This is hands down the best episode of season two so far. It was a perfect fusion of character drama, story, imagery, music, special effects, and revelation. When Pegasus aired last year I specifically said I could not judge the quality of the episode without seeing how it finished up. Needless to say, these three episodes are far stronger than the Kobol story lines ever were.
The best thing Ron Moore did was push to expand Resurrection Ship into two episodes. You could really feel the methodical pace of Part II. The deliberate storytelling that this episode received was well deserved and well executed. The entire experience was so much different than I expected, yet instantly recognized as gourmet.
Sorry if I am gushing, but I am still reeling from it all. As soon as next week’s preview was complete, I hit the stop button on my DVR, turned off the TV, walked into my office and started typing these thoughts. It doesn’t get any fresher than this. It is with an almost blinding glee, the tingles on the back of my neck still lingering that I continue typing.
While there is much to say about the beautiful battle sequence paired with another quality audio experience by Bear McCreary, it is really the show going back to solid character drama that plated this episode with gold.
Kara and Lee
The episode starts where it essentially ends… with Kara and Lee. It is obvious that their outlooks are changing. Lee who began the process of doubting himself and his moral compass under the impeachment of the President in season one, is presented with an almost unfathomable affront to his nobility. His father is ordering an assassination and Kara is the one who is going to carry it out. Kara, on the other hand, has found comfort in a much more logical reconciliation of the situations that surround her. After her experiences on Caprica, experiences that made the cruelty and inhuman label of the Cylons much more tangible, she is content being a pawn in the grand scheme. Kara is using her experiences to find and strength her human condition while Lee is starting to lose a grasp on his.
A part of me is a little unsettled by this. I really liked Lee as the hero. There is plenty of room for two heroes in the show seeing how they are entirely different people. I enjoyed seeing him crawl out from under the shadow of his father. While he was the CAG, Starbuck still slapped him around. It was good to see him stand up to her every now and then and truly start to find himself as a morally absolute contrast to Starbuck’s moral relativism.
That is a large theme that manifested itself this episode:
Battlestar Galactica contrasts the ideologies of moral absolutism and moral relativism.
Isn’t that one of the largest cultural debates of our time? Isn’t that the battle that is being fought in the news every day? Is there a right and wrong or does it all just depend?
I myself, tend to be a moral relativist. My general readings of history show no clear slant towards any grand unifying theory of moral behavior. Every hundred years or so, some specific ideology comes along (typically a few shared around the world) and they compete with each other until one or another wins. Sure, evolutionary psychologists will say there are some ingrained genetic behaviors that we can’t escape (incest prevention, empathy, desires to protect infants, etc.) so I guess that is as close to moral absolutism as anything, but that is still a long way from what is being talked about in BSG.
It is obvious that the Cylons are absolutists. They have been indoctrinated with a specific motivation towards cleansing the flawed and non-believing in order to purify existence. Six has mentioned numerous times how human beings do not deserve to live because of their tendencies towards self-destruction. It is stated at the beginning of every episode that “They Have A Plan” so we can only assume they are following it without deviation in pursuit of its absolute end.
The humans on the other hand are quite relative in their notions of survival. They are continually portrayed as contradicting their laws and their moral codes. They hold others to standards they do not hold themselves. They circumvent their ideals when the perceived greater good is at stake. Often they are redeemed by luck, but more often than not they simply accept their mistakes and march on to grapple with the next challenge. Interestingly enough, from the human perspective, this relativism is perfectly convenient. Look at Tigh, Apollo, Giaus, Kara, Helo, the Chief … They all have made significant choices that take people’s lives, put themselves and others in danger, lie, take advantage of others, cheat, switch sides… and at the end of the day have they really paid any price? Don’t they always seem to get out of it?
So that is my theory after watching this episode… this show is a battle between two different moral philosophies.
Sorry for that little side-track. Where were we?
Sharon and Adama
This scene was just gold. We really haven’t been seeing enough Grace Park. Every time you put Sharon and Adama in a room lately the dialog has just been dynamite. This case was no exception. Sharon really whips out a philosophical zinger. Maybe it is as simple as she says… maybe humans don’t deserve to live. Somehow we have been judged. Those who sin will be damned, whether it is by God himself or by the instruments of God, in this case the Cylons.
A moral absolutist would say that all humans deserves to live, or all humans deserve to die (it would depend on the ideology behind the moral philosophy). A relativist would say that no one deserves to live or to die, but we choose, from moment to moment, how to conduct ourselves given the cultural framework governing us at that instant. I therefore find it paradoxical that Adama would have difficulty with this answer. His actions over the last one and a half seasons have shown him to be a highly adaptive and relativistic man. I wouldn’t be surprised if, after letting it sink in, he comes to understand Sharon’s comments as being completely logical. He asked not to fence with her, but that is exactly what he got… a useless answer… to a useless question.
