"I don't need metaphors, I need answers."
SO SAY WE ALL: A Demetrius team meets up with the Cylons. Nana Visitor guest-stars.
REVIEW: Things start to move in unexpected directions again, and I'm excited for it. If anyone on the Demetrius is going to have Kara's back, it's Anders, and to stop the rest of the crew's mutinous behavior, she shoots Gaeta in the leg. Felix is going to spend the rest of the episode on his back, afraid Doc Cottle will have to amputate, that's if he makes it back to Galactica alive because Helo agrees to give Kara's team the maximum amount of time left on the clock before they HAVE to jump away. Gaeta will survive this, but it's really the beginning of the end of the character. Heavy stuff. The team will return just after the countdown flips to zero, which is a bit of a trope, but the shot is really well used in the opening montage, so I can't complain.
When Kara, Sharon, Anders and Baroley (she's been around, but really plays the role of the eager recruit) bring Leoben to base star graveyard in a raptor, we start to see some prophecies unfold. The markers Kara saw in her visions are here, but she (and we) did a poor job interpreting them. The ringed gas giant isn't in our system, for one thing, and that comet is the damaged base star where they must now go. So keep this in mind when you hear the Hybrid's prophecy later. The 3 will lead you to the 5 may well refer to D'Anna knowing the Final Five's identities, but Starbuck, don't believe that "You are the harbinger of death" and "You will bring them to their end" is a single statement. Both are true, but the relationship between the two phrases remains hidden. The theme carries into the interactions between humans and Cylons. Murderous revenge is really motivated by a form of post-Resurrection PTSD. Cylon justice, kind but remorseless, is exposed. The Eights as the model that's able to rebel find no friend in Sharon Agathon, their greatest rebel, and one dying Eight is denied comfort by her sister, with Anders moving in with his great humanity (despite his true nature). I think the humans are finding out there's more to the Cylons than they thought, which may be comforting to Anders, come to think of it. Kind of which he'd put his hand in the computer interface sludge...
The touching and resonant subplot of the episode takes place during Roslin's cancer treatments, and introduces special guest-star Nana Visitor, as a terminal patient who is coming to terms with her death, and with her brutal honesty, helps Roslin do the same. Death, comfort, visions, faith, these themes are weaved through both stories. Emily Kowalski started believing in Batlar's description of the afterlife when it matched her vivid dream of it. Roslin is a pragmatic agnostic when it comes to the Lords of Kobol (read: the Greek gods), which she views as metaphors through which to teach lessons. Not out of character for a teacher. But this is nevertheless a universe where dreams have meaning, her own of the opera house, Kara's of the way to Earth, and so on. Can Emily's vision be so easily dismissed? She has that dream too, seeing Emily off on the shores of that other world, her own mother waiting for her (and it's clear her lack of faith on this issue is informed by her mother's tortuous death from cancer) and starts to think that maybe Baltar has tapped into something. Whatever the case may be, the show, and its characters, can no longer avoid the oracular magic (or quantum effects, if you prefer) that are affecting the plot.
CAPRICANADA: Jean Barolay was played by Alisen Down, a Canadian actress who played, among other roles, Lillian Luthor in Smallville. She's been around since New Caprica, but her story ends here.
ALL THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE AND IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN: Baltar is always quoting from books that haven't been written yet. In his transmissions we can hear bits of Hamlet, for example. Well, the Hybrid also quote from the Bible, so. The damaged base star represented in Kara's painting bears a striking resemblance to the Ship of Lights from the original series.
HUMAN DEATH TOLL: Starting from 39,675, we lose two people. Baroley is killed by a Six, and Emily Kowalski dies of liver cancer.
VERSIONS: Deleted scenes include Sharon and Helo saying goodbye, and a longer conversation between Adama and Roslin where she says she doesn't mind Baltar's broadcasts anymore.
REWATCHABILITY: High - Important moments to be sure, and even the subplot, carries an emotional impact.
REVIEW: Things start to move in unexpected directions again, and I'm excited for it. If anyone on the Demetrius is going to have Kara's back, it's Anders, and to stop the rest of the crew's mutinous behavior, she shoots Gaeta in the leg. Felix is going to spend the rest of the episode on his back, afraid Doc Cottle will have to amputate, that's if he makes it back to Galactica alive because Helo agrees to give Kara's team the maximum amount of time left on the clock before they HAVE to jump away. Gaeta will survive this, but it's really the beginning of the end of the character. Heavy stuff. The team will return just after the countdown flips to zero, which is a bit of a trope, but the shot is really well used in the opening montage, so I can't complain.
When Kara, Sharon, Anders and Baroley (she's been around, but really plays the role of the eager recruit) bring Leoben to base star graveyard in a raptor, we start to see some prophecies unfold. The markers Kara saw in her visions are here, but she (and we) did a poor job interpreting them. The ringed gas giant isn't in our system, for one thing, and that comet is the damaged base star where they must now go. So keep this in mind when you hear the Hybrid's prophecy later. The 3 will lead you to the 5 may well refer to D'Anna knowing the Final Five's identities, but Starbuck, don't believe that "You are the harbinger of death" and "You will bring them to their end" is a single statement. Both are true, but the relationship between the two phrases remains hidden. The theme carries into the interactions between humans and Cylons. Murderous revenge is really motivated by a form of post-Resurrection PTSD. Cylon justice, kind but remorseless, is exposed. The Eights as the model that's able to rebel find no friend in Sharon Agathon, their greatest rebel, and one dying Eight is denied comfort by her sister, with Anders moving in with his great humanity (despite his true nature). I think the humans are finding out there's more to the Cylons than they thought, which may be comforting to Anders, come to think of it. Kind of which he'd put his hand in the computer interface sludge...
The touching and resonant subplot of the episode takes place during Roslin's cancer treatments, and introduces special guest-star Nana Visitor, as a terminal patient who is coming to terms with her death, and with her brutal honesty, helps Roslin do the same. Death, comfort, visions, faith, these themes are weaved through both stories. Emily Kowalski started believing in Batlar's description of the afterlife when it matched her vivid dream of it. Roslin is a pragmatic agnostic when it comes to the Lords of Kobol (read: the Greek gods), which she views as metaphors through which to teach lessons. Not out of character for a teacher. But this is nevertheless a universe where dreams have meaning, her own of the opera house, Kara's of the way to Earth, and so on. Can Emily's vision be so easily dismissed? She has that dream too, seeing Emily off on the shores of that other world, her own mother waiting for her (and it's clear her lack of faith on this issue is informed by her mother's tortuous death from cancer) and starts to think that maybe Baltar has tapped into something. Whatever the case may be, the show, and its characters, can no longer avoid the oracular magic (or quantum effects, if you prefer) that are affecting the plot.
CAPRICANADA: Jean Barolay was played by Alisen Down, a Canadian actress who played, among other roles, Lillian Luthor in Smallville. She's been around since New Caprica, but her story ends here.
ALL THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE AND IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN: Baltar is always quoting from books that haven't been written yet. In his transmissions we can hear bits of Hamlet, for example. Well, the Hybrid also quote from the Bible, so. The damaged base star represented in Kara's painting bears a striking resemblance to the Ship of Lights from the original series.
HUMAN DEATH TOLL: Starting from 39,675, we lose two people. Baroley is killed by a Six, and Emily Kowalski dies of liver cancer.
VERSIONS: Deleted scenes include Sharon and Helo saying goodbye, and a longer conversation between Adama and Roslin where she says she doesn't mind Baltar's broadcasts anymore.
REWATCHABILITY: High - Important moments to be sure, and even the subplot, carries an emotional impact.
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