Mrowr.
Spoilers within.
The humans built the Cylons built the skinjobs built the Cylons built the Colonies built Kobol built Earth built wars built ships built Galactica and the cracks are all through it now, ennervated, knit into its muscle and bone. Even your enemies are knit into your story, and it's not loving them, exactly, to admit you wouldn't be who you are without them. It's not letting them off the hook, although that's what it sounds like the first time (the first thousand times) you say it. It's that you can't cut faces out of photographs, can't cut people out of memories. Knowing that makes the memories no better, and the faster you run the faster they follow, so it's best to just accept that the cracks are there whether you patch them or not. Galactica is broken: Mutiny, terrorism, disaster, betrayal, war, politics, skinjobs, racism, rape, murder. Galactica is fixed.
I mean, who would have called Ellen being basically the Witch-Queen of the Cylons, crazy drunk Ellen who always knew something about her was just wrong, who was trying to bash herself into a shape that made sense? I don't like saying all assholes have a secret shame, so I won't, but it's more like adolescents are crazy because they haven't yet found a world in which all their crazy fits. You're only a loudmouth until you find other people just as loud as you or louder; you're only argumentative and a pain in the ass until you find the place where that works for you instead of against you. That was Ellen, trying to remember. She snapped back into place, and all the rough edges fit, and all her mistakes were knit into the way things are now, and it all made sense.
Unless of course you're Cavil and then her love and certainty just pisses you off. Fear hears every kind of comfort as a threat. Fear doesn't want anything to make sense, because if things make sense, then it's just up to you. Then it's been you all along, and wasn't that big crazy war you had a big crazy waste of time?
Quick takes: WTF is with Adama right now? Is he stress-drinking? Is he missing Laura? Did a crime scene cleanup crew survive the Exodus I and II and go over Colonial One so that Lee and Laura could have their little conversation about stuff we already knew?
Sam's Magic Bullet as Exposition Device? Cheap, and yet, necessary, because seriously if this had been some Sopranos shit where nothing got explained I would have gone all President Crazy Space Mom on somebody's ass. All of this has happened before and all of this has happened again. I need to go back and watch the first season again, see if it sings that far back.
Kara. Saying, "I need to be something." You are. That's the secret.
Daniel. The book of Daniel, is what I snapped to, right away:
8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
12 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.
13 But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.
What if that's been it, all along?
A.
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Exposition, exposition, exposition. This ep was 3/4 exposition, and well done, leaving us with "WTF happens NOW?" At the same time, there's a feeling that things are getting simpler.
"I need to be something." Identity is such a huge component of this whole story, of course. The tension between who/what you are and just the reality THAT you simply ARE.
I knew ahead of time that Hodgman was going to be in this episode but I was so engrossed that I wasn't looking for him. It was kind of jarring that he popped up in the OR. I mean, who the hell is this doctor? Where's he been? It's cool he was on the show and all but it broke into my suspension of disbelief, kind of like the KFC ads and the BSG schwag hawking.
Posted by: virgotex | February 14, 2009 at 07:53
Fear hears every kind of comfort as a threat. Fear doesn't want anything to make sense, because if things make sense, then it's just up to you.
And one of the reasons why this show is so frakking good! Cavil wants to be the perfect machine - and he simply cannot accept that he already IS perfect - so says his creator Ellen! Shades of the old Imperious Leader - or at least the infamous Cylon Specter.
The exposition and backfilling of how - and why - was important, and to a large extent, completed the circle. There's only a few more episodes to the end... and yes, WTF is going to happen next??
SP
Posted by: Serving Patriot | February 14, 2009 at 09:03
Dean Stockwell FTW.
I think Kara was voicing an incomplete thought. She wants to be something other than what she is, that being the "angel of death". Sam's present state isn't going to help any, especially if she's the one who decides to pull the plug.
Posted by: BlakNo1 | February 14, 2009 at 10:03
Since the PC Guy plays a specialist, it's not that surprising that we haven't seen him before. I just hope we don't see him again, kind of annoying.
Posted by: BlakNo1 | February 14, 2009 at 10:46
BlakNo1 - I agree we probably won't see him again, but I disagree that he was annoying. I heart the Hodge.
Posted by: mdh | February 14, 2009 at 16:23
I think that Cavil chap is up to no good. He seems quite the stinker.
(Hodgeman amused me but I don't want to see him again. Besides, he took screen-time away from Cottle.)
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Posted by: spork_incident | February 14, 2009 at 17:41
You Must Raise Our Child With Dignity
Raise your hand if you got the Fields of Athenry reference.
I need some help with the chronology here.
The 13th tribe created the original cylons who ended up on earth and died in the first(?) nuclear holocaust. All the remains found on earth were cylon.
So where's the 13th tribe?
And how did they have the technology to create skinjobs that could procreate 2000 years ago, but the other 12 tribes have just recently advanced that far?
Also -- if Cavil's got the technology that lets him take apart a human brain and suck the memories free why doesn't he have the technology to download himself into a centurion body with all the sensory enhancements he's jonesing after?
