Everybody Loves Saturday Night

BSG: Relevations / Mid-season Finale

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS / CALLSIGN: DUFF

Dear Carrie, first I have to say Thank You to you and the Pants because it was your effusiveness over BSG that finally got me into watching it and it's so blown past my expectations of excellence into some other stratosphere of awesomeness. Last week watching Revelations, I think I might have turned blue from holding my breath!! What were your first impressions of the mid-season finale??

ATHENS, GEORGIA / CALLSIGN: SCHMOO

Dear Carolyn, First of all, WHY are they doing this to us? Why are they waiting until 2009 to show more episodes? Seriously, screw you, Sci-Fi channel. Because this episode was so good that I don't really know if I can wait until NEXT YEAR to get my questions answered. sniff.

BUT. here are my initial impressions of the mid-season finale:

• I was surprised that they just revealed the Final Four to the rest of the Battlestar so quickly - at first, I was disappointed that it wasn't drawn out more. But the emotional reactions of the major players were totally awesome - Adama's crazy drunken sobfest, and Starbuck's simple, subtle reaction - loved it. I also loved how Tory immediately started lording her Cylon-ness over Laura Roslin (frankly, Roslin's been so mean lately that she sort of deserved it.)
• The scenes where Lee and D'anna were trying to force each other's hand - amazing. I was on the edge of my seat for that whole sequence of events - killing the first hostage (wonder who that was?), Saul Tigh in the airlock, the nukes aimed at the fleet...it was so. intense. I really thought Saul was going out the back of the ship for sure.

What were your favorite parts?

DUFF:

The SciFi channel clearly has on their STUPID hats, I KNOW!!!!  I am convinced that if they were just running the rest of season 4 right now without interruption, the ratings would be off the hook. And as I know I've obsessively emailed you before, there is NO WAY all the secrets of those final episodes will stay underwraps for the next six months. This isn't a show like, say, Bones with only a few main characters and very few "extras" involved. Given the size of the cast and crew and all the spoiler sites out there... What are we supposed to do, ban the Internet from our lives until 2009?  Very bad programming decision!!!  Could potentially ruin the last half season of an awesome show!

As to this actual episode, there were a lot of little moments I loved!!  Including, damn it girl, all the ones you already mentioned!!! (So subtle on Kara's part, LOVED that!) But also:

• I loved the little glances and headshakes of Lee and Roslin silently commiserating over the Admiral as he sits there sulking in his bathrobe between them. When he walks off to get dressed, they have this tiny exchange like "well now, it's come to this?"
• I loved Colonel Tigh's incredible posture in this episode! In every scene, you saw him square his shoulders, shoot upright and go marching off...determined to be the best and proudest no matter how humiliated he feels at discovering himself a Cylon.
• Visually I just loved what they did between flying down to earth (crazy blue, blue sky and clouds and just amazing scenery to be flying through) and then the aftermatch (still tinged with blue, but now a steel blue, flattened, washed out, desolute blue). The people reflecting in their skin and clothing tones the destruction around them, it was so effective moodwise!!
• I loved Dee being the severe strict taskmistress at the airlock controls: "Mr Hoshi, we need..."; felt like she was silently giving Lee a little "I will match your sternness with my own sternness to totally back you up here!!" push.

That said, there were a lot of things that felt missing about this episode. I mean, hello, Helo, Athena and (any) Six are almost not even in it, less than two full minutes of screen time each. What's that about? Will we get a big "flashbacks to the other stuff that went on during Revelations" episode when the show returns? What did you think this episode left out?

SCHMOO:

I knew you were going to mention the lack of Helo.  ha.

But, I think you're right. There was definitely some stuff missing. I am thinking that the first show they air after the hiatus will sort of be a continuation of this episode and maybe fill in some of the time gaps. I read somewhere else that they sure were quick to forgive/release the Cylons (like Athena, who was jailed for killing Natalie, and the Final Four). That did ring a little untrue to me - I know they were trying to show D'anna that they wanted to make a truce, but seriously? And, how long did it take them to get to Earth? It wasn't just one jump, right?

Even though they did squeeze a whole lot into the episode, I was still really satisfied.  I got to see a lot of interactions that they had been building up, like Saul's confession to Adama, AND they made it to Earth.  Or did they?!?!?!?!

