GWC Re-Watch Frak Party: Lay Down Your Burdens Pt. 1 & 2

Frak Party Archives BSG Frak Party Archive
#1

It’s week thirty of our planned off-season re-watch of the entire “re-imagined” BSG canon, and it’s time to move on to the season 2.5 two-part finale “Lay Down Your Burdens Pt. 1 & 2.” 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.

Note: Some readers/listeners asked us to leave comments open on the frak party blog post as they enjoy commenting more than forums. So if you have the time, keep an eye on the blog post every now and then, too, so we don’t leave 'em out in the cold.

http://www.galacticawatercooler.com/2007/10/24/gwc-re-watch-frak-party-lay-down-your-burdens-pt-1-2/

#2

bad night for the chief, nightmares while sleeping on a comfy floor. I love waking up someone I care about, only to have them pummel me while in a blinding rage somewhere between bad rem sleep and madness (thanks chief!).

It’s amazing to think that the chief first thought he was a cylon here in this ep and it took him an entire season (in this case well over a year) to realize it was true.

After the ep where Brother Cavil kills #3 and boxes her to keep her knowledge of the final 5 a secret, I have always thought that he was the true holder of all the keys, meaning that he already knew (and was the only one who knew) who the final 5 really were. Seeing him KNOW that the chief was having recurring nightmares, helps solidify it, especially with his line about being a cylon and not seeing the chief at any of the meetings (probably one of my favorite scenes in the entire series because Cavil turns out to BE a cylon) as a was of throwing him off track. If he DIDN’T know who the final 5 were and none of the 7 main models really knew who the 5 were, then his line about not seeing him at the meetings makes no sense, since no one would have seen them at any meeting.

I love the private moments between adama and roslyn, when he makes her crack up into the giggles and then they can’t even stop when they are walking down the corridor before the first debate.

The entire fleet (except for Helo and the chief) hates Athena, but all she has done (outside of strangling Doc Cottle, when he told her her baby died) to help Adama and the fleet, she even helps them merge cylon and human tech in this ep.

Hey, foreshadowing about finding “any rock” from Lee, I didn’t remember that from watching the first time around. Then the wayward raptor crew helmed by Racetrack finds the planet.

I like how in Lee’s presentation, he uses a wireless mouse as his presentation clicker!

When Torre says to Roslyn that people vote their hopes, not their fears, I WISH she was right, but it always seems like the opposite in real life, I feel that politicians and newscasters always try and stir up everyone’s worst fears and then use those fears to keep them in power or to keep watching until the end of the next commercial break.

That dead fish look on Roslyn’s face after Baltar breaks into her time at the last debate to talk about Roslyn using fear while he promoted hope was great, it was at that moment that she KNEW she had just lost the entire election.

#3

This is my absolute favorite episode of all time. I’ve seen it a least 5 times by now. =D

*Baltar politicking. Anything more delicious? Anyone?
*Dead-on opening music cue by Bear, “Something Dark is Coming.”
*Bro Cavil. Best Cylon evar.
*And…gasp…Cylon occupation! ZOMG! I still love torturing friends who have to wait until the DVD before watching season 3. It’s hard to avoid giving away that the colonists are rescued by nerding out about the Galactica atmosphere sequence. =D

#4

This is a brilliant episode and knowing what it leads to (the best story arc in BSG, IMO) makes it all the more sweet. So incredibly ballsy on all sorts of different levels like the jumping ahead a year bit. Boy, the uproar that caused.

And then there’s fat Lee. lmao

#5

And speaking of Fat Lee - or just FAT - for all you South Park fans - last nights ep started with Cartman doing a V.O. saying: “Previously, on Battlestar Galactica”

…must…find…wav…file

#6

and if you do find it, Please, let me know where !

#7

if find it–Im lettin’ everyone know!! LOL

#8

I love this episode, too. I’m always intrigued that it’s Tigh and Dee who try to help Roslin steal the election. It’s amazing to see how far Tigh has come (or maybe just how much he despises Baltar) that he’s ready to steal an election for a woman that he helped remove from office just a few months earlier. And Dee seems like a pretty moral person (with the exception of her dealings with Billy…grr…), so it’s surprising that she would go along with the plan. Now that we know that Tigh is a Final Fiver, could that have tied into his decision, that somehow, subconsciously, he was trying to keep the humans from settling on New Caprica to avoid the occupation and/or keep them from taking a detour from whatever destiny it is that they’re heading for? It would be in keeping with the Final Fivers’ being active in the NC Resistance. Food for thought…

The shot of Adama shuffling down the empty corridors of Galactica is one of the saddest shots in the whole series. Whatever happens to him at the end of the series, I hope Adama is not ever left to “man the lighthouse” alone again; in a weird way, Adama dying would be a happier ending than that.

#9

Speaking of Tigh, this is the last time he has two eyes in a regular episode. So goodbye Tigh’s eye, ya had a good long run.

#10

I like the idea, but I don’t think anyone is at fault for the cylons actually finding New Caprica except for Baltar (for giving away his Nuke) and Gina (for 'sploding herself inside that nebula, accidentally allowing the cylons to track down the fleet). If you think about it, Baltar’s plan to live on New Caprica would have probably worked pretty well if he hadn’t given away his nuke or at least taken it back after WINNING the FRAKKING ELECTION. He gave Gina the weapon 1) to get Gina to trust/sleep with him and 2) so she could use it as a terrorist weapon against the Roslyn gov’t which he could have probably used to leverage himself to the presidency against Roslyn as well.

