shallowness (
shallowness) wrote2021-06-04 03:55 pm
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Interpreting Hybridese (BSG)
BSG - 4.6 Faith
This was more like it, because it had more focus on characters I’m interested in, certainly the Kara responding to Sam shooting Felix (after the mutiny) seemed slightly more amicable and useful. By her asking Athena to come along, the episode was going to do what I complained about the show not doing previously and also giving Helo a reason to wait (sorry, Felix, but it’s your leg versus his wife. Also, when is Doc Cottle meant to sleep?).
In hindsight, the answer to ‘What is this Kara fangirl doing on the mission?’ was to be a redshirt, but that lead to great drama, so I forgive.
The Galactica plotline was ROSLIN, and see, I can cope with one scene with Tori, who Laura seemed to think had got her act together. Now bald from her treatment and, in the main, wearing head coverings, she met another patient (played by NANA VISITOR. Yesss! Cast all the Bajorans.) Initially cranky, she opened up and became Emily, and shared experience made them talk about faith and feelings around death, while Baltar continued to spout…really confusing stuff on the radio. Isn’t there a boatman in Greek mythology, but the idea of there being more than we can understand struck me as Christian.
Laura’s breakdown over her mother was so moving. I also enjoyed just watching her interact with another mature woman. Pegasusus’s Admiral Crazy was an antagonist, while and Ellen was a foil for contrasts. Adama has always had Tighe to play off.
And then there was her vision/dream/whatever. The fact that the boat was a modern-day vessel struck me. The scene was beautiful, with both Emily and Laura looking restored in health, and the idea of a multi-generational family welcoming them was both nice, plus reinforcing the horror of the massacre at the start of the series. And then there was that lovely, lovely scene with Bill.
But back on the new mission, I have no idea what was going on in the scene in the Raptor. Kara made about as much sense to me as the Hybrid generally does, TBH.
On the basestar, things got more interesting/easier to follow. So, few of the Cylons had died; they just know that if they do die now, that’s really, really it. Athena meeting the Sharons was an echo of Boomer doing so, only this time the conversation was different. (Easy snark: Athena had just backed a failed mutiny, although I suppose her loyalty was to the crew, to the Galactica, not chain of command.)
And the Sixes. WHY HAVE WE NOT HAD MORE OF THIS? They are the more distinct (I know they snarked about Not His Name’s model being obsessed with Kara, but my sense is that it’s always been the same one who’s interacted with her for viewers’ ease. Ditto Deeanna, and okay, they’re played by guest stars, but I still wantmore.) With the Sharons’ warning about how obsessive the Sixes were, and tension surrounding He Has A Name, brunette!Six had to prove she was willing to deal with Kara.
But blonde!Six’s very human (if you will) feelings towards her killer leading to such a violent act, Sam and Athena’s call for justice, while Kara was all about the de-escalation again – well, it worked for me. The characters seemed a beat slow about what brunette!Six was going to do.
And then the Hybrid babbled, and I couldn’t make much of her repeated lines, and okay they worked out what the numbers meant, but doesn’t ‘Harbinger of Death’ give them pause? There was some trouble with the sentient Sentinel not liking them hurting the Hybrid, and Athena couldn’t find enough compassion to help her sister pass, (tsk, Athena), but Sam could, even with the EXISTENTIAL CRISIS that has been driving him (and seriously, is it only Raiders who could recognise the Five?) His moving from violent Kara supporter to violent human avenger and supposed Cylon hater to that…I suppose I’m meant to focus on that suggesting the role of the Five. I’m sure he’s got mixed feelings about the new mission.
As for the countdown, I thought they did a nice job on showing Helo’s professionalism and spousal angst. But at the same time, I’d have reduced the countdown to account for the lost seconds between the time being said and starting the countdown, but sure, let’s hope there’s some margin for error for Felix’s leg’s sake! (I have no hopes for Felix’s leg.)
Several days later, I watched 4.7 Guess What’s Coming To Dinner?
I was left going !?!? at the end of the episode. I appreciated that they found something for nearly everyone to do; the humans and the Cylons wrestling with their alliance and trusting each other was interesting, with all sorts of secrets and truths floating about. I liked that Kara as Harbinger of Death was explicitly tied into the rebel Cylons deciding to embrace mortality big time (and on behalf of the other models too. I’m sure they’ll be delighted.) But I’m not claiming it all made sense or came off.
