(lots of spoilers! assumes you’ve seen the episode!)
(previous: “Escape Velocity”)
“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.” William Butler Yeats wrote that in 1919, and he could well have been describing the slow-motion collapse that seems to be happening on Battlestar Galactica. The crew on the Demetrius is mutinying against Starbuck’s seemingly deepening insanity. The fleet is being fractured by Gaius’s preaching. And if Leoben isn’t a lone renegade, some of the Cylons are considering allying themselves with the humans in an attempt to find Earth, which may well be the only hope for human and Cylon alike.
Frak me, but it’s starting to look like the only way humanity will survive is with the Cylons at their side, however uneasily. It didn’t have to be that way, and it may not be happening in the way that the Cylons intended (or maybe it is…) but if nothing else, there are already “humans” like Tyrol and Tighe struggling with figuring out who they are, and there are already people who are half Cylon and half human. Honestly, what difference is there, really between the skinjobs and the humans? Matters of philosophy only, it would seem.
Even the humans can see that, even if they don’t realize they can see it. I couldn’t help but snort when the crew of the Demetrius was arguing over what to do with Leoben, whether to believe him or not, whether a Cylon could be trusted… while all the time, right there in the debate with them, is a Cylon — Sharon — whom they already trust with their lives as a member of their team.
There’s more in that Yeats poem: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” Sounds like Gaius to me, that last bit. While that enraged woman was spilling her grief to Gaius about everything she’s mad at about, you know, the end of civilization, I thought, If only she realized that, when it comes right down to it, it’s all Gaius’s fault. What would she have done? Would the new religion of love and perfection have stopped her from launching herself at Gaius and throttling him? Maybe it would have. Tighe was wrong to see mystery in the popularity of Gaius’s preaching is: it makes perfect sense. People are scared, the foundations of everything they’ve known and believe in have been rocked. Gaius is the only one telling them anything comforting. Hell, I’m almost suckered in by him. Is that what happened to Tory? If she’s still repulsed by him, she’s hiding it real well. And it’s interesting, too, that Tyrol’s half-Cylon son seems to like listening to Gaius’s preaching on the radio.
I’m not sure anyone at all here can be called “the best” — everyone seems passionately crazy.
More Yeats: “Surely some revelation is at hand; / Surely the Second Coming is at hand. / … And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” I’m starting to wonder whether the all that will be revealed is going to be a stranger, rough beast than we can even begin to imagine.
(next: “Faith”)
(Watch full episodes and get recaps at Sci Fi’s official site for the show.)
A very nice tie in there with that Yeats poem – very appropriate! I kept wondering when they where going to address the elephant – er, Cylon – in the room. For all the discussion about base stars and civil war and whatnot, nobody was really looking for Sharon’s advice when she’s the one with the most experience! Even Leoben didn’t mention that most of the other Sharons were on his side. Did I miss something? Why didn’t that come up? It was very strange – almost like she wasn’t really there.
My guess is that the Sharon stuff has ended up on the cutting room floor. Not that it wouldn’t have been great character moments, but if it doesn’t relate directly to how everything concludes I could see it getting the axe.
Look for a bunch of deleted scenes of that nature on the DVD set.
I’m not sure how much i liked this episode, it felt more like “Fear and Self-Loathing in Space” than what I usually look for in an episode of BSG. Granted there have always been strong sub-currents of those two emotions in the show but “The Road Less Traveled” didn’t exactly tell us anything we didn’t already know. Tyrol has hated himself and been ready to snap since he found out he was in love with a skinjob (and then MARRIES her MURDERER, do you need anymore proof the man is fucked up?!) and Starbuck has always been full of fear and self-sabotage masked under a thin veneer of bravado and, increasingly, tantrums. The only thing we really learned, was that in any marginally functioning civilisation both would be occupying rubber cells. Maybe that is the point, as society slowly slips into barbarisim the crazy start to lead the supposedly sane. It still felt like the episode was treading water more than anything else.
Also, MA, I was wondering if you would comment on the Roslin-Adama relationship and the changes that have been subtly hinted at in the first five episodes. I have always found the shifting dynamics of their relationship to be one of the most consistently intriguing aspects of the show, particularly since whenever Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell share a scene together everyone else may as well be window-dressing, with the bare exception of James Callis. Your thoughts?
