3.8 Hero

A turn up out of the blue presented an episode here that left a lot to mull over. The appearance of Bulldog in a Cylon raider, pursued by other Cylon raiders, put the veritable cat amongst the pigeons for Adama.

The backstory for Bulldog was that he was part of Adama’s crew when he was the commander of the Valkryie. Adama had been sent out to the border line between human and Cylon to see if there was any Cylon activity. Bulldog went over enemy lines, was spotted, and so Adama had him shot down and then rushed away from there to avoid detection.

As far as Adama was concerned, hearing that Bulldog had apparently survived and then been captured by the Cylons indicated that he had been exposed, and therefore he had broke the truce between human and Cylon and therefore been a catalyst for the holocaust on the colonies.

Crikey. That’s a tough pill to swallow.

It turned out that Bulldog had not escaped after all, rather he had been set free precisely so he could get to Galactica, and Adama, and either kill him once he knew the truth or perhaps in the very least de-stabilise Adama’s command. (In the eyes of Apollo that plan probably worked a tad.)

Handily Tigh was there to break free of his stupor and come to Adama’s aid; swallowing down his bile and see his role as one of an expendable soldier in a grand war. For Tigh to come around it needed a short, sharp shock like this to make me believe his ‘road back’ could occur, so in this sense the episode won me over.

But what of the idea that Adama could have started the war? It doesn’t quite ring true. In the vast expanse of space how did the Cylons so quickly detect Bulldog? Suggests to me they either knew he was coming or they were hanging around the borderline already. And how long had Six’s scheming with Balthar been in place? Before the Bulldog capture? After? I tend to think it was before - but I could be flat wrong about that.

A funny question would be: Why did the Cylons choose to cast themselves in the mould of humans? Was it to serve the God they believe in, or to better infiltrate and attack the human race? Or both?

And what Laura said rings true. For one thing Adama was ordered there, so what else was he supposed to do? And for another thing he is totally unaware of what else his superiors were up to in relation to potentially provoking the Cylons. What’s interesting is that we have now been given the idea of provocation. Before this point it was basically the case that the Cylons showed up out of nowhere and nuked the human race for no reason.

Now we are presented with the idea that humanity might not be blameless at all. That, perhaps, it was us that cast the first stone?

And meantime Cylon Xena – who I suppose I should start calling Deanna since she appears to have become a serious featured character! – was having her own weird sub-plot thrown in. She ordered a centurion to kill her so she could re-experience this bizarre place between her death and reincarnation. (Apparently her three-way sessions with Balthar and Caprica Six have opened her mind!?) This looks to me like an intriguing introduction to a new level of awareness for the Cylons, perhaps one that’s linked with those other five Cylon moulds that they don’t like to talk of?

Slowly some layers about the Cylons are being peeled away, opening up some fascinating possibilities. Pretty much that’s what this episode was about in general, I think; I just don’t know if it’s planting seeds here that will really blossom throughout the season, or just sprinkling a little spice to prickle things up a little bit.