Given the degree that I did not like last weeks episode I was rather dubious about this one, though I had more hope for it knowing that we were going to come back to the cylon storyline which in all honesty is what I've found most compelling about the entire season.
So I guess I will start with the cylon plot, which I would say was the A plot of this episode. The lead in scene from last weeks episode and this week's opening scene feel very different. I don't know if it's the quality of the writing or different writers or what. It was as if Starbuck suddenly became more sane, and while I can buy that the shooting of Gaeta was something that would snap her out of it, the entire turn of events if watched back to back would seem odd.
If the raptor plan was plausable to start with, why hadn't it been brought up before? Why hadn't Kara brought it up? It's pretty clear that everyone including Kara thinks Anders is a little batty after he shoots Gaeta, so why are they so eager to take him into a potentially difficult and touchy situation on the cylon baseship? Was he a really nessecary character for that mission or did the writers just want to put him there.
Speaking of the writing, Gaeta's leg and health I think were an unnessecary addition to emphasizing the jump clock. Too much of the muchness. The stakes were already high and adding Felix to that mix just deminished his character.
The burning basetars and wounded remaining one are Kara's vision. Didn't see that coming. I guess that ends the fan discussions about the Ships of Light since we now know they were cylon ships all along. Does this mean we've come to the end of Kara's visions because she didn't have any other visions to earth.
I would like to comment about how amazing the visual effects are this season. They are doing some very special stuff in being reductive, in going down to the small detail. The voyage through the destroyed and burning basestars was pretty amazing stuff. I loved how they were bleeding. Not sure the explosion was nessecary, much like Gaeta's leg it seemed like a false note in the script. Like the writers didn't kow how to get form seeing the basetar to having the raptor land so they decided to make a minicliffhanger and jump to the basetar landing bay.
Athena is a hero to the Eights. I love how they are such sheep and she hates them for it. Pick a side and stick with it. It's a turn of plot I didn't expect and I like that it gives Grace a chance to prove that she can really differentiate those characters in a way I don't think she's been entirely successful in doing before. She is so caught up in being human that it seems almost unfair to ask her suddnely to be a cylon again.
Six and Red Head Chick who's name I can't spell off the top of my head. I found that scene endlessly fascinating on a number of levels. Has Natalie never been killed that she thinks that the other Six should be able to get past what was clearly a pretty horrific death. Drowning in a septic tank is got to be the worst way I can think of to go, and Boothbey seems to have had a certain sadistic streak about killing cylons on New Caprica. I'm glad they paid that off. I found her death to have a bit more impact than Mathias' last week in part because it was bound to happen.
You couldn't have brought those people togeather and expect there not to be ill feelings. It's said that the most dangerous time for a soldier is the time right after the firing is supposed to stop. The first few minutes after surrendar, the first few hours after a cease fire. You can't have thrown togeather two races of people who have been hell bent on killing each other and not expect someone to die.
On a film production level I'd love to know how they handled the intimate dialogue between Six and Natalie, and the kiss, though I suppose the fact that the six was bent over by handers and her hair was in her face means they could have used a double. Except Tricia's face is not exactly one you could double that easily. Oddly enough the scene had a lot of the same feelings to it that Tigh and Ellen had, though admittedly much faster and not as deeply. You can tell how much working with the humans is eating at Natalie. I wonder if she really thought through her comment about not needing the Raptor crew. How was she going to make peace with the Colonials if she had just killed a bunch of them to staal a raptor?
I still love Natalie. She's still Six and Laura Roslin's love child. I want to have Tricia Helfer's internet babies. I'm just in awh of her.
Starbuck did not annoy me for once this season. I was getting very tired of the bug eyed crazy look and I rather sympathized with her in the hybrid scenes. It seemed a little strange to me that no one else seemed to ract to "Kara Thrace will be the harbringer of death" bit given they discussed the rest of the sentence preceeding it. If they take the hybrid's statement on face value as they appeared to, shouldn't they take all of it?
