2.19 Lay Down Your Burdens - Part 1

I actually had to check I had not missed an episode somewhere along the line when this one got going. Right at the start Starbuck was prepping a bunch of pilots to go on a mission to Caprica to try and rescue those left behind. It was considered dangerous but they had Cylon technology to enable them to jump better. Where did that come from?

And then there was President Laura psyching herself up for a debate with Gaius, with the polls apparently in full swing (and him not doing so well). Most dramatically of all, however, was Chief Tyrell rolling around on the floor, bearded, and when Callie went and woke him up he went nuts and smacked her face in.

Whoa! Hold your horses there, BSG, and let me find my feet!

Ostensibly these were the three plot prongs that made up the first part of this two-part season finale. The Tyrell aspect was perhaps the least engaging – with him discussing his suicidal tendencies to Al from Quantum Leap because he secretly believes he might be a Cylon. For all we know, he might be, but I personally don’t think (or hope) that he is.

Meanwhile the race for the presidency took a major twist with the discovery of a new planet. It had life sustaining qualities but was not, apparently, a great place for the human race to settle. I guess I felt it was a bit of a shame that this planet and what was on it was turned into a political issue as the first discovery of it was quite a ominous dramatic event. For a very brief moment I thought they might have involuntarily discovered Earth!

Still, Gaius is using the discovery to gain advantage in the polls by suggesting they should settle there permanently. President Laura has said that is not a viable option. Personally, I would be inclined to tell the fleet that those that want to stay can do, meanwhile Galactica and anyone that wants to come along will leave them behind to fend for themselves.

I think, given that choice, the take-up for settlement wouldn’t be quite so dramatic. But I guess politicians aren’t allowed (or supposed) to bluff and gamble on people’s lives – particularly when the population is so few. In many ways I suppose this political aspect is sometimes to the detriment of the show - forcing and cajoling the plot and characters into making decisions that appear blatantly stupid but needing to be done in the sense of democratic leadership. Maybe that's the point.

Starbuck and her mission to Caprica made up the close of the episode, with her fortuitously stumbling across the man she was looking for and his decimated group. No sooner had they hugged their hellos when Cylon fire rained down on them and penned them in. That was where we left them. In the shit, big-time.

I wonder if the mission, given the number of people they have lost and probably will lose, can be considered at all worthwhile given the amount of people they stand to actually rescue. . .

Cylon Boomer indicated a bad feeling, also. The other Cylon Boomer shared similar sentiments in the first season finale, just before she shot Commander Adama. This new gloom for Boomer suggested an altogether more darker time rather than just a single bad event, which certainly doesn’t bode well for our heroes but has piqued my interest! How dark is dark and what does it entail? With one last episode before the season closes I feel I am set to be given some form of indication. A rousing triumphant finish with a heartwarming send-off, I feel, is not how this second series is going to play out!

2.18 Downloaded

This episode had an absolute mindfrak of a revelation. In the pre-credits sequence we saw the Cylon that was named ‘Caprica Six’ be reborn in her regeneration tank. Traumatised since she died in a nuclear blast, it took her some moments to come round. And around her were various Cylons. A different Six. A Boomer. A Xena Warrior Princess.

And then Gaius’ head popped into view.

WHAT THE FRAK?

And just when I had a second to process the notion that Gaius was a Cylon after all, it turned out he was just a figment of Caprica Six’s imagination. So Gaius on Galactica has a fictional Six. And Six has a fictional Gaius. What the hell is all that about? Is it that their souls, spirits, or whatever are just so strongly connected some form of residual bond has stayed with them? What exactly happened when that blast hit? How the hell did Gaius get out of it alive?

So this episode focused on Cylon Boomer (the original one, the one that still felt human) and Caprica Six being regarded as faulty Cylons by Xena Cylon and potentially set to have their minds ‘frozen’. It was good to spend some time with the Cylons, and it’s certainly bizarre to see all of the same types dotted around, replicated. I noted there were no other moulds visible. . . No sneak peaks at who else might be a Cylon!

