BATTLESTAR GALACTICA - 4x13 “Sometimes A Great Notion” - Episode Review
Requiem for a dream.
Plot Summary: Humans and Cylons alike are thrown into huge emotional turmoil after discovering the shattered remains of planet Earth; a number of shocking discoveries are made by crew members both on and off the planet.
Holy fucking shit.
No, really, HOLY FUCKING SHIT.
I feel like I just got downloaded myself, as a cascade of memories, emotions and questions blew through me, washing away the past while energizing the future. Remember that this could have been a series finale if the strike had ended filming on Season Four; if that had happened, I would have been even more infuriated than if the series had ended at “Revelations.” Here’s what happens when you get what you ask for: answers that create even more questions (this is what happens on LOST almost every week these days).
“Sometimes A Great Notion” was over the abyss and fully into the blackness. GALACTICA has never been shy about confronting some truly dark themes and character choices, but the claustrophobic, Level Ten creep factor events in this episode went so far beyond previous installments, even “33” and “Pegasus”, that it was a quite the shock even to my jaded system. If my only major complaint about “Revelations” was that the characters had a distinct lack of emotional responses to the myriad plot developments, "SaGN" delivered those reactions in devastating amounts. This was one of GALACTICA’s best episodes ever, and it’s only the first of the mid-season…
Water and waves, rocks and foam. Those are the images that begin and end the show, and anyone who knows anything about the sea’s allegorical meanings can easily apply them here, but it also serves as an extension of the show’s over-arcing themes of time and repeated destiny - they cant be stopped and they can’t be changed.
For the leaders of the Fleet, the truth is becoming clearer and regrettable. Impromptu scientific analysis (Gaius is back in his lab!! In his white lab coat!!!) reveals in quick succession that (a) Earth (all of it) was nuked 2000 years ago and is abandoned now, (b) its food and water chain are inhospitable for sustaining life, (c) many skeletal remains found all over the planet are not human, but CYLON in nature and (d) there were Centurion models found as well that were not of our Cylons’ evolution, but of something else (perhaps the first Hybrid?). So overwhelming are these facts that President Roslin completely, morally collapses for the first time; she can’t even address the crew on Galactica or the Quorum upon their return to the Fleet. Roslin denies her Diloxin treatments, blaming herself fully for the decision to go to Earth; in a brilliant callback to the miniseries, she states “You shouldn’t have listened to me. When the Cylons first attacked, you should have held your ground and kept fighting [and died]. Because I was wrong about everything. And all those people who listened. And they trusted me and they followed me. All those people. They’re dead.”
Adama, in the same quandary of leadership responsibility and denied comfort by his lover, ceases being a commander and sober to boot (the searing tracking shot as Adama grabs a sidearm and heads to Tigh’s quarters contained glimpses of toally demoralized crewmembers (ones Adama completely ignores) that was almost too much to bear). And when Saul Tigh tells you you’re drinking too much, wow. And when he’s the lone voice of reason and stability, double fucking wow. If Adama and Tigh’s confrontation scene in “Revelations” was brutal, the one they shared in “SaGN” was near atomic in its intensity. Death by Cylon is not a viable option, Bill…
For Anastasia "Dee" Dualla, the truth is becoming simpler and easier; the voice of the fleet (and of the “Previously on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA” for both the first and the last time) finds herself crying as she collects children’s jacks on the beach; she prays desperately as they fly back to Galactica to deliver the bad news (remember she’s Gemenese, and therefore highly religious); she acts as babysitter for little Hera, whose parents have something to live for, whereas she herself seemingly has nothing. But there’s a glimpse of the old Dee (like, the Season One Dee), as she rallies Lee’s duty and heart one last time; we’re led with all this screentime to think that she’s the Final Cylon. She’s not, and in a completely shocking and unexpected scene, Dee kills herself after giving herself one last good memory to go out on (on the flip side, now we know what Gaeta is so distraught at the beginning of the webisodes).
(Who here listened to Ron Moore’s commentary on “33”? Well, in it, he stated that one of the moments the Sci Fi network made him cut was in reference to a rash of crew suicides caused by that relentless onslaught (and Adama’s pained reaction); the network thought that one last element was too dark in an episode that grim. Guess Ron finally got his way; and, in another deep irony, it was Dee who gave Adama that suicide report.)
For Kara Thrace, the truth is becoming inexorable and unbearable, and Leoben was right to warn her: Ignorance is indeed bliss. Once savior, now harbinger, Kara and Leoben wander the shattered woods like Hansel and Gretel, following a trail of broken Viper pieces that leads to the ultimate witches’ oven: Starbucks charred corpse, in what’s left of her ship from “Maelstrom” (For two brief seconds, I though the helmet was going to be empty. Guess not.). We know this is -- no, was -- Kara because the corpse not only has her dog tags, but Ander’s ring on them, the one he gave back to her in Season Three. This bombshell not only blows our mind, but Leoben’s as well. The prophet of the Cylon is shaken to his core - now he’s afraid of Starbuck, and literally runs away from her in terror. What is she? What does she want with me? Their roles may have changed but the players remain the same.
