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Warlord (412)
This is a fairly typical season 4 episode: bleak and without hope. It's not even that entertaining unless you count Avon's underwear-less attire on Betafarl, and Zukan and Zeeona's hairstyles.
The inhabitants of Zondor seem a lot more drugged than the Helots. They at least knew what was going an and could conduct a conversation even if they didn't care much. Any doubt of the Federation's evilness is certainly dispelled here.
I wonder how long Tarrant and Avon were on Betafarl the first time. Tarrant and Zeeona must have spent a fair bit of time together to lure her to Xenon in pursuit of him.
Either Soolin is a romantic, or she's very pissed off at Zukan for not allowing his daughter any independence. I suspect the latter.
How does Betafarl have perpetual day? Does it orbit more than one sun? And how come Zukan misses the dark if he was born and raised there? I also wonder if Betafarlians are empaths since he and Zeeona seem to be connected and she senses his death.
And of course Servalan is involved. [rolls eyes] Her near-ubiquity is one of the many flaws of this season.
Zeeona is a biogenetic engineer so why does she remove her glove? There's also Avon who seems to know what's going to happen. It almost seems as if he knew that Zeeona would kill herself; maybe he knows that reversing the polarity process on the neutron bombarder couldn't be done with gloves on. That makes sense, and why he'd want her to go alone. Tarrant and Dayna are crazy to remove their helmets even if they think the air is fresh; isn't the virus radioactive?
Oh well. I suppose survival counts as winning in season 4. :-P
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That's what I thought too, it definitely seems more like her to want to support Zeeona's decision than to reunite starcrossed lovers!
Zeeona is a biogenetic engineer so why does she remove her glove? There's also Avon who seems to know what's going to happen.
I can only assume they both went "we appear to be in a season four episode, better chuck in some pointless tragedy". Otherwise it makes no sense - Zeeona knew better than to take off her glove, and Avon had no way of knowing she would.
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polarityprocess on the neutron bombarder couldn't be done with gloves on. If so, he seems to have guessed that Zeeona would go since he asked for volunteers and he was fairly attached to his crew earlier when he didn't want a hair on their heads harmed.I find that easier to believe than Zeeona committing suicide because of something her father did; she has Tarrant and possibly some influence on events on Betafarl which would be a better way of making amends.
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*nods* That's the only explanation that makes sense, and what I thought they might be going for until they failed to actually mention it in the episode!
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[grins at icon]
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I really must make that "I have a weak chest" icon.
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I think Soolin recognizes the strategic advantage of having Zeeona on the base. She may also like Zeeona and hate the way her father treats her.
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If it weren't for Servalan's trap, it would have succeeded fantastically and brought the rebellion light years forward by creating a large and powerful alliance, something Blake never managed or even attempted to do.
To be able to survive a deliberate trap by Servalan is a great achievement, something Blake never achieved except by sheer luck and Avon's intelligence.
I doubt if the trap would have happened if Tarrant hadn't been fooling around with Zeeona and gotten her father pissed off. It wasn't because of any lack on Avon's part, which is usually the case with Blake when he falls into Servalan's traps.
I'm still not sure why people think S4 is such a failure, when they had many successes, and not usually due to luck, unlike most of Blake's, especially in S2. Just because Blake doesn't go around acting like he's a loser, doesn't change the fact that he was one and far more than Avon was. I don't see Avon's plans getting lots of his own people or his own allies killed like Blake did. And if you actually paid attention to the details of the series, you'll realize Blake rarely ever achieved his goals and the very few times he did, it was due to dumb luck or despite his failures as a leader and his lack of intelligence. The number of times Blake actually succeeded in something he set out to do is very rare. And if we're going to be snarky about surviving a deliberate trap as not much of a success...well then lets do that about the many times Blake's so-called successes were just that. But no...we see Blake's survival, usually due to luck, as some great triumph and Avon? We get nasty comments about...I suppose survival counts as winning. Just wonderful.
I see no mention was made of how Avon refused to give up when he was trying to rescue Tarrant, Dayna and Vila (or how clever he was to figure out how to save them, which was due to his intelligence, not luck)...of course people will probably claim he only did that because he needed them. But make great noise about him knowing Zeeona was going to die when he sent her down there...something which can only be supposition. Yeah, right, Avon knew she was going to do something stupid like removing her glove. Or...Avon suspected Zeeona might commit suicide because she felt guilty for what her father did and gave her that choice. Of course if he did know, then this presupposes a level of understanding of people that none of the rest of the crew had. A level that most people claim Avon didn't have so he needed Blake. Well, you can't have it both ways. Either he did have that deep understanding of people and didn't need Blake for that, or he didn't and so when he sent Zeeona down there, he had no idea. And even if he did, Avon was giving Zeeona the choice of doing what she wanted to do, something Tarrant wouldn't have given her.
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And of course the couldn't allow that, could they?
Zukan arrived with the bombs and the virus device disguised as antidote-producing plant, so he'd have done it anyway.
I should have said: I do love Avon's angry threat to Zukan if even a hair on their heads is harmed. Avon is much more himself here.
I used to think that Avon knew she was going to commit suicide, but it really doesn't make sense when she could live and have Tarrant and possibly gain some power back at home due to her birth. I think Avon knew the dexterity required because he'd looked at the device earlier and of course he'd rather it wasn't one of his own people whom he so eloquently threatened Zukan about earlier.
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And Zukan arrived with the bombs. Yes, after Avon and Tarrant spent a lot of time on his planet convincing him to help and setting up the conference with the other warlords. That is stated very clearly in the episode. Long enough time for Tarrant to develop a relationship with Zeeona on her homeworld and piss Zukan off. Avon thought he already had Zukan as an ally because Zukan was the first one he worked on.
Avon much more himself when he threatened...you mean when Zukan threatened to kill his crew if Avon didn't help him? I'm sure I could be civil under those circumstances too and Avon is really nasty for threatening him back. And this presumes that Avon is more himself when he threatens people. Avon didn't use bullying tactics as much as Blake did. Avon far preferred reasoning and logic to threats. The instances when he used threats is actually quite few, and like in this case, is usually only because someone has threatened him or someone with him first.
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As you can tell, I'm in one of those really bad and pissed off moods at the moment. Hence my Blake rants on DW :) Ignore me :)
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Hey, I've yet to accept that Fearless Leader is dead...
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