that there are no bad guys,” and I try to stay on the right side of
that line, but this deck seems really stacked. It’s all people who
either A) don’t matter or B) are so disgusting they don’t matter, which
means that anybody who throws in alongside them ceases to matter as
well. Which is not how this should go down, because I want to root for
everybody. Or, maybe in this case, for nobody. It’s hard to see where
the insurrectionists are coming from when this is the company they
keep. I guess somebody that’s not me could similarly say that it’s hard
to see where the loyalists are coming from when most of them are Cylons
and all of them are suddenly pro-Cylon, which tracks because the Fleet
is ignorant enough to think that “Cylons” are still the problem. But
I’ve actually been watching the show for four years, and it’s nothing
like that simple. I just wish it wereless simple to come down
on this side, and I’m afraid one Racetrack — whom I’ve always found
boring — and a few worried looks from Felix aren’t going to cut it.
This is a dumb plan, being carried out for dumb reasons, by the dumbest
trash in the Fleet. How is that attractive?
This is the problem, though. You do something assholish, even if you’re a good guy who by and large has a reasonable point, and you end up attracting these assholes because you need them to do stuff for you. You need bodies for your revolution so you take who you can get. And who you can get is usually who’s irrational and pissed off, because you’re in a hurry and they’ll go along with your crazy fast and not ask too many annoying questions, like “now what?” and “should we, like, have a plan before we go all berserker on the place?” It’s not that the revolution is bad because it’s being propagated by sucky people, it’s that the very nature of the revolution ensures a place for these rapists and dickheads because when all you’ve got is 10,000 hammers you need 10,000 nails. Flatheaded, thick ones, easy to bang into place. Thus, every rapist and dumbass on the planet ends up siding with you and if you feel sort of sticky afterward, well, look. You made up the recruiting brochure. This is what you asked for.
In any case, spoilers within.
It’s been months of moral ambiguity and deep thoughts. Thank God for a simple, satisfying, good-guys-win, bad-guys-get-shot, fuck-Tom-Zarek-in-his-ear, Gaeta-can-eat-a-bowl-of-dicks conclusion. I mean it, sometimes I’m lazy and I want to fucking cheer some badass escapades with guns and muscles.
How about we do this. Here is a list of things I yelled at the TV tonight, punctuated by throwing imaingary punches at imaginary things, waving of an invisible TEAM ADAMA foam finger, and joyous glugging of cheap pino grigio:
NO NO NO NO NO. Not Adama. I won’t let them. NO. This is not happening.
Fuck yeah, Starbuck! Fuck yeah! Ass kicking hotass Starbuck! God, look at her ARMS. I want a tattoo.
(Mr. A pauses the TiVo and asks if my hot space chick and I would like to be alone. I do not redeem myself in the slightest by replying, “Dude, Iwish.”)
Felix, you fucking suck. You suck suck suck suck suck. Fuck nuance. You suck.
Lampkin is apparently the only lawyer in the fleet.
You really hire the guy who got Baltar off to defend Adama? Felix, you moron.
Cantrell for the win. Sagitaron for the FUCKING WIN. “Yeah, get out of here, bitch, we gots bizness to discuss.” Go on, run, you little punk!
Jesus, Zarek. Man walks on fucking moon, KILLS FUCKING QUORUM.
(As the Chief crawls through the tiny crawl space ad infinitum) *peering through fingers* I can’t even watch this. (I’m claustrophobic.)
Hey, it’s FarrahSix! *hums Charlie’s Angels theme song*
Gaeta, you shithead. Great. GREAT. Now you can blame it all on Tom Zarek getting all kill-crazy instead of on how you were a stupid asshole to go along with it in the first place. Way to give that dillhole an out, show. Nice going.
OMFG LAURA. Yeeeeaaaaah, Crazy Space Mom! Fuck yeah! It’s time to airlock some motherfuckers!
I want Laura’s whole “by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you” speech as the ringtone for my phone.
Whoashit Sam.
Bill Adama has a MOTHERFUCKING POSSE.
Now they’re in CIC and you LOST, Gaeta, booyah, suck it, Tom Zarek, bring Bill Adama the finest bagels and muffins in all the land! Oh, yeah, baby, my space BOYFRIEND IS BACK AND YOU’RE GONNA BE IN TROUBLE!
All this crazy cannot be good for Space Mom’s health.
(Mr. A: Unless she’s high, in which case I bet it’s twice as fun)
I should probably have deep, coherent thougths about Gaeta and justification and the Chief and how he threw himself on the engine he built with his blood and his hands, and how there’s now a hole in the wall, a hole in the world, what looks like a giant cat used it as a scratching post. I should probably also have some deep, coherent thoughts about how it was very lazy of the show to prove Adama and Tigh and Roslin are better than Zarek et al byexecuting Zarek et al, but I don’t know, I’m too busy still yelling FUCK YEAH at random intervals and throwing pillows in the air.
Next week we can get back to how there are no heroes in the universe anymore.
A.
If Zarek had been in charge of the coup it might have worked. Felix was Kerensky to Zarek’s Lenin and when Kerensky runs the show, watch out…
Oh, Felix. You had a chance there, just for a moment, to redeem yourself. And you blew it. Your last act was too late.
