Review

The miniseries ends with something of a major cliffhanger revealing Boomer to be a Cylon and off the colonials go in a search for a fictitious Earth. Six said in the miniseries, "your escape is a temporary one at best," and this episode is true to her words. Immediately, right at the beginning of 33, we know some very bad things have been happening to the colonials. The Cylons had found them after only a short time and had been chasing them for nearly a week straight, jumping to their position every 33 minutes.

What results is a story about an exhausted fleet fighting for their survival, jumping to a new location every 33 minutes, hoping they'll at some point lose the Cylons. Woven into the story are two other plot threads. One of them deals with Helo, who was left on Caprica during the miniseries and what he's doing to survive. We don't get to see a lot of Helo, but it seems clear the Cylons are herding him, or setting him up for something. He's manipulated into finding another copy of Boomer, who he thinks has returned to Caprica to rescue him. But why the Cylons are manipulating Helo in this way is not clear.

The much more interesting and important story centers around Baltar, the Cylon god, Six, and the Olympic Carrier. The story leaves it wonderfully ambiguous as to whether or not these concepts are all connected or whether they are "coincidental, serendipitous events" as Baltar put it. But one thing is for sure, the Cylons are deeply religious in the monotheistic sense, and the Six in Baltar's head, whatever she is, wants to convert Baltar into believing in the Cylon god. Additionally, "procreation is one of god's commandments." Six wants to, somehow, have a baby with Baltar. Whether or not this is even possible and how it could be accomplished is unclear, but the Cylon religion and the Cylon desire for procreation appear to be major plot points to be developed in season 1.

Wrapped around these concepts is of course the very real story of sacrificing the few to save the many, something the miniseries did extremely well. It's done nicely here too, but I'm irked that there was a sort of desensitizing done to the destruction of the Olympic Carrier. "It's okay to destroy it, it's got nobody aboard!" Making the Olympic Carrier a direct threat to the fleet using nukes was a great idea, but there should have absolutely most definitely been people on board that ship. Not only would the danger still be high from the nukes in this case, but the heart wrenching feeling of murdering the few to save the many would have been even more apparent, and it would have given the episode much more of an emotional punch.

Overall, 33 is an incredibly strong start to the season.

Review

Water is an episode that is good, but not great, as it fails to deliver on a few levels. One of the first and most important questions in the audience's mind about how the fleet could possibly survive these circumstances and this extended voyage to who knows where is how will they maintain adequate food and water?

Unfortunately, the plot of this episode solves the water problem at the expense of the food problem. This episode is, as the title implied, all about water. But Dr. Baltar outlines some pretty hefty food requirements for the fleet in addition to his outline of the water requirements. The episode does nothing to address the food problem, even though Roslin hints that both food and water are a problem. It could be inferred that without water you can't grow food and that by solving the water problem you solve the food problem, or any number of other things could be inferred, but the fact of the matter is we receive no such information about the existence of farm ships, or anything else of relevance regarding food, and I feel that this episode suffers from this.

Moving on, let's talk about Boomer. This episode is Boomer's episode, as it kind of centers around what's going on with the Galactica version of her. After all, we know she's a Cylon, so what's her evil plan? Well, this episode makes it pretty clear that she's a sleeper agent. She probably knows she's a Cylon deep down, but just doesn't want to face it. In a kind of sad ironic parallel, Tyrol's so in love with her that he denies obvious signs that she's a Cylon as well. Thus the circle of self destruction is complete.

Speaking of self destruction, I thought it was cute that Tigh was rationing his alcohol. This is a very realistic thing for him to be doing, and I'm glad the writers decided to include that scene.

The Boomer on Caprica gets less to do, but the Caprica plot advances a bit. It appears as though the Cylons planted a Raptor then "found" it to make it look like Sharon came back for Helo, but her Raptor was discovered by the Cylons. We can infer from this that the Cylons must want to keep Helo and Sharon on the planet together. It's also possible the Cylons manufactured the military signal that Helo and Sharon hear as further encouragement to stay on Caprica, but as of yet that can't be known for sure.

Speaking of relationships, I found it amusing that Adama gives Roslin a book, which seems to be to be something of a peace offering. A kind of "let's not be tense around one another anymore; let's be friends" kind of move. It's also nice that Roslin and Apollo both feel guilt over their roles in the destruction of the Olympic Carrier. Sadly though, these guilt scenes suffer from 33's single weakness - the fact that there was apparently nobody in fact on board that ship. So one wonders what exactly they're feeling guilty about.

The final plot point worthy of discussion is why Boomer acts so strangely. You're either a sleeper agent or you're not, right? Well, Boomer may be a sleeper agent, but she's not a very good one. The only conclusion I can come to is that she's a potentially partially defective model. Evidence lending to this theory includes her aborted intent to go blow herself up and sabotage the water mission; she couldn't bring herself to do it. Or was she simply suicidal because she knew she was a Cylon and she wanted to kill herself before she did something terrible?

Boomer's apparent tortured mind is what makes this episode so interesting, but at the same time it seems a little over done. There are far too many scenes emphasizing this most of which go on for far too long. At some point the danger starts to feel manufactured. I feel as though these issues could have been examined more eloquently and while this episode is quite good, pales compared to the material in the miniseries and 33.

Review

This episode is all about Apollo and where his loyalties lie. The idea to introduce Richard Hatch as a recurring character on the new Galactica was a fantastic idea, and the idea to make his first episode have his character conflict directly with Apollo was absolutely perfect. It may seem like an obvious thing to do, but who cares? It's endlessly amusing. But besides trivial amusements, this is a very deep episode which develops Apollo's character extremely well and explores the very important issue regarding the remnants of the colonial government. Because after all, in the end, what Zarek's trying to do makes sense. Maybe he takes it too far, but it's important to preserve democracy. Roslin must not be president longer than what was left of Adar's term.

The story itself picks up wonderfully on Water's ending. Tigh was correct in Water when he said "the galaxy is a pretty barren and desolate place when you get right down to it." So they may have found water, but it's frozen. They're going to have to mine it, melt it, and then store it. This is hard work, so who's going to do it? Well, this episode also picks up on that little comment in the miniseries about the Astral Queen being part of the fleet. The Astral Queen was transporting prisoners. In this episode we learn a bit more about these prisoners. Adama says "they've been sentenced to hard labor. And this is very hard labor." Indeed. So what's wrong with forcing them to mine the water? I tend to agree with Adama.

But Roslin didn't agree with Adama, and that's all that matters. I don't agree with her decision to give the prisoners more rights and to make this work voluntary, but she's the president and that's that. She has the right to make these decisions. It's important to note that my disagreement with Roslin's decision doesn't degrade the story in any way. Presidents make decisions which are unpopular all the time. It's simply realistic.

Indeed, her decision led to the very conflict which this episode centers around. Her perhaps misplaced compassion for the prisoners gave Zarek his chance to take over the Astral Queen, which makes her "no deals, no negotiating with terrorists" stance rather ironic. However the centerpiece of this episode is the exploration of where Apollo's loyalties lie. I felt early on in the episode Adama was right. Apollo hadn't picked a side yet. What that means is sort of nebulous until Tom Zarek's conversation with Apollo about his callsign, which is the perfect metaphor for what Apollo's internal conflict is all about.

Zarek says that Apollo is one of the gods, a lord of Kobol who was god of the bow, god of the hunt, and also a god of healing. Zarek also says that a god can reconcile these two opposing forces but a mortal has to pick one side. Then he asks Apollo which side he's picked. This is a pivotal moment for Apollo's character, because in the events which take place after this scene, Apollo has clearly chosen neither side. At the end of the episode, everybody has compromised. Neither side gets exactly what it wants. Adama and Roslin are pissed off that Apollo has given Zarek the Astral Queen, and Zarek is not completely satisfied either because his original goal was to bring down the government and call for immediate elections.

But also in the end, this compromise works well enough for everybody. Zarek and his men do the water mining in exchange for their freedom, and the fleet gets water. While the situation is not resolved to everyone's ideal satisfaction, it is resolved the only way it could have been resolved. And in this resolution, Apollo proves that he doesn't need to "pick a side," for he can reconcile being "god of the hunt" and "god of healing" satisfactorily. Apollo, true to his callsign, can balance his opposing beliefs and internal conflicts, which is his most valuable skill of all.

Review

Here is an episode that works well but loses something in the style department. First and foremost, showing Starbuck ejecting from her viper so many times throughout the story was just completely unnecessary and should have been totally omitted. I can't stand flash forward storytelling, or episodes in which the ending is shown first then the events which led up that ending follow. It's needlessly distracting and doesn't really serve a purpose to begin with. Also, while by and large the flashbacks to the past were extremely well done and woven in nearly perfectly into the present scenes, some of the material was repetitive and redundant. That combined with Starbuck ejecting from her viper repeatedly tended to waste a lot of the episode's time.

