Steely-Eyed Viper Jock

[ebonlock]

Just watched the latest episode of BSG and first, moonlightnrain I don't think you should watch this one any time soon. Or if you do, don't watch it alone. Seriously.



I loved the fact that while Kara might hesitate to talk to a psychologist she's more than willing to head to the nearest oracle. And of course as soon as she picked up the figurine of Aurora I was puzzled, what does Kara's destiny have to do with the goddess of the dawn? At any rate I did recall a myth about her and her tears for the mortals she loved, and I had to wonder if the Oracle's tears were a visual reference to that. Or was she weeping because of the path she saw in front of Kara?

See this is what drew me into the show in the first place, this depth of complexity, layers of meaning one on top of another, as beautiful as a classical work of art. My inner art historian crowed with delight, there's nothing like putting my rusty old skills to use puzzling this show out. When it's worth puzzling out, that is.

The revelations about Kara's past and child abuse were both horrific and somehow so perfectly right. We'd heard some non-specifics about it earlier in the series, but seeing it was another matter entirely. One of the most powerful scenes was Kara quietly discussing the details of her mother's abuse and her own retaliation, how getting her hand slammed in a door because she'd used one of her mom's phobias against her, was worth it. Wow.

I love the oracular imagery following her around, even in something as simple and unassuming as a pool of wax on the floor. And Bear's music matching rhythm to the dripping wax...wow. The symbol appearing everywhere around her, slowly driving her mad. And the worst part of all was that Kara was aware of her slow slide into insanity, and unable to do anything to stop it.

And the coded exchange between Starbuck and Adama was a joy, an absolute joy, a beautiful verbal flashback to the premiere. Oh, and giving Adama the Aurora figurine for his ship's figurehead was frakkin' brilliant. The moment between Starbuck and Lee where she admits she no longer trusts herself and he says he'll fly her wing was so sweet. There's still that bone-deep affection between them, maybe a little something more from Lee but he is happy with Dee and Kara's happy for him. The moment she actually admits aloud that there's not going to be anything more between them, and that she's happy for him made me smile. She meant it, for the first time she really meant that she wants what's best for Lee. She finally loves him, really loves him, and sadly it's too late.

"You're a quitter, always have been." Her mom was a vicious bitch, a hard unpleasant woman who should never have had a child in the first place, but she's not entirely wrong about that. When Kara finds out her mom is dying of cancer and they fight for the last time my gut clenched with sympathy. It's the first time all season I've had that reaction, that visceral emotional response. The first time this season the show knocked me on my ass. I've wanted it, needed it, and finally they're delivering...finally.

When she held her mother's hand on her deathbed and finally came to terms with her fear of death I knew what was going to happen. The pattern she'd been drawing wasn't the Eye of Jupiter, it was that cloud, the storm that would take her life. She wasn't seeing a message meant for anyone else, she was seeing her own demise. The light that lit her face as she came to terms with her fate, found peace at last, made me wonder if it wasn't another reference to Aurora, subtle, but all the more beautiful because of its subtlety. Of course realizing that didn't stop me from bawling my head off when she told Lee to let her go and plunged her ship into the hard deck. Jesus I was sobbing so hard I could barely see the explosion.

I'm still sitting her crying my head off, though watching Adama fall apart didn't help much.

Oh my poor, beautiful, frakked up Kara. Now some suspicious part of me believes she may still end up being a cylon and they might just bring her back...but even if they don't, they did right by her death and delivered the most powerful and moving episode of the season.

Now please excuse me as I need to break down again I think. *sniffle*

Comments

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Didn't read the review, just the teaser bit, but heh. I was just about to sit down and watch it when your post popped up on my friends list.

I've been getting inklings of d00m from the preview and one other non-spoilery comment. Gonna be interesting to see what happens!

*goes to watch it*

[aelfsciene.livejournal.com]

Now I'm just depressed; the show totally lost me with this episode, and I don't know how much I care about it anymore. I just didn't believe it, I guess, didn't believe she'd actually died when first seeing it (Ron certainly confirmed it in the podcast; he also said Adama destroying his ship wasn't scripted, and that the thing was rented and worth thousands (horrifying the prop wranglers), which I kinda liked), and was just left feeling entirely empty about it. And it's clearly just me, given your reaction and everything I'm seeing on forums.

I dunno. Maybe it's the last couple of months, and how often I've thought about dying myself, that put me off of it. But it just felt pointless, ultimately; dying needlessly is no special destiny. Why am I still bothering, if it is?

Right now I just want to hole up and never talk to anyone ever again, because I've lost this, too. And that's making me cry more than the episode itself did.

[windrose.livejournal.com]

As soon as I watched this, I knew it was going to hit you hard.

I found the episode both really powerful and highly annoying at the same time. All that build-up, and Kara's "special destiny" turns out to be ... to commit passive suicide for no apparent reason. Um. Oo-kay. Either there's more to it than that, or the show's writers have a very different concept of "destiny" than I do.

The rest of the epsiode was fantastic, for all the reasons you listed and more. But the actual death scene simply made no goddamned sense to me.

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched this episode yet, (it's still sitting on Tivo,) so now I'm looking forward to it.

I watched the last three and found myself liking only the third, which to me seemed worse than hit or miss, so maybe this new episode bodes well for the future.