This was an interesting episode. Show creator Ron Moore wrote the episode and made his directorial debut and created quite a cohesive, textured window onto the lives of our beloved characters. His stated belief that the characters are what drives the show, not the plot, was demonstrated in A Disquiet Follow My Soul. He achieved what he set out to do.The Zarek coup subplot spools up and Gaeta descends all the way to the dark side of bitterness. Adama starts to get it together and seems to have dispensed with the alcohol for the time being in favor of pills - and notices again what's going on around him - there seems to be less recklessness and insubordination and he's picking up trash. Roslin, on the other hand, trashes her pills and skips her cancer treatment and seems resigned to just let nature take its course and die. She is uncomfortable in her own skin since the finding of cinder Earth and is
humiliated from the tip of her toes to her eyeballs and just doesn't know what to do - so she's at least going to take charge of her own life/death.
Doc Cottle breaks the bad news to Tyrol that the kid ain't his, and a nurse with an English accent reacts with disgust at the attention being paid to the Cylons, in particular Caprica Six and Tigh's baby (whic
h we see on ultrasou
nd) - this nurse will probably figure in the coming civil war and line up against the Adama-Cylon alliance. The late Callie's baby is a cocktail weenie not a Cylon half-breed. At one of Baltar's annoying religious rallies (now he's challenging and mocking god and the crowd goes with it ??? ... and where-o-where is Head-Six?) there is a dumb fight between Tyrol and Hot Dog - the kid's real dad.
The Cylon Final Four now seem to occupy this strange netherzone of belonging to both sides and Tyrol tells the meeting of the brain trust (minus Roslin who is still AWOL) that if the rebel Cylons and Final Fours are g
oing to share their superior jump technology they want full rights ... and thus the ground is laid for the civil war to come. How and why the press corps still dresses in suits and is so formal about the process is a bit baffling after all they've been through. Lee, filling in for Roslin, tells the press that the Fifth and Final Cylon is dead, that "she" is dead ... which of course causes a frenzy that they run from. The meeting of the Quorum was the most effective yet - with a well-written and acted speech by Richard Hatch - doing a great job in the Zarek part (and he's getting his swan song).
A scene with Gaeta and Kara in the officer's mess is excellent, although the repeated denigration of Felix for being "cripple[d]" was a bit of odd dialog - Kara usually has more clever comebacks and one-ups ... perhaps her clone self isn't as witty as the original Kara? Overall though, it was a meaningful exchange - terrific work by the actors - and set the tone for the lines being drawn between sides very well.
My favorite part of Moore's direction was his choice of point-of-view ... he either responded to the fans or, more likely (since he has in the past shown contempt publicly for fan preferences) wanted the same thing - a feeling of what these peoples' lives are like in the small moments, in the in between times, what it's like to really be there and be living in that situation. I also really liked that he chose different camera angles and different perspectives on rooms and places we've seen many times - it felt fresh and much more lived-in. My great criticism of the Revelations episode is that the camera placement and points-of-view and static shots made it so visually dull when such momentous things were happening. In this episode, other than the coup subplot, smaller stories were being told yet there was much more visual interest to what was happening. Moore didn't go for high-style
and kept a fairly muted color palette but did imbue his episode with just the right amount of movement and visceral energy.
Roslin starts to exercise and run and otherwise feel alive again, and Adama reminds her that her euphoria is partly due to her going off her meds ... she doesn't care and in a touching scene she tells Adama she wants a to "live a little before I die," and at the end of the ep they finally end up in a lovers embrace.
humiliated from the tip of her toes to her eyeballs and just doesn't know what to do - so she's at least going to take charge of her own life/death.Doc Cottle breaks the bad news to Tyrol that the kid ain't his, and a nurse with an English accent reacts with disgust at the attention being paid to the Cylons, in particular Caprica Six and Tigh's baby (whic
h we see on ultrasou
nd) - this nurse will probably figure in the coming civil war and line up against the Adama-Cylon alliance. The late Callie's baby is a cocktail weenie not a Cylon half-breed. At one of Baltar's annoying religious rallies (now he's challenging and mocking god and the crowd goes with it ??? ... and where-o-where is Head-Six?) there is a dumb fight between Tyrol and Hot Dog - the kid's real dad.The Cylon Final Four now seem to occupy this strange netherzone of belonging to both sides and Tyrol tells the meeting of the brain trust (minus Roslin who is still AWOL) that if the rebel Cylons and Final Fours are g
oing to share their superior jump technology they want full rights ... and thus the ground is laid for the civil war to come. How and why the press corps still dresses in suits and is so formal about the process is a bit baffling after all they've been through. Lee, filling in for Roslin, tells the press that the Fifth and Final Cylon is dead, that "she" is dead ... which of course causes a frenzy that they run from. The meeting of the Quorum was the most effective yet - with a well-written and acted speech by Richard Hatch - doing a great job in the Zarek part (and he's getting his swan song).A scene with Gaeta and Kara in the officer's mess is excellent, although the repeated denigration of Felix for being "cripple[d]" was a bit of odd dialog - Kara usually has more clever comebacks and one-ups ... perhaps her clone self isn't as witty as the original Kara? Overall though, it was a meaningful exchange - terrific work by the actors - and set the tone for the lines being drawn between sides very well.
My favorite part of Moore's direction was his choice of point-of-view ... he either responded to the fans or, more likely (since he has in the past shown contempt publicly for fan preferences) wanted the same thing - a feeling of what these peoples' lives are like in the small moments, in the in between times, what it's like to really be there and be living in that situation. I also really liked that he chose different camera angles and different perspectives on rooms and places we've seen many times - it felt fresh and much more lived-in. My great criticism of the Revelations episode is that the camera placement and points-of-view and static shots made it so visually dull when such momentous things were happening. In this episode, other than the coup subplot, smaller stories were being told yet there was much more visual interest to what was happening. Moore didn't go for high-style
and kept a fairly muted color palette but did imbue his episode with just the right amount of movement and visceral energy.Roslin starts to exercise and run and otherwise feel alive again, and Adama reminds her that her euphoria is partly due to her going off her meds ... she doesn't care and in a touching scene she tells Adama she wants a to "live a little before I die," and at the end of the ep they finally end up in a lovers embrace.
No comments:
Post a Comment