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13thcolony(I'm sick, so please forgive me if I ramble.) Wow! What an amazing ep!
There were so many things that surprised me on Kobol! My jaw literally dropped when Crash pulled the gun on Cally. He was so going to kill her! He was totally squeezing down. I was shocked!!!
This ep is about the failed leadership of two people who should have never been put in that position. Crash is far enough down the food chain that I doubt he ever expected to be in charge. Tigh however is 2nd in command. He *should* be ready to assume command and he's obviously not.
The fact that he is heir to the throne can be laid at Bill's door. IMO, he allowed friendship to cloud his judgment. Bill should have promoted someone else to XO after the genocide. Tigh is too unreliable to be one death from command during war time.
Tigh did well in ordering the computers to be networked to find the fleet, and he did well during the battle on the ship last week. In the heat of the battle he does okay. Most of command is not spent in the heat of the battle though, and it's then his demons surface. This week he fell back into his old habits and back into the bottle. His loud, aggressive, absent-minded posturing makes his incompetence clear to all the military around him. This is, unfortunately for him, contrasted with Lee and Laura's cool professionalism in handling him.
Crash's mistakes in this ep are caused by guilt IMO. Whether he ever told Tarn about the 2nd medkit when they left or not, he's the one who sent tarn on an ultimately futile mission that got him killed. He struggles to speak at the funeral service, and takes the dog tags from their graves.
They carry two sets of dog tags around their necks as far as I can tell. Based on movies I've seen, this is standard in the US military too. One set stays with the body, and one set is kept for records. Tyrol looks at Crash oddly when he takes the tags from the graves; this isn't SOP. I think rather than leave them on their bodies, they were going to leave that set on the grave, but Crash took them to wear to remind him of his guilt. (This is similar to what Laura did in season 1 with the name of that ship they had to blow up on a piece of paper in her pocket.) Crash later puts them on right before the battle.
He even tells Tyrol that the attack is for not only the SAR, but Tarn and Socinus, which makes no sense to Tyrol. It's very interesting to wonder if the SAR would have been shot down if the cylons hadn't been distracted with firing at the group on the ground. Crash was probably right about the need to help the SAR, but not about the way he went about it. He was willing to sacrifice Tarn before to get the medkit for socinus to appease his guilt over not double checking the supplies like Tyrol said, (though there's no way of knowing if staying longer wouldn't have gotten them killed) and was willing to sacrifice all of them, including Cally by his own hand, to appease his guilt this week over Tarn and Socinus's death. If he can kill the cylons and save the SAR, then Tarn and Socinus won't have died in vain in his mind.
This ep is also about what people do when the leader makes a bad decision. (This was also explored in KLG with Lee and Bill's differing reactions to Laura's asking Kara to get the arrow. Lee argues for democratic rule, and refuses to follow his father's orders, while Bill refuses to allow Laura to lead.) While I can see some strategic value in attacking the cylons once the raptor is sighted as a distraction to allow the raptor to take the bad guys out (what ultimately happened), Crash's plan is to attack them *before* the SAR shows up. It's a suicide mission that has little chance of success.
Baltar objects to this plan, but Tyrol supports the military structure even when he doesn't agree with Crash. He chooses to follow the bad leader. Baltar and Cally don't.
I'm glad they had Cally be the one who couldn't do it. We've seen her fight before and be brave. She helped Tyrol keep it together last week, but she loses it here though.
I still had some sympathy for Crash until he told Tyrol that's why they made him an officer and not Tyrol. He lost me with that.
Tyrol couldn't make himself shoot crash even to save Cally's life. Crash was squeezing down. If Baltar hadn't killed the Lt., Cally would be dead. (Poor Tyrol! He's going to have a lot to deal with. The girlfriend he had suspicions about, but never reported because he didn't want to believe it, is a cylon after all and tried to kill Adama. He and Lee need to go get drunk together. They've both had a bad week.)
I was surprised Tyrol shut Baltar down when he wanted to vote on Crash's plan. Galen wouldn't have even needed to help baltar, just keep his mouth shut. Instead he chooses to help enforce military policy, even bad military policy.
I was also surprised that Baltar was the one to suggest covering up what Crash did. I think he'll eventually reveal his saving Cally's life once his horror at shooting someone recedes. He won't be able to resist bragging IMO.
I wonder what Laura saw that made her scream?
I liked Cally saying the motions out loud as she practiced with her gun. Shades of Lee last week. :)
I loved watching Tigh lose it, because he did it so spectacularly. :)
ETA - IIRC Zarek is the first one to say "martial law." I wonder if he was trying to plant the idea in Tigh's head so he could then stage a rebellion against Tigh after he declared it.
This is all JMO of course.
There were so many things that surprised me on Kobol! My jaw literally dropped when Crash pulled the gun on Cally. He was so going to kill her! He was totally squeezing down. I was shocked!!!
