GALACTICA

PRE-EPISODE THOUGHTS

There have been some comments the past week to the effect that stuff doesn't make sense. The characters both human and Cylon don't act logically, the science makes no sense, and the writers seem to be making stuff up as they go along without a plan and without regard to the history of the show.

To this, I respond, "what, you only figured this out now?" This show has never made any sense. At least, this season, they aren't trying to make left-wing comments about United States foreign policy. And they figured out that the viewers like the show better when there are several arcs that unwind over the course of many episodes.

LIVE-BLOGGING

10:08 pm

That was a beautiful funeral, beautifully filmed. So say we all.

So Tory likes being a Cylon. She mentioned that she's "strong." Somehow, she has super-strength all of a sudden. She says she has no "guilt." She didn't mention the part about how she enjoys killing people.

10:23

Chief Tyrol "fraks up" in repairing a Raptor. Is he just emotionally distraught from losing Cally, or his his Cylon programming kicking in, telling him to kill humans? Probably just the former.

Tory looked like she was raping Gaius. Cool. Until the religious "fundamentalists" had to attack the worship den and ruin everything.

Gaius goes to the temple of the old gods, and he makes a speech about how stupid their religion is, and he throws around a few idols.

10:36

Tigh keeps visiting the Number Six in the brig. He's confusing her with Ellen. He really ought not to keep doing that, unless he wants people to get suspicious.

Admiral Adama visits Chief Tyrol at the bar. Tyrol drops some hints about how he's a Cylon, but Adama doesn't get it and he just thinks that Tyrol is being subordinate, and gives him his wish and demotes him. Now he's just Tyrol, no longer Chief Tyrol.

10:47

Roslin, who is quite the fascist, has a law passed to prevent more than 12 people from gathering together. Consequently, the guards won't let Gaius back into his worship den because there are already 12 hotties in there. The Number Six in his brain tells him to walk inside anyway. He listens to her, and he gets punched in the face. It looked very painful. Blood was dripping out of his mouth and nose. Normally the Number Six doesn't give him such blatantly bad advice.

10:57

Number Six punches Tigh out. Then she gives him a passionate kiss. I don't think she knows Tigh is one of the Final Five, but it's hard to know what the Cylons are thinking. They never do anything logical.

So the purpose of getting beat up was to enable Gaius to give a really good speech. How can we love others if we don't love ourselves? Tory bought it.

Most likely to be final Cylon:

"Dee" Dualla
Felix Gaeta
Tom Zarek

Not a Cylon:

Gaius Baltar
Starbuck
Roslin
Admiral Adama
Lee Adama
Doc Cottle
Helo

Out in left field possibilities:

Boxey (what ever happened to him?)
Romo Lampkin
Hot Dog

In the airlock, when Tory hits Cally, it appears as if Tory has super-Cylon strength.

Did Tory always have super-Cylon strength, or did this phenomenon only occur after she discovered she’s Cylon?

If Cylons have superhuman strength (without looking especially muscular), why doesn't this biological difference show up on medical exams?

Chief Tyrol doesn't seem to have any super-Cylon strength, because Cally knocked him out pretty easily.

PRE-EPISODE THOUGHTS

The title reminds me of an earlier episode, “Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down.”

LIVE-BLOGGING THE EPISODE

Caval wakes up in the resurrection room, he's told about the coup from a bunch of other Cavals and a Boomer/Sharon. The Boomer/Sharon kisses him. I can never figure out what's going on aboard the Cylon ships.

Tory and Chief Tyrol are looking at each other all lovey-dovey at a bar. (Wasn't she just sleeping with Baltar? She's a real slut.) Then Callie walks in and she's real pissed when she sees them together.

Callie has turned all low class, while Tory is sophisticated. I can see why the Chief likes her better. And they have that Cylon thing to share too.

10:19

Richard Hatch, the original "Apollo" is standing next to Lee Adama, the current "Apollo." I love it when they do that!

Man, that kid that Tyrol has does nothing but scream. Remind me never to have kids.

Caval is bargaining with the Sixes and the Boomer models. I have no idea what that's supposed to be about. They want the Xena model brought back.

I was surpised to see that all the main pilots, Anders, Helo, "Athena," are all about the sewage ship with Starbuck. Gaeta too. Why the hell do they need a sewage ship in space?

10:29

Callie tells the doc that she wishes that Tyrol would beat her around. Then they share a cigarette. She's so trailer park trash.

