Galactica Station's review of "The Oath"

Viper Bopone delivers "The Oath."


This episode opens with Vice President Zarek showing Mr. Gaeta that ruthlessness would be required for their revolution. Zarek kills CPO Laird who refuses to be dissuaded from contacting CIC about Zarek leaving Galactica on Racetrack’s Raptor. Gaeta was shocked at this act but proceeds with the plan. (Laird is a good example, by the way, of a minor character that can keep turning up, Laird having originally been on Pegasus and transferred to Galactica in S2 by Admiral Cain. This show does keep track of people.)
Mr. Gaeta’s plot essentially involves having a mutiny by a combination of flight officers, marines, and former resistance fighters; taking control of all communications to CIC to obscure what it is happening long enough for the mutineers to reach CIC to arrest Adm. Adama, Col. Tigh, and other loyal CIC watch-standers. This plan would have had much less chance of success had not Dualla committed suicide (as Dualla would’ve stayed loyal and she controlled comm.). Oddly enough, Mr. Hoshi is among those arrested—evidently Gaeta made no effort to recruit his lover to his cause.
The mutiny has an unintended side-effect of bringing two characters back to themselves—Kara and Pres. Roslin. Both women come back to their old selves and throw themselves utterly into thwarting the mutiny. Starbuck rescues Apollo and we are treated to some excellent action sequences as the two race through the ship to rescue Adm. Adama.
Another surprising incident in this rebellion is Racetrack’s siding with Gaeta—particularly leading Apollo into a trap that almost got him killed. Its possible that she didn’t know Skulls and Conner were going to kill Apollo rather than arrest him, but she shows no major reaction to them when the proceed to try to kill him—only Starbuck’s intervention prevents Apollo’s death.
It is decided that the best course is to get Roslin off the ship and over to the rebel basestar, to rally support from there. The episode ends with Tigh and Adama engaging in a last stand against the marines (led by another old time character, Capt. Kelly, who was evidently released from the brig by the mutineers). That scene while it looked good, didn’t quite make sense as to why Tigh and Adama decided to make a stand there—the Raptor with Roslin had already left and Lee and Kara had escaped up another passageway. So why stay there and fight? A question not answered.
Another major question the episode leaves unanswered is: even assuming that the loyalist side wins, given the large number of pilots in the mutiny, how is the ship going to be able to function?
Since the episode was part 1 of a 2 parter, it is a little hard to rate on its own but I’ll still give it a solid 8.5 out of 10.