Tigh me up, Tigh me down

This episode is very funny, and I enjoy it a lot. There are many hilarious scenes and the actors' comic timing is superb. My only quibble is whether this makes sense given that it takes place just a few weeks after the Colonies are destroyed and billions of people are murdered, but I don't find it hard to get past that (it is, after all, fiction and not fact) and relax and enjoy the ride.

This episode is obviously meant to provide some comic relief, and it is the only episode I can think of that is primarily humorous. A lot of episodes have a serious premise with funny moments that are usually provided by Gaius Baltar (even "33" manages this). But I can't think of any other episode that has this many laughs. (According to Ron Moore's podcast, "Taking a Break From All Your Worries" in Season 3 was meant to provide comic relief, but by the time they were done it was pretty grim.)

This episode is based on misunderstandings, which is the foundation of a lot of farces ("Twelfth Night" and "The Importance of Being Ernest" are just two examples). In fact, this episode achieves the impossible - it manages to make Baltar look reasonable in comparison to everyone else. ("Ladies and gentlemen, please. We're in a laboratory. There are hazardous chemical compounds everywhere. That's a thermo-nuclear bomb, for frack's sakes.")

One of the first scenes, when Six commiserates with Baltar and offers him a sexual interlude sets the very silly tone for the rest of the episode. Italian opera starts playing, Baltar spins around in his chair, tosses the clipboard, and the camera gradually lowers until we are looking underneath the table and watching the characters' legs. It tells us everything we need to know about what is going on without actually showing it. The episode ends at this same location, with Baltar at the head of a table crowded with blood samples, spinning dreamily in his chair and being caressed by Six.

In this episode Tigh is reunited with his wife, Ellen. I like Kate Vernon a lot, like Mary O'Donnell she is another really attractive over-40 woman. She is very beautiful and radiates sex from the moment she steps onto Galactica. Kate Vernon has a very expressive mouth, and as Ellen steps of the raptor, she uses her mouth to convey vulnerability. This is the only time in the episode where she evokes our sympathy. It's quickly apparent that Ellen's drinking is not characterized by moderation, nor are her relationships with men. In Freudian terms she is all id and no superego. In Adama's terms "... she's nothing but trouble."

We've already seen Tigh's alcoholic behaviors. In "Water" he draws lines on the bottle to mark how much he will drink. In the briefing scene at the beginning of "Bastille Day" the deck crew smirks when they realize he's drunk. In this episode, before he sees Ellen, he tosses a bottle of liquor in the garbage. His relationship with his awful wife is also a form of addiction. In spite of promises to "start over," they quickly fall into the patterns that always characterized their marriage (and Tigh's resolution to stop drinking is quickly tossed aside). One thing that Ellen gets absolutely right, though, is that Adama is "... one of those faces on a totem pole."  I did get a good chuckle out of that. (I wonder if Edward James Olmos made his face grimmer than usual to make this line more accurate.)

In spite of all the laughs, the underlying mood in the fleet is suspicion. During her conversation with Billy, Roslin is wide-eyed with terror and acts paranoid. IMHO she also, for the first time in the series, looks sick, as if her emotional state of mind is affecting her health.

Athena/Boomer

This episode ends with the critical conversation between Doral and Six, which I have already discussed in my post Why Battlestar Galactica. I have watched this episode several times since that post, and I am struck by the fact that it is Doral who says "I can't help wondering what it would be like to feel that intensely. Even in his (i.e. Helo's) anguish he seemed so alive." There is a lot of curiosity and yearning on his face that is very un-Doral-like. This scene is the first to give a glimpse of Cylon interior life. With the exception of Baltar's Six, the Cylons, for the most part, have been cold, psychologically remote, and self-sufficient.

"Flesh and Bone" is the turning point in Athena's relationship to Helo. In that episode she discusses Helo with Six and Doral dispassionately, but she doesn't actually answer Six when Six asks her if she can kill Helo. Athena's loyalties are now unconditionally transferred to Helo and (later) the fleet.

Before she changes sides, Athena had behaved like Boomer, who is insecure and needy. I assume this was a deliberate decision on the part of the Cylons, and done to deceive Helo. At the end of "Flesh and Bone" Athena asks Helo, "Do you trust me?" Until now Helo has been the leader and made the decisions, now Athena is asking Helo to let her share that role. This line signals the point where Athena's true personality asserts itself. She is forceful, decisive, and confident. These changes in personality don't seem to affect Helo's love. Although Athena and Boomer are psychologically completely different, at some level they must share qualities that make them both attractive to Helo. I am also sure that Helo loves the new Boomer (i.e., Athena) even more because of her determination to save him.

