With Battlestar Galactica, I sometimes wonder what exactly the criteria are for deciding whether two particular episodes should get the “Part 1” and “Part 2” tag. Because after last week’s cliffhanger ending, this episode felt kind of like the “conclusion” to that one. And yet this week’s episode, while it only just reached the point where the “Exodus” will begin, actually felt somewhat complete and satisfying to me by the final scene. It’s all just semantics, I suppose, because this show has really been just one big multi-part roller coaster ride from the first episode. Anyway, on with the recap …
The writers pulled a classic “one hour ago” sci-fi rewind on us, and let us see that the massacre we thought we were witnessing at the tail end of last week wasn’t quite what it seemed. The Resistance was better prepared than the Cylons believed, and was able to turn around both the execution and the ambush at the rendezvous point. Thereby pissing off the Cylons so much that they now seem ready to just drop a bomb on the humans and be done with it, completely unaware that even bigger problems are looming just around the bend.
One intriguing detail we got this week was learning from the Cylon Cavil that each “resurrection” for them is increasingly more painful than the next. Which I imagine will really start gumming up the works for them, since pain and the fear of death are decidedly human traits that aren’t usually a big problem for toasters.
We also learned where — presumably — the Cylon Leobon has been getting all of the spoiler info he keeps spouting to Starbuck, when the Cylon D’Anna starts having very detailed dreams about Boomer’s baby. Androids may or may not dream of electric sheep, but the Cylons definitely dream about things they shouldn’t know. Whether these are “echoes” from a previous time loop (my ongoing theory), or are something being “transmitted” to them by a greater Cylon power (“God”), it’s hard to say yet. Unless you’re a Cylon, of course — in which case you probably had a dream just last night that showed you where the entire show is going. If so, please keep it to yourself. No spoilers here.
So … is Amanda Plummer (aka Oracle Selloi) our eighth Cylon model?
Beyond this, there are a lot of goodbyes and moving morale speeches and kicking salt around. And Starbuck being a mom. And Gaius being impotent. Oh, and Boomer shooting Xena’s kneecaps off! That was cool. Is it Friday yet?