BSG 2.18: "Downloaded"
Feb. 24th, 2006 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperDUDE! Well, THAT was fun, now wasn't it? Using the Han icon because I still don't have me a decent BSG one, and it best conveys my mood about this episode. Plus, it is science-fictiony! Which is close enough.
That was definitely one of the strongest episodes we've had in the latter half of this season, for sure. Where in the world to begin with the fun?
First--I think I finally have an explanation for the Cylon/Cylons thing. I wonder if it's a distinction between the usage among the Cylons themselves--and the usage among humanity. I need to go back and look at the previous episodes and see who used what usage when to verify this for sure, but in this episode, I noticed that we did see a shift in usage between Caprica (and BWAHAHA more on this below) and Sharon. Early in the episode they were saying "Cylon". At the end? "Cylons".
And I think there may be something there, a subtle distinction about how the common usage among the Cylons themselves is to say "Cylon", which conveys more a sense of a hive consciousness, a sense of the race as a whole entity. Whereas "Cylons" allows for wiggle room to emphasize individuals. Thinking about this now especially in light of this episode's Three complaining that Galactica-Boomer still insisted on calling herself "Sharon"--and how Three also pointed out that Gaius' Six had been dubbed "Caprica Six", and then even shortened it to "Caprica"--it would make sense that the Cylons in general would not encourage individual models to adopt personal names. Which makes this Three's deliberate usage of "Caprica" as a nickname even more amusing--it lends weight to the theory that she was deliberately setting up the whole situation to make "Caprica" remember her love of Gaius.
Next, LOVE LOVE LOVE the nickname "Caprica Six" in general. This is totally Ron Moore and the other writers saying "HI FANS! THIS IS FOR YOU!" ^_^
Love, love, love with a great burning passion of a thousand fiery suns that Caprica Six HAS BALTAR IN HER HEAD. Raise your hands, all of you who thought for a single brief instant OHMIGOD BALTAR IS A CYLON and then went BWAHAHAHAHA HE'S IN HER HEAD TOO! I love it. I love it so. Hallucination-Baltar was deliciously snarky, and I really hope we get to see more of that. And even more than I did before, I want to know WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED that this mirrored hallucination thing is going on now? Are they both crazy? Have they both been messed with somehow? Is this even some kind of supernatural linkage? WHAT'S GOING ON?! I love this!
I loved getting more data about the Cylons in general. The Xena models are the Threes. The Sharon models are the Eights. The reporter models are the Fives. And apparently downloadings go wrong often enough that they have a nickname for the whole notion of sequestering memories of an individual away so that they can't get put into a new body--"boxing". But I am quite put out that we didn't get to see any other humanoid models yet. ;)
Best line uttered during our watching of the episode:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spazzkat, when we saw the Cylon enforcers moving a tree, "I THINK THIS WOULD LOOK BETTER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COURTYARD". BWAHAHAHAHAHA.
YAY Anders is still alive and kicking and carrying around Kara's dog tags! I was fairly sure they wouldn't have killed him off, and that he gets more camera time at all makes me pretty sure she'll eventually find out that he's alive and kicking. Just a question of when and how. And I do have to admit that he is awful purty, even though I'm a Lee/Kara girl.
We had some interesting chats here in the Murk about the decision of Anders' group to assault a cafe, though. This gets into one of those murky gray areas that BSG seems to like to play with--because, after all, in our real-life sensibilities, attacking a cafe would be considered a terrorist act. But then you get into all sorts of interesting questions about whether you can really condemn Anders and company for doing it. I mean, we're talking fifty-some-odd human rebels on a planet probably occupied by thousands if not millions of Cylon invaders at this point, rebels who for that matter aren't actual military personnel for the most part and who therefore aren't necessarily going to have the expertise or the intelligence (in the military sense, not the smarts sense ;) ) to know where the really strategically important places are. Even if they do know, they may not have the firepower to take them out. Plus, getting continued ammo must be a challenge. So do you blow your whole wad on one big strategic assault? Or do you hit-and-run as best you can, trying to make your invaders as miserable as possible? And what's going through your head if you're literally fighting against the extinction of the last few dozen survivors of your entire race, and you're up against hordes of what (so far as you know) are soulless machines? No easy answers here, and it's nice to get that kind of fuel for thinking again in an episode.
Especially when I wasn't quite as sure about what was going on over in the land of Galactica-Sharon's baby being taken out of her and Helo's hands. I'm totally down with the need to keep that kid under wraps as best as possible, but I'm having all sorts of worry-bells going off about sending the kid out into the civilian fleet.solarbird points out, quite rightly, that you can't really keep a baby on a battlestar. So she can't stay among the military. But if Roslin's all about making sure the Cylons never find out about the child, and they know for a fact that there are more Cylons in the Fleet, they have no way of knowing if/when that kid's going to get discovered by another Cylon spy. It just feels like a huge security hole. And yet I can't think of a better answer to the problem, either. Grf.
And guh. I totally felt for poor G-Sharon and Helo, seeing their kid for just that brief amount of time and then being made to believe that she died. And I can't say I blame G-Sharon for about going medieval on Doc Cottle's ass and screaming "MURDERER" at him, either. Especially given that this is the same bunch of people who were going to force her to abort that kid a few episodes back, too.
To wind up, OH MY that last bit with C-Six killing Three and she and C-Sharon joining forces on a shiny new holy mission to give their people a new way of life. This ought to be amusing. I hope they'll get to survive long enough to actually accomplish something--and how long they'll hold out when the Three they killed downloads, and starts telling others what happened!
