(S04E02) Let me start out by saying that Sci Fi airing these episodes online at noon is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing that we all get to see our favorite show well ahead of time. It's a curse because it's smack in the middle of a workday for some (though at lunchtime) and at the start of a workday for others. There's no pausing or rewinding, so if you get a bad connection or miss something, you still need to tune in that night to keep up. Not that that's such a bad thing, really, but man it's frustrating.
The second thing I wanted to get out of the way concerns one of the polls from last week, where I asked if you wanted a chat this week (yes, yes, I will get to the review in a minute). The poll was really, really close, with more people wanting the chat than not. However, I think it might be a bad idea for a couple of reasons, most important dealing with what I just mentioned regarding the noon showing. I'm concerned we'll have jerks ruining things for everyone with spoilers, for example. I'm still open to hearing what you all have to say about it in the comments, though.
I forgot to note last week about one important part of Starbuck's story, how she seems to think she's been away for only hours while, to everyone else, she's been gone for months. With that in mind, besides the strange Earth cramps she's been having, she's been acting odd for someone who thinks she's been gone for such a short time. Even the point when she approaches Apollo is strange. I can't wait to see the reveal of what really happened to her, whether she was caught in some sort of wormhole or if she really blacked out for such a long time.
Sticking with Starbuck, is the consensus from everyone that Roslin purposely missed when she shot at her? It certainly looked like she had every intention of taking her out, and it could be that her complications from cancer are what caused her to not see straight and miss. Then again, maybe she's just a really poor shot; it's not as if she's done a good job handling a weapon before. She is one self-righteous crazy person, and I was glad to see Bill put her in her place.
I'm betting that more than quite a few of you guys reading this were thanking the gods for your DVR's rewind and pause capability during the Grace Park dancing scene. In fact, you're probably watching it again right now, aren't you? Yeah, you know who you are.
When I saw the promos for this episode, I knew already what was going to happen, since it was the Cylon meeting table scene that I got a peek at during the BSG set visit last year. This scene spells out one of the larger themes of this final season, probably the entire series. "This has happened before, and will happen again." Those words are reflected in what Cavil was trying to do with the Raiders.
But doesn't it seem a bit too convenient? It makes sense that this would happen, but now it's slapped us over the head, just like that, within one episode. Shouldn't this have been something we'd see throughout maybe the last season or two? The Raiders are acting up, Cavil decides they need configuring and that they're "tools" that do their bidding, and boom -- it's like humans to the skin-jobs.
As for the four newly-revealed Cylons, why are they so hell bent on finding the last Cylon? Is it because they can use this last "person" as a scapegoat of sorts, throwing everyone off their scent by throwing him or her to the dogs? What do the four hope to gain by meeting together all the time, in secret? Gods, even Tory took one for the team, though it seems she's not feeling all that bad about it.
I'm not sure what to make of Lee leaving the Galactica, but I'm a sucker for the familiar Adama Celtic music. Gets me right there, I tell ya. I imagine we'll see Lee working his legal mojo, only to be dragged back into battle at least one last time before all's said and done.
During Lee's farewell scene, I was reminded of how easily a Model 8 Cylon is able to walk amongst the rest of the crew, skip-happy and smiling all the way. Is this something Saul and the other three have thought of yet, that they could possibly be somewhat overlooked should they come forward and let it be known what they experienced? What more do they have to do to be "cleared" as really being the good guys like Athena has been?
It was good to see the scenes with Bill and Kara, both the hostile and the friendly. It shows that Bill definitely has a father-daughter bond with Kara, where there are major ups and there are major downs. We saw this with Bill and Lee, and commenters even made note of how quickly Bill got over his issues with Lee and the court case.
One last thing: what the heck can they recycle sewage for?
Current fleet population: 39,676
Quote of the episode:
Cavil: "Centurions can't vote, Six."
Number 6: "Oh they're not here to vote. Cavil."
Second best quote of the episode:
Number 6: "The telencephalic inhibitor that restricts higher functions in Centurions. We had them removed."
Cavil: "Say what?!"
TV Squad Ten: Top Ten ESPN shows from worst to first
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
Have any questions for Vik Sahay of Chuck? Ask them here!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
4-11-2008 @ 11:22PM
mayorjimmy said...
all signs seem to be pointing at Baltar as the final cylon. especially with this "second" Baltar talking to him like Six. but that's just too obvious for this show.
Reply
4-14-2008 @ 12:29AM
Phish said...
it's prob not baltar, although he does have something to do with the final 5. he may not be a cylon, but could be the creator of the new strong AI that led them to make biological bodies.
