Deadlock (416)

[HAL2100]

It was weird seeing Iron Clad Bill Adama distraught over how fragile Galactica was and that he needed to get help from the Cylons to fix her. I don't know what was more painful, Galactica falling apart or him needing to ask the Cylons for help.

I take it as he's finally coming face to face with his own mortality and prospect that the human race may very well die out. Sometimes it takes something relatively minor to drive home the events happening all around us. Galactica has been his baby for so long, he may have assumed that she'd be for many, many years to come.

[Sela]

At least we know that Ellen is still the same old vindictive, spiteful, conniving, beeyatch that she always was.

[Finger13]

I wonder if President Rosslyn realizes that Caprica is the one that infiltrated the defense mainframe computers. Although I think she could warm up to cylons "in general," I don't think she could warm up to the exact person/personality who made it possible to nuke everyone.

There was a deleted scene in Season 3 where Roslin talks to Caprica Six in the brig and Roslin asks her name, to which she replies "Caprica". Roslin figures the rest out. It may be deleted, but I think in this case it would still be canon.

[Xepla]

As a female BSG fan, I would like to say that this episode made Ellen one of my favorite characters. This episode made her much more realistic and believable for me. YES, she is screwing things up.. but try to see it from her perspective. To be honest I would probably do the same thing.
She has been in love with Tigh for thousands of years, and tried many times to get pregnant with his child with no luck. Now all of a sudden, one of her own creations-- one of her own "children" in her eyes, has gotten the one thing she always wanted in her relationship with Tigh? And she is just supposed to be OK with this and NOT freak out or make someone pay? I don't think so. Even though they thought she was dead.. frack them. Emotions of that magnitude are not so easily managed; Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
You have to remember this feeling that Ellen is wrestling with the entire time... Betrayal of the worst degree.
She cannot help but harass Six about it. In a really twisted way, Ellen knows that Tigh was only with Six because it reminded him of her. So Ellen taunts Six with this knowledge.. Makes Tigh say he loves Six when Ellen knows he doesn't. It's very twisted, but very realistic, from someone who knows first hand how wicked women can be when they are hurt.

[kharn the betrayer]

I think this episode pretty much proved Saul and Ellen are bad for each other more so than well pretty much every other episode the 2 are in...

Saul's become a much better person since Ellen has died(he certainly not the same guy he was in season 1/2 and even early 3) and while he did have that rough spot after he killed her he has shaped up quite well

and Ellen last episode was the complete opposite of how Ellen normally is

yet suddenly you toss the 2 together and all hell breaks loose

also I liked the scenes with Saul and Adama

and as much as I like Galen WTF at him wanting to jump ship I also hope he finds out what Tory did to Cally by the end of the season

[Detox]

I guess Ron Moore completely forgot about the mutiny that happened only 2 episodes ago.

[Arative]

I think this episode pretty much proved Saul and Ellen are bad for each other more so than well pretty much every other episode the 2 are in...

Saul's become a much better person since Ellen has died(he certainly not the same guy he was in season 1/2 and even early 3) and while he did have that rough spot after he killed her he has shaped up quite well

and Ellen last episode was the complete opposite of how Ellen normally is

yet suddenly you toss the 2 together and all hell breaks loose

also I liked the scenes with Saul and Adama

and as much as I like Galen WTF at him wanting to jump ship I also hope he finds out what Tory did to Cally by the end of the season

You can't discount that Ellen is two different people really. She's Ellen from Earth and Ellen that Cavil created with false memories. So that's why she seems like two different people. All the anger she feels towards Tigh because he choose Adama over her, is coming from Cavil-Ellen. I hope that she does get back to the Ellen we saw last week, cool, calm, collected.

I also thought it was funny, that when Tory, Saul, Ellen and Galen were fighting, the 6 and 8's basically acted like children when their parents fight. Since is a very sense, the 5 are their parents.

[EvenstarSRV]

This episode had me scratching my head. Since "Sometimes a great notion" it has been packed with gritty, entertaining, aw inspiring material. And then we get to this episode. You go from mach 9 to screeching halt. Don't take this as I didn't like it. It is a part of the puzzle. But I felt with Ellen showing back up in Galactica it would have stirred the pot even more. But all it did was slow it down.

It was weird seeing Iron Clad Bill Adama distraught over how fragile Galactica was and that he needed to get help from the Cylons to fix her. I don't know what was more painful, Galactica falling apart or him needing to ask the Cylons for help.

I agree. I think Ellen the Final cylon coming back to the fleet should have been a major event, but she's greeted with a shrug and a 'here we go again with people coming back from the dead' kinda feeling. I wish there'd been a bit more discussions with the Final Five and less soap opera melodrama between Ellen, Tigh, and Caprica, though Six losing the child and Tigh's reaction was very well done.

I liked the parts with Adama continuing to agonize over the changes he's had to make to his ship, like he's losing the last reliable thing he's had since the world ended.

[brthur]

- Baltar goes to Adama and convinces him to give his group assault rifles.

I wondered, what sort of "human solution" that would be, getting even bigger guns?

