The Oath
I've been having a hard time figuring out how I was going to review The Oath. It's so action packed, so high speed, that there isn't a lot of . . . how should I say it . . . Well, I don't have much of a chance to ramble pseudo-philosophically. And while I realize that my reviews have evolved to be more summative in nature to provide more context for my ramblings, but I don't really feel like writing up a play-by-play and I doubt you'd want to read one even if I did. I mean, this episode is so intense that anything I could come up with would be diluted a million times from the action.
I wouldn't dare to attempt it.
So I'm going to try something a little different with this review (and likely for Blood on the Scales). I'm going to keep a couple of the normal features (like survivor count) and I'm going to keep track of our time line, but instead of going through the episode moment by moment, I'm going to condense it down to my favorite moments. Because I absolutely adore this episode so it's not like I have much to grip about, anyway. I also want to compare some of what happens here to some of what happens in Resistance because way back when I wrote that review, I noticed some similarities and some intriguing differences.
Let's do it, sisters! (And brothers, if you're out there, too.) Please pledge an oath to jump the cut.
1) The Oath begins with 39,643 survivors which is one less than in A Disquiet Follows My Soul. I think the loss is Deck Chief Laird who was killed by Zarek in the cold open. You remember Laird. He came over on the Pegasus. He was a civilian who was forced to come work for Cain. It's likely she killed his entire family.
2) One of the reasons I think The Oath runs as quickly as it does is because they put up those little time stamps (I think Ron Moore calls them chirons). From what I can gather, The Oath takes place about two days after the events in A Disquiet Follows My Soul. The episode begins at 0620 and ends at 1041 so the entire episode takes place over four hours and twenty-one minutes. I think that's pretty amazing.
3) Thing I Love Number One: Laura and Adama and their domestic bliss. It's kind of weird seeing Laura so adamant about "not getting involved" but these two are obviously happy with their new arrangement and they're pretty cute together. I love Laura's smirk at Tigh when he sees her come out in Adama's bathrobe. He's totally shocked. Probably didn't think the Old Man had it in him. At the end, before Adama leaves, and he's like "I'll be home for dinner" and she's like "I'll have it ready" and they're both laughing at how silly it is that they're so domesticated, I so want to hug them both.
4) Thing I Love Number Two: As much as I can't stand Gaeta during this arc, I really love how genius his plan is. He's basically the guy who knows the most about how the ship runs and he uses all of his expertise in ship maintenance and communications to basically stage a revolt that Adama knows nothing about. I mean, that alleged fire? Evacuated the area and allowed his civilian allies to arm themselves with weapons. He was able to successfully stop Starbuck and Lee from getting hold of Adama and he was able to explain Zarek's getaway as a glitch in the dradis.
Gaeta may be a total tool but he's a smart tool and I like that he used his knowledge of the ins and outs of Galactica in his favor.
5) Thing I Love Number Three: For once, Lee doesn't assume the worst in his father. After Zarek busts out of jail and goes back to Colonial One, he tries to convince Lee that Adama put him in the brig in the first place because he's basically going to go and institute marshall law. Now that Laura's shirking her responsibilities, Adama sees the opportunity to gain complete control over the fleet.
Now, Old!Lee probably would have bought Zarek's story hook, line, and sinker but this Lee goes over to Galactica in order to disprove Zarek. Good on you, Lee.
6) Thing I Love Number Four: Starbuck's back!
Have you guys noticed that since her re-arrival back in Crossroads Part II, I've been calling her Kara more than I've been calling her Starbuck? Previous to her death in Maelstrom, I think I called her Starbuck more than I called her Kara. I mean, I try to vary what I call her just because I don't want to be too repetitive (you see, I do sort of think about how these reviews come across). It hasn't been a very conscious choice. It's just something I started to notice when I was going back and erasing some of the more glaring issues in my posts of spelling and grammar. She's been Kara for a while now but in The Oath, she's Starbuck.
