BSG: A Disquiet Follows My Soul

In terms of "big production milestones of Season 4," 4.12, "A Retcon Follows My Soul" is pretty high up there. It's only the first episode ever directed by Ronald D. Moore. And how does he do?

Well, he stays away from all of Michael Rymer's clichés/signature whatsits; the 360, the crosscutting between identical scenes, the stupid long takes. Other than that, it looks like pretty much any other episode of the show.

As far as writing goes, there's only one real problem with "A Disquiet Follows My Retcon," but I'll get into that in just a bit.

So this is kind of supposed to be the breather episode in between the massive downer that was the discovery of Toasty Earth and the "darkest hour" that is the upcoming mutiny two-parter. At least, that's how I always considered it. There are some people who insist that the mutiny is a three-parter, and that this is the first part. But since Gaeta and Zarek don't exactly steal the spotlight here the way they do in the next two, I don't really agree. Here they're Felix Gaeta, disillusioned dissident, and Tom Zarek, disillusioned Vice-President. They don't become the Gaeta/Zarek tag-team of mutineers until the end of the episode.

So Tigh and Caprica-Six are in sickbay, having an ultrasound done on Caprica's fetus. They talk really loudly about how this kid means the Cylon race will survive, but Nurse Bedside Manner doesn't seem too pleased about that whole thing. She goes over to Gaeta, who's complaining about how his tailor cut the right leg off of all his uniforms so that everyone can always see his prosthetic... I mean, he's complaining about how the stump doesn't fit right in the prosthetic.

Now, Gaeta's probably a character I've gone back and forth on more than anyone else. He perjured himself at Baltar's trial for fairly understandable reasons, but the problem is that he's been so far in the background that unless you've really been following the show, you might forget that he was nearly shoved out an airlock just because he was Baltar's chief of staff.

So now he's minus a leg, bitching at Starbuck (which doesn't endear himself to me, strangely)* and pointing out what's been stupid obvious for four years now: that Adama has a) power over every military decision and b) the ability to declare pretty much anything a military decision. Hrm. This does endear him to me, because I generally like people who are right.

*Under normal circumstances, I don't mind someone taking Starbuck to task for being a world-class frakup, but given all that she's gone through recently, I really would forgive her for belting Felix on the spot.

Speaking of people who are right, at the same time that this is going on, Zarek is making this huge speech about how Adama and Roslin have basically become a joint dictatorship (correct), how Roslin is not legally the president (incorrect), and why each ship should decide for themselves whether the Cylons will be allowed on board or not. On watching the show a second time, it occured to me that Zarek keeps yammering on about a democracy, when in fact the Colonial government is (supposedly) closer to a constitutional republic. (In reality, Roslin is the Queen of the fleet and the Quorum just rubber-stamps her agenda... but that tends to happen here on Earth whenever one party controls both the Legislative and Executive branches.)

Now, permit me to ramble here, because Zarek is one of my favorite characters on the show and this episode is a great chance to figure out what makes him tick. The entire crisis back in "Bastille Day" was kicked off by his (prescient) belief that Roslin would not just step aside when her term expired. Or maybe he just thought that Roslin couldn't possibly speak for the People since they hadn't elected her. It seems to me that Zarek believes in mob rule, and that the moment that any leader violates the will of the people (the so-called "General Will," if you will), they need to be removed from power. Zarek being Zarek, he eventually gets the streams crossed and equates "the will of the people" with "the will of Tom Zarek," which is a mistake that costs him the respect of numerous fans.

But democracy is, as I think James Madison once said, two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for dinner. It's the dirty little secret that Tom Zarek would rather you forget: democracy doesn't work. There is no "general will." Oh, the majority of the country might think the same way on one or two issues, but there is no single platform (encompassing a position on every issue) that can appeal to the majority. There are two many variables. Which is why we, and the Colonials, have a constitutional republic. We elect people who represent a majority of our views, and these people speak for us as new legislation is crafted. They can be removed in various ways legally provided for, such as elections or impeachment. Both the mob and the government are constrained by the law; this is the beauty of our political system.

