The Magical Mystery Four

Source: TV Guide

Holy frak! Starbuck is back! I still haven't decided if I think she is alive or if she's some sort of spirit guide that's working with Lee to take the last of the human race to Earth. "Don't freak out. It really is me. It's going to be OK. I've been to Earth. I know where it is. I'm going to take us there." And if she really is "alive," her ship was blown to bits, so where did she get a new Viper? Either way, I'm pretty excited that whichever way she's returned, she has returned and her higher purpose has been revealed. Which means her "death" wasn't in vain, so that makes me happy.

Tigh, Anders, Tyrol and Tori are four of the five remaining Cylons, or at least they think they are. I'm not quite sure that I buy it. Anders, Tyrol, Tori… sure. I've got no problem with any of them, and I think that the fact that Anders and Tyrol were freedom fighters on New Caprica and so anti-Cylon is especially ironic and exciting. But I really don't get how Tigh could be a Cylon. He was alive as a human when the old metallic Cylons disappeared during the first war, 40 years prior to when they reappeared and attacked regular Caprica and the rest of the human planets. Heck, he's served with Adama for 40 years. Unless he was an original prototype for the skin jobs, which the Cylons were working on way back before they disappeared, I just don't understand how it could be possible. I'd be more inclined to believe that the Cylons were just somehow frakking with him and they implanted a weird chip in his head when they held him captive on New Caprica. The only other thing that even remotely makes sense to me is if they took a human that was already alive and could somehow make them into a Cylon. Either way, they've got a lot of explaining to do next season.

I did love that the Cylon music was actually Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower." Anders was humming the words "all along the watchtower" right before he talked to the Chief, and then Tigh quoted the tune early on in the episode. Then when they were all being drawn together they each had a segment of the song stuck in their heads. "There must be some kind of way out of here," said Chief. "Said the joker to the thief," said Tigh. "There's too much confusion here," said Anders. "I can't get no relief," said Tori. Very interesting. Maybe the Galactica crew is closer to earth than they realize. I love the version of the song that they played over the end of the episode. I really need to get a copy of that. And maybe a clip of Adama telling Roslin to "get your fat lazy ass out of that rack," to put as my morning alarm clock.

When the simultaneous power outage among the whole fleet, which was restored when the foursome actually said the words that they were Cylons, Roslin also suffered from a splitting headache. Could that mean that she is actually a Cylon, too? Or is it just because she has Cylon blood in her from her transfusion from Hera? It would make a lot of sense considering that she also had that freaky dream along with Six and Athena. Her being a Cylon, despite her age, wouldn't surprise me as much as Tigh. I did think Tigh's reaction to discovering that he was a Cylon was pretty awesome. His "the ship is under attack, let's get back to work" attitude impressed me. I'm surprised that the other three followed suit; I'd have probably curled up for a few days. But for all Tigh's flaws he does know how to give a pep talk: "My name is Saul Tigh and if I die today, then that's who I'll be."

And if all of that wasn't enough, there was also that intense trial of Gaius Baltar. I kind of love that he was found not guilty. As Adama astutely told the President, "Not guilty is not the same as innocent." Baltar going free means that basically he has to live in human society as an outcast, and find shelter among his few supporters. He'll live the rest of his days in fear of being lynched by an angry human who lost someone because of him. That's much more messed up than just tossing him out the airlock. Sure, dying in space is a painful way to die, but to have to live under these circumstances could be some sort of excruciating torture for him. I just loved the horrified look on his face when he realized that Lee and Lampkin were leaving him on his own. Priceless.

Gaius shouldn't really be mad at Lee for abandoning him though. The younger Adama is really the main reason that Baltar even has his freedom. Lee's speech about forgiveness for all of the heinous crimes that were committed in the name of survival was well thought out and very important considering that while so many laws have been bent, the rules are so stringent for Baltar. I think that Lee's dear old dad recognized the hypocrisy and realized that while his son was giving testimony that would free this awful man, it wasn't because he liked him or because he respected what he had done, but because it was the right thing to do in order to keep a society with some structure in these times of war.

Lampkin, though, totally played Lee to get the win — by putting him on the stand and keeping the cane around so that Lee would feel bad for him and stay on the defense legal team. Scheming and underhanded… somehow I don't think we've seen the last of him.

At the end of the day, Lee, like Tigh, realized that despite all that had been going on his life, he was a soldier. Apollo hopped back into uniform and into a viper to help out his crew. Was it to make him feel less guilty for letting Baltar go free? Was it to make up for not wanting to save the humans when they were trapped on New Caprica? Maybe a bit of both, but either way, he did what needed to be done.

Now the whole fleet is under Cylon attack, just as they've reached one of the signposts for Earth. Did Kara bring along a whole army with her from whatever land she's been in? Because that looks like what they'll need to fight off all of those Cylons, since they are basically sitting ducks unable to jump for a while. I just can't believe that we have to wait until 2008 for more new episodes, though I am excited that we'll be getting another full batch of 22. I watched this episode a couple of weeks ago, and my head is still spinning. Maybe by the time the new ones roll around, I'll have figured out where Kara got her ship, or come up with new theories about Tigh or Roslin, or both. I can't wait to hear what all of you thought of the episode.