The Captain's Hand is one damn fine episode. While I was a little thrown in the “Previously, on Battlestar Galactica” scenes, since they showed scenes I am pretty sure were never actually in the show, it did pretty much everything else right. While the show was primarily about Apollo, we were given a smorgasbord of character interaction that made this one of the more memorable episodes of the season.
Apollo and Dualla
I guess a month has passed since the last episode and a lot sure does happen! I honestly thought they were going to develop the growing relationship between these two over a few more weeks, but I guess there was no time to waste!
I think I said it last week, and I’ll say it again… It is time to start the death watch on Dee. A part of me imagines that they can keep her around season after season, but it is far too enticing for a writer to have such a dramatic device at their finger tips as killing off the lead hero’s girlfriend! Like I said, I will be surprised if she lasts. I really hope she does since she is such a rock solid character.
Interestingly enough, while Dee and Apollo are still in the honeymoon phase of their twiterpation, I found it interesting how the camera seemed to linger on the red-head in the Pegasus flight briefing. The editing seemed to deliberately enforce that she was “eyeing” Apollo when he was reprimanding everyone. She also had a few speaking lines which mean she has her screen actors guild card, so she doesn’t have to stay an extra!
Now that Apollo is a big hot shot on the ship, I can definitely see his relationship with Dee being… complicated, if only because he will be spending all his time on a completely different ship. Maybe she will transfer over? I can’t imagine Adama would let her go, however you never know.
Apollo and Garner
This episode was definitely helped along by the performance of John Heard. In past shows this season, we have seen how transparent and forgettable single episode characters can be. This time was not such an instance. While only on screen for a single week, there was a reality surrounding Commander Barry Garner. There was something genuine and honest and tragic about him. And when he died, I felt something.
The subtext of Commander Garner’s speech to Apollo was a good one. Every day there are people out there that we rely on. These people help make us who we are yet we will never know there names. There is an entire layer of support, a layer of people that make a civilization possible. We fixate on politicians and military leaders and hot shot pilots, yet there are people who are working hard every day so that nothing breaks, and on a good day you never even know they exist. While this doesn’t mean that the value of every job is equal, it does mean the importance of every job is. It may be harder to find a brain surgeon than a car mechanic, but that doesn’t mean you want your car to stop running.
While I found Garner to be a little brash, I realized he is like a lot of people I know, people who have left the comfort of where they want to be only because they have been instructed (by their friends, culture, parents, own expectations etc.) that they have to keep moving up. What if we don’t want to move up? What if we like our kingdom as big as it is? This has always baffled me about the stock market. In order for your stock to go up, you have to grow… well what if you are running a company and you don’t want to grow? What if you are happy where you are? Well then your stock goes down. You get punished for thinking that way in business. I am just talking growth stocks here, not dividend stocks, which have different rules… But yeah… doesn’t really seem fair to me… but I don’t make the rules. I own stock, therefore I play by them. I guess that makes me part of the problem… part of the “climbers”.
If anything, Garner made Apollo realize he was a climber. Sorry to borrow a Grey’s Anatomy plot line here, but Apollo is a “doer”. He has been hiding from that these last few episodes. We found out he was still carrying a lot of baggage from his mutiny attempt last season. He decided to do something, and like he told Starbuck, he almost lost everything that he had. It has taken a long time to climb back in the saddle, and it appears that Garner was the person who finally convinced him to climb back on.
After Garner left the Pegasus CIC, there was a great moment where Apollo realized he was in command. Instead of it being a moment of terror or nervousness, it was almost like an exhale. Apollo realized he had found his kingdom.
Apollo and Starbuck
I am definitely feeling a little played by the writers. I believe I wrote a few episodes back about how Apollo and Starbuck were slowly switching rolls, she becoming more responsible with something to live for and he slowly self-destructing due to the loss of his moral compass and idealism. While I am sure there is more to come this season, it doesn’t appear that is the case. Starbuck seems to be continuing on her path of recklessness and back-talking, while Apollo has gone above and beyond to embrace his heroic tendencies and reap the just rewards.
Both private moments with Lee and Kara this week were excellent. The first scene where they fight was honest; the second where they make up was tender, familiar and funny. They are back to being brother and sister, even if Starbuck’s eyes, shot by the camera over Lee’s shoulder during their embrace, shows otherwise.
Apollo and Adama
I had chills when they brought in the father/son Gaelic cue from Hand of God. That little ditty does it for me every time. You could see in Adama’s eyes how proud he was of his son. You could see the shock on Lee’s face that his father would trust him enough with this highest reward. When he opened the box and held out his hand, a wave of chills washed over me. I was happy for both of them that they had found that moment.
