Hello and welcome to Who Are You? We're a reasonably well done sci fi watchcast by a couple of friends who are going through 2004 Battlestar Galactica. My name is Laura, and we are on Season 1, Episode 11. Colonial day.
Xhafer:Colonial day.
Laura:I have a really big trigger warning for this one, guys. Trigger warning? Politics.
Xhafer:Yeah, right. Yikes.
Laura:Yikes. Don't like.
Xhafer:I uh, I am gonna make some jokes that might make you uncomfortable, listener. And, I'm, I'm sorry if you feel that way but I also have no self control nor responsibility. So, fuck it.
Laura:Yeah, I You are kind of responsible.
Xhafer:well, I mean, I'm, I'm responsible as a person. I'm not responsible for the current situation of politics.
Laura:No, no, no, no. That's true. I get what you're saying now. Okay.
Xhafer:I, try to be responsible.
Laura:yeah, no, I mean, this show I never expected to be fully, like, escapism but still, I was like, very uncomfortable this whole episode, like, oh, I don't want to think about any of this.
Xhafer:This will be uncomfortable. Um, It will get worse
Laura:I can tell, yeah, yeah. Yeah,
Xhafer:true, generally speaking.
Laura:But okay, if we want to just dive right in. We don't really have cold open stuff planned, right? So,
Xhafer:no, we need to really sit down and see what we could possibly fucking do. Listeners, if you have ideas for some cold opens that don't involve things like character arcs that haven't happened, let or you know, decks of cards that might reveal who a Cylon is on accident. Um, you know, anything that we could do that would keep the spoiler free nature. I would love to get some of that stuff going. So if you got any ideas, let us know. And uh, we'll, we'll bring it up in the Discord. Hey, the Discord. We're plugging the Discord early this time. Get in the Discord.
Laura:Yeah,
Xhafer:Go ahead and throw some ideas for cold opens because we were talking about it earlier in the discord today And I'm just all like look guys. I got nothing. That's true. So if you got something, let's hear it. I want to. know
Laura:happy to. If you're afraid that it might need any level of secrecy, run it by Ja'far first.
Xhafer:Yeah, you can throw it in spoiler town
Laura:Yeah, I'm not there.
Xhafer:yeah, I can be all like ooh, but what about this? so Anyways, open on a
Laura:Oh, no, no, no. I don't want to start on the recording just yet. So we open with our usual, like, kind of last time on stuff, right? And in there is that clip of Six, and Hilo, when he meets her at the very beginning of his stay on Caprica. And I'm reminded, why did Six kiss him in the first place?
Xhafer:cause she's fucking weird.
Laura:Yeah. that's not a thing that gets resolved.
Xhafer:I don't, I don't think it comes up ever. I'm it might get, there might be an allusion to it later that I'm not recalling. But like, I definitely don't remember it ever being a thing.
Laura:Okay. They just brought it back up, because it's a provocative scene here in the last time ons, but I was like, what the fuck? Yeah, why did that happen? Such a weirdo. Yes.
Xhafer:it is, yeah, it's, those clips, it's all just about getting you engaged, much more so than anything else. Like sometimes, like, I think, was it last episode, there was like this really dramatic one of like, someone like, moving their hand around a board or something, that looked like something was happening, but it ended up just being like, the first scene of the episode, and it was not a thing at all.
Laura:Yeah, yeah, I don't know. It's, you know, anytime our hyper sexualized Cylon comes on, that's to get the audience's attention, right? So, let's just start this off with reminding everybody about Hila's whole thing. And, and, you know, there's a little bit of the like Six and Hilo confusion in this episode.
Xhafer:Yeah, I think you need to show Hilo encountering a Six, and if you need to show Hilo encountering a Six, that's the scene you use.
Laura:the encounter. Yeah. Yeah. So, that was, that caught me even before we got into the episode.
Xhafer:okay, well, when we get into this episode, we open on a recording of Pod Save the Colonies. And, And they just aren't having it with unelected Rosalind's dictatorship, Only putting deep state cronies and sycophants in the Quorum of Twelve. You know? They're really sick of it. These unelected bureaucrats.
Laura:I uh, I called these guys the McLaughlin Group after a beloved bit on a different podcast, but I do like Pod Save the Colonies. It, you know, I mean, I guess McLaughlin Group is kind of like the origin of this sort of thing, but we have just, like, taken it to a whole new extreme in this current world we live in, and I hate it. I hate them all, even these guys.
Xhafer:We hear that Zarek is gonna represent Sagittaron. And Adama immediately calls to be all like, You want me to put him on the no fly list? Heh heh heh heh
Laura:Yeah. I mean, He's got timing, Adama does, like, you could tell all 45 ish thousand of us are listening to the same broadcast at the same time, like, we are on
Xhafer:there's only one broadcast, I'm sure.
