BSG: The Son Also Rises

[tzikeh]

This aired on March 11, so the minor spoiler of saying "Here's what I thought of the big scene between Lee and his dad" shouldn't really upset anyone, right?

Frankly, I still don't know what I think of the episode, but Jacob the Recapper at TWOP said the following about that scene, which is exactly how I felt while watching it:


The dialogue, as Adama tells Lee to stop assisting Romo Lampkin:

Adama: Forget it. I need you as CAG.
Apollo: Why did you give me those books, huh? I mean, you gave me your father's law books.
Adama: I made a mistake.
Apollo: Why? Why is it a mistake? Are you afraid that I'll be like him?
Adama: You're a pilot.
Apollo: And with Zak gone, and Kara gone, you needed someone to carry the flag, is that it?
Adama: You're a pilot. You're a pilot and you're my son. And I will not look across that court and see you sitting on the other side.
Apollo: See me? Or see someone else.
Adama: Report for duty.
Apollo: Is that an order?
Adama: You're in way over your head. Report for duty.
Apollo: Is that an order?
Adama: (taking his glasses off, making no sense) I'm through giving you orders.

Jacob's response:

Am I an idiot? How am I unable to make even basic sense of this shit?

Adama: You're not the CAG, you're the head of security. STOP ACTING LIKE ROMO LAMPKIN or so help me God I'll make you CAG again.
Apollo: Please, sir, do not give me my job back.
Adama: Then I'll hate your grandfather some more!
Apollo: But sir, what about Zak and Kara? Can't I bring them up for no reason? They were both pilots and died in the air, just like you don't want me to do!
Adama: Go die in an airplane or I will be really mad!
Apollo: But I have a calling to serve, which you and Roslin have now given to me and then taken away again sixteen times.
Adama: I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THE LEGAL SYSTEM WORKS! IF YOU ARE SITTING AT THE DEFENSE TABLE AND I AM MAKING AN ETHICAL DECISION BASED ON THE FACTS, I WILL HAVE TO FIGHT YOU SOMEHOW!
Apollo: No, you won't.
Adama: GO DIE IN AN AIRPLANE! BECAUSE I LOVE YOU! KARA THRACE IS DEAD! DEAD!
Apollo: Is that an order?
Adama: NO! THE COMMANDER OF THE FLEET DOES NOT GIVE ORDERS TO HIS SUBORDINATES! GO BE A LAWYER LIKE I JUST TOLD YOU NOT TO!

Me too, Jacob; me too.

Comments

[klia.livejournal.com]

Um... yeah. I'll watch the season ender, but I'm not sure I'll make it to next season, Gaius or no Gaius.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I'll watch for Roslin as long as they keep Roslin alive. But... they had a whole season with her in perfect health and did *nothing* with her -- I mean, can you remember if she had anything to do this season? And now that the cancer's back, I'm just... gah.

[klia.livejournal.com]

I mean, can you remember if she had anything to do this season?

No, I can't, which means she didn't do anything that stuck with me.

The whole cancer thing is yet another WTF. If hybrid-baby blood cured her cancer and removed every last trace of it, it damn well should've made her immune to any recurrence, too. Going back to that storyline is beyond lame and unimaginative.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

She screamed at and threatened to airlock Baltar, which was probably my favorite moment of the season. (:

But apart from that, I agree she was largely wasted. Especially since we know they shot scenes of her confronting Caprica in her cell and then didn't use them except for a tiny "extra" at the end of an ep because they are stupid liek whoa and don't know where their strengths lie.

Not that I'm bitter or anything.

[klia.livejournal.com]

She screamed at and threatened to airlock Baltar, which was probably my favorite moment of the season.

Yes, that was the highlight of her season, for sure. :D

Especially since we know they shot scenes of her confronting Caprica in her cell and then didn't use them except for a tiny "extra" at the end of an ep because they are stupid liek whoa and don't know where their strengths lie.

