Galactica Station's Review of Caprica 1.10 - Unvanquished

Hi Everyone!  This is Captain Kickass and it is my pleasure to bring you a review of the Caprica episode Unvanquished.  We at GS are excited that reviews will be starting again and I personally apologize that we are a bit behind with season 1.5.  Hopefully things will calm down soon.  On to the review!

I really enjoyed some of the parallels in the season 1.5 opener to key events in Season 1.0.  The episode begins with a shot of a drunk Daniel Greystone nearly passed out on the couch.  Distressed, he flips channels on the TV.  Every channel is discussing Vergis’s takeover of the C-Bucks, Greystone Industries, or Amanda’s fall three weeks earlier.  Daniel stares miserably at the screen.   The scene largely paralleled the situation Daniel and Amanda found themselves in after they found out Zoe was connected to the STO.  They were already miserable but sunk to a terrified despair.  They flipped channels and watched Sarno make fun of them on his show.   Daniel Greystone has always been depicted as a steely, ruthless businessman, suave, collected, often with a drink in his hand. In contrast, the current Daniel is a slovenly mess. He has quite obviously lost everything and makes me think back to what he used to be.

But Daniel has a streak of determination and ruthlessness that surpasses all of his emotions.  Back when Amanda announced Zoe’s possible involvement in the attacks, Daniel fought against the backlash by going on Sarno himself and throwing himself into his work.  He became even more ruthless, eventually going as far as torturing Cylon-Zoe while he thought that his daughter’s avatar was inhibiting the machine.  How much more callous could a man get? 

Now, Daniel musters up that old determination again.  He somehow pulls himself to his feet and manages to go meet with the Tauron mob boss.  Sam and Joseph Adama are in attendance as Daniel tells the mob boss about the potential of the avatars to bring loved ones back and of the eventual possibility of finding them bodies.  The mob boss asks Daniel why it would work this time.  Daniel argues his point passionately and in return, asks the Tauron mob for their help in retrieving Greystone Industries from Vergis.  The mob boss considers his proposal and talks to a seemingly reluctant Joseph Adama.  He ends up appointing Joseph as his advocate in the matter.

We don’t know exactly what Daniel has up his sleeve this time.  I don’t believe that Daniel quite believes that the avatars can be brought back, but at this point, he is willing to do anything to retrieve a piece of all he lost – his company.  Daniel is well aware that the deal he’s striking is dangerous, but really what has he left to lose?  He doesn't care. We also don’t know what Joseph’s motives are.  Before Daniel commits to their deal, Joseph asks him to make a call that will kill Daniel’s mother.  Daniel appears to actually consider doing it, but cannot go through with it.  The scene is chillingly similar to one earlier in the season in which Sam bluffs Joseph regarding killing Amanda Greystone.

It should be hard to feel sympathy for poor, pathetic Daniel Greystone.  He has engaged in countless cruel actions in the name of business and power.  He {indirectly} allowed for the death of one of Vergis’s men, tortured the Zoe-Cylon endlessly, and considered killing his own mother just to name a few.  But oddly, it isn’t hard to feel sympathy for him.  Rich, powerful, smug, morally deficient and whatever else he may be,  Daniel Greystone feels emotions and is conflicted over the immoral choices he makes.  His mad craze to bring Zoe’s avatar to life in avatar form was a direct result of the loss of the daughter he loved.  Similarly, it could be argued that his actions toward Vergis and Cylon-Zoe were also a result of that loss.  He’s a man in deep pain that was probably a bit morally grey anyhow, and Zoe’s death started a spiral that Daniel (and Amanda) never recovered from.  So I suppose I should despise him, or love to hate him, but honestly, I love watching him and trying to figure out what he’ll do next.  He’s psychologically complex and completely damaged.

Meanwhile, on Gemenon...  

A teenage girl with the coloring of Zoe hugs her mother with a sad knowing look in her eye.  She walks into the C-Bucks stadium.  The camera pans to several other people, including Clarice, and they all walk into the stadium and activate black devices.  The stadium blows up.  Whoa - another parallel to the very beginning – the bombing that started it all.

Clarice removes the holoband and looks at the Priest (no, I don’t remember his name)  triumphantly.  He doesn’t understand, and she puts the holoband back on to show the specific people from the stadium rematerializing in a sort of paradise.  She takes the holoband off and explains that that is her idea of Apotheosis, or “artificial heaven.”  She argues that Apotheosis is The One True God’s plan for humanity.  The Priest does not agree with her.  Clarice then asks for an audience with someone called “Mother,” and the Priest looks surprised.

The Priest meets with a robed woman who looks like a female Pope (no offense to my Catholic friends).  “Mother” as she is called, listens quietly as the Priest describes Clarice’s “crazy” idea of Apotheosis.  It’s not clear if Mother agrees with the Priest, but she agrees to let him eliminate Clarice.  Clarice is of course one step ahead of the Priest and seduces a guard named Diego.  When the Priest appears to supposedly take Clarice to meet Mother, she and the guard turn on him, brutally killing him.  Clarice then introduces herself to Mother and tells her that the Priest is dead.  The Mother doesn’t say that she agrees outright with Clarice either, but she astounds Clarice by allowing her control over the STO cells in Caprica and anything else she wants.

Clarice is an incredibly complex character as well.  Everything in me shouts “Villain!” when the character appears on screen, but I question myself on that.  Why do I think she’s a villain?  If she orchestrated the bombings at the beginning of Caprica, well then, surely she would be a villain.  But, there was some indication that she was as surprised by the bombings as everyone else was.  So, what actually makes me think of her as a villain?  Is it her creepiness?  Her cold manipulation of others?  Her polygamy (which is societally accepted)?  I don’t know.  She IS a terrorist/spy.  But is she any more evil than Daniel, Joseph or Sam Adama?  Maybe?  Maybe not.  Why/how did she become who she is now?  What brought her down this road? She sure is thrilling to watch in any case.

What about Mother?  What are her real thoughts and motives?  How will she fit in the show?  I get the feeling she is VERY dangerous, but I don’t quite have a reason for that yet.

Oh, and Amanda’s alive!  YES!  Why is she living with Clarice?  I guess we’ll find out.

All in all, this was a terrific episode, rated 9/10.  Some questions I’d like to leave you with:

1. Why is Clarice obsessed with Zoe in particular?  Was Zoe close to making Apotheosis possible?  Hmm.  Is the idea if Apotheosis a precursor to cylon resurrection?  What does Mother really think?
2. What is Daniel up to?  What about Joseph?
3. What will the Tauron mob do to Daniel?
4. Will Zoe find Tamara?

So many questions!  I can’t wait to see more of Caprica.  I found Season 1.0 rocky in some places, but I find myself not wanting to blink in this half.  Here’s hoping Caprica has found its feet at last!  

Be sure to look for a review of episode two in a day or two!

-Captain K

Galactica Station's Review of "Daybreak Part 1"

Review of DAYBREAK, PART I

by bopone

This is perhaps the most difficult review of a BSG episode I have been called upon to write here at GS/RA for 2 main reasons. But we must plunge ahead anyway; I give the episode 8 out of 10.

Firstly and most basic, DAYBREAK, PART I is by no means a stand alone episode, it is the first third of a three hour season and series finale. Thus elements that don't make sense in the first hour may (and hopefully will) make sense in the final analysis.