Laura:Yeah, like, how many people are actually, like, broadcasting professionals in the fleet? Like, this is a time before YouTube and social media, so.
Xhafer:I mean, I don't know, I don't feel like I have a good judge for how many people in the fleet have jobs that are, Like, required.
Laura:Mm hmm.
Xhafer:You know, like, I'm sure people are learning stuff uh, but if you were, like, you know, an anthropologist before and now you're just stuck on a ship, you know, like, I mean, you'll find stuff to do. There will be times when your expertise will be needed, but it's probably not an everyday gig.
Laura:Yeah, it's probably more like we need your physical labor of some kind, or, you know, if you have that anthropology intellectual skill, like there's probably a bunch of children running around that we need to have some sort of system to keep them learning.
Xhafer:Yeah,
Laura:but your main skill probably getting repurposed a little bit.
Xhafer:for sure.
Laura:Yeah, well, I really appreciated the listener. I believe it might have been Dominion Media Television that put up. A map or theoretical maps of the colonies because I was picturing something much, much more diverse in scale. So like bringing them all into the same set of nearby stars made a lot more sense than what I was picturing of these colonies. I mean, maybe what I pictured makes more actual science sense. Uh, But story sense, this makes a lot more sense.
Xhafer:I mean, uh, the double binary systems is a uh,
Laura:Yeah. Yeah. The
Xhafer:I mean, the four body problem, right? Like, whole thing.
Laura:the science is rough out there, but I was picturing, you know, like, I don't know,
Xhafer:It seems like some of these planets are habited very close to the sun or very far from the sun as well. Not good times.
Laura:maybe that would come up, right? Like, if you live on one of the colonies that's closer to the sun and you have a hard time with, like, crops and stuff, and you're jealous of the other colonies, or,
Xhafer:Yeah, I mean, Leonis looked like a straight up mercury. Like,
Laura:You could have some interesting conflicts between colonies with that,
Xhafer:so, uh, Rosalyn tells Adama that she doesn't want him to be her personal goon squad. Zarek it's on the horn here to let the oppressed know he's coming to drain the swamp All the while this opening sequence. We see somebody packing up some a gun
Laura:Zarek is sounding rather populist here.
Xhafer:mm hmm
Laura:Ugh. But one of Rosalind's, like, reasons for we can't try to stand in front of him is, you know, he's not doing anything illegal. Even though he was a convicted felon on Sagittarion, that is an actual thing. You can still run for politics or for a political position after you've served your time.
Xhafer:Yeah, they let felons vote. Or at least felons. Ex felons. Do you ever become an ex felon? I think felon just sticks around as a title for forever. I don't know.
Laura:Meh.
Xhafer:Anyways, We Galactica where Starbuck is filling Gaius in on his new career in politics. He's going to be, yes.
Laura:Sorry. Gaius iS back on his testing bullshit when Starbuck goes to see him.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:We know. That Gaius has changed the test so that everybody passes, so he doesn't have to deal with anything uncomfortable, because that would be the worst, right?
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:So why doesn't he also be like, Oh, I just found an improvement, and the test goes faster, and they're all done!
Xhafer:I'm I'm sure he's waiting another couple of weeks for that. Like, oh I had a breakthrough, I can do them in 15 minutes now. Oh, I had another breakthrough, I can do two at a time now. And just like, continually work his way down until everyone passes. Um, but also like, I would think Gaius wouldn't do that. I think he would rather toil away and let everyone always pass because the more people That he tests that. don't end up being or the less overall sample size he has right if he only ever completes 200 tests, right Or whatever, you know, then he only has to worry about being wrong those 200 times Because if he does end up being wrong and it matters, that's his ass,
Laura:Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think the, the head can, and I can get with this, is that he wants to know, he wants to actually know, like the test is gonna show everybody passes, but he wants to personally himself have an idea of who he needs to keep an eye on.
Xhafer:Maybe
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:He may not want to know
Laura:It, I mean, I don't know that I would at that point if I, if I had like made that decision. If I was in Gaius Issues and I had the thing and it worked and I had chosen to not deal with this, I'm not sure I would want to know.
Xhafer:Honestly, like, I woulda let Sharon walk out of the room and then fuckin turned her over
Laura:I mean, Yeah, I would have too.
Xhafer:Yeah, like, oh she's been out of here for 15 minutes? Ok, well let me go walk up to the bridge and make sure I'm surrounded by security and make sure that she's nowhere around.
Laura:Mm
Xhafer:And be all like, piss, ps ps ps ps ps, Adam, I don't know why Adam is a cat I figured it out.
Laura:We've got 12 models of Cylon and one model of Cat.
Xhafer:Adama looks like the type where if you were to set a mug on his big console in CIC that he would slowly push it until it fell off. I would watch Edward James Olmos do that for hours.
Laura:Yeah, me too. He's so engaging. Ooh, we should do a cold open where we figure out who's a cat person and who's not on Galactica.
