“His name was Liam.”
This review was meant to be of the “scene by scene” variety…but the editing for the latest episode of BSG, “Deadlock,” was rather…it wasn’t good, I didn’t think. The various intercut scenes felt as though they’d been smashed together, and I didn’t really feel that there was a good flow in and between the events depicted. It seemed, instead, very random: one moment, we’re in the bowels of the ship watching repairs, and then we’re over in Dogsville for a fight sequence, then back to the repairs, then to sickbay…
…I don’t know about you, good reader, but I found it rather jarring and uneven. So I’ve had to change my review format a bit: instead of scene by scene, I’m going setting by setting. Which, I suspect, might help me string events together in my head a bit better.
Mind the spoilers, as usual.
The bowels of Galactica
Repairs to the beams themselves are still underway — welding sparks and the sounds of heavy equipment pepper the background in these scenes. But now there are Cylons amidst the work crews (mostly Sixes and Eights; does Leoben Conoy ever get out of the office?), slathering the Cylon “gooey” substance onto everything in sight.
When the show begins, William Adama is inspecting the work, and Galen Tyrol shows him a sample of the gooey stuff, likening it to cartilage — “it’s what the baseships are made of,” he explains.
Adama wonders at whether the goo is alive, and then wonders at whether it will work. Tyrol isn’t sure, and Adama tells him that it had better work. As the episode progresses, he leaves and returns to the work area, inspecting the application process and its early results, and it’s obvious that he’s monumentally conflicted over the situation. This actually gets expressed in a scene in which he and Saul Tigh are pounding back drinks in his quarters — he worries that the Galactica “won’t know what she is anymore,” even as he admits that he can see the need for further Cylon involvement in the fleet, in addition to the need for their assistance in repairing his ship.
As Michael Hall points out in his review of the episode, it would be pretty amateur screenwriting indeed if an introduced problem — especially this late in the game — was wrapped up an episode later, just like that. There’s more to the gooey stuff than meets the eye, and Hall wonders at whether the last scene in which it appears — in which a Number Six and a Number Eight are carting a bucket of it around and flash looks of nervous concern at the Admiral and Laura Roslin as they walk past — is not indicative of some malicious intent on the part of the Cylons, a hint that the goo has some undisclosed nature or function that will spell the end of the Galactica in short order.
And to be fair, Ron Moore has said before that the damage to Galactica is, as a subplot, the story of the end of the Galactica. I haven’t listened to his podcast for “Deadlock” as yet, but hopefully will get the chance to do so today — it will be interesting to hear his remarks on these scenes.
Dogsville & the Cult Room
In a wholly separate subplot, the conditions for a revolt are being — or, perhaps more accurately, already have been — set up in Dogsville, which is (essentially) the refugee camp set up in the “lower decks” of the Galactica. Gaius Baltar summarizes the situation quite well in one of the last scenes of the show:
Baltar: What you have right now are starving civilians, with no representation, no recourse. They’re broken, they’re exhausted. They’ve had enough. That is not a mutiny Admiral, that is a revolution.
The Dogsville and Cult Room (I’m actually not sure what to call Baltar’s harem’s sanctuary) scenes serve first to establish that at least one member of Baltar’s flock, Paula Schaffer (who had previously been so violently loyal to Baltar), is now calling him on his felgercarb. Baltar is able to re-exert some authority, but Paula continues to resist his directions throughout the episode. She protests, for example, when Baltar opts to share the cult’s food with the starving people of Dogsville, chastises him for not realizing that the Sons of Ares would have an interest in food supplies after the first distribution attempt ends up being hijacked by armed men, and tries to stir up dissent and doubts amongst “the flock.”
Indeed, it’s only when Baltar promises “more guns, bigger guns, better guns” (in a speech that is, admittedly, pretty fun to watch happen) that Paula begins to come around; it is only at the end of the episode, as she is brandishing an assault rifle, that she concedes to Baltar once more. At which point, I couldn’t help but remark to Grace: “That is about the last person you want to hand an assault rifle to at this point.”
I’m not sure what Baltar is up to, admittedly. Obviously, he’s looking to strengthen his own power by giving his cult more “strength” (read: “firepower”), and some of his rhetoric even suggests nefarious intent where the Cylons are concerned:
Baltar: Listen to me! Listen…. PLEASE ADMIRAL! Galactica is slipping away from you, drop by drop. You are pouring Cylon blood into her veins. I see the Cylon pilots. We all see them! We all see the Cylon work force. Where they’re going into the far recesses of the ship? When are you inviting the Centurions over, to join in all the fun we’re having over here? Of course when you do that, that very moment. this becomes a blended ship. Only half human. And right now I am here to tell you your people…(pauses and then looks over to Roslin)…..your people, are not ready for that. I am offering you the last human solution you will be ever presented with.
