Review

First, a few words about the concept of the webisodes. Using the internet to proliferate episodes is a good idea, but Sci Fi's implementation of the idea leaves much to be desired. We got a series of low quality short clips that follow an unusually straightforward plot. Why didn't they just give us a nice full quality episode in high definition available for download on their website instead of short little low quality clips in embedded Flash? This is supposed to be a professional production, not some half-assed YouTube upload.

A FAQ on Sci Fi's website answered the question: "Why can't I download the webisodes to watch on my computer offline?" with the response: "For legal reasons, SCIFI.COM can only offer the webisodes in a streaming (non-downloadable) format." But the reasoning behind that response is shoddy. Nothing transmitted over the internet is "non-downloadble." Just because the webisodes are not automatically cached due to the obfuscated method by which they're streamed does not mean that they are unrecordable.

Within hours of the first websisode being released, they were already being distributed en masse by third parties. Why did they even care to stop people from saving them anyway? They don't seem to care about people recording television broadcasts with DVRs or VCRs. What a silly policy, and as a result of the false sense of security they feel by distributing the webisodes this way, we the viewers had to suffer with watching them in abysmal video quality.

That said, let's discuss the plot. Even months into the Cylon occupation, the resistance movement against the Cylons is still in its infancy. I find this to be a somewhat extraordinary amount of time, personally. What have they been doing for two months? Playing cards? The webisodes are also partially disappointing in that they focus only on minor characters like Duck, his new wife Nora, and Jammer rather than giving us pertinent information about the nitty gritty details of the resistance movement's formation. While it seems obvious that leaving out some of the more important characters was done to keep costs low, you're left wondering where Starbuck and Ellen Tigh are, who are not mentioned at all. Their absence is quite jarring.

The webisodes develop slowly, giving us bits about how Duck refuses to join the resistance movement and Jammer doesn't like Tigh's idea to hide weapons in the temple. This leads to Nora's dramatic death, radicalizing Duck. But even that though left somewhat of a bad taste in my mouth, because you never actually see any Cylons come into the temple and shoot anybody. You just hear it in the background. Once again, this seems like a cost cutting move to me.

Duck finding out the root cause of Nora's death was a fun set of scenes. His moving from grieving and sadness to anger and rage was quite well done. This leads to a fascinating exchange between Jammer and Tigh concerning the morality of putting innocent lives at risk to further the resistance movement. Jammer is then taken prisoner briefly by an Aaron Doral model Cylon and a curious dialog is exchanged between them. After Duck's traumatic loss and Jammer's morality crisis, the webisodes end with both Duck and Jammer at risk of becoming collaborators.

The plot is, as I've said, straightforward. This is because the episode was supposed to have been considered optional. I'm not a fan of the concept of an optional episode in general; while I'm glad to be getting more material this season and there was value in this piece, the better side of my critical nature tells me that less is more. Brevity is often a valuable tool in writing and the webisodes truly are an optional piece. Watching them prior to the subsequent episode Occupation is really not necessary, unless you for some reason really like the characters of Duck and Jammer, as this really isn't much of a Tyrol, Tigh, or Cally piece.

The end of season 2 left us wondering not "what will happen next" but instead "why did this all happen this way?" The webisodes don't answer "why." They only answer "what." It was obvious what would happen next. At the end of Lay Down Your Burdens Part 1, I was sure the colonials would settle the planet and the Cylons would find them. At the end of Lay Down Your Burdens Part 2, I was sure a resistance movement would form and that they'd eventually escape Cylon oppression. The important question is not what will happen next, but why did this happen this way? What are the Cylons planning? A successful successor to Lay Down Your Burdens should answer that question and The Resistance does not.

So okay, big deal, right? It's an optional episode. I get that. But sometimes less really is more.

Review

While the resistance movement formed up pretty much as you'd expect it to, seeing just how far Tigh is willing to take it with the authorizing of suicide bombings is quite something to take in. More interesting however are the stranger plot points on New Caprica. An obvious choice to discuss is the curious fixation Leoben has with Starbuck. They live together in a prison cell made out to be a domestic home. Leoben treats her like a trophy wife, going so far as to say things like "honey, I'm home!" and preparing meals for her. Starbuck's clearly being mentally damaged by the experience, but it's quite true to her character that she takes every opportunity she can to kill him. Again and again. As Roslin said, what a horrifyingly endless cycle.

The Cylons and their plan get fleshed out quite a bit more in this episode. Cavil is fascinatingly immoral. Leoben is fascinatingly fundamentalist. Caprica Six and Galactica Boomer seem to be the other polar extreme, with their what seems to be hopeless idealism in thinking they can make things better with the humans. D'anna and Doral seem to be a bit more mellow with regards to where they stand. What does this all mean? It's not clear. But it's a lot more clear than the season 2 finale. What we can conclude is that the Cylons are deeply conflicted. Their unity is extremely important to them, but there are deep roots of division which have been apparently growing since the attack on the colonies.

This may lead to a way for the population of New Caprica to be rescued, which brings us to the fleet. We saw far too little of the fleet in this episode I thought. The episode was aptly named Occupation of course, and focused mostly on the episode's namesake. But I felt the changes in the dynamics of the fleet were only barely touched upon here. We get only a vague picture of who's doing what on Galactica and an even less clear picture of how Apollo's been running his ship. We've seen very little of Commander Lee commanding his ship which I think is quite a shame.

The relationship between Adama and Boomer is a bit harder to figure out. Their ever growing relationship has been hinted at since early in season 2, but understanding the psychology behind Adama's growing trust in her is difficult. I simply accept it at face value that he's a desperate man who resorts to desperate measures. Like Tigh and his resistance movement.

Also worth mentioning is the music in this episode. While containing mostly a new score, I detected hints of what was originally the piece titled Martial Law from the season 2 episode Fragged. The lyrical piece in the opening scene is of course also spectacular. Once again, I salute Bear McCreary's subtle but impressive scoring and I already look forward to the season 3 soundtrack.

As a final note, I must say while Occupation comes off as a particularly strong piece, the overwhelming number of plot threads is just that. Overwhelming. The episode I think knows its limited time constraints and keeps the overall picture fairly nonspecific for that reason, but all the stuff going on seems like a jumbled mess to me. Once again, the episode falls just short of answering the question of why the Cylons occupied New Caprica in the first place. We've got a pretty good idea, but most of the narrative is caught up in the events of the resistance, not examining the moral center of the Cylons. It was quite a fun jumble though and while the episode lacked a strong thematic center, it was emotionally captivating which set its enjoyment level a bit above the season 2 finale; nicely done.

Review

What the last episode lacked in plot advancement and sufficient answers to the audience's questions, it made up for in style. This episode loses the style, but manages to be quite fulfilling in the answers department. What we have here is a story of the ever more fragmenting Cylon unity which is embittering each to the others. While hinted at in the previous episode, this plot point is made nowhere as abundantly clear as in the scene when Baltar is ordered to sign the death warrants.

And oh boy, what a scene that is too. Baltar's reaction to having to sign those death warrants is the single greatest moment of the episode. Ever since he became the president, I've been even more utterly fascinated with his character, and in the new season, his level of apathy is just marvelous. But then he takes a stand. And much drama does thus ensue. The scene does bring up some lingering questions though of course about Caprica Six and the Six in Baltar's head. It's remarkable how as soon as she was killed, the Six in Baltar's head reappears. Coincidence or connection?

Speaking of odd relationships between humans and Cylons, we've got Leoben, Starbuck, and Kasey. That's going nowhere good I foresee, although in some ways it was quite predictable. Of course Leoben is going to do something extreme to break down Starbuck's barriers. There's a certain triteness to the predictability. Their whole set of scenes together, while wonderfully creepy seemed far too straightforward compared to what I'm used to seeing on BSG. Of particular annoyance also is Kasey is clearly too old for the timeline surrounding her birth to work. Though maybe the Cylons have some kind of growth acceleration technology or something.

Then there's Adama and Sharon, upon whom Adama has bestowed the ultimate trust. Again, I see this going nowhere good. Sharon seems trustworthy now, I'll give her that. But I think everyone can foresee the obvious scenario of her freaking out when she finds out what happened to her daughter.

Aside from some general predictability, I was disappointed with regards to the interactions between Gaeta and Tyrol. The two were not supposed to know each other's various roles as part of the resistance, but that subtle detail just doesn't quite ring true during their argument. It's only after Tyrol's conversation with Jammer that it really becomes clear who knows what, and while Tyrol's performance is excellent during both sets of scenes, he strikes me as a smarter guy than what he's portrayed as. He seems smart enough to know Jammer's a collaborator and Gaeta's a fundamentally decent guy.

Special mention has to go to Tigh, who's been delivering line after line of memorable quotes since the webisodes.

The scoring of the episode was more of the same from the previous. Once again I detected little hints of season 2's Martial Law floating about various scenes. I very much enjoyed the new material at the end of the episode during the raptor landings. All in all, another quality episode with a few problems, but still overall quite good.

Review

Exodus, Part 1 suffers quite a bit from being sandwiched between Occupation/Precipice and Exodus, Part 2. Basically the purpose of this episode is to setup for all the major events that are presumably to occur in part 2. Kind of like how Resurrection Ship, Part 1 served as a pickup from Pegasus but a lead in to Resurrection Ship, Part 2.

