I’ll probably write a full recap of the Battlestar Galactica series finale later this weekend, but felt like I should just get my general impressions out, and give a few people a chance to say their “I told you so’s”.  Because, yeah, bottom line, that series finale wasn’t what I was expecting.  The first hour was kick ass action.  The second hour was … something.  A happy ending, I guess you could call it.  But did the happy ending have to be so LONG?  I mean, these characters have all been through hell, so I’m perfectly fine with their story ending on a peaceful note.  But really … an hour of smiling and hugging and romping in fields and talking about building cabins and delivering trite lines?  Wouldn’t half an hour have been enough for that?  Maybe even 15 minutes?

So my impression of the episode as an episode — which is usually my primary standard for judging this show, one week at a time — is that it started strong and ended weak … and slow.

As for how the finale wrapped up the series as a whole, I’m afraid my opinion isn’t much better.  And it pretty much boils down to one word:  Angels.  Not metaphorical angels.  Not people from the future who have so much knowledge that they appear to be angels.  Not a race of beings called Seraphs who travel in a Ship of Lights and are so advanced that they could be construed as angels by humans.  Actual angels.  From God.  Head Six, Head Baltar, and Undead Starbuck were apparently all angels, carrying out the will of God.  And the will of God was apparently to … I don’t know … let the Cylons blow up the Twelve Colonies, then torture the fuck out of the surviving humans for a few years, so that by the time Starbuck jumps them to our Earth (which is the fake Earth), humans and Cylons are ready to live without technology and might not make the same arrogant mistakes they made on Kobol, Caprica, and Real Earth.  Something like that.

Because God is apparently willing to send angels to get Gaius Baltar’s rocks off, and to tell him what to do, but not willing to talk to somebody else in all of human history (pick your planet) who could actually do something to change the course of things BEFORE they get so bad.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not entirely against a “God ending”.  I kind of suspected it would be the case, although I was hoping for something more scientific or time travel oriented.  But there’s a smart way to use God in a story like this, and a lazy way to use God.  And this was kind of lazy to me.

In the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” — which, let’s face it, was one step away from a sci-fi story — George Bailey is visited by a guardian angel, who shows him an alternate future, and based on that, George decides to change his future for the better.  That story works, because in the end, it’s George who decides his own fate.  But in this story, we’ve got Angel Starbuck living as a human for months, actively changing the “fate” of the other characters, and we’ve got Angel Six actively manipulating a very manipulatable Gaius for years.  That’s some extremely hands-on “angel” work there, seemingly saved for mankind’s 11th hour, when it can do the least good possible — helping mankind find a new planet where they can possibly fuck things up again, but in the meantime, they get to shit in a hole in the ground, instead of on a toilet.

So.  Yeah.  There you have that.  I still love the series in general for the many hours of great TV it gave me.  But color me a little puzzled by Ron Moore’s choices right at the end there.

What did you think?

RECAP DETAILS AHEAD (don’t read if you haven’t watched it yet) …

Ron Moore himself wrote this penultimate chapter of the Battlestar saga, and perhaps appropriately, decided that before we can look ahead to how the series ends, it is important to look back first.  In the case of this episode, that means looking WAY back, to pieces of the lives of the key players on Caprica City even before the events we saw chronicled in the miniseries.  Before the Cylon Holocaust … “Before the Fall”.

We see Bill Adama grudgingly accept the task of decommissioning the Galactica.

We see a giddy Laura Roslin of a kind we’ve never known before, just after her sister’s baby shower.  Then watch her break down completely when she learns that both of her sisters and her father have died in a random(?) car crash after being sideswiped by another car.  Then see her again months later, her psyche already scarred over as a result of the tragedy, more closely resembling the cool and calm and battle worn President Roslin we know now … long before she ever became president.

