Five-Legged Iguana

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
Season 4 Episode 5
“The Road Less Traveled” (1)
Written by Mark Verheiden
Directed by Michael Rymer
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

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

Is it possible to love a show and yet despair of its characters, to fear and feel anxiety over the very dark places its characters find themselves in? To enjoy and not enjoy a show simultaneously?
I guess it is, ‘cause that’s the way I feel right now, after having seen this episode.
Bad enough to witness the changes in President Roslin, but now we get Skinhead Chief and Loony Kara.


First stop, the Demetrius.
The two-month window Adama gave Kara is almost up, and the grumblings on board the creaky tub are being heard, long and loud. It’s really probably only Helo who’s still covering Kara’s a$$, while everyone else, including Athena, are voting for chucking all this insanity in and heading back to the Fleet.
Things get even hairier when they come across a Leoben in a damaged Raider, a Leoben who Kara ends up consulting, to try and make sense of how she can find Earth again.
Needless to say, this consultation pisses everyone off, particularly Sam. And after finding out that Kara was housing Leoben in her quarters, Sam has the Toaster thrown out and locked up.
Leoben eventually tells Sam that Cylon civil war has broken out, and that the others he left on the damaged base star (presumably Natalie and her crew of dissenters) need Kara’s help, but not as much as she needs theirs. Leoben claims that the Hybrid can help Kara find Earth.
Everyone except Kara is, understandably, leery of Leoben’s claims, and even Kara whales on him when Sgt. Mathias gets killed in what could (or could not have been) an accident involving Leoben’s damaged Raider.
After a hasty memorial for Mathias though, everyone thinks Kara will realize they should at least rendezvous with the fleet first, before pursuing the coordinates on Leoben’s Raider which will take them to the purportedly damaged base star, but Kara insists they need to make the jump now.
Helo tries his level best to continue to follow orders, but after a final push from Athena, he opts to join everyone else (except Sam, perhaps) in a mutiny against Kara…
Hoo-boy!


Next stop, the fleet, and three of the four Secret Cylons.
Though we do get to see Tigh once, and a little more of Toaster Tory, who’s still frakking the hell outta Baltar, and trying to convert Tyrol to Baltar’s monotheistic creed, it’s Skinhead Chief we see the most of in this installment.
Aaron Douglas is having a hell of a time acting up a scary, unsettling storm as he continues to weather the immense amount of grief he’s feeling in the wake of Cally’s “suicide.” (Damn you, Toaster Tory!!!)
And while Tigh calls Skinhead Chief on his duty-slacking (as per the previous episode, where was he re-assigned to, anyway?), Skinhead Chief calls Tigh on his visits to Caprica Six.
Then Baltar gets on the “let’s convert the heathen” train and starts to make religious advances on Skinhead Chief. When his first attempt—underscored by an annoyingly presumptious “this is what Cally would have wanted” plea—is greeted by Skinhead Chief with an angry neck-throttle and a strangled roar of “You didn’t know her!”, Baltar makes a house call to Skinhead Chief’s quarters, and proceeds to have a heart-to-heart that succeeds in at least getting Skinhead Chief to take Baltar’s hand.
In friendship? In common religious belief?
Who knows at this point?


I, for one though, am still dubious about Baltar the Holy.
I still honestly don’t completely buy his conversion, his self-professed attempt to redeem himself of all his past sins.
Somehow, I still see the smarmy little sh!t he’s always been, and it still feels like he’s stringing all these people along, with his pirate broadcasts and his services and his frak sessions with Toaster Tory.
And as I stated last episode, his preaching has basically given Toaster Tory license to be the superior being she believes herself to be, without apology or remorse.
And if that handclasp means Skinhead Chief is going along for the Baltar the Holy ride, yeeesh!
I appreciate the stress Skinhead Chief’s psyche is undergoing, what with the “Watchtower” epiphany, and then Cally’s “suicide,” but I don’t, at the moment, see what he apparently saw in Baltar’s demeanour that would make him take that sniveling, would-be evangelist’s hand.
Or is it just me and I can’t see past Baltar’s sins?

COUNTDOWN: 15.

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