Battlestar Galactica - A Day In The Life

First the Cheers lyric, now a Beatles song?  Stop being cute, writers.

Anyway...On my mark, we’re gonna blow the doors and the spoilers are gonna jump out into open space.  3...2..1...Mark!

- Previously on...The focus seems to be on The Old Man, with some Lee and no, wait...it’s about relationships - Lee with his dad, Adama with Laura, Chief and Callie, Baltar and the fleet.  So, keep that stuff in mind.

- We pick up on a flashback, a slightly younger Adama staring wistfully at some trees, and then CurrentDayBill wakes up - next to a blonde!  Who the frack is The Old Man fracking?  Here comes Ol’ Salty Seadog to ask questions - or be obvious about not asking questions.  :)

- Chief Tyrol...he seems real happy to be heading back to his wife and kid.  Methinks he’s getting real tired of running the flight deck and listening to Callie and trying to raise the baby - but maybe a lot of that is Callie bitching at him over things he can’t control?  Perhaps she might be less of a bitch?

- Back to Adama and Tigh.  The blonde was a memory.  Saul said “Happy Anniversary” when he walked in so I assume that this is Adama’s wedding anniversary.  Or the anniversary of their divorce?

While I had the TiVo paused, Donna said “Can i have some more action in my Battlestar please?  Could the Cylons come back and attack or somethning?” NO SHIT.  Battlestar 90210 is wearing really thin these days.  Someone recently on some TV blog somewhere left a comment and called the show “All My Children in space.” That’s not too far off.  Actually - on All My Children, there have been a fucking shitload of murders, fights and all sorts of action recently, and that’s just PATHETIC that more is happening on a crappy daytime soap than is happening on Battle-fracking-star Galacti-fracking-ca.  But I digress.

And now the dead woman is talking to him. 

Saul: “You can use some time for yourself. I can handle first watch.”
Adama: “I’ll be keeping my schedule, this is just another day.”
Dead Wife Voice: “Just another day?  Maybe I should have married him instead of you.”

I’m guessing form what she said that maybe there’s some backstory here with a love triangle?

Flashback to younger Bill and his wife, and DeadWifeVoice wants to know why after all these years he keeps bringing her back only on this one day.

Bill seems like he’s delusionally distracted, flipping back and forth between this head conversation and real life.  Like Gaius and Caprica do all the time.  OH MY GOD BILL ADAMA IS A CYLON!  ;)

I kid.

- Cut to Callie the Nag (when did they decide that she had to be a stereotypical nagging bitch?).

PAUSE - OH man I just had a revelation.

Way back when, we learned that Starbuck was head over heels in love with the other Adama boy who’s name I cannot remember.  Lee’s brother, Bill’s (older?) other son.

Also, way back when, there was a lot of talk that Adama is a Cylon - one of the Cylons said that to Laura as she flushed him out an airlock.  There was even a webpage about it a couple of years ago.  It’s not Bill, the Cylons would not have hatched a long-term plan to assassinate him if he were a Cylon.  It’s not Lee, because he got really fat.  No way would they genetically engineer a guy like that.  :)

It’s the other son.  HE’S NOT DEAD.  He never was.  My prediction - the other Adama boy will be one of the final 5.

- UNPAUSE

Back to Callie & the Chief.  Looks like this is going to be a long, shitty day.  Chief just called Callie and “Seelix” (did I hear that right?  Like Neelix from Star Trek Voyager?) to come with him.  I smell a redshirt situation!  Meanwhile she’s just being a right ridiculous bitch.  Is she not aware that they are barely 41000 poeple living on broken-down ships with no resupply like - EVER?  There’s work to be done, woman, so shut the frack up once in awhile.

Seelix screws up nicely or so it seems.  The Airlock doors shut and Chief and Callie are stuck and losing air.  One of the patches is leaking and Seelix is off the hook, the doors close automatically to protect the rest of the ship.

There’s a beautiful shot of the air escaping outside as we pull a way from Galactica and...theme music.  Man I love those drums.

- 4,1398 Survivors.  Haven’t I told you people to start breeding?  Mandatory fracking begins now!  I call dibs on any one of the Sixes and two of the Eights.