We see Old School Gaius Baltar and Caprica Six (whose name he can’t remember) on their first date.  Then watch Gaius deal clumsily with a personal crisis involving his father, who he obviously despises — perhaps for no other reason than that he’s a farmer — and who is incapable of caring for himself.  Then see Six provide the solution to Gaius’ problem (as she always does), some days later, taking the initiative to put Papa Baltar into a nursing home.

We see the first meeting of an uber-smiley Kara Thrace and Lee Adama, in happier times, back when Zak Adama was still alive, and he and Kara lived together.  And we already know this will end badly.  The next scene for Lee is him stumbling home drunk, presumably after Zak has died in a flight accident, which was indirectly the result of Starbuck not failing him when she should have.  There’s no need to show us how Zak’s fiancee and father reacted to this same news — we’ve already seen the aftermath in episodes dealing with Starbuck and Adama’s complex relationship in Season 1.

What these flashbacks seem to do is tell us that these characters, these survivors of the Attack on the Twelve Colonies, were all pretty much frakked in the head before the bombs ever dropped.  And who knows, maybe that’s what made them well-suited to being key figures in the survival of the human race as a species.  A Roslin with a happy family, an Apollo with a living brother, a Baltar with a satisfying childhood … would any of these people have had the strength required to play the key roles they have played in the post-Apocalypse?  Or is a certain amount of emotional desperation and/or detachment what’s required to be a leader under extreme circumstances?

Meanwhile, in the present day, the Galactica is in the process of being stripped for parts when Adama decides to take a break from boxing up his possessions to pay a visit to Anders in the Tub — who, in a cute poetic turn, also got a flashback, in which he was in a tub, in a locker room, giving an interview after a Pyramid game, back in the day when he was a professional athlete.  From Anders, Adama learns the location of The Colony, where Cavil is holding Hera (and is preparing to dissect her), and resolves to make one final stand for a Human/Cylon Future.  He and Starbuck draw a red line down the middle of the flight deck, and he announces that if enough people volunteer — by stepping to one side of the line — then he will lead the Galactica on a mission to rescue Hera.  If not, then he’ll lead a raptor assault instead.

In the end, about one-third of the crew signs on for what’s been sold to them as a suicide mission, including most of the key players … but not Baltar, who stands sheepishly on the other side of the “thin red line” (a term generally used to describe a defensive, not offensive stance).  Even Roslin hobbles down from her death bed to stand by her man, bolstered by Starbuck.  While the intent is noble, the outlook is bleak.  After a recon mission conducted by pilots who had recently been brigged as a result of Gaeta’s Mutiny, it’s discovered that Cavil has located The Colony at the edge of a black hole.  There’s only one way to FTL into the area that won’t result in the Galactica being ripped apart by floating debris, and Cavil will undoubtedly be defending that way in with everything he’s got.  As James T. Kirk once said to Jean Luc Picard:  “I take it the odds are against us, and the situation is grim.  Sounds like fun!”

So there you have that.  The final setup to the final two hours.  I’ll be curious to see if any of the details we gleaned about these characters’ pasts will end up being relevant to the finale itself, or if they were just meant to enrich the context tapestry a bit as the present day story heads into its final chapter.  For instance, there’s a sniggling suspicion in the back of my mind that the death of Roslin’s family and Zak Adama may not have been random.  That they might have been acts — like Six’s solution to Baltar’s family problem — deliberately designed to position key people prior to the attack.

Regardless, from an aesthetic point of view, the visual parallels tying the past and present together in this episode were poetic at times.  I already mentioned Anders in the tub.  But did you also notice how Roslin’s scene in the fountain, torrents of water washing over her, was immediately followed by the slow drip of her feeding tube in the present?  And I’m sure the pigeon that Apollo was trying to chase out of his apartment meant something symbolically, although it’s eluding me at the moment.  Anybody want to take a stab at it?