#11

Not sure how much of an “accident” it was. Have this feeling this was part of the Cylons plan all along. Baltar was gently nuged by Six to make his campaign about living on the planet, a planet whose coordinates were supplied by Sharon (rememeber the Raptor squadron were supplied with jump coordinates by Sharon - not too hard ot give 11 ships the right jump coordinates and one ship a special set that just so happens to take them to a planet), the Cylons all left Caprica en masse, Brothers Cavil inform Adama and Roslin that after leaving Carpica the Cylons have “other plans” (which isn’t quite a lie…)

What better way to show your enemies that you are “benevolent” than to make them stop running so you can catch up to them and be all bestowing some benevolence…on Tigh’s eye (yeeesh)

David

#12

I don’t buy it, at this point in the show, the cylon, soon to be named Athena has done nothing to make the crew think she’s still in league with the rest of the cylons. Ever since she told Helo about the original cylon plan for the two of them, she has done nothing but try and keep her family safe and help the Galactica crew (except from Doc Cottle’s perspective when she started strangling him after he lied and said that Hera was dead). I am not saying that in the future she won’t betray the Galactica crew (even though I don’t see it happening unless they do something to provoke her first). I just think that finding the planet was a total accident, due to Racetrack and her co-pilot inputting the wrong directions.

#13

Provoke - like telling her that her kid is dead, then turns out they gave it to someone else kind of provoke?

Also, I’m not saying it’s impossible for it to be a total accident - however, the chances of a jump being off, just enough so they find a planet, that can sustain human life (water, air etc), with a cloud that throws off Dradis, in teh entire sector (or galaxy or whatever)…is incredibly lucky.

And you may be right.

However, at this point in the series, her kid is dead (so she thinks), she has resentment (to say the least) against humans, her “sister” Sharon is one of the war heroes telling all her Cylon folks “hey we should leave Caprica” at that same moment—honestly, what is to stop her from help her fellow Cylons set up a trap where human can be caputered and shown just how happy life can be under Cylon control?

Just a thought is all…

#14

If I recall correctly, they didn’t enter the wrong coordinates. There was something wrong with their FTL computer’s firmware. Hmm…does sound suspicious, doesn’t it?

#15

I agree that she’s pretty resentful at that point, BUT how would she have realistically known that the coordinates that Racetrack ended up with were next to a planet, or that the Six model from Pegasus wasn’t dead (did she ever know that Six existed?) or that she had a nuke? Everything we’ve seen about the Cylons indicates that they are able to communicate in ways more sophisticated than humans, but that it’s not telepathic or automatic. My theory is that they normally require that goo and that somehow they transmit information (be it memories, data sets, coordinates, locations of Cylons who have infiltrated the RTF) through it. Obviously, when a Cylon dies he or she has to transmit all of his information (ie consciousness) without goo. But I think it’s a special scenario that requires a great deal more energy and effort and resources- it’s obviously got a spatial limit, too, since they had to build resurrection ships. Perhaps the difficulties involved in transmitting info without goo is why downloading is so hard on them.

True, it does sound suspicious. But I still don’t think that in this case Sharon knew what she was doing. Even if she did purposely get them bad FTL coordinates, I can see Sharon doing that to be a bitch and take a little piece of revenge against the people who hurt her and her baby. Like, “Haha, at least now you aren’t going to help on Caprica and you can spend all day finding your way back to Galactica in embarassment,” rather than, “Hahaha, now I’ve got you in my web of deception and soon you will have to live on crappy new Caprica under Cylon occupation! I am so evil and awesome!” Also, Racetrack was one of the Viper pilots who was craaaaptastic to Helo for being a toaster-frakker. Maybe Sharon just doesn’t like her.

#16

Actually, I wasn’t thinking she did it out of resentment. This is sort of a Big Picture idea, but following along with the idea that “this has all happened before and it will happen again,” I don’t think it’s coincidence that Sharon chose the nickname Athena. The Lord of Kobol named Athena seemed to have a great deal to do with the first Exodus. It’s possible that Cylon Athena is playing the same role like Roslin is playing the role of the Dying Leader. Athena may have subconsciously sabotaged Racetrack’s FTL computer to allow New Caprica to be found. This sets the stage for the new Exodus. Remember also that Athena (Sharon) was instrumental in the New Caprica evacuation.

Anyway, just a thought.

#17

Reminding us of this point makes it so much more clear why Dee leaves Lee, and why their relationship was/is doomed if they are going to bring politics into it. While it irked me while watching Crossroads Pt. II that she left him, now I realize that it would be completely inconsistent of her not to walkout. She has no belief in the system, and is free willing to subvert it to get the result she desires if she thinks it is important enough. I contrast, Lee feels that “the system” itself is the only thing that make their civilization worth saving and worth fighting for. By defending Baltar in the trial, he inadvertently undermining Roslin’s presidency which was something that Dee was willing to break the law to defend. Unfortunately, I don’t see how those two can come back from that. I wonder what Lee’s reaction would be if he knew Dee had been a party to subverting an election?

#18

That zippy noise is the sound of your point flying right over my head. I hadn’t been thinking of “this has happened before and it will happen again” in terms of Athena specifically causing the fleet to stumble upon New Caprica, but in terms of fate and prophecy it creates a neat little package tied with a shiny bow : )

Whether or not Sharon intentionally led Racetrack to the planet (and, if so, whether or not it was out of petty malice or a greater Cylon mission)… it’s an interesting Big Question to think about.

#19

Here’s another interesting tidbit, if Athena was involved with leading Racetrack to New Caprica that means an “Eight” has been responsible for every major discovery the Fleet has made.

Rescuing Baltar - Boomer
Finding a bunch of vital civilian ships - Boomer
Finding water - Boomer
Finding tlyium ore - Boomer
Finding Kobol - Boomer
Finding the Tomb of Athena - Athena
Finding food - Athena

Seems like way too many crucial discoveries to be coincidence.

#20

So, Sharon is the new Racetrack?