Secondly and more emotionally, DB,PtI, represents the beginning of the end of the six and half year journey with BSG that we all began in May, 2003. Six and half years of watching every detail, discussion with other fans about everything from major plotlines to details of Colonial uniforms. One doesn't put this effort much into a show without building up a major emotional investment. I'm going to miss these times, no doubt about it.

Regardless of these problems, I have put together what thoughts I could about this important segment of BSG. Lets see what I came up with.

A major element of controversy in the episode are the opening flashbacks--all to life on pre-attack Caprica. We see then Cmdr. Adama in a meeting not wanting to do something (my presumption from the dialogue is to go on a job interview). We see Roslin pre-Government days, with her family and being informed of their deaths, and her beginning her arc into the Adar Administration. We see Lee and Kara in their first meeting, in Kara's Delphi City apartment, where apparantly she cooks! Who knew? And most importantly we see Caprica Six and Baltar in their first meeting and how Caprica Six gains Baltar's confidence--through Baltar's difficult father.

How useful these flashbacks are to the final show I have difficulty in saying. I suspect that they help set the mood for ending of the show by showing us where the major characters were at the beginning of their arcs, thus preparing us for how the characters will end up.

The major portion of the show was first the preparations for abandoning the Galactica (and who among us doesn't find this as heart rending as the death of any other major character?) and then the change of course when Adama decides to attempt rescue of Hera. Adama is able to decide this in part because Racetrack and Skulls (released from the pokey) find Cavil's Colony (which to my eye bears a striking resemblence to a Babylon 5 Shadow Ship).

Adama organizes his strike mission on a strickly volunteer basis and while no known major character refuses to go (except Baltar who can't bring himself to), you do see large numbers of crew of the old girl decide to not go, thus avoiding the groupthink that so many shows seem to fall prey to. Adama also pulls Doc. Cottle aside and asks him to stay with the RTF as he's too valuable to risk, which Cottle does.

2 interesting character scenes are in this sequence--one between Lee Adama and Baltar and the other between Helo and the Chief in the brig. Baltar shows some growth of character in his scene where Lee is pretty much brushing him off and asks Baltar when he had ever done anything that wasn't advancing the case of Gaius Baltar. Baltar looks at Lee and answers honestly that if Baltar were Lee, he wouldn't trust Gaius Baltar either and leaves. Rarely has Baltar shown such self awareness.

The scene between Helo and Chief Tyrol is also quite interesting. The Chief denounces all 8s as mindless machines ("blow-up dolls") who will betray you in a nano-second. Helo, by the way, is being quite civil and even sympathetic to Tyrol, given that Tyrol had a hand in abetting Hera's kidnapping. But I find the Chief's motivation here to be 2 level--by saying all 8s are mindless machines, he is venting his self-loathing at Boomer, because it must tear himself up to have been used by her yet again. On a deeper level, though, by lumping Athena in with the 8s, Tyrol may also be assuaging his guilt by saying that Athena is also a machine and thus cannot really be hurt by what Tyrol did.

Now on to the final 2 hours of our favorite show. It has been a long journey and I'm glad to have had all of you along with me.

Galactica Station's Review of "Islanded in a Stream of Stars"

Boomergirl signs off on her last BSG review for Galactica Station, "Islanded in a Stream of Stars."

"For a moment of night we have a glimpse of ourselves and of our world islanded in a stream of stars—pilgrims of mortality, voyaging between horizons across the eternal seas of space and time.”

- Henry Beston
The Outermost House

Never underestimate the powers of this series’ creators to generate a big black hole of despair. We start with the already weakened Galactica now further damaged by the enormous breach that Boomer put in its hull when she made the FTL jump too close to the ship; we have the hole that Boomer left in the lives of Athena and Helo when she stole their daughter, and we have the punctured hopes of the Cylons when they lost their one chance for the future. Starbuck is still struggling to come to terms with who or what she is, and cannot turn to the comatose Anders for any support. Laura Roslin, thankfully, is alive, but it seems that her cancer has taken a turn for the worse, and it’s clear from the scenes in the opera house that the dying leader is coming closer to learning a truth that we might not want to know.

And that’s just the beginning. In the words of Admiral Adama: “I’ve had it up to here with destiny, prophecy. With God. Or the Gods. Look where it’s left us. The ass end of nowhere.”

I can certainly sympathize with him. After all he’s been through, he’s no nearer to leading the fleet to safe haven than he was four years ago, and what’s worse, he’s soon about to lose both of his beloved women. He knows this with his mind, but he isn’t near close to accepting this with his heart. It’s no wonder that when the Final Five sans Chief (who mysteriously or perhaps purposefully did not appear at all in this episode), and Starbuck appeal to Adama to send out a search party for the Cylons’ secret Colony to recover the kidnapped Hera, he has no energy to spare any interest or enthusiasm in the mission.

But time and disaster wait for no man. As Adama tries to avoid confronting the inevitable, part of the Galactica’s hull weakens further, ripping apart and throwing several human and Cylon workers out into the void of space and severely injuring several others. In a short scene that will hopefully help define future human-Cylon relations in the fleet, a Six who had moments before been arguing with a human deck employee, now sacrifices herself to save his life.

Still, before we allow ourselves any hopes for a rose-strewn future, the scene shifts to the new congress of ships’ captains who have convened to discuss the future of the fleet’s protection. Lee outlines a very unpopular contingency plan to have the military move to the Cylon base ship, which will then become the sole protection of the fleet, albeit, under the command of Adama, and complemented with Galactica’s Vipers, Raptors and pilots. Even through their protests, though, the captains understand that this future is inevitable, and soon fall like a pack of vultures on divvying up the remains of the battlestar. One captain puts in dibs for the CO2 scrubbers, and another wants the FTL drives. A horrified Lee would no sooner consider cannibalizing the Galactica than he would his own father, and like the Old Man, tells them all to forget any such plans.

The slow breakdown of Galactica, this island in the stream of stars, is the main background story in this episode, but several other story lines are also moving toward their resolution:

Boomer has Hera and is heading toward the secret Cylon Colony. It’s clear that Hera knows that this Eight is not her mother, and it’s also clear that Boomer is resentful of the fact that she never got a chance to have a child like Hera. Just as she once threatened to snap infant Hera’s neck, now Boomer aims a tranquilizer needle toward Hera’s arm in an effort to still the irritating cries of the child for her real mother. But there must be something in Hera’s sobs or in her eyes that stays Boomer’s hand. Instead of drugging Hera, she decides on another course of action, taking Hera into the Cylon projection of her dream home on Picon that she wanted to share with Chief. There’s something very heartbreaking about the fact that Boomer did truly love Chief, but is so broken that she ultimately chose to betray him.

Ellen tells Adama of the Cylons’ secret Colony, and he agrees to send out a Raptor for a reconnaissance mission to rescue Hera, but Ellen is not contented with this. Alone in their quarters (is it now their quarters again?) with Tigh, she tries to convince Tigh that the one hope for the future of the Cylon nation is heading into Cavil’s grasp and more needs to be done, but Tigh has had enough of the Cylon nation. He made his choice back in the nebula to be Saul Tigh, Colonial military officer. While Liam’s presence might have persuaded Tigh to embrace his Cylon nature had the child survived, his death seems to have reminded Tigh that the only constants he can be sure of are the Galactica and his position on this ship. Cylons be damned. “You wanna know who my people are, lady?” he bellows to Ellen. “The ones on this ship! The ones I fought with and bled with! The Old Man. This crew. They’re my family. The only one I’ve known and the only one I care to!”

