Episode Title: All About a Brand New You! Writer: Rina Mimoun Director: David Paymer
Originally Aired: 02/24/2009 Grade: B
Rose didn’t have much to do here besides comic relief, which is a shame, though Lucy Hale was as delightful as always.
I really think the writers dropped the ball with the Luis/Sage conflict over gay marriage.I just wanted more from Luis’ PoV, even though I could never agree with it.I can buy that maybe Luis didn't give it much thought if this were a different show, but on this show, with its 50 bajillion uplifting moral messages, it just felt a little too sloppy and easy. We've never seen any hint that Luis disliked Marco or was uncomfortable around him in any way, so I would assume his homophobia is at least a few levels above "violent kneejerk reaction to all things gay." Which is actually kind of nice to see, but yeah, a little more exposition on the complexities of his feelings would have been great. They missed an opportunity for an interesting, nuanced exploration there, I think.
Megan’s writing career needs to either be given a decent level of attention or dropped, because as it is, it’s really not working.Did she really name a chapter of her book “I Am Woman, Hear me Roar”?Seriously?!Why do I give a flying fuck about the career of someone who writes that kind of trite, tired BS?It’s just painful to watch.
I know everyone is going to feel differently about the Megan/Will conflict, but the way that I saw it, Will was bitching and moaning and saying he wasn't going to go into work because the editor was being an annoying perfectionist on the first isssue ever of the magazine. Which seemed like exactly what a spoiled rich kid would do. If only the rest of us had it so easy that we could wave off going to work because our boss is annoying. And I think that's how Megan saw it, with the added bonus of knowing that she didn't get a job there because Will did. I can completely relate to her reaction there, and I agree with Megan's take on why she wouldn't let Will's dad pull strings for her. That may very well be "how the world works," but if that's not how Megan wants to operate in the world, that's her personal choice, and she shouldn't have to compromise her professional ethics for a romantic relationship.
I think Megan has behaved like a self-absorbed twit for much of the beginning-to-middle portion of the season, but I've found her much less annoying since the show came back from hiatus. She's done a few stupid things, but for the most part, I see Will as the one who is angry and controlling. Almost every fight they've had has been him taking something she said with no real intent to harm and turning it into an argument, including this one. Her phrasing about "sucking it up" was definitely a very stupid choice—she could have hinted to Will that maybe blowing off his job wasn't the best idea in a less angry and personal way. But Will has known her for months now, he knows what she's like, and he could have chosen to let it go and calmly listen to what she was trying to say (which was that when you have a job, and you're not the boss, you don't get to do whatever you want), rather than fly off the handle and exacerbate the entire argument.
Instead, it came off like he's jealous of the fact that Megan is able to hang onto her ethics in a situation where he could not—hence him starting a fight with her in the previous episode, over the exact same issue. Will was upset that his father got him the job, but he wanted the job, so he accepted it. And then he started a fight with Megan (twice!) when she said things that twinged on his own inner conflict.
The most simple way that I can boil it down is that I sided with Megan because even though they're both jealous of one another and they're letting it get in the way of their relationship, I see Will's jealousy as much more creepy and destructive. Megan is jealous that Will not only got the job, but is also the reason Megan didn't get the job. I don't really think she's jealous that Will is wealthy and entitled, but rather upset that he's acting like he's wealthy and entitled, especially after all the shit he gave her a few episodes ago about not wanting to get jobs because he's wealthy and entitled. Will, on the other hand, is not jealous of some sort of outside circumstance surrounding Megan, he's jealous of something that's at the core of who she is—her ethical code and her tenacity in sticking to her guns. And he's starting stupid, hypocritical fights with her about it. And I find that very, very unsettling.
To be honest, I’m very upset with the writers for giving Will’s character such abusive traits without even seeing or acknowledging that he’s abusive.He gets angry that Megan doesn’t take his advice, yet his advice is never even particularly good.And it’s even creepier that he gives her bad advice about her family and gets angry when she doesn’t follow it.He was jealous of her bond with Charlie and took every opportunity to belittle Charlie and start arguments with him.Lately, he’s even been doing the same thing to Megan herself because he’s jealous of her ability to stick to her moral code.It’s gotten to the point where he’s not just sticking up for himself or calling Megan on her crap, he’s belittling her and tearing her down.What a monumental creep.If one of my friends was dating this guy, I’d be telling her to dump him every chance I got.
