Gaius Baltar

Even though Baltar plays a significant role in the Miniseries, I postponed discussing him until "33." Part of the problem is that I just wanted to move past the miniseries and I think "33" is a reasonable place to start a discussion on Baltar, since he more or less comes into his own in this episode. I also kept getting stuck writing about him because I was caught up on the sleeze / coward factor, and so I was running out of things to say.

Although a large part of Baltar's character is defined by deceit and rampant egotism, focus on this makes him pretty one-dimensional. Baltar is actually a pretty complicated guy, and his belief system changes radically over the course of the series.

So let's focus on the nasty bits first, because that is where the fun lies.

In the Miniseries Baltar immediately comes across as untrustworthy when he flirts with the news anchor interviewing him. (To quote from My Fair Lady, "Oozing charm from ev'ry pore, he oiled his way across the floor.") Baltar is a womanizer (I realize some male readers of this blog might not consider that a bad thing). A large part of his womanizing is characterized by "do anything, say anything." (I suppose, actually, that is a defining feature of womanizing.) This explains, of course, why he inadvertently participates in the death of billions by giving away the defense mainframe codes to some babe so that she would sleep with him.

He is, however, capable of great charm, which is not always obvious in the series, but certainly explains his success with women. His flirtation with Starbuck over a card game ("Water") is fun to watch, and he is one of the few people who actually beats her at cards. There is a strong air of sexual frisson throughout, and she is very provocative when she blows cigar smoke in his face. Of course Starbuck is a strong personality and can pretty much give as good as she gets from Baltar, which I assume increases their mutual attraction.

As we all know, Baltar's personality is dominated by self-interest. (At the end of the Miniseries he says, "I am not on anyone's side.") He is cowardly and he lies constantly, although he is caught often enough to make me wonder why he continues to do it. I wonder if he is modeled on Zachary Taylor from "Lost in Space," but I haven't seen the original Battlestar Galactica, so I have no idea how closely he resembles the original Baltar. Two or three times each season, though, he shows great compassion or says something that demonstrates genuine concern for others. (For example, his conversation with Boomer during "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 1.") It is something of a surprise when this happens, but it saves Baltar from being a complete caricature.

In the Miniseries, as Baltar escapes Caprica, the Six that only he sees makes her first appearance. (BTW, for the purposes of this blog I will simply refer to her as "Six," since all the other Sixes have names. This Six is called "Sarah" by Baltar, but only once ("Home, Part 2"), and I didn't even catch that until something like the 400th viewing of the episode in question.

Six is very beautiful, very sexy, walks like a model, and usually wears amazing dresses. With her white-blond hair she is radiant in contrast to Galactica's grubby surroundings. This is beautifully shown in "33" when she is setting next to Baltar on Colonial One, looking at the couple opposite. Baltar is rumpled, sweaty and a total mess. She is serene, beautiful, and relaxed, as if this was an ordinary flight.

The Baltar-Six interactions also create a lot of comic relief as Baltar often carries on two simultaneous conversations and then has to try to integrate seemingly odd behavior and statements into the "real" conversation. (As Roslin says in "33," "He's a strange one.")

The billion-dollar question, of course, is who, or what, is this manifestation? Baltar himself doesn't know, although he sometimes seems to believe that she is "an expression of my subconscious mind working itself out in a waking state." (Miniseries) Season 3 also implies a psychological origin, since there are references to Baltar taking meds ("Collaborators" and "Torn"). The settings for Baltar's conversations with Six also veer back and forth between Baltar's physical location and other, more pleasant, virtual locations that exist, presumably, in Baltar's imagination.

Galactica, in general, is wildly inconsistent about Six. It doesn't make sense for her to be an illusion cooked up by Baltar's psyche because she knows a lot more about Cylon strategy than Baltar can possibly know. She is clearly tied to actual events, and often seems to control the outcome (Miniseries and "33" to name but a few examples), but later in the series it is clear that the "real" Cylons aren't aware of her either. She also has moments when she is unseen but physically present. For example, in "Epiphanies" she pulls up Baltar's tie, and in "Escape Velocity" she literally props him up.

