Thoughts on BSG 1.11 - Colonial Day

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

Crossposted to my LJ



Well, some of us have been wondering what was going on in the fleet all this time and now we have our answer - they're all sitting around listening to Talk Wireless all day. (By the way, I don't have any problem with the reporters being there, because I assume they were on Colonial One with Roslin to go to the decomissioning of "Galactica." I'm also guessing they were the type of reporters who got sent on what were frankly kind of shitty assignments like that - fluff pieces about The Old Hero of the Cylon Wars and his dashing young son, etc.)

I love the focus on politics; the fact that last week, Adama was Da Boss, the man with the plan, but this week we get to see that Roslin is as canny, shrewd, and cunning in her own area of expertise; she really HAS grown into her role as a politician, for sure, and for all her "I hated politics" (as she says to Lee in the miniseries) she's very good at it. And I don't think her choice of Baltar as VP is done blindly - she says he's "the devil I know". Ironically, her whole maneuvering in this episode is to keep Zarek from power, but instead she has embraced someone who is actually a great deal MORE destructive than Zarek ... if only they knew that now, a crazed and traitorous (or at the very least, utterly amoral) man is one heartbeat from the presidency. Heh! (One tiny quibble I have with the politics scene, though, is the use of the word "fascist" which for me is a very Earth-bound and quite particular reference - I wish they'd just said "dictator" or something more general.)

I LOVED Baltar's rise to power - the way that yes, he did miss the limelight; his viewing of political power as a means to seduce more women; the way he's asleep at the beginning and Six has to raise his hand to second Zarek's motion. The girl in the bathroom (shouldn't the Marines have investigated that a bit more closely, though?) ... HA! Also, the level of self-delusion implicit in his statement that he would never vote for someone who blew up a building is ASTOUNDING. I think in Baltar's mind now, his (unwitting) betrayal of the Colonies to the Cylons maybe never even happened, so he can sound totally self-righteous about Zarek. It's just brilliant.

The whole Wally subplot might've been more interesting if we'd ever seen him before, but I thought the actor was really good at being sort of this stolid, reliable, dependable man who evidently had all these chivalrous feelings towards Roslin, until they got stomped on. And I love the little touch of the woman from Geminon being all angry because Roslin wouldn't let them have more water. It makes me jump up and down that the writers remember little themes that they've touched on before - the allocation of scarce resources is always a point of friction; people will always be jockeying for position here.

I also like that things are a little ambiguous here - Roslin isn't wholly correct; Zarek is right that they need a designated successor, especially since, as she knows, and almost no one ELSE does, she is actually dying and might not make it to the elections. He's also right that they need some new model for society because they are (quite understandably) clinging to their old rituals when those are meaningless (on the other hand, rituals can provide comfort and a way to stay sane when everything about you has been destroyed - viz the way that some irreligious people will turn to religion in times of catastrophe.) But Zarek is himself trapped in a stale and dated rhetoric - he clearly hasn't changed HIS way of thinking what with the "Roslin supports the rich against the poor" yadda yadda. What? Who's rich? The money's worthless, no one has more than a few suitcases worth of possessions, so what's he on about? It's only been forty-seven days since the world ended - so what does Zarek mean about a new day? This isn't the aftermath of a revolution - it's the aftermath of a catastrophe, and he doesn't seem to grasp that any better than he did in "Bastille Day".

Also, I was very interested to learn that Colonial Day is only fifty-two years or so old - so this makes me see the Twelve Colonies less as "The United States of Kobol Emigres" and more a loose-ish confederation like the European Union. It would explain why they seem a little uneasy with each other, and the way that old allegiances and grievances seem to come into play just as much as current ones.

Also, in this episode, we get to see the danger of what Adama mentions to Roslin back in, I believe, "Water", when she wants to use troops from "Galactica" to keep order in the fleet - Adama says that when you use the military to police your citizens, there is a danger that they will come to view the citizens as their enemy. And in "Colonial Day" we see exactly that - it appears that the security for the Quorum is provided entirely by personnel from "Galactica" and of course, we get the scene in the bar when Lee picks a fairly unprovoked fight with the guy he's had words with before, and then we get the interrogation scene (about which I have more thoughts below). The level of antagonism between the civilian and military branches here fascinates me - apparently, the "we owe you our lives, you're our saviors" attitude that we've been told about (by Roslin in "Water"; by Ellen in "Tigh Me Up...") is not shared 100% amongst the fleet's denizens. (ETA: jenahna reminds me of something else I wanted to say: I resented the dismissive "flyboy" from Grimes before the fight on Lee's behalf (and Chuckles' behalf and all the other folks we've seen die) - without the "flyboys" and "flygirls", they'd all be pretty well frakked, and it's only a few days since they got the fuel for the rest of the fleet - in fact, I'd imagine they're probably still mining ore on that asteroid. Heh!)