Xhafer:Is it Cylon or is it Cat?
Laura:I feel like Adama secretly loves a cat. I feel like he pretends like the cat is an inconvenience, and it is not his cat, but It's his cat.
Xhafer:100 percent so when Gaius is getting informed that he's going to be representing Cabrica in the Quorum of Twelve here, we get this shot of him, like, talking to 6PT, But, she's in the mirror. Love it! Love this shot! It's so good!
Laura:Yeah,
Xhafer:This is one of my favorite like, cinematography tricks ever, is like, the conversation where one person's in focus. And the other person is technically out of frame, but you see them in a reflection. this is a Hitch, this goes back, I think, to Hitchcock. I, I don't, I'm, I'm sure some, maybe someone did it before, but that's one of the examples that, pops up in my head. The thing that, like, it's like, ah, this is such a stupid fanboy answer. But the thing, like, whenever I think of this technique, the example of it that always pops into my mind as the most prevalent is from Captain America, the Winter Soldier. And there is a scene where Steve Rogers and Black Widow are, I think, are they looking over Bucky or someone? There's, like, someone in, like, a surgery room and they're, like, standing at the window looking in. I forget who's in there. But she's, like, whenever she lies to him. It's, we see her as a reflection, and whenever we, she tells the truth, we see her in focus, like, as a person, like, the camera cuts. And it's so fucking good. It's such a good fucking scene, because it tells you everything you need to know without saying it out loud. It's just so perfectly visually communicated. Fucking A that that movie is probably The best MCU movie IMO. At the very least, it's the most well made.
Laura:yeah, I love stuff like that. I love when we do something with the visuals that means something else than just A shot just a picture, you know, I can't believe the idiots of Caprica have picked Gaius Baltar, but here we are and I love that he starts out like hating this, you know, a lot of intellectuals would like, Oh no, I have to go do things that aren't my research. Oh, and then 6PT starts pointing out the advantages, namely the ladies,
Xhafer:gonna be a rager!
Laura:Yeah. So, suddenly he's like, huh, maybe I can be in politics.
Xhafer:Yeah, figure it. out. Over on uh, Cloud 9, we get the, it's now repaired after the initial Cylon attacks damaged the biodome.
Laura:Hmm,
Xhafer:Kara and Lee talk the plot while our gunman gets through security, and we finally see them, and it is not a known quality. like, they've been really hiding this person's face, and my question to you was, were you expecting this to be a like, Sharon or a Doral or something?
Laura:No, I wasn't thinking that this would be anybody that we knew. I was thinking, you know, that we're kind of alluding to, like, the, the unrest is getting bigger, and so we're introducing a new piece.
Xhafer:Um, now, I mean, we, you've seen the episode we know that the gunman here dies, right? Though, just skipping ahead. do you think, and we don't, it's never really explained, right? It's kind of left open. Do you think it is more interesting if they are a human or a Cylon?
Laura:I think it's more interesting if they're a human. because we're introducing that idea that humans are not a unified of one mind on this whole deal, like, yeah, maybe we're of one mind about like, got to keep running, but we're not of one mind on how to do that, who should be in charge of that. What the best way to be running is
Xhafer:Mm hmm.
Laura:which I think is exactly how humans would be. like we can't be unified for very long on a thing, in my experience.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:So I think it's more interesting if, if this is a human and we're seeing some of the breakdown in the initial, Like, pulling ourselves together, gonna put on a united front. And now all of that is starting to fray as time wears on.
Xhafer:yeah. it's been like six weeks and we're already never forgetting and forgetting
Laura:I think if you just make it as this person was a Cylon, it's more like oh, well, we're making them dangerous because they're still here and they're around and I just don't find that as interesting as like the actual internal workings of this society at this point.
Xhafer:Zarek arrives and instantly gets someone on his case, which gets someone on that person's case, which gets Lee on that person's case.
Laura:Yeah, yeah, we're just uh, ramping up how controversial Zarek is, like, some of these other colonists are not happy he's here. Lee has been plugged into the social media the whole time, so he's he's on, like, high alert for everything. Starbuck is a bit more cynical about all of this.
Xhafer:real, um, Canadians and South Park energy.
Laura:yeah.
Xhafer:We get to the reception line, and Saul refuses to shake Xeric's hand, but Ellen does, causing a small scene, as Saul isn't pleased to be pictured with a terrorist. But Ellen's just all like, just trust me, we're going to be all over the papers, like, this is good for your future.
Laura:hmm, like, I do think that Ellen was right to shake his hand. She is doing it for all the wrong reasons. Roslyn clearly wants to, like, put on a good faith show of dealing with And so, doing the handshake, being the upstanding colonel's wife, is a good thing to do. But she is clearly not doing that. She's a little too kind, and I will not be surprised if she is boning Tom Zarek by the end of season two. Or whatever. She doesn't have much time left in season one.
