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| Saturday, February 28, 2009 04:35 PM |
| On the Viewer - Battlestar Galactica (Season 4.5, Episode 6 - "Deadlock") |
 by Fëanor |
Tigh is worried about his baby, even though a look at it with the ultrasound suggests everything is a-okay. "I don't trust that machine," he says. Six laughs. "Oh, I know," he says. "The irony is irresistible." Heh.
Ellen Tigh arrives on Galactica. Hotdog sees her and says, "How many dad chicks are out there?!" Ha!
Oh crap. I just realized Ellen being here is really going to complicate Tigh's relationship with the Six he impregnated. I see many awkward and painful moments ahead...
Heh. It's pretty clear Adama really doesn't know how to feel, watching Ellen and Tigh make out. He might even be a little grossed out.
Ellen: "Instead of 50,000 survivors, imagine there were only 5." Lots of exchanging of glances among Adama, Roslin, and Apollo during the meeting with Ellen.
Oh, do the Tighs really have to have sex all the time whenever they meet? Ah! Now Tigh is seeing Ellen as Six, just as he saw the Six as Ellen. Hoo boy. Just make sure you call out the right name, dude!
Um... why do Baltar's people have a bunch of guns??
Oh, Baltar. You weaselly liar, you. Hey, there's imaginary Six! Haven't seen her in a while.
C'mon, Tigh, just tell her about the baby! She's going to find out soon enough anyway.
See! What'd I tell you?
Anders said to stay with the fleet, guys! Leaving would be a bad idea...
So the decision comes down to Ellen, who just received the Jerry Springer-style revelation that her husband of some thousand years is essentially having a child with his own daughter. D'oh!
Ugh. It's hard to even watch Baltar interact with people. He's such a tool. But he is doing a pretty good job taking his little tribe back, it looks like. And being a crazy prophet.
Ha ha ha! Ellen is still a bitch. "He didn't tell you about the sex," she says to the Six. Like you thought he had!
Okay, Baltar, maybe trying to give the food to the hungry was not such a good plan after all.
It's interesting what Adama says about using Cylon technology to fix Galactica. It'll still be Galactica on the outside, but on the inside, she won't know what she is. Of course it works as an excellent metaphor for Tigh, and for the fleet as a whole: they need the Cylons to survive, but what is humanity if it merges with the Cylons? Who is his friend if his friend is really a machine with a secret past?
Baltar: "All we need is strength! And guns! More guns, better guns, bigger guns!" Oh, Jesus. This is not going to end well.
As soon as Ellen and Tigh get back together, it's huge ugly drama, just like old times! Only now it's on an even larger scale.
Tigh's totally right, of course. Humanity is too weak without the Cylons, and the Cylons are too weak without humanity. They have to figure out a way to live together.
I love how they keep cutting back to Adama watching the repairs of Galactica. He's so concerned about his girl! And so conflicted about covering her with Cylon goop.
Oh man, these scenes with Tigh, Ellen, and Caprica are just really creepy. Especially with Ellen telling Tigh to tell Caprica that he loves her. So effed up! Tigh's monologue on love, though: awesome. I think his great granddad really was a power sander!
Baltar comes into Adama's office to see him, Roslin, and Apollo. Adama says to his son and Roslin: "The two of you can stay here and listen to this. I'm going to go to the head, do something constructive. It's a little project I've been working on." LOL, literally. That was hilarious.
Baltar throws back into Adama's face all the things he's been worrying about recently: Galactica getting pumped full of Cylon blood and becoming a blended ship. Baltar really hits him where he lives. And apparently it worked, because now... they're giving Baltar and his people guns?! I'm really not sure I understand how he talked Adama into doing that. Seriously, wtf? Did he say they'd be an extra, civilian security force? How is that going to solve any real problems? I'm confused, but perhaps my confusion will be cleared up as the story moves along. (Actually, this sequence did eventually make more sense to me, but only once I read about the episode on Wikipedia. Apparently a subplot had to be cut out of this episode wherein Adama was considering bringing over extra security in the form of Centurions to keep the Sons of Ares from stealing supplies. Baltar offered his own people as an alternative to that option. And given those two choices, I can understand how Adama would agree to give out guns to Baltar and his people. I wish they'd been able to keep that subplot in, because without it that sequence was hard to swallow.) Regardless, it is pretty damn funny when Baltar is talking about "you give then you receive," Jeanne says, "That's beautiful," and then Paulla says, "Yeah," while admiring her new, huge gun.
The moment where Adama comforts Tigh after the death of Liam is very moving and powerful. Those guys are damn good actors. In the final scene, Adama and Roslin discover that the Cylons have started their own wall of photos of the lost in the hallway commemorating the dead on Galactica. And Adama says, "It's already happened, hasn't it?" Yes. Yes it has.
Pretty strong episode! Some really interesting changes, and a number of moving and dramatic moments. I even really enjoyed the funny logo at the end for R&D TV. Edward James Olmos shows up in boxing gear and says, "Where's my check?" When the response he gets is, "I don't know," he pops the dude in the stomach and takes the check, saying, "Gracias." Awesome. |
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