Umm… yeah… 4 episodes left of one of the greatest shows ever, and… I hope they don’t spend them all like this one.
Read on for my review of All My Children — I mean, Battlestar Galactica!
SPOILERS AWAIT… Read the full review!
I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR STUPID TOASTER BABY
Okay.
Last week, we saw a new kind of Ellen — a mother goddess of cylons, so to speak. Apparently, resurrection doesn’t take the cattiness out of a millenia-old bitch. The old Ellen was back in top form this week, and what a shame. There are four episodes left and it seems as though the characters have slipped back into old patterns (maybe the point?). But this episode was a let down.
The thing is, does anyone care about Tigh’s frakking baby? Or watching Ellen get jealous and mess with the Caprica Six — prompting the miscarriage? The Ellen that spoke so highly of the human attributes of love and compassion last episode was completely gone, replaced by a petty harpy that cared little for the outcome of her behavior — which by the way, happens to be the fate of the entire cylon race. Doesn’t make much sense to me… Your thoughts?
GAIUS GETS HIS GAL BACK!
Thank the gods for the return of Gaius’ Head Six. It’s my view that the best scenes from the entire series are the ones between Baltar and his imaginary cylon lover in the first half of the series. It completely set the show apart from anything I had ever seen and helped make Baltar such a fascinating character to watch when she’d help him squirm out of sticky situations and manipulate him into doing her will.
Unfortunately, Baltar has pretty much been comic relief the last two seasons, having lost much of his relevance in the overarching storyline after the debacle on New Caprica. I’ve been wondering how he was going to play into the final episodes in a significant way. With Head Six back and running the show, I have hope for Baltar yet.
What’s she have planned for all those guns? Will Baltar lead another insurrection, or perhaps more likely, help defend the ship when shit finally does go down?
THE OLD MAN IS STILL A DUMB DRUNK BUFFOON
Speaking of guns, did Adama forget that an armed mutiny just took place on his ship a few weeks ago??? Nevermind, I’ll answer that: yes, he did forget, BECAUSE HE’S BEEN BLACKING OUT FROM ALL THE FRAKKIN’ LIQUOR!
I think I can speak for a lot of BSG fans when I say, enough with the alcoholism. If Adama gets any more trashed, he’s gonna end up kissing Tigh the next time he comes in for one of their bromantic hugs.
I’ve been getting shit from my friends, commenters, and Nerdbunker co-host for being too hard on the old man. Really? If arming Gaius and his hottie cult chicks only days after a mutiny isn’t enough proof for you that Adama is a stupid douchebag, check it: Last week he appointed Tyrol as chief again and asked him to repair the Galactica. This week, Tyrol was like, “Screw this! I’m voting with the cylons! Frak Adama, I’m going back to the toaster base ship!”
Need more proof of Adama’s poor leadership? I’d love to give it to you, but we never found out what happened to Racetrack, Nacho, and the other mutineers. Did Adama forgive them? Throw ‘em in the brig? Execute ‘em? Sorry, we weren’t given that little piece of information… But at least we know the bar has a piano now!
I’M SCARED BECAUSE IT’S ALMOST OVER AND I’M CLEARLY ACTING OUT
Look, I love BSG. I know I’m being picky. It’s the best show ever. But personally, I’d rather the writers spend the last episodes giving us some more mythical revelations and cleaning up the messy details than playing soap opera with Tigh and his blondes.
But that’s just me… What do you think???
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You took the words exactly out of my mouth
Jordon: Sweet. I love it when that happens.
I totally agree…some of this episode was just too silly!
Ellen’s playing out the “Hera” myth. Hera was the queen of the gods, with dominion over marriage and a hell of a lot of power. There are a number of myths that talk about all the cool things such a supremely powerful does. But what is she remembered for? Zeus sticks his dick into something and she goes off the rails on killing / cursing sprees.
This makes me think of a couple of things. (1) What happened to the Lords of Kobol? With resurrection tech, are they still alive and wandering the universe (and/or resurrecting Starbucks) and are they the “gods”. (2) I’m betting the piano doesn’t exist. It’s Starbucks “song” that activates her. That’s why the writer points it out.
I agree completely, this episode was a huge disappointment (especially Ellen).
Sam’s brain was conveniently switched off for exactly one episode to delay what I expect will be some sort of revelation, and in the meantime we get… what?
And I’ve always loved ‘the old man’, but there doesn’t seem to be anything left of him any more.
I agree with you, Nar. I think that the 1st, 3rd and 4th episodes of season 4.5 were absolutely amazing. This last one was super lame.
Pretty much a consensus so far that it was a weaker episode, but no one mentioned what they thought of Baltar’s Head Six returning. Am I overstating it or do you all see this as insignificant?
Bill: Thanks for bringing some University-style cred to the thread! I wish I could remember all the details from our own western mythologies. It wouldn’t surprise me if the writers are patterning Ellen and other characters after the archetypes from Greek mythos. After all, this is the same show with a character named Apollo.
And I love the idea of the piano not existing! That’s very keen of you — and if you watch the bartender’s reaction to Starbuck after she says that, he’s like, “WTF?” This could indeed be her activation tune!
Boring!!! Dear god if this shit keeps up it’s gonna be one hell of a disapponting series.
