{"id":546,"date":"2011-08-24T13:00:48","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T20:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=546"},"modified":"2011-08-21T17:34:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-22T00:34:00","slug":"mark-watches-battlestar-galactica-s02e05-the-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2011\/08\/mark-watches-battlestar-galactica-s02e05-the-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Battlestar Galactica’: S02E05 – The Farm"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifth episode of the second season of Battlestar Galactica<\/em>, someone better have given Katee Sackhoff all the awards. <\/em>All of them<\/em><\/strong>. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Battlestar Galactica<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I swear, all Starbuck-centered episodes are perfection. And I don’t think it’s at all difficult for me to admit that “The Farm” will probably be in the top episodes by the time I’m done with this series. To be fair, too, all of Edward James Olmos’ scenes are brilliantly acted and written as well, which is why I feel so highly about “The Farm.”<\/p>\n

I allowed myself a caps-lock burst yesterday for a specific reason, and that pops up again here: this show seems determined to ignore traditional arcs as a lot of serialized shows do. We’ve seen major and secondary character deaths in the first quarter of the season, and with “The Farm,” a mystery I expected to be drawn out for at least another season or so is handed to me on a silver platter. And more. Oh god there is so much more.<\/em><\/p>\n

During the cold open, I was surprised both with the fact that I thought that entire episode would deal with the plan to steal a Heavy Raider, and by the moment where Starbuck zoned out. I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Starbuck sure gets injured a lot, doesn’t she? So I figured that it wouldn’t happen again, that she’d catch a break and get off of Caprica somewhat soon. What “The Farm” does so well over the course of the next half hour is build up the tension and the uncomfortable nature of Starbuck’s predicament, so much so that we question exactly what it is we’re watching.<\/p>\n

The slow reveal of information is why “The Farm” is so uncomfortable to watch, first of all. Starbuck wakes up in a dilapidated hospital, and my mind is conflicted by what I see. I want to believe that Simon is part of the resistance, and that Starbuck is going to be okay. (Though part of me wanted Simon to be a Cylon because then I would see more of him and he has a rather nice face <\/em>STOP JUDGING ME<\/em><\/strong>.) Part of me also wanted things to just go right<\/em> for Starbuck for once. I think that’s fair, don’t you? But what I wanted<\/em> and what was before my eyes comprised two different things. I could not ignore the fact that Simon’s kind disposition felt off. I was shocked by the almost casual way that he revealed that Anders had died during the ambush. I watched the way it broke Starbuck’s heart, knowing that he actually meant something to her, and I started hoping it wasn’t true. But then that<\/em> would mean that Simon was probably a Cylon, and that’s not an ideal situation, is it?<\/p>\n

There really is no better actress to portray this dilemma or this character, though, and Katee Sackhoff has a diverse range of emotions that she utilizes while in this hospital, and the anguish she displays upon learning of Anders’s death is just the start. Throughtout “The Farm,” though, the writers utilize her talent to give us a much deeper portrait of Starbuck. All of this is initially revealed through reactions<\/em>. As I said before, as we learn bits and pieces about this place that she is being kept, it becomes a slow process of discovery on both our part and Starbuck’s. While I did<\/em> want Starbuck to simply be okay, the first real sign that something is wrong with all of this comes out of her conversations with Simon. She drifts in and out of consciousness, due to the pain medication, and only manages to gather tiny bits of information while she’s awake.<\/p>\n

During one of these moments, Simon brings up an odd topic: having children. I think that because<\/em> it’s so out of nowhere, I became suspicious. Yes, bearing children will become important to the future of the human race, but why are you bringing this up to Starbuck after she just got shot? Even worse, he refers to her as a “commodity,” and what would would cause a person to say such an offensive thing to another human being? Again, though, I have to come back to the same point: Why bring this up now<\/em>?<\/p>\n

As their conversations progress, they only get creepier, and more and more details about the place erode away at the idea that Starbuck is being held by resistance forces. Until Starbuck asked outright about the lack of noise in the place, I’d not even thought about how weird that was. I didn’t buy the radiation poisoning explanation either. Wouldn’t there still<\/em> be the sound of people talking?<\/p>\n

But it truly eclipses into the realm of vastly inappropriate and unendingly disturbing when Simon brings up the possibility that Starbuck is averse to having children because she was abused. I knew that Simon wasn’t lying about her broken fingers, and you could see the confirmation of the truth in Starbuck’s face. I’m glad the writers chose to portray her reaction to this notion, which is both presumptive and an invasion of her privacy, as one of fury. And as someone who was abused as a kid, the reason Simon gives her to Starbuck not wanting children would be just as offensive to me. That is not at all<\/em> the reason I don’t want children of my own, and I’m glad that Starbuck rejects it. And as uncomfortable as this was to admit, I knew at this point that there were only two real options left for what Starbuck was facing: this was either some sort of Cylon base and she’d been captured, or we were dealing with some fringe resistance group who were taking women in order to help rebuild the human race. Neither option was particularly appealing to me, and neither one put Starbuck into a good place.<\/p>\n

When she awakes the next morning with a new scar on her lower abdomen, it’s obvious just how malicious her casual imprisonment is. Now they’re operating on her without her consent, while she’s unconscious, and after Simon refers to her as Starbuck–a name she’d not told him–it’s painfully obvious that this is a disaster. At this point, I was not surprised to see Simon meeting with Six, to learn that this was all some sort of Cylon hospital. I don’t really think the writers meant<\/em> for us to be surprised by this either, as it was sort of the only logical conclusion to everything we’d seen.<\/p>\n

