More Battlestar Galactica season 2
Nov. 14th, 2020 02:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessBattlestar Galactica Season 2: Resistance, The Farm, Home (part 1)
So, Tigh’s martial law, as directed by Ellen, went badly enough that Roslin (and Lee) felt they had to make a move, and all kinds of alliances, with the command crew tacitly letting them get away with it, and Tigh couldn’t bring himself to shoot them down. Suddenly Verek was an ally of Roslin’s (although I always thought that since he’d heard she had a few months to live, he would playing for that point in time, but this didn’t quite turn out to be the case).
There was so much about leadership here, Tigh’s failings – contrasted with Roslin’s decisiveness and charisma – then the scene where she pulled out an excellent speech at the pretty soldier wondering whether to shoot her, and her use of ‘Madam President’ making me sure she’d be fine. Ditto Apollo as a contrast to Tigh. (And guh, his father responding to him just after he’d left, and then being somehow well enough to get up and walk to Tigh’s room to find out how bad things were.
Gaius and the Kobol survivors (I’m sure there’s a catchier band title there somewhere) were back, with Gaius’s test (or his analysis thereof) being shown up to be a dud. With Six’s whisperings, he scrambled, and I loved that as well as asking Sharon about the numbers (so that’s eight other than her?), he was also asking, well, if Six loved him.
Tyrrell and Sharon’s two drops of blood were a bit overmuch from the director.
Tyrrell was narked as his life unravelled and his ex wasn’t just a Cylon, but one who’d tried to assassinate Adama. Sharon was a mess, her identity shattered. Kallie was also overwrought about Tyrrell – people really not coping well was a theme in all three episodes – and although I’d been aware of that, her shooting Sharon, an echo of Sharon’s act against Adama, was a surprise.
Meanwhile, on oversaturated Caprica, Starbuck and Helo found survivors, or the survivors found them, actually, once they’d stopped wasting ammo on each other and dialled down the aggro. The actor playing Anders looked enough like Apollo that I wondered if he’d been up for the part and they ‘d liked him, but not as much as Bamber and then had decided to write him in. Or they’d just cast for the similarity, as there was a bit of UST over a made-up sport and we pondered a high school being resistance HQ. It made more sense to me that there’d be survivors than Helo finding nobody, but he wa being tracked and manipulated by the Cylons in any case.
The show finally brought back Caprica!Sharon, with Helo having to explain ‘she’s my babymama, don’t shoot’ again. Heh.
Meanwhile Kara had got involved with Not!Apollo (my biggest complaint in hindsight is that what happened to her next was majorly traumatic and I will accept all its effect on her, but they’ve put a lot of weight on what was essentially a one-night stand, that’s now become a romance although it needed more screen time for me as a viewer to engage with it, as I have with Helo and Caprica!Sharon, even if I appreciate that they’re picking up the pace, so there’s no time for the scenes of them running around Caprica, Helo and Caprica!Sharon enjoyed. Also, there was the imperative of the need to return the arrow to space. But we also got very little about the Caprican survivors’ feelings about a whole fleet in space, so I hope Kara does keep her promise and returns.)
And then Kara got shot, and woke up in a hospital, and her alarm bells were ringing as much as mine as the constantly handwashing doctor (the WHO would be proud!) treated her. We got confirmation that time was not passing as quickly as the doctor was making out that it was, which she didn’t. But he knew an awful lot about Kara, and creepily made her face up to a lot of things she’d rather not – child-bearing women is as much of an issue for the fleet as on Caprica, and the stuff about the abuse that’s been hinted at explained a lot. Still, satisfying that she found a way to kill him, especially when she discovered the true scale and intent of the farm. HORRIFYNG. On top of that, the visual of a weakened, barefooted Kara was haunting. So she’s not only shouldering her promise to Anders, there’s the knowledge from Caprica!Sharon that she’s got A Destiny (and we learned more generally that they’re looking for love is about looking to procreate, which they see as a religious duty.) Oh, and there’s the mystery of the second incision.
Adama had to try to pick up the pieces of the mess Tigh had made – the scene where he cried over Sharon was powerful and suggested he was coping better than some people (the hindsight of the next ep shows that was only partially true). He was also waxing philosophical over his near-death experience, telling Tyrrel he probably had loved Sharon, regardless of who/what she was. And he made the excellent point that Tyrrell would probably have to face copies of her.
Lee couldn’t quite denounce his father in public – I thought so! – so Roslin ‘played the religious card’ which the soldiers underestimated. But so, in a way, did she, as shown in that scene where she had to bless former prisoners.
In the third ep, more of the action was not on the Galactica, where it was mainly about Adama feeling betrayed and trying to overcompensate with ship as family, where everyone knows his son and daughter figure were his faves, and the lack of Apollo was again shown up with the terrible new CAG. (The importance of Apolo as Roslin’s prop and repository of military knowledge was shown up in how Verek’s odious second-in-command made him into a target). I LOVED Dee standing up to Adama and telling him where he’d gone wrong – as the press conference had shown up – in breaking his promise about getting to Earth together to the fleet. He’d broken faith with those who hadn’t acted on faith. And it’s not like she’d been separated from Billy, because he’d chosen to stay, which suggests they both share principles which make me root for them even more.
