The Mental Masturbator

As always, there are spoilers below

Wow what a good episode. This may have been my favorite of the season so far. It was so well paced, it had really good editing. Especially the end, but we’ll get to that later. It’s been almost 2 weeks so I’m trying to remember what happened.

Natalie’s comment about Hera to Athena in the beginning was pretty creepy and probably cost her her life. Still, Athena shouldn’t have been too surprised Nat knew her name, she knows Hera spent a while being raised by the Cylons.

The Demitrious failing to jump was a little contrived, but the scene it created was really good anyway. Epcially, obviously, Tigh yelling “weapons hold!” That was kind of weird, or was it? Human intuition could explain how he knew what to do, and maybe his Cylon transformation has just made him more confident in his instincts (though you would think it should do the opposite).

What else, Gaeta’s leg getting sawed off was an intense scene. As for the singing, a lot of people hate it, I’m mostly indifferent. At least he knows how to sing. But why all this focus on Gaeta anyway, possible Cylon or just another example of human tragedy?

The Hub concept is pretty cool. But if they destroy it can’t the Cylons rebuild? They built it once right? Certainly making them even temporarily immortal would be a huge coup for the humans, kind of like when they destroyed the first resurrection ship and the Cylons backed off for a while. You know, if I were generally immortal, even spending a few minutes in mortality would probably be terrifying, yet humans do it every minute of every day. Having no choice helps make it easier, but it’s still something to think about.

Natalie’s speech on death to the quorum was pretty weak imho, but I guess it was ok for a child-like ex-demigod who just discovered mortality. I hope she still felt the same as Athena shot her.

The end of this episode was fantastic. First of all, Hera drawing’s of Six were totally creepy. They make me wonder if Hera has been seeing a Six in her head her entire life, preparing her for gods know what. And Athena has, I supposed understandably, lost it. I mean, she of all people should know that the different Cylon models are different. That’s, like, her whole thing. “I didn’t shoot you Adama it was the other Sharon!” etc etc. And then the Hybrid yelling “jump” with every fiber of her being and kidnapping the President, Baltar, Helo, and half the pilots and vipers was entirely surprising and entirely awesome. That Hybrid knew what it was doing. Unfortunately, I don’t know what it was doing, and that sucks.

Next weeks should be pretty crazy, the President has just disappeared without warning. Who knows what’s going to happen in that power vacuum. Doesn’t this technically make Zarek the president until Laura gets back? I don’t think Adama will accept that, but then again what was he planning to do when cancer took her away? Guess I’ll find out soon.

-A

Today in Kentucky, HillRod said something that I found quite interesting:

“I’m going to make my case and I’m going to make it until I’m the nominee and we’re not going to have one today and we’re not going to have one tomorrow and we’re not going to have one the next day,” she said. “And if Kentucky turns out tomorrow, I will be closer to that nomination.” [nyt]

You’re going to make your case until you’re the nominee?  I guess we’ll be hearing her make her case for a long, looong time.  But wait, that sentence doesn’t even make much sense.  May I suggest that the scripted line she was supposed to read probably said something like:

“I’m going to make my case and I’m going to make it until there is a nominee and we’re not going to have one today and we’re not going to have one tomorrow and we’re not going to have one the next day,”

Now there’s a sentence that makes sense.  In the first sentence the “we’re not going to have one” part just doesn’t match up with “until I’m the nominee.”  Clearly she was supposed to say “until there is a nominee” but she is in such a deep state of denial that she actually still thinks she’s going to win.  If she really still thinks she’s going to win, we might be in a lot of trouble.  God help us, I hope her psychosis doesn’t wind up hurting the country…more so.

As always, spoilers below

I enjoyed this episode muchly. Let’s see, what happened? Well basically the Stackbuck plot line was advanced a lot, and that’s about it.

Fist a few points on the Roslin story line. Ah, Nana Visitor, thank god you’re only a visitor on this show, yuk yuk. I remember her from DS9, she was always kind of a hammy actress in my opinion. And at this point in the series random new characters are a little weird. I guess there was no other cancer patient character to use, but still. I’m not saying the scenes between them were terrible, just not my favorite. I do like that Roslin is buying into Baltar’s religion. To me it says she’s not so blinded by hate towards him that she can’t agree with him when he’s right. It’s like “this guy might be a big douche bag but if he’s right about God, he’s right about God.”

Now to the Demitrius

Why did Anders have to shoot Gaeta in the knee? He’s an idiot, he should have just shot him in the calf or something.

They finally started remembering that Athena is in fact a Cylon, I like that.

Two Sixes kissing. Is that like incest? Seemed more like a kiss of death to me.

I like the “human justice” line a lot. Blood for blood, we’re a bunch of frakking idiots.

