{"id":647,"date":"2011-10-05T13:00:13","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T20:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=647"},"modified":"2011-10-02T16:30:51","modified_gmt":"2011-10-02T23:30:51","slug":"mark-watches-battlestar-galactica-s03e07-a-measure-of-salvation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2011\/10\/mark-watches-battlestar-galactica-s03e07-a-measure-of-salvation\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Battlestar Galactica’: S03E07 – A Measure of Salvation"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventh episode of the third season of Battlestar Galactica<\/em>, Roslin must decided whether to commit genocide of the Cylons, Helo becomes my own personal Hero, and the most gorgeous and gripping scene involving Baltar and Head Six is given to us. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Battlestar Galactica<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I am just so impressed<\/em>, y’all.<\/p>\n

We’re at around forty episodes into this show, and that far along, I am still blown away by the stories that this show gives me. “A Measure of Salvation” is one of those episodes that had my full attention for the entirety of the story, and one that kept my brain whirring in the process. What it also does is provide the viewer with rewards<\/em>. It’s the nature of serialized fiction, and for those who have been on this ride the whole time, Helo’s heroic turn as the fleet’s moral center, combined with the dizzying and shocking scenes on the Cylon basestar, is what makes this very much like a gift from the writers. If you watched this without having seen much of the past episodes, I don’t think it would seem as spectacular as it did. It relies on the entire history of Helo’s love of Sharon, and it relies on the many, many times that Baltar has projected Six into that alternate world\/vision, for us to understand just how significant this story truly is.<\/p>\n

I didn’t expect the first shot of the episode to be of the fleet’s Raptors and Vipers about to board the Cylon basestar. As soon as I saw that Boomer was going to be one of the pilots, my attention was instantly on the television. This would be a disaster. She has no idea that there is a Cylon-specific virus on that ship, and there is almost no way she can avoid catching it. AND IF THIS SHOW KILLS OFF SHARON AGATHON AFTER ALL OF THIS\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.<\/p>\n

No, I won’t even entertain<\/em> this thought right now. Suffice to say that I was FLIPPING THE FUCK OUT<\/em> about two minutes into this episode until the very end. I don’t think there are many writers quite like those who work on Battlestar Galactica<\/em> who can compose scenes that are painfully tense, that fill me with dread, that glue me to my television screen. And these scenes don’t operate solely in that realm, either. As the boarding party investigates the dying basestar, it turns into a bizarrely emotional scene for Athena. Even if she has made a conscious choice to be part of the human fleet, these are still<\/em> her people, and to see so many of their bodies littering the floor is disturbing to her. Even if Seelix looks at her strangely, I think that she also understands how difficult this might be to her as well. And can I just say that it’s refreshing to have the bulk of the crew finally accepting Athena as one of them? IT IS ABOUT TIME.<\/p>\n

Wait, I should stop talking about joyous things because OH MY GOD THIS EPISODE<\/em>. The Cylons wake up<\/em>. Well, five of them, at least, and then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6jesus christ. Six tells Athena that there is an infection on board, and all hell breaks loose. It is a disaster, just as I’d thought, but what this episode decides to do with that is totally not what I anticipated. The disease is not the real issue here, even if it influences the plot. What this ends up being about is the chance to commit genocide out of self defense.<\/p>\n

But before we get into that, I really need to talk about Baltar. Oh, Gaius Baltar. You continue to be the most complicated, multi-faceted character on this entire show. He faces possibly the worst situation his character has yet: he is being tortured for information he genuinely does not have. It really was <\/em>a coincidence that the probe floating in that part of space had a virus on it. (And we learn later it was certainly an accident, not designed to infect anyone.) Yet Three is convinced that Baltar knows something, and we’re treated to one of the most horrifying torture sequences on the entire show.<\/p>\n

I was, simply put, transfixed but what the writers did with Baltar and his projection. It’s one of the most stunning things the show has ever given us: a contrast between the emotional comfort that Head Six provides Baltar, and the stark physical reality of his life at that<\/em> moment in a Cylon basestar. I don’t think I have any clue yet as to what the source of these visions are. Either option fits, but what’s fascinating about this scene is that it does not matter<\/em>. It does not matter whether Head Six was created by Baltar’s subconscious, nor does it matter that he is a Cylon. Head Six simply tells Baltar what he’s always known: she exists in that place to take his body away from the real world. That’s always what has happened! I mean, if you look back at all appearances of her, Baltar always finds himself physically distracted in the real world when he “projects” her. She exists in a physical<\/em> realm, not just a mental one.<\/p>\n

It’s amazing to me how beautiful and violent this scenes comes off as. It’s brilliant camera work and editing, and it’s a jarring experience to have the perspective switch from the basestar to the projection. I don’t know why Head Six is there, but I know that she taps into Baltar’s tendency for self-preservation. And she does so by distracting his body, telling him to send that brilliant mind of his back to that room where he is being tortured, and using that<\/em> to end his suffering.<\/p>\n