Wait.  last week it was 41,401.  We only lost 3 people in the Great Sagitarron Epidemic of last week?  How the hell is that possible?  Now way were enough babies born to offset that.  I guess we’re just supposed to be stupid and not question it…

- Back to The Old Man and he’s doing memory exercises to make sure that he remembers everyone’s name.  It seems like a trick, but I think it shows that he cares about his people and wants them to know it.  DeadWife seems to want him to hook up with Laura.  Do it, man!  I’ll be Roslin’s a total cougar.  Rawr!

- Speaking of the Cougar, she’s on Galactica to see Bill and make Presidential and Admiral decisions.  Cute, Laura mention “The Caprica Six,” and that is important.  She made Caprica feel like she valued her as an individual, but clearly Madame President still sees her as a “the” or rather an “it” and not a “she.”

Seems there is a question about how to try Gaius.  I suppose that makes sense.  What planet’s law runs the show?  I say Caprican.  Why?  Because Gaius broke the law on Caprica.  He allowed Caprica Six into the defense grid on Caprica.  All his original treason took place on Caprica.  Try him under Caprican law.  Or a military tribunal but broadcast it over the wireless for the sake of transparency and to let people get their blood lust sated.

They decide to set up a Committee To Think About How We’re Going To Set Up A Committee To Actually Do Something About “The Gaius Baltar Situation”, which might be the longest committee name in history.  Laura wants Lee Adama to run it, because she, and I quote, wants “someone who knows the difference between right and wrong.” Guess who that isn’t?  You got it, Lee Adama.  Why not as the one guy who has ALWAYS known and acted on the difference between right and wrong?  Helo.

Oh wait, we’re probably back to not listening to anything Helo has to say.

Laura asks if she can hang out and use Galactica’s gym, and Bill flashes on DeadWife.  Mixing them up a little in your head, Billy-boy?

- Back to Chief and Callie, and she’s just NOT getting any better.  Chief is trying to fix a fracking hole in the fracking ship and she’s still being a snippy bitch.

- Cut to DeadWife lecturing Bill about his shortcomings.  Ooh...mirroring.  Clever dicks, those writers.  Also, I just got British for a moment?  “Clever dicks?” Who says that?

- One of the pilots mentions that it’s been 49 days since they have run into a Cylon.  Yeah, get sloppy you dumbasses.  Then we’re treated to a pilot I don’t recognize scratching hard at his crotch.  Classy!

Lee is CAG-ing it up and actually saying something worthwhile - 49 days don’t mean dick.  Don’t Get Sloppy!

- More Old Man flashbacks as he watches Lee talk.  OK, WHAT IS THIS DAY?  When did she die?  She said earlier that she is “long-dead.” Is this obvious to everyone else and I just can’t remember a discussion about Bill’s wife before?  Is this the anniverary of her death?  DeadWife reminds Bill that he needs to tell Lee that he’s proud of him as a father.  Uhh...is there a whole new writing staff this year or something?

THEY HAVE HAD THIS CONVERSATION A WHOLE BUNCH OF TIMES OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS.  He knows that, and DeadWife is, after all, just a manifestation of his own mind.  They need to start watching their own show, or hire a bible-keeper.

Lee and Bill chat about Baltar’s trial.  Lee’s got an old fascination with the law, seems like he wanted to be a lawyer when he was a kid.  I see where this is going.  Lee joined the service because Dad and Brother did, and he never got the recognition, and he resented Dad, and Dad never hugged him and blah blah blah they have already dealt with this stuff on this show.

- Cut to Callie and Chief.  Still no luck with the patch.  Call Jeordie in Engineering, he can re-focus the frastion grebulator and seal the patch with his eyewear.

Instead what is going to happen here is that the air is going to steadily leak out, and they will huddle together for warmth and just as teh last of air in the oxygen bottles is about to go, someone wil save the day, and Callie will suddenly not be such a bitch and Tyrol will suddenly not be so ass-dragging when it comes to being with his family - which will of course be automatically easier when Callie stops being such a bitch.

I am positive I saw this on Star Trek before.  At least twice - Once with Ryker and Troi, and once with Tom Paris and his half-Klingon bitch of a wife B’Elanna.  B’Elanna was a straight bitch about 90% of the time.  I don’t care how good the poontang was.

Anyway…

- Here comes the Important Walk Down The Hallway shot.  All the important folks have come to watch Chief and Callie die.  Lee says the manual override is busted.  It’ll take an hour to cut through the blast door.  Anything that can blow the window will kill them.

