Resurrection Ship (Part 2)
West coast time delay means that I have to wait an extra three hours to see the episodes from everyone else in America. It also means I just exited from a one hour mind-job. Before I start my commentary, I would like to say two things about the show that are not related to plot, for once. First off, the near-silence, the muted quality in space is something I have always admired about Battlestar. While no TV show or movie can go so far as to be truly accurate and take out all sounds, BSG comes the closest to reality. Hats off to them for that. However, I will quickly put my hat back on, because it is halfway through the second season, and the wardrobe personnel still have not figured out that they have the crew's shirts on backwards!
Enough of this silliness and on to the show. The first thing I thought of when Lee was floating there in the lake, or river, or whatever it was, was Leoben back in season one. He was talking about being part of the flowing consciousness of god, floating in the river, etc... I have a feeling that this is the parallel the writers are trying to draw, because at the end, Lee tells Kara, "I didn't want to make it back alive." He was experiencing floating on the eternal river, he was one with the Cylon god, until he was rudely interrupted back to life by getting his battery jump-started.
As I composed the previous paragraph, I considered saying that there seems to be a unifed thought on the afterlife and mannerisms of the Cylon god. Then I realized this was not at all true, and would completely contradict my next comment, concerning Natasi vs. Pegasix. Natasi says that over 10,000 Cylons are about to be killed, and god will not forgive this sin. Pegasix, however, says that god forgives everyone. Pegasix is the tender, nuturing person that Gaius has been missing in his multiple-personality universe all this time. Throughout the series, there has been a lot of talk about "love". "Do you love me Gaius?" is a question that has been posed by Natasi a few times now. It seems that Gaius loves the reverse of Natasi (and I do not mean he loves Satan, unless that is Pegasix' true name). He loves the version of Six that has hit rock bottom, gone through the worst kinds of torture anyone can possibly stand. It will be interesting to see where they ended up going and what the dynamic between Baltar and Natasi will be now that he and Pegasix have eloped.
There was a lot of amazingly great lines throughout the episode, all aluding to the end of the episode, but that storyline has pretty much concluded. Not much to say about those, except that they were brilliantly done, and created some amazing tension at the end. (That is, if you didn't read up on some spoilage.)
"Just goes to show you, Bill, never give up hope," says Laura. A very happy-go-lucky quote to end such a dark and tense episode. Last week, I watched Battlestar with my cousin, who had never seen the show before. During one of the scenes between Adama and Roslyn, my cousin turns to me and says, "They love each other." I guess the thought had never dawned on me until then. How their friendship has progressed has been very artfully done. Just goes to show the insights of a fresh pair of eyes.
This brings me to my final point of this week's post...Sharon's line, "Maybe humanity does not deserve to survive." I think what made Adama really reconsider his action against Cain was the moral guidance of a Cylon, the kind of being that was subjected to unending torture by Cain and her crew. The line between friend and foe continues to get more blurry.
Enough of this silliness and on to the show. The first thing I thought of when Lee was floating there in the lake, or river, or whatever it was, was Leoben back in season one. He was talking about being part of the flowing consciousness of god, floating in the river, etc... I have a feeling that this is the parallel the writers are trying to draw, because at the end, Lee tells Kara, "I didn't want to make it back alive." He was experiencing floating on the eternal river, he was one with the Cylon god, until he was rudely interrupted back to life by getting his battery jump-started.
As I composed the previous paragraph, I considered saying that there seems to be a unifed thought on the afterlife and mannerisms of the Cylon god. Then I realized this was not at all true, and would completely contradict my next comment, concerning Natasi vs. Pegasix. Natasi says that over 10,000 Cylons are about to be killed, and god will not forgive this sin. Pegasix, however, says that god forgives everyone. Pegasix is the tender, nuturing person that Gaius has been missing in his multiple-personality universe all this time. Throughout the series, there has been a lot of talk about "love". "Do you love me Gaius?" is a question that has been posed by Natasi a few times now. It seems that Gaius loves the reverse of Natasi (and I do not mean he loves Satan, unless that is Pegasix' true name). He loves the version of Six that has hit rock bottom, gone through the worst kinds of torture anyone can possibly stand. It will be interesting to see where they ended up going and what the dynamic between Baltar and Natasi will be now that he and Pegasix have eloped.
