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BSG 3x09 - Unfinished Business
Having watched this episode once, I am now going to watch it again. This method of viewing allows me to actually scrape together some opinions that are a little more intelligent than 'abncsjhdshurgl pilots'.
- Firstly, the cinematography in this episode was bafflingly inconsistent. All of the fighting was done VERY well, and I particularly like the shots of the crowd, and the tags falling into the box, and the weaving bodies. But most of the flashback stuff SUCKED.
- It's a mutatated version of SHAGTHECAGLIA! How apt. (Kara's morning-afters, Lee's boxing...doesn't take a genius to see the parallels.)
- I love how Kara and Sam's scene at the beginning is pretty much exactly the dynamic I extrapolated for them in Amateur. I feel all validated and smug now. She's flying and she's Starbuck again and she's just using him for stress relief because there's no room for him in this half of her existence. And she's, you know, in love with someone else.
- Kara got some great lines. 'I'm late for the dance'. 'If it isn't the fighting Agathons' <--- Helo and Sharon were awesome this episode, I must say. I like them when they're just casual and pretty and amused.
- Kara is so, so so hot. Gyuh. (Actually, all the women are unbelievably hot this ep: Roslin is luminous and smart and wonderful, and Dee is gorgeous.)
- RINGSIDE COTTLE. WITH HIS LITTLE WEAVING FISTS. Best ever.
- First pilot eye contact: kaboom! And she's encouraging him and he gives this headroll which just says bitch, please as he stands up. Hee.
- I have just realised that this episode is lit like![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
schiarire's icons. HAHAHAH. Ji, hon, you won't have to alter a whole lot in the way of contrast. This is a two-edged sword: the episode itself is artistic and all that shit, but sometimes it's so frakking DARK you can't SEE ANYTHING. There are some seriously intent facial expressions happening and they're all swallowed by inconvenient shadow.
- This shot where she's reaching over her shoulder to put in her tags is entirely gratutious, but no less unbearably hot for that. I swear there are maybe three inches between their faces.
- All right, this scene just after Dee tells him about the transfer is, again, so obvious to be laughable, but I was glad that they were doing it with manner and costume rather than outright putting it into dialogue: yes, they've gone and married (will be marrying) less extreme versions of themselves. Lee and Dee are all neat blue and proper emotions, and Sam and Kara are khaki mufti and teasing grins. Bizarrely (and I'm ready to face argument on this), this scene kind of sold me a little futher on the alternaships, or at least Lee and Kara's motives for them. It's easy to be with someone who is like you, at least in these ways. It's safe and it's easy. When you're at war, safe and easy is good. These relationships seem logical, and I think that's the point: Lee Adama loves Kara Thrace and Kara Thrace loves Lee Adama and there isn't really any logic to it, it's just the way things are. Everything floats up.
- Roslin and Adama are too fucking adorable, the end. 'And you just had to take off your shoes and play in the alluvial deposits'. (Dude, as if they didn't have sex. As IF.)
- Kara wrapping her wrists in scarlet strapping = too hot for me to cope.
- HAHAHA CIRCLEDANCING cmshfsudhsn okay, I can't take this scene seriously AT ALL because it's like 'Firefly' meets 'Pride and Prejudice' and it's too ridiculous for words. However, the shot of Anders sprawled under the table is FANTASTIC, it's completely lacking in dignity and it doesn't feel contrived, it's just...funny.
- Roslin firing commands about ice and giving Adama boxing advice? Awesome. AWESOME.
- I want to know the fallout from Kara accusing Lee of adultery to his face, in public. Because there is no way that wasn't overheard by a fair number of people.
- Hmm, I just noticed that when they're on the site of Kara's imaginary house, they're circling. Boxing-circling.
- Lee makes a mooooooove. Hmm. I don't like this scene; I think it's something to do with how they're characterising Lee. Less stilted talk, more kissing, plz. That said: FACE IN HAAAAAAAAAAANDS. YES. The sex scene is...weird (WTF CAMERA ANGLES. WTF. ABOVE? WHY???)...but it's certainly a stark comparison to the making out in 'Scar'. It's slow. It's important. Lee looks borderline reverent. Kara looks scared.
