BSG 4.17: "Someone To Watch Over Me"
Thanks to those of you who voted in my last poll! Follow-up post to come.
NOT that I think everyone should always agree with me, but I was SO happy that most of the post-ep reviews I linked for the newsletter were positive this week. I liked this episode a lot the first time through, and both times I've rewatched I've gotten even more out of it, to the point where I want to say something really dorky about how it was like a symphony or something. *blush* THANK YOU, SHOW. Thank you for being awesome after traumatizing me with dead robot fetuses last week. I know not everyone feels the same way, but it turns out that:
1. I actually have no problem with character-driven storylines that don't move the plot much when it's MY girlfriend in the spotlight. *hides from nicole_anell* And though I too was expecting more in the way of Karavelations, I do know a couple people who watch the show casually and don't spend lots of time thinking about it when it's not on, and THEY were pretty surprised by what we learned. I think it's good to remember that not everyone pays as much attention as we do, and some people haven't seen season two since it aired. Can you imagine?!
2. HOLY SHIT that other stuff that happened. (FYI, I still love everyone involved with that. Just a warning. :))
Oh, Boomer. Predictably, I love her more than ever. I was actually a little disappointed last week by the way she smiled at the Chief; it seemed a little too easy for her be over everything she's gone through, and I was feeling particularly jaded about the healing powers of men's love at that point. Well played, show.
I've read lots of people longing for her painful and unenviable death RFN, but I just don't feel the same way. I can't get past the fact that, had she done anything differently, right down to stealing Hera, she would be dead. The rebel cylons would have executed her, or, had she tried to escape without her, Adama would have shot her out of the sky. So at that point it's kind of irrelevant that she planned this from the beginning (which I didn't even grasp until Ellen explained it all), when her only other choice was to submit to execution. A completely lame, illegitimate execution at that. (More on that later.)
As horrible as the sex with Helo was to watch - I actually screamed at the TV that "this is making me really uncomfortable!" right before it mercifully cut to Kara, which was so kind - I am so, so grateful that she tried to avoid it right up until he threatened to get suspicious. At least she didn't intentionally go the full-on SFW route with Athena. I'm actually impressed that Boomer didn't kill her; it would have bought her more time.
Oh, Athena! I think I can forgive you for Natalie now, my poor dear. I've been pretty boggled by Athena's characterization in the last couple of seasons. My fanwank for her becoming the biggest Cylon hater on the show since Cally is that she is terrified of losing her newfound individuality and personhood. I mean, wouldn't you be, if there were hundreds of people out there with your looks, your mannerisms, your default personality, and access to your memories? If you were specifically designed to be a pretend-Boomer, a mere copy of a copy? That's the only way I can understand not her distrust of the Cylons, but the revulsion that wouldn't even let her touch her dying "sister." Plus, she knows better than anyone how good the Cylons are at manipulating people; after all, she's only with Helo because she manipulated him by playing on his feelings for Boomer! That has to make a girl wonder. So even though I don't blame Helo at all for not magically knowing through the power of True Love that the woman with his wife's appearance, mannerisms and memories wasn't her, it is the most perfectly horrible comeuppance Athena could get. A confirmation of everything she fears. I can see how for Boomer, too, it would seem like poetic justice.
So I still find Boomer a sympathetic character; even if she's a sympathetic antagonist. I wonder if Athena will kill her; that would make me so sad, even if I'm the only one. They're two halves of the same coin. But I would like it a LOT better than if Helo, or worse, Chief killed her. (In fact, if Chief kills her, I WILL throw up. Don't do it show!)
And now for the crazy character-defensive portion of this review!
Warning, irrational ranting and Adama hatred ahead.
