sunnyskywalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sunnyskywalker) wrote2007-03-13 07:50 pm
sunnyskywalker) wrote2007-03-13 07:50 pm
Entry tags:
Scattered thoughts on Maelstrom (spoilers under cuts)
I actually liked most of the episode. So first,
- Gorgeous cinematography. The lighting, the colors - just lovely to look at.
- A Kara-Helo buddy scene! Their friendship has always seemed so real to me, and it's cute. (I also really like that they are just friends, and that the show has never tried to make them anything else. Yay for platonic m/f friendship!) I loved watching them commiserating over not sleeping well while washing up in the morning. Kara is really opening up to the people she cares about in this episode. And Helo has a shaving brush!
- Helo says Hera lost her spark after New Caprica. Neither he nor Sharon knew Hera was even alive until recently, so they must have gotten that information from Roslin. Which means Roslin did spend a lot of time with Hera on NC, and that Hera was apparently a happy, well-cared-for baby with Maya and Roslin around. Also, Helo, Sharon, and Roslin must have sat down and talked about Hera's moods sometime. I don't mind not seeing it, but it makes me happy to know people are trying to make sure Hera recovers from being lost and shuttled around between caregivers. (But if there has been a psychiatrist in the fleet all this time, why hasn't s/he been called in whenever a main character is totally cracking up? Or even once when a main character is cracking up? Oh well.)
- Anders returns! Not only that, but apparently he is doing something like playing Pyramid for fleet entertainment. And Kara seems more comfortable and open with him than she usually is with anyone, talking about what her mother did to her with a thick shell of defensiveness.
- Socrata Thrace is as horrible a mother as I imagined, but also complex and well-drawn. She did love Kara, in some fashion, and justified the abuse to herself. The history of her failing to become an officer and berating Kara for not reaching her potential either sounded so real, and so painful.
- The Leoben sex was all in Kara's head, and it wasn't Leoben anyway. Whew. That would have been too squicky. Kara trying to paint over the mandala and failing in her nightmare was neat, too.
I also got to indulge my fondness for analyzing names.
At first I went, what does Kara's abusive mom have to do with a slippery-tongued Athenian philosopher? She doesn't play logic games; she's blunt. But then I remembered Crito and thought maybe the writers knew what they were doing after all. Some quotes from Crito:
This sounds like Kara's mother to me. Be obedient, be tough, take your punishments. She gave Kara this message in a horrible way, and Kara's been trying both to follow some of it (eg "be tough") and throw it off ever since.
Kara can't get the mandala and the memories of her mother out of her head all episode, and apparently she's being pushed along by destiny/God(s). The dialogue is about accepting death, even an unfair death, which seems a fitting connection to the episode.
About that destiny. My first reaction was a great big WTF. Don't tell me the end of this episode is the entire destiny, RDM, because that would be lame beyond belief. The show hasn't been up to its old standards lately, but I can't believe it's so far gone that it would actually try to convince us that Kara's whole destiny is to be dead. Especially not with the mandala/Eye of Jupiter connections and the Aurora references.
Furthermore, I think Hera's nightmares are not just a throwaway reason for Helo to be up early. Hera, named for the wife of Zeus/Jupiter, is having nightmares just when the Eye of Jupiter mandala pops up again? Hm. And Hera the half-Cylon is having nightmares at the same time Kara is having nightmares? Even bigger hmmm. I suppose she could just be sensing Kara's impending death-by-mandala somehow, but once again, I don't think the show has gotten that stupid. All the Cylons know Kara has a destiny, and I really don't think they'd care if it was just to die. There is some trickery here. I have seen a theory floating around that the show is borrowing an element from the old version, in which Starbuck got picked up and healed by the Cylons. I think this has potential.
It is still possible that Kara's destiny is to influence events massively through her death (the other characters' reactions being the plot-drivers rather than Kara herself), but I think it's far more likely that she is alive. In some form.
The end of the episode is still painful to watch, and I'm not happy about the resultant casting change. But hope springs eternal and all that.
- Gorgeous cinematography. The lighting, the colors - just lovely to look at.
