Random plotlines I attempted to glean while pondering the title of the episode, “Deadlock”:
1) A merchant ship crew hires a rogue bounty hunter named Deadlock to assassinate the Final Five.
2) Cavil hires (or programs, or installs a program in, or points and says fetch to) an assassin Centurion to terminate Adama and Roslin with an Order 66-type trigger like Emperor Palpatine. The Cylon is codenamed…wait for it…Deadlock.
Some hours later:
3) Inner thoughts ”Hey! Talk about a punningly perfect title for Lost’s episode about Jeremy Betham! Evangeline Lilly is hot!”
After meditation, breathing exercises, and liberally indulgent incense inhaling:
4) Cylons and humans come to an impasse on the next step in their seemingly destined future. And Evangeline Lilly is still hot.
Close enough.
Actually, I forgot one little detail. The family reunion. You know, how it is. Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune put it so perfectly. You’re so happy to see everyone and it’s great and everyone’s having a good time and then…past shit gets brought up and in a blink of an eye what once were mature, well-adjusted adults regress to petty, vindictive little children with a subscription to issues that should have been cancelled a long-ass time ago.
Based on that description alone you know it has to be a Jane Espenson episode. Deadlock shows why Ron Moore is trusting Espenson to run the spinoff Caprica. She brings such an easy and relatable humanity to her stories. Deadlock carries a more Next Generation kind of tone here, at least until the tragic denouement that brings us squarely back to Galactica turf.
But I was reminded a lot of my biggest fears with writers or directors I like. Too much of a good thing. I’ve loved Jane ever since her days with Mutant Enemy doing Buffy and Firefly. In fact, I would liken Joss and his writing cohorts to being the Beatles of genre television. A well-oiled machine of countless creativity and quality that never flagged with their stories and their inventive and funny use of language that all thrived when they were united in purpose and goal. Apart, however, and also like the Beatles, their individual idiosyncrasies come to the fore and distract the hell out of you.
For the most part, Jane’s been able to quell these tendencies, but even her best episode “The Hub” couldn’t resist Roslin telling her subconscious she was full of herself. What a knee-slapper.
Then there’s Hotdog grousing about dead chicks always turning up in a bit of meta-hilarity. And, granted, I laughed. But it felt forced in there. I’ve never heard chicks used to describe women on the show, so why start now with the final five? Episodes?
Which I think was my main problem here. This to me seemed very much like a standalone that belonged earlier in the show. Like the one about Bulldog. Great character. Good story. Good character piece on Adama. But not essential.
Wait a minute. The Final Five Cylons? Not essential? Explain yourself!
Gladly, I tell my head Tallgent.
I think it would have been better served to see it as a story centered around Cottle as the final five have their reunion and vigil around Anders’s bed, the family squabbles begin, then Caprica Six suffers her miscarriage and we see through Cottle and staff valiantly doing their best Dr. Mark Greene action a reconciliation of sorts between our dysfunctional family. Adama and Baltar’s story would be periphery or even kind of heard as rumors of passersby in the halls. “You hear about those nut jobs who took the food and stuff from Baltar’s bitch squad?” “I don’t know, man. Cylon goop? What the frak?”
But this doesn’t fault the dedication that Kate Vernon, Tricia Helfer, and Michael Hogan bring to this episode. You can tell that Vernon was so glad to jump back into Ellen’s skin going from maternal to MILFY with her mantra of mayhem: I need a drink. After spending time with Ellen Tigh, Harpy Au Natural, I don’t blame her.
If there is any justice, I hope Tricia Helfer gets a prime mainstream role. She brought another fascinating dimension to Caprica Six and I have a terrible, terrible feeling where the loss of her child will take her. She fell in love with a human so self-absorbed that he seems incapable of it, and Tigh only saw Ellen in her eyes. Hell hath no fury, and it wouldn’t surprise me if poetic payback is coming Gaius’s way. Because, see, now he has guns and guns never cause trouble, right?
Finally, Hogan. I will miss Michael Hogan bunches. The last scene with Tigh mourning and Adama right there feeling his friend’s loss. Naming his son Liam….Whatever flaws this episode had the acting was certainly not one of them.
So storm on the horizon and a true empathy. Reminded me strangely enough of the humanoid robots who ran Captain Nemo in Space’s ship in The Black Hole. Of course in that Disney-does-Star-Wars they used to be human. Perhaps with the destined alliance of humans and Cylons the healing can happen. It’s already happened for Galactica. You missed one of the beams, Adama. I don‘t think it got enough gazing time as the others. .
But more importantly perhaps the humans are the final step for the Cylons to become what they’ve wanted to become so long. Just like their parents. God created us in His image, the Bible says. Perhaps the image they believe their God wants for them will finally be realized.
Tallgent
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