Please read our spoiler policy before you post on the open threads.
Past 4.5 open threads can be found in the index on our blogroll rightside column. If you know of other fun sites or forums that are having lively non-spoilery episode discussions, please feel free to post links here as well.
EPISODE 416: BLOOD ON THE SCALES
Writer: Michael Angeli
Director: Wayne Rose
READ Mo Ryan's interview with Michael Angeli here...and Bear McCreary's blog post on the ep here.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Open Thread: #416 Blood On The Scales
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
69 comments:
I'm not even looking forward to watching this one. The show has gotten too grim for me.
Of course, I'll watch it, but I'm not enjoying like I used to.
It's actually a fair point. Is there a point at which a show can become so dark it's not entertainment anymore?
I'll continue to watch it, because somehow it hooks me along and makes me want to see how things turn out. But I'm not sure exactly what it is anymore that can be classified as traditional "entertainment".
As dark as it was, The Oath was one of my favorite episodes of the series.
Depends on your definition of entertainment. It's not standup comedy, but it is exciting and thought-provoking.
It is thought-provoking. It makes me question myself, and how I would react under those circumstances. It challenges me as a viewer. Not many shows are able to do that. I'm going to miss it when it's gone.
Kara Thrace is
KAMBO
(she'll shoot you in the head)
I love watching well-written, intelligent, gritty, intense filmmaking like this. Who cares if it's dark. We're on a journey, and cannot look away. The folks who are bringing me on this journey respect our intelligence, and I'm in till the bitter end.
Life consists of light and dark moments. Get over it. And BSG isn't dark.
AwesomeStar Galactica is amazing!!
They are really going all out with a bang huh?
I've heard "I'm coming for all of you!!" so many times in the past few weeks, but DAMN, it gives me chills every time. It was even better tonight within the context of the show. What a great, great episode.
That was just frakking' poetic...
Great ending with just Gaeta and Baltar talking. The "It stopped" line was such a great touch. Now the ship is falling apart?!?!? Ellen back is going to be fun. Looks like we might start getting answers too.
My Gods.... That's all I can really say at this point.
Just beautiful.
Gaaaahh! I absolutely loved that moment in CIC when Zarek kept telling Gaeta to wake up, and looking at him you knew that he had just woken up, that the other part was the sleepwalk. Poor Gaeta. He always wants to believe in someone, even when he's been burned so many times... Can't believe Zarek - he shoots up the Quorum, lies through his teeth - and I actually thought he had some principles. I guess he really was just waiting for his chance. Yay for Captain Kelly! I always liked him, and it was nice to see the decency come through. It's rather odd to be waiting on Ellen of all people for answers - does she come with her own baseship I wonder?
I really didn't expect the Quorum scene!
Loved the episode, every bit of it.
Oh My Frakkin Word.
That, as they say, is how it is done. It doesn't get better than that.
Ok. Did anyone else think that there is the hint of something odd in the Baltar and Six scene? More than meets the eye?
And someone please tell me not to watch previews anymore. I would have liked to have *not* seen that.
Buildings shaped like food. So sad.
"It stopped".
Single most moving line since Tigh's anguished "Not all of 'em" on the return from New Caprica.
What a beautiful finish to Gaeta's redemption arc. I mean, this *is* everything he's been wanting since his failure in the Baltar Administration.
He tried to stop the guilt by stabbing Gaius in the neck, but that didn't work. He tried by purgering himself on the stand to seek 'justice', but that failed. He tried to sing, to seek solace in the beauty of music, but it only brought emptiness.
Now, at last, he has been redeemed. He fought for what he thought was right, but the pain grew stronger. Until at last it ceased as he faced his punishment, his redemption, right in the eye.
Wonderful. Undeniable powerful stuff.
I was very let down. I thought maybe what Narcho told the Admiral might have given him better perspective on his share of responsibility for the mutiny but apparently not. So the takeaway lesson is still "Might Makes Right."
