{"id":543,"date":"2011-08-22T13:00:09","date_gmt":"2011-08-22T20:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=543"},"modified":"2011-08-20T16:08:02","modified_gmt":"2011-08-20T23:08:02","slug":"mark-watches-battlestar-galactica-s02e03-fragged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2011\/08\/mark-watches-battlestar-galactica-s02e03-fragged\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Battlestar Galactica’: S02E03 – Fragged"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the third episode of the second season of Battlestar Galactica<\/em>, two leaders deal with the chaos of their situations in remarkably similar ways. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Battlestar Galactica<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Yeah, so this show is fantastic. I’ll just put that out there for the world to consume. I am simply flabbergasted by how exciting and suspenseful each episode is, that the writers find new ways to explore these characters, and that they made an entire episode without one appearance of Starbuck and it is still<\/em> one hell of a story.<\/p>\n

I think I’ve made it clear that I’m a sucker for parallels, both figurative and literal, and that I love when we can see how two story lines set so far apart can seem so close and intimate. “Fragged” works well in exploring how both Colonel Tigh and Crashdown deal with exponential chaos, with difficult situations that test their own patience and anger. They’re obviously not exactly the same, and they certainly don’t end<\/em> the same, either. For me, though, “Fragged” explores two different realms of military control, and how those in charge can abuse their power.<\/p>\n

It’s remarkable how quickly my sympathy for Tigh all but evaporate, and while I am still intrigued by his character, the events in “Fragged” don’t make me like him all that much. It was inevitable that he would have to deal with the fact that he was holding the President in the Brig, as I’m sure information passes quickly through the fleet. He starts out as I expected: he’s brash, dismissive, and rude, but he never takes things too far. Tigh understands his role, and he performs his duties within that. But this is a Tigh in a new<\/em> role, and as the situation becomes more stressful, he begins to act out in erratic ways. Part of the reason for this is the way that Ellen enables his drinking, which does no service to him as the temporary Commander, and part of it is because he begins to lash out when he feels like he is not in control.<\/p>\n

There are small examples of this, such as when he publicly scolds Lee twice<\/em> when the mistake is actually his fault. He<\/em> was the one who forgot about the Raptor crashed on Kobol, and he<\/em> was the one who felt inadequate as the crew rushed to prepare ships for the rescue mission he couldn’t even remember. Yet he takes it out on everyone else, speaking to those below him with contempt and derision. It’s a disaster, basically, but it only gets worse when the Quorum of Twelve show up.<\/p>\n

Down on Kobol, the situation continues to get worse, too. When Tyrol and Crashdown discover that the Cylon Centurions are constructing an anti-aircraft battery (OUT OF THEIR OWN SHIP HOLY SHIT<\/em>), Crashdown is certain that there’s only one direction the surviving crew should take: they should do nothing aside from destroying the battery. From this point on, no one can agree. Well, that simplifies this a bit too much. First Tyrol thinks this is an awful, risky, and futile plan. How are five humans, three of which have had little to no firearms training, supposed to successfully take down a group of Centurions? I knew something<\/em> was wrong, though, when Crashdown told Tyrol to calm down when Tyrol was already<\/em> quite calm himself. Was Crashdown trying to set an example? For whom?<\/p>\n

It doesn’t work for Baltar, who erupts in fury at the very notion of how terrible this plan is. But Crashdown refuses to listen and slips right into his military training. What’s frightening is how literal<\/em> he is, and maybe that’s because it’s all he knows. He’s in charge, he’s familiar with combat, giving orders, and his inferiors obeying his commands. His great fault is that he is so inflexible, so unwilling to consider anything else.<\/p>\n

It’s Tigh’s fault as well, and I was irritated and saddened by his progression throughout “Fragged.” His own wife gives him the idea to humiliate the President even further than she already has been. It was difficult to see her state regress due to withdrawal symptoms, and it angered me to think that Tigh had stuck her here like this. Yes, she was keeping her cancer a secret, so I don’t want it to seem like Tigh knew of this and was torturing her on purpose. Still, he refuses to see the military as anything but separate and superior to the government, and instead of working to make everyone happy, his goal is to gain more power and control.<\/p>\n

