Webisode 3

Things are certainly getting creepier onboard the raptor. The really interesting part at this point is what kind of relationship Gaeta had with lavendar 8 (who is probably not, but not definitively not) Boomer - another seemingly reasonable guess bites the dust. Black 8 is dead, so I guess we are not going to get any kind of good Sharon / bad Sharon dichotomy. Oh well.

So what exactly did Gaeta do back on New Caprica? Did he give names over to the Cylons? Did he, as Baltar said at the end of Season 3, try to play both sides against eachother? Who is this Sharon and what distinguishes her from all the other Sharons?

I am inclined to dismiss what Baltar said out of hand because, during his meeting with Gaeta in his cell, it is obvious from his expression that he has just figured out that Gaeta was passing along information to the resistance. Anything he says after that is done solely to gain a tactical advantage, and therefore not trustworthy per se.

The webisodes have already told us twice that increased CO2 can wreak havoc with the brain, including paranoia, memories, etc. My "something's not right" alarm went off because in this "memory" that is set on New Caprica Gaeta has white hairs at the temples, but on New Caprica his hair was completely black. So - is there something wrong with this memory?

I am, of course, a big Gaeta fan. So if Gaeta did something morally ambivalent he didn't do it to protect himself, or for any kind of personal advantage. On the other hand, this is the first we are hearing of this - and it appears to be a secret Gaeta has kept - so is he ashamed? In addition, a list of names SEEMS to be handed over - is one of these names seeking revenge (for what?) and responsible for what has happened on the raptor?

Another paranoia point - the grip that is missing from the pliers - Gaeta (and everyone else) seems to think they were intentionally taken off (am I understanding this correctly?). I have, however, replayed the section where the pliers are taken out of the tool case, and I cannot find a good view where I can see that the pliers had the grips on in the first place. So is this paranoia and it was really an accident? Or, was it deliberate and not an accident.

I might add that in the realm of pure logic Galactica tends to fall down on a regular basis. Things happen all the time that can't really be explained. You just have to accept it and go with the flow because it contributes to plot and character development. 

More to come - unfortunately next Webisode is not for another 5 days. 

The Face of the Enemy - Webisode 2

OK, to indulge in more useless speculation - lavender Sharon is NOT good. She is very very creepy and the paranoia has been upped a notch. IMHO there is a 50% chance she is Boomer. Of course, I thought that Boomer died on the hub, but since we didn't see a body, we don't have definitive proof.

I am also wondering if Gaeta thinks he imagined lavender Sharon talking to him, especially once the raptor pilots start talking about the consequences of oxygen deprivation.

It also seems to me that black Sharon seems to be a straight talker, a quality I always liked in Athena.

Another good acting moment, when Hoshi says, "...me and Felix...." and Tigh just squints slightly and you realize that this is news to him. Such a slight facial movement, but it makes everything going on in Tigh's mind completely clear. Pretty impressive.

It also occurs to me that Gaeta's first (and only) scene with Hoshi is one of the few times that Gaeta seems to let down his guard. 

The Face of the Enemy - Webisode 1

I am facing a real dilemma here - I am trying to work my way through BSG in chronological order, but there is no way I am going to be sufficiently complete that I can just roll into Season 4.5 next month (I doubt I'll be even halfway through Season 1 at that point). But this is not supposed to be any pressure, it's something I do for fun.

SO - I will continue on through, and I will incorporate information in my posts on the new episodes as they relate to the topic of any given blog. I do not comb the web looking for spoilers on future episodes, but if you haven't kept up with the show, please bear this in mind as you read.

OK - I have seen the first webisode about 20 times already, in part because it is not close captioned for the hearing impaired. Since I fall into that privileged group I had to play it over and over again to figure out what is going on.

It looks like it's going to be a mystery reminiscent of "10 Little Indians" or "Lifeboat." 

I don't want to do a deep analysis here, but I noticed the following things (and make a few predictions):

• Felix is going gray at the temples. I am willing to bet that this is supposed to be a manifestation of the trauma of losing his leg.
• Given that he and Hoshi will not be seeing eachother for a week, that was a pretty chaste kiss. On the other hand, we don't have a clear idea where they are in this relationship - I am assuming it is just getting started.
• Hoshi is better-looking that I thought.
• Black-clad Sharon is going to be bad Sharon, lavender Sharon is going to be good Sharon.
• To paraphrase Chekhov, if 3 syringes of morpha appear in the first act, then all three will be used by the third act.

I took my macbook into work on Friday and cut over to Starbucks to watch it at noon when it was released onto the web. Can't wait until Monday, when the next Webisode comes out.

In the meantime, I am working on my Gaius Baltar post as part of my review of "33"

Upcoming webisode

If you check out scifi.com/battlestar you will discover, in addition to the season 4.5 teasers, a "SciFi wire exclusive - Gaeta and Hoshi almost kiss." I would just like to point out that I predicted this turn of events in my post on Gaeta, which was written in October. You learned it here first. 