Frankly, this would have been a better story if it hadn't have been wedged into the last half season. They spent longer schlepping around in the Demitrius than they did on something as massive as a mutiny and coup. I would have been happier if they hadn't done it at all than rush through it. I didn't feel like Marines would obey Zarek and assasinate the Quorum, and things went downhill from there. Tyrol and Kelly's lucid moment was great though, too bad the same thing didn't happen in the writers room. Sorry my first post here is so negative; I really love the site and the show.
This was a terrific episode. Very, terrific.
As for the criticisms of Narcho and Adama's leniency: that's a pretty apparent foreshadow to the way the series will end.
man, no other series can manipulate my emotions more than this one,i felt such sympathy for Gaeta and even a little bit for Zarek. mary McDonnell better get an emmy this year. the baltar/six stuff was weird, is she connected to head six? what the frak happened to Anders? can he survive a bullet to the back of the head? i felt such a sense of dread when the chief discovered that crack inside the FTL room, i always had a feeling the Galactica would not make it to the end of the journey. this couple of episodes were so intense i was almost underwhelmed that ellen is coming back next week. i wish they would stick to the realism of these episodes and stay away from the mystical stuff but alas we may finally get the whole picture now with the return of the fifth...
gaeta you are a nice guy but Adama and you are fraking done professionally!
@suicideblondjay: LMAO! Great reference.
Ha! First time in forever the Sci-Fi previews actually fooled us (in a good way) in the previews. So way Saul Tigh just dies. No sir!
Anyway...feel bad for Gaeta. Too bad he suffers the same fate as Zarek. He had a conscience, and probably, at the end of the day, was *right*. His arguments hold water, and while our omniscient POV made us know that the rebels were on the humans' side, would you accept Cylon tech on your ship if you were him? Imagine bin Laden helping out the US. Yeah, that's what I thought.
I have to think the airlock is going to be busy (and it better, lest we be made to believe that all the Marines simply went Adama's way because he had the guns. There are traitors to be dealt with!).
Also...what is the tear in the FTL area? Is the ship coming apart? Presumably the Galactica has to be destroyed one way or the other. Maybe this is it?
Can't wait for next week. I hope to Gods that Cylon bitch Tori gets it.
Hey, I can't stay now, and haven't read the thread yet... All I can say is: WOW. Amazing.
More later...
All I can say is.... YAY! So - where have they been hiding the resurrection tank?
I can't tell you how happy this episode made me. The only thing that will get me through next week is knowing that next Friday night we'll get to see one of my favourite cylons again.
There were some great moments, but unlike last week's episode, this one didn't do much for me because of the nice, neat, painless resolution. Gaeta and Zarek airlocked. Yippee. But what of the Sunshine Boys, the Marines, Racetrack, and the entire rest of the crew that Adama promised "no forgiveness" to, along with the great leap of Roslin somehow convincing the Cylons to go to war when they were going to jump - despite them wincing at her pretty much losing it? A shame.
Frakkin' amazing ~ I am panting from the tension from this and last week. I've never watched anything that provoked in me such a physical reaction. These stories, "the realism of these episodes" ones as @suicideblondjay said, truly are the ones that got me hooked. i haven't felt this stressed out since Scattered, and it feels great! (Sorry, wish I had more intelligent commentary like many of you here do.)
I was disappointed. But even a bad episode of BSG is still close to the best thing in a week of TV. I'm reminded of ST:TNG, when the first of a two-parter rocked and the second part was sputter.
Baltar's dream sequence: really? Really? That left me actually unhappy.
Starbuck is so important to the Leobens and they're like "meh" regarding of her fate.
I was happy with Zarek's and Gaeta character arc.
Adama's thing last week about "no amnesty. no forgiveness." seemed to boil down into alot of forgiveness and people taken prisoner, who should have been mowed down.
Really: the best part of this episode was the ad for next week's episode. As I am really interested in the mystery of the Cylons and their origins, that looks like it may either be the best of the season-- or keep with a downward curve as Anders is the central character in a BSG version of "Shades of Grey"
I cried at the end. Anybody else?
What happened to Lee's "Kill me Now" moment from last seasons preview?
I'm speechless. This show is operating at such an intensity now, I can't really process it on any intellectual level. I can't step back and analyze it.
