I'll be Adama-ed

Source: Huston Chronicle

It's on the road again as Admiral Adama - with a little help from friends and family - gets the captured humans off New Caprica and back on the journey to Earth (personally, I don't believe it exists).



The eight month cliff-hanger paid off with both exciting action and powerful human -- and Cylon -- drama. And some big changes.

Not everyone we've been traveling with these past two years is back on board.

The biggest surprise jolt of the episode came early on. You did have to wonder last week, as it was revealed to the human insurgents that Ellen Tigh had sold them out to save the life of Saul Tigh, leader of the insurgents, how would they, and most of all Col Tigh, handle the treason?

As Ellen sank deeper into dangerous darkness by revealing to one-eyed Tigh how she had secured his freedom from prison, we wondered how xenophobic, not to mention sexually and emotionally jealous, Tigh would react. His patch and grizzled look made him appear even more stunned than one would expect, yet his response seemed strangely muted. Until we found out what he was already doing -- "You just go to sleep" -- as Ellen slumped over, and a grieving Tigh vented his grief.

Talk about a bitter pill. For both.

It was one of several wrenching moments in an episode that, while built around more action than the show has seen in ages, never lost sight of what makes us care about the action, the human drama.

OK, I admit, there were many times in early episodes when I thought, somebody please send Ellen out an airlock. But with her out of the picture apparently permanently and with Gaius Baltar seemingly sidetripped for the time-being, who will be the outrageous baddies?

Oh, yeah, the Cylons.

So many stories going on at once:

Starbuck had to deal with rape, emotional and physical -- it may not have been intercourse, but it was rape -- by her adoring Cylon captor, Leoben, in order to take Kasey, her recently revealed child, with her. If only she could have dispatched him permanently. Yech.

Leoben's treatment of Starbuck would prove even more devastating when she learns who Kasey really is -- a revelation that left Starbuck shaken and her return to Galactica almost as bitter as Saul's.

We saw Gaius actually ask to die, we saw the mystery baby had survived (rescued first by Gaius and Number Six, then by D'Anna).

There was Apollo and Adama reunited. And Apollo seemingly restored to fighting fervor, if not fighting weight (that shouldn't take long either). And Sharon finally having proven herself.

It was a battle-heavy show, with some spectacular effects, even if half the time I was having trouble telling what was going down. I could tell the Galactica was going down as Adama used unconventional tactics, jumping into the atmosphere and launching vipers as the ship fell, and then -- last moment -- jumping back to space.

Still, things were grim for one and all, so much so that Adama actually gave up, saying adieu to his crew, as the alien battlestars proved overwhelming. But then, once more the cavalry arrived.

"I never could read your handwriting," Apollo tells him, regarding his orders to leave and keep the civilian fleet safe.

One more final surprise. Adama shaves. And no one seems to notice.

And now a scene from next week's show, Collaborators. Or as they say: Next on Battlestar Galactica.

Interesting? Is D'Anna trying to beat Number Six time?

By the way, Lucy Lawless (D'Anna) was re-signed by B.G. for a 10-story arc before this season began, so she's going to be around a bit longer.

by Louis B. Parks