13thcolony | More on Ambiguity

More on Ambiguity

(Discussion through "Tigh Me Up".)

I am becoming more and more sure that the theme of the show is "absolute ambiguity". Not just *ambiguous* scenes, but *provably* ambiguous.

For example: I think Ellen is a Cylon. There's a mountain of circumstantial evidence against her. Her origin story is suspicious; her behavior is suspicious (she doesn't once open her mouth without hitting a sore spot or a weak spot in some listener). Six gave her the hairiest eyeball I've ever seen.

(Did You Notice? Roslin asked "Where did Adama go, and why did a Cylon raider simultaneously appear and begin behaving strangely?" Tigh answered the first half the question -- and then they both forgot the other half. Clever, clever screenwriter. Heh. I didn't notice either until my second play-through.)

So, I think Ellen is a Cylon. *But* it is unprovable. We can *only* theorize, at least at this point in the season. The writers wave that ambiguity in our face, in the last scene, as Baltar is waving it in Six's face.

(Negative one point for anyone who thought that sounded dirty. :) Come on, didn't you love Baltar's sweet smile as he refused to answer Six's question? He so rarely gets to punch *her* buttons. Oh, dear, that sounded dirty too. Never mind.)

They keep doing this, and it can't be accidental. Is Baltar psychotic or brain-tapped? Is Baltar's Six working with or against the rest of the Cylons? Can she communicate with the other Cylons, either long-range or when Baltar meets one? (I know, those aren't orthogonal questions.) Was Leoben feeling pain during "Flesh and Bone"? (Starbuck said he would, but we don't know she was right.) At what times does the Caprica Boomer know she's a Cylon?

To repeat my favorite: In the bathroom scene in "Six Degrees", Six walks in. Is it the physical Shelley Godfrey or Baltar's Six? Absolutely ambiguous. The camera only shows us Baltar reacting to her presence -- Gaeta *could* be unaware of her.

Anyway. Despite my thesis, I will speculate about the Caprica Boomer. I'm quite sure she knows she's a Cylon during "Tigh Me Up", even though she's alone with Helo. She behaves as if she knows the Cylon plans. She's exhibiting superhuman capabilities -- those would certainly be locked out in a Cylon sleeper agent.

By the way -- I've seen a couple of people comment on the theme of women using sex to get at (corrupt?) men. Well, note that the Caprica Boomer has blown it. By both her own viewpoint and Six's, Helo got to *Boomer* through sex -- albeit innocently -- and now Boomer is a Cylon traitor. Redeemed: perhaps deeply or perhaps just a little for Helo.

But what does that mean for the thesis? Takes it beyond "corruption", I'd say. The portrayal is that sex is *powerful*, which is certainly true, and it fits with the theme of the Cylons being fascinated with *life*. Being alive isn't a weakness; the Cylons try to use it that way, but at the same time they're desperate for it themselves. I wonder if they're aware of the contradiction.

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I don't think Ellen's a Cylon. For one, we've never seen any Cylons actually impersonate anyone that was an actual person with a verifiable history and contacts. There's never been any 'bodysnatching' (that we know of) depicted. Plus, impersonating the wife of a military colonel would be pure stupidity, if not suicide. There's far too much that he could use to detect her level of truth, and they have far too long a history together. Additionally, Adama is no fool, either. He's known Tigh's wife for years, apparently, and I'm sure that it would be very difficult to get past the both of them. Maybe she could fool one for a little while, but not both. Attempting to do so would only tip the Cylons' hand, in showing that they have escalated their espionage campaigns to impersonating people that you already know, as opposed to inserting non-entities into society, and making them create a history for themselves. This would lead to even more stringent, anti-Cylon infiltrator security protocols, which would make Cylon espionage and sabotage that much harder, if not downright impossible.

Sooner, or later, were Tigh's wife a Cylon agent, she would mess up and the game would be up. Additionally, regardless of who she's married to, this does not really give her access to any real information. Remember, when she came back and asked what he was doing, he refused to tell her. This looked very routine for him; like he's used to keeping work product away from his wife (just the way he should).

As for superhuman capabilities, I have yet to see any in Boomer. Just because she could run for a while means diddly. Even when the Cylon agent Thrace interrogated broke the handcuffs, I've known of more than one case of people doing that, while I was in the Army Military Police, in order to avoid apprehension. They may be pretty tough, but I doubt they're really superhuman. You're also forgetting the fact that Helo has a serious, and untreated, leg injury, from when a piece of shrapnel penetrated the hull of their EW fighter, and went through his leg. He has not seen a doctor about this, and it's even possible that he's permanently damaged from it. Now further aggrevate this by remembering his constant ionizing radiation exposure. Remember when he ran into Six, how terrible he looked? He looked like he was going to die. While I'm sure the radiation medication may stop the effects of the radiation, I'm pretty certain it doesn't do too much (if anything) to address the damage the radiation has already done. Boomer's always been well aware (on Caprica) of her identity. She's been talking to other Cylon agents for long enough, so I'm sure the fact that she's an android was no secret from her. Only the Boomer on board Galactica seemed to not know what the real deal was.