However, I was<\/em> surprised by the brutal violence with which Starbuck kills Simon when he comes to see her, noticing she’s not asleep, suspicious of her behavior. There was something frightening in her face as Simon’s blood squirted on to her, but absolutely none of this would prepare me for what Starbuck was about to discover.<\/p>\n

The Cylons have kidnapped women and made them baby machines. Kara will later name this act for what it actually is: rape. Too often in science-fiction (even in my beloved The X-Files<\/em>), we see this familiar plot device used over and over again. It’s called an “experiment” or a “test” or a “devious plot” or anything that does not spell it out for what it is. The Cylons are kidnapping women, raping them, and doing so in order to develop human-Cylon offspring. Boomer tells the group later that this is because it is ordered by God, that God wants them to procreate and re-populate the universe with these new children. However, it seems the existence of “love” is the only thing that can keep the children alive after such a conception, and the “farm” (as this horrible place is called) is merely an attempt to create more children through a purely scientific means.<\/p>\n

It’s still horrifying to me, and the fact that Sue-Shaun is there and begs for death rather than a life here is just so bleak and depressing. It also contributes further to the ambiguous nature of the Cylons as a whole. By ambiguous, I mean simply that it’s not easy to decide what “side” they ultimately fall on. Adama’s talk with Tyrol, which I’ll get to in a bit, further complicates the issue. They are<\/em> living creatures with their own identity and consciousness. But they have exterminated most of the human race, and now we have discovered they are raping women for some religious plan. So where exactly do the humans stand in all of this?<\/p>\n

The final scenes on Caprica are so bizarre because it seems everyone is at least superficially okay with Boomer being around them, especially since she has not chosen to hide the fact that she is a Cylon. To be fair, she does<\/em> offer them intel on the Cylons and she did<\/em> steal a Heavy Raider to attack the farm. Perhaps she’s earned enough trust to be allowed in this far, but I also couldn’t ignore just how unbelievably awkward it was. Starbuck’s rage and Helo’s lovestruck confusion seemed about the only sensical reactions to her, but I suppose that even I don’t understand my feelings about her. She’s definitely doing good, and appears to be able to resist her programming. But what if the Cylons are able to override her and turn her into a weapon, like the Boomer on the Galactica<\/em>?<\/p>\n

I suppose we’ll find out a hell of a lot more, and I can’t even begin to imagine how bizarre and chaotic it will be when another Boomer boards the Galactica<\/em>. At this point, the fleet hardly needs anything else to deal with. With Adama back in command (and greeted with thunderous applause upon his return), it’s all about putting the pieces back together. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that Adama still<\/em> believes that Roslin (and now his own son) are forces that need to be dealt with in a purely military manner. And there’s no talk of suspending or eliminating martial law once in “The Farm.” Does that mean Adama implicitly agrees with Tigh’s choice? Perhaps not; he might just be dealing with more pressing issues of command before dealing with the political turmoil in the fleet, though sending out Marines to quarantine a ship is not exactly the best way to keep things stable.<\/p>\n

Despite his less-than-desirable traits and history, I do like that Tom Zarek is around. He creates a fascinating dynamic to the efforts of Roslin to rally more of the fleet to follow her to Kobol. I thought his idea to use Lee as a more personal and emotional message was fitting, especially since Zarek actually spent time in a more personal way with Lee. Hell, I imagine that’s even why he agreed to help Roslin: Lee asked him to.<\/p>\n

But it’s a tall order, even for Lee, who is torn between his duty as an officer of the military, as a son, and as someone who believes in what Roslin is trying to do. In a way, there’s a neat parallel between this and the end of the episode. Granted, Lee is nowhere near as stoic as his father, but I feel that part of Adama’s stony persona comes from the rigid military training that he has. Adama begins to question the very nature of what he<\/em> is fighting against in “The Farm,” and that starts with his defense of keeping Cally in the brig. If any character was meant to change the minds of how humans are to treat Cylons, while still understanding the threat they pose, it seems Adama is the one. The writers deal with the fact that he was shot by a longtime pilot, a friend<\/em>, in an incredibly intimate and gorgeous way, and it’s a chance for them to show us a side to this man that is rarely present. It’s nobel of Tyrol to want to protect Cally, but regardless of the fact that Boomer tried to kill Adama, the Commander sticks to the sentence. Cally still<\/em> fired her weapon into an open crowd. But I knew there was something more to this, and Adama’s question to Tyrol proved it. I’m just happy that they’re having these characters deal with the fact that they loved, respected, and spent time with a person who was secretly someone else, possibly never truly knowing they were someone else. Whereas someone like Starbuck would fly into a sanctimonious rage at Tyrol, Adama instead chooses empathy. How could he love a machine? Perhaps this suggests that these humanoid Cylons are not machines at all.<\/p>\n

I think that is best represented in Adama’s heartbreaking visit to the morgue. He asks Boomer’s body, “Why?” But she is unable to respond, and he is gutted to realize that someone he cared for very much had<\/em> to be the one to try and kill him. I imagine that Adama’s whole view of Cylons has changed at least a little bit, and I’m hoping that he can possibly lead people in a different direction than they seem to be going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the fifth episode of the second season of Battlestar Galactica, someone better have given Katee Sackhoff all the awards. All of them. 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":[112,120,119,9,110,113],"class_list":["post-546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-battlestar-galactica","tag-edward-james-olmos","tag-jamie-bamber","tag-katee-sackhoff","tag-mark-watches","tag-mark-watches-battlestar-galactica","tag-mary-mcdonnell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546","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=546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}