2.7 Home - Part 2

This second part was actually a little more ponderous and benign than I was anticipating. That’s not to say it wasn’t good, but it didn’t produce much in the way of fireworks. Rather it pressed the reset switch to give the show a new base upon which to set off in a new direction.

Most obviously, that new direction is going to be Earth as pointed out by the constellation maps revealed in Athena’s tomb. (Quite how all that worked I’ll just have to disregard. One minute in a cave. Next minute in a field. Okay. . .)

The smartest piece of business concerned Sharon’s handling of her tricky spot within the eyes of Adama and the rest of the people. By conning that piece of scum Tom Skerreck (or whatever he’s called), who was plotting to kill Adama and Apollo, she stated that she was free-thinking and could be trusted and so earned herself a prison to stay in, where she will apparently give birth to her child.

I’m not sure how Cylon memories work. She claims no knowledge of killing Adama, but then can somehow know that he asked “WHY?” to her dead body. Sharon says that it was not her – presumably because it was something encoded into Boomer that made her kill and was thus not a choice she made. I can live with that. But how the memory works, the hive mind of the clones if you like, that still needs a lot of clarification.

Likewise Gaius tried to get to the bottom of his relationship with Six. It was established that he didn’t have a chip in his head, but I never considered that was ever going to prove to be the way of it. She claims to be some form of angel, there to guide him to the end of the human race. . . Well, I doubt that, but we’ll see. Still, this season has taken some leaps to grappling with these big ideas about how the Cylons function – I’m figuring we’re not done with the explanations yet and more answers are coming.

So at the end of this Laura is back as President, the fleet is back together, and they’re all headed for Earth. Situation back to how it was before they ever got to Kobol, then, basically. Which is all rather nice. Now it’s just a matter of where the next frak up is going to come from!

2.6 Home - Part 1

Difficult to properly comment on a first part of a two-parter, especially when I haven’t seen the second part! However, this was certainly a promising set-up. The ending, especially, with Commander Adama reaching the decision to put the fleet back together was well done, with some stirring music to gratify the moment further. A bit of cheap emotional wringing never hurt any show once in a while!

Adama’s decision fundamentally brought about the lie in his statement that he had everyone he needed in the fleet despite the people that had left. Given the screw ups with his viper crew and docking procedures, it was very clear that was not the case. So he has learned he needs these people as much as they need him. To be fair, the idea that he was willing to go it alone and leave his son. . . I didn’t really buy that idea, but then Adama’s talk of rage sort of sold the notion on the principle that he was living in denial about his ideas of right and wrong.

Cylon Boomer is an interesting problem for President Laura and the rest. She’s a Cylon, the type that tried to assassinate Adama. And yet she is carrying a human child, and she has also pointed the way towards this temple of Athena, and has saved the skins of the humans by destroying the Centurion.

If they are successful in finding the temple (which I assume they will be) I am not sure what place there will be for Cylon Boomer. She’s found uneasy forgiveness in the rebel group, but I doubt Adama or Tigh will be as forgiving. Which makes things problematic for Helo and, to an extent, Starbuck – who are both seeing worthy qualities in her.

I think I also enjoyed this episode because Gaius was kept to a minimum in it. But that also worries me. Because if he wasn’t busy here that suggests he might be getting a lot more screen-time in future episodes. . . Oh well. For now, there’s a part 2 of this to look forward to and, if it continues in the vein that Season 2 as a whole has set out with, it ought to be a cracker.

2.5 The Farm

This may have been the episode where this ‘plan’ of the Cylons was revealed a little more fully. When Starbuck was shot and awoke in a hospital bed the whole thing didn’t feel right at all, and so when it was eventually revealed that her doctor was a Cylon it didn’t come as much of a surprise.

Of course, seeing the various other women and how they had been hooked up to machines was a bit more shocking. And Cylon Boomer revealed that the plan was to try and reproduce, as this was one of the Commandments. Evidently, this fact explains her behaviour with Helo – and how it was that the requirement for love has been considered so instrumental for her and the likes of Six.

