Maybe for a moment you can see it all, and the way it goes around and around. This is certainly more than we’ve ever talked about it. But it’s a miracle: like any miracle, we take it for granted. You could grow to hate it, simply for stubbornly continuing to exist. And like any miracle, we forget it when it’s done. Most of the time.
Spoilers within. And I mean it, spoilers within. Do NOT. Restrain yourself. You need to go into it blind.
Battlestar Galactica: What Happens When You Ignore Al Gore.
Fuck it, that wasn’t even funny. You’ll have to forgive me, I feel like a train just slammed into my chest. I’m shaking here. Men and their friendships, that’s my thing. Pilots and cooks and soldiers and cops and societies, newsrooms, bands of brothers, people in extraordinary situations who form their own companies with their own rules. Men and women and their friendships, that’s what gets me. Bill, all his dreams laid before him, a story he told that he never really believed. And his lover and his son, telling him they built it for him, found it for him, and here it is. The pilots touched the picture, from the miniseries on outward that was the image I’ve never gotten out of my head, it’s why I love the humans, the pilots touched the picture on the wall before they left the surface and went out into someone else’s world. Our stories are our talismans, they keep us steady and straight in the sky. Our rituals call us back, again and again, to the home we make when the rest of the world burns down. Here it is, the picture you touched. You told us a story, made us believe, and here it is, it’s real.
And he can barely look at it.
Because what was its price?
Everything he had.
Here’s your dream, at the cost of your life. Here it is, it’s real. He can barely look at it, because what it took to get here, Saul’s eye and Gaeta’s leg, his lover’s hair, his son’s pride, his daughter’s life, his chest cut open, his family shot through with betrayal and fear. After that, andonly after that, does your dream come true. How could he even look at it? How could he not? That was Cain’s problem, wasn’t it, that one nasty hardcore thing begets another, until you’ve gone through hardcore and you’re out the other side, and you can’t stop for a second to ask what you’ve become because then the whole rickety structure just collapses; you’ve maimed and killed and destroyed to get to where you want to be, so you can’t admit you’re terrified, after all this time, to want it. To believe. They locked up Laura in a cell on New Caprica, they raped and imprisoned Kara and exiled Lee and ran them, screaming, across half the universe. After all that, could you look at what you wanted? Could you not?
It’s so easy, watching this, to say, “this was all the way it had to happen so they could have thatabsolutely ridiculous moment where Lee gets up on the desk in CIC like Bobby Flay on a cutting board and rips his jacket off,” this was necessity, this was meaningful. That which does not kill us makes us stronger. God never gives us a burden we cannot carry. We all go into the cocoon caterpillars, slimy and crawling, and we’ll all come out beautiful butterflies. We all like to bullshit ourselves, like Gaius Baltar, that horrible things that happen to us (or worse, to other fucking people) happen so we canlearn andgrow andbecome better, and other such concepts.
That which does not kill us takes away our best friends, our arms and legs, our hair and eyes and lungs and hearts. That which does not kill us pushes us onward. Come out of the chrysalis and you can tell yourself you’re more beautiful, if that makes it better, if it soothes your sting. I don’t care, particularly. Does the pain really make us who we are, or is that what we tell ourselves in order to survive it? Can we ever see the worth of the race at the finish line? Or do we need another hundred thousand years?
Because otherwise, if it’s not Meaningful and Necessary, it’s burned and blackened and stupid, empty, half a bridge to nowhere on a deserted, bombed-out world. Otherwise it’s just what you dreamed of, destitute and lost, the thing you bought at the cost of your miserable soul.
Quick takes: Edward James Olmos owns my heart and soul now. God DAMN, what is wrong with the Emmy voters? It’s a matter of time until Leoben and Tory have sex. I’ve never seen anything so pathetic as Laura trying to tell Tory what to do. Except maybe Laura sending Gaius Fucking Baltar to save the day. And to end this on a note of happiness, the following conversation took place via telephone at about 4:58 p.m.:
Mr. A: We’ve got lots of silly to watch on TV tonight.
Me: Silly? What silly do we have?
Mr. A: … It’s Friday, you know. That space show with the hot chick you like … did I dial the right number …
Me: That is NOT SILLY.
Mr. A: I’m sorry, let me rephrase. We haveservices tonight at 9 p.m.
A.
hokay…
only seen it once. Not ready to watch again just yet. I was completely unspoiled.
So—- damn.
There was a lot goin’ on in this ep.
