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Battlestar Galactica: Exodus, Part 2

Adama: "Then, that's it. It's been an honor."

Battlestar Galactica is often emotional for me, but it rarely packs a wallop this strong. I knew Lee would turn around and come for them; how could he not, when the stakes were that high? His decision to buck his father's authority saved thousands of lives, as well as the Galactica.

Several scenes gave me chills, or brought me to tears, or both. Like that heavy scene when Tigh killed poor, fatally misguided Ellen. When the Galactica was nearly destroyed, and Adama told his crew that it had been an honor. When Lee told the Pegasus, "Thank you." When the Pegasus rammed the base star, and exploded into pieces. When Roslin stole Colonial One back. When Adama welcomed the battered and widowed Tigh back on board the Galactica.

The effects were just outstanding, too. The launch of the decoys. Galactica falling into the atmosphere. Fighters launched right over the settlement on New Caprica. Galactica getting hit over and over by the Cylon base stars. The burning Pegasus ramming the base star. I've pretty much run out of superlatives here.

So the whole Leoben baby thing was just a deception after all. Leoben, that shithead, was using someone else's toddler to try and make Starbuck loving and compliant. Fortunately, Starbuck was still Starbuck. She killed him again, and even in front of Casey, who is probably now scarred for life. Starbuck telling Anders briefly, "I'll explain later," just made me laugh out loud.

Along with practically every other minute of this episode, I loved those last few moments where Adama shaved off his dashing mustache. Things are back to normal. Or as normal as it can be when you're a rag tag group of humans running for your lives from the Cylons. What sort of repercussions will there be? Will Cat and Helo have to give up their new jobs? Will Lee become XO? Will Tigh get a dashing new eye patch? Will all our new marrieds stay married? Will Starbuck cut her hair?

Bits and pieces:

— Did Ellen know what she was drinking? The scene was ambiguous enough that it was hard to tell. Personally, I think that if Ellen knew, she would have done her best to manipulate Tigh into letting her go.

— Gaius saved Sharon's baby, and stopped D'Anna from nuking the planet. And he left town with Caprica Six. Is Gaius going to live among the Cylons now?

— D'Anna now has baby Hera, just as the oracle said she would.

— I've been assuming that D'Anna was the Cylon in Charge, but according to Ellen Tigh, it was Brother Cavil. Maybe D'Anna was second in command, because Dean Stockwell wasn't in this episode.

— Gaeta showed what he was made of. Pretty good stuff. Will he be considered a collaborator, though? Will Jammer?

— Starbuck and Leoben have generated some pretty serious emotional baggage. Sort of the photographic negative of Gaius and Six. Fascinating.

— Anders and Starbuck do indeed have matching tatts. I should have realized. Anders is growing on me. Never mind that a guest star spouse usually has a limited shelf life.

Quotes:

Zarek: "You're coming, right?"
Laura: (indicating Colonial One) "My ship's up there."
Zarek: "You sure have a sense of the dramatic."

Lee: "Am I that easy to read?"
Dualla: "Just to me."
Lee and Dee appear to have a good marriage. So why was he overeating? That's something people do when they're unhappy.

Gaius: "I just want to sit here and die."
Gaius has changed. This experience has changed him.

I loved it. It was a three hankie episode, and easily one of the best in the series. Five out of four battlestars,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

6 comments:

  1. Fantastic episode the best in the series since Pegasus and RS1+2. The battles, the emotions, the decisions. Of course everyone knew Lee would come to save the day. And I finally got my wish and the Pegasus is no more, but it took two basestars with it by just ramming them. GREAT

    Tigh was the leader of the resistance, he made tough decision, never gave up, had to kill his wife and in the end everyone just cheeered Adama and never looked at Tigh. If someone told me during the miniseries I would be empathizing with Tigh I wouldn;t believe it.

    Wonderfull that Leoben just stole some child. She was too grown up to be younger then Hera nyways so it was obvious, in-show that is. Because that could have been a casting screwup as well. But it wasn;t so all the better.

