[bsg spoilers - up to 2x20]

[tellitslant]

Spoilers from here, for those who want to read the whole thing themselves (also pictures!).

OK, first, I squee, because Laura gets to be a teacher again and, yes. That's so fantastically right. *grin*

So, not a lot of this surprises me, really. I mean, we've been batting around "who going to be imprisoned and who's not" scenarios for weeks at least, and I have to say that this setup works really well for me.

I am kind of fascinated that Laura uses Dee and Tigh to try and rig the election, because those two are not only not the first ones that pop into my mind that she'd ask, but not the first ones who'd be willing to help her. Love that Laura and Baltar both try to rig it, but I reserve judgment until I see why Laura's methods failed and Baltar's didn't.

Renaming Sharon's baby Isis. Mythology kink OMG. I like the name Isis a lot better for the child than I did Hera, and you know what's really fantastic? The meaning of the hieroglyph for Isis? Is mortal female, female of flesh, something like that. ♥ YES REALLY. Also I am naturally fascinated by the resurrection aspect. You know, the myth of Isis and Osirus? Where Isis finds and assembles the (twelve or thirteen, depending on your souce) scattered parts of Osirus's body in order to bring him back to life and to have his child? Yeah, that. (RDM isn't really subtle with his mythology, but SO WHAT.) Also, I suspect NONE OF YOU CARE, but Isis was one of those gods who merged into the Greco-Roman world and was worshipped there as well as in Egypt, so it's not like they're suddenly throwing a new cultural reference in or anything. HI I'M A GEEK.

I still am not sure what the name Hera was supposed to mean, unless the aspect of Isis and Hera both that we're supposed to react to is the motherhood aspect. OK, so given that, both goddesses took it upon themselves to have children - Isis impregnated herself before she resurrected Osirus, either by extracting sperm or by using his penis before re-attaching it back to his body (I love mythology, man), and Hera gave birth to Hephaestus by herself because she was jealous of how Zeus birthed Athena without her. So going into the "leading the new generation" thing, that's pretty fascinating, but also leads into the fact that hi, this is a baby. Even with the "One Year Later" bit in the finale, she's not going to be giving birth anytime soon, really or symbolically, and that leads me back to Laura Roslin sharing her blood, and OH HELLO NOW IT MAKES SENSE.

OK, so, over here I rambled a lot about the relationship between Apollo and prophecy, specifically the Oracle at Delphi, Pythia. Brief summary: Pythia took her name from Python, the deity originally worshipped at Delphi. I am scrambling trying to remember this, now, so corrections are welcome, but I believe that one of the origin stories of Python was that Hera, jealous that Leto was going to give birth to Zeus's children (that would be Apollo and Artemis) sent Python to rape Leto and/or prevent her from giving birth. Python was foiled, and eventually Apollo killed him for that, taking over Delphi and taking on the oracular aspect, but allowing the priestesses to retain the name Pythia to honour the dead deity.

So, indirectly, Hera giving power to Pythia? Probably stretching a bit, but really interesting nonetheless, and finally a reason for using the name Hera that I can get behind.

...That was longer than I meant it to be.

Other thoughts:
I cannot get behind Lee denying medicine to someone because Kara was rude. I mean, there are other people I could see doing it, but it doesn't seem to fit with Lee personality-wise. I never expected Anders to live, but... whatever. Also reserving judgment.

Leoben returns, SQUEE. The fact that he shows up at the end of the episodes probably means that he'll be back in s3, also, and YAY for more CKR, but also yay for the callback to "Flesh and Bone."

Baltar as druggie/alkie, killing the government? A very interesting way to make people more than willing to throw off his regime.

In general: very pleased, especially with the split of the major players and the way they're split. It has loads of promise.