Review of Battlestar Galactica 4x18: "Islanded In a Stream of Stars"

[flowrs4ophelia]

Oh frak yes, THIS is the kind of episode I've been waiting for! It didn't have a very strong central story with a beginning, middle, and end, and that's good because the show's officially going into THE END now and there's no room for any more specifically Tigh and Ellen episodes or Tyrol episodes or Baltar's cult episodes. Instead there were just a lot of important moments with many different people that I just loved, including between characters who hadn't interacted with each other at all in forever. Squeeeee.


— Loved the stuff with the Cylon and human mechanics working together on the ship and not getting along and then trying to help each other not get flushed out into space. Poor Natalie look-a-like. :(

— Baltar talking to Caprica again is one thing I was specifically hoping to see eventually, and it was kind of heartbreaking how it played out. I got the sense that she might even still have some feelings for him but has learned by now not to trust him, and the sad irony is that I do buy his sincerity at least in what he was saying to her here. It would certainly signify Baltar's true redemption if he ever got to a point that she could accept him again. Is it possible? *ponders*

— I was pleasantly surprised that we saw all those intimate moments with Boomer and Hera in her Raptor. After "StWOM" I was pretty doubtful about Boomer possibly getting any kind of redemption, but I wasn't surprised to find out she wasn't actually lying to Chief about her projections and still loving him. Her being softened a little by spending time with Hera made a certain sense to me because she's already been known to have a kind of remarkable effect on people. Remember when our formerly favorite wicked bitch D'Anna found her on New Caprica she was so moved just by holding her that she forgot all thoughts of nuking the place.

— Thank the gods Laura didn't die that way. That would have been almost as bad as if the Doctor had really regenerated after that cliffhanger before the Season 4 finale, LOL. Her and Bill getting high together again? And she had the joint hidden in the book? Their love is so badass. Haha.

— I usually like what Eddie brings to the show when he directs. I have to say the visual style of this one was a little over-the-top for me at times even though at other times I liked it a lot. I don't know the vocabulary to describe this with, heh, but all the shots fading into each other like the Galactica practically wildly spinning across the screen over Adama's sobbing face didn't work for me. I mean, please. I thought that seeing the old girl break down or get destroyed at the end of the show was going to be almost unbearably sad to see when it inevitably happened, but at this point they've laid it on so damn thick I don't care that much anymore. LOL.

— A shallow note: Lee is fucking hot with his long politician hair. Fuuuck. And I don't even know why but the way he said "Gaius Baltar?!" like "Why the frak are we talking about Gaius Baltar?!" and then the scene just ended was so hilarious.

— I could kiss the writers just for letting me see Starbuck and Baltar speak to each other again. Oh, they crack me up so. In what other show can we see a woman casually talk to someone while sitting on the pot just because the living conditions are so crappy and lacking privacy that it's not a big deal? And anyway, it's nothing he hasn't seen before. LOL.

Somehow it was perfect to me, though really unexpected, that he was the one she first told about what she found on Earth. And it's so interesting how he scientifically examines it because he's still a scientist and then comes up with a religious explanation for it. The way it was finally revealed to everyone else what Kara found was so not the kind of moment anyone has been expecting as we've speculated and written fanfic about it (hehe), and that made it really dramatic and just so terrible it was right.

— And finally...

Lee doesn't care. I mean...duh. :)

And Bear McCreary finally uses the Kara and Lee love theme again for the first time since "Six of One." Because my ship, even though it's never really gone away if you've paid close enough attention, is back.

The moment between them in front of the wall of photos was so perfect and reminded me of so many other times that Lee has been so unfailing in his support of her. At first she's horrified that Baltar just announced it to the world that way, but then after he lets her know it doesn't matter to him you can see she just feels extremely relieved now that she's not keeping it all bottled up anymore. When she puts the picture of herself back up beside Kat you can tell she's finally at peace with the idea that she died in a sense, because she's still loved and accepted. I think it looks like even if she never knows exactly what happened, she could actually live with that.

— ...And in fact, I'm starting to think that we may not ever be given a definite answer about what happened to her, and that might be okay with me. I've suspected for a while that we might just be presented with a sort of fantastical possibility of what she is, which seems to be what's going on with Baltar's preachings about angels and eternal life and the hints that she's somehow connected to Aurora. We'll probably find out more about how such an explanation is relevant to what's going on in this overall conflict, but I think we'll be given the choice to accept or reject it.



So uhhhhh it's getting a little freaky to me how the ending is unfolding in so many similar little ways to my post-"Revelations" fic I've had sitting around not quite completed for a really long time. It's starting to seem pointless to still finish and post it because it doesn't seem that different so far from how things are working out in the show. But I'm going to go slave over it right now anyway. Haha.


EDIT: Think I should also mention that after seeing points other people brought up about how the last episode certainly didn't prove that Kara's father was supposed to be Daniel, I've become convinced that he was not. Which means I have to think a little differently about "Someone To Watch Over Me" now. But the more I think about it, the more I think it's even more fascinating that the "Watchtower" song has just unexplainably appeared in seemingly unconnected places and points in time. I feel this must have something to do with the theme of the repeating pattern of time and might be related to the way Colonial society has so many similarities to our real society even though there has been no interaction between the cultures and the show either portrays the future or the past in relation to our time. Maybe the story this series is telling is about the first time that elements from different repeated cycles have converged (like the Final Five who were part of a previous cycle on Earth becoming part of the end of another cycle on the Colonies), and so suddenly people are becoming aware of this by finding impossible similarities between two songs that came from different places and times. And by seeing that this is something remarkable that's never happened before, they are going to realize they have an awareness all the former societies that got destroyed didn't have and that they can stop history from repeating itself. *catches breath* Does your head hurt as much as mine yet?

But yeah, my guess: Hera represents the future society and cycle of time. The Final Five represent a past cycle. Kara represents the turning point in between the two that makes all of the difference in what the future one will be (Aurora = goddess of the dawn who brings "a fresh start" and represents change). The song is what connects all three of these. Don't know what else to do with that.

Comments

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

I think Baltar's totally redeemable. And I actually think he's starting to drink his own Kool-Aid. And I forgot how much I shipped him and Cap6 until I saw them together. Awwww, I want all the mini couples to reunite!

Man, I really like that cycle of time stuff. I still want to know who originated the damn song. And I really don't think we'll get more on Kara's dad. I think they're gonna leave that ambiguous, as well as the nature of her resurrection. Just a hunch.

"Lee is fucking hot with his long politician hair. Fuuuck."

YES YES YES. OH MY GOD, YES.

I want to see that post Revelations fic! Sounds super-cool.

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

Their love is so badass. LOL. Yes, yes it is.

So is "Watchtower" presumably becoming an inadvertent cross-providential "BAD WOLF"? My brain can't quite wrap around everything you said at once, but I hope that's sort of where they're going with this.

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

I lol'd irl at the spinning Galactica on Adama's cryface. It was so melodramatic.
LOL, I know. I tried watching it again and it's even worse than I remember.