- Tyrol is all stressed out over Boomer, { ... } Boomer is currently in the brig.

I thought that might be the reason Chief Tyrol would want to leave Galactia, avoiding confrontation with Boomer.

[brthur]

I obviously haven't seen the episode, but the thought of Ellen getting upset at Tigh because he was doing some serious data exchanging with Six was uncool. How was he supposed to know that she would download and it had been 18 months?

And nobody ever mentioned the things Ellen did with Cavil on New Caprica. The "swirl", ewh.

After "No Exit" i really thought, there was less bittch in Ellen, but this episode showed, she's not really a good person. Maybe that explains Tory

[bfldworker]

I just got done watching it again. I am even more confused then before.

I understand why the Admiral had Boomer thrown in the brig. From Children of Kobol part 1 when she shot him. Betrayal of the highest order. He looks at all the crew as his children.

There is something gnawing at me about this episode. I felt as if there was going to be something huge and massive as the episode kept going. And then I realized it while watching next weeks trailer. There is a HUGE bombshell getting ready to drop in the life of Kara Thrace. Who is she What is she, how did she return????? If she an other unknown Cylon? Was she resurrected the like Ellen? Could she be a replacement for "Daniel"? Or is there really a higher power at work?

Which brings an other question. What the Frak is this whole thing with Roslin, Athena and Caprica sharing visions and dreams? Are they mentally connected? Is it a higher power? Or do we find out that it is a Cylon ONLY thing? Which implicates the possibility that all humans are Cylons or they are a "Blending" of Human Cylon?

There are SO MANY QUESTIONS that need to be answered in the next 4 episodes.

And while I am at it. I would love a movie based on the backstory of the Final 5 and there "resurrection" technology and there whole planet from 2 millennium ago.. I know it if off subject, but they are valid questions that I would LOVE to know the answers to.

[brthur]

She has been in love with Tigh for thousands of years,

She said that and it felt wrong to me the same moment. They were traveling at near light speed, which made years go by on the outside world, but they still arrived in their lifetime.

Or did they resurrect repeatedly en route and didn't tell us? Seems at least possible, since got onto that ship by resurrecting in the first place.

But still, it would have been far less than "thousands of years".

[Darth_Bicyclist]

Hooray for the Bear McCreary cameo! Bear rocks!

[wontgetfooledagain]

Ellen is a crap disturber. She ruins everything. I thought after seeing her in No Exit that she would have matured having gained her memories back. Turns out she's just as naive and selfish as ever.

Hey, she's only human.

I noticed that Ron Moore showed multiple scenes of Adama supervising the repairs and lamenting over Galactica being a hybrid itself now. (Setting up the last scene where Adama and Roslin agree that a fusion of Cylon and Human cultures/circumstances has already happened.)

For awhile I was wondering if maybe Adama was the dying leader, because I'm sure he has cirrhosis of the liver by now...

From the jist of their conversation, I think baltar was trying to get Adama to supply his followers with weapons so he can defend galactica in the event of another rebellion, but I was left a bit "what exactly did they agree to?" in that scene.

I think that he was given weapons so that he could supply Dogtown with supplies and care without the gangs controlling everything. Kind of like Vigilantes.

What I don't get is how they are considered reliable enough to be given assault rifles. They're always referred to as freaks and such, and now they're vigilantes?

I think the idea is that the people have an inherent distrust of the marines. With civilians being the ones to distribute the food (and guard it, as well) there might be fewer disturbances.

What pissed me off was that the Final 5 were ready to cut and run. I do have to agree with the question. Why do Cylons always want to run.....

Could it be that though they think they know love, they don't know what duty means? It also seems that when Ellen was going on about how there is something Tigh loves more than herself or Caprica that she was really making quite a good case for Tigh without realizing it (I don't think I should credit her with using "Socratic irony"). Tigh, despite his past alcoholism, is really the most moral of all the Final Five -- he knows what it means to be dedicated to something bigger than himself. And when Ellen accuses Tigh of loving Adama more than she or Caprica? What an indictment it must be to be a friend!

I guess Ron Moore completely forgot about the mutiny that happened only 2 episodes ago.

Why do you say that?

You can't discount that Ellen is two different people really. She's Ellen from Earth and Ellen that Cavil created with false memories. So that's why she seems like two different people. All the anger she feels towards Tigh because he choose Adama over her, is coming from Cavil-Ellen. I hope that she does get back to the Ellen we saw last week, cool, calm, collected.

I don't think there is really an "Earth-Ellen" and a "Cavil-Ellen" -- she's just human, that's all. I think she was starting to come back to her senses towards the end of this episode. You may have noticed that when Tigh said that One-True-God stuff was nonsense, she told him it wasn't and she also started acting more kindly toward Tigh and Caprica as Caprica was lying in sickbay miscarrying. She's remembering that there are bigger things going on.

[Wayston]

in order to break the cycle of destruction there needs to be a human/cylon fusion of civilisations... baltar's grouping is the antithesis to that... "I'm your last chance for a human solution" and "god loves you just the way you are" or whatever baltar said... he's a tool for whomever wants to keep humans and machines apart and at eachothers throats