DUFF:

But of course Helo's absence was really the big thing of the episode right? Hahahaha

No really what the lack of him, and Sharon, and Six made me think about was here in the last season suddenly a couple randoms (Tory and D'anna) have been given much larger roles and some of the people who basically had their own personal season-long story arcs in previous season have just vanished from one of the most dramatic episodes ever (and several of the previous eps as well). So either we later get some fill-in on them...or their characters just take a backseat going forward? (No, please no.)

Yeah that whole "I've granted the four of them a pardon" or whatever was weird, right. A pardon for what, for being Cylons even though they did nothing Cylon-ish? I mean other than Tory, the others have certainly continued to faithfully carry out their duties and support the human cause despite their realizations that they actually weren't human.

I think it took more than one jump...but maybe not that many. I mean how far do we think colonial distress signals travel? Somehow the viper was picking it up so couldn't have been whole galaxies away.

OK and the whole is it Earth or is it New York or is it San Fran (or Tokyo or wherever the frak) thing is driving me NUTS!!!  I used to love perusing the Ravelry Battlestar forum but now everyday the only new posts are "no, you're wrong, it's New York" and "no, you're wrong, it's not". Hello it is a fictional show, does it have to tie up EXACTLY with the real world???

At this point, clearly the characters DO believe it IS earth. So I think the question should be not "is it Earth?", but "was Earth really the final destination the prophecies referred to?" Perhaps the mistake was tying "promised land" and "Earth" into one...

Every propechy from either the colonial's "bible" or whatever AND those from the hybrids is clearly open to many interpretations.

So...what is either your hope for the rest or your guess? What do you want to happen? Or what do you think will happen, whether you want it to or not?

SCHMOO:

Hmm. 

I think the reveal of the Fifth Cylon is going to be really important to WHY Earth is all burned out and wasted away, but I don't know that I have a guess for that - maybe the Fifth Cylon is orchestrating all of this from somewhere? I also think we will learn a lot more about Hera and her importance to this whole big plan. I really do want more details about how they got to this point.

I'm not good at predictions.  I like happy endings, so I'd love it if Lee and Starbuck got together and and Laura and Bill lived happily every after and Gaius and his harem got booted out the airlock, but I kinda think that's NOT going to happen.

What about you?

DUFF:

What I think is going to happen and what I would hope in a perfect Duff-controlled universe would happen are very different.  I would hope that Hera and Nicky would be very important to the final story; that we get to see some kind of confrontation/discussion between Chief Tyrol and either Boomer or Athena (hello, we could have been Cylon lovers together!); that those #6/Ellen Tigh back and forths will stop because seeing Ellen's head atop Six's body is frakking spooky; that Starbuck would go back to being the tough sassy kickass she was in earlier seasons (and maybe kill Leoben in the process, I HATE the Leobens) and (indeed) wind up getting over her fear of loving Lee; that Helo will NOT be the Fifth Cylon; that they would do another episode as awesome as the boxing one from season 3 (my favorite, even if there isn't enough Helo) was in terms of "revelations" about what they glossed over in this episode; that it will be less religious or at least if it is religious that the people of "many gods" will win instead of the people of "one god" and please less Jesus-y stuff with Baltar (Baltar is my Dad's favorite character right now, I mean after "smoking #6" as he calls her, but he's only starting season 2 so he just DOESN'T KNOW YET, ya know?) and that Baltar becomes LESS important than it seems that he is meant to become.  And despite thinking the humans, hybrids and Cylons working together is a "good" message, I don't want it.  I want some more fucking space battles.  I want to see Viper pilots kicking some Cylon butt.

But I THINK ... I think a lot of bad shit is going to go down.  I think at least two or maybe three major characters are certainly doomed.  I think whoever the Fifth Cylon is, it's going to be a major punch to the gut.  And I think the ending is going to be something along the lines of "humans just have to keep going and ENDURE, because that's what being human is" and certainly no dream of Utopia is ever going to either a) come true or b) be where we wind up, although it may be a step along the way, it will always only be temporary.

Frak I love this show.

Smooches! 

p.s. Lookout DragonCon because here we frakkin' come.

Oh, Dotcom, I love you.

Note: at the end of this post, which is mostly about sitcoms, I have some info on Battlestar Galactica--just to warn those of you who aren't caught up with Season 4 yet.