And if the Cylons’ agenda here is to fulfil one of the commandments, that figures that their whole agenda is to fulfil all of the commandments. To what end? To become human? Or to replace humans as God’s chosen race? Probably it’s something like that.

Anyway, in terms of enjoyment, the episode was a little weird in places – sometimes feeling a little X-Files – for me to fully embrace it. I couldn’t decide if I liked it or not, and it was only Starbuck’s cynicism that kept the thing moving from that plot’s point of view. And that they ended up leaving all those survivors also seemed a little weird to me. Could they not have gotten the majority of them onboard the ship and whisked them back to be with the fleet? Would they not have wanted that? I just didn’t buy that they would want to stay.

Where am I up to with Cylons now? Boomer. Six. PR man. Weapon-dealer man. Black Doctor. Are those the only moulds I have seen so far? To memory, they are. Five out of twelve. I don’t know how the Black Doctor knew about Starbuck so much, and the name of her recent lover – but then there’s still a lot about the Cylons I don’t get.

Meanwhile, Adama’s back in command but it’s not exactly a picnic, with a good third of the fleet choosing to jump to Kobol to be with President Laura. That kind of splitting of the fleet poses an interesting problem for Adama – I wonder how he’s going to deal with it. Potentially the return of Starbuck with the arrow will allow the way to be pointed to Earth and they’ll all agree to go there together in an uneasy alliance, that’s how I see it playing out.

2.4 Resistance

Well well well, four episodes in and this second series delivers up another cracker. This time the developments concerned more political radicalisation agendas, which aren’t usually the more engaging plot points, but this one was enjoyable because it very much dealt with the human element concerned in the divergent aspects.

Tigh was losing control of the reins of his command following his Marshall Law introduction. A couple of civilian deaths later and President Laura decided enough was enough and she needed to break free to do. . . well. . . that remains to be seen. Because break free she did, and she took Apollo with her, and now they’ve joined up with Tom Zerrick. God knows what will happen next – whether the fleet really will splinter into two factions or otherwise.

Now that Commander Adama has woken up and is eager to get back in control, probably such drastic measures will be avoided. But he does have some serious pieces to pick up, no question about that! Still, the sit-down chat he had with Tigh, with no blame and just a resolve to get things fixed, was a great reminder of why he’s a good man to have around and have in charge. It’ll be reassuring to have him back!

Apart from the ending, an interesting aspect back on Caprica was Starbuck and Helo running into a resistance group – the first of whom they encountered were a sports team. I liked this a lot. A sports team turned military, it felt refreshing. And Starbuck and one of the members she played Pyramid Ball with have a bond going on. . .

As far as I am concerned, they could have spent a lot longer on Caprica with those guys rather than on Galactica, and potentially the only misgiving I have (which is going to be a weird complaint) is that there’s so many big plot threads and so little time devoted to all of them to do justice.

As I said, it’s a weird complaint, and not exactly a bad problem for a show to find itself in.

Callie went all assassin at the end of the episode to kill Cylon Boomer – probably this will land her a spell in the brig, but given the previous action with a captive Cylon had been to flush him out of the airlock I can’t imagine the repercussions could be serious. Not to little cute Callie, surely!

Tyrell let me down this episode, though. Don’t hug the dying Cylon, man! Not whilst everyone is watching. People will still think you’re a Cylon! (Mind you, if what Cylon Boomer said is true, and there are eight agents in the fleet, then he might just turn out to be one. . .)

2.3 Fragged

‘Frakked’ might have been a better title for this episode. For whilst one plot thread was resolved a larger-scale problem has presented itself: namely marshall law as instigated by Tigh (taking slugs of booze around every major decision he makes). Adama should be coming round soon enough to try and make everything right again, but things are never going to be the same. . .