RECAP DETAILS AHEAD (don’t read if you haven’t watched it yet) …

When you think about this episode, my guess is that the word “upbeat” probably doesn’t come to mind.  Things are bleak for the Fleet, on all sides.  Galactica has a huge gash in its belly as a result of Boomer’s premature FTL escape jump, and in the process of trying to repair it, the gash bleeds out 60-some crewmen, humans and Cylons alike.  Now that Hera is gone, Roslin’s temporary burst of energy comes to an end and she’s back in a sick bay bed again, bald, with Adama reading to her.  Faced with her and the ship’s pending deaths, and the actual death of his crewmen, Adama himself is falling apart at the seams.  Starbuck wrestles with the existential dilemma of what exactly she is, and even goes so far as to ask for help from Baltar … who promptly betrays the trust.  Helo and Athena mourn the disappearance of Hera, Hera misses her mother, and even Boomer seems to grieve the loss of Hera when Cavil takes her away.

So yeah … dark times.  The episode was directed by Edward James Olmos, and as such, seemed more transitional in nature than anything else, with rich performances but little in the way of actual plot progress.  Ellen tips Adama off about the existence of The Colony, but when a teams goes to reconnoiter, it turns out Cavil moved it months ago, before the attack on the Twelve Colonies.  Comatose Anders has been hooked up to the Cylon base ship, and is acting all “Lady in the Tub” but isn’t telling them anything useful — although he does confirm that Starbuck is the “harbinger of death”.  We learn that Tigh is “father to millions” … but we don’t learn what that means.  Possibly that the Final Five actually founded Earth, and that we are all their children?  We learn that Hera can project like a Cylon, when Boomer shares her dream house with her, and that contrary to her actions last week, Boomer isn’t entirely heartless.

The biggest plot point, of course, is the fate of the Galactica.  After one more in what I feel is probably one too many nervous breakdowns for Adama this season, he decides it’s time to abandon ship and move command central over to the Cylon base ship.  It’s not a decision made lightly for him (refer to the nervous breakdown mentioned above, which involves tears, teeth gnashing, and paint slopping), and one that’s embraced all too readily by the New Quorum, which seems eager to scavenge the Galactica for parts.

All in all, this episode seemed designed to transition us into the final two episodes — an hour next week, and two hours the week after that — which have been written by Ron Moore himself, and (theoretically) should tie up all the loose ends.  We’ll see.  Whether it does or not, at this point, I’m suspecting we won’t necessarily get a happy ending.

RECAP DETAILS AHEAD (don’t read if you haven’t watched it yet) …

This was another low energy episode, but with a few more twists and turns than last week.

Tyrol learns that the Cylons want Boomer to be released from Galactica’s brig … so that they can execute her for colluding with Cavil to kill thousands of Rebel Cylons.  Distressed by this, he goes to visit her, and using that dream-state thing that Cylons do, Boomer shares with him her vision of the perfect life together that they had always talked about back when they were a couple, including the perfect house and a daughter.  Tyrol tries to talk Roslin out of handing Boomer over, but when he can’t, he comes up with a plan to help her escape.  He causes a power failure — of which there are many these days on Galactica, while repairs are being performed — and in the confusion, knocks out one of the other Eights, and swaps her with Boomer.

Once free, Boomer finds Athena in the locker room, and knocks her out, presumably to swap places with her, so that it won’t seem unusual when she flies away in the Raptor that Tyrol is getting ready for her.  Annnd … that’s when it gets weird.  Because Helo shows up in the locker room, thinks she’s Athena, and long story short, they end up doing the Dance of the Glowing Red Spine … with a beat up Athena bound and gagged in a closet … forced to watch and listen.  Then Boomer proceeds to day care and picks up Hera … and it’s only at this point that I finally realize what’s going on.  That Boomer bringing Ellen back to Galactica was only a setup for a bigger plan concocted by Cavil — to steal Hera.

