Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT What Kind Of Father
By Jacob Clifton | Season 4 | Episode 12 | Aired on 01.23.2009
"At least I'm not a gimp," she says, drawing a line through exactly one thing on a list of infinite possibilities. She doesn't know what she is, but she's got two legs. He has no idea what he's doing, really. He's accomplishing what he came in here to accomplish, which is to start an army of terrorists, but he's also accomplishing stuff he doesn't even know about yet. "One day. One day soon, there's gonna be a reckoning, Kara. And once again people are gonna have to answer for what they've done." Kara grins, repeating Zarek's line from the beginning of the episode just like Adama will repeat that "reckoning" line of Felix's later: "You know where to find me, Felix."
I love those weird parallels there: Kara and Tom suddenly, Felix and Bill suddenly, for a second. The population is so dense and the stakes are so high that the revolutions are turning right before they even start. Things are turning into their opposites before they're born: Tom's idealism is Felix's nihilism is Kara's alienation is Laura's abdication is Gaius's apostasy is Lee's diplomacy is Bill's undying, all-inclusive hope. Spin the dial and see how they line up. Follow them through, and see how they add up to disaster. Naked, a little bit broken. Breakable still.
She stands up easily, and gets in his face. "And in case you're wondering, I will definitely hit a cripple." And playing it exactly wrong, exactly the way he wanted, better than he could have hoped, she addresses the whole room: "Or anyone else." He's overjoyed to see her going, and drops one more bomb, just to chase off the last of the stragglers and play to the cheap seats: "So I guess a pity frak's out of the question, then?" The kind of people he wants will laugh; the kind of people he doesn't will leave. And they do, and they do, and when it's done he's formed an army. "Somebody close that hatch. Let's talk."
Then comes the best Zarek scene ever, because he's so good at what he does, and because this is one time where he's just right. About all of it. There's one admirably creepy Frank Luntz semiotics deal where he keeps repeating the phrase "Roslin/Adama Administration" the way Republicans do, to accumulate vague and various connotations of fucked-upness, but I can respect that. Especially since it does about sixty things at once, including bringing in the historical Adama Privilege and reminding everyone that he is the hostile shadow cabinet version of a Vice President: It's not Roslin/Adama, it's Roslin/Zarek, so it sounds wrong to your ear, so they focus on why, and the why is the crux of the point, which is that Roslin and Adama -- any old Adama -- will always usurp and consolidate power. Why, look, they've even done it to the Quorum Chairman, he's saying. I'm on your side, he's saying, without ever saying it. Brilliant. So here's his speech, under the guise of a motion, and no matter how many sad little pouty faces Lee makes, every word is true.
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