Galactica Season 4 (Spoilers Within)

[Alluveal]

I think she's the first cylon/half-cylon born through procreation. We all thought Nicholas was half-cylon until we learned Hotdog was his baby's daddy. Then Caprica 6 and Tigh were about to have a full-cylon baby. It meant continuation of the cylon race w/o resurrection.

Hera holds the key and she seems to also be a prophet of sorts. She's special beyond being part cylon/part.

Boomer becoming evil was never really shown. It was just kind of there. Hera was on board (after D'Anna 3 brought her,) and Boomer was trying to be a mom to her, but Hera didn't want anything to do with it.

Athena had Helo kill her so she could resurrect and steal her daughter back. Boomer did threaten to break little Hera's neck. We knew she was evil then. =D

 

[GKarsEye]

Ok I do remember one of those 8s stealing Hera... I must be thinking of Athena then.

Now that you mention it I do remember Xena Warrior Cylon getting Hera... that was on New Caprica, I think when everybody left the planet.

Yeah I guess I just don't get the whole "evil" thing w/ Boomer. I mean I can understand her taking the right-wing cylon side, but it's that added level of cruelty that seems to come from nowhere. Even Cavil hasn't done anything like that.

 

[Chilli]

I never got evil Boomer. I didn't even get why she shot Adama in season 1, awesome as that might have been at the time. Maybe it makes more sense to people that did not tune out on all the Cylon episodes a few years ago? I can't say.

As for the kid in the box - maybe she attached it to a breathing mechanism or something? It wouldn't have to stay in the box for long, after all. Still, evil, evil, evil move.

Helo gets the man-of-the-week award, not noticing that he is banging his wife's identical twin, who, unlike his wife, has never given birth. Pointless nitpick of the week - in exchange, I'll forgive them for Starbuck's compact cassette from her youth.

They have three weeks to make this all make sense. Clock is ticking.

 

[Truth_Seeker]

There's something I couldn't understand in the last episode. Why is Ellen waiting for Sam to wake up and explain to the others what's going on. Isn't she supposed to remember everything after her resurrection?

 

[Alluveal]

I never got evil Boomer. I didn't even get why she shot Adama in season 1, awesome as that might have been at the time. Maybe it makes more sense to people that did not tune out on all the Cylon episodes a few years ago? I can't say.

As for the kid in the box - maybe she attached it to a breathing mechanism or something? It wouldn't have to stay in the box for long, after all. Still, evil, evil, evil move.

Helo gets the man-of-the-week award, not noticing that he is banging his wife's identical twin, who, unlike his wife, has never given birth. Pointless nitpick of the week - in exchange, I'll forgive them for Starbuck's compact cassette from her youth.

They have three weeks to make this all make sense. Clock is ticking.

I think Hera was delivered via C-section. =) Not sure if cylons even scar, so maybe he couldn't tell.

Evil boomer, yeah. I don't get it. Let's torture this character who thinks she's a cylon, then give her fracked up programming that causes her to shoot Adama. Kill her via Callie, have her download into a traumatic situation realizing she's been resurrected. She and Caprica Six decide to plot against D'Anna because they're considered "heroes" and bring the human race and cylons together. Never really panned out and was handled very poorly. "Oh, hi, we're the heroes and we went through this mental and emotional struggle to try and sway some of the other cylons to join with the humans. Yay! Oh, wait, let's follow them to New Caprica and do absolutely nothing but be tyrants. Now this. Bleh.

 

[GKarsEye]

Helo gets the man-of-the-week award, not noticing that he is banging his wife's identical twin, who, unlike his wife, has never given birth. Pointless nitpick of the week

Dude, I can go into a whole NC-17 forum essay as to why that isn't necessarily a valid nitpick. You'll just have to trust me on this one.

 

[Chilli]

Dude, I can go into a whole NC-17 forum essay as to why that isn't necessarily a valid nitpick. You'll just have to trust me on this one.

Even after a C-Section?

Alluveal does have a point, though - we don't even know if Cylons scar.

Still would love to see that essay, though.

 

[Markas]

There is always something that Old Mighty can teach the young whippersnappers.

 

[GKarsEye]

I did not remember Boomer had a C-section.

Obviously we were thinking about different aspects of this situation. Carry on then.