Poor Tyrol remains clueless about how badly he’s been played, and even though Athena escapes her bonds before Boomer has a chance to leave the ship, it’s still not soon enough.  In a battle of wills, Adama orders the flight pod doors closed, hoping to prevent the Raptor from taking off.  But Boomer makes a break for it, clips her wing on the way out, then makes an FTL jump within close proximity of the ship.  Which is apparently a VERY BAD THING to do.  The space/time concussion strikes a heavy blow to the side of Galactica, which I’m thinking will NOT help the ongoing repair process.  It’s only after Boomer has jumped away that Tyrol realizes she’s taken Hera, and when he does, he is suitably horrified.

The other ongoing storyline this week involved Starbuck and the Piano Man. Bored by the monotony of sending wave after wave of ships to search for habitable planets, CAG Starbuck has been going to the bar every night to drink and complain that the piano man keeps playing the same song over and over.  It turns out he’s working on a composition, which she tries to help him with … because her father was a piano player too.  Long story short, the piano player isn’t really there, Starbuck has been talking to her father in her head, and with the help of a drawing given to her by Hera, she starts playing a tune that her father taught her as a child.  A tune that almost sounds like “All Along the Watchtower”, which brings The Final Five (those who aren’t busy getting used by Boomer) running to her side.  Because it’s a tune that Daniel — Starbuck’s father — used to play.

Thanks to the hyper-guess-itivity of the Web in these past few months, this last revelation probably wasn’t as much of a surprise to most people as the writers would have liked it to be.  The whole Boomer still working for Cavil thing was probably more shocking.  But it was still nice to have that particular plot point wrapped up, so that we can finally figure out what the true nature of Starbuck is, once and for all.

Three more episodes to go!

RECAP DETAILS AHEAD (don’t read if you haven’t watched it yet) …

Last week’s episode was informative, exhausting, and bit controversial.  Some people out there, like myself, were thrilled with all the revelations, while others felt that the answers we received were too neat and/or contrived.  And in the two episodes before that, we dealt with the terse action of a fleet-wide mutiny raised and squashed.  But this week, things slow down a bit, and instead of information or action, we’re presented with some good old fashioned raw emotion in the form a painful and well-acted love triangle.

We all saw it coming, of course, the moment we saw Boomer and Ellen flee the Cylon base ship in that Raptor last episode — they were going to return to the Fleet, and when they did, Saul would have to decide between his undead wife and Caprica Six, the mother of his unborn child.  And that’s exactly how it goes down.  Before she even knows what Saul’s status is, Ellen beds Saul, and only after the fact thinks to ask him who he’s sleeping with these days. Upon finding out that it’s Caprica Six, she’s a bit disgusted.  After all, from her historically enlightened point of view, the Sixes are their “children”.  And that disgust only deepens when she learns — and not from Saul himself — that Caprica Six is pregnant with Saul’s baby.

In the midst of all this drama, the Rebel Cylons as a group are faced with a big decision.  Now that the Final Five have been reunited, do they and their children part ways with the Fleet, or do they remain loyal to their human allies and stick around?  The Five put it to a vote, and in part thanks to Ellen’s jealousy, the decision is made to leave, in spite of Saul’s vote in favor of staying.  Emotions run high, and Ellen accuses Saul of being more in love with Bill Adama than with either her or Six — which, you know, is probably true.  Nonetheless, we’ve never seen Saul more passionate and principled as he is in this episode.  His love for Six is clear, and he alone among The Five seems to understand the importance for the future of Cylons and Humans not separating themselves again at this stage of the game.

Sadly, the same love that Six believes made it possible for she and Saul to conceive a “pure Cylon” baby turns out not to be enough to keep it alive.  Either as a result of all the tension or just because the pregnancy was never viable to begin with, the baby — Liam — dies while still in the womb.  Which, along with the previous revelation that Tyrol is not the father of Callie’s baby, means that Hera remains the only Cylon baby … that we KNOW of.  (I’m still guessing that Starbuck is Daniel’s child.)

Which makes me wonder … are the Final Five essentially more human than the Other Eight, but not quite human enough to make a baby possible with an O8?  Because Sharon/Helo had a baby, Saul/Six conceived but couldn’t carry to term, the Cylons on Earth were able to procreate normally with each other, and no two of the O8 have been able to so much as conceive.  So it seems as if a certain amount of humanity is always required in the mix to both conceive and carry to term, and the O8 just can’t supply that.