Aside from that, the main plot of the senseless death of so many viper pilots was quite moving. As if the Galactica didn't already have a huge shortage of personnel, this is a severe kick in the face. The pragmatic approach of the plot is also quit sobering. "Okay, we just lost a dozen pilots. Time to train more!" However, I think it goes without saying that the scene in which Starbuck admits her sin to Adama is the centerpiece of the episode. I loved both actors' performance in this scene. Everything from Starbuck breaking down and crying to Adama being driven to the point of fury was magnificent. That scene was truly milked for all it was worth.

Another detail worth mentioning is how they're still busy mining the water from the ice moon and it's because they've been stationary so long at a place with natural resources that the Cylons have been able to find them. Without the water crisis, the fleet wouldn't be in this planetary system. Without being in this planetary system for so long the Cylons probably would not have found them and Starbuck would not have crashed onto that moon. The direct interconnectedness of all these events is quite well done. Finally, the space battles in this episode were their typical levels of gorgeously outstanding. Overall another solid episode.

Review

The sequel is another fairly mixed bag. What I really loved about this episode was everything that had to do with the Cylon raider. The whole idea of Starbuck fixing the thing, then stealing it and flying back to Galactica with it was just fascinating and played beautifully. Interestingly, one of the biggest complaints about this episode is just how plausible it was for Starbuck to do all these things with the raider and even survive being attacked by Lee.

To that, I respond Starbuck is special. Starbuck is the extreme, larger than life character that the writers are allowed to do these things with. It was something of a tradition in BSG TOS, and it's a tradition I respect that they're repeating in this show. Because after all, it's not that anything she does in this episode is impossible, it's just extremely unlikely. Not only did she have to be super-skilled to pull it off, but super lucky as well. And that's how it was.

The mixed bag comes into play when we start talking about character dynamics. This episode really shakes up various characters' relationships with one another, which is a good thing, but what really bothered me was how Adama and Lee were being complete assholes to everybody and making irrational decisions left and right over their personal feelings for Starbuck. I know what it means, I understand its realism. I get it. But it was overdone.

There was some good stuff in there. I really liked how Adama took out his frustrations on Tigh, and I loved the scene when Adama said to Roslin "frak the odds, we're gonna find her" in a most unprofessional way. But in addition to these gems were a number of smaller scenes that essentially are out to make the same point but do so less effectively. Perhaps the episode would have been better if more time were spent on Caprica, or given the similar drawn out feel of Act of Contrition, perhaps the episode would have been better if it were compressed into a single piece instead of two.

In any case, special mention goes to the apparent role reversals of Adama and Tigh. It's rather amusing to note that Tigh always walks around the Galactica like he owns the place, yelling at people, barking out orders, and so forth. Tigh rules with a firm hand. On the other hand, Adama has always been very calm and very collected. Now Adama goes berserk, and Tigh is forced to be the calm and serene one for a change.

A very special mention goes to the scene when Roslin confronts Adama and Apollo about their irresponsible behavior. She completely dresses them down and tells them how horrible they are, and they just kind of stand there and take it. Then she leaves the room, like there's nothing more to say. And the two men just kind of look at each other and silently acknowledge that she's right. What an amazing scene.

Finally, it seems clear that the Cylon plan for Helo is to force him to fall in love with Sharon and, most likely, to get them to produce a child. Think about it. The two themes the Cylons have made clear so far are their devotion to their monotheistic religion and their desire to procreate. Granted, they haven't come out and said "our mission is to procreate with humans," but given Six's line about how "procreation is one of god's commandments" and given how much she is devoted to the Cylon god, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Helo and Sharon are a procreation experiment. It's the only explanation for why they're messing around with Helo rather than just killing him.

Review

This episode advances Galactica's plot, but does not manage to stand as well on its own as many other episodes in my opinion. There are some milestone events featured here, most importantly Roslin revealing to the people the existence of humanoid Cylons. Also, we're given confirmation that Helo is an experiment in love by the Cylons. Helo is being manipulated into falling in love with Sharon. But these details do little to redeem what I felt was a fairly weak A-plot.

First of all, Doral's motives are unclear. Where was he going? To Baltar's lab? If so, why doesn't Boomer blow up Baltar's lab? She already blew up the water tanks on Galactica, what's one more bomb? My best guess is Doral's motive was to spread fear. The Cylons wanted the fleet to know there are agents among them so they'd start turning on each other precisely the way Cally feared.

The motives of the Six in Baltar's head are, however, even less clear. On one had she claims the Cylons know nothing about her presence in Baltar's head, but on the other hand, that could very easily be another tactic of misdirection. However, she is helping Baltar build a Cylon detector, so what's going on with this?

The story's biggest weakness is Sgt. Hadrian's witch hunt. I absolutely despise overzealous lawyer and prosecutor stories in TV and film and Galactica's version is only barely tolerable. This BSG episode reminds me of all the things I hated about Star Trek TNG's episode The Drumhead. However, Adama's final scene with Tyrol almost makes up for all the rest. That wonderful lecture Adama gives Tyrol is great and just as emotionally powerful as when Roslin dressed down Adama and Apollo in the previous episode.

Review

What an amazing episode ruined by such a terrible ending. Truly the low point of the season, this episode builds so well to a climax that isn't at all true the episode's premise.

The episode opens with Baltar finally setting Six over the edge with his blasphemous behavior that she summons a Six model Cylon agent to show Baltar the wrath that can be inflicted upon him for his blasphemy. With great comedy weaved into the fascinating drama, Baltar fights for his reputation.

Additionally the B plot having to do with all the dealings with the Cylon raider and the manipulation of Starbuck into getting off her ass and helping out Tyrol was great as well. I love the idea that nobody else can get the raider to work; that Starbuck's innate skill and instinct is what led to her ability to control it. That, and Boomer's scene with the raider talking about how it should be treated like a pet, not a thing, was just wonderful.

Speaking of Boomer, the Helo-Boomer storyline seems to climax somewhat in this episode, for their love has began to blossom. I really don't like the glowing spine during sex thing, but I understand that it's just a gimmick and that it isn't meant to be taken very seriously. So, the Cylons got them together. Now what? "Procreation is one of god's commandments." So, a baby as a result of the sex?

I strangely rooted for Baltar all throughout the episode because he wasn't directly responsible for the destruction of the colonies, and definitely not in the way Shelly Godfrey is indicating. One of the greatest scenes of the episode depicts Roslin declaring her gut feeling that Baltar was in some way involved with the attack. Things look grim for him when suddenly Gaeta discovers that the photo evidence was indeed faked; it's almost as if Shelly wanted to be discovered to be lying.

But it's also here that the episode completely collapses in on itself. Shelly rounds a corner and simply vanishes. Okay, I know the writers are purposely not placing an emphasis on technical things, but having Shelly vanish into thin air with no trace pushes the limits of suspension of disbelief. Because of this event, she couldn't realistically be a Cylon agent, because Cylon agents don't just round corners and disappear. But she also couldn't be a some sort of communal hallucination either, because she interacted with the physical world on Galactica. What we're looking at here is Galactica's first overt technical problem and it's a pretty big one. A showstopper, episode ruining technical problem.

There are a number of ways to rationalize this, along with other unanswered questions and potential technical problems on the show, but unlike those other issues, this one takes a lot of rationalization to explain away which we're unlikely to ever see on screen, leaving a gaping plot hole behind.

This episode exemplifies the danger behind taking a loose attitude toward technical details. RDM has stated that during his work on Trek they had write long explanations for why certain technologies (such as the transporter) couldn't be used in a given situation and that by loosely defining the capabilities of the various plot devices on Galactica (such as the Cylons, or Galactica's FTL drive) that they're avoiding writing themselves into such corners. But it's a double edged sword that had some kickback in this case. I hope they never do this to us again.

Review

Like Litmus, this is another episode which does little more than simply advance the running plot arcs a bit, but this one does so in style. Leoben is one of my favorite Cylons because he's just so interesting to listen to and watch. It's kind of annoying that all his spiritual talk in this episode seemed to lack an overall purpose and significance, but at least some of it was interesting. His prophesying that Earth actually does exist and that the humans will find it has some interesting implications. Is it true, or is he just messing with them? His creepily detailed and accurate read of Starbuck's past and psychological profile was also of distinct interest.

