The Plan

As promised, in time for Christmas, here are my thoughts about "The Plan".

• I liked the voiceover at the beginning being spoken in several different voices relevant to what was being said, and enjoyed working out who all the voices were.
• It was so great to finally see copies of the Final Five in resurrection tanks, arranged in a circle, like the sunken beds in Joss Whedon's Dollhouse.
• Was that the same opening shot of Caprica City as was used in "Daybreak, Part 1"?
• Are we to infer that Tori, after surviving the nuclear blast in her car, was rescued by humans and taken to the fleet, then eventually became Laura's aid without any intervention from Cavil?
• I liked the sexy Natalie-looking Six wearing leather, and chewing gum, and how One hung a lantern on how the Sixes are doing a great job of differentiating themselves.
• The actor playing Tyrol has clearly put on weight since they started filming the series, and so it's quite clear which scenes are new and which are from the miniseries and season 1.
• So Boomer knew what she was, but only in the presence of the wooden elephant. We got one little flashback with her and a Natalie-looking Six before she was made in to a sleeper agent, but it would've been nice to see exactly how that worked, and what happened to her and when to place her in the Colonies as Sharon Valerii.
• The mass grave that the Fives were digging on Caprica was all kinds of disgusting. I wonder how they actually filmed that.
• Leoben as a yoga instructor for the Defence Minister?! Brilliant!
• I felt so sorry for Boomer, saying that she feels better when she's human, and that she loves herself, and it just broke my heart to hear her talk about losing what was left of her humanity after shooting Adama. After seeing the end of the series, this was just so poignant.
• Now we finally know how Shelly Godfrey apparently disappeared! Cavil had her switch with the Natalie-lookign Six (who he ends up sleeping with, eugh!), who is super fast and looks sufficiently different so as not to be recognised as the same model. Oh, and then sending original Shelly out of an airlock so she could reveal the fleet's location to the Cylons - excellent!
• Did Leoben see his future with Kara when strangling her during the interrogation scene from the season 1 episode "Flesh and Bone"?
• It would've been cool to see Simon's spine glow during the sex scene with his human wife!
• The twist that he airlocked himself in stead of blew up his ship was a good one.
• The dynamic between Tyrol and Simon's wife was great, and it really made sense to have her character there at that time. I also really liked how when he kissed her and said it didn't mean anything, she seemed to know exactly what he meant.
• The little boy John giving Cavil a red apple nicely mirrored Ellen offering Boomer a similarly red apple. And the twist of Cavil killing little John really took my breath away, as the way the scene was edited with the other One on Caprica aiming to shoot Kara made us expect that he would do that, and not the other way round (though obviously, we know that he didn't shoot Kara then).
• The two Ones holding hands as they wait to be airlocked was rather moving. And the voiceover from Cavil's monologue to Ellen during season 4's "No Exit" was a lovely touch.

Quotes

Cavil: "Let's get this genocide started!"

Five (of Doral): "His jacket was burgendy. This is teal."
Cavil: "Well, I have something else for you to wear. Yes. They call this a suicide vest, but I think that undersells all the homicide that goes along with it, don't you?"

Leoben: "I'm telling you, she flew a raider, learned how to control it from the inside. No one taught her how. Kara Thrace plucked that knowledge from..."
Cavil: "I don't care if she plucked puppies from God's ass!"

(while listening to Sam and Kara have sex)
Cavil: "He loves her?"
Four: "Vigorously."
Cavil: "She's beneath him."
Four: "Not necessarily."

Overall, I really enjoyed "The Plan." I really like they way they very neatly inserted all this backstory in to seasons 1 and 2 in such a way that really worked, though I'm sure once I go back and watch those seasons again, I'll find things that don't quite work, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. I especially liked the insertion of Cavil's talks with Boomer explaining why she found herself in places she didn't remember going to, and how they explained Shelly Godfrey's disappearance.

I was disappointed at the lack of D'Anna and Kara, as I felt Three could have benefited from more fleshing out of their backstory, and there are still a lot of unknowns about Kara which the series did not resolve. I was also going to say that I was disappointed at Lee not being featured really at all, but I realise that his character arch was pretty well wrapped up, so adding him would not really have brought anything new, but would have been nice. The same goes for Gaius, who we only saw in clips from episodes (there were no new scenes with him, as far as I could tell) and Laura, who I was surprised not to see at all, not even in clips from episodes.

More information about how the Final Five were integrated in to the fleet would have been nice. In fact, that is more of what I was expecting of "The Plan"; something more overarching and going back before the attack on the Colonies, to explain how exactly Cavil put all the pieces in to place in order to carry out his plan to punish the Final Five for their sins. Starting from the attack, however, really worked.