Meanwhile, Starbuck surprises Gaius Baltar in the bathroom while he’s shaving and she’s—ahem…on the throne. She first asks him if he believes all the bilge he spews out about angels, but then comes to the point. She pulls out the dog tags she took off her dead body on Earth and asks Baltar to run some tests on them, to help her answer the question of just what she is. She then goes to see Sam, who has been plugged into a tank like the hybrids on the Cylon base stars. The Cylons had wanted to jumpstart him like a car by hooking him into the neural net, but he continues to lie comatose within the tank. Tearfully, Starbuck confesses to him that in the end, she has come to realize that human or Cylon doesn’t matter. That he was her Sam and that she wants to remember him that way. She pulls out her sidearm, but before she is able to fire the shot, Sam comes online, grabbing her arm and spewing his own version of the hybrids’ insane-speak. “You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead them all to their end. End of line.”

The harbinger of death seems also be coming for someone else in this episode. Laura Roslin lies in sickbay as Adama reads to her. But Roslin’s not the one who needs to be comforted. Sharing a secret toke with the Admiral, she talks to him about what his love and companionship have meant to her, and how being with him has made her feel she is at home for the first time in her life. And then she gently tries to prepare him to accept the inevitable. She is dying and so is the Galactica. He has to be able to face the loss of both his women. I must confess here, that I’ve always been a big Adama/Roslin shipper and I find the subtle evolution of their love to have been something beautiful, without mindless, frenetic passion, but rather with an elegance, and maturity and true sense of belonging and mutual understanding that is rarely ever seen on the screen, big or small.

The devastation that Boomer left in her wake has left its mark big time on Helo and Athena. Athena is so distraught over the loss of her daughter and over Helo’s role in the tragedy that it seems their once legendary love might have been destroyed. She can’t even look him in the eye to tell him she hates him. Desperate to find a way to redeem himself in Athena’s eyes as well as to recover his beloved child, a disheveled Helo goes to the Admiral, losing his composure as he begs to be given a Raptor to search for his daughter. Adama is sympathetic; after all, he lost a child once, too. But he knows that what Helo is proposing is as fruitless as grabbing at straws. The recon mission returned with the report that Cavil had moved the Cylon Colony, and there is no way they could possibly find Hera. The Admiral tells Helo to let it go. But for once, Helo the perfect soldier is submerged under Helo the hysterical, distraught father. Angrily, Helo tells Adama that the Admiral is the one who can’t let go. Adama is pouring all his resources into saving a dying ship, instead of taking every opportunity to save a still-living little girl.

After snapping at Helo to pull himself together, Adama heads to the funeral services planned for the people—both human and Cylon—who were killed in the blast when the damaged section of Galactica’s hull snapped. However much individuals might resist the integration of the peoples, this multifaith, multiracial and multicultural service moves the fleet ever and ever closer to a true reconciliation of the races that may become their one true hope for the future.

And yet, the powers that be still manage to snatch the hope away from us. Just as the service ends, Baltar announces that there are true angels among us, that he has investigated the dog tags that Kara Thrace gave him, that he now has conclusive evidence that she is a person who has crossed over to the other side and is now an angel among us. Starbuck silences his rant with a slap, but you really have to wonder if she wanted him to announce this news to the fleet all along. Baltar’s announcement has finally freed Starbuck to accept that Kara Thrace died and she is a reborn version of herself.

By now, Boomer has reached the Colony. She carries Hera off the Raptor and into Cavil’s arms. A panicked Hera, who once cried for her mother, now cries for Boomer. As Cavil takes her away, his assurances that she will soon have many playmates sounds anything but reassuring. And Boomer, with tears in her eyes, seems to know this. Has she realized only too late the wrongness of her choice born out of anger and desire for revenge?

Adama returns to his quarters after the funeral, through what must seem like miles of endless repairs and finally confronts the truth in a cathartic breakdown. He will lose the Galactica just as he will lose Roslin. He tells Tigh to abandon repairs. The move to the base star will commence. Galactica has served them too well, and they must send her off in style. Talk about a buddy couch scene over a glass of beer, the one in which both Adama and Tigh accept the fact that their life on Galactica has come to an end is one of the most powerful I’ve ever seen.

Final thoughts: Very, very powerful performances from several cast members. Edward James Olmos, and Mary McDonnell are always stellar performers, but Grace Park and Tricia Helfer have done amazing jobs in the past couple of episodes portraying such separate and distinct versions of their models. Tahmoh Penikett does some of his best work as the grieving Helo, and Michael Trucco as the hybrid {“There’s a hole in the bucket dear Liza, dear Liza. End of line.”) really gave me the chills. With so many questions burning in my mind, I find myself impatient for some resolution of at least some story lines. To still be treading water this late in the story arc of the show is frustrating, but combined with the great acting, I’d give this an 8/10.

Oh, and thanks to JustLooking from the Ragnar Anchorage for the heads up on the Henry Beston quote.

Galactica Station's Review of No Exit

Gooby Rastor seeks a way out of his latest existential crisis by reviewing episode 4.17, “No Exit.”

Hell is other robots.

Sorry, that was obligatory for me. And the title’s reference to the Sartre play is an appropriate one, as much of the episode relies on exposition in the form of dialogue, almost to the extent of the original. The success of this episode is a bit surprising, considering that it so egregiously breaks one of the cardinal rules of film and television making: Show, don’t tell. “No Exit” puts a lot, I mean a LOT, in the mouths of Michael Trucco, Kate Vernon, and Dean Stockwell. The benefit of this is really the same reason why schoolteachers like me sometimes just love to lecture: People talking can be a remarkably efficient way to transmit information in a short amount of time. Lectures can be a great bore too, so it’s nice that the actors make the watching worthwhile.

There’s not too much in the way of direct fallout from Gaeta’s mutiny the week after. Some, sure, including Ander’s wound and Tyrol’s discovery. But mostly, we’re turning to new business, and uncovering much of the mystery surrounding the Cylons. And boy oh boy what we learn about the Cylons! Sam Anders tells us the story of the 13th Tribe, all of which is very interesting stuff, but is nothing compared to the real “No Exit” scene between Ellen, (John) Cavil, and Boomer, where we learn the full story of our modern Cylons and the development of the skinjobs.

There are no flashbacks, no tricks with the timeline, just all the bad blood of the Cylons coming out to the surface between Ellen and John. One of the things I liked about this so much is that not only do we get the story on what the relationship is between the Final Five and the other Cylons, and what “the Centurion side of the family” brought to the table, but also we get to hear Brother Cavil’s perspective on things. He may be the chief antagonist, but he’s got a valid, albeit twisted reason for what he does. These scenes are exactly how exposition dialogue should be, as they are eminently watchable. Dean Stockwell and Kate Vernon really do a phenomenal job with their screen time.

The scenes between Kara, Anders and the rest were also informative and well-done. Seeing Anders with aphasia was kind of fun, wasn’t it? From what I understand, the brain surgeon was a bit of stunt casting, but I didn’t recognize him, so you all will have to decide if it was a positive or a negative.

