Thoughts on Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II

So, I just got back from the hospital where they were quickly sewing up MY HEAD FROM A MASSIVE EXPLOSION! (Ok not really)

Honestly, how do you start dissecting this episode? I have been thinking about it all day now and there is so much there to talk about… so many answers… so many questions… I never expected the episode I just witnessed. Is that brilliance or is it craziness? You have to admit, you feel a bit nervous after watching Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II. The show that we all knew (notice: past tense) and loved has fundamentally been changed on almost every single level. How are we supposed to deal with that? I have a feeling that if Ron Moore was in charge of Star Trek: The Next Generation when the Borg took Captain Picard and turned him in to Locutus, Ron Moore wouldn’t have let Riker save Picard. He would have kept Picard Locutus forever while Riker tortured himself over the failed rescue. Then he would have changed the entire series to operate from the Borg’s perspective…Ron Moore is twisted like that... twisted in a good way.

Let’s get the small stuff out of the way
Before diving head long into the epic insanity that is the last half of this episode, I just want to mention a few quick things that I really liked… just to get them out of the way and go on record about some pretty great moments:

• Interesting that it turns out that the whole thing with the Chief is a bit of a Red Herring, only useful to bring PriestCylon into the show. I will say that I really enjoyed the moment with Tyrol and Cally, he apologizing, her forgiving, both of them realizing that maybe there is something there worth keeping.
• Kara’s little three way with Lee and Anders was tense and enjoyably uncomfortable. I honestly thought that Anders had a better head on his shoulders. I expected a little more tact from him when meeting Lee for the first time… maybe he is just a big dumb jock after all. Not that it bothered me, I just expected him to be a different person, maybe filling the hero shoes that Lee left behind with his new responsibilities.
• The little secret meeting between Baltar and Roslin had some great moments. Baltar had one of the best lines in the show: “I saved your life; I won’t save your political career.”
• When the Priest-Cylon is outted, his line “Take me to your leader” was classic.
• When PegasusSix is seducing Baltar, I feel like it has been a really long time since we heard the bell theme. It really jumped out at me.
• That was one HELL of a nuclear explosion! The debris hitting the camera reminded me of the miniseries.

Alright, that is enough of that. I can’t think of any more at the moment. On to the good stuff!

There is no God?
The conversation with the two Brother Cavells in the brig reminded me of that scene at the end of The Matrix: Reloaded where Neo meets the Architect. There is a lot that is said in that scene. Here were my key takeaways:

• Does Cavell speak for them all?
  A part of me is thinking that perhaps the War Hero Cylon’s effect on the others is not as pervasive as Cavell says. It is unrealistic to think that such a gigantic cultural and spiritual shift could take place among the Cylons so quickly. He says the humans get a reprieve, but can we trust that he is speaking for all Cylons? I wouldn’t be surprise if he turns out to be from a whole different faction.
• We can admit our mistakes
  I am not buying that the Cylons gave up Caprica because they can admit their mistakes. From what Anders had said, there were only a few resistance fighters left, enough to shuttle back in a fleet of Raptors. If the Cylons were that close to snuffing them out, why the sudden change in direction?
• New marching orders
  The Cylons no longer want to be the children of humanity? They no longer want to usurp the destiny of the colonialists? Just where the hell are they marching then? Cavell says they want to be the best machines in the universe, have they found another race of machines? Are they going head to head with the Borg? (sorry for all the TNG references.)

Perhaps Cavell’s biggest statement is that there is no God, or Gods… Atheism rocking the Cylon ranks is it? I find it strange that at the very end of the show when the three Cylons go in to Baltar’s chamber to accept his surrender; there is only a Six, a Five and an Eight. Where is the strong Number Three (Lucy Lawless)? Maybe the Cylons have their own little rebellion going on and the new marching orders that Cavell was talking about is a circling of the wagons to protect their own empire. We might soon find out that the humans are but small pawns caught in an intergalactic battle between the Cylon factions.

The choice for Democracy
This isn’t a very happy episode for the wisdom of crowds. I have never personally been trapped inside a spacecraft for months, so I really can’t relate to the appeal of settling on a barely hospitable rock deep within a nebula. To put it in perspective I am trying to imagine myself stranded on a Boeing 737 for a few months… yes… that would be hell… I would probably take my chances in Antarctica if it meant breathing real air and stretching my legs.

