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Battlestar Galactica: The Disquiet That Follows My Soul

Adama: "You know, there are days when I really hate this job."

Adama went back to life as usual. He put his grief and despair in its place and moved on to the important business of saving the human race. But the rest of the fleet wasn't ready to move on with him. To them, allying with the Cylons is still sleeping with the enemy. And not telling the fleet who the final Cylon was? Big mistake. Huge. Everyone is going to rush to fill in the blank.

Like Gaeta did, with Starbuck. I'm having a hard time seeing Gaeta as a mutineer, even under these circumstances. Well, okay, they're extraordinary circumstances. That scene in the mess where Starbuck did just about everything but slap him with a glove and challenge him to a duel was pretty powerful.

The emphasis was on the humans, but what was happening to the Cylons was even more disquieting. I've always assumed that the Final Five were a different kind of Cylon, and now that's been put to the test; Six is pregnant, and Saul Tigh is the father. (Pardon me while I throw up in my mouth just a little.) And, in another major and interesting development, it turns out Callie is still frakking up from beyond the grave; she lied to Tyrol about something pretty damned important. Hot Dog, Callie? Really? Tyrol's connection to the human race just got a whole lot weaker.

When this gets out, the Cylons will know that Cylon/Cylon reproduction is now possible, and human/Cylon reproduction looks a bit less probable as a long-term solution. Guess those rebel Cylons won't need the humans any more. They can all have babies with Saul Tigh.

Roslin really has given up. Her exercise euphoria felt oddly ridiculous as well as uncomfortably tragic. What really bothered me, though, were the great big honking hints that Adama is ill, too. (Because heaven knows things aren't bad enough.) I had never once considered the possibility that the "dying leader" could be Adama.

The final scene showed Adama and Roslin in bed together. I always thought they had done it before now and we just hadn't seen it, but I guess not. Roslin asked Adama if she had earned the right to live a little before she dies. Maybe they both have.

Bits and pieces:

— No saga sell. The credits were the same, except for the phrase "home called Earth"; it's just "home" now. Twice.

— This week's survivor number: 39644. Six less, since Dee was already counted. The suicides that they mentioned?

— This week's Most Obvious Symbolism was Adama picking up litter around the Galactica, as well as that piece of paper that represented Tom Zarek's betrayal of his "rebels." There was the pointed symbolism of Zarek washing his hands, too, before giving Gaeta the order.

— That scene where Adama bluffed Zarek into giving up the tyrillium ship because of evidence that Zarek sold favors reminded me of the Blagojevich scandal. I wonder if that was deliberate?

— Loved Cottle smoking in front of the pregnant Six.

— This episode was written and directed by Ron Moore.

Quotes:

Six: "It's our baby, Saul. Our baby."
Saul: "I need a drink."
And so say all of us.

Chief Tyrol: "Their technology... our technology is way ahead of ours. Yours."
Tigh: "Maybe you'd like a chart to keep it all straight."

Gaeta: "So I guess a pity frak's out of the question, then?"

What do you think? Three out of four stars?

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

8 comments:

  1. Hi Billie,

    I think Gaeta's actions are a direct reaction to the webisode series (which officially sits before this episode). I think he's still smarting from Eight's betrayal on New Caprica and her subsequent murder of the raptor crew (who can blame the poor guy?).

    And is it just me, or is anyone else desperate to see Ellen again? Now the bombshell's hit, I can't wait to see her Cylony mush.

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  2. That's what I get for not seeing the final few. Bad Billie, no biscuit.

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  3. Whoops....I guess I just ruined the ending for you then. Sorry about that.

    *runs away quickly*

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  4. I liked this episode. It felt a bit transitional, but I like the pacing and the direction the story is headed. Plus, I thought it was slightly less depressing than last week's. It had actual happy moments at the beginning (Saul and Six's baby) and end (Roslin and Adama).

    More and more I feel like Laura is not going to survive the series. I'm anticipating a last episode death for her. Maybe something similar to what she saw during her time on the basestar. Won't that be a nice tear jerker?

    I'm glad that they did the webisodes to give a little more context to Gaeta's turn towards mutiny. I think I would have bought into his bitterness even without that additional background motivation, but the webisodes give him a much stronger case.

    The thing I really like about this show is that the arguments for the anti-Roslin/Adama faction in the fleet are all perfectly reasonable. Of course people would feel that way and start to rebel!

    Billie, I love your comments about Callie and Hot Dog. Too funny! Actually you had several funny observations this week. Kind of ironic to laugh through a review for an episode that was pretty depressing overall (except for those few bright spots).

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  5. Speaking of Hot Dog, I just started rewatching the series from the beginning - I'm getting all confused with the history and the mythology. I noticed that in the miniseries, when Tyrol and crew gives Adama an old picture that they found of him, Zak and Lee, it was actually Hot Dog. Obviously, b/c he's EJO's son :-)

    And for the record... YUCK.

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  6. Great review, Billie. Your reviews are more fun than the show for me--I lost my taste for BSG sometime last season, and now I'm just watching it for closure.

    I do have a wacky theory, though. Bear with me: Earth is destroyed. Cylons are Earthlings. Cylon technology can triple the FTL jump capacity. Ergo, obviously: time travel.

    Am I crazy? I'm not reading any spoilers, so this is complete speculation.

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  7. I wonder why the President doesn't try to get cured with the plasma of Saul and six baby ?

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  8. Ugh Gaeta - one of my favourite secondary characters since way back when - the episode where DeAnna did the journalism piece on the fleet in season 2 I think... Is now someone I want to see flushed out an airlock. Character assassination or did I miss something?

    Do I need to watch the webisodes that badly?

    Laura really needs to get her head outta her ass and get back to governing. Shame they couldn't keep Lee on as president.

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