{"id":503,"date":"2011-08-10T13:00:50","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T20:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=503"},"modified":"2011-08-10T13:07:05","modified_gmt":"2011-08-10T20:07:05","slug":"mark-watches-battlestar-galactica-s01e09-tigh-me-up-tigh-me-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2011\/08\/mark-watches-battlestar-galactica-s01e09-tigh-me-up-tigh-me-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Battlestar Galactica’: S01E09 – Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the ninth episode of the first season of Battlestar Galactica<\/em>, Colonel Tigh is reunited with someone from his past, which is the first of many moments of chaotic awkwardness that follow. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Battlestar Galactica<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m happy to see that this show can still have a sense of humor about itself, especially when dealing with topics that are invariably intense or serious. I could see how the execution of this might have been a misfire, but I think that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d directed by Edward James Olmos (!!!!) uses humor to expose the absurdity of the paranoid witch hunt occurring on board the Galactica.\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Spilling over from \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Flesh and Bone,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Roslin still can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t escape Conoy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last reveal, that Adama is a Cylon, and with the news that Baltar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s test is now complete, she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but suggest that Adama go first. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the first domino in a long chain that will be tipped over, slowly at first, until everything crashes by the episode\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s end. Now, we know<\/em> there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way that Adama is a Cylon. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sorry, I just can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe that! That would be such a ridiculous twist, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that the writers only pursue the idea in order to discredit it as much as possible. (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON’T MAKE ME REGRET TYPING THAT.) That being said, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help that Adama is behaving in a secretive manner. Roslin even recruits Billy (who I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m quickly learning to adore forever<\/em>) to try and get information from Dualla, who sees through his poor attempts in a heartbeat. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I found both fascinating and hilarious about everyone in this episode. None of them were particularly subtle about whatever it was they chose to do. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obvious Billy is spying for Roslin. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obvious Roslin suspects Adama by ordering Baltar to do his test first<\/em>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obvious that Adama is off doing something he probably shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really the absurdity of the situation: no one is very good at trying to determine the truth without attracting any attention. Hell, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say that they are all awful<\/em> at it, really.<\/p>\n

And then Commander Adama brings Ellen Tigh on board the Galactica<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure everyone in the fleet has said goodbye to their friends, relatives, and loved ones in their own way, given that they sort of have <\/em>to, as there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no world left that they could exist in. Tigh did that by burning a hole in Ellen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face on a photograph, suggesting that something had happened between them before she died in the Cylon attack. And yet, here she is, very much alive. Well…sort of? Because Adama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trip to get Ellen is put in a new context when Roslin, checking in on Adama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blood test, finds out that Adama cancelled his own test, replacing it with…Ellen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.<\/p>\n

He thinks Ellen is a Cylon? What the hell? Why would he bring her on board the ship if he suspected that she was a Cylon agent? So now the seed is planted in my<\/em> head, and, just like everyone else in this episode, all of her actions are filtered through that lens. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll just spell it out right now for everyone: if any of the previous episodes caused me to feel awkward, they pale in comparison to the dinner scene here in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d If there wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a little bit of humor to break the tension up, I may have turned off the TV just from how unbearable<\/em> it is to watch Ellen hit on Lee and<\/em> to see everyone in the room (aside from Tigh) have all their suspicions about Ellen slowly confirmed.<\/p>\n

The dinner scene probably contains some of my favorite acting of season one so far, as the people in this scene succeed at balancing themselves between situational humor and the very real fear that the woman in their midst is a Cylon, trying to gain more information from them about Earth and the Cylons. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so uncomfortable because, like the other characters, Ellen is not<\/em> a subtle person either. She is brazen, outspoken, and without any tact at all. (Seriously, trying to play footsie with Lee in such a confined space while everyone stares at you? No tact at all. Though…wow, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got guts. I must admit that.) If she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Cylon (and at this point, I completely believed she was), she seemed to be rubbing it in the faces of everyone else. Can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t explain how she got onboard the Rising Star<\/em>? Or why no one knows how she was treated during the three weeks she spent on that ship? Or how she so readily knew of the Cylon-human development? SHE DOESN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T CARE<\/strong>. Literally! She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s drunk, with her husband, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to flirt like hell with Lee Adama. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clearly another space honey badger, obviously.<\/p>\n