Hera’s had a growth spurt, hasn’t she? And she seemed to have some precognition/had seen the vision. Athena doesn’t seem to have figured out that Cylon imagining themselves elsewhere thing. It was awful to watch her live out the Opera House vision (sort of), seeing Caprica? in the other Six, going all Mama Bear and echoing Boomer shooting Adama, which really wasn’t fair, given what we knew of the rebel Cylons’ leader.
Tricia Helfer was great, giving us another flavour of a Six, who kind of felt like she did match Roslin as a leader, and after he big speech to the quorum, recognising she might have made a mistake with her back-up plan, but oh well, she’d been too good at convincing the others and it was already set in motion.
Totally no interest from the rebel Cylons in Caprica. And what has bugged me is that I don’t remember if Baltar’s claim that Caprica told him about the shared vision is true. But then, I’d assumed that it was Tori, except obviously not if Roslin hadn’t told her and was tasking her to find out who had spilled.
I was delighted that Roslin had woken up to the fact that Tori was sleeping with Baltar, at least, but not the Existential Crisis, which put Tighe in a difficult spot, which he didn’t handle well, and made Tyrol a far more ambiguous figure to be holding Hera and taking her away before she could see mommy shoot someone. (Does that make him Baltar? Because the vision didn’t exactly come true.)
Roslin was busy setting women off on other missions, including Kara. I couldn’t quite see how the quorum were justified in getting snitty about the alliance and resulting mission, but I liked that Lee had the insight to suggest some way of Roslin bringing them on board.
They made the most of the actor playing Felix’s singing voice, though did he only know the one song?
By wanting to go see the Hybrid – though I liked that she surprised Gaius by taking him along – Laura gave the rebel Cylons even better hostages than they could have hoped for, although possibly their reliance on the Sentinels may not help them. I hope the lead Sharon gets a little better defined and I wonde whatnew flavour of Six we’re going to see on the basestar.
Oh, and everyone was talking about the Five a bit breesily, with no concern for whether the Five might actually want to join the rebel Cylons (where? To do what?) while the four had to wrestle with the fact that they apparently knew the way to Earth, even though they didn’t know it, on top of conflicted loyalties. The humans were SHOCKED to learn that the Five were in their midst.
The Hybrid ordering a jump was very dramatic, leaving quite a mess behind, but at least that was more surprising than the ‘The basestar and the Demitrius have to jump together or the Galactica will shoot us down. Oh…’ business at the beginning of the ep.
This was more like it, because it had more focus on characters I’m interested in, certainly the Kara responding to Sam shooting Felix (after the mutiny) seemed slightly more amicable and useful. By her asking Athena to come along, the episode was going to do what I complained about the show not doing previously and also giving Helo a reason to wait (sorry, Felix, but it’s your leg versus his wife. Also, when is Doc Cottle meant to sleep?).
In hindsight, the answer to ‘What is this Kara fangirl doing on the mission?’ was to be a redshirt, but that lead to great drama, so I forgive.
The Galactica plotline was ROSLIN, and see, I can cope with one scene with Tori, who Laura seemed to think had got her act together. Now bald from her treatment and, in the main, wearing head coverings, she met another patient (played by NANA VISITOR. Yesss! Cast all the Bajorans.) Initially cranky, she opened up and became Emily, and shared experience made them talk about faith and feelings around death, while Baltar continued to spout…really confusing stuff on the radio. Isn’t there a boatman in Greek mythology, but the idea of there being more than we can understand struck me as Christian.
Laura’s breakdown over her mother was so moving. I also enjoyed just watching her interact with another mature woman. Pegasusus’s Admiral Crazy was an antagonist, while and Ellen was a foil for contrasts. Adama has always had Tighe to play off.
And then there was her vision/dream/whatever. The fact that the boat was a modern-day vessel struck me. The scene was beautiful, with both Emily and Laura looking restored in health, and the idea of a multi-generational family welcoming them was both nice, plus reinforcing the horror of the massacre at the start of the series. And then there was that lovely, lovely scene with Bill.
But back on the new mission, I have no idea what was going on in the scene in the Raptor. Kara made about as much sense to me as the Hybrid generally does, TBH.
On the basestar, things got more interesting/easier to follow. So, few of the Cylons had died; they just know that if they do die now, that’s really, really it. Athena meeting the Sharons was an echo of Boomer doing so, only this time the conversation was different. (Easy snark: Athena had just backed a failed mutiny, although I suppose her loyalty was to the crew, to the Galactica, not chain of command.)