A couple bits of Cylon related business to toss in here: First, this heretofore unknown “Daniel” model of Cylon, whom it’s a good bet is the father of one Kara Thrace. I hate spoilers, so I’m not shelling out any here, but Daniel is a piece of the jigsaw puzzle which links things up so nicely, which makes it all add up so wall, that I’ll be honestly stupefied if he doesn’t turn out to be her absent father. Second, there’s Boomer. The show is plainly setting her up to get a little bit of peace, which she should have. But my biggest qualm with this episode is how... unearned I’m afraid she and the Chief’s happiness will be. We haven’t seen Boomer at all in so long, we haven’t had any sense of her psyche or her journey. I can’t help but think that Boomer’s redemption would have been so much sweeter had we gotten a better sense of her descent and her relationship with Cavil. Additionally, there seemed to be a great opportunity lost with Boomer in this episode. Ellen spoke to her about the great gift which the Final Five had given the other Cylons. Free will, she mentioned. I doubt I was the only one who wondered why Boomer didn’t scream at Ellen about how she had explicitly been denied free will. I really do want to see Boomer healed; I expected that her story would be pure tragedy, but at this point, I think there’s been plenty of that with Gaeta and Dualla. But I really wish it hadn’t been so quick and sudden a reversal.

On the human side of things was Lee’s sensible notion to do away with the outmoded idea of the 12 colonies, which dovetailed in with Roslin’s continued inability to show any leadership. Really, wasn’t that what got them into that trouble with the mutiny in the first place? But Lee seems fully prepared to step up, as he has to. After all he’s the only one left.

Lastly, I suspected last week that the Chief’s discovery of the cracks in Galactica were a foreshadowing of the ship’s coming demise. It still might turn out to be. But this week, we see that things are a lot worse on the old ship than it seemed. And that there might be hope for her, just so long as the Admiral can stomach transforming her into a half-Cylon. You know what they say; have some irony, it’s good for your blood.

To sum up: Not perfect, and only really good if you can dig the heavy amount of dialogue used to get the back story across. But I could, and did, and am grateful for the amount we learned. 9.3/10

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.

Galactica Station's review of The Hub

Gooby Rastor spends his first week of summer vacation reflecting on episode 4.11, "The Hub."

An interesting experiment these days would have been to record the Google hits for “Mary McDonnell” and “Emmy” for the week following the airdate of “The Hub.” I have come to feel, over the past five years, (has it really been so long?) that while Battlestar Galactica’s leading man, Edward Olmos, does an exceptional job of leading the show’s cast, for which he is justly praised, the real standout is Ms. McDonnell, whose character is so complicated, so seemingly contradictory at times, that in the hands of a lesser actress, it would strain belief. McDonnell’s Roslin is given such nuance however, that the audience never fails to believe in her. In a phenomenal cast, filled with veterans as well as breakout talents, she’s top of the heap, no question in my mind.

What brings on this observation is a tour-de-force in this episode; Laura Roslin finally confronts the deeper consequences of her growing ruthlessness and isolation, and the results are not over-the-top, but rather subtle, though certainly real and maybe even profound. A welcome guest star in Roslin’s journey is Lorena Gale as Elosha, whom we haven’t seen since she was blown up on Kobol. While we all remember Billy as Roslin’s conscience, it’s a nice reminder that she’s been robbed of another human connection since Elosha’s death. Tangentially, what does Elosha’s appearance mean? Is it actually Laura’s subconscious, or something more, a supernatural reflection of the dead? The show’s starting to get more spiritual, which would suggest the latter, but Virtual Six did tell Baltar that those who die on Kobol simply cease. I wonder if the show will explore this question.

Back to Roslin’s reaction. By the end of the episode, Roslin has not changed appreciably when it comes to her ability to ruthlessly pursue what she sees as right; Helo still has to bring D’anna to Laura, who never questions her own decision to go back on her word towards the Cylons. It’s nice that for all of Roslin’s self-reflection, she doesn’t do a 180˚ in the space of a single episode. All too often, because of the limitations of the television medium, show writers seem compelled to introduce sudden character changes, as the only way of making those characters dynamic. In this case at least, BSG resisted the urge to have a single epiphany reverse the course of a character arc. Good on them, I say.

“The Hub” is at its strongest when focusing on Laura Roslin; other characterization is a little hit-or-miss, I’m sorry to say. To wit: Helo encounters a situation that the more prurient among us have been wondering about for a while: What happens if he finds himself alone with an Eight, other than Sharon? He also faces a decision not unlike the one he encountered in “A Measure of Salvation,” where his morals conflict with his orders. The latter problem generates a fairly interesting situation, where Helo decides (this time) that his duty requires him to follow Roslin’s orders and betray the trust of their erstwhile allies. Regarding the faux-Sharon, however, the episode bafflingly keeps Helo emotionally flat. I’m not sure how much of this is due to Tahmoh Penikett’s acting and how much is writing related; but it seems more like the latter: Instead of exploring the more creepy implications of Helo encountering someone with not only his wife’s body but her memories, they dismiss them with a throwaway line (“I know this must feel like a violation of trust, or something”). It’s a poor choice for the character, who hasn’t had much movement on the show for a long time, and remains static here.

Meanwhile, one character does goes through a change in this episode, though I find it a rather unwelcome one. For some reason, the Gaius Baltar of season four does not appear for the first half of this episode. Instead, we get a reappearance by his earlier self. I was unimpressed by the spectacle of Baltar screaming at the Hybrid and then congratulating himself on getting a reaction from her. It just didn’t seem like it came from the place that Baltar’s in these days. And can someone please explain why Baltar was trying to incite disloyalty in that Centurion? Was he just scheming for its own sake? Who knows. It’s a good thing that Baltar gets caught in that explosion, because it seems to jog his memory, restore him to his current personality, and remind him of his new philosophy of redemption.

On the lines of redemption, when we do finally see our season four Gaius, when he plays a critical role in what movement Roslin’s character does make, it was a well-earned moment for the show. While Roslin has been moving further away from her own humanity, further from loving people, as Elosha would say, she has never descended to the level she almost did tonight, actively killing a man. I liked the entire exchange, really. From Baltar’s original sin finally coming out into the open, to the way he pleads with Laura, “don’t do this to me,” and to her horrified reaction, after tearing off his bandage, when she realizes what she’s done. The understated power of this scene goes a long way towards making up for the earlier Baltar inconsistencies.

But it wasn’t all character work this time around, by any means. One of the reasons I was a bit excited about the chance to review this episode was the promise of another great space battle, which have been true high points of the season so far. Tonight’s fire-fight was fairly run-of-the-mill, however. Perhaps what was missing from it was a perspective. Looking back on them, most of the battles in BSG’s history have had at least one main character’s point-of-view central to the story of the fight; from the initial destruction of Galactica’s Viper wing (Boomer and Helo), to when they took out the Cylons’ Tylium operation (Apollo), to the Ionian Nebula this year (Anders). Perhaps it was the fact that so much of this battle was Cylon-on-Cylon violence (and not the good kind, like Six knocking the stuffing out of Sharon), that kept me from locking onto the battle emotionally. It wasn’t a bad sequence, really, but not really stellar either. A step down, in other words.

The show’s one MacGuffin relating to the prior ep, the dead Pike’s raptor jumping back to the Fleet (how’d he know how to get back to them anyway?), wound up being fairly meaningless, didn’t it? Guy freaks out, bugs out, gets shot, and jumps anyway, apparently for no better reason than to let the good folks on Galactica know that he’s dead now. Like I say, sort of pointless to my eyes.