And we get the most SPECTACULAR monologue yet:<\/p>\n

BALTAR: I’m a scientist. And as a scientist, I believe that if God exists our knowledge of him is imperfect. Why? Because the stories and myths we have are products of men. The passage of time. That religion in practice is based on a theory. Impossible to prove. Yet you bestow it with absolutes like, “There is no such thing as coincidence.”<\/p>\n
THREE: It’s called faith.<\/p>\n
BALTAR: Absolute belief in God’s will means there’s a reason for everything. Everything! And yet you can’t help ask yourself how God can allow death and destruction and then despise yourself for asking. But the truth is, if we knew God’s will, we’d all be Gods, wouldn’t we? I can see it in your eyes, D’Anna. You’re frustrated. You’re conflicted. Let me help you out. Let me help you change. Find a way to reconcile your faith with fact. Find a way towards a rational universe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
He calls her D’Anna<\/em>. And I think that is incredibly important. He is trying to personalize this, even though this could be any Three at this point. He senses her<\/em> doubt. Or perhaps this is a collective thing; could the entire Cylon community be feeling doubt about the will of their God?<\/p>\n
Doubt is a powerful, pervasive human emotion, and I think that’s a huge sign that the Cylons have far more in common with the humans than the humans would like to think. And that<\/em> is what makes up a large part of what happens on the fleet when the boarding party returns, is cleared of any possible infection, and Athena must face the chance that she<\/em> is infected herself. Again, DON’T YOU DARE KILL HER, SHOW. The doubt manifests in herself, too, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that she was going to survive this, as the show cleverly brings back the fact that Hera’s antibodies provide healing beyond what anyone is used to.<\/p>\n
The episode instead uses Lee and Roslin to bring forth one of the most complicated and disturbing issues the fleet has faced yet: genocide. After interrogating one of the Simon models of the Cylons, they learn that the basestar was abandoned on purpose. The virus could travel through a download on the Resurrection Ship. Lee the proposes that they fly in range of a Resurrection Ship, execute their prisoners, and send a virus through the Cylon fleet that would devastate and kill them in just a few days.<\/p>\n
It’s genocide. And bless Helo, who quickly became the most heroic character on the show, for naming it for what it is and for fighting against it.<\/p>\n
But that’s what this show does<\/em> do well. Even though I can gravitate towards Helo’s side rather easily, I don’t think that we are given a situation that is 100% black and white, a clear dichotomy of choices with an obvious answers. I can’t ignore Roslin’s point: the Cylons ruthlessly pursue the humans. They torture them. They oppress them. They have given the humans no indication that they will ever stop. And Commander Adama has just given them a solution that would give them the first chance to leave this all behind. Not only is it tempting, it’s a tactic of war that makes sense<\/em> to Roslin.<\/p>\n
But at the heart of this all (and the main reason I side with Helo) is the issue of whether Cylons are people. <\/em>Obviously, Helo has a personal bias, but you can also see the doubt on Admiral Adama’s face as well. Is this really<\/em> the route that they want to take? How is it ethical to lash out at the Cylons by doing exactly the same thing as they did? Even more important, they all<\/em> have seen that Athena made a choice. If she is a programmed machine, how was that possible? It’s possible because she has her own identity<\/em>. And exterminating the Cylons like some sub-species eliminates the chance to change minds, to find more Cylons like Athena.<\/p>\n
I worried when Roslin went ahead and gave the executive order to follow through with Lee’s plan and Helo decided it would be best to sabotage the execution. Suddenly, I started to believe that they might execute him<\/em> for treason, or we’d end up with him in detention just after his wife was finally let out. This was not going to end well, but I grew a respect for Helo for doing all of this anyway. He knew it was the right thing to do. He could not sit by and allow the genocide of an entire race to be perpetrated.<\/p>\n
So you can imagine my surprise when Helo succeeds in killing the prisoners before the baseship was in range, and Admiral Adama decides the issue is closed. He’s relieved<\/em> that Helo did what he did, and it’s clear he supports his XO’s decision as well. And I think that while it’s unspoken, maybe there’s a part of Roslin that is also glad not to have the stain of genocide on her soul. But for a moment, humanity creeped ever closer to that prophetic statement of Athena’s in last season: Is humanity worth saving?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the seventh episode of the third season of Battlestar Galactica, Roslin must decided whether to commit genocide of the Cylons, Helo becomes my own personal Hero, and the most gorgeous and gripping scene involving Baltar and Head Six is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/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":[112,115,120,9,110,113,117],"class_list":["post-647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-battlestar-galactica","tag-edward-james-olmos","tag-grace-park","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\/647","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=647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}