I'm curious about these different Sixes - Natalie and now the one in this show. What's with them? Long, natural-blond hair. They seem to act differently, too. Are they some sort of proto-six model? That doesn't seem possible, but why the difference? Is it just me?
Did anyone else have a sense of foreboding when Baltar was with her? I can't really put my finger on it. It seems that there is still more to Baltar than we have yet seen. Perhaps it has something to do with him and the Opera House.
Remember when Zarek saved Roslin from the firing squad on New Caprica? I thought there was hope for him. No. No hope. Just another firing squad.
Tory is a troublesome little thing. She seems to be losing her wits more and more. Her status as one of the Final Five has gone to her head. Anders, more honest, knows that, "I don't know any more than you do."
R.I.P Felix Gaeta.
Given that she shot natalie for even going near Hera, you'd have thought Athena wouldn't have been so quick to let Caprica 6 carry Hera out of the brig, even if she had to carry Helo...
Great episode, great ending for Gaeta, not so sure about the rest of the rebels. I can't see adama executing them all now...
Fab-tastic episode! Really enjoyed it. In fact I have enjoyed every single episode this season. I guess I like dark and intense ;-)
Fantastic, and yes I cried a bit. It had to happen but I feel so bad for Gaeta!
Question: "It stopped." This could refer to a number of things, most likely his own internal struggles. But is there another significance I'm missing?
OH, and the tear... is it related to this?
Marvelous... takes me back to the heady days at the end of season 1 / start of season 2.
Anyone think that Ellen's reappearance will prevent Adama from executing 1/3 of his staff for treason?
I really enjoyed this and the last episode (well, and the two before it, but that's beside the point!). A previous commenter felt that the writers cheated a little bit in having the mutiny "rushed", ie, squeezing it into two of the last ten eps when in previous seasons much more time was spent on less monumental plot points.
I disagree with that idea, though. There were two ways the mutiny could have gone down -- the first way being that Zarek and Gaeta actually had the support that the appeared to have in the Oath, and they succeeded and executed every major character, and then jumped away from the remaining Cylons.
Not only what that have been terribly depressing (even by BSG standards), it wouldn't have made any sense a) to kill off so many main characters and b) to all of a sudden have it be revealed that the majority of the fleet disagrees with everything Adama and Roslin have been doing for ages.
So they took the other route. At first (ie, at the beginning of 'The Oath') it appears that the mutiny has tons of support -- and perhaps it did indeed have more support than I am giving it credit for -- when it doesn't really. We know that a lot of the people in the CIC were for it (in the very early morning), a good number of marines, and the other ship captains. We also know that by the end of this episode (and what time was it? 11:30 AM or something? 5 hours after the 'revolution' began?) Gaeta and some of 'his men' have realized how irreparably stupid their actions were, and give it up.
That's exactly how I'd expect a mutiny on the Galactica to play out: not very well. That said, I was absolutely panicking about halfway through the episode, freaking out about "OMG are the actually going to kill Adama? They might... I always expected Roslin to go first, but RDM loves subverting expectations." It was easy enough to believe Tigh was dead because even without seeing next week's preview -- come on, we all knew Ellen would be back. And if Ellen can come back then it can't be all that difficult for Tigh (et al) to come back as well.
Interesting! I have a terrible feeling in my stomach about the cracks in the ship, whatever they are, especially in light of the clue that Atari_Age reminded me of.
Wow! I can't believe we have to wait another week!
Gods. I watched it again. So, so intense. At the frak party I went to last night, several people had not yet seen the Gaetasodes, so we watched all ten of them back-to-back before the episode. I highly recommend you try that rewatch and then watch the first four eps again. It makes the entire mutiny arc even richer now.
Just amazing. Gaeta's final scene with Baltar was just killer. AJ has really knocked the whole thing out of the park, he gave us everything we could ever hope to get from Gaeta on this show.
If I wasn't surrounded by so many cynical nerds at the time, I woulda cried at the end...
Farewell AJ and Hatch! Bravo!
wow! all that action in just one day!
pretty sure gaeta/zarek didn't think they were going to lose it on the same day they took it eh?
and the part where adama turned the marines around and had everybody following him in the corriders!
does anybody else think that Tyrol discovered that the ship's lifespan is coming to an end?
