{"id":498,"date":"2011-08-08T13:00:27","date_gmt":"2011-08-08T20:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=498"},"modified":"2011-08-07T13:44:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-07T20:44:00","slug":"mark-watches-battlestar-galactica-s01e07-six-degrees-of-separation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2011\/08\/mark-watches-battlestar-galactica-s01e07-six-degrees-of-separation\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Battlestar Galactica’: S01E07 – Six Degrees of Separation"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventh episode of the first season of Battlestar Galactica<\/em>, Baltar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anger with Six over her constant profession of her religion causes her to disappear from his mind, only to reappear in a much more troubling place. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Battlestar Galactica<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good thing there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much to like in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Six Degrees of Separation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which might be one of the more awkward episodes of television that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen, because it does contain one of my least favorite tropes of all time: the Hollywood Atheist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I know that, by the nature of how Mark Watches operates and by virtue of the fact that I am just barely on episode seven of the show, not even a tenth of the way through the story. There is much that I could (and probably will) get wrong about this, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of the fun, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also willing to admit when it happens (if <\/em>it happens) that this whole thing was a part of some grander plot or plan for the show. I know that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible this early into the show.<\/p>\n

But I still couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but feel uncomfortable watching an atheist be converted to one who fears God, and having it improve his immediate situation. (I say immediate because, again, it could have very dire consequences in the latter future.) One of the reasons I stopped watching Glee<\/em> was because of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Grilled Cheesus\u00e2\u20ac\u009d episode in the second season. (Well, there were other reasons, but that was the last episode I saw.) I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not a particularly sensitive atheist these days, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m comfortable enough in my lack of belief that I generally don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t talk about it. I liked Glee<\/em> as a fan of musicals, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Home\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in season one was what got me hooked, but the treatment of atheism in that particular episode was so forced and over-the-top that it left a bad taste in my mouth. It was made even worse by Ryan Murphy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insistence that Christianity needed to be represented in order for the episode to be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inclusive.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll just come out and stay it plainly: Christians in the western world, specifically<\/em> in the United States, are already included in practically everything, and nothing could make the more clear than a storyline that involves atheists who are only disbelievers because they are angry at life or God and appear to hate<\/em> being non-believers.<\/p>\n

Yet I do want to limit my discussion of this for now, because we have no idea who else in this show aside from Six and Baltar has explicit religious (or non-religious) belief. As I said before, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Six Degrees of Separation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d works so well because of the awkward sense of urgency that propels the story forward. Even Baltar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s argument with Six, much of which takes place in his mind, is nearly unbearable, especially as he becomes more and more furious at her. The very idea that conversations can be so seamless between reality and the mind is actually really neat to me, and it definitely adds to the intensity of it all.<\/p>\n

And then Six disappears. Just gone. Did she disappear forever? I thought. Almost instantaneously, though, Dualla appears: Baltar is needed by Commander Adama. I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but think about past interactions with Six and how a high degree of coincidence always seemed to follow her. As much as I might not like Baltar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conversion, I am intrigued by the idea that Six, who is still just a hallucination as far as I know, can<\/em> actually control events. She appears in the CIC room, dressed appropriately, but Commander Adama speaks of her. When Baltar makes an offhand comment to Six, she balks at his humor.<\/p>\n

BECAUSE EVERYONE CAN SEE HER. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S NOT SIX<\/strong>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a goddamn copy. HOW DID SHE GET ON THE SHIP? HOW WAS IT INSTANTANEOUS? Do copies share a hive mind sort of thing? Wait, how could that even be possible? Six is a vision inside Baltar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Suggesting that Baltar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rebuke of God is a grievous mistake, this version of Six, named Shelly Godfrey, accuses Baltar of treason, correctly so, too. It seems that Baltar is about to be punished<\/em> for his crime against God. But not humanity? Unless God is on the side of the Cylons??? Why do I have so many unanswered questions???<\/p>\n

We certainly get one fantastic episode out of this, though, that even the conversion scene at the end can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ruin. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amazing to me how quickly this episode, like every single one before it, just transforms into NON-STOP EMOTIONAL TERROR so quickly. Once Shelly Godfrey starts telling what we know is the truth–that Baltar is actually responsible for the Cylon invasion–it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear this is going to be a rough journey for him.<\/p>\n

Yet as fascinated as I am by his character, I was entirely conflicted by how<\/em> I should feel. On the one hand, I believed this was an attempt by the Cylons to stop production on the Cylon test Baltar was developing, so in that sense, I wanted Baltar to get out of this. But\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.he did help the Cylons? And he is partially responsible for the genocide on humanity? And he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of an asshole? WHICH DO I CHOOSE?<\/p>\n

Well, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have<\/em> to choose either, really, and his character growth in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Six Degrees of Separation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is written in a much more ambiguous way than most shows may have tackled the very same topic. As Adama shuts down Baltar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lab, stripping him of his security clearance, we then watch Baltar reach out in that slimy, self-serving way of his, contacting people who might be able to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153save\u00e2\u20ac\u009d him. He wishes to use Roslin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own hope to benefit himself, but even that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work. Right at the moment he accuses Shelly of being a Cylon, Roslin collapses at her desk, and Baltar loses one of his chances for freedom and exoneration.<\/p>\n

And even that<\/em> is another bit of awkward tension that this episode provides. I imagine it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to be long before Roslin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cancer will become public knowledge. Poor Billy accidentally blasted the call for help to the entire fleet, so how much longer will it be before she can no longer hide in secrecy? It also looks like she got the dosage of chamalla she was looking for…but maybe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a traditional medicine? It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t clear, but whatever she is taking, she foolishly upped the dosage, appearing to believe it would speed her recovery. Which…Roslin, seriously<\/em>. When does that ever work? Rarely, if ever, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sign of her desperation to rid herself of her cancer.<\/p>\n

Yet no one personifies desperation more than Baltar. When Shelly reveals that she has a defense disc with an actual photo of Baltar planting a bomb in the defense mainframe, Adama sets Gaeta on the task of cleaning up a reflection of this alleged terrorist to prove definitively that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Baltar. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very much in Baltar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nature to use emotional ploys to attempt to manipulate other people, and this is what he does with Gaeta. Only…wow. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that I have ever laughed and<\/em> cringed so hard at the exact same time as I did during the bathroom scene. Baltar is not particularly socially adept in any sense, and his flaws are exposed here: he simply cannot gauge what is tactful and what is not when he needs something from someone. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deny that the scene with Gaeta and Baltar in neighboring stalls was actually kind of charming<\/em> in a way, yet for every moment of charm, I found myself grimacing in embarrassment for<\/em> both of these characters.<\/p>\n

And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that my embarrassment necessarily disappeared after Gaeta fled the bathroom in terror (POOR DUDE); it was just put in the back of my mind, replaced by COMPLETE CONFUSION<\/em>, when Baltar decided to confront Shelly Godfrey in the stall next to him. (Can I just say that I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cool that the bathrooms appear not to be split by gender?) This was the first time that I believed that this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Shelly\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cylon was truly unconnected to Six. She seemed genuinely shocked by the notion that she was both a Cylon and she knew Baltar in a much more personal sense than what she believed.<\/p>\n