Anyway, this leads to some very touching male bonding scenes between Saul and his buddy Adama, who frankly seems a bit more emotionally frail these days about the prospect of Galactica dying than he does about Roslin dying.  Tyrol and his rag-tag engineering crew of both Humans and Cylons have been slopping bio-goop on the beams, but it will take time for it to do its magic, if it works at all.  And Adama has come to realize that the end result will be a ship that — like its crew, and like his best friend — is not quite Human and not quite Cylon.  And he’s okay with that.

Meanwhile, Baltar is back to his wacky hijinx.  Having fled during the mutiny to save his own ass, he returns to his flock on Galactica, only to find that one of his followers has assumed leadership.  We know now that doesn’t really care about these people or God any more, if he ever did at all, but it doesn’t stop him from participating in a power struggle with the new leader, egged on by the return of Head Six, who pretty much feeds him most of his lines.  In the end, he assumes control again, and even manages to convince Adama to give him guns, so that his flock can protect themselves against the gangs and thugs that have become more rampant in the wake of the mutiny.

Considering what Sam had to say last episode about The Five seeing people who weren’t really there back when they were on Earth, I’m very curious about the return of Head Six to the story.

Only four more episodes to go …

Join me, won’t you, while I dump out everything I can remember, and make as much sense of it as as my puny human brain can manage …

RECAP DETAILS AHEAD (don’t read if you haven’t watched it yet) …

So after getting shot in the head last week, the bullet lodged in Sam’s brain causes him to remember everything about his and the rest of The Fives’ life on Earth, and he regales them– and Starbuck — with this information in frantic bursts right up till the point when Doc Cottel insists that the bullet be removed.  At the same time, we rewind back 18 months, and see Ellen resurrect after drinking Saul’s poison cocktail on New Caprica, then fast forward through her life on Cavil’s base ship until we reach the present day.  As a result, we get a TON of new information about the Cylons, both old and new, which I’ll try to put into some kind of chronological order …

1) The Five are born on Earth, grow up, and all work for some kind of research facility.  Together, they rediscover the resurrection technology that was somehow lost to them in the years since the Thirteenth Colony arrived from Kobol, and they install it on a ship in orbit of the planet.

2) When Earth gets blown up by angry Centurions, the five of them resurrect on the ship, then travel at subluminal speed back to Kobol — since they don’t have FTL technology yet.  They pass through the “Temple of Five” on the Algae Planet along the way, and tweak it so that it will one day show their faces to D’Anna (or presumably to whichever Cylon first found it).  The trip takes about 2000 years.

3) The Five’s plan is to warn the twelve colonies of the dangers of mistreating the Cylons they create.  But by the time they get there, the First War between the humans and Cylons is already in high gear.  They broker peace by promising the Centurions the technology both for creating biological bodies and for resurrection.  The Centurions agree, and the war ends.  The Centurions introduce The Five to the concept of One True God.

4) Cavil/John (#1) is the first skinjob they create, and he helps create seven others — Leobon (#2), D’Anna (#3), Simon (#4), Doral (#5), Six (#6), Daniel (#7), and Sharon (#8).  Daniel is an artist and is favored by Ellen, and Cavil/John is so jealous of him that he screws with Daniel’s cloning process, effectively killing off that line.  (I just want to go on record as saying that I knew something was fishy about #7.  Refer to this blog entry, where I compulsively rattle through all the numbers, and realize #7 was conspicuously missing.  I don’t say this to brag — only to point out to those who might be thinking that the writers are making shit up as they go that this Daniel character was obviously planned all along.)

5) Cavil/John decides he doesn’t like his creators, and kills The Five, screwing with their cloning process too, so that they won’t remember who they are, and scatters them across the colonies to live out human lives.  He does this presumably as a kind of revenge/punishment for making him live in a crappy human body, instead of a cool metal one with enhanced senses and abilities.