An additional issue this episode suffered from was a sort of black hole in running time. Roughly 20% of the entire episode is replaying events from the last episode with retconned scenes to establish what Tyrol and Tigh are doing during the final parts of the previous episode to demonstrate how Cally, Roslin, and Zarek are all saved from death. Retconning scenes from a previous episode (even deliberately) to me is a sign of weak writing.

I have further mixed feelings about D'Anna's role in the story. While I'm glad her character's potential has been used well in this episode, I am slightly annoyed at the execution. Specifically, exactly how can the Kobolian oracle know Hera/Isis is still alive? Furthermore, why was D'Anna having dreams to that effect? This all seems like one big coincidence to me, and not in the good way. I guess there's always the off chance that Cottle did confession with Selloi, which then allowed Selloi divulge the information to D'Anna veiled religiously and that D'Anna's dreams were just a convenient coincidence, but this all is far beyond what disbelief I'm willing to suspend.

Beyond this the episode is quite straightforward and almost below average. There's more clear cut fragmentation among the Cylons. Baltar's apathy is nicely revisited again. The Cavil and Doral models remain pissed off and bloodthirsty. Starbuck is continuing to lose her stubborn defiance in the face of Kasey. The cliffhanger is simply that Galactica's about to jump to New Caprica, which also is slightly jarring in that the Pegasus is not going. This can only mean either 1. Adama's a moron for not bringing the most powerful battlestar he has into the fight, but will get lucky or 2. Apollo will go against orders and the Pegasus will join the fight.

So the episode could be characterized simply as "more of the same." There are quite a few worthwhile details though such as the drama surrounding D'Anna, Sharon Agathon, and Hera/Isis along with Roslin's fascinating line identifying Hera/Isis potentially being "the shape of things to come." Nice parallelism there. Six uttered that in Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2, Adama uttered that a Six-induced dream Baltar experienced in Valley of Darkness, and now Roslin's said it. Finally, Tigh confronting his wife about her betrayal is quite awesome. Unfortunately we don't get to see what he does about it. But at this point I honestly wouldn't put it past Tigh to simply kill her. How marvelously twisted would that be?

So in the end, a decent episode with some nice details, but quite reminiscent in storytelling style of Colonial Day in that the plot is pretty straightforward and serves mostly as setup for a "bigger" episode to come.

Review

This is a brilliant episode full of darkness so dark and sacrifices so great it's almost hard to watch at times. Gone is a great character and gone is a great battlestar. Exodus, Part 2 is the darkest, most disturbing, most gut wrenching, fastest paced, and most exciting episode of Battlestar Galactica ever done. My distaste for the weaknesses behind the premise of the New Caprica storyline is not so much that I fail to see the greatness behind its conclusion. In Exodus, Part 2 there are many scenes to love. Never before has a single episode been so densely packed with awesome glory.

The major events in this episode are filled with the stuff writers and directors alike mean when they speak of desiring a larger than life impact. Tigh killing Ellen is extremely powerful stuff. The man defended her to everyone right up until the end. He knew her flaws. He knew what she was. And he loved her anyway right up until the end. Right up until he killed her. Tigh is a man that's become more and more interesting to me as the show has progressed. It seems like each season he just gets loads and loads deeper a character.

Then there's the sheer sight of Galactica jumping into the atmosphere in plain view of the resistance fighters as a larger than life kind of motivator. The oppressed people see before their eyes the unlikely sight of their liberator pulling a move so crazy and so expertly right in front of them. That act tells them without words, "Go! We've got your backs. You will be free." The resistance movement charges into the airstrip as vipers cover them overhead and as ash and debris rains over their heads. The sight is truly awesome and unparalleled in prior art.

Then there's the little details. As Galactica is getting its ass kicked, even Adama is performing repair work in CIC manually. As Gaeta is preparing to kill Baltar, he regains control of his rage just long enough to think of saving as many lives as possible and orders Baltar to stop the nuke. I love Baltar's reaction. It's like "Huh? What? I'm gonna live? And now I have to do what?" As Lee stands over his burning CIC, he thanks his ship just before abandoning it.

And then there's the Pegasus. What happens to the Pegasus is almost going too far. It's a major event like none other depicted on Battlestar Galactica. After the end of season 2, we were led to believe the Pegasus was here to stay. RDM had even said that to get rid of it quickly after it was introduced would be conventional, predictable, and shameful. He wanted to do away with such conventions from the original BSG or Star Trek and pledged to keep Pegasus with the fleet. But Battlestar Galactica is on a budget; one which it pushes, bends, and sometimes breaks to get the job done. You push too far and eventually it bites you in the ass. Something had to give, and the Pegasus was it.

RDM stated that the destruction of the Pegasus was always one of the major things that was supposed to happen during the throes of writing this episode to satisfy the beast of budgetary burden. I respect his decision, although I greatly disagree with it. As spectacularly, honorably, and awesomely as the Pegasus went out, it's a hard thing to do to an audience and in my opinion detrimental to the show in the long term. Just when the audience is psyched up the most about the Pegasus being part of the fleet, it's ripped away from them.

After The Captian's Hand, I wanted nothing more than to see Commander Lee do some commanding. But instead, the poor Pegasus barely got any screen time at all. I can count on one hand how many scenes we get to see of Apollo in his commanding role after The Captain's Hand and before the jump ahead one year in time, and I almost cringe at watching him in his commanding role after the jump forward one year. Could the writers not see the enormous potential for drama with Lee commanding the Pegasus?

I wanted to see Commander Lee adjust to his new role as commander of a battlestar. I wanted to see how the crew of the Pegasus would react to being asked to follow such a young commander. I wanted to see objections in the Pegasus crew from longtime officers who would feel more deserving of the command. I wanted to see the long term implications of Apollo being in command of a bigger, better battlestar, but technically being inferior in rank to his father. I wanted to see father and son at polar opposite ends of an issue. I wanted to see the Pegasus and the Galactica fight it out, shots firing, over this important issue. Imagine that as a season finale. Adama and Apollo on their CICs ordering each other's destruction. Yes, Battlestar Galactica is a dark enough show to go there.

I wanted to see more eye candy like the battle of the Resurrection Ship. Oh how glorious was that battle. Finally did we get to see real battlestar vs. basestar combat, not just battlestsars and basestars sitting back while vipers and raiders dogfight. I've wanted to see such capital ship battles since the miniseries, and I didn't get it. Now I'm finally presented with the Pegasus and the possibility of more well choreographed capital ship battles to come, and they deliver me nothing more than a small taste of it before ripping Pegasus away from the fleet and pressing the magic reset button, resetting the show more or less to the state of affairs prior to the episode Pegasus. I fear episodes with major combat between basestars and battlestars will be a thing of the past now.

But blame the budget, right? No, I don't think so. This was the stated reason for doing it, but that strikes me as lack of imagination. The problem, as I understand it, is a lack of money to keep the Pegasus sets around. What sets? The ship had barely any to begin with. Any number of standing sets could have been scrapped to keep Pegasus around permanently, including the ever so loathed (by the production team for its inconvenience) Colonial One.

Imagine this scenario playing out instead: instead of sacrificing the Pegasus, Tigh's character gets even darker, even more sinister, and even more deep and interesting by his ordering civilian ships, including Colonial One to kamikaze the basestars, allowing the Galactica and the Pegasus to escape. To me, that would have not only been a great way to keep the Pegasus around in the context of the story's narrative, but also a far more interesting story on top of what was already easily the best episode they've ever done. Oh well.

As a side note, Lee Adama sure has a habit of breaking things. In the miniseries, two vipers. In Resurrection Ship, Part 2, the Blackbird. And here he destroys the Pegasus herself! Bad Lee Adama, I hate you! What next, he miscalculates a jump and sends the entire fleet into the center of a star thus ending the series? :)

Special mention once again goes to Bear McCreary's scoring of the show. Some of the music here seems recycled, such as large portions of season 2's Worthy of Survival which I could detect when the Pegasus arrived and a modified version of its melody was played during Ellen's death scene. Bear McCreary most immodestly noted, and I agree, that this episode featured the most "kick ass action cue" he'd ever written.

Of particular note was the music played during the Pegasus' final sacrifice. The scoring is its usual blurry mix of worldwide culture, throwing in a bit more east Asian stuff than before, while retaining its militaristic pull and its Celtic spirit. And I couldn't have said it better than Bear McCreary when he notes "[the piece played when the refugees return to Galactica] instead underscores the dark transformation of Col. Tigh and Starbuck. Their bodies have returned, but their souls may have been left behind on the planet. This scene is among the most powerful in the series and it was a thrill to have the live orchestra for this moving piece."

The ending of the episode was especially rewarding with the various reunions. The revelation that Kasey's not really Starbuck's daughter solved the problem of the actress playing her being clearly too old and made Leoben's twisted actions seem less straightforward. It brings up questions like what was he really trying to accomplish with Starbuck, and did he succeed? You're also left wondering at the end of this episode who will become the recognized President of the Colonies. As Vice President, the job falls to Zarek. Will Zarek be president? Now there's a delicious thought. Finally, who will be returning to their old jobs and who will be getting new ones? What ship will Commander Lee command? Will he be become the Galactica XO in the face of Tigh's disability? How will Tigh take that?

The final scene depicting Adama shaving his mustache and rejoining a now repopulated Battlestar Galactica restored from a skeleton crew is simple, yet profound. Despite sounding like such a cheap and obvious idea, I think the audience needs this after such a roller coaster ride of emotion.

