Friday, January 30, 2009
Season 4.5: The Oath
PRE-EPISODE THOUGHTS
It seems to me that that point of this last half-season is “why can’t humans and Cylons just get along?” It's an obvious metaphor for relations between races here in the real world. Zarek is the bad guy, a racist, for approving the idea that ships can determine for themselves that they don’t want any Cylons to come aboard.
(As I recall, Zarek was a Nelson Mandela-like figure from Dualla's planet, a reverse-South Africa where white people were kept down by the blacks. Am I wrong on that?)
I can’t help but thinking that the Cylons wiped out the entire human race except for 50,000 survivors. When the survivors finally thought they got away from them and settled a new planet, the Cylons found them and enslaved them.
If I was in that situation, I wouldn’t want anything to do with Cylons either.
10:08 PM
In the first scene we see Roslin with Bill Adama and Tigh. Roslin is even more annoying this season than in previous seasons.
Then Gaeta frees Tom Zarek from prison. Somehow Gaeta has the backing of a large number of troops, and they are going to take over the Galactica. I'm rooting for Gaeta, but somehow, I think he's going to lose before the season ends. Perhaps even by the end of the episode.
10:23 PM
It looks like the mutiny/revolution is working, except that Starbuck is the wildcard. She freed Lee. How will that mess up their carefully laid plans?
In the last scene before the commercial break, Helo, who has routinely disobeyed orders in order the help Cylons, finally got what he deserved. (You all recall that he's a traitor to humanity for sabotaging the plan to infect the Cylons with a virus.)
10:32 PM
Gaeta took over the bridge. Adama said there would be no forgiveness for anyone involved.
I'm guessing that somehow, Lee/Apollo and Kara/Starbuck are going to defeat Gaeta.
10:47 PM
It looks like Gaeta made a huge mistake not killing Bill Adama. Zarek saw that immediately.
Roslin gave a whiny speech about how the only hope for humanity is to trust our new friends, the Cylons. Gaeta cut her off. Did she convince anyone who heard it?
10:58 PM
That grenade they threw into the storage bay looks like it should have killed Admiral Adama. But in the preview scenes from next week episodes, it seems that he was captured alive and tried for his crimes.
It also looked like Gaeta was going to destroy Roslin's ship, but the preview scenes show that she managed to safely get to the Cylon base ship.
I don't really understand why Admiral Adama stayed behind. All he did was get himself captured and almost killed.
: 1/30/2009 10:15 PMA captain doesn't get punished for leaving a ship lost to a mutiny. Think Captain Bligh.
Could Roslin just die please?
Considering a good portion of the fleet was already disobeying Adama, Roslin's plea should have fallen on deaf ears.
: 1/31/2009 11:00 AM : 1/31/2009 10:35 PMWhat analysis? This guy was merely typing what the show wanted you to think based on the editing/commercial breaks. If you couldn't come to the logical conclusions that were presented in this blog you probably needed a walk-through guide to beat street fighter II...yeah i pulled out a video game analogy, which probably isn't unfamiliar to anyone here.
Regardless I disagree that it doesn't make sense that Adama stayed behind. It was built up from the moment he gave his little pep talk to Gaeta about swearing an oath to defend the crew and uniform. You knew that he would defend his ship until his last breath. That was apparent from the miniseries where he was ready to retire the ship until the human race was nearly wiped out and his instincts kicked in.
Can't wait for the next episode...
: 2/01/2009 5:58 AM
Adama is all over the map. Helo actively sabotages a military operation and gets off scot free. His son and president were mutineers against legitimate military orders.
It's interesting to watch fans of the show hate Gaeta and Zarek. Why? Zarek and the Quorum passed a legitimate law. Adama violated that law. These are the same fans who in the first couple of seasons waxed poetic about the need for a democratic government. Now of course when they don't like it, they throw it out the window in a bout of Hero Worship.
: 2/01/2009 10:46 PMI don't watch Battlestar Galactic for "political intrigue." I get enough of that from real world headlines.
I applaud the writers and producers for a great series the first couple of seasons, but end it already.
: 2/02/2009 3:23 PMWell, I made myself watch it and it was worth the effort. Once Starbuck showed up and started blasting people it got a LOT better.
My apologies to the writers for judging this episode too quickly.
: 2/04/2009 1:18 PMObviously not many if any of you served in the military so you don't understand the military aspect.
As for the politics... Humans want to rule themselves, never want to get told what to do. Gaeta and Zarek were presenting them a false image of self rule through a true dictator of Zarek with Gaeta holding the gun (the military). As much as everyone hates Roslin in the fleet, she is the guidance, she is the voted for party.
As for the disobeying orders and getting off, Adama will look at their record, look at if he trusts them or not, feel with his instincts and decide how to charge them. Helo made a good call and saying he got what he deserves is petty.
: 3/03/2009 10:46 PMthe whole crux of the show was that humanity was fighting against an inhuman enemy who themselves were struggling to find what it was to be human. each episode was about a fight to survive, the best of which was admiral cain (who i consider the best hope humanity and the tv series ever had)
now suddenly the whole focus has gone from the fact that the cylons committed genocide, to the fact that the human cylons are time travelling scientists who came from earth and were brainwashed by the robot cylons. now we love the enemy.
this is like galactica 1980 all over again.... with galactica 80 they lost their way. with series 4.5 the writers fraked up too.
geeta should have spaced the traitorous adama and his drugged up girlfriend school teacher roslin
: 3/10/2009 8:44 PM