What are they doing with Boomer's character? spoilers

Television, Movies Games and Books BSG-2003
#1

Boomer, the character who fought for humanity in Downloaded, who argued for the Cylons to stop being butchers on New Caprica, who was unwittingly used as a sleeper agent in season one that caused her to try suicide to protect the fleet, is now a bad guy, and the latest episode doesn’t even make a coherent attempt to explain why she’s now evil. She’s evil now, and suddenly everyone knows it. Somehow Laura Roslin knows Boomer is bad news, but how? Adama is angry she shot him, but it’s suddenly dropped that she was a sleeper agent. Why is Boomer evil? Why does everyone know Boomer is evil? Roslin is acting like Boomer’s been wearing a black hat from day one. I just don’t get it.

“We need to stop being butchers.” Those were Sharon’s words on New Caprica when she was in a meeting with her people. When Jammer asked for her help regarding Cally, the woman who killed her on Galactica and married Galen Tyrol, her ex-lover, she forgave her and tried to save her. These scenes cause problems with the person we’re witness to in Rapture, who spouses Cavil’s rhetoric about humanity and Cylons and now steals babies and sleeps with Helo to espouse soap opera moments that are ridiculous. If she recognized the error of her people’s behavior on New Caprica, how can it be a surprise to her that it would turn out so bad? Why is she now antihuman? The problem is that, even with the brief scenes we were given on New Caprica, Boomer wasn’t anti-human, even when Callie said she wanted to shoot Boomer. What did Boomer do in response to Callie’s hatred of her? She tried to save her. What happened to Boomer to cause her to be a villian in this episode? Why the 180?

To me, it seemed like Boomer was set up as the antagonist to Athena’s protagonist these days. Boomer was turned into a villian, but it also felt wrong and out of character. I think that Boomer’s shift to the “dark side” was abrupt, and the threat against Hera, kidnapping her, seemed completely story-driven rather than character-driven, as Boomer was agahst at what her people were forcing Baltar to do in signing the death warrant against so many people on New Caprica, and suddenly she’s siding with the one person who had no sympathy for humanity - Cavil? Cavil spoke about reducing humanity to “managable numbers” while Boomer stressed the need to “stop being butchers.” She knew exactly how wrong things were on New Caprica, she wasn’t blind to it. Why turn to Cavil’s side? Why kidnap a baby for him?

To use a Farscape reference, she was Chianized. It was like Boomer started acting dark since the middle of Season 3 simply to give Athena and Caprica Six a reason to escape the Basestar, an act in itself was never properly explained given all the Centaurions and Cylons roaming around the ship, and now to be a nemesis to the protagonists. I think it could have been just as tragic for Boomer to realize that, as much as she’d like to go back, she’d never be accepted (at least, at that point in time). Kidnapping Hera is just like the whole “snap Hera’s neck”, solely there to serve the plot and not the character, with Boomer fitting the role any number of others could have (and it likely would have made more sense if that was the case - I mean, has Simon actually done anything since his premiere episode to give us any idea for who he is? I know more about Tori than I do about Simon and that really makes no sense.)

It’s like when Athena shoots Natalie earlier in the season - why does she do it? Is she hallucinating? Athena was rational when she spoke to Tyrol. Did she confuse Natalie for the Six in her dream? No, because Caprica Six confirms she was the one in the dream who Hera runs to, and she felt she needed to protect the child. It’s like Boomer threatening Hera - put there for the story, not because it makes sense for the character. It isn’t even like Natalie’s death is brought up again, even among the Cylons. Now Boomer is evil, and it is simply OOC. Thanks for hearing me out. This is just my two cents.

#2

First of all, Welcome to the Forums, Lobsel Vith.

I mostly agree with you. I hate it that Boomer is such a villian now. At this point she seems beyond redemption. I have been hoping since Boomer got shot, that she and the Chief would eventually be able to be together, and have a happy life, as far as that is possible in the BSG universe. I see no hope of that now. Very sad.

#3

I think it’s a rather interesting turn of character though, even though I’d need to rewatch all the old eps to recall what happened during New Caprica, etc.

But, for me, now that I have a chance to think about it, there are many reasons why Boomer, like Cavil, felt the most betrayed and would do destructive things. It was just because it was Boomer, and like the Chief, we all wanted so badly for things to end well with her and the Chief that we’ve forgotten just how much Boomer’s life is about betrayal.

So, the story of Boomer:-

She started out as pilot, life is good, she has the Chief and a job she loves. The destruction of the colonies, but she’s still all right in galactica, being a part of the military, helping all of them find a way to salvation. Feeling pretty good. Then
BAM! She finds out she’s a cylon, and and her programming made her do a lot of things - like shooting Adama who she totally respects - she didn’t want to do. Then
BAM! She get killed by Cally. Then
BAM! She’s downloaded, and living amongst the very same cylons who betrayed her for making her into a sleeper agent and giving her the human experience only to take it away swiftly. She lives in her old apt, trying to recreate her old life without success.

