Because I am having serious BSG withdrawal, here are two fun little videos about the glorious show:
AND...
Showing posts with label Battlestar Galactica. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Battlestar Galactica. Show all posts
Friday, March 27, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Hello and Goodbye to Battlestar Galactica
Five years ago I came across a television show on the Sci-Fi Channel that changed so much with me and with perceptions of what it is to be a science-fiction show. I hadn’t been an avid watcher of the Sci-Fi Channel, I only liked it because they played episodes of The X-Files; in fact I was probably watching that very show when a commercial break rolled around and a promo began to play on my screen. It was an amazing promo for a show about humans being annihilated by something they created to help them. Something that was used and abused and that rebelled in anger. A theme that I find myself being drawn to all the time.
That show was called Battlestar Galactica. A “re-imagining” of an old cheesy show that ran on ABC for a season way back in 1978. A cult favorite for what I can only assume is the nostalgia and cheesy-fun that it provides. But, this new Battlestar show looked intense and heavy, I had to watch it. So, for months I waited for December 7, 2004 to roll around. And when that day came I was hooked for the entire duration. It was the kind of show that I would watch no matter what. I would write off all other responsibilities every Friday night (and Sunday night for a tick). I didn’t care, that show is that good. And then I had to wait for season 1 to start with the intense, suspense-filled episode ‘33’.
Why is it that good? Why should you have been watching this show for the past five years? If you say it’s because it’s not a genre you like, or that you don’t like Star Wars so why would you like this? You couldn’t be more wrong with your knee-jerk reaction. This show is more than space battles, space-ships and Cylons. It’s about the characters, the humanity that is embodied in each and every choice a character makes on the show, good or bad. And there are oh so many times a decision was made that was wrong. In the post-9/11 world that saw this show come to be, there is a relevance to what it means to be human, to invade and take over another “culture”, to be taken over by another culture and to feel compassion and sympathy, at times, for those on the opposing side. This is exactly why this show succeeded as it did, had it been any other time it would have failed miserably.
I can assure you that I have run across my share of people who think I am crazy for loving this show. Then I make them watch it and they become enamored with it what they see. It begins to make sense, they realize it isn’t Star Wars 2.0; it isn’t about the “planet/alien-of-the-week”. It isn’t about glossy ships and gallant heroes that save the day just as the clock reaches one hour of air-time. But, I hear you asking, what is it about then? What is the core story behind this show you are telling me is groundbreaking, phenomenal, astounding and great? Well, let me tell you.
It’s an age old story of man creating a robotic helper to do their dirty work. I don’t mean offing people. I mean man created something, at this point not in his image, to help. At first it was a noble idea but soon those Cylons gain sentience and realize they are being used and they don’t like it. So they rebel against their parents. After a long and lengthy battle they decide to leave to find a planet to call their own. They agree to an armistice with humanity. On a remote station a human and a Cylon would meet once a year. Every year a man arrived and every year there was no Cylon. They haven’t seen or heard from a Cylon in 40 years…until today. The doors slide open; two severely updated Cylon Centurions enter and stand to the side. The man hears the distinctive click of high heels and in walks a leggy, beautiful woman. She asks the man if he is alive, kisses him and, from outside, a large pointed ship (Basestar) hovers above the armistice station shortly before blowing it up.
If that scene alone doesn’t get your attention, why you might be dead.
The meat of the show, like I said earlier, is the characters. Humanity is shortly attacked all over the 12 colonies by Cylons, and a rag-tag group of ships ranging from the Galactica to pleasure ships like Cloud 9 cling together for safety in numbers. They are led by, at the time, Commander William Adama and Colonel Saul Tigh, along with the newly appointed president, admittedly shaken and confused, Secretary of Education Laura Roslin. She was appointed because everyone above her was killed in the initial attack. Together they lead the fleet on a quest to find the mythical 13th colony of the 13th tribe of humanity, Earth.
But, the show isn’t just the story. Without the following things the show would be nothing. The special effects rival those of big-budget Hollywood blockbusters. All on a budget just a fraction of the size of those blockbusters. As a comparison think of the crappy effects in say, Spiderman or The Day After Tomorrow. While I know there technically wouldn’t be any explosions in space since it’s a vacuum, some of the battle scenes are breathtakingly gorgeous. Then there is set design, lighting, videography and the usage of some of the best, untapped directors out there. Namely Michael Rymer and Sergio Mimica-Gezzan (who has worked as a 2nd AD for Steven Spielberg). And the little (great big) cherry upon the icing on top, the music. Bear McCreary manages to weave a sonic tapestry of aural delight into every single episode. He uses instruments and styles from all over the world, including an accordion for Number 6’s Theme, though tweaked for a certain feel.
And it all ends Friday. This Friday March 20, 2009 will be the last episode of this show that has not only captured my attention for the past 5 years, but was one of the major reasons I decided to return to school for video production. The chance to make something that people are interested in, that catches their minds and makes them think. Over 5 years I have watched characters that aren’t real live and die, fight and make up, marry and divorce, shoot and be shot, fly and crash-land, discover and flee, order and disobey and realize they might not be who they were or want to be. When Friday rolls around I will be sad, sad to see a beloved show end and a ship no doubt “die”, and I’ll bid adieu to something that I hold near and dear to my heart as one of the best television shows ever produced. And in celebration of the show I will be doing a season-by-season rollout of episodes starting tomorrow. Catch up, whether it be by internet, DVD, or synopsis and say goodbye to the grand ol’ Galactica with me on Friday in style and respect.
That show was called Battlestar Galactica. A “re-imagining” of an old cheesy show that ran on ABC for a season way back in 1978. A cult favorite for what I can only assume is the nostalgia and cheesy-fun that it provides. But, this new Battlestar show looked intense and heavy, I had to watch it. So, for months I waited for December 7, 2004 to roll around. And when that day came I was hooked for the entire duration. It was the kind of show that I would watch no matter what. I would write off all other responsibilities every Friday night (and Sunday night for a tick). I didn’t care, that show is that good. And then I had to wait for season 1 to start with the intense, suspense-filled episode ‘33’.
Why is it that good? Why should you have been watching this show for the past five years? If you say it’s because it’s not a genre you like, or that you don’t like Star Wars so why would you like this? You couldn’t be more wrong with your knee-jerk reaction. This show is more than space battles, space-ships and Cylons. It’s about the characters, the humanity that is embodied in each and every choice a character makes on the show, good or bad. And there are oh so many times a decision was made that was wrong. In the post-9/11 world that saw this show come to be, there is a relevance to what it means to be human, to invade and take over another “culture”, to be taken over by another culture and to feel compassion and sympathy, at times, for those on the opposing side. This is exactly why this show succeeded as it did, had it been any other time it would have failed miserably.
I can assure you that I have run across my share of people who think I am crazy for loving this show. Then I make them watch it and they become enamored with it what they see. It begins to make sense, they realize it isn’t Star Wars 2.0; it isn’t about the “planet/alien-of-the-week”. It isn’t about glossy ships and gallant heroes that save the day just as the clock reaches one hour of air-time. But, I hear you asking, what is it about then? What is the core story behind this show you are telling me is groundbreaking, phenomenal, astounding and great? Well, let me tell you.