Again, I love the damaged basehip vfx, and rather liked the scene between Helo and Athena when they show back up again, but it leads me back to the same question the fans have been asking for a while. Why are these two not talking about their kid? You know, the shape of things to come? We're still dealing with the fighting Agathons being out of character in this reguard.
The Roslin B plot... it was so shocking to see Mary with no hair. Though the bald cap wasn't the best fitting one I've ever seen. You can tell she's got so much hair under it. It just made her have a very strange shape to her head. The scene with Tory would feel more touching if whe hadn't been watching Tory betray Roslin with Baltar for the last three episodes. It's difficult to come back to the idea that Tory is such a good aide to Roslin given we haven't seen Roslin with Tory in a while.
Speaking of not seeing people, while I was happy to do without Baltar, anyone wondering where Lee is given that RDM kept saying how much Lee came into his own when they took him out of the uniform? At least when they lost Lee in the second half of season 2 and three... they didn't physically misplace Jamie Bamber.
The scenes between Roslin and Emily were really touching, and this is yet another example of RDM proving that the actors from Star Trek were often so much better than the material they were given. The conversation and the end reminded me a great deal of what I've seen in cancer deaths and it had a ring of authencity. When my mathmetician stepfather was at that stage of his cancer he woke up from a dream all euphoric and told my mother that they were going to let him be a complex number in the next life. It was a very sweet and very nerdy moment.
I love the idea that this is what Roslin needed to find some truth back to her path again, and it coincided nicely with the prophecy from the hybrid about the truth of the opera house. I wounder if Athena is going to tell anyone that she's been in that opera house and with whom.
The one thing I wish we'd seen this week was the reaction of the colonial fleet when that basetar jumps in, but i suppose that was a bit too much to ask and that's going to be a big thing next week. Or I hope it is, because if they don't show that I'll be unhappy.
So I guess I will start with the cylon plot, which I would say was the A plot of this episode. The lead in scene from last weeks episode and this week's opening scene feel very different. I don't know if it's the quality of the writing or different writers or what. It was as if Starbuck suddenly became more sane, and while I can buy that the shooting of Gaeta was something that would snap her out of it, the entire turn of events if watched back to back would seem odd.
If the raptor plan was plausable to start with, why hadn't it been brought up before? Why hadn't Kara brought it up? It's pretty clear that everyone including Kara thinks Anders is a little batty after he shoots Gaeta, so why are they so eager to take him into a potentially difficult and touchy situation on the cylon baseship? Was he a really nessecary character for that mission or did the writers just want to put him there.
Speaking of the writing, Gaeta's leg and health I think were an unnessecary addition to emphasizing the jump clock. Too much of the muchness. The stakes were already high and adding Felix to that mix just deminished his character.
The burning basetars and wounded remaining one are Kara's vision. Didn't see that coming. I guess that ends the fan discussions about the Ships of Light since we now know they were cylon ships all along. Does this mean we've come to the end of Kara's visions because she didn't have any other visions to earth.
I would like to comment about how amazing the visual effects are this season. They are doing some very special stuff in being reductive, in going down to the small detail. The voyage through the destroyed and burning basestars was pretty amazing stuff. I loved how they were bleeding. Not sure the explosion was nessecary, much like Gaeta's leg it seemed like a false note in the script. Like the writers didn't kow how to get form seeing the basetar to having the raptor land so they decided to make a minicliffhanger and jump to the basetar landing bay.
Athena is a hero to the Eights. I love how they are such sheep and she hates them for it. Pick a side and stick with it. It's a turn of plot I didn't expect and I like that it gives Grace a chance to prove that she can really differentiate those characters in a way I don't think she's been entirely successful in doing before. She is so caught up in being human that it seems almost unfair to ask her suddnely to be a cylon again.