WTF is with Adama right now? Is he stress-drinking?
Looked like he was popping pills too. Is he dying right along with Space Mom?
Kara. Saying, "I need to be something." You are. That's the secret.
She needs to be something without big holes in the subroutines. She went off on her mystery space adventure and life changing things happened as a result -- but she remembers none of it. Right now she's feeling incomplete. She needs to be a complete something.
What if that's been it, all along?
The end of days?
That would be almost as cheap an ending as Sopranos.
Posted by: flory | February 14, 2009 at 18:18
I think Amanda nailed it: Daniel is Starbuck's father. And he's in the fleet.
Posted by: flory | February 14, 2009 at 19:52
So where's the 13th tribe?
They got nuked. Remember, Earth is the 13th tribe. They migrated from Kobol. The humans on Kobol were the original creators of The Cylons. Saul had a great line about this right after Tory pointed that out.
Posted by: BlakNo1 | February 15, 2009 at 04:00
Daniel is Starbuck's father. And he's in the fleet.
Will he be played by a relative of Fred Astaire?
Sorry, couldn't help it.
Posted by: BlakNo1 | February 15, 2009 at 04:02
Oh, crap, BlakNo1, I can't believe that I didn't make that 13 connection before. They are really bringing the Biblical, aren't they? The 13th tribe returns to help the humans, but end up betraying them?
Is there redemption for Judas?
If Amanda is right, and Daniel is Starbuck's father, then the Cylons could procreate all along, so why didn't they manage it before Hera and FrakkedUpBeforeBirthBabyTigh? (Though I have to say, I'm expecting more Biblical--WitchQueen Ellen spirits away one Daniel before the evil king can have them all killed and hides him with no memory of who he is--a little Moses/Jesus action goin' on there.)
And Starbuck *downloaded* somewhere, somehow. There's another Resurrection Hub out there, one that the Final Five downloaded to after the destruction of Earth. One that by the definition we got in this ep (the Final Five gave the 12-Colonies-Cylons the skinjobs) *had* to be different from the one that we destroyed. Sooooo...among many other implications, that means that Sam can download (if they're close enough, and given that Starbuck downloaded, they *must* be), and Starbuck will be seeing him again. Will she figure that out and let him go?
Finally, the whole "many shall be purified and made white" thing immediately snapped me back to Starbuck and her shiny new ship. And in this context, I don't think the "end of days" will be at all what we think.
Oh, and another thing...I lovelovelove the idea of broken-down old lady Galactica being made new by being made *alive*.
Posted by: BuggyQ | February 15, 2009 at 09:56
These last 5 eps are going to be a serious roller-coaster ride.
Posted by: BlakNo1 | February 15, 2009 at 10:38
[i]If Amanda is right, and Daniel is Starbuck's father, then the Cylons could procreate all along, so why didn't they manage it before Hera and FrakkedUpBeforeBirthBabyTigh?[/i]
If Daniel is Kara's father then he was only able to procreate with a human woman he loved, Kara's mom, just like Athena was only able to procreate with Helo to produce Hera.
Tigh was able to knock up CapricaSix because he's an Earth-Cylon. Earth-Cylons had "evolved" to the point of being able to breed amongst themselves, so he is essentially human in that regard and could knock up Six like Helo knocked up Athena.
Posted by: Ink Asylum | February 15, 2009 at 14:23
They got nuked. Remember, Earth is the 13th tribe
There were no human remains on earth. The 13th tribe was cylon? Then who nuked them?
Tigh was able to knock up CapricaSix because he's an Earth-Cylon.
Humans are only able to knock up cylons that they love. Does Tigh love Caprica 6 -- or does he love the head-Ellen he keeps confusing for Caprica 6? And how does that play into that particular bit of mystical reproductive biology?
Posted by: flory | February 15, 2009 at 15:00
There were no human remains on earth. The 13th tribe was cylon?
Yup, remember?
Then who nuked them?
That's something I've been wodnering ever since the season started back up. I'm guessing either a worldwide civil war or attackers from Kobol.
Posted by: BlakNo1 | February 16, 2009 at 09:56
I think Amanda nailed it: Daniel is Starbuck's father. And he's in the fleet.
And Daniel's Adama and Kara and Lee are siblings, in a twisted rendering of the Luke/Leia thing from Star Wars.
Posted by: darrelplant | February 16, 2009 at 11:59
I'm guessing either a worldwide civil war or attackers from Kobol.
The 12 colonies are the people from Kobol.
If they knew where the 13th tribe had gone why have we spent 4 seasons trying to find the place again?
And Daniel's Adama and Kara and Lee are siblings
Nah. That would be too cheap.
Whoever Daniel is, he's been hanging out on that colony Ellen mentioned where she and the other 4 left all their equipment. And since that equipment likely includes a resurrection hub, Daniel is also somebody who died. My guess is its somebody who died very early on, like in Season 1. Maybe even in the cylon attack.
Posted by: flory | February 16, 2009 at 14:47