[S5E8] How We Get To Peace
"How We Get To Peace," written by Lauren Muir, remarkably covered the topic of peace while combining the excruciating choices that need to be made to get there. It was raw and vulnerable in the way that it positioned the characters that were struggling to find that endpoint.
[S5E8] How We Get To Peace
Once again, those last few minutes backed characters into corners they themselves spent so much time trying to avoid. And in that process, the Blake sibling bond was put at risk for the sake of safety and peace.
Bellamy may have stood up to Octavia, and yet he still couldn't face the fact that she was a real obstacle. It was simple to see her as someone that was in the way of a relationship, but now she was actually in the way of them finding peace and of Clarke staying alive.
Clarke's life was a loss that Bellamy was not going to accept and that love is the final push for possible peace. Now, this doesn't take away from Bellamy's love for his sister, but it does remove the safety that surrounded their relationship.
Clarke and Diyoza make a deal to share the valley as Clarke takes out Octavia even if it means killing her. Bellamy makes it clear that he won't kill his sister; but Clarke insists that it might be the only way they get to peace and save Madi who has now been promoted to Octavia's second in command. There must be another way to make Octavia surrender. They agree that Octavia might surrender if she didn't have her weapons - the worms. So, Clarke, Bellamy and Indra hatch a plan to kill Cooper with the worms; then destroy all the worms and make it look like an accident.
Kane wants an Eden where he and Abby can live together in peace, where humanity can be the very best of itself. And Diyoza wants a safe place for her daughter to grow up, for her to have a life free from war and filled with all the good things she remembers about growing up on our Earth.
It could also be argued that Bellamy does what he does to Octavia in a last-ditch attempt to save her soul. He and Indra are among the only people that still see straight to the heart of who Octavia could be, who she was before the world took everything from her. If peace is achieved by the time Octavia wakes up will she be able to accept it and live in harmony with the rest of humanity?
Oh Monty and his sweet algae farm. I do want more for him and think he, like Marcus and Abby do have ideas of how to do things different, yet, nobody really wants to listen. He did not need to open that door, but he did. I struggled with that a bit. He could have and should have walked away then for all that he professes he wants peace.
In 'The Joke' the armies of King Harald and Ivar and the armies of Bjorn and Lagertha finally march against one another. Lagertha's troops march out of Kattegat and meet Ivar and Harald on an open field. Before the fighting starts, they try to make peace talks, with Bjorn and Ubbe pleading with Ivar not to fight against his brothers, not to make Ragnar weep in Valhalla.
What was the point of the peace talks scene being extended? Ivar agrees that he can't fight his brothers. He angers Harald and makes everyone think he's going to drink to peace. Then he spits out his drink on his brother and tells them all that they're idiots for thinking he'd ever make peace. Okay, so what's the point of saying he will only to later say he won't?
My guess is that they were just filling time. The battle is the most expensive part of the episode to film, so it couldn't take up the entire episode. Instead we basically get four sections of peace talk:
Also, why exchange hostages to begin with? What is the point of that? It serves no purpose whatsoever in conducting peace talks, and even less purpose when said hostages are family members. Hostages make sense in certain scenarios. If, for instance, the battle took place at Kattegat but Harald and Ivar wanted to conduct peace talks in their camp, it might make sense for Lagertha to take hostages before she (or her emissaries) placed themselves in danger. Had Ubbe been at all smart when conducting peace talks with Aethelwulf earlier this season he would have first demanded hostages. But since the peace talks in this episode took place on neutral ground, there was literally no point in a hostage exchange.
When both armies get to the giant battlefield, they decide to send out emissaries to try and work things out first. Hvitserk goes over to Lagertha's camp and Halfdan (Jasper Paakkonen) goes to his brother Harald's side. The agreement is they will stay overnight there and try to work out a peaceful solution to prevent an unnecessary slaughter of their troops. The funny thing is both sides just try to do the same thing in trying to convince the person that comes over to defect over to their side. King Harald especially tries to get Halfdan to come over saying that just because Bjorn saved his brother's life he should want to be loyal to his blood brother more.
And later on, it would be proven to have just been Ivar being a jackass as he throws his drink in Ubbe's face as they were toasting his fake peace agreement. He reveals to Ubbe that he could never forgive Lagertha for killing their mother and he goes on to announce that "of course I'm going to kill her!" The best part is that Lagertha herself is not shaken in the least and simply replies to his outcry with "you can try." For all the Margrethe thinks that Lagertha is losing her strength as a queen this is a simple demonstration of how wrong she is! To add salt to the wound Ivar tells Ubbe that he is no longer his brother so he won't be thinking about it in that way when he fights him. Both sides slowly back away from each other with the first action being thrown when Harald punches Halfdan in the face to express his disappointment with him. As they continue to walk away, Astrid and Lagertha lock intense gazes at each other with what seems like mixed signals since we know Astrid went to great lengths to warn them of the attack. Speaking of, how come no one on Ivar's side seems puzzled that they knew they were coming?
Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet crew of the Federation starship Enterprise-D. In this episode, Picard is in search of ambassador Spock who may have defected to the Romulan Empire. This episode has been praised for the "novelty and nostalgia" of seeing Spock, and noted for introducing a peace-loving Romulan faction.[3]Story elements and appearances by Spock are included in "Unification III" in Star Trek Discovery.
Spock demands that Picard leave Romulus. Picard informs him of the Federation's concern over his "cowboy diplomacy" and tells him that Sarek has died. Spock takes the news of his father's death stoically. He explains to Picard that during the peace negotiations with the Klingons decades earlier, he felt responsible for putting Captain Kirk and his crew at risk, and so is now working alone on a "personal mission of peace" to re-unify the Vulcan and Romulan people. He is working with an underground movement to achieve that aim. Pardek has asked Spock to come to Romulus to meet with the new Proconsul of the Romulan Senate, a young idealist who has promised reforms. Picard expresses concern that the willingness of the Romulans may be part of a larger ploy. Spock agrees but points out that if a larger plot is at work, it is best they play out their roles within it to uncover it. On the Klingon ship Spock and Data work together to break a Romulan code, and complement one another. Spock remarks that Data has achieved the ideal Vulcan state of pure logic without emotion, and Data remarks that Spock feels emotion, which Data is trying achieve.
Picard, Data, and Spock are soon captured by Commander Sela (Tasha Yar's daughter), who is planning a Romulan conquest of Vulcan. The stolen Vulcan ship and two others are carrying a 2,000 men Romulan invasion force, under the guise of escorting a peace envoy. Spock refuses to deceive his people by announcing the false news, even after Sela threatens to kill him, and she locks the three in her office and leaves to order the ships on their way. By the time she returns, Data has hacked into the Romulan computer system and created a holographic simulation that distracts her long enough for the three captives to incapacitate her and her officers.
This episode was aired in the weeks before the release of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Spock makes reference to the events of the movie when he asks Picard if he was aware of Spock's role in the first peace overtures to the Klingons. Picard is aware of the public history of Spock's role, but not the whole story. Spock says that he forced Captain Kirk to accept the mission, and that he felt responsible for what happened to Kirk and his crew. This time, Spock only wants to risk his own life, which is why he came to Romulus on his own.
At any rate, Alaya is completely intransigent, so the Doctor decides to go below to find the rest of the tribe to talk to them. As usual in a Silurian story, only the Doctor is interested in peace between the races, and there is hostility on both sides.
Ambassador Spock asks Captain Picard why he is on Romulus, and Picard tells him he is there to ask him the same question on behalf of Starfleet. Spock refuses to answer, telling Picard that his mission is a personal one of peace and will inform Starfleet when it is necessary. Picard reminds Spock that he is in a position to heavily compromise Federation security; Spock asks Picard to leave and Picard refuses, saying that despite all that he has achieved on behalf of the Federation, Spock's sort of "cowboy diplomacy" is not easily tolerated.
On Romulus, Spock, Data, and Picard are brought into Sela's office. She informs them that Spock will read a speech that she wrote encouraging the Vulcans to welcome the "peace envoy". Picard realizes the Romulans will be using the stolen Vulcan ship, and Sela reveals there's actually three stolen ships full of troops and explains that they've been following the Enterprise's investigation which has forced them to make some minor changes, such as sending fake orders to the Enterprise in Picard's name ordering them to remain in their present position and when the Vulcan ships cross the Neutral Zone, the ship will be too busy with an urgent crisis to stop them. Picard points out that Starfleet will not just sit idly by while the Romulans attempt to conquer one of the Federation's founding member worlds, but Sela states that by the time Starfleet get to Vulcan, the Romulans will be so firmly entrenched on the planet that there'll be no getting rid of them and thus reunification will be a fact of life. When Spock refuses to read Sela's statement or any other, she threatens to kill him, along with Picard and Data, but he logically deduces that she will kill the three of them in any event, and thus refuses to cooperate. Sela becomes infuriated and rants of her hatred of Vulcans before revealing a programmable holographic version of Spock that will read the speech. She then leaves to order the ships on their way, locking the three in her office. Data and Spock immediately set about to access the Romulan computer system. 041b061a72