I loved Adama telling Felix how it was all the way through — telling him, flatly, that Gaeta would have to kill him. And of course, when the tables were turned, finally and decisively — Adama didn’t flinch.
And now, Ellen returns…
MMMMM… what a satisfying show last night! Nice recap A!
Anyone else get reminded of the Nov-Oct timeframe when the Adama posse marched, grew and swarmed to victory? I did. Unfortunately for us, our recent “revolution” did not end in the firing squads for the coup-plotters who stole our country and left us in the ditch.
The show continues to amaze with every ep.
And when Ellen comes back, is she gonna git some revenge???
SP
Adama said there would be no forgiveness, and there wasn’t.
I joked to myself,”What’s Zarek gonna do now, shoot them?”
Near the end, I just kept yelling at the TV “Shoot them now! Shoot them now! You don’t have to wait until you get home! SHOOT THEM NOW!!!”
You do something assholish, even if you’re a good guy who by and large has a reasonable point, and you end up attracting these assholes because you need them to do stuff for you.
I must respectfully disagree. Turns out Gaeta never was a good guy. He was a whiny wimpy asshat who couldn’t rise above losing his leg. His frackin’ leg!! Think about what other people in that fleet have lost, and have managed to rise above, and keep doing their duty. Poor little Felix loses a few inches of bone and suddenly Space Dad, who’s been your guiding light since the fleet first jumped, is a traitor to his people?
You need bodies for your revolution so you take who you can get.
And the first body you pick is Tom Zarek? Who you have to know has been jonesing for Laura’s job since the fleet formed? Not only are you a dick, you’re a dick who doesn’t really care who gets hurt while you throw your space tantrum.
Nope. Felix had a grudge against the universe and had to play it out with guns.
I wanted to be in that firing squad.
I want Laura’s whole “by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you” speech as the ringtone for my phone.
I want it on my iPod…so I can just turn it on when the assholes of the universe start getting to me.
BTW — somebody could make a lotta money on those Team Adama foam fingers. Just sayin’…
BTWBTW — I notice how you just gloss right over Lee’s contribution to the rescue…it wasn’t all your space babe…
It’s like clue!
It was Starbuck, in the restroom, with the urinal.
LDS = Lee Derangement Syndrome : )
Also,
Gaeda had an aspect to him these last few months, with his leg constantly bothering him, of Russel Banks’ “Affliction”.
If Zarek had been in charge of the coup it might have worked.
I don’t think so, Zarek never once had the military behind him. He had his paramilitaries, but Gaeda’s reputation and service is what got him some of the bridge officers.
flory, I think that even if Lee Adama were running the revolution because of the subversion of democracy and not because of outright racism, he’d still end up with some people on his side because they hate Cylons and some people on his side because they want to blow stuff up and some people on his side because they’re weak for this sort of thing. I wasn’t trying to say Gaeta was a good guy who got dragged down by the fuckholes who followed him, just that when you start this shit you have to be aware people are coming along for their reasons, not yours.
We saw this all the way back in Season One when Lee was all hot to overthrow his father to preserve the Republic or something until Zarek, in what I didn’t realize then would become a pattern, skeeved him out by taking things way too far.
And I totally forgot about the grenade fake-out. Mea culpa. That was WICKED FUCKING COOL. “You’d have thought it was funny if you did it.” HEE.
A.
And I totally forgot about the grenade fake-out. Mea culpa. That was WICKED FUCKING COOL. “You’d have thought it was funny if you did it.” HEE.
And the best part about that was that Lee was totally right, and Starbuck knew it.
I’m listening to this from the outside (tv failed, no home broadband, work too dodgy for Hulu, etc.), so I’m kinda puzzled.
Isn’t the ruling theme of BG now that there are consequences for evil?
As in sure, Adama won and we’re all cheerleaders, but FUCK you’re building humanity from the dregs of this coup?
As in now you’ve got the RTF energized for the first time in years about something about *them*, not the Galactica alone, not the lives of the privileged who frankly had time to create a coup threat in the first place — and now Adama has to suppress the entire trend in the fleet to question *anything* he says?
Allayouse you pooh-pooh Hugo Chavez’ tactics, raise your hand if you think you *won’t* see the same tactics used by the Adama faction, toward the end?
Sheesh. Isn’t RDM’s lesson that we all suck, as a group, but can do amazing things, by our lonesome?
We saw this all the way back in Season One when Lee was all hot to overthrow his father to preserve the Republic or something until Zarek, in what I didn’t realize then would become a pattern, skeeved him out by taking things way too far.
Eggzackly. What Zarek really is, as opposed to what he tries to pretend he is, has been apparent for a long time. And Gaeta knows it. And yet, he picks Zarek as his partner.
Why? Because he knows that only ruthlessness will succeed. And he doesn’t want to have to be ruthless. Because then he can’t tell himself pretty stories about how he’s doing this for the fleet.
So he lines up Zarek to do the dirty work. He can keep his hands all nice and clean (and well manicured I noticed). Zarek can kill off the Quorum.