A large part of the tension in "33" hinges on whether there is a Cylon agent in the fleet who is responsible for the repeated attacks. Six alerts Baltar to this possibility. Baltar's life also hangs in the balance since a witness to this involvement in the Cylon attack is on the same ship as the Cylon agent. Whether this threat to Baltar is removed is dependent on his response to Six's questions about his relationship with god (sort of like having a Jehovah's Witness on your doorstep). When Baltar finally states that he accepts the Cylon god, Roslin decides to shoot down the ship, eliminating the Cylon agent, and also killing the only person who could tie Baltar to the Cylon attack.

This sequence of events raises some pretty tough questions. First, there is a strong sense that everyone is playing out roles that have been predetermined ("all this has happened before and all this will happen again"). Does this mean that Roslin's agonizing over her decision is pointless because she is meant to order Galactica to shoot down a civilian ship? If Baltar had not made his admission, would Roslin have made a different decision?

This scene plays itself out again in "Six Degrees of Separation" - Baltar repents and 2 seconds later the incriminating evidence is shown to be false and his accuser disappears.

Foxhole prayers are notoriously unreliable, is the Cylon god really so naive as to take them seriously? They are a recurring theme in Galactica, and they do seem to lead Baltar to a stronger commitment to the Cylon belief-system, but assertions of faith made under duress seem pretty untrustworthy to me.

Baltar also keeps making lucky guesses, which again, seem tied to his relationship with Six's god. He fingers Doral as a Cylon in the miniseries based only on speculation about how Doral is perceived by the rest of the crew. He is correct, although he doesn't find out until later. This happens again in "The Hand of God" when he randomly chooses a site on a surveillance photo as the correct target for blowing up the Cylon's trilium refinery. Both events raise questions about free will. What guides Baltar to make random choices that turn out to be critical to the survival of the fleet, given his ambivalence about his place in the human-Cylon war?

Despite the fact that Baltar is on a non-stop emotional rollercoaster, his world-outlook at the beginning of the saga is based on the scientific method. There is no place for constructs such as faith, or belief in an intangible higher power. As the series progresses, Baltar's intellectual foundation crumbles and is rebuilt with a fundamentally anti-intellectual outlook based on conversion to the Cylon god. It's hard to pinpoint a defining moment where he crosses the line. I think finding Hera on New Caprica is a significant point, as well as his experience in the Temple of Jupiter. By season 4.0 he has actually managed to convert some humans, and is worshipped by them as god's mouthpiece. His sermons are mixed with beautiful imagery ("Faith") and completely self-serving statements ("God loves us as we are because we are perfect."). This understanding of god's will also absolves him of any responsibility for the nuclear holocaust on the twelve colonies ("Hub").

As of this writing, the second episode of Season 4.5, Baltar is disillusioned and angry at his god. In "The Disquiet that Follows My Soul" he is preaching while drunk, and sits back drinking and smoking, while ignoring a fistfight. To my mind, Baltar's behavior is reverting back to his old persona from before he became a religious prophet.

James Callis is just a terrific actor. Baltar is such a mess of contradictions, but Callis manages to make him coherent. In spite of the many facets of Baltar's personality, Callis creates a sense of consistency about his character. In each manifestation Baltar is completely recognizable as Baltar (I'm not sure if that makes sense).

My prediction about Baltar's fate, btw, is that he is going to die before the end of season 4.5. It's kind of weird to think about that becaue he is a lot like Rasputin - people keep trying to kill him, and he always manages to survive. 

