4.16 Deadlock

After the thrills and information deluge of the previous few episodes I guess it was to be expected that a ‘duller’ episode was going to present itself. For me, this episode had the feel of one of the first season shows – though maybe that was just due to Ellen Tigh being in it, and not only being in it but being manipulative and annoying.

It felt a little jarring how Ellen had lost her serenity and wisdom from her ‘awakening’ as a Cylon in the last episode. The moment she was back with Tigh and heard he was with Caprica Six petty jealousy – of the type she had condemned Cavil over in the previous episode – informed her behaviour and caused her to make some drastic actions. Notably: to force Tigh to choose between humanity and his Cylon kind, knowing it was no choice he would ever make.

It was hard to know whether Ellen was genuinely remorseful over how her actions ultimately caused the death of Caprica’s unborn baby. I am leaning towards the idea she was sorry, purely having been blinded by her pursuit of spite towards Tigh. Whatever the way of it, the baby is now dead and this, in effect, cancels out any discussions about the Cylons breaking away from the fleet, and also switches the focus back on Hera as being the most important child around.

This is welcome. After all the time and focus there has been on Hera, to have her crown of importance snatched off her by this unborn latecomer would have been an anti-climax. It still seems Hera is the key to a union of human and Cylon - the Cylons can't reproduce without them and the humans need their firepower and resources - and we may yet learn of the secrets of the opera house and the shared dreams Laura, Caprica and Athena had. It was heartening this did get a brief mention, assuring me that the writers haven’t forgotten about it.

Same goes for Gaius and his head visions of Six, who made a return this episode, too. Again, like in season one, Gaius here was a bit of a snivelling ball of insecurity – though there was a slight redemption in that he genuinely claimed to have enjoyed giving the food out. That his resolution of his leadership problems has handed large arms to his people, most notably Paula, then I can’t help but wonder if there is still a revolution on the cards. Paula had the look of a freedom fighter about her. . .

Adama meanwhile is looking more and more like a man losing the grip of power. By the end of the episode he has come to the realisation that the integration of Cylons has taken hold in more ways than just the use of their goop material to repair structural integrity – they have posted pictures of their dead in the remembrance corridors. The talks over drinks Adama shared with Tigh, usually the source of relaxed respite in previous seasons, here had an edge. Adama’s little speech about how his ship may look the same on the outside but would be markedly changed on the inside was, clearly, about more than just his ship!

Still, this episode was spinning its wheels slightly. Anders woke up. Gaius was back with his flock. Caprica’s baby was dead and Hera was the main focus. The fleet was all together, including Ellen, and they don’t have much direction. The stage for the grand finale, it seems, is primed – and there’s still so much to resolve!

4.15 No Exit

Whoa. Now this was the kind of episode where you really needed to be paying attention, where the show just dumps a heck of a lot of answers all in your lap, all at once, and expects you to swallow them up. So, let me see if I got it straight. . .

The Final Five were on Earth 3,000 years ago when the place started to go nuke crazy. However, these five had been involved in making resurrection technology. (A technology that had existed previously, but whilst on Kobol the Cylons had turned their backs on it before they parted ways with the humans for their respective colonies.)

So Tyrol, shacked up with Tory, along with Ellen and Tigh, and Anders seemingly along for the ride, all got nuked but then resurrected in their ship orbiting Earth. The sole survivors of their planet, they then set off to the colonies, for the other 12 tribes they parted from on Kobol, to try and inform the humans they needed to look after the Cylons they were destined to re-create. Unfortunately they didn’t have FTL drives so they travelled in such a way that meant they didn’t age, but 3,000 years passed. Good old relativity. They got to the colonies in time for the first Cylon war, which they intervened on and made the Cylons withdraw.

40 years passed, where the Final Five taught the Cylons (who had already been experimenting with human incarnations with their Hybrid) how to produce human models of Cylon. Ellen was apparently the chief designer, and imbued her creations with human emotions. She apparently made 8 models in all. ‘John’ Cavill was one of these, but rejected the body he had been given and turned on his creators.

Cavill killed the Final Five, and boxed up one of the models known as Daniel as he believed this was Ellen’s favourite. Then he orchestrated the attack on the colonies after resurrecting the Final Five, as human counterparts that had no memory of what they were, and inserting them into the human world. Apparently Cavill put the Final Five in positions where they would not be wiped out, or ensured their survival, and so continued the hunt of the human race after the attack as some twisted means of making the Final Five pay for what they did.

It’s a hell of a story.