I think you’re giving him too much credit. He knew exactly what kinds of people he was going to attract to his little coup. He wasn’t thinking about what came after he succeeded. Only on getting his way. Like an angry toddler throwing a tantrum.
(Oh — and don’t you like the way it looks like both the inconvenient spouses are gonna end up dead? Nothing standing in Lee and Kara’s way now…)
If the resurrection ship is gone, how the hell does Ellen regenerate? More specifically… if the Cylons didn’t know she was part of the final five, where did the spare Ellen body to resurrect to come from in the first place?
I hope they have a good explanation in the next episode.
Somebody said this already; please tell me somebody said this already, so I can continue my tradition of making weak comments on the BSG threads ’round here.
But what fascinated me (aside from what Athenae pointed out; and while I’m drawn to Starbuck, Roslin has my heart. As my wife said last night, she (the Lovely Wife)is Roslin and would go all crazy Space Mom on yer ass if you f*ck with what’s hers!)…ahem, what fascinated me was the fickleness of the troops. Suddenly the gun-toters on Galactica remind me of the “muscle” in every one of Scorsese’s mafia films: just tell us who to whack.
So they’re gunning down whoever Zarek and Gaeta point to. And then Adama gets hisfamiglia, and now they’re gunning down whoever Adama points to. Wait a minute!?!?!?!?! Weren’t these the same guys who threw a grenade on Adama and Tigh? And were ready to blow him to bloody bits right before Apollo & Co. swooped in? And then Adama shoots Zarek and Gaeta, proving there will be consequences, and all that matters, mo-fo, is which end of the gun you’re on, and who’s giving the orders.
Which Zarek knew all along; he just couldn’t keep enough guns pointed in the right direction when it came down to it. Not sure that speaks well for Adama’s future, though…
And who the heck does maintenance on that ship? A gash that big and nobody knows it? Is that room only accessible through the air system or something? Did somebody’s lizard get irradiated in space and go Godzilla on ’em? The dehumidifiers stopped working and things got rusty?
Too many questions, too few answers. Just tell me who to shoot.
And then when I read the comments:
It’s like clue!
It was Starbuck, in the restroom, with the urinal.
I have to admit: that was absolutely my favorite scene. I saw it coming (why else show a guy takin’ a piss?), but still:
It was sweet. My wife can be Roslin; I want my daughter to grow up to be Starbuck.
Now it’s lonely ’round the fields of Athenry.
If the resurrection ship is gone, how the hell does Ellen regenerate?
Both her and the Cylon “God” were killed well before the hub was destroyed.
Weren’t these the same guys who threw a grenade on Adama and Tigh?
Probably not, it’s a military vessel with over 2,000 people on it, mostly officers and troops. They do all look alike when they wear the uniform.
Allayouse you pooh-pooh Hugo Chavez’ tactics, raise your hand if you think you *won’t* see the same tactics used by the Adama faction, toward the end?
Get back to me when Hugo Chavez has his entire cabinet shot for disagreeing with him.
Remember what Lee said back in Season 3:
“We’re not a society(civilization?)anymore, we’re a gang.”
Unfortunately, that’s the truth. And, when it comes to gang warfare, all that matters is which end of the gun you’re on.
If the resurrection ship is gone, how the hell does Ellen regenerate?
Both her and the Cylon “God” were killed well before the hub was destroyed.
huh?
meaning she regenerated before the hub was destroyed, too? She’s in some warehouse like Three was?
sorry, am stupid this week
Weren’t these the same guys who threw a grenade on Adama and Tigh?
Probably not, it’s a military vessel with over 2,000 people on it, mostly officers and troops. They do all look alike when they wear the uniform.
No, one of them definitely was, and as for the rest, distinctions were never made. Which was undoubtedly intentional.
They are all “only following orders.” And as to who was giving them: Gaeta, Zarek, or Adama, it didn’t really seem to matter. All that mattered was: who’s top dog now?
Too many questions, too few answers. Just tell me who to shoot. When a military force gets that ragged about the chain of command, you got problems more serious than a giant cat scratch in the engine room.
All that mattered was: who’s top dog now?
That’s how it is in a gang, which is what they are now.
They have far bigger problems than the military command structure breaking down, their entire congress is dead. Will they hold elections or will Roslin simply appoint people? That ought to be a blast.
If the resurrection ship is gone, how the hell does Ellen regenerate? More specifically… if the Cylons didn’t know she was part of the final five, where did the spare Ellen body to resurrect to come from in the first place?
I have a feeling: from the same place that Starbuck’s “resurrected” body came from.
I think there’s about to be a new wrinkle introduced, in the form of characters we’ve not met.
Not Cylons. Not Humans.
Others.
Not Cylons. Not Humans.
Others.
“Lords of Kobol”
Excellent recap. This episode definitely reminded me why I had such a huge girlcrush on Starbuck during the first season that I contemplated taking up cigars until I remembered how much I hated smoking when I was a teenager. And even then, I kinda still wanted to.
We’ve been wondering around our house when Cavil’s going to show up, and figured it’d be anytime now, since it would be particularly inopportune. But no.