![\"bsg_ellen_exit\"](\"http:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/bsg_ellen_exit1.png\" "\\"bsg_ellen_exit\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have to accept who we are.\u201d
\n\u2014Admiral William Adama<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are not a mistake. If you could just accept yourself as what you are.\u201d
\n\u2014Ellen Tigh<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to be something.\u201d
\n\u2014Kara Thrace<\/p>\n
\u201cSaul, stay with the fleet. It\u2019s all starting to happen, it\u2019s the miracle, right here, it\u2019s a gift from the angels. Stay with the fleet!\u201d
\n\u2014Samuel T. Anders<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve watched this episode three times now: once as it aired, while I practically fermented in a stew of hatred; once with Ronald D. Moore as my personal guide, where for the first time I hated him, too; and once at a rate of approximately one scene per hour, during which I typed out nearly every line of dialogue spoken by Anders, Cavil, and Ellen, and it was that third time that I actually fell in love. And in addition to finding that I no longer absorb information as quickly as I once did, here\u2019s what I think I learned. Forgive the mess of my own brain dump, and feel free to correct any of it in the comments. And may the force be with you all.
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\n+ + + + + + + + + +<\/p>\n
1.<\/p>\n
Once upon a time, there was Cavil. John, you see? That most pedestrian of names, but portentous, as well, a name with heft, Biblically speaking, chosen for him by his mother (whom he later fucked), who named him after her own father (and whom, by the same transitive property, she also sort of fucked). PAUSE HERE FOR COLLECTIVE SKIN CRAWL, and then remember these are still mostly robots. Anyway, this sadist, as Ellen calls him now\u2014the same John Cavil we first met as a priest, who helped create his own brothers and sisters, only to kill one of them and box another with nary a second thought when they stepped out of line\u2014has managed over the years to recode himself into the One True Evil. Whose heart\u2019s desire is not to be made more human, which was the original intent of the Final Five, but ALL MACHINE. And therefore heartless. Who tells his maker, in essence, I was great and you made me small.<\/em> Whose sole driver is obsessive jealousy and hatred, and whose only notion of justice comes in violent retribution\u2014indeed, the classic attributes of small men. But is this Ellen\u2019s fault, for being the ringleader? The Final Five\u2019s, for making \u201cfree will\u201d the ultimate goal? Humanity\u2019s, for creating the Cylons in the first place? All of the above? You tell me.<\/p>\n Still, it\u2019s nice to have an actual enemy again, isn\u2019t it? One we don\u2019t have to bother empathizing with? Because while I get his whole whiny point, the guy\u2019s still an irredeemable asshole who, from what I can tell, killed and zapped the brains of his own creators and then orchestrated the annihilation of the human race, and all as payback for being named “John.” Yes, I\u2019m oversimplifying here, but still: nuclear temper tantrum! But like Laura last week, a lot of Cavil\u2019s dialogue felt way over the top to me in this one. I mean, I can accept the grandiose speechifying and monumental declarations\u2014his anguished cry of \u201cI don\u2019t want to be human!\u201d was heartbreaking\u2014but \u201cI want to see gamma rays\u201d? \u201cI want to smell dark matter\u201d? Two lines of dialogue no one could deliver credibly, and the line I officially cannot cross without giggling like a schoolgirl.<\/p>\n And here\u2019s another thought: if he had no feelings programmed into him in the first place, would he be able to see, or hear, or experience any of these things anyway? If he\u2019d been numbed in the same way that he lobotomized the Raiders, would a star going nova mean anything at all? Isn\u2019t his reasoning inherently faulty, in a circular logic kind of way? Again, you\u2019ll have to tell me; I just gave myself a headache.<\/p>\n + + + + + + + + + +<\/p>\n 2.<\/p>\n Once upon a time, there was\u2014holy good gods almighty\u2014Ellen Tigh. Previously Our Lady of the Perpetual Hangover, now our proverbial Earth Mother, come back in ways all unexpected and almost unrecognizable, deeply warm and intelligent, thoughtful and forgiving, and yet. Hand the girl a drink, jack; she was made part human herself, after all. Right? (While the Final Five created the eight skinjobs to be \u201cas human as possible,\u201d didn\u2019t they already possess those attributes themselves? I\u2019m really asking here.) What a marvelous trick to pull with this character, to bring her back so completely opposite of what she was when we first met her, the drunk flirty party girl nobody could trust, not even Saul. But he loved something in her even then, something he recognized\u2014beyond the shared love of booze\u2014which adds another layer of poignancy to their \u201cparting\u201d on New Caprica. Both of them moving blindly through false memories yet bound inextricably together (although I guess it was Cavil who rewired them that way when he sent them out amongst the English). And she really does fit in here as the greater link that\u2019s been missing in this story so far, an obvious Other Half to the Cylon equation\u2014she is the heart to Cavil\u2019s fist\u2014and the sort of naturally formidable foe that got sucked into a vacuum when he boxed D\u2019Anna.