The most fascinating part of the great election was the conversation with Adama and Roslin after she confessed to knowing of the fix. There looked like a moment where Adama was actually going to go along with it, but then he said exactly what needed to be said. She would die inside. This isn’t her. She will lose the battle, but not the war. Both McDonnell and Olmos were fantastic in these scenes. It really felt like the culmination of a friendship that had been building the entire series. Roslin simply says “That’s it” and gives a great exhale ventilating herself of all the pressures and moral compromises she has had to make this season. While I never would have predicted back in episode 2.01 that Laura wouldn’t be President, I have to say I am surprised how the writers have made me come to accept this as a very natural event.

Holy crap one year later
I have a hypothesis: My DVR mysteriously died on Friday night. I got this strange error message that the disk drive had unrecoverable errors and that everything has been lost. I was forced to call customer support and learn that the only thing they can do is send me a new unit. My DVR is totally fried. Coincidentally enough, it died very near the end of the airing of this episode. Just as my own head exploded, I believe Ron Moore to be single handedly responsibly for frying my DVR with this pure craziness. How do we know a year passed?

• Adama is alone on his ship and looking scraggly
• Lee is alone and looking… older…
• Dualla is looking fine, but is now on Pegasus
• Helo is doing Gaeta’s job
• Gaeta is doing Billy’s job
• Kara is a happy homemaker
• Tyrol is a union president
• Cally is pregnant!
• Baltar has a whole Emperor Caligula thing going on
• Tigh and his wife seem to like each other
• Kara seems to like Tigh
• Laura Roslin is a teacher
• Sharon and Helo’s baby is huge (notice the white crib!!)
• There is a FREAKIN CITY on the planet

Ok let’s just stop right there for a second. Did ANYONE see this coming? This is about as far from anything I ever expected this show to possibly be. I kept expecting Baltar to lift his head off the desk, have it all be a funny little hallucination brought on by the stress of a nuclear detonation in the fleet… At this point, that isn’t possible. This is the real deal folks. There are no worm holes or alternate timelines. We are in it for the long haul. Season three is going to look like one hell of a different show.

Final thoughts
I can honestly say I was more blown away by the end of Lay Down Your Burdens than I was with Adama getting shot in the closing moments of season one. At least when Adama was shot, you knew he was going to pull through. When Picard was turned in to Locutus, you knew they would get him back! Resolutions to such situations are always in the back of your mind. It provides a comfortable cliff hanger. At the end of BSG season two, I have no planned resolution, therefore I am uncomfortable. There isn’t a single ounce of me that knows where this story is going next. That is perhaps the best gift we could have been given at the end of this complicated season.

Ron Moore wanted Battlestar Galactica to continually defy people’s expectations. He did it when Number Six snapped that baby’s neck in the miniseries. He did it when Tigh left that little girl behind singing on a bench while a missile slammed into her ship. He did it when Roslin pushed Leobon out of the airlock, when Lee committed treason, when Adama was shot, when Baltar kills Crashdown, when he keeps the Pegasus around, when Billy gets killed, when Lee becomes commander, Baltar becomes President and now this! The list of surprises goes on and on. 

In the end are we watching Battlestar Galactica because it is science fiction? Are we watching it because it is just good TV? Are we watching it because, like the show 24 we just want to see what crazy frakked up situation everyone is going to find themselves in next week? I guess it is a little bit of everything.

So I guess we wait until October… where we will see everyone fight ‘em until they can’t.

Principal MVP of the episode goes to James Callis as Giaus Baltar. He had far too many single-tear-rolling-down-the-cheek scenes to go unnoticed. It is tough to hand out the award to one person after such a complicated set of episodes, but his performance was pivotal in tying everything together.

Secondary MVP of the episode goes to Dean Stockwell as Cavell, if only for the almost hilarious banter in the brig. I think it was a great casting job and I look forward to seeing more of Dean on the show. He did a great job… in fact I think he is my favorite Cylon so far.

