BSG Return to Form

"I Know All the Games You Play"

Finally. Friday's BSG was satisfying in many, many ways. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Thank goodness we didn't have to sit through more Baltar or Chief at the beginning of this episode, and instead we get Gaeta's leg exploding in a nasty gunshot-wound from Anders, and Starbuck coming to her senses. Bad ass. I had read somewhere online that Gaeta would be shot in this week's episode and was worried -- he's one of my favorite side-characters -- but it looks like he made it out of this week's episode alive, though whether or not he has to lose his leg is still up in the air. Ouch. Maybe you should have shot one of the nameless marines, Anders.

Starbuck and Co. jumping into the remains of the Cylon-on-Cylon battle was also badass. It's been said well in other places (like here) but finally discovering that the Base Stars are bio-organic is a welcome surprise, and watching giant-base-star-innards floating through space is one of the more breathtaking images us BSGers have been given in four seasons (following the amazing Liberation of New Caprica sequence in season 3). 

When Platinum Six offs Random Crew Member (somewhat inexplicably -- she slams the woman's head against the raptor, who then stands, mutters something, then dies -- maybe reader RoboBrandeis and his pre-med ways can explain this to us in comments) we get a tense showdown with Anders claiming justice and Starbuck bitching about not-screwing over the alliance. As I sat watching with RoboGirlfriend, I kept shouting at the TV (as sometimes I do. what. someday it'll hear me) "Do it! Do it!" the it being shooting Platinum Six in the head. RoboGirlfriend replied, "No. Don't do." And it looked like RoboGirlfriend may have had more influence on the TV than me -- Lead Six goes to talk to Platinum about how, you know, I thought we had worked through all this you-being-pissed-off-about-being-drowned-in-a-septic-tank. "We were trying to help them," the Cylons say, which gets me every time. It reminds me of the particularly Iraq-ish (among other -Ishes) treatment of Cylon occupation in season three. Aren't we just trying to help the Iraqis? Sometimes, people don't want your help. Especially if you are robots that nearly eliminated the human race.

Then Lead Six macks it with herself (the Platinum Six), stands, moves to Anders, and squeezes his finger on the trigger. Six just killed herself. Or one of herselves. For real. There's no resurrection ship in range. Victory! The TV listens to me, just as the prophecy foretold.

Then she says something like, "Is that enough Human justice for you?" 

Bad ass.

Then we get some lame scenage with the Hybrid spouting nonsense, intercut with poor Gaeta doped up on morphone (I love how this morphine facsimile isn't in any previous episode [that I remember] but plays a large part in multiple storylines in this) begs Helo not to let Doc Cottle take his leg. I have to give it to Gaeta -- for a non-foreground character, he has been through some bad shit in four seasons.

But of course they need to unplug the hybrid to slave the base star to the raptor's FTL drives (yay sci-fi technobabble!), so we get some more lame shit, but the hybrid freaks its out, a centurion (newly sentient -- I bet he's bummed he didn't last so long) offs one of the Boomers, and Starbuck gets some information from the Hybrid that doesn't make any sense now but I'm sure will come together in the future because that's how this show works.

My favorite part of the episode was Athena, unwilling to comfort the alterna-her in death, stepping back, forcing Anders into the spotlight. Because Anders has seen so many die before, just like this, to horrible gunshot wounds back on Caprica in the resistance. He holds the Boomer's hand as she dies, a little part of him sad because he knows that he's part of her, too, that he's a cylon, and he feels, and he's a person, so this cylon dying, they're a person too, they're slowly descending into the light, into the ether, and he's there with them. It's probably one of my favorite beats with Anders ever, which is nice because he was totes lame all season 3.

My second favorite moment was when they're all standing around the hybrid tub, trying to decipher the clues. Starbuck and Six decide that the Final Five cylons know the way to Earth... and there's a cut to Anders where he does shifty "uh-oh" eyes that made me laugh. Cuz he don't know no way to Earf. For reelz.

Subplot with Roslin in chemo was also bad ass. I'm pretty sick of Baltar spouting religious crap, so it was nice to have him reduced to background noise on the radio as Roslin makes buddies with another dying-cancer patient, and comes to think about how maybe Baltar, despite all his crap, stumbled onto something real. My third favorite moment of this episode (are you writing this down, class?) was Roslin coming to, hearing the radio on, Baltar's voice talking slowly, calmly... as she walks over to where her new buddy is... and she pulls back the curtain to reveal: an empty bed, cleaned, sterilized, just the radio on the table that someone forgot to turn off. The look on Roslin's face is great, and I thought this whole storyline really worked. Which is a nice change of pace. It's been a while since the religious-aspect of the show was interesting in the least.

Hopefully they'll keep up with the "No-More-Treading-Water" ethos that this episode displayed, and we can end Battlestar Galactica's run on TV with not a whimper, but an incredible bang.

-RoboNixon