I wish Anders had touched the water thing on the baseship, who knows what would have happened. He also seems to be warming up to his Cylon buddies, being there for one of the dying Sharon’s when Athena turned away. He seems to be the nicest and most stable (because he’s too stupid to have an identity crisis?) of all the final 4. I wonder if he’ll stay that way.

The hybrid made some sweet predictions. The dying leader will know the secret of the opera house? That’s gotta be Roslin, probably. We got a reiteration of the Kara Thrace harbinger of death line, but now people who aren’t dead have heard it. So is she the harbinger of death? Maybe. Maybe she’ll bring them to their end in a metaphorical way. Two things to note: 1) Kara had to die to find Earth. Could Earth be heaven or some such mysticalness? 2) Way back in season 2 Six told Baltar that she was an angel there to guide him to “the end of the human race.” What does it all mean? Who knows. Maybe they “end” by fornicating with Cylons? so many possibilities, but even though I don’t know what it means it’s nice to see the consistency. And unlike a certain other mainstream “scifi” show, I actually believe the writers know where they’re going with this.

So this week are they finally going to bring D’ana back? And is she going to identify the 5? That leads to two tantalizing prospects, the final 4 will no longer be a secret, and the 5th will be revealed! It would be pretty sweet if that happened. Also if they reveal the 5th before the mid-season cliffhanger, does that mean they’ll find Earth in the mid-season cliffhanger? Possibly. Final fifth predictions: Romo Lampkin, Roslin, what’s-her-name from Razor, also Cain, edit: forgot Duala, and Zarek. Think that’s too many predictions? Too bad, I think it’s probably one of those people. Longshots: Billy, Ellen, Crashdown, Jammer, Cally. Pretty much anyone who died. We’ll see.

Final thought: the hybrid is totally hot.

Nice

As always, there are spoilers below

The “everyone is losing their minds episode”

Starbuck keeps checking the same region of space.  Finds Leoben.  She has definitely stepped through a door, she’s now totally willing to buy Leoben’s philosophy and advice.  He’s always told her she was special, now she finally accepts it.  Too bad for her no one else believes her.

The Chief has gone all Full Metal Jacket on us, which is not at all surprising.

You know, they really don’t know how to use Athena effectively, isn’t this the same one who told Starbuck on Caprica that she has a destiny?  Is it just that Leoben always talked about it and now she’s thinks he’s crazy?  And how come she didn’t talk to Leoben, or give unique Cylon insights on the situation?  Use of her character is extremely weak so far this season.

Baltar’s preaching is getting better.

Mathias dies…who?

No Adama or Roslin is pretty disappointing, but so be it.

Tory continues to demonstrate she’s nuts, and super brazen.  Telling Tyrol that Cally killed herself because of him in the airlock where she killed Cally?  Ballsy.  Stupid maybe.  If he finds out it’s gonna be nuts.

The scene between Leoben and Anders was really good.  As usual, Leoben freaked his captor out.  I don’t think Leoben knows Anders is a Cylon, but he still said some very apt things.  

I get the sense that this episode is the beginning of the crazyness and the end of setup.  Why?  For one thing, the plot lines are starting to intersect.  The Cylon civil war has intersected with the Starbuck plot line, and it seems like both of those are about to intersect with the fleet.  They’ve been setting these stories up for 5 episodes and now the domino are starting to fall.  Also, on Bear McCreary’s blog he said, “the first quarter of Season 4 is essentially laying the groundwork for bigger events down the line.”  This was the last episode of the first quarter.  I think they’re going to find Earth very soon, perhaps in the next few episodes.  I think there’s a very good chance they’ll find it before the mid-season break.

Former senator and early Clinton supporter George McGovern has switched his endorsement to Barack Obama and is urging Clinton to drop out of the race, according to AP.  Dominos falling anyone?

Update: Help push those dominos, donate to Obama now! 

Update: According to Hufington Post, Hillary will drop out by June 15.  Why wait so long?  She better drop out a lot sooner than that.  I think she will, if she doesn’t she’s definitely insane.

Update:  According to Drudge, “CONGRESSIONAL SOURCE: Hillary having trouble finding superdelegates who will meet with her… ‘No one wants to see her today’… Developing…”

Update: here are some quotes from IHT:

But Obama has won the nomination “by any practical test” and is very close to a majority of the pledged delegates, said McGovern, who is 85. Obama moved within 200 delegates of clinching the nomination with his split decision on Tuesday of a win in North Carolina and a narrow loss in Indiana.

It’s time to unite the Democratic Party, he said.

“Hillary, of course, will make the decision as to if and when she ends her campaign. But I hope that she reaches that decision soon so that we can concentrate on a unified party capable of winning the White House next November,” he said.

It is time to unite the party, let the floodgates open!

Thank god