This ep is about the failed leadership of two people who should have never been put in that position. Crash is far enough down the food chain that I doubt he ever expected to be in charge. Tigh however is 2nd in command. He *should* be ready to assume command and he's obviously not.
The fact that he is heir to the throne can be laid at Bill's door. IMO, he allowed friendship to cloud his judgment. Bill should have promoted someone else to XO after the genocide. Tigh is too unreliable to be one death from command during war time.
Tigh did well in ordering the computers to be networked to find the fleet, and he did well during the battle on the ship last week. In the heat of the battle he does okay. Most of command is not spent in the heat of the battle though, and it's then his demons surface. This week he fell back into his old habits and back into the bottle. His loud, aggressive, absent-minded posturing makes his incompetence clear to all the military around him. This is, unfortunately for him, contrasted with Lee and Laura's cool professionalism in handling him.
Crash's mistakes in this ep are caused by guilt IMO. Whether he ever told Tarn about the 2nd medkit when they left or not, he's the one who sent tarn on an ultimately futile mission that got him killed. He struggles to speak at the funeral service, and takes the dog tags from their graves.
They carry two sets of dog tags around their necks as far as I can tell. Based on movies I've seen, this is standard in the US military too. One set stays with the body, and one set is kept for records. Tyrol looks at Crash oddly when he takes the tags from the graves; this isn't SOP. I think rather than leave them on their bodies, they were going to leave that set on the grave, but Crash took them to wear to remind him of his guilt. (This is similar to what Laura did in season 1 with the name of that ship they had to blow up on a piece of paper in her pocket.) Crash later puts them on right before the battle.
He even tells Tyrol that the attack is for not only the SAR, but Tarn and Socinus, which makes no sense to Tyrol. It's very interesting to wonder if the SAR would have been shot down if the cylons hadn't been distracted with firing at the group on the ground. Crash was probably right about the need to help the SAR, but not about the way he went about it. He was willing to sacrifice Tarn before to get the medkit for socinus to appease his guilt over not double checking the supplies like Tyrol said, (though there's no way of knowing if staying longer wouldn't have gotten them killed) and was willing to sacrifice all of them, including Cally by his own hand, to appease his guilt this week over Tarn and Socinus's death. If he can kill the cylons and save the SAR, then Tarn and Socinus won't have died in vain in his mind.
This ep is also about what people do when the leader makes a bad decision. (This was also explored in KLG with Lee and Bill's differing reactions to Laura's asking Kara to get the arrow. Lee argues for democratic rule, and refuses to follow his father's orders, while Bill refuses to allow Laura to lead.) While I can see some strategic value in attacking the cylons once the raptor is sighted as a distraction to allow the raptor to take the bad guys out (what ultimately happened), Crash's plan is to attack them *before* the SAR shows up. It's a suicide mission that has little chance of success.
Baltar objects to this plan, but Tyrol supports the military structure even when he doesn't agree with Crash. He chooses to follow the bad leader. Baltar and Cally don't.
I'm glad they had Cally be the one who couldn't do it. We've seen her fight before and be brave. She helped Tyrol keep it together last week, but she loses it here though.
I still had some sympathy for Crash until he told Tyrol that's why they made him an officer and not Tyrol. He lost me with that.
Tyrol couldn't make himself shoot crash even to save Cally's life. Crash was squeezing down. If Baltar hadn't killed the Lt., Cally would be dead. (Poor Tyrol! He's going to have a lot to deal with. The girlfriend he had suspicions about, but never reported because he didn't want to believe it, is a cylon after all and tried to kill Adama. He and Lee need to go get drunk together. They've both had a bad week.)
I was surprised Tyrol shut Baltar down when he wanted to vote on Crash's plan. Galen wouldn't have even needed to help baltar, just keep his mouth shut. Instead he chooses to help enforce military policy, even bad military policy.
I was also surprised that Baltar was the one to suggest covering up what Crash did. I think he'll eventually reveal his saving Cally's life once his horror at shooting someone recedes. He won't be able to resist bragging IMO.
I wonder what Laura saw that made her scream?
I liked Cally saying the motions out loud as she practiced with her gun. Shades of Lee last week. :)
I loved watching Tigh lose it, because he did it so spectacularly. :)
ETA - IIRC Zarek is the first one to say "martial law." I wonder if he was trying to plant the idea in Tigh's head so he could then stage a rebellion against Tigh after he declared it.
This is all JMO of course.
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Re: But Lady MacBeth is right up until she goes crazy
Date: 2005-07-30 09:14 pm (UTC)I don't know if Ellen has had as much to potentially gain from Saul's position before... so maybe she hasn't been quite as diabolical in the past. But pretty obviously her personality quirks aren't new ones. I would think her manipulations in the past were smaller-scale (ie. get all Tigh's friends [not just Adama] all suspicious & snipey @ each other b/c of the way she flirts w/them & casts suspicions, etc.).
Re: But Lady MacBeth is right up until she goes crazy
Date: 2005-07-31 08:45 pm (UTC)