My loathing for Will runs so deep that I’m not sure I’d watch a second season of this show even if it’s miraculously renewed.If I do watch, I won’t be blogging about it, just to save myself the hassle of spending 45 minutes a week in a pissy mood while writing about Will’s latest asshole moment.
Episode Title: Chuck vs. the Best Friend Writer: Allison Adler Director: Peter Lauer
Originally Aired: 02/23/2009 Grade: A
If I continue to ignore the Chuck/Sarah romantic elements, this was another great episode.Even FlashbackChuck was great—we couldn’t see his face, but his voice and diction were so perfect that I wondered if they just altered Levi’s voice for the scene.
Sarah and Casey’s respective reactions to Chuck’s fear that Morgan was going to be tortured or killed were appalling.They both just stared at Chuck, like they were thinking, “What’s your point?”They’re that desensitized?I mean really, stop and think about how it would feel to listen to your best friend get tortured to death, and then tell me their reactions were appropriate.I might expect Casey to be a hardass, but even Sarah didn’t try to say anything to comfort Chuck or give him a more thoughtful, heartfelt explanation for why they were going to stand by and do nothing.Given their reactions, I think Chuck’s words to Sarah about understanding his friendship with Morgan (“You say that, but I don’t think you have a clue what it means.”) were completely justified.
I loved Chuck laying out the reason for his loyalty to Morgan—I’ve always suspected something like what we got, but it’s good to have confirmation.I also thought it was perfect for Sarah to choose to reveal something personal about herself in a noisy, crowded public place at the end of the episode.Sarah has always had intimacy issues, and in this scene, she didn’t even make eye contact with Chuck until he gave her a warm, positive response. She knew that she could say what she needed to say without having to get into a drawn-out, emotional conversation.
And Jeffster!Yaaaay!Lester’s voice wasn’t angelic, but I’ve heard worse, so I was glad they didn’t make his singing too terrible.Vik Sahay really hammed it up adorably, too.
Still, there were also some glaring flaws in this episode.
Chuck telling Morgan that he’s “not comfortable stalking another human being” was a little iffy.Was this a joke in which we were supposed to see that Chuck is hypocrite?Or do the writers honestly not remember that Chuck did exactly this to Sarah back in December?
Chuck saving Morgan by calling him a stalker was also problematic.Lau and her goons were afraid of a spy, yet they were perfectly okay with Chuck, Sarah, and Anna knowing that there was something to spy on in the first place, something that would inspire that level of violence?WTF?
The remote control Nerd Herder seemed idiotic to me when it was first revealed, but the fact that it actually had a purpose in the story (and the fact that this show is cheese-tastic at times anyway) redeemed it for me.I’m still bored with the Chuck/Sarah drama, though, so the horrified expression on Sarah’s face didn’t do much for me emotionally.The back-and-forth between these characters has become so frequent and tiring that I really can’t be bothered to care anymore.
And though I’m fine with it not being included in the episode, I was curious how they planned to explain Sarah’s trashed face to Ellie, Awesome, Morgan, and the rest of the Buy More crew.Car accident?Which would actually be sort of true, considering that the brutal fight with Lau took place in a car…
Episode Title: Deadlock Writer: Jane Espenson Director: Robert M. Young
Originally Aired: 02/20/2009 Grade: B+
I was pretty disappointed with this episode.Not because I felt it was soapy, which a lot of people apparently did, but because it was full of things that seemed interesting or significant but, according to Jane Espenson, are not.And because Galen Tyrol now makes no sense at all.And because how many fucking shots do we need of Adama looking pensively at his ship?(Though I admit I did like Ellen’s “Talk to her, tell her you love her” coming in over Adama silently doing just that to his girl Galactica.)
The fact that the framing of Ellen’s first shot on Galactica—her legs and the Raptor door—mimicked her initial intro from “Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down” should have been a big clue to the kind of behavior to expect from her in this episode.And really, appalling though her behavior may seem here, I’m trying to look at it from her point of view.She just came back to Galactica after having been murdered by her own husband on New Caprica and held hostage by John Cavil for a year and a half.Then she had fantastic sex with said husband, only to pry out of him moments later that he slept with their quasi-daughter.And does he then also reveal that he knocked Caprica Six up?Why no, he does not, and Ellen gets gobsmacked with that information when she least expects it.Is it any wonder she was a little uneven, a little neurotic?