And I'm so happy to have her back shooting people and taking no prisoners. I love it when she threatens Racetrack and how she shoots Skulls (who I now hate thanks to this episode because he was actually happy to see Laird dead) and I love her when she kisses Lee (who would have thought?!) and tells him it's good to be alive and I even love her when she tries to kill Adama's marine hostage at the end of the episode, "They are not your men anymore. They are your enemy." Because it's so true.
Welcome back, Starbuck. For now, at least.
7) Thing I Love Number Five: Despite thinking that Laura and Baltar had come to a new understanding after the events of The Hub and Revelations, they're back to sniping at each other. I'm actually of two minds about this: I don't like because I think they should be beyond it and it feels like discontinuity but I love it because how can I dislike the two of them picking at each other the way they do?
She wants to use his communication system to appeal the fleet to trust her on the decision to ally with the rebel cylons and she makes this wonderful crack about how she never really bought his sudden religious conversion and was counting on his well honed sense of self preservation. So he makes a great crack (that's not actually true) about her sudden allegiance to Pythia when he political situation wasn't looking good hasn't really been working for her lately. So she kind calls a truce: "If it makes you happy, maybe we're both frauds and this is our last chance to atone."
I love that line.
But Baltar does let her use his communication device and she gives a nice speech about how the cylons represent humanity's only and perhaps last hope for survival and begs the fleet to reconsider the placement of the trust to those who use fear to their advantage.
8) Thing I Love Number Six: Chief! I do think it's weird that he's hanging out with Baltar and his harem, but I really love that he's back in resistance mode and planning reprisals against the enemy and planning an escape for Baltar, Laura, and Adama. After my confusion over his identity confusion in A Disquiet Follows My Soul, it's good to see that he's still invested in the lives of the people who have been his family for the last four years.
9) Thing I Love Number Seven: I want to see a BSG spin off that's just about the crazy adventures of Admiral William Adama and Colonel Saul Tigh. Wouldn't it be so badass? Because they are the ultimate fighting team! I mean, they take their captives hostage!
And then at the end, when they're standing side by side against the approaching enemy, just trying to hold their ground so Laura's raptor can get away safely? I love it so hard. And I love their dialogue:
Tigh: You could have gone over with her, Bill.
Adama: I couldn't have lived with it. It's been an honor to serve with you, my friend
And then a grenade is thrown and there's a huge explosion and it's a "To Be Continued" and I pretty much want to scream with anxiety.
10) Thing I Love Number Eight: There are people, besides the usual suspects, who remain loyal to Adama. Mr. Hoshi, for example, knew nothing about the plot, despite being Gaeta's lover (though I'm not sure if the writers knew they were lovers at this point so that could just be a major oversight). Lots of people in the CIC remained loyal to Adama and Starbuck and Lee came across a few loyal marines and Galactica crew members who were fighting to maintain the ship.
11) Thing I Love Number Nine: Baltar calls Gaeta in the CIC to appeal to Gaeta's sense of honor. I love this because it affirms the idea that Baltar seriously values his own oratorical skills and obviously doesn't appreciate just how much Gaeta hates him. But I also love it because Baltar brings up Gaeta's secret, which he whispered about to Gaeta in Taking A Break From All Your Worries, which is what prompted Gaeta to stab him in the neck with that pen.
Good continuity. I really wish we knew what that secret was, though!
12) Thing I Love Number Ten: Lee gets a little pissy with Tigh because Tigh's a cylon and, even though Lee was the one who gave them all amnesty, he's having a serious problem with it in that moment. That's not what I love, though. What I love is how Lee tells Adama that survival is "all they left us", "they" being the cylons.
I just think that's such an interesting way to say it. It really struck me because it brings up the question as to what the difference is between survival and living. Most of these people haven't been living, they've been surviving. It's like what I think Laura was trying to get at with her speech to Bill in A Disquiet Follows My Soul. She's been surviving for years, but it's time to live before she dies. But for so many of them, survival is all they can hope for.