I think Helo has had access to anti-rad meds all along -- there was never a time when he was out of them -- and I'm taking them as magically effective until the show says otherwise. His leg, yes, that's a point. But I read the scene as Boomer genuinely not being tired enough. They have been on the move *fast* for many days now, and Helo noticed something.

When I posed "At what times does the Caprica Boomer know she's a Cylon?", I meant the question literally. Times. One of the ambiguities is whether a Cylon agent can "wake up", take action -- communicate with the other Cylons -- and then *go back to sleep*. Suppress all memory of being nonhuman. In fact, given the Galactica Boomer's act of sabotage in "Water", we should assume they *can* do that -- perhaps it's their common mode of operation for deep-cover agents.

This is what I was getting at in my post about robots in SF a few weeks ago. When you hear a Cylon agent protesting that he/she is human, you don't know whether he is lying or deluded. The state of mind is opaque; you have to simultaneously distrust and empathize, and know that one of the reactions is wrong.

As for Ellen, I realize that substituting for a well-known human is a risky move. But the Cylons are willing to take risky moves. They put in Shelley Godfrey, and then deliberately blew her cover, to accomplish one goal. Ellen Tigh could be an equally short-term operation.

It's also not impossible that she *always was* a Cylon. Right? (She always had the bad social skills, we know that.) Cylon android technology is new, but we don't know how new. More than two years, less than forty. Ten isn't implausible. A ten-year marriage -- starting late for both Ellen and Saul, ending in divorce, but still a long-term relationship -- is consistent with the show.

I'm pretty sure that the Boomer Cylon on Caprica has always known. This is in evidence from an episode that you've probably not seen before, that showed a lot.

And as for risky moves, there's risky, and there's stupid. Replacing his wife would just be plain stupid, considering all it's going to do is show that they can do it, which will make the military that much more strict. Telling the enemy your technological capabilities and showcasing your intelligence capabilities is about as stupid as it gets. The Cylons don't strike me as being that dumb. As for Godfrey, no, her cover was not deliberately blown. Had it not been for the 2nd officer being very intelligent and unwilling to take things at face value, the evidence presented would have landed Baltar on the prison barge, if not in front of a firing squad. As for Ellen being a Cylon all along, that's absolutely senseless, considering the show pretty much makes it clear that the Cylons didn't start employing androids, until not much more than 2 years ago. I'm sure Colonel Tigh and his wife have been married a lot longer than 2 years. As I've said somewhere else, if the Cylons had it longer than 2 years, then this whole thing would've taken place a lot longer ago. Their plan only took 2 years. If it was that easy, then it would have gotten to this point a long time ago, and not just now.

I meant to go on with that post, but I was in a hurry to get out the door, and I forgot the ending bit. Which is this:

The "keep a turkey in suspense" model of episodic television has an obvious problem, which we may call the "X Files problem" and you'll all know what I mean.

(I never watched X Files regularly, but I heard people bitch about it. But I'm right, right?)

The challenge is to (1) dole out mystery and information at an equal pace, and (2) actually be going somewhere substantive rather than just dragging out the mystery. And (3) convince the audience that you're not bullshitting about (2).

So far I think BSG is keeping the balance correctly. Both Boomer situations are developing. The characters (and we) are learning more about Cylons. With the Caprica plot -- and that choked-up glance at the very end of "Tigh Me Up" -- we have a much clearer view of what they *care* about than we did at the end of the pilot miniseries.

At the same time, I think the past few episodes have been the weakest. Not that any of them was a sinker, but there have been several scenes that I didn't buy into. The first half of the season rang *entirely* true for me, whereas now there are holes -- character actions that feel like they're in the script for dramatic reasons, not because the character would really do that.

Hadrian's targeting Adama in "Litmus"; Roslin's empathic/executioner flip-flop in "Flesh and Bone"; the fact that Baltar isn't under 24-hour observation as a *nutcase*; the scene in "Tigh" where Adama ends a fight by saying "I know." (...that Roslin was worried he's a Cylon. What did that line even mean? What does his knowing resolve?)

I have to say that, even though I loved all the bits of byplay in "Tigh Me Up", the arc of the story felt artificial. From Roslin's initial suspicion to the big shouting match at the end, everyone seemed to be overreacting. Ellen's behavior certainly wasn't helping, but everyone except Tigh was *on* to her -- whether her manner was psy-ops or incredibly bad social skills, doesn't matter -- and they should have been discounting her personal drama storm. So I don't get it.

I actually started off this episode thinking that it was the first failure of the season. It got better, entirely because of the actors' ability to play the script. I was won over by the end. (The last shot of Baltar in his chair, really, it has my eternal devotion.) But the script, per se, was problematic. We shall see if the writers can keep the momentum going.

I don't know how well I'm going to be able to articulate my thoughts, here, but I'm going to try.