PAUSE -

I just came up with a plan.  Saul said it, they need six week in drydock just to hammer out the dings.  So...Go in from the outside with a Raptor.  COME ON!  If you’re gonna steal from Trek, do that thing where you have a “temporary docking seal” and then just bash that leak into a big-ass hole.  They crawl out and everyone is safe for the time being.

- UNPAUSE

They’re doing almost exactly what I said just without the docking collar, which makes it about a million times more dangerous.  They have to jump through open space and land on the Raptor deck.  Crap.  Hey, maybe Callie won’t make it and we won’t have to hear her being a bitch anymore.  She is thinking about who gets her baby though, so maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on her.

Finally some action.  I actually care about this whole setup now...the pilots have to do things just so, a door is gonna explode...something is going to happen.  I like BSG when stuff happens.

- Athena is driving the rescue Raptor...which adds that element of oddness, as Athena is a Sharon, which has a connection to Chief (she’s not *his* Sharon, but still...) She’s the best Raptor pilot so good choice.  Lee and Starbuck are literally catching them.

Here we go.

SWEET.  That was awesome.  Crap and chunks of steel flying at the Raptor and Athena swoops it down and catches Callie & Tyrol as they fly out.  Nicely done.  This is what BSG is so good at!

They’re in bad shape - We need SmokingDoc!

- Back in The Old Man’s quarters, and Lee is trying to get The Old Man to open up.  It turns out this is his wedding anniversary.

Well, maybe we’re going to get at why Lee is always such a prick to Bill, going back to day one.  Perhaps I jumped the gun when i said we’ve dealt with this before...Lee’s been keeping a secret.  A little 90210 moment that is actually useful.

Turns out life with Mom and her new husband wasn’t the bed of roses Bill thought it was.  Turns out Mom was bi-polar and a drunk.  Plus Bill put his career above the family.  HeadWife, which is Bill’s conscience, reminds him that he prides himself on being a leader of men...and if he admitted that his decision to marry her and have kids was wrong, that would make him question every other decision in his life, and as I have said in these BSG recaps before, the last thing Adama needs is to second guess himself all the time.  He’s the last military leader in all of humanity for all intents and purposes.

Hard call.  No one is right here, and everyone is wrong.  Lee drops a bomb on Pops - Lee believes that The Old Man loved his wife, but he thinks Mom neverloved Bill.

- Medbay.  Tyrol looks awful good in the face area for a guy who just went through the vacuum of fracking space!  Plus the baby look like he’s smuggling kittens in his face!  That kid has chub-tastic cheeks!

Mom & Dad will be OK, it seems.  It remains to be seen if attitudes will change.  I’m assuming they will.  Callie is in a hyberbaric chamber, and Tyrol shows her the baby.

Cute - Adama just name-checked Seelix in the doorway of the medbay.  :) He also overheard Tyrol telling Callie that somehow they will find a balance and a way to take care of the baby.

Adama obviously sees a man making a decision he never made.  I’ll bet in the future, Adama finds little ways to help them, scheduling and so forth.

- Lee came back to his quarters, kisses the wife he’s not sure he wants to be with, and found a big box.

Dee: “It’s from your father”
Lee: “Is it ticking?”

It’s Grandpa Adama’s law books.  Caprican criminal codes!  Heh.  Someone advised that.  I wonder who.

Cute moment with Laura, calling back an old conversation they had a while ago...she gave him a book and said “It’s a gift, not a loan.” Adama taught her - never loan a book, because you probably won’t get it back.  Just give it as a gift and everyone wins.  She remembered.  How romantical.

Just fuck already!

The Old Man is about to lay some moves on her I hope.  Come on, Old Man...tell her how pretty she is when she laughs!  Tell her if the Cylons hadn’t come back you’d have swept her off her feet and banged her eight ways from Sunday!  Stop hiding behind your job!

Pussy.  She’s waving you in, Bill.

Carol Ann...that’s DeadHeadWife’s name.  He decides that he’ll see her again next year.  No, Bill...you won’t make it another year now that Cougar Laura has set her sights on you...next year this time you’ll be thanking the gods for the sex drive of the middle-aged woman.  :)

Well, part of that episode was slow and plodding and part of it was useful.  Only the rescue was exciting though.  We really really REALLY need more action on this show.

Posted by JimK at 01:45 AM on February 19, 2007
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