There was a lot of amazingly great lines throughout the episode, all aluding to the end of the episode, but that storyline has pretty much concluded. Not much to say about those, except that they were brilliantly done, and created some amazing tension at the end. (That is, if you didn't read up on some spoilage.)
"Just goes to show you, Bill, never give up hope," says Laura. A very happy-go-lucky quote to end such a dark and tense episode. Last week, I watched Battlestar with my cousin, who had never seen the show before. During one of the scenes between Adama and Roslyn, my cousin turns to me and says, "They love each other." I guess the thought had never dawned on me until then. How their friendship has progressed has been very artfully done. Just goes to show the insights of a fresh pair of eyes.
This brings me to my final point of this week's post...Sharon's line, "Maybe humanity does not deserve to survive." I think what made Adama really reconsider his action against Cain was the moral guidance of a Cylon, the kind of being that was subjected to unending torture by Cain and her crew. The line between friend and foe continues to get more blurry.
posted by (and Ernie) at 10:59 PM
18 Comments:
IMHO the scene between Adama and preggers Sharon was the lynchpin of this episode. I have suspected for some time that the Cylon motivation for their attack on humanity had nothing to do with revenge, but a "moral" belief that humanity had forfeited its right to exist.
Assuming that this is the Cylons' motivation, one must marvel at the contradictions contained therein. Humans are bad, therefore they must be destroyed... yet the Cylons have "advanced" themselves by becoming virtually indistinguishable from humans. Even more puzzling is their desire to "breed" with humans. Seems to me that they would want to keep the Cylon bloodlines "pure."
I also find it interesting that in their pursuit of purging the universe of humanity, they have become just as cruel as the human vermin they wish to eradicate.
Yeah, the Cylons (on the whole) need a bit of a wakeup call as to their own sins.
The reason they're trying to interbred with humans is that 12 models is a very limited gene pool.
Oh, and Pegasix's true name is Gina. It's RDM's pun on GINO - Galactica In Name Only - a TOSer name for the show. It hasn't been stated yet, but that's what she is called in the scripts.
Also, they CAN'T breed with one another.
Well, perhaps love would work for Cylon-Cylon the way it did for Sharon and Helo, but still they would face inbreeding.
Wait....so, Helo is a Cylon, thus destroying several month's worth of plot development. I don't buy it. There is just too much story for Helo to be a Cylon.
*SPOILER ALERT*
Everyone on Galactica is a Cylon.
I didn't say Helo was a Cylon (Heaven forbid). I said it was conceivable that love would help the Cylons reproduce with each other, the way it helped them (Sharon) reproduce with humans (Helo). But even if they could, they wouldn't (except Gaius and Gina if Gaius really is a Cylon) because that would lead to inbreeding what with there being only twelve models and all. So it's academic. I'm sorry if I was unclear.
Anyway, Lee is the perfect character to be a Cylon. There are so many clues, and he will be the absolutely most devastating Cylon reveal possible.
Anyone else think that "I'm sorry, Kara." was a great and meaningful one-liner?
I like the ironies like Adama finding some of his humanity by talking to a cylon. Seems like that's happened to characters a few times. Then Cain finds some of her humanity by watching Kara's relief on the phone. But then, that would make Kara a.... oh never mind. Sometimes I have to go back and read my previous postings to remember whether or not I believe Kara's a cylon.
Better yet, they come back and tell us what Adama was really asking morgue-sharon last year when he stood over her and said "why?"... the question, it turns out, is "Why?...Why do the cylon's hate us so much?".... and he asked sharon (again)!
I wonder if the dream sequence was Lee Adama in space with his air running out, or if the Lee floating in the eternal river was really the next in-line model.... maybe when waiting for a down load the next in line cylon just experiences the river... his senses are floating. That may be what it's like for all the bodies on the resurrection ship, before it was destroyed. The floating body raises up and pulls off it's goggles, and becomes aware at the last moment that he's about to receive the download.
But Lee doesn't die. Then the resurrection ship is destroyed. So the floating guy would be gone. But don't we get another dream sequence at the end of the show? So are they trying to tell us that there is really a second resurrection ship nearby? Or is a cigar just a cigar?
Let me clarify, I think that Lee's "I'm sorry, Kara." had multiple meanings.