Is anyone else mildly disgusted with the rebel Cylons wanting to execute Boomer? Oh right, because THEY OF ALL PEOPLE are the ones to get on a high vengeance-y horse about being on the wrong side of a war that got lots of their people killed. I mean, GOD FORBID THEY JUST LET THAT SHIT SLIDE! Justice must be served! Frakking toasters. ;)
You know, I was not too sure about their demanding to be in the Quorum, and I thought their putting pictures on the Memorial Wall next to those who died in their genocide was in poor taste. In both cases, it seems like they're more interested in adopting human culture than in developing their own, which I just find odd, since they don't otherwise seem all that favorably disposed to their allies and are constantly plotting to bail. Whatever, I can get behind all that eventually, BUT since they seem to just expect total forgiveness for themselves, I'm pretty disenchanted with their eager embrace of capital punishment for anyone who's hurt them now that it's possible. Plus, IIRC it's not like Boomer actually did anything, besides
1. Assert her individuality against the rest of her model, oh no!
2. NOT rebel against Cavil.
3. Stand there and look woeful while he attacked the rebels.
- That's not even mutiny! THEY were the mutineers. Apparently the revolutionaries have become the oppressors. :/
--> Okay, I guess maybe it's really cool if this is all part of some big point that for all the Cylons talk about how sinful and vengeance-driven humanity is, as soon as killing each other became a viable possibility they were ON that bandwagon. And Boomer is their Gaeta? Oh, IDK. I just know that Boomer is MY Gaeta; I may hate what she's done, but it's impossible not to see where she's coming from. She failed at being human and it broke her; now she's trying to be the best machine she can. If anyone would drink the Cavil kool-aid it would be her.
And oh, cry harder Bill, who hasn't been shot on this show, half the time by someone who loves them? Lee and Kara were hugging by the end of the next episode, and Ellen brought up her poisoning in that "and you never take out the garbage!" way that you bring up petty grievances in relationship squabbles that are really about something else. Seriously, I thought it was pretty well understood that shooting Bill was the least-bad thing Boomer's ever done; that she had no choice and did everything she could to fight her programming, even attempting suicide. I should have more sympathy, but Adama really failed to impress me once again. I got no sense that he actually feared Boomer's influence, or was motivated by anything other than personal grievance. Again. And so I wanted to punch him when he willfully put the ship and everyone on it in danger of destruction rather than back down against someone who hurt him. All that staring at goo and you wreck the ship to massage your own ego. Typical. Grrr!
/Rant
OTOH, I am completely fine with Laura Roslin being her pragmatic, strategic genius self. ;) Yes, I wish she'd shown more compassion for Tyrol, but that's like wishing Kara had just told Gaeta she was sorry already; it would be nice, but then they'd be someone else. Laura feels compassion but she can rarely afford to show signs of wavering; and honestly, I doubt any amount of handholding would have helped Chief at all. She knew he was too far gone to reach. But I'm okay with her, as opposed to Adama, because she was concerned with the best interest of the Fleet (which now includes the best interest of the rebels), and not out of any personal sense of grievance. That's our Madame Airlock! <3
AND NO SHE IS NOT DEAD SHUT UP! *frets* I... can't even think how she might die before the finale, unless the Opera House shit goes down next week, but she definitely can't be dead now. No way is Mary McDonnell going out without another Emmy episode.
I'm actually more angry at Chief than anyone, to be honest, if he really did kill that random Eight. But Aaron Douglas made my heart break for poor Tyrol. How could he just watch her die again? Gah! Can't hate him.
Though, a couple other things bother me.
(1) His tearful reaction to his fake kid. The rest of the projection I have no problem with, but to me, a fake person is on a whole different level of creepiness than a fake house. And he was never exactly father of the year even when he thought Nicky was his when Nicky used to be his, and he certainly had no problem letting him go the moment he had an excuse, even while he was in critical care.
(2) The fact that his guilt for the way he treated Boomer not only just kicked in when he found out what he was, but that he still frames it in those terms. "If only I'd known what I was." But what he was isn't the relevant issue, it's what she did. And as I wrote above, he made reference back in season two to Boomer being unaware of her identity and trying to fight her programming; hence his breakdown in LDYB. So, wouldn't she be just as worthy of compassion regardless of what he turned out to be?