6) The seven new Cylons declare war on the colonies, which brings us to where the mini-series started.  It’s unclear whether Cavil/John expected The Five to die in the attack on the colonies, or if — as Ellen seems to think — he wanted them to live long enough to return to Earth, remember who they were, and finally give Cavil/John the respect he feels he deserves.  Regardless, they live, and remember what they are when they get close enough to Earth.  But Ellen has “died” on New Caprica by this point, and has resurrected on Cavil/John’s base ship.

7) Of The Five, only Ellen remembers Earth and everything that happened before Cavil/John killed them.  When the resurrection ship is destroyed, Cavil/John insists that she tell them how to rebuild it.  She claims that she needs the rest of The Five to do it, but Cavil/John doesn’t believe her, and is going to extract the information from her brain surgically.  But before he can, Boomer flies her off the base ship and FTL’s her away, presumably to join up with the human fleet, where Sam has just revealed some of The Five’s history to Saul, Tyrol, Tory, and Starbuck, including the fact that Ellen is one of them … and where Tyrol is planning to use Cylon bio-tech to keep the Galactica from falling apart, with Adama’s drunken blessing.

And there you have it.  As for who Daniel might be … it’s anybody’s guess.  Have we ever met a character named Daniel?  Although really, there’s no guarantee that if he’s alive, he even calls himself Daniel any more.  Look how many names Six has had — Gina, Shelley, Natalie.  So really, he could be anybody.

Did I forget any important details?  If so, then sound off in the comments!

Short Version: Quorum is shot. Mutiny collapses. Gaeta and Zarek are shot.

Long Version: First, let’s deal with the resolutions to last week’s two big cliffhangers. As it turns out, the grenade that was lobbed into the room where Adama and Tigh were making their last stand was a concussion grenade, not an explosive one. So Tigh gets thrown in the brig with the rest of the skin jobs, and Adama is brought back to the bridge. Meanwhile, Roslin’s/Baltar’s escape ship doesn’t actually get shot down, because Hot Dog has a change of heart once he finds out the president is on it. Which delays things enough for them to evade and make their way safely to the Cylon base ship.

Uneasy with having been inadvertently shot at, the Cylons are itching to FTL jump away from the fleet, but Roslin convinces them to hang in there, and they instead park themselves in the middle of the fleet, counting on Gaeta not to endanger civilian ships. Leoben then helps Roslin broadcast another anti-mutiny plea to the fleet, which serves to magnify the doubts everybody is already suffering from to begin with.

Starbuck and Apollo help Tigh and the other skin jobs escape from the brig, but in the process, Sam gets shot pretty bad. Romo Lampkin, who was recruited to defend Adama in the sham of a trial that Gaeta and Zarek arranged for him, finally shows his true colors — not only impressing on Adama the importance of stalling for time while those loyal to him squash the mutiny, but also helping Starbuck save Sam’s life.

Person by person, the mutiny begins to fall apart, and in a desperate gambit to keep it alive, Tom Zarek resorts to having The Quorum shot, lying to Adama about Tigh being killed, and lying to Roslin about Adama being killed. This last act turns out to be a huge miscalculation on his part, however, as Roslin becomes enraged and vengeful, convincing the Cylons to fire on Galactica.

Gaeta, realizing that he has lost this particular game of Chicken, decides to cut and run while he still has a chance. He orders Galactica and the portion of the fleet that is still loyal to him to FTL jump to a set of coordinates before the Cylons have a chance to fire on them. But what he doesn’t realize is that Chief Tyrol has been crawling through Jefferies tubes (or whatever they’re called in BSG) all episode, and after overcoming a few obstacles, manages to reach the FTL drive just in time to sabotage it.