Xhafer:heh heh heh. Fair
Laura:But boy, I do not like any of this One little bit.
Xhafer:Yeah, Rosalyn's all like, Waiting for Zarek to roll up. He rolls up, And he's all like, If I were to offer you my hand, would you shake it? And she's all like, Only one way to find out, bitch!
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:Like, you are I'm going to make you offer. And then she accepts, and he's just all like, Ohp! Outplayed again!
Laura:I, I think she's right to do it. I think this is a good play, all of it. I just don't like this man. Ha ha
Xhafer:Like, obviously, like, I can't pretend that my opinion of Tom Zarek on this watchthrough isn't going to be colored by current political events and
Laura:Some of this rhetoric is a little too close to home.
Xhafer:For sure. In fact, some of the rhetoric is almost prophetic. Once again, good job, I guess.
Laura:Right, right. I, I'm sure Ronald D. Moore and JMS are both sitting there like, Well, okay. ha ha ha.
Xhafer:I'm sure, I'm sure Ron Moore is like, well okay, I'm sure JMS is like, I warned you motherfuckers!
Laura:true. That's true. ha. ha
Xhafer:He should have listened to me! Um,
Laura:Not enough people were watching Babylon 5, clearly.
Xhafer:If more people had watched Babylon 5, maybe we wouldn't be in this political situation right now.
Laura:I mean, maybe, but I've also seen people take the wrong lessons from Babylon 5.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:They're, they're off to start a very long meeting and she basically says this will be a very long meeting and Gaius is already Being rude and bored.
Xhafer:Yeah. There's boring politics as Gaius completely ignores them to. deal with ethical non monogamy with ghosts or hallucinations,
Laura:Yeah
Xhafer:I'm not gonna Google search for it. But I have to imagine that there's already podcast better equipped to handle this than us. Uh, Maybe a Polyricians? Hmm?
Laura:I get it
Xhafer:Specter Swingers? Hmm?
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:Maybe some Fae fucking? I don't know.
Laura:Oh god, please. No
Xhafer:get in the discord with your best podcast names so somebody else can run with it.
Laura:Yeah, put that out into the world make it
Xhafer:Right. Yeah. Will it into existence if you want to, or make your own fucking podcast. I mean, it's worked out really well for my life, so
Laura:free idea for you. Good luck. Find your people. Uh, Yeah, no, she wants him to go pester the hot lady reporter, I guess. So 6BT's like, waking him up to be like, remember that sex is a thing.
Xhafer:Zurich is like, we've got this giant list of shit to do, but fuck all that. We need a vice president.
Laura:Uh Huh.
Xhafer:And Baltar like, wakes up to second as six. PT yells at him to do so.
Laura:Yeah. Weird.
Xhafer:the quorum agrees and they begin nominating vice presidential candidates. Virga nominate Zurich, and then the session adjourns for 72 hours.
Laura:Yeah. No, Virgon nominated Zarek, and then Geminon seconded it. And so that tells you like, oh, these two colonies, hmm, they might also be having issues like Sagittarion. Oh, hmm. All very Game of Thrones y, like our alliances and,
Xhafer:he's very quick to get nominated and then all of the important shit that they had to do now does not matter because one of them has to be vice president
Laura:yeah. For the next 72 hours, we're just going to put all that big, long list on hold. Yeah.
Xhafer:yep. God, so fucking dumb.
Laura:Ugh, so
Xhafer:you like adjourn so that you can continue the story, right?
Laura:Mm hmm.
Xhafer:But really what it should be is it should be Laura's like, okay. Well, we're gonna set that aside while we do other nominations and everyone figures out their shit. Why don't we talk about educating our children now? One of the things that everyone said was important before we did this.
Laura:Right.
Xhafer:Before we made it about fucking us. politicians.
Laura:I hate this guy. I'm not into it. And neither are they into it on Colonial One. They just go back to their ship and hate on Zarek and look for another candidate. And again, I don't think we've seen Wally before. But Rosalind presses him, this is the guy now, widening the circle.
Xhafer:He's been so crucial that we haven't met him.
Laura:Right, right.
Xhafer:He's kept the fleet running single handedly, but also we never knew his name or saw him, or heard anyone reference
Laura:He's a real, like, Mac and Bo.
Xhafer:Yeah, it's like, I have to, I don't remember what it was like the first time I watched this, but I have to imagine it's all like, Oh, weird that we haven't met this super important guy, wonder if he's gonna make it to Vice President, instead of the character that they've been building up to.
Laura:You know what? I really want now that I said those words, a Battlestar Galactica Mac and Bo episode, and I don't know that I'm gonna get it. But God, that would be so fun.
Xhafer:No spoilers.
Laura:two, like, two dudes who are in charge of, like, cleaning the toilets on Battlestar Galactica or something. Just all the shit going down around them while they just try to do their jobs. Give me that. That's what I need.
