2.16 Sacrifice

Well this was a real doom and gloom episode and no mistake! Poor Billy. Always a likeable fringe character, his death here (as I am sure was the point) felt like a needless loss. Here was a guy that had potential to grow into someone good and important. And instead his life was snatched away in stupid circumstances. And after D had elected to blow him out so she could try and get whatever is going on between her and Apollo up and running, too!

Yep, it was tragic, yet the muted gloom of the episode kind of bleached out any shock. It was like the episode was so depressing that having a key character die towards the end was inevitable rather than surprising.

The crux of the matter was that the President and Admiral Adama were not prepared to kow-tow to terrorists, even ones that hijacked a bar with his son inside of it and were threatening to kill civilians. The terrorists wanted Cylon Boomer delivered over to them so they could kill her, as word had gotten out that Galactica was harbouring the enemy.

I’ve got a gripe with how some of this was handled. Because, to be fair, it certainly is an interesting matter for the fleet to contend with. The idea that their Admiral is harbouring and taking advice from a Cylon could have been a large-scale outcry. (Indeed, it still yet may prove to be so.) Instead the subject was tackled by the woman whose husband had been killed who had decided to revert to extremism to get her way.

Firstly, in the opening scene with the woman, showing her room filled with photos of Cylon Boomer and the various articles and research she had been conducting, it all looked like interesting stuff. She had been working out the Cylons’ M.O., and it looked very intriguing. She was detailing the various means by which the Cylons had been attacking them, and that’s certainly something I would be keen on seeing the show grapple.

The closest this episode came was Adama discussing with Cylon Boomer how the Cylons attack, how they adapt, but that was about it. I mean, I think back to the very first episode – Thirty-Three – and I STILL don’t know why the Cylons attacked in 33 minute intervals!

My other bugbear with the terrorist plot is the same as it was when those convicts were rioting in that prison episode early in Season One. How can such a small, minority group dare to try and hold the Galactica to ransom? Let’s be clear: without the Galactica the fleet would be screwed. Yet some people within the fleet believe they can dictate terms? How? What did these terrorist think would happen to them, threatening Tigh’s wife and Adama’s son? The sheer stupidity of that act is sense-defying.

The episode ended with Cylon Boomer having coldly informed Adama that she would never inform him of who the other Cylon agents within the fleet could be. He had to take that, and lock her up. And so she was left alone, her unborn child growing inside her. What the hell is that kid going to be? It reminds of that old show V, when a woman was pregnant with an alien baby in that – and she gave birth to twins and both of them were freaky as hell. . .

I get the feeling Boomer’s Baby, when it emerges, is going to be considered a vitally important element to both humans and Cylons. But on what side will it fall upon?