33

I saw this episode before I saw the miniseries (Netflix screw up - in fact it was actually more tha a year before I saw the miniseries, after I finally decided to buy Season One myself). I'm bringing this up because I thought I had missed something the first time I saw this episode - that "33" started immediately from where the miniseries left off.

After I saw the miniseries I realized this was a deliberate choice. Viewers are dropped into the middle of a desperate situation and then learn how the main characters behave under extreme stress.

It says a lot about the writing, editing, and directing that you can figure out quickly what is happening. "33" opens with a series of scenes that quickly cut back and forth between Gaius Baltar's thoughts, vipers shooting out the tubes flown by pilots who are obviously having trouble concentrating, the CIC where Tigh is slapping a soldier on the back to keep him awake, and the deck where everyone is watching the clock. This series of scenes take about 2 to 3 minutes. When the Cylons do arrive we see multiple clocks, digital and analog, showing that time is up (This sequence actually reminds me a little of the pendulum clock in "High Noon.").

In other words, I didn't know much less than anyone who had seen the miniseries knew.

"33" is, without question, the best episode of Season 1, precisely because of this tension and the way the characters' reactions reveal their nature.

OK, to quote Callie, "Why 33?" My first instinct (which reveals my advanced age) is that it is referencing LPs that play at 33-1/3 RPM. Beyond that 33 is divisible by only 2 numbers, 3 and 11 (1 and 33 don't count). 3 and 11 are very cool prime numbers and I am not a geek for thinking this. I remember hearing George Burns say in an interview that 7 is a very funny number. So there.

My only quibble with the episode is that it is simply not possible for the crew to go 5 days running without sleep - they must have had some down time or else they would be incapable of functioning. As Baltar said, "there are limits...." Trust me, I know what I am talking about. When our twin sons were infants they did not sleep at the same time, and I went for about 3 months getting 3-4 hours of sleep at night but only about 45 minutes at one time, which meant that I got little or no REM sleep. Going without sleep is pure torture (although not, apparently, if you are working for the Bush administration interrogating suspected terrorists).

There are two scenes that stand out in my mind. Tigh falling asleep sitting on a sofa in the middle of a conversation with Adama is probably my favorite, but there is also, as usual, a lot of background detail. I especially like one scene in the CIC, while Adama is talking to Tigh, you can see right behind Adama a guy wearing a headset, slumped over fast asleep.

This episode has one of my all-time favorite scenes - Starbuck refusing to take stims. Lee tries to wheedle her into obeying and she bursts out with this speech telling Lee in no uncertain terms how she thinks he should be handling her insubordination. They stand glaring at each other for a short pause that goes just a millisecond longer than is comfortable, ratcheting up the tension a little bit, before they burst out laughing. This dialogue reveals a lot about Kara. The scene also gets a little more texture when Kara glares at the Chief, who has witnessed the exchange, and says "What" and he just rolls his eyes and walks away. The whole exchange is pitch perfect. 

I watched this episode again after Season 4.0 ended, and I was struck by the tentative nature of Roslin's and Adama's relationship in the beginning. At this point they are strangers who have been thrown together by circumstance and now share the burden of protecting what is left of the human race. In this episode they are on separate ships and all their conversations are by radio. In the middle of a discussion about the tactical situation (bad) there's a surprisingly intimate moment. After a pause in the conversation Roslin tentatively asks, "Are you there?" and Adama says, "Yeah."

Galactica has a special resonance in the post-9/11 world. Even in the midst of this exhausting crisis people are trying to find loved ones, and Roslin is trying to get an accurate count of the number of survivors. When Dualla tries to hand over photos of her family to track them down, she is instructed to post them on a wall. As she walks down the long corridor to post the photos she (and by extension we) is overwhelmed by the number of pictures posted, the makeshift memorials, and the messages to the dead. The photos include pictures of babies and children, as well as adults, and convey the remorseless nature of the losses. The camera holds still as she walks further down the corridor, until she is a small figure turning around in confusion, stunned by the magnitude of the catastrophe as expressed in the pictures of lost family members. These types of memorials and photo montages sprang up all over New York within hours of the collapse of the World Trade Center, and became synonymous with the event. Galactic is deliberately recreating these to provide a symbol we can recognize and use to provide a context for the apocolyptic events the characters have survived.

Galactica returns to this corridor periodically so that the viewer never forgets why the ship is wandering in space with no place to go home to. In the last episode of Season 4, when they do find earth, the scene cuts to Starbuck in that same corridor, looking at the photo of a lost pilot, and behind her is a woman standing in a different part of the corridor, crying while she presumably looks at pictures of lost loved ones.