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oh, look, I have thoughts!
Spoilers, duh.
Lovely episode. Funny and yet even some of those funny moments are really not that funny when you think about the implications -- like Baltar talking to the Centurion. So funny, yet WTF was he doing?!?! Trying to get the Centurions to rise up against the Humlons when he's on board a base ship already in the middle of a Cylon civil war? He's so careless and self-centered, and that makes him so dangerous. He doesn't even need malice to do damage.
The theme of being worthy of survival sure took center stage again in the person of Roslin. To help her people survive and face her own imminent death, she's been cutting off her humanity. Here, she's going to betray their new allies again (after already deciding to betray them by keeping the Five), by not even letting the Cylons hear the identity of the Five.
And of course, letting Baltar die, after she's heard confirmation that he sold out humanity to the Cylons AND he's decided that God absolved him of it.
His vision is not, it turns out, that different from Tory- he thinks God forgives and absolves him for everything; she takes that one scarier step further by deciding everything she WILL do is already forgiven. And I don't think it's an accident that Baltar's got a wound in his side and he's dying, -- I think we're meant to take that parallel and all the connotations it raises with Christianity but notice how he's subverting that idea and taking the easy path. He's left out atonement, even remorse, in his idea of absolution. Baltar is exactly what Head!Elosha was warning Laura against -- salvation is not a vending machine; if you don't get the road to Earth in exchange for saving your enemy's life, you certainly don't get absolution for genocide in exchange for nothing at all. So, no, I doubt we're supposed to believe Baltar is right. His ideas may be powerfully attractive to people with no hope, but also dangerous.
What's even more interesting to me is wondering if he's really following the Cylon God. Because if so, then the Cylon God is a force for destruction. PERHAPS a force for renewal in the wake of destruction as well (thus the Flood), but I am not so sure about that, right now, since Baltar's acceptance of that idea reads as facile self-justification to me.
Musing more about the Cylon God:
If head!Elosha is the same sort of being as Head!Leoben (and not a manifestation of Laura's subconscious), is she a part of the Cylon god or in opposition to it? Or in other words, is there one neutral force/deity at work? Or two, working to cross-purposes?
If the Five Priests supported the One who tried to elevate himself above the others (the Cylon God, surely), are the Final Five related to that directly? Or is this a case of the roles changing for the new cycle, that this time the Five are against ("last time I was the interrogator...").
(Sorry, I've been trying to figure out some workable Cosmology for a Sekrit Project, so it's kind of a current hobbyhorse)
*
Moving on,
D'ANNA PWNS EVERYONE.
Damn. She kills Cavil (WOOT! - him and his "Pet Eight" ewww). She plays the best joke EVER on Laura (which played even better than I expected from the preview).
She's also the last Three in the universe. And does she sit around feeling sorry for herself? Uh huh. She wakes up, reads the situation and positions herself to protect herself as best she can, now that she's mortal.
Also, Helo (and Tahmoh) are of the AWESOME. All the awkwardness and strangeness of where he is and what he's doing hit home. And how creepy was it to know that other Eight had Athena's memories of him with her? He handled it well all things considered, but, damn. And that moment when he sees all the Eight bodies -- one part, 'if we destroy this, Sharon can never come back if she dies" and one part, "this is creeping me out".
How can Mary McDonnell be so awesome? Delivering zingers to Helo and head!Elosha and Baltar and then nearly throw up on him in utter revulsion and then also portray Laura's Death in the SAME frakking episode? *sigh*
The scene at the end -- I got something in my eye. yes. Such a perfect arc we've had for them this season. Which means it's doomed, doesn't it? *cries*
I'm sure there's more to say (SPACE BATTLES! SIXES AND EIGHTS IN PILOT OUTFITS! THAT HYBIRD ACTRESS DESERVES A FRAKKING EMMY!) There's a whole 'nother post in my head vaguely about Eights and Sharon and Athena and identity and all those cool things.
But all I can think about now is:
NEXT WEEK IS GOING TO KILL ME.
And now that I got season 4 out of my head, maybe I can concentrate on Season Two and Three again!
Spoilers, duh.
Lovely episode. Funny and yet even some of those funny moments are really not that funny when you think about the implications -- like Baltar talking to the Centurion. So funny, yet WTF was he doing?!?! Trying to get the Centurions to rise up against the Humlons when he's on board a base ship already in the middle of a Cylon civil war? He's so careless and self-centered, and that makes him so dangerous. He doesn't even need malice to do damage.