And the Sixes. WHY HAVE WE NOT HAD MORE OF THIS? They are the more distinct (I know they snarked about Not His Name’s model being obsessed with Kara, but my sense is that it’s always been the same one who’s interacted with her for viewers’ ease. Ditto Deeanna, and okay, they’re played by guest stars, but I still wantmore.) With the Sharons’ warning about how obsessive the Sixes were, and tension surrounding He Has A Name, brunette!Six had to prove she was willing to deal with Kara.
But blonde!Six’s very human (if you will) feelings towards her killer leading to such a violent act, Sam and Athena’s call for justice, while Kara was all about the de-escalation again – well, it worked for me. The characters seemed a beat slow about what brunette!Six was going to do.
And then the Hybrid babbled, and I couldn’t make much of her repeated lines, and okay they worked out what the numbers meant, but doesn’t ‘Harbinger of Death’ give them pause? There was some trouble with the sentient Sentinel not liking them hurting the Hybrid, and Athena couldn’t find enough compassion to help her sister pass, (tsk, Athena), but Sam could, even with the EXISTENTIAL CRISIS that has been driving him (and seriously, is it only Raiders who could recognise the Five?) His moving from violent Kara supporter to violent human avenger and supposed Cylon hater to that…I suppose I’m meant to focus on that suggesting the role of the Five. I’m sure he’s got mixed feelings about the new mission.
As for the countdown, I thought they did a nice job on showing Helo’s professionalism and spousal angst. But at the same time, I’d have reduced the countdown to account for the lost seconds between the time being said and starting the countdown, but sure, let’s hope there’s some margin for error for Felix’s leg’s sake! (I have no hopes for Felix’s leg.)
Several days later, I watched 4.7 Guess What’s Coming To Dinner?
I was left going !?!? at the end of the episode. I appreciated that they found something for nearly everyone to do; the humans and the Cylons wrestling with their alliance and trusting each other was interesting, with all sorts of secrets and truths floating about. I liked that Kara as Harbinger of Death was explicitly tied into the rebel Cylons deciding to embrace mortality big time (and on behalf of the other models too. I’m sure they’ll be delighted.) But I’m not claiming it all made sense or came off.
Hera’s had a growth spurt, hasn’t she? And she seemed to have some precognition/had seen the vision. Athena doesn’t seem to have figured out that Cylon imagining themselves elsewhere thing. It was awful to watch her live out the Opera House vision (sort of), seeing Caprica? in the other Six, going all Mama Bear and echoing Boomer shooting Adama, which really wasn’t fair, given what we knew of the rebel Cylons’ leader.
Tricia Helfer was great, giving us another flavour of a Six, who kind of felt like she did match Roslin as a leader, and after he big speech to the quorum, recognising she might have made a mistake with her back-up plan, but oh well, she’d been too good at convincing the others and it was already set in motion.
Totally no interest from the rebel Cylons in Caprica. And what has bugged me is that I don’t remember if Baltar’s claim that Caprica told him about the shared vision is true. But then, I’d assumed that it was Tori, except obviously not if Roslin hadn’t told her and was tasking her to find out who had spilled.
I was delighted that Roslin had woken up to the fact that Tori was sleeping with Baltar, at least, but not the Existential Crisis, which put Tighe in a difficult spot, which he didn’t handle well, and made Tyrol a far more ambiguous figure to be holding Hera and taking her away before she could see mommy shoot someone. (Does that make him Baltar? Because the vision didn’t exactly come true.)
Roslin was busy setting women off on other missions, including Kara. I couldn’t quite see how the quorum were justified in getting snitty about the alliance and resulting mission, but I liked that Lee had the insight to suggest some way of Roslin bringing them on board.
They made the most of the actor playing Felix’s singing voice, though did he only know the one song?
By wanting to go see the Hybrid – though I liked that she surprised Gaius by taking him along – Laura gave the rebel Cylons even better hostages than they could have hoped for, although possibly their reliance on the Sentinels may not help them. I hope the lead Sharon gets a little better defined and I wonde whatnew flavour of Six we’re going to see on the basestar.
Oh, and everyone was talking about the Five a bit breesily, with no concern for whether the Five might actually want to join the rebel Cylons (where? To do what?) while the four had to wrestle with the fact that they apparently knew the way to Earth, even though they didn’t know it, on top of conflicted loyalties. The humans were SHOCKED to learn that the Five were in their midst.
The Hybrid ordering a jump was very dramatic, leaving quite a mess behind, but at least that was more surprising than the ‘The basestar and the Demitrius have to jump together or the Galactica will shoot us down. Oh…’ business at the beginning of the ep.