BSG: Islanded in a Stream of Stars
It seems like I'm in an ever increasing minority, but, overall, I was pleased with this episode and am both looking forward to the final three hours and how the journey will end and dreading the final three hours because the journey will be at an end. :/
The teaser had visions of the Opera House, strains of ‘All Along the Watchtower’, and Hera in CIC ramming a Galactica model into a basestar model. At the close of the episode, Adama informs to Tigh that he intends to send Galactica off in style. The two scenes I feel play into each other. I can’t imagine Adama will allow the other ships captains to strip Galactica to the bones as they want. Perhaps part of the end game is Adama and Tigh at the helm of Galactica making a suicide run to destroy The Colony. Adama is about to lose Laura and his ship. Adama and Galactica are the two most important things in Tigh’s life. Neither man seems to have much to live for at this point.
Lee
I’m going to break my silence on the subject and talk about Lee’s hair. Personally, I’ve always liked the longer hair on Jamie, but it was particularly unruly in this episode. I think hair was being used as a story telling device. Lee’s was kind of a mess. Kara’s looked (no pun intended) lifeless. Tigh hadn’t shaved in days. Athena looked (justifiably) terrible. Hair was another indication of how bad things now are. These people are doing the bare minimum they must do in order to face the day.
For a moment I was horrified at Lee’s reaction to looking for The Colony and risking everything for a child, but I quickly realized this was very much in character. Lee argued against going back to New Caprica for the very same reason – the possibility of losing everything and for humanity ceasing to exist.
Lee and Kara
I hope you are sitting down for what I am about to state. I really, really liked the scene between Lee and Kara. I was curious as to how a scene between the two would play out once the truth about Kara was revealed. Lee’s grown to much as a person to have the same selfish, childish, and assholish reactions he did when he found out about Kara and Baltar in KLG or when Kara returned with Athena in tow in ‘Home’. I had envisioned him asking her, calmly and quietly, why she hadn’t told him sooner and Kara pointing out she tried, but, well, his wife had just committed suicide. But I like the way it was handled here much better.
Lee has come further than even I gave him credit for. He accepts who she is without hesitation or judgment (a point alluded to in his talk with Adama in ‘He That Believeth in Me’). He doesn’t care that he wasn’t the first person she turned to or what her reasons were for keeping the information for so long to herself. None of it matters. What matters is, after everything they’ve been through, they are both still here. It ties to what Laura said to Adama. What is home? Is it an actual place or longing for something, a connection? We have Lee’s answer. Kara Thrace is home to Lee Adama. They’ve lost the colonies. They’ve lost friends and family. They’re about to lose Galactica. The future is uncertain. But right here, right now, they have each other. If she wants to talk, he’s there for her, if not, that’s OK too because she was, is, and always will be Kara Thrace.
Kara and Sam
Kara told Sam she’d put a bullet in his brain if she ever found out he was a Cylon, but it’s important to go back further, to LDYB, and Kara making Sam promise he’d kill her rather than allow her to be taken prisoner and hooked up to machines at one of the farms. Now, it’s Kara who is confronted with Sam being in some sort of limbo between life and death and making the decision to end his suffering.
But Sam is aware, on some level, of what is happening around him. He awoke just as Kara was about to pull the trigger. He still has more to tell, about the past and possibly about their future. I’m sure he wouldn’t want to live the rest of his life as he is now, but there is more he needs to say before he dies.
And I appreciate the show’s efforts to make it clear that Kara does love Sam. I feel she loves Sam as much as she loves Lee, just in different ways. Unfortunately, it didn’t hit her as to how much he meant to her until he was shot. The bullet was a trigger not just for him, but for her as well. She married him for all the wrong reasons, much as Lee left the military for the wrong reasons, but now she’s faced her feelings for him and realized how much he’s always meant to her.
Athena and Helo
I was waiting for, even hoping for, Athena to tear into Helo. But the silence, it’s a far worse punishment. The only person Helo has to turn to, who understand what he is feeling is Athena, and she is refusing to speak to him. Not only is he left with no one to share his agony with, but he must face that Athena may never forgive him and he’ll have lost his entire family.