Oh, that was SO frustrating! I honestly can't tell if they're catering to young viewers by not giving the older characters more to do, or what. I just know most of the storylines this season drove me nuts.

[terrie01.livejournal.com]

All I remember is that she made lame excuses when Helo and Athena found out about Hera.

[elynross.livejournal.com]

I was telling tzikeh this exact same thing. I barely made it through this scene, and I only did because it was far enough along in the ep -- and it seems silly to not see the very last episode of the season. But whether I watch next year really depends on what I think of next week's ep, and how I feel when it comes back -- NEXT YEAR. sheesh.

[klia.livejournal.com]

I seriously wanted to throw something at the TV, or smack the writers around. It amazes and saddens me that something previously *so* good could deteriorate into such dreck.

[elynross.livejournal.com]

This episode, and Helo's, with the religious conservatives who don't want to take medicine -- in both eps, there was a point where I literally had to make myself not delete the ep in the middle of a scene, and go get rid of my SP. Both times, they've felt the need to isolate one guy by making everyone else act OOC and like rather vicious idiots, and it's almost been unwatchable.

[klia.livejournal.com]

Wow, the plague ep made me INSANE. And the one before that, too, I think. Wasn't that the ep where Lee and Kara finally decided to leave Dee and Sam and be together (don't even get me started about that particular soap opera -- gah), and in the very next scene, Lee was blind drunk, stumbling and crawling around some hallway, looking for his wedding ring and wailing, "My ring! My ring!?" Man, that was awful.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

There's a thread on TWOP called "Things I Am Not Allowed to Do on Galactica" - based on the Skippy list. After that fucking episode about the Chief, I posted:

850. I am not allowed to ask President Roslin if she has any cake.
* for the eating thereof
* by other people
* I am to cease construction of the guillotine immediately

I highly recommend reading this thread for a few good laughs at BSG's expense. You can find it here. Some are dumb, but many are inspired.

[klia.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm still sort of reeling over the collective badness of the season.

[elynross.livejournal.com]

The whole Lee&Kara thing made me a little crazy, even while I liked some of it. But I'm glad it worked out the way it did. One thing also crazy-making, in general, is Lee's character arc, such as it is. I'm perfectly happy for my guys to have flaws, but they've really turned him into an insecure, fucked-up mess, in ways I don't find appealing.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I think they don't realize they're doing it, you know? It's as if they think their audience is composed of addle-pated young crushbunnies who fall hard for the pretty, bitter emo manpain. So they keep dishing it up, regardless of the fact that it takes a previously principled, interesting character and turns him into mush.

[elynross.livejournal.com]

That's it, he's mush! Well built mush, but still mush! *g* And really, kudos to Jamie for doing it well, I think. It's just not the Lee I thought he was.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I think the most heartbreaking aspect about a show going bad is that it changes the way we think about the characters we love.

[elynross.livejournal.com]

That's exactly true -- especially if, like me, you're "confined" to the universe of the show. So I can't just go, "Adama Sr.'s behavior is just the result of bad writing!" whether that's true, or not, because that's the only Adama I *have*. I can only go, "He's not the Adama I thought he was, and... I don't like this one very much."

Isn't your icon, like, sacrilege? *g*

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Is it? (: I use it to help myself calm down if I start getting too upset about TV. It helps me relax.

And yeah, I'm remembering my response to pod!Giles in S7 Buffy and cringing all over the place. My relationship with BSG is considerably less emotional, but it still bugs.

[klia.livejournal.com]

I actually really liked the background stuff about Lee & Kara we got in the Fight Club ep (which everyone else apparently hated *shrug*), but yeah, Lee's become one of the whiniest, most annoying characters in recent memory, and I hate that, practically every week, there've been at least one or two characters I wanted to shake until their brains unstuck from the insides of their skulls and started functioning again. Gah.

[elynross.livejournal.com]

I liked the Fight Club ep, actually! *g*

[klia.livejournal.com]

Hee! You're the only other person I've seen say that.

