BSG 2.2.2
Well now. That gets a solid “A”. A+ withheld for an early instance of too-on-the-nose and my sense that the Big Twist was undermotivated and carelessly plotted. Still, there were some fine, surprising angles to the action throughout, and it sets up some issues going forward that will be veddy intedesting.
As always, assume the comments are chock full of spoilers for the current episode. And Hesiod: Nice try, buddy.
Comment by Derek Copold —
January 13, 2006 @ 11:20 pm
Excellent space violence. I look forward to the 5.1 DVD version. The next episode is probably going to be more actor-oriented to cover the special effects costs for this episode. And that’s fine as BSG has some damned good actors to work with.
I can forgive the slower paced ending and the less than surprising twist as the first 30 minutes were intense enough, and often these things are used to deliver more intense stories down the road. One of the reward with putting up with these intricate set-ups is that BSG eventually rewards you for it.
That the writers didn’t ditch the Pegasus shows how unconstrained they are. It certainly sets up quite a few intense scenarios in the future.
Comment by Jim Henley —
January 13, 2006 @ 11:26 pm
Certainly much less constrained, yes. Now that we’re safely past the danger, I should say that, had Cain indeed turned out to be a Cylon, at the very least we’d have seen the Fonz on water skis, if not actually above the slicing fin.
I worry about my girl Starbuck. It makes sense that Cain would be so dangerously appealing to her, given Starbuck’s well-known anger problems.
Comment by Jim Henley —
January 13, 2006 @ 11:26 pm
BTW, the space violence was silent, no? Silent!
Comment by Derek Copold —
January 14, 2006 @ 12:14 am
The silence had more impact. Especially when counterpointed with the noise on the ships themselves.
Speaking of space violence and BSG, the attack on the Tylium asteroid was one of the best choreographed space battle sequences I’ve scene. The action was clear, yet they kept a good surprise in there for the audience.
Comment by Derek Copold —
January 14, 2006 @ 1:13 am
One of the beautiful things about this pair of episodes was the smooth way that the writers had Adama order a mirror of his own attempted assassination, and more brilliantly, he reconsiders it after talking to a copy of his dead would-be assassin. Only a genre like Scifi can pull that off.
Comment by Derek Copold —
January 14, 2006 @ 1:16 am
One last speculation (sorry, I’m really into this show!): Adama is going to have to pull the plug on Roslin before the end of the season, metaphorically if not literally.
Comment by Hesiod —
January 14, 2006 @ 10:44 am
Anyone else notice that the battle sequence paid homage (I’d like to think) to the old ”Asteroids” videogame?
The way the vipers moves and attacked was — shall we say — remeniscent. Of course, physics dictates that’s how a fighter like thatw would move in a vaccum.
Comment by Hesiod —
January 14, 2006 @ 10:46 am
BYW, Jim…I may not be so wrong.
That last line Six gave to Cain ”You’re not my type” may have been a double entendre!
Comment by Jim Henley —
January 14, 2006 @ 10:56 am
Derek: good stuff!
Hesiod: Asteroids? Cool.
Hesiod: When sinking in quicksand, don’t struggle! I believe someone was waving around a prediction that the Blackbird would spot rows and rows of Cain doppelgangers in the Resurrection ship. I think we need to consign that one with the ”planet of the black people” forecast. <G>
Anyone: I was really knocked out by the scene with Six, Baltar and Six. That one had what I think of as a perfect ”angular momentum” to it, not just the realization that Baltar is ”banishing” (exorcising?) Virtual-Six but the odd yet apt way he does it. It opens up some very interesting questions, such as” Was V6 lying about the Pyramid game attendance in the previous episode and now Baltar is repeating the lie? Was V6 *putting herself in the place of Baltar* and now Baltar is reclaiming his own memory?
Has Baltar truly cast V6 out? What does it mean that he *could*?
Comment by ASteele —
January 14, 2006 @ 11:54 am
I don’t know how many of you listen to the podcasts. But evedently the kiss between the pres. and EJO was an adlib. (and possibly my favorite part of the episode.)
Comment by Hesiod —
January 14, 2006 @ 12:29 pm
Just one more Six, and Baltar and his two beauties will make the sign of the Beast.
Comment by Iron Lungfish —
January 14, 2006 @ 1:12 pm
I loved the scene with Baltar and the two Sixes. It was the second time (the first being during the season finale, when Baltar talks to the imprisoned Six [accidental McGoohan reference!] and says he hasn’t been able to get the first Six out of his mind) that I thought maybe there’s no chip in his head at all, and maybe there is not Cylon plot to get him – and maybe he’s just slowly lost his mind out of grief and loss, which I now desperately want to be the case.
The Cylon shooting of Cain could’ve been better set-up, but I thought the only seriously weak point was that Apollo’s suicidey moment (”I didn’t want to come back alive”) came completely out of left field.
Comment by Barry —
January 14, 2006 @ 3:27 pm
What I found interesting was Starbuck’s oration. She endorsed Cain’s morality. Now, she might not realize the full amorality which Cain was hiding, but it was interesting.
Comment by Derek Copold —
January 14, 2006 @ 10:08 pm
Another little gem in this movie was the scene towards the end with Boomer, Helo and Tyrell, where Tyrell saw the evident affection between the other two and quietly pulled back, thus ”letting go” as he’d talked about in previous episode. It was a masterful piece of direction. With only a few seconds of visual, the show conveyed minutes worth of what would otherwise be tedious dialogue.
Comment by Derek Copold —
January 14, 2006 @ 10:11 pm
”I thought the only seriously weak point was that Apollo’s suicidey moment (â€I didn’t want to come back aliveâ€) came completely out of left field.”
No, that was the most important part of the episode. It conveyed the psychological repugnance people feel towards an amoral universe, where you simply have ”survival” instead of ”being worthy of survival.” It was well-integrated dostoevskyan touch.
