Lady Macbeth

We humans really are very weird creatures

(spoilers ahead)

I’ve been watching Battlestar Galactica (the “re-imagined” 2004 series)  for a while now; and in the show, there is this “Lady MacBeth”-like character. Her name is Ellen Tigh… and just like Lady MacBeth, she’s married to a man who is in the line of command, but who doesn’t want the top job (in the show, this man would be Saul Tigh, the XO if Battlestar Galactica). She uses a combination of insult, flattery, and sexual temptation to get her husband in the game, arranges the murder of others, and even makes alcohol one of her most potent weapons. Tigh and MacBeth are ladies who are masters at manipulation, and that is what makes the audience loathe them to the very core.

Ellen Tigh was a force of nature, she was a survivor, she was cunning and she would simply not play by the rules and be the good wife. She had a completely fucked up marriage, nevertheless a marriage that worked. From the first time that she appeared on the show, I just wanted her to be killed off. She was nothing but trouble.She would get Saul drunk and fuck up his job as XO. She was the tragic flaw in Saul Tigh’s life.

So why oh why did I feel that her death sequence on the 37th episode of BSG was probably the most heart-wrenching thing that I have seen on the show thus far?? She was a tragic flaw and I wanted her to be killed off. Then the moment I realize that it was going to happen, I started to brace for impact. And after I happened, I just felt so bad that I wanted her back…

She was a big pain in the ass. But I guess the bottomline is that Colonel Saul Tigh… the hardnosed XO of Battlestar Galactica… he loved her. And inspite of all of Ellen’s promiscuity, screw-ups and character flaws, she really did love him and would do anything for him. When the shit hit the fan and all hell broke loose, she tried to do the very best she could in the way she knew how. Of course what she did caused trouble, like she always does… but her consequential death had a certain kind of nobility and honor to it.

The death scene was just magnificent. It’s an amazing piece of acting by two actors who play Saul and Ellen and it will probably be able to move me every time I see it. It’s just a weird feeling to have when you see one of the characters that you saw as an antagonist… someone you wanted to die… get killed off. And then at that very moment, you feel so moved by her death. Especially during the scene where Saul Tigh is weeping after he kills his wife… you realize that as fucked up as Ellen is and as fucked up their marriage is… there really is no one more perfect for both of them than each other. And for this viewer, it’s sad that that realization had to come via her death.