Recombinant BG
There are only two more episodes, and Battlestar Galactica is still moving slowly. I know the show has always prided itself on being heavy drama, not just space opera, but come on guys. In the last episode, the only action was Boomer stealing Hera. At the end of the latest episode, she didn't get to Cavil till the end. This could have been accomplished before the opening credits. (Could have been accomplished the previous epsiode.)
So basically we learn the ship is falling apart and will be abandoned. I admit this is a big deal, since the whole show is named after the ship. But not really much else happened. We got to see Admiral Adama writhing in mental pain yet again--I think this has happened every other episode this season. Brain-dead Anders is hooked up to the ship like a Cylon Hybrid, and is making oracular pronouncements. He could make the ship jump, so Tigh pulled the plug. With the stellar security Galactica is known for, Starbuck has no trouble walking into his room alone and hooking him back up.
Speaking of Starbuck, the most interesting scene was when she went to Baltar. It's easy to forget, but he's a great scientist, and she wants him to check her bloody dog tags to see what became of her. What most intrigued me about this scene is I don't think these characters have ever even acknowledged each other before. (But we still didn't learn what's the deal with Starbuck.) Baltar also tried to hook up with Caprica Six, but you know how cold old lovers can be.
Boomer is bending. She was more evil than ever last week, but now it looks like her personal feelings may even end up sinking Cavil's plans. (Cavil acknowledged the trick they played on Ellen Tigh, though we already knew it.) Meanwhile, we didn't get a peep from Chief, though he was so important last week. You'd think he'd have something to say about the hull being blown up and a bunch of people dying.
Ellen Tigh, after reverting to the harridan we'd never liked (for plot reasons in the last episode), rallied a bit and had some intelligent things to say, but not enough. Meanwhile, Lee lectures the quorum and Roslin moons with Adama--haven't we seen this all before?
Time's a wastin'. Let's put it all back together and have a rousing finale.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:10 AM
4 Comments:
I knew there were very few episodes left... but only two!!! Now I'm even more annoyed that nothing happened in the most recent episode.
Minor correction: Starbuck and Baltar actually slept together back in season one (or early season two). I think she called him "Lee" and he got upset, or something like that.
When the show ends, not only do I expect disappointment, but the disappointment would become much more acute if I were to rewatch the whole show. So many dropped threads. Remember back when a major plot thread was Adama's dead son Zak, who was engaged to Kara? Neither does she.
I missed some of the earlier episodes, so I'm often weak on what happened then. (I needed the flashbacks with Chief and Boomer, for instance).
One of the nice things about an ensemble cast are the various permutations. Starbuck and Baltar are two strong characters, who generally pull along their own plot. Having them mix together every now and then is fun. (The fun of odd match-ups is even more true for Lost.)
The biggest "thread" they dropped was humans trying to escape from Cylons to find Earth. That was the show, and it was exciting. It's now morphed into something else. I think the turning point want when they found a planet and decided to live there, and then were ruled over by the Cylons. It was a brave choice, and I guess you've got to change things or the formula gets tired, but I think in retrospect that's what killed the momentum of the series. First, they stopped moving forward for a year (even if it wasn't shown) and second, originally the scary idea was the humans were being infiltrated by the Cylons, but the Cylons became so familiar they weren't quite the same deal.
In the very first episode, someone put a note on Adama's desk saying that there are only twelve Cylon models. (We still don't know who wrote the note.) I imagine that the writers, back then, thought it gave a fun, finite feel. But then by the end of season two, they realized that they had already shown us seven models. So they got scared, and invented the idea of the "Final Five" -- which ended the whole infiltration idea. When we finally met the Four, they weren't infiltrators at all, since they had no Cylon memories or loyalty.
I expected they would live on New Caprica for all of season three. They could surely have developed some stories there. But no!
One of the great strengths of Lost is that they will gladly kill uninteresting characters and bring in new ones -- the tailies, Juliet, the Freighter folks. BSG doesn't do that. Anders and Tori (so adorable! too bad she's a sociopath) are their newest characters, and they've been around for a long, long time. After a while I want them to kill people just 'cuz I'm sick of them. Dualla and Lee especially. Oh, all of Baltar's groupies too.
Lost had an actual story, and they knew where they were going. They didn't know how long it would take to get there (until recently) and they didn't know (beyond a few leads) who'd make it all the way. Battlestar Galactia had a general quest but didn't know where they were going, which has shown more as more each year. They have been willing to kill off secondary characters, but not the leads (unless they can resurrect).
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