BSG 3.19: "Crossroads, Part 1"

[annathepiper]

Well, that was kind of random and full of characters who just seemed to me to be shadows of their former selves, and arguing with one another for the sake of arguing. And yet, it raised several intriguing questions.


Okay, it really annoys me, first and foremost, that Lee is getting shit from all kinds of different directions for being on Baltar's defense team when he got asked to do this in the first place by Roslin and his father.

In particular, I was annoyed by the scene where Adama accuses him of having no integrity--something Bill damn well knows better about, or at least should by now. I was annoyed by our finally seeing Dee only as she's up and leaving Lee (or at least their quarters; it wasn't clear to me whether she's also bailing on him wife-wise). I mean, damn, the woman's hung in there through all his angsting over Starbuck, she's watched him lead the Pegasus, and now she's running out on him apparently because he actually genuinely believes that Baltar ought to get a fair trial, with barely a few words spoken between them.

It also annoys me that Lee (and the new lawyer dude) seem to be the only people around who are in fact interested in making sure Baltar gets a fair trial. I mean, intellectually I understand why the vast majority of people in the Fleet just want to space his ass. But from a viewer perspective, it's really playing to me as if Roslin and Adama in particular are only going through the motions of a trial in order to prevent upheaval in the Fleet. They aren't actually interested in being impartial or seeing justice done one way or another, and that's making me mad at them as characters.

And that's what brings me to Roslin and Adama coming across as shadows of their former selves. They've been playing for me in the last several episodes as being bitchy and confrontational for the sake of being bitchy and confrontational--such as back in "Dirty Hands" where Roslin had had a heaping helping of Superbitch Flakes for breakfast and only backed down after the Chief smacked her with a cluestick. I don't like this trend. Adama and Roslin are after all the leaders we've been sympathizing with for three seasons now, and right now I'm losing sight of the reasons I've been sympathizing with them. They're getting too hard-assed... and I realize as I type this that they're starting to remind me of Admiral Cain.

All this said, there's certainly some interest in other parts of this episode. The scene with Caprica!Six and Tigh was chock full of neat, especially seeing Ethereal!Baltar giving Six the mileage she needed to hand a smackdown right back at Tigh, and seeing her clobber him right back when he struck her, too. Well done, that. I also really liked the tension of Tigh up on the stand--even as I actively cringed watching him sabotage himself with his own testimony. (Tigh is giving a voice, in fact, to the same things that it seems like are going on with Adama and Roslin, and I think that's what's making me so unhappy with them as characters right now.)

I appreciated seeing glimpses of Sam--and was absolutely unsurprised to see he's apparently signed on to try to become a viper pilot, and that he seems to be hitting it off with the former deckhand who's also become a nugget. The boy can use a few good moments.

I'm really not at all sure what I think about Roslin's cancer being back. I didn't like the whole plot angle of curing the cancer in the first place with the Magic Cylon Baby Blood, as I ranted about back when that plotline aired. That the cancer has apparently now returned feels weak to me as a plot point; I can't see what dramatic purpose it's going to serve. Since they didn't kill her off with the cancer the first time around, I don't trust that it's going to be any real threat to her life this time. (Even given that they have blown up Starbuck, of whose death I am still not really convinced...)

Last but not least, what is up with the weird auditory hallucinations? And what's with only a few specific people being affected? That's honestly the part of this whole episode that intrigues me the most... that, and Sam's little line in the trailer for next week, "We are all Cylons."

solarbird had some very interesting theories about all this last night, but the foremost concept of all of them is the thing we've been hearing since day one on this show:

"All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again."

Comments

[spunbutterfly.livejournal.com]

I read spoilers mostly cause I have stopped watching the show. I stopped the episode where they *started* the Kara-Lee shit.

The spoilers are intriguing though, about the music and what Sam says. They were posted originally on the Television Without Pity forums and are generally thought of as true and not rumors.

[annathepiper]

solarbird has a theory about what's going on, which if true would make this episode a lot cooler than it came across. I don't know if her theory is actually correct, but I'm really hoping it is. ;)

[gilroycullen.livejournal.com]

Based on the previews... I want to say the music is somehow related to the final five cylons.

I can not BELIEVE its the season finale already! Geez.

[starsongky.livejournal.com]

The scene with Caprica!Six and Tigh was chock full of neat, especially seeing Ethereal!Baltar giving Six the mileage she needed to hand a smackdown right back at Tigh, and seeing her clobber him right back when he struck her, too.

That was indeed sweet, egging him on to the snapping point, then punching him back. I wondered if perhaps she hoped he'd get mad enough to kill her so she could get off Galactica and pop back home to a new body.

I appreciated seeing glimpses of Sam--and was absolutely unsurprised to see he's apparently signed on to try to become a viper pilot...

Wha-? I missed this one entirely.

Even given that they have blown up Starbuck, of whose death I am still not really convinced...

I'm still hoping she's Cylon so she can come back like Boomer/Athena. Ohh, there's a thought, multiple Starbucks. Lee & Sam can each get one.

Last but not least, what is up with the weird auditory hallucinations? And what's with only a few specific people being affected? That's honestly the part of this whole episode that intrigues me the most... that, and Sam's little line in the trailer for next week, "We are all Cylons."

My hunch is some key humans (and maybe some at random) were implanted with something on New Caprica, either a physical transmitter or some heavy posthypnotic suggestions, just in case the occupation fell apart. Like "33" keep distracting them to increase fatigue & irritability, and decrease their logical thinking. They've been trying to figure out how the Cylons tracked them, searching the fleet for bugs and (after Six's suggestion) looking for power leaks on the refinery ship. The one place they wouldn't think of looking is inside refugees, especially if the transmitters are nanites or otherwise impossible to detect with routine medical scans.

[annathepiper]

Sam was wearing the same sort of garb that deckhand chick, also recently inducted into the viper pilot corps, was wearing. And they were hanging out together, and Sam had also cut his hair. Nobody actually came right out and said it, but it was pretty clear Sam's signed up. ;)

[annathepiper]

It sounded a lot like the theme that was playing when we saw the glimpses of the Opera House on Kobol where Baltar was having his visions--and certainly, that place that Roslin was having her vision looked like that very same Opera House. And we had a glimpse in the teaser for next week of what looked like the Final Five in the balcony of said Opera House.

It'll be intriguing indeed to see how this plays out.