Let’s end the review where the show ends: With Bill and Laura. The end of “The Hub” finally pairs up Adama and Roslin, romantically. This is one scene that, I don’t mind saying, my review of may be completely useless to some of you out there in Web-land. I’m not against an Adama/Roslin pairing, per se, in fact I rather like the way they’ve danced with the idea in the past. Maybe what leeriness I’m feeling about this current turn of events lies in the fact that I was such a fan of the easy chemistry the two of them had back on New Caprica, or how they interacted when Adama was in the boxing ring in “Unfinished Business.” I liked the way they were doing things and am not sure that changing the dynamic in this way will be good. On the other hand, I have to admit, it’s possible that the reason I’m not 100% satisfied with this development is that I have a cold, cold heart that rejects any hint of happiness in life. YMMV. Let’s wrap things up.

Something seems a bit odd about my ability to review lately: When I come back to episodes I’ve seen, I seem to remember the show being much better or worse than they appear after a day or two of reflection. “Escape Velocity” and “The Ties That Bind” suffered for this phenomenon... I’d thought on initial viewing that the shows worked, but my brain slowly picked them apart after time. “The Hub,” in contrast, seems to benefit with distance. I’m not quite sure why, but I feel more favorably inclined toward it than I did right after watching. Maybe it’s that the show’s missteps deal with characters whom I’m invested in, but in hindsight, they’re pretty small next to the success of the episode’s exploration of Laura Roslin. I was expecting the plot aspects of the episode to be a bit more interesting than they wound up being, but the quality of the characterization lead me to give “The Hub” a respectable B. 8.5/10.

P.S.: Points to those of you who guessed that Lucy’ Lawless’ line about the Final Five would turn out to be a red herring.

Galactica Station's Review of Faith

Bopone unveils his review of Episode 4.08, strategically avoiding having to finish it on a Friday.

FAITH is about the most powerful episode I have seen in Season 4. It is a very emotional story, both in its A and B plot-lines.

The A-plotline involves the Demetrius' mutiny resolution and the subsequent meet-up with the rebel Cylons. It stands out as Sam Anders' finest hour, for he is in many ways at the center of that story. In the prologue, Sam prevents the ship from jumping back to the Fleet (at the cost of shooting Mr. Gaeta in the kneecap--a very wrenching scene). But this does in a horrific way, clear the air for Helo and Starbuck to clear the air and figure out a way to work together again.

Once at the wreckage of the Cylon Fleet one of Kara's visions is revealed (the painting in her cabin with the comet & gas giant is revealed as the crippled basestar leaking a trail behind it while transiting a gas giant) thus carrying forward the mystical thread that has been strong in the late S3/S4 period of the show.

A good Athena scene happens right after arriving on Natalie's basestar where the bulk of the Eights (shocked at the downturn in their fortunes) want Athena to lead them in rebelling against Natalie's leadership (rebelling against the rebels, if you will). Athena spurns their offer telling them that "Because you pick your side and you stick. You don't cut and run when things get ugly. Otherwise you'll never have anything. No love. No family. No life to call your own."

Sam has a very nice wordless scene in the control station of the basestar, where he's strongly tempted to put his hands in the datastream to see what happens. What would happen remains unknown, as he never quite gets the chance.

The eye-for-eye settling of the killing of Sam's last Caprican teammate, Jean Barolay, is very well done. The actors all played the part perfectly. Sam couldn't let go the death of his last teammate (a fellow Buccaneer) who had been in sports with him, the Caprican and New Caprican Resistances, and now served in uniform with him. Starbuck seems to want to brush it aside in the name of the quest for Earth, but Athena says to her, "They kill one of us and you want to drop it?" And the scene where Natalie cuts the Gordian knot after bidding the unnamed Six good-bye is very well done. Both in this scene (between Natalie and the Six) and later in the show (between the Eight and Athena where Athena refuses to take her hand) implies that Cylons place a strong emphasis on touch.

Then in the Hybrid's chamber when the Hybrid finally tells Starbuck the Original Hybrid's prophesy "You are the Harbinger of Death, you will lead them to the End, Kara Thrace." As well as "The Dying Leader will know the Truth of the Opera House" and "The Missing Three will lead to the Five who come from the Home of the Thirteenth". For once we don't have to wonder and Natalie immediately conjectures that D'Anna (Model #3) can identify the Final Five (having seen them and been Boxed for it) and if the FF come from the home of the 13th (Tribe of Humans) they would know the way back. In the background you can see Sam having dual conniptions, as he doesn't want to be unmasked to Kara, especially as well as (I think) "Huh? I don't know the way to Earth!"

The other major plotline of the episode involved President Roslin's befriending of a fellow cancer patient, Emily (played by Nana Visitor). Emily has developed an affection for Baltar's radio broadcasts as his words match some of the visions Emily has been having. Emily and Laura talk about their cancers and lives. They have wonderful emotional raport with each other and are able share many of their fears with each other.

Emily is particularly taken with her vision of a ferry crossing the river to the next life, where her lost loved ones will meet her on the other shore. As Emily dies, Laura joins her in the vision (perhaps aided by chamalla) and when Emily gets to the other side, Laura sees her own mother and others waiting for her, but she tells them "I'm not ready, yet." The scene is very well done but it would have been completely over the top if they'd gotten Paul Campbell back to have Billy standing on that bank along with Laura's oddly Barbara Bush-looking mother.

The episode ends with another superlative Roslin-Adama scene, where Roslin makes a pact with Adama to hang on long enough to get the Fleet to Earth. The emotions that Olmos and McDonnell and the rapor that they have built up with each other allow the two to convey volumes of content with just a few words and glances.

All in all, one of the best of Season 4. I give it a 9/10.

Galactica Station's Review of Guess What's Coming to Dinner

Gooby Rastor pops inside from his Memorial Day picnic to post his thoughts on Episode 4.09.

I’m sure that there’s going to be quite a backlash against Athena this week, and I will say that my feelings about her actions are a bit mixed; her (attempted?) murder of Natalie was quite the extreme of maternal instinct, wasn’t it? But within that lies the reason I’m sort of okay with what Sharon does in the last act of the episode. A few weeks back, I was very disappointed by the way in which Hera’s parents had left her in God-knows-whose protective care while they went off together on the Demetrius. I felt (and ranted on the subject) that, given Hera’s history such an extended absence was unrealistic on their part. So while Athena’s reaction this week was certainly extreme, it made a hell of a lot more sense than what we’d seen recently, particularly in light of the dreams that Sharon is apparently continuing to have, regarding her child being taken away from her. I think one of the problems with this storyline is (again) how much it has not been on the show for the previous two seasons. While BSG has neglected to explain or use the half-Cylon child, or mention any further interest which the Cylons may have in her, it’s not really unreasonable for Athena to suspect that Natalie would try and take away her daughter again.

Wait Gooby, what are you saying? Are you really trying to justify Athena shooting Natalie down? Have you gone totally Sharonista on us? Well, no. I’m not suggesting that Athena shouldn’t see consequences. In fact, I want to see her pay for what she’s done, the way Helo never had to for “A Measure of Salvation.” Battlestar Galactica was always a great show for consequences in the first couple of seasons; remember Socinus? The show really has been at its weakest when consequences get forgotten. The thing of it is for me, if given a choice between seeing Hera’s parents continuing to forget their child’s history, or else seeing Athena acting like an angry mama bear, I’ll take the latter, and she can reap the punishments for her actions.