It's also hard to reconcile how he could marry the woman who shot Boomer if he's been thinking of her every day. Of course, my suspicion on that is that the writers had no plans to go the Chief/Boomer route again at least until they decided he was a Cylon - they weren't even sure they were bringing her back at all until recently, per the podcast. The way I put it together is: he really was telling the truth to Lee in "Taking A Break", at least, more than he is to Boomer now. Finding out what she'd done made him question his own identity and doubt his own loyalties, and so he shoved his feelings for her down as far as they would go. Marrying Cally might have even been part of that to some degree. And then when he learned he was a Cylon, he couldn't get away from the hypocrisy of that anymore. And just as he dealt with his guilt before by turning it into hatred of Boomer, he dealt with it this time by turning it into rage at Cally, and let his old feelings for Boomer reemerge.
Basically, he's one frakked-up guy, and has been for a while.
The Kara-centric parts of this episode were, in my completely unbiased opinion, sublime. ;p Yadda yadda, we still don't know exactly what happened to her, but I'm okay with them saving that for the finale. I was just happy to see her dealing with all of the shit that's happened to her since they found Earth, and finding some measure of peace and the strength to go forward. The character development she underwent was subtle, but deep. And, as others have said, I'm happy for any excuse to spend time with my favorite character in these last episodes.
The opening montage had a lot in common with the one in "Kobol's Last Gleaming," only instead of giving a sense of action and events spinning out of control, it conveyed the lifelessness and monotony that's taken over Galactica now that they've accepted the loss of Earth. Kara looks in the mirror and sees the face of her corpse, and barely even reacts. She's been seeing it every day since she found her body.
How much do I love Karl Agathon, and the fact that the friendship those two have is strong enough to survive her turning into Captain Ahab on him and his mutiny? I'm so touched at his beg/buy/stealing her stuff back (if slightly irked that people wouldn't just give it back once she turned out to be not dead!) And on the one hand, jeez Starbuck, the guy went to a lot of effort, but on the other hand, I think Helo knows her well enough to know it was because getting her father's music back touched her so deeply, anything else would have been too much.
I also enjoyed the way Kara smiled fondly as soon as she saw Hera, and Hera in turn was so familiar with her. In my fanon, Kara was hanging out with the Agathons regularly in season three, and she built Hera her viper mobile. (I mean, if Helo or Athena had made it it would have been raptors. Duh!)
Unpopular Opinion Time
The interactions with her father were so wonderfully subtle and moving. I know a few people hate, hate, hate Kara's tortured childhood and consequently hate any episode that alludes to it, but I don't feel the same. Her past has been a fundamental part of this character since "Flesh and Bone," and while child-abuse may be a common trope (though, I would say it's not a gender-specific one), (1) sometimes the same stories get told over and over again because they ring true for lots of people; hence the whole parents/children theme that gets brought up over and over on the marco level too, and (2) I think for the most part they've handled it very well with Kara. Sue, shmoo; the Mary-Sue checklist includes an abusive past that never affects the character in any significant way, and certainly doesn't cause her to act like a total shitheel on occasion, but is just there for cheap sympathy points. I think it would be cheap and exploitative to basically tell us in one episode that all these things had happened to her and never explore it or let her deal with it again. Instead, they've tied the mystical part of her character-journey to the mundane dealing with her past parts in a way that I find both disturbing and beautiful.
Which is a long way of saying that I <3 Kara Thrace and her entire bag of bullshit SO THERE. ;)
/UOT
So... her father was Daniel? That seems like the most obvious explanation; Sam might have taught him the song, and it begins to explain Kara's connection to the Five and her ability to resurrect. Maybe he disappeared without a trace because Cavil finally got to him. Or, maybe there's still some other explanation. For the first time ever I'm reluctant to speculate, since I don't want to get too attached to one particular interpretation and then be disappointed.
I'm of the opinion that she didn't know consciously who Daniel (I'm just calling him that b/c I'm too lazy to spell the other) was until they finished the song together (the finger gun! Aww!), but that unconsciously, she recognized him almost right away and began relating to him as her father. I haven't listened to the podcast, but apparently Ron alluded to this when he said that she told him about her body, because that's the kind of question you turn to your parents for help answering. (Why yes, I often find a talk with Mom is just the thing whenever I have to burn my own corpse! Heh. But I get his meaning.)
