BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
Season 4 Episode 2
“Six of One”
Written by Michael Angeli
Directed by Anthony Hemingway
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

Twelve Cylon models
Seven are known
Four live in secret
One will be revealed

“They will not harm their own. End of line. Limiting diffusions to two dimensions increases the number of evolutionary jumps within the species. Rise and measure the Temple of the Five. Transformation is the goal. They will not harm their own.”
-- The Hybrid

Man, this was a difficult episode to sit through, and I imagine it’ll only get tougher as we get further into this final season.

A lot of this episode’s moving bits came from the “Apollo musters out” subplot, as he takes his leave of the cockpit and prepares to take that government position (Caprica’s representative on the Quorum of Twelve).
There’s a rowdy pilot’s party, with toasts aplenty, as well as a full parade dress event on the flight deck, where we have a great Moment between Lee and Dualla (“Looks like you get the house,” he says, as he prepares to leave Galactica).
I only wish he’d had a Moment with the President, and truly hope that ended up as a deleted scene which will find its way onto DVD…
There’s even Lee’s solitary Moment in the Briefing Room, where snatches and echoes of the past ring out.
Hey, sorry for all the Season 3 trash talk, dude. You’re a decent enough guy, when your head’s on straight…

Then there’s the Secret Cylon subplot, which sees Toasters Anonymous trying to divine who the Fifth is, and in attempting to get at that truth, they enlist Tory to seduce Baltar, who may know something, given his presence at the Temple on the Algae Planet, and his… errrr… dealings with D’Anna.
And though Tigh tells Tory, You don’t have to end up on your back, she does so anyway… while crying…
Sigh.
Ah, well. Baltar’s presence in this though makes this overlap with the Baltar the Holy subplot, which as I’ve said before, I’m still iffy about, so I’ll wait and see…
Oh, and apparently, Baltar now has a Head Baltar. Gods, the man is certifiable…

Starbuck’s Resurrection, meanwhile, also affords Katee Sackhoff some great scenes, one of which is her face-off with the President, and her subsequent arrest, where it was truly startling to see Kara in a way she’s never been before.
Good stuff.
Within this subplot, there’s also a fantastic scene between Adama and Roslin, as they come to loggerheads about Kara: Roslin is still convinced it’s some kind of trap; Adama is arguing for, What if she’s telling the truth?
Miracles and faith (and Adama’s atheism) come into the conversation, certain hard and harsh things are said (Adama certainly is a mean drunk), and the President’s hair starts falling out.
Graaaah!!! This episode slays me.
Of course, it takes them all of this episode before Adama comes to the conclusion I posited last time: he gives Starbuck a sewage treatment ship (the Demetrius) and she’s to go off with a crew and find Earth. (At this point, I’m not sure if Adama meant that Helo would accompany Kara, so I’ll just have to wait till next episode to see if Karl is along for the smelly ride.)

Meanwhile, over on the Cylon front, the Sixes, Eights, and Twos sense what the Raiders determined: that the Final Five are in the fleet.
The Ones will hear no such nonsense. As far as Cavil and the rest of the Ones are concerned, the Raiders aren’t fulfilling their programming, and need to be fixed. This proposed lobotomy of the Raiders becomes the bone of contention within the ranks of the Cylons.
With the Fours and Fives on the Ones’ side, the issue is deadlocked, until Boomer makes the unprecedented move of voting against all the other Eights and coming down on the “lobotomize the damn Raiders” side.
Backed into a corner and convinced the sentience of the Raiders, along with the Final Fives’ presence (and Boomer’s decision as well) means there’s some kind of massive change taking place, a Six called “Natalie” takes it upon herself to remove the inhibitor which suppresses higher functions in the Centurions.
And when the Centurions are told that the Raiders have been sentenced to lobotomies, they side with Natalie and voila, Cylon coup d’etat.

It’s here, in this subplot, where a lot of the heady stuff lies: even as Four of the Final Five are allowed their epiphanies and awakened to their true natures, the Cylon race is experiencing some kind of evolutionary surge.
Sentience—and the free will that comes along with it—becomes an issue which fractures the union of the race.
It’s interesting that the Cylons are still continually progressing to becoming, for lack of better terms, more human. And with all that Hybrid prattle about not harming their own, could this be where BSG is headed?
Some ultimate union of both species, a mutual recognition that they are all one and the same after all, equal, in the eyes of God/the gods?

COUNTDOWN: 18.

(Images courtesy of SCIFI Channel and twitchfilm.net.)

TV WATCH 2007 (4)
Odds & Ends

There were a couple of other new Pilots I also got to see aside from the three I’ve already reviewed (Chuck, Reaper, and Pushing Daisies: see TV Watch 2007 1-3 in Archive: August 2007) that I thought I should at least mention and give some of my reactions to.

Bionic Woman
Coming from Battlestar Galactica producer David Eick, I was hoping this would kick my a$$ something fierce. Sadly though, it doesn’t really get moving in any exciting and significant way.
And though it is nice to see Katee Sackhoff as some other character besides Starbuck (and there’s also a cameo from another BSG alum), there isn’t anything here that we haven’t seen before.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles (SPOILERS)
This Terminator spin-off is marginally better than Bionic Woman, though not by much.
Picking up after the events in T2, this one also doesn’t get very exciting. One of the few commendable things about this Pilot though, is Thomas Dekker, who used to play Zach on Heroes. Even back then, he showed he was an excellent young actor, and that is no different here.
Sadly, Lena Headey’s Sarah Connor just doesn’t register the way Linda Hamilton did in T2. I’m not sure if it’s because Headey’s performance isn’t as powerful as the one she gave in 300, or if Hamilton just really nailed the character’s transformation into shotgun-toting, kicka$$ momma in T2. Maybe it’s a little of both.
And Summer Glau’s teen Terminatrix is passably interesting, but if there isn’t some future romantic subplot between her and John Connor (it’s the ultimate Romeo and Juliet scenario!), the whole emotionless killing machine thing could get old really, really quickly. (And isn’t this just a variation of what she already did on Serenity?)
At the moment, Dekker is far too good for this show, so it better shape up as the season unfolds.

(Bionic Woman images courtesy of nbc, nymag.com, and scifiblog.net; Sarah Connor Chronicles images courtesy of fox, seattlepi.com, starburst, and myweb.tiscali.co.uk.)

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA Season 3 Episode 18 (WARNING: SPOILERS)
“The Son Also Rises”

The loss of Starbuck colours the proceedings of this episode,* which establishes the lawyer for Baltar’s defense, the unfortunately named Romo Lampkin (Mark A. Sheppard, 24 Day 5), a man who was apparently taught by Joseph Adama; a man who is all too ready to lie, filch, and manipulate to suit his own ends.
Initially put off by his manner, it wasn’t until the hospital bed scene that I found the interesting character that was there. (And episode’s end confirmed that. This is a new, dangerous variable that needs to be watched, constantly.)
Starbuck’s loss understandably affects Sam (who has a great scene on a Viper), as well as the Adamas, the tension between father and son flaring anew. Conceivably, if circumstances were closer to normal for Apollo, he might have been more aware of the subtler deceptions and manipulations taking place, but he’s in mourning, so there you go.
The stage is thus set for Baltar’s trial, with the Old Man as part of the Tribunal, and Lee assisting in Baltar’s defense.
And still no sign of the Cylons. (Hint hint.)

* I’m honestly surprised at how shocked I was at the absence of Katee Sackhoff from the opening credits. Yes, I know she’s supposed to be dead, but as per my review of last week’s episode, I really do think it’s one of those cases of temporary death…