 

[vacantlook]

I think the first season pushed this idea that some of the cylon models that were programmed to think themselves to be human, like Boomer initially was, had secret programming. Don't forget, shooting Adama isn't the only anti-human thing Boomer did before she fully knew she was a cylon.

Her cylon side took over and planted bombs that blew up Galactica's water tanks and water processing system in the second episode of the show. Boomer's constructed-human personality remembered nothing from her real cylon personality underneath doing it; she just regained her programmed personality while sitting in a locker room dripping wet with a bag of dry clothes and a towel sitting beside her after planting the bombs.

She also was the one who left a specific hatch open on Galactica on her way to meet with Tyrol for some secret sex down in the empty depths of the ship that allowed a copy of Doral to sneak on board the ship and blow up an area with a bomb that he had strapped to himself.

Boomer more and more started suspecting she might be a cylon, even to the point that she tried to shoot herself in the head, but she failed with the bullet going through her cheek instead. Eventually while pilotting a mission to deliver a nuclear bomb to a cylon baseship, Boomer encountered several other copies of her cylon model. She freaked out, returned to her raptor, and she and her partner flew out of there and jumped back to Galactica. It was there when she was being congratulated for a successful mission that she suddenly shot Adama. I assume it was that very moment that the programmed personality was completely erased and her regular cylon mind took complete control.

It's kind of like Talia and the Control personality in Babylon 5, just in reverse.

 

[GKarsEye]

Nothing like working on a Saturday to inspire obsessive thought and posting about a TV show...

I do remember that her shooting of Adama and previous acts were "activated" somehow. But if it's really a matter of a core personality wiping out a programmed one, then her final proclamation of love to Chief makes it a bit more confusing, that's why I mentioned it before. If she's "Control" and all evil and therefore just using him, she had nothing to gain by taking a moment to tell him all that stuff. She was already on the ship with the kid.

I guess what I'm getting at is I wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of redemptive ending for her, where she does something heroic out of love or some crap.

 

[Alluveal]

I did not remember Boomer had a C-section.

Obviously we were thinking about different aspects of this situation. Carry on then.

I'm not 100%. I remember there being massive complications and that usually comes along with a C-section. Then they told her the baby died.

 

[Alluveal]

I think the first season pushed this idea that some of the cylon models that were programmed to think themselves to be human, like Boomer initially was, had secret programming. Don't forget, shooting Adama isn't the only anti-human thing Boomer did before she fully knew she was a cylon.

Her cylon side took over and planted bombs that blew up Galactica's water tanks and water processing system in the second episode of the show. Boomer's constructed-human personality remembered nothing from her real cylon personality underneath doing it; she just regained her programmed personality while sitting in a locker room dripping wet with a bag of dry clothes and a towel sitting beside her after planting the bombs.

She also was the one who left a specific hatch open on Galactica on her way to meet with Tyrol for some secret sex down in the empty depths of the ship that allowed a copy of Doral to sneak on board the ship and blow up an area with a bomb that he had strapped to himself.

Boomer more and more started suspecting she might be a cylon, even to the point that she tried to shoot herself in the head, but she failed with the bullet going through her cheek instead. Eventually while pilotting a mission to deliver a nuclear bomb to a cylon baseship, Boomer encountered several other copies of her cylon model. She freaked out, returned to her raptor, and she and her partner flew out of there and jumped back to Galactica. It was there when she was being congratulated for a successful mission that she suddenly shot Adama. I assume it was that very moment that the programmed personality was completely erased and her regular cylon mind took complete control.

It's kind of like Talia and the Control personality in Babylon 5, just in reverse.

Hmm, I don't know. I like the premise, but I also remember her kind of "waking up" after Adama was shot and being like "what happened? Wait, what just happened?" And not knowing WTF was going on.

But, it would make sense if there were these two personalities always at war with one another inside her "psyche." It seems the cylon within has won out.

 

[Recoil]

Even after a C-Section?

Shes a CYLON. Perhaps they heal a bit better? No scar tissue? Thats what I'm thinking..........

 

[GKarsEye]

Shes a CYLON. Perhaps they heal a bit better? No scar tissue? Thats what I'm thinking..........

Well apparently cylons go through the same maternity related health issues, like C-sections. Remember those happens because a vaginal birth could not.