I’ve noticed the growing intimacy in their relationship, but I don’t have any ideas on where it’s going yet, or if it has any connection to the larger story.
I think it would be wonderful if their relationship is never consummated in the traditional sense (i.e., sex, marriage, etc.). I would prefer a statement about the nature of companionship and friendship by having Adama declare his deeper feelings for Roslin (they’re there; they’re impossible to miss) and then “consummate” them by staying beside her through her cancer as her closest friend and companion (obviously by mutual agreement that this is the most desirable course of action).
So, if Roslin is a Moses-figure (i.e., lead the people, die before the Promised Land), then is Adama Aaron or Zipporah? If the former, and assuming “all this has happened before…”, then Roslin would do some form of passing the leadership of the military on to Adama, Jr. and then Adama, Sr. would die pretty much at the same time as Roslin– namely, also before Earth is settled.
More on this mythology: If Roslin is a Moses figure, she will likely still be alive when they find Earth. Remember, Moses was allegedly allowed to see the Promised Land but not enter before he died.
Re: Sharon.
Thank you! I’m glad I wasn’t the only one wondering why they never mentioned the 800-pound gorilla… or why Sharon herself never stood up in her own defense.
But I think it’s even more confusing than just a cutting-room floor edit: Sharon was arguably the primary instigator of the mutiny– or, at least the one who gave it legitimacy. Since the issue at question was following the advice of a Cylon, wouldn’t it seem nearly a necessity to at least include a few lines of dialogue about what her motives and/or inner thoughts are here?
One could argue that the writers are either 1) trying to give us credit and not beat us over the head with the fact, or 2) withholding information for a later episode. If (1), I think there are enough valid competing theories (i.e., she has more or less shed her Cylon identity, she is afraid to return to the people she abandoned, etc.) that it would be confirming a probability at worst to make it explicit. If (2), then I think that the issue is large enough, in need of explanation enough, and sore-thumb obvious enough that something else should have been cut instead.
Other than this, though, a good episode. I liked the narrower storyline focus, as always. While the seeds were definitely planted earlier for the character arcs contained herein, I think the journey can be as interesting as the destination, and so I don’t think this episode was treading water. Not as mind-blowing as “The Ties that Bind,” but still very good.
Nice work with the Yeats. I love it.
But we didn’t cover whether or not Gaius is a Messiah. Sure, the Prez is dyin’ and the leader isn’t suppose to enter the new land alive, so why can’t that be Gaius? Rosilin has already avoided death once, why not again?
And hasn’t the vision of Six he’s been seeing since season one said that she’s an Angel of God? And Gaius has been told that he’s an instrument of God. In order to be a Messiah you have to be… well, nailed to a cross or be sucked up into heaven.
Maybe, just maybe, God has a plan and Gaius Baltar is suppose to be leader and suppose to help with the destruction and rebirth of humanity, as the prophecy in season one states.
It’s tricky territory, I admit. But you can’t help wonder if that’s which way it’s going to go.
Combine this with the fact that many of the leaders of the resistance on New Caprica turn out to be Cylons, and I think the writers are building a theme of philosophy being the only difference between Cylons (or at least the skinjob Cylons) and humans, NOT origin.
I’m not sure what you mean by “only difference.” Obviously mono/polytheism is not the strictly ONLY difference, or else one will have to explain away an awful lot– coincidentally timed mass hallucination by Tory/Anders/Tyrol/Tigh; resurrection technology; suddenly increased physical abilities; etc. to name a few.
What you might mean by this, and what I think would be fascinating to see developed, is a revelation that Cylons (i.e., Centurions) never evolved into skinjobs– that skinjobs are just humans who either went into hiding with the Cylons or who the Cylons captured and brainwashed/converted/transformed or who happened to be around where the Cylons were hiding. From this perspective, we could look at the skinjobs as nothing more than more evolved homo sapiens: gods, if you will. They have advanced their technology to the point where they can clone, transfer consciousness, etc. Their “programming” is nothing more than an acknowledgment of the deterministic nature of the human psyche.
Now wouldn’t that be a mindfrak?
Remember Sharon’s interfacing with the Galactica, way back when? That suggests that the biological-Cylons are at least partially synthetic, as does the storage-and-transmission that makes the Resurrection Ship possible.