Helo and Adama
I said last week I thought Grace Park had one of, if not her finest, acting moments on the series. This week it was Tahmoh’s turn as he was on the brink of emotional collapse. Helo is dealing with the potential lost of everything that matters to him and is begging Adama for one raptor to search for his daughter…and Adama tells him to, “Let it go.” Just when I thought my hate for Adama could not be any greater.
I don’t know which is more infuriating, the callousness of his comment or the hypocrisy. When Kara was missing in AoC/YCGHA, Adama sure as hell didn’t let it go. He risked the entire fleet to try and rescue her and told Lee if it was him they would never leave. And what about taking a raptor to drift in space, hoping his would be girlfriend would show up, and leaving the fleet in the care of Tigh? But Helo is supposed to just suck it up, get over it, and move on. Just like Adama did with Zak. Yeah, right. While any loss of a child is a tragedy, Adama has had five or six years to deal with the loss of his adult son in an accident. Hera is a child who has been gone for a few days, at most, and is likely still alive. There is a huge difference between Lee arguing for the fleet not to be endangered in the search for Hera and risking two people and a raptor and at least letting Helo and Athena try.
Boomer
I thought Boomer might turn the raptor around and return Hera to her parents. Her commitment to the plan, whatever it is, is wavering and I still hold out hope for her redemption. Her reaction also formed a nice parallel with Athena’s crying at the beginning of the episode. Athena is breaking down at the loss of what she had, while Boomer is breaking down at the loss of what could have been and now will never be.
Caprica and Baltar
A very interesting role reversal has taken place. Until now, it has been Caprica who has sought Baltar’s love and acceptance. While I’m not convinced that Caprica doesn’t still harbor some feeling for Baltar, her eyes have been opened to the man he really is. I loved her remark about not wanting to be part of his harem. Though her pregnancy and relationship with Tigh ended in heartache, she has seen the possibility of having something more, a relationship, maybe even a family, and she doesn’t have to settle for being just another notch on Baltar’s bedpost and hoping he’ll notice her
And when the person who helped bring about the near annihilation of humanity can take the moral high ground, Baltar, you have a problem. Caprica has changed. She’s admitted her role in the destruction of the Colonies. She feels guilt. She’s tried to help the fleet when she can with no benefit to herself. But Baltar is still acting as selfishly as ever, now using Kara’s revelation for his own purposes to try and maneuver himself into some sort of leadership position once again.
Laura
I’ve been defending Laura’s characterization the past few weeks. She’s had scenes I loved, particularly the scene with Lee in ‘No Exit’, but her characterization her infuriated me. When she made the comment “Your women” to Adama, I lost it. Laura Roslin is the savior of humanity. She put together a fleet and stopped Adama from making a suicide run against the Cylon fleet. She’s sacrificed herself soul bit by bit, set aside her ideals and beliefs for what she believed to be the greater good. She’s not the person she wanted to be, she became the person she had to be. But, now, on her deathbed, she is lumping herself in with a ship – one she admits Adama loves more than her – and declares the she didn’t truly have a home until the last few months with him. Maybe I’m being overly sensitive and irrational, but I feel like I’m being told that Laura didn’t have happiness and her life wasn’t complete until she had Bill Adama as a partner. Gods forbid she experience fulfillment from personal accomplishments and leading her people.
Random notes…
I now understand why they recast Hera. They needed a child old enough who could act on cue and one that would understand Grace isn’t really mad at her, she’s just acting.
I don't think Cavil means to harm Hera, at least not in the sense of dissecting her and killing her. I suspect he's looking at cloning possibilities and a way to continue the Cylon race if they can't resurrect resurrection technology.
The Six sacrificing herself to save both the Cylon and human crew could prove to be a pivotal moment in unification between the races, as was holding the funerals together. We had not just an embracing of mutual loss, but a sharing of religious beliefs and ceremony.
I thought it was a really cool effect to have Sam’s blinking affect the power drops on Galactica. We had a sense it was happening, but not such a direct acknowledgment of how tied to the ship he had become
Would Lee have put Dee's picture next to where Kara's was on the memorial wall? That seemed a bit odd. I suspect the show just wanted to remind us of a recent loss.
And I hate to tell people how to post, but if anyone is going to discuss spoilers for the finale, clearly mark them as such and put them behind a separate cut tag or something. I almost got spoiled last night and that would have displeased me greatly.