It’s an age old story of man creating a robotic helper to do their dirty work. I don’t mean offing people. I mean man created something, at this point not in his image, to help. At first it was a noble idea but soon those Cylons gain sentience and realize they are being used and they don’t like it. So they rebel against their parents. After a long and lengthy battle they decide to leave to find a planet to call their own. They agree to an armistice with humanity. On a remote station a human and a Cylon would meet once a year. Every year a man arrived and every year there was no Cylon. They haven’t seen or heard from a Cylon in 40 years…until today. The doors slide open; two severely updated Cylon Centurions enter and stand to the side. The man hears the distinctive click of high heels and in walks a leggy, beautiful woman. She asks the man if he is alive, kisses him and, from outside, a large pointed ship (Basestar) hovers above the armistice station shortly before blowing it up.
If that scene alone doesn’t get your attention, why you might be dead.
The meat of the show, like I said earlier, is the characters. Humanity is shortly attacked all over the 12 colonies by Cylons, and a rag-tag group of ships ranging from the Galactica to pleasure ships like Cloud 9 cling together for safety in numbers. They are led by, at the time, Commander William Adama and Colonel Saul Tigh, along with the newly appointed president, admittedly shaken and confused, Secretary of Education Laura Roslin. She was appointed because everyone above her was killed in the initial attack. Together they lead the fleet on a quest to find the mythical 13th colony of the 13th tribe of humanity, Earth.
But, the show isn’t just the story. Without the following things the show would be nothing. The special effects rival those of big-budget Hollywood blockbusters. All on a budget just a fraction of the size of those blockbusters. As a comparison think of the crappy effects in say, Spiderman or The Day After Tomorrow. While I know there technically wouldn’t be any explosions in space since it’s a vacuum, some of the battle scenes are breathtakingly gorgeous. Then there is set design, lighting, videography and the usage of some of the best, untapped directors out there. Namely Michael Rymer and Sergio Mimica-Gezzan (who has worked as a 2nd AD for Steven Spielberg). And the little (great big) cherry upon the icing on top, the music. Bear McCreary manages to weave a sonic tapestry of aural delight into every single episode. He uses instruments and styles from all over the world, including an accordion for Number 6’s Theme, though tweaked for a certain feel.
And it all ends Friday. This Friday March 20, 2009 will be the last episode of this show that has not only captured my attention for the past 5 years, but was one of the major reasons I decided to return to school for video production. The chance to make something that people are interested in, that catches their minds and makes them think. Over 5 years I have watched characters that aren’t real live and die, fight and make up, marry and divorce, shoot and be shot, fly and crash-land, discover and flee, order and disobey and realize they might not be who they were or want to be. When Friday rolls around I will be sad, sad to see a beloved show end and a ship no doubt “die”, and I’ll bid adieu to something that I hold near and dear to my heart as one of the best television shows ever produced. And in celebration of the show I will be doing a season-by-season rollout of episodes starting tomorrow. Catch up, whether it be by internet, DVD, or synopsis and say goodbye to the grand ol’ Galactica with me on Friday in style and respect.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Sneak Peak "Someone to Watch Over Me"
Is Boomer gonna get it for treason? And when will Cavil show up, gun's a blazin'? Sometime in the next 4 (*sob*) episodes, I bet.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Battlestar Galactica "No Exit" *SPOILERS*
I've fallen a bit behind here with the posts on the good shows. So I am going to do BSG's 'No Exit' from last night. What a doozy it was.
The episode starts with a beginning quite different than any we've seen before. 'This has all happened before', 'And it will happen again', something we've been told all throughout the show. Something we shall definitely get more of as the remaining 5 episodes (boo) pass. 'The Cylons were created by man' (we see the old timey Cylons). 'They rebelled' (Again, old timey Cylons rebelling and a space battle). 'Then they vanished'. 'Forty Years later they came back'. 'They evolved'. '50,298 human survivors hunted by the Cylons' (all interspersed with battles in the background). 'Eleven models are known (flashes through Six, Leoben, Doral, Boomer, Simon, D'Anna, Cavil, Tyrol, Anders, Tory, Tigh) one was sacrificed (Ellen). We then see a little blip of when Tigh had to off her for betraying the human resistance and then there are a bunch of flashes and little pixely things. And we hear 'I'd do it all again' and Ellen wakes up in a resurrection tank on a basestar. She seems really terrified to be there and then asks the Centurian standing there to help her up. He strides over and holds out his hand and makes his fingers into little fingers instead of the spikes he had. She says he's very kind. I love how Kate Vernon plays Ellen and has her demeanor and expression change as soon as she stops panicking and seems to realize that she is a Cylon. Fantastic.
Back in the present day: Sam isn't doing so well and he has some kind of thing attached to his head, the kind of thing people use to keep your head still while they drill into it. He says 'Among bright stars, I am lost' and has some flashes and he says something about the colony never forgetting. Cotttle says he has a massive hematoma and it needs to be drained before they take the bullett out. 'He who's guile is stirred with revenge (Cavil and other flashes) and anger'. Something about the mother of mankind and something about forgotten faces and 'we seek...' and then all kinds of flashes from the past and way past. He starts saying they've been to that beach too and sometimes Ellen went because she loved the water. Sam is all kinds of fucked up here and he seems to be rambling all about Ellen and revenge and what not. What is going on?
18 Months Ago: Cavil comes in and Ellen says 'Hello John'. Cavil doesn't like being called John and Ellen says she named him after her father. Cavil says she also made him in his image, so thanks for that. So...apparently Ellen made at least Cavil. He asks why she's there and she says Tigh poisoned her for betraying the resistance and says he did what he thought he had to, it's all any man can be asked to do. Cavil tells her Tigh is a machine, just like her. And she says that depends on how you define things. She says he hasn't changed, to which Cavil tells her quite the opposite, he's made vast improvements. She says he's still the same confused and petulant little boy she loved so many years ago. He basically calls her a Schizophrenic because she refuses to accept the reality of her existance. I'm thinking that Cavil is kind of turning out to be a major antagonist to everyone here. What is he up to?
Now: Tyrol is taking Adama down to show him those stress marks he found last week in the FTL Drive room and says Adama needs to get a team together to go all the way down to check out how far the stress fractures go. Adama says he needs a chief and all he has is a Galen, he offers Tyrol the position of Chief and says they have to accept what they are.
Sam wakes up and tells Kara that she needs to get the others, he remembers everything. He also mentions Ellen coming and Kara says that she is dead and Sam responds, 'Of course, there are too many layers'.
12 Months Ago: Cavil is with Ellen and she asks if he still suffers from night sweats where he's chased by a dog-faced boy through the yellow mist? He says that sleep was a supremely unproductive human trait she chose to write into their software, he however, was able to delete that subroutine. Ellen says if he believes they poisoned them with sleep and notions of a god then why didn't he just ignore it all and be the best machines ever created? Why did he spend so much time with human concepts of revenge and death? He says because his ancestors, on the Centurian side, were the slaves of humanity and he wants justice for that. Boomer walks in with lunch and Ellen asks how she got Cavil to trust her? She says he is teaching her to be a better machine, to let go of her human constructs. Cavil asks to be excused as he has people to kill. He leaves and Ellen tells Boomer to watch and make up her own mind.
Now: Back on Galactica and with Sam. He tells the group they all worked in the same research facility. Tigh and Ellen were married then too and Tory and Galen lived together. Tigh says after the nukes hit he pulled Ellen out the rubble and she said they'd be reborn, did they download somewhere? Sam says yes, in a ship they placed in orbit. They'd been warned that there would be a war. Tory asks why they had the technology if the Cylons on Earth could have children? Tyrol says because they probably invented resurrection. Kara says he's as cold as ice and needs a break but he says he has so much more to tell them. Sam says they didn't invent resurrection, they re-invented it. Organic memory transfer came from Kobol along with the 13th tribe. It fell out of use after their people started to procreate, they worked night and day to get it working again. Tyrol's work was amazing, but Ellen was the one who made the leap to get it back online. Cottle comes in and says that he told them 5 minutes and to get out. Tigh asks where they were going?