I think she starts relating to him as her father from the moment she tells him his song makes her think of chasing after a car. She's so tentative and little-girl like in almost all their interactions from then on.
Daniel's reaction to that is interesting too; his expression is one of sadness and guilt. There are a few times when he's looking at her very intensely while she's absorbed in the piano or in her memories; it's played very much like he's really there. Of course "really there" =/= corporeally present, as we know.
Another reason I think Kara knew (almost) all along: her expression when she asks him if he ever thought about what he was doing to his kid. At first she just seems righteously angry, but then:
Katee Sackhoff >>>>> infinity. She's doing so much so quietly here.
I still have... issues with Kara's Dad though. Quitting the piano would be like cutting out your heart, but leaving your child to be tortured wouldn't? Somehow, "oversensitive" isn't the word I'd use for that. And the little Kara we see here looks about nine, I'm guessing; a couple of years older than the black-eyed, bloody-nosed Kara we saw in the Maelstrom flashbacks. Which makes sense, as it's the same child actress, who did indeed get to be two years older. But that makes it looks like Socrata was already splitting Kara's head open and breaking her fingers by the time her dad took off, which makes him seem pretty much irredeemable. I guess this episode, like Maelstrom, is partly about her realizing that her parents may have sucked as parents, but they did love her in their way, and drawing strength from that - partly from the knowledge that she isn't fundamentally unlovable.
I also think it's safe to say this makes sense of Kara's rather significant commitment issues. In a way, her dad may have damaged her even more than her mother did, because he was so loving and so gentle, and he still left her. Which fits with the way she's always so determined to destroy her relationships; to leave first or to make Lee or Sam leave her, because it gives her a sense of control. She doesn't want to be left chasing after a car again.
--> Her expression when Daniel vanishes just kills me.
That sense of loss is tied both to her father and to Sam, as she plays the song for him at the end. Wake up Sam! Kara needs a friend who's corporeal right now, and poor Helo's a little distracted. :/
Other Thoughts
- <3 Kara knowing Nomien's third symphony, second movement, but not how to pronounce his name! Because of course she'd never TALK to anyone about music. My girl keeps those hidden depths well hidden, but they are there! Even if she does occasionally move her lips when she reads. ;)
- Interesting that Kara connected to the song so strongly. It made her feel both happy and sad; does this mean her ultimate fate will be both happy and sad? *greatly prefers this to sad and more sad*
- I wanted to screencap that entire seen where Daniel puts her hands on the piano, the way she smiles instinctively but is still so scared, but I would have nothing to say besides FLAIL.
- Not that I'm biased, but what's with the Final 3/5ths not clueing in to the fact that Kara might just be connected to them too? Not only did she learn that song as a kid, she also came back from the dead and led them to their homeland. Put it together, guys.
- So, a Kara centric episode where she got some peace and growth and she DIDN'T DIE. She didn't even ALMOST die. Is this a first? ;)
- Kara totally had a BOOK in her box o' stuff. I'm so proud. ;) All I could see was that it had "war" on the back cover. I'm guessing more Tom Clancy than Sun Tzu, but hey! Though I think it would be awesome if she turned out to have a thing for trashy romances.
- Last ever Weddle and Thompson episode. If you're a Kara fanatic, odds are they've written many of your favorite episodes; Act of Contrition/You Can't Go Home Again, Scar, Maelstrom; as they were quoted in Bear McCreary's last entry, they took a "proprietary interest" in Starbuck's character early on. But they've also written a whole slew of others: Flight of the Phoenix, Downloaded, Rapture, Revelations, Sometimes A Great Notion - all of which are among my favorites. And unlike Michael Taylor, Jane Espenson, Mark Verheiden, and Michael Angeli, none of their episodes have been tear-your-hair-out clunkers. (Though, all four of those people - yes, including Espenson I guess - have written some utterly wonderful episodes too.) I'd say that they've been, if not the best, the most consistently good writers on this show, and basically, Jacob can blow me. (But that's another rant.) I'll miss them. And if you think that's maudlin, wait 'till you see me after the finale. Apologies in advance!