I love this blog, thanks everyone here for posting. I have to say that last night's ep actually put tears in my eyes, poignant and touching, esp. the acting of Zarek, Baltar and Gaeta (the non-likeable characters from my point of view) to make someone care about your unlikeable character is the hardest job in acting. Of course Roslin has been shouting "I am coming for all of you" since I watched the promos and teaser clips over on SCIFI, but the moment STILL delivered a punch to the gut, and when she finally saw Bill again, no words, awesome. Just breathing, or trying to breathe. Such a fine cast and crew, thanks to them all for delivering the best hour on tv for all these years, especially now. Even when I don't think they can surprise me, they do!
how like Laura Roslin to stomp onto a Cylon basestar and basically take it over! "yeah, sure, guys, go have your little conference... oh, you want to jump away? I don't think so." i was hopeful that we would actually get to see her tear some shit apart, not just threaten it... but then again... the half-season ain't even half over...
"down to my own eye teeth"
And how about the symetry in the scene where the guards come in to blow away the quorum, with how the rebel cylons took care of their coup. It has all happened before, and will happen again.
also - someone asked, "where have they been keeping the resurrection tank," but does anyone else think Ellen resurrected a long time ago? I mean, she was killed on New Caprica, so wouldnt she have resurrected then? So maybe she's been on a basestar ever since? Chillin with Cavil?
@Sam, I asked that...and yeah, it probably happened a while ago. Given the promos are constantly cheating all sorts of scenes, that would make sense.
A few more random thoughts right now about the ep...loved finally getting one, teeny, tiny, scene with Starbuck and Romo, together at last. Loved what Romo's pen got to do this season! LOL. Haunted by the moment when Zarek leaves the Quorum meeting room...gives the order...the look on Kelly's face. Kelly's scene with Tyrol, just fantastic. Gaeta giving the order to end Adama, Narcho accepting the order...pan over to: Tighlon with that great "Oh No You Won't" look on his face we all love.
Just. Man! Awesome.
Meanwhile for more fun if you liked this one, go read Sepinwall's review/squeefest. He's en fuego!!!
And I agree with him, this *was* the most badass ep of the season so far. But it's all been pretty great. Watching it all again, in like two years, all at once...that is going to be frakkin amaaaaazing.
Finally we get rid of the terrorist Zarek, who has always been a lying con artist! And finally we got rid of Felix, who I've never liked. He always had to look up to someone and be their acolyte, never his own man.
overall an amazing episode. My brother emailed me (I don't have cable and buy it on itunes) and was like "dude, get this NOW even if you need a 4th generation bootleg dubbed in Aurabesh with crazy heiroglyphic subtitles!"
One thing they did really well in this arc was show just how BIG galactica is. It is sometimes difficult to tell just how huge it is, but when you saw them running around the ship and seeing C1 dock, that was really impressive.
Tried to post this before, so apologies if it doubles:
Tyrol, on New Caprica:
"And it's then that you must throw your body on the gears, and on the levers, and on the machine itself, and make it stop!"
And that's just what he did.
After zme1...another thing I loved last night was seeing the guts of the Galactica's engines and drives. It's like I forgot that stuff existed since The Captain's Hand (which showed us the Pegasus engine rooms).
Just an awesome episode. It really sets my faith up for a tremendous ending to the show. Gaeta's closing line knocked me over.
I'm gods damned curious about these cracks on Galactica, too. I'm a little nervous that they're going to turn out to be somehow supernatural / linked in to The Plan, or whatever.
Will the cracks lead to a room that has a rebirthing tub?
Wow. what a visceral and hard-hitting episode. This episode represents the destruction of a fragile society. The survivor society - fragmented. I was horrified by the murder of the quorum. That confirmed to me that Tom Zarek was all about himself, not democracy. I saw the change in and realization with Gaeta when he refused to fire on the Basestar; he wanted to stop the senseless kiling but he committed such sin by ordering Adama's execution. It was hard to forgive but so undertandable that his idealism would precipiate this crisis.
His final line "it stoppped" was magic. What did it mean, his chonic pain ended... redemption as others said? Or fulfillment of his role in this world now complete?