<\/p>\n She\u2019s also clearly a leader in a sense that none of the other Cylons are (apart from Cavil), and the only one who could convince Boomer that there was another way. And how amazing was that scene, where Boomer asks her \u201cWho would I want to love?\u201d and then the camera cuts right to Tyrol? What a sweet callback to something so long forgotten, after so much time and so much loss. Ronald D. Moore! Please make it happen. Not everybody needs to be miserable on your Great Big Important Show that we love so very much.<\/p>\n + + + + + + + + + +<\/p>\n 3.<\/p>\n Once upon a time, there was Samuel T. Anders, who was big and strong and very manly, who played ball for a living and became a star, who was handsome and na\u00efve and maybe even a little of a lunkhead. Which is to say he lived like a jock, going by instinct and not so much by brain (sorry, jocks; I know it\u2019s a stereotype). But when the world ended those instincts served him well, and he took to the woods to form a resistance, because he was a natural leader back then, too. Just as he was on New Caprica, the man you put in front because everyone else will fall instinctively in line behind him. A hero, who rose again and again, who learned that he was a Cylon but never really changed sides. The sort of man who stands tall and stays true, and who loved Kara Thrace most of all, even after everything. Also, not really a man of words, so when the words came they took even him by surprise, and the stories that he told\u2026. Well. He cracked that lid wide open and spilled all that he could, and in the end that cost him, too. This Longshot. A fighter.<\/p>\n Oh, Sam. Please come back.<\/p>\n + + + + + + + + + +<\/p>\n 4.<\/p>\n Once upon a time, there was a Quorum, eleven democratically elected representatives (plus Lee!) from the Twelve Colonies who sat around a table under the heel of the president and bickered all day long. Eleven morons, really; even Laura Roslin admits she kind of hated them, although it wasn\u2019t her fault they were written that way, and she certainly didn\u2019t pull the trigger. Eleven mortal souls who also did what they could, given what they had, everybody doing their best to sustain a system that never really existed. Because there was never actually a way for them to govern, was there? And no authority to govern with? There was Admiral Adama and Madame President, and eleven little mice nibbling around at their toes. And now not even that.<\/p>\n Thus Lee Adama finally gets to make some damn sense when he tells Laura the only way to move forward is to accept what\u2019s true: the Twelve Colonies no longer exist. What they have left is what they have to work with, which is a fleet made up of ships whose citizens represent nothing more than those ships. No more Caprica, or Picon, or Aerolon (which sounds like a great deodorant). And what can Laura do now but say yes, go form your little team and do everything your way? Telling him he\u2019s smart but still managing to point out his inherent dumbness, which is why I adore Laura and have always hated Lee. But he\u2019s growing on me, the scrappy little bastard. And she really is going off to die, huh? Son of a bitch.<\/p>\n + + + + + + + + + +<\/p>\n 5.<\/p>\n And finally: Once upon a time, there was a ship called Galactica<\/em>, and my, she was yar. Or was she? Not as much as we thought, apparently, as she was fading before we even stepped aboard. Fifty years old! That\u2019s like a million in ship years. But like most of everything else, she was all we had, and she did her best, through all these long journeys and terrible battles, when she held us safely in her hands, when she was all that stood between Us and Them, when she stayed behind, when she jumped ahead. Waiting patiently, like the rest of us, to go home.<\/p>\n Oops: EARNESTNESS ALERT, coming a little too late to save you.<\/p>\n Anyway, this ship that started out all human will now live as something else: another guess, another compromise, another hybrid. \u201cWe have to accept who we are,\u201d Adama tells Tyrol, because sometimes things don\u2019t go the way we planned them, and sometimes we make it up as we go along. And sometimes we take a drink, pop some pills, and roll that hard six on the chances of our own frakkin’ survival.<\/p>\n + + + + + + + + + +<\/p>\n MISCELLANEOUS Here are some scattered notes I took while watching, most of which are actual lines of dialogue, but also some fairly basic plot points that I needed to set down for myself, to clarify things that might be remedial learning for closer viewers. Obviously there\u2019s a lot I haven\u2019t paid enough attention to over the years. Take it for what you will.<\/p>\n WHAT WE LEARN FROM ELLEN & CAVIL<\/strong><\/p>\n Centurion values included a belief in a living god.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Temple of Hopes\u201d \u2014from the algae planet, in \u201cThe Passage\u201d and \u201cThe Eye of Jupiter\u201d\u2014was built by the 13th Tribe three thousand years ago when they left Kobol. Ellen says they stopped and prayed for guidance during their exodus, and then God showed them the way to earth. Cavil calls it \u201ca monument to your vanity, the Temple of the Five.