Spoilers

“Exodus- Part 1”

“Exodus-Part 2”

The storyline of New Caprica came to a dramatic close with the escape from the planet by the humans back on board Galactica. In sense, the status quo of the series had been reestablished with some new ideas moving forward.

The whole Starbuck/Kasey story ended with such a cruel blow to Kara. Discovering that Kasey was not her child was a tough shock for Kara, even though she was able to reunite the child with her real mother. Katee Sackoff did a tremendous job displaying the pain in her performance over the little girl.

Gaius and Number six now have the child, Hera. They gave her to Lucy Lawless and this apparently satisfied her. This arc has plenty of fuel in it yet as Sharon is going to be crushed when she finds out what Adama and Roslin had done. Sharon believed that Adama would not lie to her, but he certainly did. I would guess that this baby will drive much of the story for the third season.

I was wrong about the crew believing that Sharon betrayed them. Sam found the map that Ellen had stolen (instead of burning) and that led him to the proper culprit. However, having Saul poison her seemed to be a rough choice, and pretty cruel for him to do it. I never liked the character of Ellen but this felt like a harsh end for her. Where does Saul go from here?

There should be plenty of fallout among the survivors.

Spoilers

“Lay Down Your Burdens- Part 1”

Part one of the season two finale kicked off a rescue mission led by Starbuck back to Caprica. It also featured some presidential debates between President Roslin and Vice President Gaius Baltar.

By an accidental jump, one of the Raptors heading for Caprica came across a planetary body that had potential for settlement, which gave Baltar a topic to help his struggling campaign.

The Raptor that jumped into the mountain… whoa, tough thing. The old teleportation fear of teleporting into solid objects. Nightcrawler always talked about that and here Battlestar Galactica had it happen.

Starbuck reunited with Anders in a moment of happiness, only to be interrupted by Cylon forces attacking. It seemed as if the whole crew was trapped by explosions.

I have to say I was surprised that Sharon was involved with Starbuck’s crew considering the anger she had over the baby last episode. I kept waiting for her to turn on the humans, but she did not seem willing to do that.

Part II is coming up as the final episode of the second season.

Spoilers

“The Captain’s Hand”

We’re back with more trouble aboard the Pegasus. Some of their Viper pilots disappeared and this led to conflict for Commander Garner and Starbuck, as well as Lee who arrived from Galactica as aid.

It seems like everyone on Pegasus has been hard-headed and stubborn, and Garner fell right into that category. Of course, Starbuck was not trying to keep out of trouble either.

It was clear that things were not going to go well for Garner as it seemed like every decision he made went against our main characters and that never is a way to ingratiate them into the good graces of the audience. Garner winds up dead at the end of the episode, showing that is the case.

Lee is appointed as new Commander of Pegasus by his father and that can only be a positive, right?

Lee and Anastasia Dualla’s relationship still feels quite forced to me. They kicked off the episode in bed together and I just am not sure where this entire relationship came from, outside of the last few episodes.

There was an abortion side plot going on that leads to Baltar to proclaim his candidacy for the Presidency. He surprised Roslin with his announcement at a press conference. Baltar has the backing of Tom Zarek, who realizes that Baltar has a much better chance to defeat Roslin than he does. Baltar really is a slimy dude.

Battlestar Galactica continues to be a fantastic sci-fi series with very few episodes missing the mark.

Spoilers

“Sacrifice”

Intense episode. Dana Delany took a longue full of people hostage in an attempt to get Adama to give over the Cylon onboard the Galactica… aka Sharon.

I thought this was a solid episode but I was not sure some of the plans that were hatched by Lee, Kara and Adama made a whole lot of sense.

I still feel as if the relationship between Lee and Dee came out of nowhere and this did not feel as earned as it could have been. However, the killing of Billy was shocking and put a serious stake on the episode.

I was not a fan of Kara shooting Lee during “friendly fire.” Starbucks just has not been portrayed recently as the kick ass pilot that she had always been and this error really brought that home. Perhaps it will lead to some serious drama between the pair, but we’ll have to see.

The other thing that I disliked was when Dana Delany told Lee that she did not believe that he would kill the man he held at gunpoint and Lee eventually dropped his gun. Did I not just see Lee shoot an unarmed crimeboss in the previous episode? I believed he absolutely would blow this guy’s head off, but he surrendered his firearm immediately.

I do believe that Lee’s character has been written inconsistently during this season, and I hope they can get him back on track, since he should be one of the top characters on the show.