When Ellen goes to visit Caprica Six in Tigh’s quarters, it feels like she’s being her old self, the one we first got to know in “Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down,” and so on until New Caprica.Jealous, cruelly manipulative, destructive.“Thoughtlessly” revealing to Caprica that she and Tigh had sex, that she and Tigh had always talked about naming their hypothetical baby “Liam.”Until Caprica Six was able to pull it together enough to be the mature one, the “bigger person.”Then we see the Base Star Ellen, compassionate and forgiving and wise, struggle to regain control.Because you have to remember that Ellen is a fractured being now.She still has the memories and feelings of being the Ellen Tigh that we first met.She can’t just turn off all that pain and degradation and become the person she was from Earth until the time that Cavil murdered her and placed her back in the Colonies with a broken and incomplete self.And when Caprica Six asks her not to make Tigh choose, not to tear him in half, and she says, “I won’t,” she wants it to be true.
It’s also worth mentioning that as petty and frail and human as Ellen seemed, there is also room for an interpretation that everything she did was calculated manipulation to make Caprica Six lose the baby.Not because she hates her, but because Ellen must ensure that the rebel Cylons stay with the fleet.She seemed to feel genuine regret and pain about what happened to Caprica Six and the baby, but the look on her face when she came and put her hand on Saul’s shoulder looked tired and wise, as if she was thinking, “I’m so sorry that I had to do this to you.”
As for what actually happened to the baby, I’m really not sure, because the whole scenario was confusing and uneven.We know that the baby began to kick and “come alive” right around the time that Anders went braindead.(People pointed this out right after the previous episode, but I thought it sounded hokey then.Not so much now…)We know that the initial baby trouble began when Saul and Ellen began to make love.We know that the problem escalated when Ellen said that Tigh loves Adama more than anyone else.And we know that Anders’ brain activity resumed shortly after the baby’s death.
What happened to the baby and what happened to Anders may very well be intertwined, but I’m going to address them separately.The baby fiasco is rather problematic and nonsensical because if the baby knew when Saul and Ellen were having sex, that implies that he’s hyperaware in a way similar to the Base Star Hybrids.In which case, why would Ellen have to actually say that Tigh loves Adama for the baby to know that and react?I suppose we could be dealing with two different reactions—the initial reaction was the baby (or Sam?), and the second was Caprica Six—but that’s a lot of fanwanking to have to do.And I don’t buy that Cybrid babies need the parents to be in perfect, unconflicted, unbroken, absolute mad love to be carried to term, because Helo fucking SHOT Athena when she was pregnant with Hera.The bottom line is, it doesn’t add up.
As for the Sam issue, someone at TWoP posited that perhaps Earthlon reproduction didn’t quite work the same way it does for humans (or maybe it does but we just haven’t gotten there yet story-wise)—it’s possible that what they were doing was simply reincarnating/downloading into unborn fetuses rather than adult bodies.New bodies, finite amount of souls?If their bodies were trained or programmed to jump to a new body/fetus when their present body was badly damaged, then that could explain Sam’s consciousness entering Liam’s body and then re-entering Anders’ body when the baby died.Anders’ original body was salvageable, but the trauma was so great that his soul reflexively wanted a new home.This could also create a bridge between the jealous god back on Kobol and the fact that Cavil is modeled after Ellen’s father—it was the same soul, reincarnated into new bodies over and over again until it became her father, John Cavil.Who died, and was re-made to the best of Ellen’s ability as John Cavil, the first Colonial Cylon.It’s a stretch, but makes some sense to me.
In any case, that moment of grief between Saul and Bill was absolutely beautiful, and so true to life.Because that’s exactly what we do: we measure our loss against one another.Whose is greater?So sad, and so perfect.
And now let’s talk about Galen Tyrol.I was actually thrilled with both the actor and the writing of his arc, until this episode. I still don't blame Aaron Douglas, but the writing for Galen is really not working how they're intending.