That being said, the Cylons do require a lot more explanation for me. Caprica Six, for example, believes by the end that the attack on the human race may have been a mistake as it would be considered a sin by their God. Well, considering they appear hardwired to be devoted to their God how could they have ever made such a monumentally catastrophic (blasphemous?) error? That definitely needs clarification. Because Caprica Six and Cylon Boomer now appear set, by the end of the episode, to try and change the Cylons – but I am not wholly clear on what they are changing them FROM!

Elsewhere on Galactica, Boomer’s baby was born and it wasn’t quite the dramatic fanfare climax of a birth I was expecting. The issue was not what the baby was, rather what they were going to do with it. The upshot was that they convinced Boomer and Helo the baby was dead whilst secreting it away with a new, unsuspecting parent onboard another ship.

It’s got that total Luke Skywalker vibe about it, though Laura’s request to keep popping in to see the child suggests it probably won’t turn out to be quite so good and wholesome. But more immediate consequences perhaps await Gaius, as the Six in his head is not at all happy with him.

Since we know now that the Six in his head is, apparently, created by Gaius and is not some outside source communicating with him, this does create the idea that Gaius is deeply, deeply insane. Even his own pretend friend is psychotically angry with him! There’s not much getting away from that situation!

So next up is the season finale! Bit of an odd lead-in, given there’s no sense of anything building up to a climax here (relatively speaking). I suppose it’ll be a self-contained piece of excitement. I hope so. Nothing makes for a good season like a top class finale, and this season, though patchy, I would say has been consistently good more often than not.

2.17 The Captain's Hand

It was about time the Pegasus got looked at following the death of it’s previous leader. This episode showed us that the man in charge, Garner, an engineer, was holding the reins. However, when a routine procedure meant a couple of ships were lost looking for a possible distress signal, the decision about what to do became critical.

Just on its own there was enough meat from this plot to fill an episode. Friction between Starbuck and Garner. Apollo boarding Pegasus as a major, with his relationship to D in full swing and clearly eating jealously away on Starbuck. There were plenty of dramatic angles opening up. And indeed that was the case. Apollo figured the distress call was a Cylon trap, but Garner thought otherwise and launched the Pegasus smack-bang into an ambush.

Pow! The FTL drive was hit! The ship was stranded out there and taking heavy nuke hits and so Starbuck and her Vipers go out to hold them off whilst Apollo orchestrates moves from the command deck to try and get the ship out of the mess. It was all terrific stuff – classic BSG. And Garner went and did the right thing by fixing the FTL drive, sacrificing himself for the greater good; not a complete arse then!

So the upshot of all this was the crucial promotion to Apollo as Commander of Pegasus. So now there’s two ships with an Adama at the helm of both of them! Makes for an interesting divergence – will they co-operate, or will the decision of one come into conflict with the will of the other? It’s certainly a great direction for Apollo’s character to take, right at a time when he was starting to look a little flat.

But all of that was not the only thing going on this episode. With the appearance of a pregnant stowaway wanting an abortion, the issue of whether childbirth was mandatory came to light. There were zealous fanatics anti-abortion, and President Laura on the pro-life side. However, hearing that the human race faced extinction pretty rapidly Laura had no choice but to decree a new law that said abortion, or any impediment to childbirth, would be punishable.

A harsh direction, and a strict imposition. Gaius stated his case that such lack of liberty moved them one step closed to the Cylons, and so announced his intention to run for the presidency in opposition. It was a delicious moment for Gaius; the slimy underhand villain role suits him a lot better than the weedy, intellectual do-gooder.

It’s Laura vs Gaius. . . Game on!

2.16 Sacrifice

Well this was a real doom and gloom episode and no mistake! Poor Billy. Always a likeable fringe character, his death here (as I am sure was the point) felt like a needless loss. Here was a guy that had potential to grow into someone good and important. And instead his life was snatched away in stupid circumstances. And after D had elected to blow him out so she could try and get whatever is going on between her and Apollo up and running, too!