Spoilers

“Black Market”

The black market of goods aboard the fleet is given some light in this episode that focuses on Lee and his recent struggles since the ejection of the blackbird.

Truth be told, the whole Apollo arch feels sloppy. Much of what was going on, things that seemed to be a huge problem for Lee felt like it just showed up now and did not seem to fit in to what I knew of the character. There were a bunch of things in this episode like that. One in particular is Lee who had been taking up with a prostitute on Cloud Nine, a prostitute who had a child. I was not sure where this was supposed to have come from and it was jarring when she was there.

It was the same thing about the flashbacks to Lee’s former girlfriend prior to the Cylon attack. I knew little to nothing about this woman and, because of that, I had little to no emotional connection to her.

I also was not sure about the relationship between Apollo and Dee. This did not seem like much of a relationship before. It always felt as if Apollo was more with Starbuck, and Dee was with Billy. Maybe I missed something important, but it just felt lacking.

The stare down with Apollo and black market head Phelan was intense and ended surprisingly. I kind of liked that, even if it felt like it went against Apollo’s character. At least that felt like a choice he made to make things better.

Overall, this was not a strong episode and felt as if it lacked the narrative that this show is used to presenting.

Spoilers

“Epiphanies”

I am officially unsure completely which side is the good guys on Battlestar Galactica.

The second season has spent much of it so far making it shades of grey. The Cylons are being shown not just as machines that are evil and looking to destroy humanity. And the humans are being shown potentially as warmongers. This episode did not do anything to dismiss that idea. In fact, when they were attempting to take Sharon’s baby against her will, I found myself completely behind Sharon.

As I said, this is absolutely not a show about good and evil. The shades of grey are all over the place.

VP Dr. Baltar surprised me in this episode with his last minute saving of President Roslin. I supposed someone could argue that he was doing this only to save the life of Sharon’s baby.

I was not sure if Roslin was going to be saved at the end, but it does not surprise me that she was. She has been a major character and letting her die off in the middle of the second season would be a huge swing. The show is starting to plant the seeds of problems between Roslin and Baltar as she was having memories of seeing him with Number Six making out.

Then, of course, there is the nuclear warhead Baltar sent to Gina on Cloud Nine. Where is that heading?

Spoilers

“Resurrection Ship, Part 1, and Part 2”

I had watched episode 10 the other day and I had intended on watching another episode right away. That was when I noticed that episodes 11 & 12 were two-parter and that I did not have time to watch both at that time. I made the choice to not start episode 11 and wait to watch the pair of them together. I am glad that I made that decision.

These two episodes worked very well together as the strife centering around the return of the Pegasus and the ascension of Admiral Cain over Adama filled the story significantly.

I did not expect President Roslin to tell Adama that he needed to have Cain killed. The show spent much of the time building Cain up as a bad guy, giving us details about some of her decision that may have been considered morally questionable. I did find Roslin’s comment to be inconsistent with her character, but with her getting sicker by the minute, I can see her wanting to have things settled as soon as she could.

The conflict within both Starbuck and Fisk over the orders that they had been given by their respective leaders was amazing. Neither of them felt like the order was the right thing to do, but they were both in position in which to do it if told to.

Having it be Gina who assassinates Cain felt kind of easy, but I am happier that it was her and not Starbuck.

The whole conversation and interaction with Gina and Baltar was tough to watch. The show has done a solid job of humanizing the Cylons that we know of and making them seem less evil. Gina had been so abused and tortured that she just wanted to die, but could not commit suicide as it is a sin. Sharon has also be made to be more human than what she started as and one wonders if this is real or still part of the plan.

The special effects of the episode were wonderful as the attack on the resurrection ship was impressive, especially for a TV show.

This two-parter did feel like a season finale, but there are several episodes to go in season two. I wonder if the show had an hiatus after this pair or if it just happened to feel that way.

Spoilers

“Pegasus”

A happy return becomes a tense standoff.

The Pegasus, a Colonial vessel that had been missing and presumed destroyed, arrived back at the fleet, with Admiral Helena Cain aboard. Admiral outranked that of Commander, so Cain took control of the fleet away from Adama. Adama was fully supportive of the order, showing his honor as a military man.

Even after Cain reassigned Starbuck and Apollo, Adama followed the orders and did what he was told.

Things got complicated. When the Cylon interrogator from the Pegasus went to find out what Sharon knew, things got bad. He was going to rape her during the violent encounter, but Chief and Helo came to her rescue, inadvertently killing the man.