[cleversimon.livejournal.com]

I think "GO DIE IN AN AIRPLANE! BECAUSE I LOVE YOU! KARA THRACE IS DEAD! DEAD!" is one of the funniest things Jacob has ever written, ever.

My loathing for what they've done to the character of Bill Adama in S3.5 is bigger than one of Helo's arms.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was probably my favorite line he's ever written. And a big fat YES to what they've done to Bill, and to Laura, and to Lee (well, to be fair, they've been screwing Lee since the beginning of Season 2), and... oh, everything.

Stupid show.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I have been ranting about this for weeks now. And the following episode made even *less* sense!

If you haven't checked out danceswithwords' recaps, I recommend them highly. She completely nails it.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I will go look at her reviews. But, yeah, I just... they're all chewing chamalla over there in the writers' room.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

And it's *so* disappointing in this show, because we know how brilliant it can be when they get it right.

Back when the first season had just started, prillalar and I had a conversation where we agreed that we hoped it got canceled after S3, before it started to jump the shark. Looks like our timing was off a little.

::hopes S4 turns a corner::

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

GO JUMP OVER A SHARK! BECAUSE I LOVE YOU! YOUR PLOTLINE IS DEAD! DEAD!

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Hee!

[elynross.livejournal.com]

Bad first try! First time for image response (and primitive icon, but! *g*)

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, I LOVE YOU and want to have your little plot-bunnies.

*yoink*

[elynross.livejournal.com]

HEEEE!

*beams*

I don't know why it felt like it needed to be so vividly colored, but it did.

YOUR PLOTLINE IS DEAD! DEAD!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Because it's florid? :)

Really, the whole thing is just... I was thinking, back in the day at MediaWestCon, we used to put on Mystery Science Theater productions up against tv show episodes. Now, with MODERN TECHNOLOGY FROM THE FUUUUCHOOOOR, we could put up an episode with the silhouettes of the MST3K guys in front of the ep, and mix in the voice-over comedy, and put it up on megaupload or something, because... wow.

Re: YOUR PLOTLINE IS DEAD! DEAD!

[klia.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, that would be sadistically funny.

Re: YOUR PLOTLINE IS DEAD! DEAD!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Yes, in my copious spare time. :) But you know, it's really appealing... and I could do it around MediaWest time because I have a brief break between Spring and Summer semesters.

Hm.

Re: YOUR PLOTLINE IS DEAD! DEAD!

[klia.livejournal.com]

If you do, I NEED to see it (and make sure I have Kathy's beanie babies to throw at the screen *g*). God, you should have a special showing at VVC, too. Hee.

Re: YOUR PLOTLINE IS DEAD! DEAD!

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I beg you to do this. I grovel at your feet.

Re: YOUR PLOTLINE IS DEAD! DEAD!

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

Add me to the groveling crowd at your feet.

Because DAMN. I might even pay to watch that.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I am *sorely* tempted to change my lj name to this. If I weren't so attached to "screeching eyeball stupid shitbox clownshoes", I would.

[elynross.livejournal.com]

heeeee!

[carla-scribbles.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

I mean, in the interests of full disclosure, I feel compelled to point out that in the heat of an argument I have been known to make even less sense than that, but... yeah.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

in the heat of an argument I have been known to make even less sense than that,

Fair enough - but you are not in a televised narrative, so far as I know. :-D

[carla-scribbles.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think they're doing it on purpose.

Oh, God. Why am I awake?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

This is a question I am asking myself. I have no answer other than "a body at rest in a chair in front of a computer tends to stay at rest."

[carla-scribbles.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That, and I'm watching the Nip/Tuck episode with the conjoined twins surgery. That is... not sleep-promoting.

[terrie01.livejournal.com]

Speaking of changing LJ names, now I'm tempted to go from "Look! A distraction!" to "Actually, I'm a televised narrative."