4.3 The Ties That Bind

Easily the best episode of this Season so far, focusing in the main on Callie but not in a way that suggested her tragic end was inevitable, or predictable. At the start of the episode she was an exhausted and fraught wreck due to her husband’s pre-occupation with being a Cylon. Given the promises he made last season about how things were going to change in their relationship it was a natural unravelling for Callie since such changes had never occurred.

On some form of drug concoction she accused Tyrol of having an affair with Tori, which in turn meant a public show that the three Final Cylons needed to address, and so they conducted their meeting to discuss the matter. What they didn’t know was that Callie was watching and listening, and the news that her husband was a skin-job wasn’t something she took well.

The final, shocking scene in the airlock was excellently executed (if you’ll pardon the pun). Callie took her child to the airlock and set it to go, apparently ready to blast herself and her abominable half-Cylon child out into space. And then Tori turned up. What wasn’t so surprising was that Tori managed to talk Callie out of it. What was more surprising was the moment Tori had Nicky in her hands, when she belted Callie away with super strength, knocking her flat. By the time Callie came around Tori was in the airlock control room, ready to flick the switch. . .

So that was the end of Callie, blasted out into cold space. Given that Adama was consoling Tyrol at the end of the episode suggests the view must be that Callie killed herself (her attack on Tyrol, and the Doc’s opinion on her condition would corroborate that story). The reveal about Tori is the startling aspect to this. She had said she was enjoying the new lease of life, the change, which explains why she acted so impulsively as a Cylon.

The likes of Tigh, Tyrol and Anders almost certainly have this same potential. Quite how able they will be to keep their Cylon side suppressed remains to be seen; as does how their Cylon side may display itself should it come to the fore. It can only be a matter of time.

There wasn’t much progression with Starbuck, Anders and Gaeta and the rest on the ship searching for Earth (that’ll be a plot point focused on in later episodes, no doubt). But now Apollo is wrangling in politics, with Zarek baiting him to antagonise Laura, the issue about the secrecy of that mission, and the secrecy by which Laura and Adama conduct their decisions is being questioned.

Frankly, at this stage in the show, it’s an issue that doesn’t feel particularly relevant. But maybe it will prove to be so, somehow. So I watch and engage in it, generally wishing the action was elsewhere. Because elsewhere there was Cylon action going on!

I had been premature in my previous assumption from the last episode that the likes of Cavell and the other Cylon moulds had been destroyed. Caprica’s actions had been more of a warning shot – but it was one that backfired. Cavell apparently acceded to Six’s request to reinstate Deanna (how I cannot WAIT to hear what she has to say, if I ever will!) only to turn against her and attack her ship.

With the Resurrection Ship not nearby it seemed that Caprica Six and company, if they were blown apart, would be properly dead. Yet since we never witnessed the absolute destruction I can only hopefully presume total annihilation has not yet occurred. Either Six and co will get out to wage war another day, or she may download after all. Whatever happens, this is a rift between the Cylons that does not appear to be salvageable. It’s a fascinating crossroads they’ve managed to forge here, and quite where the Centurions will fall into this is an extra element of spice thrown into the mix.