IMHO, Boomer's hesitancy and fearfulness are a manifestation of her subconscious knowledge that she is not who she believes she is. Which leads to an interesting question - is Boomer culpable for her actions in later episodes, or is she destined to behave as she does. As I have already pointed out, Galactica repeatedly returns to the question of free will. This is another example of Galactica's relevance to difficult issues in our own society. In the American legal system there is an ongoing debate about whether individuals with serious mental illness can be held accountable when they commit violent crimes. (For a discussion, see  this fascinating article on the subject.)

Some things I noticed

Call me crazy, but if I hadn't seen my husband in weeks and thought he was dead, my first action wouldn't be to uncork a bottle and toss down shots. I would throw him on the floor and ravish him (which is pretty much what Ellen does in "Deadlock" in Season 4.5). Starbuck and Anders also seem to prefer the bottle to bed ("Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2"). After pining for each other for months they suck up huge amounts of alcohol before climbing into the sack. IMHO this is a really bad idea since performance is usually not improved by alcohol consumption, and the happy couple probably won't remember the sex anyway.

Starbuck & Baltar - I've already discussed the scene with Baltar & Six, but there is a also a tiny little moment when Starbuck interrupts them that adds to the fun. Starbuck ever so slightly closes her eyes and shakes her head. It is so subtle and funny, and characteristic of the "early" Starbuck. Katee Sackhoff is great at producing these minute facial expressions that convey Starbuck's thoughts in seconds. In "Flight of the Phoenix," Racetrack calls Athena a Cylon whore while Starbuck is walking away from the card table. Starbuck stops, and there's a short pause and you can see Starbuck silently asking herself, "Should I or shouldn't I?" The she gives a little smile, turns around, and decks Racetrack.

I know I've said it before, but ...

One of Galactica's attractions is its epic scope. A few episodes may be self-contained stories (IMHO they are not the best episodes either). Star Trek Voyager theoretically had a similar premise (return home), but the episodes were typically self-contained, with only occasional references to the ultimate goal.

And finally, an extremely fun piece of trivia

Kate Vernon's dad is John Vernon. In case that name doesn't mean anything to you, then maybe the name Dean Vernon Wormer rings a bell. And if that doesn't trigger any synapses in your brain, then maybe Farber College does. And if you still don't know what I am talking about, it is time for you to netflix "Animal House" (one of the five funniest movies ever made). If you don't like "Animal House," then you are beyond redemption and there is really nothing more I can do to help you.

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.

Miniseries - Roslin and Adama and the path to leadership

Roslin and Adama are on parallel paths that converge at the end of the miniseries. Both are minor players in their respective spheres and both are at critical turning points in their lives. Roslin has just learned that she has terminal breast cancer and Adama is on Galactica, preparing to retire and give up the command of a ship so obsolete that it is being turned into a museum.

Their first meeting on Galactica, before the attack, is not a success.

They are on different ships when they receive news of the Cylon attack, and they each take on responsibilities that expand rapidly as the news deteriorates and the existing leadership structures disappear.

On what is supposed to be his last night as commander, Adama is sitting in his quarters reading when he gets a call from the CIC which has just received word of the Cylon attack. He responds in a matter of fact voice, "I'll be right up," and sits for a moment without moving. From that point on, as the situation becomes more desperate he remains calm and even taciturn.

In Roslin's part of the story, she learns of the attack after breaking down in private as news of her prognosis finally comes home. She immediately goes to the cockpit to find out what is going on, and reaches out and holds the pilot's shaking hand while she reads the news transmittal. This single gesture immediately establishes her as the leader, ready to take command when others are  overwhelmed. In the midst of panic and uncertainty she sets a goal (to find everyone trapped in ships above the planets and lead them to safety) and gives instructions necessary realize it.

Both Roslin and Adama make painful decisions with terrible consequences.

Tigh, Adama's surrogate, makes the most painful decision on Galactica when he vents 85 deckhands into space in order to put out fires that threaten the ship. Afterward Adama makes it clear that he would make the same decision himself, and I never doubt that is the case.

I think this scene is also interesting because Tigh, thrust into the middle of the crisis and forced to quickly make a critical decision, hesitates for a few seconds and looks off at Adama, as if for guidance. Once he makes his decision Tigh is clear and resolute, he doesn't look back. This type of moment happens elsewhere in the series (in "Scattered" Tigh must make several decisions immediately after Adama is shot. Once again he takes several seconds to decide and proceeds only after recalling advice from Adama from an earlier time).