So that's it for Battlestar Galactica. This is quite emotional for me, as I found myself really connecting to this show and the characters. It's a sad thing to me that there is nothing new in this particular story.

However, in 2012, I will begin watching and reviewing Caprica, and will use this blog to post those reviews, so stick around if you're interested in that!

Season 4, Episode 20

Disclaimer: I am an atheist. However, I enjoy and can accept the invocation of God in fiction. Please keep this in mind when reading my thoughts on this episode. It may help to give the sarcasm and blasphemy some context. You have been warned.

Before I watched this, the final episode of the entire series, I wrote down several questions that I expected answers to. My aim with this was to put down exactly what I was hoping to have answers to by the end of the episode, such that I could judge if I was satisfied with the way the series ended. (Spoiler alert: I was!)

Questions

1. What is going on with these Opera House visions that Laura, Caprica Six, Athena, Hera and Gaius have been sharing?

2. If there is a connection, how is all of this connected to the Earth we know, and this time?

3. Why have Gaius and Caprica Six been seeing Head versions of themselves? Who/what are these Head Characters?

4. Who/what is Kara Thrace? This question has several parts, as I see it:
a. After she died in Maelstrom, how did she come back in a shiny new viper?
b. How did her dead body end up on Cylon Earth?
c. Was her father Daniel, the Number Seven?
d. In what way is she the "harbinger of death" as the original Hybrid, the normal Hybrid and Hybrid Sam have been telling us?

Now for points and quotes! I will come back to how well (or not) I think these questions were answered at the end.

Episode 20: Daybreak Part 2

• Why is Ellen in the strip bar with Bill and Saul in the flashback to Caprica? I thought it was explained by Cavil in "No Exit" that she was sent directly to the Galactica from wherever Cavil was holding her in the season 1 episode "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down". However, the more I think about this, the less sense it makes, because Adama remembered her once she arrived on the ship. I hope this is something that gets dealt with in "The Plan".
• I enjoyed Laura's hot teacher routine with her date! "Did I say you should go?" HOT!
• What a lovely scene between Laura and Dr. Cottle. He really deserved that.
• Admiral Hoshi? Really? I'm still surprised he was not more upset by Gaeta's death.
• Gaius finally does a selfless act!
• The Galactica's plan of attack at the Colony was absolutely fraking insane! Ramming the ship directly in to it! WTF?!
• Boomer finally achieves redemption by returning Hera, but Athena shooting her was inevitable and obvious. I'm glad she went after doing something good, though.
• When Caprica Six and Gaius both saw Head Six and Head Gaius at the same time I was so shocked that I it my head on the wall behind me. Then I squeed so loudly I didn't hear anything they said and had to rewind. OMG! I never saw that coming, but it was so perfect! It's also new that Caprica Six sees Head Six, as far as we know.
• So the Opera House = Galactica, and the CIC in particular.
• Finally Tori having killed Cally and being of any relevance to the story comes back. Tyrol killing Tori when he discovers this really makes it clear that he did love Cally, despite what he had said before, since he was willing to break the download of the secret to resurrection, and kill Tori for it, essentially destroying the secret of resurrection and jeopardising the truce between the Humans/Rebel Cylons and Cavil's lot.
• This resulting in Cavil shooting himself seemed unbelievable to me. It didn't seem to fit with his character that he would commit suicide.
• A shot of the moon before we see our Earth was a great idea to really establish where we were. I squeed so hard at this! I also really liked that they chose to centre the image of Earth on the continent of Africa, rather than North America, which they showed at the end of Season 3. Since East Africa is where they landed, however, this makes much more sense.
• So it looks like Kara Thrace was a Head Character, but for everyone...? It was so wonderfully heartbreaking when she vanished as Lee was talking to her.
• I had heard that there were a lot of people who were unhappy with the ending of the series, and I can sort of see why, though I was not one of them. From an artistic point of view, it was a little jarring to see Head Six and Head Gaius walking through the modern day streets of New York City, as it sort of brought me out of the show, but I think this was the point; to connect that story to us in the here and now. From a storytelling point of view, however, I think it was utterly flawless.
• And what a great touch that we end on hearing the Jimi Hendrix version of All Along the Watchtower as we are shown images of the direction in which modern robotic technology is headed.

Quotes

Laura (to Dr. Cottle): "Don't spoil your image. Just light a cigarette and go and grumble."

Tigh (to Adama): "Still not too late to flush them out the airlock!"

Cavil (to a Four): "Please continue stating the perfectly obvious. It fills me with confidence."

Adama: "What do you hear Starbuck?"
Starbuck: "Nothing but the rain."
-This made me cry so much. It was more moving than Lee saying goodbye to his father, and such a great callback to the Miniseries, as it was the first piece of dialogue we heard between these two characters.