Random ink blots:
Why did D’anna settle for just the four and not push whoever the fith is/was, obviously onboard the basestar?
and Damn. D’Anna. I can see why they boxed you. Not back 10 minutes and already you are calling.tha.shots.
I love that Laura is so self-aware and conscious that she has to change, and doesn’t have much time to do so, so is going through those gates with open eyes. Catching herself and stopping and doing it different. Letting go. I love it because it seems so very much a Laura thing. Yeah, she’s got nerves of steel but she’s also a mystic. I didn’t see the Laura/Torrey scenes as Laura being weak. I saw them as Laura letting go and going with the flow. Echo with Baltar. It’s not out of respect for him. It’s out of respect for something bigger.
I’m a big easy slut. I think they probably just changed Lee’s hair and make up because I don’t think the actor is that good, but whatever. I was for Lee this episode. I bought him and his business. It worked. I’m not used to that.
Actually, in the Lee/Starbuck scenes, I was more in tune with Lee. I didn’t think Starbuck/Sackhoff was that well-served by this episode.
I guess we can either assume that the Laura buinesss was still weighing on Adama, or we can just say that his manlove for Tigh was strong. Either way, his melt down worked for me. What didn’t work was him in the bathrobe afterward. I don’t think we needed that scene with him and Prez and Lee. He could have done that on his own. Pull himself together and get a shave, he could have done that.
And the end. Was it NY? Were they Brooklyn Heights looking at the Brooklyn Bridge? It could have also been london I think. Or anywhere. Presumably in the future, post fucking-the-pooch however-that-happened Earth.
not much cognitive function working yet
I absolutely loved it, but I would’ve hated it if it had been the series finale.
Critics’ll have a field day. All it was missing was Adama punching the ground screaming “DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!!”. You know it’s true.
This is a condensed version of how I hoped it would go. I figured one season of them getting to Earth and another dealing with the repercussions.
According to SyFy Portal, we’re not even halfway through this season yet. There will be 12 more eps with the possibility of another TV movie thrown in and the finale will be 3 hours.
THREE HOURS??!!
SQUEE!
(Sorry.)
SQUEE!
A.
No new eps until January!?! How did I not know this?
I just got done watching it…not sure what to think yet…might have to watch it again.
Unfortunately my internets are down and at least one ‘puter is fried (lightning strike last night) so I’ll try to check in later.
(I’m stealing someoned WiFi but it’s in and out.)
.
virgotex:I didn’t see the Laura/Torrey scenes as Laura being weak. I saw them as Laura letting go and going with the flow.
Very Good Read. Also I think it was the combination of Adama’s manlove for the XO (on whom he occasionally relied on to keep him in line) multiplied by the change of the power relationship between himself and Lee. He came at least as far as Rosalyn, but while wearing a bathrobe. 😉
Further – I think it was important that Ty called Lee by his call sign, Apollo, but I’m not sure why.
So, Earth. yep… figures. Did some other Cylons get there first? Or did the 13th tribe do themselves in? Was that structure they were at was the temple depicted in Rosalyns book earlier in the ep?
I disagree that Starbuck was ill-served by the episode. Her viper became the arrow, and she became the archer. Calm, content, accurate.
also, ditto Athenae – 12 episodes!?! 3 Hours!?!? SQUEE!!!!!!!
God DAMN, what is wrong with the Emmy voters?
I’m pretty sure they’re all Cylons.
I was for Lee this episode. I bought him and his business. It worked. I’m not used to that.
Actually, in the Lee/Starbuck scenes, I was more in tune with Lee. I didn’t think Starbuck/Sackhoff was that well-served by this episode.
Yes! This was Apollo back again. Wimpy civilian Lee has hopefully been banished for good.
Further – I think it was important that Ty called Lee by his call sign, Apollo, but I’m not sure why.
Here’s my prediction: Laura and Bill got the fleet to Earth. But now its up to the kids — Lee and Kara and Sam and Athenae and Carl — to make the wasteland a home. Bill retires and takes care of Laura and Lee takes over command.
One last thing — it was unfortunate that the intraship communications system failed just as Lee was ready to airlock Tigh. Forced poor Kara to run all that way instead of being able to get on an intercome and tell Lee to stop.
A real shame.
I need to watch the whole thing again. We really have to wait til January?
One more thing — if earth has destroyed itself, where was the signal to Kara’s Viper coming from?
I’m calling the planet as terra from the original series, not earth.
If the planet is Terra and not Earth, why would there be a duplicate of The Opera House there?
