It’s week forty-Two of our planned off-season re-watch of the entire “re-imagined” BSG canon, and after a little time off to watch Razor, it’s time to move on to the season three episode “Dirty Hands.” So why not join us here for the GWC online frak party? There’s room for everyone, though you’ll have to bring your own snacks…
Feel free to jump in at any point with your comments on this week’s episode as the re-watch is by definition spoiler free. We’ll be in and out, but we’ll definitely take a look at your comments before we start next week’s podcast.
To be honest, Adama is probably my second favorite character in the show, so this episode really bothers me. The situation with him, Cally, and Tyrol just seems so out of character I skip this episode and pretend it never happened.
Probably my least favorite episode, and from the lack of comments, I assume others felt the same way.
I think people fail to realize just how important on a military ship it is to follow orders. There is no strike option, it is considered mutiny. These are not civilians with the option to not follow. Adama was absolutely correct in his actions by themilitary code. The border between a firm command & what Cain bruoght about is a very fine line, expecially in war. Was what Adama did distatsteful? Absolutely, however, it was necessary. In the end he IS the Commanding officer of a ship at war. Every person on that ship knows the consequences, even if those rules have been flexible since the attack.
I agree with you, but I think after watching Adama for the last 3 seasons he would be able to handle the situation more diplomatically, or heading it off before it became a problem. He has certainly shown he is a better leader in the past. Maybe he is becoming burned out, hell, I wouldn’t blame him, just a bit disappointing to see.
There idea of flexible rules this season was supposed to END during the boxing episode, when Adama decided to challenge the Chief to a boxing match and even though, in the end, Tyrol won the match, Adama gave a rousing speech about how the rules had been ignored to some degree, but they can’t afford that any more. That episode ended with Tyrol going back to the flight deck with Nagerski to finish the work that was still on their plate.
Now, a few episodes later, it’s the Chief AGAIN trying to utilize flexible rules.
This whole episode begins with Roslyn narrowly escaping death from the wayward Raptor.
The best scene of the entire episode is when Baltar shifts into his Aralon accent, he sounds disturbingly similar to Firefly’s Badger!
The big flaw in Baltar’s argument to the Chief at the end, when he asked if he could ever see the fleet being commanded by anyone not named Adama is flawed, when Adama was shot at the end of Season1, we saw what it was like when someone (not Lee) was in command. During Tigh’s time at the top… let’s just say that things didn’t go so well for anybody who doesn’t like martial law! Yes, I know that while he was out of commission, Tigh kept saying that it was still Adama’s command, but in the end, there was a good stretch of time where Tigh was making all the decisions.
Also, we only know ONE battlestar with officers, we had officers from Pegasus, but the only ones we really got to know are all dead. Was Kendra Shaw a Caprican? I don’t remember. Were any of the commanders of Pegasus after Admiral Cain all from rich colonies? I don’t know. Also, how many battlestars got destroyed during the miniseries? Were they ALL from rich colonies? We don’t know because we never were fed that info into the past.
The thing is, Adama is RIGHT and in the end, he even granted the Chief audience with the President. Who also recognized the dirty jobs union before Tyrol even acknowledged/realized that that was what he was doing.
The military has no room for mutiny, but both Adama and Roslyn, eventually listen to Tyrol, Roslyn set up that lottery (that the Chief agreed to) and the only reason, in the end, that Tyrol started the strike was that he felt guilty that the boy who he didn’t give an exeption to during the lottery was the one that got injured. When the second in command of the tillium ship was put in the brig and got all “squirly” trying to claw his way out of the cell, Tyrol used that situation to find out where the hidden seals were, so it wasn’t just about sympathizing with the injured.
I love the smile Kara gives the Chief after riding Ensign Selix! She LOVES what she does.
I do not believe that this is one of the best episodes of Galactica, but the last 15 or so minutes raelly saves it for me. Ending on a positive note, for a show that can turn out pretty dour is nice.
I loved the bit with Kara- it lets us know that she’s not always super frakked up and unable to function, even though most of what we get to see in depth this season is her downward spiral. When she’s not sleeping with Lee and/or Anders and/or other unseen fleet members, Starbuck is still the kickass, hardass, jackass of a Viper pilot trainer that we have seen from Season 1. Of course, that puts in a whole new and even more sad and shocking dimension to her impending death. Imagine being one of her nuggets and seeing Starbuck as this slightly messy and frakking crazy Viper Jock/incredibly versatile soldier who is close to untouchable when it comes to flying and saving the fleet from Cylons. It must have been horrible for them when she died!
It has been my interpretation that Adama threatened to shoot Cally, only because he had already arranged the meeting between Tyrol and the Pres before hand. Ironically, he realized the only way to resolve the situation was diplomatically. The problem was the Chief was in an active state of rebellion, and therefore could not be allowed to take part of the negotiations while still preserving the military hierarchy. I’ve always thought that Adama made such an outrageous threat to Cally only to get the Chief to back down quickly and allow them to actually start working on a solution. I don’t believe that Adama was acting in a Cain like way. Cain threatened to shoot loved ones to coerce people to act in a manner that was against their own self interests. Instead, Adama was actually trying to expedite the situation to get Chief to a place that was in his own best interest (i.e., negotiations on the working environment of the fleet). I don’t think Adama would have threatened Cally if he hadn’t had already arranged for the meeting with the Prez. On the other hand, I do believe that if Tyrol hadn’t eventually backed down, there was still the distinct possibility that she would have been shot (after which Adama may have resigned). Adama was actually testing the degree to which the Chief had faith in his leadership. If the Chief had any respect for Adama, the he would know that he would only make such a threat when his orders absolutely had to be obeyed. In the end I think the Chief is smart enough to understand the situation once he realized that Adama had previously arranged for the negotiations. In a sense Adama was showing that he still had trust in the Chief to do the right thing.
Interesting interpretation, Phil. Not one with which I agree, but I’d not even considered that possibility.
So, on a lighter note, when Starbuck yelled at the deck gang about the strike and non-vital launches, where did she say she needed to go? 'Cause whatever she said, the answer was totally, to bang Anders on his ship for a few hours. You know it.
