Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

Spoilers for “Sine Qua Non” (4.08)

I haven’t been posting lately on the weekends so I’m considering this an extra. Since it is an extra, I’m going to revisit Battlestar Galactica again.

Previously, I’ve written about the difficulties I’ve had with last week’s episode “Sine Qua Non.” I didn’t know if I sounded very coherent or not at all, but I’m still struggling with what felt off about it.

(Seriously, how did I even watch TV before the internet? Are we able to have more complex shows now that the viewing audience is able to combine their interpretative efforts?)

So here’s a round-up of some places that helped me pick-up things over that last week:

Jacob’s recaps at TWoP. Always. His style does take some getting used to. I haven’t always liked him as much as I do now. Plus, he’s totally nuts—but in such a beautiful and inspiring way.

I love reading his essays. Page 1 of his “Sine Qua Non” write-up talks about the weird feel of this episode far better than I could ever do it. (If you’re a Doctor Who fan, go read some of his recaps for that show. Absolutely crazy and breath-catchingly gorgeous.)

I mentioned Shrödinger’s cat in connection with Lampkin’s cat and Laura Roslin. Jacob points out that everyone in this episode is neither who they are nor who they’re not—including the entire Fleet itself.

One of the best interpretations in this particular recap is that Lee becoming the interim president was not an anvilicious obviousness borne out of bad writing. It was a laborious examination and test of Lee’s own ability for self-deception and self-definition. The episode pushed an eventuality that we all knew was going to be. Lee was the only one not willing to see the truth of it and what that truth might mean to him.

This was not my original reading of the plot so I very much enjoyed reading Norman Doering’s alternative presentation of Romo’s return. (If you get a site warning notice, don’t worry about it. I don’t think you’ll run into anything truly offensive.)

I knew that the show was trying to hint at Cylon projection with Romo and his cat, but I didn’t even think about how Tigh is also projecting when he sees Ellen instead of Six until this post by James Newberry.

It’s funny how most people, including MaryAnn Johanson, think of Mark Sheppard as Badger from Firefly, but I think of him as Cecil L’ively from one single episode of The X-Files. Oh, XF, how I loved you.

Tags: TV //