DPP: The Passage!...Now with added WTF?!

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

So a very awesome birdie just shared the early draft of a script of The Passage with me. I was hoping the scene I’d heard talked about on podcasts where Kara and Lee talk about their relationship while bouncing a pyramid ball against the wall was in there. But it wasn’t, so perhaps that was just a writer’s room idea, or something they wrote and filmed later but didn’t use.

What’s interesting, in fact, is that the scenes they do have are very strange in that they’re almost completely devoid of UST. Instead they seem to have gone back to being best buds, a la Season 2, but…more platonic?

The stage directions keep stressing how together/in unison/partners Kara and Lee are throughout this script. Lots of little notes about them catching each others’ eyes and silently communicating, around the other pilots (which Kat notices a lot). They’re very “mom and dad” to the pilots in fact in this one. Witness:

Kara looks to Lee for confirmation. Kat watches the exchange. She doesn't like something about it. Maybe it's the fact that Lee is considered the authority here. Or maybe it's the easy non-verbal communication these two share.

KAT
Right. Because you two are the
only ones with access to the truth.

She gets up and THUMPS the list on the wall with her fist--striking at Lee's name and the CAG title.

KAT (Cont’d)
My name was up here a lot longer
than yours, not too long ago. But
that don't mean frak, 'cuz you're
the CAG and you're the favorite
and you two catch the truth as
it drops out of Daddy's mouth.
Me, I don't know nothing. Got it.

And there’s a lot of anvilicious lip service to Kara and Lee practically sharing the job of CAG and leaving Kat out in the cold even though she did the job longer.

Lee and Kara enter and approach Adama, busy at his desk. The bowl of ice is there again too. Adama doesn't even look up looks displeased. They pick up the vibe, tell each other about it with a look. After a beat of them standing there like Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee ...

ADAMA
I only sent for you, Apollo.

LEE
I thought Starbuck should join us,
sir. None of us is at our best,
and she's been CAG, too.

Later in the same scene:

ADAMA
…That make sense to you, CAG?

Apparently Kara forgets which one of them that is, because:

LEE / KARA
Yes sir.

And even later in the script, when Kara busts Kat’s secret identity, there’s this:

KAT
Are you going to tell the admiral?

KARA
That’s a question for the CAG.

KAT
Kara, you are the CAG. You and Lee
are one person right now. Everyone
knows that.

Kara’s turn to be shocked. She didn’t know anyone saw it.

So “one person” and all seems like they’re pretty together right? But…um… I don’t know! Their vibe is so platonic! Because there’s also this scene. This is the chewing gum scene that inspired Shah’s challenge fic. It’s so strange…

INT. GALACTICA - TRAINING AREA

Kara and Lee, dressed for working out but not sweaty at all, sit on the floor, leaning against the wall. They chew gum. An old tattered magazine lies on the floor next to Kara.

LEE
Athena said it was hard, just
keeping hold of the controls
in there.

KARA
Well, we're stronger than her.

LEE
No, we aren't. She's a Cylon.

KARA
Oh, right. Well, another hour,
we'll find out. You want more?

She tears a piece off a magazine. They're not chewing gum.

LEE
No. Gods, I can't believe
we even tried this.

They both spit out their wads of paper, laughing.

KARA
I gotta go.

LEE
What? Is this because I wouldn't
chew any more …
(reads off magazine)
Hot Looks for Summer?

Kara's already on her feet, grabbing her bag.

KARA
Sam wants me to stop by before we
launch. They've got him billeted with
some civilian officials and he's bored
to tears. He says they're so used to
routine, they all still sit down at
night to not eat their I-don't-
got-no-dinner.

She laughs, making Lee laugh, and she exits. Missing her already, he looks at his watch, time to kill.

Doesn’t this just seem so weird? For things to be so hunky-dory? I mean Kara references going to see Sam offhandedly (after she was just saying in UB very bitterly that Lee didn’t give them a billet together!) and Lee laughs about it, and then the scene immediately after this has Lee wandering off to Dogville, and finding Dee and being happy he came to see her and they have a “nice moment” (and there’s a forehead brush, which is just wrong!) and…it’s just so strange! Especially if the next episode K/L are making out furiously in the raptor. Does not compute!

I mean granted it was Espenson’s first script and maybe it was a first draft (I haven’t watched The Passage in ages and a lot of this script seems different from what I remember happening), but this dynamic seems so odd for them here. It just doesn’t seem to fit. The last scene in the script is Kara putting Kat’s pic up on the wall and Lee just comes and stands beside her. That’s all.

Anyway, yeah, so this wasn’t as shippy as I expected but I thought you all would be curious to hear about it. It seems to me that the actors, as we already knew, really brought so very much more to the roles than what was in the scripts. And less was definitely more in this case. Maybe it was good their interaction between UB and EOJ was left to our imaginations!



Comments

[amaliak.livejournal.com]

I actually prefer thatwe don't know how it all happened. I mean, there's nothing better than watching the first minutes of EOJ when out of nowhere they are just MAKING OUT and I still get all fluttery because it's a delightful surprise (and it's HOT).

These scenes seem...I don't know if maybe they could have worked later? Still, I like that the writers were trying to rapidly pull Lee and Kara back into the beauty of season 2, but too much had happened for it to be really believable at this level.
Thanks for sharing, Tara!
cheers.
--Lex