Lisa Paitz Spindler, Danger Gal

Broadsheet blogger Judy Berman today came out to being a geek.

I recently had to admit something to myself: I am, it turns out, a geek. I finally came to terms with it earlier this week, after drinks with female friends. We had been catching up and talking shop when someone mentioned Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All of a sudden, we were all shouting over one another, recounting our favorite episodes and most loved and hated characters.

Despite the fact that Berman used a very cool Kevin Smith quote,* I spent a good few minutes trying to ferret out why her post left me feeling disaffected. Shouldn’t I be glad that more and more women are owning up to their geek interests? (yeah) Shouldn’t I be ecstatic that there’s a much larger female presence at geek venues like Comic Con? (hell yeah) So what’s my problem?

I re-read the post a few times and kept coming back to an angle that initally flew right under the radar:

One friend floated the idea that the show includes just about every kind of guy a girl geek could possibly be attracted to.

To each her own, obviously, but this is not why I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I love that show for these reasons: Buffy, Willow, Cordelia, Tara, Fred, Darla, Drusilla.

Buffy can kick arse six ways to Sunday, Willow has the power of the universe at her fingertips, Cordelia has more self-confidence in her pinky finger than most women will ever have, Tara lived a life of authenticity, Fred has one of the biggest brains on the planet, and Darla told the world to suck on its outdated idea of “good little girls.” But Berman and her gal pals would far rather talk about how dreamy Angel, Spike, Riley, and Xander are.

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This week’s Danger Gal Friday profiles Myka Bering from SyFy’s new series Warehouse 13 portrayed by Canadian actress Joanne Kelly. Warehouse 13 is already getting pegged as “X Files Lite” with many comparisons between Bering and Scully. There are similarities of the good kind, but the show also has a Steampunk feel to many of its gadgets as well as a bit of a history lesson, in the pilot at least. The SyFy web site describes Bering as:

A woman born to be an agent. Organized and focused, Myka believes in hard work, solid planning, and steadfast execution. She never met a meticulously detailed mission outline she didn’t like, and her attention top minutiae has led her to status as a rising star in the Secret Service despite a “classified” situation in Denver, Colorado.

Pilots for series are often a little rocky as the writers and the actors are just getting to know the story world and the characters, but I thought Warehouse 13 came off mostly solid. I was never tempted to turn the channel and am intrigued by the hints at the character’s back stories.

In keeping with many a Danger Gal, Bering saved her male counterpart and twice to boot — once by pulling him from a wrecked car (and coming too first after being thrown) and in the end. Bering and Latimer saved each other on a few occasions, so I thought that aspect of the pilot was well-balanced. I don’t want to pay undo attention to Bering’s attire, but I always pay attention to see if a female character is costumed similarly to a male character — such as in Star Trek Uhura wears a capped sleeved mini-dress while the male characters are all in long sleeves and long pants. Someone on the Enterprise is either very chilled or sweating.

Bering and Latimer were both dressed appropriately and in fact Latimer showed off more skin than Bering did. I did think it odd that Bering would wear a skin-tight cocktail dress and heels to protect the President, but at least they made a point of showing her taking off those heels when she had to kick some ass. Later we see Bering wearing much more appropriate shoes with actual treads.

From a story development standpoint, Bering contributed just as much to solving the story problem as her partner did. Overall, a good start to a fun show, one not quite so deep as Fringe that I appreciate, and I’m looking forward to more.

In light of the recent reboot of the Star Trek franchise with the release of J.J. Abrams’ new movie, this weeks’ Danger Gal Friday post profiles Number One, the original first officer of the Enterprise from The Original Series pilot “The Cage.”

Number One was played by Majel Barrett, wife of Gene Roddenberry. Originally, Number One had also served as first officer under Christopher Pike on the USS Yorktown before joining him on the Enterprise. Network executives made several changes to the series after the original pilot, one of which included changing Barrett’s character to Nurse Chapel. Number One’s “highly-logical, steel-trap mind” was then attributed to Spock instead. I have few criticisms of the new Star Trek movie, and in fact very much enjoyed it, but one facet that saddened me was the continuation of the Nurse Chapel character without any reference to the Number One character. Initially, Spock was the science officer, but the new movie continues with the idea that he is both chief science officer and first or executive officer.