It may just be a crazy idea, but what if the series will end with a time loop and the Final Five or some of them or other characters will end up in the past actually founding Kobol and being the Lords of Kobol?
A Dead Prom Night Toaster Baby:
Having Caprica Six’s baby die seems to go with the plot. Human’s have to find a way to live with Cylon’s. Thus making Hybrids the next way of life for Cylon and Human existence. Plus Hera is the key as far as the Oprah House vision.
My Dead Girlfriend Is Back and You Are Gonna Be In Trouble:
I loved how in Season One Gaius would semi openly talk to Six and people around him accepted it. Everyone dismissed it as him being a really intelligent exocentric guy.
Little did people know it was him masking his plan to take control. We all also know Gaius will do whatever to preserve is existence. So for him feeling guilt for leavening his groupies behind was awesome development of Gaius. I am guessing Six is NOT having that. If anything I want to see what Six has planned for Gaius. It seems like she is on some level manipulating Gaius the same way he has manipulated others in the series.
Let’s Get Fraking Drunk:
Okay I have noticed Adama hitting that bottle allot as of late.
However after everything he has had to deal with the last four years how can he not?
1.Laura is going to die soon.
2. The ship is getting all this new Cylon Technology.
3. Earth is nothing but a pile of trash.
4. His BFF is a Cylon.
5. 11,000 people have died thus far.
If anything Adama should be drinking. It could be worse. He could say “Frak This” and let Tigh run the fleet. We all know how bad that turned out.
Holy Frak Ellen is back:
I love how the dynamic between Ellen and Saul is the same as the story of Sampson and Delilah. One of my personal favorite biblical based dynamics of the series.
Ellen will always love to: Drink, Smoke and Frak all day. Because of that when I finally got to see an enlightened Ellen I fell in love with her on a whole other level.
Ellen will never be rid of her vice filled / bitchy ways and that’s how it should be. However when she does allow us to see this other side to her I could not help but see a gracefulness, wisdom and vulnerability from her. I find it amazing how the most fraked up of all the Final Five is the most ‘spiritually’ sound.
Jules: I agree that the extra dimension that was added to Ellen last week was awesome, I hope we see more of it though, and she doesn’t play out the rest of the series as the same old bitch.
You have an intriguing idea that Six was almost jealous of Gaius coming back for his cult hotties and has come back to regain control of him. Nice.
As far as the old man goes, I’m not saying he doesn’t have plenty of reasons to drink. I’m just saying that a better leader wouldn’t buckle under all this disaster, hide away with a bottle, and make shitty decisions. Bring on Apollo!
abso frakkin lutely
why are we spending time watching bitchy catfights when we should be holding on to our seats for an epic battle for the identity and future of humanity?
and thank the gods that head six is back…but will they ever explain how she and baltar communicate like that? i don’t like the idea that she’s just a figment of his imagination…not that i really want them to completely demystify that amazing relationship…but still. it seems like the ripest territory to mine, aside from (maybe) the starbuck/daniel thing…
and yes, adama has got to get it together or move on somehow. but enough of the slurring. we get it. maybe he’ll do so much damage to his liver that he’ll be the “dying leader”?
Avigail: I agree completely when you say that the Head Six/Baltar relationship is “the ripest territory to mine”.
On top of that, it has been a mystery since the very beginning of the series… It’s not a new mystery that was thrown in late in the game (Final Five, Daniel style).
SO… Let’s hope that it is explained well and that it serves the ending of this epic series as it served the beginning!
Need more proof of Adama’s poor leadership? I’d love to give it to you, but we never found out what happened to Racetrack, Nacho, and the other mutineers. Did Adama forgive them? Throw ‘em in the brig? Execute ‘em? Sorry, we weren’t given that little piece of information…
BattlestarWiki mentions that in Moore’s blog he said that they were sent over to the prison ship, the Astral Queen. Why exactly he didn’t think this kind of information might be important remains a mystery unfortunately. Maybe he can stick it into the prologue though (like ‘and they have a plan’ and ‘one be revealed’ before it) and try to squeeze another season out of the show.
I think the Old Man losing it is a great move for the plot. It really leaves things open for Apollo to come into his own – the father/son relationship has always been an interesting one between them, with Apollo struggling to find his own identity in the shadow of his father. Finally there is some sort of real deep atonement/reconciliation coming up for them… Bill needing Lee more than the other way round finally?
Plus, in terms of the overall arc, these last couple of episodes have been needed in order to get the momentum kicking in for the final stretch. I’ve got no complaints about a much needed ‘quiet before the storm’… great for tension. Otherwise… in the midst of a huge battle or whatever it’s going to be… who’s gonna care if we hear “oh yes, and by the way… Ellen is a cylon.”
Help me with something please. How is it the cylons were created by man? and then they rebelled? And how is it the orginal cylons were “robotic” and then they evolved how does that explain Ellen and her story of existing before this and re-discovering the resurrection technology?
The Real Daniel does leave a lot to be desired like how come with jump tech they still use ballistic weapons with no Body Armor…. radio tech with no holograms that kinda thing no personal transceivers etc…
Actually to round off all the plots and I mean all the show could have really gone 5 seasons but hey thats Hollywood for ya
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