4.1 He That Believeth In Me

Season 4 kicked off right in the thick of where it left off, with a walloping great space battle that clearly had a large chunk of change thrown at it. The opening title messages confirmed that Tigh, Tyrol, Anders and Tori were all Cylons – though the identity of the fifth Cylon was kept a secret, naturally!

Tigh delivered the first gasping shock, with the brief moment where he appeared to have shot Adama straight in the head. Whoa! But, ah, it was just a brief flight of fantasy, or perhaps a pre-programmed urge that he repressed enough to prevent from happening (precisely the way that Boomer didn’t). Meanwhile, Anders climbed into a cockpit and, with a Centurion recognising one of his own kind, apparently prompted the withdrawal of the Cylons completely.

It was never really explained why the Cylons chose that particular moment to stage an assault that appeared to have the single intent of destroying the entire fleet. Surely they could have done this at any time, given they appear to be consistently able to track the fleet wherever they go. How do they do that? Why have they waited?

The return of Starbuck, and the plight of Gaius amongst the cult that had taken in him, were fundamentally where the title of the episode was derived from. Gaius, under extreme circumstances, turned to faith and prayed to the one God to save the soul of the little boy. This wasn’t the first time he had apparently prayed, though the important distinction here was that he wasn’t praying for himself this time. The show blurred the lines here with the apparently genuine miraculous recovery of the child, and Six’s smug satisfaction and confidence that it would happen purely through Gaius’ belief. It’s harder to reconcile BSG as promoting the possibility of a Godless universe when miracles like this happen, apparently as predicted by the likes of Six.

Is there really a one true God, and is Gaius really a divine being? Has that been the shape of his destiny all along? (Or is he, indeed, the Final Cylon?)

Which brings me to Starbuck, who I am becoming more convinced isn’t the Final Cylon purely on the basis that there’s so much suspicion and highlighting of the idea that she could be. Maybe it’s a double bluff, but I tend to think the spotlight is on her to keep our eye off the real surprise.

But that doesn’t explain what the hell did happen to Starbuck! She returned after some periods of blacking out, having apparently been to Earth and retaining a vague memory of seeing Saturn (though she didn’t know it was so). To her she had been gone a few hours, hence how mystified she was by the news she had been gone for two months. How very Flight Of The Navigator!

And not only that, she had returned in a version of her ship that was brand new, without a scratch on it. It does point to that idea of ‘rebirth’ for Starbuck, ship as well, but how that actually works in real terms is not easy to explain away. Nor is her new affinity with the correct journey to Earth and the concern she had that Adama, by Laura’s command, was leading them in the wrong direction.

The conclusion to the episode was a cliffhanger – ‘to be continued’ – with Starbuck entering Laura’s bedroom and holding her at gunpoint. I am sure Starbuck won’t shoot her, but quite how she’s going to convince Laura to trust her and follow her course is going to be interesting. (And the question of whether Laura should, given the prophecy mentioned in Razor is an intriguing quandary.)