Spoilers

“The Woman King”

It always amazes me when Battlestar Galactica, a show from years ago, has an episode that is so relevant to the world we live in today.

Vaccines were part of the story today, as a group of people who did not believe in accepting medicine were picked up by Galactica and they were suffering from an illness of some kind. There was a group called Sagittarons whose religious beliefs went against the administration of medicines, specifically this vaccination that could prevent the disease.

The story also took a twist into prejudice as the doctor, Dr. Michael Robert, brought on to help the situation, played by well-known character actor Bruce Davison, was giving these Sagittarons something different, killing them instead of helping htem.

Helo was at the center of this story, as a woman named King approached him with info that Dr. Robert had killed her son. Helo had to work through his own issues and history in order to figure out what was going on. His passion and anger over the doctor’s choices shone through each scene he was in.

Donnelly Rhodes, who is recurring as Dr. Cottle, had a couple of amazing scenes, some of the best work he has given in this series so far. Col. Tigh continues to be the jerk that he is, though he did come through in the end.

This episode was really more about Hel than it was the Sagittarons and I think that part worked well. I found several good performances and liked this for the most part. It is probably not one of the stand out episodes of the series, but it has its place, and as I said earlier, it absolutely has relevance in today’s world.

Spoilers

“Occupation/Precipice”

I had an hour to fill prior to the World Series game three this past Monday night so I thought I would kick off season three of Battlestar Galactica. However, there was a flaw in my plan. I was unaware that the season three premiere episode of Battlestar was a two hour event. So I had to pause watching the episode a little over an hour in. The week was so busy with school, Halloween, and other things that I was only able to return to the episode this morning.

Man, what a start to season three.

So much has changed. Battlestar Galactica has taken the status quo from the first two seasons and absolutely ground it beneath its heel. The Cylons took over New Caprica and the situation was unbelievably tense for the remaining humans who chose to settle on the planet.

One year later and everything is upside down.

Some general thoughts

• I hate Dean Stockwell’s Cylon character. He is such a monster.
• The resistance of humans, led by Saul, is just about as monstrous as the Cylons. The use of suicide bombers is very questionable.
• The whole Starbuck is a prisoner would have been enough… and then they tossed in a cute little girl that was supposed to be Starbuck’s daughter.
• I feel like my hatred for Gaius Baltar has subsided as we see the tortured soul that he has become. He is absolutely a traitor, but he is so pitiful that he is hard to hate right now.
• Ellen’s betrayal at the end of the episode is horrible, even if she thinks she is doing the right thing, protecting Saul.
• I can already guess that Ellen’s betrayal will be blamed on Sharon instead.
• Not sure how Roslin will survive the mass execution at the end of the show. I can’t believe that is how she will go out.

It is amazing how they have reimagined the series and this feels like a truly momentous step for a show that was successful before.

Spoilers

“Lay Down Your Burdens- Part 2”

Part two of this season finale was rocking. And so much happened, effectively resetting the series for season three and beyond.

Legitimately, there was so much here. The election happened and President Roslin rigged it. As shocking as that was, she wound up getting caught and she decided to make things right, which made Gaius Baltar president of the colonies.

That led to a settlement on New Caprica.

Number six exploded the nuclear bomb that was smuggled on to Cloud Nine, destroying everything.

Starbuck returned from Caprica with the soldiers she had gone to retrieve. That whole thing was strange and I thought for awhile that Starbuck had been replaced with a Cylon and that this was not her. There were some hints that seemed out of character for her, but the end of the episode seemed to not support that theory. I still think something weird is going on because that return from Caprica was so anticlimactic.

Dean Stockwell (two of them actually) turned out to be a Cylon and sent out the air vent (I assume. It was a presidential order).

Then we had a time jump of a year. Shows like this doing a time jump is always complicated, but so many of our characters received a serious reboot during this year. I wonder if season three will include flashbacks to this time frame. Certainly, we will see the conflict between Starbuck and Apollo that seemed to have damaged their relationship and maybe even Apollo and Dualla’s relationship too.

The Cylons arrive at the end of the episode, taking control of New Caprica, after Baltar surrendered to them. The army of Cylon robots marched through the streets as the scattered crew, including Starbuck, swore to keep fighting.

We get a glimpse of the baby given birth by Sharon that had been “killed.” The half human, half Cylon baby seemed to be very happy.