The theme of being worthy of survival sure took center stage again in the person of Roslin. To help her people survive and face her own imminent death, she's been cutting off her humanity. Here, she's going to betray their new allies again (after already deciding to betray them by keeping the Five), by not even letting the Cylons hear the identity of the Five.
And of course, letting Baltar die, after she's heard confirmation that he sold out humanity to the Cylons AND he's decided that God absolved him of it.
His vision is not, it turns out, that different from Tory- he thinks God forgives and absolves him for everything; she takes that one scarier step further by deciding everything she WILL do is already forgiven. And I don't think it's an accident that Baltar's got a wound in his side and he's dying, -- I think we're meant to take that parallel and all the connotations it raises with Christianity but notice how he's subverting that idea and taking the easy path. He's left out atonement, even remorse, in his idea of absolution. Baltar is exactly what Head!Elosha was warning Laura against -- salvation is not a vending machine; if you don't get the road to Earth in exchange for saving your enemy's life, you certainly don't get absolution for genocide in exchange for nothing at all. So, no, I doubt we're supposed to believe Baltar is right. His ideas may be powerfully attractive to people with no hope, but also dangerous.
What's even more interesting to me is wondering if he's really following the Cylon God. Because if so, then the Cylon God is a force for destruction. PERHAPS a force for renewal in the wake of destruction as well (thus the Flood), but I am not so sure about that, right now, since Baltar's acceptance of that idea reads as facile self-justification to me.
Musing more about the Cylon God:
If head!Elosha is the same sort of being as Head!Leoben (and not a manifestation of Laura's subconscious), is she a part of the Cylon god or in opposition to it? Or in other words, is there one neutral force/deity at work? Or two, working to cross-purposes?
If the Five Priests supported the One who tried to elevate himself above the others (the Cylon God, surely), are the Final Five related to that directly? Or is this a case of the roles changing for the new cycle, that this time the Five are against ("last time I was the interrogator...").
(Sorry, I've been trying to figure out some workable Cosmology for a Sekrit Project, so it's kind of a current hobbyhorse)
*
Moving on,
D'ANNA PWNS EVERYONE.
Damn. She kills Cavil (WOOT! - him and his "Pet Eight" ewww). She plays the best joke EVER on Laura (which played even better than I expected from the preview).
She's also the last Three in the universe. And does she sit around feeling sorry for herself? Uh huh. She wakes up, reads the situation and positions herself to protect herself as best she can, now that she's mortal.
Also, Helo (and Tahmoh) are of the AWESOME. All the awkwardness and strangeness of where he is and what he's doing hit home. And how creepy was it to know that other Eight had Athena's memories of him with her? He handled it well all things considered, but, damn. And that moment when he sees all the Eight bodies -- one part, 'if we destroy this, Sharon can never come back if she dies" and one part, "this is creeping me out".
How can Mary McDonnell be so awesome? Delivering zingers to Helo and head!Elosha and Baltar and then nearly throw up on him in utter revulsion and then also portray Laura's Death in the SAME frakking episode? *sigh*
The scene at the end -- I got something in my eye. yes. Such a perfect arc we've had for them this season. Which means it's doomed, doesn't it? *cries*
I'm sure there's more to say (SPACE BATTLES! SIXES AND EIGHTS IN PILOT OUTFITS! THAT HYBIRD ACTRESS DESERVES A FRAKKING EMMY!) There's a whole 'nother post in my head vaguely about Eights and Sharon and Athena and identity and all those cool things.
But all I can think about now is:
NEXT WEEK IS GOING TO KILL ME.
And now that I got season 4 out of my head, maybe I can concentrate on Season Two and Three again!
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Also, the part where it gets more dubious for me, is that she ripped off bandages she had previously put on. When she tried to save him, she already knew he was guilty of collaboration with the cylons, if not the details of the codes. So it wasn't like she didn't know most of it already and had started to save him anyway. When she took the bandages off, she wasn't passively letting him die anymore, she was actively making sure of it.
But anyway, regardless of my own views, I think the show has done a good job of not approving of Laura's behavior within the show's 'verse. Which was really all I was trying to say.