While I appreciated the update to Uhura’s character, I do hope that Abrams touches on the Number One character in future installments of the new franchise considering he’s also created characters such as Alias’ Sydney Bristow* and previous Danger Gal Fringe’s Olivia Dunham. Jennifer Weiner at The Huffington Post voices many of my misgivings with the female characters in the new movie:

Honestly, I didn’t have a problem until about midway through the film…at which point I realized that every single lady on screen was either a mother, a ho, or an intergalactic hood ornament.

Memory Alpha describes Number One: “. . . she held the rank of lieutenant. She was noted for her exceptional intelligence and rationality. In 2254, Captain Pike regarded Number One as the most experienced officer on the Enterprise.” Evidently, Roddenberry initially based the Starfleet rank structure on the 18th and 19th century British navy, when a ship’s second-in-command was often a First Lieutenant, rather than 20th century Naval ranks now associated with the series.

In “The Cage,” the Talosians reveal to Pike that Number One harbored feelings for him. Number One and Spock at one point installed computer upgrades that made the Enterprise voice-interactive. They utilized her voice-pattern, which was later carried over into all Starfleet computers.

Many different names have been associated with Number One in the Star Trek expanded universe: Eunice Robbins and Morgan Primus among others.

* I thought I’d already profiled Sydney Bristow, but when I searched the archives I discovered that I’ve neglected her! I’ll try to rectify that shortly.

By now I hope most BSG fans have seen the series finale and I don’t have to warn about spoilers. I’ve waited until now to post about the finale because I wanted to ponder it for a few days first. Ultimately, I found the finale simultaneously very powerful and somewhat disappointing.

Commenter “mrd” over at Brad Templeton’s Battlestar Blog made a point that helped me articulate what’s at the heart of my confliction:

…the show was structured with hints and clues, it gives the idea that the show is a puzzle that is meant to be solved, not a mystery to be revealed.

Science fiction, by its very nature of being based on scientific extrapolation, is presented as a puzzle to the reader or audience. In other words, Science Fiction is expected to be analyzed and dissected as opposed to presenting a revelatory story, where information is revealed because there is no analytical through-line. To pose it another way: Religion is revelatory and Science is a puzzle. In religion, God reveals knowledge to us, but in Science we discover it on our own.

A TV show set in space, airing on the “SciFi Channel,” and being shot with a realistic “hand held” style are three giant indicators that “This is Science Fiction.” But Battlestar Galactica is not Science Fiction. It’s a revelatory mystery story with SFnal elements. In hindsight, I see that Moore and the writers made this case, but they made it too subtly. If your plan is to set a mystery tale in space and air it on the “SciFi Channel,” then you need to make that very, very clear. Several big hints were “You will know the truth” promo and the fact that Cylons were “revealed,” not to mention Katie Sackhoff flat out saying the show wasn’t Science Fiction but a “drama in space.” When fans, myself included, brushed that off as Moore and the network simply trying to garner a wider audience — SciFi network reps said repeatedly that this was their goal — Moore needed to say: “No, REALLY people. I’m not writing SF.” Loudly and waving his hands would have helped, because we’re really hungry for true Science Fiction on TV and in movies.

This is why the solution put forward in the finale that a higher power made all the loose ends fit together is unsatisfactory to those who thought they were watching Science Fiction. Since the show made it a point to examine religion, and it did so in a highly sophisticated way, my preference was an ambiguous treatment to the “God factor.” This was an element I always appreciated in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine because the nature of the Bajoran “wormhole aliens” was left open-ended. This, I’ve always thought, is a middle way approach that can appeal to those expecting a puzzle as well as those expecting a mystery. Moore did leave a window open at the end to the “God made it happen” solution though, but again he did it subtly, so it’s difficult to tell what the message is supposed to be:

Head Six: Let a complex system repeat itself long enough and eventually something surprising might occur. That too is in God’s Plan.

Head Baltar (whispering/growling): You know it doesn’t like that name!

Since we don’t have a definitive explanation as to the nature of “God” in this series, or even the head characters and Starbuck, this is a bit more open ended than I thought upon first watching. I’ve theorized from the beginning that the Beings of Light would show up in some fashion in the re-imagined series and that’s essentially what was written. Not having all of the details sort of suits beings like that. But who knows if I’m interpreting this bit they way it was intended?

Despite some disappointment, I still found enjoyment in the ending overall. In particular, I liked that the Galactica was the Opera House. I did not see that possibility and was pleasantly surprised by the development. I almost sobbed myself at Baltar’s line “You know, I know about farming.” Also, I’m really happy Helo survived. The Agathons deserve a happy ending.

