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Battlestar Galactica 2.16: Sacrifice
Mixed emotions
What a relief that the reversed-time-sequence episodes are over! That was the first emotion of many I felt in watching Sacrifice. This was an old-skool BSG episode for me and I was pleased to see nearly the whole cast involved (no Six, no Gaius). The concept itself, that word of Sharon helping the military would get out to the fleet and unsettle people, was an interesting one, and I really liked that the hostage situation went to hell. BSG does frak-ups so well. It shows people really torn, making real mistakes and suffering the consequences.
But I didn't love everything about the episode, and as I'm incredibly predictable, the bits I *didn't* like related to (the destruction of) Lee/Kara.
Now that we're back into episodes that progress the overall plot (i.e. cylon conspiracy) it's interesting to look back on Black Market and Scar and see what they've achieved. And in retrospect, they're frustrating. I don't feel like the discoveries from either episode have been tied well into the continuing plot. Lee dating Dee? Well, he's made a remarkable bounce back to cheeriness if he feels he's ready to do that. I didn't get the sense of that in Scar, where he was still drowning his (or rather Kara's) sorrows. And Kara being troubled about Lee being with Dee? Hang on, isn't she in love with Anders? Maybe I'm just cranky (I have a headache) and perhaps when I rewatch it will make more sense, but I didn't expect this much of a disconnect from the previous two episodes.
I'm neutral on the Lee/Dualla thing. I don't think it was set up that well, as until this episode I didn't see what the attraction of Dee was to Lee, other than at the simple physical level. (She did look stunning! But then so did Kara and Lee himself. Everyone was just glowing in their off-duty clothes!) Part of me is glad that Lee has someone who wants him to live and who will be supportive, but the diehard Lee/Kara shipper in me is crying. I really felt for Kara at her not being able to go to Lee's bedside, particularly since she shot him. In this episode *she* seemed like the one more invested in their connection and that's just baffling to me.
I never was a big Billy fan but I warmed to him after seeing the cut scenes from Season 1. I liked him when he spoke up and was not the silent meek secretary, so this episode I enjoyed seeing him stand up to Adama. That made his death more tragic for me, though I admire the show for doing the hard hitting. I found the actual proposal to Dualla a little baffling as I couldn't work out if we were meant to think they'd reached a committed stage in their relationship but she was having cold feet, or he was simply really stupid at dating. It seemed too much, and I almost feel it was unnecessary in retrospect.
Having said that, I was moved for Roslin. Billy's death is a big loss to her. Of the three--Roslin, Tigh and Adama--with loved ones in the hostage situation, she was the one that lost someone, and she was the one who advocated against negotiation. I am so angry it wasn't Ellen Tigh! Grr. I was not surprised that Adama would 'negotiate' to save Lee as we've seen him put family first before. And his trick, or 'calculated risk', could have worked. But I'm really glad that it was shown to be dangerous and resulted in unforeseen casualties, because that seems realistic.
I think the thing I am most frustrated about in the episode is that Lee and Kara didn't save the day. At first that seemed to be what they were setting us up for. It was the classic Lee-and-Kara plan whereby they each contribute their own skills: Lee from inside setting up the situation to allow Kara to infiltrate. But it ended in the shooting and then Adama wouldn't let Kara help. It was BSG being hard-hitting and tough, and I love that, but OUCH: they hit me where it hurts with the Lee/Kara rift. More than just the death of any romantic possibility between them in the short-term (which I'm ok with), seeing them fail as a team really hurt. I wonder what the message is in this? For the first half of this season they built them up as the Destined Two, whose powers combined protected the fleet. Now I feel like that's been torn down. And I'm not sure where the writing is going with that or why.
Time will tell?
What a relief that the reversed-time-sequence episodes are over! That was the first emotion of many I felt in watching Sacrifice. This was an old-skool BSG episode for me and I was pleased to see nearly the whole cast involved (no Six, no Gaius). The concept itself, that word of Sharon helping the military would get out to the fleet and unsettle people, was an interesting one, and I really liked that the hostage situation went to hell. BSG does frak-ups so well. It shows people really torn, making real mistakes and suffering the consequences.
But I didn't love everything about the episode, and as I'm incredibly predictable, the bits I *didn't* like related to (the destruction of) Lee/Kara.