Meanwhile the return of the trio from Caprica was handled beautifully. Let’s start with the Lee/Kara, the kiss shows how far he’s come on, although I don’t think he’s thought it through. (My problem is that although the narrative is all Apollo/Stabuck, Bamber and McDonnell have chemistry, so whenever Lee is working with Roslin and she’s relying on him, it’s very easy to look at that dynamic with ship goggles on, even though there’s also the pull of Roslin/Adama). That is not to say that what is going on with Lee and Kara is not juicy, he was mad with her for haring off, but he mutinied against his father for Roslin too. Kara wanted him before, but didn’t want to face up to it for various reasons (being her ex’s bother, possibly the rank, but mainly the legacy of abuse screwing with her self-esteem and attitude to love), and now there’s all she went through on Caprica, including Anders, which she can’t talk about. And the teasing with the ball – read the room, Lee – and the slip of ‘I love you’ from him and her response, and the way this relationship has been handled so far is very tasty. Which is to say of course I ship Lee/Kara when I’m not shipping Lee/Roslin.
And then there was a potent iteration of the question of what to do about Cylons. Grace Park must have been fine with the killing off of Sharon, because with Caprica!Sharon there’s a different, harder flavour of her to play. Anyway, we had another understandable standoff with guns, which Roslin defused because she wields authority like a queen. Then there was ‘Lieutenant Agathon’ (me: oh, Helo has a name) explaining again that Caprica!Sharon is the mother of his child (which is still funny and is going to be even funnier on the Galactica to Tyrrell and Adama.) Apollo had to face a copy of his dad’s would-be kiGller. Roslin had to weigh up what to do. Caprica!Sharon made herself useful and proved to Roslin she did love Helo, which Madam Pragmatism thought she could use, but the weight of all that had come before was palpable and well deployed.
We learned a little more about what the Cylons know of the beliefs in the lords of Kobol, and there was only so little of the ep left for them to get to Kobol – I wan’t surprised at the ‘to be continued’ (I didn't take in the episode title when watching.) And we knew better than the landing party how high the price of going to Kobol was likely to be, as Verek plotted, and Lee, Kara, Hele and Caprica!Sharon brought their issues and feels. Caprica!Sharon proved to Lee she was trustworthy with a big old gun, and the priestess fell first in a brutal way. And yeah, it was an act of self-contol not to let the next ep play straight after, but I also knew I needed to parse what had happened so far.
So, Tigh’s martial law, as directed by Ellen, went badly enough that Roslin (and Lee) felt they had to make a move, and all kinds of alliances, with the command crew tacitly letting them get away with it, and Tigh couldn’t bring himself to shoot them down. Suddenly Verek was an ally of Roslin’s (although I always thought that since he’d heard she had a few months to live, he would playing for that point in time, but this didn’t quite turn out to be the case).
There was so much about leadership here, Tigh’s failings – contrasted with Roslin’s decisiveness and charisma – then the scene where she pulled out an excellent speech at the pretty soldier wondering whether to shoot her, and her use of ‘Madam President’ making me sure she’d be fine. Ditto Apollo as a contrast to Tigh. (And guh, his father responding to him just after he’d left, and then being somehow well enough to get up and walk to Tigh’s room to find out how bad things were.
Gaius and the Kobol survivors (I’m sure there’s a catchier band title there somewhere) were back, with Gaius’s test (or his analysis thereof) being shown up to be a dud. With Six’s whisperings, he scrambled, and I loved that as well as asking Sharon about the numbers (so that’s eight other than her?), he was also asking, well, if Six loved him.
Tyrrell and Sharon’s two drops of blood were a bit overmuch from the director.
Tyrrell was narked as his life unravelled and his ex wasn’t just a Cylon, but one who’d tried to assassinate Adama. Sharon was a mess, her identity shattered. Kallie was also overwrought about Tyrrell – people really not coping well was a theme in all three episodes – and although I’d been aware of that, her shooting Sharon, an echo of Sharon’s act against Adama, was a surprise.
Meanwhile, on oversaturated Caprica, Starbuck and Helo found survivors, or the survivors found them, actually, once they’d stopped wasting ammo on each other and dialled down the aggro. The actor playing Anders looked enough like Apollo that I wondered if he’d been up for the part and they ‘d liked him, but not as much as Bamber and then had decided to write him in. Or they’d just cast for the similarity, as there was a bit of UST over a made-up sport and we pondered a high school being resistance HQ. It made more sense to me that there’d be survivors than Helo finding nobody, but he wa being tracked and manipulated by the Cylons in any case.
The show finally brought back Caprica!Sharon, with Helo having to explain ‘she’s my babymama, don’t shoot’ again. Heh.