I’m not sure how I feel about Tyrol killing someone and getting away with it. After all, Tory didn’t get away with murder, why should Tryol? He committed vengeance not justice. Starbuck’s “end” just makes me sad, but I see that it works. I really do not think we needed to see Tigh and Adama in a strip club. That flashback could have achieved the same goal by being set in a regular old bar. If a sexy venue was somehow required, more in keeping with the feminist nature of the show would have been a strip club with dancers of both genders.

I understand that the letting go of technology was an act of eschewing that which separates us from nature, but Cylons are not natural. The show made the point that even a toaster has worth, has feelings, and is equal to a biological human. Saying that their technology is “evil” because it’s what got them into this trouble in the first place — it started the cycle over — basically negates the headway that was made in achieving a blended human-cylon community. I would have rather seen a new civilization built on those principles of cooperation and intentional use of technology. Instead I’m sad to think that Helo will probably die of an infection in that injured leg without antibiotics.

So, overall: I can live with this ending and there were a few emotional high points. They found our Earth, which is something I predicted when they found the 13th Colony/”Earth.” Moore did not make the nature of the story clear and foiled expectations because of it. I would have enjoyed it more for if I’d understood the show’s goal of being a revelatory story over a Science Fiction one.

This week I’ve recapped BSG’s “Daybreak Part 1″ and put forward my analysis on how the show may be taking place in an alternate universe. I’ve also offered how I think transportation and communication maybe have occurred between the realities.

But what about the ending? How do you think BSG will end on Friday? What clues do we have?

Left, Starbuck in “Daybreak Part 2.”

Ron Moore and The Sopranos

A fan of The Sopranos, Ron Moore loved, loved, loved the ending of that show. The Sopranos had no resolution to anything. Moore said on his SciFi Channel blog:

Oh, I’m sure there are those who will bemoan the lack of resolution to the story or that Chase has somehow “robbed the fans” but I’m a fan and I’m ecstatic. I’m glad he thumbed his nose at the tyranny of the narrative drive to bring things to a tidy conclusion so we can all clap and walk away without another thought about that mob family in Jersey, satisfied that all’s well that ends well. Screw that. I don’t want to see Tony’s death, nor do I want to watch him drive off into witness protection, or sit down to some kind of illusory happiness in the bosom of his family. I simply want to pretend that his life continues, that he’s still simultaneously worrying about onion rings and whether that guy is hiding a gun in the restroom.

It’s poetic. It’s exciting. It’s perfect.

And most of all, I wish I’d thought of it first.

I think we can take from this that not all of the mysteries will be completely resolved. Quite a bit may be left up to viewers’ interpretations.

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“Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right direction.” –Alice in Wonderland

Based on discussion in the comments of my last post as well as here and here, I think I should clarify some points about my alternate universe theory as well as note a few more ideas that I’ve been pondering over the last 24 hours.

Spoilers follow. Please feel free to read my previous posts on Battlestar Galactica.

I don’t know about other proponents of the alternate universe idea, but I’m not saying that all the similarities between our universe and the BSG universe are intentional. Rather, I’m proposing the opposite.

I can imagine Moore and the writers to have said: “The Colonials are quite similar to us. They dress the same, eat the same food, have the same songs. Now how are they different? They dislike corners on paper. They live on a much warmer planet. The physics of their universe allows for 12 planets to orbit one sun in the habitable zone. They have FTL.”

So, it’s not the similarities that are intentional, it’s the differences. This allowed the writers to draw on all sorts of material from our universe and twist it around to suit their needs.

Left, the Eye of Jupiter as seen by Starbuck in the storm system of the gas giant in “Maelstrom.”

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Last Friday the first part of the Battlestar Galactica series finale aired with “Daybreak Part 1.” After watching this episode I’m revisiting a theory I entertained when I wrote the post Thirteen New Hints About the BSG Last Season, but didn’t articulate then because I couldn’t connect all of the dots. Well, after last Friday’s episode a whole bunch of dots became much clearer. Beware, spoilers follow.

Please feel free to read my previous posts on Battlestar Galactica.