Xhafer:But anyways, Yeah Wallace Gray here accepts after Rosalyn really puts the screws to him about it. He really did not want this job. So much so that when he's upset about it later in the episode, it's hard to believe.
Laura:Well, it's one of those things, like, if you've accepted it and then it's, like, wrenched back away from you, it's like, what the fuck? Yeah, I get it. Um, but Zarek is still courting the press. He's,
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:like, every host of Pod the Colonies, he's looking to get their time.
Xhafer:Yeah. He's, uh, he's talking, he pulls out his little red book to talk about the shackles of capital without a wage and what that actually means. I think he would be more interesting at this point if he had just come out and said you're effectively slaves.
Laura:Eh, yeah.
Xhafer:no self determination, you're stuck in one place, and you're working a job for no wage.
Laura:I mean, the thing about this is context, right? Like, we have been fighting for our lives, maybe not 50 percent of the time, I forget what day we're on. Oh, we're on day 47. There it is in my notes. Um, but, fighting for our lives, a good percentage of the time, more than an average person usually has to fight for their lives, right? so, his You're all slaves is like well, you know Maybe some people are just doing their job because it's like cool to have some normalcy Like it feels good right now and you know, we'll figure the other stuff out Like that's that's why we're here. We're to figure this stuff out. Like don't freak out guy. I don't know
Xhafer:Yeah, I have to wonder if, like, I don't know, if Richard Hatch wasn't playing this character. If. If they had cast someone, I don't know, maybe with a different set of chops or I wonder if there's a way for these words to not feel slimy and to feel more appealing. But, yeah, um, and if coming from someone else that that might be the case. But I think with the background that we've got, I don't know, it's hard to say.
Laura:Yeah, it feels sinister Even though he's ostensibly, like, trying to fight for the people, it doesn't feel, I don't feel good about it,
Xhafer:Yeah. Lee tries to relax but gets into a bar slash shared space. and it leads into a squabble over what should be on the radio or TV. At least they're handling this between the two of them instead of making some poor member of the waitstaff constantly change the TV from one football game to another. I don't know if you've ever been present for something like that happening around you in a bar, but man. Yeah,
Laura:CNBC debate of, you know, somebody coming in and being angry about one end or the other. I mean, that's what this is, but I've never had to sit through somebody actually hectoring the waitstaff about it, thank God. Yeah, so the Sagittarian guy, who was one of the guys involved in the earlier Xeric incident is back with his friends. He clocks Lee with a bottle and then Starbuck, even though she's still limping around on her cane, she holds her own and she sees the gun fall out of the other guy's briefcase, who seems to be unrelated to these folks, right? He's just like doing his own, having his own
Xhafer:well, he did interact with them earlier,
Laura:Oh, he did?
Xhafer:Yeah, there was a slight interaction with them where they were chatting or something in one of the common spaces where Lee was around when he got into shit with the guy.
Laura:Oh, okay. I didn't see them interact. But, you know, it's hard to catch everything. Yeah. When I'm taking the notes. But yeah, Spucks caught him and gets a hold of the gun and points it right at him.
Xhafer:She does kick Lee a bottle here so
Laura:Yeah. Yeah. she's like hobbling over on her crutch. She's like, here, you take care of that. Super fun.
Xhafer:we cut over to Caprica Yellow.
Laura:Day 47.
Xhafer:Hilo and Sharon, they've made it to Delphi. Delphi, they say. It's at Delphi. Hilo comes. So close to realizing they're humanized Cylons.
Laura:So close.
Xhafer:He's like, maybe they're just clones grown by the Cylons.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:And Sharon's all like, maybe they're not just human allies, maybe they have regrets about their participation in genocide, maybe they, have advanced emotional feelings and those are complicated and they regret What? they've done and he was all like, no, all that's dumb. You're dumb. That's dumb. No. All Cylons are evil. Stop.
Laura:Uh Huh. Yes. This is especially awkward given our hypothesizing in the previous episodes about human, Cylon reproductive interactions because Sharon has stopped feeling sick and now she's hungry and, yeah, I, that feels like a familiar thing. Yeah.
Xhafer:Yeah. I think they call it eating for two. Yeah.
Laura:Uh, Back on, is this on cloud nine? This is on Battlestar Galactica, isn't this?
Xhafer:nine.
Laura:Where we're questioning the prisoner?
Xhafer:They don't take them off.
Laura:Oh, okay. Okay. I thought maybe they took him to Galactica.
Xhafer:It's an
Laura:either one makes
Xhafer:beat that he stays on cloud
Laura:Oh, it is? Okay. Alright. Because I could see what I had in my head as happening, happening on either place. So Yeah, but I, I don't know. Okay. Alright.
Xhafer:else is around.
Laura:Okay. Yes.
Xhafer:he gets killed.