Indeed, what makes this episode shine is the interplay between Leoben and Starbuck, as well as toward the end of the episode the interplay between Leoben and Roslin. Watching Leoben interact with people was utterly fascinating, for his character is shrouded in so many layers of mysterious intent. On one hand, he's most definitely trying to create fear, uncertainty, and doubt. On the other hand, he does tend to mix his lies with truth as Adama said. The Cylons are experts at misdirection and Leoben is a prime example of this.

On the Boomer-Helo front, I'm not sure what to make of the events of this episode. It seems quite clear that the Cylons want Boomer and Helo to stay on Caprica and start a life together. But it also seems pretty clear that Boomer has betrayed the Cylons' plans for them. Why? This much is not made clear.

In the end, as much as I liked this episode from a stylistic point of view, there is next to nothing concrete that can be retained plot-wise from the episode. So while one of the more entertaining and thought provoking episodes of the season, I can't grant it a high rating due to its ambiguous purpose. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that, for it may enhance a future, more pointed episode in the future. But I can't rate episodes based on what might be.

Review

The funniest episode of Galactica's first season, perhaps the funniest episode ever done on Galactica. I was pleased that this episode opened with Roslin in full suspicion mode about whether or not Adama is a Cylon, an after effect from what Leoben told her in the previous episode, and that they provided added incentive for her to suspect this with Adama's odd behavior, and that Adama's odd behavior ended up having an ultimate purpose. All of these things were weaved together skillfully into a clever story with a hilarious climax.

Comedy is not something that is done, or even should be done on Galactica very often. BSG TOS proved to us that it is a mistake, but this episode was very, very carefully crafted to make it actually work. The reason it works so well is because of who Ellen Tigh actually is. She's a manipulative, calculating person out to serve herself in any way she can. She's not afraid of making an ass of herself, and she's possibly just as much an alcoholic as Tigh. It's very likely she is the reason that Tigh is an alcoholic, either by example, by her infidelity, or both.

The crutch of the comedy was how well Ellen Tigh contrasts with the other characters. Everybody else, even Baltar to a certain extent, is more serious and professional in their behavior than Ellen. So the episode climaxes in scenes like the dinner party and Baltar's lab where the characters are just in agony over the embarrassing situation. But at the end of the day, this episode speaks volumes about Saul Tigh, for it is really his episode. Not Ellen's.

Consider this, many people complain about the subplot involving the Cylon raider as contributing nothing to the plot, or that it's a plot device to make Adama's actions seem more suspicious. And it is. But the ultimate purpose for this subplot becomes evident at the end. Tigh orders based on a hunch the alert fighters to be launched which ultimately saves the ship. This is exactly why Adama likes Tigh so much and keeps him around. Tigh is a damn good officer. Maybe he's a deeply flawed man, maybe he goes around yelling at people, maybe everybody hates him. But Adama sees true value in him.

And after all, isn't that realistic? How many functional alcoholics have you known in your life? The disease can mess people up pretty hard, but in the end if the sufferer is of strong enough will, they manage to persevere in some way. The term "functional alcoholic" was coined in that way for a very specific reason. Alcoholism is not always a debilitating disease. Many people live with it and live normal lives. Many people live well despite the disease, and some people are even strengthened in some ways because of the disease.

Through and through, a fantastic episode exploring Tigh's character and the nature of alcoholism itself.

Review

Ronald D. Moore calls this episode season one's guilty pleasure. I agree. But the bottom line is most science fiction fans really enjoy kick ass space battles. I know it was one of the many things that made Star Trek DS9 so amazing for me, so it's no surprise that this episode appeals to me on those grounds as well.

But also as RDM says it's not enough to do the guilty pleasure episode, you have to do it well and deliver on other levels as well. And this episode does this extremely well. One of the things that would have very quickly become a complaint of mine is BSG's failure to address the limitations of the fleet's fuel. This episode spearheads that issue in the very first scene. Not only that, but instead of having a guilty pleasure episode where the Cylons attack the fleet, which was done extremely well in 33, we have an episode where the Galactica attacks the Cylons. I love every bit of that.

I thought it was wonderful to build off of Starbuck's knee injury in You Can't Go Home Again and force her to sit this mission out. But the writers did more than that. Not only was Starbuck forced to sit out, but it added a new layer of depth to the story, for Apollo now has to the be hotshot pilot pulling Starbuck-style "retina detaching" moves, as he put it. I loved the fact that this change of pace put the two characters at odds, instead of the usual "you can do it! I believe in you!" lameness that's prevalent in other kinds of storytelling.

So when it came time to do this thing, there's extreme pressure on Lee, both of the said and unsaid kind. In addition to the obviousness of failure resulting in the destruction of the entire fleet, Lee is also trying to prove to himself he can be just as impressive a pilot as Starbuck is, and that's what that whole "through the conveyor tunnel" move is all about. All of this depth, all of this drama, and all of this tension is set behind one of the most beautiful space battles I've ever seen as a backdrop. Indeed, The Hand of God is the most visually spectacular episode of the entire season.

Beyond this is the religious innuendo Baltar is facing. Six has been manipulating Baltar into believing; truly believing in the Cylon god for the whole season, but this episode is what really converts Baltar I think. For the entire mission is all on Baltar's shoulders. Can he accurately guess the location of the storage tanks or not? Baltar insists his guess was completely random and just a lie, but Six insists that its accuracy is directly proportional to Baltar's faith in the Cylon god. When Baltar's guess is proven to be "right on the money," Baltar's finally given in.

"All this has happened before and all of it will happen again." Leoben first said this to Kara in Flesh and Bone. Kara noted that it was part of the scriptures. Now Six is quoting the same line of scripture and more to Baltar. Indeed, Colonial religion and Cylon religion appear to be coming to a head. Something religious is going on with Roslin and something religious is going on with Baltar. It may all just be a coincidence of course, but the Cylons don't seem to think so; they seem to know what it is, or at least what it means and are confident it will happen soon.

Specifically, Leoben said the colonials will find Kobol, the birthplace of all mankind. Six said "the outcome favored the few and led to a confrontation at the home of the gods." This must mean that the outcome of the battle favored the Colonials, which is true, and will lead to a new confrontation between the Cylons and the colonials at Kobol, assuming the religious predictions pan out.

I also continue to be delighted by the ambiguous portrayal of religion in the show. All these coincidences lead the characters to believe there is a supernatural element to the story, yet as an objective viewer there's no reason to believe anything happening actually is supernatural which adds immensely to the realism of the show by showing how religious belief has a profound psychological effect on the characters while keeping the audience detached from that effect and grounded in the realistic portrayal.

The final plot point worth discussing is Helo and Sharon on Caprica. There was a fairly obvious hint dropped in this episode that Sharon is indeed pregnant, which confirms my suspicion that the whole Helo/Sharon thing has been an experiment by the Cylons in procreation. But where is this going? Their experiment appears to have been successful in the sense that Sharon appears to be pregnant, but at the same time, Sharon appears to have betrayed the Cylons. This episode leaves you wondering if Sharon's betrayal and the supposed upcoming confrontation at Kobol is connected.

In the grand scheme of things this is among Galactica's top episodes. It's far more than a guilty pleasure, for it is pivotal to the show's developing story arc. Both visually spectacular and thought provoking.

Review

While not as annoying to me as Six Degrees of Separation, this episode is perhaps the season's next weakest offering. The main problem is the hollowness and straightforwardness of the plot. Most episodes thus far have been delivered in layers, but this one's pretty plain.

In addition to that a number of weak plot points are introduced here. The most glaringly obvious ones are regarding how both Cloud 9 and Wallace Gray appear to have came out of nowhere; only cheap throw away lines justify their existence. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that, for other TV shows pull these shenanigans all the time. But on this show, that sort of writing style sticks out like a sore thumb compared to prior excellent preplanning.

Another valid point of criticism is why hasn't all the stuff in this episode happened earlier in the season? Wouldn't the establishment of a vice president and the quorum of twelve have been a top priority if these are indeed staples of Colonial government? The only answer is that the characters just didn't get around to it, which seems fairly weak.

Also, it is stated that it's the 52nd anniversary since the signing of the Articles of Colonization, but no other information about the nature of the founding of the Colonial government is dispensed at all, despite its apparently conspicuously recent founding. What exactly do the articles signify? Did their signing occur during the Cylon war? Or just after? What system of government did the Twelve Colonies operate under prior to the signing of the Articles of Colonization? Was each colony independently governed? I found this subject fascinating, but it wasn't explored at all.