Tom Zarek/the old Apollo tells Apollo that Roslin is out of control with her paranoid secrecy. At least that's what he seemed to be implying. Then he gives Apollo a folder marked "secret."

Someone suggested in the comments to one of my previous posts that he thinks that Zarek might be the final Cylon. I think so too. I think that Zarek or Gaeta are the most likely to be the final Cylon.

Talking about Cylons, Anders has some rough sex with Starbuck. Then a break to commercial.

10:45

Lee Adama goes after Roslin in the press conference/Quorom metting. Even though there are less than 40,000 humans, there are a huge number of people involved in either the government or the press corps. Don't people have anything more important to do? Last season, they had to use slave labor on the energy ship.

Cylon civil war!!! Many Cylon base ships destroyed.

Callie followed Tyrol and spied on the secret Cylon meeting. She now KNOWS that Tigh, Tory, and Tyrol are CYLONS. She runs away, but Tory notices that the plate into the crawl space between the walls had been removed while they were in the weapons locker room.

Will Callie be killed by the Cylon conspirators, or will she warn Admiral Adama?

10:57

Callie knocks Chief Tyrol out with a big wrench, then goes to the airlock, to kill the half-breed baby? But Tory finds her there, and after she convinces Callie that she's not a bad person, she demonstrates that she's a good liar by knocking Callie out and tossing Callie out the airlock. Callie is dead.

In the last scene, Admiral Adama is in Tyrol's bedroom. I guess the story that Tyrol is telling is that Callie went nuts and committed suicide.

PRE-EPISODE THOUGHTS

What does "Six of One" mean? I'm guessing that "Six" is the hot blonde Cylon in Gaius' brain, and "One" is the One True God religion that she's pushing.

I still think that the fleet is making a big mistake by not going where Starbuck says to go. But then, I did support Gaius Baltar for President, and that didn't turn out very well, so maybe you shouldn't listen to me.

LIVE-BLOGGING THE EPISODE

10:07

I was kind of hoping that Starbuck would shoot Roslin. Or at least torture her, the way Jack Bauer (from 24) would have done. But instead, Starbuck gives Roslin her gun and asks Roslin to shoot her.

I wonder if Roslin is the final Cylon?

10:20

The four Cylons gather together to discuss their plan of action. They think that Baltar might be able to rat them out, and they also think he might know who the fifth Cylon is, so they want to get to him first. Tigh asks Tori to use her sex appeal to lure him away from his harem.

Admiral Adama visits Starbuck in the brig, and he gets really pissed at her when she tells him that he's Roslin's "wet nurse." After Adama does some physical violence to Starbuck, she screams again "we're going the wrong way!" I believe her.

10:30

There's a going away party for Lee Adama (he's leaving his military job for a civilian one). He has to get drunk as part of the celebration.

There's some Cylon politics (the real Cylons, not the final five). Caval wants to reprogram the Raiders so that next time they attack the human fleet, they won't withdraw when they sense one of the final five. There was some dissent, most notably by a Number Six, but I think that Caval's position won. It's tough to figure out what's going on there.

On Galactica, Gaius tells Tori some stuff about music, which scares her, and she leaves him. Instead of a Number Six talking to Gaius, there's now another Gaius. I think the other Gaius represents the bad part of his conscience.

10:47

Admiral Adama and Roslin have some kind of lover's quarrel. I also learned that what happened back when Roslin shot at Starbuck was that Roslin was aiming at Starbuck, but for some reason (maybe divine intervention) she missed.

Lee "Apollo" Adama gets a rousing send-off from Galactica.

There's a coup aboard the Cylon fleet. Six comes into the council room with some tincan muscle.

10:57

Gaius and Tori have sex. Tori cries. Gaius tells her about the One True God.

Massacre aboard the Cylon ship! Six has removed the circuit from the centurions that prevents them from "reasoning."

Admiral Adama gives Starbuck a ship so she can go find Earth. I'm not exactly sure how she's supposed to find the fleet again after she does find Earth.

POST-EPISODE CONCLUSION

This season is still way better than the last season.

There has been a lot of uninformed commentary on the internet comparing Gaius Baltar to Jesus Christ. The people making this comparison obviously have no clue. Gaius does not represent Jesus, he represents Joseph Smith.