To briefly recap, in “Daybreak Part 1″ we saw Admiral Adama have a change of heart regarding recovering Hera. He asked for volunteers to take part in a potential suicide mission to take her back. Without much success, Starbuck has been talking to Anders to figure out what the Watchtower song means and her true nature. Baltar wants his religious movement to have a voice in the new government and he wants to be their representative. Lee accused Baltar of being self-serving and demanded that Baltar list one time when he acted out of someone else’s best interest instead of his own. Baltar said nothing, but I do think the flashback to the events with his father are pertinent to this scene. While Baltar did certainly not act altogether altruistically with his invalid father, he was adamant on the phone that his father’s caretaker not leave until Baltar arrived, which displays that he at least cares for his father in some twisted way. Later when the Admiral asked for volunteers, Baltar appeared torn, but ultimately chose to stay behind. I think he may later reverse this position, or serve in some other fashion because this element reminds me of St. Peter refusing to admit that he knows Jesus three times. How many times has Baltar been afforded the opportunity to stand up for the truth and he has refused? Baltar has at turns thematically played the roles of a doubting Thomas, a betrayer Judas, and now possibly an unbelieving Peter, all of which dovetail nicely with Baltar’s role as leader of Colonial monotheism.

So, characters have chosen to take part, or not, in the raid to recover Hera. Their destination is the Colony, the location of which was revealed — off-camera — by Anders after questioning by Adama and Starbuck. Raptor scouts do indeed find it, but the Colony is located adjacent to the accretion disk of a naked singularity (a black hole with its event horizon visible externally) in the only place where it can avoid being pulled into the hole. There’s only one way in and one way out, and of course every Raider the Colony possesses will be protecting that immovable spot.

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Number Six: Procreation is one of God’s commandments.
Gaius Baltar: Really? Well, I’m sure someday if you’re a good Cylon, he’ll reward you with a lovely little walking toaster of your very own.

Ron Moore channels Obi-Wan Kenobi in his latest quote about the series finale of Battlestar Galactica: “This is not going to be the ending you’re anticipating.”

What ending do you want to see? While we’re digging into the possibilities for tonight’s first half of the two-part series finale, below are a few plotlines that I hope to see resolved. What about you? How do you want the series to end? The Patriot Resource has posted what may be a possible spoiler for the ending. Like so many spoilers, my guess is this information includes both accurate and inaccurate details. One detail about Starbuck, which I won’t recount here for those who aren’t interested in spoilers, does make me go EWWWWWWWW, but doesn’t quite satisfy Eddie Olmos’ contention that Starbuck’s genesis is “sick and twisted.”

That’s not a planet, that’s a space station.

I hope we get to see what exactly the Colony is — a planet? A space station? An installation on an asteroid? Ships in a nebula? The Cylon World-Ship? A giant space bug? Regardless, the place is huge and there may be more than one edifice if you count the spires in the background behind the “mountains.” I’ve also been wondering if Hera is the source of the Opera House visions as one of her projections. The Kobol Opera House represents the last time humans and Cylons lived in peace. Since we know that Hera is prescient like Pythia, she may have been predicting that the humans and Cylons needed to and would band together in peace. Could the Opera House vision represent the Colony?

There’s no place like home.

In “Islanded in a Stream of Stars” Roslin makes the case that “home is where your heart is,” and admitted that the Galactica was more of a home to her than any other place she has lived, despite all the hardship. This seems like a foreshadowing for the fleet in general. I’m expecting a dark ending since that’s what we’ve been told we’ll get. So, I don’t expect them to find Earth by the end of the show. Rather, I think the blended Colonial-Rebel Cylon contingent will scuttle the dying Galactica by ramming it into Cavil’s basestar. At some point the inhibitor chips in Cavil’s Centurions will cease to work and they will revolt. Likewise, Simon and Doral will learn the truth and turn on Cavil as well. This may be the distraction needed for another group to infiltrate the Colony and rescue Hera. Once Cavil is defeated, both the Colonial humans and the Cylons can settle into a blended society on the Colony. From here their search for Earth can continue. They may even find information from Cavil of a possible direction for Earth, but I don’t think we’ll see Earth actually found since the whole point of the show has been the search or the journey, not the destination. We may see a spiralling shot of the Big Blue Marble like we saw the end of “Crossroads,” with a voiceover by Lee, Starbuck, or even Baltar continuing his broadcasts saying “Life here began out there.”

The Source of the head characters

A lot of viewers have been assuming a connection between Daniel (Cylon #7) and the head characters attached to Baltar, Six, and Starbuck. Aside from the fact that Ron Moore has said that we won’t be seeing much of Daniel until the Caprica prequel, the Final Five also saw head characters long before Daniel existed. However, the writers are not going to create a whole new entity to explain these characters this late in the game. Rather, the big elephant in the room are the Lords of Kobol, who we’ve been talking about for four seasons and yet have never seen. Several of them have been referenced by different characters: Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon, Asceplius, Aurora, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Hera, and the Jealous God. Starbuck has been repeatedly associated with Aurora. Several other characters’ associations to Kobol Lords are self-evident: Apollo, Athena and Hera. In the Classical pantheon, Asceplius is Apollo’s son and is associated with medicine, serpents, and the 13th zodiacal sign. It may be left somewhat ambiguous, but I think we’ll see that the head characters are connected to the Lords of Kobol. Certainly the name of the finale — “Daybreak” — hearkens to Aurora, goddess of the dawn.

