Good ‘ole Felix
Felix Gaeta is one of the most under-the-radar characters on the show. He doesn’t get the girl, he doesn’t get the Racetrack reveals of glory, and he doesn’t have many friends. Felix just tries to do the best he can and, more often than not, gets hosed for it.
Gaeta is like one of those people you see pictures of on the news. You know – the ones that always have 3 names, like Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth. They interview his neighbors and people who knew him and they say that he was always quiet and never caused any trouble with anyone. That’s Gaeta.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Gaeta a great deal. He has shown wonderful growth and could become a good strong character. But before he gets there he is gonna have to get off the “skulking in the shadows killer” train. I have to admit I was a bit shocked at his violence towards Gaius but somehow marveled at a guy who has done a complete 180.
Earlier in the show’s history Gaeta found the conspiracy against Baltar and brought it to light. Then A.N.C. (After New Caprica) he stabs him in the neck with a pen while trying to interrogate him. Something has obviously snapped in his brain -we just don’t know what yet.
I’m guessing that Felix looks ahead and sees Baltar getting his trial and getting let off or escaping punishment that he deserves and wanted to make sure that Baltar would not be spinning his stories and weaseling out of anything else. Though I don’t think anything will happen to him for it. Heck, Cally shot Boomer in front of 20 witnesses and just had to have some quiet time before all was forgiven. Maybe Felix figured he didn’t have a lot to worry about.
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Yeah, Gaeta is definately going to have more presence now, which is cool. Just as I thought they were knocking him back down to make way for Baltar’s beautiful mind, he gets all Tigh up on him.
I don’t think they’re going to go this direction, but I love Nathan’s idea of Gaeta as Baltar’s furious ex-lover. It fits what we’ve seen of him so far perfectly.
Good Point- Gaeta has come a long way since Season 2. I’d say that he is probably still feeling guilty about his involvement in the Baltar administration. And who knows if he is really feeling accepted by everyone yet? Baltar coming aboard probably brought all these feelings to light again. I could see him doubting his own motives in staying on as Baltar’s chief of staff. Sure he could pass along intel to the resistance, but he also lived a lot more comfy than anyone else on N.C.
Yeah, I go for Nathan’s idea, too. And frankly. Baltar has always given
off a bit of that kind of vibe, anyway, to me.
On a side note, as I was driving home from work, the perfect
Battlestar Galactica song came on. I couldn’t decide if it worked
better for Baltar or Kara. Pink Floyd, “Learning to Fly”.
” … torn, tired and twisted, just an Earth-bound misfit, I”
(turning the ‘Earth-bound’ part a bit on it’s head, admittedly)
I’d snap too if I had been covering Baltar’s butt time after time and nearly get thrown out the airlock for it. I’d imagine he might feel some guilt even for what happened in “Six Degrees…” when it was revealed that Baltar was a traitor (in that case it was a hoax) and he was the one who caught it.
The 180 idea with Gaeta is a bit scary, precisely because he has not been in the forefront. If I were the writers I would worry about whether or not the audiance will accept his 180 given that we don’t know his motivations, etc.
I agree it is coming… it will be interesting if AJ and the writers can pull it off…
Your reaction… comparing him to the likes of Oswald is very telling in itself. I’m sorry Sean, but in my opinion you’re being ridiculous. There are people on the show who are a thousand times more obscene and/or violent than Gaeta has ever dreamed of being.
What makes Gaeta different is that he started out a genuine good guy, clean and naive. He’s just starting to wake up to all of the sadistic crap going on around him; he’s disturbed and is showing it. Yeah it’s wearing him down, but at the same time nobody really seems to give a damn.
Gaeta isn’t the demon you are painting him as. Quite the opposite. The problem is that everyone else around him is just… well… evil. If you were as good a guy as Gaeta, you’d start to snap after being surrounded by all that evil as well.
If I was one of the supporting actors I would get a bit worried if my character started getting juicy bits… Could be hazardous to your health a la Kat.
The more I think about it, the less I think Gaeta is a final five. I am currently leaning towards the oracle on NC played by Amanda Plummer. Plausible combination of character and actor
By the way – call me a bit slow on the uptake but I JUST noticed that you cut the corners on the page – nice touch.
Well, to be fair, Cally show a cylon, not a human being. Now, never mind what I think, the colonists did NOT think of it as violence against a human being. But as much as they might hate Baltar, they still think he’s human. Even if he doesn’t think so.
Z
Moe, I believe the supporting actors are safe until we start learning about their background. That’s the BSG red shirt.
Hi there,
I am not entirely sure I buy the idea that Gaeta has snapped. By all accounts he has had a better life that most of the inhabitants of the fleet, seeing as how he’s been either in the military or the government the whole time. If he is snapping one might expect the civilians to be snapping too and murders reported all over the fleet.
On the other hand, I am sure he has justified reasons to hate Baltar, though they both participated in the same puppet-government.
And in RDM’s podcast he did say that there was orginally a story line about Baltar participating in some mass murder of Sagitarrons on New Caprica. This was going to set up a the scene with the 2 of them in the interrogation room. Baltar was going to implicate Gaeta as a conspirator if I remember correctly. They cut that part but left the rest of the interrogation scene. If that scene hadn’t been deleted I could sort of see Gaeta snapping, but with it removed I think the viewer loses the connection.
There’s no way Gaeta and Gaius were lovers. So far, we’ve only seen Gauis have sex with hot women.
What purpose would getting involved with Gaeta serve? Gaius was already far more powerful politically, Gaeta already adored him…..Gaius never does anything without some kind of selfish motivation, and being with Gaeta would get him nothing.