This is why Zarek is usually about 90% right on any given issue. He can't get over that whole "rule of law" thing and would rather live in a world where he can control the mob and do whatever he wants. Despite those setbacks, he does make some valid arguments, such as the fact that Roslin is basically a dictator. This is what makes him such an interesting character; in the end, it's obvious that he cares more about Tom Zarek than the will of the people, but he takes up the mantle of the demagogue for the better part of four years. He's a master at manipulating other people (although to be fair, you can get Lee to do pretty much anything by using the words "justice" and "democracy"). He's a hypocrite, yes, but he's also right on a surprising number of issues.

The political side of things really comes to the foreground in Season 4. (And no, I don't mean the political subtext, what with Lee's Kennedyesque haircut and dropping the words "hope" and "change" into his dialogue; the obsession with equating him with then-candidate Obama would be hilarious if it weren't so damn tragic. Didn't these guys already do an episode where an empty suit became President and it worked out horribly? And besides, Lee isn't the "community organizer" with no real leadership experience; Zarek is.)

The political system is under more scrutiny in Season 4. Somebody finally calls Adama out on the whole "military decision" thing. We really get that Adama's bad with the press, that he's going to keep a Cylon on as XO regardless of what The People want. Roslin's abdication opens up a power vacuum that lets us see just how ugly Colonial politics can get.

So Zarek undermines Adama and tells the refinery ship to mutiny and run away. Now, this is fun. On the one hand, Adama has imposed "laws" by personal fiat, and his willingness to cooperate with the Cylons causes understandable concern throughout the fleet. On the other hand, after this stunt, the refinery ship should be seized, its captain shot, and its processing facility placed under martial law. That's the entire fuel source for the fleet; you can't leave such a vital thing in the hands of mutineers. Adama/Roslin played nice in "Dirty Hands" and let them have their union, even though they had to have known that production would decrease, and this is what they get for their trouble? (This is why I despise Seelix, incidentally. Adama lets you leave your vitally important job to become a pilot, and you repay him by joining the mutiny? Frak you. Also, when the refinery ship's captain shows up in the finale to demand Galactica's air scrubbers, I was hoping somebody would finally shoot the whiner. Frak Gaius Baltar; how come this jerk hasn't been punted out the airlock? And this is before Adama pardons the other mutineers, mind you...)

So you might argue that the bulk of "A Disquiet Retcons My Soul" is devoted to setting up the mutiny, but the entire refinery ship fiasco is limited to the last act, and Zarek's shenanigans don't take up that much screen time before then.

So what takes up the rest of the episode? Oh, surprise, Chief's kid isn't actually his! This comes out of Frak-all Nowhere and completely fails to explain why Cally wanted to carry the kid out the airlock with her back in "The Ties that Bind." I grumbled as this sub-plot unfolded, to the point that I missed something the first time around.

The confrontation between Chief and Hot Dog (yes, I know Chief isn't the Chief anymore) takes place at one of Baltar's sermons. The subject of the sermon is: what kind of a father/Father does not love his/His children? Poetic. One might even say Whedonesque, because Buffy did this sort of thing all the time, have one discussion that's rediculously apropos to something else going on in the same episode.

So, yeah, whoops, out of nowhere, Chief's kid suddenly isn't Chief's kid. This smacks of retcon, hence all the variations on the title throughout this post.

On the whole, it's a good episode, focusing on the boundaries of Adama's power, what his oath means, what Zarek and Gaeta think they're capable of, and putting things in motion for future episodes. On the other hand, the "Hot Dog is the father" thing comes out of nowhere and is primarily used to clumsily drop an errant plot thread.

Oh, this is also the episode where Adama and Roslin shack up. It's too bad she won't live, but then again who does?