TVSquad

"I keep going back to the scenes from past seasons when we saw the tell-tale Cylon glowing, red spine."

Though I can't remember where it was, I heard that the glowing spine was added in to that early scene of Caprica Six and Baltar to make it clear to those watching who didn't quite understand that she wasn't human. Still, the fact that it's there and never, ever addressed or commented on is kind of odd, but it not being planned for explains a little, if that is the case.

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i find baltar fascinating, and i'm sure many others do too.

when the cylons finally eradicate the human race, they should all sing in unison the song "the humans are dead" by flight of the conchords.

that would be an AWESOME finale!

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Tory and her "no guilt" are a perfect match for Cavil.

The writers did their job well - I am horrified by the Cult of Baltar.

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Boomer's back glowed on Caprica when she slept with Helo.

Do firefly's have wires inside to make them glow? :)

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How exactly did everyone know Cally ejected out of the ship? If there was video evidence, we all know what that would have shown. Did a Raptor happen upon her lifeless body in space? She was thrown out of there at a pretty good clip, so the chances of her being recovered weren't so hot.

I'd go out on the limb and say that the Viper launch tube probably has some kind of log/audit trail for all decompression cycles or airlock openings. It may have been ruled as a suicide because Cally used Tyrol's key to arm the tube from within the launch area (the system was already armed when Tory opened the airlock from the launch control station).

And I'd imagine that it wasn't so much the speed of the egress, but the sudden decompression and introduction to vacuum that killed Cally.

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I'd been wondering how they'd handle how Tyrol found out:

Tory: I'm sorry Galen, Callie committed suicide.

Tyrol: Oh no...

Tory: Oh, and, uh, I've got your baby.

Tyrol: Wait, you what? How did that happen?

Tory: Oh, you know, just found the baby by the airlock...

Tyrol: What???

But apparently they're going to just skip right past that.

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(1) "I wouldn't exactly call this a throw-away episode, though with what we saw in the past three episodes it did drag in places."

I would call this a throw away episode for sure. Aside from character development, I found nothing moving here. I'll concede that even the worst episodes have some function in moving the story forward. That said, this did that at a minimum. Two things were remotely interesting. First, nothing happened when Six looked into the gaping hole where Tigh's RIGHT EYE used to be. At least, nothing we know of. But then why did she change from kicking his ass to kissing his face? Other than, you know, women are just fickle. Second, I found it interesting that the 2nd "final cylon," Tyrol also had a waking fantasy or illusion involving Admiral Adama (the first was Tigh's putting a bullet in Adama's cerebral cortex). This time, it was of the auditory variety, when Adama said he couldn't blame Cally for blowing herself out an airlock, married to a fraking cylon. Does that mean all four will eventually get to be dream weavers in the coming episodes?

(2) "How exactly did everyone know Cally ejected out of the ship? Did a Raptor happen upon her lifeless body in space? She was thrown out of there at a pretty good clip, so the chances of her being recovered weren't so hot."

It was clear to me that her body wasn't recovered. The memorial ceremony clearly wasn't a funeral, as there was no body present. As for the rest, artistic license I guess.

(3) "Number Six goes on about how there are "no wires" inside Cylons. What-how? Someone explain that bit to me."

It's clearly a lie! Forget the glowing red spine or the flashing red eye. What about when Boomer totally freaking plugged herself into an outlet back in Season 2's Flight of the Phoenix. As further proof that its simply a lie, check out the blatant falsehoods Tory spews to Cally just before she whacks her up the side of the head and flushes her out the airlock.

(4) "I went over that scene several times and I'm convinced Baltar was actually lifted from the floor. So, if that's what really happened, then what the heck?"

It the greatest bit of hallucinatory acting I've seen since Tyler Durden kicked Edward Norton's ass in Fight Club. I was so convinced by the whole thing that I thought Baltar's rally at the end of this week's show was going to end with everyone chanting, "His name is Robert Paulson. His name is Robert Paulson."

(5) "The scenes with Tigh and Number Six were the best of the episode. Are Tigh's visions of Ellen simply a form of guilt or are we supposed to wonder if she is the final Cylon?"

I thought that the scenes with Tigh and Ellen were the best of the episode. Is it just me, or is this just now a revelation how similar these two actresses look? Wow. I mean, sure the hair and make up was done to be the perfect tease, but I actually bought that Ellen could have been the older version of Six, maybe 20-25 years down the line (no pun intended). That said, Ellen is not the final Cylon. Here again are my odds on favorites for who the final cylon is:

Baltar 3:1
Admiral Bill Adama 7:2
Apollo 4:1
Starbuck 5:1
President Roslin 7:1
Zarek 10:1
Admiral Cain 15:1
Zac Adama 20:1
Field 25:1
Iblis 50:1

Remember, favorites only win about 33% of the time, and my money is still on Tom Zarek. The fact that his character has been relatively quiet lately is make me feeling even strnger about my selection.

(6) DO CYLONS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?

I'm again reminded, perhaps with all the character development in this episode, of how this whole storyline is very Philip K. Dick? I wonder, "Do Cylons Dream of Electric Sheep?" I wonder if the producers actually made the conscious decision to turn this in to a Dickian series from the beginning. Anyone out there know whether RDM has said so at any point?

(7) Is anyone else getting sick of the melodramatic, self-important pathos that Roslin keeps regurgitating every time she gets to tell another wretched listener, "Look at me. I'm dying" Poor fucking Roslin. That's what your character is left with since they decided not to kill you off when it would have made sense to the story, but instead saved you with the miraculous cylon baby blood. And no--I will never forgive that plot device--not ever.

(8) Googled "Searider Falcon." Nothing. Not even a race horse. Nothing. I guess all those cryptically-embedded literary references in Lost are exclusive to that show.

(9) And the anachronisms just keep on coming. First it was "All Along the Watchtower." Then it was Six referring to Nihilism. This week did I actually hear Roslin refer intentionally to "We the People?" What, did the United States Constitution beam its way into space this week?

(10) "This wasn't the Tyrol we knew, and neither is the person we're seeing post-Cally. He's in a whirlwind of crap right now and he's quickly spinning out of control."

I believe very strongly at this point that the final five possess that all important quality which does separate human from machine--and that quality is FREE WILL. I think this is what we are watching the final five come to grips with, and that's another reason why I think this episode is just about character development.

All current cylon models from raiders (they're tools not pets) to hybrids (they're supposed to maintain operations on each ship, not vomit metaphysics) to centurians to humanoids have programs, plans, purposes--call it whatever you want. Everyone is asking, when will these final five have their programming kick in? Well, what if these final five don't have programming?

After this episode, I'm a little more on the fence, with the further suggestions that these "final four" are responding to some sort of programming (Chief Tyrol and his pocketing of the working little vacuum tubule). But I remain on the free will side of the fence.

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So was Baltar actually lifting himself or was it Head Six?

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someone please shoot frakking Baltar. I don't think I can take that weasel as a messiah figure. If it makes it more palatable they can get rid of Roslin as well.

oh and as far as that tremendous acting job making it look like he was being lifted, two words. blue screen.

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