13) So, Resistance. Think back, way back to the Kobol arc of season two. I went back to look at that review and was reminded of how much that episode is like this one.
Let's see: In Resistance, Laura's in the brig and she's busted out by Lee and Dee and a gaggle of other Galactica crew. In The Oath, Zarek's in the brig and she's busted out by Gaeta and a gaggle of other Galactica crew. Both Laura and Zarek were put in the brig by Adama.
What else? Well, I'm reminded that Racetrack piloted the raptor that got Laura off Galactica. She also pilots the raptor that gets Zarek off Galactica. Also? Hotdog was ordered by Tigh to shoot down Laura's raptor in Resistance and he's ordered by Gaeta in The Oath to shoot down her raptor again, this time by Gaeta. Spoiler alert, I guess, because this doesn't get resolved until Blood on the Scales, but, both times, Hotdog balks at the order and Laura gets away safely.
So what are the intriguing differences? In Resistance, Gaeta was the nark who told Tigh about Laura's escape. Here, he's the guy plotting and carrying it out. In Resistance, Lee took Laura to Zarek for safe keeping. Now, she has to get the hell off Galactica to avoid being killed by Zarek.
It's just really interesting to see how these characters have changed in the last two seasons. Racetrack's flirting with Tom Zarek and Skulls is happy that Laird is dead. Gaeta's no longer by-the-book and is plotting a mutiny. Who are these people? How can they be the same people we've known for so long? I mean, Seelix distracts Sam so that two thugs can beat the shit out of him. Who is this person?
I guess desperate times call for desperate measures, but I find it fascinating to think of how different the last coup went down on Galactica. Less death and destruction, for sure.
If you hate the way I've structured this review, I apologize. But, again, it's such an action episode that there's less for me to ruminate on. I was too busy holding onto the seat of my pants while watching this. A play-by-play just isn't appropriate. But it's such a ride, isn't it? I adore this episode because of what it dares to be. I mean, I may not recognize some of these characters anymore, but I love that BSG isn't afraid to make their characters unlikeable. Even the good guy characters. And since this is BSG, I actually fear that Gaeta and Zarek might be successful. Nothing even goes quite as you'd expect with this show. I'm going to give The Oath 5 out of 5 airlocks.
I wouldn't dare to attempt it.
So I'm going to try something a little different with this review (and likely for Blood on the Scales). I'm going to keep a couple of the normal features (like survivor count) and I'm going to keep track of our time line, but instead of going through the episode moment by moment, I'm going to condense it down to my favorite moments. Because I absolutely adore this episode so it's not like I have much to grip about, anyway. I also want to compare some of what happens here to some of what happens in Resistance because way back when I wrote that review, I noticed some similarities and some intriguing differences.
Let's do it, sisters! (And brothers, if you're out there, too.) Please pledge an oath to jump the cut.
1) The Oath begins with 39,643 survivors which is one less than in A Disquiet Follows My Soul. I think the loss is Deck Chief Laird who was killed by Zarek in the cold open. You remember Laird. He came over on the Pegasus. He was a civilian who was forced to come work for Cain. It's likely she killed his entire family.
2) One of the reasons I think The Oath runs as quickly as it does is because they put up those little time stamps (I think Ron Moore calls them chirons). From what I can gather, The Oath takes place about two days after the events in A Disquiet Follows My Soul. The episode begins at 0620 and ends at 1041 so the entire episode takes place over four hours and twenty-one minutes. I think that's pretty amazing.
3) Thing I Love Number One: Laura and Adama and their domestic bliss. It's kind of weird seeing Laura so adamant about "not getting involved" but these two are obviously happy with their new arrangement and they're pretty cute together. I love Laura's smirk at Tigh when he sees her come out in Adama's bathrobe. He's totally shocked. Probably didn't think the Old Man had it in him. At the end, before Adama leaves, and he's like "I'll be home for dinner" and she's like "I'll have it ready" and they're both laughing at how silly it is that they're so domesticated, I so want to hug them both.
