***POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW***
I think it goes without saying that Sometimes A Great Notion is a very emotional episode. Everything that happens in that episode is such a huge emotional gut punch, and I think most would agree no matter where they rank this particular episode that it is one of the major emotional climaxes of the series. That being said, what do you guys think of the relevation at the end of the episode about who the last of "Five" is? Or, more specifically, what do you think about the
timing of that revelation? On one hand, it is just one more cool huge event in a string of huge events and revelations in this episode. On the other hand, some could perhaps argue that it screws a bit too much with the emotional impact of everything else that is going on. What I mean by that is, after all of the bitter tragedy in that episode and seeing how everyone is trying to cope with all that emotionally, it almost evokes a feeling from the viewer along the lines of, "Whoa...this is so heavy that I don't even want to watch another episode for a few weeks. I want to just process all of this and let it sit." But then, with the revelation of Ellen, the reaction that that event evokes is:
"Can't wait to see what happens next! Must watch!" Do you think the series would have been better served if they had waited just a bit more before dealing with Ellen?
I'm not criticising the writing team. Even if people agree that holding off on it might be "better," it's easy to come up with different angles years after the fact. I'm not suggesting that they dropped the ball by not thinking up something I subjectively believe could have been better. I'm more saying, "Here's a 'what-if.' What do you think about it?" So, looking at the timeline of episodes, there are another 3 full episodes between this one and the time Ellen's actually ends up being revealed in No Exit. I think maybe it would have been cool to hold off on Tigh revealing that she is the fifth. Maybe he still goes into the water at the end of Sometimes A Great Notion, and we see that he remembers
something, but we don't see what it is. And then that is echoed in the next few episodes and we see it effecting him and his relationship with Caprica Six until he finally reveals it. I dunno. I just think it could have been cool to do it that way to, again, let the emotional impact of Sometimes A Great Notion ride a little more without being distracted by the issue of Ellen, and also could have provided opportunity to add some complexity to the Tigh/Six relationship that would have added more depth to when Ellen showed up.
Topic: All things Battlestar Galactica (Read 164152 times)