Jesus was the Son of God. Gaius, like Joseph Smith, is just a regular person and not divine himself. Joseph Smith was visited by the angel Moroni on numerous occasions (or so he claimed). Gaius is visited regularly by some supernatural entity that reveals itself as a Cylon model Number Six. Or maybe Gaius is just insane, but the Number Six in Gaius’ head is supposed to represent the angel Moroni who visited Joseph Smith. Just as Joseph Smith received religious instructions from Moroni, Gaius receives religious instruction from Number Six.

Joseph Smith and Gaius were both politicians. Joseph Smith was the mayor of the town of Nauvoo, and he announced his candidacy for president of the United States in 1844. Gaius Baltar ran for president of the colonies (and won too). See the similarities?

Unlike Jesus, who was convicted at a trial and sentenced to death, both Joseph Smith and Baltar managed to evade any serious jail time at their trials. Joseph Smith was killed by a mob, and not by the law. It seems to me that the writers of BSG are also setting up Gaius Baltar to be killed by a mob. Every time he's out in public, the mob wants to kill him.

Of course, the biggest similarity between the prophet Joseph Smith and Gaius Baltar is the polygamy! Joseph Smith had two dozen or more wives. Gaius has a harem of female followers. Jesus never had any wife at all.

Thus we see that Gaius is Joseph Smith and not Jesus.

PRE-EPISODE THOUGHTS

Final season starting soon! I am hopeful that this season won't suck like the last season. It has been so long since the end of last season, I even forgot why I was so pissed at Helo. I'm willing to give the writers a chance to redeem themselves. I suspect they will borrow some plot elements from the Ship of Lights two-part episode from the original series--I'm looking forward to seeing how that works out.

LIVE-BLOGGING THE EPISODE

10:09

Show starts off with a good dogfight sequence. The four Cylons go about their business protecting the fleet. Tigh imagines himself shooting Adama, but he's just nervous about being a Cylon.

Everyone is suspicious of "Starbuck." They think her mysterious return is a Cylon trick. I don't think so, I'm almost certain the 12th Cylon is someone other than Starbuck.

It looked like the humans were in big trouble, but then Sam Anders did some Cylon mind trick, causing the Cylons to withdraw.

10:25

Baltar comes out of every bad situation smelling like a rose. At the end of last season, he was about to be executed for treason. But now, he's the leader of a new religious movement, most of the followers whom are beautiful young women. That's a job I wish that I had.

It's interesting that Starbuck's Viper is now a brand new Viper. That's sort of what happened when the Vipers disappeared in the Ship of Lights episode from the original series. They came back, but they were all white colored.

Clearly, Starbuck has been helped by the Angels.

10:36

The four Cylons are loyal to humanity. Apparently I was wrong abut Anders pulling a Cylon mind trick. Anders says that the Cylon "scanned" him and then they turned back.

The Number Six in the brig told Roslin that the final five are near. Roslin thinks that Starbuck is one of them. Oh how wrong Roslin is.

The Angels have put the "feeling" of Earth into Starbuck's brain. Adama is too stubborn to believe her. But I believe her.

10:47

Gaius prays to the One True God that He spare the sick child of one of his beautiful young female followers, and take him instead.

Then Gaius goes into the bathroom, and one of his followers helps him shave off his beard. And then, an angry man [it was Connor, from the pre-Season 3 webisodes] who blames Gaius for the death of his son on New Caprica attacks him in the bathroom. And then there's a commercial break. It looks like Gaius might get his death wish. Except I doubt they'd kill off Gaius in such a cheap manner.

10:56

Gaius' hot female followers know how to beat people up too! She saves his life, and then they get back to their worship-den, and the boy is cured. Did the One True God hear Gaius' prayers, or is it just a coincidence?

Starbuck tells Anders that if she found out he was a Cylon, she'd put a bullet through his head. Anders looked scared.

Then the fleet jumps, and Starbuck feels herself losing the way to Earth. Starbuck goes psycho, takes out some guards, grabs a gun, enters Roslin's room, and points the gun at her. End of episode.

The writers are setting us up to believe that Starbuck is one of the final five Cylons and that she's going to kill Roslin, much in the way that "Boomer" tried to kill Commander Adama.

I never liked Roslin much anyway. I'm still pretty sure that Starbuck isn't a Cylon.

CONCLUSION

A good episode, way better than the first episode of Season 3. In fact, better than any episode from Season 3.

Discuss.

Count who? He has his own Wikipedia article. "He has not appeared in the re-imagined series."

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Is anyone still reading this blog?

I screwed something up managing my "domain" and now http://www.galacticablog.com redirects to http://galacticablog.com/index.htm. Is this going to screw up my Google ranking?