Escape Velocity (404)

[GateWorld]

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA SEASON FOUR ESCAPE VELOCITY EPISODE NUMBER - 404 After suffering a major loss and slipping up on the job, Chief Tyrol goes through a major personal crisis. Baltar's sanctuary is assaulted, leading him to protest against the Colonials' gods. Tigh begins to see his dead wife in the face of the Cylon prisoner. VISIT THE EPISODE GUIDE >

[Trek_Girl42]

Finally!

Anyone else as disturbed as I was when the Chief freaked out in the bar? And what he said about Cally! Yikes!

[DigiFluid]

That made me sad.

[Pharaoh Atem]

I can't believe that there are only six more episodes this year.

but we get to discover who the final cylon is within those eps
after watching tonight i still can't figure out who it is

[daniel9]

we discover who the final cylon is in the last eps of the season. which is not this yr probably

[DigiFluid]

In case the other thread doesn't get copied into this one, my other post:

Spoiler:

I love the Baltar story more every time I see it. He was great as the crazy scientist, interesting as a politician, fascinating as a criminal, and now just downright captivating as a prophet. I don't know what to be more grateful for, the terrific writing for the part or James Callis' acting chops.

Interesting to see Tory becoming more involved with Baltar, I thought. She seems to be spending more time with him, and in his sermon at the end he seems to have embraced the idea of divine love and perfection in its creation (though, with his own take).

I kept thinking of the Temple of Five last season, and the five priests of 'the one who shall not be named'. Tory spending more time with Baltar's sect, Saul seeking absolution in Caprica Six, Tyrol losing it and (presumably at some point soon) needing peace of mind. Anders wasn't hardly there this week, so I'll have to reserve judgement on him and this "trend".

Nice also to see Lee as being more useful. Last week he seemed like a bad pawn of Tom Zarek (speaking of whom, where was he this week?) but this week he actually seems to have made a difference. Interesting to see his reaction to Baltar's sermon as well, wouldn't that be a hell of a twist if he came to believe in monotheism.

Every week I grow less and less sympathetic to Roslin...which is kind of sad, I used to like her so much. These days though, I find myself not really caring that she's going to die. The only sadness I feel in it is her fear of dying an empty death. Beyond that, her increasingly selfish and dare I say, totalitarian tactics are making her far more of a hazard to the fleet as a whole than anything Baltar could be doing.

[Trek_Girl42]

Can someone tell me what happened during the first minute or two after the second commercial break? I missed a bit and my vcr has been taken over so I can't check.

[marielabbott]

Finally!

Anyone else as disturbed as I was when the Chief freaked out in the bar? And what he said about Cally! Yikes!

That was rather disturbing. I wonder if it was his grief and anger talking, or how he really feels?

I liked the funeral at the beginning--very different from the military type funerals we've seen before. Also liked Adama's comment about how he never finished his favorite book, because he didn't want it to end. Little wink at the fans, maybe?

Tory really is disturbing, with her claim to be perfect and encouraging the Chief to accept he is. And her complaining that the funeral was at dawn? Sorry to get your murdering butt out of bed so early.

Tigh and Six? And for good measure. More disturbing than Cavil and Boomer last week.

I don't think the religious service Gauis interrupted would explode into violence immediately like that. And I don't like the "you are perfect as you are, look into yourself and see the spark of god" religion Gauis seems to be promoting. It was interesting to see him practically forced by Six to stand against the guards...what are we to make of that?

Next week--

Spoiler:

Leoben and Starbuck, and mutiny!

[Trek_Girl42]

That was rather disturbing. I wonder if it was his grief and anger talking, or how he really feels?

I don't want to know.....well, yes I do, but I don't. You know what I mean.

I liked the funeral at the beginning--very different from the military type funerals we've seen before. Also liked Adama's comment about how he never finished his favorite book, because he didn't want it to end. Little wink at the fans, maybe?

That was beautiful. Though when Roslin said that she liked it and that sh e wanted Adama to know what she liked.....they just have to hit us over the head with her impending demise every episode don't they.....

Tory really is disturbing, with her claim to be perfect and encouraging the Chief to accept he is. And her complaining that the funeral was at dawn? Sorry to get your murdering butt out of bed so early.

She's gone real scary.....the fact that she goes to Baltar and has no problem.....servicing him, after all her previous opinions about him is just.....yuck. It's like she's trying to convince herself that she's perfect, but she really has no value for herself any more. I actually find that more creepy than Boomer/Cavil, Tigh/Caprica.