The teaser had visions of the Opera House, strains of ‘All Along the Watchtower’, and Hera in CIC ramming a Galactica model into a basestar model. At the close of the episode, Adama informs to Tigh that he intends to send Galactica off in style. The two scenes I feel play into each other. I can’t imagine Adama will allow the other ships captains to strip Galactica to the bones as they want. Perhaps part of the end game is Adama and Tigh at the helm of Galactica making a suicide run to destroy The Colony. Adama is about to lose Laura and his ship. Adama and Galactica are the two most important things in Tigh’s life. Neither man seems to have much to live for at this point.
Lee
I’m going to break my silence on the subject and talk about Lee’s hair. Personally, I’ve always liked the longer hair on Jamie, but it was particularly unruly in this episode. I think hair was being used as a story telling device. Lee’s was kind of a mess. Kara’s looked (no pun intended) lifeless. Tigh hadn’t shaved in days. Athena looked (justifiably) terrible. Hair was another indication of how bad things now are. These people are doing the bare minimum they must do in order to face the day.
For a moment I was horrified at Lee’s reaction to looking for The Colony and risking everything for a child, but I quickly realized this was very much in character. Lee argued against going back to New Caprica for the very same reason – the possibility of losing everything and for humanity ceasing to exist.
Lee and Kara
I hope you are sitting down for what I am about to state. I really, really liked the scene between Lee and Kara. I was curious as to how a scene between the two would play out once the truth about Kara was revealed. Lee’s grown to much as a person to have the same selfish, childish, and assholish reactions he did when he found out about Kara and Baltar in KLG or when Kara returned with Athena in tow in ‘Home’. I had envisioned him asking her, calmly and quietly, why she hadn’t told him sooner and Kara pointing out she tried, but, well, his wife had just committed suicide. But I like the way it was handled here much better.
Lee has come further than even I gave him credit for. He accepts who she is without hesitation or judgment (a point alluded to in his talk with Adama in ‘He That Believeth in Me’). He doesn’t care that he wasn’t the first person she turned to or what her reasons were for keeping the information for so long to herself. None of it matters. What matters is, after everything they’ve been through, they are both still here. It ties to what Laura said to Adama. What is home? Is it an actual place or longing for something, a connection? We have Lee’s answer. Kara Thrace is home to Lee Adama. They’ve lost the colonies. They’ve lost friends and family. They’re about to lose Galactica. The future is uncertain. But right here, right now, they have each other. If she wants to talk, he’s there for her, if not, that’s OK too because she was, is, and always will be Kara Thrace.
Kara and Sam
Kara told Sam she’d put a bullet in his brain if she ever found out he was a Cylon, but it’s important to go back further, to LDYB, and Kara making Sam promise he’d kill her rather than allow her to be taken prisoner and hooked up to machines at one of the farms. Now, it’s Kara who is confronted with Sam being in some sort of limbo between life and death and making the decision to end his suffering.
But Sam is aware, on some level, of what is happening around him. He awoke just as Kara was about to pull the trigger. He still has more to tell, about the past and possibly about their future. I’m sure he wouldn’t want to live the rest of his life as he is now, but there is more he needs to say before he dies.
And I appreciate the show’s efforts to make it clear that Kara does love Sam. I feel she loves Sam as much as she loves Lee, just in different ways. Unfortunately, it didn’t hit her as to how much he meant to her until he was shot. The bullet was a trigger not just for him, but for her as well. She married him for all the wrong reasons, much as Lee left the military for the wrong reasons, but now she’s faced her feelings for him and realized how much he’s always meant to her.
Athena and Helo
I was waiting for, even hoping for, Athena to tear into Helo. But the silence, it’s a far worse punishment. The only person Helo has to turn to, who understand what he is feeling is Athena, and she is refusing to speak to him. Not only is he left with no one to share his agony with, but he must face that Athena may never forgive him and he’ll have lost his entire family.
Helo and Adama
I said last week I thought Grace Park had one of, if not her finest, acting moments on the series. This week it was Tahmoh’s turn as he was on the brink of emotional collapse. Helo is dealing with the potential lost of everything that matters to him and is begging Adama for one raptor to search for his daughter…and Adama tells him to, “Let it go.” Just when I thought my hate for Adama could not be any greater.