Cavill knowing the Final Five all along was a shocking revelation, but one that works in hindsight. Peculiarly he has been present in most of their lives – whether it be counselling Tyrol, rescuing Anders from Earth, frakking Ellen. . . He was also the one that took Tigh’s eye! The only one he seems to have missed out is Tory. Still, this new information about Cavill sits just fine with previous episodes, enlightening his character and motivations regarding human and Cylon alike that we have seen since Season 2. Especially nice is the Boomer model that he involved in his ploy – we saw them together in earlier seasons and this episode emphasised the bond they had created between them.

It was also a nice payoff that this Boomer, ever the traitorous, impulsive model, was the one that whisked Ellen away at the end of the episode. I also really liked Ellen’s moment of awakening – from the shrieking human, to the calm serenity of the Final Five creator.

Daniel is an interesting one. I have to conclude that Starbuck is/was Daniel. Cavill apparently messed with the Daniel model – that liked to paint, like Starbuck – and perhaps that means he changed the sex of the model. Starbuck has always had masculine qualities (she originally WAS a man in the first Battlestar series so that works on a whole other level!). Quite what became of the Daniel boxed line, and if it is Starbuck how she was inserted onto Earth, or how she died and came back despite her ship and body being on Earth I don’t know. But this is the strongest plotline I think we’ve ever had to base conclusions on about her ever since she died and came back. (She’s still the harbinger of death, though, right!?)

Anders delivered much of the information due to the bullet in his brain he received in the last episode. I had the feeling he was not going to be around for much longer than this episode purely for the fact that he knew too much. (Liked how Tory was kicking herself for never asking him about “that song”!) By the end of the episode he was apparently brain dead – and with the resurrection ship destroyed it would at first seem he was doomed. But then Cavill did mention that Ellen had facilities somewhere, where she perhaps re-designed the resurrection technology during the 40 year armistice, so there’s a shot that Anders may resurrect in that facility.

If all that wasn’t enough, Apollo was officially appointed president and Adama conceded to allowing Tyrol the use of Cylon technology to save his knackered Galactica. Thematically I interpreted this as the integration of humans and Cylons being essential if they were going to survive – and I think Galactica’s got at least one last battle left to face in the shape of Cavill, whenever he catches up with them, so the old girl is going to need all the repairs she can get. . .

Unbelievably, we're now down to the Final Five episodes!

4.14 Blood On The Scales

It was a shame I had a week to wait in between this episode and the previous one – all of the momentum and emotion had kind of dissipated a lot more from my initial reaction. So whilst this episode did present the 'payoff' that the previous one had set up, it wasn’t quite the climax I would have had were I to have seen the two back-to-back.

That’s not to say it wasn’t a great episode, though.

The major portion of the show was concerned with Adama and Roslyn. Adama had been captured and was being forced into a trial that was little more than a sham. As he eloquently put it, when they rolled out Rollo Lamkin, they needed a pimp. I had no doubts that they were not going to be successful in executing the old man, but it was enjoyable to see his steely-eyed glare staring down those that intended to. Adama is just not a man to cross!

Roslyn, meantime, displayed some new-found allegiance from her Cylon Renegades. At first they were all too willing to abandon the fleet to save themselves, but she convinced them that being on the wrong side of Adama would not be a smart move and they had to show some courage and stand by. And then she delivered that terrific threatening speech about using every gun and bullet; there’s fire in her belly now! I can’t help but think that she, over the course of these two episodes, has not only reclaimed her thirst to lead the fleet, but also acquired the power to lead the Cylons, also. (At present the Cylons just seem to be kind of standing around. . . What are they doing?)

Less interesting, but pivotal, was that Gaius found his conscience. Even when a brunette Six was hellbent on screwing him, New Gaius was dismissive of it and wanted to return to the flock of his people; not because he liked them, purely out of a sense of obligation. That’s a major turnaround for him, and he needs something – at present his character is in a no man’s land with no real sense of purpose. With so few episodes remaining I am sure Gaius is going to be instrumental, but I can’t see how.

Apollo and Starbuck rescued the prisoners on Galactica and then they all marched off to rescue Adama from the firing squad just in time. Seeing Gaeta and Zarek get their just desserts wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been, perhaps deliberately. They didn’t seem sorry for what they had done – just accepted their actions had failed. There’s no doubt that Zarek’s slaughter of the quorum was probably one of BSG’s coldest moments, so he definitely had it coming.