Of course, one neither does nor should expect full and detailed scientifically plausible explanations of events and/or things in a sci-fi universe.
That being said, I do hope that if it turns out the skinjobs are in fact Cylons (whatever else that might mean, I take it to mean at least partially synthetic in some significant fashion), there is some internally consistent and universe-probable explanation given for their distinction from humanity. If humans and skinjobs are identical on the cellular level, in what sense and in what way are the latter synthetic? Is a Cylon detector even possible?
There seem to be several signs pointing toward skinjobs being retrofitted humans, however. Good point Clayj re: the Razor flashback.
I was trying to make the point that there may be no biological differences between skinjobs and humans, that the skinjobs *are* biological, and no more “robotic” than humans are, except in the sense that we are organic machines.
Technology is detail: it is easily transferrable. I wouldn’t count that as a “difference” except in a strategic sense.
I wouldn’t put too much stock in images like Six’s glowing spine (and, incidentally, Sharon/Athena’s as well while on Caprica with Helo). While fanpersons like us are likely to nitpick and exhaustively catalogue things like that, it seems to me far more likely that the image was used for dramatic/visual effect rather than to provide a clue to the nature of certain characters.
I understand a little better now what you mean, MaryAnn. It would be interesting to see a story thread develop where ALL the differences posited by the humans between skinjobs and themselves are erased. Quite a call for tolerance and understanding against blind hatred that demonizes one’s adversary.
From my perspective, skinjobs as retrofitted humans could mean one of two things: 1) that the Cylons in some sense “grafted” their technology into humans, making it part of their organic makeup; or 2) that the Cylons were more psychological/neurological in their adaptation of humans. The Razor flashback seems to imply that at one point at least, (1) was tried. This approach would imply that there in fact are some material/biological differences between human and skinjobs. If that was abandonded in favor of (2), then perhaps humans were forced (either surgically or psychologically) to remove certain psychic blocks which prohibited them from reaching their “full potential” (as defined by Cylons). This would seem to me to be a compromise position to explain the Cylon-likeness of the skinjobs while retaining their humanity, and both with relative ease.
I just hope this doesn’t end like Matrix: Revolutions, by abandoning all science and all prior development and invoking the supernatural.
You make some interesting conjectures, Clayj re: resurrection technology. It, of course, raises the question if this is artificial or organic technology.
Now, to my knowledge there is no mention of how far out a Resurrection ship can be in order to be “within range.” Given FTL drives, however, and the vastness of space, it seems at least probable that we are talking about distances in terms of light-years. In any case, it is likely to be a good deal more than light-seconds or light-minutes.
Which, of course, can strain credulity when we are talking about “consciousness data” travelling light-years and entering an alternative body nearly instantaneously. Or perhaps the “consciousness data” is equipped with some form of FTL travel? Right…
I think it is more plausible that the technology is organic and at the quantum level. In quantum mechanics we are familiar with instantaneous action at a distance; perhaps this is at work in some fashion here. Or maybe there is some always-present connection on the quantum level between the resurrection ship and the skinjobs. This would explain how they always know when the ship is out of or in range, and it would also explain how they are unaware of what is happening to other iterations of their model until they go through the resurrection process.
Just thinking out loud…
You’re very astute to realize that quantum entanglement should never be “out of range.” Damn. I was hoping you’d miss that. :)
Of course, any signal in standard space will be subject to the speed of light. And now we’re right back where we started…
So maybe this is just one of those things of which we have to swallow a minimally acceptable scientific explanation, without delving too deeply into the details. Like… oh, I don’t know… faster than light travel?
let’s put another angle to resurrection an quantum entanglement. theoretically it has no range limits.
assume every skinjob and raider has built in gps. this way, any and every cylon knows which sector it’s in. based on this assumption we can say that resurrection ships accept data from known sectors or from an imaginary x light year sphere around resurrection ship.
first, it is a simple firewall effort to save resurrection ship from contaminating stocks. assume colonials design a computer virus to stop raiders.
second it is also an eficient decision. a raider killed in solar system shouldn’t resurrected in caprica.