Yep, it was tragic, yet the muted gloom of the episode kind of bleached out any shock. It was like the episode was so depressing that having a key character die towards the end was inevitable rather than surprising.

The crux of the matter was that the President and Admiral Adama were not prepared to kow-tow to terrorists, even ones that hijacked a bar with his son inside of it and were threatening to kill civilians. The terrorists wanted Cylon Boomer delivered over to them so they could kill her, as word had gotten out that Galactica was harbouring the enemy.

I’ve got a gripe with how some of this was handled. Because, to be fair, it certainly is an interesting matter for the fleet to contend with. The idea that their Admiral is harbouring and taking advice from a Cylon could have been a large-scale outcry. (Indeed, it still yet may prove to be so.) Instead the subject was tackled by the woman whose husband had been killed who had decided to revert to extremism to get her way.

Firstly, in the opening scene with the woman, showing her room filled with photos of Cylon Boomer and the various articles and research she had been conducting, it all looked like interesting stuff. She had been working out the Cylons’ M.O., and it looked very intriguing. She was detailing the various means by which the Cylons had been attacking them, and that’s certainly something I would be keen on seeing the show grapple.

The closest this episode came was Adama discussing with Cylon Boomer how the Cylons attack, how they adapt, but that was about it. I mean, I think back to the very first episode – Thirty-Three – and I STILL don’t know why the Cylons attacked in 33 minute intervals!

My other bugbear with the terrorist plot is the same as it was when those convicts were rioting in that prison episode early in Season One. How can such a small, minority group dare to try and hold the Galactica to ransom? Let’s be clear: without the Galactica the fleet would be screwed. Yet some people within the fleet believe they can dictate terms? How? What did these terrorist think would happen to them, threatening Tigh’s wife and Adama’s son? The sheer stupidity of that act is sense-defying.

The episode ended with Cylon Boomer having coldly informed Adama that she would never inform him of who the other Cylon agents within the fleet could be. He had to take that, and lock her up. And so she was left alone, her unborn child growing inside her. What the hell is that kid going to be? It reminds of that old show V, when a woman was pregnant with an alien baby in that – and she gave birth to twins and both of them were freaky as hell. . .

I get the feeling Boomer’s Baby, when it emerges, is going to be considered a vitally important element to both humans and Cylons. But on what side will it fall upon?

2.15 Scar

If the previous episode was all about Apollo’s ‘dark night of the soul’ then this was Starbuck’s turn – and I have to say hers was a far more impressive affair. The ‘scar’ of the title was a deadly Cylon ship, picking off Vipers with alarming ruthlessness. The pre-episode recap featured the ship that Starbuck once piloted back to Galactica, so I guess the suggestion was that Scar was the reincarnated version of this previously dead ship.

However, thanks to the destruction of the Resurrection Ship, Scar could now ‘die’ – and so he was a nasty ship with a grudge, but a fear of death. And Starbuck was his enemy.

Starbuck, in the meantime, was pining over that guy she left behind on Caprica. And so turned to drink to numb the thoughts, especially after Apollo turned her down for some no-strings rough sex. As Helo pointed out at the end of the episode, she had something to live for rather than nothing to die for – and this made her less reckless.

I thought the episode was supremely enjoyable. As the “nuggets” filed in and were terrified by tales of Scar picking them off, there was good rivalry between Kat and Starbuck battering through. (I thought for sure that Kat would be killed and Starbuck would be the one to take Scar down – that this clichéd end didn’t happen was very welcome. Kat’s too good a foil for Starbuck to just kill off just yet!)

The episode felt like the last half of a movie, like Top Gun or something, with the gloves off and the stakes raised high – and the finale didn’t disappoint, with the touching toast at the end to those they could remember the names of, and those they couldn’t; the pilots that had been killed.

In other respects this was pretty much a stand-alone episode – one a casual viewer could have tuned into and got involved in without having to know the larger picture. Such episodes can be risky propositions, but when the calibre is of this standard it’s no risk at all. The only overhanging aspect is what, if anything, Starbuck will do about her nagging urge to go back to Caprica to try and rescue those survivors she left behind – despite feeling almost certain they are dead.