It’s true that we’ve seen him lose damn near everything he’s ever loved on the Galatica.Boomer, his own humanity and personal history, his wife, his job, his child.And yet, as far as his reaction to those things, so far in 4.5, most of what he's done has been to protect Galactica, Adama, and the fleet. I have seen nothing indicating that he was nursing the option of abandoning them.He was crawling around the guts of Galactica out of loyalty to Adama and the ship, he shredded his own hands to save everyone's ass.Yet according to Espenson, he accepted the position of Chief again simply because “Adama asked him to." Maybe someone should have let Aaron Douglas know, because I saw gravity, rather than reluctance or hesitation, in his re-acceptance of the Chief position (though admittedly he looked a little uncomfortable when Adama said he wanted all the work done with human crews).
Even in this episode, the first thing Galen did was get between Adama and Boomer and out her (which, by the way, was disturbingly HOT, as was him watching Boomer sleep at the end of the episode). I feel like the writers are expecting us to make a lot of "off the beaten path" connections with Galen, and it's just not working.
It's not that he can't be complex enough to have done all of those things and still want to abandon the fleet and get a fresh start, it's that they haven't given viewers enough meaty character moments to show us that. They've shown us nothing but loyalty from Galen, and yet we're somehow supposed to see that he's nursing enough bitterness to want to leave at the first opportunity? The man has a perfectly functional mouth! They could have shown us a scene of him talking to Tigh or Sam about some of these feelings. There's a big difference between "subtle characterization" and "mwahaha, you thought you knew this character, but we'll show you!" I.e. this recent departure feels like something they did for cheap shock value, much like what they tried to do with Lee in "Black Market." And it was also a necessity to create the drama around Ellen being the swing vote, but I just don’t feel it was worth sacrificing truthful characterization to create drama with another character.At least he stuck up for Ander’s vote, and his “Can we talk about the offer, maybe talk about the baby later?” was hilarious.
The overwhelming fan response to Galen's vote in this episode was along the lines of "WTF was up with Galen?!" To me, that indicates that no matter what the writers intended for him, they didn't set it up very well.I'm actually surprised that I'm so miffed about this character, because he wasn't someone I was invested in for most of the series. I've grown to really like him in 4.5, though, so I'm going to do my best to pretend his vote didn't happen, as long as the writing in future episodes doesn't make that impossible.
The Cylon memorial wall that we saw at the end seems like a good idea.I did wonder how that many Cylons could have died since the Alliance, but I’m sure the mutineers killed a few who were hanging out on Galactica, and they also accidentally nuked a large portion of the Base Star when they were trying to shoot down President Roslin’s Raptor.
As far as the Baltar portion of this episode, I’m not terribly interested.The writing and acting was a bit vague as far as conveying whether little Gaius is Baltar’s bastard son.The mother’s tone on telling him, “It was his father’s name” didn’t seem very “I’m trying to tell you something and you’re probably too dumb to get it.”And how old was that kid?Was he conceived before or after the attack on the colonies?If after, is Gaius a really popular name among the Colonials?Out of the 50,000-ish initial survivors who could have fathered that child, there was another Gaius?Eh, whatever.
The “let’s get more guns” storyline bored the shit out of me, and the reasoning for why that was “the last human solution” wasn’t laid out very clearly.I’m sure it’s going somewhere awful, but I can’t be bothered to care.
The most interesting part of Baltar’s storyline for me was HeadSix returning when Baltar wasn’t top dog anymore, which seemed like it could be significant, except that according to Espenson, “There is not a mythology reason for it.”Then why the fuck did it need to be there?I refuse to believe that Baltar’s head character is only a fractured, self-serving part of himself, simply because a) it knows things Baltar couldn’t possibly know, and b) the Final Five saw head characters of their own back on Earth.So Espenson felt the need to bring back a part of the show’s mythology without it actually being tied to the show’s mythology?I don’t get it.And I really wish I’d never read that interview, because a lot of things worked better before I found out how little they actually meant, or that I had no clue that Galen Tyrol was feeling the way he’s apparently been feeling.
I am, however, very hopefully for the next episode.It looks like we’re going to get answers about Starbuck, and maybe some poignant Chief/Boomer stuff.The episode is written by Weddle and Thompson, who have not only done a fabulous job handling all the other Starbuck-centric episodes, but are also responsible for gems like “Downloaded” and the “Exodus” two-parter.And not only that, but the episode is directed by one of their best, Michael Nankin.Given all of that, if “Someone to Watch Over Me” isn’t completely, mind-blowingly awesome, then I’m not terribly hopeful for the remainder of the season.
