Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Crossroads part 1 & 2

I would describe the two-part finale of season three in this way: You're a man on a date at a fancy restaurant. The best music in the world is playing. Candles are flickering and you're eating the best meal ever set to your lips. You're with a woman who is drop-dead gorgeous but totally relatable, and you are both completely clicking. Everything feels right for once in your life; the awkwardness is over, and you see this woman as someone you can really like. Then suddenly, she punches you full on in the face and your nose breaks; she flips the table over leaving you covered in lettuce and steak juice as hot candle wax has fallen all over you, burning your flesh and searing into your hair. She kicks you in the genitals, and as you are writhing on the floor burned and bloody, she stands over you and urinates all over your face. 
Unless you are a pervert who's intrigued by this scenario, you should understand now how I feel about this episode. But more on that later. We'll start with the steak dinner, then get to the gonad strike.

Interesting that these episodes feature neither the pre-cap nor the opening titles. It must have been cut for time, as they sometimes do on TV (which is one reason TV main titles in general have fallen by the wayside).

Did I miss something somewhere? What suddenly makes Baltar some messiah figure? Even as a mythic figure after his book's distribution, I can't see people wanting him to bless their children. 

The courtroom drama is for the most part very good. I've been worried about the Baltar trial, and I enjoyed it. Most shows do courtroom dramas at some point because they make for good television. Every incarnation of Star Trek did at least one (except maybe the cartoon). This one is nicely executed. 

The prosecution's opening statements make a number of points. We learn of 5000 people being lost on New Caprica. I commented way back about the staggering number change. Though the total number is closer to 8000. This must mean that a substantial number died in the nuking of Cloud Nine. I would be remiss in my nitpicky ways, however, if I neglected another stated point. She refers to the attack on the colonies as being "two years ago". This HAS to be false. Season 1 took place over about 2 months. Season 2 lasted around nine months. That's about a year right there. We know that there was a whole year on New Caprica that was skipped, followed by a skip ahead another 4 months. That's 2 and a half years. Bring that up to the current events, you're looking at almost 3 years at least.

I am so glad that Colonel Tigh finally had to face the facts of killing his wife and ordering suicide bombs. It is absolutely right to point out that ordering men to kill themselves is no different from what Baltar was accused of. These are things that have bothered me all season. I just don't see that these are supportable actions. That's extremist, and it's sloppy writing to me. Michael Hogan plays it all very well; I just don't see why his character ever had to be taken there.

Right around the time that Gaeta committed gross perjury, I started to wonder why they didn't have Caprica Six testify. She was clearly involved. We know she was there with Baltar. We know she was there the day he had the gun to his head. She could have refuted Gaeta's testimony, and if nothing else would have been an interesting witness for either side. Why did no one think to call her? I love it when Tigh punches her, and she socks him right back! Looking back, I'm also a little annoyed that Gaeta never has any consequence of perjury. Why did he do it, and what will become of it?

Of COURSE Roslin's cancer is back! Really, was anyone surprised by this? The cancer in the beginning was a device. The miracle cure was a device to keep her around. The whole cancer story is a device to keep her interesting. For her cancer to be gone forever is to negate the interpretation of the scriptures that say a dying leader would guide them to Earth. If she isn't dying, it's not her. So they HAD to bring the cancer back, in the same way they had to bring Starbuck back; to leave things be would be to negate the established propecies.

I really appreciate a number of things Lee says when finally on the stand. Granted, the set up is convoluted. Normally, these statements would be closing arguments, but perhaps they were trying to avoid that convention. I like that they sum up so much of this season and elements from the whole series; that it all builds up to this one event, and that because of all the unrelated precedent, Baltar has to be acquitted. It's a persuasive argument, and one I fully agree with. I've never seen Baltar as the conniving villain, so it has felt wrong to me all season for the fleet to be so against him. Even as a scapegoat, he seems to easy and unreal a target. I do wish that the "mistrial" stuff wasn't required to get to this point. The whole point of putting Adama on the stand was for him to make a statement as proof of mistrial. But he never makes that statement. He never answers the question. Nor is the matter of mistrial ever really resolved. The defense moves for a mistrial, then after some prosaic words, rests their case. That feels like poor procedure. Maybe some of this was trimmed for time.

Let's look at Lee's speech more closely. I love (love!) that Lee points out how he wanted to take the Pegasus and leave them all behind on New Caprica. We the audience know this is true, but it's been glossed over and the fleet doesn't know it at all. In a very real sense, that would make him just as guilty, if not more, as Gaius Baltar. The laundry list of forgiven offenses also was good to hear, because it shows you just how preposterous some of that was. It reminded me of Boston Public when Nicky Katt fired the gun in class and didn't get fired; for the rest of the show he was "the guy who fired the gun". That bit was harshly criticized after the episode aired, and many never watched again; so they had to point out how preposterous it was, and it became the final bargaining chip in many arguments. "I should have fired you when you shot the gun! Now do as you're told!" Anyway, I thought of that looking back on how often Lee's mistakes were glossed over. But Lee left out one of the more important players: President Roslin! She is a liar and a manipulator. She rigged a Presidential election, yet she still currently holds office. I'm siding with Tom Zerek; bring on another free election. 

Lee's other point, and the one that I feel is most damaging, is that what Baltar did is really no different from any of the other collaborators, and all collaborators were pardoned by the President. This has left me to wonder why this point wasn't the crux of their entire defense. They never should have HAD to play the mistrial card. As a matter of law, Roslin pardoned all collaborators. Therefore, even IF Baltar was a dirty traitor, he was fully pardoned. Then again, maybe they also had to address the charges of genocide for the initial attack on the colonies. Was this actually brought up at trial? I thought they stayed away from it because of Roslin's visions.

