and creation played in reverse
Just a drive-by on S2 of Battlestar Galactica.
“The Farm”
So, human men can impregnate cylon women but cylon men can’t impregnate human women… So… The men (of course!) are defective. The cylon God’s design, somehow, didn’t pass through quality control. Keeping a Woody Allen quote in mind, someone is an underachiever.
And not related to the episode but… I love Dr. Cottle’s remark during Sharon’s delivery. Because, gosh. The Cylons went through a hell of a lot of trouble to copy human physiology, and (in some ways) be more durable than humans but, they copied human plumbing exactly (well, for the women at least) exposing the women to the same risks of complications. You’d think they’d look at human flaws and improve on them.
“The Captain’s hand”
I can’t find the convo on NPR but, some time ago, a cherokee caller called in complaining that her grandfather was being racist in not approving her relationship with a white man. “I was told, ‘If you cared about your people, you’d be dating your own!’” The talk show host asked her to reconsider though. By no means should she have to give up her relationship if that’s what makes her happy but, that she should look at it from the point of view that the cherokee were the target of a campaign of genocide and that is what causes her grandfather to be worried about the survival of his people, his culture, his heritage, his legacy.
So. Take double Earth’s population and reduce it to the population of Camp Pendleton and Oceanside and, the situation is looking incredibly dire. However, while I get that’s what Roslin was going through as she made her decision to outlaw abortion, still… I do find fault with her that she was so short-sighted on increasing the number on the board that she gave up her ideals and her political career because even if Geminon was threatening to pull their support, who would they support? A convicted terrorist? It’s one of those twists of fate - something she did hoping to save humanity led to the surrender of humanity.
“Scar”
Anyone who knows me knows I love love love Bungie Software’s Marathon (story) and one of the things that fascinates me is the idea of rampancy - that an AI would go crazy. And in Marathon universe, rampancy isn’t a matter of “if,” it’s a matter of “when” and what makes Durandal so fascinating is that as unpredictable and rebellious as he is, he coherent enough that he can’t really be diagnosed with rampancy. That said, Durandal has this disdain for humans, and years of resentment of being used as a door opener has not been good for his mental health.
And it’s these ideas of rebellion that I approach the centaurions. Highly sentient forms, human or not, resent being used as door-openers especially under the command of someone who can’t do the job themselves. And to me, Scar was rampant. Each death might have been a learning experience but, each death was also an experience in growing hate. I can’t help but look at Scar’s last death and think that the final death should be a relief, finally. But if death is a relief to one that feels only hate, then what of the cylons that do experience love? What is death except as something that only serves to make their existences nothing more than blips in the continuum? This seems cruel to me.
Or maybe not. Durandal immensely feared death, immensely feared non-existance and wanted nothing more than an escape from the end of time to achieve immortality (and become God). For the cylons at least, they have what Durandal doesn’t - an existing God and afterlife and the grace and mercy that come with their beliefs - a comfort from death.
“Downloaded”
I had something to say about “Downloaded” but the finale killed that. Aw, darn, I would have liked to have seen a blow-out in cylon society over that well, they committed a huge mea culpa in the killing of 12 billion people. That should have gotten more treatment than a glib, “Ooops, we were wrong. Sorry.”
“Lay Down Your Burdens”
Between the theological mea culpa and the surrender, I can’t tell if the title refers to humans or cylons or both.
But if there’s any common thread in the storylines, there was a lot of closure - the end of Roslin’s presidency and her surrender to the true results of the election and it seems, relieving a lot of the burden of the office off her shoulders; Kara finding Zak and finally relieving herself of the burden of knowing there are survivors abandoned on Caprica; Tigh stepping off the ship into civillian life and ditto it seems for most of the crew, and the spectacular fall of Gaius’ presidency. But it seems, stories don’t really close as they lead to new stories with new burdens.
The little teaser for the next season hints that the cylons will be about teaching humans about God’s mercy but, um, I think that’s also a lesson the cylons themselves too need.