However, I think its roslin, for a couple reasons:
1) in season 3 finale, when there was a huge power failure, and all the 4 remaining cylons got a huge migraine from the music, she also looked to be affected. but prob blamed the hallucinations (aural and visual) on kammalah extract.
2) she had the same vision about the opera house, where Six gets the baby and leaves with baltar. she, six and athena simultaneously shared this vision.
3) she is a completely heartless, ice cold bitch at times. and yes, i believe she would have killed starbuck had it not been for the medication. why pull the trigger if you're not gonna kill her? she wasnt calling a bluff, or trying to scare starbuck.
the god(s) intervened and she missed
4-11-2008 @ 11:27PM
Al said...
Has anyone else noticed that the Pres seems to be the victim of an overzealous facelift? She looks like Wayne Newton.
Great episode, other than that.
# 5 is akjlakj.....................
Reply
4-11-2008 @ 11:34PM
Chris Devers said...
Interestingly, the season 4 promo photos page on scifi.com seems to have a bunch of pictures for episodes that haven't aired yet -- they show Lee with the quorum (foreshadowed heavily tonight, but not literally shown yet), pictures of what seems to be Starbuck's mission to find Earth, etc. I wonder if it's a mistake that they're accessible before the shows air.
http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/gallery/index.php?p=1&sub=season04
Reply
4-11-2008 @ 11:41PM
Chris said...
Great, I wanted to post this first:
#1-Cavill
#2-Leoben
#3-D'anna
#4-Simon
#5-Aaron
#6-Six (duh)
#7-???
#8-Boomer/Athena
#9-???
#10-???
#11-???
#12-??? (The guy who plays Tyrol said he was 12, but we'll just wait for the episodes to say that.)
There you have it, the current Cylon list.
Reply
4-12-2008 @ 12:01AM
Keith McDuffee said...
I don't think that's really news. We've known for a while who was numbered what other than the Helo thing (I didn't hear that myself).
4-11-2008 @ 11:46PM
john said...
Actually, i think they have foreshadowed the intra-Cylon conflict quite a bit. There was of course the shutting-down of the Lucy Lawless model, the conflict over what to do on New Caprica, etc. We've also seen the beginnings of members of the same model group diverging - starting with Athena going over to the human side, but also Boomer and Caprica Six taking their own paths. So this seems like the latest example of the Cylons becoming more human - individuals with emotions and arguments.
I think it's probably a big clue as to where things will wrap up. And I think the prospect of a full-on Cylon civil war is one of more interesting things the show's done lately.
Reply
4-12-2008 @ 12:13AM
Chris Devers said...
Responding to comments in the original review...
* What's so strange about Kara's behavior when she gets back, vis-a-vis her scene with Lee? Ever since she got back (days at this point?), people that "hours earlier" loved & trusted her now feared & shunned her. Lee is the only one shown to be treating her without suspicion, so of course she warms up to him in the brig.
* The conversation between Adama & Roslin suggests to me that Roslin aimed at point-blank range and intended to kill Kara. I don't think it's cancer, I don't think it's that she's a bad shot. I think -- and I'm not entirely comfortable with this, as the show hasn't been all *that* supernatural so far -- that something metaphysically forced her to miss her shot. Just like something forced Anders and the Raider to not shoot each other. "Larger Forces" are at work now. (I almost want to compare it to Pulp Fiction, when the guy jumps out of the closet and unloads his gun at Jules & Vincent at close range, and all the bullets pass through and hit the wall directly behind them without touching them at all. There's a popular theory that this was also supernatural -- but I digress.)
* That Boomer dancing scene was gratuitous, wasn't it? Maybe next week we'll get some naked Cavil yoga action.
* Cavil's actions with the Raiders was "convenient"? How so? An issue with a Raider asserting its independence came up at the end of the last episode, and he's dealing with it at the start of this one. It would have been weirder if this had been happening & tolerated for months, then acted on now, as you seem to be suggesting.
* Sharon is accepted now, but look back over her story arc. When she came back from Caprica, they locked her up for a year, and she had to constantly struggle to prove that she could be trusted. It took a year of orbiting New Caprica for Adama to start to trust her, and even after Exodus she was still having her loyalties questioned. You could argue that her defection will make it easier for the final four, but you could also argue that there was just one of her (and if they had to throw her out the airlock, so be it), but there are four of them, and who knows how long they've been conspiring together. (The audience knows the answer to that, of course, but the characters wouldn't.)
* I'm sure they recycle sewage on the fleet for the same reason that NASA does such things. In space, you have limited room for storing things like food & water, nevermind garbage, and the more you can conserve & recover & recycle, the more self-sustaining you are. Maybe they take out the water and use the rest as fertilizer for hydroponic agriculture or something, or maybe they can use the sewage as a biofuel.
