No Exit
Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 01:00am by GeekBoyToo … much … information … can’t … process. Seriously, just one revelation after another in this week’s episode of Battlestar Galactica.
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!
1. Greater Czarina said ( Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 11:56 am )
Did you catch the part where Sam told Tyrol, et al that they started seeing people who weren’t there on Earth, that warned them of the impending nuclear attack? As in, they saw “chip” people, a la Baltar and his Chip Six? Which kind of indicates that Baltar might be Daniel.
As for the rest, I think you got it all down correctly. Wow, but that was a lot of info all at once!
2. GeekBoy said ( Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 12:08 pm )
Oh, good point! I didn’t make that connection. I could definitely see Baltar as the sensitive artist type in another life. I’m trying to remember if we ever saw any scenes between him and Ellen, and if they had any chemistry with each other?
I guess we’ll find out next week if/when Ellen reconnects with the fleet!
3. Liz said ( Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 2:35 am )
You know you’re in trouble when poor old PC is your brain surgeon.
4. Jack said ( Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 9:05 am )
Liz – too funny!! I knew I recognized him, but I couldn’t place him until I read your post.
I was trying to guess Daniel based on the description, but Baltar doesn’t really strike me as that type. He’s always seemed to place his own happiness and security at the forefront, and the happiness and security of others… well, way down the list. But I could be reading the Daniel type (or Baltar) wrong.
5. sandra said ( Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 11:49 am )
I kinda found the casting of the PC guy distracting – he was exactly as he is in the Apple commercials and on John Stewart – all kooky and bumbly and I found it a little annoying and took me right out of the scene. Not a biggie, but I found it to be a weird casting choice. Also, how is it that the doctor told Starbuck that Sam did well coming out of surgery and all the PC guy said is that he is surprised Sam isn’t out of it yet but then in the very next scene when Starbuck in the room with him we realize his brain activity has flat-lined? I wouldn’t call that a success. I guess it could have happened in the time in between but the nurse was so nonchalant about it, too. Just something I found a little weird/sloppy, but I know I’m nitpicking, sorry.
Otherwise, I thought the actor that plays Sam did an excellent job, considering I always thought of him as the sporty jock hunky guy with not much acting chops. Loved his handle of the word scramble sentences. The information revealed is quite a lot and I am excited about the upcoming episodes. Oh, and the other thing that I wanted to mention: did you notice Starbuck perk up when she heard the name Daniel? She even asked Sam to clarify that is the name he said and looked distressed. Or maybe I’m wrong?
6. Maggie said ( Monday, February 16, 2009 at 3:47 am )
Sandra, I totally agree about PC taking us right out of the scene. As soon as I saw him I turned to Jeremy and said that if it were me, I’d choose Mac to do my brain surgery.
I didn’t think the nurse was nonchalant, I thought she was borderline gleeful. She’s the one who’s very anti-Cylon, so her reaction didn’t surprise me. But yeah, being brain-dead is a long way from a successful outcome!
Starbuck was distressed…she wanted to be the #7 Cylon and was disappointed to learn she wasn’t. Because she wants to know what happened to her while she was missing those two months.
GC, interesting connection between Baltar’s ability to see his Six and Anders’ description of getting warned by people only they could see!
7. Maggie said ( Monday, February 16, 2009 at 3:54 am )
And Geekboy, Ellen was totally hitting on Baltar at one time, in the first season, episode 9. Baltar tests her to see if she’s a Cylon, we never see the test, Baltar tells everyone Ellen is not a Cylon. Six asks him what the test really said, and Baltar says he’ll never tell.
8. Dave said ( Monday, February 16, 2009 at 10:06 am )
I hung with everything, I think, except the part about life on Earth. Is/was everyone a Cylon skinjob? When the fleet found Earth, they found over 200 remains – all Cylon. This part of the story is tripping me up. Were the five human who downloaded themselves into cylon reproductions of their old bodies?
I probably need to re-watch….
9. GeekBoy said ( Monday, February 16, 2009 at 10:25 am )
Dave, I don’t think you need to rewatch. I think that’s just part of the story/mythology that hasn’t been told yet. There’s only so much they can reveal in an hour, and the story of what exactly happened on Earth is probably part of a deeper mystery.
Although my impression (right or wrong) is that everybody on Earth was a Cylon, and that The Five were the only five that escaped. How Earth got to be a Cylon world from the point at which the Thirteenth Tribe migrated to it is what’s still fuzzy to me.
So what if Daniel is Starbuck’s father? That would make some sense, wouldn’t it? He could have met her mom in the prison camp during the First War, got her pregnant, then was discontinued after that.