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On The Wing: Galactica Thread

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Jacob:

Because as much as this episode is about the concept of home —
Laura’s off-tone speech rapidly making subtext into text as clumsily as
possible — it’s also about finishing the equation Sartre and Milton
started: not “hell is other people,” not “myself am hell,” but
something much better. Home is other people. Home is letting go of the
place you only thought you were standing; the place you thought was
home. And it takes the heaven ofeverybody else to get you
there. (The shepherd Bodhisattva vows not to enter paradise until
everybody else does first; the trick is that you then obviously have to
go about making sure that happens. I submit to you that’s precisely
what we’re doing and we don’t even know it — this is also my
explanation for Gaius Baltar’s amazing ability to duck enlightenment,
if not redemption — but imagine a whole world like that. It would be
like Canada, but with God. How awesome.)

Lee leads Kara, Kara leads Sam. He thinks he’s talking about Six,
but it’s Caprica that leads Gaius. And then Gaius leads Kara, too.
Laura leads Bill, Bill leads Saul. Hera is Boomer’s angel. Daughter
Eight is Saul’s, and Ellen too, toward something we can’t yet see. All
of them looking — and helping each other to look — for strength, and
for wisdom, and that measure of acceptance that moves you into the next
thing, the next shape, the next home. Pilgrims of mortality, they’ll
say at the funeral, and voyagers traversing the stars, in search of
grace, unity, life, love: No man is islanded.

10 thoughts on “On The Wing: Galactica Thread”

  1. Gaius shot Crashdown to save Cally’s life. I could consider that a semi-selfless act.
    As long as there is something more to the finale than one last whiz-bang ka-boom battle with The Cylons(although I do enjoy ka-boomy stuff), I will be ridiculously happy with this series as a whole. There’s gotta be at least one holy-frak mindblower moment.

  2. Personally, I love Baltar. Not as a person of course, but as a character on the show i think he’s one of the most interesting story lines. What would BG be without him?
    I also thought of when he shot Crashdown as his one selfless act, but it was to save his own skin too so yea, semi-selfless.
    Back then there was this sort of tease with him where i felt like, hoped, that maybe he would find a little enlightenment. Like he was this adult version of Pinocchio, trying to be a real man (mostly failing). Six in his head was his fairy godmother/sex-you-up-er always getting him out of tight spots, nudging him in the right direction (mostly failing). Gaeta was Jiminy Cricket (failed and got squished).
    Brings me to the one thing i’ve been praying for but feel like i’m not going to get in the final episode: What is the true explanation for the Six in Baltar’s head? I feel like they’re just going to let that one go. Fingers crossed.

  5. I recently watched the miniseries for the first time, and this episode felt a little like that, with all the flashbacks. They were good because it showed how far all of them had come.

  7. BlakNo1, I think that bit was referring to the ceremony “celebrating” the decommissioning of Galactica. That’s where this all started–he had to be there to watch the thing he loved shut down, and he didn’t want to do it.
    And now he was going to have to do it again. And he still doesn’t want to do it. (I hadn’t figured that out at the time–it was just looking back on it after seeing your question that it finally made sense to me.)
    I have this horrible feeling that Baltar is going to do something galactically stupid–AGAIN–and get the fleet destroyed. And I’ll be really pissed because Cottle’s there. (And hurrah for Cottle’s assistant girl, whateverthehellhernameis, for stepping up! Somebody’s gotta be there to take care of CrazySpaceMom.)
    Best moment? Starbuck helping Laura stay standing. That was special.
    More random thoughts: Hotdog looks like a man! When the frak did that happen? Katee Sackhoff deserves massive kudos for that 30-second flashback. I don’t know how she managed it, but she looked years younger and the same all at once. Do we know which side of the line Baltar’s on? I found it interesting that HeadSix wasn’t there to tell him what to do–it’s a wonder he made it to the hangar deck at all.

  8. My guess for the Six in Baltar’s head? I think he’s a human-cylon hybrid, too, just like Hera and (dun-dun-DUNH!) Starbuck. (OK, so maybe the Starbuck’s-daddy-is-Daniel isn’t new.)

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