Faith (406)

[Mongoletsi]

also the whole painting/base star was very ship of lightish more so than anything else in the season so far...

According to RDM (probably) there will be no Ship of Light shizzle.

[Mongoletsi]

What's the possibility of earth not populated with humans? And bam, hera and nick becomes adam & eve

I thought that. But in practical terms it's impossible they be the sole progenitors of this cycle of "humanity".

[Mongoletsi]

EDIT: wait wait......I'd like to add to that theory. It could also be Tigh.........I mean they quite similar in a lot of ways and they sometimes seem to have a sort of Father/Daughter relationship.........albeit quite a disfunctional one.

Now that's a particularly appealing twist and would explain why she's a bit "different" but isn't actually a Cylon!

However we'd be back into the realms of sharks and motorbikes. It'd be one revelation too far me thinks.

[Lady Snow]

I did this a few episodes ago, and I wanted to do it again. So I present to you lot Lady Snow's List of Things She Thinks She Thinks:

1. Felix Gaeta is NOT a Cylon.

I'm sure why, but after this episode I felt that Gaeta couldn't be the final cylon. I couldn't say what made me drop him out of the running, but now I am convinced that he is not a Cylon.

Well, I spent a while thinking about it, and here's why: "They will not harm their own." The Final Five, according to the Hybrid, cannot and/or will not harm fellow Cylons. Sam shot Gaeta, therefore Gaeta is not a Cylon. If we extend this even further, very little interaction of the Four with the humanoid Cylons has been directly violent - the closest thing to harming is through the indirect agency of bombs (Anders on Caprica, Anders and Chief/Tigh [through Duck] on New Caprica). Heck, we've never even seen Anders shoot a humanoid Cylon. The closest he's come is when Natalie pulled the trigger (after trapping his finger) on the Six that Barolay killed - and he was shocked. Just flabbergasted. In summary: Gaeta is not a Cylon, because Sam wouldn't have shot him otherwise. In other news, that was a seriously sick shot, and if Gaeta loses his leg, I'm going to be very upset. *prays for a Doc Cottle miracle*

2. I think I regret jumping on the "Blanders" bandwagon. Mostly.

Let's face it, for a long time, Anders was just sort of there. He was Starbuck's booty-call-husband and didn't do a whole heck of a lot. Ever. He was, for lack of a better term, bland. Extremely good-looking, yes. But bland. He didn't grow, he didn't change, and he didn't even have much to do. He was just in the RTF doing whatever waiting for Starbuck to call. Then Kara dies - and we see a bit of emotional development. Then we find out - he's a Cylon. And all of a sudden, Anders comes into his own. The writers had a lot of different directions they could have taken the final five, each with an enormous amount of potential, but I'm very happy with the way Anders has come into being a Cylon. He's resigned to it and he's somewhat accepted it but it still makes him panic. He didn't shoot Gaeta out of love for Kara or some misguided notion of duty - he shot Gaeta because he needed to get to that basestar, too. He needs to know what it means to be a Cylon; since he doesn't have Baltar's "wisdom" to guide him, the only immediate means for him to try to come to grips with his new identity is to be with those who already have said identity. He needs this, possibly moreso than Kara. I've also seen (on various blogs) that his reaction to Barolay (often misidentified as Seelix) getting shot was OOC - but that's just nonsense. Let us not forget - Jean made it through the original Resistance on Caprica with him, made it through the second Resistance on New Caprica - all to die at the hands of an emotionally-scarred Six. Jean was one of the few people who (probably, I'm assuming here) knew Anders, but her means of death also (still assuming here) freaked him out, because he could turn on someone like that, too. This is not a good thing, and Anders knows it. In summary: Michael Trucco is one heck of an actor.

3. All BSG religions are the same, in the end. Except Billy's atheism, which may or may not be a religion after all.

Yup, I said it. They are all the same. It's the river imagery that did it for me, particularly in relation to dying. There's been this theme of "the river that separates this world from the next" running through the Cylon/monotheistic POV from the moment we met Leoben in "Flesh and Blood;" this was finally picked up by the human/polytheistic POV with the River Styx. Well, okay, maybe the Styx wasn't mentioned per se. It was Laura's reference to the Elysian Fields, which one can (traditionally) only reach by crossing the River Styx. Nonetheless, there is something, be it a black abyss or a river, that separates this life from the next, and something funky happens there. We can make the case that one religion has somehow derived from the other (see the speculation [mine included] on the Jealous God, whose name cannot be spoken as the Thirteenth Lord of Kobol and the One True God), but I'm not sure about that anymore. It makes a lot of sense and ties together quite neatly (the derivation theory, that is), which is why I was such a proponent of the theory in the first place, but I think I need to think about concurrent belief systems being the same a bit more. No summary here, just food for thought.