Tigh and Six? And for good measure. More disturbing than Cavil and Boomer last week.

I don't think the religious service Gauis interrupted would explode into violence immediately like that. And I don't like the "you are perfect as you are, look into yourself and see the spark of god" religion Gauis seems to be promoting. It was interesting to see him practically forced by Six to stand against the guards...what are we to make of that?

Next week--

Spoiler:

Leoben and Starbuck, and mutiny!

Spoiler:

Leoben.....yes! I really want to see where their whole thing is going, easily one of my favourite relationships on the show. Looks like Starbuck might be returning to her "Flesh and Blood" role.

[Major Fischer]

So I started my standard commentary post and have abandoned it because I lost the ability to write coherently about this episode as I watched it. I was not anticipating liking it. I wasn't expecting much from it at all really, the spoilers had looked uninteresting, the episode description was transitional.

And it was transitional and I adore it anyway. I am sure that there are people out there who do not like this episode because nothing happened. I adore it because nothing happened. Battlestar Galactica is at it's best when it focuses on character, and that is entirely what this episode was. Wonderful, glorious, ugly, beautiful, character. People in transition as the world speeds up the closer we get to the middle.

So the episode.

Cally's funeral brings me back to one of those things about Battlestar Galactica that I have always loved. Today we tend to think of the Greeco-Roman pantheon as something silly. Campy television shows haven't helped this. What Battlestar does wonderfully is makes it a real faith, and the people who believe in it have real and abiding faith. It also brings out a deliciously difficult problem that such societies have with mystery religions. I once had to read a book for a class, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them and Roslin's delima really speaks volumes of the problem that arrises when a monotheistic religion pops up in a pluralist pagan society. A new god can always be absorbed into the pantheon, but one God forces both believers and non-believers to seperate themselves from each other. Something the Colonials really can't very well afford to do. Tricky question.

I'm not sure I like Roslin's dictatorial bent recently, but really when we are honest she's always had those tendencies for the last year or two and we just haven't seen the push back. Is Lee right? Is Roslin right? Or is it as in most things in governemtn the tragic case where they are both right, and wrong at the same time.

Is democracy a luxery when there are only 39,000 people left? It is recieved canon (to use religious terms) for Americans to say that democracy even in wartime will work. We had an election in the middle of a civil war (though few today seem to remember how flawed the presidential election of 1864 was). We had an election in the middle of World War II (though few of us seem to think about the social pressures on anyone who would have voted against FDR). But we have never been in the position the colonials are in. It seems ot me a bit presumptious for us to say that democracy is always the right solution.

And the fact that this show can make me think about when and under what circumstances I would support a dictatorship is one of the things I love. Because before tonight I'm not sure I'd have said I'd ever support one. I've said that I thought Roslin was a dictator before, and that while I love her as a character she'd scare me if I lived in her society. Tonight I think I have to change my answer. I would be scared of her if I lived in that society, but I think I would chose her over chaos.

Sign me up for a brand new brown shirt.

Roslin attends all the funerals in the fleet? Or just the military? Or is she just "shopping around" for what she likes. I see Adama still hasn't accepted that she will die and doesn't want to hear it. On the subject of Roslin and Adama they are being rather open about it these days it seems. I'm rather meh on the wig, but I think it's almost important to show a stripping away of her identity as a human being.

I once said (in a fic of all things) that I thought it was possible that the dying leader prophecy wasn't a litteral one. That Roslin was the dying leader and what was dying was her soul. If you had pulled Laura Roslin aside the day before the attack and asked her what she thought about laws and rules and democracy I think she'd answer every last question in exactly the opposite way that she is answering them now. The Laura Roslin who stepped onto Galactica in that horrible violet suit is dead, or at the very least dying.

So now we know what Kate Vernon was filming. I can not communicate how much I adore Kate Vernon, Tricia Helfer, and Michael Hogan. Those were some of the most amazing scenes in the entire series. I have often wondered what Caprica thinks about when she thinks about the genocide. The fact that she feels profoundly guilty somehow gratifies me. The fact that she regrets, despite what the Colonials have done to her. The fact that from the start of the series where she snapped a baby's neck to becoming the most sympathetic character on the entire series... just makes it all the more delicious.

Is Tigh projecting Ellen? Perhaps. Is the Chief projecting? Perhaps. I don't know what is going on with the final four, but it is interesting. It is interesting to see them struggle and fight and love and coem to terms, or refuse to come to terms.