Laura:So, this guy had every Rosalind appearance marked in his little notebook. Uh, Yeah, he but, no that's not his book. That's his buddy's book or something. I don't know, he, he tries to claim it's not his or, I don't know, he probably says many things. Lee is a very bad cop. Which is not how I would have pictured this scene going down, so that's fun. Laughter.
Xhafer:uh, He, they're, they're a very bad cop here. and he's just like, You know, he's got the gun from the bar fight and they're just all like, it's 3:00 AM Do you know where your law is?
Laura:Yeah, Spux says that Grimes gave him up. I don't know who Grimes is,
Xhafer:I don't know, one of the other goons.
Laura:yeah, other than our context for Grimes, which I don't want to think about either. But there's no more due process, and he tries to claim he was just here for the booze and the food. Which weren't we talking about rations? In the beginning of this episode?
Xhafer:I believe they have a need to ration. Yeah, but I mean, you know, it's a political event. So no rations there
Laura:No rations for booze and food there. Weird.
Xhafer:Man it's almost Like, people who have to make decisions that, impact other people's lives should you know Have to know what's going on in other people's lives
Laura:Hmm. Yeah. Lee wants Zarek sent home. But Rosalind's Not going to violate his civil rights and play into his hands. Which I still think is smart. Yeah.
Xhafer:Rosalind wants Lee to follow him, though. Uh, Follows Eric around. Yeah, yeah, I want you to just surveil and monitor his every move. And if he says anything about trying to kill me, take him out. But, uh, don't, don't, don't infringe on his civil liberties. Bruh. Just, just,
Laura:Not until he's about to infringe on mine.
Xhafer:Yeah, just surveil the shit out of him, because that's not infringing, because this is Patriot Act
Laura:Uh huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Xhafer:we move over to Quorum here, where Wally is making his case for VP, while Lee offers a soft threat, as we cut over to Ellen talking with Tom Zarek. Zarek wants information on Valance, uh, who Lee was, uh, having held. Which leads to Lee and Starbuck going to check on him, and they find him dead.
Laura:Just wild. Yeah. I guess they do tell us that cause he's, he's his wrists are cuffed, but they're also slit, right? And there's some kind of vent. perhaps?
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:somebody got in
Xhafer:a vent. Yeah.
Laura:Cause there were guards on the doors. Like outside.
Xhafer:Mm hmm.
Laura:Why wasn't there a guard inside?
Xhafer:Uh, that'd be too convenient for the story.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:I mean, if there was, you'd just kill the guard
Laura:You just killed that guard too, right? I don't know. But then it's obvious that he didn't slit his own
Xhafer:Yeah. You want, you
Laura:Because that's,
Xhafer:it.
Laura:right, right, right. I mean, that's the first thing I wrote down. Oh no, did he, you know, not have the cyanide tooth or whatever? And so this was the best thing he could do? Or did somebody do this to him?
Xhafer:Mm hmm. While Ty, Lee, and Starbuck discuss with the President, she's listening to Gaius on Pod Saves the Colonies, who gives a very convincing speech that causes Rosalind to dump, uh, Gary, who uh, his name's not Gary, it's Gray, uh, who does not take it well for someone who 24 hours ago had to be forced into accepting this job.
Laura:Yeah, yeah. He, he was really reluctant, but now he's, I guess he's like talked himself into it. Like, yeah, I'm the guy for the job. This is the thing that I'm going to do. she gives him the old good line of step aside for health reasons. And yeah, he gives her a really backhanded compliment. He never saw her as one of the backstabby other politicians and I was wrong or something and, ouch,
Xhafer:Rosalind tracks Baltar down in just an opulent men's room. Just, like, the nicest men's room I've ever seen.
Laura:the second we go into this men's room, I'm like. He's not here alone.
Xhafer:Oh, for sure. like, the way that, like, the camera frames everything, it tells you that. Hundred percent.
Laura:Yeah. There's the little flush of like, he was finishing up something, but I was like, no. Nope. That's not what's happening. Uh, She gives him a nice compliment on his speech. Asks him If he's voting for Zarek, and he's like, of course not.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:I'm voting for Wally.
Xhafer:yeah.
Laura:But she says that while he's stepping aside, and she asks him to be her vice president.
Xhafer:Mm hmm. a couple of weeks ago, I said you were gonna hit a moment in an episode where I thought you were gonna text me as soon as you hit it. This
Laura:oh, is this it? Ugh, well, the problem is, Zarek was actually pretty odious right before this, so I was like, Man, I don't like Gaius Baltar. We all know that, but I was like, uh, lesser of two evils, maybe? I don't know. Except that Baltar can always get worse.
Xhafer:Yep.
Laura:And of course he goes back to, uh, giving the reporter an exclusive in the bathroom after he's been
Xhafer:yeah, Um. But like, I've got questions here. Like, security is posted all around, right? Like, this is clearly a, like, private bathroom, for all intents and purposes.
Laura:Uh huh.