There is a part of Apollo that has always seemed to shy away from becoming his father. He never wanted to follow in William Adama’s footsteps because he didn’t think he could match up. The mutiny attempt in season one was a pretty easy way out for Lee. He was able to differentiate his path from his father’s in one draw of his weapon. It didn’t turn out how he thought, but he battled back. He restored the trust that was lost and in the process learned a lot about himself and his father. They are both much closer for it.
Roslin and Baltar
The politics are starting to heat up! Maybe all the people who were watching West Wing can come over to our show! Somehow I don’t think my wife is going to go for that.
If Baltar has any speeches like he gave back in Colonial Day Roslin could be in big trouble. Here is what Baltar said back then:
History is full of examples of leaders who have come from the most humble beginnings, and have risen to meet the challenge posed by cataclysmic events. It's very easy to be sitting there in your armchairs ... criticize Laura Roslin for the tough decisions that she has to make every day - especially if you're someone like Tom Zarek, who's never shouldered any real responsibility in your life. To be fair to Tom, how could he? He's been in prison for the last twenty years. Now that he's had a drastic personality makeover, he's posing like he's the savior to all your ills! I think you all have a short memory, really. ... What I have to say is, we must survive, and we will survive. And we will do so through the values that have made our colonies great: courage, truth, justice, liberty, with a firm and deep resolve to make tomorrow better, not just for ourselves, but for our children. (source)
Interesting that in his announcement to run, Giaus reacted to specific trespasses over values he credited Roslin for during the Vice Presidential election, primarily liberty. Funny he should leave out his lack of courage, truth and selflessness. I am glad to see Baltar make such a bold move, if only because it means we will get to see him a little more in the story!
Zarek is the biggest wildcard in all of this. While he says he supports Baltar, I can’t imagine him liking the situation if he finds out the Cylon-lovers are involved, worse if Gina’s true identity is revealed. A part of me also wonders how such a well connected man like Zarek wouldn’t know about Baltar’s ties to a potential Cylon. I have the opinion that nothing happens in the fleet without him knowing. The fact that Baltar smuggled Gina off Pegasus and into hiding without Zarek’s knowledge seems a stretch. Of course he might know and we don’t know he knows yet because like Rumsfeld says “it’s just not knowable.”
Though all of this, Roslin finds herself in a tough spot. She made a hard-play on Baltar asking him to resign and it obviously didn’t work out. She is also finding that her values are being challenged as the needs of liberty give way to a desire for order and survival. I feel bad for her though. No one would have invented Marshal Law within a free society if there wasn’t a possible situation where you might need to use it.
The writers did a pretty good job with the abortion debate. Science fiction is at its best when it takes our assumptions about specific moral arguments and turns them on their head by introducing very real exception cases that challenges our preconceptions. If you look at anything framed as a “national debate” in the media, it is often the result of a lack of acknowledgement that there exists a middle ground.
Unlike a large portion of the United States these days, the characters in BSG exist in a world of infinite grey. That is why these moral debates work so well. Is there room for pacifism when you are hunted by Cylons? Is there room for abortion when your numbers are falling every day? Is there room for a court martial when there aren’t enough pilots or soldiers to go around? Can you really prevent a black market when money is useless? Do you keep prisoners locked up on a ship even when you need all the help you can get? What if food gets scarce? Might it be time to break out the SoylentGreen? It is easy for us to sit on our couches watching TV thinking when it comes to morality it is our way or the highway. No one is asking us to compromise because we don’t have to. But what if we did? What if there was a logical argument to go the other way? Would it even matter? Would we hear it? Would we acknowledge the logic? Roslin is battling this every show and it is fascinating to watch. We can learn a lot about ourselves and our own choices in the process.
Conclusion
All I can think about it how happy I am for Jamie Bamber that he finally got a really good script for his character. This was an “Apollo” episode and he really grabbed on with both hands. This show was starting to lack a solid hero, someone we could always turn to when the chips were down. There is no doubt that the hero is back and his name is Lee Adama.
I am also happy to see that they are using the Pegasus in some really great ways. Having two ships in the fleet could have gotten complicated, but this episode shows how it can be done right and how it adds an entire dimension to the cast that was never there before. Now with Apollo in charge, things are only going to get better!
MIA this week: Gaeta needs something to do people!
Principal MVP of the week is of course Jamie Bamber. He did some of his best work in this and I am happy to seem him on top of his game. Not only did he get the girl, but he got a Battlestar and the loving respect of his father, all in one episode! Apollo is the man!
Secondary MVP of the week is definitely John Heard as Commander Garner. He was only on screen for a single episode, but he is a character that I will not soon forget.
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