After a while, she tries her hand at forgiveness, works with Caprica to create a Human/Cylon world, New Caprica. Then
BAM! The Chief is married with a kid. And
BAM! New Caprica didn’t work out, which I think she really pinned her hopes on. Even though the Chief is married to Cally at that point, should New Caprica had worked out in any way, I’d think that down the line, Boomer thinks she has a very good chance of roping her man back in. (It’s just CALLY, right?) But anyway, the end of New Caprica effectively marked the end of any possibilities of any reunion between her and the Chief.

So, anyway, back in the basestar, Hera comes along, reminding Boomer again that
BAM! Athena is a mother now, which is something Boomer can’t be.

Then, Athena resurrects, and steals the child, reminding Boomer once again that
BAM! Athena, her very own model, was able to have and be the “Boomer” that Boomer can never be. Athena somehow managed to have all of Galactica and a family while being a cylon and Boomer could never have. She probably despises her for being strong enough to stand through from being a leper in the Galactica community to becoming a well respected (even by Adama) member, as a cylon.

Then comes skeevy Cavil, who probably doesn’t help with her sense of forgiveness much. You hang out with someone evil with a ton of grudges, you can’t help but become the same. The evil swirls probably didn’t help with things either.

Now, I don’t know if she’d set out to do exactly all that when she came back with Ellen in tow - though from how evil she’s being, I’d say it was all planned - but anyway, let’s suppose she wasn’t. Then
BAM! she was thrown back into the brig and being promised a death sentence by the renegade cylons.

Effectively ending all and any lingering thoughts of being good again.

And scene.

#4

It now seems so obvious… It was planned all along.

Everyone was asking, how did Boomer find the fleet… well it’ obvious, John knows where the fleet is but doesn’t want to take it on especially without resurrection. So He and Boomer planned this when it became obvious that Ellen could not or would not rebuild resurrection on her own.

And Boomer played Galen like a cheap violin. Looks like Roslin and the other Cylons were the only ones who really had Boomer’s number.

She downloaded Athena’s memories so she could fool Helo… and get close enough to snatch and escape with Hera…almost taking Galen with her (which would have given her a two-fer.) I doubt she and John want Hera for anything more than as a bargaining chip. They know how much the humans and human-loving cylons think of Hera so they figure the final five will rebuild resurrection for the John-Boomer faction in return for Hera’s safe return.

Cavil will be so proud of his prodigy. And the way he talked to Boomer in front of Ellen may have been calculated too… to make Ellen think Boomer was not an equal.

John and Boomer are the new Adam and Eve of the Cylons…equal partners.

#5

Welcome, Lobsel Vith! Thanks for starting this discussion. I see where you’re coming from, but I think I put more weight on how the utter disaster of New Caprica changed Boomer. Boomer tried so hard to make things better with all the humans and with Chief in particular, and then it blew up in her face so horribly, with Cally pretty much spitting in her face when Boomer visited her in detention after she’d tried so hard to be gracious about Cally murdering her and marrying the love of her life.

That leads her to let go of her human side and embrace Cavil’s philosophy on being a machine, cutting off feelings while going on this twisted quest for “justice” against the humans. Like Ellen pointed out with Cavil, though, for all Boomer’s efforts to become more cold and machine-like, she’s still driven by base human emotions: jealousy and rage. These emotions especially crop up whenever Boomer comes into contact with some aspect of Athena’s life (like Hera in “Rapture,” who wouldn’t stop crying for Boomer but who recognized Athena immediately), because Boomer is angry that Athena is essentially living the life Boomer would have had if she hadn’t had the sleeper programming–a horrible thing that wasn’t Boomer’s fault but still ruined her life. It’s ironic that in the episode where we see the life Boomer built for herself and Chief in her projections, we also see her do her best to destroy the real version of “her” life that she didn’t get to live–Athena’s life with a loving husband and child and a position of respect and responsibility within the human Fleet.

That said, it still completely blindsided me that Boomer’s epiphany with Ellen on the baseship and her interactions with Tyrol were a fake-out. I still believe her when she tells Chief in the Raptor that no matter what happens, she really did love him, even if Cavil has her twisted in tangled-up knots by this point.

ETA: or, yeah, what coco said :wink:

#6

FRAK…

that’s all i’ve got to say about that…

-ex-bloomer-lover

#7

For me its an issue of the fact that its not a story weakness that she turned out to be a jerk, its the fact that its the way the story took her. so badly wanted her to turn out good. I wanted her ther to redeem herself

After last night, their going to have a very hard time making me like her again. Oh well, so close but so far

#8

Expertly done, coco.
Well, it’s very sad indeed.
Boomer and Athena, each reflecting to the other, what could have been.