Xhafer:Why are you limiting yourself to a stall? Like What's he gonna do?
Laura:It all sounds unpleasant
Xhafer:little Uh, yeah, really cool
Laura:These people are all younger and more athletic than me, So,
Xhafer:Amen. Babe,
Laura:Starbuck and Leigh are discussing the situation, and they have some banter re Starbucks hygiene. Like, her uniform isn't
Xhafer:yeah, she doesn't clean up nice. Is the
Laura:she yeah, yeah, she, she, uh, Hasn't, hasn't, cleaned this uniform from the fight or something. And, oh, we go back to the vote! And it's shifting towards Gaius.
Xhafer:Yeah. Comes down to one vote, and if there's a tie, then Rosalyn is the tiebreaker, and instead of showing us the last vote and the tiebreaker, we cut over to the celebration of new vice president, Gaius Baltar. I like this much better than showing us the boring political stuff.
Laura:I wrote in my notes, it's almost a tiebreaker, but psych, it's Gaius. But, did it go to the tiebreaker, or it didn't have to go to the tiebreaker?
Xhafer:to go to the
Laura:that.
Xhafer:It was, it was 6 5 Tom Zarek, one vote left to read, and if it's a tie, Rosalind gets to pick. There's 12 colonies, so there was only one vote left.
Laura:Right.
Xhafer:So it. had to have been 6 6, which would then cause the tiebreaker vote.
Laura:You know what it? is, though? It's 6BT is the vice president. because every time she yells something at Gaius in a scary voice, he does
Xhafer:Yeah. Yeah. I can't imagine what it'd be like having someone, you know, just standing over your executive leader, just shouting at them, making sure they did whatever you said. Just, you know, completely in charge of the situation, clearly, whenever they're both in the same room, but they're not an elected official. That'd drive me crazy,
Laura:That would be a wild world to live in wouldn't
Xhafer:Can't imagine.
Laura:I just don't even know. So weird. Anyway, oh, now we know why we're talking about hygiene, because Starbuck. Gets cleaned up in a real nice little dress.
Xhafer:Uh, this is definitely at Lee, in the
Laura:Uh huh.
Xhafer:uh,
Laura:He is flabbergasted. And this is where I wrote, JUST KISS in my notes.
Xhafer:but yeah, uh, Zarek tells Rosalyn he'll see her again at the election,
Laura:Uh
Xhafer:uh, And also he didn't kill Valance, so someone else is around that wants her dead, is how that's kind of left open,
Laura:Yeah. I mean, I don't know. It's not just that he didn't kill Valance. And, Oh it must be somebody else that once he did. like, I didn't kill Valance. But, that doesn't mean he wasn't my guy, to me. Like, uh, But, yeah, he wonders who did. Like, he's, he's, it's so threatening, it's like, I have things going on that you have no idea.
Xhafer:Uh, we see a bunch of people dancing. Uh, We see Billy and Dee dance, we see Saul and Ellen dance, we see Starbuck and Baltar dancing,
Laura:Mm
Xhafer:and even Bill and Laura.
Laura:Yeah, Adama shows up because he's a real patriot, and this is Colonial Day.
Xhafer:it's the uh, anniversary of the
Laura:Oh, yeah, that must feel weird, weird celebrating that, huh?
Xhafer:Yeah, I mean, I don't know what else it could be. They don't tell us what it is except that it's the 52nd Colonial Day. So,
Laura:Yeah, so it can't be like, this is us founding the colonies, because that wasn't just 50 years ago.
Xhafer:I don't think so.
Laura:It doesn't seem implied anyway, it seems like the colonies have been around much longer than that.
Xhafer:I think you'd
Laura:Uh, Well, yeah, because Caprica is a, is a prequel,
Xhafer:Yeah, and I think it's set 60 years, so.
Laura:Before the first Cylon War?
Xhafer:Uh, 60 years Before the start of Battlestar, I think.
Laura:Okay, but still, it's before the first Cylon War, but not by much.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:Okay. So, uh, I just want to point out. that Adama feels about Baltar like I feel about Baltar.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:But, uh, you know, it's, nice that she admits that, yeah, it is the devil I know and I would rather do that right now. Um, I hate Elantai.
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:they're dancing and having this conversation.
Xhafer:Me too.
Laura:Ah.
Xhafer:the worst.
Laura:She's the worst. Maybe the only person I hate more than Baltar.
Xhafer:Oh, for sure, she's the person that I hate the most on this show. Just because she's like Such a force of evil, like actual evil. Like, even the Cylons, I'm like, Like, I'm not pro genocide here, but like, You were like, in oppressed people, like, It's definitely a more complicated issue. than saying that they are directly, like, what they do is reprehensible and evil. Like, for sure. Um, but their motives, are more nuanced than Alan's, is all that I'm saying.
