This past Friday's episode of Battlestar Galactica managed to do something I didn't know was quite possible -- be totally awesome, and totally annoying, entirely at the same time.
So we start out with Lee berating Roslin for not confirming whether or not she is sharing visions with some of the Cylons. Like it matters. Isn't this like the First Wife seeing a psychic and seances? That is, entirely irrelevant? But I guess Lee's mostly-out-of-the-picture, now that he's an elected official (like in real life!), and they need to bring him in somehow. I think without a clear goal, Lee's become much less interesting. Where is he headed? What is he up to? Whining to Roslin about BS is... well, BS.
But then we get the Basestar jumping into the fleet without the Demetrius in a case of what I like to call Sci-Fi Convenience -- problems with the FTL aren't set up, but because it's "crazy technology" we don't know about, we just kind of go with the flow. OK. Alright. Lame. But whatever. Loved that Tigh saved the day and then is terrified he saved the day -- he had no good reason to know what he did, and is a little scared that maybe... just maybe... he isn't really the same man he always was. Duh! Dude, you're a Cylon! Get with it, holmes.
When Cylon Six Natalie sits down for her pow-wow with Roslin, Adama 'n Co. (Tory + Tigh) is a scene I was pretty excited for, and it delivered. I wish we had more Adama recently, but him being skeptical is nice whenever we get to see it. Loved the look on Tigh and Tory's faces. Though I do think that again this episode falls victim to Sci-Fi Convenience -- oh, there's a resurrection hub? We can make sure none of the Cylons can ever again DL into new bodies? Wow. Wouldn't that have been good information to know, like, you know, at any point previous to this. Contrivance? Perchance.
Then it happens. The worst part of the episode, and the thing that led to the episode being awesome/dicey simultaneously. But as great as my write-ups are... I cannot beat i09's description of The Lameness:
Back to non-Lameness: It's totally awesome that such great efforts are put into securing the Final Five -- because they clearly know the way to Earth (yeesh!). Wouldn't the Final Four (that we know) just save everyone a heck-of-a-lot of effort (and probably many, many lives) if they just came out and said, "Hey! Hey e'rybody! We're the Final Five. Crazy, yes, we admit that. Evil? Nay. Confused? Definitely. Knowledgeable in the way to Earth? Definitely not. So maybe we should sit down and, you know, examine more maps or sumpin'." Or isn't there a line they can drop an anonymous tip into?What I haven't been telling you about this episode is that Gaeta keeps singing. I don't want to think about it, because Gaeta was totally my boyfriend until Friday — he was the cutest person on Galactica by far, and he's always doing geeky things like looking at maps and computers and making comments like, "We can't use our FTL because the wazzleblorp needs the most recent software patches from the zompleflip." So hot. But in this episode, Doc Coddle has to chop his leg off. Remember how Anders shot Gaeta during the mutiny? Yeah, Gaeta is now a one-leg, and apparently there is no prosthetic technology to fix him up.
According to a shell-shocked looking Anders, who spends the whole episode working the bug-eyed stare, Gaeta sings every time he feels his phantom limb. Apparently he feels it a LOT. And his songs sound like something the dude from The Decemberists would sing if he had been hit on the head with a two-by-four and a dog had chewed on his vocal chords. I say this with great sadness, since I love The Decemberists and Gaeta was my boyfriend and all. But seriously, every time he started singing, I wanted to bitchslap my TV set and every writer ever involved with BSG. And maybe every TV that has ever tuned BSG too.
Roslin calling out Tory on her Baltar-boning ways? Nice. Roslin is pissed, maybe because she's starting to feel the tug of his One-God too. Or maybe she just thinks it's super-sexy time for Madame President and the Hugh Hefner of the Lord.
Why does Roslin hate her government so much? For someone who puts so much weight on her position as President (and savior of man-kind) she has an awful lot of resentment towards other elected officials. Shall we look back to the end of season 1, when Adama arrests Roslin and takes over control of the government? Well, this Roslin is just as bad as that Adama. Neither of them cares for or respects the law. Which is an unfortunate reflection upon the current state of affairs in the world... and leaders who believe they are doing right... and, in fact, doing wrong.
Hera should be airlocked. I mean, that kid is clearly the anti-christ, so I don't know why they don't just shoot her into the vacuum, ASAP. If I had a child who woke me up with an ominous "Bye Bye," I'd probably call the local minister and exorcise the shit out of them. But that's just me. Instead, Athena just gets all whiney, then freak'd out, and then, of course, when Hera stumbles upon Natalie, homicidal-like. I though the stand-off with Athena and Natalie was sweet, especially that Athena doesn't stand down and caps Natalie like she ain't no thing -- and this right after Natalie gave a speech to the Quorum mentioning how great mortality is. Whoops. Shoulda seen that coming. I think randomly killing off major characters for pseudo-vague reasons is always a little silly, but, at the same time, killing off a major character is bad-ass, so I guess it balances itself off. It's just, when it happens like this, it's a little too soap-ish for my tastes.
But the ep. ends on an up-note with the Hybrid being plugged back in and screaming JUMP, taking the Basestar (and all aboard) to some mysterious location. I have heard, through the Series-of-Tubes, that we may get a glimpse of the Cylon "homeworld" during this season -- maybe this is where they end up? The den of the lion? We'll see.
As it is, a good episode with way, way, wayyyyy too much lame singing. Sorry Gaeta. Maybe the Cylons can grow you a new one.
-RoboNixon
ps. Does anyone else think that the teaser for next week implies that Tigh maybe Seth Rogen'd* the imprisoned, Baltar-lovin' Number Six?
*knocked-up
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2 comments:
My immediate assumption was that Six had gotten the old baby-surprise.
And, frankly, if Gaeta isn't the fifth...what the hell? Why have him sing for an entire episode? What is he, a lament about the bittersweet end of times? F' that. He should've just been singing "All Along the Watchtower" the entire bleeding time rather than stretching out his great reveal. Period. Blam-o. Instead, the contrivance for his song will be stupid and just...stupid.
My buds think that Kara's position as the harbinger of death actually refers to the introduction of mortality to cylon-kind. She will lead them to their ends, and they will like it. And then Baltar will probably hump their dead bodies and make a tree.
I think Kara as the "harbringer of death" is a good call. After all the time spent talking about how Cylons need to be mortal, and the introduction of the awfully-convenient Resurrection Hub, that's a nice link. But, you know, less dramatic than her being the end of all beings in the universe.
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