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17Someone to Watch Over Me
So why? Why did last weeks overly talky episode bore me and this episode, which had only marginally more action, enthral me from start to finish? Explain this to me because I only know that while last episode was a bit un-engaging, Someone to Watch Over Me grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go.
The musical, insightful opening on Starbuck and her morning routine was great. I love that the award was a tube of toothpaste. I imagine whoever wins will save it for special occasions. hey! hey! Selix is getting frisky, better pull out my special good luck charm: The last tube of toothpaste in the frakin’ universe! Oh the chicks fall head over heels for for the only guy in the fleet with clean breath.
A lot of people on this show have imaginary friends: Baltar’s Head#6, Adama’s dead wife, Caprica#6 has her own HeadBaltar and now Starbuck, who previously had Angle/Head
Leoben#2, is now joined by GhostDad. Or probably GhostDad, anyways, he's certainly a figment of her imagination. Real or not real, I absolutely loved loved loved those two playfully composing the music. It was just such a enjoyable series of scenes. I never know what to expect with Galactica; who would’ve guessed it was music lesson time. For those who may have missed it: when they reach the second movement (Starbuck playfully insults the piano man "Is part of the process also stealing from other composers?") the music he was playing with was lifted from the original Battlestar Galactica 1978 series. So there’s a double play of meaning to the dialog as well as being an homage to the original show.
The Cylons got their quorum seat. Will the fleet thin to 12 ships with future generations calling themselves Galacticans or Basestarians? My friend Swiz has pointed out to me: Zarek was the one who got the quorum created (Well Lee played an equal role, but I digress…) and he was the one who had it destroyed. It’s an interesting footnote to the history of the quorum. Is it a comment on his character that the Quorum was just a tool he desired to use; one he disposed of once it was no longer useful. Or is it more thematic: did Zarek represent the possibilities and the faults of their old system of government. The forms they’ve clung to for so long are finally changing. Will this new system of government be a repetition of what’s come before, or something new and different?
So was that her father? Is her father Daniel the Cylon#7 ? Both Cliff and Swiz have been intrigued by the idea of Baltar as the artistic and sensitive Daniel. Out among this great series of tubes we call the interweb, others have suggesting Daniel could be Starbuck’s father. Myself, I’m not ready to commit to either theory, so I’ll say Daniel is… Doc Cottle. Why not, it works as well as either one of those. I could be proven wrong but I don’t think that Daniel? Baltar?
Starbuck? Her
father? Cottle?#7 is too important to the events left to play out.
It was nice seeing Tyrol and Boomer reunite. The “previouslies” did a lovely job reminding us of their history. The last time we saw Boomer she was that dumb kid fraking the chief and thinking she was getting away with it. She was struggling with her Cylon nature when POW! Cally shot her. The Chief obviously has feelings for Sharon. Aaron Douglas plays the hell out of a scene where he pleads with Roslin not to surrender Boomer#8 to the Cylons, who want to put her on trial. Much like Baltar’s recent trial, no one is on her side and the exercise seems a masquerade to condemn her. (Gaeta wanted to put Adama on trial too; boy howdy there’s a lot of trials at the end times of humanity)
So the chief does what any ex-lover would. Smashes ConstructionWorker#8 in the head with a wrench and swaps her for Boomer#8. What did Tyrol think was going to happen? She’s a naughty one; she put two holes in [the old man]. So Boomer#8. knocks out Athena#8, stuffs her in the closet, then frak’s her man Helo, in front of her. She steals her daughter Hera, stuffs her in luggage and runs off to John
Cavil#1. This is one twisted bitch.
Can your child paint ♫All Along the Watchtower♫? Do you think the Chief’s done waffling between Human and Cylons now? And watch out for those retracting launch tubes!
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it’s okay, it’s just the next hurdle they key is to, you know, not panic, trust yourself.. something’s going to come.. it’s part of the process | |
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This was a much more enjoyable episode. Starbuck and her repartee with Ghostdad blows the doors off of Adama staring at the fractured beams of his beloved ship for 10 damn minutes (seemed like that long, anyway).
Tyrol was always an interesting character because he's never really been perma-set as wearing a white hat or a black hat...it's nothing but shades of gray with him. Over the stretch run of the show, though, he and Tigh have quickly become my favorites. Tigh just for the sheer entertainment...he's a ranting bitter old man...he could be me in 20 years!
Tyrol, though, is the one skinjob who really seems to have embraced the idea that he can do whatever he wants. He doesn't have to stick with the fleet because that's his past...he doesn't have to jump all in with the Cylons, either. He can determine his path for himself. Now that that path has led him to help Boomer kidnap the hybrid kid (though perhaps Starbuck is another, meaning it's a tied ball game heading in to the ninth inning), how he'll deal with it is what I'm most interested in seeing next week.
Yeah, my favorite moment watching BSG this last Friday was Kim insisting that anything Tigh said would be gruff and bitter "Fairies and Butterflies" he'd yell, take a swig of his scotch and walk away. *Brilliant* I didn't make time for it in the article, but I loved how defensive Ellen was of Tigh to the others; jabbing her finger at Tyrol and Tory "cut him some slack, he just lost his child." There's still some love there.
But yeah, Tyrol seems to be open to all options and he hasn't really thrown his lot in with either camp.