I have expressed doubt in the past about Lee's Cylon-ness. Since we don't know whether the 12 models were "cloned" from human originals, and since we do know Lee's family hisory, it isn't clear whether it is even possible for Lee to be a Cylon.
Now, I do buy into the possibility of Baltar and perhaps even Dee being Cylons, but until this episode, Lee was not under suspicion.
I have to admit, this episode all but posted explicit notice that Lee is not one of us. Just teh shot of lee dying with is ressurection exploding behind him was enough. He wasn't just facing death, he was facing, as Cain said, "actual death."
Anyway, for me, Lee now joins Baltar and Lee as primary suspects. Although, It's still too early to jump to any conclusions.
Yup. Actual death.
There are various theories that I have heard or entertained as to how Lee can be a Cylon.
(A) Cylons are created as infants, and Lee was adopted by the Adamas or substituted.
(B) The Cylons can manipulate human memory, and they got a hold of the Adamas at one point.
(C) Cloning is an iffy science. Lee is the only human the Cylons successfully cloned.
(D) The writers/producers are known for not giving explanations for plot points if those explanations would tie down the plot's flow. i.e. Exactly how Gina got off Pegasus. RDM said in the podcast that he doesn't give a frak how. Call it lazy writing, or call it being practical.
I think there are other theories, as well.
Of course "LeeAdamaisaCylon"; we know that. Why can't Cylons be kidnapped/cloned people? That would give the writers even more to play with... :)
I have mentioned my theory of Baltar being uploaded and mixed with Brain-Six at the time of his death. That makes me want to call him a Cylon, but I am not sure that puts him on the list of 12 models. There should be some "rules" for the show, but we may not know them, they may change, and the script might leave a new message there are now 14 Cylon models .
Rewatching the Miniseries with the commentary highlighted that they meant for it to be Baltar that left the message, but since that did not make the final cut they can be free to play with "who helps Adama". Clearly not everything is set in stone if they don't have it out there.
Finally, I wanted to mention that the commentary was nicely spoiler free. Yea! Is the rest that way?
Noneofyourbusiness said...
"There are various theories that I have heard or entertained as to how Lee can be a Cylon."
Missed one. Re-watch the very first show of the mini series. Lee Adama has been gone for 2 years when he first appears on Galactica. This was post apocalypse. By this time he could have already been uploaded as a Cylon model. Later in the series they think he's been killed, but he miraculously shows up as alive. Then this past week he does it a third time, sinking down below the surface of the waters of the river just before he's rescued.
Watching the shows from the beginning with the perspective of "Lee Adama is a Cylon" puts a whole new perspective on things. Maybe it's more a "twisting of words" that shows some incredibly good writing.
Well, that's basically (C). RDM has confirmed that Boomer and the others never had human counterparts, and it's not so much that they are copying specific people than they are copying the basic archetypes of huamnity.
In other words Apollo is the only Cylon with a human background because cloning is an iffy science. However, I have been more partial to (A) or (B) in my fics. I'm sure that RDM will wither ahve a good explanation or not clutter the plot with an explanation at all.
I firmly believe that Gaius is not a Cylon physiologically speaking. He is a collaborator and thus can be considered a Cylon but not one of the twelve models. Since the twelve models are associated with the twelve zodiac/Colonies, Baltar would be associated with Earth. Gaius is the masculine form of Gaia, the goddess of the earth. When the Olympians overthrew their forefathers the Titans, the Earth Mother was the only Titan to side with them and thus the only one not imprisoned in Tarterus.
Snippet from a recent interview that included Jamie Bamber:
"All I will say is that I am finding more and more about who he is rather than what he is: a son; a potential brother-in-law; a fighter pilot or a leader; struggling.
Now there is an energy and a vigour to him that is a surprise to me. You think you know your character but then the writers throw something into the mix that you never considered for a moment.
I mean, we could get to the end of the series and I could find that [Apollo has] been a Cylon all along. Who the hell knows?" --------> Jamie Bamber
(I can just imagine him laughing diabolically at this point like Fisk to Tigh in Pegasus.)
http://www.greatlink.org/dcisV2.asp?url=http://www.greatlink.org/shownewsitem.asp?item=5217
Umm, I was under the impression that this is cool stuff. Am I wrong?
Post a Comment
<< Home