck so he goes to tell them off.
It's a great scene, really. Probably the best in the episode. Bill calls Kara a malcontent and a cancer and tells her she has a choice: cut the shit or get off the ship. Oh, did I mention he gives her the choice after he kicks her chair to the floor with her on it?
He gives it just as hard to Tigh (that's what he said). Says Tigh is full of bile and hatred, a one-eyed drunk sowing civil disobedience. He gives Tigh less of a choice and more of a paternal scolding: Tigh can go back to his quarters and think about what he's done and he can't come out until he's willing to be less of an ass.
18) Adama's words obviously get through to Starbuck who symbolically cuts off her long hair with a knife and goes to see Casey. Tigh also does what Adama says, but he also acknowledges to Adama that he's never going to be the same guy he was before New Caprica and that he's pretty much done. Tigh's going to be in his quarters for a long time.
19) Athena is apparently the new Skulls (actually, Athena is more like the new Racetrack because Racetrack was the pilot and Skulls was the ECO so, really, Racetrack is the new Skulls) because she and Racetrack find the lion's head and the basestar.
First, can I just say how ridiculous it is for them to have landed so close to the basestar? And, while we're at it, for the cylons to have found that tiny marker? If two people jump to the same coordinate quadrant in space, I find it seriously unlikely that they'd ever find each other so easily. And a tiny marker? That registered on dradis?
I know I shouldn't harp because if they didn't also jump to the exact same points, the fleet would never jump together and the cylons would never find them. But really. You know how improbably this whole pursuit is when you think of how vast space is? To have jumped to the exact same coordinates was unlikely though, but to have landed right on top of the wreckage is crazy.
But here's the actual point of the scene: Athena gets kind of creepy and says, "When God's anger awakens, even the mighty shall fall."
Hm. Interesting. What does it mean? I'm sure we'll find out. But it's times like these when the audience is reminded that Athena is a cylon, not a human, and that's she's kind of locked into a plain that's a bit higher than ours. Remember back in the second season when she told Helo she had a feeling something dark was coming? Cue Baltar's election win and the miserable existence on New Caprica, pre and during the occupation.
Trust her. She knows these things.
I think considering I haven't seen this episode in a million years, my memories came back well enough. I feel kind of discombobulated at the moment, like I've had one beer too many, but I swear, I haven't had a drink since last Thursday. (And by that I mean April 29th.) I am listening to Paul Simon's Rhythm of the Saints, so that's helped because Paul Simon is so awesome.
I've gone off on a tangent, haven't I? Not unusual. But if this review seems off, there's your explanation. It didn't help that Torn wasn't my favorite episode of the season, either. It wasn't bad or anything, but compared to the first five episode, it was a little weak. That's why I'm going to give it 3 out of 5 airlocks.