Will she go? Will the fleet go? I can’t imagine it. . . but I can’t rule it out either. (If it is just a question of one FTL jump, then why the hell not send a small pick-up squadron?) In the grander scheme of things, between this and the previous episode Season 2 is treading water a little bit. I am sure the next major plot turn is around the corner, to kickstart the inevitable chain of events that will lead up to the season’s climax.

I don’t have much inkling as to what that will be – but if it doesn’t involve Cylons and Galactica people in jeopardy and dreadful decisions then I’ll be mightily surprised. . . And I still haven’t forgotten about Gaius and Pegasus Six being in possession of a nuclear warhead! Nor Cylon Boomer on the verge of giving birth! I expect all of these to come to fruition before the Season is over.

2.14 Black Market

An Apollo-centric episode this, with him trawling the dark heart of himself as was prompted by his near-death experience. The episode showed him lying around with another woman, one with a kid, and at first that all seemed leftfield until she asked for money – and then it became clear. Apollo was turning to prostitutes – and as became apparent later on this was an attempt to try and get back the relationship with the woman he made a mess of a relationship with back on Caprica.

So Apollo’s got some skeletons in his closet and some demons to exercise, so he goes on something of a crusade to uncover the ringleaders controlling the black market shipments of supplies around the fleet.

There were some good elements in this, for me, and some not so good. On the not so good front I didn’t know where the hell Admiral Adama was in this episode. He pops up, sends his son out on a frakking Sherlock Holmes investigation, and appears oblivious and carefree about where it all goes.

I mean, seriously, the commanding officer of the Pegasus was brutally murdered by the criminal underworld and Adama seemed just a little casual about that for my liking. Wouldn’t he have been more inclined to send the full force of the Galactica and the Pegasus to rout them all out? (They tried to cover this over by claiming the black market was an essential element within the fleet but, like President Laura, I am dubious about that statement.)

So it felt like a weird episode, but I guess a character focus now and then doesn’t hurt. And Apollo certainly needed that shading of darkness – in the first series especially he had a righteousness and heroic stature that wasn’t quite three-dimensional enough (and not convincing either). If he’s ploughing the low roads of his soul at the moment then that’s fine – though I am unclear about how dark they are going to go with him.

Still, without a Cylon attack or any mention of the journey to Earth this did feel like something of a filler episode. And once more Tom Zerek popped up to confuse the issue, with a very unclear finish showing him hanging around the black marketers. Am I to assume that Tom was up to his neck in it all along? I’m all for shades of grey, but point blank ambiguity is no help to me!

So, in conclusion, nice enough – but in terms of propelling the momentum of the series this episode kind of stopped it dead. (I am getting a sense that BSG isn’t overly-skilled (or concerned) with over-arching dramatic plot movements. Usually stringing two or three episodes together as high points before sloping back down in episodes like this before the next climactic point.)

2.13 Epiphanies

This is one of those episodes that feels, at first, like it’s a bit of a mess and appears to lack a proper thrust – but then towards the end the strands pull together to make it all feel complete. That being said, it wasn’t a great episode.

It started with Laura being rushed to critical status in hospital, as the cancer presumably spread to her brain and was almost set to claim her life. Whilst this occurred she experienced flashbacks of her life just before the Cylon attack – where we learned that she had an affair with the President going on, and that she also happened to see Gaius canoodling with Six.

Alas, she didn’t recall that first time around – but her memory logged the image and, by the end of the episode, she now has the knowledge to incriminate Gaius as the culprit that facilitated (unwittingly) the Cylon attack to occur in the first place. But that only came about by the end when, in an ironic twist, it was Gaius that eschewed the possibility of becoming President and found a miracle cure for cancer that saved Laura’s life!

Gaius saved the life of the person who could potentially sentence him to death. Interesting. Not sure what Laura’s actions will be in light of all this once she gets back to full strength. It would turn out well if she did act fast as Gaius appears to feel betrayed and has decided to join the ‘peace’ movement with the Cylon-lovers, headed up by Pegasus Six.

