Galactica Station's Review of Revelations

Boomergirl gives us her thoughts on tonight's "mid-season finale," ep. 4.12 "Revelations."

“Hokey religions and ancient weapons…ain’t no mystical energy field that controls my destiny.”

Sorry, couldn’t resist. This episode begged for a couple of quotes from some iconic science fiction movies. And another zinger I’m really dying to release will come later in this review.

But to start: after last week’s ending where Adama and Roslin were reunited, a sweetly rendered scene that could satisfy the romantic itch in any Adama/Roslin shipper, the show just couldn’t let happy last too long, could they? Let us not forget they’re on board a Cylon base ship and the Cylons are apparently now lead by a somewhat scary resurrected Three.

Deanna lays out her demands. She wants, not the Final Five, but the four who are in the fleet. Of course, this leads us to question what’s the deal with the fifth one? And how does Deanna know, without even having set foot on Galactica, that only four are on board the ship? Is one of the Final Five on the base star with them? Had one of them died, perhaps during the disastrous exodus from New Caprica? Clearly, this is a question that will not be answered for some time, but something worth pondering. Deanna tells Adama that they’ll be going to Galactica together, but she’ll hold his crewmembers aboard the base star hostage until the Final Four come back to them. Leoben tries to convince Deanna that they have a common goal and must work together, but having missed a few crucial events in the Cylon civil war, Deanna still adheres to the old party line. “We cooperated on New Caprica, brother. It didn’t work out well.”

When the Cylon raptor reaches Galactica, Tigh, Tory, Anders and Tyrol are all present, watching the arrival. Deanna scans the deck and smirks, satisfied that she’s seen the Four, and that they know she knows. Without naming names, she invites the Four to join her, assuring them that they will be loved. Tory takes advantage of the situation to say that she must be at Roslin’s side and that the president needs her medication. She insists on returning with Deanna to the base star.

Of all the four that were revealed in the Season Three finale, Tory has seemed to me to be the most enigmatic and creepy. We know very little about her past and the bits of screen time she had before she learned she was a Cylon showed us that she was capable of being secretive and manipulative, helping Roslin try to steal the election, helping Roslin steal Hera, helping Roslin’s covert activities on New Caprica. Throughout, she had appeared to be a loyal lieutenant, but this new self awareness of her true nature seems to have brought out her Machiavellian, self-aggrandizing, and calculating self to its fullest. Using sex for information, the cold-blooded murder of Cally Tyrol, and now, finally, as she steps aboard the Cylon base star and sees the reverence the other Cylons offer her, it appears that she has moved into her own final transformation. “I’m through taking orders from you,” she says to Roslin, after she reveals her true nature to her former boss.

While those on board Galactica determine what to do about the situation with the Final Four and how they can save their captured comrades, Deanna decides she’s tired of waiting. One of the humans is shown the airlock, and Deanna promises Adama that she will space more unless she gets the Final Four.

The music starts again, the same crackly radio signal that so plagued the Final Four at the end of Season Three when they discovered their true identities. Unable to resist the call, Tigh, Tyrol and Anders convene on the hangar deck where Kara’s inexplicably shiny, mint-condition Viper sits, all convinced that the Viper holds some vital information that eludes them. Tigh orders Anders and Tyrol to find Kara who might be able to help, while he goes to the Old Man and makes the confession that he is one of the Five.

Understandably, Adama has a hard time believing this. He points out that he knew Tigh since the Colonel had hair. How is it possible that Tigh could be a Cylon? Tigh points out that there was plenty they didn’t know about the Cylons, and reminds Adama of what’s at stake. He can be used as leverage against Deanna and her demands.

The knowledge that his oldest and best friend, his most loyal XO has been hiding such a momentous secret is too much for Adama. Not for Laura Roslin, for Kara Thrace’s supposed death, or even for the supposed death of Lee back in the miniseries had Adama ever broken down the way he does when he discovers that the last man in the universe he would have suspected has turned out to be one of Them. Lee tries to comfort his father, promises he’ll make things right, and then proceeds to the airlock to interrogate Tigh, demanding the names of the other three Cylons.

On the hangar deck, Anders and Tyrol try to convince Kara that there’s something different about the Viper she flew back, but are interrupted by a squad of Marines who take Anders and Tyrol away, informing Kara that, like the XO, these two are Cylons. (I may be in a minority here, but I thought Michael Trucco deserved an Emmy for the expression on his face when his character realized the game was up, and that his worst fears had come to pass). Too shocked upon learning that her husband is a Cylon, Kara can say nothing, but she has the wits to remember that she was summoned to the hangar deck for a reason. She decides to investigate the Viper.

Back at the airlock, Lee and Deanna proceed to play a dangerous game of poker. Deanna had herded her hostages to the base star airlock, and called to demand the remaining Cylons. Lee responded by threatening to space Tigh, putting both sides into détente. Once Anders and Tyrol join Tigh in the airlock, Lee calls Deanna to let her know that the game is up. He has all the remaining Cylons. Still unwilling to back down, Deanna responds by putting a weapons lock on the civilian fleet.

Kara discovers the Viper’s secret and races through the Galactica toward the airlock, stopping Lee just as he is about to turn the key to space Tigh. Breathlessly, she announces that the Four have given them Earth. (Just as an aside, Kara believes that ‘something or someone’ wants them to find Earth. But who? Is Earth sending out the signal, or does it come from something or someone else? What mystical energy field controls their des—oops, sorry, wrong story.)

Lee investigates the signal on the Viper, and then makes a revolutionary decision. He invites Deanna aboard to share the information. He reminds her that the fleet could have jumped away to find Earth on their own, leaving the Cylons behind but that this would only have lead to another confrontation. “All this has happened before,” Deanna says. “But it doesn’t have to happen again,” Lee responds, stepping forward to offer a truce to the Cylons.

And Deanna shakes his hand.

With this first true cooperation between human and Cylon in place, the pieces seem to have come together, and it appears the puzzle of Earth is almost solved. The coordinates are set for the final jump, and Adama offers Roslin the chance to give the historic order. Shades of the Roslin who was once so full of hope á la “33” appear as her voice quavers and she says, “Take us to Earth.”

The jump is accomplished and Gaeta confirms that the constellations line up. Adama makes the jubilant announcement to the fleet that after three turbulent years, they have finally found Earth. A joyful montage of celebrations across the fleet appears, a sense of relief and hope rising like mist before the sun.

But wait, my clock shows a few minutes left to go. Which leads me to my next quote:

“You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!”

Yes. The “Earth” they find is a radioactive wasteland. The soil sends the Geiger counters clicking away, and all around, in the gray filtered light, humans and Cylons alike wander shell shocked through the devastated landscape they’ve discovered. The wreckage shows evidence of a civilization destroyed through some nuclear catastrophe. But where are they? Is this the Earth of the present? Earth of the future? A parallel Earth? Or perhaps a planet that isn’t really Earth at all? Where are they and what has happened?

We’ll find out in 2009.