As these two stories begin to reach their inevitable conclusion (or what I thought<\/em> would be their expected endings), I once again found myself so transfixed by the events on screen that nothing else could hold my attention. I just barely<\/em> started watching this show, and I’ve already lost count of how many times my whole body sat tense and still during Battlestar Galactica<\/em>. I was hoping that Corporal Venner could get some chamalla, or that another situation would present itself to Crashdown and he’d sacrifice this suicide mission. I know that people use the freight train analogy often, and there’s a certain appeal to imagining that both of these character arcs are much like watching trains barreling towards their demise. With the weight of arrogance on Tigh’s part, and the weight of stubbornness on Crashdown, I expected the worst. With Roslin, though, I did not get that. Instead, I had the pleasure of watching Tigh’s entire plan come unraveling before him. Venner did<\/em> get the chamalla to the President in time, and she’s able to make an eloquent speech condemning the military coup that tried to take down the government. Seeing that he’s losing control again, Tigh resorts to spilling the secret that Roslin believes she is some sort of “prophet,” expecting she’ll be embarrassed to be confronted by this.<\/p>\n

AND SHE FUCKING ADMITS IT<\/strong>. Oh my god that is so terribly exciting to me<\/em>. She tells them she has great cancer, that she’s dying, and that she truly believes she is fulfilling the role of “the leader” in Pythian prophecy. Now there are no<\/em> secrets, and Roslin has used what once hurt her to her advantage. I LOVE HER FOREVER. That is such an amazing twist of my expectations.<\/p>\n

I wish I could say the same for the scene on Kobol. Throughout our time there, Six continues to appear to Baltar, stressing how important it is for him to be a good “father,” not just for this eventual child they will have, but for the people he is with. It’s still unexplained how<\/em> Six is able to be so prophetic and accurately so, but there it is: One member of the group will turn on the others. With this in mind, as the five survivors get into position to attack the Centurions, it became a guessing game for me: was one of these people a Cylon? What would the reason be for a betrayal? A sonic boom signals the arrival of the Raptor rescue mission, and Crashdown orders Cally to provide a distraction.<\/p>\n

She refuses.<\/p>\n

Oh god, I thought, PLEASE DON’T LET CALLY BE THE ONE TO BETRAY THEM ALL. But I quickly realized she was refusing out of fear<\/em>. She wasn’t properly trained. She lacked the skills or the confidence. And she was not prepared to die for a mission that seemed pointless, especially since Tyrol points out it’s entirely possible that the Centurions have left the DRADIS dish unoccupied.<\/p>\n

For Crashdown, though, his mind is in only one mode, and Cally just disobeyed an order. His<\/em> order. He makes it like it’s a personal refusal, doesn’t he? And to my shock, he pulls out his gun and points it at Cally’s head. It’s probably the most tense moment of the series so far, especially because I believed<\/em> Crashdown. He would do it. We know he means what he says, and I so desperately wished that Cally wouldn’t die.<\/p>\n

When Tyrol pulled out his gun, I thought this story would be about his refusal to follow orders and instead choosing to do what is moral. (That’s very Lee Adama, actually.) You can imagine my surprise when Baltar<\/em> was the one to shoot and kill Crashdown. WHAT?<\/em> The scene turns to chaos, since the gunshot identifies their position to the Cylons, and I just sat there, mouth open, as I watched Seelix and Tryol both get shot. Oh. This is going to be a lot worse than I thought, isn’t it? When Tyrol stood up to go out in a blaze of glory, I was certain that I was viewing his final moments of life. Thankfully, in a wonderful reference to Saving Private Ryan<\/em>, Lee’s Raptor fires on the approaching Cylons, and the crew is rescued.<\/p>\n

There are a number of things that are simply mind-blowing and exciting about the end of “Fragged.” I really loved that the survivors on Kobol decided not to tell the truth, even if I don’t necessarily understand all the motivations for such a thing. How could you properly explain shooting your superior officer in the back when he ordered his crew to carry out a necessary mission? How could they ever convince anyone else that Crashdown had lost it, that they had<\/em> to shoot him?<\/p>\n

Additionally, Six surprises me with her claim that she’ll act as Baltar’s consciousness. I don’t get that. In what sense? To satisfy God? To satisfy the prophecy? Why did her face show so much longing and desperation as Baltar boarded the ship?<\/p>\n

Yet out of everything, I was completely floored by the very<\/em> end of the episode: Colonel Tigh has declared martial law and disbanded the Quorum of Twelve. WELL THAT IS A COMPLETE DISASTER IF I’VE EVER HEARD OF ONE<\/em>. What are you doing, Tigh? You just made everything a thousand times worse<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Oh, Adama. Please wake up. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the third episode of the second season of Battlestar Galactica, two leaders deal with the chaos of their situations in remarkably similar ways. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Battlestar Galactica.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[120,9,110,113,117],"class_list":["post-543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-battlestar-galactica","tag-jamie-bamber","tag-mark-watches","tag-mark-watches-battlestar-galactica","tag-mary-mcdonnell","tag-tricia-helfer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}