Obvious question: solution to what? The Cylons? The discontent of the people? Taking Baltar’s actions and other statements into account, it appears that what he genuinely wants to do — Head Six questions him on this point — is help people, although he obviously still has his own motives in mind as well (including, possibly, the young boy named Gaius that Baltar meets in Dogsville, who is evidently named after the child’s conspicuously absent father). So perhaps he’s after the firepower principally to ensure that the Sons of Ares can’t mess with his girls and their distribution of food anymore.
But putting a weapon in Paula Schaffer’s hands is pretty much the farthest thing from sane, and there will be more that happens as a result of Admiral Adama granting heavy weapons to Baltar’s group. And not good things, I hasten to add.
Oh, yeah: Head Six returned in this episode. This bloody episode! I don’t normally agree with Radii of Galactica: Variants, but on this point he’s right. This seems an strange moment for Head Six to return, and then to return in a capacity supportive of Baltar. After urging him for the better part of the entire series to preach the message of the one true God, it seems a bit odd that she didn’t at least smack him one upside the head for his rather harsh reversal of that message in the wake of the discovery of “Earth.”
Various rooms in which Ellen appears
There’s no shortage of these, it seems — small sets in which Ellen meets with others to talk and be her usual manipulative self.
Which reminds me of something I’ve been meaning to ask: is this the same Ellen Tigh that escaped from the baseship last week? If so, what are the writers doing to us with this uneven characterization. And yes, I realize that Ron Moore, in the podcast for last week’s episode, did mention that Ellen still liked to “smoke and drink and [frak],” but there just seems to be too much discontinuity between the characterization of Ellen in this episode as compared to last week. Last week, she was this wise, motherly figure who crossed intellectual swords with Cavil; this week, she’s the same hard-drinking, hard-frakking floozy — who seems to exist only to manipulate people and cause maximum chaos in any situation, with nary a thought as to the consequences of doing so — that we knew from the first season?
I’m having a hard time buying it.
Ellen is a manipulative bitch in this episode; there’s no point in describing what she does in terms less harsh than that (although Tigh’s statement, that his wife’s machinations are “petty and vile,” comes close). I might have accepted that she would be impatient to have a sexual tryst with Tigh, given their history as a couple, and I might even have accepted her disgust with Tigh’s choice of Sex partner (Caprica Six) and her disappointment at learning of Six’s pregnancy. Actually, those things would have all been consistent with the Ellen we met in the episode prior; she does indeed regard the Significant Seven Cylon models as the children of the Final Five, and seems to regard any kind of sexual relations between the two groups as incestuous.
So her disgust is understandable, as is her disappointment.
But the pettiness? The duplicity? The emotional manipulation of Caprica Six which, if we are to believe that underlying mythos that Cylons require mutual love in order to procreate and sustain a pregnancy, essentially constitutes an attempt on the life of the unborn baby, Liam…and then, ultimately, a successful one? Where was all of this last week (or two weeks ago, as the case may be)?
I also want to say: Michael Hogan was exceptional in this episode; this was really the episode for Saul Tigh, I thought. He has some truly stellar lines, even if many of them are short, and the way in which he delivers them is superb.
The corridors
Two significant scenes happen in the hallways of the Galactica. The first is a scene between Caprica Six and Laura Roslin, in which Roslin clumsily attempts to ask how Caprica is doing, and if the pregnancy is “important.” Caprica mistakes Roslin’s meaning, I think, and Roslin’s clumsy wording of things offends the Cylon in turn — Six rebukes Roslin with the observation that Liam is her baby, and that her baby is very important to her, to which Roslin replies with a tentative affirmation that all children are important.
But looking past her poor choice in wording, I think Roslin’s intent was to ask if the child was significant, in the same sense that Hera Agathon is significant. She wanted to know if this child was…say…a part of “the shape of things to come.” And, as Michael Hall notes in his review, Roslin has in the past taken drastic actions in regard to significant Cylon children (namely: her abduction of Hera, in which Doc Cottle was also a participant).
But we’ll return to that point presently.
The other corridor scene of note is at the very end of the episode, in which Roslin and Adama discover that Cylons have been putting up pictures of their dead on the memorial wall.
The theme of this episode, communicated wordlessly in the scenes where Adama is surveying the repairs, and with words in other scenes, has to do with the “blending” of human and Cylon. In what is perhaps her sole moment of honesty, Ellen even admits that the way forward is through what Hera represents; Tigh rebukes Tory Foster’s attempts to argue for a “pure” Cylon breed by nothing that on both Earth and the Colonies, “pure” didn’t work, that it was and is “too weak” (not unlike how Galactica is too weak without the addition of the Cylon goo).