    I bet now we'll get more stand alones. And how will they deal with the surlpus officers? Will Helo be demoted to let Tigh back in, what about Kat? Starbuck will replace her.

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  2. Definitely one of the best of the series. Just outstanding from top to bottom. I'm still amazed that they managed to make me cry over Ellen Tigh's death. I spent so much time hating her and rooting for her to die, and then her end completely wrecked me. Even thinking about a broken Col. Tigh slowly shuffling away from the celebrating and reunions on Galactica still saddens me.

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  3. Brilliant! My favourite episode to date. I shed a few tears as well, not something I have done often through this series.

    I think Ellen knew what she was drinking and did it to help Tigh. In spite of herself, I think she does love him. Additionally, I am convinced she's a Cylon, so killing herself was just temporary.

    Like post WWII Europe, it will be interesting to see how the new crew deals with those it considers collaborators. Both of the obvious ones did help our guys, Gaeta by working uncover and Jammer by saving Cally's life. Should be an interesting turn of events.

    As for our married couples, I don't really see any of them making it. Happy couples don't make for good drama. I'm looking forward to the Laura/Adama reunion. It was also interesting to watch the Zarek/Laura interaction. A new triangle, perhaps?

    Although always good, the effects were magnificent. And, I am truly glad they gave the Pegasus such a heroic sendoff.

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  4. I also think Ellen knew what she was drinking, but that doesn't change the fact I'm afraid I have no sympathy whatsoever for Tigh executing his wife. I know she betrayed them, but not being in favour of the death penalty anyway, I was consistently irritated with the show as it kept trying to get me to feel sorry for this man because he killed his wife. Sorry. Not gonna happen. But I have issues there, and I always have that reaction to that sort of plot, so it's probably just me. The rest of the episode was great! I'd have liked to see more of Sharon Agathon and Helo though. They're my favourites.

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  5. Wow! Great 2 parter and again I'll echo Patryk in that it was the best since the Ressurection ship trilogy.

    For me this is the best 4 parter (5 if I included the last ep of season 2) so far - I know a lot of people have said that they weren't huge fans of the planet plot, but it worked for me. I am glad they are back in BSG and moving again though, New Caprica had served its purpose in the plot.

    Everyone had lots to do here, so I'll single out Tigh for special praise - never liked him much before, but boy did he kick ass as leader of the resistance. I did feel sorry for him when killing Ellen, but can't be sorry she was gone, she was a parasite.

    Finally bye bye moustache. Sad to see you go. Won't be sad to see the end of fat suit Lee though, neither will Jamie Bamber I'm sure!

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  6. >>"Gaeta showed what he was made of. Pretty good stuff. Will he be considered a collaborator, though?"
    Well this time I caught the little moment during the reunion celebration where Tigh is walking by and Gaeta backs up and places a hand on the ship behind him. So I'm sure he's concerned about it. TYING THE KNOTS... MAKIN' EM TIGHT!

    @Baz: "For me this is the best 4 parter (5 if I included the last ep of season 2)"
    6, if you include the next episode, which you really really should! It's an excellent follow-up.

    Sayonara Pegasus-san... They didn't really do much of interest with you after your first arc besides that Engineer-turned-CO episode... but it's still cool that they didn't kill you off immediately after the end of Cain, and I did love all the following space shots of you floating beside Galactica. And the fact that Pegasus only returned because it went against orders is the only plausible way that Galactica could survive an attack that Pegasus didn't, because I think everyone, Adama included (well, maybe..), would choose to sacrifice Galactica first given the choice. Bye bye most aesthetically-pleasing ship in the fictional universe...

    That Adama Maneuver shall never be topped... it's still so satisfying to watch it fall through the atmosphere and jump seconds from hitting land (not to mention the shots of the Vipers literally firing out of the flight pods). And of course Pegasus's willful head-smashing almost matches it too. We're out of ammo so JUST RAM THE BASESHIP. Damn Lee's responsible for Pegasus's crash AND Blackbird's too lol. Somebody keep this madman away already

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