And we must, must, MUST have more of Hallucination-Baltar. :D
That was definitely one of the strongest episodes we've had in the latter half of this season, for sure. Where in the world to begin with the fun?
First--I think I finally have an explanation for the Cylon/Cylons thing. I wonder if it's a distinction between the usage among the Cylons themselves--and the usage among humanity. I need to go back and look at the previous episodes and see who used what usage when to verify this for sure, but in this episode, I noticed that we did see a shift in usage between Caprica (and BWAHAHA more on this below) and Sharon. Early in the episode they were saying "Cylon". At the end? "Cylons".
And I think there may be something there, a subtle distinction about how the common usage among the Cylons themselves is to say "Cylon", which conveys more a sense of a hive consciousness, a sense of the race as a whole entity. Whereas "Cylons" allows for wiggle room to emphasize individuals. Thinking about this now especially in light of this episode's Three complaining that Galactica-Boomer still insisted on calling herself "Sharon"--and how Three also pointed out that Gaius' Six had been dubbed "Caprica Six", and then even shortened it to "Caprica"--it would make sense that the Cylons in general would not encourage individual models to adopt personal names. Which makes this Three's deliberate usage of "Caprica" as a nickname even more amusing--it lends weight to the theory that she was deliberately setting up the whole situation to make "Caprica" remember her love of Gaius.
Next, LOVE LOVE LOVE the nickname "Caprica Six" in general. This is totally Ron Moore and the other writers saying "HI FANS! THIS IS FOR YOU!" ^_^
Love, love, love with a great burning passion of a thousand fiery suns that Caprica Six HAS BALTAR IN HER HEAD. Raise your hands, all of you who thought for a single brief instant OHMIGOD BALTAR IS A CYLON and then went BWAHAHAHAHA HE'S IN HER HEAD TOO! I love it. I love it so. Hallucination-Baltar was deliciously snarky, and I really hope we get to see more of that. And even more than I did before, I want to know WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED that this mirrored hallucination thing is going on now? Are they both crazy? Have they both been messed with somehow? Is this even some kind of supernatural linkage? WHAT'S GOING ON?! I love this!
I loved getting more data about the Cylons in general. The Xena models are the Threes. The Sharon models are the Eights. The reporter models are the Fives. And apparently downloadings go wrong often enough that they have a nickname for the whole notion of sequestering memories of an individual away so that they can't get put into a new body--"boxing". But I am quite put out that we didn't get to see any other humanoid models yet. ;)
Best line uttered during our watching of the episode:
spazzkat, when we saw the Cylon enforcers moving a tree, "I THINK THIS WOULD LOOK BETTER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COURTYARD". BWAHAHAHAHAHA.YAY Anders is still alive and kicking and carrying around Kara's dog tags! I was fairly sure they wouldn't have killed him off, and that he gets more camera time at all makes me pretty sure she'll eventually find out that he's alive and kicking. Just a question of when and how. And I do have to admit that he is awful purty, even though I'm a Lee/Kara girl.
We had some interesting chats here in the Murk about the decision of Anders' group to assault a cafe, though. This gets into one of those murky gray areas that BSG seems to like to play with--because, after all, in our real-life sensibilities, attacking a cafe would be considered a terrorist act. But then you get into all sorts of interesting questions about whether you can really condemn Anders and company for doing it. I mean, we're talking fifty-some-odd human rebels on a planet probably occupied by thousands if not millions of Cylon invaders at this point, rebels who for that matter aren't actual military personnel for the most part and who therefore aren't necessarily going to have the expertise or the intelligence (in the military sense, not the smarts sense ;) ) to know where the really strategically important places are. Even if they do know, they may not have the firepower to take them out. Plus, getting continued ammo must be a challenge. So do you blow your whole wad on one big strategic assault? Or do you hit-and-run as best you can, trying to make your invaders as miserable as possible? And what's going through your head if you're literally fighting against the extinction of the last few dozen survivors of your entire race, and you're up against hordes of what (so far as you know) are soulless machines? No easy answers here, and it's nice to get that kind of fuel for thinking again in an episode.
Especially when I wasn't quite as sure about what was going on over in the land of Galactica-Sharon's baby being taken out of her and Helo's hands. I'm totally down with the need to keep that kid under wraps as best as possible, but I'm having all sorts of worry-bells going off about sending the kid out into the civilian fleet.
solarbird points out, quite rightly, that you can't really keep a baby on a battlestar. So she can't stay among the military. But if Roslin's all about making sure the Cylons never find out about the child, and they know for a fact that there are more Cylons in the Fleet, they have no way of knowing if/when that kid's going to get discovered by another Cylon spy. It just feels like a huge security hole. And yet I can't think of a better answer to the problem, either. Grf.And guh. I totally felt for poor G-Sharon and Helo, seeing their kid for just that brief amount of time and then being made to believe that she died. And I can't say I blame G-Sharon for about going medieval on Doc Cottle's ass and screaming "MURDERER" at him, either. Especially given that this is the same bunch of people who were going to force her to abort that kid a few episodes back, too.
To wind up, OH MY that last bit with C-Six killing Three and she and C-Sharon joining forces on a shiny new holy mission to give their people a new way of life. This ought to be amusing. I hope they'll get to survive long enough to actually accomplish something--and how long they'll hold out when the Three they killed downloads, and starts telling others what happened!
And we must, must, MUST have more of Hallucination-Baltar. :D