And equally, much of the dialogue of the episode speaks of the “blending” as a thing that is inevitable, but still in the future. Adama’s last line — “It’s already happened, hasn’t it?” — communicates the reality of the situation: the “blending” isn’t in some uncertain future, but is in fact already in the past. Cylons and humans now fly a joint combat air patrol; Cylons are helping to repair the Galactica, and may soon be serving as soldiers aboard her as well. And now, the Cylons are commemorating their dead in the makeshift shrine that has emerged, over the last few years, aboard the Galactica.
What the implications of this will be, I’m not sure. Everything seems to be driving the plot toward a point at which humanity and Cylonity merge, where the two sides set aside their differences and strike out toward a unified future, which includes interbreeding, so as to forever dissolve the boundaries between creator and created beings.
The question, then, is how that end will be realized. One notes that the subtext to what Baltar says, as cited above, is that many people obviously feel discontent with the notion of any kind of union with the Cylons; will it come to pass that large quantities of people on both sides will have to die before a final, Phyrric peace is obtained?
Also: apparently, the picture that Adama touches at the end of the episode is Sharon Valeri’s Colonial ID. But Boomer — as Valeri is more commonly known — is still alive, albeit now incarcerated in Galactica’s brig. Why would the Cylons put her picture up on the wall, if she’s still alive? Are they expecting that she’ll soon be dead?
Sickbay
Much as with the corridors, two significant things happen in Galactica’s sickbay. The first, obviously, has to do with Liam, Caprica Six’s baby, whom (it appears) Ellen succeeds in murdering by playing on the emotions of Saul Tigh and Caprica herself. Ellen is truly detestable in this episode, using Tigh’s rejection of Tory Foster’s suggestion that the Cylons cut and run as evidence that what Tigh loves most — more than even baby Liam or his mother — is the uniform, the ship, and the Admiral.
Even though Tigh’s objection stems from Samuel Anders‘ warning to him, to stay with the Fleet.
Now, within the episode, Liam does indeed die, or at least appears to die. As noted previously, Laura Roslin had previously enlisted Doc Cottle to abduct one significant baby; could it be the case that she arranged something similar here? Arguably, Cottle did object to Six’s request to cut Liam out by noting that the baby was too young to survive outside the womb — he pegged Liam’s age at four months.
Michael Hall notes that this isn’t wholly consistent, however, with other evidence in the show:
In “No Exit,” the events of “The Hub” were noted as being “four months ago.” For a human baby, four months age would be inconsistent with the ultrasound images both in “Deadlock” and earlier in “A Disquiet Follows My Soul.” The fetus appeared to be five months old in “A Disquiet Follows My Soul.” Also, in “No Exit,” Caprica Six felt the baby moving for the first time, and for a first-time mother this normally occurs around five months, though it can be earlier.
I suppose we have to make allowances for both dramatic license and for continuity errors in any analysis, but Hall’s objection is valid all the same:
Since Cottle lied to Athena back in season 2, and since his statement of four months contradicts the visual evidence, his words to Caprica Six here are worth questioning. Perhaps the most suspicious thing of all is that the fetal ultrasound display simply froze when the fetus’ heart rate went to zero. It wouldn’t remain perfectly motionless, since the picture depends also on the person holding the ultrasound apparatus. And it’s not even clear that there was anyone holding the ultrasound apparatus during this sequence. Cottle was running around and calling for the nurse.
Make of that what you will. I don’t actually think there’s any kind of duplicity at work here, at least not on Cottle’s part; I do in fact think that Liam died.
But equally, I don’t think that’s the end of things for Liam, either. This is where the editing does weird things to the episode’s chronology: after the cut away from sickbay following Liam’s death, the next scene in sickbay depicts Anders EEG coming alive again. I’ve been discussing this point over at Hall’s review of “Deadlock,” but I think there’s some connection between Liam and Anders.
Not that I’m entirely sure what that connection might be, mind you. But I’ve basically narrowed it down to either a “Lightning Crashes” sort of thing or a “The Begotten” sort of thing.
What do I mean?
“Lightning Crashes,” by LiVE, is a song about two events — the birth of a child, and the death of a grandmother — and the continuity of life and the spirit between the two individuals involved. The song implies that the spirit of the grandmother “belongs now to the baby down the hall.”
“The Begotten,” meanwhile, is a DS9 episode in which a baby changeling is found and brought aboard the station. The security chief — Odo — was himself once a changeling, but was stripped of his abilities as punishment for killing another changeling. He takes it upon himself to teach the baby changeling how to shapeshift, and has some early success…but the baby is dying, and nothing can be done to save it. As he holds it during its last moments, it fades away into his hands…and restores Odo’s ability to change shapes in the process, incorporating that aspect of itself back into his being.