What does it matter if the Cylons hate humans? Maybe it isn’t hate at all. Do the people who go to war really hate the other side? History shows this is very rarely the case. Remember stories of soldiers in WWII stopping and sharing coffee and tea in each other’s trenches on Christmas Eve? War is rarely about hate. Hate is a convenient way to sometimes motivate the population that actually has to do the fighting, but the overall intention is rarely motivated by something as trivial as “I hate you, lets fight”. Remember, it says the Cylons have a plan at the beginning of every episode. They are executing orders. Adama would be best to drop the emotional distress over his attempted assassination and start asking her real questions about what role the humans are playing in this Cylon plan. Maybe the baby next week will get him thinking more about the master plan and less about his mortality or the scar on his chest.
Kara and Cain
While last episode I found a reason to despise Admiral Cain (based on Colonel Fisk’s drunken confessions), this episode I found myself slightly admiring her. Her conversation with Starbuck showed a truly genuine sense of courage and strength. For better or for worse, she truly believes in her abilities and actions. I think Kara really comes to understand Cain in the end, made evident by the speech she gives at Cain’s funeral. I have said it before and I will say it again. At the end of the day, we don’t want to admit it, but the Pegasus is the ship we would want protecting us. Kara realizes this.
Kara has really grown as a character over these last three episodes. When was the last time you saw a cigar in her mouth? She even seemed to reluctantly accept the drink Cain offered her, admitting she has a bit of a problem. It really goes back to her experiences on Caprica. She came away from that changed. She was forced to see that there was a world outside Galactica that was struggling just as hard to stay alive as they were. I bet there is a part of her that wants to take the Pegasus and head back to Caprica, help save the people that are there fighting in the resistance or trapped in the birthing facilities. Maybe Fisk and her will make a good team!
Colonel Fisk
I originally thought of Fisk as Cain’s little lap dog. It became clear in this episode that he was more playing the good cop to her bad cop. I really thought they were going to find a way to kill Fisk off. I was glad to see he gets to stick around. I really like him as a character. He is very close to Adama in his sense of nobility yet much less emotional in his execution. The scenes with him in the CIC were excellently played and I am calling it right now. He deserves the MVP for secondary character of the week.
Baltar and Gina
If anyone looked closely at the episode previews, it was quite easy to see the cuff marks on the hands of the person holding the gun to Cain’s head. It was therefore no real surprise that the death of Cain went down as it did (although I was also thinking Sharon might some how do it to protect her baby). I am a little confused as to how there is no security camera in the cell and how no one suspects that Baltar, the guy in the cell with her for days now, was not involved.
The Pegasus is a professional military vessel. You would think there would be prisoner logs showing entry and exit from the cell or surveillance of the entire facility to prevent such mysteries from occurring. Of course, Gina did break into Admiral Cain’s quarters which were protected by a key card access device so I guess anything is possible. I was actually expecting Baltar to sort of move underground with Gina, to turn into a full Cylon collaborator, led astray by his love for her. Interesting though that it is Baltar that is once again responsible for “saving the day” (if you consider Admiral Cain a threat to the fleet) by following his purely selfish motivations.
Adama and Roslin
Last week I said that I preferred to have the romantic relationship between Bill and Laura more implied than real. I guess I said that because I didn’t think they (the writers or the actors) could pull it off. Boy was I ever freaking wrong. The scene at the end of the show was so genuine and so well done that I have chills. Typically for me, chills up my spine occur during inspiring action moments, or scenes of dramatic revelation. I honestly do not remember ever getting chills during such a tender and romantic moment. To see the smile on Adama’s face… to see the simple expression of surprise and thanks from Laura… to see tears well up in Adama’s eyes when she walks away, a symbol of him knowing full well how little time is left… all of it was so powerful. I really have to congratulate the writers for knowing me better than I know myself and giving me that moment.
Other things
Sure the music isn’t a character but for this episode is just about qualified as one. While I am having difficulty recalling specific musical queues, I was continually blown away by the variety of themes and quality of composition that accompanied almost every pivotal moment of this show. I was already excited for the release of a season two soundtrack before, but now I am simply ravenous.
It was also nice to see them get rid of the stealth ship in a very believable way. I honestly believe that having that thing around was a liability for the writers. Not so much that they would want to use it in the stories from week to week, but that if you have something so powerful sitting around, how can you not use it? As the audience we would have been continually questioning, “Why don’t they just use the stealth ship?” It is simply one of those plot devices that has live fast and die young.
Conclusion
I feel like I am leaving some things out I wanted to talk about. In the end, I can’t imagine how the show is going to top the quality of Resurrection Ship, Part II. Although I guess I remember saying something similar when Kobol’s Last Gleaming Part I aired.
Principal MVP of the week is a really tough call. In the end I have to give it to Edward James Olmos for Adama. His scene with Sharon, with Roslin, with Lee, on the phone with Kara, were all dynamite. He brings a consistent level of quality and believability to a role that just goes unmatched lately.
As mentioned above, secondary MVP of the week goes to Graham Beckel as Colonel Jack Fisk. His silent machinations in the Galactica CIC were excellently performed and I really liked his no-nonsense conversation with Helo and Tyrol. I hope we get to see more of him as commander of the Pegasus.
Additional Resources