Additional Resources

• Official episode synopsis
• Official podcast commentary for episode 2.20
• Battlestar Wiki page for episode 2.20

Comments

[Josiah]

Great wrap-up of a stunning season finale.

I think it might just take til October to sort out all the mind-boggling emotions running through my head after watching it.

Lay Down Your Burdens II basically solved any and all quibbles I might have had with the show. Suddenly, all the new character twists made sense and I am absolutely intrigued with, as Brother Cavell put it, the cylon's "change of plans."

James Callis was terrific. He has perfected the Hugh Grant-like despicable but elusive antagonist who seems to get away with everything despite the ruin he brings wherever he goes.

But as a co-MVP, I think you have to credit Edward James Olmos. First, as I've said before, it is a lot of fun to watch him get pissed. When Cavell issued that wonderful "take me to your leader" line, Adama immediately fires back with "take him to the brig" and then, referring to Sharon as "it" has her thrown in the brig just as quickly.

But where he showed just how extraordinary (and subtle) his character is was when he confronted Roslin about the fixed election.

I can honestly say that if I were him, I would have looked the other way. Who wants Baltar as president? Adama knew as well as anybody what a disaster that would be. But he showed tremendous respect for democracy by refusing to support the fix. He showed he understood that the process matters more than the outcome.

What's more, I thought it was brilliant how he persuaded Roslin to agree. He didn't get sanctimonious or launch into a tirade against her. He calmly, but passionately, laid out the case for doing what's right. He had me believing, by the end, that despite the fact that Baltar was undoubtedly going to frak everything up, this was still the "right" thing to do.

If there ever were a quality that elevated cylons above humans, I think Adama's respect for freedom and choice is clearly a leading candidate.

Ok -- now we gotta wait til October!

[Josiah]

Oops.

At the end of my comment above, I wrote:

"If there ever were a quality that elevated cylons above humans, I think Adama's respect for freedom and choice is clearly a leading candidate."

I meant to say "humans above cylons."

[vincent formosa]

slight correction. it wasn't tigh that left the girl behind on the ship that got hit, it was lee and roslin. joint decision.

more comments to come from me once I've watched the episode again. I have a slight theory on where this is heading but need time to formulate thoughts properly.

[John]

I think there is variance in the Cylon religion. Cavel said that he had been pushing a "no-God" agenda all along. I think that Caprica Six and Boomer represent the idealogy that God is Love. The teaser at the end of the episode, where Six is describing how they will take care of the humans, is reminiscent of Southern plantation owners and slaves: paternalistic. I believe that while Cavel is an atheist, the Cylons now generally believe that they must take care of humans, because humans are unable of taking care of themselves.

[vincent formosa]

hmm, some interesting stuff all round.

so, lets deal with things in a random order as my brain kicks in.

Geata.

man, how much of a schmuck does he feel? in fact, how long after the election did Gaeta feel a moron for noticing the fix was in and calling Tigh on it? he serves a president he obviously has nothing but contempt for and more than that, he's the one that put him there.

Helo

helo as XO? hmmmm. Adama has come a long way on the whole trust front, then again, I can only see two possibilities here. 1 His Sharon is still on board Galactica which is why he sticks around. 2. she pissed him off so much he's gone back to what he knows, the military.

Dualla.

She is so foxy with straight hair, then again, she is just foxy, green eyes mmmmmm. anyway, its a leap but I totally buy her being in an officers uniform. if both ships are now running on skeleton crews, a lot of people would have got bumped up to officer grade to fill essential jobs.

Tyrol and Cally.

awwwww

Kara and Anders.

typical Kara. Just as selfish as she has always been, just not selfish involving Lee. She's moved on to her new man, got all giggly and loved up. the question is whether or not there was a specific spat in this intervening year with lee, or whether there has just been a general malaise set in over their relationship.

I could quite easily see Kara getting drunk one night and insulting lee for remaining on pegasus, deriding his loyalty and his 'frakked up' decision to stay on pegasus when could be having all the fun down on New Caprica. yeah right. tent city or a warm battlestar, I'd take the battlestar please.

Adama.

