BSG Thoughts...

[telaryn]

Watched last night's episode this morning, which sparked a revelation in the shower this morning.

4.5 is our fandom's equivalent of the "extra" year of Babylon 5. Seriously - the more I think about it, the more I realize that lame as 4.0 turned out to be, the season break cliffhanger was a series end worthy of this show.

Don't get me wrong - I am pretty much loving the action packed cracktastic episodes we're doing now...but they're still leaving me with that "oh shit - we've got to pull ten more stories out of our ass" feeling.


First of all, it's official. The way to get Angeli to write a decent episode is to completely incapacitate Helo. Could have knocked me over with the proverbial feather when I realized he was responsible for this one.

As to the rest...

Gaeta

Okay, so the answer to "wtf is up with Felix Gaeta?" was clearly "he's lost his mind". All right, show - I'll give you a pass on that one. You can only kick the puppy so many times before it's going to try and bite your face off. Fair, and narratively sound. Plus I do think they were pretty consistent in showing that Gaeta really believed he was following his precious rules to the end. His responses when he realized that he was being used by less scrupulous people - AGAIN - redeemed him a lot as far as I'm concerned. He didn't fight, he didn't blow his brains out - he stood up and accepted responsibility for his actions.

All that said, I was relieved to see him gone.

Zarek

Huh. Still mulling over his slaughtering of the Quorum. I think it made sense for the character under the circumstances...for all his "prisoner of conscience" origins, the show has been pretty consistent in painting him as a self-serving glory hound over the years. The fact that he gets where he does by ostensibly supporting the underdog and "noble" causes is an interesting socio-political commentary if the show chooses to pursue...oh wait. No time.

Plus...he's dead.

Moving on...

Baltar

I think Jamie Callis made me love Baltar a little bit last night. Character growth! OMG! He's also been one of the most consistently written characters over the course of the series, and as we push to the end I have to respect that. The fact that he's been consistently portrayed as an egomaniacal weasel isn't a problem - good dramas need characters like that.

Do I think he's been redeemed because he feels guilty over the treatment of his harem? Oh hell no. The only one that's ever likely to hear that tale of woe is the Six he was in bed with.

And I do think Baltar/Gaeta slash became canon last night.

Anders/Lee/Kara

I'm with most of the fandom - can the remaining episodes just have Lee and Kara racing around shooting people and being awesome? I've completely given up on any satisfactory resolution to Kara and her story arc...I think I'm okay with her retreating fully into her Starbuck mode and being fiercely protective of her family.

Besides, Jamie still holding the title of "acting tofu" deserves to be solely in scenes with Katee for the duration of the show. She makes him awesome.

Also, Moore needs to never resolve this triangle. I loved so much them showing that she has never stopped loving Sam. I agree with dianora2 that endless scenes of her weeping over him in sickbay will quickly get tiresome, but they needed to acknowledge that however it has ended up between them, there were real feelings and no real closure.

That said, the dynamic between the Twins being in full flower? That is a show I would watch every single frakkin' day.

Finally...

Can I say that I am completely, officially, over the Final Five. Don't care. Care even less that "OMG THE FINAL-EST OF THE FINAL FIVE IS RESURRECTING AGAINST ALL ESTABLISHED CANON LOGIC TO DATE". Because with Tigh and Six having a baby, all it's going to do is spark *another* storyline that we so don't have time for.

That said, if her first response is to punch Tigh in the face for murdering her, I will laugh.

Yes, I know a lot happened that I didn't dissect - this was the stuff that made the biggest impression on me.

Comments

[sp23.livejournal.com]

All I can say about season 4.5 is that while I've liked the show and enjoyed it over the past four seasons, it's only now that I'm actually kind of fanning it.

And as for Ellen being the fifth of the Final Five...Do. Not. Want! I've never liked Ellen and was glad when Saul killed her. Now we have to put up with her again. I just hope she doesn't start fucking her way through the fleet again.