The final note of criticism in this episode has to do with the fact that large portions of it are all setup for events that either don't happen or haven't happened yet. The whole assassination attempt thread was pretty close to becoming filler; the only interesting thing to come out of it was Tom Zarek forming an alliance with Ellen Tigh. Truly a match made in heaven. Or perhaps hell. Depends on how you look at it. ;) But the nature of their apparent alliance is vague, at best. There is a hint that Ellen had something to do with Valance's death, but the true implications of their alliance remain to be seen.

There are two things about this episode which redeem it. The first being Baltar's rise to the vice presidency. Well acted and well written all throughout, Baltar's role in this episode steals the show. Every facet of his character is used well in this episode and the larger implications of this event I'm sure also remain to be seen. I found it fascinating that just weeks after declaring to Baltar her suspicions of his involvement in the Cylon attack, Roslin is turning an about face and using his popularity to help her political career. "The devil you know" indeed.

The other thing that makes this episode great is the Helo storyline. Helo has finally put it all together. He probably doesn't know about Sharon's baby yet, but he's discovered that there are human Cylons and that she's a Cylon. Helo freaks out and runs away from her.

Overall though a fairly weak episode, but not the worst. There's some good stuff in here, but it drowns under the weight of an unusual tone of mediocrity.

Review

Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 1 is the most impressive story shown on BSG since 33. The idea that the Colonials would one day stumble upon the planet from which their lost history and religion is derived is fascinating and its implications are well played. I especially liked the fact that there are those within the fleet, like Adama, who are completely secular and see Kobol as merely lucky find; a planet that should be permanently settled and that conversely there are those within the fleet who take the scriptures more seriously and believe that Kobol will show them the way to Earth.

Special mention goes to the teaser of this episode which was a very impressive collage depicting a boxing sparring match between Adama and Apollo, Baltar and Starbuck sleeping together whilst Starbuck fantasizes about Lee calling out his name, Helo running away from Caprica Boomer, but ultimately being forced to confront her and shoot her, and Galactica Boomer becoming suicidal all played to a beautiful string piece called Passacaglia written by the show's composer, Bear McCreary.

I've not talked about the music on this show yet, so I'll take the opportunity to do it here. The miniseries OST was composed by Richard Gibbs with some assistance by Bear McCreary. The creators of the show were very much insistent that this show be given a very militaristic feel, so the soundtrack is very drum centric. A lot of people complain that the music of the show is "all drums" but in reality it's much more than that. Yes, there are a lot of drums, but if you actually take the time to listen to the full scores of the miniseries or the television run, you'll find some very powerful and very beautiful music inspired by a multitude of genres.

Getting back to the plot, this episode is the culmination of all the major plot arcs that have flowed through the first season. Again, the teaser is kind of a montage of this idea and it works well. I especially like how Helo shoots Sharon, but can't bring himself to finish her whilst at the same time Galactica's Sharon is feeling suicidal but unable to commit suicide. Baltar in an interesting twist for his character even manipulates her and encourages her to make the suicide attempt, which ultimately fails. For as Six has said, she may be a weak Cylon model, but she'll ultimately carry out her mission. Whatever that is.

But the intrigue of the story really lies with the religious conflict. Roslin has convinced Starbuck to go against orders and steal the Cylon raider and take it back to Caprica on what Billy calls "a drug induced vision of prophecy." It's hard for the audience to really take sides here because while there are a lot of intriguing coincidences lending a certain amount of credibility to Roslin's plan, there is just a certain level of craziness to the whole thing that makes Adama's resistant stance a lot more sympathetic.

It's worth noting that Leoben and Six have accurately predicted that the Colonials would find Kobol and that it would lead to a conflict. It's not clear whether or not the "conflict at the home of the gods" was supposed to represent a human-Cylon conflict or an internal human conflict, but in the end, we have both. There are those who support Roslin's and Starbuck's actions and there are those who don't. And of course there's also the military conflict involving the Cylon Basestar in orbit of Kobol.

This episode is such a beautiful flow of ideas and emotions and conflicts. It's a pleasure to watch and acts as a wonderful setup for the season finale.

Review

A potent story of betrayal. Roslin betrays Adama by breaking their agreement; she makes a military decision over his head. Not only that, but she does it through Kara; she gets Kara to betray him too which makes it so much worse. Then his son betrays him during the deposition of the president. And finally, Boomer betrays him. Shoots him in the chest. Twice. It's incredibly powerful and moving to watch Adama go through all of this emotional disappointment; just when you think it couldn't get worse for him, there's an assassination attempt made on him by someone he trusts in a moment that is supposed to represent his triumph despite recurring betrayal.

The last few minutes of this episode are extremely well done. You can see as Adama falls his son going raving mad with fury and sadness; the whole CIC flows with emotion, contrasted beautifully by the cut to Baltar reveling in his own little world with Six in the wake of the grand revelation about the Cylon plan she's delivered unto him. Indeed, one major facet of the Cylon grand plan is made abundantly clear here and it's that they believe that the future of life lies with human-Cylon hybrids. Caprica Boomer's baby is of extreme importance to the Cylons.

Similar to the teaser of part 1, much of the appeal of this episode is on a very basic level, such as the wonderful visuals and music during the unmistakably beautiful opera house scene, the interior of the Cylon Basestar which is as visually spectacular as it is fascinating, and of course its destruction. Another wonderful aspect to this episode which makes it so appealing is the shock value factor at the end of the episode. Which to be clear is not necessarily unexpected, but the punch of the scene is so strong that it's shocking an emotional level rather than an expectations level. As such, no matter how many times I see the scene, it's still shocking. Overall, a spectacular ending to a great season.

Review

True to the season one finale, none of the momentum of the cliffhanger is lost. Immediately we're thrown into the chaos that is the aftermath of Adama being shot. The Cylons jump in and attack Galactica and an emergency jump is made. In the midst of the chaos, Gaeta makes a mistake and Galactica jumps to the wrong place. This forces Tigh to start making hard decisions regarding tactics, ultimately culminating in Galactica being forced to go toe to toe with that Cylon Basestar for several minutes while Gaeta plots the correct jump to find the fleet. Special mention goes to the visual effects during the battle; it was absolutely breathtaking to watch Apollo stray into Galactica's engagement zone.

This story is told to the backdrop of Tigh's own insecurities. Through his flashbacks and his own declaration, we know that Tigh never wanted a command. He never even wanted back into the military, but Adama was a proud military man, Tigh and Adama were friends, and that was just the way it was going to be. Sometimes you make hard life decisions and/or sacrifices to be with someone you care about.

Speaking of people caring for each other, Helo does an about face now that he's learned Boomer is pregnant, which I find fascinating. Starbuck tries to kill Boomer in a most wonderfully powerful emotional scene and Helo stops her. "I'm not going to let you kill her. She's carrying my child." That's all it takes for Helo to lose his hatred for the Cylon who manipulated him for weeks. I think that speaks volumes about the character. It's also interesting to note that Baltar is being groomed by Six to care for the Cylon baby just as much as Helo has been.

Adama's surgery scenes were definitely tense to watch, especially given the fact that a lowly medic was forced to perform the surgery. I can only imagine how disgusted Dr. Cottle will be when he sees the amateurish work. Speaking of amateurish work, it seems Six was right about Boomer being weak. She assassinates people about as well as she attempts suicide. I'm glad they're keeping this theme with Boomer being a weak Cylon model, and I hope it is explored further.

The deleted scenes are of unusually high importance to this episode as well. Tigh's flashbacks give us some vague information about how Adama and Tigh met. We know they served aboard a freighter and became friends. But one deleted scene in particular gets very specific about how they met. Whether or not this scene has remained canon is uncertain, but this is my favorite deleted scene so far, and I think it speaks volumes about both characters. Essentially what happens is some guys in a bar start picking on Tigh for being a washed up war veteran, and Tigh gets in a fight with them. Tigh is one step away from breaking one of their necks when Adama shows up with a gun. Adama diffuses the situation by protecting Tigh from getting picked off from behind and convincing Tigh to let the man he's got in the headlock go. This is a scene I really wish could have been incorporated into the episode. And this is just one deleted scene. All the deleted scenes for this episode about Tigh and Adama are marvelous. I highly recommend you go watch them. I hope this stuff makes it into a future episode at some point.

In any case, I spoke in Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down about how Adama keeps Tigh around because he knows Tigh is a good officer. Adama sees this in him while probably nobody else does. Never is Adama's faith in Tigh better validated than in Tigh's actions in this episode, for Tigh really does know how to handle a combat situation, and the Galactica fares well under Tigh's leadership here.

Finally, there's no reset button. Other shows like to clean up situations left by a prior cliffhanger in a single episode and I'm glad they're not doing that here. The discovery of Kobol, the deposition of the president, and the assassination attempt on Adama are all very major events which it appears are going to play out over a longer period of time than just a few episodes. This is a very good thing.

