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

[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.

[Adric]

"If Cavell was telling the truth then why did the Cylons show up?"

It's interesting which cylons showed up. A six, an eight, and a five. By all accounts the "least creepy" of the models. Sure, Number Six was the flag-bearer for the cylon cause in the early parts of the show, but we've seen her in sympathetic scenes since then, both in the form of Gina the victim and CapricaSix the rebel.

Also - we get a strong hint that this Six is Baltar's Six - CapricaSix - when she says she knows "very well" who he is. It's a good bet this Eight is GalacticaBoomer.

That is, if there's a rift of some kind in Cylon society by this point - if there are some Cylons that aren't content to just let the humans go - these seem the likely ones. They're the ones most connected with humanity. (Of course, Doral doesn't really fit this description - but he's always seemed less creepy to me than Loben, Simon, Three and Cavil).

But then, I suppose another way of looking at it - for anyone who still thinks Baltar might be dreaming this whole "one year later" pitch from the moment his head first hit the desk - would be that these are the three Cylons Baltar is directly aware of. I'm not sure he's ever seen Loben or Cavil, and of course no one on Galactica knows that D'anna Biers is a cylon yet.

Of course, there's also no reason to suppose Cavil was telling the truth, either...

[Adric]

Scratch the speculation that Baltar is still dreaming - Ron Moore confirms that season three will be about the Cylon occuation and the human resistance:

http://www.nowplayingmag.com/content/view/3300/2/

[Paul Karpenko]

I wonder what the Articles of Colonization say about ex-presidents rerunning for office. I bet that's how Roslin gets back into power once Baltar's disgraced/goes insane/joins the Cylons, whatever.

Also, though this is a huge shift, I can't help but see the parallel to Adama's getting shot and for four episodes after that, things being in complete disarray with everything proceeding opposite to how it normally does (conflict coming from within rather than from the outside)

So I think RDM is using the same tricks, just upping the ante. Maybe at the end of season 3 the crew will be stranded aboard and in control of a Cylon Basestar while the Battlestars are taken over by Cylon agents.

[Adric]

Paul Karapenko-

IN fact, RDM said in the linked interview that the bit about fighting the Cylons on New Caprica would be about 4-5 episodes of the new season, so I think you're right on the money. Good observation. Hopefully by season 4 there will be serious talk of Earth.

[oopla]

Paul, Roslyn doesn't need to reclaim office, as she is the prophet. The events of episode 2.20 show the gods displeasure with humans straying from the plan. She just has to play the religious card. Then She can form an alternative government to baltar's and Adama will certainly back Roslyn.

[RagaBaSH]

after seeing this episode my first thought was : "Wow, they pulled an alias..."

Great first season, nice cliffhanger in the second season that made all the characters lives easier (removal of the resurrection), then some moderate eps after that finishing off with a good ending (downloaded and lay down your burdens). but they had to go further, they had to throw the entire show in disarray. They just had to make a jump so far ahead that they could pull off anything, not showing you the stuff that would be logical (baltar running the fleet). Earth, which was such a prominent point in the first 20 episodes of bsg, is completely out of the picture, and is only mentioned once or twice intermittently in the last few eps.

I keep getting the feeling that the writers lost their way so bad, they just wiped clear their drawing board and thougth: this looks like a nice situation to start over from.. so in effect bsg s3 will not be bsg, but more like chronicles of new caprica.
Totally bogus ending to a nice theme... hope the writers have the gusto to pick it up before the 3rd season is over (check the alias reference again, they sucked till s4 started also).

I attribute this not completely to the writers tho... this is part of the way tv works these days, its impossible to run a multi-season series properly these days.
24 was a hit because of the intricate plotting, but the first season was a 12 / 12 division between two plots (clearly production related, not story). prison break is currently looking at only 1 season (or at least thats how the producers positioned it). Compare that to multi-season arcs used in shows like DS9, or my personal favorite space opera: Babylon 5. The whole story is planned out in advance, always leaving questions and always having a good solid point to return to in a new season.
I will watch s3, but if it turns out to be any bit as shoddy as alias s3 was.... out of the bookmarks they will go.

[austin]

I have to agree with RagaBaSH. This smells like an alias style shark jumping. They dragged their feet with 3 or 4 eps that were character studies (and did little to move the plot along) and then crammed a years worth of story lines into one ep? mmm. smells like writers block to me.

the best of TV (s1 of BSG, s1 of 24, prison break, the wire, etc) have arcs that cross the whole season, and subtle plotline progression throughout. I feel like BSG really lost it's way with a lot of throwaway plotlines in the back 10 that contributed very little to the story progression as a whole. (crime syndicate, pegasus captain, priest cylon/Tyrol +cali, etc)

Now, to throw it all away, and make it a political drama about colonization? Give almost every character a new role? Starbuck as a housewife? Tyrol from cylon loving chief to mental case to norma rae in one ep? come on...

Let's hope they pop in '33' and take a look at what hooked us.

[Bob in North Dakota]

Obsessed wrote:

>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. <

Yes, my guess is that this was FAR from filler, and that this will lead to at least one episode in the future.

So, of the 12 "skin job" models, how many have been revealed to us?

I think that the colonization of New Caprica was written into the script to give the plot line another year, after BSG's big success so far. A year of resistance, an evacuation, and finally back towards Earth. I'm guessing that this is what the next year brings.

I disagree with the grumbling about side episodes (crime syndicate, etc.). There is character development, and interesting drama about the human condition. I am not sad to have this tale unfold slowly.

Bob in North Dakota

[RagaBaSH]

At the risk of spoiling (as far as thats possible for ppl reading the comments on a season finale)

>So, of the 12 "skin job" models, how many have been revealed to us?<

1. No 6. / Gina / etc.
2. Boomer / Sharon
3. Press guy from the bsg-pilot-miniseries (Doral?)
4. leoben (which incidentally was the one asking about starbuck) also from the mini's
5. Dark doctor guy (Simon) from the starbuck@caprica episodes
6. D'anna bears (<- correct?) (aka #3?)
7. Priest Cavell

so I'd say 7 of 12 in total.
In the back of my mind there is still the mention of "adama is a cylon" to roslyn by leoben right before getting tossed out the airlock. somehow I always feel the best way to put people off is by giving them part of the truth, so I think either apollo or actual is a cylon. (of course it cant be admiral "actual" adama, so i'd be the son, hinted @ in the last resurrection ship episode).

ow and one last comment on the end of the season: why the hell didn't they do anything with the "there are 8 skinjobs in the fleet" info.... it was mentioned once, at the risk of almost killing tyrol but then never referenced again, but in the fora.... lame.

[Trainwreck TV]

I'm confused about Anders. In "Downloaded" he met Six and Boomer and overheard Six talking about her relationship with Baltar. Why didn't he bring this up with Starbuck or anyone when he was rescued? I thought that revelation was going to really shake things up.

[thebizofknowledge]

I stumbled across your blog while I was in the process of doing some online research. This is an excellent show that deals with real-world issues, but I think some people aren't tuning in simply because of the sci-fi label.