Looking through old posts, I saw this - it's a full post, I don't know why I never published it. I've been wanting to blog about Julius Baltar and the flashbacks, so this made my work a lot easier. Obviously spoilers if you haven't seen the episode.
I'm so behind with these first reactions that it's not even funny, but I'm still in recovery, so I might never get around to posting those. Either way, I just have to comment on the latest episode, and since this is the Baltarstar Blog, I'll only talk about Gaius and Six today. (I might post more about the others later, or not.) SPOILERS for those who haven't seen the episode. Just rest assured it was frakking awesome.
So, just to start off, I have to say:
OH MY GOD, JAMES CALLIS IS A GENIUS!
That is so true that I have to say it again in a Tigh voice:
Oh my fraakking goods, Jaames fraakking Caallis iis a fraakking geeeniuus!
You can say the above, only replace James Callis with Tricia Helfer, or Ron D. Moore, or Michael Rymer, and it will still be equally true.
All through this season, I have hoped for some unhurried, beautiful Baltar/Six moments (be it HeadSix or Caprica), and now I feel like I've gotten it. I hope there will be even more in the finale next week, but for now, I feel really, truly satisfied. They gave space for the characters, as opposed to hurrying the plot along, and that was a great choice. There were no big reveals, but still I feel like something new was set up, and we saw another side of Baltar. Also, I'm now convinced Baltar and Six will be important for the finale, and that feels so good after seeing them shoved aside for much of season 4.
So we see the first date of Gaius and Six. They're in a stretch limo, Gaius is being all arrogant and pompous. "It's crazy but I can't remember your name" - hee! Six start kissing him passionately, as if to make him forget the question. (She would have had to use some name as a cover though, right? But it was still amusing, like, 'No, we won't give her a name at this point, she's Caprica Six.') Their first makeout session is interrupted by a call to Gaius,
Obviously, the father doesn't appreciate his son. This is an award-winning scientist, and yet his father implies he doesn't appreciate "an honest day's work", as if physical labor is the definition of "work". So there does seem to be hurt from his father that Gaius didn't appreciate his heritage (changing the accent) and his work (not continuing with the farm). But it definitely goes both ways: Julius diminishes Gaius into a no-good womanizing slob who hasn't achieved anything in his life. He also diminishes Six into a whore, even implying she charges Gaius for sex. Does Julius have any respect for his son? Obviously not. Is he grateful for the money and time Gaius has spent getting him care and a place to live? Absolutely not.
I mean, yes, Gaius doesn't seem particularly keen on spending time with his father. They obviously don't have anything in common. He wants to take care of him by paying for stuff, instead of personal care. But that's not the same as negligence in my book. If the father is always this toxic, it's actually very kind of Gaius to have any direct contact at all.
Baltar's arrogant mask falls off and he's a desperate little boy who's still being abused by his father, no matter what he does for him. He beats his father with a newspaper: "Stop it! Stop it!" (By the way, it's clearly frakking and git, not fucking and dick like some people are suggesting.)
Julius was totally enjoying the situation. He loves humiliating his son. He even looked happy as Six left. Gaius was the only one to get truly agitated, and he seemed like he was acting out of desperation, not rage.
-I love that Gaius' father's name is Julius. As in Gaius Julius Caesar?
-I loved seeing the lake house again. I've missed it.
-James has recovered a bit by these episodes and is looking great again. Thin, but great. It's like he got his face back. I said, "He is handsome!" so many times that my girlfriend just laughed at me.
Then a little friendly message to those who are saying "Yes, this is the kind of Gaius he is, he'll beat an old helpless man with a newspaper."
Oh hai. Are you those same people who said Gaius has no conscience and has never felt any guilt? Yeah, thought so.
Some questions and points you might want to consider before you completely judge him:
-How would you feel if your father behaved like that with you? Gaius has his bad sides, but he's a person too, and he has a need to be loved and appreciated by his parents. His desperate need to be validated by others might even stem from his father's negligence.
-Have we ever seen Gaius be truly violent to another human being (or cylon, for that matter) without any provocation? Is he really that kind of person?
-Even if he were that kind of person, why would he have randomly started hitting an old man in front of a woman he's trying to impress?
-Do I condone hitting an old man? No. But it was a pretty thin newspaper, so stop acting like it was a whip with spikes on it. It's not like the father was injured.
-If you want to hate Gaius, there are better reasons than this scene. Even I will admit that. We know so little about his father and his childhood, you can't deny the possibility that the father has been abusive.
I guess I quit here because it turned into a list, and I still hadn't gotten to Six's actions later in the episode. Feels weird to publish this now, but I still agree with everything said here, so I don't want to keep it as a draft. I'll write more about Six and Baltar's relationship in another post.
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