- "Well, that makes things more complicated." This shot. This shot is great: my second favourite, I think, after the tag-reaching. They're finally, FINALLY on the same wavelength - same furrowed brows, same breathing rhythm, same half-amazed, half-amused expression. Now the camera angle is working.
- Yeah, yelling, whatever. It's all very 'Oklahoma!'. Kara is an adorable drunk. The thing about this scene - no matter how silly and soap-opera-ish it is - is that their dynamic throughout is reminiscent of the pilots we knew and loved. Kara is giggling and they're bouncing off each other and teasing and Lee is Lee.
- Another good shot: Kara sweeping his legs out from under him. Yes. YES.
- Lee's body langauge is practically screaming DAD DAD I GOT LAID! (Adama's totally is too. Albeit more quietly.)
- People say 'Can you believe it?' to Lee at least three times. I counted. Huh. And the irony in the line 'it'll be up to us to make sure there's no mass exodus' is quite nice.
- SAM IS SO HAPPY. Damn you, Kara Thrace. (Inappropriate thought: Sam must have had a BITCH of a hangover on his wedding day.)
- Dee knows. Look at her face. She knows and she's known for a very long time.
- TOO MANY FLASHBACKS, BSG, but omg COLONIAL DAY and HOME and the FUCKING MINI with the HAND HOLDING and IT'S GOOD TO BE WRONG and and and that was just kind of unfair, piling that onto my heart in the last five minutes
And the hugging.
Just.
Okay.
The sweetest pilot moments have ALWAYS been the hugging. In 'Home'. In 'The Captain's Hand'. Those are the times you can actually see that they love each other. None of their sex scenes - this episode's included - come at all close to the emotional warmth of the hugging. And whilst I would have liked to see some MORE sex than the meagre, dark-and-obscured scene we were given...it is in line with how pilots have been written in the past. So I don't have too many objections. BECAUSE HUGGING.
"I missed you."
Kara spoke first.
Thank you, BSG.
In conclusion: I hope there's an affair. I hope Dee dumps him, because he kind of deserves it and it'd be either too optimistic or too masochistic for her character to stick around now that she's in possession of the facts. (Not that we've been given much in the way of character continuity where she's concerned, but a girl can dream.)
Really in conclusion: PILOTS!
ETA: OH I FORGOT TO MENTION that not only were my primary 'ship and adorable-parent-figures 'ship catered to, this episode also had Kat and Racetrack (my beloved cracky-yet-eminently-plausible lesbian 'ship) bashing at each other. All it needed was Leoben and Tom Motherfrakking Zarek and it would have been pretty damn near perfect as far as my favoured pairings go.
Uh, that was not me condoning Leoben/Zarek.
Although...
No. No.
As another afterthought, notice how this episode had no Cylons in it and it was all the better for it? We don't need no frakking Cylons.
- Firstly, the cinematography in this episode was bafflingly inconsistent. All of the fighting was done VERY well, and I particularly like the shots of the crowd, and the tags falling into the box, and the weaving bodies. But most of the flashback stuff SUCKED.
- It's a mutatated version of SHAGTHECAGLIA! How apt. (Kara's morning-afters, Lee's boxing...doesn't take a genius to see the parallels.)
- I love how Kara and Sam's scene at the beginning is pretty much exactly the dynamic I extrapolated for them in Amateur. I feel all validated and smug now. She's flying and she's Starbuck again and she's just using him for stress relief because there's no room for him in this half of her existence. And she's, you know, in love with someone else.
- Kara got some great lines. 'I'm late for the dance'. 'If it isn't the fighting Agathons' <--- Helo and Sharon were awesome this episode, I must say. I like them when they're just casual and pretty and amused.
- Kara is so, so so hot. Gyuh. (Actually, all the women are unbelievably hot this ep: Roslin is luminous and smart and wonderful, and Dee is gorgeous.)
- RINGSIDE COTTLE. WITH HIS LITTLE WEAVING FISTS. Best ever.
- First pilot eye contact: kaboom! And she's encouraging him and he gives this headroll which just says bitch, please as he stands up. Hee.