That we never saw what happened with Anders, dragged away by Starbuck and Lamkin (for once he proved to be an enjoyable and worthy part of the episode rather than the irritation I’ve found him to be previously), makes me assume he’s going to be OK. Unless all the next episode is going to be about him on his death-bed! I’d hope not. But what was interesting was Starbuck showing she still cared enough about the guy; between her kiss of Apollo last episode, and this saving grace here, she’s clearly a woman with a mind to make up!

Lastly, there was that curious moment with Tyrol, having shut down the FTL drive. He gazed upon the opened fissures in the side of the ship. At first I couldn’t understand what the significance of this was – whether it meant some new crisis was emerging, or it betrayed knowledge of something that had gone on that I wasn’t seeing. Now I just think it’s Tyrol’s eyes being opened to how battered the ship has become over the years – and perhaps it’s an indication that it’s not set to last much longer.

Battlestar Galactica is breaking up, and the human race will need to find somewhere else to call home before too long. . .

4.13 The Oath

I don’t have anything intelligent to say about this episode. My reaction is not an intellectual one. This episode stirred up pure emotional and physical response that I don’t recall a TV show firing up in a long time. For almost the entire episode I was on edge, and getting angrier, and more tense.

Gaeta and Zarek’s coup attempt got under way, big time. With Zarek over on Colonial One, he was poised to assume the presidency just as soon as Gaeta had seized control of Galactica and its firepower (no doubt to use as a means to subdue unrest in the fleet – so much for democracy!). From the moment Zarek hit, and killed, that poor engineer (had his family taken from him by Kane and Pegasus, survived New Caprica and got finished off by treachery – poor engineer indeed) it was clear that there were to be no half measures.

The coup was going for the throat in its attempt to succeed. And it all happened alarmingly quickly.

The fake fire alarm moved people away from the arms lockers, Gaeta could filter communications and traffic in the CIC and, as stated, Zarek had Colonial One. Things were looking bleak. The moment the crunch came, and Adama narrowly-avoided taking a bullet, his unmasked fury at Gaeta and promise of no mercy was as terrifying as it was necessary.

Was there anyone I hated more than Gaeta right at that precise moment? It was great to have the nerd with a cold-heart (following his leg amputation most recently, but really the seeds were sown since New Capirica) be the man responsible. You just knew that anyone could beat the hell out of him, and that escalated the sense of powerlessness Adama and Tigh were put under.

I liked that Adama and Tigh actually got themselves free and armed independently. The expectation was that Starbuck (never been cooler than when she rescued Lee) and Apollo (reminding us there’s a soldier beneath the suit) would find them and help them out, but the two old men showed they’ve still got game when they need to bring it on and it was great to see.

(Amidst all this, Starbuck and Apollo shared a kiss. Their on-off romance just got rekindled, I think.)

Old vendettas from the Pegasus crew towards Helo and Athena served to ramp up the animosity, also. That guy threatening to rape Athena before knocking Helo out stirred up all those old feelings of anger that were generated from the Pegasus episodes of Season 2 (which were, in hindsight, one of BSG’s finest moments). By the end of the episode the fate of those locked in the brig still hung in the balance.

In fact, everything hung in the balance.

Gaius and Roslin had managed to escape on a ship (potentially having forged an accord with one another, and Laura should now have fire in her belly to resume her presidency), but Gaeta had ordered Viper’s after them. I can only hope that either ‘good’ Viper pilots against the mutiny, like Hot Dog, spot what’s happening and help them out. Or maybe Gaeta will have a change of heart and cancel the strike. It seems unlikely, but Gaius did try to appeal to his guilt by reminding him of his role in the death lists that were produced on New Caprica.

(Admittedly, this reference was kept somewhat oblique – but anyone who had seen the ‘minisodes’ would have learned that Gaeta was part-collaborator in the production of the death lists (despite him convincing himself he was helping the resistance).)

So the episode ended on a crunching ‘to be continue’. Adama and Tigh appeared to be in point blank range of a grenade blast, but I seriously doubt either one are dead just yet! Still, loved them standing side by side, guns readied, soldiers to the last. We saw Starbuck and Apollo sneak off up ladders, surely putting their part of a plan into action. I expect this coup to be quashed, for the likes of Gaeta and Zarek to be put against the wall, and I relish it occurring. But what next for the fleet is of most interest. How will they re-group for this? Where do they go?

Yet forget the intellectual ponderings for now. This episode evoked a primal response, and I frakking loved it. Thrilling tension with genuine emotional heft – I can’t imagine any other show even capable of producing such action-packed, nerve-shredding heights. I loved every minute of it.