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Battlestar Galactica: Fragged

Cally: "I just joined to pay for dental school."

Things continued on their downward spiral. There was an interesting parallel here, with Crashdown completely screwing things up on Kobol while Tigh continued to completely screw things up on Galactica.

Tigh has started to channel Captain Queeg. He thinks now is a good time for a bender, and he actually forgot about Kobol. Declaring martial law was almost an anticlimax. If Adama doesn't recover soon, there may not be much to salvage. Interesting that Lee functioned as the voice of reason here, just as the Chief did on Kobol. (I like Lee more with every episode.)

The whole Crashdown suicide mission thing was sort of fascinating and upsetting at the same time. Crashdown was right. An attack in order to protect the rescue party was absolutely the right thing to do. But why didn't he listen to Chief Tyrol, the most experienced soldier in the landing party? Why didn't he even consider the capabilities of his "troops"? Was it just inexperience? I think Crashdown was just so determined to prove he could command that he lost sight of reason.

Gaius' incredibly long list of major transgressions is growing; he just shot a commanding officer in the back. ("Nobody tells me to shut up. I'm the vice president!") Which made me wonder. I really don't know much about military vs. civilian protocol, and hey, these aren't earthlings anyway, but wouldn't Gaius actually be in charge? Not that that excuses what he did... except someone had to do something. The big question is, will the others – especially Chief – keep the secret? And what will happen to Gaius when it comes out, as it inevitably will?

The religious carrying-on continued in its usual confusing way. Laura played her ace, fulfilling the "scrolls of Pythia" or whatever and her illness is out in the open: now she's the Pope, as well as the President. And Six, in black, at the funeral, basically said that the people who died on Kobol won't go to heaven; they're going to oblivion. I'm usually well attuned to symbolism and allegory, but I'm still clueless about where they're going with the Cylon monotheism and the Colonial polytheism. Although I'm sure they do have a destination in mind.

We didn't get to see Starbuck and Helo tooling around Caprica in her pick-up this week. Maybe next week?

Bits and pieces:

— 47,862 survivors! I must have missed it last week, but the number of survivors in the opening credits changed. How very cool. Well, it wasn't cool that characters died, but it's cool that they're going to update that number.

— After Crashdown's death, I thought for a minute we were going to lose Chief Tyrol, too, and I started getting very upset. He's a favorite of mine.

— I absolutely loved that final scene where Tyrol was firing wildly at the Cylons, they blew up, and he looked down at his gun.

— And I loved Doc Cottle in the airlock with a lit cigarette.

— Why did Ellen Tigh visit Laura? It just seemed weird. Of course, I still think Ellen is a good candidate for Cylon number five; I'm wondering why she isn't making covert visits to Adama and fooling with his ventilator.

— "I'm from Geminon. We believe in the literal truth of the scriptures." So Geminons are like Jehovah's witnesses?

— In one scene, Tigh was looking at old photos of Adama through a half-full bottle of whiskey. Symbolism, ho.

— Adama hates martial law, huh? I cannot wait for his reaction to what's been going on while he was down.

— I'm told that "fragged" is a term that means killing your superior officer.

— No Starbuck, Sharon, or Helo in this episode.

Quotes:

Tigh: "Why aren't you in the brig?"
Billy: "Because... no one put me in there?"

Six: "One of you will turn against the others." "Now, you're a man." "I'll be your conscience." Huh?

Tigh: "I really frakked things up for you, Bill."
You think?

Another excellent episode. Three out of four stars,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

7 comments:

  1. I applaud the writers for making me think Cally and then the Chief are going to bite it. Kudos for great writing and acting too.

    Crashdown crashed and moved on to Being Human. I kid there's about 5 years for him to move. ;)

    We haven't seen the last of Kobol for sure, when Helo and Starbuck come back they'll have to use the arrow. I think I'm ready to leave Caprica, I don't want Starbuck to be cut off from the rest of the cast. Think of all the roles of the week she misses. :) Apollo took over. In 3 eps he was prisoner, pilot, centurion killer nad rescue mission leader. :)

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  2. I wondered why Sam Witwer looked so familiar back when I started seeing ads for SyFy's Being Human, but I don't watch that show, so I never bothered to look him up. Thanks for connecting those dots, Patryk!

    This first half of Season 2 is some of BSG's best stuff, and 'Fragged' and 'Valley of Darkness' are two of my favorite episodes (although, who am I kidding, that's a pretty long list). So intense! I actually remember the experience of watching this one. I was absolutely convinced we were going to lose Chief, and I was yelling "No! No! No!" at the t.v.

    Such a great show. Glad to be revisiting a bit through your eyes, Patryk.

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  3. Let me add that I'm also enjoying your comments, Patryk. It always gives me a nice feeling seeing comments on the older shows, and fortunately, we do get that pretty often here.

    I did remember Sam Witwer. He did a season of Smallville, too. It's like he was a series lead actor waiting to happen, and it finally did.

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  4. I liked this one as I found it very interesting to see our characters in different, challenging situations.

    Tigh is just a mess. I was surprised when he declared martial law as it is so obviously what Abama would not do. As I thought about it, however, I think it was a reaction to his never having control of any situation. Everything that was thrown at him confused and upset him -- this was one way to shut out the noise.

    I thought Gaius was the most interesting this time around. He started off being the same old arrogant bastard (loved Cally asking if he could carry something this time), but I think he realised the direness of the situation and did what he could. Yes, shooting Crashdown was extreme, but I saw his comment at the end at trying to redeem Crashdown, not himself. In his mind, he thought that the other pilots/crew would want Crashdown to be remembered as a hero, even if he weren"t. Cally seemed pleased by this; the Chief seemed to better understand Gaius' true motives.

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  5. Billie - who was Sam Witwer in Smallville, I don't remember that one? I initially recognized him from my favourite Episode of Tabletop (Wil Wheaton's Geek and Sundry show) where they play the Dragon Age RPG.

    I get major anxiety when watching Crashdowns handling of Cally when she freaks out. I think Gaius made a decent call stopping him, but prior to these episodes I really liked Crashdown and was sad to see him go.

    As for Tigh, the less said about him and Ellen the better.

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  6. Baz, Sam Witwer was a cast member on Smallville for the entire eighth season. If I tell you who he played, it would be a spoiler, I think.

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  7. ^For real, I'm not even well-versed on Superman lore but I immediately remember what role Crashdown played on Smallville

    Anyway it was hard to watch him go mad

    I absolutely loved the music that played when everyone's kneeling before Roslin in her jail cell. And poor Tigh looking unnerved by it lol

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