4. I think I'm glad Helo and Athena remembered they have a daughter.

No summary here either, just a simple statement of fact.

---

I may bring more later, after I listen to the podcast. Yay for podcasts being up!

[Trek_Girl42]

I may bring more later, after I listen to the podcast. Yay for podcasts being up!

Sadly not this week's and last week's yet. I've checked a dozen times today already.

Great list. And agreeing on Gaeta not being a cylon. But really, that's just a gut feeling more than from any evidence in the show. I really hope he doesn't lose his leg either.....

Does anyone have a hybrid-speak transcript from this ep?

[Jumper_One]

this was definitely one of the better eps this season. some nice character moments: Roslin in the infirmary, Six and of course at the end with Adama. once again someone dies on the bright side there was no Baltar, at least not in person. so who's the final Cylon? the missing three will give you the five who have come from the home of the thirteenth. oh and I didn't even recognize Nana Visitor until the very end

[omgpix]

The 6, I never did nothing to them and all that. Your race nearly annihilated them, and you expect them not to hold a grudge?

Of course grudges are to be expected, but there's a bit more than a simple grudge isn't it? She was brutally slaughtered and the perpetrator was rather unrepentant.

Now, I'm not arguing whether it's right or wrong for her to have been killed, truth is I can't remember from the episode if she was a legitimate obstacle in the way of the mission or not, (from her account she was more of a bystander), but when you're on the receiving end justification is entirely irrelevant when it comes to suffering. The other side being right, or having a motive doesn't diminish it one bit.

So it's entirely understandable. Put it this way, if a German woman was raped by Soviets at the end of WW2, would you say "grudges are to be expected"?

[P-90_177]

Now that's a particularly appealing twist and would explain why she's a bit "different" but isn't actually a Cylon!

However we'd be back into the realms of sharks and motorbikes. It'd be one revelation too far me thinks.

I dunno. I now have a very funny image in my head of her finding out, getting back to galactica, seeing Tigh and just going "Hey Dad.." Followed by the patented Tigh "What the Frak?!" look.

[MmmmMcKAy]

Wow! "Faith" was an incredible episode. The acting was top notch and boy was there a lot going on.

The scenes with Roslin and Emily were extremely gut wrenching. My love for Roslin, which has dimmed since the first season, got a little brighter watching this episode.

I can't wait to see how all the threads come together over the next few weeks(and next year).

[madk99]

I nearly LMAO when I saw the 'volunteer' go with Kara to the base ship. I can't wait to hear RDM's podcast. I'll bet he calls out that the new face (who is then immediately killed) was an homage to Star Trek.

"Captain Trace!! Over here. I've found something....
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhh.........."

[dec55]

Grace was excellent in this eppy, she gives all her different Sharons different
little characteristics that are so believable. She really deserves a Emmy for her work here.

Plus getting to see a room full of Sharons again was great...

Now the Galactica has a whole crew of Sharons on their side...

I guess the Chief may have a chance to marry Sharon again, though it won't
be Boomer, I am sure at least one Sharon model may be willing to take Boomer's place.
Hopefully a happy ending for him too.

[Trek_Girl42]

I nearly LMAO when I saw the 'volunteer' go with Kara to the base ship. I can't wait to hear RDM's podcast. I'll bet he calls out that the new face (who is then immediately killed) was an homage to Star Trek.

"Captain Trace!! Over here. I've found something....
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhh.........."

That "volunteer" was Barolay- who has been around since the first half of season two- she was in Anders's group on Caprica (she did have longer hair then), she was also in the group that was conducting those secret airlockings after New Caprica, and she was in the resistance.

[Dusk]

RIP Barolay - this week's victim.

Great episode, has me excited again after recent dead ends.

So happy Natalie is alive, and that D'Anna is on her way back.

Next time... "Guess what's coming to dinner?"

[Darth_Bicyclist]

I thought it was strange that everyone seemed to ignore the part of the Hybrid's speech where she said: "You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead them all to their end." They were all like, oh well, harbinger of death, leading us all to our end. Well, forget about that, no big deal. Hey, what was that she said about the Three and the Five and the Thirteenth? Let's all go find Deanna! Yay!

Nobody else found that strange? I mean, in Razor, Kendra is so shaken by this news that she tries to contact the fleet to warn them. Here, everyone just ignores it. What the frack?

[SoulReaver]

Was the gas giant Jupiter? I know she'd said gas giant before, but as far as we know (in RL I mean) gas giants are pretty common...

extremely doubtful - impossible actually. this would mean that the baseship was right next to Earth (on a galactic scale anyway, especially for space travelers with FTL tech) which means the colonial fleet would subsequently know where earth is and would logically get there by next ep by jumping to Jupiter then executing one small teeny weeny mini-jump - which of course doesn't happen since we're only mid-season. the fleet is still supposed to be a long way from earth, not at its doorstep