Roslin and Lee are talking on Colonial One and he says that they need a new quorum. They aren't from the colonies anymore, they are from the Galactica or Colonial One. She tells him that he should keep it in mind and he is going to be the president. She will remain by title only, it's time for someone else to do the heavy lifting. She says her only concern is that he is so hell-bent on doing the right thing that sometimes he doesn't do the smart thing. He says he promises to be smarter and wronger. I said he needs to promise to keep being hotter...he will comply.
Tyrol is taking Adama down into the bowels and it appears that there major breaks in the struts (is that what they're called?) and they go the whole length of the ship. Adama says if they go the ship will slam shut like a book, how'd it get that way? Tyrol says the ships been through a lot, she was 50 years old when the war started and it looks like they cut corners when building her. He says he can fix her, just don't jump her for awhile. Adama says that he wants the crew human. Why do I have a feeling the ship is the dying leader who will lead them to Earth? And that I will cry when she dies?
Tigh is questioning Anders and asks why they went to the 12 colonies? He says because they needed to warn them, they knew they would continue to creat artificial life and they needed to tell them to treat them well and keep them close. But by the time they got to the colonies they were already at war with the Centurians, it had happened again. Tory says that the holocaust on Earth had happened thousands of years earlier, how was it possible? Anders says they hadn't developed jump drives and they travelled at relativistic but subluminal speed (ok). Time slowed down for them but thousands of years had passed on the colonies. Uh-Oh...Sam's not looking good. Kara tells him that he needs to stop and he says he has to do this; if he had all the answers to what happened to her and why she came back, she'd want them right? She asks if he does, and he says no, maybe...so much is coming back. He says the Centurians were trying to create flesh-bodies, they had made the Hybrids but nothing that could live on it's own, so they made them a deal. Stop the war and they will help them. They gave them the 8 humanoid Cylons and gave them resurrection. Kara says 'Eight? You said eight, we're missing someone'. Now Anders' view is gettin' all goldy! Sam's having a bit of a seizure. Not good.
Ten Months Ago: The Cylons are showing Ellen the planet with the temple and the supernova. Ellen says it's the Temple of Hopes, built by the 13th tribe 3,000 years ago, after they left Kobol. They stopped and prayed for guidance during their exodus and God showed them the way to Earth. Cavil says it was a monument to their vanity and that the supernova was a nice touch. One of her children saw their faces, a 3, and he boxed her entire line. Ellen says boxing isn't permanent, not like the 7's, it can be undone. Cavil says it isn't likely, by planning the trick to show their faces, he had no choice. She says they didn't plant anything, they backtracked the path of their ancestors to find their temple, the one-true-God must have orchestrated these events. He asks her if she's ever experienced a star going supernova? She says no. And he says he has, and how did he witness it? With 'these ridiculous gelatinous orbs in my skull, with eyes designed to perceive only a tiny fraction of the EM spectrum, with ears designed to hear only the vibrations in the air", I think he's a tad mad, no? Ellen says the final five designed them to be as human as possible. Cavil screams, 'I don't want to be human. I want to see gamma rays, I want to hear X-Rays, I want to smell dark matter. Do you see the absurdity of what I am, I can't even express these things properly because I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language, but I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws, and feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me. I'm a machine, and I can know much more, can experience so much more, but I'm trapped in this body, and why? Because my 5 creators thought God wanted it that way". And he walks out. Boomer asks if she feels the slightest bit of remorse over what they did to Cavil, to them all? Ellen says no, because he's wrong. They didn't limit them, they gave them something wonderful...free will. To think creatively, to reach out with compassion, to love. Boomer says to love? Who? Humans? Why would she want to do that? Who would she want to love?
Oh look...Tyrol. What a surprise. Tyrol is in the medic ward and says they have to finish talking to Sam. Tigh repeats what Anders told them about giving the technology to Centurians, it all traces back to us. Tyrol says no, he said 'we' stopped the first war, they bought time for the humans. Tigh says the old man said the humans had to own up to what they did, but 'we' made the skinjobs, it all comes back to what 'we' made. Tory says the humans on Kobol made us, go back far enought it's always them (meaning us...humans). Tigh says maybe they share the guilt with the humans, but we don't get to just shove it off onto them.
Welp, the brain doc (It's the Mac Windows guy, who is a very funny guy) is talking to Anders and tells him that the bullet is lodged in the vascular ring of blood vessels and it erroded one particular one, if blood squirts out again, we're talking about death in minutes. He is also told that he could lose all the memories he's having if the bullet is moved. Anders is talking all kinds of weird crap and Kara says there is obviously something wrong with him. The doc says he has aphasia and it's common. Cottle says that as the wife she can decide to send him to surgery, Anders begs her to let him have time and she says prep him for surgery, he has until they knock him out.
Four Months Ago: It's about the time the humans eradicated the resurrection ships. Cavil says they have to start contemplating their extinction, they can't procreate on their own, so they need to get the technology back; he doesn't know that they can. Ellen tells him good luck and he says they need her help. They don't know about the technology on the colony, all her equipment is there. She says she can't do it all alone, they'd need all five. Cavil doesn't buy it and he's getting angry. He says they're no better than the humans that enslaved them...if she doesn't tell him he's going to cut open her head; he can get Sylar to help! He says he can find anything in there, even the recipe for ever-lasting life...what a dick!
Back on Galactica: Anders says Cavil was the first they built and they treasured him, he helped them build the others. Tyrol questions whether it was a good idea to continue making cylons after they saw what had already happened. He says Ellen knew the Centurians had a single-loving God. If they cylons could embrace the concept of love and mercy then the cycle of violence would end. The idea of a one-true God came from the Centurians. Cavil apparently rejected mercy, he had a twisted sense of morality, he turned on the rest of them. He trapped the five in a compartment of some kind and took the O2 off line. He suffocated them. When they re-downloaded he had blocked their access to their memories and implanted them with false ones. He boxed them for awhile, introduced Saul not long after the war. And then the Ellen. Anders says that the warning signs back on Earth looked different to all of them. Tory saw a man, Anders a woman, no one else could see them, Galen thought he had a chip in his head. At this time they say that's enough and he's ready for surgery. Kara asks about the 7, I think she thinks it's her...Anders says the 7 was the Daniel (Faraday?). He died, he was 7, Anders is sure. As he's being led away he tells Saul that he has to stay with the fleet, it's all starting to happen, it's a miracle, a gift from the angels.
Off to pregnant Six: Isn't Ellen going to be pissed at this?