- I have just realised that this episode is lit like
schiarire's icons. HAHAHAH. Ji, hon, you won't have to alter a whole lot in the way of contrast. This is a two-edged sword: the episode itself is artistic and all that shit, but sometimes it's so frakking DARK you can't SEE ANYTHING. There are some seriously intent facial expressions happening and they're all swallowed by inconvenient shadow.- This shot where she's reaching over her shoulder to put in her tags is entirely gratutious, but no less unbearably hot for that. I swear there are maybe three inches between their faces.
- All right, this scene just after Dee tells him about the transfer is, again, so obvious to be laughable, but I was glad that they were doing it with manner and costume rather than outright putting it into dialogue: yes, they've gone and married (will be marrying) less extreme versions of themselves. Lee and Dee are all neat blue and proper emotions, and Sam and Kara are khaki mufti and teasing grins. Bizarrely (and I'm ready to face argument on this), this scene kind of sold me a little futher on the alternaships, or at least Lee and Kara's motives for them. It's easy to be with someone who is like you, at least in these ways. It's safe and it's easy. When you're at war, safe and easy is good. These relationships seem logical, and I think that's the point: Lee Adama loves Kara Thrace and Kara Thrace loves Lee Adama and there isn't really any logic to it, it's just the way things are. Everything floats up.
- Roslin and Adama are too fucking adorable, the end. 'And you just had to take off your shoes and play in the alluvial deposits'. (Dude, as if they didn't have sex. As IF.)
- Kara wrapping her wrists in scarlet strapping = too hot for me to cope.
- HAHAHA CIRCLEDANCING cmshfsudhsn okay, I can't take this scene seriously AT ALL because it's like 'Firefly' meets 'Pride and Prejudice' and it's too ridiculous for words. However, the shot of Anders sprawled under the table is FANTASTIC, it's completely lacking in dignity and it doesn't feel contrived, it's just...funny.
- Roslin firing commands about ice and giving Adama boxing advice? Awesome. AWESOME.
- I want to know the fallout from Kara accusing Lee of adultery to his face, in public. Because there is no way that wasn't overheard by a fair number of people.
- Hmm, I just noticed that when they're on the site of Kara's imaginary house, they're circling. Boxing-circling.
- Lee makes a mooooooove. Hmm. I don't like this scene; I think it's something to do with how they're characterising Lee. Less stilted talk, more kissing, plz. That said: FACE IN HAAAAAAAAAAANDS. YES. The sex scene is...weird (WTF CAMERA ANGLES. WTF. ABOVE? WHY???)...but it's certainly a stark comparison to the making out in 'Scar'. It's slow. It's important. Lee looks borderline reverent. Kara looks scared.
- "Well, that makes things more complicated." This shot. This shot is great: my second favourite, I think, after the tag-reaching. They're finally, FINALLY on the same wavelength - same furrowed brows, same breathing rhythm, same half-amazed, half-amused expression. Now the camera angle is working.
- Yeah, yelling, whatever. It's all very 'Oklahoma!'. Kara is an adorable drunk. The thing about this scene - no matter how silly and soap-opera-ish it is - is that their dynamic throughout is reminiscent of the pilots we knew and loved. Kara is giggling and they're bouncing off each other and teasing and Lee is Lee.
- Another good shot: Kara sweeping his legs out from under him. Yes. YES.
- Lee's body langauge is practically screaming DAD DAD I GOT LAID! (Adama's totally is too. Albeit more quietly.)
- People say 'Can you believe it?' to Lee at least three times. I counted. Huh. And the irony in the line 'it'll be up to us to make sure there's no mass exodus' is quite nice.
- SAM IS SO HAPPY. Damn you, Kara Thrace. (Inappropriate thought: Sam must have had a BITCH of a hangover on his wedding day.)
- Dee knows. Look at her face. She knows and she's known for a very long time.
- TOO MANY FLASHBACKS, BSG, but omg COLONIAL DAY and HOME and the FUCKING MINI with the HAND HOLDING and IT'S GOOD TO BE WRONG and and and that was just kind of unfair, piling that onto my heart in the last five minutes
And the hugging.