4) Thing I Love Number Two: As much as I can't stand Gaeta during this arc, I really love how genius his plan is. He's basically the guy who knows the most about how the ship runs and he uses all of his expertise in ship maintenance and communications to basically stage a revolt that Adama knows nothing about. I mean, that alleged fire? Evacuated the area and allowed his civilian allies to arm themselves with weapons. He was able to successfully stop Starbuck and Lee from getting hold of Adama and he was able to explain Zarek's getaway as a glitch in the dradis.
Gaeta may be a total tool but he's a smart tool and I like that he used his knowledge of the ins and outs of Galactica in his favor.
5) Thing I Love Number Three: For once, Lee doesn't assume the worst in his father. After Zarek busts out of jail and goes back to Colonial One, he tries to convince Lee that Adama put him in the brig in the first place because he's basically going to go and institute marshall law. Now that Laura's shirking her responsibilities, Adama sees the opportunity to gain complete control over the fleet.
Now, Old!Lee probably would have bought Zarek's story hook, line, and sinker but this Lee goes over to Galactica in order to disprove Zarek. Good on you, Lee.
6) Thing I Love Number Four: Starbuck's back!
Have you guys noticed that since her re-arrival back in Crossroads Part II, I've been calling her Kara more than I've been calling her Starbuck? Previous to her death in Maelstrom, I think I called her Starbuck more than I called her Kara. I mean, I try to vary what I call her just because I don't want to be too repetitive (you see, I do sort of think about how these reviews come across). It hasn't been a very conscious choice. It's just something I started to notice when I was going back and erasing some of the more glaring issues in my posts of spelling and grammar. She's been Kara for a while now but in The Oath, she's Starbuck.
And I'm so happy to have her back shooting people and taking no prisoners. I love it when she threatens Racetrack and how she shoots Skulls (who I now hate thanks to this episode because he was actually happy to see Laird dead) and I love her when she kisses Lee (who would have thought?!) and tells him it's good to be alive and I even love her when she tries to kill Adama's marine hostage at the end of the episode, "They are not your men anymore. They are your enemy." Because it's so true.
Welcome back, Starbuck. For now, at least.
7) Thing I Love Number Five: Despite thinking that Laura and Baltar had come to a new understanding after the events of The Hub and Revelations, they're back to sniping at each other. I'm actually of two minds about this: I don't like because I think they should be beyond it and it feels like discontinuity but I love it because how can I dislike the two of them picking at each other the way they do?
She wants to use his communication system to appeal the fleet to trust her on the decision to ally with the rebel cylons and she makes this wonderful crack about how she never really bought his sudden religious conversion and was counting on his well honed sense of self preservation. So he makes a great crack (that's not actually true) about her sudden allegiance to Pythia when he political situation wasn't looking good hasn't really been working for her lately. So she kind calls a truce: "If it makes you happy, maybe we're both frauds and this is our last chance to atone."
I love that line.
But Baltar does let her use his communication device and she gives a nice speech about how the cylons represent humanity's only and perhaps last hope for survival and begs the fleet to reconsider the placement of the trust to those who use fear to their advantage.
8) Thing I Love Number Six: Chief! I do think it's weird that he's hanging out with Baltar and his harem, but I really love that he's back in resistance mode and planning reprisals against the enemy and planning an escape for Baltar, Laura, and Adama. After my confusion over his identity confusion in A Disquiet Follows My Soul, it's good to see that he's still invested in the lives of the people who have been his family for the last four years.
9) Thing I Love Number Seven: I want to see a BSG spin off that's just about the crazy adventures of Admiral William Adama and Colonel Saul Tigh. Wouldn't it be so badass? Because they are the ultimate fighting team! I mean, they take their captives hostage!
And then at the end, when they're standing side by side against the approaching enemy, just trying to hold their ground so Laura's raptor can get away safely? I love it so hard. And I love their dialogue:
Tigh: You could have gone over with her, Bill.