Comment by Camera (aka Mrs.) Obscura —
January 14, 2006 @ 10:13 pm
I really could not find too much to harsh on. I cannot decide precisely why Cain didn’t go ahead with her assassination signal, but I’ll be watching it again b/c Mr. Obscura didn’t get home from his biz trip until midnight so I taped it and he won’t be able to go more than 24 hours w/o seeing it.
Yeah, we’re gonna have a really major death scene when Roslin bites it. Adama and Billy will both be in tears. And anybody who *couldn’t* see that kiss coming after the last ep, well, you’re just not paying attention to the body language. Come to think of it, they fought like a married couple even during the first season when each thought the other power-mad.
Comment by Kip Manley —
January 15, 2006 @ 1:43 am
Sorry, but (now that I’m finally up to speed, thank you, iTunes) (yes, but it was really Bittorrent) (shhh, we’re pretending it’s iTunes, and anyway we did buy it from iTunes, it’s just the Bittorrent was better quality) but, I say, Six shooting Cain (actually, Baltar telling Six ”you need justice”) had us all yelling CHEAP! and throwing popcorn.
Startlingly cop-out moment for this show, and the double entendre shockingly moreso. Especially since Moore and Co. had an alternate route to the same destination—had, in fact, foreshadowed that route heavily.
I’m still the show’s bitch. But man, they’d better redeem this, toot sweet.
Pingback by Long story; short pier. » Blog Archive » Now that I’m up with 2.12— —
January 15, 2006 @ 9:48 pm
[...] ca hate America? Now that I’m up with 2.12— —or 2.2.2, or whatever the cool kids are calling it, anyway, fr [...]
Comment by Jim Henley —
January 15, 2006 @ 10:17 pm
Kip, I was with you, then I decided the real question is whether I could buy that *Baltar* would kill Cain. And by golly, that I can totally buy.
Comment by Mr. Obscura —
January 15, 2006 @ 11:02 pm
I would liked to have seen more interplay between Gina-Six and Cain before the trigger pulling, and a bit more of the reaction on board the Pegasus. Cutting straight from blast to funeral required a bit more of a leap than this show usually requires. I understand timing and budgets, it just would’ve satisfied me more.
I was a little (but only a little) suprised that Cain pulled back from the brink. Less so that Adama did, although I thought he’d order the hit and Starbuck wouldn’t go through with it.
I thought that Lee’s ”I want to die” moment came out of left field. The boy has, shall we say, issues. Was it because his dad let him know that the President condoned his actions, and he was disillusioned by her bloody-mindedness. I’m sure we’ll find out soon.
Unanswered questions: Where did Gina-Six go? Is she with Baltar, whom I assume is back on Galactica? Is the Cylon desire to exterminate humanity as simple as Boomer makes it seem (I doubt it)? Is the BSG story arc set for a limited number of seasons, like Babylon 5 was? Or will we have to wait until ratings slip to see the storylines wrap up?
Points to the missus for observing that Baltar will become president when Roslin dies. I forgot about that.
Oh, and I waited MORE than 24 hours to watch it. I can lay off the stuff anytime I want. Yesirree. . .
Comment by Mr. Obscura —
January 15, 2006 @ 11:03 pm
One more question: What will happen to Pegasus? The galaxy isn’t big enough for both Battlestars.
Comment by Eric the .5b —
January 16, 2006 @ 2:34 pm
I wonder whether Boomer was searching for a reason to give Adama. I don’t think the Cylons ever have expressed their grievances towards humanity, even going back to the mini-series. I wonder whether their grievance is really one they can articulate at all.
Of course, a motivation that can’t be expressed might make for rather poor TV.
Comment by Eric Scharf —
January 16, 2006 @ 10:56 pm
I fully sympathize with Moore’s instinct — made explicit in his podcast — that destroying Pegasus would have been far too tidy. Unfortunately, the survival and ostensible assimilation of most of Pegasus’s crew does leave a couple of rather dangling loose ends:
1. Tyrol’s & Helo’s implied amnesty. While Adama clearly has the authority to dismiss the capital sentence, I just can’t buy the Pegasus crew sitting still without Tyrol & Helo receiving dramatically severe punishments (hell, I’m sure some of Galactica’s crew are fed up with these toaster-lovers). Someone with political savvy (Roslin? Billy? Ellen Tigh?) should probably advise Adama that the best way to smooth over the ill will between the two Battlestars would be as harsh a sentence as possible. Protracted incarceration makes for poor TV, so I’d like to see some profound demotions (”Where would you like these fuel tanks, Chief Callie?”).
2. Baltar’s unchallenged treason. Baltar spent a conspicuously large amount of time being unprecedentedly friendly to a Cylon prisoner that mysteriously escaped from her confinement and murdered the supreme commander of the Colonial Fleet. This pencil-neck and his psychotic mutterings have barely been tolerated by Galactica’s crew; I’m having difficulty imagining him not ending up in Pegasus’s brig with Tyrol & Helo (Don’t get me wrong; I love Baltar (& Six), but I don’t see why Cain’s crew of revenants should share my sentiments).
The Baltar-Pegasus animus is only going to be inflamed by Roslin’s death (She is going to die, isn’t she? Please tell me she doesn’t download into Caprica-Boomer’s baby.). A hundred cubits says that the first civilian ship to voluntarily supply Pegasus will be the Astral Queen.
Comment by Derek Copold —
January 17, 2006 @ 10:39 pm
”I wonder whether Boomer was searching for a reason to give Adama.”
She seemed certain to me what it was, just not so clear on how to express it. I imagine it’s be some HAL 9000 thing mixed up with a bit of theology: God revisiting the sins of the parents on the children and all that.