Meanwhile Kara had got involved with Not!Apollo (my biggest complaint in hindsight is that what happened to her next was majorly traumatic and I will accept all its effect on her, but they’ve put a lot of weight on what was essentially a one-night stand, that’s now become a romance although it needed more screen time for me as a viewer to engage with it, as I have with Helo and Caprica!Sharon, even if I appreciate that they’re picking up the pace, so there’s no time for the scenes of them running around Caprica, Helo and Caprica!Sharon enjoyed. Also, there was the imperative of the need to return the arrow to space. But we also got very little about the Caprican survivors’ feelings about a whole fleet in space, so I hope Kara does keep her promise and returns.)
And then Kara got shot, and woke up in a hospital, and her alarm bells were ringing as much as mine as the constantly handwashing doctor (the WHO would be proud!) treated her. We got confirmation that time was not passing as quickly as the doctor was making out that it was, which she didn’t. But he knew an awful lot about Kara, and creepily made her face up to a lot of things she’d rather not – child-bearing women is as much of an issue for the fleet as on Caprica, and the stuff about the abuse that’s been hinted at explained a lot. Still, satisfying that she found a way to kill him, especially when she discovered the true scale and intent of the farm. HORRIFYNG. On top of that, the visual of a weakened, barefooted Kara was haunting. So she’s not only shouldering her promise to Anders, there’s the knowledge from Caprica!Sharon that she’s got A Destiny (and we learned more generally that they’re looking for love is about looking to procreate, which they see as a religious duty.) Oh, and there’s the mystery of the second incision.
Adama had to try to pick up the pieces of the mess Tigh had made – the scene where he cried over Sharon was powerful and suggested he was coping better than some people (the hindsight of the next ep shows that was only partially true). He was also waxing philosophical over his near-death experience, telling Tyrrel he probably had loved Sharon, regardless of who/what she was. And he made the excellent point that Tyrrell would probably have to face copies of her.
Lee couldn’t quite denounce his father in public – I thought so! – so Roslin ‘played the religious card’ which the soldiers underestimated. But so, in a way, did she, as shown in that scene where she had to bless former prisoners.
In the third ep, more of the action was not on the Galactica, where it was mainly about Adama feeling betrayed and trying to overcompensate with ship as family, where everyone knows his son and daughter figure were his faves, and the lack of Apollo was again shown up with the terrible new CAG. (The importance of Apolo as Roslin’s prop and repository of military knowledge was shown up in how Verek’s odious second-in-command made him into a target). I LOVED Dee standing up to Adama and telling him where he’d gone wrong – as the press conference had shown up – in breaking his promise about getting to Earth together to the fleet. He’d broken faith with those who hadn’t acted on faith. And it’s not like she’d been separated from Billy, because he’d chosen to stay, which suggests they both share principles which make me root for them even more.
Meanwhile the return of the trio from Caprica was handled beautifully. Let’s start with the Lee/Kara, the kiss shows how far he’s come on, although I don’t think he’s thought it through. (My problem is that although the narrative is all Apollo/Stabuck, Bamber and McDonnell have chemistry, so whenever Lee is working with Roslin and she’s relying on him, it’s very easy to look at that dynamic with ship goggles on, even though there’s also the pull of Roslin/Adama). That is not to say that what is going on with Lee and Kara is not juicy, he was mad with her for haring off, but he mutinied against his father for Roslin too. Kara wanted him before, but didn’t want to face up to it for various reasons (being her ex’s bother, possibly the rank, but mainly the legacy of abuse screwing with her self-esteem and attitude to love), and now there’s all she went through on Caprica, including Anders, which she can’t talk about. And the teasing with the ball – read the room, Lee – and the slip of ‘I love you’ from him and her response, and the way this relationship has been handled so far is very tasty. Which is to say of course I ship Lee/Kara when I’m not shipping Lee/Roslin.
And then there was a potent iteration of the question of what to do about Cylons. Grace Park must have been fine with the killing off of Sharon, because with Caprica!Sharon there’s a different, harder flavour of her to play. Anyway, we had another understandable standoff with guns, which Roslin defused because she wields authority like a queen. Then there was ‘Lieutenant Agathon’ (me: oh, Helo has a name) explaining again that Caprica!Sharon is the mother of his child (which is still funny and is going to be even funnier on the Galactica to Tyrrell and Adama.) Apollo had to face a copy of his dad’s would-be kiGller. Roslin had to weigh up what to do. Caprica!Sharon made herself useful and proved to Roslin she did love Helo, which Madam Pragmatism thought she could use, but the weight of all that had come before was palpable and well deployed.
We learned a little more about what the Cylons know of the beliefs in the lords of Kobol, and there was only so little of the ep left for them to get to Kobol – I wan’t surprised at the ‘to be continued’ (I didn't take in the episode title when watching.) And we knew better than the landing party how high the price of going to Kobol was likely to be, as Verek plotted, and Lee, Kara, Hele and Caprica!Sharon brought their issues and feels. Caprica!Sharon proved to Lee she was trustworthy with a big old gun, and the priestess fell first in a brutal way. And yeah, it was an act of self-contol not to let the next ep play straight after, but I also knew I needed to parse what had happened so far.