I made these screencaps myself! And resized them and everything. I've never done that before. :)
NOT that I think everyone should always agree with me, but I was SO happy that most of the post-ep reviews I linked for the newsletter were positive this week. I liked this episode a lot the first time through, and both times I've rewatched I've gotten even more out of it, to the point where I want to say something really dorky about how it was like a symphony or something. *blush* THANK YOU, SHOW. Thank you for being awesome after traumatizing me with dead robot fetuses last week. I know not everyone feels the same way, but it turns out that:
1. I actually have no problem with character-driven storylines that don't move the plot much when it's MY girlfriend in the spotlight. *hides from nicole_anell* And though I too was expecting more in the way of Karavelations, I do know a couple people who watch the show casually and don't spend lots of time thinking about it when it's not on, and THEY were pretty surprised by what we learned. I think it's good to remember that not everyone pays as much attention as we do, and some people haven't seen season two since it aired. Can you imagine?!
2. HOLY SHIT that other stuff that happened. (FYI, I still love everyone involved with that. Just a warning. :))
Oh, Boomer. Predictably, I love her more than ever. I was actually a little disappointed last week by the way she smiled at the Chief; it seemed a little too easy for her be over everything she's gone through, and I was feeling particularly jaded about the healing powers of men's love at that point. Well played, show.
I've read lots of people longing for her painful and unenviable death RFN, but I just don't feel the same way. I can't get past the fact that, had she done anything differently, right down to stealing Hera, she would be dead. The rebel cylons would have executed her, or, had she tried to escape without her, Adama would have shot her out of the sky. So at that point it's kind of irrelevant that she planned this from the beginning (which I didn't even grasp until Ellen explained it all), when her only other choice was to submit to execution. A completely lame, illegitimate execution at that. (More on that later.)
As horrible as the sex with Helo was to watch - I actually screamed at the TV that "this is making me really uncomfortable!" right before it mercifully cut to Kara, which was so kind - I am so, so grateful that she tried to avoid it right up until he threatened to get suspicious. At least she didn't intentionally go the full-on SFW route with Athena. I'm actually impressed that Boomer didn't kill her; it would have bought her more time.
Oh, Athena! I think I can forgive you for Natalie now, my poor dear. I've been pretty boggled by Athena's characterization in the last couple of seasons. My fanwank for her becoming the biggest Cylon hater on the show since Cally is that she is terrified of losing her newfound individuality and personhood. I mean, wouldn't you be, if there were hundreds of people out there with your looks, your mannerisms, your default personality, and access to your memories? If you were specifically designed to be a pretend-Boomer, a mere copy of a copy? That's the only way I can understand not her distrust of the Cylons, but the revulsion that wouldn't even let her touch her dying "sister." Plus, she knows better than anyone how good the Cylons are at manipulating people; after all, she's only with Helo because she manipulated him by playing on his feelings for Boomer! That has to make a girl wonder. So even though I don't blame Helo at all for not magically knowing through the power of True Love that the woman with his wife's appearance, mannerisms and memories wasn't her, it is the most perfectly horrible comeuppance Athena could get. A confirmation of everything she fears. I can see how for Boomer, too, it would seem like poetic justice.
So I still find Boomer a sympathetic character; even if she's a sympathetic antagonist. I wonder if Athena will kill her; that would make me so sad, even if I'm the only one. They're two halves of the same coin. But I would like it a LOT better than if Helo, or worse, Chief killed her. (In fact, if Chief kills her, I WILL throw up. Don't do it show!)
And now for the crazy character-defensive portion of this review!
Warning, irrational ranting and Adama hatred ahead.