While Scattered is not as pointed a piece as its season opener counterpart 33, it's every bit as entertaining and really, it doesn't need as large a central theme as 33 did. The episode is titled Scattered after all, so you expect a certain amount of chaos. But in the end, Scattered is presented in an extraordinarily captivating way that makes it special and among Galactica's top episodes.

Review

Valley of Darkness is a very special episode of Battlestar Galactica as it manages to be spectacular and impressive without actually moving the plot forward much at all. Adama is still out of commission, the people on Kobol are still getting killed by the Cylons, the Galactica is still dealing with the aftermath of the prior episode's battle, and in the end it sounds like a tedious setup. But what Valley of Darkness lacks in plot advancement, it makes up for in style.

There are two details about this episode which make it an absolute pleasure to watch. The first is of course being able to see Starbuck's apartment. The scenes where her and Helo take a break there are just wonderful, and the music played in the scene which is supposed to be a recording of Starbuck's father playing the piano is wonderfully suited for the episode as well as a marvelous change of pace. Indeed, as I've stated in my review of Kobol's Last Gleaming, this series is as much a musical masterpiece as it is visual and story spectacle.

But the crowning scene of this episode is the vision of prophecy Six gives to Baltar about Adama killing the human-Cylon child. You could jokingly argue that this series has a fetish for killing kids, but I think the horrifying events involving the death of children and babies in this series are a cold, hard measure of realism; one of the many facets in which this show is just plain honest. After all, isn't it realistic that should Adama be made aware of the Cylons' plan to create human-Cylon hybrids that he would do all he can to put a stop to it?

I talked in my review of Scattered about how Tigh is a capable military leader and this is why Adama keeps him around. Once again Tigh proves his value with his handling of the Cylon boarding party. He's an experienced war veteran who has seen this tactic by the Cylons before. When they board a battlestar, they don't go after the obvious, and well defended targets. They have a more clever plan, and this was certainly a very clever attempt made by the Cylons to take out the fleet.

Finally, special mention goes to the scene in which the last Cylon charges Apollo's unit. The visual effects were of Galactica's usual spectacular caliber. You really believe when watching that scene that this big, giant, metal Cylon Centurion is diving at Apollo. Indeed, the Cylon Centurions were a marvelous spectacle throughout the whole episode.

The only thing that bothered me throughout the whole episode is the question of why the Cylons Centurions were resistant to regular rounds. Helo didn't need explosive rounds on Caprica. So are these Centurions special because they were aboard the heavy raider? A specially armored boarding party perhaps?

Overall though, this is a marvelous episode that mixes brutal violence on Galactica, chilling prophecy on Kobol, and raw beauty on Caprica into a moving, flowing, impressive piece of television.

Review

This is another wonderfully multifaceted episode both on Kobol and on Galactica. Now that all the major crises on Galactica have been dealt with, the civilian population is going nuts over the deposition of the president. I love the wonderful twist in which Ellen Tigh visits Roslin and comes to believe that she's gone completely crazy, so she convinces Tigh to let the Quorum of Twelve see the president when they ask to. But by the time they get around to seeing her, Billy has convinced the guard holding Roslin in the brig to procure some chamalla extract for her, rendering her no longer crazy.

Roslin very clearly outlines her plan to the Quorum; Ellen Tigh's plan to discredit the president which would leave Tigh in unchallenged command of the fleet effectively fails. This pisses off Tigh, however, who believes that he must maintain control over the fleet and not allow Roslin to pursue her crazy religious plan, so he does the unthinkable and declares martial law. And to top it all off, he's drinking again. I can't imagine that this is leading to anything good.

In addition to having time to deal with the civilians, Galactica had time to send a search and rescue party to recover those who crashed down on Kobol. As hinted at previously, Crashdown's leadership is sketchy at best. He may be a good pilot, but he has no experience commanding a ground unit. So it's no surprise that his plan to attack the Cylons to prevent them from destroying the search and rescue raptors ends up being a colossal failure. I loved how he gradually lost his cool throughout the episode culminating to the point when he pulls a weapon of Cally for her cowardice. I also love how Baltar is the one who saves her life. Finally, there's something of a bitter irony to a character named Crashdown crashing down onto a planet and dying there shortly thereafter.

The Cylon Centurions themselves make another set of marvelous appearances as well. Hot off the heels of Valley of Darkness, the Cylon Centurions are depicted as very frightening and very real enemies despite the fact that they're done entirely by visual effects. There's something very different about this show's Cylon Centurions when compared to something else very visual effects heavy like the Star Wars prequels. The Star Wars prequels are virtually all spectacle, yet they don't look at all as realistic as this. I think that says a lot about BSG's visual effects artists and their skill.

The biggest weakness of the story is the issue of why the Cylons didn't send another basestar to Kobol. If they had, such as perhaps the one(s) that attacked Galactica in the prior episode, it would have likely prevented their military defeat in this episode. In particular it certainly would have made it so the Centurions didn't need to dismantle their ship. There are any number of reasons why the Cylons may not have been able to get a basestar there in time, but I would have preferred such a reason having been made explicit. Overall though, Fragged is another very successful action piece with some fantastic character moments.

Review

Resistance is a decent episode, but the first of the season to not be utterly spectacular. It is at the very least engaging, however, and it serves as a nice, well rounded character piece.

First and foremost to discuss is Tigh. He may have proven himself in battle, but at the end of the day it's pretty clear he's not the man you want leading the fleet itself. His drinking and the negative influences from his wife are ultimately what led to the massacre aboard the Gideon.

Adama returns to us in this episode, and I liked how the first thing Tigh says to him is "I frakked things up good," he admits his mistakes to Adama without sugar coating. Not only that, but Adama just accepts it and moves on, declaring that he and Tigh will pick up the pieces together. It's great how Adama just understands that Tigh had to make hard decisions and that he's human and can't always make the right decisions.

Ultimately, true to the title of the episode, the story is all about resistance. Resistance to Tigh's military dictatorship and resistance to the Cylon occupation of Caprica. However, I felt that the latter story was somewhat weak. It's cute and amusing that a professional pyramid playing team survived, and their survival excuse is valid, but I just kind of felt that introducing an organized group of survivors on Caprica resisting the Cylons was kind of lame. I mean, if they wanted to exploit that idea, why didn't they do it in season one with the group that Helo was with?

Instead, they just vanished and Helo had a solitary story with Sharon. Now the writers are trying to have it both ways and I just don't find it tasteful at all. Additionally, I felt that it is completely unnecessary to set Starbuck up to fall in love with Anders; it comes off almost as if finding the the survivors was an excuse to give Kara somebody to frak. While I'm not fond of that plot point on Caprica, I'm at least happy that it's made pretty clear that at least Helo and Starbuck have not forgotten that their mission is to get off Caprica. One can only wonder why the resistance group hasn't done so already.

The Tyrol and Sharon stuff is the best material in the episode in my opinion. There's so little of it, yet it says so much. Even after Tyrol disowns Sharon and treats her terribly all throughout the episode, when Cally's rage finally forces her to take Sharon out, she dies in Tyrol's arms. No matter how much he tries to hate her, he can't let go of the love.

So this episode comes off as a pretty mixed bag. There's some great stuff, some okay stuff, and some downright lame stuff. But in the end it's still a pretty engaging, nicely done episode.

Review

The Farm is the second major weak episode. Picking up on the resistance movement on Caprica in full force which was already a fairly annoyingly presented plot thread, it degenerates even further when Kara is shot and captured by the Cylons. It's all too obvious from the beginning the Simon is a Cylon, though this seems intentional, so the question becomes what's his plan? In the end, we get the great revelation that the Cylons have farms of humans where they are trying to create human-Cylon hybrids, but the details leave much to be desired.

The whole "love theory" idea is absolute rubbish. This episode leaves us with the distinct connotation that the human-Cylon breeding farms have been unsuccessful exclusively because there's no love involved, and that the only reason Helo's and Sharon's experiment was a success was because they were manipulated into falling in love. This is an extreme disappointment of a revelation, because it makes the Cylons look like idiots. Prior to this episode, we could speculate that it was a psychological experiment, but nope, it's all about biology. And biologically in the BSG universe apparently love is necessary for conception. It's as if the writers have never heard of a raped woman becoming pregnant.