(Remember also: Ron Moore worked on DS9.)
Either way, I think there’s some sort of continuity between what happened to Liam and what happened to Anders.
The other thought I had (although a few major flaws in this theory have been pointed out to me) was that the Liam/Anders connection could represent a kind of evolutionary leap for the Cylons, in which resurrection had become “natural” (e.g. no longer required a complex apparatus to realize). That would probably be too complex a plot point to introduce at this late hour in the series, but it was an interesting thought all the same.
Let’s end this where it began: the editing in this episode is really rough, and it’s rather jarring to watch. A lot of really interesting stuff happened, and a number of new subplots have been set in motion which will probably take us to the end of the series, and then in a very bloody and pyrotechnic sort of way.
I just wish this episode had been structured a bit better; I might have enjoyed it more.
(Update) Joe’s Bar
It just figures I’d miss one key point, which Lisa Paitz Spindler notes in her review of “Deadlock”:
Just after Ellen reminds Saul that the Significant Seven are like their children, the episode cuts to Starbuck in Joe’s Bar where she says: “Did you see Ellen and Tigh? It was like watching my parents make out.” This has to be a hint about Starbuck’s connection to the Cylons. Starbuck then asks the bartender (Joe?) about the piano player, whom we know plays a prominent role in the next episode.
I still don’t think that Kara Thrace is any kind of Cylon…but I do wonder if perhaps there isn’t some credence to the theory that her musically gifted father might have been the last extant copy of the missing Number Seven model Cylon, known to us only as Daniel.
Although how that would tie in to the Caprica series mythos, and the character of Daniel Graystone (which “Number Seven” Daniel is supposed to do), I have no idea.
Don’t miss Michael Hall’s analysis of the constellations visible in the episode. If he’s right, the Fleet (and the Cylons under Cavil) are ludicrously close to Earth…our Earth.
1. About Ellen’s behavior seeming much more Ellen-like this episode, one interesting tidbit was this episode was filmed before “No Exit,” so I have to wonder if Kate Vernon needed time to transition. But basically, I think Ellen was full of it in this episode (although this isn’t really supported by the interviews.) I think Ellen was just manipulating. When she asked for the flask, it may have been because in the previous instant she commented, “Oh, I’m throwing you,” – they were seeing through her… seeing that she’s not exactly Ellen Tigh any more. She has memories from much of the life of the Ellen Tigh we knew, but she also has memories from much of the life of the Ellen who lived on Revelations planet. So, after Ellen spooked Adama, Roslin, and Lee, she realized she had better start acting more like drunk floozy Ellen and less like evil mastermind Ellen. The sex with Tigh on the table was more manipulation. And before she ever set foot on Galactica, I suspect Ellen knew that Tigh had frakked Caprica Six. So, I see Ellen’s emotional scenes as pure acting and manipulation.
2. Are you sure it was Sharon Valerii’s ID on the wall? If so, how?
3. The episode was indeed choppy, but I wonder if there aren’t some clues in the seemingly random transitions. For example, if I recall correctly, they cut from sickbay and the alleged death of Liam to a Six at the memorial wall of Cylons. Okay, one message could be that Cylon Liam died, but maybe there is another message here.
I did not know that, but it is interesting. I wonder if the original intent was to have Ellen just appear with Boomer, rather than have the big expository episode? Not that there’s been any indication of that in the podcasts, granted…
I don’t think she needed to say anything for them to treat her like she wasn’t Ellen anymore, but I see (I think) what you’re getting at — she was trying to remind them that she was still, in many respects, the person they had known, and (furthermore, adding to that point in its own way) did so by mildly manipulative means.
Is Ellen an evil mastermind, though? Certainly, in this episode, I would say that Ellen’s actions were characterized by evil, but in the previous episode, she seemed more to be on the side of right, desiring peace rather than more bloodshed. Assuming that’s actually her goal, I think that might just put her on the side of good overall…though I suppose there’s still the discussion of the means employed in pursuit of the goal that needs to happen before that determination can really be made.
It was a detail confirmed on Battlestar Wiki, although at present that site seems to be having database errors.
The cuts were roughly as follows:
- Liam Dies
- Baltar pleads for guns, warns of revolution
- The ladies arm up
- Anders’ EEG goes nuts
- Tigh tells Adama the bad news, cries
- Corridor scene (suspicious glance, then memorial wall)
So there’s some stuff that happens in between. Don’t know if that helps or hurts your hypothesis.