I don’t know which is more infuriating, the callousness of his comment or the hypocrisy. When Kara was missing in AoC/YCGHA, Adama sure as hell didn’t let it go. He risked the entire fleet to try and rescue her and told Lee if it was him they would never leave. And what about taking a raptor to drift in space, hoping his would be girlfriend would show up, and leaving the fleet in the care of Tigh? But Helo is supposed to just suck it up, get over it, and move on. Just like Adama did with Zak. Yeah, right. While any loss of a child is a tragedy, Adama has had five or six years to deal with the loss of his adult son in an accident. Hera is a child who has been gone for a few days, at most, and is likely still alive. There is a huge difference between Lee arguing for the fleet not to be endangered in the search for Hera and risking two people and a raptor and at least letting Helo and Athena try.
Boomer
I thought Boomer might turn the raptor around and return Hera to her parents. Her commitment to the plan, whatever it is, is wavering and I still hold out hope for her redemption. Her reaction also formed a nice parallel with Athena’s crying at the beginning of the episode. Athena is breaking down at the loss of what she had, while Boomer is breaking down at the loss of what could have been and now will never be.
Caprica and Baltar
A very interesting role reversal has taken place. Until now, it has been Caprica who has sought Baltar’s love and acceptance. While I’m not convinced that Caprica doesn’t still harbor some feeling for Baltar, her eyes have been opened to the man he really is. I loved her remark about not wanting to be part of his harem. Though her pregnancy and relationship with Tigh ended in heartache, she has seen the possibility of having something more, a relationship, maybe even a family, and she doesn’t have to settle for being just another notch on Baltar’s bedpost and hoping he’ll notice her
And when the person who helped bring about the near annihilation of humanity can take the moral high ground, Baltar, you have a problem. Caprica has changed. She’s admitted her role in the destruction of the Colonies. She feels guilt. She’s tried to help the fleet when she can with no benefit to herself. But Baltar is still acting as selfishly as ever, now using Kara’s revelation for his own purposes to try and maneuver himself into some sort of leadership position once again.
Laura
I’ve been defending Laura’s characterization the past few weeks. She’s had scenes I loved, particularly the scene with Lee in ‘No Exit’, but her characterization her infuriated me. When she made the comment “Your women” to Adama, I lost it. Laura Roslin is the savior of humanity. She put together a fleet and stopped Adama from making a suicide run against the Cylon fleet. She’s sacrificed herself soul bit by bit, set aside her ideals and beliefs for what she believed to be the greater good. She’s not the person she wanted to be, she became the person she had to be. But, now, on her deathbed, she is lumping herself in with a ship – one she admits Adama loves more than her – and declares the she didn’t truly have a home until the last few months with him. Maybe I’m being overly sensitive and irrational, but I feel like I’m being told that Laura didn’t have happiness and her life wasn’t complete until she had Bill Adama as a partner. Gods forbid she experience fulfillment from personal accomplishments and leading her people.
Random notes…
I now understand why they recast Hera. They needed a child old enough who could act on cue and one that would understand Grace isn’t really mad at her, she’s just acting.
I don't think Cavil means to harm Hera, at least not in the sense of dissecting her and killing her. I suspect he's looking at cloning possibilities and a way to continue the Cylon race if they can't resurrect resurrection technology.
The Six sacrificing herself to save both the Cylon and human crew could prove to be a pivotal moment in unification between the races, as was holding the funerals together. We had not just an embracing of mutual loss, but a sharing of religious beliefs and ceremony.
I thought it was a really cool effect to have Sam’s blinking affect the power drops on Galactica. We had a sense it was happening, but not such a direct acknowledgment of how tied to the ship he had become
Would Lee have put Dee's picture next to where Kara's was on the memorial wall? That seemed a bit odd. I suspect the show just wanted to remind us of a recent loss.
And I hate to tell people how to post, but if anyone is going to discuss spoilers for the finale, clearly mark them as such and put them behind a separate cut tag or something. I almost got spoiled last night and that would have displeased me greatly.