Answers

So, I was mostly satisfied with the ways in which the questions I posed previously were answered. I was perhaps expecting fuller and less divine-influenced answers, but I didn't write the show, so I'm not going to complain about the story itself. If I allow for and accept the "God did it" answer (essentially a deus ex machina device) that was heavily implied as answers to several of my and other questions, I can say that I got my answers. Let's go through them one by one.

1. These Opera House visions were prophetic in nature, and essentially led Gaius to be the one to negotiate the deal between Cavil and his forces and the allied Humans and Cylon Rebels. Why exactly these people had been having these visions is left unexplained as far as I see it, though we could take it to be implied that "God" (or whatever name he/she/it prefers) gave them the visions for some unknown reason. Basically, I think it was a foreshadowing device, and made for a good way to create ongoing suspense by having these characters collectively see something that was going to happen. I'm not sure, however, what the symbolism of Galactica being depicted as an Opera House was.

2. This question was answered quite explicitly. Basically, Kara Thrace jumped the Galactica (through divine intervention and a computational analysis of the music her father taught her?) to our Earth 150,000 years before today (or presumably, the date that this episode aired), where the Humans and Cylons of the allied fleet settled. The revelation at the end that modern Humans discovered the remains of what appeared to be mitochondrial Eve (implied to be Hera) means that we are all descendants of Cylon/Human hybrids, which is nice!

3. The final scene of the episode in which Head Six explains the above answer indicates that both she and what we've been calling Head Gaius are in fact beings of an independent nature, not only manifesting themselves in the 'heads' of others, thus calling them Head Characters is a misnomer. This tells us then that they are not figments of Gaius Baltar and Caprica Six's imaginations, but it does not explain us why those are the only two people that ever saw them. If we allow for the "God did it" hypothesis, then we can explain it away, but we still don't know why. This feels like a handy way of the writers not explaining it, but then I'm not sure we need to know exactly why.

4. This is the hardest question to explain, I think, at least in a detailed way. It seems like the simple answer is that the Kara Thrace that returned to the fleet at the end of Season 3 claiming that she'd been to (Cylon?) Earth was in fact a being similar in nature to those that we've been calling Head Six and Head Gaius, but with two important differences: that everyone can see her, and that she doesn't know exactly what she is. So, in more detail:

a. God did it...? I'm willing to accept this here, because to look for any other explanation just makes my brain hurt!

b. Who the frak knows? This one is still bothering me, as I can't work out a reasonable explanation for it. I don't buy the "God did it" one here, because there seems now to be not much reason for it, except maybe that she needed to find her own dead body and burn it in order to be able to move on and do what she had been sent back to do, namely to lead the fleet to a new home, as the goddess Aurora.

c. I believe that yes, Daniel was Kara's father, and that she was the first Human/Cylon hybrid. Even though this is not explicitly mentioned, I think it is heavily implied, with the man at the piano being clearly "artistic", as Ellen describes him as having been, and just the fact that it would be pointless to mention an entirely new Cylon model that we'd never heard of so late in the series and then have him be completely irrelevant to the story.

d. This part is the one I find most difficult to answer. The fact that we had this prophecy repeated to us multiple times by three different (though similarly abled) characters, seems to imply that it must indeed be important and highly relevant, but I'm not actually convinced that it came true. Perhaps if we consider that Hera ended up being the ultimate ancestor of all of humanity on this Earth, and she was a Human/Cylon hybrid, then perhaps this prophecy speaks of the fact that Kara Thrace brought all of the remaining pure Humans and pure Cylons to our Earth, where they eventually became extinct in favour of Hera's descendants. Thus, Kara Thrace brought the lines of pure Humans and Cylons to their end? This seems to work to me, but it feels like the way this prophecy was repeated, it should've been something more dramatic than this.

That is all for now. Overall, I was very happy with this episode, and am extremely sad the show is over for me, though I will no doubt come back to it again soon!

I have decided to save "The Plan" for next month, and will be watching it as a special Christmas treat for myself. So look out for a post about my thoughts on that in roughly a month's time! The next year, I plan to start watching Caprica. I can't wait!

One final thing: If you've been reading along and enjoying this journey with me, thank you. Even if you've never commented, I'm really happy to have shared this with you. Thanks for reading!