\u201d He accuses Ellen of somehow leaving behind the exploding star as a revelation to D\u2019Anna: \u201ca carnival trick, to reveal your own faces.\u201d Ellen says no: \u201cWe didn\u2019t plant anything there; we backtracked the path of our ancestors, found their temple. The One True God must\u2019ve orchestrated these events.\u201d<\/p>\n Ellen: \u201cThe five of us designed you to be as human as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Cavil\u2019s disgust at being limited by his humanoid body: \u201cMy five creators thought that God wanted it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Ellen tells Boomer that what the eight humanoid models gained made it worthwhile. \u201cHe\u2019s wrong, Boomer. There\u2019s no need for remorse, or blame. We didn\u2019t limit you. We gave you something wonderful: free will. The ability to think creatively, to reach out to others with compassion, to love.\u201d<\/p>\n The eight humanoid models can\u2019t procreate biologically, so Cavil tells Ellen they need to rebuild resurrection. (Hera \u2013 human \/ humanoid; Baby X \u2013 Final Five \/ humanoid) Cavil says, \u201cThey destroyed the Hub, but they don\u2019t even know about the Colony. All your equipment is still there.\u201d (Colony?? Let’s go there!) But Ellen tells him she needs all of the Final Five to do it, and even then it might not work. Cavil assumes she\u2019s lying and threatens to pull it out of her brain himself (\u201cThe recipe for life everlasting.\u201d).<\/p>\n On the memory wipes of the Final Five: Daniel (Number Seven) was destroyed permanently by Cavil; he contaminated the amniotic fluid and corrupted all the genetic copies. Ellen: \u201cDaniel was an artist, so sensitive to the world.\u201d And thus her favorite.<\/p>\n Ellen to Cavil: \u201cI love you, because I made you.\u201d<\/p>\n WHAT WE LEARN FROM SAM<\/strong><\/p>\n The Final Five reinvented resurrection;\u00a0 \u201corganic memory transfer\u201d came from Kobol along with the 13th Tribe. It fell out of use after Cylons started to procreate naturally on Earth, and the Final Five worked together to rebuild it. Ellen was the one who made \u201cthe final intuitive leap\u201d that allowed them to resurrect.<\/p>\n The Final Five knew that Earth would be nuked, and downloaded their memories onto an orbiting ship when it happened. They set out for the Twelve Colonies but hadn\u2019t yet developed jump drive technology, so they traveled at \u201crelativistic but subluminal speed\u201d; i.e., time slowed down for them, while thousands of years passed on the Twelve Colonies.\u00a0 Their intent was to warn the other tribes (humans?): \u201cWe knew they would continue to create artificial life, and we needed to tell them, treat them well, keep them close, but by the time we got to the colonies, they were already at war with the Centurions. It was too late.\u201d = First Cylon War<\/p>\n The Centurions were trying to make flesh bodies and had already created the Hybrids, but nothing that had survived on its own. The Final Five made a deal with them: stop the war, and we\u2019ll help you. So the First Cylon War ended, and the eight skinjobs (humanoid models) were born. = the Final Five gave them resurrection.<\/p>\n Tory: \u201cThe humans on Kobol made us.\u201d<\/p>\n Tigh: \u201cWe share the blame with the humans.\u201d Frakkin’ humans.<\/p>\n Cavil was the first humanoid model; he helped the Final Five build the other seven. He then \u201crejected mercy\u201d and turned on the Final Five; first he trapped and suffocated them, then wiped their memories when they downloaded into new bodies. He implanted them with false memories and sent them to live with the humans, believing they were human, starting with Tigh, right after the war. (QUESTION: Didn\u2019t Tigh fight in the First Cylon War, with Adama?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI think we have to accept who we are.\u201d \u2014Admiral William Adama \u201cYou are not a mistake. If you could just accept yourself as what you are.\u201d \u2014Ellen Tigh \u201cI need to be something.\u201d \u2014Kara Thrace \u201cSaul, stay with the fleet. It\u2019s all starting to happen, it\u2019s the miracle, right here, it\u2019s a gift from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[14,17,74],"class_list":["post-880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-battlestar-galactica","tag-bsg","tag-scifi-channel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dreamloom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nEllen: \u201cWhy send us to live among the humans?\u201d
\nCavil: \u201cI wanted you to see what they\u2019re like up close and personal, so I gave you all grandstand seats to a holocaust.\u201d
\nEllen: \u201cBut we didn\u2019t die. And then you decided that we hadn\u2019t suffered enough. So you picked me up, put me on a transport, took Galen\u2019s confession, played resistance fighter with Sam, tortured Saul, but didn\u2019t kill him. You had a dozen chances, but you wanted to wait so that when it finally happened, when we\u2019d download back, we\u2019d be ready to admit we were wrong, and pat you on the head for giving us the right amount of suffering, the right amount of punishment, all weighed out. Then we could give you the approval that you\u2019ve always craved. See, you claim to be a perfect machine but you\u2019re driven by the most petty of human emotions.\u00a0 Jealousy, and rage. I know what you did to Daniel.\u201d<\/p>\n