Adama: "What should I believe? Should I believe my heart or my eyes?"Don't you love it when something is over and you spend half an hour discussing it afterward? I have really missed this show.
Changes and identity crises. The Four were having a real problem accepting their Cylon-ness. Especially Tigh, who spent forty years in the fleet and killed his own wife because she was a collaborator. These aren't run-of-the-mill humans, after all: the three guys were the resistance leaders on New Caprica, and Tory is the president's aide. How can they change the habits and loyalties of a lifetime at the flip of a biological switch?
What are the odds that the Final Five would survive the destruction of the Colonies and end up on the same battlestar by chance? Zillions to one. It had to be intentional. If the Seven can sense the other Five, even if they're programmed not to think about them as Caprica Six said, that would explain why the Galactica survived. Because Galactica was supposed to survive. Galactica is supposed to find Earth for the Cylons. So why were the Cylons attacking in the first place? I'm so confused.
I've been theorizing that the maelstrom Eye of Jupiter thingy that Starbuck fell into was a wormhole to Earth. That would explain her disappearance and the time discrepancy. But what about the bizarre condition of Starbuck's viper? Could a wormhole explain that? Maybe the Eye of Jupiter is the red Cylon eye. Anders made "eye contact" with the Cylon Raider; his blue eye turning red could have been the Eye of Jupiter, too. Did Anders, without realizing it, instruct the Cylons to break off the battle? It sure looked like he did.
It would make sense for Starbuck to be the fifth Cylon, since she was away when the Four were "activated." But I just have a really hard time with the idea of Starbuck as a Cylon. Dan thinks that the final Cylon might be an older woman, mostly because of balance, since there are seven males and only four females, all of whom are young. Roslin is older. The opera house stuff suggested that Roslin, Athena, Six and Hera (and possibly Gaius, too) were "projecting" together, too. Yes, Roslin has cancer, but didn't Anders have pneumonia?
Tonight, the role of Jesus Christ was played by Gaius Baltar, who even looked the part. (Except I thought for a moment that he had acquired a harem, not disciples.) Did Gaius heal the child? Actually, it appeared that Harvey Six healed the child because of Gaius' bout of unselfishness. Maybe the Harveys are manifestations of the final Cylon. Maybe the final Cylon is the Cylon God. We create our own gods, after all. What with the miracle healing and all, it certainly looked as if Gaius had a conversion and will try to bring the Colonials to the One True Cylon God. If Gaius is Jesus, that would probably make Starbuck Moses, leading the Colonials to the promised land.
The episode began with Tigh imagining himself shooting Adama (a deliberate echo of what Boomer did in season one) and ended with Starbuck pulling a gun on Laura Roslin. Although I don't think Starbuck plans to shoot her. I think Starbuck just wants to get the Fleet to Earth. Each jump is taking Starbuck further away from her certainty that she can find Earth again. But if Starbuck is supposedly going to lead them to their end, not listening to Starbuck is a good thing. I think.
Ah, well. I have no idea what's going on. But I'm looking forward to finally finding out at the end of this season. And it had better make sense, Ron Moore. Do you hear me?
Bits and pieces:
— This week's survivor number: 39,698. Under 40,000 now. The last number, given in "The Son Also Rises," was 41,399. Which means 1,701 died in the opening battle. Or 1,702, if you count Starbuck's return.
— The credits and the cast were the same, with Michael Trucco moving from guest star to post-credit cast. The saga sell was totally different, though. "Twelve Cylons. Seven are known. Four live in secret. One will be revealed."
— Terrific opening battle scene that certainly started the season off with a bang. I actually got upset about that fleet ship blowing up.
— Lee got a job offer but we don't know what yet. It'll be strange to see him permanently out of uniform.
—- Roslin was staying in Adama's quarters. Because of her treatments. A likely story. Surely they could find the president of the colonies her own guest quarters.
— Starbuck said that she'd kill Anders if she found out he was a Cylon. Well, that marriage was over, anyway.
— One scene showed Adama, Roslin and Lee in an inner circle, talking about Starbuck being a Cylon, with Tory, Tigh and Tyrol in an outer circle surrounding them and watching them. I thought this was interesting symbolism.
— Starbuck's viper was shiny and new, even white, and its nav was blanked out. Did the viper go back in time to when it was created? Maybe that's how they could revitalize the fleet: pop the old ships into the maelstrom, and two months later, voila. I'm kidding.
— Gaius was again led by his libido into a new phase of his very strange life. The delightfully tacky Baltar altar looked a bit like a Christmas tree. The storage area they took him to was "3-30-3A Dry Storage." Maybe the threes were a little reference to the trinity.
— In this season's hair report, Starbuck's was longer, which jived with her "two month" absence... except it was only six hours for her. And Gaius finally got rid of all of his excess fur, and looked a lot better. He probably acquired a serious scar, too, from his latest assassination attempt.
— No bonus scene. Let's hope that ship has finally sailed.
— "He That Believeth in Me." He who? Me who?
Quotes:
Tigh: "They had us. Game over. Why the hell did they let us go?"
Tory: "Maybe something's changed."
You think?
Starbuck: "I remember a giant gas planet with rings. I remember a flashing triple star and a comet. And then I was back with the Fleet." Gas planet with rings? Saturn? Haley's comet? I don't have anything for the flashing triple star, though. (I got a few emails suggesting it could be Orion's belt, Polaris, Alpha Centauri.)
Redhead: "Gaius! Are you all right?"
Gaius: "I cut myself shaving."
Anders: "If you're a Cylon, then you've been one from the beginning." This was said several times. Meaning it's not recent brainwashing, and they're not replacements. The Four have always been Cylons.
Four out of four stars,
Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
Oh no where did Patryk go??
ReplyDeleteInteresting episode what with Anders inadvertantly stopping the fleet from being destroyed, all 4 of the ''new" Cylons acting like humans, and the parallels back to season one and Boomer with Tigh.
I wonder where Starbuck has been, if it weren't for the shiny new ship I'd have expected wormhole to earth too, but seems unlikely that it's a wormhole with a body shop inside it... Onward to part 2!