Cain ordered Chief and Helo brought for trial, but she decided their fate without a trial and planned on executing them for treason. Adama wanted them to be brought back to Galactica for trial but Cain denied him. Adama launched viper crews and a Marine team to go get his men back and Cain ordered her vipers to stop them.

Hence the tension.

Major issues unfolding among the humans. I was excited about the next episode and I was going to start to watch it, but I saw the next episode was a part one, and I did not want to stop in the middle of the two-parter. So I stopped the next episode and hope to get back to it later this weekend when I can watch the two of them together.

This episode was really hard to watch as this crew of Pegasus had really been rough to the Cylons that they had in their control. They showed that they had a Cylon copy of Number Six, but she had been beaten and raped by many of the crew. This showed the Cylons in a new light, giving them more human qualities and almost made them sympathetic.

I thought at first that the Pegasus crew would turn out to be Cylons themselves, but this is even better. They are humans and showing the dark side of the race.

Spoilers

“Flight of the Phoenix”

The Chief, tormented by the events of going on with Sharon and Helo, decided to take his situation into his own hands and built a stealth plane from spare parts.

It was met, at first, with division and sarcasm, but as the episode progressed, more and more of the crew began to buy into the hope that Chief was selling, and joined in on the project.

Meanwhile, a Cylon virus started taking over the Galactica technology and was in danger of sending a signal to the Cylons to attack a defenseless Galactica.

This dangerous threat forced Adama to bring Sharon into the mix and give her a chance to help right the ship.

I am starting to buy into Sharon’s redemption arc, so I sure hope the show does not pull the rug out from under it. I’m still not sure what the long range story is here with Sharon, but I have bought into it.

Chief and his stealth plane was a brilliant way to help build up morale on a ship that was lacking patience. Of course, Starbuck can fly anything. Even a slapped together dream.

Things are looking bad for Laura and I wonder if the show is actually going to have her die from the cancer that she has. I can’t believe that there will not be some last minute save for her, but I have no idea where that would come from.

It was yet another top line episode in a series that has been filled with them so far.

Spoilers

“Final Cut”

Lucy Lawless brings a journalist aboard the Galactica with full access to everything to, as Adama put it, place a human face on the crew of the Galactica.

The shocking end of the episode was something that I never once considered. I love it when a series can surprise me.

The use of the camera provided the episode with that documentary style as Lawless, whose character was named D’Anna Biers, interviewed crew members and was constantly there sticking the camera into the faces of the people on Galactica.

It felt like what I expected. A cool concept where D’Anna Biers is won over at the end by the dedication and perseverance of the crews. And that is exactly what we see in the final cut… until we learn that Biers is a Cylon.

It was truly an unexpected reveal for me and it immediately elevated what was turning out to be an okay episode with a neat hook to something more.

The show also continued to show the faults of Col. Tigh, as he just does not seem to be mentally tough for any of this and that his decisions seem to not work with the position in which he finds himself.

I liked how the show returned to the Gideon incident from a few episodes ago. The whole firing on a crowd of people felt like it was dropped, but the show circled back to it and made it a major component for this episode.

Battlestar has not missed yet for me.

Spoilers

“Home, Part One & Part Two”

Commander Adama was tired of the divisiveness and decided the best choice was to reunite the fleet that had splintered apart when President Roslin and Apollo escaped in an attempt to find earth.

I loved these two episodes because the story took a new path. It showed how people can bring each other together instead of tearing each other apart. Seeing Adama go to Kobol to find the fleet was great, as was his confrontation with Sharon, the lookalike Cylon to the Sharon who had shot him.

The Sharon storyline is awesome too because you think the whole time that she was being manipulated by Meier and that she was going to take that bait, but instead, she turned on Meier and showed Adama that she was more than just another machine. I did not see that coming and I really like the way the show has written this character. For the first time, I see Sharon as not just a Cylon antagonist, but an intelligent being who makes her own choices.

The relationships are all wonderfully played here including Apollo-Starbuck, Adama-Roslin, Sharon/Helo, Sharon/Chief, and Adama/Starbuck.

I still have no idea of what to make of Baltar and his mysterious vision. She was not from a Cylon chip that was in his head, so what exactly is she? Baltar sounds as if he has a plan for the baby that Sharon is carrying, or at least that it will work into one inside his head. What is Baltar’s motive? I really do not know.

The episode felt like a reboot of the show’s goals, specifically focusing on the characters. I’m pleased that everyone is back together.