3.6 Torn

As anticipated, the experiences Starbuck and Tigh had on New Caprica have had marked changes to their character. And in this episode they got together, sitting in the mess room, spouting negativity and bile to anyone who would listen. Ostensibly their point was that they had been through worse than other people, and so other people had no right being positive.

Self-pity turned outward, made destructive.

This idea, thematically, made Starbuck and Tigh contaminants on Galactica that were polluting morale. By the episode’s end Adama stepped up to try and nip it in the bud; telling them both to either sort themselves out or get off the ship. Starbuck, as a result, went to Casey and hugged her, suggesting that she has taken the route to swallowing her bitterness and trying to pull ahead.

Tigh, on the other hand, told Adama that his old self was gone and never coming back and he hit the bottle in a big way. His may be a character that is really going to hit bottom before ever getting a chance at returning to the fold – I just wonder if he will ever come back from the brink at all.

The view of a contaminant theme was continued with Gaius and the Cylons. He had plotted a course towards the next stage of the journey to Earth. The Cylons, unsurprisingly, have decided that they want to make that their next place to stop. (They have all the universe and decide Earth is the spot? Bastards!) However, a base ship was sent into the next marker and hit upon a problem: a Cylon-killing disease vessel, most probably left by the thirteenth colony en route to Earth.

Fundamentally a hurdle on the path to Earth; a barrier to prevent the Cylons from passing. Gaius went onboard the base ship and found this all out, and then chose to not mention it to the Cylons. But they saw it anyway!

There was a lot of interesting information about Cylons and Gaius, though, which was welcome. It was precisely the function I hoped Gaius would be used for during his time with the Cylons. Six spoke of ‘projection’, of how the Cylons alter their environment easily, to suit their own well-being. Like vivid daydreaming. Naturally, we have seen from the start that Gaius is also particularly adept at this skill, which inevitably made him raise the same question I was thinking:

Is Gaius a Cylon?

Crucially this question was not answered. Right now, it’s the possibility that makes the most sense. He asked about the five other moulds of Cylon he has not yet seen, asking why it was only seven of the twelve appeared to be the ones making all the decisions. These were good questions, ones I had been wondering about as well. And though there was no answer, it was good that the question was posed and was obviously a part of the bigger picture yet to be revealed. As long as the show’s creators have the matter in hand then I am happy to wait.

I have to figure that the Hybrid isn’t one of the Cylon moulds. I don’t quite know what the hell she was, mind. Talk of her being the voice of God, whilst controlling the ship, existing on a plane of experience completely different to everyone else. . . Yeah, OK. They’ll either go somewhere with that, or they’ll drop it like a hot brick.

So the episode ended with newly-named Cylon Sharan, a.k.a. Athena, discovering the blinking lion in space, and seeing the dead base Cylon base ship next to it. Is such fleeting exposure enough to contaminate Cylon Athena? Does that little machine have to be onboard a ship to give Cylons the disease, or is just travelling through that region of space enough? Are there lots of those disease-spreading space mines scattered all over that area? I guess the second part will let me know, but this was a very intriguing episode. It felt like the show was making big strides to the ‘next level’ of revelation regarding Cylons, and the journey to Earth, both of which are, I think, the next natural progression for the show to take.