- A Kara-Helo buddy scene! Their friendship has always seemed so real to me, and it's cute. (I also really like that they are just friends, and that the show has never tried to make them anything else. Yay for platonic m/f friendship!) I loved watching them commiserating over not sleeping well while washing up in the morning. Kara is really opening up to the people she cares about in this episode. And Helo has a shaving brush!
- Helo says Hera lost her spark after New Caprica. Neither he nor Sharon knew Hera was even alive until recently, so they must have gotten that information from Roslin. Which means Roslin did spend a lot of time with Hera on NC, and that Hera was apparently a happy, well-cared-for baby with Maya and Roslin around. Also, Helo, Sharon, and Roslin must have sat down and talked about Hera's moods sometime. I don't mind not seeing it, but it makes me happy to know people are trying to make sure Hera recovers from being lost and shuttled around between caregivers. (But if there has been a psychiatrist in the fleet all this time, why hasn't s/he been called in whenever a main character is totally cracking up? Or even once when a main character is cracking up? Oh well.)
- Anders returns! Not only that, but apparently he is doing something like playing Pyramid for fleet entertainment. And Kara seems more comfortable and open with him than she usually is with anyone, talking about what her mother did to her with a thick shell of defensiveness.
- Socrata Thrace is as horrible a mother as I imagined, but also complex and well-drawn. She did love Kara, in some fashion, and justified the abuse to herself. The history of her failing to become an officer and berating Kara for not reaching her potential either sounded so real, and so painful.
- The Leoben sex was all in Kara's head, and it wasn't Leoben anyway. Whew. That would have been too squicky. Kara trying to paint over the mandala and failing in her nightmare was neat, too.
I also got to indulge my fondness for analyzing names.
At first I went, what does Kara's abusive mom have to do with a slippery-tongued Athenian philosopher? She doesn't play logic games; she's blunt. But then I remembered Crito and thought maybe the writers knew what they were doing after all. Some quotes from Crito:
Socrates, on the state: ""Well, then, since you were brought into the world and nurtured and educated by us [the state], can you deny in the first place that you are our child and slave...? ...And when we are punished by her [the state], whether with imprisonment or stripes, the punishment is to be endured in silence; and if she leads us to wounds or death in battle, thither we follow as is right; neither may anyone yield or retreat or leave his rank..."
This sounds like Kara's mother to me. Be obedient, be tough, take your punishments. She gave Kara this message in a horrible way, and Kara's been trying both to follow some of it (eg "be tough") and throw it off ever since.
Socrates: "This is the voice which I seem to hear murmuring in my ears, like the sound of the flute in the ears of the mystic; that voice, I say, is humming in my ears, and prevents me from hearing any other... Then let me follow the intimations of the will of God."
Kara can't get the mandala and the memories of her mother out of her head all episode, and apparently she's being pushed along by destiny/God(s). The dialogue is about accepting death, even an unfair death, which seems a fitting connection to the episode.
About that destiny. My first reaction was a great big WTF. Don't tell me the end of this episode is the entire destiny, RDM, because that would be lame beyond belief. The show hasn't been up to its old standards lately, but I can't believe it's so far gone that it would actually try to convince us that Kara's whole destiny is to be dead. Especially not with the mandala/Eye of Jupiter connections and the Aurora references.
Furthermore, I think Hera's nightmares are not just a throwaway reason for Helo to be up early. Hera, named for the wife of Zeus/Jupiter, is having nightmares just when the Eye of Jupiter mandala pops up again? Hm. And Hera the half-Cylon is having nightmares at the same time Kara is having nightmares? Even bigger hmmm. I suppose she could just be sensing Kara's impending death-by-mandala somehow, but once again, I don't think the show has gotten that stupid. All the Cylons know Kara has a destiny, and I really don't think they'd care if it was just to die. There is some trickery here. I have seen a theory floating around that the show is borrowing an element from the old version, in which Starbuck got picked up and healed by the Cylons. I think this has potential.
It is still possible that Kara's destiny is to influence events massively through her death (the other characters' reactions being the plot-drivers rather than Kara herself), but I think it's far more likely that she is alive. In some form.
The end of the episode is still painful to watch, and I'm not happy about the resultant casting change. But hope springs eternal and all that.