2 Days Ago: Cavil tells Ellen that the Simons are prepping the ER. They've come a long way with their memory recovery, though it might take a long time. She says she is sure he's going to take as long as possible. He responds that she's wrong if she thinks he enjoys this. She says he's a sadist. Why not just kill them? Why send them to live with the humans? He wanted them to see what they were like closeup, so he gave them front row seats to a holocaust. She says they didn't die, so he took all their pasts and created them so that when they downloaded they'd have all the right experiences to say he was right, then they could give him the approval he always wanted. She says he claims to be the perfect machine but he's plagued by the most basic of human emotions: jealousy and rage. She knows what he did to Daniel (what?). He says that 7 didn't thrive and too bad they aren't made out of something more sturdy...metal, that might be nice. Man, he's an ass! Ellen tells Boomer, who has been patiently observing, that Daniel was an artist, sensitive to the world. She was very close to him and John (Cavil) decided she was too close to him, playing favorites, and maybe she was. Someone contaminated the amniotic fluid where all the Daniel copies were maturing and corrupted the genetic formula, she knew it was John; envious and sadistic. He yells out "And who made me? That's what we're dancing around here, isn't it?" If he's so broken who's fault is it? Sounds a lot like he's playing the blame game. Just because you're dad was a wife beater doesn't mean you have to be, right? He says it's his makers fault, that's not God, that's you! It's all on you! She tells him he isn't a mistake and if he could just accept who he is, what he is, the boy she made, he can be good. She says she loves him because she made him. She tells him it's okay and goes to touch him and he yells out, "Don't you dare!"
Back on Galactica: Adama goes on down to see what Tyrol is doing and he is told that there are hairline fractures running all through all of the beams and her bones are rotting. He says there is a type of organic resin on the basestar that will go in and grow into the ship beams. He says it will take the load as it matures; it's biological. Adama give a resounding NO and leaves.
Kara is talking to Anders and apologizing for keeping him too long. She thought she was the 7, she needs to be something (what the frak is she, damn it!). She says she'll give him all the time to learn the secrets.
Adama goes back to his room and notices a big, giant fracture running the length of his room...perhaps this Cylon crap is needed?
Boomer comes for Ellen and leads her away.
Anders is still in surgery. Cottle gives Kara the bullet and says he'll live. Brain doc says he's surprised he isn't awake yet, and Cottle says that isn't a bad thing really, they are hooking up an EKG to see what's going on and she can see him.
Ellen asks Boomer is she's thought about this and that she'll regret her part in this. And she says she knows she will and boards Ellen on a Raptor and they jump away.
Kara goes in to talk to Sam. Ishay tells her not to bother, there is almost no brain activity; he's not in there.
Adama calls down to Galen and tells him to do what he can to save our girl.
So...what have we learned? Well, a lot, for once. The final five tried to find the colonies and tell them to treat their machines right. They got there late and they were already fighting .The final five helped create the skinjob Cylons for the Centurians in order to stop the first Cylon war. Cavil was the first of the them to be created and he helped them at first, but he soon became sadistic and jealous and so he basically killed the final five, boxed them for awhile and reintroduced them into human society to sort of teach them a lesson, and denied them access to their memories. They sort of didn't learn their lesson, because they didn't die and download. Also...there is another Cylon we've never seen; a 7, Daniel or so Anders says. Could be Gaeta. Could be Starbuck. Either way, we still don't know what Starbuck is.
There are only 5 episodes left...Boo!
The episode starts with a beginning quite different than any we've seen before. 'This has all happened before', 'And it will happen again', something we've been told all throughout the show. Something we shall definitely get more of as the remaining 5 episodes (boo) pass. 'The Cylons were created by man' (we see the old timey Cylons). 'They rebelled' (Again, old timey Cylons rebelling and a space battle). 'Then they vanished'. 'Forty Years later they came back'. 'They evolved'. '50,298 human survivors hunted by the Cylons' (all interspersed with battles in the background). 'Eleven models are known (flashes through Six, Leoben, Doral, Boomer, Simon, D'Anna, Cavil, Tyrol, Anders, Tory, Tigh) one was sacrificed (Ellen). We then see a little blip of when Tigh had to off her for betraying the human resistance and then there are a bunch of flashes and little pixely things. And we hear 'I'd do it all again' and Ellen wakes up in a resurrection tank on a basestar. She seems really terrified to be there and then asks the Centurian standing there to help her up. He strides over and holds out his hand and makes his fingers into little fingers instead of the spikes he had. She says he's very kind. I love how Kate Vernon plays Ellen and has her demeanor and expression change as soon as she stops panicking and seems to realize that she is a Cylon. Fantastic.
Back in the present day: Sam isn't doing so well and he has some kind of thing attached to his head, the kind of thing people use to keep your head still while they drill into it. He says 'Among bright stars, I am lost' and has some flashes and he says something about the colony never forgetting. Cotttle says he has a massive hematoma and it needs to be drained before they take the bullett out. 'He who's guile is stirred with revenge (Cavil and other flashes) and anger'. Something about the mother of mankind and something about forgotten faces and 'we seek...' and then all kinds of flashes from the past and way past. He starts saying they've been to that beach too and sometimes Ellen went because she loved the water. Sam is all kinds of fucked up here and he seems to be rambling all about Ellen and revenge and what not. What is going on?
18 Months Ago: Cavil comes in and Ellen says 'Hello John'. Cavil doesn't like being called John and Ellen says she named him after her father. Cavil says she also made him in his image, so thanks for that. So...apparently Ellen made at least Cavil. He asks why she's there and she says Tigh poisoned her for betraying the resistance and says he did what he thought he had to, it's all any man can be asked to do. Cavil tells her Tigh is a machine, just like her. And she says that depends on how you define things. She says he hasn't changed, to which Cavil tells her quite the opposite, he's made vast improvements. She says he's still the same confused and petulant little boy she loved so many years ago. He basically calls her a Schizophrenic because she refuses to accept the reality of her existance. I'm thinking that Cavil is kind of turning out to be a major antagonist to everyone here. What is he up to?
Now: Tyrol is taking Adama down to show him those stress marks he found last week in the FTL Drive room and says Adama needs to get a team together to go all the way down to check out how far the stress fractures go. Adama says he needs a chief and all he has is a Galen, he offers Tyrol the position of Chief and says they have to accept what they are.
Sam wakes up and tells Kara that she needs to get the others, he remembers everything. He also mentions Ellen coming and Kara says that she is dead and Sam responds, 'Of course, there are too many layers'.
12 Months Ago: Cavil is with Ellen and she asks if he still suffers from night sweats where he's chased by a dog-faced boy through the yellow mist? He says that sleep was a supremely unproductive human trait she chose to write into their software, he however, was able to delete that subroutine. Ellen says if he believes they poisoned them with sleep and notions of a god then why didn't he just ignore it all and be the best machines ever created? Why did he spend so much time with human concepts of revenge and death? He says because his ancestors, on the Centurian side, were the slaves of humanity and he wants justice for that. Boomer walks in with lunch and Ellen asks how she got Cavil to trust her? She says he is teaching her to be a better machine, to let go of her human constructs. Cavil asks to be excused as he has people to kill. He leaves and Ellen tells Boomer to watch and make up her own mind.
Now: Back on Galactica and with Sam. He tells the group they all worked in the same research facility. Tigh and Ellen were married then too and Tory and Galen lived together. Tigh says after the nukes hit he pulled Ellen out the rubble and she said they'd be reborn, did they download somewhere? Sam says yes, in a ship they placed in orbit. They'd been warned that there would be a war. Tory asks why they had the technology if the Cylons on Earth could have children? Tyrol says because they probably invented resurrection. Kara says he's as cold as ice and needs a break but he says he has so much more to tell them. Sam says they didn't invent resurrection, they re-invented it. Organic memory transfer came from Kobol along with the 13th tribe. It fell out of use after their people started to procreate, they worked night and day to get it working again. Tyrol's work was amazing, but Ellen was the one who made the leap to get it back online. Cottle comes in and says that he told them 5 minutes and to get out. Tigh asks where they were going?
