By Jonathan Weischsel
Fancast.com
The latest episode of Battlestar Galactica starts right where the last episode left off. It is so rare for a modern serial to do this. Usually when they end on a cliffhanger, they open the next episode with something else and make you wait to see how the cliffhanger is resolved, but not Battlestar Galactica!
Last episode ended with Helo mutinying against Starbuck. Well, Starbuck runs off and tries to make the jump anyway. Athena stops Starbuck by putting her in a headlock. Helo briefly takes control, but Sam pulls out a gun and holds it on everybody. He’s sticking up for his wife. I wonder why the other mutineers didn’t see that one coming. Helo orders Gaeta to make the jump. Sam shoots Gaeta in the leg. This ends the mutiny. Starbuck even fixes up Gaeta’s leg for him.
Starbuck decides that Helo was right. She has no right to put the Demetrius and its crew at risk. That is why she will take a shuttle. Sam of course volunteers to come with her. She recruits Athena, because Athena understands the cylons. The cylon hating Seelix volunteers to come along as well. Helo says the Demetrius can wait 15 hours and 7 minutes before it has to jump.
On colonial 1, Roslin is packing up for an extended stay in the infirmary on Galactica. She calls Tory in and says that Tory has really stepped up recently. Roslin says that she wants Tory to keep an eye on everything that crosses her desk. I think that the writers of this episode have really stumbled onto something here. I have noticed in my own experience that evil cylons are often the most adept at administrative tasks.
Helo and Athena kiss goodbye, and Kara jumps the shuttle. If any of you have DVR, there is a little freeze frame Easter egg here. As they jump, the mandala that Kara draws, and that was in the temple, can briefly be seen. Kara shuts her eyes during the jump, and doesn’t seem to see it, but she is smiling funny. And they come out of the jump in the middle of debris and ruins.
Back on Demetrius, Gaeta is dying.
Kara and crew can’t find the base ship amidst all the debris. At least now they know Leoben was telling the truth about a civil war. Starbuck says she hears music. Leoben tells her that it vibrates in all, but few can hear it. She is one of the lucky few. Starbuck has a hallucination of a ship inside a comet. The rest can’t see it. Some debris hits the ship, and there is an explosion.
Sam and Leoben revive Starbuck, who has been hit. They are docked in the base ship now. Athena is confronted by a group of Sharons. They tell her that they wanted to be like her. They wanted to be individuals, but it has been a disaster. The sixes have made one mistake after another, and must be stopped. They want Athena to lead a mutiny. She says that the Sharons make her sick. You pick one side and then you stick with it.
Roslin is in the hospital. She tries to comfort a sick woman, but the sick woman yells at her when she tries to turn off the radio, which is playing one of Baltar’s sermons.
On the base ship, the sixes don’t want Kara to access the hybrid. The Leobens do. The sixes say they have been patient with the Leoben’s obsession with Starbuck, and an argument ensues.
Athena offers to help them fix their drive. To do so she will have to pull the hybrid. The cylons have an argument about this. The previously conformist cylons are having a lot of trouble with individuality!
Sam thinks of touching the water the cylons use to communicate with the drives, but doesn’t. A six starts a fight with Seelix, and kills her.
Sam pulls a gun on the six. Athena wants him to pull the trigger. Kara wants him to stand down. There is too much at stake.
Another six kneels down and asks the six why she did this. The six replies that Seelix had killed her for no reason. The other six replies that they had been working through this, and that she had made progress. To which she replies, “I’m glad it is you.” The two sixes kiss on the lips, and then the second one stands up, takes Sam’s hand that is holding the gun, and squeezes the trigger. The six falls down dead. The other six reminds them that there is no resurrection ship. She is really dead. This is human justice.
In the hospital, the sick woman apologizes to Roslin for cursing her. She gives the president a gift- a more stylish head wrap for the baldness.
Starbuck confronts the hybrid. Surrealist/dada poetry.
The sick woman tells Roslin about an experience. She was on a ferry crossing a river. On the other side she sees her dead family members. She felt a presence. Roslin says it was a dream. The woman says it was no dream, and that perhaps Baltar has stumbled onto something.
Starbuck does not understand the hybrid. They unplug it. The hybrid starts to scream. A toaster shoots a Sharon for no reason. The Sharon’s blood trickles into the hybrid’s water. Thee hybrid finally says something that makes sense: “The dying leader knows the truth of the opera house. The missing three will give you the five who have come from the home of the 13th. You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead them all to their end.”
Roslin and the woman argue over religion. Roslin tells the woman that the Gods are intended as metaphors. The woman says she doesn’t need metaphors, she needs answers. Roslin starts to tell her about how her mother literally believed in the Gods, and ends up crying and babbling about how when her mother died there was only darkness. The woman tells Roslin that she saw darkness, but has no way of knowing what her mother saw. The woman goes into convulsions, and Roslin kind of prays.
The Sharon who was shot is dying. Kara says the Sharon can’t see them. Sam, a bit more knowledgeable, says the Sharon is looking past them. The Sharon asks Athena for forgiveness. Athena touches hands with the dying Sharon, and when she does there is a strange humming. The six makes a look like she just saw something. Sam comforts the Sharon as she dies.
The cylons discuss the hybrid’s words. The missing 3 is Diana, the five are the final five cylons. They must come from Earth, and know how to get there. Diana will recognize them.
Roslin has a dream that she is on a boat with the sick woman. She sees her mother.
Starbuck returns to the Demetrius with the base ship.
Roslin tells Adama she is beginning to believe in what Baltar is saying. Adama tells her she made him believe in Earth and the scriptures.