Trapped.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

This is my least favorite arc of the whole series because it was really awful to imagine Kara locked up, helpless, driven to a suicide attempt in a deleted scene, even. Katee did wonderful work of course, but it just struck me as the worst kind of torture for her. Paradoxically, I know a lot of people love this arc. What's your take on it? Why do you love it, or hate it? What do you think about the deleted suicide attempt? Did it surprise you? Did you view it as a way--her only way--to take back control, to not let Leoben win? Or did you think she finally had been broken/given up hope? Any brave souls listen to the podcast? Do they explain why they cut it?

Comments

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

I didn't like this deleted scene when I first saw it, because I couldn't imagine Kara giving in to despair that completely. Then I used it in a fic (http://deborah-judge.livejournal.com/219909.html) and it ended up meaning something totally different: she was never trying to kill herself (she could've stopped the bleeding in time), just to test the limits of her imprisonment and Leoben's power, and she actually won this round by showing him that he could not ultimately keep her imprisoned against her will if she was willing to die to escape. The way Leoben acts after the suicide attempt is the most questioning and uncertain that we ever see him in the NC arc (or ever, really) so that makes me think that this was a moment when she really got through to him.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Yeah I've seen a few folks who like the theory that she's "winning" with this. Personally, I have a tough time seeing that in the scene. She looks so gutted and numb and broken. :( I don't see a hint of determination or triumph or even grim satisfaction on her face and Katee's pretty expressive. She just seems kind of out of it when he comes in and grabs her.

Leoben's characterization has always been pretty murky. It's not like he changed his ways at all after that scene, so I don't know... Maybe he was shaken, but it didn't really make a difference I guess. :(

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I hate seeing her so broken and helpless, and worse, trapped into being that way. For four months she's not quite herself, and even though we've seen Kara willing to die than be imprisoned before (her suicide pact with Sam over the farms), I refuse to accept the deleted scene as canon simply because it doesn't quite ring true to her character.She's fought him every step of the way so far, killed him whenever she can, and she's never been about giving up.

I mean, you could rationalize it as an escape attempt, but even that doesn't work for me and even though I listened to the podcasts, they never explain it.

[word-vomity.livejournal.com]

I remember such a sharp ache in my chest the first time I saw this. I can't say I 'liked' the arc, but it definitely hit me where I lived and broke my heart a little . . . which to be honest, I generally enjoy in my fiction.

I remember feeling her desperation at being so trapped vividly and her inability to free herself was terrible to watch. I was gonna say it felt like when a bird gets trapped inside and will slam itself to pieces against a window over and over at the hope of freedom . . . but then to felt like Ron liking to a caged bird so I take it back.

[mserrada.livejournal.com]

I'm glad they didn't use the scene in canon because it wasn't support enough by shown events to make sense for Kara to choose suicide as way out. Kara seems so strong that it would really take a lot to take her to this low.

On the other hand, if we'd seen more, obviously traumatic things, happen to her during the four months, then I could see her doing this. In my NC fic Wounded Wing, I chose to take it that direction. Kara got to the point where she really believed there wasn't--would never be--another method of escape.

We know she's a person of action. All those days of near-solitary confinement with next to nothing to do would have been torturous for her. I also see Kara as a social person. Despite her lone-wolf persona, she needs the friction of other people. Then there was the fear. Did she totally believed that Leoben would never try to force the issue with her? She probably wondered each morning if maybe today he'd decide to try a different approach than just patient persistence? And you only has to look at how Kara reacted after killing Leoben and sat back down to eat to tell that she was losing her grip on herself. If the Galactica hadn't returned, who would have been the first to break the stalemate between Kara & Leoben?

So, faced with a belief that things were never going to get better, I could see Kara taking that step. She was a runner. If she couldn't beat it or wait it out, she'd run. And, yeah, I could see her taking a small amount of satisfaction in winning over Leoben in this way, though it certainly didn't show in the bathroom scene.

I love angst, specifically Hurt/Comfort. What I hate most, Kara never really got the Comfort part (or us).

[imelda72.livejournal.com]

Man, i agree so much with all of this! I never thought of it that way, but I am interested by what you said about Kara being a "runner". I never realized that suicide might fit in with that, but it certainly could have. She had no other option.

But I, too, am glad they didn't include it. It would have been too much to see Kara kill herself. (too bad she DOES do it later on)

And also, I really, really feel like we, viewers, along with Kara, needed more comfort for her. From NC on out, she never gets any time to breathe or recover. Ever. Unless she's dying/disappearing. And that sucks.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

Pretty much literally the only comfort she got between then to her death was her reconciliation with Lee and the return of their friendship, which we know she treasured even after their attempt to make it work as lovers fell apart. And even that was kind of a double-edged sword (she had to lose him as a lover).

[lostandalone22.livejournal.com]

I'm probably in a minority that liked this arc, but only for the reason that I loved seeing Kara with Kacey and would have been delighted if Kacey would have ended up actually being Kara's daughter.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

I'm torn a few ways on the Kacey storyline, though I did think it was fitting that if Kara was trapped inside her worst nightmare someone forcing her to be a mother would be part of it. And Katee played it beautifully.