Seven Years of Autism and the Death of Felix Gaeta

End of January - beginning of February is an unhappy anniversary for our family, as it is the date(s) that both our sons were diagnosed with autism. One of my sons was diagnosed sometime in the last week of January 2002, and the other was diagnosed the first week in February 2002. Once the first one was diagnosed we knew the second one would get the same diagnosis since they are identical twins. They were two years, 3 months old at the time. I remember the first words out of my mouth when we were informed of the first diagnosis were "Will they outgrow it?" Duh.

I don't know why this year is different, but it feels particularly devastating. I am not someone who is prone to crying but I have been on the verge of tears all month. Some of it is the cumulative stress of fighting with various government bureaucracies for rights my kids are entitled to, but were not forthcoming (including a 4-year legal battle with one school district that has left us with a huge debt burden that we probably will never pay off). And some of it is the panic of knowing what was required for them to make progress, and not being able to get it for them. (I am referring to Applied Behavior Analysis - ABA. For more information on ABA go to The Association for Science in Autism Treatment or Autism New Jersey

For the last two years my sons have had everything we feel they need to make progress towards some form of independence. You would think I would be happy, but I seem to be in a glass half-full mood these days. No matter how I look at it, we have a difficult and exhausting life. Our sons are very tall for their age, and very active. They have almost no spoken language, although it's obvious they understand more than they can say (passive language). We have worked diligently to improve their safety skills, so some of our fears are somewhat abated (they haven't disappeared from us in quite some time, nor have they run into the middle of traffic). They are capable of great destruction (not from maliciousness) so someone must be with them at all times, and they have few play skills (we are the only people I know who have to teach their kids how to watch tv).  They head bang (although it is coming under control) and can have wicked tantrums.

My sons' teachers are dedicated, resourceful, and relentless optimists.  They work very hard and everything my sons have learned I attribute to them. When one of my sons said "Hi Mommy," for the first time, several of them burst into tears. I am not the burst into tears type, but I was deeply touched. In the back of my mind, though, I thought, "It's about fucking time."

Having done this for seven years you would think that we would be used to this or at least a little less inclined to fall apart. Our sons have made more progress in the last two years than they did in the prior 5 years. Nevertheless, over time, we have lowered our expectations, and it is painful to accept that they will never live independently and we will have to work very hard to make sure that they have enough skills to live in a group home and have some kind of occupation during the day. When someone asked me what they are studying in school, I said, "getting dressed."

Please don't get me wrong, I love my children. While this post probably sounds like "ME ME ME!" they are the ones who are shortchanged. Their experience of life is confined by autism, and their future is extremely limited. They will never be capable of meaningful conversation, they will never read and write, and they will never live independently. They are the ones who are missing out from a full appreciation of life and its possibilities.

There is a lot of acceptance involved in all this, and sometimes it is easier to deal with than other times. I can do everything I can to help my children succeed, but I don't get to choose when that happens or how fast it happens. All I know is that I want it all and I want it right now, and knowing that's not going to happen is a bitter pill to swallow.

So what does this have to do with Felix Gaeta? Well, I just saw episode 4 in season 4.5 this evening and I went into it 100% certain that Felix would get offed, and of course he did, and the events leading up to it were almost painful to watch. The whole sequence of events fills me with profound sadness. And in fact I was in tears watching the scene with Baltar and the execution at the end. It was just so well-written and well-played, it felt completely faithful to the characters.

In fact, I have been anxious and even depressed since the beginning of this season because I knew BAD THINGS were going to happen to Felix. As anyone who has read my post on Felix, I feel very attached to this character. When he lost his leg after being shot by Anders, I was especially disturbed, to a large degree because he was now disabled, and disability (whether physical or developmental) just sucks in every way possible. 

And I KNOW it is just a television show and Felix is NOT a real person.

It's obvious to me that I am projecting onto Felix my own anxieties about my children. In psychoanalytic terms, this is called transference. Basically it is just easier to worry about a fictional character than it is to worry about your own children. One is imaginary and his pain is not real (although it is portrayed with great verisimilitude). Our pain is very real, and it just ebbs and flows over time. 