And Adama - he should not murder those who opposed him but rather remove them from their military positions. I support his not "air-locking" all mutineers. Pragmatism is not mercy.
This episode is so dramatic. I could not breathe while watching it and being influenced to tears by the incredible music and script. BSG shows us the power of humanity.
May we live up to the challenge we face.
Did anyone else think there was something going on with Baltar saying to Gaeta in their scene just before the firing squad, "I know exactly who you are"? That's the second time in two weeks that we've been given a little sort of underlining about Gaeta, after the previous week when Zarek used something close to the Razor hybrid's wprds when talking to Gaeta on the com. I know we have been told Ellen is the 5th, and therefore Gaeta can't be, but I still think it's strange.
No...I think this was Baltar showing real human apathy for someone he did understand, and know, quite well. It's not conspiracy, or mystery -- it's emotion and sympathy.
I’m supposed to believe that Tom Zarek, an uncompromising revolutionary who has no qualms about blowing away everyone on the Quorum, wouldn’t have killed Admiral Adama the first chance he gets?
Let's face it, there was a lot of good stuff, but there was also some conventional/cliche/weak writing in this episode. I call shenanigans.
Here's my review: http://tinyurl.com/d9nfxo
"No...I think this was Baltar showing real human apathy for someone he did understand"
You meant empathy, right?
To ZME1:
Great quote re: Tyrol! Whenthat scene was playing out for awhile I thought he might throw himself into the gears to stop it! I'm glad he didn't have to go that far. Those gears and mechanisms of the FTL drive were wild! I loved that!
rewatching this right now...it was amazing how Zarek consistently lied at every turn..but in the end by lying to Roslin he ensured she'd go medieval, and issue the fatwa on his ass.
Also, this arc showed some reinvigorated our best women...Starbuck's kicking ass again and the ill President was her badass self. Yay!
awesome episode - wow did zarek misjudge roslin. "i will use every cannon, every bomb, every bullet, every weapon i have down to my own eye teeth to end you. i swear it. i'm coming for ALL of you."
Roslin saying "I will end you" is just the greatest.
It's delicious to see everyone underestimate Roslin -- Zarek, Gaeta, the cylons -- and watch them all swept aside by the astonishing force of her will. I've *almost* forgiven her for becoming Madame Checkout there for a while -- if only because seeing her roar back is so much damn fun.
Re: the cracks in the wall that Tryol saw and that Adama sees in that clue- I just assume it is metal fatigue and stress- remember Galactica was about to be retired because she was obsolete and very very old ( like me). The options for places for the people of the fleet to live are becoming smaller and smaller. I also assume that Ellen was reborn right after she was killed on NC and that she is either hiding out with Cavil ( a very interesting development indeed) or there are still another set of Cylons out there somewhere ( also a very interesting development). Or something completely different . Man it is so hard trying to remain spoiler free as I am just so frakking curious.
interesting the different modes of resistance that have been displayed:
(1) tyrol tried the union/non-violent work-to-rule way
(2) tory defected as soon as she had somewhere else to go
(3) gaius gained the presidency by appealing to the dreams of the masses and
(4) gaeta/zarek tried revolution
lee seems to be the only one left in the game.
I can't believe they FINALLY showed us the FTL room NOW! Sheesh...
Those cracks have to be significant. The one in the FTL room and the one all the way in the other end of the ship (I assume) in Adama's quarters. "The Bucket" is dying. Maybe Galactica herself is the "dying leader." After all, she was fifty years old at the time of the miniseries, about to be decommissioned. Then, she's jumped farther and more often then anyone ever planned, has been in several major battles, and has not had a yard refit since the sleighride started.
We need to remember that the ship itself is one of the characters in this drama. This adds a sense of time-pressure to the whole deal.
BSG does a wonderful job (sometimes better than others) of showing how flawed being "human" is. At times, the correct decision to make is not the "right" decision. Many times we make decisions only to realize that we made mistakes. So the best thing to do is to carry on.
Who says the ship isn't alive in some way? What about the possibility of Cylon technology infiltrating into the structure of the Galactica? Think about the Gaia theory applied to our earth, then apply that to the Galactica.
