George Gershwin is one of my favorite composers because he infused his songs with so much contradiction. He took playful jazz elements and mixed them with a truly epic and iconic classical symphony for Rhapsody in Blue. And with the song where the episode gets its name from, he turned a simple love ditty into something more poignant and wistful. Something longed for than fully realized.
Because while it is a song about companionship and having a loved one who watches after you, it also speaks to the hope for someone, anyone to have a personal investment in you. A guardian angel. For a benign force to take personal stake in your well-being. For someone up there to like you or at the very least give a damn.
All of the characters in the story are being watched by others. Kara continues to keep vigil over Anders. Tyrol is watching over the well-being of Boomer. The spirit of Kara’s father, perhaps her own conscience, watches over her.
Meanwhile, everyone is praying someone is watching over a rapidly deteriorating Galactica.
But in true Galactica fashion (and maybe Gershwin’s) watching over someone can sometimes have malicious undertones as well. Hell, there was a suspense thriller with Tom Berenger titled “Someone to Watch Over Me.”
With two events leading to an identity crisis, Kara’s discovery of her own dead body and Tyrol’s reunion with Boomer, both of them feel a sense of longing they haven’t felt in a long time. Tyrol’s is a rediscovery while Kara’s is a discovery as she comes to terms with the damaged relationship she had with her father.
I liked how we were kind of tricked into rooting for one while witnessing the other with a kind of detachment until the big twist when in actuality Kara’s story became more compelling.
Tyrol and Boomer’s was also compelling but more with the aftermath and the bitter knowledge that a happy reunion ain’t in the cards and Boomer better watch her skin because the Agathons definitely have a skin job in mind and a lot worse for taking their little girl. Not to mention even more evidence for Adama to actually get a therapist on that ship. Poor Helo and Athena. Gonna be some awkward moments for awhile methinks.
Actually, that does bring up something that I was afraid was gonna happen. Eventually, the whole Cylon models thing would become ridiculous. You have all these Cylons who look the same and it’s getting harder and harder to tell who’s who. So you could almost telegraph Boomer taking advantage of Helo and rubbing it in Athena’s face. Good scene, but it felt contrived.
I have to say I was genuinely surprised that they showed Tyrol’s vitriolic stomping on Callie’s memory again. I liked Callie and I really wanted those two kids to work it out. I’m sure so did the chief, but only because he felt there was no choice.
Now the stars have aligned and he’s got another shot. Now that he knows about and has accepted his Cylon identity, this as great a chance as he’s gonna have. And sure enough the vision he has with Boomer, whether from her doing or from his or a combination, all traces of that forced upon life don’t exist. They’ve got a suburban haven on an honest-to-goodness planet, Picon. Even the son who turned out not to even be his is erased from this idealized dream. In this one he’s got a little girl. And that little girl came from daddy and mommy.
Honestly, you get a nice little summation of nature vs. nurture with both stories. Intro to Sociology students, take note. Clearly loves Boomer and feels he has to protect her because of his Cylon bond–I mean, dude, they mind-melded–but when push comes to shove his loyalty to the crew wins out. He stays on Galactica and one thinks will make amends for being snookered by helping get Hera back.
As for the one who took Hera in the first place, she turns out to be as full of contradictions as Cavil. She may believe she is at heart a machine, but she also at heart loves Tyrol which is poignantly demonstrated when she tries to have him come along. And then we see very human cruelty demonstrated when she beats the crap out of Athena and seduces her husband–giving Athena front row seats tied and gagged. But in the end she is as much a product of her nature as her mentor and she carries out Cavil’s wishes. Gotta hand it to Cavil. Dude just out-Vadered Vader. Frak homing beacons!
Bring me the brat!
I know the popular consensus was to knock the Kara B-plot but in a lot of ways I found it better. For one, the show straddles the line so often between the metaphysical and physicality (explosive action, politics, Adama cutting himself shaving …) but lest we forget there are hints of something greater leading both the Cylons guided by faith and the human survivors guided by necessity. And ultimately this is a benign and positive presence. Fate WANTS for there to be communion between the Cylons and humans. That presence, I believe, manifested itself with Kara’s interactions and reconciliation with her father.
But if whatever force is watching over Galactica it resembles, I believe, the personal Cylon God that is perhaps taking over the more impersonal polytheistic belief. It doesn’t force Kara to move into the direction of getting Anders to wake out of his coma by listening to his father’s music, it allows her to make the personal leap needed to heal her wounds from his betrayal. What I liked about these moments is it knocked him off the pedestal of her childhood. They’re not that different as evidence in the opening. Being CAG has become tedious and monotonous. Like her father, she used to find joy in just creating. Being a stud pilot was her chance to find balance between her opposing poles of influence. The hard-line military stance of her mother versus the expression of creativity and strive for perfection her father had. And also like her father she was prone to disappointment because of the expectations placed on herself.
When she saw herself in her father and allowed the both of them to find that missing melody they both tried to crack, it gave me chills. Katee Sackhoff, Aaron Douglas, and Grace Park all really flew with this episode.
It is that cracking of the melody that allows Kara to make that intuitive jump to play her father‘s music. Maybe as a healing balm but perhaps as something more.. And consider this was the same woman that told Anders she would shoot him in the head of she found out he was Cylon. The growth of these characters and where they started. Think about that.
But with all this talk of something watching over us what happens when we don’t get an answer to our please? The moment when Boomer jumped is when that question was asked. The answer’s yet to come. But with the ship already held together literally with Cylon glue, the resilient ship might have just screamed its last painful cry. Whatever destiny has led them to this point has fallen silent.
And that‘s when you’re really tested.
P.S. I have seen Felgercarb. And it is toothpaste. Brilliant.
TallGent
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