While we’re talking about the Kobolians, the appearance of the Lida Six model, complete in her retro70s-goddess-chiton/peplos, seems random. Why would they spend the money to shoot that scene if we weren’t going to see Lida ever again?

If the point of the scene was to show some Baltar character development, why introduce a whole new character to accomplish that?

Starbuck’s True Nature

On one of the forums talking about the show, I saw a mention of the show’s logo being a phoenix. In one episode titled “Flight of the Phoenix,” Tyrol builds the Blackbird, a prototype stealth fighter flown by Starbuck and never seen again. The title of the episode obviously doesn’t refer to the Blackbird, but rather, I think, to its pilot. They might want to un-mothball the Blackbird in their fight against Cavil.

What follows is a review of Battlestar Galactica’s episode “Islanded in a Stream of Stars” and speculation on what we may encounter in the series’ two-parter finale “Daybreak.” Beware of the spoilers.

Last Friday we saw Anders come alive again except as the Galactica’s new makeshift hybrid. We saw Starbuck come to terms with her “Living Dead Girl” status. We saw Boomer flip-flop yet again. We saw all of the characters take on new roles for themselves.* They’ve said goodbye to the expectations they’ve been holding onto — and so have I about this show. I’m still definitely enjoying this re-imagining of the 1978 series, but with only three hours left and a dark ending to contend with, I’m doubtful they find Earth.

Hera the Hybrid Can Project and the Truth of the Opera House

Many viewers seem to be surprised that Hera can project as we saw her do with Boomer in the Raptor. I’m not particularly surprised that Hera is capable of projecting, but I am surprised that we’ve never seen her actually project before. It seems logical that she would inherit this ability from her mother Athena and it also seems likely that Hera might spontaneously project due to her immaturity. Perhaps she has been projecting off and on all along and her projection is the Opera House. Similar to Pythia, we know that Hera has a special connection to something that’s bigger than everyone evidenced by her predicative powers such as drawing the notes to Along the Watchtower for Starbuck. What if the Opera House vision represents the Cylon Colony? I don’t think it’s coincidental that the visions have returned to both Six and Roslin just as Hera has entered the Colony. Now that Roslin is even closer to “what lies between life and death” and Six is no longer pregnant, they’re able to receive Hera’s projection again. What if Hera’s vision of Six and Baltar carrying her out of the Opera House is a depiction of them rescuing her/Hera’s model line from Cavil?

As a side note, I want to point out that Baltar can also project, headSix excluded. When he lived on the basestar, Six took him to her happy place in the forest in the episode Torn. Boomer seems surprised that Hera can project, so why was Six not surprised that Baltar is capable of sharing a projection as well? It may be that Boomer was surprised that Hera can manage her own projection — changing the rations to ice cream — as opposed to simply passively experiencing someone else’s projection.

Additionally, it was mentioned in this episode that Cavil moved the Colony five months before the Cylon civil war. Is he prescient? Is this significant? Why would he have moved the Colony at that time?

Anders the Galactica Hybrid

In an attempt to reboot his brain, am Eight and a Six hooked Anders up to the Galactica power grid and he came alive in a similar fashion to the Cylon hybrids. While this is an interesting development, the Final Five are fundamentally different from the hybrids as the latter were created by the Centurions and the Five were created by the 13th Tribe. We needed to hear at least one line in explanation of how hooking Anders up to the power grid is even possible. We’ve seen that the Significant Seven can insert wires directly into their bodies, but we’ve seen no evidence that the Five are capable of doing that.

Also, a detail that’s bugged me since their reveal is the Five’s Cylon super-strength. We know the Five, like the Significant Seven, are stronger than the Colonials because we’ve seen Tory toss Cally across an airlock. What’s bugged me since seeing that display of strength is that the Five must have been unaware of their strength, something that seems sort of impossible. Didn’t Tory ever realize she never needed anyone’s help to open the peanut butter jar? Didn’t Tryol ever notice on the job that he could lift items too heavy for a normal person? At least with Anders we can assume this ability showed up in his athletic prowess and maybe Tigh was too tanked to ever notice. I digress, though, back to my main points.