I just see a man worn down by a bastard president. I could very easily buy any siggestion adama making being ignored by Baltar so he's almost just given up. he's just biding his time. clever use of moustache to draw parallels to the flashback in the beginning of season 2 when he is out of the military on a civilian ship, it almost signifies his relaxing his rigid militaristic lifestyle.

The populace.

Well they don't look very happy, do they? could some of them be yearning to be back in space under Roslin and Adama's sure handed leadership, possibly, it certainly seems as if things were starting to lean in that direction.

The fleet.

I bet you every one of those ships that jumped are running on skeleton crews. so, do they abandon some to concentrate personnel. they're going to have to do something because on reduced crews neither battlestar is in any kind of position to go toe to toe with a fully manned basestar, let alone loads of them.

the way forward??

hmmmm not sure. I need some more thinking time on this one. it almost feels a bit like V at the moment, with a resistance movement on the planets surface etc, but it doesn't follow that this will work. if they planet is so marginal there won't be many places to hide.

so the fleet has jumped, but will they come back. they can certainly recon back to new Caprica to take a look, but their options militarily are extremely limited.

[gleek]

i have so many thoughts running through my head after this episode and you summed them all up! i was waiting for your post all weekend! :) this episode is exactly why i love this show. it continues to amaze me and defy conventions. i couldn't be more pleased.

i did happen to jump on the scifi.com BBS at one point this weekend (i don't really like doing that, but wanted to see the uproar) and noticed a rumor about EJO not coming back next season. have you heard anything about this? i hope it's just a BBS rumor and totally not true. the fleet jumped away to protect itself but it'll be back! and so will adama.

[Trapper Markelz]

I am not going to comment on the EJO rumors until I see some hard evidence.

[Brian Jutting II]

EJO - i heard from the podcast that he is not comeing back too - but im not sure ether, i might have misheard. i frackin' hope he is back - if anyone else had heard anything about EJO please e-mail me, i will be gone in Europe for the next two weeks(vipermarkseven@aim.com) - i will be SO pissed if he dont come back, How WILL THEY REPLACE HIM, HE IS THE MAIN CHARACTER!

[vincent formosa]

listen to the podcast again. rdm and de are quit clearly taking the piss and joking about it as they say it. they do not say in any serious way that ejo is not coming back.

[m. sherman]

I don't know... I don't think it's necessarily a joke. I have listened to the segment a few times now. They were certainly joking about the "CGI Adama", but not necessarily about him not being back.

[obsessed]

I just watched the episode again, and it got better! So many subtleties, such as when Roslin has her secret meeting with Baltar. Baltar says, "You must have something very important to say to me, having been reduced to such pedestrian means of deception" How brilliant for that to come from Baltar's mouth...the master of deception on a genocidal scale...great writing. Also, at the very end, a man asks Anders where is Kara Thrace. Is that the cylon that screwed with her mind and was thrown out of the airlock..hard to tell, but there is a future story line if it is. October....frak!

[Asa]

Edward James Olmos has been talking at interviews about where his character might go in the next season. (here's a link to one example: http://www.eonline.com/Insider/Boards/ann.jspa?annID=434) I highly doubt there is any truth to the rumor of him leaving. The fact that people keep repeating this rumor should teach RDM not to crack jokes on the podcast anymore.

[Ed Ott]

Where was sharon one year later? they seemed to go to a lot of trouble to show us everyone, and we did not see her. With 6 back maybe baltar will straighten out. I think he just needs the love of a good cylon.
the baby actualy seemed small to me for a one year old. my one year olds could walk, that looked more like a 6 month old child. course maybe cylon-human hybrids age and develop more slowly.

Salam

[mike p.]

I just have one question that I have been wondering about since the beginning - why is it always centered around the name Caprica? There were 11 other colonies. You would think that others from the 11 other colonies would object to the reference of their new home being named after one colony. It would be equilvant of the US being destroyed and we called our new nation New New York! Just would love to hear about the other colonies.

-mike

[Adric]

"Where was sharon one year later?"

I had the impression they shoved her out an airlock too after it was clear she had failed to tell the colonials about Cavell.

"they seemed to go to a lot of trouble to show us everyone, and we did not see her."