Laura has admitted to the populace that she has cancer, which was not the revelation it could have been as it merely improved her story of being The Leader in the fulfilment of the prophecy of her leading the people to Earth. So now there’s going to be a religious section of the people that consider her to be the Second Coming, in effect, which may prove interesting.

And whilst all that stuff is interesting, I think the show keeps itself on the fence on whether or not we are supposed to really take it on, or just treat it as something for the believers to believe and the non-believers can take a more matter of fact stance on things. I rather like the show on account of that stance.

On planet Kobol the mission to try and thwart the Cylon Centurions plans to prevent a search and rescue mission lead to the L-T, Crashdown, going into meltdown and planning an attack that would lead to certain doom for all concerned. Until Gaius stepped up and shot him in the back (which was, weirdly, the most noble act he’s done!).

Luckily, it all turned out for the best (for one terrible moment I thought Tyrell was going to get killed – and he’s very much one of my favourite characters so that would have a real hit to take!) and Apollo turned up to save the day and get them off Kobol. So there was never really much exploration of this planet done after all, save for the point that it was where humans turned against the Gods and it’s a sacrilegious planet. . . Oh well.

There was no Starbuck in this episode, which makes me wonder if a more extended viewing of her and Helo may be in order for the next episode or two. I would prefer that. Rather than sticking in five or ten minutes worth here and there, it’s better to ditch one plot thread for a week to give proper concentration to another one as was the case here, and then vice-versa. Sustained stories engender better drama rather than bitty scraps to keep things moving.

Good episode, all in all. Season 2 has started very well (though I recall Season 1 started equally well, so this level of quality and impetus is not unprecedented just yet!).

2.2 Valley Of Darkness

This is Battlestar Galactica at its best for me. Our heroes deep in shit, the odds stacked against, them and those scheming, ruthless Cylons turning the screw. This episode's pressure was applied in the shape of the small gang of Cylons that had crashed onto Galactica. Tigh outlined their plan in stark terms: They were headed for the front and rear of the ship where they could release the airlocks and vent all of the crew into space. And then they would turn the Galactica's guns on the rest of the fleet and wipe everyone out.

If this was a game of chess, it's like sending a Queen into a crowd of pawns.

So the darkness element of the title was inspired from how all the lights in the ship were out, just to notch up the tension a little more. Shots and screams peppered the episode off-screen, and then occasionally there were some firefights on screen that showed how nasty and efficient the Centurion Cylons could be. The day was saved by good old Lee and his team, but not without a few close calls and sense that these guys weren't feeling 100% heroic to keep the grit.

That part of the episode, the main part, all top class stuff.

There are other plot threads ongoing though, and I wonder how long these strands will continue to remain separate. It may be a while, it might all be tied up in the next few episodes. There's Starbuck and Helo on Caprica (potentially for a good buddy relationship, those two - they just need something meaty to get involved in and hopefully not suffer the fate that the Boomer and Helo duet endured with their cameo appearances dragged out across the first season).

And then there's the Kobol crew, with Tyrell being the main guy there, with Callie (surely those two are going to get it together, it's been obvious since the start!) and a bunch of others in limbo between awaiting rescue and staying alive. Gaius is with them, of course, with Six in his ear constantly turning him twisted and filling his mind with talk of Commander Adama being a threat, but I'm getting tired of moaning about him and how irritating his plot thread his.

Either something happens with them, or their bullshit will continue. At present, he can't get much worse than the hindrance to the drama and flow than he is already - unless Gaius and Six get more screentime!

Still, this season has certainly set out a lot darker, with more action - but I suspect this will eventually give way to a more settled down phase where the Season gathers itself together to explore whatever big ideas and plot threads it wants to pursue.

2.1 Scattered

So this second series kicked off smack bang where the other left off, with Adama sprawled over the deck with blood coming out of him, and Boomer holding the smoking gun, and Starbuck and Helo together on Caprica and down on planet Kobol Gaius was in dreamland with Six whilst the rest of the crew tried to gather supplies and figure out their next move.