Roslin and Lee are talking on Colonial One and he says that they need a new quorum. They aren't from the colonies anymore, they are from the Galactica or Colonial One. She tells him that he should keep it in mind and he is going to be the president. She will remain by title only, it's time for someone else to do the heavy lifting. She says her only concern is that he is so hell-bent on doing the right thing that sometimes he doesn't do the smart thing. He says he promises to be smarter and wronger. I said he needs to promise to keep being hotter...he will comply.
Tyrol is taking Adama down into the bowels and it appears that there major breaks in the struts (is that what they're called?) and they go the whole length of the ship. Adama says if they go the ship will slam shut like a book, how'd it get that way? Tyrol says the ships been through a lot, she was 50 years old when the war started and it looks like they cut corners when building her. He says he can fix her, just don't jump her for awhile. Adama says that he wants the crew human. Why do I have a feeling the ship is the dying leader who will lead them to Earth? And that I will cry when she dies?
Tigh is questioning Anders and asks why they went to the 12 colonies? He says because they needed to warn them, they knew they would continue to creat artificial life and they needed to tell them to treat them well and keep them close. But by the time they got to the colonies they were already at war with the Centurians, it had happened again. Tory says that the holocaust on Earth had happened thousands of years earlier, how was it possible? Anders says they hadn't developed jump drives and they travelled at relativistic but subluminal speed (ok). Time slowed down for them but thousands of years had passed on the colonies. Uh-Oh...Sam's not looking good. Kara tells him that he needs to stop and he says he has to do this; if he had all the answers to what happened to her and why she came back, she'd want them right? She asks if he does, and he says no, maybe...so much is coming back. He says the Centurians were trying to create flesh-bodies, they had made the Hybrids but nothing that could live on it's own, so they made them a deal. Stop the war and they will help them. They gave them the 8 humanoid Cylons and gave them resurrection. Kara says 'Eight? You said eight, we're missing someone'. Now Anders' view is gettin' all goldy! Sam's having a bit of a seizure. Not good.
Ten Months Ago: The Cylons are showing Ellen the planet with the temple and the supernova. Ellen says it's the Temple of Hopes, built by the 13th tribe 3,000 years ago, after they left Kobol. They stopped and prayed for guidance during their exodus and God showed them the way to Earth. Cavil says it was a monument to their vanity and that the supernova was a nice touch. One of her children saw their faces, a 3, and he boxed her entire line. Ellen says boxing isn't permanent, not like the 7's, it can be undone. Cavil says it isn't likely, by planning the trick to show their faces, he had no choice. She says they didn't plant anything, they backtracked the path of their ancestors to find their temple, the one-true-God must have orchestrated these events. He asks her if she's ever experienced a star going supernova? She says no. And he says he has, and how did he witness it? With 'these ridiculous gelatinous orbs in my skull, with eyes designed to perceive only a tiny fraction of the EM spectrum, with ears designed to hear only the vibrations in the air", I think he's a tad mad, no? Ellen says the final five designed them to be as human as possible. Cavil screams, 'I don't want to be human. I want to see gamma rays, I want to hear X-Rays, I want to smell dark matter. Do you see the absurdity of what I am, I can't even express these things properly because I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language, but I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws, and feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me. I'm a machine, and I can know much more, can experience so much more, but I'm trapped in this body, and why? Because my 5 creators thought God wanted it that way". And he walks out. Boomer asks if she feels the slightest bit of remorse over what they did to Cavil, to them all? Ellen says no, because he's wrong. They didn't limit them, they gave them something wonderful...free will. To think creatively, to reach out with compassion, to love. Boomer says to love? Who? Humans? Why would she want to do that? Who would she want to love?
Oh look...Tyrol. What a surprise. Tyrol is in the medic ward and says they have to finish talking to Sam. Tigh repeats what Anders told them about giving the technology to Centurians, it all traces back to us. Tyrol says no, he said 'we' stopped the first war, they bought time for the humans. Tigh says the old man said the humans had to own up to what they did, but 'we' made the skinjobs, it all comes back to what 'we' made. Tory says the humans on Kobol made us, go back far enought it's always them (meaning us...humans). Tigh says maybe they share the guilt with the humans, but we don't get to just shove it off onto them.
Welp, the brain doc (It's the Mac Windows guy, who is a very funny guy) is talking to Anders and tells him that the bullet is lodged in the vascular ring of blood vessels and it erroded one particular one, if blood squirts out again, we're talking about death in minutes. He is also told that he could lose all the memories he's having if the bullet is moved. Anders is talking all kinds of weird crap and Kara says there is obviously something wrong with him. The doc says he has aphasia and it's common. Cottle says that as the wife she can decide to send him to surgery, Anders begs her to let him have time and she says prep him for surgery, he has until they knock him out.
Four Months Ago: It's about the time the humans eradicated the resurrection ships. Cavil says they have to start contemplating their extinction, they can't procreate on their own, so they need to get the technology back; he doesn't know that they can. Ellen tells him good luck and he says they need her help. They don't know about the technology on the colony, all her equipment is there. She says she can't do it all alone, they'd need all five. Cavil doesn't buy it and he's getting angry. He says they're no better than the humans that enslaved them...if she doesn't tell him he's going to cut open her head; he can get Sylar to help! He says he can find anything in there, even the recipe for ever-lasting life...what a dick!
Back on Galactica: Anders says Cavil was the first they built and they treasured him, he helped them build the others. Tyrol questions whether it was a good idea to continue making cylons after they saw what had already happened. He says Ellen knew the Centurians had a single-loving God. If they cylons could embrace the concept of love and mercy then the cycle of violence would end. The idea of a one-true God came from the Centurians. Cavil apparently rejected mercy, he had a twisted sense of morality, he turned on the rest of them. He trapped the five in a compartment of some kind and took the O2 off line. He suffocated them. When they re-downloaded he had blocked their access to their memories and implanted them with false ones. He boxed them for awhile, introduced Saul not long after the war. And then the Ellen. Anders says that the warning signs back on Earth looked different to all of them. Tory saw a man, Anders a woman, no one else could see them, Galen thought he had a chip in his head. At this time they say that's enough and he's ready for surgery. Kara asks about the 7, I think she thinks it's her...Anders says the 7 was the Daniel (Faraday?). He died, he was 7, Anders is sure. As he's being led away he tells Saul that he has to stay with the fleet, it's all starting to happen, it's a miracle, a gift from the angels.
Off to pregnant Six: Isn't Ellen going to be pissed at this?
2 Days Ago: Cavil tells Ellen that the Simons are prepping the ER. They've come a long way with their memory recovery, though it might take a long time. She says she is sure he's going to take as long as possible. He responds that she's wrong if she thinks he enjoys this. She says he's a sadist. Why not just kill them? Why send them to live with the humans? He wanted them to see what they were like closeup, so he gave them front row seats to a holocaust. She says they didn't die, so he took all their pasts and created them so that when they downloaded they'd have all the right experiences to say he was right, then they could give him the approval he always wanted. She says he claims to be the perfect machine but he's plagued by the most basic of human emotions: jealousy and rage. She knows what he did to Daniel (what?). He says that 7 didn't thrive and too bad they aren't made out of something more sturdy...metal, that might be nice. Man, he's an ass! Ellen tells Boomer, who has been patiently observing, that Daniel was an artist, sensitive to the world. She was very close to him and John (Cavil) decided she was too close to him, playing favorites, and maybe she was. Someone contaminated the amniotic fluid where all the Daniel copies were maturing and corrupted the genetic formula, she knew it was John; envious and sadistic. He yells out "And who made me? That's what we're dancing around here, isn't it?" If he's so broken who's fault is it? Sounds a lot like he's playing the blame game. Just because you're dad was a wife beater doesn't mean you have to be, right? He says it's his makers fault, that's not God, that's you! It's all on you! She tells him he isn't a mistake and if he could just accept who he is, what he is, the boy she made, he can be good. She says she loves him because she made him. She tells him it's okay and goes to touch him and he yells out, "Don't you dare!"