But to the episode as a whole. It’s better than some recent fare, such as “The Ties That Bind,” or “Escape Velocity,” but “Guess What’s Coming to Dinner” is a bit of a step down from last week’s episode, “Faith.” In contrast with last week, which brilliantly concentrated on one central theme, tonight the show leaves such questions aside in favor of doing stuff. A lot happens here (kind of), and the stage is set for even more things to happen in the coming weeks. All this is well and good, but one problem arises with pacing in the episode, which only really finds its groove in the last ten minutes of the show.

For me, the issue comes up right at the top of the show. After all the ruckus at the top, the teaser ends not with a cliffhanger, or at least with some sort of hook to take us into the credits, but with Helo, telling everyone to calm down: “Starbuck and Athena have secured the baseship.” Cue the heavy drums to make it seem like high drama, and that’s the act, roll opening credits. It’s not a fatal flaw, but the act break just doesn’t work, and BSG directors typically nail these, so it caught my notice.

From that point on, the show attempts to juggle a number of plotlines and characters. For the most part, the job done is adequate, with a few higher points. The political subplot, focused on Roslin and Lee, finally ties into the rest of the show’s storyline, and we get an indication that the Quorum has some sort of political leverage over Roslin, with the ability to pass a vote of no confidence in her government. Did we know that before? It felt like news to me. There’s still a lot we don’t understand about how the government of the Fleet works, but at least we’re learning a bit more these days, and the holes are getting filled in. I think we’ve seen evidence that Roslin possesses approval power over Quorum proposals, which she’s threatened this season, and also that she can propose legislation as well (didn’t the law to settle on New Caprica come from President Baltar’s office?). A lot of questions remain regarding this executive-heavy system, but it’s only fiction.

I appreciated that Tory’s relationship to Baltar came to light as well, though not a lot really came of it this week... but not really. On the one hand, since there weren’t any (immediate) consequences of it all, it’s essentially just treading water. On the other hand, it’s not really treading water, since at least it’s no longer a secret between Roslin and Tory. But on the first hand, it wasn’t really clear that there was any secret in the first place. In sum total, the scenes between the two give us yet another look at hard-core Laura Roslin, but that’s hardly anything new, and the scenes don’t really seem to serve much purpose from a plot standpoint either. All in all, not really worth the time we spend with them.

The one really interesting development from a thematic perspective, comes when the Cylons voice their desire to become mortal, which is the one bar they see to their being truly human (and I agree). Because this is obviously going to be a big, big part of the later part of the season, I’m going to leave this topic alone for now, except to say that I’ve felt it had to come for a while now, and am pleased that the writers have taken this route. Actually, I rather liked what the writers did with the scheming Cylons this episode. With all the twists and turns they make, it might have seen stuffed and rushed, but I felt the show made it feel natural, which was quite the feat.

Of special note in this episode is the last ten minutes, which almost feel like a completely different episode. Most of the important setup occurs here, after Starbuck meets with Roslin. One question which arises for me: Why did the president ask Kara to go get Helo? We know why she has Baltar brought on board the Raptor, her vision involves him. But right now, Helo seems like a kind of random addition. Who knows, maybe we’ll get a scene between the two of them in “The Hub.” Anyway, poor Karl will apparently continue to play no part in his daughter’s story, as he, Roslin, Starbuck, Baltar, and the Viper squad have all jumped off at the whim of a Hybrid. And that is exciting, if a little far-fetched to think that Roslin would be allowed to visit the basestar without half of Galactica’s crew on board. Oh well, this contrivance I’m willing to let slide, because of the fun that might be had with these characters surrounded by skin jobs and the toasters which they might not be able to control.

As I wrote near the top, the pacing of these last scenes finally starts firing on all cylinders, with the scenes coming fast, the tension picking up, the twists suddenly appearing (“jump”). Plainly, I’m happy to see the show finally coming around to including Hera in the wrap-up, as I consider her existence to be one of the chief mysteries which the show should resolve by the finale, along with: Earth; The Final Five; and Virtual Six/Baltar. I think that the show has done a great job juggling three of the four big mysteries, and am confident that they’re going to be able to resolve each. Now that the question of Hera has been raised again, I’m also confident that the writers know where they’re going to go with her, and just took more time getting this ball rolling. At any rate, the last ten minutes bring this episode from "passable" territory into something higher, for a number of reasons. These next couple of weeks should be a trip.

Speaking of skin jobs, (from a couple paragraphs ago) let’s talk about the Final Four. I was a little bit dismayed to see Anders starting to crack these last two weeks, particularly this time out. So far, each of the new Cylons has handled their transition in a unique way, with Sam having (in a way) the easiest time of it. I mean, sure his wife might shoot him dead, but he at least seems to be willing to accept and explore what it means to be a Cylon, yet the same person he ever was. Contrast this with Tory, who’s certainly willing to accept, but has picked up the adjectives “homicidal” and “sadistic.” I guess they felt they had to kick Sam around a bit, but didn’t Tyrol just go off the deep end a couple episodes back? I certainly understand the guilt which is wracking Anders, but this reaction has a bit less uniqueness about it, coming after the Chief.

Finally, I’m going to take time out to address something which I’ve been noticing recently, which has become impossible to ignore while watching this season: The special effects are amazing these days. Not only is the quality good (naturally), but the space scenes have gone above and beyond all previous seasons, through sheer creativity. One problem with space battle scenes in many TV shows suffer from eventually feeling very “same-y.” cf. Star Trek. BSG has always shaken things up in this respect, but this year, the type of shots which they have shown have taken this aspect of the show to the next level. Not only was the battle from “He That Believeth in Me” simply the most gorgeous we’ve seen, but I’ve been mesmerized by the variety we’ve seen since, from the shot of Racetrack and Skulls taking off in their Raptor two weeks ago, to this week’s sequence of the Cylon basestar jumping into the middle of the fleet, and the ships barely managing to swerve out of its way to avoid collision. I watch Galactica for the characters, for the philosophy and all that jazz, but the CGI has been such an impressive part of the fourth season, and I think it winds up inflating the grades of episodes in which it figures, so I have to mention it here.

So where does this week fall in the spectrum of season four? As far as I can tell at this point, (without yet seeing the forest for the trees) it’s more than passable, perhaps even very good. Some early issues become resolved by the end of the episode, and for every plotline which goes nowhere, there’s a more interesting one which gets in gear.

Total score: 8.7/10

P.S. Ironic that I used a picture of Gaeta without mentioning him in the review, huh?

Galactica Station's Review of Escape Velocity

Gooby Rastor, encouraged by finishing the other review, finally catches up and reviews Episode 4.06, a week late.

Wow, after last week’s episode seemed determined to drag plotlines, kicking and screaming, as far as they could in ~40 minutes of television (to mixed effect), Battlestar Galactica really seemed content to let their storylines float along a bit in “Escape Velocity,” which winds up being rather inaptly named. Not that stuff wasn’t happening, but it kind of felt like an athlete running in place, and jumping rope, in preparation (one hopes) for running the mile. Since there’s a little bit of movement in so many places, let’s just hop in and I’ll try to keep the review from getting too disjointed.

