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Battlestar Galactica: The Eye of Jupiter

Lee: "This is insane, you know."
Starbuck: "Just how I like it."

An explosive cliffhanger. With nukes, and everything.

That scene with Adama, Roslin, the Cylons, and Gaius Baltar all in the same room together was pretty much priceless. Gaius was so happy to see Adama again that he was practically in tears. Adama did not reciprocate. Funny that when Gaius is with humans, he wants to be with Cylons. And vice versa.

I'm confused about the Temple and the religious stuff. (And not for the first time.) Wasn't the diaspora three thousand years ago, not four? I think I'm just going to stop nitpicking about it. But the chances of the humans and Cylons finding the same planet at the same time is infinitesimal? That doesn't make sense to me, because the psychic Hybrid knew where the humans were.

The double couple marital implosion was fun to watch, in a painful sort of way. Lee and Anders were all sweat, anger, and testosterone, while Dualla was in a ladylike state of piss off. Lee was ready to come clean with Dualla and get a divorce. Starbuck was the problem. (Of course she was; Starbuck is always the problem, which is why I love her.) She was ready to cheat on Anders but not divorce him, because marriage is a sacrament.

Forgive me if I'm being dense, but what's the point of being married if you're not going to be faithful? She isn't even living with him any more. Is this just manufactured dramatic conflict to keep Starbuck and Lee apart? Anders is getting more likable with every episode. That probably means they're planning to kill him off. Which would solve the "marriage is a sacrament" problem.

What's wrong with baby Hera? Genetic illness? Does she need to be with her mother? With the humans? It was inevitable that Sharon would discover that her baby was alive – but getting the news from Sharon One, the original Boomer, was very cool. Leaving Sharons One and Two in the same room was probably a serious tactical error... but Adama didn't know about the baby. And it came back to bite Roslin in a big way, because Adama is seriously pissed off at her. When Adama commits to someone the way he did to Sharon Two, he doesn't go halfway.

Most of this episode was like the approaching climax of a big musical where the entire cast is singing loudly as they converge. I'm kind of going back and forth on whether Adama was serious about the nukes. Would he nuke his own people, including his only living son, to save Earth? Is it a bluff? Or is he planning to nuke the star and precipitate the supernova?

Bits and pieces:

— This week's survivor number: 41,402. Minus 18. We lost two ships as well as Kat in the last episode.

— Did the Temple call to Tyrol? He must have recognized something that led him there. (While he was walking there, I got that horror movie vibe; I kept thinking something was going to jump out and get him.)

— The strangely important algae-temple planet had an electric turquoise sky and a washed out glare. They've done this sort of thing before with alien planets but it's still effective.

— The thing with the algae reminded me of manna from heaven. It's an exodus, after all.

— Anders said that Lee wasn't the first, that Starbuck was cheating on Anders before Lee. With whom?

— More odd romantic triangulation, with D'Anna is taking Gaius away from Caprica Six. I didn't see that one coming, and I certainly should have considering the fact we've been seeing all three of them in bed together lately.

— Gaius desperately needs a shave and a haircut. I like long hair on men and sometimes like beards, but he's looking seriously scruffy.

Quotes:

Tyrol: "It's breakfast, lunch and dinner until someone finds a hot fudge planet."

Cavil: "Yes, exactly. We come in peace." Cavil's jovial sarcasm is really funny. But when you put it in the context of his desire to completely wipe out the humans, it's sort of chilling. Cavil actually winked at Adama as they were leaving. He's a scary guy.

Adama: "If this is the work of a higher power, they have one hell of a sense of humor."

D'anna: "You give us the Eye of Jupiter, and we'll let you go."
Cavil: "And we'll throw in Baltar."

Good, but not as mind-blowing as some of their cliffhangers. Three out of four stars,

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

4 comments:

  1. I had a long break from BSG, so I don't know if it's the break talking or the episode, but this was a very good one.

    But of course it's just the first part so hard to judge where it will all lead. My guess is that the eyes is a big laser that will shoot up from the temple and show the way to earth, maybe kiling some Cylons along the way. Or it will casue the nova. Hard to tell. :)

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  2. I get the feeling the star will go supernova before the end of the next episode too :)

    This was another great episode, I don't care for the Sam / Lee / Starbuck stuff, but everything else was excellent. I get the feeling Baltar will be back with the humans before too long and that Athena will stay loyal to BSG.

    Nice to see after the last episode that they are still collecting their food, nice continuity. Weird that the chief just found the temple though - rather suspicious - it seemed like he had been to that planet previously.

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  3. Gosh, the music is good. The drums to heighten the anxiety-laden scenes...

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  4. To reinforce the bluff Adama could've told D'Anna Earth was only their last hope when they still thought the Cylons didn't know about it. Though I guess she can reasonably fire back that it's in their best interest to just let the Cylons have it and take away one serious motivation for the chase and try to find another New Caprica-ish substitute.

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