Season 4, Episodes 18 & 19

Episode 18: Islanded in a Stream of Stars

• Gaius admits to seeing Head Six (or at least "an angel"). Also, he finally gets to talk to Caprica Six.
• The random dying Eight calling Saul her father and then her last words being "too much confusion" was great!
• Kara peeing in front of Gaius felt like having the old Starbuck back!
• Kara saying to Gaius that she's not an angel, and then in the next scene appearing at the door to see Hybrid Sam lit just like Caprica Six is in the Opera House vision. (Plus the contrast of that white light with the red of the Hybrid chamber was really wonderful.)
• Hybrid Sam is awesome! I loved that he repeated the line about Kara being the harbinger of death, and the flashing lights as a result of his blinking was a great visual.
• Laura and Bill smoking a joint! Ha!
• I didn't think Gaius would actually run tests of Kara's dogtags as she suggested. And his results weren't news to us.
• Seeing the three funerals was interesting, especially since the Cylons never would have had to do funerals before.
• Kara putting her own photo on the wall between Dee and Kat's was just perfect, and very moving. She has finally embraced her death and transcendence.
• Adama the abstract expressionist.

Quote

Kara: "Regularity? That must be important when you're full of crap."

Episode 19: Daybreak, Part 1

• Finally we get no spoilers of the episode to come after the opening credits! I've actually really been enjoying how the credits have been changing almost every episode for the last few.
• An opening shot of the/a galaxy really set the bar high in terms of my expectations for the epicness of the finale. I hope I'm not disappointed. But anyway, WOW!
• Caprica Six met Gaius as a prostitute! Didn't see that coming, but it works.
• Nice that Gaius' father has the same Yorkshire-sounding accent that Gaius used to speak with, and that it is brought up again.
• Laura under the fountain after finding out about the death of her father and sisters was very moving indeed, and just so Laura.
• Head Six appears in her season 1 red dress! Squee!
• Four and Five finally get a reappearance.
• My note way back in season 1 about there being pigeons on Caprica turns out to have been relevant!
• The whole scene with the red line down the hanger bay was really great, and wasn't done in the cliche way it so easily could have been, with everyone immediately signing up to go on the rescue mission. The whole thing was extremely moving.
• Kara holding on to Laura to support her was tear jerking.
• The singularity that the Colony is in orbit of will surely play a large part in the end game. Could it perhaps be a gateway to our Earth?
• Overall, I found this episode really enjoyable and moving. The flashbacks make it feel kind of like an episode of Lost, but it did a really good job at harkening back to the beginnings of the series and pull on my heart strings in exactly the right ways. However, there wasn't nearly as much action or major revelation (for example about who/what exactly the Head characters are) as I had expected. There seems to be a lot left to the final part. I am really, very excited!

Quote

Adama (to Kara): "I know what you are. You're my daughter. Don't forget it." -This was so fraking moving. I cried like a baby.

Season 4, Episodes 16 & 17

Episode 16: Deadlock

• Liam? What is the significance of this name?
• Hoshi didn't seem bothered by Gaeta's death. Either he's become numb to the death of all his friends and lover, or this is just bad writing.
• The scene with Ellen's arrival on the Galactica was exactly how I imagined. It lived up to all my expectations, and I just LOVED the callback to Season 1's "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down", when the door to the raptor opened and showed just her legs, even if it was predictable that they'd do that.
• Tyrol recognising Boomer was so awesome, but Adama sending her straight to the brig, while understandable, was sad.
• Ellen comparing the 50,000 survivors of the Colonies to the five from her world ("Earth", which probably isn't our Earth), made what had happened to the Final Five much clearer, and was also very moving.
• Saul seeing Ellen as Six was so great. What a great way to bring his visions of Six as Ellen back round full circle.
• Finally, we get to see Head Six appear to Gaius again! It was great how she was feeding him lines again like in season.
• Was the reason that Saul and Ellen couldn't conceive because he didn't love her?
• Tori's kind of being racist towards humans all of a sudden.
• Little Gaius!
• Was that Bear McCreary (the genius composer of the music for BSG) as an extra sitting in the bar behind Kara?
• Bill comforting Saul after Liam's death was so touching.
• Where are all the Twos (Leobens) in the Cylon workforce on board the Galactica?

Quote

Kara: "Did you see Ellen and Tigh on the way to that bird? It was like watching my parents make out." Is this a clue as to Kara's origin?