The Final Four (less Anders) were up to a lot this episode, weren’t they? We had to know that there was going to be some fallout from Cally’s death, and we get to watch the (soon to be ex-) Chief beginning to lose it. And you know what? It works. Tyrol’s irrational behavior works for me in a way that Kara’s doesn’t this season. While Tyrol lashes out and gets himself thrown off the hanger deck by Adama, his motivation is always crystal clear. The man’s hurting from a number of sources, including his wife and Boomer (who knew he was carrying a torch?), the discovery of his nature and the questions as to what happened with Racetrack’s Raptor. Was it just stress that made him leave that relay in? Is this how things started with Sharon, too? All of this is conveyed with tremendous force by Aaron Douglas. As an actor, he seems to be getting the most mileage out of being a Final Five Cylon of any of them, which is a compliment to Douglas, not a slam on the other actors. Though I should mention that this quality is nothing new for Mr. Douglas. One of the things which the show has constantly been able to rely on, is that it can put Chief Tyrol into a dark place, and Aaron Douglas will chew up the scenery with it, in a very good way. From what I understand, he’s a very “in the moment” kind of actor too, which seems to serve him well. Bravo to Douglas. He’s one of the supporting characters whom I hope this show catapults to great fame and fortune; he deserves it. I could go on about all the ways I enjoy the Chief’s grief arc, but... oh all right, just a little bit. I loved it when Tyrol screamed at Adama, who honestly has never treated Tyrol all that well, I don’t know why. Chief’s mention of Bill’s promise to take Cally and shoot her if Tyrol and his men didn’t resume work (in “Dirty Hands”), was a welcome callback. Really, whether you agree with Adama’s actions or not, how does he think he can have a sympathetic chat with the man after that? Though of course Adama had to get Tyrol off of his hanger deck, and there’s no way he could have known all the inner turmoil of the man, it did seem awfully presumptuous, the way he seemed unwilling to let Tyrol grieve in his own way (despite his opening line that “no one knows how they’re going to react). When a man’s wife has died, you let him say whatever he wants to, you don’t try to shut him up. Clean up the mess later. “I’m sorry if I’m not going to do this the way you want me to, or the way you might.” You tell him, Chief, she was your wife.

Meanwhile, with Tigh’s scenes, we get a possible answer to a nitpick I had from the season opener. Now that Saul is hallucinating about dead Ellen, it becomes more possible, to my mind, that he’s engaging in a bit of toaster-style projection. If that’s the case, I’m willing to forgive the lapse of documentary-style shooting when Tigh dream-shot Adama in HTBiM. Tyrol, too, seems to have been engaging in the same, when we heard Adama casually mentioning Tyrol’s Cylon nature. Also of note, moving back to Tigh, is that he does mention to Caprica that Hera is on board, so we KNOW that the show hasn’t completely... no, no, Gooby. You had your Hera rant last episode, and this time they at least mentioned her. Stay on topic.

Right, sorry. Tigh and his Six scenes. Obviously, Tigh sees an opportunity in being a Cylon, just different from the one Tory sees. Tigh’s got a hunch that being a toaster means that pain has now become optional, if only Caprica can teach him the trick. Of course, this is also the time when Ellen’s ghost shows up to haunt Saul, spurring him on that much more. Ironic too, though not exactly out of character, that the first tactic which the Six tries to help(?) Tigh is beating him bloody. As an aside, I really like that they have Tricia Helfer showing Six’s glee at pummeling someone again. That model really likes doing that, ya know? It’s not a lot that we get with these scenes between Cylons, but they do seem to indicate where the character is headed, and that’s good.

Tory continues to have a character-establishment arc, involving such notions as her supplying Baltar’s notion of being “perfect just the way we are,” adopting the charming idea of turning off her sense of guilt, and possibly coordinating the attack on Baltar’s cult with the Sons of Ares. All right, I’ll admit that the last point is me extrapolating a bit, but what gave with her staring down Gaius after the thugs left? So we also see where she’s heading, but we knew that last week.

Baltar, on the other hand, I don’t know where they’re going with. I’ll admit however that right now, the Baltar storyline is the one that intrigues me most about this show, perhaps because I don’t know where it’s going, yet I feel certain that it’s going to go somewhere. This episode wasn’t just treading water with Gaius, either. At least, not as much as with the other plots. He rants à la Jesus in the Temple, and give a sermon which is sort of the opposite of Christian thinking, regarding how we’re all flawed creatures in need of God’s grace. Hm, if only there were a term which described a Christ-like figure, only the opposite thereof. Ah well.

Anyway, Baltar’s situation also gives us a glimpse into the incremental movement of the political plot, where Lee and the quorum refuse to roll over for Roslin, despite her invoking the memory of nine-elev—New Caprica, I mean. There’s some notes of the current U.S. political situation; with Roslin scoffing at the naïveté of the young idealistic Lee Obama, but the pace of this storyline is still more C-SPAN than anything else, and I don’t know that I see it changing anytime soon.

So let’s take a quick step back to a storyline that, as mentioned, seems full of steam. Virtual Six continues to build up Gaius’ image to her own opaque ends, even lifting the poor guy up and back into the tender mercies of an unsympathetic soldier. If there’s a Cylon on the show who still seems to have a Plan, it’s the devil in the blue dress. The writers have promised us answers to what exactly is up with Six, and at least she seems to be a pretty integral part of the story this year. Virtual Baltar on the other hand, still goes woefully underused. I’m starting to think that the writers didn’t really think through exactly how to use that character, and just decided to stick him in wherever they thought it would look cool... and that’s a bleeding shame, because when they first introduced him in “Downloaded,” yes it was cool, but it also seemed to enjoy a symmetry with Virtual Six’s actions. I’m pretty surprised that the writers seem to have some block regarding this character, but I don’t know how else to explain his disjointed, random appearances on the show.

And now the words I’ve been waiting to type all season:

Starbuck wasn’t in this episode.

Okay, okay, we saw her sleeping briefly. But no Crazy Kara to distract us tonight. I never would’ve thought it, but I needed a break from the girl. On the same note, nothing on the Cylon front to report, but it looks like Leoben next week, so... that might just have something to do with Kara. Yippee.

Oh, and? That shot of Racetrack’s Raptor taking off from the Galactica was pretty good-looking; and the crash was intense, though I didn’t care for the way both she and Skulls got off injury-free. It wasn’t utterly implausible, but it was a little... they did explode a couple of times after all. (I didn’t really know where to put these observations. Sore Thumb Zone it is!)

“Escape Velocity” is a bit of a step up from “The Ties That Bind,” in that the show gives us fewer WTF? moments, but then, it also seems to be an episode content to tread water. (If this were Top Chef, this episode would be taken to task at Judge’s Table for not cooking to win, but rather cooking not to lose). Thankfully, Tyrol’s scenes were winners, and while Baltar’s were fairly safe and predictable, they do keep me wanting to see more. I can’t go all the way up to 8/10, but I’ll have fun with decimals, instead.

7.7/10

“C. Shows improvement, but still not up to usual quality. I know you can do better, young lady.”

Galactica Station's Review of The Ties That Bind

Gooby Rastor finally moves his arse to get the review of episode 4.05 onto the blog.

A quick note: This review has been long-delayed, and I probably ought to have sourced it out when real life started bludgeoning me around the head for two weeks. All apologies for the wait, and I’ll try and do better next time. If it makes a difference, the bulk (nearly all) was written before "Escape Velocity," so it should be free of the influence of later eps. -Gooby.

Finally, the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica takes a step back from Starbuck. Not that I don’t love our girl, but jeez, Kara’s an antidote for Prozac these days. So in the interests, perhaps, of lightening the mood, “The Ties That Bind” turns from Kara to... Cally.