I am definitely irritated that this episode acts as a giant reset button in every way to before Pegasus. But with the emotional impact of a year and four months gone by, the loss of a great ship in the fleet, the loss of many, many people within the fleet, the loss of crucial supplies, the separation of Baltar from the fleet, and Roslin no longer acting as president I think or at least hope that the dynamic of the show is significantly different and interesting that it will continue to spark vital new intrigue. I still think that there was a place for the Pegasus in this new world forged by settling of and exodus from New Caprica, but it went down in a realistic and noble way.

Review

Collaborators is the obvious, expected episode after the chaos of Exodus, Part 2. The Colonials are having their own version of the Nuremberg Trials, executing collaborators with little to no due process. This is presented in a genuinely moving way, but pacing left much to be desired. Right from the start, the episode throws at you Jammer's execution. That signifies to the audience that it's going to be a break-neck-paced bloodbath episode, or at the very least, little time will be wasted on plot development and that the episode will tackle moral issues directly.

Instead, much of the vigor of the episode is lost after the teaser as the Circle continues to conspire and act from morally ambiguous to almost genuinely evil. There's nothing particularly wrong with how the Circle was portrayed, but I did feel that since it lost much of its momentum, that less time should have been spent on depicting their various movements and deliberations.

Instead, I was utterly fascinated by Batlar on the basestar. RDM spoke about how the internal set of the Cylon basestar would probably be disappointing, but I don't really agree. I felt that it was a well thought out set, and the surreal feel of it was just perfect for the narrative. What bothered me was how little actual substance there was to the plot aboard the basestar. It mostly consists of a handful of symbolic, though not quite progressive scenes.

I felt that the parallel between Baltar's and Gaeta's survival hanging in the balance was ineffective because the plot was top heavy, swaying toward the Galactica. We got to see none of the Cylons deliberating, and too much of the Circle deliberating. With uneven portrayal, the attempted parallel is weak, or nonexistent depending on how you look at it. Instead, it's the little things in this episode that redeem it.

Much like this episode's counterpart in season 2, Epiphanies, this episode is packed with emotion and little details which make it captivating. For example, I absolutely loved the clearly observable damage within the fleet, especially to Galactica. It was nice to see the CIC still being repaired, and I like how need of Gaeta's expertise to perform repairs tied together the damage storyline with the Circle storyline.

Tigh's outburst in CIC was especially memorable, though it does bring up some lingering concerns. Just who is the XO of Galactica? Well, it was Helo, now it seems to be Tigh again. But technically Apollo outranks Tigh. Shouldn't Apollo take Tigh's place as XO? Furthermore, just what function is Apollo serving within the fleet? He still parades around in his commander's pips and Pegasus uniform, but he's got no Pegasus to command. All we got out of poor Apollo this episode was an acknowledgment that he's trying to lose weight. A funny scene, and I enjoyed it, but we needed more from Apollo, and the command structure aboard Galactica needs some serious cleanup.

Another nice detail was all the apparent civilians still aboard the Galactica since the exodus. With the loss of so many ships in the fleet since the settling and exodus of New Caprica, it makes sense that there would be some overcrowding and some civilians permanently settled aboard the Galactica. Though another lingering question the episode should have answered was what of New Caprica? This episode establishes that thousands of people were left behind and unable to be rescued. What happened to them? What will happen to them? Also, was nobody in the fleet able to notice bodies being expelled from the Galactica by the Circle?

Finally, the stuff with Roslin and Zarek is fantastic, but again, it left me questioning some of the construction. While I loved Zarek's pragmatic attitude about not being able to retain the presidency in the face of his unpopularity, I think I would have preferred him to try to hold onto that power. After all, it is legally his. The fleet elected him for gods sakes. A better plot would have had Zarek name Roslin his vice president in an attempt to please Adama and get him on his side.

I am also somewhat confused about Zarek authorizing the proceedings of the Circle. It seems in some ways out of character for Tom, a man who was the victim of (from his perspective) an unjust government, authorizing the arbitrary execution of suspected collaborators without due process. I suppose in some ways that is in keeping with his character's prominent dark side, but nevertheless it still felt a bit out of place.

Conversely, I absolutely adored Roslin's full pardon for all humans in the fleet. That of course raises the obvious question: will Roslin's full pardon extend to Baltar when he is at some point reunited with the fleet? All in all Collaborators is a fair successor episode exploring the fallout of the New Caprica arc, with only a few minor blemishes.

Review

Torn reminds me quite a bit of Downloaded in that here we have an episode done quite a bit from the perspective of the Cylons. But this time it isn't from the perspective of the Cylons at some coffee shop on Caprica, it's from the perspective of the Cylons on one of their basestars with Baltar caught in the middle.

On some level, this is the episode that should have been in the place of Collaborators in that it gives us a proper introduction to Baltar on the basestar and also gives us valuable insight into the post New Caprica Cylon perspective. This episode is just absolutely loaded with interesting factoids about the Cylons, including the fascinating idea of Cylon projection which could go a long way toward explaining exactly what the Six in Baltar's head is.

I'm slightly annoyed at the idea that Baltar thinks he's a Cylon, perhaps one of the final five Cylon models that the seven we already know about just "don't talk about." There's something aesthetically bad about Baltar being revealed as a Cylon, if he is to be. It would devalue the idea that he's the tragic human character of the story with an inseparable connection to the enemy. If he is in fact a Cylon, it becomes easy for the audience to just write him off as a bad guy, instead of a morally and motivationally ambiguous good guy.

Then there's the plague infecting the Cylon basestar. This is interesting in that it appears to have been made by the 13th tribe. The age and location both appear to support this idea, though I doubt the dying Six was correct when she claimed the 13th tribe made it as a weapon to kill Cylons. It was probably just some sort of unlucky accident that the Cylons got sick from it.

In addition to grand Cylon revelations to the audience, this episode delivers a fantastically stylized narrative. The gritty, conventional, every day feel of the plot aboard the Galactica contrasts Baltar's surreal, life changing experience quite nicely while providing necessary plot advancement to the Colonial fleet story. The eerie piano music aboard the basestar (dubbed Battlestar Sonatica on the soundtrack) was an excellent choice, conveying both Baltar's bewilderment and fear as well as the casual, sophisticated atmosphere aboard Cylon basestars. The fading cuts along with the exposition of the idea of Cylon projection gave the basestar an organic feel, which seems exactly in character to me.

There's also of course little things in this episode which spice up the narrative, such as the Cylons declaring that they want to make Earth their new home, a curious move leading me to wonder what motivates it. Also I was pleased to see that most of the crew has accepted Sharon Agathon and even went as far as to enthusiastically participate in a callsign picking ceremony for her, finally settling on Athena. It was also amusing to see the running joke about Apollo's weight continued, albeit concluded. Though I have concerns about the apparent rampant misuse of Apollo's character, with him seemingly being demoted to major, reduced back to CAG and reset buttoned.

And still, again, what's going on with the chain of command? Helo still looks like the XO, Apollo is acting like the CAG; did Kat lose her job as CAG? But aside from a few wrinkles, overall Torn is an unexpected masterpiece with only a few flaws; right up there stylistically with episodes like 33 and Valley of Darkness. Well done.

Review

Here's an episode that could have easily earned a perfect score, but falls short. And flat. Strictly speaking, they should have went through with the genocide. The story doesn't come across anywhere near as dark and as moving as it would have if it had delivered on what it promised. Furthermore, Helo's entire disruption of the mission was done so sloppily that the episode barely even resonates as well as Star Trek TNG's I, Borg, from which it seems inspired.

Let's imagine for a moment that this story is tweaked slightly and instead of diving into this mission like a bunch of amateurs, the prisoners are not left alone and an entire marine execution squad is with them at all times. They go through with their mission exactly as planned, then return to the fleet with a new sense of security. Unbeknownst to the fleet however, that sense of security is a false one.

Contrary to what Apollo believed, the disease could never wipe out the entire Cylon race. The disease would probably wipe out all or most resurrection ships in the Cylon fleet and surely a great many individual Cylons would be killed permanently by such an event, but ultimately the damage would be limited only to resurrection ships. A severe blow to the Cylons, but not fatal.

Baltar would then furnish them with a cure easily, using cells from Hera, allowing them to recover all of their infected resurrection ships. This would elevate Baltar (and Hera) to a Messiah-like status among the Cylons, delivering unto them their salvation. Hmm... salvation. What was the title of this episode again? ;)

Alas, that story and its potential is lost, just like the Pegasus. There is still much to redeem this episode though. What I found most fascinating were the throes of emotion observable in Athena. Aside from the emotional complexities that must have plagued her by seeing fellow Cylons dying of a debilitating disease, only then to have believed contracted it herself, what interests me most is the fact that all evidence points to her destroying the Cylon basestar.

To me, that signifies that part of her is still loyal to the Cylons, not wanting too much of their technology (such as a basestar) to fall into Colonial hands, but more importantly, knowing that no resurrection ship was in range, she felt that the basestar should be destroyed now to prevent whatever happened to the Cylons aboard from spreading to the others later. It also serves as interesting parallelism. Both of the significant Sharon characters are now responsible for the destruction of a Cylon basestar.

Another interesting quip of the narrative is Baltar's torture scene. I'm fairly annoyed with how one dimensional the Cylons are becoming with regards to how they're dealing with Baltar, but I'm forgiving it because the layers depicted in the torture scene made it come across as quite well executed. It also gave me curiously fond memories of Scorpius torturing John Crichton on Farscape, which is a high compliment.