You're not being overly sensitive and irrational. Or if you are, you're not alone. There were aspects of this episode that I liked very much (there were even aspects of that A/R scene that I liked very much), but I still think my own ep post must begin with LAURA ROSLIN IS NO MAN'S "WOMAN"!!!!!!!! *OMGSTABBITY*
I feel like I don't have a great deal more to add because we're very much in agreement about this ep, I think. Though even as I was nodding to all your particulars I sense that your overall impression of both the episode and where the show is at this point is more positive than mine, and I envy you that. I'm...really not that excited about the last three hours. Partly I'm dreading what they might do, and partly I'm just so tired of being disappointed that I just want the damned thing to be over, and the amount of hope that I have that it will be awesome is diminishing--mostly because I'm afraid to get my hopes up, I think. *sigh*
Even with my rage on Laura's behalf, I did find a lot to like about the episode and I am looking forward to the final three hours. I'm actually contemplating doing a post where I explain where I'm at with the series. One thing I feel is helping my continued enjoyment is I've never had any expectations for the ending. That may be a first for me. Usually I have a relationship I want to see have closure or there are plot points I feel should be resolved in a certain way and I have none of that with BSG. I'd be shocked if I had nothing to complain about with the finale, but I don't expect to be disappointed because I haven't set myself up for the possibility.
The problem for me with Kara and Sam is that they've sold it too well. It's probably just because I was never a Kara/Lee shipper but I'm not convinced that the best thematic ending for Kara's plot is Kara/Sam rather than Kara/Lee and I doubt the show agrees with me. *sigh*
Also complete agreement on Helo. That scene with Adama was brilliant. Props to Tahmoh Penikett: I didn't know he had it in him.
Regarding Laura, I am keeping myself sane by viewing the WHOLE THING as Laura very gently convincing Adama to stop being selfish and leave abandon the damn ship. Because having to think about it on any other level makes me want to cry and throw things. Because yeah. "I never had a home," maybe isn't literally conflating that with feeling like her entire life before was pointless, but it's damn close because "home" evokes such personal, close emotional responses in us.
As to Adama himself. I just... I... There really aren't words, are there? The mind actually boggles. He's such an enormous jerk. I just hope he goes down with his ship when the time comes.
I also agree with you about Baltar. It's really nice to see him having to chase Caprica for once, but Caprica is bang on the money. He hasn't changed. Except, perhaps, that I believe he genuinely loves her now, but all his other issues - his need to be the specialist and most important and have it all be about him - they're still there. He was never a cruel person; he always liked doing things for others when they then acted like he was so great for having done it. These aren't signs f character growth.
Finally, YES, the blinking with Sam was great!
I mean, basically I agree with you. I liked this episode okay with the exception of Laura's characterisation and the overarching ickiness of NOTHING ever being told from Caprica's perspective. The main reason I thought it was okay not great is because I'm so angsted up about the endgame and whether that will suck.
Sorry to butt in here! That was my reading. She was speaking in Bill-speak to get through to him. And how do you do it? Soften him up. She uses that all as a setup to get to the point she shifts to suddenly at the end: it's not this phyiscal place or this ship that matters. It's all your people in it. (And I also thought "you probably love this ship more than me" was her joke.)
Overall, I thought the whole theme of this ep was how people needed each other, and that means everybody -- even Boomer, needing that little contact with Hera -- and not just how women needed men to feel fulfilled. But that's just my view.
I don't think anyone has an issue with Laura needing Bill. And I loved her comments on what makes a home. I can't say I would even have a problem if she had stated she felt like she had made a home with Bill on Galactica. But where my anger arises is when they chose to have Laura look back at her life and declare that she never had a home - which most people equate with happiness - until the last few months spent with Bill. She's done so many amazing and heartbreaking things over the years and to have that overshadowed because she's had a boyfriend to love the past few months (a loser boyfriend at that, imho) and now that is the focus of her final days, it's very, very disappointing.
I guess the difference is that I don't have the same take on "I don’t think I’ve ever felt truly at home until these last few months, here with you." I don't doubt that she felt at home in her childhood home and other places she'd lived, it's just that she feels more of that sense of connection (which she equated 'home' with in her previous sentence) in these last days with him. I also don't think that had anything to do with her professional life or achievements; I think she's talking strictly about her personal life, and that's quite separate from her satisfaction with her job. But I respect, of course, that it's a matter of individual interpretation.
