GWC Podcast #92

Podcasts Galactic Watercooler
#81

Like Doc, I really take exception to the characterization of Chief as an abuser and Cally as the battered partner. I draw a distinction between the “lash out” batterer, no matter what their excuse ( I was drunk…I was angry…I…I…I) and the very realistic instance that was depicted where Cally happened upon the Chief in the midst of a night terror (a true PTSD symptom) and he caused a lot of hurt to her before coming to his senses. This is a different category of assault and does pose a concern for our vets today.

As for Cally shooting Boomer, I don’t doubt that she had a major crush on Chief and her anger at what Boomer had done to him by implication of their relationship was a big factor in prompting her Jack Ruby impression. If you want to call that jealousy, ok, whatever; but I don’t see a motive of eliminating Boomer as a rival-that was already a moot point at the time.

And as far as the Chief and Cally ending up together, well we saw it happen in the space of minutes but in character time it was months. Following the assault experience, I can see Chief having his eyes opened as to Cally’s feelings for him and I don’t doubt that more than a trace of guilt was in his motivation getting together with her. But I still think that was more the impetus of the relationship and not the only commonality of it.

#82

…always interesting to see what the biggest hot-button topics are. Rarely what you’d expect.

I don’t recall the exact circumstances under which Chief beat up Cally, but I want to say it was him lashing out at the person closest to him at the time – which is a small distinction from him beating up someone he was actually involved with at the time. Either way is wrong, make no mistake. But their relationship (or lack thereof) at the time affects how much you can argue for it as an abuser/abused relationship.

My take on Cally: Moreso than the other main characters, she represents the everyperson who’s trapped in the situation, trapped in her job, and has less wiggle room than most of the other major characters, who are all fairly high-ranking in their respective castes. On top of that average-ness, she becomes a mother under these unpredicatble, even-more-uncontrollable circumstances. So ultimately, she has all these pressures heaped on her, and no way to really vent or escape. That’ll make you act a little grumpy. Factor in the probably lack of coffee (unless the can make algae coffee), and, yeah, she may behave in ways that aren’t totally pleasant or consistent. I think most people would.

I’m neutral on her, but I imagine I see where she’s coming from, so I don’t dislike her.

Song of the day pick you should listen too, then: LL Cool J, “Goin’ Back to Cali”

//youtu.be/v/IC7iIttp6cY&hl=en

As always, great to see such a spirited debate maintain such a rational tone.

Cheers all,

#83

Back in the THE DAY…damn that brought back memories–good pull!

#84

[LEFT]Seconded! Now I have to figure out if I have that on my Ipod…[/LEFT]

#85

Oh hell yeah man… yeah I’m gonna have to dig LL out myself… that brings it back alright… good times g.

#86

She’s always been attractive, and I don’t usually dig blondes…but WOW

Peep dis peeps!!

http://www.ew.com/ew/video/exclusives?lineupId=1155151521&videoId=1475269265

#87

Lot’s of great comments there Katebo & Kappa. I too just watched the extended version of “Unfinished Business” from the Season 3 DVDs last night, and agree that Dee went into the marriage wide open regarding the Starbuck situation and truly thought she loved Lee. However, I think the problem is she feel in love with a particular image that she had and apparently never got to know who Lee is as a person. I guess that is both their faults because they did jump into the marriage a bit fast (it seemed the popular thing to do at the time). As stated she appeared to be more enamored with him as Adama’s son than as his own person; I guess she was more in love with the uniform (no matter how big the body was inside it and as long as it eventually came home at night). In the end, she never realized that not all that far down he is actually quite different from his dad in some fundamental ways.

There were some enlightening character moments in the extended edition of “Unfinished Business” that might inform as to the different perceptions of Cally:

MINOR MINOR SPOILERS:

I was quite amazed that not only did the pregnant Cally tolerate the Chief drinking himself to a stupor at the Founder Day celebration while she herself of course remained dry, but to top it all off, she actually brought him coffee the first thing the next morning to help with the hang over!

That’s certainly one way to warm yourself into a guy’s heart…:wink:

#88

If his spray nozzle can clean my shower, then I need one. I hate ironing, shower cleaning, and cat-box cleaning. I’ll keep vacuuming, though… I derive a strange enjoyment from running the vacuum. Can he also make dinner when I am tired?