Episode 17: Someone to Watch Over Me

• Nice to see some of the Sixes under Starbuck's command (at least wigs from behind to indicate Sixes!)
• Toothpaste as a reward for finding a habitable planet!
• Sonya! A Six with a name is always nice.
• Laura seemed to have a little freak out about the Cylons getting representation in the Quorum.
• Where are all the Twos? This is really bothering me now, that since the rebel Cylons joined the fleet, we've only seen Sixes and Eights on board the Galactica.
• Lovely callback to earlier seasons with Tyrol and Boomer on the phone through the glass of the brig.
• Boomer's shared projection of their home with Tyrol was very moving. Even though she was using him to help her escape and kidnap Hera, I still think that this projection was something she had really spent a lot of time thinking about and visiting, and that she really does still love him in some way.
• Kara knows her music!
• I liked the use of Sharon's theme without her visual presence as Laura signed the paper to extradite her and dismissed Tyrol.
• Switching Eights! Why had no one ever thought of that before?
• It was so awkward and disturbing to see Boomer frak Helo through Athena's eyes. Also, why would a husband and wife call each other by their callsign?
• The build up to the end of the episode was so intense, I was kind of freaking out.
• Kara sees head father! OMG! This was so wonderfully revealed as Tory held up the manuscript and we saw that there was no one sitting beside her at the piano.
• I never guessed that the song Kara was trying to remember would be that song! But I loved it so much!
• Laura's connection to Hera through her vision finally played out. Is she dead now?
• The child in Boomer and Tyrol's shared projection was Hera? Woah!
• Hera seems to be at the centre of everything now. She's connected to Kara and the song, Laura through the vision and Ellen considers her the future of the Cylon/human race.
• So what does Cavil want with the three year old?

I cannot wait to see what the endgame is here. However, I'll definitely be sad when it's over, and may have to start watching again from the beginning!

Season 4, Episodes 14 & 15

Episode 14: Blood on the Scales

• The basestar was still marked on DRAEDUS as "enemy baseship".
• Tigh's suggestion that Gaeta will cut off one of Ander's legs!
• Laura shouting in to the transmitter to try to be heard by the fleet made her seem like an old lady talking louding to someone on the phone because they are far away.
• Zarek ordering the Quorum shot was really shocking. And hearing and not seeing the scene was especially effective.
• Who is that Natalie-looking Six in an angel outfit talking to Gaius? Another version of Head Six perhaps?
• Lamkin killing the seargeant with a pen, Gaeta style, in order to get his sunglasses back!
• What does Gaius dreaming Adama's execution mean?
• Gaeta and Gaius' chat before his execution was really well done. Poor, poor Felix.

Quotes

Adama: "I care too much for this ship to let it be over run by rats."

Gaeta (to Gaius): "Please, no religion."

Episode 15: No Exit

• As soon as we saw the flashback of Saul killing Ellen on New Caprica, I knew we'd see her download. It made me see the scene differently, like perhaps she knew the drink was poisoned, and that she needed to die and resurrect.
• How she went from screaming with horror to calm and controlled after resurrecting was slightly disturbing, but great acting. As she was, presumably, retrieving her old memories, you could see the horror leave her expression.
• She spoke to the Centurion as though it was programmed not to touch or interact with the Final Five at all.
• Sam's bullet is making him talk like a Hybrid.
• Ellen being John (Cavil/One's) mother/maker and him having been made in the image of her father is creepy in so many ways, but just pure genius.
• John hasn't slept for 20 years.
• Adama trusts Tyrol enough to make him Chief again, but doesn't want any Cylons on the crew to repair the Galactica. Weird.
• The Temple of the Five is actually the Temple of Hopes. It was interesting that Ellen didn't know about the apparition of the Five in that temple.
• Because of his word salad, Sam referred to Ellen as "gazelle". This seems meaningful, or is perhaps just a reflection of her slender grace and elegance.
• I love Boomer for breaking Ellen out! I hope she gets to achieve redemption for this!
• Is Saul and Six's baby going to be a resurrection of Daniel? I think so.

Quote

John: "I can't wait to see what perfection looks like on the inside."

I found this episode so satisfying. I was perhaps expecting a few more exciting or OMG moments, and there was a lot of exposition, but it felt really good to have so much revealed. I also found the interaction between Ellen and John really compelling, and the way it was filmed just so beautiful.  I love the Cylon aesthetic, and how everything feels so ominous.

Season 4, Episodes 12 & 13

Episode 12: A Disquiet Follows my Soul

• That is indeed a lot of smoking around a pregnant lady. Are Six and Tigh in love?
• Adama still doesn't like talking about hypothetical situations.
• Lee knows the Fifth was a woman. Does he know it was Ellen?
• Helo looks really old.
• Hot Dog as Nikki's father. Hmm.
• Laura giving up her medication. Is she waiting to die so that she doesn't have to publicly agree to an alliance with the Cylons?
• Gaius looks kind of hot with this new short hair.
• Laura and Bill in bed together was cute.

Quotes

Gaeta: "Can't keep those toasters waiting."

Starbuck (to Gaeta): "Are you enjoying yourself? Is this how you get your kicks these days? Wait, I'm sorry, I mean half kicks."

Laura (to Bill): "I've played my role in this farce, a dying leader will guide the people to the blah blah fraking blah blah. I've been there, I've done that, now what? Is there another role that I have to play for the rest of my life? Do you remember what we said on New Caprica? How we talked about trying to live for today? Well, you'd better think about that because maybe tomorrow really isn't coming. Maybe today is all we have left. And maybe, just maybe, I've earned the right to live a little before I die. Haven't I? What do you think? Haven't I?" - So touching.