Back on Galactica: Adama goes on down to see what Tyrol is doing and he is told that there are hairline fractures running all through all of the beams and her bones are rotting. He says there is a type of organic resin on the basestar that will go in and grow into the ship beams. He says it will take the load as it matures; it's biological. Adama give a resounding NO and leaves.
Kara is talking to Anders and apologizing for keeping him too long. She thought she was the 7, she needs to be something (what the frak is she, damn it!). She says she'll give him all the time to learn the secrets.
Adama goes back to his room and notices a big, giant fracture running the length of his room...perhaps this Cylon crap is needed?
Boomer comes for Ellen and leads her away.
Anders is still in surgery. Cottle gives Kara the bullet and says he'll live. Brain doc says he's surprised he isn't awake yet, and Cottle says that isn't a bad thing really, they are hooking up an EKG to see what's going on and she can see him.
Ellen asks Boomer is she's thought about this and that she'll regret her part in this. And she says she knows she will and boards Ellen on a Raptor and they jump away.
Kara goes in to talk to Sam. Ishay tells her not to bother, there is almost no brain activity; he's not in there.
Adama calls down to Galen and tells him to do what he can to save our girl.
So...what have we learned? Well, a lot, for once. The final five tried to find the colonies and tell them to treat their machines right. They got there late and they were already fighting .The final five helped create the skinjob Cylons for the Centurians in order to stop the first Cylon war. Cavil was the first of the them to be created and he helped them at first, but he soon became sadistic and jealous and so he basically killed the final five, boxed them for awhile and reintroduced them into human society to sort of teach them a lesson, and denied them access to their memories. They sort of didn't learn their lesson, because they didn't die and download. Also...there is another Cylon we've never seen; a 7, Daniel or so Anders says. Could be Gaeta. Could be Starbuck. Either way, we still don't know what Starbuck is.
There are only 5 episodes left...Boo!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Battlestar Galactica "Blood on the Scales" previews
Oooohhh!!! It's getting good! When is Gaeta going to kiss that airlock as he flies out of it?
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Battlestar Galactica Season Four Episode 11 "Sometimes A Great Notion"
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!!
Holy Frak! This episode was amazing! And we learned who the final Cylon was. More on that later!
When we last left our group of humans and Cylons, they had found a planet (Earth) and also found out that it was an irradiated wasteland void of life. They stumbled upon this planet because Starbuck, who returned from an assumed death by way of some kind of vortex ("Maelstrom") in a brand new Viper and claiming that she had been to Earth and that it was green. Now we learn that had she been to Earth for real, when had she been there? And was it really Earth? Because this Earth certainly does not look like the Earth she describes.
The season 4 premiere opens with water sloshing across the shore and a man walking toward the waves (it's Tigh), Baltar standing in what appeared to have been a building with a dome, much like the opera house on Kobol, like that in Roslin's drug-induced vision. Anders is looking around and Dee is kneeling in the water cupping it into her hands. Lee looks like he's going to cry and Roslin plucks a tiny plant from the ground while Helo calls Adama over and tells him that it's the same all over the planet and there have been no answers to their hails, D'Anna says they have received the same reports on their side.
Now we are with Kara and Leoben. She says the signal is weak and the emergency battery must be running low. This is the start of probably the most interesting and mind-frakking storyline in the entire episode. Baltar tells someone to put word out that they shouldn't eat or drink anything due to the radiation and the camera cuts to Tory looking generally worried, which is weird coming from her because I view her as one of the most sinister characters on the show...I just don't trust her. Helo tells Adama and D'Anna that Baltar just confirmed that the planet was nuked 2000 years ago and D'Anna, again, concurs that their teams have gotten the same results. Roslin solemnly says, "It's perfect. We traded one nuked civilization for another."
Dee is digging in the dirt and finds a pocket watch and some jacks and she starts to sob. Cut to the Raptor ride back to Galactica and she's chanting, "Don't give up, don't give up, just don't fall apart", and the camera zooms in on her face. Are we being set up to believe she's the last Cylon? Back on Galactica, everyone is waiting for Roslin and Adama to return and say what they've found. Of course what they've found is not what people want to hear and Roslin says to get her out of there. Lee announces she will make an speech in a little bit.
Back on Earth, Kara and Leoben found some wreckage and Kara realizes that the transponder she found is Colonial. Leoben lifts up a piece of the wreckage and says 757NC. When he says this Kara stops what she's doing, starts breathing heavily and tells him that the number on her ship is 8757NC.
Next we see some stuff with Athena, Helo and their baby and Dee coming to babysit for them. There is definitely something off about Dee in this episode. She's normally the straight headed one, the one who holds everyone down to level ground. But in this episode she seems to be weird. I know I would probably be acting a little strange after all this time running and fighting and running and fighting and never getting to rest. And with the hope of something new, a new planet and alliances with the enemy, being dashed with the realization that the new planet is a wasteland, I can bet I'd be a little off too.
Back on "Earth" Six finds a Cylon Centurian head that doesn't look like any we've ever seen before. It has this creepy alien look to it. She presents it to Adama and says that they've found several of them with the bones scattered at sites across the planet. Caprica Boomer (I think) says they aren't a design they've seen before and they aren't one of theirs. Roslin deduces that the 13th tribe must have settled here and created their own Cylons? Baltar says that's what they thought too, but after testing 250 skeletons from 4 different sites they've found out that they weren't humans, they were Cylons. The 13th tribe was all Cylons who came to this planet and called it Earth. Roslin looks absolutely astounded and confused. But some questions we need answers too are these: why was the 13th tribe, a myth to humans, comprised completely of Cylons? And why would they come to a planet and call it Earth? Is this our Earth? Or this a planet they found that was remarkably like our Earth and they decided to colonize it and name it after our Earth? Is this our Earth? My brain hurts!
Lee tells Roslin that she has to tell the Quorum something and she just looks at him and walks away. Adama walks past Tigh and Tigh says they need to talk, he has a lot he needs to explain.
Back to "Earth" and Tyrol. He's walking around and comes to this wall that has a creepy, weird shadow burned on it. He touches it and flashes back to him shopping in a market and then we hear a boom and he hold his hand up. Looks like he was there during the blast. WTF? So 2000 years ago, he was living on this planet? Where had he been from the time of the blast to the time he was living this current life?
Kara and Leoben are back to wandering around looking for the rest of the crashed vehicle. She wonders if this was her plane then what did she fly back to Galactica in? Leoben tells her maybe she's better off not knowing and she says, "for me, or for you?". Good question.
Lee and Dee get to talking and she basically tells him that if anyone can convince people of a reason to go on, it's him. He asks her to go with him for a drink later and she agrees.