Boomer did say that the Cylons were interested in various different ways of attempting to create hybrids. Some couplings are by choice and some not by choice. So it's possible the episode wasn't really trying to imply that love plays a physical, biological role in human-Cylon conception. I sure hope this is the case, but official statements from the writers are not encouraging, nor is the prevailing aesthetic of this episode. Thus my problem with this episode is much like my problem with Six Degrees of Separation. This episode has an enormous, show stopping technical problem which gets in the way of the drama. It's hard to take it seriously when they get the science wrong.

A similarly annoying detail but not necessarily a show stopping problem was Anders and his resistance group deciding to stay on Caprica. They could have easily crammed everyone aboard the heavy raider and taken them back to the fleet, but they all decided to stay. Why? To continue a hopeless fight against the Cylons in which surely most of them will die? I mean, I get the idea that they want to take out as many farms as possible, but choosing to stay on Caprica is ludicrously stupid. As Starbuck said, they're on the losing end of this fight.

Aside from that, however, this was an excellent character piece for Adama and Starbuck. Katee Sackhoff did an extraordinary job playing Kara and Edward James Olmos did an equally extraordinary job playing Adama. In particular, seeing Adama wrestling with the various betrayals that he has had to deal with was quite compelling; going everywhere from angrily throwing a clipboard in CIC to crying over Boomer's corpse.

Review

This episode is the natural evolution of the plot arc that was introduced in the season one finale. Roslin has now embarked on her quest to find the Tomb of Athena on her own, and Starbuck has returned to Roslin with the Arrow of Apollo as planned. Well, not entirely according to plan, but the end result is the same.

The episode opens with a great teaser. Showing us what's going on with Roslin's fleet, Starbuck appearing, and the confrontation regarding Boomer. The way it plays out is also wonderful. I love how Roslin betrays her word to Helo by ordering Sharon thrown out the airlock, then reconsiders when Boomer starts talking about knowing where the Tomb of Athena is. My favorite line is when Roslin says, "tell them to wait a minute." The callous, nonchalant way she says that is just perfect.

Unfortunately the episode seems to run out of steam a bit after this. We get to spend a lot of time watching Birch screw up routine operations over and over. Then there's the immature pyramid ball scene. These details were nice, especially the visual effects regarding Birch's screw ups, but many of the character conflicts felt redundant to me. We didn't really need them, not really.

Originally, this episode was slated to not be a two parter. So that can explain why some of it seems to drag in places. But overall the episode is still fairly remarkable. The Cylon firefight was its usual spectacle to watch, the visual effects depicted in Birch's screw up missions were utterly fantastic, especially Kat's brush with death, and it was interesting to watch Adama slowly come to terms with what he needs to do.

Review

The exposition in this episode allows us to draw several interesting conclusions about BSG's setting. Incontrovertible evidence now says that Earth is real, not a myth as Adama and Roslin once believed. Since the map to Earth on Kobol is from the perspective of Earth and depicts our Earth, the one we're all living on now, we can conclude that the Colonials are mistaken about having evolved on Kobol since we all know humanity evolved on Earth.

Thus, the BSG universe must be set far into the future. Humanity left Earth at some point for Kobol. When the thirteen tribes left Kobol, twelve founded the Twelve Colonies and the thirteenth tribe returned to Earth, but created the map to Earth before they left. Over many years, all of this history was lost; only fragmentary religious scriptures document any of it. This raises some interesting possibilities indeed of what they will find when they reach Earth! Are there people still there? If so, is there society more advanced than the Twelve Colonies, or more primitive?

Unfortunately though, this episode only further complicates the Six in Baltar's head. We now know that she is neither a chip, nor is Baltar crazy. So what is she? An undetectable chip made from organic Cylon technology? Or did she simply upload her personality into Baltar somehow using Cylon technology on Caprica prior to the attack? The information in this episode is too vague to draw a conclusion. One interesting bit of dialog concerning Six however is her line about how Boomer is undeserving of the honor of bearing the first of the next generation of god's children. It's been made clear since early in season one that Six just plain doesn't like Boomer. Is it possibly because Boomer has been established as a "weak" Cylon model?

Also, it remains unclear why the Cylons didn't bother to send more reinforcements or another basestar to Kobol. Again, there could be any number of reasons why this is the case, but once again more reinforcements from the Cylons would have prevented their military defeat in the prior episode. Moreover, in this episode they seem to just let the Colonials merrily explore Kobol without interference in the slightest. Why?

Aside from exposition, this episode sports a teaser that's just as good as the one in Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 1 featuring another beautiful string piece by Bear McCreary. It's wonderful how simple visuals allows you to draw connections between the search party preparing for their mission to Kobol on Galactica and Roslin's party searching for the Tomb of Athena in the rain on Kobol. Much about this episode but especially the teaser is just stylistically spot on which make the episode a great pleasure to watch, despite the less than thorough exposition.

In the end, this is a fairly satisfying episode which turns the show's premise upside down somewhat. Now we're certain there is an Earth. Adama may have lied about it in the miniseries, but it seems there's more truth to the scriptures than the atheists thought. However, this episode would have been far better if the exposition were not so incomplete.

Review

This episode has some nice details here and there but is largely a flop. Simply stated, the idea of doing a documentary of the Galactica crew on a show that's already executed in a documentary style seemed redundant. Thus, much of the episode felt like filler and the upbeat feel of the documentary felt more obtuse than true to Galactica's style.

The nice bits surround the minor characters. Also, it's nice that Tigh is dealing with the ramifications of the Gideon massacre, and given the premise on which the episode was built it was well executed. I especially loved the deliberate decision to not show the battle between the vipers and the two Cylon raiders in this episode to further the documentary feel; we've never seen this perspective before which makes it fresh and interesting while at the same time a clever money saving move. ;)

However, it was fairly obvious from the beginning that D'Anna was a Cylon. She was a character that came out of nowhere and was immediately up to no good which sparks immediate such suspicion.

Moreover I'm at a loss to understand why she wasn't tested by Baltar to see if she is a Cylon. In Resistance, Tyrol was tested by Baltar and passed which exonerated him of his suspected Cylon nature and of any wrongdoing. Yet it seems after that episode no Cylon tests were ever administered again, even after Boomer told Baltar there are eight remaining Cylons in the fleet. This to me seems like a gross oversight.

I'm at least pleased with the unusual nature of D'Anna's mission. The events of the episode aren't complete filler because the Cylons deliberately wasted two raiders and used a Cylon agent to get a status report on Boomer. This brings up some interesting questions; now that Galactica is harboring the pregnant Boomer, will the Cylons stop trying to destroy the fleet? They want Boomer's baby to live as much as she does. Also, it would have been nice to know why Boomer's baby was in danger. Overall though, Final Cut is an episode that has some nice details, but in the end comes off rather weak.

Review

This episode would seem to contradict the idea that the Cylons want to keep the fleet around so that Sharon's baby can survive, unless, of course, the whole crisis of the episode was orchestrated by the Cylons to get the Galactica crew to trust Sharon more. Also, was it really wise to destroy all those Cylon fighters? Why not take them, blow the brains, and salvage them? Finally, they really fudged the viper count in this episode.

Those annoyances aside, one great thing about the episode was Roslin's scenes. First, she finds out she's got weeks to live. Then she returns Adama's gift (the book Dark Day) that he gave her way back in Water. This is true to the axiom that the dying (or the suicidal) always give away their possessions before they meet their end. Also, the dedication ceremony at the end was absolutely fantastic. Finally, there's some nice continuity with Scattered in this episode regarding the Cylon virus.

The best part of the episode though is of course the construction of a new type of viper, a stealth ship, and Kara test flying it. There was a short, but very awesome scene depicting Kara bouncing the Blackbird all over the place which I loved. Watching Tyrol build the thing was also very cool; I love the way the characters are all moody in this episode and kind of come together and find common ground, building the Blackbird.

Review

And Galactica delivers us its finest offering so far. Pegasus is based on BSG 1978's The Living Legend which was the best episode of BSG TOS, so people were expecting a lot when this show set out to do a Pegasus episode and this episode delivers on every level.

In this new take on the story Cain is a woman and outranks Adama. I can hear the BSG 1978 purists now whining and complaining about the "castration" of Cain, much like they did with Starbuck, but the Michelle Forbes' Cain in this episode is every bit a hardass that Loyd Bridges' Cain was and more. Michelle brings a certain dark viciousness to the character without coming off as necessarily evil, which is fantastic. Cain completely steals the show in this episode and I'm all for that.

Because you know, when you get right down to it, Cain is absolutely right about Adama and his command. She runs a very tight ship and she's a very by the book admiral. A very young admiral, in fact, which speaks volumes about her personality. She's a career officer. She means business. She rises through the ranks like an athlete jumps hurdles. And while Adama has some of that in him, he's not like Cain. He runs a runs a loose ship. And Cain makes no apologies for pointing that out to him.