Uncomplicated may be the key. When has their relationship ever been uncomplicated? It hasn't, until now. And it's such a relief!
I don't know who, if anybody, Kara will end up with. At this point I wouldn't upset if she ended up staying with Sam or going off to be with Lee. She is married to Sam, she now realizes how much she loves him, and she just wouldn't be honoring her vows. And now that Kara and Lee have grown, separately, and are much more emotionally mature, I could see them having a relatively healthy relationship. But can Sam recover? And, if he can't, would he want Kara to stay with him or go be happy with Lee?
He was never a cruel person; he always liked doing things for others when they then acted like he was so great for having done it.
It just hit me. While Baltar and Adama are both extremely selfish, Baltar has never been cruel, either intentionally or unintentionally because of his selfishness. A large part of that is he wants everyone to think well of him and love him, but it's still a good quality that he doesn't wish to hurt people. Adama, on the other hand, knows on some level his words and actions hurt those closest to him and he doesn't care. If he's hurting, screw everyone else. So, Gaius Baltar, who helped bring about the destruction of the colonies, albeit unknowingly, and aided the Cylons on New Caprica, unwillingly, is a better human being than the Great Bill Adama. Sigh.
AHAHAHAHAAAAHA!
I like this point. I half agree with it. I think the thing that gives me pause in saying he's never been intentionally cruel (intentionally because, well running around cheating on people is cruel to them, but it's not his goal, which at least makes it not spiteful or vindictive) is that when he doesn't get what he wants he has a tendency to act like a spoiled child. Which I think does spill over into cruelty.
He provokes Roslin into outlawing abortion so he could take the stand as a "man of the people," then landed them on a rock where he knew they wouldn't be safe because he knew there were still cylon agents in the Fleet, and then never actually unbanned abortion, just because Laura wrote him a mean letter.
But you do make me realise something. Caprica wasn't entirely right when she said that Baltar hadn't changed. He has. I honestly don't think he's anywhere near as petty or spiteful as he used to be. Not that he used to be that that frequently. His major failings were his narcissism and desire to be a special snowflake to the point that he'd invent an entire new religion so that he never did anything wrong in the first place, and those are still his failings. And still things he hasn't completely changed about himself.
But while I think he'd be hurt, I no longer think he'd respond in the same way to a letter like that from Laura. And I suppose that constitutes character growth.
I agree. Because he may not have taken a long, hard look at himself, but he has opened his eyes to how other people see him and I think has acknowledged that at least some of what they say about him is true. So if someone makes accusations about his character now, as Caprica did, he may be hurt, even petulant, but he doesn't get so defensive and start acting as if they are crazy. But from Caprica's perspective, she's embraced the truth of what she did and has made huge concessions in her life and Baltar has only take a few baby steps and stumbled while taking them.
As for Laura, I'm thinking it's the fact she is very soon going to die and the only thing she can focus on are the very personal moments of the coming end. Death is the ultimate battle and the one you will be fighting alone. Maybe at the end of the day, what you recognize is that you found some semblence of personal happiness and want to acknowledge that while there is still time. It may help her face this last battle. Also, I think Laura is the type of person who would try and give comfort to those she's leaving behind. Adama would want to think Laura thinks he's all that. Personally, I think she has lousy taste in men.
HA! I would have to agree with you. ;) And maybe if Adama wasn't a self-centered, hypocritical, emo, embittered alcoholic I'd have less of an issue with Laura's declaration. In general, I have a huge issue with women (and the writers who write them) believing happiness can only be achieved because you're in a relationship. And to be told the savior of humanity, who sacrificed so much of herself along the way for the sake of her people, is experiencing some sort of personal bliss in her final months with what many would consider a loser...I just have trouble accepting that. I'm trying to let your opinion (as well as others) that she was manipulating Adama to bolster his ego and make him face what he needed to face influence how I view her scenes, but it's not easy!
I think I had partially blocked that out; I think it's been an increasing problem for most of the female characters on the show that the seem to exist in relationship to men or plot devices this season, but none more so than Laura. Then again, Adama's character arc in general has been a vortex of suck, and possibly Laura just got caught in the gale-force winds.
I really like your reminder about Kara and Sam's conversation about the farm, and how both of them felt about being hooked up to machines.
