'The Oath' Drives Battlestar Galactica to Civil War

***PROBABLE SPOILERS ABOUND BELOW***

We're three episodes in to Battlestar Galactica's last half of its final season, and for the first time, we, along with Galactica's crew, are without any true direction. A pioneer without his compass. A mariner without the stars. Rather, it's probably more analogous to say: A pioneer who thought his compass was true, was steadily pointing him North, but is, and always was, just a farce. A mariner who believed without reservation, who knew for sure that the stars were leading him to land, but the stars, although clearly visible, were always leading further out to sea. For Galactica, the previous three and a half seasons had all been about the over-arching pursuit of the dream that was Earth. Well, Earth, as the compass and stars were to the pioneer and mariner, turned out to be nothing more than a falsehood. What does one do when their very last truth has been proven to be fiction? How does a group of people react when the only solid they've been clinging to liquidates between their fingers? These are the questions posed at the start of Battlestar Galactica's second half of its final season. And it's with its third episode, "The Oath," that the answers are becoming severely apparent.

Now, I feel like I must fully disclose the catalyst of this post. It is, first and foremost, a direct reaction to an aggravating and dissenting article by Gregory Ellwood of HitFix, which recaps "The Oath" after its original airing on January 30th 2009. And as much as it is in reaction to his stunningly shortsighted analysis, it also stands in staunch opposition to it.

Without further digression, let's start with this statement from Ellwood: "A coup attempt drawn out over three episodes? Really? It just feels like filler at this point." Filler? Hardly. As aforementioned, Galactica has always been a ship with a goal, a mission. But as per the revelations of the Season 4.0 finale and the first episode of Season 4.5, Galactica finds herself adrift. And we, the audience, are adrift with her. The last survivors of a global genocide at the hands of a hostile machine race now without even a shred of hope AND forced to ally themselves with their very attackers -- persons cracking, people crumbling, as it's now all futile. The coup is not a minor event. It's a major culmination of events that have been ongoing since the miniseries. This isn't "filler"; this is the very state of Battlestar Galactica -- civil war, descension, mutiny, a separation of the loyalists to what could be from those loyal to what was.

And as for Gaeta as "the series' latest villain": He has been a tortured soul for some time. An idealist to the core, Gaeta has oft battled his hope with the bitter reality surrounding him -- and no illuminating for us, the audience, than Gaeta's time on New Caprica. io9 delves deep into the descent of Gaeta:

"Baltar decides to bring the Fleet to New Caprica, which is soon occupied by a cylon force. During the cylon occupation, Gaeta tries his best to retain his strong moral center. When he discovers that resistance leaders are being executed, he betrays Baltar and begins secretly passing information to resistance leaders. Without his aid, it's likely the human resistance would never have succeeded. But when he returns to the Fleet, after risking his life repeatedly to save it, he's spit on by the people he saved.

Nobody believes that he was part of the resistance, and Starbuck's secret court almost has him airlocked. He's treated like a pariah, beaten, and nearly killed for a crime he did not commit. At the last minute, he's able to prove he was the resistance mole and Starbuck lets him go. Eventually, his role in the resistance is widely-known and he's given proper credit by the Fleet. Even after he's reintegrated into the fleet, however, he's still punished. He loses his leg in a clash between Helo and Starbuck during their search for Earth.

Still, as we learned in the webisodes "Face of the Enemy" that took place between the first and second half of this season, Gaeta has a lot on his conscience that we didn't know about. When he was working with the resistance on New Caprica, it turns out he developed a romantic relationship with a Number Eight Sharon model cylon whom he thought was helping him to sneak prisoners out of the cylon jail. But in "Face of the Enemy," his Number Eight reveals that she was, in fact, killing many of the prisoners he'd asked her to release. And then she kills more humans when they are stranded in a space capsule together, arguing that they had to die so he would have enough oxygen to survive. Worst of all, she blames Gaeta for the deaths of the prisoners back on New Caprica, claiming he suspected what she was doing and had done nothing to stop her.

At that point, it seems that all of the pain Gaeta has endured in his efforts to help the human Fleet comes crashing back into his brain. He's lost everything, now. All the sacrifices he made on New Caprica, and all the horrors he endured when he returned, seem for naught. Perhaps he really was the evil collaborator that Starbuck believed he was all along. In a fit of rage, he murders his Number Eight right before the Galactica rescues him.

It is this Gaeta who returns to the Galactica and begins the insurrection as the second half of season 4 begins. His confidence in his own moral goodness has been shattered, and his one positive relationship with a cylon has turned to terrifying betrayal. Though he hates Starbuck, he suspects that she may have been right about him after all. What happens to a person who believes they have been doing good, but then learns they have been collaborating with evil?"

Gaeta is not a villain or even villianous. He's merely a complex and altogether broken human forced to reconcile everything he once was with everything that's been thrust upon him.

Overall, Battlestar Galactica has always been an exploration of both the light of hope and the darkness of human desperation when facing extraordinary, impossible situations -- and thus far, it has continued to delve into the very core of humanity and humans all.

Comments

[tn.]

Hi there! Excellent recap of BSG (I stumbled here when I was geeking out and catching up on people's interpretations of the last few episodes). I completely agree with your read of Gaeta. He's one of the rare characters where most of actions, from beginning to end, actually made complete sense. That's really rare for characters that seemingly make a 180 in terms of their actions. When I have more time, I also want to do a read on Tom Zareck's "descent" - media portrayal of revolutionaries, and so-called revolutionaries, is so fascinating.

Oh, I see you're working at Jungle 8. If I may, can I ask how you ended up there? I'm think I'm going to be on the job hunt soon. I'm a full-time lawyer now, but am looking to get out of legal services to follow my interests in creating creative, socially relevant content through media. I've been looking to do some work with places like Jungle 8, but don't quite know how to break into the field. Any suggestions or insights?