Is anyone else mildly disgusted with the rebel Cylons wanting to execute Boomer? Oh right, because THEY OF ALL PEOPLE are the ones to get on a high vengeance-y horse about being on the wrong side of a war that got lots of their people killed. I mean, GOD FORBID THEY JUST LET THAT SHIT SLIDE! Justice must be served! Frakking toasters. ;)
You know, I was not too sure about their demanding to be in the Quorum, and I thought their putting pictures on the Memorial Wall next to those who died in their genocide was in poor taste. In both cases, it seems like they're more interested in adopting human culture than in developing their own, which I just find odd, since they don't otherwise seem all that favorably disposed to their allies and are constantly plotting to bail. Whatever, I can get behind all that eventually, BUT since they seem to just expect total forgiveness for themselves, I'm pretty disenchanted with their eager embrace of capital punishment for anyone who's hurt them now that it's possible. Plus, IIRC it's not like Boomer actually did anything, besides
1. Assert her individuality against the rest of her model, oh no!
2. NOT rebel against Cavil.
3. Stand there and look woeful while he attacked the rebels.
- That's not even mutiny! THEY were the mutineers. Apparently the revolutionaries have become the oppressors. :/
--> Okay, I guess maybe it's really cool if this is all part of some big point that for all the Cylons talk about how sinful and vengeance-driven humanity is, as soon as killing each other became a viable possibility they were ON that bandwagon. And Boomer is their Gaeta? Oh, IDK. I just know that Boomer is MY Gaeta; I may hate what she's done, but it's impossible not to see where she's coming from. She failed at being human and it broke her; now she's trying to be the best machine she can. If anyone would drink the Cavil kool-aid it would be her.
And oh, cry harder Bill, who hasn't been shot on this show, half the time by someone who loves them? Lee and Kara were hugging by the end of the next episode, and Ellen brought up her poisoning in that "and you never take out the garbage!" way that you bring up petty grievances in relationship squabbles that are really about something else. Seriously, I thought it was pretty well understood that shooting Bill was the least-bad thing Boomer's ever done; that she had no choice and did everything she could to fight her programming, even attempting suicide. I should have more sympathy, but Adama really failed to impress me once again. I got no sense that he actually feared Boomer's influence, or was motivated by anything other than personal grievance. Again. And so I wanted to punch him when he willfully put the ship and everyone on it in danger of destruction rather than back down against someone who hurt him. All that staring at goo and you wreck the ship to massage your own ego. Typical. Grrr!
/Rant
OTOH, I am completely fine with Laura Roslin being her pragmatic, strategic genius self. ;) Yes, I wish she'd shown more compassion for Tyrol, but that's like wishing Kara had just told Gaeta she was sorry already; it would be nice, but then they'd be someone else. Laura feels compassion but she can rarely afford to show signs of wavering; and honestly, I doubt any amount of handholding would have helped Chief at all. She knew he was too far gone to reach. But I'm okay with her, as opposed to Adama, because she was concerned with the best interest of the Fleet (which now includes the best interest of the rebels), and not out of any personal sense of grievance. That's our Madame Airlock! <3
AND NO SHE IS NOT DEAD SHUT UP! *frets* I... can't even think how she might die before the finale, unless the Opera House shit goes down next week, but she definitely can't be dead now. No way is Mary McDonnell going out without another Emmy episode.
I'm actually more angry at Chief than anyone, to be honest, if he really did kill that random Eight. But Aaron Douglas made my heart break for poor Tyrol. How could he just watch her die again? Gah! Can't hate him.
Though, a couple other things bother me.
(1) His tearful reaction to his fake kid. The rest of the projection I have no problem with, but to me, a fake person is on a whole different level of creepiness than a fake house. And he was never exactly father of the year even when he thought Nicky was his when Nicky used to be his, and he certainly had no problem letting him go the moment he had an excuse, even while he was in critical care.
(2) The fact that his guilt for the way he treated Boomer not only just kicked in when he found out what he was, but that he still frames it in those terms. "If only I'd known what I was." But what he was isn't the relevant issue, it's what she did. And as I wrote above, he made reference back in season two to Boomer being unaware of her identity and trying to fight her programming; hence his breakdown in LDYB. So, wouldn't she be just as worthy of compassion regardless of what he turned out to be?
