"Alone she sleeps in the shirt of man / With my three wishes clutched in her hand / The first that she be spared the pain / That comes from a dark and laughing rain / When she finds love may it always stay true / This I beg for the second wish I made too / But wish no more / My life you can take / To have her please just one day wake / To have her please just one day wake"
SO SAY WE ALL: The Cylons try to ally with the Colonial Fleet, but who can be trusted on either side?
REVIEW: Can there actually be an alliance between the Cylons and the Colonials? The Fates seem against it more than any one particular person. First, the Demetrius' jump drive malfunctions and doesn't appear with the base ship, and because it's damaged, its Colonial officers can't contact Galactica. It's almost shot out of the sky. Tigh has a strange feeling that neither he nor we know how to interpret that stays Adama's hand just long enough for the Demetrius to show. Well okay. Maybe they can work together on this plan to destroy the Resurrection Hub and make all Cylons everywhere mortal, and at the same time rescue D'Anna and get the truth of the Five. But the Colonials don't trust the Cylons and plan to renege on their deal, and vice-versa. An appeal to the Quorum from Natalie only shows hardened faces, but her conclusion is actually more evolved. She convinces her group NOT to betray humanity and continue the cycle of mistrust and risk judgement from the Five who, after all, must not be making themselves known to them for a reason, but she has to play for time because the Centurions are committed to hostage-taking action. But the Fates want to be paid in blood. While the opera house vision plays out once more, Sharon wakes up to find Hera missing, and the kid basically running into the arms of Natalie, not the Six from the vision exactly but close enough. Rather than let the prophetic dream come true, a distraught Sharon shoots Natalie down. There goes the peace... Sure doesn't help that Roslin, wanting to speak to the Hybrid about her visions, is auto-jumped away (with Baltar, no less) to parts unknown. Quite the cliffhanger.
I was thinking the Four would be a little more obstructive, fearing exposure, but they don't even need to get involved in that way. It's not always easy to gauge them, of course. Tigh remains the loyal soldier, but definitely tortured (did he hold weapons because of some hidden programming?). There's a great shot at one point where he is standing in the same position as a Cylon Centurion on the painting behind him in Adama's office, bringing this idea to the fore. He's all about giving the Cylons a black eye. Tyrol has a moment where Sharon asks him to take Hera away from Natalie, and it plays as ironic, but no more than that. While Tory has had her villainous moments, it seems her loyalty to Roslin is the one thing that's still absolute. She can't forgive Baltar for the pain he's caused Laura with his "lies" (they turn out to be the truth, but as she understands it at least), and appears cowed when the President scolds her about her indiscretions. And then there's Anders, the most human of all the Four, and how he reacts to Gaeta...
This is an exciting episode, but it's made a whole lot better by the way the amputation of Gaeta's leg and his slow, sad recovery acts as background. The theme of phantom pain to me informs the Four's phantom humanity (or Cylonity, since they are so human, I'm not sure), and to get his mind off it, Gaeta sings. It's a beautiful old ballad, which Bear McCreary's arrangements follow up in the score, poignant as all get-out. Everyone comments on it, and he gets many phantom (natch) visitors. Anders, crushed by guilt over having caused the wound. Baltar, who normally would make a big show of visiting the hospital, just stands back, unable to approach a man who used to be a friend. The song acts as a kind of shield, keeping people at a distance, and I can't help but be reminded of old Queen Margaret in Richard III, walking around and cursing everyone, and no one puts a stop to it. Gaeta fills me with a sense of foreboding, and did, even when I had yet to see the rest of the season.
HUMAN DEATH TOLL: Head count stands at 39,673, as per the previous episode's two deaths.
VERSIONS: Deleted scenes include Adama debriefing de Demetrius officers, and an extended version of Baltar and Tory's scene.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High - A lot of exciting back and forth, and beautifully accompanied by Gaeta's Lament (that's the name of it).
REVIEW: Can there actually be an alliance between the Cylons and the Colonials? The Fates seem against it more than any one particular person. First, the Demetrius' jump drive malfunctions and doesn't appear with the base ship, and because it's damaged, its Colonial officers can't contact Galactica. It's almost shot out of the sky. Tigh has a strange feeling that neither he nor we know how to interpret that stays Adama's hand just long enough for the Demetrius to show. Well okay. Maybe they can work together on this plan to destroy the Resurrection Hub and make all Cylons everywhere mortal, and at the same time rescue D'Anna and get the truth of the Five. But the Colonials don't trust the Cylons and plan to renege on their deal, and vice-versa. An appeal to the Quorum from Natalie only shows hardened faces, but her conclusion is actually more evolved. She convinces her group NOT to betray humanity and continue the cycle of mistrust and risk judgement from the Five who, after all, must not be making themselves known to them for a reason, but she has to play for time because the Centurions are committed to hostage-taking action. But the Fates want to be paid in blood. While the opera house vision plays out once more, Sharon wakes up to find Hera missing, and the kid basically running into the arms of Natalie, not the Six from the vision exactly but close enough. Rather than let the prophetic dream come true, a distraught Sharon shoots Natalie down. There goes the peace... Sure doesn't help that Roslin, wanting to speak to the Hybrid about her visions, is auto-jumped away (with Baltar, no less) to parts unknown. Quite the cliffhanger.
I was thinking the Four would be a little more obstructive, fearing exposure, but they don't even need to get involved in that way. It's not always easy to gauge them, of course. Tigh remains the loyal soldier, but definitely tortured (did he hold weapons because of some hidden programming?). There's a great shot at one point where he is standing in the same position as a Cylon Centurion on the painting behind him in Adama's office, bringing this idea to the fore. He's all about giving the Cylons a black eye. Tyrol has a moment where Sharon asks him to take Hera away from Natalie, and it plays as ironic, but no more than that. While Tory has had her villainous moments, it seems her loyalty to Roslin is the one thing that's still absolute. She can't forgive Baltar for the pain he's caused Laura with his "lies" (they turn out to be the truth, but as she understands it at least), and appears cowed when the President scolds her about her indiscretions. And then there's Anders, the most human of all the Four, and how he reacts to Gaeta...
This is an exciting episode, but it's made a whole lot better by the way the amputation of Gaeta's leg and his slow, sad recovery acts as background. The theme of phantom pain to me informs the Four's phantom humanity (or Cylonity, since they are so human, I'm not sure), and to get his mind off it, Gaeta sings. It's a beautiful old ballad, which Bear McCreary's arrangements follow up in the score, poignant as all get-out. Everyone comments on it, and he gets many phantom (natch) visitors. Anders, crushed by guilt over having caused the wound. Baltar, who normally would make a big show of visiting the hospital, just stands back, unable to approach a man who used to be a friend. The song acts as a kind of shield, keeping people at a distance, and I can't help but be reminded of old Queen Margaret in Richard III, walking around and cursing everyone, and no one puts a stop to it. Gaeta fills me with a sense of foreboding, and did, even when I had yet to see the rest of the season.
HUMAN DEATH TOLL: Head count stands at 39,673, as per the previous episode's two deaths.
VERSIONS: Deleted scenes include Adama debriefing de Demetrius officers, and an extended version of Baltar and Tory's scene.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High - A lot of exciting back and forth, and beautifully accompanied by Gaeta's Lament (that's the name of it).
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