With the foreshadowing of Hera ramming the Galactica into a basestar during her projection of a damaged CIC, it seems now that the Cylon goop will enable Anders to eventually control the entire ship and he’ll be the one to take out Cavil by scuttling the Galactica. I suppose it’s possible that Anders may jump the Galactica to Earth, but that doesn’t sound like the dark ending we’ve been promised. With the Galactica and Cavil both gone, the Colonials and Cylons will be free to settle on the Cylon Colony and continue the search for Earth. I won’t be surprised if the show’s ending is not finding Earth, but a new beginning in the search for Earth and a voice-over from Lee that says “Life here began out there.”

Anders’ hybrid-speak talks about repairing both his own brain (“remapping right hemisphere”) and repairing the Galactica despite the many “holes in the bucket.” He’s run into problems, however, with the ship’s non-networked systems (“A closed system lacks the ability to renew itself”). Anders also explains that he can see the “long view” now as well as the “patterns and repetitions.” Also, “Do not fear the word” sounds very Biblical to me, the Word being the Good News and the ultimate truth. Anders reiterates that Kara is the harbinger of death (some of the following lines may be out of order):

The neuroanatomy of fear and faith share common and different pathways
flip a coin
increased vascular pressure marks the threat response
free will scuttles the swamp of fear
do not fear the word
you are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace, you will lead them all to their end
end of line
new command
resume function

voyagers traversing the stars in search of grace
death is not the end

A closed system lacks the ability to renew itself
knowledge alone is a poor primer
end of line, begin reintegration
begin reintegration of command subroutines
there’s a hole in the bucket…
the long view returns patterns and repetitions
all this has happened before and will happen again

Cavil’s Plans for Hera

Ron Moore has been pretty plain that in his mind character development trumps plot and scientific authenticity. That’s why I find it odd for Cavil to be acting inconsistently. Cavil wants to be free of his corporeal form. He wants to smell dark matter. For him, Hera is not the “shape of things to come” because she is as much tied to a corporeal form as he is. So, it doesn’t make sense that he’d want to clone her as he implied when he said “You’ll have all sorts of new playmates pretty soon.” People are assuming these playmates are Hera clones (a whole Hera line even), but it’s also possible he’s come up with something entirely different.

Who is the dying leader?

If the Colonials do indeed scuttle the Galactica, it very well may be that the ship is the dying leader referred to in the Pythia prophecy. However, since we can expect a dark ending, they may not find Earth before the end of the series. Who knows how long it will take to find our Big Blue Marble? Roslin doesn’t have much time left.

There’s too much confusion.

Tigh is reluctant to accept the fact that he has, according to Ellen, millions of children via the Cylon models they created. He’s forced at every turn to confront this truth and in this episode specifically a Number Eight Sharon model asks to be with “her father” on her deathbed. As she passes, this Number Eight quotes Along the Watchtower with “There’s too much confusion.” This means we now know that the Five, Hera, Starbuck, and the Significant Seven (at least the Eights) are tied to the Watchtower song. Could this be what makes the Eights different than the other skinjobs?

Angels and Demons

We still don’t know what Starbuck is, but we do know she’s tied into the Watchtower song. The fleet now knows the truth of her undead status thanks for Baltar spilling the beans. Some viewers are taking Baltar’s outing her at face value as evidence that he’s really believing his spiel. I disagree and think Baltar is once again acting in an ultimately self-serving way. Rather than any altruistic motive, Baltar’s outing of Starbuck was simply an attempt to get Caprica’s attention. At least we see Starbuck at the episode’s end determined, finally, to get to the truth of her nature by questioning Anders until she figures it out. I do think that Baltar labeling Starbuck an angel backs up what we saw visually when she entered Anders’ hybrid chamber: Starbuck all but glowed with a halo of back-light and a soft Heavenly breeze tousled her hair (see photo above). I really hope we get another mention of Aurora again in the finale eponymously titled “Daybreak.”

Page 61 is the new 4:20

In her conversation with Adama while they light up, Roslin talks about where home is and describes a mountain cabin near a stream. Both of these motifs, as well as the altered state both Roslin and Adama enjoy in this scene, are further examples of liminality, or “in-betweenness,” that I mentioned in previous posts.

* Many thanks to Elaine Foster’s insight on this over at Brad Templeton’s blog.