Lurker, well first off, just think about what we’ve seen of Gaeta so far. He’s at least a bit metrosexual, and could easily be gay. (And admit it, he’s a damn pretty guy.)
Now think about what we’ve seen of Baltar so far. He’s either fraked or thought about fraking pretty much every chick on the show. It wouldn’t be a stretch for him, whilst reigning pretty much supreme on New Caprica, to decide he might try fraking something besides hot women for a change. Enter the pretty boy who already hero-worships him…
Not saying they’re going to go there, but it’s almost too good a plot, er, twist to pass up.
I’m gonna have to go with Lurker on that one. I don’t think Baltar would be into the whole Gaeta thing he’s not wired that way.
Pike that’s a good point about the plot twist though. That does sound like a BSG thing to do 🙂
I don’t know, Geata as gay… what’s in a name, I guess. I do think that we will get a homosexual relationship eventually in the show since it’s one of the few issues the writers haven’t tossed around yet. I think RDM even said once that if they could pull it off tastefully, they’d do it. And about Batlar not being wired that way, well he’s got plenty of cut and unplugged wires up there in his noggin, so who knows.
My friends and I have been calling Gaeta “Lt. Gay-Dar” since season 1. (But I’m a card carrying Human Rights Campaign guy, so I can say that. Ha!) Really, though, I say go for it. Why is sci-fi so afraid of homosexuality? Especially male homosexuality? Well, now that I think about it, maybe not Gaeta and Baltair. It would be a good plot twist/swirl…but it seems to me the Gaeta/Baltair storyline is more about justice/survival/and what it means to be a patriot. So if we’re going to have ‘gay’ on BSG, perhaps the Apollo/Dee/Starbuck/Anders love-quad could resolve with civil unions for all. Let Baltair have his trial, and let Gaeta be conusmed with the furry that he was almost airlocked. That could drive him to some real murderous irascibility.
How are we not to know that there might have been a Baltar/Six/D’anna/Gaeta FOURSOME??(!)
I’m thinking that Leoben and Cavil get it on in the base star. lol
Ah yes, here’s a great little series recap for you all, courtesy of QMx. If you don’t know who QMx is, well they are a new prop company for the “other” sci fi stuff (aka non Star Wars/ Trek). Things like Serenity, BSG, Universal Monsters, the Stargates, etc.
http://blog.quantummechanix.com/?p=51#more-51
Oh yeah, I forgot to say that if Geata killed Baltar, he would become a hero. It’s not like he’d be killing JFK or the dude who killed JFK, he’d be killing the Hitler/Stalin/etc of his day. On purpose or not, he’s still responsible.
I’m with Brian CC on this. I don’t see Gaeta as snapping, so much as having to deal with what he sees is a betrayal from a man he idolized. Think all the way back to the miniseries: Gaeta has a serious case of hero worship on Baltar. They’re both computer engineers (actually, what IS Baltar’s doctorate in?) with a nack for problem solving, although only one of them is a truly charismatic person who uses that charisma to the utmost advantage. For a while Baltar was even a reluctant mentor to Gaeta when they were both paired up to work on the cylon detector during season one. Gaeta’s admiration went as far as his becoming Baltar’s chief of staff during his presidency! And then the cylons take over and Baltar becomes a collaborator, signing death warrants rather than taking the honorable bullet and at least dying with principle and conscience. And Gaeta is forced to participate? The best he can do to rebel is to play both sides? And then it comes out that not only was his idol a collaborator but he was the unwitting cause of the destruction of the colonies in the first place?
I’d say Felix has reason to be a tad pissed off.
13, great link. Even if you’re up to date on the series, it’s a fun read:
“They later evolve into hot women and whiney, short, balding guys who lie a lot.
And now… they have a plan.
(Actually a bunch of plans…it’s complicated. Keep up.)”
Wow, I’m surprised at all the gay-Gaeta speculation, especially the idea of him having an illicit affair with Baltar. Despite what most people think about our savvy abilities to peg other people’s sexuality just by looking, I think it doesn’t make sense to think Gaeta or Baltar is gay because they “give off a vibe.” Now, if you want more practical evidence, try this: Gaeta has never been seen dating a woman on the show, he’s never hooked up during the course of the show as far as we know, he doesn’t show overt desire toward other female characters, etc. These things could be pointed out to say, yeah, perhaps he’s gay. But I really think it’s wrong to say he “looks” gay.
I’ve said myself before that Baltar has struck me as effeminate in various episodes, especially the earliest eps. And I’m not bothered by speculation that he’d try new things, considering his behavior seems to support that. But again, I think it’s unfair to say he gives off some kind of “gay vibe.”
I think that Felix’s character might take a few surprising turns, I am not sure just guessing, but I think that Felix may have been more involved with Baltar than we think and maybe some of these secrets might come out in Baltar’s upcoming trial.
Let me clear this up, I am not refering to the Gay issue (not that there is anything wrong with that) I mean as far as Felix actually running the show on New Caprica. I am not saying that he is completely evil, after all he was an information source for the resistance, but remember that Baltar was an unpopular President even before the Cylons got to New Caprica, and I am not sure that everyting that went wrong was all Baltar, I think some of the Blame can be left with his Chief of Staff, Felix.So I believe that Baltar will try to push as much blame to Felix as possible and that is what I believe Felix is trying to avoid.
Baltar was very dapper looking in the mini series in that weird black pinstripe suit. He looks so different now compared to then. While he was on the basestar he looked like some homeless guy floating through space who bummed a ride with the Cylons for a while. He also looks like he hasn’t “changed the grease” in his hair in a while. Everyone knows that pretty people are more like to get away with things than ugly people, so Baltar needs to freshen up before the trial.
Excuse, and what you think concerning forthcoming elections?