RDM said in the commentary: "Ultimately, Cain comes over here, she gets those logs, and she starts saying you guys are a bunch of fuck ups. You got your son as the CAG, you got Kara smackin' people around, you got a guy who's fraternizing with the enemy, you got two of'm fraternizing with the enemy for that sake, and the secretary of education, and... what? Your XO?" Exactly. Nothing Cain takes issue with throughout the whole episode is really all that unfair. But you still hate her for it. She's still wrong, somehow, even though she's right. And that's fantastic. That's how you write an antagonist.

Having no defense; no answers for Cain, Adama just gives up command. Doesn't question it. I love this detail, because Cain is a megalomaniac, and eventually she escalates her abuse of power to a point at which Adama can no longer let her get away with it. She summarily judges Helo and Tyrol as treasonous murderers for the aggravated, accidental killing of Thorne, who was in the midst of raping a prisoner, and sentences them to death. That's stepping over the line and Adama won't have it, so he launches a strike against the Pegasus in one of the most marvelous cliffhangers ever shown on TV scored to some of the best music ever played on TV.

And that's only the beginning of this episode's greatness. Besides the fantastic character dynamics between Cain and Adama, there's a message about human(oid) rights in this episode. Is it right to use torture as an interrogation method on Cylons? This was an issue hinted at in Flesh and Bone but never really explored in much depth. That episode instead focused on the (false) immediate danger posed to the fleet by Leoben. In the end Roslin apologized for the way Leoben was treated, then simply threw him out of an airlock. But now Boomer is here and they're not getting rid of her because she's proven to be a valuable intelligence resource and a valuable ally, at least on a temporary basis.

The Pegasus crew kept Gina around for essentially the same reasons that the Galactica crew is keeping Boomer around; they wanted to obtain intelligence from her. But the Pegasus crew has employed much different methods. They don't believe Gina has any human rights because she isn't human. As a result she's been put through extensive torture. The scenes she has in this episode are extremely moving as a result. You can only imagine what she's been through, but you can clearly see the result. And putting Baltar into the situation of having to deal with seeing a version of the woman he loves in this condition is fascinating.

So essentially the basic conflict in the episode has to do with whether or not you believe Boomer and Gina deserve basic human(oid) rights. After all, the Cylons did massacre billions of people. But then, is it right to treat anybody like Gina's been treated, no matter what their crimes are? The Pegasus crew and the Galactica crew disagree on this issue and it erupts into a tense military conflict and makes for one of the most utterly fantastic episodes of television I've seen in years. Because you truly can sympathize with either side of the debate, even after you've picked a side. It's a complex issue and its complexity is sufficiently explored in this truly remarkable episode.

Review

Hot off the heels of Pegasus, Resurrection Ship, Part 1 opens with a marvelously tense teaser with wonderfully complimentary music. The game of chicken the vipers were playing with each other was just fascinating to watch, and very original. I like how neither Cain nor Adama could quite bring themselves to fire on the other and that the situation was eventually diffused when Starbuck returned from her against-orders recon mission.

Gina has a few more touching scenes. I loved Cain's hostility toward her, then later Gina asking Baltar to kill her to end the pain. Finally, the scene when Baltar gives her some clean clothes and we get to see the terrible injuries she's sustained on her back (as well as the side of her left breast ;)) almost makes your own back kind of sting. I like how she was backed up all the way to the wall, keeping as much physical distance from Baltar as possible. It makes sense; someone who's been through that much abuse doesn't want to touch anybody for any reason.

Then of course, there's the nice plot point that Gina, being suicidal, does not want to be resurrected into a brand new body with her painful, horrible memories of her experiences aboard the Pegasus identifies for Baltar the function of the resurrection ship, hoping that Cain will be successful in destroying it so she can die and these bad memories will be gone forever. Finally, there's something delicious about how Roslin is the one who convinces Adama to kill Cain, and that Adama dismisses it completely until he learns the full extent of her megalomania. Also, it's worth noting that both Cain's and Adama's assassination plans take advantage of the lax security after a major military victory, which is exactly what Boomer did in Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2. I find something fascinating about that.

Resurrection Ship, Part 1 naturally loses a little bit of momentum being the middle part of a three part story. It has to pick up on a cliffhanger then ends with another one. This lack of a definitive beginning and end to the episode makes it slightly weaker than Pegasus, but not by much. The episode manages to retain its profound origins while taking the drama further into a fascinating direction.

Review

Resurrection Ship, Part 2 is the most visually spectacular episode so far, beating even The Hand of God and the miniseries. I think it goes without saying that the space battle in this episode was the most amazing space battle ever shown on TV. Aside from raving about how awesome it was of course, it also establishes something important about the capabilities of colonial and Cylon technology. It would seem that colonial battlestars are vastly superior to Cylon basestars in direct combat, when there are few, or no vipers and raiders involved because the Cylon basestars' primary strategy appears to involve missiles and raiders; they lack the heavy gun batteries that battlestars have. As a result, Galactica and Pegasus mopped up those two Cylon basestars with ease which was most impressive to watch. This episode goes a long way toward explaining why the Cylons had to rely on sabotage to carry out their attack on the colonies successfully.

Much of this episode was all about Lee Adama, who's having a hard time dealing with his demotion and then makes a critical mistake during the attack. I thought it was great that he was looking behind him, watching the damage he did to the resurrection ship, not watching where he was going, then he accidentally collides with a downed raptor. This scene is sort of symbolic of Apollo's character in general. He's always looking back into the past instead of paying attention to what's going on right now.

As a result of not being able to back up Kara when he said he would, he gets downright suicidal, which I have mixed feelings about. I thought Apollo's suicidal behavior came out of nowhere and was slightly over the top. This isn't necessarily unrealistic; sometimes people become suicidal for pretty shoddy reasons. But more substantiation in the episode would have been appreciated. Another thing I didn't like about the episode was the "48 hours earlier" opening scene. Disjointed storytelling is a pet peeve of mine, especially when it's done for no particularly good reason. These weaknesses are not severe, however.

Special mention goes to Baltar's scenes with Gina, particularly the one when Six says: "Tens of thousands of Cylons are about to die. Tens of thousands, Gaius, god will not forgive this sin!" Baltar then asks Gina: "Do you think god will forgive us?" Gina responds: "God forgives all." Then Baltar proceeds to tell Gina the story Six told him in the prior episode. There's something twisted about this scene. Baltar knew that Gina would find the story beautiful, because her counterpart in his head thought it was beautiful. So he's cruelly stealing from one version of her; using her in an attempt to reach out and bond with another version of her. I love how Six disappears in the cut when Baltar finishes telling the story.

Another great detail about the episode is how both Adama and Cain back out of their assassination plans. This, to me, is wonderful, because when Cain meets her end at the end of the episode, you really feel something for her. She's not a heartless evil villain, she's just a little megalomaniacal. There's humanity in Cain and she is capable of mercy. I get the impression that after the battle of the resurrection ship, Cain was going to be true to Roslin's request that they meet on Colonial One and resolve the issue of Tyrol and Helo and that she'd start to lighten up a bit. Because now, she's gotten to know Adama in a special way. They've served in combat together. They've shared a "significant victory" together. That can really change your perspective on a person. But Cain's change of heart is too little, too late, however, for her sins in allowing Gina to be raped and tortured caught up with her.

And true to Cain's personality, she goes out defiant. A soldier. And in the end, not only do you feel sorry for Cain, but you realize that Cain was successful in everything she set out to do. Her ship and her crew are safe and she accomplished her mission destroying the Cylon fleet she'd been tracking. It's a shame Cain couldn't have been made a permanent character in the series, but at the same time I kind of understand it. It would have changed the dynamics of the show too much to have Adama and Galactica taking orders from Cain all the time. It's hard to justify the title "Battlestar Galactica" when the flagship is the Pegasus. ;)

Which brings us to the next subject of course and that being the permanence of the Pegasus. All too often in science fiction, a new ship is introduced to the show for one episode, or a just a few episodes, then it meets its end at the end of the episode. Not this time. RDM sternly wanted to avoid this cliche and I am wholly grateful for that. Because it sucked when BSG 1978 got rid of the Pegasus and it sucked when Star Trek Voyager got rid of the Equinox. And there are numerous other examples of this cliche. It also adds a fascinating new dynamic to the show. Exploring the trauma that the crew of the Pegasus has gone through will be fascinating, and exploring how Admiral Adama manages to command two battlestars will also be fascinating.

Review

Roslin's cancer is at the very heart of the show's premise and Epiphanies simply hand waves it away deus ex machina style. However, if you accept the fact that that's just how it's going to be, then the episode itself is pretty likable.