Episode 13: The Oath

• Lee looks much skinnier for some reason. Maybe he's not been eating properly since Dee's suicide?
• Laura promising to have dinner ready for Bill was cute, though also ironic foreshadowing, perhaps.
• It was nice of the writers to point out how no one knows that Kara is, by having that officer say so.
• Lee and Kara kiss! About time.
• Six comforting Hera was a nice image.
• Adama and Tigh kick ass!
• Laura and Bill's final kiss of the episode was really hot, though kind of awkward!
• Why did Bill choose to stay behind with Saul? Because he really loves his friend and couldn't bear to have left him behind?

Quotes

Adama (to Laura): "I don't do passive aggressive."

Kara: "Take it from someone who died once. It's no fun." - So does she remember dying now? She didn't when she first returned at the end of season 3.

Season 4, Face of the Enemy webisodes & Episode 11

Face of the Enemy webisodes 1-10

• Gaeta in a gay relationship with Hoshi. Finally, some gay action on BSG!
• Cylons can recognise star patterns with the naked eye - cool!
• I thought that was Athena who was the first to die, because I thought she was wearing Colonial uniform, but I guess it was that Cylon uniform.
• So Gaeta had some kind of relationship with this Eight back on New Caprica. I guess that means he's bisexual.
• Can't believe Eight used Gaeta to kill his friends.
• We finally discover what Gaius said to Gaeta in that cell before Gaeta stabbed him in the neck. He knew about the Eight.
• Now I guess Gaeta doesn't trust the Cylons at all, even Tigh.
• What is he going to do?!

Quote

Eight: "Felix. I'm a woman and a Cylon. I didn't seduce you, hope seduced you. And the more you ate of it, the less you saw. You ate yourself blind."
 
Episode 11: Sometimes a Great Notion

• Why is Dee crying and is what she found in the ground on Earth important?
• Kara and Leoben working together made me happy.
• It was nice to see some normal home life of Athena, Helo and Hera all playing together.
• The Thirteenth Tribe were Cylons. What does this mean? Are there loads more models?
• Adama blanking Tigh was heartbreaking.
• Tyrol discovering his shadow imprinted on a wall from the attack of Earth and a flashback was just awesome.
• The way they filmed Earth makes it look just like Caprica after it was nuked.
• Leoben stepping back in horror upon seeing Kara's dog tag from the crashed pilot was terrifying. I'd assumed he knew what had happened to her, but he was genuinely shocked. Is Kara a clone?
• Sam = Bob Dylan?
• Laura burning her Pythian Prophecy followed by Kara burning the body of the crashed pilot was lovely imagery. They were both destroying evidence of their previous lives.
• Dee's suicide was possibly the most shocking and horrifying death of the entire series so far. I screamed out loud. It was just such brutal writing to do this after leaving us on such a high with Lee.
• The scene between Adama and Tigh with the Admiral trying to get Tigh to shoot him was scary intense.
• Kara looked like she wanted to tell Lee about finding what could possibly have been her own body on Earth, but then she heard the news about Dee. Is she going to keep this a secret? Or at least try?
• Ellen's the Fifth! Unfortunately, I spoiled myself on this fact through overzealous Wikipedia research. I'm glad it's been revealed now, and Tigh's visions of Head Ellen/Ellen Six make much more sense now.

Quote

Ellen: "We'll be reborn. Together." 

Season 4, Episodes 9 & 10

Episode 9: The Hub

• Why is Laura having these visions during a jump? At first, I thought she was visiting the afterlife, since she saw Priestess Elosha. However, over the course of the episode, it became more clear that this is in fact Head Elosha. Another Head Character to add to the list!
• Gaius trying to calm the Hybrid was hilarious. And his idea of "focusing" on her just meant shouting. That whole scene with him and Laura arguing ineffectually over the Hybrid was just flawless.
• Cavil and Boomer got to D'Anna first! And then D'Anna strangling Cavil without even getting out of the bath! Fist pump!
• The battle for the resurrection hub was really beautiful, especially the explosion.
• The scene with Laura first trying to save Gaius' life, then letting him bleed, then deciding to save him again was so great. This is the first time he's admitted to anyone that he gave the Cylons the access codes, and he now chooses to tell this to Laura! Wow!
• I was totally fooled as Laura at D'Anna's assertion that she is the Fifth! What a great bluff, especially with the music! However, is this proof that Laura isn't the final Five, since D'Anna laughed it off so frivolously?

Quotes

Laura (to Gaius): "I think you're going to live. As usual."

