ebonlock | Lay Down Your Burdens

Gah, Ron Moore, Evil Genius, strikes again and I find myself halfway between absolute adoration and homicidal rage after the season finale. Once again, though, I'm reminded that Ron's shows are much like really good sex...the man is all about foreplay. He teases reactions out of the audience, knowing just what will make them gasp or moan, let's a story build and build slowly but steadily until we're all right there on the edge all but begging him to let us see what happens next. Then, with a coy smile he says, "Sorry, that's it for this season. See you in October."

And that's when we want to kill him.

But we keep coming back for more because we just know he's going to make it worth our while. Oh boy is he ever.

There was almost too much good stuff in this one to even begin to remember it all, but let me start with the revelation of the newest cylon model being quite charming, if not unexpected. The dueling Dean Stockwells in the brig was a thing of beauty and I loved the fact that the entire time he was talking Laura was thinking, "You are so going out that airlock." She didn't even have to give the order at the end, her expression just said it all.

The scene in the infirmary between Cally and Tyrol was just heartbreaking and her "I forgive you" had me growling under my breath, "Dude, how many cylons does she have to kill to get you into bed? Marry this woman, you moron!" Heh.

It was nice to actually see some chemistry between Anders and Kara, though when he fell asleep on guard duty during the stand off on Caprica I couldn't help thinking that she'd lost a little respect for him right there. On the other hand the scene on Galactica where they're getting toasted on ambrosia and Lee walks in was just beautifully played. It's astonishing to me that she can be all over Anders and yet a single platonic hug with Lee has ten times the sexual tension. Not to mention her all too casual comment about Lee sleeping with Dualla, I loved that it made it all too clear that she was well aware of it and upset about it despite having retrieved her favorite sex toy from Caprica.

The election was so well handled, despite knowing that Baltar was going to win they found a way to make it incredibly dramatic. The fix and everyone involved in it was just beautiful, particularly as it was so obvious that Gaeta was going to figure it out. Of course anyone relying on Tigh to rig something more complicated than a high school election is just a big sign of poor planning. Dualla being in on it was interesting, particularly as she did the actual dirty work. Ah but the scene between Bill and Laura when he finds out about it was the best. He reminded her in his own quiet way that the ends do not justify the means when it comes right down to it, and that if they were going to have a Democratic society they had to take the bad decisions along with the good ones. It's amazing how reversed their outlooks have become, and that he's now acting as her conscience rather than the other way around.

The Baltar and Gina sequence was exquisitely painful, she trying to say goodbye in the only way her programming would allow, and he knowing he shouldn't be taking advantage of her and yet unable to stop himself. But the best part was that her subsequent actions with the nuke on Cloud 9 made no sense at the time, and yet you knew Ron and the writers were going somewhere with it. It did give the new President Baltar his own "9/11" if you will, although his realization that he was ultimately responsible for it and all those lives lost, was priceless.

And then of course we had the draw in and pull back one year later bit that left Aelf and I speechless. It is truly the mark of a brilliant storyteller to be able to be able to pull a stunt like that and have the audience buy into it completely. Baltar's corruption, Gaeta turning into his toady, the military dispersing, Kara with long hair and married to Anders (major WTF? moment for me), Tyrol and Cally together and spawning, etc., etc. You felt like you'd missed about a season's worth of episodes in the span of just one and far from being silly or gimmicky, it seemed natural somehow. Next season will need to fill in a bunch of plot and character development and I can't wait to see what happens. I'm already just dying to know what went down between Lee and Kara. It was something big and something nasty and I MUST KNOW.

If you haven't done it already I highly recommend listening to the podcast for this week's ep, the revelations in it are fascinating. Particularly the fact that it was an ingenious makeup effect that had Lee looking about 20 pounds heavier. It was flawless! And the stuff about Tyrol's speech is definitely worth listening to.

Oh and the cylon invasion...man...their march into New Caprica was definitely based on the Nazis entering Paris and it was beautifully done. Baltar's surrender and the revelation that it was the nuke being set off that alerted them to the humans' presence that was the kicker. Baltar realizing that yet again he'd doomed mankind pretty much single-handedly, made me think that next season's Gaius is going to be about as mentally sound as your average serial killer. The man's going bye-bye, no doubt about it, and with the fleet bugging out it's going to be up to Laura, Kara, Tigh, and Tyrol to try to set up some sort of resistance.

Gah, too much stuff to think about after that one, though it's probably a good thing as we've got months and months of nothing but reruns to look forward to. *sigh*