It's also hard to reconcile how he could marry the woman who shot Boomer if he's been thinking of her every day. Of course, my suspicion on that is that the writers had no plans to go the Chief/Boomer route again at least until they decided he was a Cylon - they weren't even sure they were bringing her back at all until recently, per the podcast. The way I put it together is: he really was telling the truth to Lee in "Taking A Break", at least, more than he is to Boomer now. Finding out what she'd done made him question his own identity and doubt his own loyalties, and so he shoved his feelings for her down as far as they would go. Marrying Cally might have even been part of that to some degree. And then when he learned he was a Cylon, he couldn't get away from the hypocrisy of that anymore. And just as he dealt with his guilt before by turning it into hatred of Boomer, he dealt with it this time by turning it into rage at Cally, and let his old feelings for Boomer reemerge.
Basically, he's one frakked-up guy, and has been for a while.
The Kara-centric parts of this episode were, in my completely unbiased opinion, sublime. ;p Yadda yadda, we still don't know exactly what happened to her, but I'm okay with them saving that for the finale. I was just happy to see her dealing with all of the shit that's happened to her since they found Earth, and finding some measure of peace and the strength to go forward. The character development she underwent was subtle, but deep. And, as others have said, I'm happy for any excuse to spend time with my favorite character in these last episodes.
The opening montage had a lot in common with the one in "Kobol's Last Gleaming," only instead of giving a sense of action and events spinning out of control, it conveyed the lifelessness and monotony that's taken over Galactica now that they've accepted the loss of Earth. Kara looks in the mirror and sees the face of her corpse, and barely even reacts. She's been seeing it every day since she found her body.
How much do I love Karl Agathon, and the fact that the friendship those two have is strong enough to survive her turning into Captain Ahab on him and his mutiny? I'm so touched at his beg/buy/stealing her stuff back (if slightly irked that people wouldn't just give it back once she turned out to be not dead!) And on the one hand, jeez Starbuck, the guy went to a lot of effort, but on the other hand, I think Helo knows her well enough to know it was because getting her father's music back touched her so deeply, anything else would have been too much.
I also enjoyed the way Kara smiled fondly as soon as she saw Hera, and Hera in turn was so familiar with her. In my fanon, Kara was hanging out with the Agathons regularly in season three, and she built Hera her viper mobile. (I mean, if Helo or Athena had made it it would have been raptors. Duh!)
Unpopular Opinion Time
The interactions with her father were so wonderfully subtle and moving. I know a few people hate, hate, hate Kara's tortured childhood and consequently hate any episode that alludes to it, but I don't feel the same. Her past has been a fundamental part of this character since "Flesh and Bone," and while child-abuse may be a common trope (though, I would say it's not a gender-specific one), (1) sometimes the same stories get told over and over again because they ring true for lots of people; hence the whole parents/children theme that gets brought up over and over on the marco level too, and (2) I think for the most part they've handled it very well with Kara. Sue, shmoo; the Mary-Sue checklist includes an abusive past that never affects the character in any significant way, and certainly doesn't cause her to act like a total shitheel on occasion, but is just there for cheap sympathy points. I think it would be cheap and exploitative to basically tell us in one episode that all these things had happened to her and never explore it or let her deal with it again. Instead, they've tied the mystical part of her character-journey to the mundane dealing with her past parts in a way that I find both disturbing and beautiful.
Which is a long way of saying that I <3 Kara Thrace and her entire bag of bullshit SO THERE. ;)
/UOT
So... her father was Daniel? That seems like the most obvious explanation; Sam might have taught him the song, and it begins to explain Kara's connection to the Five and her ability to resurrect. Maybe he disappeared without a trace because Cavil finally got to him. Or, maybe there's still some other explanation. For the first time ever I'm reluctant to speculate, since I don't want to get too attached to one particular interpretation and then be disappointed.
I'm of the opinion that she didn't know consciously who Daniel (I'm just calling him that b/c I'm too lazy to spell the other) was until they finished the song together (the finger gun! Aww!), but that unconsciously, she recognized him almost right away and began relating to him as her father. I haven't listened to the podcast, but apparently Ron alluded to this when he said that she told him about her body, because that's the kind of question you turn to your parents for help answering. (Why yes, I often find a talk with Mom is just the thing whenever I have to burn my own corpse! Heh. But I get his meaning.)