Firstly, yes, you're right about the X-Files. Chris Carter failed miserably at part 2 of that formula but, strangely, he was good at part 3, so the good lot of us didn't realize that he had no idea what he was doing until it was too late. So, uh, that made for two and a half really disappointing final seasons. Really disappointing. And don't even get me started on the finale (which I've yet to watch all the way through, and it's been what? Three years? I mean, I taped the damn thing. I just have no desire to suffer through it).

In any case, what I disagree with here is the idea that the characters are doing things that they wouldn't normally do. I think, however, that such may have to do with the fact that I view the characters in a completely different way.

For example, I don't see Roslin as being particularly nice. I certainly like her, but I think (and have always thought) that she's s got a ruthless streak a mile wide; it just takes something to set her over the edge (I'm having difficulty articulating why I think this. I think it's partly the way she talks, partly the fact that she appears to me to be suppressing more than just her illness, and partly because sometimes, forceful people who contract an illness of that nature become even more forceful. Mostly, it's just a feeling I've always had about her, a feeling that at some point she would snap in some way). I believe that such an instance occurs in "Flesh and Bone," and I think that it's not simply the fact that Leoben implicates Adama that sets her off. I got the impression that she was also upset with herself for allowing herself to feel sorry for a being that suddenly clearly seemed in the business of spreading lies and sowing mistrust. She went a bit overboard, but I can understand why she would -- and I don't think it's outside the bounds of her character, but someone who views her in a different way would certainly have cause to disagree.

My feelings on Hadrian are a little...simpler. We've only seen her character a few times, so we don't really have any way of knowing whether she was acting out of character in that instance or not. My feeling is that she simply started getting angry and got carried away (it's easy for anyone to get a little drunk on power, and she certainly had quite a bit in that instance). Also, someone around here made the point that she probably felt personally upset with Adama for not sharing with her information that was pertinent to the way in which she operates while on the job, and thus called him in because this was her chance to "pick a bone with him" without getting in trouble, so to speak.

As for Adama's words, well, "I know" can mean a lot of different things. As a result of the context and the expression that he gave her, I think the meaning behind them in this scene is that he understood. He figured it out already, and he's not angry because if he was going to get angry, he would have already. He's perhaps upset; certainly not all rainbows and sunshine and puppies. But he gets why she was worried, especially since he was worried about Tigh's wife. And, well, that's the kind of guy Adama is.

Baltar I'm not going to argue with. I myself don't understand why they haven't seemed to had any reaction to the fact that he's positively batty. Perhaps they're afraid to upset the guy who's got not only a Cylon detector but a warhead at his disposal? Meh.

And as far as the script being problematic, well, I'll agree with you there, too. I mean, for frak's sake, it took a matter of minutes to test Boomer last week, and now it takes eleven hours? How big of a difference could there possibly be between the beta and alpha versions?

Now for the main post!

I think you're spot on about the ambiguity, and I think that's part of what makes this show so much fun to watch. Everything is grey; you're never quite certain how you feel about certain things, who you're rooting for, whether an arc is going this way or that. I don't think that the manner of discussion that so far has occurred in this fandom would be nearly so prevalent if it wasn't for this aspect of the show, and so I'm thankful for it. It's nice to have to think, it's nice to see the wheels turning in everyone's brains, and it's nice to see that the same scene can make two fans think completely different things about where the story's going. Makes things more interesting.

Now, Caprica Boomer. I'm going to have to agree with

virus_x that she knows and has always known that she's Cylon. I believe that that's part of why she seems to be so anguished in this episode, and also part of why she goes up top -- it's not just to scope out the situation, it's to make sure that she really wants to do this.

I also believe that, while Cylons seem to be confused about love and sex and often act as if they think that such are equivalent, Boomer is less affected by the fact that she has had sex with Helo (and that is not to say that I don't think that sex is being portrayed as powerful, or that parts of that thesis aren't correct. I certainly think it is and that the thesis has merit) and more affected by the emotion that he seems to have for her. While she's running back to him in "Flesh and Bone," she recalls moments when he treated her in a certain manner, when he told her that she was important and meant something to him. His treatment of and apparent affection for her are what is really getting to her, and that's what she's gotten caught up in.

I also think it's significant that she didn't seem to have any qualms about keeping the charade going until she was told that she would have to kill him if he wouldn't stay. If they hadn't had sex, then it's possible she still would have chosen to run simply because she doesn't want it to get to the point where she'll have to kill him. The question is whether she actually has developed the capacity to feel something back or whether he's treated her too well in her mind to deserve to die at her hands. I'm inclined to lean toward the former, or at least toward the lesser idea that perhaps she wants to feel something back, because I don't think that she'd be ready to leave with him if such were not the case and because it further opens the (very interesting, to my mind) can of worms that has been slightly opened by Baltar's Six (after all, one of the possibilities is that she has turned). The idea that some of the humanoid Cylons may just be a little too human, enough to go traitor, is very, very exciting.

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