I love how all this got started b/c we were talking about whether or not Cylons/humans are distinct in anything besides technology… :)
Personally, I prefer to think of the connection as being a continuous quantum state, which in some sense “downloads” all sensory/subjective input the individual Cylon receives in real-time. Then, there is a fail-safe built in to the resurrection ship which, once that connection is severed (i.e., the individual Cylon dies), activates the resurrection process on board using the most recent data. This allows the moment of death to be remembered, without all the tedious questions of whether or not Cylon programming can be “surprised by death” and fail to send out the signal in time. In the process, the consciousness data is shared with the other iterations of the same model, but perhaps not with the other models (the series has been somewhat unclear on this point)
As far as the range of resurrection technology goes, perhaps we might conceive it as a type of Y2K oversight? Perhaps the initial technology was never meant to extend past the Caprican system, and so the programming was just set to those or similar parameters. And, as Y2K showed us, there’s a good deal more involved in fixing the situation than adding a few placeholders to your numbers.
Yeah, I do think too much about this stuff. The neat thing for geeks like me, though, is that post-quantum-mechanics, theoretical physics has morphed into nearly completely legitimate physics– essentially, nearly anything is possible. Hence, we could postulate some form of brane cosmology and superstring theory just as well as wormhole travel and quantum entanglement.
It’s a good time to be a nerd… I mean, sophisticated.
So back to the original discussion…
Would this qualify as organic or artificial technology, and would it constitute a substantive and material distinction between humans and skinjobs?
I’m inclined to say it’s artificial technology making use of organic nature, which would render skinjobs identical to humans (in this respect, at least).
I think the key to thinking about the distinction is this: if a human could be brought into the resurrection system (however it works), would that make him or her a Cylon, or merely a human who can make backups of him/herself?
Looked at from the other direction: What makes a Cylon a Cylon? I don’t think we know yet, but I suspect we’re going to discover that there’s little difference between humans and Cylons that isn’t about philosophy and technology that cannot be easily adopted by humans, or vice versa.
clay, we already assumed there is an always on quantum level connection. so lets extend this assumption: somewhere in deep space near the cylon territory there are 8 main resurrection ships staying in a cube formation around an unkown center. this cube’s center would be a cylon-zero point and 8 reference points (cube’s corners) eases calculation.
what makes cylons cylon or what makes humans human. there isn’t any real answer to this question. apart from go created us we created them or in other terms, we are created by a perfect being they are not.
but if we really do need a key distinction it would be death. or exactly ability to die and knowing ones mortality. this is what makes humans dangerous and awesome :) we can sacrifice ourselves for greater causes. we try to achieve immortality by successes, discoveries, wars, religions. anything immortal is inhuman. if and when we became immortal we’ll lose our humanity.
MaryAnn, I think as far as the skinjobs exist at this exact moment (in the series), we are in agreement: there is no substantive biological difference between them and humans.
Where you and I differ, I think, are in regards to origins. I think the status quo assumption in the series is that skinjobs were created by the Cylons in much the same way we would build a watch– only using organic instead of artificial materials– or perhaps that the Cylons more or less naturally evolved (as the pre-episode intros suggest) into skinjobs. In the end, the assumption is that the skinjobs have their origin in the Centurion-style Cylons from the first war.
This is most definitely a substantive distinction from humans. The image that conjures in my head when someone says there is no difference between skinjobs and humans apart from philosophy/technology, etc. is an origin story wherein some humans who sympathized with the Cylon cause in the first war defected and have assimilated themselves into the Cylon culture, including their technology and philosophy. This retains a human origins to the skinjobs.
I think this would be fascinating, but I don’t see the story heading down that route. I see it heading toward something where humans were forcibly assimilated into Cylon culture, and in the process were transformed into something quite different– i.e., the skinjobs. This gives them a human origin only in a strictly biological sense, but in a much more meaningful sense gives them a Cylon(ic?) origin.
And I think this is where we disagree.
But what about the four secret skinjobs? Tigh, Tory, Sam, and Galen. Weren’t they born and didn’t they grow up? (Sam remembers his elementary school, which could of course be an implanted memory, but is it?) Obviously female Cylons can carry a child and give birth the old-fashioned way, so what if a male and a female Cylon had a child that was born as an infant and grew up the slow way? Would that child still be a Cylon?