00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 10½ 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 99
4x
04Escape Velocity
 |
 |
| Did you seriously just mack on my woman? | Dear gods... it was magnificent. They should have sent a poet... |
CapricaSix ministers to Tigh about the value of pain, and it's enlightening powers, then punches him in the face a bunch. Baltar gets punched in the face a bunch, then declares that because God loves you, you are perfect. The two views are at odds; believing you are perfect is a dead-end of stagnancy. Seeking out (or inflicting) things to make one see new viewpoints is the first step towards change.
But as with so much else from the mind of Gauis, his central point is so couched in other beautiful rhetoric that it's difficult to tell what he's on about, or if even he knows. It was HeadSix that spurred him to action, telling him "The man who stands against the gods would be a magnificent man." Gaius demurred, saying that's not what defending his people was about. But somewhere in his subconscious, yah, that's what it's all about. And what was up with HeadSix raising up Baltar to face the guard. From what was surely an objective viewpoint, we saw HeadSix moving his physical form. What the frak does that mean?!
The Baltar-as-Jesus takes one step further, as he does his own take on the parable of Jesus overturning the money changer's tables in the temple. He's really taken to this instrument of God thing. I doubt it will come to be, but I'd love to see the show's end game unexpectedly reveal Baltar as the savior of the Human race (also it's earlier annihilation, but minor quibbles, wot?). So much of what he says is compelling, even the Quorum is buying it. He's preaching good things, isn't he?
"We have thirty thousand people left and they're not happy unless they're kicking each others teeth in. Is this what we've become?"
~ Roslin to Bill Adama
Ideas of perfection can be dangerous though. Tory uses perfection as her excuse for last episodes monsterism. And in a plea to Tyrol to abandon his morose depression over Cally. Her embracing the "I was made perfect, etc" sentiment is reminiscent of early Cylon beliefs. The kind that led to a belief of superiority, riotousness, and 9/11s. The Cylons embraced a disregard for those that were not there own, the kind displayed by.. oh yah, Roslin. She doesn't give a toss either. Tory may have approached the question from a different angle than Roslin, but they're in the same head space.
In Tyrol's outburst at Adama, was he also embracing this ideal? Was he casting off his previous human life because of his newfound Cylonism, or was the bitter vitriol he spewed his own truth as he always felt it. A lot of people made hasty choices on New Caprica; repopulating the human race first, finding soul mates second. While Starbuck told Anders to his face, Tyrol waited until Cally was out an airlock before describing her as "the best of limited options." As he yells into the silence of the bar "This is not my life! I didn't pick this!" it's unclear if he's talking about his marriage to Cally, his recently discovered Cylon nature, the forced exodus from their homeland, or maybe all of that and more.
As with Tigh's conversation with Ellen/CapricaSix, there's a lot more mileage to go. It's also the writer's exploring The Cylon Condition, which sounds an awful lot like the human one. In this episode we're seeing the old gods dying, old religions dying and humanity (in some of the Cylons) dying. But something more than death is going on. Oh, BSG, I want to haz ur babeh!
Don't you want Papadama to read bedtime stories to you to? Is Tigh cylon-projecting Ellen, or just frakkin' losing it? What's the significance of tracking the Anders' on The Grand Poo-Barge for those 5 seconds while Baltar speech was overlaid?
this post's comment feed
Subscribe
I'm still seeing Baltar as more of a Mohammad/Moses figure, rather than Jesus. He's more a messenger of God, rather than a part of God. After all, it was both of those original prophets who warned others what would happen if they did not heed God's word (and this is back when the Big Enchilada was an Old Testament badass).
As for the Chief, I still think his reason for pushing for a reassignment has to do with him wondering...did you really just forget to fix part of the Raptor, or is the Cylon in him forcing him to subconsciously destroy humanity? Now, I can't explain the way he went about changing his situation, aside from the fact that he maybe sees himself as a new self, and therefore is sort of resetting his life.
I think you're spot on about the Chief.. wondering if he really just forgot to fix part of the Raptor, or Cylon driven? I don't know if he's intentionally changing his life, or if he's just kind of spiraling out of control. I think the latter's more likely, he's losin' it and has no direction at the moment.
Interesting about the Mohammad/Moses, I think you've got a valid point. He's not claiming to be of God, just a man touched profoundly by him. Still, the imagery, with the beard and long hair, and now with the temples, they're certainly invoking The Christ.
We've seen previous instances where HeadSix seemed to physically affect Baltar, but I'm really curious how she managed to lift him off the ground...
I remember they once showed HeadSix strangling Baltar with his tie, but then they cut to an external shot that revealed he was pulling on his own tie. And I'm willing to believe Baltar is messed up enough to ram his own head into a mirror, breaking it, while imagining that Six did it. I think this is something different.
I was thinking on the way into work, I suppose it's possible that they're just using the imagery to suggest that Baltar is but a puppet of HeadSix. There's been a marked increase in external subjective viewpoints - think Tigh imagining shooting Adama, or Tyrol imagining Adama insulting him at Joe's Bar.
It's possible, but I think unlikely... I say them shifty writers are up to something.