Kara and Leoben are still looking for that plane. They find a cockpit and flip it over and there is still someone buckled in. Kara pulls the helmet up and there is a person with blond hair, just like Starbucks! She reaches for the dog tags and pulls them off; there is a ring and a tag that says "K. Thrace". Leoben comes up to look and immediately back away. He says he was wrong about Earth. She says that his Hybrid told her that she was the harbinger of death and that she would be the death of them all. Leoben quickly starts to walk away and leaves her there yelling if that's her in the wreckage, then what is she? Good question. Did she go back in time 2000 years in Maelstrom, end up on this Earth? She said the Earth she went to was green and alive, so where was she? Did she crash here and cause the whole demise of this Earth? What the hell is going on? Who or what is she?
Now Anders is wandering around and he finds a guitar neck in the sand. He picks it up and starts remembering the lyrics to that song that drew the final four of five together. He drops the neck and literally runs away. He comes across Tyrol sitting by the wall and Tyrol tells him that he used to live here and Anders says the song that switched them on, he remembers playing it for a woman he loved. Tory comes up and says she remembers since he played it for them all. Tyrol says they all died in a holocause. Anders doesn't understand how, that was 2000 years ago. How did they get to the colonies, believe they were human? 2000 years is a long time to forget.
Now Roslin is burning her Book of Pythia (which is going for like 1200 bucks on EBay right now, dammit!); the book she has followed the whole series, the book she believed would lead them to salvation, that spoke the truth. The book that they were following when Elosha died on Kobol. She has lost hope, and that's a bad thing for someone who is followed by the entire fleet; at least followed by the religious community that believes in the Book of Pythia. Adama comes in to find her burning the book and asks her if she's just going to give up? She didn't go for her treatment and she says she doesn't need it. She says that she was wrong about everything and that all those people who followed her are dead. She tells Bill to leave her alone and her reluctantly goes while she cries and tells the book to burn.
Kara is setting her own fire back on "Earth". Me thinks she doesn't want anyone to know that she found herself dead on the planet for what could be 2000 years. I don't blame her, but I am guessing this might come up again, based on some clips I've seen. The shot of her sitting to the left of the fire while it blows in the wind to the right, is great cinematography.
Dee and Lee are returning from their date and she asks him to repeat his speech. He says he managed to stave off a full-scale panic but at least now they can choose where they go next. There is no more following Pythia. She kisses him goodnight and goes into her bunk room. Gaeta is there and says he can't stop thinking about that waste of a planet and she tells him that she just wants to remember this moment for as long as she can. He leaves and she looks at her locket and then her face changes and she shoots herself in the head! I did NOT see that coming at all. Dee has always just been there. I thought she might be a Cylon. Nope! Kandyse McClure played Dualla amazingly well and I kind of wish she had more to go on for the past seasons. I'm sad to see her leave. I wanted her to have a happy ending, but this being Battlestar I don't think anyone is going to have a happy ending.
Lee is in the mortuary and Adama walks in and he tells him that he kissed her goodnight 45 minutes ago and she had joy in her eyes, why would she do this? Adama says he doesn't know and offers Lee a drink, he declines and runs out. Adama lifts up the sheet and starts to cry and asks what did she do? And that he let her down, let them all down. Now he's really angry. He storms out and grabs a gun and tells someone to get it. He means Tigh. As he's walking through the halls people are crying and fighting. They've all kind of lost it since learning the planet is a craphole.
Tigh is drinking and Adama busts in, grabs a bottle of Ambrosia and tells him it's time to have that heart to heart he's been wanting. Tigh says he sorry he didn't have the guts to tell him when he first found out and Bill says he doesn't have guts, he's a machine. The look on Michael Hogan's face is priceless. Adama asks him if that's how he was programmed? To be his friend and to laugh at his jokes and Tigh says he chose to be his friend. Adama starts to taunt Tigh about Ellen, saying she knew there was something off about him all along, that's why she went around sleeping with half the fleet. He wants Tigh to lose it and shoot him, but Tigh realizes that's what he wants and stops himself. He tells Tigh a story about foxes that would run away from some dogs; some would turn to fight and some would try to cross the river. Those that tried to swim, some would give up halfway and be swept out to sea. Adama says maybe because they were tired and Tigh tells him that they can't be swept out to sea, it won't help anyone.
Kara comes to see Lee and he tells her that Dee killed herself and no one will ever know why. Adama returns to the CIC and tells everyone that the people who lived on this planet experienced great losses, they needed a home and they set out into space with nothing but their ships and they found a home, and so will they.
Back on "Earth" Tigh tells everyone to wrap it up and goes to talk to D'Anna. She says she isn't going. This will all happen over and over again and she doesn't want to die out in space when Cavill catches up with them. She asks him if he ever just wants to get off the merry-go-round and he says ride the tide out to sea. And we're back to the beginning with him walking into the surf. He finds a piece of a mailbox and flashes back to what we assume is Caprica. He hears Ellens voice calling him and finds her buried in rubble. She tells him it's ok...SPOILERS!
There is a flash and she says they'll be reborn...again. Also, she says everything is in place, whatever that means. I have to say that I suspected her from the beginning as being a Cylon, but then they had her killed off by Tigh and I figured she wasn't, couldn't be. Guess I was wrong.
Holy Frak! This episode was amazing! And we learned who the final Cylon was. More on that later!
When we last left our group of humans and Cylons, they had found a planet (Earth) and also found out that it was an irradiated wasteland void of life. They stumbled upon this planet because Starbuck, who returned from an assumed death by way of some kind of vortex ("Maelstrom") in a brand new Viper and claiming that she had been to Earth and that it was green. Now we learn that had she been to Earth for real, when had she been there? And was it really Earth? Because this Earth certainly does not look like the Earth she describes.
The season 4 premiere opens with water sloshing across the shore and a man walking toward the waves (it's Tigh), Baltar standing in what appeared to have been a building with a dome, much like the opera house on Kobol, like that in Roslin's drug-induced vision. Anders is looking around and Dee is kneeling in the water cupping it into her hands. Lee looks like he's going to cry and Roslin plucks a tiny plant from the ground while Helo calls Adama over and tells him that it's the same all over the planet and there have been no answers to their hails, D'Anna says they have received the same reports on their side.
Now we are with Kara and Leoben. She says the signal is weak and the emergency battery must be running low. This is the start of probably the most interesting and mind-frakking storyline in the entire episode. Baltar tells someone to put word out that they shouldn't eat or drink anything due to the radiation and the camera cuts to Tory looking generally worried, which is weird coming from her because I view her as one of the most sinister characters on the show...I just don't trust her. Helo tells Adama and D'Anna that Baltar just confirmed that the planet was nuked 2000 years ago and D'Anna, again, concurs that their teams have gotten the same results. Roslin solemnly says, "It's perfect. We traded one nuked civilization for another."
Dee is digging in the dirt and finds a pocket watch and some jacks and she starts to sob. Cut to the Raptor ride back to Galactica and she's chanting, "Don't give up, don't give up, just don't fall apart", and the camera zooms in on her face. Are we being set up to believe she's the last Cylon? Back on Galactica, everyone is waiting for Roslin and Adama to return and say what they've found. Of course what they've found is not what people want to hear and Roslin says to get her out of there. Lee announces she will make an speech in a little bit.
Back on Earth, Kara and Leoben found some wreckage and Kara realizes that the transponder she found is Colonial. Leoben lifts up a piece of the wreckage and says 757NC. When he says this Kara stops what she's doing, starts breathing heavily and tells him that the number on her ship is 8757NC.
