Battlestar Galactica (10): I Adore This Show!

I do not want to be all gushy-gushy but I have a feeling that is how this post may end up. I am so ridiculously in love with this show I wonder if any real life relationship will be as fulfilling for me. Probably not, oh well. But when you found the one why question things? When you find a show that defies your expectations and intelligently explores the complexities of the human condition there is no need to worry about tiny details like the fact that the conversation is very one-sided.

I sound as crazy as Baltar. And I am kind of kidding.

But a Quick Recap: Kara tries to convince Roslin to listen to her and Roslin tries to shoot her, but misses. Kara is taken to the brig, where Adama tells her that she has lost her last ally and she taunts him about being too devoted to Roslin. The Galactica Cylons decide that Baltar might have information about the Final Cylon, and send Tory to seduce it out of him. On the Cylon Baseship Cavil decides that the Raiders need to be re-engineered because they refuse to fight, but Six, Leoben, and Eight fight him, arguing that something has changed and they need to find the Final Five. The vote is deadlocked, but Boomer votes independently, against her model, and Cavil has his way. The pilots have a going away party for Lee. A drunken Adama and a belligerent Roslin get into an argument about Kara, miracles, and death. Adama leaves angry with Roslin, who ends up crying when she pulls out some of her hair. Lee visits Kara in the brig to say goodbye, telling her he now understands what she means by having a destiny, and that he cannot explain his choice but he knows it is right. They shake hands and as he is about to leave she calls him back. He kisses her, hugs her and tells her he believes her, then goes. He stands in the ready room one last time remembering his command. On the hanger deck he finds the crew, officers, Adama, and Roslin there to send him off properly. He salutes and hugs his comrades, and says goodbye to Dualla, telling her “she got the house” which publicly acknowledges that their marriage is ended. Baltar notices Tory noticing him in the mess hall, and when he talks to her about her motives he sees a projection of himself, not of Six, who tells him to use Tory as a source of information. After the Raiders are lobotomized, Six interrupts a meeting of Cavil, Dorals, and Simons to inform them that she, the Eights, and the Leoben’s have given reason to the Centurions, who proceed to murder Cavil and the others. During an intimate moment Baltar tells Tory that he believes Cylons are capable of feeling and that he believes in the one true god. Helo removes Kara from the brig and takes her to the hanger deck where Adama is waiting. She assumes he is going to abandon her in space, but he tells her that he is giving her a ship and a crew to find a way to Earth, because he cannot afford to ignore her if she is right.

On with my gushing. What the frakkedy-frak frak is Baltar seeing? There has never been a definite conclusion about what Baltar’s Six actually is; hallucination, projection of his own psyche, proof that he is a Cylon, or the voice of the one true god have all been hypothesized. Now he is seeing, and conversing with, someone that looks like himself, only him the way that Caprica Six sees him in her projection/hallucination/whatever. I will admit that after this long with Baltar’s Six I had stopped questioning her nature and simply accepted her as present and talking to Baltar the butthead. I doubt I am the only one so complacent, but I am no longer allowed to be so, because Baltar no longer sees Six. If she/he/they are simply manifestations of Baltar’s psyche, then this might indicate that he has absolved himself of any guilt he felt about his actions regarding the original genocide or New Caprica. He no longer needs another form to reinforce his narcissistic rationalizations. If she/he/they are the voice of a higher power then this shape change might indicate that his conversion to the one true god is (from his perspective) sincere and complete and that he can be his own spiritual guide. Or, regardless of the origin of his companion, the change could indicate that he is no longer concerned with simple self-preservation, but rather is turning his attention and energy towards establishing himself in such a way that he will not be as vulnerable to downfall again. It could mean so many things, and I am intrigued by the possibilities opened up here.

I am also intrigued by Roslin’s unflinching faith in herself. I kind of wish I had the confidence/delusion to believe that my drug-induced prophetic visions were worthy of blind loyalty and that another person’s word about their instinctual knowledge based on an unexplainable journey is a bunch of crazy nonsense. Furthermore I am intrigued as to why Roslin considers a recitation of her own plot-points proof of miracles and Kara’s return from Earth and/or death is not. One cannot confuse the public face of decisive leadership with personal infallibility, but that seems to be what Roslin has done, and that cannot bode well for anyone. It is no accident that when trying to shoot Kara she hit a picture of herself and Adama; there is a division between them coming, and she will be the one to initiate it.

The Known Cylons do not have to wait for impending division. I wonder if they have ever heard the phrase “pride goeth before a fall.” I am thinking not, otherwise they would have been a bit more reticent with all their high horse disdain of the human tendencies towards power-struggle, infighting, and division. On behalf of the human race: take that you stupid machines!

A double take that for how beautifully the Cylon inter-destruction was juxtaposed with human healing and solidarity. I am neither joking nor ashamed to say that I cried from joy at both Lee’s and Kara’s leaving. It would have been so easy for Adama and the rest of Galactica’s crew to revile Lee for his choice, to consider him weak or cowardly for leaving the military. But their respect for his service and knowledge of his integrity overcame any disagreement they may have with his decision. As for Kara, I could not take too much more animosity between her an Adama. It just broke my heart, but he is trusting her in the way he did before she died. As he has before, Adama put aside his personal fears to give humanity the best chance of success. It was almost as wonderful as Lee and Kara’s kiss.

“Six of One” raised a great deal of questions, but I will compile a list and post it later in the week.

The TV Girl