Just.
Okay.
The sweetest pilot moments have ALWAYS been the hugging. In 'Home'. In 'The Captain's Hand'. Those are the times you can actually see that they love each other. None of their sex scenes - this episode's included - come at all close to the emotional warmth of the hugging. And whilst I would have liked to see some MORE sex than the meagre, dark-and-obscured scene we were given...it is in line with how pilots have been written in the past. So I don't have too many objections. BECAUSE HUGGING.
"I missed you."
Kara spoke first.
Thank you, BSG.
In conclusion: I hope there's an affair. I hope Dee dumps him, because he kind of deserves it and it'd be either too optimistic or too masochistic for her character to stick around now that she's in possession of the facts. (Not that we've been given much in the way of character continuity where she's concerned, but a girl can dream.)
Really in conclusion: PILOTS!
ETA: OH I FORGOT TO MENTION that not only were my primary 'ship and adorable-parent-figures 'ship catered to, this episode also had Kat and Racetrack (my beloved cracky-yet-eminently-plausible lesbian 'ship) bashing at each other. All it needed was Leoben and Tom Motherfrakking Zarek and it would have been pretty damn near perfect as far as my favoured pairings go.
Uh, that was not me condoning Leoben/Zarek.
Although...
No. No.
As another afterthought, notice how this episode had no Cylons in it and it was all the better for it? We don't need no frakking Cylons.
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I didn't get nearly as critical as you while watching, because it's not my bag, baby, but oh my God, you really hit upon a shitload of detail here. LOVE.
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Yeah.
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And re: Leoben, fuck, yes. Kara's right: she's in a completely different place than where she was when she married him, in terms of what she's been through and also where humanity as a whole is.
Blowing my own horn here, but: have you read Amateur? (http://mercurial-wit.livejournal.com/30990.html) It's pretty much me exploring the reasons that I think that Anders is great, but Kara/Anders in an onboard-Galactica context is doomed.
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And, yes. And Lee Lee Lee getting fat and depressed and oh.
So much makes both more and less sense now.
I am devestated. Of course.
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It bears repeating. I keep feeling as though it could be said oh.. another thousand times or so.
It's easy to be with someone who is like you, at least in these ways. It's safe and it's easy. When you're at war, safe and easy is good. These relationships seem logical, and I think that's the point: Lee Adama loves Kara Thrace and Kara Thrace loves Lee Adama and there isn't really any logic to it, it's just the way things are.
Exactly. There are many 'reasons' for the relationships to work, and while I don't necessarily 'feel' Lee/Dee or Kara/Sam, I do have an understanding of why they might individually work. Still, having seen this episode, I don't buy Lee's intent in marrying Dee at all. Nor Kara and Sam's shotgun wedding. Neither are emotionally resonant choices - instead, both seem to be the 'reasonable' and 'logical' choice. Which, of course, works ... at least as long as they aren't in each other's company.
Sigh. Pilots, indeed. I need to sleep.
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And yes yes yes Roslin and Adama are the most fucking adorable thing this side of the 12 colonies. And you just know that when Adama gets into the ring, Roslin is all "GUH." You can see it in her eyes! I love a good fight INDEED. And then when she is snapping out advice, Adama is totally like "THIS IS SO HOT."
And that one shot of Doc Cottle in the corner weaving his fists almost gives him more characterisation than all of S1 and S2 combined. And I die of joy.
And and and.
You can really tell that I literally just this moment finished watching it, can't you.
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Adama is so in love with her. And and and at the end when they're all 'Admiral' and 'Madame President' and she's holding his arm and he's just delivered a speech about how he can't be friends with them all anymore but you know that THEY'RE still going to be friends. Friends made of awesome.
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Lee's face.
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I never noticed that Kara spoke first--that is huge. HUGE. That's bigger than shouted declarations of love in a field. Sometimes the writing is on crack, and sometimes they have these moments that are so perfect and I die.
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Including the WHEN DID BSG BECOME OKLAHOMA? AND THANK GOD THEY ARE OFF THAT STPUID FRAKKIN' PLANET.