Next we see some stuff with Athena, Helo and their baby and Dee coming to babysit for them. There is definitely something off about Dee in this episode. She's normally the straight headed one, the one who holds everyone down to level ground. But in this episode she seems to be weird. I know I would probably be acting a little strange after all this time running and fighting and running and fighting and never getting to rest. And with the hope of something new, a new planet and alliances with the enemy, being dashed with the realization that the new planet is a wasteland, I can bet I'd be a little off too.
Back on "Earth" Six finds a Cylon Centurian head that doesn't look like any we've ever seen before. It has this creepy alien look to it. She presents it to Adama and says that they've found several of them with the bones scattered at sites across the planet. Caprica Boomer (I think) says they aren't a design they've seen before and they aren't one of theirs. Roslin deduces that the 13th tribe must have settled here and created their own Cylons? Baltar says that's what they thought too, but after testing 250 skeletons from 4 different sites they've found out that they weren't humans, they were Cylons. The 13th tribe was all Cylons who came to this planet and called it Earth. Roslin looks absolutely astounded and confused. But some questions we need answers too are these: why was the 13th tribe, a myth to humans, comprised completely of Cylons? And why would they come to a planet and call it Earth? Is this our Earth? Or this a planet they found that was remarkably like our Earth and they decided to colonize it and name it after our Earth? Is this our Earth? My brain hurts!
Lee tells Roslin that she has to tell the Quorum something and she just looks at him and walks away. Adama walks past Tigh and Tigh says they need to talk, he has a lot he needs to explain.
Back to "Earth" and Tyrol. He's walking around and comes to this wall that has a creepy, weird shadow burned on it. He touches it and flashes back to him shopping in a market and then we hear a boom and he hold his hand up. Looks like he was there during the blast. WTF? So 2000 years ago, he was living on this planet? Where had he been from the time of the blast to the time he was living this current life?
Kara and Leoben are back to wandering around looking for the rest of the crashed vehicle. She wonders if this was her plane then what did she fly back to Galactica in? Leoben tells her maybe she's better off not knowing and she says, "for me, or for you?". Good question.
Lee and Dee get to talking and she basically tells him that if anyone can convince people of a reason to go on, it's him. He asks her to go with him for a drink later and she agrees.
Kara and Leoben are still looking for that plane. They find a cockpit and flip it over and there is still someone buckled in. Kara pulls the helmet up and there is a person with blond hair, just like Starbucks! She reaches for the dog tags and pulls them off; there is a ring and a tag that says "K. Thrace". Leoben comes up to look and immediately back away. He says he was wrong about Earth. She says that his Hybrid told her that she was the harbinger of death and that she would be the death of them all. Leoben quickly starts to walk away and leaves her there yelling if that's her in the wreckage, then what is she? Good question. Did she go back in time 2000 years in Maelstrom, end up on this Earth? She said the Earth she went to was green and alive, so where was she? Did she crash here and cause the whole demise of this Earth? What the hell is going on? Who or what is she?
Now Anders is wandering around and he finds a guitar neck in the sand. He picks it up and starts remembering the lyrics to that song that drew the final four of five together. He drops the neck and literally runs away. He comes across Tyrol sitting by the wall and Tyrol tells him that he used to live here and Anders says the song that switched them on, he remembers playing it for a woman he loved. Tory comes up and says she remembers since he played it for them all. Tyrol says they all died in a holocause. Anders doesn't understand how, that was 2000 years ago. How did they get to the colonies, believe they were human? 2000 years is a long time to forget.
Now Roslin is burning her Book of Pythia (which is going for like 1200 bucks on EBay right now, dammit!); the book she has followed the whole series, the book she believed would lead them to salvation, that spoke the truth. The book that they were following when Elosha died on Kobol. She has lost hope, and that's a bad thing for someone who is followed by the entire fleet; at least followed by the religious community that believes in the Book of Pythia. Adama comes in to find her burning the book and asks her if she's just going to give up? She didn't go for her treatment and she says she doesn't need it. She says that she was wrong about everything and that all those people who followed her are dead. She tells Bill to leave her alone and her reluctantly goes while she cries and tells the book to burn.
Kara is setting her own fire back on "Earth". Me thinks she doesn't want anyone to know that she found herself dead on the planet for what could be 2000 years. I don't blame her, but I am guessing this might come up again, based on some clips I've seen. The shot of her sitting to the left of the fire while it blows in the wind to the right, is great cinematography.
Dee and Lee are returning from their date and she asks him to repeat his speech. He says he managed to stave off a full-scale panic but at least now they can choose where they go next. There is no more following Pythia. She kisses him goodnight and goes into her bunk room. Gaeta is there and says he can't stop thinking about that waste of a planet and she tells him that she just wants to remember this moment for as long as she can. He leaves and she looks at her locket and then her face changes and she shoots herself in the head! I did NOT see that coming at all. Dee has always just been there. I thought she might be a Cylon. Nope! Kandyse McClure played Dualla amazingly well and I kind of wish she had more to go on for the past seasons. I'm sad to see her leave. I wanted her to have a happy ending, but this being Battlestar I don't think anyone is going to have a happy ending.
Lee is in the mortuary and Adama walks in and he tells him that he kissed her goodnight 45 minutes ago and she had joy in her eyes, why would she do this? Adama says he doesn't know and offers Lee a drink, he declines and runs out. Adama lifts up the sheet and starts to cry and asks what did she do? And that he let her down, let them all down. Now he's really angry. He storms out and grabs a gun and tells someone to get it. He means Tigh. As he's walking through the halls people are crying and fighting. They've all kind of lost it since learning the planet is a craphole.
Tigh is drinking and Adama busts in, grabs a bottle of Ambrosia and tells him it's time to have that heart to heart he's been wanting. Tigh says he sorry he didn't have the guts to tell him when he first found out and Bill says he doesn't have guts, he's a machine. The look on Michael Hogan's face is priceless. Adama asks him if that's how he was programmed? To be his friend and to laugh at his jokes and Tigh says he chose to be his friend. Adama starts to taunt Tigh about Ellen, saying she knew there was something off about him all along, that's why she went around sleeping with half the fleet. He wants Tigh to lose it and shoot him, but Tigh realizes that's what he wants and stops himself. He tells Tigh a story about foxes that would run away from some dogs; some would turn to fight and some would try to cross the river. Those that tried to swim, some would give up halfway and be swept out to sea. Adama says maybe because they were tired and Tigh tells him that they can't be swept out to sea, it won't help anyone.
Kara comes to see Lee and he tells her that Dee killed herself and no one will ever know why. Adama returns to the CIC and tells everyone that the people who lived on this planet experienced great losses, they needed a home and they set out into space with nothing but their ships and they found a home, and so will they.
Back on "Earth" Tigh tells everyone to wrap it up and goes to talk to D'Anna. She says she isn't going. This will all happen over and over again and she doesn't want to die out in space when Cavill catches up with them. She asks him if he ever just wants to get off the merry-go-round and he says ride the tide out to sea. And we're back to the beginning with him walking into the surf. He finds a piece of a mailbox and flashes back to what we assume is Caprica. He hears Ellens voice calling him and finds her buried in rubble. She tells him it's ok...SPOILERS!
There is a flash and she says they'll be reborn...again. Also, she says everything is in place, whatever that means. I have to say that I suspected her from the beginning as being a Cylon, but then they had her killed off by Tigh and I figured she wasn't, couldn't be. Guess I was wrong.
Friday, December 19, 2008
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