"sometimes a great notion"
Brief thoughts about "sometimes a great notion".....
I am in the middle of having to write an urgent case report, but I wanted to just quickly jot down a few of my thoughts about "sometimes a great notion".
I am probably going to be one of the few, I suspect, that actually really liked this episode. It is almost unbearably dark, taking most of the characters that I have become so deeply attached to, to depths that I can only imagine. They have all been through so much, they are all so tired, and to see their hopes dashed so cruelly is almost unbearable. It is a great start, and raises plenty of questions. Certainly, there were a couple of scenes that left me scratching my head - Anders digging up a the arm of a broken guitar, after 2000 years??? Mmmm so Sammy was a rock star in his previous life? - but I don't want to dwell too much on the negatives, and time line issues aside, the overall theme of the episode seemed to me to be - what do you do when everything that you have been striving for, in the face of the total destruction of the human race, is proven to be worthless? What is the fallout from that? Who will have the strength to get up and carry on? What happens to the fleet when the leaders give up,who will take the helm?
Roslin implodes - chooses to withdraw from treatment (passive siucide?), assumes the foetal
position.
Adama explodes - chooses the solace of the bottle and his own way out by pushing Tigh's buttons
Lee and Kara- choose to evolve, to carry on - despite the individual traumas (Kara's brought tears to my eyes I am so afraid for her) that they are both confronted with in this episode, both display new levels strength and maturity and they step up to the plate. They have both really come into their own, and will make worthy successors to Roslin and Adama. I particularly love the fact that Kara went to Lee - wanted to talk to him, before anyone else, and was immediately attuned to his grief/distress, putting her own needs aside for the moment - I so hope that she continues/continued this conversation with Lee. I am desperate to know what happened to her. I am just loving Kara more and more. I also love that Lee refused the comfort of the bottle, seeking clarity of mind, staying focused on the here and now, rather than regressing and seeking numbness as he has done previously....you have come a long way Lee.
I loved Lee and Kara's scene together, brief as it was. It also showed to me that Lee was aware of what Kara had been doing, why she had stayed back on the planet. As much as I want my two favourite characters to be together, it does my heart good to see how strong they are here....they get on with it, keep doing their jobs, in spite of their own personal dilemmas. I still have a lot of hope for them, in the end. Romance may be the last thing that they have time for at the moment, but their bond remains deep. On a shallow note, Lee and Kara both look impossibly beautiful in their scenes in this ep.
Tigh - Tigh is becoming one of my favourite characters. He shows Bill how it's done here, pulls it all together and demonstrates not only leadership, but a deep and true friendship. I loved his scene with Bill - tigh refuses the bottle!!! I loved the foxxes swimming out to sea story - how many of the fleet will be like those foxesI wonder? I loved Tigh's own fox scene - is Ellen really the 5th? Again I was unspoiled, but that doen't seem such a stretch...she did appear out of nowhere, and Baltar passed everyone didn't he? Very interesting. I just really don't want it to be Kara.
Dee - I have never been an avid Dee fan as far as BSG characters go, but I could really see what the writers were doing here, and they did it well. In many ways Dee has always been the voice of the fleet, the voice that called the pilots home, worked the comms. Some of her biggest moments of screen time have involved her motivational speeches to Adama and Lee. She now seems represent in this episode where the most of fleet are now...hopeless,lost, floundering in the cold emptiness of space, running out of time, food, fuel, with the threat of a vengeful brother Cavill ever present, only now to be confronted with an uninhabitable wasteland, and having to face the idea that everything that you have striven for, hoped and sacrificed for is worthless. I have worked with a lot of suicidal people unfortunately. There is often a mistaken belief that suicide is cowardly, when in fact it can be, for the individual concerned, the only valid solution that they see left. It is also very common, that the people closest to the victim, never see it coming, and in fact, often report that their last contact with them was optimistic, happy even. The writers did a great job with this. Dee had lost hope, her reason to keep going. She spent her last hours with the people she cared about, creating a fantasy of happiness to comfort herself with before she died - for Dee was never going to see an earth with green grass and white fluffy clouds, Dee was never going to have a child like Hera, Lee was never going to love Dee the way that she wanted him to, he's not her Apollo anymore.
I suspect that a lot of people will also be unhappy with Lee meeting Dee for a drink, but I can totally understand this. Sure they had broken up, but they were married for a substantial amount of time, and their break up did not appear to be acrimonious, and they *had* shared experiences that tied them together. Dee has been encouraging and supportive of Lee before, she knows the ropes, the system. There would be few people at this time that Lee could have talked to. I *can* see him wanting to debrief things with her, especially given that Kara was planet side, and his father and Roslin are both in meltdown, so yes, I can totally buy them sharing time together...I can totally buy Dee supporting and encouraging Lee. They seemed comfortable with each other, affectionate even. This "date" - Dee's words mind,not Lee's was not about passion or the rekindling of a romance...but more about seeking comfort in the familiar, a sad conclusion to a failed relationship by acknowledging the good times, the mutual respect and affection. Even their kiss goodnight, was really more of a kiss goodbye, and again, it seemed affectionate, rather that passionate. So, Dee gave Lee a gift of optimism and her belief in him - her parting gift - and then, not seeing any other way out, put a gun to her head and ends her life in her own way, and at the time of her own choosing, because she can't take it anymore. I was shocked by this,completely unspoiled and like Lee, did not see this coming at all, because Dee has always seemed to be the optimistic one. For a character I did not have much time for, I was surpried to find my eyes fill with tears...well done BSG.
I am afraid now of the further decline in the fleet that must inevitably follow the darkness of this weeks episode. I feel that anarchy will follow and Tom Zareck will be it's ringmaster. I can't wait for next week.