Now that we're back into episodes that progress the overall plot (i.e. cylon conspiracy) it's interesting to look back on Black Market and Scar and see what they've achieved. And in retrospect, they're frustrating. I don't feel like the discoveries from either episode have been tied well into the continuing plot. Lee dating Dee? Well, he's made a remarkable bounce back to cheeriness if he feels he's ready to do that. I didn't get the sense of that in Scar, where he was still drowning his (or rather Kara's) sorrows. And Kara being troubled about Lee being with Dee? Hang on, isn't she in love with Anders? Maybe I'm just cranky (I have a headache) and perhaps when I rewatch it will make more sense, but I didn't expect this much of a disconnect from the previous two episodes.
I'm neutral on the Lee/Dualla thing. I don't think it was set up that well, as until this episode I didn't see what the attraction of Dee was to Lee, other than at the simple physical level. (She did look stunning! But then so did Kara and Lee himself. Everyone was just glowing in their off-duty clothes!) Part of me is glad that Lee has someone who wants him to live and who will be supportive, but the diehard Lee/Kara shipper in me is crying. I really felt for Kara at her not being able to go to Lee's bedside, particularly since she shot him. In this episode *she* seemed like the one more invested in their connection and that's just baffling to me.
I never was a big Billy fan but I warmed to him after seeing the cut scenes from Season 1. I liked him when he spoke up and was not the silent meek secretary, so this episode I enjoyed seeing him stand up to Adama. That made his death more tragic for me, though I admire the show for doing the hard hitting. I found the actual proposal to Dualla a little baffling as I couldn't work out if we were meant to think they'd reached a committed stage in their relationship but she was having cold feet, or he was simply really stupid at dating. It seemed too much, and I almost feel it was unnecessary in retrospect.
Having said that, I was moved for Roslin. Billy's death is a big loss to her. Of the three--Roslin, Tigh and Adama--with loved ones in the hostage situation, she was the one that lost someone, and she was the one who advocated against negotiation. I am so angry it wasn't Ellen Tigh! Grr. I was not surprised that Adama would 'negotiate' to save Lee as we've seen him put family first before. And his trick, or 'calculated risk', could have worked. But I'm really glad that it was shown to be dangerous and resulted in unforeseen casualties, because that seems realistic.
I think the thing I am most frustrated about in the episode is that Lee and Kara didn't save the day. At first that seemed to be what they were setting us up for. It was the classic Lee-and-Kara plan whereby they each contribute their own skills: Lee from inside setting up the situation to allow Kara to infiltrate. But it ended in the shooting and then Adama wouldn't let Kara help. It was BSG being hard-hitting and tough, and I love that, but OUCH: they hit me where it hurts with the Lee/Kara rift. More than just the death of any romantic possibility between them in the short-term (which I'm ok with), seeing them fail as a team really hurt. I wonder what the message is in this? For the first half of this season they built them up as the Destined Two, whose powers combined protected the fleet. Now I feel like that's been torn down. And I'm not sure where the writing is going with that or why.
Time will tell?
no subject
Well, I think it's BECAUSE she shot him that she doesn't feel she has a place at his bedside.
I was irked that Roslin seemingly had absolutely no interest in the fact that LEE was a hostage - hello, WTF? Yes, I get that she's close to Billy, but once upon a time (LOOK IT UP WRITERS!) she was pretty close to Lee too. Remember "if it weren't fo rhim, I'd be in a jail cell on Galactica"? And yet she doesn't seem to care at all that he's dying.
I am most frustrated about in the episode is that Lee and Kara didn't save the day
I think that's mostly because Kara frakked it up - Adama ORDERED her to do a recon and she decided to be all Miss "Die Hard" with that ludicrously inadequate disguise and she made a bad situation much worse, and I think she knows that REALLY well, too poor thing.
I've decided that the things I dislike the most about "Black Market" and "Scar" is that if they had never happened at all, this episode would still make perfect sense right after "Epiphanies." Which is one of the reasons why I think they were both such terribly weak episodes - I said this after I watched 'Scar' but the fact that they could have come at any time in the season kind of means they shouldn't have come in at all, IMO. If there's no follow-through other than ones we have to infer like Lee's given up on seeing Kara romantically (but then, we didn't know he was still interested until "Scar" and then that played out in the confines of a single episode and I prefer to just pretend neither of those things ever happened!)
For the first half of this season they built them up as the Destined Two, whose powers combined protected the fleet. Now I feel like that's been torn down.
I like that; I like that the Ellen Tighs are just as much part of humanity's future as the God Apollo and the Magic Destiny Starbuck - I actually kind of hate that whole idea that there are "chosen ones" (or "chosen twos") and one of the things I always liked about Lee was that I didn't think he had a special destiny or would always be there to save the day. People screw up; other people die. It's honest.
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