BSG: What Happens to a Dream Obliterated?
spoilers for “Sometimes a Great Notion” (4.11)
It’s so good to have Battlestar back.
For this episode, kudos must go out to Kandyse McClure and Bear McCreary for being so awesome amidst a sea of awesome. Dualla’s eyes in the Raptor on the way back to Galactica told us everything we needed to know. It was only on a second viewing that I caught most of what she did as Gaeta was closing the hatch door.
McCreary’s music was fantastic as well. Character themes came back in unexpected ways. The music lead us through the connections between a character and his/her own past as well as the connections between one character with another. I especially loved the music in the hallway scene between Lee and Dualla. To me, it was clear that this was a goodbye.
It’s well documented that this was the last episode filmed before the writers’ strike. Everyone knew that this could potentially have been the last Battlestar Galactica episode ever, and I think the special dedication and focus showed in every aspect of this hour.
The acting, which is always stellar, just had me in awe this time. I especially appreciated Leoben’s stagger backwards at the wreck and Adama’s “I don’t frakin’ know” in the morgue. Roslin’s head shake in front of the crew gave me shivers.
I still can’t get my head around the complete and utter destruction of the dream in this episode. What if everything you hold true and the truest beliefs you have about yourself just … fail … spectacularly.
Roslin lived that whiteboard and the souls aboard the Olympic Carrier. Adama’s dedication was more intimate, more personal. He lived for the extended family that is his crew. Starbuck, for all her flaws, always believed in herself. Leoben thought he could play on the levels of the Hybrids and god. And D’Anna, the strong one who could always find a way, just decided she was done.
There are two suicides in this episode, and they parallel well. The two women simply decided that enough was enough. They fully supported, understood, and wanted the rest of the fleet to continue the struggle. It’s just that—they were done.
Dualla defied her family and her fellow Sagittarons by joining the service. She wanted, as she told fake reporter D’Anna Biers, to believe in something. Regardless of what life threw at her, she remained the professional. And so it was hard for me to emotionally connect with her.
It’s not that she didn’t break the rules. It’s that she made her decisions so competently and forthrightly that she didn’t have the easy-access hook of some of the other characters. She married Lee knowing full well what she was walking into. Their break-up was handled so … professionally. She helped Roslin escape from the brig and rig an election … professionally. She hid away the pain and guilt that must have been there for Billy because those are her own.
For many of her scenes and for her functionality on the ship, people literally talked right through her. So it was hard for me to understand what I was seeing in front of me. But the choices she made about her death puts her in focus for me.
She systematically funneled all that was left of her enthusiasm and optimism into the one man she trusted with the future. She determinedly decided on her final state of mind. She chose and decided all of this—competently, forthrightly, and professionally.
I’m going to remember this character’s death for a long time to come.
Added: In discussing Dualla with a friend, I had another chance to type out my thoughts. My main points are mostly the same, but some additional ideas did come up. I’m going to post that on another day.
[...] and how two such strong women decided to pretty much end it all there on a destroyed planet, in What Happens to a Dream Obliterated? posted at Ms. Smarty Pants Know It [...]
[...] already wrote a post on this latest episode of Battlestar Galactica. In an email conversation with a friend though, I had the opportunity to restate much of what I [...]