Laura: "I love you."
Adama: "About time."
-This was both so touching and really funny. Adama's response reminded me of Han Solo's "I know" to Princess Leia's declaration of love!

Episode 10: Revelations

• Starbuck is weirdly sane.
• Poor peg-legged Gaeta!
• D'Anna's assertion that the Fifth is not on the fleet really narrows it down. We can now be sure that it is not Gaius, Laura, Adama, Lee, Starbuck, Gaeta, Dee or Helo. Could it then be someone who we thought was dead, or are they already on Earth and we've never met them before?
• Of course Tori would be the first of the Four to "join her people"!
• I loved the use of the "All Along the Watchtower" theme again to bring Tigh, Tyrol and Anders together to Starbuck's viper, and then the complete lack of music as Tigh reveals to Adama that he's one of the Five! He has finally embraced it, and no longer seems scared. I wonder, however, how they are going to explain away the fact that Tigh has aged since Adama met him.
• Starbuck talking to Kat's picture on arrival at Earth was touching.
• Where is Caprica Six, who we previously saw in the brig? Was she the Six who was walking up behind Tigh in the final scene on Earth? Is she going to give birth?

Quote

D'Anna: "All of this has happened before..."
Lee: "But it doesn't have to happen again." 

Season 4, Episodes 7 & 8

Episode 8: Guess What's Coming to Dinner

• Nice how the camera focused on Six as Athena was counting down to the basestar and Demetrius' FTL jump.
• How did Tigh know the basestar was friendly?
• Does Laura think she's one of the Five because of her shared vision with Six and Athena?
• The resurrection hub ship looked cool!
• I wish Gaius had gone in to talk to Gaeta when he was lurking in sick bay, watching him sing.
• Athena waking up from her shared vision with Six and Laura to Hera saying "bye bye" was so creepy! Not to mention her drawings of Six!
• The ending was so epic! I'm disappointed Athena shot Natalie. Is she really dead now? I can't wait to see what happens between Laura, Gaius and the Hybrid on the rebel basestar! And the music; oh, always the music. It seemed like several themes were being united in the final scene, which seemed to reflect how these character's destinies are converging.

Quotes

Tigh: "We blow the hub, and billions of skinjobs loose their bath privileges." - How does he know they resurrect in to a bath? He's never seen it happen, has he? Maybe Athena told him, or is it latent knowledge from being one of the Five? No one else seemed to pick up on it, so I'm guessing they knew, and I've just forgotten.

Laura (to Tori): "I've been informed that you've been spotted down there enough time to be a charter member of his nymph-squad."

Episode 8: Sine Qua Non

• Zarek as President. I guess I should have seen this coming, eventually.
• Was the Hybrid's quote "the dying leader will know the truth of the Opera House" referring to Natalie rather than the President? In her final vision/projection as she was dying, she seemed to have some sort of revelation? However, Natalie and the Six in the Opera House don't seem to be the same Six at all - the one in the Opera House is probably Caprica Six, no? Is this misdirection?
• Squee for Head Ellen (or Ellen Six?)!
• The CGI of Racetrack spacewalking to the damaged rapter looked pretty fake.
• Wow, I did not see Caprica Six's pregnancy coming. Is it really Tigh's baby? Adama seems to have made his mind up about that, but couldn't it be Gaius' from the time he spent with her and D'Anna on the basestar?
• Tigh's fight with Adama seemed a bit overly macho and was kind of predictable, but Adama's comment on having to repair his model ship again was rather meta, and hilarious.
• Sharon (Athena) being back in the brig felt like old times. (Oh my, I'm already nostalgic for this show!)
• Romo talking to his imaginary cat. Hmm.
• Now Lee as President and Tigh as Commander of the Galactica. Wow.
• What a lovely manhug between Tigh and Adama.
• Husker!

Season 4, Episodes 5 & 6

Episode 5: The Road Less Traveled

• Starbuck going mad is reminiscent of Laura's religious fervour in leading the fleet.
• Leoben saying how much Kara has changed since New Caprica could be evidence for my theory that she's a clone.
• Kara only found herself able to kill Leoben on New Caprica when she knew he'd download, but now she can't bring herself to do so, as then he'll really be dead.
• Leoben sees Kara as an angel.
• I didn't find the ending (the mutiny on the Demetrius) as dramatic as I think it was supposed to be.

Quote

Tyrol: "All I now is that if there is a God, he's laughing his ass off."