It was a smart idea to devote the thrust of this episode to Tigh, giving the show a bit of a fresh feel. Though his flashbacks to how Bill Adama got him back into the fleet and ultimately to the position he was in today were interesting (and the suicidal Tigh shows a damaged liability about this guy that may develop) Adama could not help but look ridiculous with that bizarre facial hair.
On the flipside, President Laura and her containment was dull dull dull. The trouble with having a presidential character as a main character is that the democracy aspects of the show always have to be taken into consideration. When it's a show that fires best when it's Cylon attacks and daring-do, all that politics stuff is a total drag.

But the Cylon attack business in this episode was terrific. The requirement to jump the whole fleet away was well-handled, and that moment Galactica jumped to find the rest of the fleet missing was knockout stuff. Once again, in vast space, the point of how desperate and precarious humanity is at the hands of the Cylons was hammered home. That Galactica managed to find the fleet at the end was a triumphant finish rather than a cheap happy ending, and that can only be testament to the quality of how the drama was handled.

Gaius on planet Kobol was revealed to have a 'child' with Six, though the child was not shown and I'm given no real idea if it's a future event, or another play in his mind, or something else entirely. Once again this season has started where the last one finished when it comes to Gaius; ambiguous and vague and irritating. Thankfully there was that sniper attack on Tyrell and his other two people to keep things interesting on the planet because it seems they may be there for the long haul. (Actually a welcome development, as the planet Kobol and perhaps some truths about the ancient civilisation can be explored properly.)

Whilst Adama's life is still 'critical' I have no doubts he will live, so it was left to the ending for a shock treat, with Battlestar Galactica actually daring to deliver a thrilling 'cliffhanger' rather than the usual ponderous finishes of the first season. Cylons are onboard Galactica, having crashed there in their new ship! Terrific stuff. I look forward to the forthcoming havoc!

BSG 1.13 Kobol's Last Gleaming - Part 2

Let's start at the end, with what was, really, for me, one of only two truly climactic moments about this season finale. Is Adama dead? In a brilliant shock moment, Boomer held true to her fearful sense of dread about doing something bad. Having saved the Galactica by blowing up the Cylon ship, she then pulled a gun out and shot Adama in the gut.

So is he dead? I don't know. I have the feeling that since we didn't actually see him die then he'll probably make it. Just the idea of having him be in the next series just to turn up and die seems a little odd. But, hey, maybe he will. Either way, it was a great shock moment and the episode really needed it.

Elsewhere, there was the great moment with Starbuck and the Blonde Cylon facing off and having a scrap. You can't beat a good bitch fight in a season finale! That it was concluded with Helo coming in to save the day, but with the conflicting presence of (pregnant!) Cylon Boomer only added to that bizarre plot quagmire that is left to hang over to the next season.

Other aspects left hanging over for the next season were less successful for me. Gaius (it's always bloody Gaius!) and that business with the imaginary theatre and the white light thing that made Gaius kiss the Cylon and suddenly see the (ah ha!) light. . . Well, naturally, we never learned anything about what that meant. Just kept the meaning about what the hell its all about for another season! It's annoying. There's a fine line between sustaining mystery and just presenting irritating riddles. The Gaius and Blonde Cylon thing, for me, all season, has just been irritating without redemption.

Still, all in all, it has been a surprisingly good season. I do feel that it hasn't quite lifted itself all the way into a different class of other space opera sci-fi shows to transcend the genre, but it's mostly adult and sophisticated and there's clearly plenty of mileage in where the show can go from here and the greater levels it's yet to peel away.

So maybe I have sounded overtly negative, but I am also upbeat and positive about the fact that, in terms of the whole thing, I've only just scratched the surface and have a long way to go. The surface that's been scratched, it's looking good and promising. I'm in for the long haul.