I was more interested in what happened to Zarek. He seemed conspicuously absent from Baltar's inner circle in the "one year later" segment. Did I just miss seeing him? I was pretty tired when I saw the ep...

[Josiah]

Regarding EJO's return for season three. I don't know if this is new, but the SciFi Channel's BSG website does state that EJO and the rest of the cast will be returning.

" ... The entire Battlestar Galactica ensemble will return, including Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Tricia Helfer and Grace Park. ... "

See http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/updates/

[Aragorn]

I am highly conflicted. For starters... I WANT SEASON 3 NOW!!!!!

However... I recognize that the writers have basically poured their heart, soul, and brillience into this series... and they have a very justified two month vacation.

So.... anyone else wanna look into going into a coma until october?

[oopla]

Adric, I noticed Zarek's absense too. My guess is that either he was with the fleet, boycotted the meeting or was out preparing for immediate insurgency against the cylons.

I am hoping that next season he teams up with Starbuck and A sober Tigh to form an insurgency against the cylons with Chief Tyrol seducing his way in to Galactica Boomer's heart to gain vital information.

[-b]

this season absolutely and utterly SUCKED ass. the only episode worth watching was downloaded. the others had too many flashbacks, flash forwards (a solid f'ing YEAR!?), and other nonsense that took away from the series. like adama would have rolled over like a dog for a milkbone to baltar. ridiculous. anyway, i kept waiting for pam to wake up and find bobby in the shower. honestly. sucked ass.

[Trapper Markelz]

Aragorn - I for one am not going into a coma until October! You can expect to get site updates! :)

[John]

I am guessing Zarek was probably running the planet with mafia rule (hinted at in Black Hand). That would explain, perhaps, why no one had managed to assasinate Baltar. Just a guess.

[Aragorn]

Fair enough Trapp. Then again... you get to be the one to report to me when the season 2 sountrack, and dvd set are announced.

mmmmmmmm extended Pegasus.

[rjschwarz]

Geata is a cylon. He was instramental in getting Baltar elected, the one move that would stop the fleet from getting out of Cylon reach. He also goes from right hand man of the bridge of the Galactica (center of power and info) to the right hand man beside Baltar (center of power and info a year later) which is perfect positioning for a spy.

And there is that unexplained bomb on the bridge from the mini-series. The cylon fingered for planting it could not have gotten bridge access, Geata could have done so with ease.

[Amanda]

I’ll admit at the end of this episode I felt totally ripped off. The whole 1 year forward didn’t sit well with me. However after thinking about that last half hour over and over again I realized that there are so many questions now. What the heck happened to these people? I am really hoping....really really hoping ....that some of next season will clue us into what happened. Instead of picking up right where it ended maybe backing up a few months so we can see the downfall. Why is Kara on New Caprica? She doesn’t seem the type to become a happy homemaker or leave Galactica/Adama. What happened between her and Lee? Had to be something pretty big. Where was Baltar’s internal Six? Would he have been such a screw up if she had been there? I want to see the relationship between Tyrol and Cally build. I can go on and on.

Also...the whole nuke thing. I haven’t figured that out yet. Did Pegasus Six commit suicide or was she ordered to set it off? Either way the look on Baltar’s face when he realizes that is how they were found was priceless! If Cavell was telling the truth then why did the Cylons show up?

Another thing. When Cavell showed up on Caprica after the Cylons left why didn’t anyone question who he was? Had he been with Anders all along? I doubt he tagged along with Kara...or did he? I might have missed something. I really should watch the episode again.

My initial feeling of disappointment with the ending has developed into an obsession about the new season. Darn October!

[rjschwarz]

Pegasus 6 - my guess is she was somewhat suicidal after being gang raped on the Pegasus. I think she also had a loathing for humanity after that. She tried to reconnect with Baltar but didn't work for her.

I also think that she did it knowing humanity would be well hidden in the Nebula, it was a last chance to clue the cylons in on where humanity was.

All this came together and boom.

The question is, was Richard Hatch on the ship. He was always shown on that ship since it was a political hub and he did not appear 1 year after. Or does he control a ship in the fleet, with additional power now that the fleet only has a fraction of the people until they figure out a way to save/rescue/whatever the rest of humanity.