Adama: I couldn't have lived with it. It's been an honor to serve with you, my friend
And then a grenade is thrown and there's a huge explosion and it's a "To Be Continued" and I pretty much want to scream with anxiety.
10) Thing I Love Number Eight: There are people, besides the usual suspects, who remain loyal to Adama. Mr. Hoshi, for example, knew nothing about the plot, despite being Gaeta's lover (though I'm not sure if the writers knew they were lovers at this point so that could just be a major oversight). Lots of people in the CIC remained loyal to Adama and Starbuck and Lee came across a few loyal marines and Galactica crew members who were fighting to maintain the ship.
11) Thing I Love Number Nine: Baltar calls Gaeta in the CIC to appeal to Gaeta's sense of honor. I love this because it affirms the idea that Baltar seriously values his own oratorical skills and obviously doesn't appreciate just how much Gaeta hates him. But I also love it because Baltar brings up Gaeta's secret, which he whispered about to Gaeta in Taking A Break From All Your Worries, which is what prompted Gaeta to stab him in the neck with that pen.
Good continuity. I really wish we knew what that secret was, though!
12) Thing I Love Number Ten: Lee gets a little pissy with Tigh because Tigh's a cylon and, even though Lee was the one who gave them all amnesty, he's having a serious problem with it in that moment. That's not what I love, though. What I love is how Lee tells Adama that survival is "all they left us", "they" being the cylons.
I just think that's such an interesting way to say it. It really struck me because it brings up the question as to what the difference is between survival and living. Most of these people haven't been living, they've been surviving. It's like what I think Laura was trying to get at with her speech to Bill in A Disquiet Follows My Soul. She's been surviving for years, but it's time to live before she dies. But for so many of them, survival is all they can hope for.
13) So, Resistance. Think back, way back to the Kobol arc of season two. I went back to look at that review and was reminded of how much that episode is like this one.
Let's see: In Resistance, Laura's in the brig and she's busted out by Lee and Dee and a gaggle of other Galactica crew. In The Oath, Zarek's in the brig and she's busted out by Gaeta and a gaggle of other Galactica crew. Both Laura and Zarek were put in the brig by Adama.
What else? Well, I'm reminded that Racetrack piloted the raptor that got Laura off Galactica. She also pilots the raptor that gets Zarek off Galactica. Also? Hotdog was ordered by Tigh to shoot down Laura's raptor in Resistance and he's ordered by Gaeta in The Oath to shoot down her raptor again, this time by Gaeta. Spoiler alert, I guess, because this doesn't get resolved until Blood on the Scales, but, both times, Hotdog balks at the order and Laura gets away safely.
So what are the intriguing differences? In Resistance, Gaeta was the nark who told Tigh about Laura's escape. Here, he's the guy plotting and carrying it out. In Resistance, Lee took Laura to Zarek for safe keeping. Now, she has to get the hell off Galactica to avoid being killed by Zarek.
It's just really interesting to see how these characters have changed in the last two seasons. Racetrack's flirting with Tom Zarek and Skulls is happy that Laird is dead. Gaeta's no longer by-the-book and is plotting a mutiny. Who are these people? How can they be the same people we've known for so long? I mean, Seelix distracts Sam so that two thugs can beat the shit out of him. Who is this person?
I guess desperate times call for desperate measures, but I find it fascinating to think of how different the last coup went down on Galactica. Less death and destruction, for sure.
If you hate the way I've structured this review, I apologize. But, again, it's such an action episode that there's less for me to ruminate on. I was too busy holding onto the seat of my pants while watching this. A play-by-play just isn't appropriate. But it's such a ride, isn't it? I adore this episode because of what it dares to be. I mean, I may not recognize some of these characters anymore, but I love that BSG isn't afraid to make their characters unlikeable. Even the good guy characters. And since this is BSG, I actually fear that Gaeta and Zarek might be successful. Nothing even goes quite as you'd expect with this show. I'm going to give The Oath 5 out of 5 airlocks.