Has Tigh been punishing himself his entire life to feel? Has he needed real unselfish love? And what the frak does Caprica think is going on in this conversation, because she clearly doesn't know he's a cylon.

Tory and the one true god. Or Tory and sex. Or oh frak where to start with Tory. Okay, so I find Tory really compelling and damn sexy. Yes, I'm a freak. I love how her sad little robot frequencies seem to be messed up, but at the same time she was still on the same theme of intentional infliction of pain that the Chief and Tigh were. I wonder if Roslin knows she's attending those meetings. I wonder if she was among the women who charged the temple.

I want to see Roslin's reaction when she finds out.

If Tory and Head!Six are the angel and devil on Baltar's shoulders now... which is which? Damn you writers for making me care about Gaius Baltar, I've never lied that character.

The Raptor Crash. All I can say about this is how spectacular the special effects were. I was certain that Racetrack had died in that crash and I'm wondering if the effects people didn't know that the pilots lived because... I don't see how they could have...

No cylons this week... damn I want to know what's going on...

Almost no Starbuck this week... thank god. Or gods.

[marielabbott]

I don't want to know.....well, yes I do, but I don't. You know what I mean.

Yeah, I think I do.

That was beautiful. Though when Roslin said that she liked it and that sh e wanted Adama to know what she liked.....they just have to hit us over the head with her impending demise every episode don't they.....

They really do. I thought it was interesting--and kind of disturbing--for Roslin to talk about how her impending death has kind of made her not care so much for conventional morality...kind of explains some of her recent decisions.

She's gone real scary.....the fact that she goes to Baltar and has no problem.....servicing him, after all her previous opinions about him is just.....yuck. It's like she's trying to convince herself that she's perfect, but she really has no value for herself any more. I actually find that more creepy than Boomer/Cavil, Tigh/Caprica.

That scene was yucky. There was a theme of pleasure/pain through this ep, with her and Baltar and Six/Tigh. Probably fitting for a season that is really blurring the lines between human/Cylon.

Spoiler:

Leoben.....yes! I really want to see where their whole thing is going, easily one of my favourite relationships on the show. Looks like Starbuck might be returning to her "Flesh and Blood" role.

I'll just say--yay!

[hoof]

Another episode that raised a bunch of questions. I wonder when we're going to start getting answers.

So was Tyrol we saw in the bar the Cylon Psyche emerging for a brief period? Wass that the "real" Tyrol, who for whatever reason decided to live with the humans, but now feels its time to emerge?

Is Ellen and the 6 series related? Did they put a 6-wig on Ellen? Is it just in Tigh's mind or was Ellen really related to the 6-cylon in some way? Is 6 going to realize who/what Tigh really is?

I'm getting concerned that the first half of the season is just going to give us a bunch more mysteries, then we have to wait that year before we finally get some answers during the 2nd half of the season. It feels like RDM has tossed a bunch of juggling pins in the air, but none have come down yet. After a while, adding more mysteries to the show just doesn't have the same impact. It's time to start actually have stuff happen, answer some questions, give us some story to follow. The stage has been set, the prelude has gone on for 4 episodes, let's see something actually happen!

[Trek_Girl42]

Is Ellen and the 6 series related? Did they put a 6-wig on Ellen? Is it just in Tigh's mind or was Ellen really related to the 6-cylon in some way? Is 6 going to realize who/what Tigh really is?

I think it was just in Tigh's head.....emotional damage and all.

But it was very eerie, how much like an aged Six Kate Vernon looked with that wig on. Positively creepy.

[Trek_Girl42]

They really do. I thought it was interesting--and kind of disturbing--for Roslin to talk about how her impending death has kind of made her not care so much for conventional morality...kind of explains some of her recent decisions.

Yup. I love her in her non-political scenes, but when she sits in that quorum and makes the decisions.....she's frustrating! Have to wonder if all of her choices have been like this, as we haven't seen much of the quorum before now, or if it's just since her the impending-ness of her death has increased. Definitely leaning toward the latter, but as we haven't seen much of this side, I think some of it had to have been there before.

I missed Zerak baning the gavel this week.

That scene was yucky. There was a theme of pleasure/pain through this ep, with her and Baltar and Six/Tigh. Probably fitting for a season that is really blurring the lines between human/Cylon.

I'll just say--yay!

Talk about the pleasure/pain theme continuing next week.....

[AutumnDream]

Holy eff that was weird.