Oh, and assassination plot: OK, jaydk, you mentioned that you though Valance was maybe just set up, but having watched again, it's clear Zarek knows who that is and that there's SOMETHING fishy going on because he reacts to being told Valance is in custody. So I think there is definitely a plot (and it's exactly what Lee tells us - that Zarek thinks he will win the vote and then have Roslin killed - and maybe he can even pin the blame on, oh, the military or someone). Who killed Valance? Well, I wanted to pin it on Ellen Tigh, but clever people like k_julia have pointed out that she may have just sold the info to Zarek (in exchange for whatever mysterious favor she's telling Tigh about at the end) and someone else did the actual killing (like maybe the third guy in the bar or something) by coming through the air duct. (I love the whole "Ellen as Lady Macbeth" vibe I'm getting - she's very ambitious for her husband, isn't she? And she and Zarek together - ooooh, love me some human villains!)

***

OK, now onto Captain Apollo.

First of all, just to get this out of the way - Lee ... Towel ... A:Lkjads;lkhf hlasdf;ljk ... More about this in the LeeCap!

So, I've seen a lot of people writing about how it seems OOC that Lee is so very angry in this episode - but I've thought about it and I disagree. First of all, we've seen that he's not as stoic, stolid, and passionless as he (and we) would like to think - when something he believes in strongly (or someone he loves) is threatened, he can be VERY angry indeed. And he has a kind of reckless courage that I think fighter pilots might need - viz his attempt to fight every prisoner on the "Astral Queen" in "Bastille Day", knowing full well the odds were totally against him. Viz his practially shaking with anger at Tom Zarek, even as he is acknowledging some of the truth of Zarek's words. And in "You Can't Go Home Again" he is so furious that Tigh has hinted they should abandon the search for Kara that he comes very close to striking Tigh in the CIC in front of his own father. So the anger is there, simmering under the surface, even if it doesn't show very often.

Why IS Lee so angry? Well, partly, I think he's been operating under a lot of strain (I'm sure he's got extra flying duties since Kara's out for the count; and it's not that long ago that he felt like everyone on "Galactica" thought he wasn't up to the job, which can be stressful)... But even more importantly, if you look at it one way, this entire Zarek situation is the result of Lee's actions - I happen to think he was 100% correct in what he did in "Bastille Day." He was right about elections happening, and he was right about the fact that killing Zarek and starting a bloodbath would have only proven Zarek's point, so he was right to save Zarek from Kara's bullet. BUT now he must be wondering, even if no one comes out and says it, whether they're all thinking "if you'd just let us kill him like we wanted to, none of this would have happened." Add to this his very genuine regard for the President (be it as Mom, as would-be Mrs. Robinson, or simply as a person whom he admires and respects) who is threatened as the indirect result of his own actions, I can see where all the anger is coming from - some of it is guilt directed outwards; some of it is protectiveness for what he cares about ("you break the rules for family" - Adama said it, and I don't think Lee disagrees!)

The bar-fight - I loved it. Love how Lee is the one who picks the fight (and how it's kind of crazy - just as fighting the prisoners on the "Astral Queen" was crazy) and Kara who hangs back and realizes there's going to be trouble. I love how Lee is like, half the size of the guy he fights (who played the really nice bartender in "Sideways" which confused me no end) and has difficulty getting out of that chokehold until Kara accidentally kicks him the bottle - even subconsciously they make a good team, no? And I love how he's just BANGING the guy on the head with that thing - it's clear this isn't the first fight he's ever been in and it's an interesting facet of his personality.

I love that the interrogation scene makes us uncomfortable - because it should. Now, on one level, of course, Lee and Kara are doing nothing more than playing Good Cop, Crazy Cop ('you're friend rolled'; 'talk now and maybe we can help you') in the same way that I've seen a million cop shows do it; but it strikes me that we've seen how good Kara is at torture (although they never touch Valance) and Lee seems slightly too into this role for there not to be a core of truth to it. His violent instincts are normally under a very tight rein, but they're there all right - he's a warrior, after all, and he's good at it. (I also love that flinging the suitcase across the room was Jamie Bamber's idea - according to Ron Moore's podcast - and they liked it so much they went with it).

And I love how he's all menacing towards Zarek - dude, WE know Lee's a guy who can bear a grudge! He didn't talk to his own father for two years, man - he sure as hell isn't going to forgive YOU for the whole "Astral Queen" thing quickly!

***

Lastly, there's the whole softer side of Lee (and Kara) that we get to see in this episode ... The hose fight is, frankly, just adorable - it seems so THEM to switch from very serious to very playful and they're so comfortable with each other physically (although I think stars_like_dust or someone in her post was talking about how they can only be comfortable with this kind physicality and when it gets romantic they freeze and start acting like dorks. Heh!) I wish we'd gotten the longer version with the stills that I've seen though. But that's just for the shallow pleasure part. Heh!

And the towel scene. *wibble* I can't believe how calm and collected Kara is, but maybe her pointed NOT looking is as significant as an open stare. And then Lee tells her she's DIRTY. So, SO not the right thing to say.

Which brings me to the infamous Dress! Yes, it's kind of cliché; yes, I too wonder where that darn thing came from. But you know what? I don't care because it's so cute and because Kara looks absolutely lovely and I love the gobsmacked expression on Lee's face and the fact that he mentions her knee but he's totally looking at her boobs (in the sense of "wow, you have them!") and the dancing's great - Lee looks kind of stiff still and Kara's just having a ball... LOVE IT! And then he wanders off looking dejected and Kara's dancing with Baltar and what's up with that?

Wow, that was long. And rambly. I apologize!