Writer: Mark Verheiden
Director: John Dahl
Grade: A+
First of all, this was a fabulous episode. I feel like I need to clarify that I didn’t dislike the previous episode because it was slow and enjoy this episode because it was action-packed. I disliked the last episode because I felt like much of the characterization didn’t make sense, and I loved this episode because the action was almost entirely character-driven. There is not a single character who doesn’t make perfect sense in this episode, except for maybe Racetrack.
Adama and Roslin were, in many ways, wrong, but they were understandably so. They probably should have taken the time to listen to the Quorum, to try to assuage their fears and come to a consensus. But Bill and Laura are both, by this point, too exhausted and broken to make the effort to uphold democratic ideals. It seemed so much easier to just do what they knew needed to be done, and leave it to Lee to put a nice spin on it and clean up the fallout. Because make no mistake, upgrading the fleet’s jump drives with Cylon tech absolutely needs to be done if they are to have any hope of a) finding a new home, and b) surviving more attacks from the hostile Cylons.
As for Gaeta, he makes perfect sense given the events in the webisodes. For one thing, he’s collaborated with the Cylons before, and a lot of people died, so no way would he be okay with doing it again. For another thing, his Cylon ex-lover turned out to be murderous psychopath who was largely responsible for the aforementioned deaths, plus new ones. And for yet another thing, a Cylon was responsible for the loss of his leg (granted several people had a hand in that incident and its aftermath, but it was Sam who fired the shot). It’s also interesting that Gaeta is essentially Commander of Galactica now, because there’s no way Zarek would let him keep the position for long. And that’s probably fine with Gaeta, because I don’t think he wants power in terms of military rank. He feels helpless and cheated and angry, so he’s trying to regain some measure of control over his own life. (I have to wonder whether Adama’s “You’ll die with nothing” to Gaeta was a prophecy or a statement to be proven wrong. As pissed as I am at Gaeta right now, I have enough compassion to still hope for the latter.)
Zarek is the one who’s on the real power trip. Killing Laird just goes to show that he’s acting on pure principle without any kind of actual sense or plan to help the people survive. Because Laird, as someone on TWoP pointed out, was a damn good engineer, and engineers don’t just grow on trees. These “revolutionaries” were killing anyone who stood in their way, without any kind of consideration to who was going to be left standing when the dust settled. That’s not looking toward the longevity of the remainder of the human race, that’s throwing a huge, lethal temper tantrum. I understand the fear and frustration that is driving this mutiny, but I cannot in any way support it. The ends don’t justify the means in this case, because they don’t seem to have a fucking clue what the actual “ends” are.
I have to say I was bummed about Racetrack, and even Seelix. Seelix siding with the mutineers was not unexpected given her past behavior, but I like the actress and found the character compelling when she got a little screen time. And yet another point in this episode’s favor, Verheiden even managed to tie up whether Seelix and Sam slept together, which thankfully they did not. Such a tiny thread in the series, but nice to see that they’re still paying attention to those tiny threads this close to the end.
As for Starbuck, she was just made of awesome throughout this entire episode. (Yet another sign of how stupid and disorganized the resistance was, they didn’t contain and neutralize Starbuck--or President Roslin--before they set the plan in motion.) The way she planted that kiss on Lee was perfect: part giddy excitement at having a purpose again and part “C’mon Apollo, wake up, I know you’re in there!” As much as I loved her in this episode, though, I can’t agree with her statement to Bill that “They are not your men anymore—they are the enemy.” If that’s true, then the alliance with rebel Cylons is a fucking joke. If Adama can put differences aside with these Cylons to an extent that allows for an alliance, then he has to be willing to forgive his own people for letting manipulative snakes like Zarek and Gaeta use their fear and discontent against them.
Lee was also in good form in this episode, though he didn’t really have much to do. He let Zarek play him like a fiddle, but he was redeemed somewhat by the fact that Zarek thought Lee would be a “wild card,” and he so wasn’t. Lee knows the difference between having to make a disagreeable decision for the good of your entire race (Adama and Roslin) and using democratic rhetoric to stage a bloody, disorganized coup with no real thought given to the aftermath (Zarek and Gaeta). There was a bit of a misstep with Lee in that I can see no reason why he would question Tyrol’s motives in helping them escape, but I did love that Lee called him by his first name, which was warm, respectful, and humanizing.
Roslin killed me with her “I am not getting pulled back in” to Adama regarding fleet politics. Again I thought, why not hand over the reins to Lee, since he’s pretty much trying to do your job anyway? I suppose the answer is that she wasn’t as done as she thought/said she was, which was obvious in the scene when Tigh came to Adama’s quarters at the beginning of the episode. That was great, but we should have seen some hint of it in the previous episode to avoid confusion and frustration, which adds another black mark to 4x12 in retrospect.
Also, how did Athena get out of the brig? I wondered this the first time I saw the episode, and then forget to pay attention the second time, so I’m still confused. Did I completely blow over the escape scene in my excitement about other things? Or were we just supposed to see Athena in the Raptor at the end and get a kick out of the fact that the Cylons escaped and we didn’t even see it? Or is it a plot point, i.e. we’ll get flashbacks to it in the next episode? Or even maybe… that’s not Athena, but is in fact a different Eight that was hiding out on Galactica somewhere and escaped capture? But we’re not supposed to realize it yet?
And hey, in such a heavy, action-packed, deeply disturbing episode, they still managed to insert some humor. Starbuck reading a book. Gaeta totally underestimating the “old farts” by sending Tigh and Adama off with only two marines, whose asses they totally kicked. Tigh’s reaction to robe-clad Laura in Bill’s quarters. Starbuck and Lee’s reaction to the big Laura/Bill liplock at the end: “Oh. Ew. Did you know?” “Totally did not.” “Me neither.” “Awkward!” “I think I’m blind.” Hee.
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