The sloppy execution of the mission allowing Helo to do his dirty work wasn't the only wrinkle in the episode though. Another big one is the continued rank structure ambiguities. Helo is noted as having the rank of captain in this episode. But Apollo, with the rank of at least major, outranks him. Yet Apollo is not serving as the XO. Why? I suppose Adama is well within his rights to prefer Helo as an XO and Apollo certainly seems to have no problems with his new job or his apparent demotion, but come on writers! Throw us a bone here! Explain it all on screen! All it takes is one or two throw away lines to satisfy the fans' organizational concerns.

So this was a pretty strong episode for the most part, but it could have been a lot better. In the end, it skirted around the issue of genocide, trying to have it both ways with the good guys committed to it, all except one, who prevents the catastrophe. Weak.

Review

A Measure of Salvation was an episode with a good idea poorly executed. Hero is an episode with a bad idea executed equally poorly. First and foremost, the entire main plot seemed entirely unnecessary to me. All the real meat of the story is in Adama's backstory and Tigh and Adama reconciling their friendship. The story was about them, and Bulldog just came across as a poorly thought out plot device.

The largest complaint to make about Bulldog is the deus ex machina way in which he was introduced. RDM once said you can only bring a character back from the dead a small number of times. What he did with Ellen Tigh was his sort of "get out of jail free" card. The audience only lets you get away with that once, or a few times at most. And you'd better have a very good reason to do it. Bringing Ellen Tigh into the story was done for a very good reason. Bringing the Pegasus into the story was done for a very good reason. Bringing in Bulldog wasn't.

Even if you throw aside the idea of the extreme convenience that he survived, the story still requires immense suspension of disbelief. The audience is forced to believe that the Cylons held him for 3 years, did nothing with him, then simply let him go, hoping that he'd find the fleet, learn the truth, and seek revenge against Adama. Perhaps there was no such conspiracy; Tigh and Starbuck were wrong, even though circumstantial evidence points to them being correct. But even if there was no conspiracy, how did Bulldog find the fleet at all in the first place? I just don't buy it.

Furthermore, the date of Bulldog's covert ops mission is completely contradicted by Adama's biography as shown in the dossier Billy prepared for Roslin. Granted, everything else about that wonderful dossier seems to add up perfectly with regards to the continuity of the rest of the show, it is yet another blatant technical problem where Bulldog is concerned.

Other issues challenging suspension of disbelief include Adama's sudden desire to resign his commission after the Bulldog incident. What? Why? In numerous prior episodes, Adama has been willing to forgive almost anything his officers did, because the ship needed every man. Now, Adama feels he's suddenly unqualified to command the Galactica because of something he might have done, maybe, to contribute to the Cylon attack on the Colonies?

Adama said in 33 "we make mistakes, people die" and ordered Dee to resume her duties after a mistake she made cost the lives of the people aboard the Olympic Carrier. Furthermore, Roslin issued a full pardon to all human beings in the fleet to mark a new beginning. The attitude of the show thus far is that everyone's sinned, but it must be overlooked so the fleet can move on. It seems out of character for Adama, one of the front runners of this attitude to forget this.

That said, there are some nuggets of gold in here. The most memorable scenes involve Tigh's internal struggle and how he and Adama reconcile their friendship. I absolutely adore the final scene, in which Tigh finally comes to Adama to talk about what happened to Ellen. (Even if it does feature a pretty obvious continuity error with regards to Adama's uniform.)

I further loved the sight of the Valkyrie and the information we got about Adama's past. It seems that the command of the Galactica was given to Adama as punishment for bungling the mission across the armistice line. This makes Adama's character much more interesting in that he must have commanded some nice influence by the time he made commander to have been given the Valkyrie, a very modern-looking battlestar, instead of what we were lead to believe before that he barely managed to grab command of Galactica, the oldest, least desirable ship in the fleet with what little influence he had. It also sheds new light on a line he uttered in Resurrection Ship, Part 2 about having never given up hope to be promoted to admiral, but had stopped trying years ago.

Another interesting plot point is D'Anna's apparent religious experience between life and death, which she believes means something profound. Of particular note, she appears to be in the same opera house as Baltar saw in Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2, and she sees a number of whited out people. Are they the last remaining five Cylons? Or some other people?

Bear McCreary's score is of particular note once again, with a nice violin piece played throughout the episode, mostly during Bulldog's and Adama's scenes. I also much enjoyed the fast drum theme during the Valkyrie flashback. Overall this is an episode in which the ball is dropped pretty hard, but the numerous interesting minor details and the gripping dramatic way the episode comes to its conclusion saves the episode from being a total loss.

Review

Unfinished Business is a fast paced, unusual, but charming episode with very little to tarnish the fun. I must admit that going into this episode I was fairly convinced it would suck, having read spoilers indicating that it would be about a boxing match between Apollo and Starbuck and identify what the long standing grudge between them was really all about. However, this episode trampled all over such expectations, delivering instead an intimate, enthralling, emotionally packed episode that doesn't disappoint.

One of the most charming aspects of the episode is the very idea of "the dance," which is symbolically supported by the beautifully scored violin music played most notably during the teaser and the final scenes of the episode. I detect pieces of season one's The Shapes of Things to Come in the scoring, but also entirely new themes mixed in variously seamlessly, such as some of the Irish bagpipe work.

I found it fascinating how Adama's idea to start "the dance" was motivated by an idea to release pent up frustrations that people harbor toward one another on a warship, only to ring truer than he thought with his own self, motivating him ultimately to fight Tyrol over his frustrations regarding Tyrol growing soft. "The dance" certainly does accomplish the goal of releasing the pent up issues of many of the other characters too and at a rapid pace. If there's one point the episode drove home harder than any other, it's that Starbuck and Apollo really do harbor unrequited love for each other.

It seems evident now that at some point, Starbuck realized she doesn't really love Anders; that it's merely a powerful sexual attraction. While it does invoke a close and intimate friendship between the two people, it isn't in fact true love. Likewise, Apollo jumped into a relationship with Dee emotionally unprepared because he must have been feeling exceptionally alone and deprived; needing someone to fill in the gap after Starbuck literally abandoned him the night of their love making and furthermore married another man. There's something marvelous about watching how small Apollo looks when he confronts the newlyweds. Apollo was a vastly respected man, a battlestar commander, in his commander's uniform even, so reduced by his anguish over his love for a woman.

Starbuck's guilt over her behavior manifests itself in the form of frustration motivated anger and aggression. It culminates in a beautifully crafted line in which she says, "So what? You have the guts to try and frak another man's woman but not to fight one?" The line is fascinating because it has an apparent double meaning. Is she referring to Apollo stealing Billy's girl, or Apollo stealing Anders' girl?

In the end, the largest complaints to lodge against this episode is that it is apparent filler and that it features no worthwhile plot advancement other than dealing with the long brewing unrequited love affair between Apollo and Starbuck that fans have been waiting for since the beginning of the show. They both appear to look at their relationship as a sort of almost taboo subject for reasons never really clearly communicated to the audience. Is it because of Zak? Is it because of their military affiliations and obligations? Is it because of how Adama looks upon Starbuck as a daughter? All of the above?

Certainly such a deep seeded issue is worthy of a whole episode, but part of me feels that there's something missing from the episode because it features no scenes depicting what's going on with the Cylons and Baltar; and for that matter there are no scenes whatsoever outside the hangar bay that aren't flashbacks. The Baltar and Cylon storylines seem neglected to me over the last few episodes. Something major is brewing over there, but it seems like the narrative take of the show is to regard their proceedings as uninteresting.

In fact, Unfinished Business from a narrative standpoint is structurally very simple. The episode really is nothing but a series of boxing matches which trigger a bunch of flashbacks. But despite this, the episode is unusually satisfying because it answers a lot of pent up unanswered questions about the show. Hence the title Unfinished Business. Though, from a stylistic standpoint, I think "The Dance" may have been a better episode title, to underscore the brilliant scoring and to reflect the quirky nickname for the boxing matches in the episode's dialog.

What's interesting is to compare Hero to Unfinished Business. Both episodes are essentially filler, but Hero comes off as an unsatisfying jumbled mess of an episode while this one feels emotionally dense and rewarding, which is ironic given that technically, Unfinished Business is a much smaller scale episode. But it's not what you say, it's how you say it. And Unfinished Business may be relative filler, but it's filler done properly.

Review

Much like Torn, this episode is all setup for a confrontation between humans and Cylons in the next episode. This aspect of the episode is done quite well, because it merges an important issue in the fleet with that overall plot goal. A food shortage is something I've been waiting to see in the fleet since Water, in which Baltar outlined what seemed to be very difficult to sustain food requirements for the fleet. They turned out to be not so difficult to sustain after all, for over a year went by and this is the first time a food shortage ever became a problem. There was so much food to go around even that Lee Adama could gorge himself on it!

I suppose better late than never is the best axiom to describe the food plot, as I appreciate that it's being addressed at all. I also am quite amused at the whole idea of the fleet harvesting and eating algae. How delightfully disgusting! Though as a whole, The Passage is an episode which does too much at once and therefore does none of it very well. Aside from the food crisis occurring way too late in the show, it spontaneously becomes a problem in the most contrived way. The food processing ship breaks down. This sounds like the premise from an original series episode. A better way to broach this topic would have been to have a gradual food shortage begin to take shape right after the exodus from New Caprica, until it culminates into food riots, then forcing the fleet into taking the drastic, risky measures taken in this episode.

