BSG 4.2 Six of one
Apr. 12th, 2008 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hazelkIt’s a TV truism that all series eventually approach the condition of soaps. Some of them start out that way ie with the primary focus being on a few key characters, their families and their relationships rather than a world or a workplace. In BSG’s case the driving force of the show is still the response to extreme situations but in the early days it was a whole society, or what was left of it, responding to possibly the most extreme situation imaginable for a people. Now the events driving the story are the worst things that could happen to particular individuals rather than humanity as a whole.
Possibly the one aspect of their former lives that connects the newly awakened final four was their involvement in the resistance movement on New Caprica. Arguably then discovering that they are the enemy is the worst thing that could happen to each of them. All they thought they were is gone and as yet they have nothing to replace it, the knowledge that they’re Cylons but no programming, no plan. It’s a very human reaction to respond initially by clinging to their old selves, even more human that their idea of who Us is should begin to shift and narrow down to just the four of them, that their initial denial should begin to be replaced by a need to find out more about who they really are. So they go to Baltar or send Tory to him.
Last week one of the things I wished for was to hear more from Tory. I’m happy if not completely satisfied with how that turned out but the old Chinese saw about being careful describes Gaius’s situation pretty accurately. He wanted to be special, now he’s the frakking Messiah. He wanted to be admired by men and adored by women (the show does seem to make a point of associating women with faith, I have hopes of Tory proving the exceptional atheist) and he is at least within the narrow confines of his own cult. He wanted to belong, to be part of something and now he’s so isolated that even the image of Caprica Six has deserted him, he’s left with his own reflection for imaginary friend.
Extremes bring out the smarts in Gaius, the intuition to pick up on a stray remark by Tory about music and use it like a stage psychic to build a remarkably accurate metaphor. I’m not sure I quite buy the convert act. I’m sure he believes that there’s something out there that wants to be treated as the one true God. He’s seen too much evidence of what it can do for him to deny it but faith based on evidence is science not religion.
Be careful what you wish for might also apply to both Roslin and Kara. Laura’s version of her own history made it sound very similar to Starbuck’s in form but out of phase in terms of the timing. Laura believed death had caught up with her, meaningless death, but discovered a destiny through prophecy. She was saved but just for a while. Now it’s Kara’s turn. Similar circumstances but two very different women. Roslin didn’t act on her dreams until the evidence began to back them up, the correlations with the Book of Pythia and the discovery of Kobol, the photographs of the temple that everyone could see.
Kara doesn’t need any evidence that other sources can corroborate, she feels therefore she believes. Her only argument is to try and show people the depth of her feeling and that’s where she loses Laura by telling her to shoot. If she were human that would be the ultimate demonstration of conviction but if she’s a Cylon it shows nothing more than a willingness to download and be resurrected in a new body. The scene made me wonder for the first time if part of Laura’s antipathy to the Cylons comes from the knowledge that unlike her they don’t die. So Laura daren’t trust Kara’s vision because if Laura were a Cylon, using Kara as a trap (and she knows Kara is credulous) is exactly what she would do. I suppose there’s also the factor that Laura is having visions again herself and none of hers, which have proved trustworthy before, include Kara.
Despite this the decision to send Kara off on a mission to prove she can find earth is a very sensible compromise and not dissimilar to her earlier mission to collect the arrow of Apollo in being kept secret from the general population. So as not to raise hopes in the faithful or doubts (about their leaders sanity) in the heathen.
The second thing I wished for last week was to see the response to the raiders’ retreat back on the basestars. I wasn’t sure we were going to get it, there was a possibility that with Boomer the only named Cylon left they might not go there. The clonal nature of the machines is something I’ve always found fascinating and as a biologist couldn’t believe could be maintained. Differences were bound to arise through different experiences as well as through imperfections in the replication process.
Boomer would be the obvious candidate for individuality, she’s lived with humans and she’s died twice. Her siding with the lobotomisers had a air of self-loathing to it though, particularly if you remember her reaction to the captured raider back in season one. Then it was like calling to like, now she’s voting to brutalise her fellow creatures. Very aptly Cavil’s exploitation of her bitterness won him a battle but lost him the war, setting a precedent for thinking outside the box that inspired the new Six to free the slaves and I doubt it will end there.