Obviously "she" has suffered extreme damage and is old. Just as people will have to become hybrids in order to survive, why can't the Galactica become a hybrid to survive? The base stars are alive in some way, with the hybrid running the ship.
There was an older SF book back around 1980 by Evelyn Lief. The title was The Clone Rebellion. The clones in that story were like the Cylon Hybrids and they ran mining facilities and planets. The parallels to BSG are amazing in the aspect of clone technology.
Just like that guy holding up that card in that Gillian Wearing picture, I’m desperate….
What happened during the writers strike… something maybe?
Is it even that? I don't know. Are you the person who can fill me in?
It's like I'm watching this show come apart as the friction generated by its dash towards its own end is tearing at it.
Each episode as whole, at the level of every scene and the characters themselves are disintegrated and sloppy being executed poorly and without sharpness, accuracy or finesse. Why? Are any of you people seeing that?
Is everybody involved thinking about what they are going to next? Has someone who held this show together left the scene or lost their political clout within the production process?
I have been totally hooked by this show and been an avid viewer – even through the dodgy bits (we all have them) I’m not as harsh as I might sound here – but this season is way dodgier than I’ve come to expect and I’m not in the know enough to know why. I’m hoping somebody here can tell what the frak that is going on.
Some things are as plain as the nose job on a jobbing actors face like…
What has happened to Roslin's face? What's that Posh Spice pout? She was never that good but now – cripes! - She is like some dreadful aging Am Dram... She makes Kate Mulgraw look like Meryl Streep! And, her lines, is someone else writing them now? Please, what’s happening with that?
Why have so many close-ups of Olmos "crying" when he just can't do that for a camera. Perhaps that would pass for crying in a 2,000 seat auditorium but not in CU ... He's like a botoxed kabuki player and it’s just wrong. Why do it?
Season 4 so far is more than a disappointment; it's cringingly embarrassing for me to watch.
Many of you said you wanted to cry or that you did cry after tonight’s episode well, so did I. I have waited for a year for this and now its here I’m just not getting it … I’m no critic (well, I used to play at it on TV) but, it’s a dramaturlogical disaster area, is it not?
I can be cheap and easily pleased especially when I’m in the mood to be entertained - a well timed fart joke can have me rolling in the aisles – and my desire for fulfilment can bind me to an unfulfilling object for longer than it should – I watched Voyager right to the end for the Gods sake – but, what’s happening in this last season is spoiling my recollection and enjoyment of the whole BSG saga.
I thought I had been watching a very fine Television Drama for these past few years but now every week when I sit down to catch the latest BSG I feel I’m being fed the usual 3rd rate schlock I might expect to find anywhere else in the schedule.
Can someone please put me back on the hook as I am very much missing the pleasure of this programme?
PS: I get the teleology of the show and the plot points and I love it. It's the direction that has lost me ...
Are you kidding? The actors have rarely had finer moments than they have so far in this. "Disquiet..." was amazing. And in this episode - c'mon. EJO was frightening how good he was. He just kept coming at Gaeta, pure steel, not giving an inch. "Oh yeah, I love the enemy..." Classic. Hatch was so good in this episode as well, but the real kudos have to go to AJ.
If you listen to the podcast, there is some stuff that happened in this episode that clearly point toward the endgame.
Anon,
I'd say you are too caught up in minor quirks. I think if you were to go back and watch the whole series, you'd find little bugaboos like those you mention all through it. I don't think it has changed that much, really.
You sound like a victim of the long hiatus. I'm the same way, so please don't take this a criticism. Could it be that your image of the series took on a life of its own, and now it's hard to reconcile the imperfections in the show with the perfect image of it in your mind?
I'd agree that Mary has struggled of late, but I just recognize that it's a difficult role that few actresses could really handle well (her cancer, the presidency and all that, the opera house visions, visions of her own death, the dead-leader prophecy, her love life -- who could keep all that straight?), and she's doing okay with it.
Before we get to Friday, I'd just like to say how remarkable it is that Roslin was able to take control of the Basestar.
Poor Tory, just can't get away from her.
Post a Comment