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Battlestar Galactica: Hero

Tigh: "Sometimes surviving can be its own death sentence."

This episode was unsatisfying. It sort of meandered around three subplots, and didn't resolve a whole heck of a lot.

I actually did a happy casting dance over Carl Lumbly, who was a cast member of Alias for five seasons. But I got to the end of this one and I wasn't really sure why they introduced the character of Daniel "Bulldog" Novacek in the first place.

Yes, yes, I got that the title "Hero" wasn't about Bulldog, anyway. It was about Adama. Even heroes make mistakes, have moments of doubt and ambiguity. There's rarely anything clear-cut about war. Three years ago, while commanding the Valkyrie, Adama shot his own man down to protect a black ops mission intended to ascertain the likelihood of a Cylon strike. The Cylons found Bulldog, anyway. Ergo, Adama thought the Cylon strike on the colonies was his own fault.

But come on, Bill Adama. One recon mission gone awry wouldn't have started something so immense. Adama was too smart to really believe this; I think he was just feeling guilty. What Roslin said to Adama in that scene near the end was an omigod moment. The Admiralty provoked the Cylons on purpose? Jeez Louise.

I liked that Adama confided his most extreme feelings of guilt to Lee. What surprised me was Starbuck confiding in Tigh. Their relationship has definitely changed. And Adama and Tigh finally mended their fences. In the scene where he finally told Adama about Ellen, Tigh was wearing an eye patch for the first time. That signified acceptance of what happened to himself and to Ellen, and the first sign that he was ready to move on. Just let it not be back to the CIC, please.

The D'Anna bits felt like the most important part of the episode, but I didn't understand what the frak was going on. Did D'Anna pretend to get sick in front of Bulldog? Why did she leave his cell door open? Did she really think Bulldog would take out Adama, as he nearly did? Was her dream about being shot at the "End of Line" a previous lifetime? A premonition? Why did she have the Centurion kill her and wipe its own memory that it had done it?

Bits and pieces:

— This week's survivor number was 41,421. Plus one. That would be Bulldog, since the number was shown after his arrival.

— What was going on with D'Anna, Gaius, and Six in the same bed? Did Gaius screaming that he believed in her and loved her bring about a threesome?

— So Adama has forty-five years of service. How old is he? If he joined the Colonial Fleet at eighteen, he would be sixty-three.

— Tigh himself drew a comparison between Bulldog walking out of his cell door, and Tigh refusing to leave his own quarters.

— I was hoping before I saw the episode that Carl Lumbly would be Cylon number eight. But no.

— Lucy Lawless nude scene. Xena, you've still got it.

Quotes:

Tory: (holding a painted portrait of Gaius) "Is there really any place left in the universe deserving of such a rare and distinguished item?"
Roslin: "I was thinking, put it in the bathroom right over the toilet."

Bulldog: "The enemy had me locked in a cell for three years. The accommodations were lousy, the service was slow, and after awhile, I felt the institution no longer had anything to offer me. So I left."

Two out of four stars,

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

7 comments:

  1. I'm with you, Billie. I thought this episode was actually dull. I couldn't buy for a moment that Bill Adama would blame himself for the Cylon war.

    I'm also a bit tired of the Cylon sub-plot (co-plot?), the point of which escapes me. If the writers are trying to show the ambiguity of war, they have that with Athena. I'm missing our crew (Lee, Starbuck, Chief, etc.). Let's get back to the ship, please.

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  2. That wasn't a 3some. When we saw Baltar and Six the head!Six music was playing, so I assumed she wasn't really there.

    I think Bulldog escaping has showed Three her first death vision and now she's actively seeking it out in order to see something.

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  3. This is the first episode in my rematch that I had 0 recollection of. Think that says it all, especially when it has Carl Lumbly in it - I would have thought his appearance would make it memorable for me.

    I wonder if we'll see Bulldog again?

    Oh well I think I may have to do an Alias re-watch after I'm done with BSG :)

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  4. Rematch = re watch, not as good as colon = Cylon but hey-ho :)

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  5. I agree that not the best episode, but I did like the moral. Reminds me of the Jayne episode of Firefly, where heroes have feet of clay.

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  6. While Adama knows intellectually that one reconaissance mission across the line wouldn't have started the war by itself, it's very human to exaggerate the role of your own mistakes. And I too was startled by Roslin's suggestion that the Admiralty had deliberately provoked the war: Have we ever seen that opinion expressed before? It has huge implications.

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  7. Krypter krypter krypter
    Wow I can't believe it took this long to get to this episode, I keep remembering this as a s1/s2 episode... the main thrust of it was a little dull but I loved the little beginning intrigue of them spotting 2 cylon raiders chasing and attacking a third.

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