{"id":597,"date":"2011-09-20T13:00:16","date_gmt":"2011-09-20T20:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=597"},"modified":"2011-09-14T18:16:26","modified_gmt":"2011-09-15T01:16:26","slug":"mark-watches-battlestar-galactica-s02e20-lay-down-your-burdens-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2011\/09\/mark-watches-battlestar-galactica-s02e20-lay-down-your-burdens-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Battlestar Galactica’: S02E20 – Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the second season finale of Battlestar Galactica<\/em>, what the fuck. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Battlestar Galactica<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It’s been three days now. I don’t know how to write this.<\/p>\n

I know that many of you understand this, and those of you who watched this show in real time, I’m sure you went through something similar. In the seventy-two hours since I finished “Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II,” I’ve started this review four times, erased it, and worked on something else. That night I watched it, I didn’t fall asleep until nearly two a.m. Surprise! I was thinking about what I’d just seen.<\/p>\n

This isn’t the first time this has happened to me, but it feels like the first time it’s happened to this<\/em> degree. Until I started Mark Watches, I hadn’t seen very many television shows to completion, and I wasn’t even following any shows in real time. Since LOST<\/em> had ended, I’d tried a few things and found nothing to fill in the gap that show left behind. On top of that, I was just busy<\/em>. Did I have the time to invest in another show? Would I even want to try? The truth is that I am obsessed with completeness. I do the same thing with music and books. I am not content merely reading a single book in a series or by a particular author. I don’t listen to singles. I want full records, and then I want to explore that artists discography.<\/p>\n

In trying to cope with the final twenty minutes or so of the season two finale, I’ve thought about the few finales I’ve been able to witness live, and how they’ve affected me. Mark Watches is largely about the experience<\/em> of traveling through shows, and I think that it’s just as important as the content of these programs. So it got me thinking: Why do I have these reactions to a television show? What is it about the story and the visuals that triggers such a response in me?<\/p>\n

Back in 2008, the season four finale of LOST<\/em> aired on the night before I was leaving Los Angeles to head to San Francisco to participate in my very first AIDS\/LifeCycle ride. (Shameless self-promotion: I already signed up to do my fifth year on the ride.<\/a> GONNA HIT $10,000 THIS YEAR.) I was already incredibly nervous; the idea of riding my bike from San Francisco to Los Angeles was terrifying. I was doing some last-minute packing in my studio, and my boyfriend at the time, and two other friends were there with me. We were all mildly freaking out about the ride, and decided it would be best to distract ourselves with the finale. (Plus, I’M SORRY, NOT WAITING A WEEK TO SEE IT, <\/em>TYVM.)<\/p>\n

I’m not going to talk about the content of that episode. If you’ve seen it, obviously you know what I’m referring to, but it’s one of a few game-changers during the run of that show. (Actually, seasons three and five also had ridiculous finales as well, but they didn’t hold the same weight because of the environment I was in for season four.) But when that<\/em> thing happened, and then that other<\/em> thing happened, and nothing made sense and there was a clear sign that this show could not go back and write away what we just saw, it was like my mind broke. WHAT. WHAT WHAT WHAT<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That is about 50% of what my experience was watching “Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II.” Maybe<\/em> that.<\/p>\n

There was nothing particularly special about this evening. As I revealed in the comments of “Sacrifice,” I have a wedding coming up that’s going to cut into my normal writing schedule, so I’m using my free time these days to get ahead of myself instead of only being a few eps\/chapters ahead of my real-time posting. I had finished all my Battlestar Galactica<\/em> reviews, so on Monday, the twelfth, I thought…what the hell. I need to be ahead of myself anyway, so why not watch the episode?<\/p>\n

I had ideas of what I wanted to write about as I was watching the episode: The moral crisis Roslin faces; Adama’s wonderful statement that stealing an election would eat Roslin alive (and it would); the dismissive and rude comments from Starbuck to Lee and the pain it caused him; Cally forgiving Tyrol; the reveal that Cavil is a Cylon, and the subsequent “message” he delivers, showing us that Caprica Six and Boomer’s message of peace and misguided violence got through to the other Cylons; Gaeta’s own desire to do what’s right, even if it means reporting his fellow crew; Gina Six rejecting Baltar’s request to go to New Caprica. I had the whole review written in my head. It was only a matter of seeing the final image at the end that would frame the whole thing.<\/p>\n

I didn’t check to see how long this finale was. I just pressed play on Netflix. It’s part of the reason this hit me so hard. I thought it was a standard forty-five minute episode. But suddenly we’re at that point, and we’re watching Baltar be sworn in as president, and everything just feels wrong<\/em>, it just feels so terribly awful, and he orders Adama to begin the colonization of New Caprica<\/em>. God, the name. New Caprica.<\/p>\n

Nothing feels right.<\/p>\n

And we cut to Gina, who sits next to the nuclear warhead that Baltar gave her, and it’s been activated, and I know in my heart that this is how this will end. Baltar gave her this bomb as a gesture of good will, and she is returning the favor. On Baltar’s first day as President of the fleet, she’ll set off a bomb and it’ll cut to black.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t. The bomb destroys Cloud 9<\/em> and a number of ships around it. It’ll cut to black now, right? This is how season two ends, right? You all had told me I was never prepared for the cliffhanger this season gave me, and this was one hell of a way to go out. I would have been very pleased, my brain would have been sufficiently turned to mush, and I would have praised the second season of Battlestar Galactica<\/em> until the cows came home. I don’t have cows, and they couldn’t even fit in my apartment if I wanted them to, but that’s neither here nor there. I thought this was the end. And I was happy.<\/p>\n

A report is dropped on Baltar’s desk. Adama says this might be the prelude to a Cylon attack, and you can see in Baltar’s eyes that he knows who set off the bomb, and deep down, he thinks he knows why<\/em> she did it. But he ignores all of this. Colonization must continue. They must press forward, and he orders Adama to carry out the colonization of New Caprica.<\/p>\n

One.<\/p>\n

Year.<\/p>\n