BSG 3x17: Maelstrom

[darcydodo]

Woah. Is Kara really dead? I can't imagine they'd actually do that, partially just because what's the show going to do without Starbuck? Also, I don't think her "having a destiny" meant "blowing herself and her ship up because she kept seeing visions of a cylon raider." One way to get out of that trap would be to make her a cylon, but surely part of the point of this episode is that she's not a cylon — they wouldn't be showing us all these Very Real Memories that she had if those Very Real Memories were just false implants like Sharon had. Another possibility is that it turns out she ejected before her ship made all those pretty fireworks.

Her story on the show clearly isn't over. Maybe the point of this is that now when she eventually (somehow, miraculously) shows up again, everyone on board Galactica will think she's a cylon and go apeshit. Or batshit. Whichever you prefer.

Also, what the frak was with that psychiatrist (psychologist?)? That's not psychiatry, that's psychic-atry. And Aurora — A), another annoyingly Roman name (what, does "Eos" sound too foreign?), and B) WTF? Why her? What possible symbolism is she going to have? So the next episode's called "The Son Also Rises," but it's clearly about Adama Jr, not about the fact that the dawn returns every day. If Aurora's anyone, it should be Athena, who's married to an eventually-aging human while she herself is immortal. (Do we have any idea about that, by the way? Were the cylons even created with the idea of lasting long enough that they might need to grow old?)

And then, again, Starbuck's mother. What a piece of work, and for no real apparent reason.

I didn't dislike this episode, but it also made no sense whatsoever.

Comments

[shoutingboy.livejournal.com]

'Also, what the frak was with that psychiatrist (psychologist?)? That's not psychiatry, that's psychic-atry.'

That wasn't a shrink. Helo said "you should see this psychiatrist", Kara said "psychiatrists are more fracked up than their patients", and Helo (presumably knowing better than to push it) suggests that Kara see an oracle. So Kara did. Whence the statues and dream-grokking.

'And Aurora — A), another annoyingly Roman name...'

At this point, I think you have to Let It Go. They use both Greek and Roman names--Greek more often, but Roman often enough that it should no longer be a surprise. At times, they use both names for the same entity.

Given that there's been some cultural divergence among the Twelve Colonies, it might be that we're seeing cultural or linguistic variants--e.g. People on Caprica worship huntress-goddess-known-as-Artemis, people on Geminon call her Diana.

(Along those lines--Adama was building a sailing ship. That seems to imply that either (a) They have awfully specific information about pre-spaceflight tech on Kobol, or (b) One or more of the Twelve Colonies collapsed back to way-pre-spaceflight tech and built sailing ships. (b) seems more likely to me, but who knows? But if so, we could expect a fair amount of linguistic variation among the twelve colonies. This might explain the class structure, too, if, e.g., Caprica rediscovered spaceflight first and brought civilization to the poor hungry savages on Geminon.)

'And then, again, Starbuck's mother. What a piece of work, and for no real apparent reason.'

I dunno. Do you mean "no apparent reason" as in (a) "no reason for a person to behave that way", or (b) "no groundwork laid for it in the series"?

Either way, I think there's reason.

As far as (a) goes--Kara's mom was traumatized by the war. She's obsessed with making her daughter strong enough to survive whatever the universe throws at her. On top of which, she's bitter and self-hating about her own limited success in the military--she tries to make Kara into the perfect warrior, but the more she succeeds, the more she resents Kara for being what the mother wasn't.

As for (b)--Well, there was plenty of recent (season 3) groundwork. In particular, Leoben screws with Kara just the right way by presenting her with a blonde waif to take care of--and Kara holds out until the child gets injured. If Leoben knows her backstory, it makes sense.

Pre-season-3... Well, I can't think of anything specific. But it does explain a lot about her personality. She's extremely good, and driven to succeed--but she also sabotages her own success, and picks fights with authority which end up sabotaging her own career. That seems to fit--she wants her mother's approval, but she also hates and resents her mother and so makes sure she fails to rob her mother of the vicarious success, and she also has internalized her mother's disapproval and feels like she ought to fail. Ditto, writ large, in her romantic life.

It's hard to know what they planned out when--but in retrospect, it wouldn't surprise me at all if their original, pre-miniseries Master Outline had a paragraph for Kara with notes like "raised by abusive single mother".

[darcydodo]

Helo suggests that Kara see an oracle

Oh, I totally missed that. That makes a lot more sense.

Adama was building a sailing ship.

I never saw anything wrong with that. I mean, just because you have spaceflight doesn't mean that you have to give up any sort of land/sea-bound vessel. Sailing ships are used for pleasure, for fishing.... Yes, it's a very old-fashioned model with masses of rigging, but I don't really see that it poses a problem.

Pre-season-3... Well, I can't think of anything specific.

No, there totally was, on "The Farm." And we'd just found out that Kara was fond of her father (the bit about him playing the piano concerto recording), so it had to be her mother who was the abusive one. And I didn't mean no reason for her to be abusive, I meant no reason for her to know that something extra-super-special was coming up and the Kara had to be "ready" for it. Which is clearly what she was saying.

[shoutingboy.livejournal.com]

Adama was building a sailing ship.'

I never saw anything wrong with that. I mean, just because you have spaceflight doesn't mean that you have to give up any sort of land/sea-bound vessel. Sailing ships are used for pleasure, for fishing.... Yes, it's a very old-fashioned model with masses of rigging, but I don't really see that it poses a problem.

But that was a full-on Ship of the Line, out of the Napoleonic Wars. Sure, we keep building sailing ships, but it's not like there's a big hobbyist market for full-sized reproductions of the H.M.S. Victory (which you can take for a sail on a lazy Sunday with 800 of your good friends). People build models of those ships, but that's because the Napoleonic Wars weren't so long ago for us. But on BSG, the pre-spaceflight era was way back in the mythic past. Sure, they had wind-powered warships and merchantmen back in the day, but not for, what, thousands of years?

OTOH, I have no trouble buying a collapse back to pre-spaceflight tech on one or more of the colonies. In fact, come to think of it, I remember references (back in season 1) to their religion having a cyclic view of time--the scriptures record past events that are also prophecies of the future. A pattern of rise-and-fall would fit in with that. It would also explain why (in many respects) BSG tech doesn't look all that far beyond our own--not what we would expect from a culture that's had spaceflight for thousands of years.

(off topic and botanical)

[doseybat.livejournal.com]

I have just met the close relative of your Pilea peperomioides! It looks very similar but does not have the rosette and the leaves are a slightly different shape, it is also a narrow Chinese endemic (Yunnan?), and when you dry it you can see cystoliths in the leaves. Its quite a new species called something like "Pilea panzuensis", but maybe I misheard the name as I cant find any references to it on the net. Apparently there was a flood of enquiries about Pilea peperomioides in the 80s when there was a craze for it in Denmark.

Re: (off topic and botanical)

[darcydodo]

Ooh, that's great! Do you think you could send me a picture of it? :)

(Maybe I should make a P. peperomioides icon. ;) )