Another irony; that the peace movement present the biggest threat within the Galactica fleet!

And by the end of the episode, of course, Gaius has gone and handed them a nuclear warhead. A fairly extreme gesture of solidarity. Quite where that plot thread is going to go I am not sure, but it seems like this Gaius/Pegasus Six axis of threat looks set to embed itself as a major element in the future of Galactica – potentially to dominate the remainder of the Season?

The other major factor sure to plague Season 2 is pregnant Boomer’s childbirth. Already her unborn child possesses blood that not only cures cancer in astonishing time but, presumably, can cure any kind of disease. Does it have life extending properties too? And, if the child is allowed to be born, just what the hell will it be? (I have a hunch that the birth of the child has Season Finale written all over it!)

Still, it’s good that Laura’s terminal death has been removed from the show. It was getting boring! Now she can get strong again and continue in the usual fashion of her head strong sense of morality and politics – not usually the most exciting of plot points in BSG to be fair, but it’s a stalwart element so it has to be embraced!

2.12 Resurrection Ship - Part 2

Something of a let-down for me, this episode. The previous instalments had built up to a climactic showdown that, oddly, fell a little flat here. The episode opened up with Apollo, dreaming of floating in water, peacefully, only for him to be revealed as floating in space having ejected out of his ship.

Cut to 48 hours earlier and we get to find out what lead to this state of affairs.

So the thing with this episode was how dulled it felt. (I got a feeling that there had been quite a large gap between this episode being aired and the previous episode being aired; I have no idea if that’s true or not, but it felt like it.) Helo and Tyrell were beaten up and tortured, as if to remind us how nasty some of the Pegasus crew were. But then the captain intervened to show that there are good guys there, too. . .

The attack and destruction of the Resurrection Ship was a bizarrely deadened affair. There was simply no action or excitement in it at all – and really it was the entire Galactica and Pegasus fleet against a mass Cylon fleet so it had potential to be truly epic. Instead Apollo was left to float around for a while and nearly die before he was rescued. Unless something further comes of his remark about how he had wanted to die then it was a bit of a dead end. So to speak.

The assassination on either Kane or Adama was the most gripping aspect of the episode. Starbuck showed her allegiance to Adama, but wasn’t quiet about announcing how wrong she thought the decision was. Interestingly both Adama and Kane called off their attacks – and Kane was allowed a brief little speech to try and help us understand how she could be so callous and ruthless and unjust. The ‘not flinching’ at anything idea of her character almost sold it – but then you just had to consider the near-rape of Boomer leading to the death penalty for Tyrell and Helo to recall just how farfetched her righteousness was.

Anyway, Six got to kill her. And perhaps Prisoner Six was the most intriguing aspect here. As I hoped, Gaius and the Six in his head were at odds about this new prisoner – and Gaius ultimately preferred Prisoner Six rather than the confident machination that he can only see. Hopefully this is a plot dynamic that will continue, and apparently will; Gaius has evidently disappeared with Prisoner Six and is keeping her to himself. . . There will no doubt be consequences!

So Kane is dead! That was essential; whilst she made a tense foil against Adama she was simply too oppressive and cold to be allowed to survive. And now Adama is an Admiral of both Galactica and Pegasus. Double the firepower. Extra manpower. For once Galactica’s odds have improved, though perhaps tensions between the two ships aren’t quite ready to be considered over and done with just yet. . .

2.11 Resurrection Ship - Part 1

So this is a ‘to be continued’ episode following from the previous episode, but also ends with a ‘to be continued’ making this whole Pegasus arrival a three-part chain of episodes. And, once again, this second instalment continues the fine quality so far and maintains great tension and interest.

So far, for me, Season Two is turning out to be a cracker.

The real crunch point came at the end, really, with Adama finally getting covert following Laura’s insistence (funny how often he ends up taking her advice!) and attempting an assassination on Kane. And he’s enrolled Starbuck to do it.

