Review

The Plan is an odd piece and kind of a mixed bag. It plugs a few annoying plot holes in seasons 1 and 2 as well as adds lovely texture to things we were already familiar with, but does little more than that and the overuse of clips from old episodes is at times annoying. However what little new story the film does offer is done in style which makes it incredibly entertaining to watch, even if not necessarily the strongest piece of storytelling on BSG.

First and foremost, actually seeing things from Cavil's point of view after the crazy amount of retroactive exposition we got in No Exit is quite a novelty. My only complaint with regards to this is that we didn't see more! The Final Five's flight from (faux) Earth to the Twelve Colonies, ending the first Cylon war, creating the eight Cylon models, Cavil boxing Daniel, and then Cavil wiping the memories of the other Cylons would have all been great things to depict. I can only hope we get another film depicting those events too!

The core idea behind the story is seeing how different experiences shape the personalities of what are otherwise identical people: the two Cavils and the two Simons. Each member of the pair in this story develops diametrically opposed views of humanity due to the different things that they experience and witness. Caprica Cavil realizes that every killing of another human makes them "even more irredeemable in the eyes of" the final five. But Galactica Cavil remains unconvinced, believing that it instead proves their superiority.

Likewise, the Simon aboard Galactica develops a fondness for humans and even marries one and becomes stepfather to her child. Throughout the film he finds himself unable to do Cavil's bidding. On the other hand, the Simon on Caprica remains unflinching in his loyalty to the Cylons and their mission of murder. It's a nice touch that good Cavil was paired with bad Simon and bad Cavil was paired with good Simon.

As noted above though, a large part of the fun of this film isn't necessarily the story, but tracking the list of plot holes plugged by this film's plot. For starters, we now know for certain that the reasons the fleet survived was due to an error in planning. Cavil had intended the complete destruction of humanity and all the final five killed in the holocaust so he could supposedly prove to them how superior Cylons are, but it didn't work out the way he had planned.

Among the other loose ends tied up, the person Caprica Six was meeting with on Caprica after speaking with Baltar was Cavil. The "mysterious stranger" who Ellen claimed rescued her was also Cavil (something established already in No Exit), which he did because he believed she should suffer more to learn more. Also, the person who tipped off Adama to the fact that there are only twelve Cylon models is strongly implied to be Baltar. Although this was strongly implied in the pilot miniseries well. The question wasn't whether or not he did it but instead what his motives were and why Adama never investigated the note. So that hole isn't exactly plugged, but it's also not very important. Additionally, it was unfortunate that we weren't given any more details about what exactly went on with the Olympic Carrier.

One of my biggest pet peeves since the third season finale is the question of why there are so many Cylons in the fleet. Cavil specifically makes note of four of the final five being in the fleet was something he did not expect. The plot of this film also strongly implies he expected to have a decent assortment of Cylon agents from the significant seven at his disposal after the attack implying that a great many agents were planted on ships as part of the plan. That's a major hole plugged.

Another big stinker plot hole the film plugged was how Shelley Godfrey got off the Galactica and what her motives were to begin with. Cavil sent her to discredit Baltar. They had to fabricate evidence which is why that plan failed. Cavil then used a decoy Six to get out of the sight of the guards and airlocked Shelley. Very clever. We also get an answer to why Cavil never committed any personal acts of sabotage: he was too busy calling the shots and relaying intelligence to the Cylons. Or put another way, he was too much of a coward to go suicide bombing important targets himself, like he asked others to do which in and of itself is a nice piece of character development for Cavil.

One particularly interesting piece of symbolism is Cavil's line to Anders that the Cylons assumed the roles that the gods once did. This is nifty because there are twelve Cylon models as well as twelve Lords of Kobol. Anders then mentions to Simon that Cavil is a "man of the gods." Indeed. ;) Another amusing tidbit is we can now say with certainty that Boomer's figure to Baltar about how many Cylons were remaining in the fleet when he forced the information out of her was precisely accurate! She said eight. At the time besides herself and assuming Simon had airlocked himself already, there was the final five, a Six, a Cavil, and a D'Anna in the fleet. That's eight Cylons. Hot damn! I'm sure it's just dumb luck though. ;)

Finally, I just love the fact that Giana, a character we saw ever so briefly in the pilot miniseries, was turned into a fairly major player here. The last time we saw her was when she came out of the raptor with Baltar in the miniseries looking for her missing husband. It turns out her missing husband, a medic in the Colonial Fleet, was a Simon Cylon model!

Review

The second half of The Plan offers still more nice tidbits of continuity and plot hole pluggings. For example, Boomer did not kill Adama because she was a weak Cylon model, as was hinted at. And Leoben was able to learn so much about Starbuck's childhood in Flesh and Bone because he reached into her mind somehow and learned this information that way.

Unfortunately though, we have chalk up most of that Leoben stuff to yet more "god." For one, Leoben was shown a bunch of events that hadn't happened yet when he mind melded with Starbuck, apparently having been given insight into her destiny. He is also seen painting Starbuck's mandala prior to mind melding with her.

Additionally, this film aggravates the issue with the largely ignored D'Anna Cylon model within the fleet in season 2. It is not explained why she appeared solely to make a documentary in season 2 and then is never heard from again. It is noted that Cavil does not exert full control over his agents; that they have a tendency to do whatever the hell they want, which explains why the Cylons' many opportunities to wipe out the fleet in seasons 1 and 2 were largely squandered.

But unfortunately no explanation of D'Anna's motives was given at all, instead focusing on the new Simon model we never saw at all prior to now. In addition to this, the second Six model within the fleet that Cavil consorts with receives no closure either. Like D'Anna, it is not explained why she was never outed, especially after Cavil was executed. We have to just assume like D'Anna that she stayed hidden until the Cylons occupied New Caprica or that they both died when Gina blew up Cloud 9.

One detail I greatly enjoyed was the little boy, John, a parallel to Cavil, who is also named John. The boy being an orphan that nobody wants is the personification of how Cavil sees himself. Cavil murdering the boy is thus a great demonstration of both his twisted cruelty as well as his own self-loathing.

But "love outlasts death." This recurring line in The Plan is ultimately the lesson at least one Cavil learns. Cavil wanted his parents to love him more, so he saw fit to exterminate those who he felt competed for their love, tragically unaware that doing that would change nothing. Indeed, the Cavil that learned his lesson was either boxed by the other Cavil or ultimately changed his mind back by the beginning of season three, rendering this entire story largely irrelevant, if an interesting psychoanalysis of Cavil.

So in the end, if you're fascinated by Cavil's character and want to see more, or are curious about the Cylons' point of view prior to season three, this is certainly a fun film worth watching. It's unfortunate that we didn't get to see more of the Cylons activities prior to the attack on the colonies, or that nothing from seasons three and four was covered, but what we got was a nice ride. I especially enjoyed seeing the attack on the colonies from the Cylons' point of view, which was pretty damn cool. However, this piece would have been much stronger with some tighter and more comprehensive continuity.