This brings us to the idea of the passage through the star cluster itself. The plot frames the issue as there not being enough time to jump around the star cluster. Why? Jump travel is instantaneous. Was there not enough time to calculate the jumps or something? Unfortunately, the science fiction stuff in this episode's plot is only very loosely and quickly glossed over so that the show can get on with the drama. This is usually a good idea, but in this case instead of just painting a deliberately vague picture, it just comes across as confusing and requires the audience to fill in the blanks in order for it all to be plausible.

What I did like about the passage through the star cluster was the apparent immense losses suffered by the fleet. Extreme damages to all ships was suffered, including that nice detail depicting the Galactica's logo peeling. The raptors are all pockmarked, and at least two ships were destroyed. All very sobering stuff!

What didn't work for me so well aside from technical issues was Kat's story. While I agree with RDM who stated that a human price should have to be paid for such a perilous journey to be believable, and that it should be a character we already know fairly well, Kat's story felt somewhat insincere until the very end. Honestly, I don't think we needed any new details about Kat's life; Enzo was almost painful to watch and I don't think the revelations about Kat's past added anything worthwhile to the plot. It would have been more moving if the episode simply surprised us with Kat's defiant "I'm not losing another one!" attitude at the very end. That would also make her noble sacrifice seem more noble and less like a drama queen acting on her death wish.

Even the Baltar / D'Anna story, which I felt was the strongest and most interesting aspect of the plot had its weaknesses. Just like the technical details of the passage, the method by which Baltar discerns the Cylons' next move is glossed over rather quickly. In the scene with the hybrid, we're treated to a fast moving dialog between Baltar and D'Anna in which Baltar very loosely derived meaning from symbolism in the hybrid's speech almost like when Data spouted a bunch of meaningless technobabble on Star Trek TNG.

Here's a quick summary of the exposition. The eye of the cow refers to Hera because she's sometimes referred to as the cow-eyed hero. The husband of the eye of the cow is Jupiter, because Jupiter was Hera's husband. The hybrid says to find the hand in shadow of light which Baltar assumes is a star cluster. The hand he assumes must be some kind of artifact and the symbolism of five fingers on a hand must refer to the five missing Cylons. Now that's a lot to swallow at once! Moreover, that's a lot of leaps of logic for Baltar to make on what seems like fairly flimsy ground. A little more depth and explanation would have been appreciated. Instead, this felt more like a handful crazy coincidences.

I do, however, like the idea that D'Anna has become obsessed with discovering who the final five Cylon models are. I also much enjoy Baltar's complicity in this quest. The episode has numerous details large and small to sustain its value, in fact. Aside from the various nice elements in the main plots, little details like Tigh returning to CIC are worthwhile along with the Adama and Tigh paper shortage goofiness. Again, the Galactica's lettering peeling away was a nice touch, as was the inclusion of Riley's girlfriend's photo at the end, and depicting Lt. Hoshi, a former Pegasus officer, as having a key role on the Galactica CIC now.

Overall though, this is an episode that falls below average. For all the nice details there are equally as many goofs and annoying details. For an episode with this much plot advancement and long term consequences, it almost feels filler, and certainly feels under done. Key elements of the main plots should have been explored in more depth. So, a nice episode, but could have been a lot better.

Review

The Eye of Jupiter is an episode densely packed with plot and cleverly scripted lines, but ultimately comes across as weak when compared to other episodes that were similarly supposed to be big and epic largely due to the insincere nature of the cliffhanger. Strictly speaking, I don't buy the cliffhanger. Roslin asked whether or not Adama is willing to sacrifice Lee and the obvious answer is no. More specifically, a huge fraction of the main cast of the show is on ground zero. They're not going to be killed so as I said before the cliffhanger is insincere. All the danger hinges on something the audience knows won't happen.

Other things that didn't work quite well were details like Starbuck's and Apollo's marital problems. While believable and realistic, this relationship quadrangle that was presented eloquently and artistically in Unfinished Business comes across as conventional and melodramatic here; almost like something out of a teen drama. Also jarring is this episode feels too much like setup for the next. One might be inclined to forgive part one of a two part story for being nothing but setup, but Pegasus proved to us that part one of a multipart story need not necessarily be all setup and no payoff. Not to mention the fact that the cliffhanger at the end of Pegasus was far more convincing. I actually believed the two ships would start shooting at each other. (It was almost disappointing that they didn't.)

The most annoying way that this episode is all setup is Gaeta's scene in which he exposes the fact that this planetary system's sun is on the verge of a supernova. Again, the scene feels insincere. I enjoy that detail and in fact feel that it's a fantastic plot device, but it serves absolutely no purpose in this episode. It should have either been revealed in the next episode as a complete surprise as it happens, or the sun should have gone supernova in this episode as part of or perhaps the entirety of the cliffhanger. Instead, what we got was an insincere cliffhanger riding on manufactured danger supported by scoring largely recycled from Resurrection Ship, Part 1. How disappointing.

What wasn't disappointing, however, was the handling of the Cylon characters and the mythology surrounding the Temple of Five. It seems in her quest to some sort of enlightenment, D'Anna has taken too much control over what goes on in Cylon society. You can tell the other Cylons are starting to get a little annoyed with her, but they're letting it go for now. I also like how Baltar has been maintaining this uneasy alliance with the Cylons to further his own goals. Additionally, Baltar's scenes aboard the Galactica were some good fun to watch.

What was most interesting with the Cylons in this episode was with regards to the Sharons and Hera. While Athena discovering for sure that Hera is alive was not played quite as dramatically as I'd hoped, being a mere subplot, it still offers quite a bit of intrigue. I liked quite a bit the miniature cliffhanger we were left on concerning this, with Athena declaring "I want to see my child." Perhaps not a very powerful line at first glance, but it's the logistics of such a request(?) that make it a little on the harrowing side. In order for Athena to see her child, she will likely have to visit the Cylon basestar, a scenario which doesn't seem very likely at the moment.

One detail that comes through quite well in this episode is the idea that the 13th tribe's journey to Earth was long and arduous, with this algae planet being one of many of their settlements along the way. It seems that the presumed original exodus from Earth to Kobol was done in a very nomadic way, and that the 13th tribe had to sort of trace those steps back to find Earth. Also kudos goes to Bear McCreary for the cool scoring that was done for the Temple of Five scenes, with Tyrol's wandering off then discovering the temple being my favorite. The details surrounding just what the Temple of Five and the Eye of Jupiter signify are a bit on the vague side however, which again is a result of this episode being all setup with very little payoff.

Overall though, for all that this episode is all setup and very little payoff it comes off as much stronger and more captivating than the similarly constructed Exodus, Part 1, despite the weak cliffhanger. A relatively strong episode with a weak cliffhanger is preferable to a weak episode with a good cliffhanger, so The Eye of Jupiter is not a bad episode by any stretch. It's in fact quite good if you forgive the trite ending, which I think counts for quite a bit in the episode's favor.

Review

Rapture manages to overcome the problems of its predecessor, but similarly fails to stand out as the thrilling climax to the Baltar on a basestar storyline that it was supposed to be, because it comes across as vague and as a result unsatisfying.

I was pleased to see that the silly cliffhanger got wrapped up very quickly and for all that it was a waste of time it did serve as a very useful setup to allow D'Anna to defy the Cylons once more. Indeed, it's with the Cylons that all the interesting stuff in this episode resides. Most so with regards to Athena, Hera, and Caprica Six. A particularly gripping moment was Athena suiciding to resurrect and retrieve her child.

I was less satisfied with the discontented Boomer, however. She seemed petty and one dimensional. I do, however, like the idea surrounding her demeanor, and I hope she shows up again on the show, though hopefully better executed. Also slightly annoying was the excessive guerrilla combat featured in this episode. The gun fights were well executed, and the eye candy surrounding the Cylon centurions was as spectacular as ever but I felt the episode could have stood a bit less of it.

Perhaps the most important issues to discuss about this episode are the larger implications for the Cylons. This episode raises numerous questions and doesn't bother to provide us with sufficient answers or even hints. Who did D'Anna recognize in her vision? Was she really seeing the final five Cylons? Why would technology left behind by the ancient 13th tribe be able to give a Cylon a vision tied heavily to their monotheistic religion, especially seeing as how the ancient 13th tribe had (presumably) no concept of who or what the Cylons would be or what their religion is all about? Why did D'Anna die after her vision? Why do the Cavil models attempt to suppress information concerning the final five Cylons? Do the Cavil models know something the others don't?

And that's not all! Then we've got the wonderful stuff concerning Starbuck's painting from Valley of Darkness and the mandala in the temple. I was very impressed by this tidbit of continuity, and I can see that they're probably going somewhere with this coincidence, but I think it's a bit overplayed. Partly due to the grossly out of place reused music from Resurrection Ship, Part 1's teaser, that whole scene when Helo makes the connection by looking at Starbuck's photograph just comes across as silly.

When all is said and done though, this episode has a lot going for it. Certainly the supernova was cool. I was most fond of the little special effects detail in which you can see the rings of the planet being engulfed by the supernova and inflamed. They are the fiery debris that rains down on the planet during the escape. I thought that was a very clever and awesome detail. Also fascinating is the fact that this episode effectively furnishes Galactica with Caprica Six as a prisoner and brings both Baltar and Hera back to the Galactica. All three new arrivals are sure to be the source of much drama in the future.

But also like the previous episode, aside from the supernova, all the interesting things in this episode are mere setup for future episodes. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that, but it makes this pair of episodes a little less interesting, and they stand a bit less well on their own. This time last season, Resurrection Ship, Part 2 provided a great deal of setup for the rest of the season by introducing the Pegasus and temporarily eliminating the Cylons' ability to resurrect after they die, setting up episodes like Scar and The Captain's Hand. As far as setup episodes go, this episode hardly measures up to Resurrection Ship, Part 2's example.

