Do we have genocidal table turning? Will the humans take advantage of whatever caused that mysterious illness to wipe out the Cylons? Where did the illness come from? The thirteenth tribe?
Life with the Cylons is like Bizarro World. We got another Cylon, sort of, in the form of that exceptionally weird Hybrid, who was controlling the base star and speaking in tongues. She was like the raiders and the Centurians – not one of the five remaining models, right? And we learned that Cylon psychology is based on something called "projecting"; they pretty much create what they want to see, right there in their heads, no matter where they are.
Which explains where Harvey Six keeps taking Gaius. I just realized that Gaius and Caprica Six have been together again for quite awhile, but neither has told the other about their Harveys. I wonder why? "Projecting" must have something to do with the Harveys. And it certainly does make me wonder if Gaius is a Cylon, after all.
Sharon Agathon and Gaius Baltar (if he isn't a Cylon) are in very similar circumstances. She has gone completely over to the enemy and is now totally accepted by her former shipmates. And Gaius is trying his best to be accepted by the Cylons, and is busily betraying the thirteenth colony after betraying the other twelve. His situation is a lot more precarious than Sharon's, though.
Adama once again proved that he is an outstanding commander. He confronted both Starbuck and Tigh instead of allowing their dissent and malcontent to continue poisoning the pilots. I sort of expected this episode to end with Tigh putting a gun in his mouth. He's lost Ellen, his position on Galactica, his eye, and his self-respect. What does he have to live for?
Bits and pieces:
— This week's number: 41,422. Thirteen dead, which was the number of missing people that Lee reported in the last episode.
— Another two-parter. I like it. I'm very into arc stories, and they do two-parters well on this show.
— Who or what are the other five Cylon models? Caprica Six said, "It's complicated. We don't talk about them. Ever."
— Lee was back to himself again, trim and lean. And he was Apollo the CAG again, back in the cockpit. There are now too many pilots, and not enough birds. Used to be the other way around.
— Harvey Six took Gaius to the beach this time, instead of the beach house. It glowed so much that it was difficult to see.
— The Hybrid reminded me of the precogs in Minority Report.
— In this week's hair report, Starbuck finally cut her hair... symbolic of leaving the past behind and returning to her previous role on Galactica. Going to see little Casey at "Camp Oilslick" also indicated that she was ready to accept what Leoben did to her, and get past it.
— The Six on the base star at the Lion's Head had black hair. Real Six, who nuked Cloud Nine, had darker hair than Caprica Six. Perhaps the Six model likes to change her hair a lot.
— One of the best parts of this episode was Sharon Agathon getting a brand new call sign: Athena. I'm told Athena was Adama's daughter in the original series, and Starbuck's original love interest.
— Grace Park did a pretty serious nude scene.
— The Hybrid screaming really upset both of my cats. Spike jumped right out of my lap.
— Adama: "I gotta run a ship. The last thing I need is a one-eyed drunk sitting down here sowing discontent and disobedience." Don't sugar-coat it, Adama. Give it to him straight.
Three out of four stars,
Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
Lots of new info about the Cylons thaks to Baltars stay abourd the basestar. Also Baltar is finally where his original series counterpart was. With the Cylons, took him long enough.
ReplyDeleteWhat really makes me wonder in this episode is the mysterious disease. Was it specifically tailored to be a weapon against the Cylons? If it orignated on earth how can it be just that? The Cylons didn't even exist back when the 13th tribe was journeying as described in the scrolls.
Also where does Tigh keep getting real booze (instead of the moonshine they drank while playing cards)? Do they produce whiskey somewhere in the fleet, or did they do that on New Caprica.
I'm glad we are learning more about the Cylons, and the scenes on the Base Ship were much more interesting this week that last.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what will happen with the dead ship - will the BSG crew go on board and find out some info themselves on the ship? Will they use the virus? I guess we shall soon see!
I too expected Tigh to shoot himself (or at least threaten it) before the end of the episode - again Adama handled the situation with Tigh and Starbuck so well - he is a great leader!
The Hybrid talks about being dead in a hundred light-years. But light-years measure distance, not time.
ReplyDeleteThey did say the hybrids speak nonsense, hehe
DeleteNot a huge step down from the previous actually... loved Adama shoving Starbuck off her chair lol, episode highlight. I thought the Baseship stuff was actually kind of interesting considering last episode I was ready for that to become a filler-y slog. Maybe it still will, but I think it's neat that the Baseship is hard to navigate as a human because cylons can just project their own directions wherever they need to... and the hybrid too, I thought was cool... I wonder if anybody ever transcripted everything it ever said in the background. I mean they might be gibberish but they're still forming real words... I was amused that the Six had to tell him to keep moving because I think I too would be immediately rooted to the spot and lose myself to that stream.
ReplyDeleteI really do love the whole angle of the New Capricans being bitter about their captivity and taking it out on their rescuers... I wish they got more mileage out of this instead of Adama picking up on it pretty quickly. But then again it's just pure ugliness and they got the point across. Ending it how they ended it with Tigh was pretty brave, because I cannot see/remember what can possibly inspire him to recover from this break.
Surprised by the commentary (recorded for some reason in a class and taking questions from students lol) and the fact the episode had problems they had to work around apparently. I thought it worked. I find the stuff with the bio-weapon really interesting, and kind of a Fuck Yeah moment for the 13th Colony who left it behind as pestilence retribution for the spreading genocide. I mean it's a terrible way to kill someone, much worse than a nuke, but... I don't know, I think it's badass. A worthy Fuck You to anyone who will just not give up the chase.