DPP: You Can't Go Home Again

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

Greetings friends, Romans, and fellow shippers. For the DPP this week, we'll be doing something a bit laid-back (that's how I roll). Lately, I've been engaging in some serious nostalgia. Now that we've just finished the first official shipper rewatch on this, the shipper rewatch comm, I thought we might take the time to just reflect and appreciate some of the fine episodes in this very fine show.

We talk about fanon a lot around here (and many of us tend to live there these days) which is all well and good, but this week we're going CANON-COMPLIANT. For the most part, anyway. Slight deviations are allowed. So here's the sitrep: every day will be dedicated to a certain episode or arc. I have chosen seven (at least one from each season) that I like a lot. Hopefully, you all like them too! So each day I will post a bit about the episode--some pictures, a video, quote or two, you know--along with a fic rec and maybe even some other fun stuff if we get really crazy.

[I do have episodes planned for the rest of the week, but they're not set in stone so let me know if there's one you REALLY want to talk about.]

Today we begin with one of my all-time favorites, YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN. 

Lee: I need to know something: Why did you do this? Why did we do this? Is it for Kara? For Zak? For what?
Adama: Kara was family.  You do whatever you have to do.  Sometimes you break the rules.
Lee: And if it was me down there instead?
Adama: You don't have to ask that.
Lee: Are you sure?
Adama: If it were you, we'd never leave.

This episode has everything: action, awesome characters, dramatic conflict between said awesome characters, moral questions about the survival of the human race and what to do in certain post-apocalyptic events, and the gooey emotional stuff at the core of it too.  PLUS it is the episode that, upon rewatch, made me really appreciate Lee as a character and more than just Kara's romantic interest.  All thanks to this scene:

It also gave us pilots flying together, complete with adorable wing-waggle:

Many thanks to ddt73  and pilotography for the clips. :)

The episode also gave us the possibility of pilots engaging in BATH TIME SHENANIGANS.  (If anyone is moved to write some YCGHA comment-fic, consider this your invitation!)

Lee: My gods, you smell like a latrine.
Kara: Mmm.  You want to give me a bath?

Maybe Lee didn't give her a bath in canon (or maybe he did!), but the episode still left us the possibility for some awesome fic of the hurt/comfort variety.

My personal favorite: Bum Wheel by spoonishly.

You can also check out this episode-themed list of recs, courtesy of thrace_adama : Aoc/YCGHA.  What are your favorite fics/vids/scenes/quotes from the episode?

Comments

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love season one. <3 This episode plus Act of Contrition were so powerful. And to me, the most powerful stuff was the parent/child part, actually. I love all of Bill and Kara's scenes together, from the amazing confession scene in AoC to the gentle moment where he brushes her hair and gives her a stogie to welcome her back (which she eventually gives to Lee in Hand of God -- symbolic Adama love, pass it on!)

And the scene you mentioned between Bill and Lee ("we'd never leave") has always touched me, mostly because Lee looks so surprised.

I've always taken it for granted, by the way, that what Bill says to Lee about never leaving is meant to convey an emotional truth ("You're my son, and I couldn't possibly love you more than I already do"), but is not actually true. We've already seen that Bill is capable of putting the fleet's needs first and doing his job even when he thinks Lee is missing or dead. We saw that in the miniseries, and we'll see it again in Resurrection Ship when the Blackbird is destroyed. Personally, I suspect Bill would have had the exact same reaction as he did in this episode, whether it was Lee or Kara missing.

[zenzero42.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love season one. <3 This episode plus Act of Contrition were so powerful. And to me, the most powerful stuff was the parent/child part, actually. I love all of Bill and Kara's scenes together, from the amazing confession scene in AoC to the gentle moment where he brushes her hair and gives her a stogie to welcome her back (which she eventually gives to Lee in Hand of God -- symbolic Adama love, pass it on!)

This. AoC is my favorite episode ever, and YCGHA is just after that! you are right, the Kara/Bill stuff is incredibly powerful, not something that you see often in tv. the first time I saw it I was speechless!
you are right!!! I never thought that can be the same stogie. it is like with the Aurora statue. oh, how much I love Kara and the Adamas


I've always taken it for granted, by the way, that what Bill says to Lee about never leaving is meant to convey an emotional truth ("You're my son, and I couldn't possibly love you more than I already do"), but is not actually true. We've already seen that Bill is capable of putting the fleet's needs first and doing his job even when he thinks Lee is missing or dead. We saw that in the miniseries, and we'll see it again in Resurrection Ship when the Blackbird is destroyed. Personally, I suspect Bill would have had the exact same reaction as he did in this episode, whether it was Lee or Kara missing.

I completely agree with you. you expressed my thoughts perfectly.

[anamarya.livejournal.com]

I never thought that can be the same stogie. it is like with the Aurora statue.

i never thought otherwise. for me it was like a given, and i never gave it much thought. it's like the stogie, the lighter and the Aurora are all simbols of the family.

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

I love all of Bill and Kara's scenes together, from the amazing confession scene in AoC to the gentle moment where he brushes her hair and gives her a stogie to welcome her back
Oh gosh, I love those scenes so much. I think this arc really solidified my insane love for Kara, and her scenes with Adama were a big part of that. I adore the moment in AoC when he makes her flight instructor and then, when he's hugging her, she lets her mask go just a little bit so that only the camera can see. And then at the end of YCGHA when he kisses her on the forehead and she lets herself break just when he can't see her face...powerful stuff!

We've already seen that Bill is capable of putting the fleet's needs first and doing his job even when he thinks Lee is missing or dead. We saw that in the miniseries, and we'll see it again in Resurrection Ship when the Blackbird is destroyed. Personally, I suspect Bill would have had the exact same reaction as he did in this episode, whether it was Lee or Kara missing.
That's very interesting, and I think you might be right--I can't really see Adama condemning the human race to orbit around a barren moon, even if Lee were stranded on it (although season 4 Adama might wait there by himself in a Raptor and let the fleet go on without him). But I think it matters that he says this to Lee, maybe because he can't possibly know what he would really do in that situation, but it's something that he wouldn't want to leave.

I must admit, also, that I love the way the show pushes these conflicts on its characters and avoids the sort of cliche, sentimental route--like in Razor, that when push comes to shove Lee and Kara both know what they have to do and they both do it even when they don't want to. And I don't think she would ever hold it against him, just as I don't think she would blame them for leaving after her oxygen ran out.

[anamarya.livejournal.com]

Personally, I suspect Bill would have had the exact same reaction as he did in this episode, whether it was Lee or Kara missing.

i suspect the same thing but as i was saying a couple of days ago i always had the feeling the Laura wouldn't. She always relied on Lee a lot, especially back before she got close to Bill.