It's a bit unnerving when you think that someone's going to end up dead.
I’m speaking of a character on a television show. Calm down.
I was a fan of Battlestar Galactica (yes, even the cheesetastic 1970s version - hey, a science fiction geek growing up in the 70s didn’t have too many other options), and am now watching Caprica, gleefully recording every episode and then watching it the next day so that I can fast-forward through the ads. I already know I’m going to buy the 1st-season DVDs (though - please, folks, do NOT split the seasons up and sell them in two halves, that just vexes me), but I’m enjoying watching several recorded eps in sequence, catching bits that I didn’t the first time through. I’m enjoying all the detail they’ve put into building out the worlds: the cultures and subcultures, the socioeconomic structures, the family dynamics, everything.
But I think Sam Adama’s going to get deaded.
First off, while there were a few mentions of Admiral Adama’s father in Battlestar Galactica, we heard nothing of his uncle. If Sam was such an influence on young William, one might have expected a few more of those habits to stick. Admiral Adama knew how to get things done, but he didn’t seem as…well…overtly ruthless as someone who was tutored by a mob enforcer. We also got a drive-by mention of Joseph Adama from Lee, who even gave us a quote from granddad (“Be good…but not -=too=- good”), but no mention of his grand-uncle. It would make sense that Sam might have exited the picture before Lee came along, being (as he is) someone whose profession involves more overt violence, overall, than is seen at a Manchester United / Leeds football match. Joseph isn’t precisely clean-fingered, but his violence is more of the chessboard variety: moves and countermoves, actions on paper, all very mandarin. Sam prefers more direct solutions with more immediately measurable results…like the target bleeding, or running, or no longer in need of a forwarding address. Thus it makes sense that Sam is statistically less likely to be around long enough to collect on whatever retirement package the Ha’La’Tha might offer. But still…with what we’ve seen in the first quarter (or third) of the first season, with Sam’s mentoring/deputy-auxiliary-backup parenting of his nephew and the general Tauron relevance and importance of extended family, it feels like something would have had to happen for Sam to fade from his nephew’s life.
Sasha Roiz, the actor who plays Sam Adama, has mentioned that while Sam and his brother don’t agree on parenting styles, they eventually come to some meeting of the minds. I don’t know that this would necessarily mean that William Adama’s uncle suddenly drops to near-zero - even if he severely levels up in “Background, Fading Into The”. So what happens? I have no idea what, specifically - but I’m going to guess that it happened when William was getting along a heck of a lot a bit better with his father - and so less dependent on Sam as the positive adult presence in his life. (Yes, I just called a mob enforcer/assassin a positive adult presence. Unless you watch the show, you’re not really going to grok this one…but trust me, it applies. Now go watch the show.) Possibly Sam does, over time, slowly fade from his nephew’s life in a non-traumatic fashion. Possibly Sam consciously steps aside to let his brother repair the father-son bond that seems to have been neglected. Or, as a longtime member of the Tauron crime syndicate that’s ever so eager to expand, Sam is sent to help move into a new area, and so relocates. Or possibly Larry finally convinces Sam to change careers, and they relocate. That last seems a bit doubtful…but people have done less in the name of family harmony or love for one’s partner, so it’s a bit unexpected, but not totally bizarre.
But honestly? I think he’s going to end up dead at some point in the series. I just hope it isn’t **too soon**, because I like the character.