Reply
4-12-2008 @ 11:44PM
nattyff said...
* That Boomer dancing scene was gratuitous, wasn't it? Maybe next week we'll get some naked Cavil yoga action.
i think it was intented to show how boomer an cavil where been "friendly", and the importance of that in the voting later... showing them doing something else... would have been very gross... to me anyway... (boomer have a very poor taste in man...)
4-12-2008 @ 12:34AM
Conan said...
From the review:
Number 6: "The talon's phallic inhibitor that restricts higher functions in Centurions. We had them removed."
I don't think it's 'talon's phallic.' I believe the Six said 'telencephalic', referring to the telencephalon. The telencephalon is the part of the brain that develops into the cerebral cortex (which is responsible for higher brain functions; a.k.a. 'gray matter').
Reply
4-12-2008 @ 12:48AM
Usama said...
Yup, definitely Telencephalon. We're studying this now actually. It's what you think of when you imagine a human brain, all those folds and stuff. Coincidentally this is where a lot of our higher thinking occurs. Nice work Conan.
4-12-2008 @ 8:06AM
Keith McDuffee said...
Wow, that makes a LOT more sense than what I thought I heard. I knew it couldn't be right, but I figured someone would correct me. I made the fix. Thanks!
4-12-2008 @ 12:47AM
Montgomery Lopez said...
For starters, I still don't the meaning of the title for this other than the first impression of something having to do with Six. Or there were six of something that had one common element? Again, huh?
This episode starts right were last week's end with the now hostage situation of President Roslin. Starbuck and Roslin pretty much fell out after on and leaving new Caprica. I remember much happier times when Starbuck used to be Roslin's model of strong female leaders in the event of her death, ie someone to challenge William Adama. So, we are left with two women who have two opposing ideas, two visions of where Earth is located. Starbuck is at her wits end in trying to convince Roslin that she is right where Roslin is very non emotional or reactionary to Starbuck's antics. What was interesting was how Starbuck gave her firearm over to Roslin. In not so many words Starbuck dared Roslin to shoot her if she believed that Starbuck was a Cylon. Eventually, Roslin did fire, missed at almost point blank range and hit a picture of Roslin and Adama on a wall. The cracking of the picture was foretelling on the relationship between President and the Admiral. Great opening teaser and we even get a quick shot of Dualla who has been absent for sometime.
We jump forward to the Cylon Breakfast Club of Tigh, Anders, Chief and Tory. Sadly, there was very little move this scene along except for a brief line deliver by the Chief. Tigh complained to the Chief about being late. The Chief shot back that he had to wait until Cally was asleep. All this is means and serves is a set up to next week's episode where it appears Cally finds out about the group and who they are. This was the weakest part of the episode.
read more: http://monsterscifishow.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/bsg-season-4-six-of-one-episode-review/
Reply
4-12-2008 @ 11:37AM
Karen said...
I think the title is pulling from the common expression "It's six of one, half a dozen of another," which means there's no real difference. It's ironic here, because there is definitely differences appearing among the Cylons and Six appears to have been the prime mover in making that happen.
4-12-2008 @ 11:08PM
Scott H said...
I also think the title is a reference to the great 60's TV series "The Prisoner", where the lead character was Number Six, they had an episode titled "Six of One", and issues of identity were prominent in nearly every episode. The American fan club for the show is actually named "Six of One".
4-12-2008 @ 12:50AM
radwimp said...
I thought it was pretty clear that Roslin did intend to kill Starbuck, from her conversation with Adama. I believe it was something she would do if she really believes Starbuck is a cylon.
Fascinating stuff going on with the cylons. I had always wondered about the Humans vs Metals and if anything would ever happen there.
All else I can say about this ep... wow, Katee. Bravo.
Reply
4-12-2008 @ 12:54AM
Tim said...
They keep shooting Admiral Adama this season.
For those who missed it, last week, Tigh had a fantasy of shooting Adama on the deck similiar to Boomer's act in the first season. Tonight's episode had Roslin's shot missing Starbuck... and hit a framed photo of Roslin and Adama. The center hole appears to be just above Adam's heart, or in his shoulder.
I think Adama's going to be shot for real before the end of the season.
Reply
4-14-2008 @ 1:17PM
Boomstick said...
ohhh. I like that observation.
4-14-2008 @ 1:23PM
Boomstick said...
I rewatched that scene. The bullet hole is at the top of Adama's left shoulder - between Rosilyn and Adama. Perhaps foreshadowing a split between the two?
4-12-2008 @ 2:28AM
PurpleSlog said...
"One last thing: what the heck can they recycle sewage for?"
Soylent Brown?
Reply