#89

I like Dee, and I try to cut her some slack about everything, but I remain so pissed the way she acted in her Lee-Billy transition. Billy dies in her arms (!!!) and she leaps into bed with Lee like a week later. I think you have a really, really good point about her relationship with Billy seen from her perspective, but she was so dreadfully unfair to him that night and after his death.

To begin with, even if she hadn’t expected Billy to be on Cloud Nine, plenty of other officers were and she was a fool to think that he wouldn’t find out that she was on a date with Captain Apollo the same day as he proposed to her. If you’re going to start seeing Lee, at do it in private at first- especially given the proposal. It was callous. Then, after he dies, Dee is nowhere to be found. President Roslin sat in the morgue crying over him while Dee lurked near Lee’s hospital bed, behind the curtain, not even talking to him. But she got her courage back quick enough, considering that by the very next episode, which appears to take place just a few weeks later, Dee and Lee are apparently frequent bedmates, and she never mentions Billy again. Cold! Then again, she’s in her mid-20s (like me), so I can’t hold it against her forever- we frak up a lot at this age, I think.

#90

But Chief did not conciously beat Cally up. He would have beaten anyone who had woken him at that moment in time because he was having a night terror. Like another poster said, it’s a symptom of PTSD. That’s why he went to counseling rather than to the brig.

#91

Point taken. So I’ll vote against the abuser/abused take on the situation. Thanks.

#92

Once you mentioned vacuuming, this immediately came to my mind…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRRLJ-v0KwM

#93

I bet their plan is better than the Cylon’s one.

#94

BTW, here’s a clip of what started this conversation off in the first place. Be warned, as it comes from the BBC it can require a particularly sophisticated sense of humor…

//youtu.be/1rQhhFL5Fkk

#95

Man, I need to get my laptop back from the store (it died, it was very sad)- clearly I need to be able to check the board more frequently! As for my read on the Cally situation, I’ll mea culpa- I apparently misread the woman’s perspective on her. My bad. As for Dee, interesting points, all. I still maintain we’re missing some information from that picture- we know how seriously Billy felt about her. We don’t know how seriously she took the relationship. It’s very possible for two people in a relationship to have vastly different views of it that they believe are shared with their sig. other. The night Billy died and Lee got shot, she wasn’t crying by his body because she was as by Lee’s bedside as she could be without overstepping. As callous as that sounds (and perhaps is), she realized just how much she cared for Lee when he got shot. I’m certain she was very upset by Billy’s death, but she was more worried that Lee would die too. As I recall, he got a shot to the stomach, and those can be pretty nasty, from what I’ve heard (not gonna lie. A not small portion of that perception is due to lines in Firefly’s pilot). Besides, Dee seems much more the try to deal and move on/suck it up type than the spiral into depression type (whereas Lee is the opposite).

As for the idea that Dee married Lee 'cause he’s the Old Man’s son, I can see some merit in that. She greatly respects Adama because they share many of the same values and I’m sure the idea of being an Adama greatly appealed to her, but I’d say that was on the second or third tier of reasons she agreed to marry Lee. What I do think is very possible is that she didn’t really know him as well as she thought she did. He was trying so hard to be his father’s son (shades of the conversation between Lee and Adama in the miniseries?), to convince himself that that’s what he was, that he wasn’t being true to himself and wasn’t letting many people see him. When that image of the son of the father broke down in the end of season 3, when Lee started being more of himself (which only happened after Starbuck died- coincidence? Discuss.*), Dee didn’t know who he was anymore and left. Talk about growing apart- they went from working together every day in the CIC of Pegasus to Lee quitting the military all together. I think it’s very possible Dee doesn’t feel like Lee’s the same person he was when they got married because, well he isn’t. She may have married him for traits and ideals he didn’t really have.

*My $.02- Lee never woulda resigned if Starbuck had been alive.

Also, I need to get me one of them Cylon Roombas. That’s too cool for words.

#96

I <3 Katee Sackhoff, but she’s just not as hot with long hair! Cut it all off, Katee!

#97

http://io9.com/372712/battlestar-finale-rewritten-depressing

#98

Okay, the whole centurions with attachments thing was so that Sean would get a centurions to water the lawn, but it wouldn’t be able to find the right attachments for and have to go to Sean and ask:

Where my hose at?