Though we all know how human-ish these charactes are depends on plot convenience.




(You've heard of Godwin's Law of internet debate, in which the longer an argument goes on, the probability of a reference to Hitler approaches 1. Welcome to GKE's Law, wherein the longer a thread with the mighty GKarsEye, the probability of vaginal references approaches 1.)

 

[Markas]

I suppose that would make Markas' Law have to do with penile references, eh?

 

[Chilli]

Well apparently cylons go through the same maternity related health issues, like C-sections. Remember those happens because a vaginal birth could not.

Though we all know how human-ish these charactes are depends on plot convenience.

Their spines glow red when they have hot sex, but it's impossible to distinguish them from humans in a medical examination!

(Yes, I hate this show, and will belittle its dramatic intricacies to the very end.)

 

[vacantlook]

Granted that we haven't seen any sex spines since Athena and Helo fucked on cylon-occupied Caprica in season one. It could be that that's something that's been chalked up to a list of abandoned concepts.

The ability to scientifically detect a cylon has always depended on the plot of any given moment in the show. I mean, how hard does want want to argue sci-fi storytelling vs scientific reality? Sometimes I think shows like this would be better served if their creaters just kept all science-y explanations out of it completely.

BSG is fun; it's diversionary; but it's not some kind of real-ish story. It's a space-based soap opera with science and political overtones and delusions of grand philosophical revolation.

 

[GKarsEye]

Sometimes I think shows like this would be better served if their creaters just kept all science-y explanations out of it completely.

Well I'm not a writer, but it seems to me that if one isn't prepared to offer some sort of full explanation for the sciency stuff, at least within the context of the story, then yes, leave it out. I'm not looking for BSG to tell me why their stuff is scientifically plausible, just for some sort of internal consistency.

That, or more sex scenes. Either way.

 

[Chilli]

Granted that we haven't seen any sex spines since Athena and Helo fucked on cylon-occupied Caprica in season one. It could be that that's something that's been chalked up to a list of abandoned concepts.

The ability to scientifically detect a cylon has always depended on the plot of any given moment in the show. I mean, how hard does want want to argue sci-fi storytelling vs scientific reality? Sometimes I think shows like this would be better served if their creaters just kept all science-y explanations out of it completely.

BSG is fun; it's diversionary; but it's not some kind of real-ish story. It's a space-based soap opera with science and political overtones and delusions of grand philosophical revolation.

I think I'd let the show get away with a lot more if it, itself, didn't take itself so god-damned seriously at the time. I mean, I let Buffy and Firefly get away with ANYTHING, because they never pretended to be anything but a show about a high-school girl fighting vampires, or a Western in space. I think your characterisation of the show is quite accurate, really - it's a soap opera in space, which occasionally does politics (sometimes well, sometimes poorly), and sees itself as really, really, deep (which it isn't) or as some kind of B5-ish epic (which it isn't, not with the writers having planned as little as they have, in ANY respect). I like the soap opera in particular because it feels like it was written like one - every week, the writers sit down thinking what turmoil they can put their characters through this week, while not paying much regard to what'll happen to the show after that.

So I occasionally enjoy this show, and occasionally hate it. Even when I enjoy it, though, the way the writers seem to think they're writing the most epic tragedy in history makes it almost feel like my duty to poke fun at the show. Even if it makes it so damned easy at times. And even if it probably makes me a sad geek that I watch an episode which is supposed to play at some undefined point in the past or future, centering around one character playing a song in a bar, with people playing darts behind her, after having listened to music off her 80s audio tape; and another character has visions of a house on a distant planet, which happens to be full of standard American power sockets; and think to myself .. "wow, this is fucking retarded."

(Yes, I know I'm going on and on about something not really important when I complain about the piss-poor job the makers of the show did in creating an environment that seems "alien", but IMO, it's really connected to all the other problems the show has - it's a symptom of a lacking concept. That the writers can clutter a show which is supposed to be about a culture which lives god-knows-when god-knows-where with so much contemporary earth culture and technology kind of indicates to me that they neither knew where they were or where they were going. How this culture we're watching is connected to our contemporary earth culture really is pretty essential to the plot, and I no longer think the writers gave any thought to this when creating the show. But hey, we'll see - maybe the last three episodes will prove me wrong.)