#9

I guess I wish there was more context to show Boomer switched her ideology from standing by humanity to disavowing it. It looks like the writers turned Boomer “evil,” and I don’t understand why she’s currently in the state she’s in. I can see why some say New Caprica, but wasn’t she still arguing for Cally’s release to Diana despite Cally’s response to her? Didn’t she call her own people butchers while on New Caprica? I guess I just find it kind of odd for her to side with Cavil when nothing we saw on NC showed her changing her stance. What turned her evil? This episode said it was New Caprica, but wasn’t Boomer the one arguing for her people to stop butchering humanity, to save Cally, that the Cylon holocaust was wrong? Like I said, I wish there was context in the show, as opposed to our opinions, to illustrate this.

I guess I could see this if she had learned about the virus, if she thought humanity was trying to wipe out her people and it was a “them or us” mentality arising from that, but the episode explicitly states New Caprica, and given the scenes we saw with her on the planet, I don’t see what would teach turn her evil when she saw her people comitting evil against humanity and had spoken out against it. I liked Boomer, and I still do, because the person I saw this ep didn’t act anything like Boomer. I’m also wondering why Adama and Roslin see Boomer as evil incarnate in this episode, including Roslin’s reference to Boomer being someone who “preys on emotion.” How does Roslin know that? Where did the whole thing about “preying on emotion” come from? I just shake my head in confusion.

Thanks for the welcome and sharing your thoughts guys. Just sharing my two cents here.

#10

Mostly I blame the writers for this 180 in personality.

Boomer has always been my fav. Then Athena, but really, they’re kind of the same person, just stuck in different situations.

Putting myself in the show, looking at who Boomer was before in seasons 1-3, I don’t think she would have done the things that she has in season 4. I can understand the attempt at killing Hera. I don’t like it obviously, but I understand it. The cylons made her think she was human. She saw them as evil and then BAM! know she is one of the things she despises, then her programming forcers her to shoot Adama, then Tyrol marrys the woman that shot her, putting the final nail in the coffen, Athena steals her life. So, she’s extremely pissed and envious of Athena. That’s why she tried to kill Hera. Though Caprica stopped her so we don’t actually know if she really would have.

The way I see it, the writers aren’t fully in the world they’ve created. None of the other characters even consider what Boomer might be going through.

Actually I had hoped that Athena and Boomer would forgive each other and then Hera could have her Aunt Boomer. I should have known that was never gonna happen but still, I dreamed.

Despite the appalling act of stealing Hera I’m still hoping that some one will come to their senses and realize all the fracking shit that Boomer has had to suffer through.

Lastly as far as Tyrol and Boomer. No way does he deserve to get her back. When he found out she was a cylon he not only stuck a knife in her back but he twisted it hard. She told him that she thought she was a cylon and he wouldn’t believe her. Then he finds out and treats her like she was lying to him and stringing him along. Then to marry Cally! Anyone but Cally.

#11

I agree, but, it’s probably too late for Boomer. Very sad, she deserved better than that.

#12

//youtu.be/6Y81mrBa7h8

I put this together quite quickly so there’s some rough bits but you get the idea.
I’m more concerned with keeping a job than putting out perfect clips! Enjoy!

BTW Boomer’s totally blown it now - she migh have a chance at redemption (still can do something for Hera) but its going to be fleeting.

#13

Boomer’s a tragic character. On New Caprica, she was trying to do the right thing, but was going about it in a very clumsy way. Now she’s finally given in to despair and doing things she really knows better than. But, her relationship with Hera’s setting her up to perform one last redemptive act, like throwing Cavil down a shaft, before dying herself. I won’t be surprised if she dies in Tyrol’s arms again, having been forgiven.

#14

youtube’s not letting us Americans see it. If I click play, it says “embedding disabled by request.” And when I go to youtube, I’m told that “This video is not available in your country.”

#15

ni think a more soulful song would do the couple for justice.

#16

Oh like she’s NOT going to end up saving Hera and redeeming herself that way. Her last scene is such a giveaway that…COME ON, she’s crying buckets!

Frankly, it’s a tad predictable.

(But you know I’m going to watch. And since I’m a parent, and the kid playing Hera reminds me of my own oldest daughter at her age, I had a REALLY hard time watching the bits when Hera was scared ad asking for her mommy. I really hope the do the predictable thing and have Boomer turn on Cavil and rescue the kid. For Hera’s sake.)

#17

I hope you’re right. I’d love to see Boomer redeem herself.

#18

yeah, they def set it up for Boomer turning on Cavil to save Hera. But then again they set it up for Boomer to save Cally and she failed, then they set it up for Boomer to save Ellen and that was just to get Hera. So, I can see them frakking with us again.

#19

No, would they do that to us?
I’m ready for anything.

#20

Boomer is Anakin Skywalker, your run-of-the-mill hero who just goes bad and badder and eventually will redeem themselves while also dying.