I am in the middle of having to write an urgent case report, but I wanted to just quickly jot down a few of my thoughts about "sometimes a great notion".
I am probably going to be one of the few, I suspect, that actually really liked this episode. It is almost unbearably dark, taking most of the characters that I have become so deeply attached to, to depths that I can only imagine. They have all been through so much, they are all so tired, and to see their hopes dashed so cruelly is almost unbearable. It is a great start, and raises plenty of questions. Certainly, there were a couple of scenes that left me scratching my head - Anders digging up a the arm of a broken guitar, after 2000 years??? Mmmm so Sammy was a rock star in his previous life? - but I don't want to dwell too much on the negatives, and time line issues aside, the overall theme of the episode seemed to me to be - what do you do when everything that you have been striving for, in the face of the total destruction of the human race, is proven to be worthless? What is the fallout from that? Who will have the strength to get up and carry on? What happens to the fleet when the leaders give up,who will take the helm?
Roslin implodes - chooses to withdraw from treatment (passive siucide?), assumes the foetal
position.
Adama explodes - chooses the solace of the bottle and his own way out by pushing Tigh's buttons
Lee and Kara- choose to evolve, to carry on - despite the individual traumas (Kara's brought tears to my eyes I am so afraid for her) that they are both confronted with in this episode, both display new levels strength and maturity and they step up to the plate. They have both really come into their own, and will make worthy successors to Roslin and Adama. I particularly love the fact that Kara went to Lee - wanted to talk to him, before anyone else, and was immediately attuned to his grief/distress, putting her own needs aside for the moment - I so hope that she continues/continued this conversation with Lee. I am desperate to know what happened to her. I am just loving Kara more and more. I also love that Lee refused the comfort of the bottle, seeking clarity of mind, staying focused on the here and now, rather than regressing and seeking numbness as he has done previously....you have come a long way Lee.
I loved Lee and Kara's scene together, brief as it was. It also showed to me that Lee was aware of what Kara had been doing, why she had stayed back on the planet. As much as I want my two favourite characters to be together, it does my heart good to see how strong they are here....they get on with it, keep doing their jobs, in spite of their own personal dilemmas. I still have a lot of hope for them, in the end. Romance may be the last thing that they have time for at the moment, but their bond remains deep. On a shallow note, Lee and Kara both look impossibly beautiful in their scenes in this ep.
Tigh - Tigh is becoming one of my favourite characters. He shows Bill how it's done here, pulls it all together and demonstrates not only leadership, but a deep and true friendship. I loved his scene with Bill - tigh refuses the bottle!!! I loved the foxxes swimming out to sea story - how many of the fleet will be like those foxesI wonder? I loved Tigh's own fox scene - is Ellen really the 5th? Again I was unspoiled, but that doen't seem such a stretch...she did appear out of nowhere, and Baltar passed everyone didn't he? Very interesting. I just really don't want it to be Kara.
Dee - I have never been an avid Dee fan as far as BSG characters go, but I could really see what the writers were doing here, and they did it well. In many ways Dee has always been the voice of the fleet, the voice that called the pilots home, worked the comms. Some of her biggest moments of screen time have involved her motivational speeches to Adama and Lee. She now seems represent in this episode where the most of fleet are now...hopeless,lost, floundering in the cold emptiness of space, running out of time, food, fuel, with the threat of a vengeful brother Cavill ever present, only now to be confronted with an uninhabitable wasteland, and having to face the idea that everything that you have striven for, hoped and sacrificed for is worthless. I have worked with a lot of suicidal people unfortunately. There is often a mistaken belief that suicide is cowardly, when in fact it can be, for the individual concerned, the only valid solution that they see left. It is also very common, that the people closest to the victim, never see it coming, and in fact, often report that their last contact with them was optimistic, happy even. The writers did a great job with this. Dee had lost hope, her reason to keep going. She spent her last hours with the people she cared about, creating a fantasy of happiness to comfort herself with before she died - for Dee was never going to see an earth with green grass and white fluffy clouds, Dee was never going to have a child like Hera, Lee was never going to love Dee the way that she wanted him to, he's not her Apollo anymore.
I suspect that a lot of people will also be unhappy with Lee meeting Dee for a drink, but I can totally understand this. Sure they had broken up, but they were married for a substantial amount of time, and their break up did not appear to be acrimonious, and they *had* shared experiences that tied them together. Dee has been encouraging and supportive of Lee before, she knows the ropes, the system. There would be few people at this time that Lee could have talked to. I *can* see him wanting to debrief things with her, especially given that Kara was planet side, and his father and Roslin are both in meltdown, so yes, I can totally buy them sharing time together...I can totally buy Dee supporting and encouraging Lee. They seemed comfortable with each other, affectionate even. This "date" - Dee's words mind,not Lee's was not about passion or the rekindling of a romance...but more about seeking comfort in the familiar, a sad conclusion to a failed relationship by acknowledging the good times, the mutual respect and affection. Even their kiss goodnight, was really more of a kiss goodbye, and again, it seemed affectionate, rather that passionate. So, Dee gave Lee a gift of optimism and her belief in him - her parting gift - and then, not seeing any other way out, put a gun to her head and ends her life in her own way, and at the time of her own choosing, because she can't take it anymore. I was shocked by this,completely unspoiled and like Lee, did not see this coming at all, because Dee has always seemed to be the optimistic one. For a character I did not have much time for, I was surpried to find my eyes fill with tears...well done BSG.
I am afraid now of the further decline in the fleet that must inevitably follow the darkness of this weeks episode. I feel that anarchy will follow and Tom Zareck will be it's ringmaster. I can't wait for next week.