BSG 4.11 - "Sometimes a Great Notion"

[wisteria_]

It's time once again for the Adama Family Happy Fun Time Variety Show! Not a spoiler, mind you. When is this show NOT depressing as hell? *g* Just a few quick thoughts before I rewatch and read all the other reactions.

Comments

[stars_like_dust]

I cannot wait to see this episode. It's still not up anywhere!

[wisteria_]

Oh, dear. Did you manage to track it down?

[stars_like_dust]

Yes, FINALLY. And now it's 2 in the morning, so I'm going to sleep. I'll meta tomorrow. :)

[asta77]

I'm not going to comment too much on your thoughts since I still need to write up my own. Which is going to be tomorrow because after rewatching the episode my brain is totally fried. However...

To be honest, though, I didn't really like the scene because, well, the acting just felt "off". In fact, many of the actors seemed off-kilter at various points.

You are the first person I've seen comment about the acting being off and I agree. I didn't have much of a problem with Hogan, but Eddie was chewing the scenery. His speech and his actions were turned up about three too many notches. Then again, I've never found him a particularly subtle actor.

Jamie and Mary, on the other hand, gave some of the best performances I've ever seen.

[raincitygirl]

Eddie Olmos, God love him, is an excellent actor when there's somebody around to sternly remind him to take it down a notch or ten. When left to his own devices long enough, he inevitably seems to become bombastic as hell. It wasn't nearly as jarring as in Revelations, but yeah, scenery was definitely chewed in that scene, and the teeth marks were mostly not Hogan's.

Am I the only person who interpreted Dee's sdeath as a murder disguised to look like suicide? It didn't even occur to me until I got online that other viewers were seeing it as a definite suicide. Huh.

Hera is adorable, even if she has shot up bigtime. Also, over the hiatus she seems to have gone on a successful course of anti-depressants. Maybe hidden in her algae mash. The kid smiled. More than once! Hell, she even giggled. This is strange and unusual behaviour by all her previous standards.

[wisteria_]

I think I saw someone else assume it had been murder. The way it was shot could've looked that way, though I guess we're supposed to see it as suicide since she would've noticed someone else in the room. (And it was most likely shot that way because, well, they couldn't ask the actress to actually shoot herself!)

And hee! re: Hera. Maybe the hybrid kids are programmed to have bouts of cheerfulness in proportion to the sheer misery in the Fleet? She'll probably start dancing a Broadway musical with jazz hands when Cavil and the others show up to nuke the Galactica. ;)

[asta77]

Eddie Olmos, God love him, is an excellent actor when there's somebody around to sternly remind him to take it down a notch or ten.

I agree. In no way is the man a bad actor, but he is an actor who benefits from strong direction. And, again, I'm not being critical of the director it's just that some directors take for granted they have good actors and seem to think they don't need to direct them and that isn't always the case. And perhaps Eddie's scenery chewing stood out for me more because it seemed everyone around him were taking a much subtler approach with their performances.

I'm curious why you though Dee's suicide was a murder. There was no one in the room with her. Did you feel someone had done something to her to drive her to that action? I just read an interview with Kandyse and it was most definitely a suicide.

Also, over the hiatus she seems to have gone on a successful course of anti-depressants.Hee! I was thinking the same thing. The kid has either been creepy or morose and she was so happy! It was a

[midnightsjane]

I was stunned by Dee's suicide, but in retrospect I understand it. Everything is in ashes now, and she just broke.
I am impressed by Lee; he's the grownup now. Roslin and Adama are in tatters, and Lee is the one who seems to be keeping things together. I wished that Kara could have told him her secret, but that would have really added to the weight on his shoulders for sure.
I think that Kara is an avatar of the goddess, that she was reborn to lead the fleet, and that this whole trip to this Earth was just a detour in her destiny..but where they're going to go remains a mystery to me.

[wisteria_]

Everything is in ashes now, and she just broke.

Right. And from a narrative standpoint, it was a way to put a human face on the misery, to make it really hit home for the viewers. She has been with the show since the Mini, and that really heightens the impact. Ouch.

Ah - avatar! That's the word I'd wanted. Almost like the Gods' version of the sleeper Cylons, still essentially herself in brains and personality, but physically something altogether different. Glad you mentioned the destiny -- it's another aspect of the new theme of them really having no more burdens anymore. If she has fulfilled that destiny, then it's all up to her now and out of the Gods' hands. Well, unless she IS one fo the Gods. ;)

[raincitygirl]

The only un-nuked planet around is New Caprica, but the snag is that Cavil & Co. know precisely where it is. Even if the truce holds, they can't go back unless the 145 side on the civil war is either persuaded to change their minds (unlikely) or all killed (even less likely, given the resource disparity between the two sides).

[frolicndetour]

First, I skimmed Sepinwall's review, in which he said that her viper somehow nuked Earth two thousand years ago. I don't think that's correct.

?! It was a very small viper! With no nukes! And, the body was only a few months old.

How she got there after having blown up, I don't know. I'm hoping for Aurora - as long as they don't say she's not really Kara, but something else programmed with her memories, I'll be okay with it.

[wisteria_]

I think he was going with the idea (which I've seen people mention on LJ as well) that the Kara they found on Earth had been there since the apocalypse two thousand years ago. But if she caused the annihilation, why was she in the middle of nowhere, with a mostly-intact viper and body? That was definitely a body and not a skeleton, maybe less than a year decomposition. (Gah! I hate talking about my girl like that!)

And as I said above, I'm just SO easy when it comes to Kara. Unless she turns out to be something totally, completely foreign -- which doesn't appear to be the case since she sure acts like Kara -- then I'm fine with whatever answer they throw at me.

[indigo419]

she does reach out to Lee, then backs off and immediately offers him a confidant

I didn't talk much about pilots in my post, mostly because I'm greedy and am never satisfied unless there's outmaking - but agree that this is huge for Kara. It's huge that she can look up in the midst of her agony and notice that he's devastated. And, it's also big (though more in line with who he's been all along) that Lee doesn't bring up Dee until asked. He would have been there for her. Even in his grief he's putting someone else first. Oh, Lee.

(also, he is quite delish in his woe!)

[wisteria_]

Oh, definitely! I suspect she was a bit relieved for the change of subject, because telling Lee something like that would be terrifying. But the fact that she does trust him enough to try is so very important. I hadn't thought of it from Lee's angle, but you make a really good point. Right now they both have such huge, disparate things weighing on their lives, but the connection is still very much there.

[arielmoondance]

Yeah, I thought the scene was another huge step in the right direction for them. Yes, there is the whole angst factor but they really have come a long way. There was no snark in Kara's voice when she said "what about Dee?"

*hugs piloticians*