Possibly the one aspect of their former lives that connects the newly awakened final four was their involvement in the resistance movement on New Caprica. Arguably then discovering that they are the enemy is the worst thing that could happen to each of them. All they thought they were is gone and as yet they have nothing to replace it, the knowledge that they’re Cylons but no programming, no plan. It’s a very human reaction to respond initially by clinging to their old selves, even more human that their idea of who Us is should begin to shift and narrow down to just the four of them, that their initial denial should begin to be replaced by a need to find out more about who they really are. So they go to Baltar or send Tory to him.
Last week one of the things I wished for was to hear more from Tory. I’m happy if not completely satisfied with how that turned out but the old Chinese saw about being careful describes Gaius’s situation pretty accurately. He wanted to be special, now he’s the frakking Messiah. He wanted to be admired by men and adored by women (the show does seem to make a point of associating women with faith, I have hopes of Tory proving the exceptional atheist) and he is at least within the narrow confines of his own cult. He wanted to belong, to be part of something and now he’s so isolated that even the image of Caprica Six has deserted him, he’s left with his own reflection for imaginary friend.
Extremes bring out the smarts in Gaius, the intuition to pick up on a stray remark by Tory about music and use it like a stage psychic to build a remarkably accurate metaphor. I’m not sure I quite buy the convert act. I’m sure he believes that there’s something out there that wants to be treated as the one true God. He’s seen too much evidence of what it can do for him to deny it but faith based on evidence is science not religion.
Be careful what you wish for might also apply to both Roslin and Kara. Laura’s version of her own history made it sound very similar to Starbuck’s in form but out of phase in terms of the timing. Laura believed death had caught up with her, meaningless death, but discovered a destiny through prophecy. She was saved but just for a while. Now it’s Kara’s turn. Similar circumstances but two very different women. Roslin didn’t act on her dreams until the evidence began to back them up, the correlations with the Book of Pythia and the discovery of Kobol, the photographs of the temple that everyone could see.
Kara doesn’t need any evidence that other sources can corroborate, she feels therefore she believes. Her only argument is to try and show people the depth of her feeling and that’s where she loses Laura by telling her to shoot. If she were human that would be the ultimate demonstration of conviction but if she’s a Cylon it shows nothing more than a willingness to download and be resurrected in a new body. The scene made me wonder for the first time if part of Laura’s antipathy to the Cylons comes from the knowledge that unlike her they don’t die. So Laura daren’t trust Kara’s vision because if Laura were a Cylon, using Kara as a trap (and she knows Kara is credulous) is exactly what she would do. I suppose there’s also the factor that Laura is having visions again herself and none of hers, which have proved trustworthy before, include Kara.
Despite this the decision to send Kara off on a mission to prove she can find earth is a very sensible compromise and not dissimilar to her earlier mission to collect the arrow of Apollo in being kept secret from the general population. So as not to raise hopes in the faithful or doubts (about their leaders sanity) in the heathen.
The second thing I wished for last week was to see the response to the raiders’ retreat back on the basestars. I wasn’t sure we were going to get it, there was a possibility that with Boomer the only named Cylon left they might not go there. The clonal nature of the machines is something I’ve always found fascinating and as a biologist couldn’t believe could be maintained. Differences were bound to arise through different experiences as well as through imperfections in the replication process.
Boomer would be the obvious candidate for individuality, she’s lived with humans and she’s died twice. Her siding with the lobotomisers had a air of self-loathing to it though, particularly if you remember her reaction to the captured raider back in season one. Then it was like calling to like, now she’s voting to brutalise her fellow creatures. Very aptly Cavil’s exploitation of her bitterness won him a battle but lost him the war, setting a precedent for thinking outside the box that inspired the new Six to free the slaves and I doubt it will end there.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-12 11:46 pm (UTC)Yes, YES, a thousand times yes. Fabulous summation within one paragraph.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 09:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-14 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 04:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-13 09:30 pm (UTC)nitpickery
Date: 2008-04-14 11:30 am (UTC)I don't know that I'd agree about evidence making something not a religion. I mean, that's true to some extent with our religions (particularly Christianity, which I'm quite cross about belonging to culturally because "faith" != "religion", and I really dislike that equivalence).
There's clearly something that seems to work there, in the BSG universe, but I don't think that requires that the system the humans and cylons have built around it should be considered science rather than religion.
Re: nitpickery
Date: 2008-04-14 08:04 pm (UTC)Not science but maybe something more like the modern Christian view of animistic religions with deities respected because they are believed to be demonstrably more powerful than us (but not necessarily more ethical or the source of everything).
Re: nitpickery
Date: 2008-04-15 01:16 pm (UTC)