With no means of escape, Gaeta finally surrenders. Roslin and Baltar return to Galactica. And Gaeta and Baltar have some coffee and cigarettes, and a final, very serene conversation about who he could have been, if only he’d made different choices — an architect, a doctor, a photographer. His final words to Baltar — “I just hope that people realize eventually who I am.” — almost have me worried that he’ll turn out to be something more than he seems, but I’m hoping not. Because it’s a very touching scene, and really leaves you feeling that Gaeta got exactly as much story as he needed to out of this series.

After this, Gaeta and Zarek receive the only justice that will ever send a strong enough message to anybody who might consider following their example in the future — execution by firing squad. But both men seem resigned to their fates right to the end, clearly comfortable and unrepentant about the decisions they’ve made, and Gaeta even seems to have found some kind of peace. Because for the first time all season, his leg stump finally stops itching, a moment before death takes him.

Meanwhile, down where the FTL drive is, Tyrol seems very disturbed by what looks to be some major stress fractures in the hull of Galactica. Which I’m thinking doesn’t bode well …

RECAP DETAILS AHEAD (don’t read if you haven’t watched it yet) …

As we hit the third of the final ten episodes, the writers clearly understand the need for expediency, and have wasted no time at all moving last week’s “disquiet” into a full-out mutiny, led by none other than Che Gaeta himself. Who on the one hand seems to believe that he’s doing the right thing for the Human fleet, but on the other, seems awfully willing — with Tom Zarek’s prodding — to play fast and loose with the lives of crew members in order to achieve his goals.

After recruiting a sizable chunk of Cylon-hating marines and pilots to his cause and setting various pieces in place, Gaeta is able to leverage his role as Galactica’s tactical officer to orchestrate an aggressive chain of events. Tom Zarek is freed from custody and returned to the Quorum on Colonial One, while Lee Adama is tricked into returning to the Galactica. Assorted Cylons are thrown into the brig. Reports of a fictional fire and faulty sensor equipment create a distraction that masks the culling of weapons. By the time soldiers loyal to Gaeta appear on the bridge and level their guns at Adama and Tigh, it’s pretty much too late to stop him from taking over the ship.

Fortunately for those still loyal to Adama and Roslin, Lee and Starbuck are able to evade capture and get to the president before the rebels do. They bring her to Baltar, who allows her to use his covert evangelical radio frequency to broadcast an appeal to the fleet to not give into fear and violence. It’s nice to see that Roslin finally gives a shit again, but one supposes she HAS to realize that Gaeta’s rebellion probably could have been nipped in the bud if only she hadn’t dropped the ball in the first place.

Anyway, with Tyrol’s help, Roslin and Baltar manage to get off the ship in a shuttle, while an escaped Adama and Tigh cover their backs. And just before we see the words “To Be Continued”, Gaeta gives the order to destroy the shuttle, while soldiers lob a grenade into the enclosed room where Adama and Tigh have made their final stand. Things look bleak, but I’m sure it will all work out. After all, conspicuously absent this past two episodes have been the Rebel Cylons, who I’m sure have been monitoring all the intra-ship radio chatter and will intercede in one way or another.

Mark Verheiden wrote this episode, and it really showed. His tense, intimate conversations between key characters — Baltar and Roslin, Baltar and Gaeta, Lee and Starbuck, Lee and Zarek, Adama and Gaeta, Adama and Tigh — are all pitch perfect and speak volumes in very few words. Starbuck to Lee: “Take a breath, Lee. Feels good being alive, doesn’t it?” (How nice to see her kicking ass again, by the way, instead of whining.) Adama to Gaeta’s rebels: “I want you all to understand. If you do this, there will be no forgiveness. No amnesty.” Roslin to Baltar: “If it makes you happy, maybe we’re both frauds, and this is our last chance to atone.” Tyrol to Lee: “Old Man deserves a better fate than what he’ll get from them.” And Adama, to his Cylon best friend, about whom he’s been agonizing since the tail end of last season: “It’s been an honor to have served with you, my friend.” It’s like all of the characters have woken up out of a fugue and rediscovered their true natures. Which I found very refreshing.