Roslin's flashbacks back to Caprica were fascinating to watch. It was great to get a chance to see President Adar and the fact that Roslin is now remembering having seen Baltar with Six on Caprica and realizing the significance of that is a fascinating plot point.

Baltar himself puts on a marvelous show as well. It's great to watch him cure Roslin because you don't quite understand the motivations behind it. Does he want to avoid becoming president? Does he want to use the cure as a reason to save Sharon's child? The ambiguity behind his motives adds a lot to the story.

Unfortunately, blowing away the cancer deus ex machina style isn't the only gaffe in this episode. Another annoying detail is Gina and her role in the Cylon peace movement. It's a shame they had to create dialog stating that nobody in the peace movement knows what she is, because it is perfectly believable that they would harbor a Cylon, given their motives.

Sadly, however, that's not how it was written. Instead, we're asked to swallow the idea that her half-assed excuse for a disguise is somehow effective. Even harder to understand is why Baltar would give Gina a nuclear weapon after reading Roslin's letter to him. The dots just don't connect; it doesn't make sense.

In the end we get kind of a mixed bag. Without a doubt, watching Roslin struggle with her cancer was fantastically executed, in particular the scoring. But the last minute cure brings the plot thread to a rather anticlimactic close. It would have been a much more touching and satisfying story had Roslin died in this episode. I love her character, but it's a cop out to wipe her cancer clean just because we want to keep her around. This episode should have been true to her character's premise.

I can only hope that all those signs that her cancer is gone forever are some sort of misdirection and that her cancer is merely in remission and will return again some day. But if magic Cylon blood can send it back into remission any time we want, my hopes for this are more like grasping at straws.

Review

Black Market is an episode which largely comes off as incoherent, a collection of attempts at making a point, but none which really get driven home and succeed by and large. While the episode does have a few things going for it such as nice assortment of good scenes, an unusually refreshing tone to the the scoring (dubbed Standing In The Mud on the soundtrack), and a few other interesting tidbits, there's a larger set of little problems with the episode spread throughout as well.

Firstly, this episode is quite an abuse of flashback storytelling. It was kind of annoying in Act of Contrition and it was tolerable in Resurrection Ship, Part 2 but here it's over the top. We've got the ending shown in the teaser, then all these flashbacks into Lee's life on Caprica, and none of it makes any sense until the end of the episode, at which point none of it means as much as you'd hope it would. That, and certain details just don't make sense. Why didn't Phelan's thugs kill Apollo when he went for the gun, or after he shot Phelan? Why did Zarek have to tell Apollo about the Prometheus when everybody else seems to know about it? For that matter, why would Zarek bother to assist Apollo in the first place? And even then, wouldn't Apollo as someone who's already participated in the black market already know about that ship? So much just doesn't make any sense.

Next in the line of problems is the whole business with Apollo being depressed after having ejected from the Blackbird. I never really liked this plot point to begin with when it was introduced in Resurrection Ship, Part 2 and it wasn't sufficiently explored and further substantiated in this episode. Kara even directly confronts Lee in Epiphanies about the Blackbird ejection possibly causing his depression which he outright ignores and it's used as a sort of excuse for Lee's moodiness in this episode. It's also revealed that his regrets over a woman he lost on Caprica is a major contributing factor to his moodiness. It's just too much a jumble.

Another annoying plot point is how callously the Pegasus is handled. Fisk was an absolutely fantastic character that was killed off for no good reason. And his death was definitely far too close in the timeline to Cain's death. There should be repercussions for losing two commanders of the Pegasus in a matter of weeks, but it's not explored at all. Moreover, now we don't even know who's in command of the Pegasus at all. We're never told who succeeded Fisk. A gross oversight.

However, there's a certain realism to the whole concept of the black market on Galactica, and it's something I was hoping the series would explore. Phelan's character was particularly fascinating. I like how he just casually justifies child prostitution to Lee, like it's okay simply because there's a demand. I also like how Lee just summarily executes him without necessarily being provoked. Bold move, even if the consequences for it were grossly unrealistic. Overall though this episode is the biggest dud of the series so far.

Review

Scar is another episode which makes heavy use of flashback storytelling, which is kind of annoying, but I let it slide here somewhat because the visual effects depicting the battle with Scar really were fantastic and watching them again and again is definitely not something to complain a great deal about. I did feel there were some pacing issues toward the end; some of the battle scenes felt redundant. Especially the one when Starbuck plays her game of chicken with Scar. We saw the setup for that at least, what, three times? That's pushing it. But whatever. It was still a fantastic episode that was amazingly visually spectacular.

This episode is all about Starbuck dealing with her personal demons. She's feeling profound guilt over breaking her word to Anders, being unable to convince Adama and Roslin to plan a mission back to Caprica to rescue him and his resistance group. It would have been nice to have seen more scenes depicting Starbuck actually approaching Roslin and Adama about this, but the implication is nevertheless clear.

Another demon Kara is dealing with is Kat. Kara trained another Starbuck, for Kat's starting to rival her skill. This is both a good and a bad thing; it's nice to have another amazing pilot, but Starbuck's got an ego to protect which breeds an immature but fun to watch conflict. Kara being as pissed off as she is in this episode also leads to a long awaited sexual encounter with Lee, for all the wrong reasons, which doesn't really go anywhere. I really liked that scene. There was a certain vulnerable honesty to it that was interesting.

Finally, there's a certain conventional fun to this episode. It's a story we've seen many times before. The ace enemy fighter steps into the ring, slaughters good guys, and we get to see him blow up in a bloody confrontation in the end. There's something satisfying about episodes like this and there's also something great about being able to immerse yourself in fighter pilot culture during an episode like this. Overall, Scar is not very deep but it's still a very successful and entertaining episode.

Review

This episode is sad and kind of annoying. The big thing here is the departure of the character Billy. I understand why the writers offed him, the actor wanted out. But it should have been handled better than this. In the end, this entire episode's plot feels like an excuse to kill Billy which doesn't do much justice to the character. Manufactured danger.

Only small details redeem the episode. The best part of the whole episode was the scene in which Apollo is accidentally shot by Starbuck. Also, it was fascinating to see Boomer refuse to tell Adama who the other Cylons in the fleet are. But beyond that, what is there in this episode? A canned hostage plot based on rather trite motives. I can see the realism behind what Sesha was trying to do, but her point of view just wasn't explored deeply enough.

The whole episode boils down to threats and fighting. And really, it just feels too common. How many times have we really seen this story played out in other TV shows? This episode is just unusually unoriginal for Galactica.

Review

The Captain's Hand is a fantastic episode which shakes up the show quite a bit in a very good way. While granted it seems a legitimate criticism one could make of the show by now is that BSG offs Pegasus commanders faster than Star Trek offs redshirts, I think after the events of this episode, that isn't going to be happening anymore. And really, it kind of makes sense that Pegasus commanders would be dropping like flies until somebody level-headed gets the position and as much as I wanted to see Fisk stick around, having Apollo command the Pegasus is an utterly fantastic twist.

In addition to the Pegasus story, we've got Roslin going and banning abortion, which is a fascinating plot point. I mean, think about it. Adama's right. That population number doesn't go up very often. In the real world, we enjoy our rights to birth control, but we have billions of people on this planet. And indeed an overpopulation problem in many parts of the world. Now, Galactica may have overcrowding issues on some ships as well, though perhaps less now with the introduction of the Pegasus which seemed to only have fraction of the crew compliment that it could have, but the core idea is that in order for the species to survive, you've got to start having babies. This was an idea that was prominent in the miniseries, and I'm glad it's been tackled here so directly.

Special mention as usual goes to the visual effects in this episode. While the Pegasus battling three Cylon Basestars may have been a short sequence, it was a spectacular one. The sight of the Pegasus firing off her forward batteries was just incredible and watching Lee Adama command the Pegasus was an unexpected treat. I hope we get much more of this in the future. Finally, Baltar betraying Roslin and running for president was a fantastic twist at the end. So overall, The Captain's Hand is an exciting ride which shakes up the show quite a bit and certainly doesn't lose its spectacle with repeated viewings.

Continuity note: the next episode chronologically is the two part special Razor, Part 1 and Razor, Part 2. Razor was actually produced, shot, and aired at the beginning of season 4. However, Razor can and arguably should be watched directly after The Captain's Hand as it contains no real spoilers. If you are using my site as an episode guide and you're watching the episodes in sequence, I suggest you go watch Razor now, then come back to season 2 and and pick up on where you left off with the next episode as aired: Downloaded.