So, I meant to start writing up more TV shows because you know, they're on again and all, but life sorta intervened and things got all frakked* and anyway, now I'm back.

And then I was going to write about both 30 Rock and The Office, only neither show was very good, I thought--particularly The Office this week. Yeah, we had the development of Jim and Pam's relationship, but am I the only one in thinking that Jim's approach to proposing to Pam is incredibly insensitive and out of character? And of course she would play along because she's Pam. Maybe it's me, but I don't think you should tease someone who once called off her own engagement because of you. (is it me? am I alone on this?) The rest of the episode I thought was one of the blandest shows they've had ever. It was nowhere near last week's cringe-inducing, often painful, and yet painfully funny "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" episode, which I thought was near-brilliant (though that also might have been in part due to my sheer delight at having this show back on the air).

30 Rock this week I also thought was a bit unfocused and not as sharply funny as it has been. My favorite part, the only part that is still making me giggle, is Dotcom's response to Jack's calling the Republican Party the Party of Abraham Lincoln (in an attempt to get Tracy to appear as the token celebrity at this fundraiser for McCain). He says that because Lincoln fought a war to preserve the federal government, among other things, that the Republican party of today would be unrecognizable to Lincoln. Jack tells him that his "need to be the smartest guy in the room is offputting," to which Dotcom replies, "I guess that's why I'm still single." Oh, Dotcom.

* yes, in other news, I am completely caught up with Battlestar Galactica, but haven't been able to write about it or frame any real coherent thought about it except for "holy crap!" I absolutely loved the last episode, "Six of One," in which a Six (who looks like Gina?) brings the Centurions on to eliminate the "skin job" Cylons who voted to lobotomize the Raiders--I just had the slightest pang of empathy for those Centurions, you know? To be given free thought and then learn that your cousins or whatever are being punished for expressing theirs? Oof. I also loved, absolutely LOVED, Gaius seeing Chip Gaius (for lack of a better term). "Oh, my giddy aunt!" has become my new exclamation.

Holy Frak!

I've been thinking about what Starbuck's "destiny" could be, and I've been rather stumped.  I would like to believe the producers wouldn't make Boomer and Starbuck, two male  (human) characters from the original, both females and cylons.  But if she's not a cylon, what kind of destiny would she have that would involve the character further?  What is "between life and death"?

Seems to me that she will either have to be some kind of "angel" that visits the other characters (sounds hokey) or maybe the cylons will be able to build a cylon version of Starbuck and it would bring the cylons and people together?  Any other ideas?

BG 3.5.01

Okay, I need me a Battlestar Galactica category!

I was very excited for last night's episode.  In the month between season 3.0 and 3.5, I watched the entire show so far.  Now I'm all caught up and ready for the new!

Last night's episode did not disappoint!  Besides the Lee/Kara/Dee/Sam story (which makes me want to cringe) I was very happy.  So, the 5 remaining cylons... obviously one of them (at least) is someone we know.  The question is, who would D'Anna apologize to?  Adama and Roslin are obvious choices, but I think Roslin is out, as a cylon wouldn't have had terminal cancer.  Adama is out because of his kids, if we assume that cylon models aren't clones of existing humans, and that Hera is the first hybrid child.  I know this sounds crazy, but what about Tigh?  Or Cottle?  Obviously she could have been apologizing to Baltar, and they could be faking us out with him constantly asking if he is.

As for other possible cylons, Anders is pretty high up on my list.  It is a bit suspicious that Kara met him and then Simon told her that they could hook her up with someone (a cylon-y someone) that she'd like.  Dee would be interesting, because if she is a cylon, it would make Leoben's assertion that "Adama's a cylon" currently true..although not at the time since she hadn't married Lee yet...  Cally and the Chief are probably out of the question, due to their ease of reproduction.   Could Zarek be a cylon?   

I read something about the possibility of a character that we've seen die coming back as a cylon, such as Kat, Ellen, Billy or Elosha.  Somehow I doubt it, but it could be interesting.

So according to Ronald D. Moore, the 12 cylon models represent the 12 archetypes of something or other.  I wish I knew more about that so I could geek out trying to figure out who's who of our current 7.  Gotta guess that Six is the Lover/Seducer, right?