The point is, more could have been done with this. The Baltar on the basestar plot line comes off in the end as confusing and unsatisfying. Just like Lay Down Your Burdens, The Eye of Jupiter and Rapture both strike me similarly as the climaxes of relatively poorly executed plot arcs. While very climactic and fun to watch, there's much room for improvement.

Review

Taking a Break from All Your Worries mashes up the running love quadrangle story with Baltar's return and subsequent interrogation. Unfortunately, the love quadrangle story was its usual flop, so pairing it with Baltar's return to the Galactica only served to diminish that part of the story too. I won't say too much about the love quadrangle this time, as I've already said it better in previous reviews. Simply stated, it has become tedious and it's being drawn out far too long.

However, even Baltar's story alone is not without its own flaws. The scene depicting Baltar waking up in a Cylon resurrection chamber was sort of a cheap ploy. We all knew already he wasn't a Cylon. Playing up the drama of whether or not he is one for so long serves only to bore and possibly annoy the audience. Furthermore, Baltar's interrogation went on way too long. The episode essentially ran out of steam after Roslin's heated shouting match with Baltar, which is easily the most riveting aspect of the episode, for which I grant an extra point.

The drug induced interrogation was bizarre and served little purpose other than to confirm Baltar's unintentional collusion with the Cylons for Roslin. The same effect could have been achieved by simply prolonging the shouting match between Roslin and Baltar, keeping the tension high.

An additional weakness of the episode was that there was little to no Caprica Six, depending on how you look at it. A "bonus scene" was featured on BSG's official website (and included as a deleted scene on the DVD) depicting a scene where Roslin speaks with Caprica Six. In this scene, Roslin promises Caprica Six she won't be airlocked. Caprica Six equates that promise to the one she made to Leoben in Flesh and Bone, which she broke. Six then offers to be Roslin's chief witness if Roslin agrees to give Baltar a fair trial. This is a nice touch, but nowhere near enough.

Some details I did like was the clear implication that nobody knows Baltar is back so that the option to quietly execute him is always available. There are also a number of interesting juxtapositions between Baltar and Roslin. In addition to the obvious interrogation parallels, such as the glasses touch, Roslin says to Adama that a change in tactics for Baltar's interrogation is required stating that it necessitates the use of the "carrot" rather than the "stick" which parallels Baltar's similar line to Admiral Cain in Pegasus.

Another interesting detail is the way Adama and Roslin treat Baltar is diametrically opposed to their position on human life in Collaborators. Throughout the episode, they resort to as many dirty tactics as they have at their disposal to get what they want; and only after all of those tactics fail and Adama proposes Baltar's death does Roslin finally come to her senses and declare that he shall receive a fair trial.

But aside from advancing the plot somewhat and the opportunity to see a few decent character moments, this episode has little to offer. It's not unlike this season's Exodus, Part 1, season 2's Flight of the Phoenix, or perhaps most closely season 1's Litmus.

Review

The Woman King is an unusual episode for Battlestar Galactica twofold. Firstly, it's most unusual in that it centers mostly around Helo and his sort of penal job of dealing with civilians living aboard Galactica, but also unusual in that the central moral issue of the episode's plot centers around a very overdone concept: racism.

Indeed, the episode gets off to a very weak start. The first scene that caught my attention was the marvelous stuff between Roslin and Zarek. But as Helo's story develops, it gets exponentially more interesting. I think the biggest reason The Woman King is a very enjoyable episode is due to its well executed, albeit conventional nature.

The Woman King is essentially the same story idea as Black Market. Both episodes dealt with a niche in civilian life in the fleet and both episodes centered around a major character doing a crime investigation. The difference is where Black Market slapped together two incompatible plots, The Woman King skillfully centered around a single plot.

The devil is in the details in this episode. It's fascinating to see what Helo's and Sharon's private life is like on board the Galactica in detail. It is as well rewarding to finally see Hera now a part of it. Overarching details that were included were enhancements to the episode, but not diminishing to the central plot. Again, Zarek's scene was great and Sharon's visit with Six was equally great. And I love the return of the Baltar in Six' head, for all that I still loathe the technical paradox behind its original introduction.

Tigh's performance was above average in this episode. If there's one thing his character excels at it, it's bitterness and hatred. His creepy confrontation with Helo over the sullying of Dr. Robert's good name was fantastic. Everything from the little groan Tigh made after being hit to the sadistic laugh he let out as he walked off was spot on acting and damn amusing.

And ultimately, again, while the plot was conventional, I was pleased to see how well executed it was. Part of me was wishing they would have taken this opportunity to kill Dee's character off as I liked how Dr. Robert justified his racism as a means to conserve resources, thereby making him a more complex character than such characters are usually portrayed. During his expository speech at the end of the episode, I'm right there with him agreeing with him, right up until I realize "oh crap, he almost killed Dee!" That's some good public speaking skills right there.

Finally, "The Woman King" herself was a nice touch. A subtle, minor character who has a profound effect on Helo provided an interesting way to motivate his actions.

There's little else to discuss regarding this episode, however. Its best feature is its simplicity, but its worst feature is its simplicity. A better episode would have scrapped the entire A plot in favor of focusing more on Baltar's trial. Moreover, Tom Zarek is Sagittaron and very invested in the plights of the people. Why wasn't he more a key player in this episode?

But I can't complain too much. The Woman King was an enjoyable episode, despite being largely stand alone filler.

Review

A Day in the Life is a slow paced, almost boring episode which is an interesting and useful character piece for mostly Adama, but serves little other purpose. In fact, there's never been an episode which is more filler than this one because even their attempt at inserting at least one scene of worthwhile plot advancement ended up not being worthwhile at all. The whole idea of spending time establishing Apollo as Roslin's committee leader for Baltar's trial was as much a waste of time as dedicating a whole episode to characters introspectively exploring themselves.

However, for all that watching characters do introspective self exploration is a waste of time, it was well executed and provides a fascinating glimpse into some of the characters' psyche, especially Adama. What I find most interesting about Adama in this episode is that he seems to have married a woman very similar to Ellen Tigh. This makes Adama's running opinion of Ellen throughout the show and Adama's friendship with Tigh far more interesting.

Caroline's portrayal in the episode was also interestingly done. One could say that having characters live in delusional realities is an overdone concept on this show given Baltar and Six along with the concept of Cylon projection, but having Caroline in Adama's head speaking to him as if she were still alive gave us even more fascinating insight into Adama than simply seeing memories of her while she was alive would have given us.

Her rantings about "the admiral's facade" tell us that Adama is very concerned with his outward appearance. And her criticisms that Adama, a man who prides himself on being a leader of men and making all the tough calls, made the wrong call on the biggest decision of life (deciding who to marry) tell us that Adama is very insecure about his capabilities as a leader. This is reminiscent of the theme introduced at the end of Resistance when Tigh confided in Adama that he's a terrible leader, Adama responded with absolute forgiveness because he knows being a leader is an extremely hard job.

Another thing contributing to bringing this episode's rating up is the whole Tyrol and Cally airlock subplot. An action sequence like that was wholly necessary to spice up the lack of a plot in this episode. In fact, their actual rescue sequence was one of the coolest things I've seen on the show in a while. There's nothing like seeing a young couple being airlocked without pressure suits and rescued by a raptor to brighten up a day.

Also fascinating about this whole sequence was the idea that the Galactica, which was already established as an old piece of crap, now established as an old piece of crap that's falling apart due to battle damage is a dangerous place to live. I like Tigh's little comment about how it would take six weeks in drydock just to hammer out the dings let alone tackle the structural damage. The whole mood surrounding Galactica's damaged state is portrayed very well.

Overall though aside from details that make hardcore fans smile, this episode has very little to offer. A fun but non crucial action sequence, some interesting psychoanalysis of Adama, and some extremely minor plot advancement concerning Baltar's trial does not make for an A+ episode.

Review

Dirty Hands is a very cleverly written episode in that it does a lot with very little. In many ways I am referring to the show's budget here. Numerous major characters were not present in this episode and also the entire set for the tylium ship wasn't in fact a set, but an actual factory that was borrowed to do this episode. I find these details to be so remarkable because in this recent string of stand alone episodes and in most of the season as a whole there has been an overall drop in episode quality and one of the reasons attributed to this was that the budget was blown quite a bit during the New Caprica arc at the beginning of the season.

This episode however is an example of just how good an episode which uses very little budget comparatively can be. It also demonstrates just how well a stand alone story can be constructed out of an issue that seems to come out of nowhere. One of the criticisms I had lined up when going into this episode is that in A Day in the Life, Tyrol and Cally's lives are saved by Adama but now a week later they're completely at odds and I just didn't buy it. But when you watch this episode, by the time the strike/mutiny actually happens, the characters have completely earned that moment.

The essential lure of this episode is how well it highlights class structure related social problems in colonial society and in the ragtag fleet, much like the way The Woman King dealt with racism, but in a much better way with a much larger scope. While RDM refers to Baltar's book as Baltar's version of Mein Kampf, I tend to look at it as Baltar's version of Das Kapital, as what Baltar is talking about seems more Marxist in origin than anything Hitler wrote about.

