BSG: Resurrection Ship, Part 2

[dangermousie]

Oh, BSG, how do I love you? Honestly speaking, I think BSG is the most consistently good of the (admittedly) few shows I watch. Veronica Mars can be freaking amazing, but some episodes or characters leave me scratching my head.

So, this part was the best yet. Why?


1. Ambiguity about Pegasus. If the last episode was all about highlighting the difference between Cain and Adama (shooting civilians bitch v. compassionate patriarch), Pegasus v. Galactica (torturing Cylons, shooting subordinates v. apology for the attempted rape and protecting subordinates at any cost), this episode was all about showing the similarities, showing that the picture is not so clear, after all. Thorne, the evil wannabe rapist of Sharon? He saved the lives of many on the ship. Cain? Good battle commander and is right to see something in Kara and aware that what she did was wrong. Adama? Not giving reasons to Lee or Kara, just expecting to be obeyed.

2. The fact that the show managed to maintain the alienness that is Sharon. In fact, it does better at portraying someone not human than a whole lot of shows heavy on the latex. I loved her conversation with Adama. I know queenofthorns does not like her because she never thinks to apologize for Genocide and doesn't even realize something was wrong, but I love that. Does it make her someone I want to drink with? No. But it makes her fascinating. I love how the show underlines that despite her love for Helo, she is not human. She never will be. She views the world through a completely different lens. Her mind and her spirit do not run in the same groove, but at an angle to humans. Sometimes (Helo and baby) they intersect. Though even there, Cylons seem to exalt love, so maybe it's just the object of it that is odd in their eyes (and maybe not even then, if some of them want hybrids). It reminds me of some marriages between Russians and minority ethnicities in the former USSR, where a very nationalistic russian would marry an "ethnic" man or woman, but they would not stop with ethnic supremacy, just see "their" Jew/Buryat/Uzbek/whatever as an exception. It happened sometimes. And yet, I love her very human, wholly feminine reaction to Helo (who I love for throwing the rape into Fisk's face and the look on Helo's face as he realizes that the woman he loves isn't even percieved as properly ensouled by the rest of the humans) being back and alive (I melted though I felt bad for the ignored Chief). Sharon is caught between two worlds, truly.

3. Lee. The dysfunctional Adama-Lee scene. They keep hitting the wall between them. The fact that he is just tired of the struggle of daily living and wants to lay it all down. And the fact that he feels he let Kara down and that Kara has no idea what to say to his statement of lack of will to live. Though what on earth with Dualla overhearing? Why is she lurking outside? Weird.

4. Kara's speech. I really disagree with her, but I love the show underlining Cain/Kara parallels.

5. Baltar 'leaving' Six for Gina. Of course, once again, he doesn't think of anything beyond himself when he lets her loose, but that was an amazing scene. Is she dead btw? escaped? hidden with Baltar?

6. Adama/Roslin. What can I say but a huge squee followed by a huge 'awwww'

Comments

[syliasyliasylia.livejournal.com]

6. Adama/Roslin. What can I say but a huge squee followed by a huge 'awwww'
Me toooo and then I was all teary eyed!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yup. Indeed.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

I don't dislike Sharon for not apologizing for the genocide; I dislike her for the fact that she seems to blame the humans for getting themselves killed and also, I'm never going to buy into the Grand Love of Helo and Sharon until Sharon shows some iota of remorse for what they Cylons have done.

I mean, Six is quite unrepentant, and I like her just fine, even though I'm not exactly rooting for her thing with Baltar to work out either ;)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I find Sharon quite interesting precisely because she isn't human and doesn't view things from a human perspective (i.e. to her humans are clarly inferior, with few exceptions a la Helo) but still possesses humanly recognizable emotions.

I actually find H/B fascinating because in some ways it's the most dysfunctional and doomed relationship on TV and at the same time I do buy her deep love for him and vice versa even if it clearly hasn't humanized her.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Hmmm! Well, I'll admit that part of Helo/Sharon issues stem from the fact that I think Grace Park is the least talented of the very talented actors on the show; so where I think we are meant to see inner conflict, sometimes we don't.

And I understand why you find them fascinating - but then again, I don't think you are rooting for them to have a nice long happy life behind a picket fence together ;) If your vision is the way the show goes (that she's completely alien and always will be and on some fundamental level, she is still the enemy of humankind), then I'm totally on board with that; where I am having a bit of a problem is that I almost feel like we are supposed to be asking ourselves the questions that Sharon asks Adama, and then I find myself completely resenting her!

No question, though, that it's a fascinating story!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I like Grace Park's acting but ymmv.

Nope, can't imagine them having a white picket fence and a space dog. Can't imagine anyone on the show doing that.

I almost feel like we are supposed to be asking ourselves the questions that Sharon asks Adama, and then I find myself completely resenting her!

I think for me, I separate the issue that Sharon posits into two parts: whether humanity is a "good thing" v. what right do Cylons have to judge.

Does mankind deserve to survive? Do the characters of BSG? They must be asking that of themselves daily in survivor guilt. Seeing the heroism I would imagine the answer is yes, even though I don't think one has to be found worthy of life to not be killed. That's a rather odd and literally physical application of the doctrine of salvation. No one asks Cylons to create life, but who gives them the right to destroy it.

But I think Sharon not thinking anything else as a response is something I like because of the essantial non-humanness of her response. People constantly think if they are worthy: Adama does, Lee does etc, so Sharon's comment is there not to just show us what Cylons think (though I don't think we are supposed to agree with them) but the effect of such words on Adama. The mere fact that he is capable of self-doubt and pondering elevates him above any Cylon we've seen (none of whom seem to be capable of a similar feat).

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Heh! You know, other than the Grace Park issue, I think we are largely on the same page about Sharon; I have had my problems with Helo's seemingly unthinking acceptance of her before, but a lot of those were taken care of by his scene with Tyrol in the previous week's episode.

I just really DO want someone to turn around and just tell Sharon to SHUT IT at some point when she starts getting superior about the Cylons though ;) Hee!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

just really DO want someone to turn around and just tell Sharon to SHUT IT at some point when she starts getting superior about the Cylons though

Heee. We have never seen that on the show yet (with any Cylon-Human interaction). I would actually love the show to have some sort of rebuttal/debate (though arguably, the human position is a default one thuse doesn't need to be elucidated). I do think that in some ways, Gina is the most human Cylon (who knows she's a Cylon) that we've ever seen. Humanity through suffering?

Yeah, BSG (which gets better with each ep, IMO) is not a show I watch for the shippy. But I do love that it always gives me something to think about.