The scene between Baltar and Felix was utterly heartbreaking. I was hoping that by 4.5 Felix would find some happiness, and again, I was treating that as a metaphor (illogical and unreliable) for our life. Instead Felix is in constant pain from his leg, and in psychological pain because of his distrust of the cylons. In the webisodes, he is taunted by the Eight for clinging to "Hope," and left with a great burden of guilt, even though his actions were well-intended and he was lied to about the outcome. By the time he gets off the raptor his hope is gone.

Well, I know something about guilt, too, parents can never do enough for their kids (at least it feels that way) and that is doubly so for parents of children with autism. I love my children but I do feel a lot of resentment at how their disability has changed our life for the worst.

At his execution Felix looks almost serene, and when he says "It stopped" I assumed he was referring to the pain in his leg and probably psychological pain as well. So it gave me some hope that he would find peace in death. 

The metaphor of death as the end of psychological pain resonates very strongly in our house. My husband and I take turns getting REALLY depressed, and it is usually accompanied by one of us saying, "I wish I was dead." That doesn't mean that we want to commit suicide, or that we want to BE dead. It means we just wish we didn't feel that way, that we could shut off our feelings. Unfortunately, WE are not machines and there is no off/on switch.

R.E.M. has a great song, "Everybody Hurts." These are my favorite lines:

When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone,

When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on.

Don't let yourself go, everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes.

Face of the Enemy - up to Webisode 8

Let's just say it's been a ghastly holiday season involving auto insurance, knee specialists, elderly parents who have forgotten the day of the week, and two feet of snow. You get the idea.

This has kind of prevented me from posting on a webisode-by-webisode basis, which I now think is actually a good thing. I could spend endless amounts of time speculating between webisodes, but the length of each 'sode is so short, it's not as much fun as it started out to be.

Now that there are just two Webisodes left and a lot of the guessing is gone over who killed whom and just who is this eight that Felix seems to know, I feel like I should just stand back and take a look at WHAT IT ALL MEANS, or, in the context of 4.5, where this is heading.

In the smaller picture, this is about the legacy of New Caprica. Season 4.0 ended with a very tentative truce between Cylons and humans, and now the Webisodes remind us that New Caprica was a brutal regime that resulted in the deaths of about 10% of the human population. Barely a year later, after further attacks and more losses, the big question is how possible will it be for the humans to build a new civilization on what's left of earth with the Cylons?

Gaeta's relationship with the 8 from New Caprica is predicated on his belief that she was helping save human lives. His first scene with the 8 he is hesitant about giving her the list and looks worried as she walks off. In every subsequent scene 8's behavior seems to justify his trust, until he and 8 develop a romantic relationship.

The irony is that 8 was lying to him and using him, and yet, on the raptor, she is acting to keep him alive - so apparently she feels some attachment to him.

Gaeta, not surprisingly, is appalled, furious, and devastated. It's also another instance of Gaeta placing trust in someone who betrays him, propelling him further on a downward path of disillusionment.

Watching this Webisode I was just so saddened by Gaeta's realization of how he has been used. I am sure, also, that this has consequences for season 4.5. Not just for Gaeta (will he now be disinclined to trust people, especially the cylon variety? probably), but also because if Gaeta, extraordinarily smart & objective, loses faith in the possibility of an alliance with the Cylons, then what hope is there for the rest of the population in coming to terms with the human/cylon collective past?

It really also comes back to the question of the miniseries, is humanity worth saving?

On a lighter note, it is nice to see Gaeta is bi-sexual. I am always in favor of people making informed decisions. I was kind of surprised when I looked up the guy who plays Hoshi (Brad Dryborough) on IMDB and learned he has done comedy. Hoshi is kind of an unknown right now, and I am not sure if he will get beyond supportive and stalwart. But he certainly doesn't seem to have much of a sense of humor.