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January 14, 2006
Battlestar Galactica - Resurrection Ship Part II
I'm still mulling over this multi-layered episode, the grand finale of Admiral Cain. An episode with the balletic beauty of a spectacularly directed battle in space between Cylons and Colonials, silently watched from afar by a stranded and dying Lee Adama. An episode where the moral conundrums of choosing between equally unpalatable actions is subtly played out across the sweating faces and in the haunted eyes of those imprisoned by their conscience.
The plot of BSG vaulted forward with this episode. The pursuing Cylons dealt a staggering blow with the loss of their Resurrection ship, the Colonial fleet now with two battlestars, and the President clearly in her last days. Adama and Roslin have made peace with one another and, in a bittersweet moment, sealed their respect for each other in her endtimes with a kiss. Not a romantic kiss mind you, but an affirmation of trust, and a salute, between old friends.
"If we don't have our trust, then we are no better than the Cylons" Lee tells Starbuck before the battle.
Helo's Sharon with a troubled Adama in his quarters before battle reminds him of his own words, way back before the first Cylon nuclear weapon exploded in the Colonial system, asking how such a flawed human society has survived and is it really worthy of surviving.
Philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote of Man as wild and raw and of need of reason and morality. BSG has Adama struggling with the raw and flawed humans around him (and with his own nature) and trying to find the worth to survive. While he saw the immediate need to assassinate Cain, he stayed his hand through a deference to his own categorical imperative in a salute to human worthiness. He did this knowing the odds that Cain was going to make an attempt on his life (certainly his own mortality was on his mind as he stood infront of the mirror and contemplated the stem to stern scar on his chest). Adama made peace with the possibility.
Cain ended up the victim of the Cylon she had tortured and the Pegasus' Six, helped by Baltar, has escaped off the ship. Now we are left with two sympathic Cylon characters (that we know of) and the BSG story will now turn to them and their continued effect on the humans they are with.
Themes of the nature of trust and courage and respect coupled with loss and disillusionment and despair.
Such rare, serious writing on episodic television.
Here's to next Friday.
Posted by Darleen at January 14, 2006 12:00 AM
Comments
I very much liked this week's episode as well. The organic Cylons make for an interesting philosophical conundrum that this episode has started to really explore: what does it mean to be human? Are we defined simply by an arrangement of chemical compounds or is it by our actions and emotions? This gets a lot more complicated as the physiological line between Cylons and Humans becomes even more blurred. You really hit upon this when you discuss Adama's meeting with Helo's Sharon as well as Lee's line about trust to Starbuck. In both cases these men draw the line between themselves and Cylons by their actions and considerations and not merely "me flesh, them toaster." The only bad part is having to wait another week for the next episode.
Posted by: Quintapalus at January 14, 2006 10:33 AM
This episode was alright, but not as good as part 1 IMHO.
One odd thing though is I actually had a hint of sadness at seeing the Cylon bodies floating into space as the vipers blew strafed the ship.
Does this make me inherently evil or what?
On a note about special effects, I was just dumbstruck at the quality of the space scenes and the missiles spiralling in like sidewinders. Simply incredible! and they use the sound of silence to great effect! No loud booming explosions like Star Wars, the silence is ten times as loud.
Posted by: Digger at January 17, 2006 03:36 PM
Hey Darleen,
Just a little note on comments. Maybe you should enable "auto formatting" or whatever it is so that paragraphs are automatically broken up. It should be in your settings/feedback if you're using MT. It would eliminate the blob of text like the above comments rather than properly paragraphed as they were typed in.
You can delete this comment.
Posted by: Digger at January 17, 2006 03:40 PM