By Jonathan Weichsel
Fancast.com
The latest Battlestar Galactica episode [see complete episodes here] opens with shots of statues. Someone is making a speech. It is Tyrol. He is delivering a eulogy for Cally, and it is beautiful considering how she died. After the eulogy Tyrol nearly confronts Tigh and Tory. Tigh shows up to interrogate Caprica Six. He acts normal around the people monitoring her. We learn from Caprica Six that Tigh has been visiting her every day, but no longer asks any questions. Tigh suddenly sees Caprica Six as his dead wife Ellen. She asks him what he wants, what he needs. Now Tigh and Tory are confronting Tyrol. It seems they told him that Tory committed suicide. This explains his sincere sounding eulogy. Tory tells Tyrol that cylons are perfect, and that he should live without guilt. It seems that Tory is beginning to like being a cylon a little too much. In a way she reminds me of the drunk-on-power Mitchell from the classic Star Trek episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Anyway, Tigh is still acting like Tigh, but we can see he is having his doubts.
Tory are getting really into Baltar’s cult. She does something erotic to him. I won’t say what except to mention that it perfectly sets up the pain/pleasure theme that will be explored throughout the remainder of the episode. Then, there is a gas attack on the cult. And then a raid… but who are the raiders? They are looking for Baltar, who is hiding behind a rafter. We see Tyrol working. He has flashbacks of Cally. A raptor gets into a little accident, lands a little hot, and everyone onboard nearly dies. Cool special effects sequence. Back in Baltar’s cult, we learn that a fundamentalist group known as The Sons of Ares carried out the attack. We learn this because they spray painted their name on the walls. But who are The Son’s of Ares? No one seems to know. A member of Baltar’s cult, Lily, is still holding on to the old Gods. And Tyrol fesses up to accidentally causing the accident. He is loosing it. He wants to be disciplined, but nobody will discipline him.
Baltar’s Six tells Baltar that it is either him or the Gods. She tries to get him to take on the Gods. She strokes his Ego, but it seems that Baltar has realized that there are bigger things in the universe than Baltar. Baltar tells his people that it is time to make a stand. He and his followers interrupt a service at a temple and disrupt it. Baltar calls their God a serial rapist, starts trashing the temple, and is arrested. In the hospital, Adama brings Roslin a book. Their relationship is developing in interesting ways. They have to be discreet because of their respective positions, so their relationship is presented discreetly to us. Adama says the attack was brutal, and he is tracking down The Sons of Ares. They proceed to complain about Baltar. They can’t have a religious war. This is all Baltar’s fault. Tigh returns to Caprica Six. He wants to know if she feels guilty for killing billions. She says, “You talk like you’re different, but you know you’re not.” Tigh totally takes this the wrong way. He tells the guards to raise their weapons.
Cut to Tyrol working hard, then back to Tigh. He sees Caprica Six as Ellen again. He asks her how she can live with what she has done. She offers him absolution, forgiveness. It looks as if Tigh is about to confess to Caprica Six, but… no, he just tells her that they are not the same. Roslin visits Baltar in prison. She tells him she is dying, and is wearing a wig. She is not in the mood to indulge him. Tyrol is at the pub drinking. Adama comes down, and tries to consol him in a typically gruff Adama manner. But Tyrol talks back. If Adama really thought Cally was good, he wouldn’t have put her up against a bulkhead and threatened to shoot her. Since the destruction of humanity people have settled with the best of a limited option. He hated Cally. He makes a scene. He hates Adama too. Adama threatens to reassign him. He wants to be reassigned. Adama reassigns him. I wonder- what was Tyrol’s motivation here? Was he genuinely freaking out, or did he want off the ship, either to get away from his fellow cylons, or out of fear of getting caught, or does he want to wreak cylon mischief elsewhere? Or does he want to be where he can’t hurt anyone?
And we see Lee Adama standing up to Roslin in favor of Baltar’s cult. She wants to limit him from gathering, and wants to do it without a vote. She gives a very well delivered fear mongering speech. They remember what he did with political power. What will he do with blind religious devotion? Tigh has visited Caprica Six. He wants to have a little informal chat. He wants to know how she works. Or does he want to know how he works? She tells him that she wants pain, because that is how she learns. Caprica Six destroyed humanity, fell in love with a human man, etc, etc. Tigh sees her as Ellen. Six talking about Baltar becomes Ellen talking about Tigh. Six says that Baltar’s mortality- her knowledge that he would die, taught her to love. Tigh pretends to have an outburst. He kicks the observers out, and turns off the monitoring equipment. Does he want to tell her the truth? She tells him that pain is learning, and that her mind is based on his mind.
Baltar is prevented from entering his sanctuary because of the new law limiting assemblies. Baltar has to be the hero. His Six tells him to step forward, and he won’t be hurt. He steps forward, and is hit. Meanwhile, Tigh tells his six to get her hands off of him. She starts beating him to show him pain. Baltar is still being beaten for standing up. His Six tells him that the gain will out way the cost. He does not want to stand and be beaten, so she lifts him. Then Lee comes and saves the day. The right of assembly has been restored by the quorum. Baltar thanks Lee. Lee says he doesn’t do these things for Baltar. Baltar says, “You do them because your God empowers you.” Roslin is lying in her hospital bed, complaining to Adama about Lee. Lee is a dangerous idealist who will not look at the real situation they are in. Adama reads to her from the book. In the passage the protagonist is not afraid of death, but of emptiness.
Meanwhile, Caprica Six is still beating Tigh. She stops. He asks for more. She says she has made a mistake, that this is not what he needs. She kisses him. Baltar is preaching from the heart “I am not a good man… something in the universe loves me… God is in every human being… embrace yourself… love your faults.” Tyrol is listening with some fervor. We quickly cut to the Demetrius, where Kara is asleep, with her head in her charts. Then back to Baltar. Lee is listening to him! Has Lee been converted? No… he walks away with a disgusted look on his face. But the crowd claps with fervor.