Said mdhatter:Further – I think it was important that Ty called Lee by his call sign, Apollo, but I’m not sure why.
I think it was Tigh giving Lee an order, in a sense. Call him by the name he used before hebecame the voice of authority, and call him something that will make him stop hesitating – that moment of “Am I doing the right thing?” is such a human, civilian instinct – and get him to make the quick, hard decisions you have to when you’re behind the controls of a Viper.
Jacob nailed it in his recap of Eye of Jupiter, part 1: “Right now they’re in a military op with shit resources and no air support: what this means for Apollo and Starbuck (and Dee) is that “Lee” and “Kara” as concepts are not applicable.” If you noticed during that episode, they called one another Apollo and Starbuck. The only one referring to them as Lee and Kara was Sam, because he was dealing with personal things while they were busy setting the personal aside to get the mission done.
I think that might be what Tigh was going for: stop wibbling and frakkin’ space me already; it’s the only thing that will make D’Anna listen.
falconesse, yes, yes that’s exactly right.
Tigh was a badass. “Well, what are you waiting for?!?!”
No new episodes until March 2009 or so.
Regarding the signal beacon’s origins, I assumed it was dropped by Kara during her first trip there in the magic Viper.
Clay, you had damned well better be frakkin’ with me. And if you’re frakkin’ with me, there aren’t enough exclamation points for what I will do.
MARCH!?!
As for the ep, which I had to wait till tonight to watch (sigh–whose bright idea was it to schedule a wedding on Galactica night, hmmmm?)…
Wow. The whole dead Earth thing was exactly, perfectly, awesomely right. If they’d gotten here and found 1984 us, or 3000 B.C.E. Egypt us, or One Million Years B.C. Raquel Welch us, it would have been silly.
I think Kara’s well down the path of “Frak me, I’m a Cylon for sure now.”
They bloody well better not be giving me 12 episodes without Mary McDonnell. That would be teh suxxors.
As for what the Emmy voters are thinking, they’re thinking, “It’s a space show with a hot chick, how good can it be?” I say we blow them out the frakkin’ airlock.
Blak is right, this would have sucked as a series finale, but it seems the writers have dropped clues that the series will not end well and that the cut-to-black end of the Sopranos is favored in them there parts.
Halfway into the show, I said, “This is going to end like Planet Of The Apes.” Jesus on a stick with mustard, I’ll take those words right back if I don’t have to wait ten months. TEN MONTHS?!?! There had better be reruns starting all the way from Season 1.
Oh, and Deadwood’s Paula Malcomson will star in the prequel known asCaprica. Squeee!!
Oh, and Deadwood’s Paula Malcomson will star in the prequel known as Caprica.
Trixie! SQUEEE, indeed. (Speaking of which it would be nice if HBO/David Milch someday gave us the final season. But i digress…)
Anyway, I read over at Salon that BSG would be back in January. January…March…too long either way. (When I told my mother this she went into a five-minute tirade against SciFi.)
.
Maitri – were he still alive I can only hope Charlton Heston would have had a cameo in this ep. “Damnnnnn Youuuuuuu!!!!!!”
I honestly have no clue what we’ll learn about earth, but right now it seems to me it’s serving mostly as a pretty hit-in-the-gut kind of metaphor for “it’s not the goal, it’s the journey”. I see absolutely no reason (with what we know) for them to even consider staying on Earth. New Caprica, hell even the old 12 colonies, seem like much better place to settle down.
I mean, there seems to be a reasonable truce with the cylons, specially now that they can’t be so cavalier in waging war anymore. The location in itself doesn’t seem to be all that important at this point.
Unless of course, there’s some secrets hidden in Earth yet to be found (which I’m guessing is more or less going to be the case). Not to mention who is the fifth, and what he/she may or may not know. Well, I guess there’s also the question of the Cavil-led cylon faction and what their intentions may be.
I can’t wait for Tyrol to find out that Tory airlocked Callie. He’s so gonna choke her to death with his cylon mind. I really can’t wait.
Y’know, Tyrol defenestrating Tory is the only thing that gives me hope for the upcoming season of drought…
So, they’re trying to tell us that in all of those frakking visions, daydreams, gut feelings, etc., nothing indicated that Earth was all scorched and that that wasn’t the end but the journey? Why the temple of Aurora, opera house bullshit that indicated Earth then? It can only mean that they were meant to go there, but “meant to” doesn’t mean a good end or great things … or that I just have to hold my britches until 2009 to figure out what the frak happened. FRAK!