BSG 4.13-14

[hazelk]

Catching up on BSG. I think my main reaction was how full of ghosts this two-part revolution seemed. Not just the recurrence of myriad one-shot characters past but of places and events. All of this has happened before but it happens a little differently each time.

Battles in the ships corridors and the smuggling out of an imprisoned leader was reminiscient of early S2 down to the imposition of military law. But by Adama himself, not Tigh trying to second guess him. So this time there was no hope of King Richard returning for the would-be Robin Hoods, they had to do it themselves or not at all.

Zarek having the Quorum shot viscerally recalled Natalie’s October revolution moment. Except that there’s no regeneration for human politicians and that isn’t the only way this mutiny was so much messier than its Cylon equivalent. That individuality thing, it felt as if every single individual had their own reasons for joining whichever side they joined, some noble some venal. It’s interesting how much more the Cylon still seem to believe in authority and consensus and how those two connect. Tyrol can persuade the Cylons that Adama’s word is law more easily than Adama can force that on his own people.

Felix for one and their basic difference is one of how much they trust the Cylon Alliance when neither of them really have much understanding of the people they’re allying with. Adama knows Saul Tigh, Tyrol and Athena. He’s spoken with D’Anna, Natalie and Caprica but all of these are the exceptions, the celebrities , the leaders. But he’s never had anything to do with the Cylons on the street, the great mass of unnamed Eights and Sixes and whatever number the Lebonens are. Gatae had that interaction with the Eight on New Caprica and who’s to say his understanding of their motives is less accurate than what the Adamas have seen.

I think they went a little too far in vindicating the eventual victors by painting Tom Zarack so blackly but Gaeta had an honest point and they did have more than half the fleet ignore Roslin’s injunction so hopefully the political issues aren’t about to be glossed over. Because in the end that victory came down to personal ties outweighing political ideology for the Kellys and the Hotdogs. That and a realization that civil war and the internecine killing it involves just isn’t an option. There are so few of them left now.


Roslin is not who she was. She no longer believes she’s the one to lead them but she’ll be dammed if Tom Zarek is. Laura always needed an enemy. In the beginning it was the Cylon but then Zareck, then Baltar and now Zareck again. The woman still knows better than anyone how to harness her emotions at least that’s how I prefer to interpret the “I will end you” response being to Adama’s reported death and not something less personal.

Gaeta and Baltar’s last supper was the standout scene for me. So different from the last such meeting in Baltar’s cell. Felix telling the story of all the people he could have been had the Cylon not come. He was going to be exceptional and instead became the show’s everyman, the voice of an embittered and now cynical people trying desperately to be heard.

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

The Leobens are Twos. Also, basically what you said, in my own reactions to hte episodes. I do hope you're right about Laura.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Two, thank you:-) I'm a little behind on the internet but very much agree with your take on the Roslin/Adama romance (and the much more interesting but non-romantic relationship developing between her and Baltar).

[yourlibrarian]

I like that connection about the two mutinies. The killing of the Quorum was definitely a shocking moment for me. I also really liked the fact that the Quorum believed in their own role, despite their numerous differences with Roslin and Adama.

I also really like what you point out about Gaeta's involvement with the Cylons versus those of Adama, who had none of that experience at all.

I think that Zarack definitely didn't come off well, but I think it was in keeping with his own experience that one can not effect change without breaking away strongly from the past. And also that, once underway, the changeover is likely to be very messy indeed.

It was also interesting to see how undecided people could be -- that faced with the unknown, the known was always preferable. This was seen first in opposition to the Cylon collaboration, but then again at the idea of a total overthrow of the power structure. And, as you point out, the close personal ties are familiar, whereas larger issues are less of a known outcome.

I loved that scene with Baltar and Gaeta too. And I also found it interesting to see the changes in Baltar that he felt he needed to be there.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

It was almost a Joss Whedon ploy with the Quorum, they finally show them as mature and not so easily swayed by the latest rhetoric and they they shoot them. Midnight's jane had an interesting point about Zareck's will to matyrdom further down, I am more curious about his backstory is, I suppose it's something that might even turn up in Jane Espensen's Caprica.

And I also found it interesting to see the changes in Baltar that he felt he needed to be there.
Yes that was much more convincing than his post-coital epiphany on the base-star, I really believed him when he said he knew who Felix was.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, the brief hope that the Quorum would become something more than the squabbling whiners that the show has often let them be depicted as, was quickly snuffed out. Yet it was that surprise and hope that made their deaths more meaningful. They might yet have come around to Zareck's leadership, but he couldn't afford to have them on the fence.

Yes, in that scene, I really believed that Baltar was there for only himself and Felix, and no larger purpose. I actually found that base star vision distracting and unnecessary, other than to be a "gotcha" moment.

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

This is beautifully put.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Thank you :-)

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

Oh, very interesting! I hadn't actually made that connection between past and present events like the Cylon/Quorum massacres.
I think that Zarek was in some ways always looking to go out in that blaze of glory, a martyr to his cause, that Lee denied him on the Prison ship way back when, and in some way his actions were motivated by that. He was a lot more ruthless than I expected, particularly with the murders of the Quorum, but not really out of character.
I loved that last, rather tender scene with Baltar and Gaeta. Ah, for what might have been.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

That's a great point about Zareck's motivation, I do wonder if we'll see more on him in Caprica.