The dreams were odd. Curious that we've now seen shared dreams. Why is Roslin sharing dreams with Cylons? How is this possible? Was Hera dreaming too in this scenario? I was really hoping that we would finally get some resolution on the whole "Six and Baltar raise the baby" thing that never happened. It was hinted at here again, as Caprica saw herself with Baltar holding the baby, as the final Five looked on from the balcony. What does this mean? Unfortunately, we don't find out in this episode, because the other shoe drops, and the hot date has started swinging.

The entire last fifteen minutes are a sham. No, no, holy frack no. I've been known to yell at the TV from time to time. I've certainly yelled during BSG. But I have not reacted to anything like this so strongly in a long time. I was shouting "This is ridiculous! This makes no sense! No no no no, no fracking way!" The mystery of the music only a few were hearing? Those few are Cylons. And that music? It's "All Along the Watchtower". Come on! This goes all the way back to season one, when Ron didn't know how to end the season, and was kicking around the idea of Jimi Hendrix playing when Baltar walks into the Kobol opera house. Thankfully, at the time, that raised a lot of questions and they canned it. That should have been that. But no, he decided to bring it back! Ladies and gentlemen, gone is the Ron Moore you thought you knew and loved. The Ron Moore who shot James Kirk in the back rears his ugly melon head once again!

The use of the song opens all kinds of cans of worms. Especially the idea that this was a song that they knew, as if from childhood. Either two separate societies came out with the exact same thing, or it is being heard from those on Earth. So is this the future? What is the relation to our Earth? The issue seemed remarkably similar to me to the use of "Hey Jude" in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series (which I've only half-read, so don't spoil it). There, there were songs that Roland knew that are from our world, but they were old and known in his world too. It's funny. When Tigh first said "There's too much confusion" in the CIC, I thought of "All Along the Watchtower", but didn't think much of it beyond that. Ultimately I hate it though. I hate that these odd middle eastern sounds gelled into a classic Dylan song. It's a song that was used much more effectively in Watchmen (and the book even more than the movie). 

Furthermore, I just do not believe that these four are Cylons. I don't believe it. Maybe this is a way to try and tie in Tyrol's dream from the second season, but come on! It's totally out of character. If they wanted to play this sort of game, they should have done it with Boomer way back at the start of the show and planned it better. There is no way I am believing that Tigh is a Cylon. Nuh uh. He's old! He's got all those years of service! He's known Adama for years! You're telling me the Cylons developed humanoid models and made a Saul Tigh all those years ago? And never activated it? NEVER? This is worse than Baltar being a Cylon! Apparently the writers have decided the show no longer needs to make any sense! So I'm to believe that if Tyrol had died out in space with Callie, he'd have just resurrected somewhere? Furthermore, I hate this because it puts all the key leaders of the resistance as Cylons. This means that the entire struggle over New Caprica is essentially a Cylon civil war. And what's interesting about that? Nothing! 

It's like they were all called by some demonic pied piper to that one location. It makes me think that instead of "Watchtower", if they insisted on a modern rock song, "Stairway to Heaven" would have been much more appropriate. It touches on the themes of resurrection. It speaks of the piper. Come on, how are lines like "Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know/the piper's calling you to join him" not applicable? And if you listen very hard, the tune will come to you at last... Then again, I doubt they could have afforded the rights to that song.

And finally, as if all of this wasn't bad enough, Starbuck does make her obligatory "surprise" appearance that I knew was eventually coming. And then we get that horribly annoying pullback Men in Black-style. And we see Earth. But you know what? I no longer care.

I've seen a number of shows that I've had a problem with. I was frustrated that Chris Carter completely threw continuity out the window when he told us on X-Files that Mulder's sister had been dead the whole time. I was angry with Lost for the way the killed Charlie, even though he clearly could have escaped, and it never resulted in Claire getting on the helicopter as we were promised. But I feel really betrayed by BSG. Before, I hated it for nauseating camera work and boring stories. Then just when I was thinking I might have to acknowledge that it's halfway decent, they pull this! I was ready to praise "Crossroads" as the best season finale yet, but after the end, it has become the worst. I should have trusted my instincts. This story now defies all logic. I apologize for anything bad I ever said about the last years of 7th Heaven. That show deserves a Pulitzer Prize compared to this. I didn't think I could have a "wait, what??" moment like I had at the end of Lost's recent season, but this totally trumped it. There was no set-up at ALL to any of this. It was just thrown in to be shocking, and I hate it. I questioned at the end of season 2 whether the show jumped the shark with the New Caprica storyline. Well, suffice it to say, after "Crossroads", consider that shark jumped.

On the commentary for "Kobol's Last Gleaming", Ron also mentioned how one of his ideas for the opera house, besides the Hendrix music, was a cameo by Dirk Benedict as God. I no longer think he's kidding. And it scares me that this may actually be the end of the show.

What started strongly has left me maimed, sore, frustrated, bloody, and stinking of a stranger's urine. Frack Galactica.

Favorite lines: "I will not serve under a man who questions my integrity." Good for Lee! And Adama's back with a witty retort. How long will it be before that's all nicely resolved? I give it a week. ...Wait, if Lee is no longer a pilot, how did he get Viper 3 at the end?

"I don't believe this. I'm not buying this. This is a trick!" Anders expressing my thoughts exactly to the final moments of the show.

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