4.10 Revelations

Crikey, this episode fairly rattled along and crammed so much, so quickly into its regular running time I couldn’t believe the thing only lasted 40-odd minutes. It was a terrific episode that delivered way more than I expected and took the show smack bang into deeper-in territory than I could have reasonably anticipated.

There wasn’t much pausing for breath. Deanna made her demands that the Final Four should give themselves up to the Cylons and Tori was first to reveal her identity. That made sense. Of all of the Four she has been the one most readily willing to embrace her new-found Cylon side. And she didn’t waste time in revealing herself to Laura, happily swatting her down by stating she was done taking orders from her. In many ways, given Laura’s imperious qualities as President towards Tori and others, she kind of had it coming.

Tigh set things in motion by admitting to Adama that he was a Cylon all along. Since the Cylons were threatening to execute the hostages (they stated they actually had executed one, but we never saw it and it was never mentioned so it was impossible to know if it really happened, though I think we’re supposed to assume it did) Tigh had to take quick action.

Adama had a bit of a nervous breakdown when his friend of 30 years dropped the bombshell on him. That kind of character moment really deserved more time and inspection, but this was an episode that wasn’t hanging around so such introspection would have to wait. I am sure we’ll get to know Adama’s full response in later episodes.

With Adama losing it, and Laura a hostage, it was left to Apollo to step up and take a hold of the situation. Finally, the purpose of his political plot and positioning as president had value! He threatened to flush Tigh out of the airlock (an act, I think, that Tigh was practically welcoming) to prevent Deanna from holding all the cards. Tigh quickly revealed Tyrol and Anders were also like him, and soon they were also in the airlock.

Tyrol didn’t say much during this episode, but he did have a wry smile on his face for most of the episode. I think, after Tori, he is the next in line to have embraced his new nature.

Prior to this moment the Final Cylons had all heard some more music and been drawn to Starbuck’s pristine Viper ship. It was left to Starbuck to check it over and discover that it now highlighted co-ordinates that almost certainly could lead to Earth. (I must admit, for a brief moment, I thought the Viper itself was going to be the Final Cylon! Given the Cylons are machines after all!) It was a terrific sequence when Starbuck made the dash to the airlock, whilst Apollo’s finger hovered over the button to flush Tigh away. The music and the editing really carried the excitement terrifically – I never got a secure sense that all was going to turn out well.

As it happened, Starbuck’s news about the direction to Earth prompted a truce between Cylon and human, as instigated by Apollo. Even the Final Four Cylons were granted a quick amnesty (something that was a little too quick and casually doled out to be realistic, but this episode, as I have said, didn’t have time to hang around). They were to go to Earth together. I honestly thought the show was going to end right there (given I had no sense of time, or how long the episode had left, when I was watching). But oh no. . . the journey was not yet done.

The startling revelation was that the Fleet, and the Cylons, jumped to the route shown and made it to Earth. The image of the planet and the ships approaching it was a marvellous sight to behold. Again, I thought the episode was going to end right there, but it wasn’t done yet. They landed on Earth, and we got to see Adama feel the soil in his hands and then the camera panned past the dulled, almost empty expressions of the other major characters as they looked around this new Earth. It was barren, and the structures of the previous civilisation were now in ruins. And there the episode ended. . .

So what to make of THAT? Is this Earth our Earth? That is, does the Earth we know and live on figure as part of the mythology of Battlestar Galactica? Is the Earth they have found our Earth, only a long time in the past or way, way into the future? (Personally I go with the future idea, given the use of the ‘All Along The Watchtower’ song from the Season 3 finale.) Are we viewers the descendants of the 13th colony that has now, perhaps, ceased to exist? Or at least exists on a more savage level? Or in very few numbers? Is there anyone left on Earth at all?

It was a heck of an ending, and there’s only ten more episodes to go. The bitch of it is I am, for the first time, having to WAIT for the next block of Season 4 to air before I get to see it. I’m not used to having to wait! I want to know NOW!