Indeed, the whole episode is very overtly about class struggles. Cally even goes so far as to say that she and the rest of the deck gang are not a part of the "ruling class" and that they are not afforded certain luxuries as a result. Great details were sprinkled throughout the episode to highlight differences in class structure. Some details were large, such as Roslin being completely aware of horrid working conditions and the use of child labor and not seeing too much of a problem with it nor speaking of any kind of running plan in place to make it better. Other details were small, like placing a scene depicting Adama and Roslin quietly sipping wine in front of Tyrol just after he returned from his first and rather traumatic experience on the tylium ship.

The greatness of the episode doesn't end there though. Right from the teaser, we're just loaded with goodies. I loved how they actually showed Roslin looking out the window of Colonial One just as the raptor was about to collide with her ship. While I wish they didn't cut over the actual collision, it was a very creepy detail to end the teaser on. Also creepy was getting to hear Baltar's original accent and his description of his origins on Aerelon. What a fantastic acting job there.

The ending was the only thing about the episode that I thought wasn't particularly remarkable, though it wasn't particularly weak either. Adama's threat to Tyrol during the strike was certainly compelling for all that it was reckless, however as the episode began to resolve itself, it began to lose steam quickly. This isn't much a problem though, because the ending was very short. And while the final scene wasn't great, it was a pretty good scene. It's nice to see progress is being made toward overcoming these class structure problems, but all this "let's be friends" stuff at the end felt rushed to me. A better ending wouldn't have resolved anything, but merely laid the first stones toward a resolution. A proper resolution would be crafted amidst a series of future episodes.

Suffice it to say, if this is the last episode dealing with class structure problems in the ragtag fleet, it would be a big mistake. Setting all that aside, however, this episode stands very well on its own, being one of the better offerings of the season.

Review

Maelstrom is a powerful episode veiled in subtext and hidden meanings that challenges the viewer's perceptive abilities. I'm quite fond of this episode's construction and deeper meanings, but I feel that quite a bit of the episode's potential was lost in its execution. The central issue is of course Starbuck's death and how she meets it. While I find this episode to be emotionally charged, I don't feel quite as captivated as I should be by the loss of such an influential character to the story. This lack of emotional impact is due to a number of smaller issues.

First and foremost, I continue to be annoyed with the ongoing vagueness of the overarching thematic mysticism of the show. Every episode dealing with Starbuck's "destiny" up until the Eye of Jupiter has very deliberately shown Starbuck's emotional issues to be all in her head. But in the Eye of Jupiter, Helo notices the mandala in the Temple of Five matches Starbuck's painting in her apartment. The scene is portrayed very dramatically, as if it has a deeper meaning when it in fact does not.

I'm willing to accept the coincidence and that the desire to assign meaning to the coincidence is what drove Starbuck to her madness, but that's not the theme the episode drives home. Instead, Maelstrom (as the Eye of Jupiter before it) tries to have it both ways. Maelstrom essentially contends with its sufficiently vague plot that either Starbuck was crazy or there really was a deeper meaning; we just don't really know. Furthermore, it attempts to artificially inflate the idea of "Starbuck's destiny" by inserting liberal amounts of material that could be liberally interpreted as foreshadowing for Starbuck's eventual revelation as a Cylon. And if that's not enough for you, there's sufficient evidence in the episode to conclude that the heavy raider really did exist, that Starbuck ejected from her viper, and that it snatched her up shortly after the viper exploded.

At best, this attempt at having it both ways is to satisfy fans who don't really want to believe she's dead. At worst, it's a way to bring the actress back some day at the writers' whims. The point is when you kill a character off you must make a statement about why that character died. By presenting it in such a way that no one really knows why she died it leaves the audience confused and unsatisfied. This process of misdirection keeps the episode from making a dramatic point. So for the purpose of this review, I'm going to make a choice. She's either dead because she's crazy, alive and captured by the Cylons, or she's realized she's a Cylon and sought resurrection. My choice? She's dead because she's crazy. I pick that option solely because it's the better dramatic theme of the three options.

Now before all you Starbuck fans stop reading, hear me out. A recurring theme in Starbuck's character since the very beginning is severe emotional issues. More than any character, Starbuck has been emotionally tortured again and again. It's no surprise that by now she has a death wish, be it conscious or subconscious. Her "destiny" is nothing more than a delusion of grandeur inherited from her mother, whom drilled into her head over and over that she was special and had a destiny. So when the coincidence of the mandala and her paintings presented itself, she retreated into her delusion of grandeur, believing it finally to be true.

This leads us to the subject of her delusion. I think Starbuck believed she was a Cylon and that by overcoming her fear of death, she could finally discover who she really was. Evidence supporting this psychology includes her line "they're waiting for me" and Leoben's line referencing "the space between life and death." The problem with these references, as I stated before, is that they muddle the thematic point of the episode. Assuming the intended conclusion of the audience is to assume she's dead, there should have been at least one scene in the episode offering proof as to why Starbuck cannot be in fact a Cylon, or at least assuring the audience that she truly is crazy. This is preferable because then the audience can emotionally connect with her situation and how she feels as well as how all her friends and loved ones feel as she slowly slips away, instead of simply being confused and wondering if she's been captured or if she's a Cylon.

Aside from these missteps there are other smaller gaffes. I was once again annoyed to find some of Admiral Cain's music from Resurrection Ship, Part 1 recycled to over exaggerate the drama in the gun camera footage scene. How many times has that musical theme been abused now this season? Furthermore, large portions of the fantastically composed original score for this episode were drowned out by background noise, most noticeably during the (exceptionally beautiful) viper flying scenes. That, along with overly loud teeth brushing (a similarly annoying trait of A Day in the Life as well) and panting early in the episode make it seem like the microphones were placed incorrectly and sound editing was done sloppily. In short, the signal to noise ratio was way off. I wanted to hear more of the characters' lines and more of the scoring.

Other deficiencies in the episode's execution include the over abundance of scenes foreshadowing Starbuck's death. They are so numerous, I could actually make a list of them. I found it wholly unnecessary to allow Starbuck's character to come full circle just prior to her death. It in fact reeks of cliche. I'd have found it far more moving to see her die in the midst of all her emotional issues with zero closure having been achieved. It would have made her journey as a character feel more meaningful to me. Instead, they push the reset button on her character development and then kill her. Felt like a cop out. What's ironic is that for all that the lead up to her death was overplayed, the emotional impact of her death was distinctly underplayed. We got to see Apollo's reaction as it happened, then Adama's reaction as it happened and directly after. At the very least, we should have gotten one more scene depicting Apollo placing a photo of Starbuck next to Kat and preferably a scene depicting Anders mourning as well.

But for all that I criticize this episode, it's meant as constructive. This episode has a lot going for it and easily could have been a perfect score if the storytelling had been tweaked and the episodes leading up to it weren't so weak. I absolutely adored the viper visual effects and of what I could hear of the scoring I was incredibly enthralled with. Adama destroying his ship model was one of the most moving things I've seen on the entire show and the writers' willingness to off major characters is something I certainly respect. Maelstrom is ultimately a step in the right direction for BSG, even if it could have been done better. So in the end, it is an episode I have a great deal of respect for.

Review

One of my criticisms of Maelstrom was that Kara's death was underplayed at the end of the episode, but this episode makes up for that completely and takes it to a new level using it to forge an interesting new direction for the two Adama characters. It makes sense that the often diametrically opposed political viewpoints of the father and son would be exasperated by a personal conflict brought on by mutual and irrational guilt. To have that play out in something as important to their civilization as the trial of Gaius Baltar is not only a good choice, it's downright captivating. And that's a word I've sadly not used to describe BSG for some time.

It's actually quite remarkable to compare just those two episodes, largely because of their similar construction. Both episodes did not have a subplot, both episodes were tightly character driven rather than plot driven despite straddling pivotal events, and both episodes utilized liberal amounts of subtext. So that's why they're so much the same. What makes them different? Maelstrom was pivotal to the overarching story of Battlestar Galactica because it featured the loss of a central character. The Son Also Rises was merely setup for a similar pivotal event. Maelstrom featured numerous fantastic visual effects shots. The Son Also Rises featured none remarkable and all were recycled.

Yet despite what seems like an obvious comparison in favor of Maelstrom, The Son Also Rises is a superior episode strictly because the drama is executed in a superior fashion. I've always purported that well executed drama in a bottle show beats out a special effects heavy episode with inferior drama any day of the week. DS9: In The Pale Moonlight is a prime example.

Right from the get go this episode is packed with drama and emotion. I like how the very first scene of the episode is Adama still mourning Starbuck. Also intercutting it with his selection as one of the judges is a nice way to counterpoint the idea of getting on with business as usual with Adama's inability to do just that. Adama's intense emotions throughout the episode are in fact one of its best selling points. We rarely get to see Adama so emotionally unstable.

Among other little details, I was glad Captain Kelly got some character development time. One of the best assets of this show is the slow buildup of minor characters into tangible, sympathetic, dramatically useful characters. Among the most successful of such characters is Kat. Among my favorite such characters so far is Hoshi originally from the Pegasus. He's just become a familiar face in CIC, and Captain Kelly is just like him.

However, it is not the little details which sustain this episode. The meat is in Romo Lampkin's character. Romo both figuratively and literally keeps the cat in the bag with regards to his manipulations. He knows exactly how to pull everyone's strings. He walks onto the ship with a swagger and a pair of shades using his immense charm and skillful articulation to get things done.