Good Lord. Could you all please excuse me for a minute, while I put on some Sarah McLachlan and cut myself some? Thanks. Anyway, to the story. Cally is one of those characters whom I’ve have mixed feelings about for quite some time. She’s been sort of an odd mix of a tiny, somewhat childish woman combined with moments of pure rage. And while it’s often easy to sympathize with her and her emotions, just as frequently, I’m a little freaked out by her. Not that I wanted to stare into her frozen, asphyxiated corpse eyes or anything, though. Among the most freakish moments for Cally, to my mind? When at the beginning of one two-part episode, she got her head broken by a man, and by the end of it, she was married to him. I will grant, that the editing of the show, as well as the Great Leap Forward, certainly had an effect on how creepy it came off for me; but still, one of my Life Rules has been: “Don’t marry someone who breaks your jaw.” One nice thing about TTTB (3TB?) is that Cally actually brings up how nuts it is to do just that.

But doesn’t it seem like just forever since we’ve seen Cally? I think the last time I remember seeing her was in “Dirty Hands,” right after... oh that’s it, right after she’d been shot out an airlock. Trend noted. And Adama threatened to put her against a bulkhead and shoot her. Times have been tough for the girl, yes? Still, there wasn’t much of a head’s up that things were this bad, was there? To be quite honest, I felt a little bit of difficulty getting into this episode’s main plotline, which may have something to do with my ambivalence towards Cally, or possibly my being thrown off by the surreal camera-work towards the top of the show. It seems like BSG is straying more into the land of visual trickery these days, and I for one wish they’d ease up on it a little bit. To me, one of the reasons that season 3’s Baltar subplot worked (well, to a degree anyway) was that it was such a stylistic departure for the show, from that gritty realism thing it does so well and consistently. I don’t know; am I wrong about this? Am I in the minority, wanting BSG to kinda hush up the “fiction” part of science fiction, and remain a show, essentially realistic, about hot killer robots who chase us around in our spaceships when we’re not all busy getting messages from our respective deities?

Gah, where was I? Cally. Okay, so we haven’t seen her for a while, the camera-work is distracting and she was never my favorite character. Still, I certainly had a level of interest in seeing what the show did with her, now that we know she brought a toaster to term and all. Obviously, she represents the most significant complication in the personal lives of the final four (Starbuck doesn’t count, because she and Anders are barely married at this point, and besides, she takes a back seat this episode, finally), so naturally we want to see how they use her. For me, I’ll admit that the route they chose, using her to showcase the emerging Cylon nature of one Tory Foster, surprised me, but in a good way. For all their uncertainty, the Final Four are Cylons, and it’s nice to know that at least one seems prepared to be a force for ill. They’re still the bad guys after all, if only marginally. Tory’s speech to Cally in the launch tube struck me as everything we might expect to hear from a benign Final Five, right up until she lay the super-powered smack on Cally. Even if I wasn’t 100% invested in the path there, I felt it was a good scene.

But Cally didn’t own the show. Lee’s B-plot, I’m pretty sure I’ll wind up liking more than most people, but then, I think I like Lee more than most people do. The storyline does provide an interesting perspective on Roslin’s government, and how she’s consolidating power. But what of it? What is the deal with this Executive Order; why does Roslin want secret tribunals? There’s no hint of the reason, here. If there’s a fault in this plot (and there is), it’s that it’s unclear where they’re going with this. Quo vadis, Lee Adama? Why should we care that you’re now a politician, and apparently buddying up to the other Apollo? This plot needs to go somewhere, if it’s not going to end up being just a place to stick Lee just because there’s no other place to put him.

Speaking of the crew of Demetrius, I actually don’t mind that goal (finding a place) with many of these characters, simply because they’ve had nothing to do, for so long. In particular, I refer to Helo and Gaeta. Both are good characters, and each has suffered recently from the writers not having any clue how to write for them anymore. For Mr. Gaeta, it meant that an already tertiary character drifted even more into the background, while Helo had a new job every other week on board Galactica. So I’m looking forward to them at least getting out from the same-old, and hoping this opens there characters up some more. With them are Anders—interesting, more about him in a mo’, Seelix, Hot Dog, Barolay, oh hey, that tattooed fellow! Then, some dude I don’t know, and... Athena? WHAT? Okay, now I know they didn’t take little Hera off on their adventure across the stars, so what the frak gives? Does the show even remember that it wrote in a daughter for these two? A child who, might I add, has returned to her parents from the dead and from Cylon kidnapping? Where is she? Who’s taking care of her? How in the world would these two have ever allowed her out of their sight again?

A couple of weeks ago, I complimented the show on having its characters ask the tough questions about Kara Thrace’s return, and how it meant that we the audience weren’t being expected to take it all on faith either. But here? No one is asking the questions, and I think the expectation is that we won’t, either. Well no dice, show. You wanted me to pay attention to that kid, “shape of things to come” and all, and now I am. And I’m awfully, terribly sorry that you don’t know what to do with her anymore, but tough. Failure to mention what her parents have done with her is just plain lazy, whatever else you’re trying to do.

Enough about Hera. Let’s concentrate on characters who still exist. Anders’ scenes with Kara, whom I’m becoming more concerned with by the week, were maybe the last gasp of Season 3 Starbuck. You know, the one who looks at Sam, claps her hands and says “oooh! Something to hurt!” I realized, watching the scene after, with them talking in bed, and recalling their scene at the memorial in the season opener, that I’m losing my empathy for Kara, as well. At least last season, she felt sane, or what insanity she had was caused by the visceral pain she had undergone. Now? This messianic urge of hers, which has her holding the President at gunpoint and painting on the walls, has stolen some of the humanity from Starbuck, and that’s a damn shame, because she was a beautifully human creature, from the start. Her sense of purpose, wherever it’s coming from, is now causing her to ignore the needs of the crew under her command, and it’s an open question, how long they’ll put up with it. Starbuck never had a problem bending the rules, of course, but this seems more like a case of her forgetting that the rules even exist. She doesn’t seem to care about anything much anymore, other than the chip in her brain zapping her when she doesn’t think about Earth.

But, like I say, she does spare a moment to demean poor Anders, and rattle of some identity crisis stuff that he will in no way relate to, so it’s not like she’s a total loss yet. We’ll just wait and see what awaits us and this good ship.

The Cylons storyline continues to... gah, Boomer kissing Al. Sorry, I love Dean Stockwell, truly I do, but well... I don’t like seeing “gentlemen of a certain age” kissing. Sorry if that makes me shallow. Anyway, Natalie may have fired the first shot, but Cavil seems determined to fire the last one, no? And are we to understand that all the Eights, Sixes, and Leobens (other than Caprica, Boomer, and Athena) are on the Basestars that were attacked? I didn’t really think that’s how Cylon society worked. Maybe this is a small sub-set of Cylon society, but if that’s the case, how can they decide to “un-box” an entire model? I’m confused. Normally, a bit of mystery around the Cylons, I’d call a good thing. But it just seems like the parameters of this conflict are really stretching belief.

Well, looking over what I’ve written, it seems like I didn’t care for this episode all that much. I feel like I enjoyed the episode perhaps more than my tone infers, but when I start to think about the various subplots and what their weaknesses are, the episode really doesn’t hold up that well to close scrutiny. I originally might have given this episode an eight, and I still don’t feel like this episode failed as an essentially good hour of television, but the problems do add up, and serve to bump it down, let’s say to 7/10.

Ouch, that’s a C-. But Battlestar can do much better.