3.18 The Son Also Rises

The instant Laura announced that Gaius was going to be given a trial it had an air of importance about it. There was the sense that this trial was going to be made into a big deal. And ever since it was, I’ve been deeply not bothered about it. And here, on this episode that is the penultimate one before Season 3 goes into a two-part finish, I have seen nothing that convinces me this trial was a good idea.

This episode was all about Gaius being given a lawyer prepared to defend him. After one was assassinated, up stepped this odd, gravel-voice, shade-wearing, kleptomaniac Irishman and completely dragged the episode, and Battlestar Galactica, into one of the dullest places I’ve ever seen it.

An episode like this would be bad enough mid-season, but right towards the end as I am poised now it just seems like a dreadful mis-step. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe there is such a killer payoff going to result from this trial to make it worthwhile. . . But so far I am dubious. Aside from Starbuck’s end in the previous episode, the instalments lately have felt inert and lacking in purpose – as though the Season doesn’t know where to end and is so serving up episode after episode tackling different ideas just to fill in time before the finish.

Potentially, as this episode hinted, Apollo is going to be the driver to some scheme at the heart of Lampkin’s plans. The letter he sent to Gaius at the end, linked into the episode title, suggests that managing to convert Apollo against his father’s will is going to prove incredibly useful and powerful. But to what end, I don’t know. Perhaps my dislike of it is because the episode was dominated by this Lampkin guy who I just out and out didn’t believe in at all. Carrying a cat he didn’t like (that served only one purpose: to help Tyrol spot a bomb) and talking of deep-love between Caprica Six and Gaius, he just struck me as someone that was supposed to be all-knowing and profound about the human condition, but to me he sounded like he was full of shit.

If he turns out to be something to do with Final Five I am going to be very disappointed.

So the only reason I am now looking forward to the last two remaining episodes of the season is really because they are the last two remaining episodes, and Season Finales are generally good on any show, and on Battlestar Galactica they have been particularly good. Can I hope for a curveball, dramatic tone shift like Season 2? Do I dare hope for that much?