Here’s an unanswerable riddle in our world, but an all-too-real here: What must it feel like, emotionally speaking to burn your own corpse?
For the two-thousand year old (?) Final Four, the truth is getting louder and more vocalized. Chief Tyrol finds his own Hiroshima shadow (creepy as fuck) on a graffiti-streaked wall somewhere; he flashes back to when, as a civilian in designer glasses shopping at a farmer’s market, he saw the nuclear flash and died (we can also hear distant screams and murmurings in these flashes); for Anders, he finds the charred remnants of a guitar neck as “All Along The Watchtower” echoes stronger and stranger than ever - it was HE that sung it to the others, for a "woman [he] loved." And for Saul Tigh, a little bit of his own suicidal idealization leads to the most devastating reveal of all - as the bombs fell that day, and a suit-and-tie-wearing Saul ran to save his dying wife, she whispered to him “It’s okay. Everything’s in place. We’ll be reborn. Again. Together.”
And it was ELLEN TIGH who spoke those words.
She’s the Fifth.
Or is she?
Because here’s the thing. It’s awful early for a reveal this big, especially the one touted as the series’ last big unanswered question-- which means something even darker is coming. Ellen may indeed be the Final Cylon, but in the same way that we found out that Earth wasn’t the destination, but the fulcrum, what does that mean in the larger story? Way back in Season Three, as Dylan’s lyrics began ripping their way through the characters’ consciousness for the first but not the last time, someone posted a theory online, that I’ve come to believe, especially as this episode’s revelations progressed.
If indeed everything we found out this week is true, then God, who or whatever that is revealed to be, has a plan, and it’s to teach his creations the folly of their way. To break the cycle of self destruction.
Self destruction.
Which means they’re ALL Cylons.
I think Pythia was mistaken. She may have had the facts right, but mixed up the order. The thirteenth colony started on Earth, not the other way around. The Thirteenth colony made the Cylons, who gained sentience, rebelled, and eventually left to find a new home. If everyone were Cylons, it would explain a lot of things.
After all, “This has all happened before. This will all happen again.”
And that’s why “Sometimes A Great Notion” is structured like so many episodes before it, with the looping narrative doubling back on itself. Saul on the beach, wading into the water, about to kill himself. “Ninety Eight Hours earlier,” without the title card telling us so. The cycle is about to be broken, perhaps for the first or the tenth, or the last time ever.
This was one of GALACTICA’s best episodes ever, and it’s only the first of the mid-season...
Other notes:
• There was a slightly new intro (“Four live among the fleet”) No opening credit sequence this week, plus it was three-and a half minutes over time. Something tells me that’s going to happen a lot this season. Got to see this one live for a change (and it reminded me why I don’t like to - there's too many commercials). I skipped the “next week on BSG” and suggest you do the same-they’re notorious for giving away most of the following episode.
• All the tech departments were on fire tonight, especially the cinematography, production design, editors, and the director Michael Nankin (his staging was particularly elegant for most of the show, especially for Kara’s pyre and the Lee/Dualla conversation in the Pilot’s Ready Room). Sound design was also used well today, and fittingly, Bear wrote a hugely restrained and introspective score.
• If there’s one thing that got a bit shortchanged the same as in “Revelations”, it was more general fallout amongst the crew regarding the FF’s newly outed status. Obviously Adama/Tigh got their day, but we didn’t really see the other Three interacting with anyone else but their fellow Cylons.
• Once again, all acting superlatives to Olmos, Hogan, McDonnell and Kandyce McClure in what may be her final show of the series.
• Yes, that was another deleted scene in the previouslies, as Adama tells the Corporals to take Tigh away.
• It was nice (and unexpected) to see Athena and Helo act like real parents. Unlike many others in the fleet, they actually have a focal point to live for besides Earth.
• Kara’s beacon is still ringing out “Watchtower,” but it ran out of batteries. How convenient.
• It was amusing to see Lee’s idealistic speeches recounted as a funny anecdote.
• The wipeboard of death is back. Down one.
• Looks like they’re getting back on the road again quickly, which answers several questions set forth by the Webisodes (which take place after this episode)
• That last scene seemed like a memory (it dissolved from Tigh and Three on the beach to Tigh’s water wading). And if so, that makes an most interesting plot point : Tigh’s knows his wife’s the Final Cylon and hasn’t told anyone - he convinces Bill to hold on and keep leading the fleet not so they can find a new home, but so he can be reunited with her. Based on the differences in costume, I'm not sure if it was.
• So what was the Season One epsiode I watched as soon as I got home? Why, "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down," of course. I found this line of dialoge rather farsighted:
Head Six (to Baltar): "And you should be watching her."
or take this bon mot:
Roslin: "You actually think that woman's a cylon?"
No, Laura. She's The Cylon. Guess Baltar's test turned out positive. Or did it?
TWOP posters think Ellen might be a aged version of the Six. I think I agree.
Episode grade: A+