I also like these scenes because the perspective moves to a view of Galactica from space and you can actually see the fires and bodies thrown out into space. In other words, the human costs of this decision are immediately made tangible. This happens at other points in the miniseries when ships explode - it's not unusual to see the pilot's body thrown out of the cockpit. (Aside from all the people thrown out of airlocks, take a look at "Epiphanies." It wasn't until the second time I watched this epdisode that I saw bodies thrown into space.) I always contrast this with "Star Wars" where we see ships blow up, but no person in them seems to get hurt, so the special effects of the explosion give a vicarious thrill detached from pain and death.

In Roslin's subplot the human costs are even higher. Roslin's mission is to find as many survivors as possible, and she manages to put together a fleet of ships holding 60,000 people. Roslin visits one of these ships, a cruise ship filled with families with young children. She promises the captain that she will take care of them, and chats with a little girl. Soon after she makes the decision to abandon this and other ships containing 10,000 people to the Cylons because the ships cannot travel fast enough. Roslin decides to break her promise and in the process condemns the little girl (and thousands of others) to death in the interest of saving the other 50,000 survivors. She sits in the cabin of Colonial One listening to the transmissions of people screaming and begging for help as the Cylons appear, attack, and quickly destroy the ships left behind.

Roslin and Adama also learn almost simultaneously that they are the most senior people left alive after the attack.

Mary McDonnell's body language and posture are very effective at conveying Roslin's state of mind at this moment. When she is sitting talking to Lee about her position (43rd)  in succession, we see her from the side. She is sitting with both feet flat on the floor, wearing black pumps and a business skirt. Instead of wearing her suit jacket she has a blanket draped around her shoulders. Her appearance expresses total exhaustion. At this point she learns that all 42 people ahead of her are dead and she must now be sworn in as president. She sniffles quietly, puts on her suit jacket and calmly says, "We need a priest."

An aside about the swearing-in ceremony - it is deliberately reminiscent of Johnson taking the oath of office on Air Force One after President Kennedy's assassination. This is not the only reference to the Kennedy assassination (at least to my eyes). When Callie shoots Boomer ("Resistance") it is strikingly similar to the news clips of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. Johnson, btw, did not need to be sworn in, the line of succession meant that he became president as soon as Kennedy died. Johnson arranged for the swearing-in ceremony as a symbolic gesture.

Immediately after Roslin becomes president, Adama learns that the rest of the fleet has been destroyed and he is the senior military officer left alive. This is the last of a series of disastrous military reports conveying news of the annihilation of the Colonial military forces at the hands of the Cylons. Olmos continues to underplay Adama's reactions. Dualla is holding back tears as she gives the last transmission to Adama. He reads it, conveys the news to the crew, announces that he is now in command of Colonial forces, and then carries on with little discernable change in manner. Adama's voice is not quite, but almost a monotone, and it works to great effect in this scene.

Adama and Roslin, formerly low on the totem pole, are now in charge.

Each pursues their own priorities until their ships converge at Ragnar Anchorage, where they meet again, and come into conflict over the next move. Adama, a military man, wants to stand and fight, and Roslin, as a civic leader, wants to secure the lives of the remaining citizens.

The meeting is fascinating. It is noteworthy for its banality in the middle of Armaggedon. Roslin sits at a desk on Galactica listening to a report from Billy on problems in the fleet. Adama steps in, Billy stands up to leave, and Roslin tells him to sit down and asks Adama to wait (a nice little power play). Adama sits down quietly, crosses his legs, folds his hands in his lap, and acts as if this is a normal business meeting. In his turn, he calls her "Ms. Roslin" and not "Madame President," (a small subversive action, although expressed civilly). Even the following conversation, although heated, is well within the norms of polite behavior. In fact, the entire scene is prosaic despite the enormous stakes and the passion behind each character's words.

Roslin's statements are powerful ("The war is over, we lost." And "If we are going to survive as a race we'd better start having babies."), and the audience is on her side. The tension is whether, when and how Adama's priority of continuing to fight the Cylons will switch to Roslin's goal of running with the survivors under Galactica's protection.

In the end, Roslin wins out when Adama looks across the CIC to see two young people flirting and echoes her line: "They'd better start having babies." In one of the great comebacks in television history Tigh asks, "Is that an order?"At that point, Roslin's and Adama's separate paths meet and they start to move forward with one goal in mind - to save the remaining population and find a new home.