Laura:Ellen is like, chaos is a ladder. I want power and I'm going to be doing everything I can to knock other people down so I can climb on top of them. Um, And I do not like it. you know, what I just realized we could do though for a cold open? We could do some alignments. and that would be a thing that like, we're just doing it as I know it at this point. And you know, if somebody is a Cylon later, that's extra fun.
Xhafer:we can give that a go.
Laura:Yeah. Just a thought.
Xhafer:so yeah, Ellen, Straight, Grima, Wormtongue, and Saul here, about a day off to go meet with folks about their future on this
Laura:Mm hmm.
Xhafer:Then we cut over to Caprica Blue, where Sharon and Hilo play Metal Gear Solid when Hilo sees two sixes. And another Sharon. He fucking finally puts it all together.
Laura:yeah, we were running out of time, so good penultimate shot there. I mean, I know this isn't the penultimate episode, but because the next two are a two parter, I'm kind of considering it like that, but yeah, Helo's finally seeing the light And Sharon shoots the other Sharon, like our, our Sharon that we've been with this whole time, shoots new Sharon. Uh, But Hilo has put it together and does not trust the Sharon he's been with this whole time now, because that's a massive deception that has been revealed, right? Uh. And he runs away to credits. Hmm, I am really nervous for the next two episodes now.
Xhafer:Have you watched either of them yet?
Laura:I have not, but I'll do it, I promise. Uh, Especially, you know, you And others have really hyped up the Season 1 finale as being a bit dramatic, and this was dramatic, and I'm like, oh god, am I gonna, like, need to I do have some CBD before I go watch this, like, ah, but I really am ready for things to get answered. I want Hilo and Sharon to wrap Up, I want Hilo to get where he's going, and I'm hoping there's actually some kind of a reveal, maybe a Cylon, because we already know about Sharon, I don't know. Got a lot of concerns and expectations for this one.
Xhafer:I'm excited to re watch it. I haven't watched this finale in a long time. I have, I have, uh, I remember really liking it, and it's been hyped up a bit, so I'm excited to watch it again.
Laura:And the title is certainly dramatic, Cobalt's Last Gleaming, for both parts one and
Xhafer:Yeah, well we'll talk about the, that episode in a second, but before we do we should probably rate this one.
Laura:Yeah, I guess we
Xhafer:On a scale of the quorum of twelve, How are you feeling on this one?
Laura:I already gave out my fuck this episode.
Xhafer:I mean, there's no rules. Or rather, any rules that do exist we make, so fuck them.
Laura:I mean, I It's good. It doesn't make me feel as, like, I don't know. Bad as the one did. Oh, what was that one? As, uh, Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down did.
Xhafer:hmm. Yeah, that's fair.
Laura:Cause there was a lot of like hijinks and awkwardness in that one. But it also feels so real. I'm like, yeah. Or two
Xhafer:how different it would feel.
Laura:years ago, cause last year had the election anxiety in it.
Xhafer:Mm hmm.
Laura:Uh, But yeah, you're right, I think that if I wasn't living in this timeline, I would feel differently. But it is very good. I don't know that I've rated anything under, like, a 10,
Xhafer:Yeah.
Laura:and maybe that's where I'm at on this one. It's quite good, but uncomf the uncomfortableness I have to acknowledge.
Xhafer:Yeah. I also went with 10 on this one.
Laura:Yeah.
Xhafer:it just seems appropriate. It's a very strong season.
Laura:It's a strong start to a show. I'm just so excited to watch more. The only apprehension I have is because it's so good. Because it's so well written and it makes me feel things I don't want to feel.
Xhafer:Yeah, that's fair.
Laura:give me some, give me some teaser for the next one.
Xhafer:we've got Season 1, Episode 12, Kobols! Last Gleaming, Part 1. Colonial raptors locate the planet Kobol, legendary birthplace of man. Laura and Adama battle over the benefits and dangers of unlocking Kobol's ancient mysteries.
Laura:Oh. I didn't really expect that. I figured kobol would just be kind of a, you know, some of that mythos, but we were never actually going to. Explore that. Okay. All right.
Xhafer:We goin And we goin there next episode. But before we get there, we have to say thank you. Hey, Jeremy. Jeremy Siegel. JeremySegal42. bandcamp. com Appreciate the hell out of you, buddy. Thanks so much for our theme music. You can find more of Jeremy's work on streaming services as Nuclear Jaguar.
Laura:And thank you to Angry Duck Time Machine on Instagram for our podcast artwork.
Xhafer:Aaron? Oof. Gave you a doozy. Uh, But appreciate the hell out of you. Thanks so much for putting it together.
Laura:And thank you to you the listener for being here with me as I get so many things wrong on the show. I'm just happy to be here and I'm happy you're here with me. Discord. We gotta plug the
Xhafer:Oh yeah, there's a Discord. Um, rate the podcast. I haven't looked at that in a minute, actually. see you next week, Internet!
Laura:bye.