Interestingly for Starbuck there’s something of a conflict for her in that she actually bonded a little with Kane. Kane’s intention was to go back to Caprica and make a fight to reclaim the whole system back as their own. Starbuck was all for that idea rather than the flight to a mythical Earth that Adama is following. It’s an interesting crossroads to be at. Kane, for the one and only time, had a reasonable agenda that painted her with a little more depth than the shrew-like bitch she is otherwise a figure of.

So, will Starbuck go through with it? Will it come to that? I have to wonder if there isn’t going to be a crisis point of some kind, since Kane is plotting her own assassination of Adama! Maybe there’ll be a stand off, like with the ships fighting each other at the beginning of this episode, that will be resolved by some unforeseen intervention.

The Resurrection Ship itself at least answers some Cylon questions. Like when that Cylon was blasted out of the airlock by Laura back in Season One, worried about whether his soul would make it back to another body. Well, if the Resurrection Ship was in the vicinity then the answer is yes. (Maybe this ship, in range, also helps explain some of the telepathic, memory-recollection qualities the various Cylons have.)

On a final note, Gaius has finally been given some potential to become very interesting with his relationship with Prisoner Six. She’s battered and needy and Gaius is looking after her. I hope that keeps up and gets explored more. Mainly because it’s interesting how Prisoner Six will behave and develop given her conditioning – but it will also be interesting to see how the Six in Gaius’ head deals with her counterpart.

Will Gaius like the prisoner more than the manifestation? Will there be jealousy issues? Will Gaius be torn between the two, vying for his soul? I really hope that’s the path this plot is heading down. . . I wait and see.

2.10 Pegasus

Well well well, things have taken a turn for the serious. The episode started with what appeared to be a bright miracle – the discovery of the Pegasus Battlestar. Here was a ship, lead by Admiral Kane, that had not had to bother with the protection of a fleet and had purely gone out on the offensive.

As should have been clear from the start, this was a ship that takes a hardline to a new level. And having Adama’s authority taken away was never going to be one that went well.

The episode didn’t waste time in getting to the point: the Pegasus pretty much presented bad news for the Galactica fleet, with an iron fist rule and self-serving mentality that overstepped reason. And, to be sure, the episode strained credulity in busting itself wide open to make the point. The real jaw-dropping moment came in the almost-rape of Boomer, before Tyrell and Helo arrived and battered the interrogator to death.

But by the remarks of the other crew members, and the battered state of Pegasus’ Six, it was apparent that rape and beating of her had been commonplace, rendering her into a catatonic state. (The scenes with her and Gaius at last presented him with some material that didn’t make him a weasel, which was welcome.)

This was dark dark stuff indeed. And following on from the previous gloriously enjoyable episode the counterpoint is more extreme.

Admiral Kane is evidently a very hateable character. In fact, so unreasonably harsh was her issuing a death sentence against Helo and Tyrell, it was hard to actually believe she could be real. Although, given the worried looks of the crew, and the story of how she shot her second-in-command in the head, it would appear that beneath her cold exterior she was utterly insane. It’s the only real explanation for the episode’s conclusion – a to be continued with both Battlestars about to be pitted against one another.

But Kane was not only the bitch. Apollo’s counterpart CAG from the Pegasus was also an absolute arse. And the grinning meathead crew didn’t sell the idea that there was anyone decent on the Pegasus. This is something of a shame. Either the Pegasus represents a Galactica gone wrong, populated by scumbags – or there are other people amongst the crew that we have yet to meet who can show some level of integrity much-lacking.

Still, great episode. Reminded me a lot of the introduction of the ‘tail section’ people in Lost. Makes me wonder if there isn’t going to be a backstory to take us through the Pegasus story and perhaps clarify how they came to be the crew we encountered in this episode. Perhaps, as Tigh and Adama discussed, context is an important thing to be highlighted, and is something we as viewers are not privy too when judging the Pegasus and its people.

Maybe, like the death sentence of Tyrell and Helo, it’s an unfair judgement I am striking them with. That would be an interesting future plot, perhaps, to turn around my absolute detest of these people into making me sympathise. That’s if they survive past the second part of this two-parter, of course!