I can only imagine the pain of losing a daughter or a wife, and hope that I never do. However, if I ever act as foolish as Starbuck and Col Tigh I sincerely hope I’m knocked out of my chair too. The pair of them set up shop in the pilot rec room and allow their rage to fill the ship with bile. At first I’m sure people didn’t take it seriously; Kat even tried joking about saving their sorry butts. It didn’t take long for everyone to realize how sincere the two were. When Helo says, “We all made sacrifices,” to Tigh the Colonel’s response was filled with venom. “While you were pinning wings on your Cylon girlfriend, our people were strapping homemade bombs to their chests…so forgive me if I don’t get all misty over your sacrifices.” Tigh is pitting those on New Caprica against the Galactica crew, and Kara is going right along with it.
For them it essentially boils down to, if you weren’t on the planet then you were asked to give up nothing. While Tigh and Kara lost far more than most, this isn’t necessarily true. Many pilots died in the rescue, and the desecration of their memory is despicable. Not to mention causing unrest in the crew being a bad idea, especially when William Adama is in command. When Kat tells Starbuck that they busted their assess to get them off New Caprica Tigh is again there to spread the infection. “You think that means anything? Every colonist that landed on New Caprica was loyal to a point. It was amazing watching those people you thought you knew go over to the Cylons…how come you’re (Kara) off flight duty and a Cylon lover is holding down my post?”
It’s difficult to hate Kara and Tigh for their actions. They’re grieving from great loss and trauma, so I’ll give them a break. It doesn’t mean that Starbuck was right to be so abrupt with her brush off of Kacy and her mom, or crashing one of the few Vipers that are left. When Helo informs Admiral Adama of the treacherous actions of the pair, his response is swift and decisive. Showing once again he’s a better leader than…well, anyone. Adama puts an end to their corrosive attitudes in one quick visit. He takes Kara’s sidearm and tells one of them to shoot him. When neither does so he calls them out on their crap, saying they are cowards. Tigh tells him to watch his mouth to which Adama replies, “Or what Saul? You going to turn the rest of my pilots against each other? Poison the crew?” When Kara says they won’t apologize he kicks her chair out from under her (frackin’ awesome) and tells her she’s no longer like a daughter to him. Not content to let her go there he says she’s a cancer and if she wants to stay on the ship she either learns to be human again, or finds somewhere else to live. His reaction to Saul is just as blunt, telling his friend that he doesn’t need a “one-eyed drunk causing discontent” among the crew. The Old Man wants his friend of 30 years back. Col Tigh says that man doesn’t exist, so Adama confines him to his quarters.
The results of this meeting are immediately evident. It’s clear that while Kara may still be full of vinegar, she wants to fight the Cylons more. She cuts her hair, which is often seen as a source of power (whether good or bad) in many stories. It’s almost a mirror of Admiral Adama shaving off his moustache, sloughing off the previous life that was led to prepare to start anew. She goes to Kacy and her mom to make amends. As for Tigh, well he sits in his room and gets piss drunk. He’s going to have a far more difficult time getting back to himself.
The real meat of this episode was the Cylon society. This week we’re given our biggest insight into their world. Gaius Baltar, still trying to survive, offers to help the Cylons with their plans to find earth. I’m sure other people notice that this is a mirror image of his time on Galactica. Suspected of being a traitor and having to constantly lie (often badly) to save his hide is nothing new for the egotistical genius. Now that his Manifestation Six is back, there’s some directive for him to follow. So, he tells the Cylons how to find the first of the coordinates from the map discovered on Kobol. Unfortunately when the Base Ship arrives the entire crew gets infected with a new deadly disease. As the seven known Cylon models argue about what to do, Baltar is told by Manifestation Six to offer to go check the situation out. Since he sent them to their doom, it’s probably a good idea to help any way he can.
Taking one of the Colonial Raptors Gaius goes to the diseased Base Ship. Upon arrival he finds dead and dying Cylons, but most interesting he finds some sort of man made beacon. A dying Cylon tells him it was floating in space, and apparently carried a pestilence. The assumption the show makes is that humans left it on the way to the 13th colony, but I don’t buy that. Isn’t it possible that the pilgrims from Earth (the original human home) planted these beacons to help them find their way back as they left, and to protect the home of mankind? Not only possible, but very probable. I guess it depends on where Earth fits into the human timeline in the ‘Battlestar Galactica’ universe.
Baltar’s discovery of a human artifact being responsible for the disease is immediately recognized as a threat. So he lies and says he found nothing of consequence on the ship. Of course, a Caprica Six notices the beacon in one of the pictures he brought back. Uh oh, someone has some explaining to do next week.
Let us discuss the Cylons for a minute. In this episode someone finally acknowledges that there are indeed five other models. Baltar demands of Caprica Six that she tell him who the others are, not from any real curiosity but rather his own vested interest due to suspecting he might be one. All we’re told is that, “We don’t talk about them. Ever.” Later on we’re introduced to what the Cylons refer to as a “Hybrid,” a human Cylon model that is plugged into the Base Ship. It serves as the brain, or controlling computer on the ship. Are The Hybrid’s one of the other 5 models? What about the Raiders, which we know are alive? As a Simon said, “We are all created from the same genetic pool.” Now that we’ve been introduced to the world, there are more questions than ever.
We’re now fully away from the action and battles that started the season. The last two episodes have been emotionally driven, and examples of the great writing ‘Battlestar Galactica’ receives. Interesting allusions such as the sterile Base Ship as Baltar sees it, along with the disjointed reality he experiences give a nice touch to the new Cylon storyline. A risky venture with the success on the human side, but so far it’s working quite well.
What did you think of the episode this week? Is Saul going to drink himself into oblivion? Is Starbuck really repentant, or has she simply chosen to bury her feelings and go after the Cylons to avoid complete emptiness? How did Apollo lose all his weight so fast, and can he share that information with the rest of us?
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