Specifically, it's his gradual manipulation of Apollo that has me so fascinated by him. Romo realized quickly that by getting Apollo on his side, he could gain an advantage during the trial once it began. When Romo was manipulating Six, there was a subtextual manipulation of Apollo going on simultaneously as he described to Six how he in retrospect realized his adoration for his lost love was not something he could simply get over and that by realizing it he was able to "be a man." This is also supported by Lampkin's very deliberate assertion that the story was true when Apollo so curiously inquired. Knowing of Apollo's recent loss of Starbuck, Lampkin on some level convinced Apollo to "be a man" too and accept the loss so he can move on with his life by helping Lampkin instead of resuming life as it was when Starbuck was still alive.

You might expect me to write more about an episode such as this, but there's not too much else to say. The episode has very little plot and nearly dragged. But the degree to which the drama was well executed sustained it excellently. Everything from drunken Anders, to Adama looking for his missing button, to Baltar looking for his missing pen, to Roslin looking for her missing glasses, to Lampkin's cat, to Lampkin's stylish manipulations of people was utterly captivating to watch. In fact, this is the first episode in a long time to make me say "Wow, it's over already?" when it finished. Well done.

Review

Crossroads, Part 1 reminds me a lot of Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 1 in that it's a very weak opening for a much bigger episode. In fact, the format of the final three episodes of season 3 is identical to that of season 2. Like Downloaded, The Son Also Rises was an unexpected pleasure, the following episode was an unexpected downer, and if the trend continues, Crossroads, Part 2 will be almost as good as The Son Also Rises, but not quite. The way Crossroads, Part 1 is setting it up, I wouldn't be surprised.

First and foremost, I'm almost sorry to see the Cylons return as the absurdly vague overarching thematic mysticism surrounding them is returning with them. The subplot with the music that only Tigh, Anders, and Tory seem to be able to hear was simply annoying and for all that I'm immensely glad they're finally getting on with the trial of Baltar, I found the proceedings to be mostly slow, tedious, overly drawn out, and distinctly not dramatic. The prosecutor's opening statements were horribly verbose and even Romo Lampkin bored me to tears.

What makes the trial so boring is that the characters are discussing at length events the audience is already intimately familiar with. It's almost as if this episode was constructed for an audience that hasn't seen the last three seasons as a way to get them to catch up. In fact, the only aspects of the trial that were interesting at all were in ways that it allowed character development to flourish, such as a drunken Tigh candidly talking about Ellen on the stand and Roslin revealing that her cancer has returned.

And even the detail about Roslin's cancer returning seems dubious. Her behavior in this episode has been distinctly out of character, which leads me to wonder if she simply lied about having cancer again. I certainly hope she isn't, because Roslin having cancer again would be an actual interesting arc to explore. But it's treated as a minor detail in this episode. More time was spent on entirely useless scenes, like when the crazy lady with the sick son visits Baltar, or the numerous characters-hearing-inexplicable-music scenes.

A better version of this episode would have taken Roslin's cancer and made it the front and center issue. Instead, Roslin walks around with a swagger as if having cancer again is not at all a concern to her. A better episode would have cliffhangered us with Roslin either revealing her cancer to the audience or Doc Cottle revealing to Roslin that she has cancer again, leaving us at the edge of our seats wondering if Roslin's going to live instead of leaving us with the sad excuse for a cliffhanger that was "it's in the frakkin' ship!"

In the end, this episode just feels out of focus. Much like Colonial Day, we've got some nice details here like Roslin's cancer (perhaps) returning, Adama continuing to be an angry emotional wreck, along with Tigh's scene with Six, but little details do not an episode make. Beyond those details, this episode much like Colonial Day is straightforward and much like Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 1 presents plot threads in a most underwhelming way that really should have been extremely interesting.

Review

Crossroads, Part 2 is difficult episode to assign a rating to, because while parts of this episode are worth a great deal of praise, by and large the episode walks the suspension of disbelief line pretty hard. That said, this episode never did quite cross that line. As such its other merits make up the rating I gave it. The numerous fantastic smaller details of the episode not only keep the episode's rating out of the gutter, but also manage to raise the episode slightly above its predecessor in overall quality.

So what provokes me to rate this rather obvious milestone in the course of the show so low? Well, lots of reasons that all add up to a big stinker. First thing's first, like the episode's predecessor, the handling of Baltar's trial was particularly weak. Thankfully, this time around my overall feeling of boredom regarding the proceedings vanished, but instead it's been replaced by a feeling of incompetency and a distinct lack of realism.

Three things stand out as being wrong with the trial. 1. Caprica Six was never put on the stand despite hints in The Son Also Rises that at least one of the two sides had an interest in doing so, 2. the move for a mistrial was completely forgotten, and 3. the prosecution never got a chance to make their closing statements. Neither did the defense, but Lee's monologue definitely counts as a de facto closing statement. In addition to this, Baltar acted like a bumbling buffoon throughout the whole episode with his rampant disrespect for his allies, his inability to comprehend legal strategy, and his overwhelming arrogance (even for him) during and after the trial. It seemed out of character.

Moving beyond the trial, the dream sequence scene which we now know is communally shared by Roslin, Six, Athena, and presumably Hera still felt rather pointless. It serves more of a purpose this time around than it did in the last episode, but like much of the rest of the episode, it gave us more questions than answers. The vision seems to be a manifestation of Cylon projection, but why is Roslin affected? Is it because she has some of Hera's blood in her? What is the meaning behind the vision? Why wasn't more time in the episode spent on exploring the ramifications of this?

For that matter, frankly, I don't feel emotionally invested in Roslin's character at all anymore. When we first found out she had cancer again, it was done so casually I thought she was lying. It should have been the big cliffhanger during the last episode! In this episode, only a tiny amount of time is spent dealing with Roslin's cancer; once again it's on the back burner. And once again I feel emotionally detached from it. Just like my criticism of the last episode, Roslin's cancer should have been the front and center issue of this episode. For gods' sakes, the president is dying! And they're focusing half the episode's plot on four random characters going crazy hearing a Bob Dylan song?

And that of course brings us to our wonky cliffhanger. Regardless of whether or not Tigh, Anders, Tory, and Tyrol really are Cylons, the reason they're all communally hearing a mysterious song no one else can hear is not made clear. I suppose it's possible that it too is a manifestation of Cylon projection (like the opera house dreams), but frankly I'm having a hard time buying the idea that all these characters are all Cylons to begin with. With Tory and Anders I'm able to see it as a viable possibility. But with Tyrol and especially Tigh it's a tough pill to swallow. In Tyrol's case, Cavil told him directly that he's not a Cylon. Granted, there's no reason to take Cavil's word for it, but the aesthetic of the scene in its broader context leads me to believe Cavil knows this to be true. Especially seeing as how Cavil seems to know things about the final five none of the other Cylons know. As for Tigh, he fought in the original Cylon war against the Centurions! His existence in the Twelve Colonies predates the presumed invention of the humanoid Cylons!

Granted for all we know this episode is just misdirection; maybe none of these characters are Cylons and the point of the plot is to get the characters to believe that they are. But like all the overarching thematic mysticism this show has had to offer this season, the implications are left vague. Similarly, the return of Starbuck was equally confusing. How did she survive the explosion of her viper? Where did she get another one? How did she get all the way to the nebula? For that matter, how did she reach Earth? Is she a Cylon? Did Apollo just imagine the whole experience? What caused the fleet-wide power surge in the first place thus making time for the whole rendezvous with Starbuck thing? And why was power restored shortly afterward? The implications are, once again, left overly vague.

All of this scored to a cover of a 1960s psychedelic classic rock song by Bob Dylan for no apparent reason. Bear McCreary's rendition of it is absolutely fantastic, but I don't think that a classic rock song, even a well reinterpreted one quite belongs in the Battlestar Galactica universe. The whole ending just leaves me with bad flashbacks of Galactica 1980. If that's happening, there's obviously something aesthetically wrong with the episode.

The basic problem here is that a good story leaves its audience with most strongly an emotional impact rather than lingering questions. The best impression to leave your audience with after the emotional impact is "wow, that was incredible, I can't wait to see what happens next!" Kobol's Last Gleaming and Pegasus did this masterfully. I didn't quite get that feeling in Lay Down Your Burdens, and even less so during The Eye of Jupiter. Crossroads, Part 2 takes the issues that Lay Down Your Burdens and The Eye of Jupiter had and multiplies them. Even more so than those two episodes, the audience is primarily left emotionally detached from the story, confusedly wondering why things happened the way they did rather than enthusiastically wondering what happens next. Battlestar Galactica has been slipping into this inferior style of storytelling slowly and consistently over the last season and a half causing overall episode quality to diminish significantly.

In the end though while the storytelling and the aesthetic of this episode is irritating, nothing that happens in this episode can't ultimately be rationalized later even if making four or five main "good guy" characters Cylons is what the writers really intend on doing despite the issues it brings up and the overall lack of taste. Indeed, beyond that this episode features tidbits of masterful writing. In particular, Apollo's monologue in court about the purpose of Baltar's trial was brilliant, along with Romo Lampkin's final scene. The symbolism of abandoning the apparently unnecessary cane and restoring the sunglasses is a fantastic detail and the acting in this episode was its usual high quality, especially Tigh and Apollo.

This may be the worst executed of the major cliffhangers Battlestar Galactica has had to offer so far, but despite the radical departure and downgrade in storytelling style, this episode does manage to succeed in remaining true to what kind of show BSG is: an innovative science fiction drama willing to go in crazy, risky directions to keep things interesting. And while the stories may not be as finely crafted and as emotionally powerful as they used to be, they remain at the very least still quite interesting. At least we still have that.