The writers have turned Adama into such a loathsome character and we're expected to believe that Laura loves this man and he's brought her great happiness??? Sorry, I can't buy it.
I loved the Lee/Kara scene. It's a totally loving, accepting relationship they have now, doesn't matter if it's platonic or romantic.
I was cheering Caprica on when she was telling Baltar off. And cheering Kara on when she slapped his face.
Actually, I think Laura is a smart woman (though even smart women can have lousy taste in men). I think she was trying to tell Bill that things don't matter, people do, and that it doesn't matter where you are as long as you have the people you care about around you. And it worked - he's leaving the ship. I have to admit that the only time I can feel some empathy for Bill is when he's talking with Saul. I pity them both for feeling they don't have anything in their lives (or so they think) than that old bucket.
Though he was so totally wrong when he denied Helo a ship. Let the poor guy go search for his daughter, what harm could it have done?
But not out an airlock! Sorry, had to say it!
Anyways. Lee's hair freaked me out a bit this episode. Helo, Athena and Boomer broke my heart (particularly Tahmoh's performance, which, considering I watched this ep right after watching the latest Dollhouse, made for a bit of cognative dissonance, let me tell you).
As for Laura - I just can't reconcile myself with the person she's become. I've "hated" some of the changes she's gone through, in that I hate that it came to comprimising herself like that, but I've always loved the character. Now now only has Laura Roslin become a shadow of herself, her character has become a shadow of itself. Bill Adama's shadow, actually, and that's just not cool.
I couldn't imagine watching Dollhouse then BSG. Paul is such a cardboard character and, thanks to Tahmoh's performance in this ep, I now know who is to blame. ;)
I've hated some of the choices Laura has made, but I always understood why she felt she had to make them. She compromised herself and her ideals because she believed it was in the best interests of humanity's survival. Now, she is sacrificing herself to play the role of girlfriend and prop up her self-centered, alcoholic boyfriend on her deathbed and, no, it's not cool.
I agree, if Sam is still in there somewhere, then, no, I don't think he wants to die because there is so much more he feels he needs to say. I'm not so sure Kara killing Sam was just about her. I understand that she felt the Sam she knew and loved was gone, but I think it's very human to not want to see the person you love suffer or to exist in a semi-conscious state and that was ultimately her reason for almost doing what she did.
At this point, once the series ends I'm tempted to do a Why I Despise William Adama essay. If he best represented humankind I'd be rooting for Cavil. :p
Lee's hair-I hadn't thought about it being a sign of what is happening. But you're right, I'm sure they are doing the bare minimum. I think I must be in the minority, in that I much prefer Lee with shorter hair. But, that is just my overall preference. I also find it amusing that a whole paragraph can be written about Jamie Bamber's hair. :op But it's all in the little details.
Hera-I must be all kinds of blind because I didn't even notice she had been recast. I just remember thinking how cute she was. lol.
My poor Helo! I completely understand Athena's reaction, but this is Helo. He stood by her through everything. They need to stick together.
I don't remember looking so forward to and dreading the end of series.
I've purposely been avoiding a discussion of Lee's hair because my feeling is it's just hair, but it actually seemed like hair was making a statement in this episode. Or maybe they ran out of gel. ;)
Re: Hera, last week I wasn't sure they recast until I saw it confirmed by people on my Flist. This week I felt it was more obvious, mostly because we got to see the kid in daylight. According to Michael Taylor, the child is 16 months older than the other Hera and they needed a child who could better play scenes.
Aye, so that's what happened. No more hair gel. Lee must have been upset! ~:op
Re: Hera-I usually notice things like that. I must really be off my game. I'll be doing a mini-marathon before the finale so I'll watch for it.
Angeli: Eddie had the benefit of a new actress playing Hera. And if I’m not mistaken, the little girl playing her is about 16 months older than the original Hera, who, as adorable as she was seemed to be channeling Betty Davis in “Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”
They thought she was creepy too!
What if Athena dies? And Boomer brings Hera back? And Helo is so lost at Athena's death, and Boomer is so lost at Tyrol's rejection ('cause there's no way he'd want her back now, even if he survives himself), that Helo and Boomer end up as Hera's parents?
That would be a mind-frak and about as screwed up a twist as anything, wouldn't it?