I think she starts relating to him as her father from the moment she tells him his song makes her think of chasing after a car. She's so tentative and little-girl like in almost all their interactions from then on.
Daniel's reaction to that is interesting too; his expression is one of sadness and guilt. There are a few times when he's looking at her very intensely while she's absorbed in the piano or in her memories; it's played very much like he's really there. Of course "really there" =/= corporeally present, as we know.
Another reason I think Kara knew (almost) all along: her expression when she asks him if he ever thought about what he was doing to his kid. At first she just seems righteously angry, but then:
Katee Sackhoff >>>>> infinity. She's doing so much so quietly here.
I still have... issues with Kara's Dad though. Quitting the piano would be like cutting out your heart, but leaving your child to be tortured wouldn't? Somehow, "oversensitive" isn't the word I'd use for that. And the little Kara we see here looks about nine, I'm guessing; a couple of years older than the black-eyed, bloody-nosed Kara we saw in the Maelstrom flashbacks. Which makes sense, as it's the same child actress, who did indeed get to be two years older. But that makes it looks like Socrata was already splitting Kara's head open and breaking her fingers by the time her dad took off, which makes him seem pretty much irredeemable. I guess this episode, like Maelstrom, is partly about her realizing that her parents may have sucked as parents, but they did love her in their way, and drawing strength from that - partly from the knowledge that she isn't fundamentally unlovable.
I also think it's safe to say this makes sense of Kara's rather significant commitment issues. In a way, her dad may have damaged her even more than her mother did, because he was so loving and so gentle, and he still left her. Which fits with the way she's always so determined to destroy her relationships; to leave first or to make Lee or Sam leave her, because it gives her a sense of control. She doesn't want to be left chasing after a car again.
--> Her expression when Daniel vanishes just kills me.
That sense of loss is tied both to her father and to Sam, as she plays the song for him at the end. Wake up Sam! Kara needs a friend who's corporeal right now, and poor Helo's a little distracted. :/
Other Thoughts
- <3 Kara knowing Nomien's third symphony, second movement, but not how to pronounce his name! Because of course she'd never TALK to anyone about music. My girl keeps those hidden depths well hidden, but they are there! Even if she does occasionally move her lips when she reads. ;)
- Interesting that Kara connected to the song so strongly. It made her feel both happy and sad; does this mean her ultimate fate will be both happy and sad? *greatly prefers this to sad and more sad*
- I wanted to screencap that entire seen where Daniel puts her hands on the piano, the way she smiles instinctively but is still so scared, but I would have nothing to say besides FLAIL.
- Not that I'm biased, but what's with the Final 3/5ths not clueing in to the fact that Kara might just be connected to them too? Not only did she learn that song as a kid, she also came back from the dead and led them to their homeland. Put it together, guys.
- So, a Kara centric episode where she got some peace and growth and she DIDN'T DIE. She didn't even ALMOST die. Is this a first? ;)
- Kara totally had a BOOK in her box o' stuff. I'm so proud. ;) All I could see was that it had "war" on the back cover. I'm guessing more Tom Clancy than Sun Tzu, but hey! Though I think it would be awesome if she turned out to have a thing for trashy romances.
- Last ever Weddle and Thompson episode. If you're a Kara fanatic, odds are they've written many of your favorite episodes; Act of Contrition/You Can't Go Home Again, Scar, Maelstrom; as they were quoted in Bear McCreary's last entry, they took a "proprietary interest" in Starbuck's character early on. But they've also written a whole slew of others: Flight of the Phoenix, Downloaded, Rapture, Revelations, Sometimes A Great Notion - all of which are among my favorites. And unlike Michael Taylor, Jane Espenson, Mark Verheiden, and Michael Angeli, none of their episodes have been tear-your-hair-out clunkers. (Though, all four of those people - yes, including Espenson I guess - have written some utterly wonderful episodes too.) I'd say that they've been, if not the best, the most consistently good writers on this show, and basically, Jacob can blow me. (But that's another rant.) I'll miss them. And if you think that's maudlin, wait 'till you see me after the finale. Apologies in advance!
I made these screencaps myself! And resized them and everything. I've never done that before. :)