Six and Red Head Chick who's name I can't spell off the top of my head. I found that scene endlessly fascinating on a number of levels. Has Natalie never been killed that she thinks that the other Six should be able to get past what was clearly a pretty horrific death. Drowning in a septic tank is got to be the worst way I can think of to go, and Boothbey seems to have had a certain sadistic streak about killing cylons on New Caprica. I'm glad they paid that off. I found her death to have a bit more impact than Mathias' last week in part because it was bound to happen.
You couldn't have brought those people togeather and expect there not to be ill feelings. It's said that the most dangerous time for a soldier is the time right after the firing is supposed to stop. The first few minutes after surrendar, the first few hours after a cease fire. You can't have thrown togeather two races of people who have been hell bent on killing each other and not expect someone to die.
On a film production level I'd love to know how they handled the intimate dialogue between Six and Natalie, and the kiss, though I suppose the fact that the six was bent over by handers and her hair was in her face means they could have used a double. Except Tricia's face is not exactly one you could double that easily. Oddly enough the scene had a lot of the same feelings to it that Tigh and Ellen had, though admittedly much faster and not as deeply. You can tell how much working with the humans is eating at Natalie. I wonder if she really thought through her comment about not needing the Raptor crew. How was she going to make peace with the Colonials if she had just killed a bunch of them to staal a raptor?
I still love Natalie. She's still Six and Laura Roslin's love child. I want to have Tricia Helfer's internet babies. I'm just in awh of her.
Starbuck did not annoy me for once this season. I was getting very tired of the bug eyed crazy look and I rather sympathized with her in the hybrid scenes. It seemed a little strange to me that no one else seemed to ract to "Kara Thrace will be the harbringer of death" bit given they discussed the rest of the sentence preceeding it. If they take the hybrid's statement on face value as they appeared to, shouldn't they take all of it?
Again, I love the damaged basehip vfx, and rather liked the scene between Helo and Athena when they show back up again, but it leads me back to the same question the fans have been asking for a while. Why are these two not talking about their kid? You know, the shape of things to come? We're still dealing with the fighting Agathons being out of character in this reguard.
The Roslin B plot... it was so shocking to see Mary with no hair. Though the bald cap wasn't the best fitting one I've ever seen. You can tell she's got so much hair under it. It just made her have a very strange shape to her head. The scene with Tory would feel more touching if whe hadn't been watching Tory betray Roslin with Baltar for the last three episodes. It's difficult to come back to the idea that Tory is such a good aide to Roslin given we haven't seen Roslin with Tory in a while.
Speaking of not seeing people, while I was happy to do without Baltar, anyone wondering where Lee is given that RDM kept saying how much Lee came into his own when they took him out of the uniform? At least when they lost Lee in the second half of season 2 and three... they didn't physically misplace Jamie Bamber.
The scenes between Roslin and Emily were really touching, and this is yet another example of RDM proving that the actors from Star Trek were often so much better than the material they were given. The conversation and the end reminded me a great deal of what I've seen in cancer deaths and it had a ring of authencity. When my mathmetician stepfather was at that stage of his cancer he woke up from a dream all euphoric and told my mother that they were going to let him be a complex number in the next life. It was a very sweet and very nerdy moment.
I love the idea that this is what Roslin needed to find some truth back to her path again, and it coincided nicely with the prophecy from the hybrid about the truth of the opera house. I wounder if Athena is going to tell anyone that she's been in that opera house and with whom.
The one thing I wish we'd seen this week was the reaction of the colonial fleet when that basetar jumps in, but i suppose that was a bit too much to ask and that's going to be a big thing next week. Or I hope it is, because if they don't show that I'll be unhappy.
I can't stand Harry Potter and avoid it like the plague so your reference went right over my head 
Starbuck--what do those cyrptic words of the hybrid mean to her? What was Athena thinking when she turned away from her dying model-sister? Why are they killing someone in every ep this season? 
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