But she does<\/em> make a slip, and one awful one at that: she correctly identifies and names Baltar without ever having been introduced to him. I was totally floored by the idea that Six is just as perplexed as Baltar about this woman, and I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m comfortable saying that I think she truly is disconnected from the other Cylons at this point. Why would she tell Baltar to pay attention to Ellen? The only thing I can think of is that Six is a manifestation of Baltar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desire to survive. Time and time again, Six has given Baltar the information or advice he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s needed to protect himself. (Though, to be fair, she has awful timing when it comes to being sexual, as proven when Starbuck unfortunately walks in on him\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.humping the air. Oh god, this episode is beyond awkward<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

For Baltar, though, his success at avoiding certain death in “Six Degrees of Separation” seems pointless when he is faced with over sixty years<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0worth of lab work. The daunting task of testing over 47,000 samples of blood (requiring eleven hours per sample) frustrates him to near-fatalism. How is he ever going to pull this off?<\/p>\n

It really doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take long for all of this to be completely and utterly destroyed, though, and after Baltar is called back to his lab by Adama, Tigh voices his distaste with Ellen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flirting, given that that is what dissolved their relationship the last time. To me, though, this was where Ellen laid out her entire plan for appearing on the Galactica<\/em>, and she did so far too obviously. Every Cylon appearance since the start of the season has chipped away (or attempted to) at the camaraderie and trust of those who are still alive. How this fits into a larger \u00e2\u20ac\u0153plan\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is still a mystery to me, but Ellen was a clear plant to cause the people running things to bicker and fight with one another.<\/p>\n

I bet there are those who disliked how the three-way fight in Baltar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lab was played up as being funny, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t blame them, as it is an odd tonal choice. I, however, firmly land on the side of thinking it was a great way to deal with an uncomfortable situation and to poke fun at the inherent seriousness of everyone involved. They are all allowing their emotions to get the best of them in a way that none<\/em> of them should, especially as leaders. (I do like that Lee and Baltar are basically helpless to stop the chaos and simply look on in bewilderment.)<\/p>\n

I was touched, though, by how much \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down\u00e2\u20ac\u009d gave us a much closer Tigh and Adama. The Cylon Raider that had been malfunctioning suddenly heads toward the Galactica<\/em> in a suicide mission. Even as they bicker and fight over who is or is not a Cylon, Tigh still manages to put aside the accusation that his wife is a Cylon so he can order Alert Fighters to attack the Cylon Raider in time. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a moment of perspective for Adama, who now realizes what a mess he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made by carrying himself in the way he has. Adama is not one to express his emotions plainly, so I really liked that he spells things out for Tigh, that he truly cares for his colonel and, more important, his friend<\/em>. And really, it was about time that we got an episode that focused on Colonel Tigh anyway.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, all of this proves to be nothing more than a mistake, as Baltar confirms that Ellen is human. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a Cylon. Can I just echo Lee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concerns and say that this somehow feels worse<\/em> than if she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been a Cylon? Well, at least it did for a whole whopping sixty seconds. As Six tries to commend Baltar for the work he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done, he admits to her that he has decided that life will be much easier for him if he merely reports that all tests have come back as green.<\/p>\n

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!?<\/strong> Why????? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? So now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible that Ellen is<\/em> a Cylon? That others will pass through and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll just let<\/em> them? Even from a standpoint of self-survival, this is a HORRIFIC IDEA! What if a Cylon decides to blow up your ship?<\/em> Life won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be easier because YOU WON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T HAVE ONE TO LIVE.<\/p>\n

Oh my fucking god, what an awful way to end this episode<\/em>. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t entirely filled with dread, though, because the plot on Caprica gave me some<\/em> hope. It really does seem that Boomer wants to save Helo, to keep him away from the other Cylons. He has<\/em> picked up on the fact that Boomer doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t experience any sort of exhaustion at all, and she also seemed to know about the Cylon base at Delphi without having a good reason to. Will he confront her about it soon?<\/p>\n

I was far more interested in Six and Doral\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conversation above ground as they continued to try to locate Boomer. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re aware that they misjudged the mission, as Boomer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s feelings are genuine. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another piece of the Cylon puzzle for me. Doral and Six confirm that Cylons don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t <\/em>experience genuine human emotion: no anguish, no love. Strangely, though, they sound jealous<\/em>, and Six even begins to sob<\/em> at the thought that she won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t experience love as long as she exists. Yet how was Boomer able to? What makes her different? How is she able to separate away her Cylon nature?<\/p>\n

AHHHHHHH I GET NOTHING.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"