Episode 6: Faith

• Sam shooting Gaeta. At least this made Kara a bit saner and realise she shouldn't risk the whole ship in going to the basestar.
• Laura trusting Tory to basically do her job. I wonder if she will take advantage of this in later episodes.
• I loved the transition between the CGI of the planet and stars to Kara's painting.
• Sam trying to interface with the basestar was such a tease! He was so close!
• I felt really sorry for the Six that killed the redshirt. I guess Natalie killing her was the only way she could think to help her, as well as regain the Colonials' trust.
• After the Centurion shot her, was the Eight's blood running in to the Hybrid's pool symbolism or foreshadowing? Of what?
• Laura crying about her mother was so touching.
• Sam reaching out to the dying Eight after Athena pulled back. Is he still afraid of what he is, or is he starting to embrace it?
• Adama's smile to Laura was so cute!

Quote

Hybrid: "Thus will it come to pass: the dying leader will know the truth of the opera house, the missing Three will give you the Five, who have come from the home of the Thirteenth. You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead them all to their end. End of line."

Thoughts

I wonder if perhaps we can make a connection now between Head Six and Kara Thrace. Leoben says that he thinks of her as an angel of God, which is just how Head Six has described herself, who also told Gaius that she was there to protect him until the end of the human race (season 2, episode 7: Home, Part 2). What the Hybrid told Kara could be taken to imply the same thing. Perhaps this new Kara who came back from the dead is in fact Head Kara, but not just for one person, but for everyone. That is to say, she truly is an angel!

Season 4, Episodes 3 & 4

Episode 3: The Ties that Bind

• Boomer and Cavil? That's kind of creepy.
• Laura's so lucky to have Adama to read to her in bed!
• The Centurions now only take orders if asked nicely!
• Could we interpret Kara's feeling that she's watching herself and not actually in her own body as evidence of her being a clone, with her consciousness having been downloaded in to it?
• Is this the beginning of a Cylon civil war?
• Cavil doesn't believe the Cylons have souls. Is he also an atheist?
• When Cally overheard the fact that Tyrol is a Cylon, whose memory/vision was that of him cutting his finger and licking the blood off? His or hers?
• So awesome how Cally heard Tyrol's voice as a machine when he came back in to their quarters!
• Tory killing Cally was kind of harsh. But, I guess she had to die because she found out about the Four.

Quote

Cally: "See, that's what I like about you, Doc. You just pretend to be a bastard."

Episode 4: Escape Velocity

• So it seems like maybe Laura's shared vision with Athena and Six was prophetic, as she had the same wig in that vision as she now has, due to having lost her hair from chemotherapy.
• Does Tory even know that she killed Cally, or has it been erased from her memory? How does everyone else think she died?
• Caprica Six as Ellen was genius! The transition shot was so seamless, I almost didn't notice it was a different actor at first, but for the voice. Is this foreshadowing Ellen as the Fifth? Or is it Head Ellen for Tigh?
• Speaking of the Final Five, how old are they? Were they ever children? Do they have parents, or are all their memories manufactured? For example, was Tory planted on the fleet after Billy died, or was she always on the fleet and had in fact lived on one of the Twelve Colonies her entire life?
• Racetrack and her co-pilot didn't die in that crash? Wow. Suspension of disbelief, I guess.
• Tyrol's daydream of Adama saying to him that Cally couldn't take being married to a Cylon was very similarly shot and staged to Tigh's daydream of shooting Adama in CIC.
• Tyrol hated Cally. That's sad.
• Caprica Six smiling as she was punching Tigh in her cell was creepy.
• Head Six moving around and lifting up Gaius like a puppet, while slightly ridiculous, may have given us some evidence of her existence in the physical world. When we saw Gaius from the guard's point of view, he was being lifted off the floor by an invisible force. No doubt this will later be viewed as a miracle by his groupies.
• The way Adama trailed off in to his own words when reading to Laura without her realising, was just lovely.

Quotes 


Gaius (to Tory): "I think I preferred it when you cried."

Tigh (to Six): "No we are not going to talk about the fragile body of Gaius fracking Baltar!"

Season 4, Episodes 1 & 2

Episode 1: He That Believeth in Me

• Does Tigh think Starbuck is a Cylon? His vision of shooting Adama was so believeable, and very reminiscent of Boomer's shooting.
• How did that raider know Sam was a Cylon? It must have programmed him with something, because as soon as it did, the Cylons retreated, like their aim for this attack was achieved.
• How does Gaius get himself in to these situations? Leader of a cult...or harem? Oh dear, Gaius.
• Hasn't Starbuck looked at her hair? Clearly she's been gone for more than a few hours, as she has a different hairstyle!
• I loved the staging for the scene in which Laura, Adama and Lee are talking about the fact that the Final Five could be on the fleet and they wouldn't even know. Tory, Tigh and Tyrol standing around them, blocking them in. Wonderful.
• I wonder if Kara's reaction to jumping further and further away from Earth is the same or the opposite reaction that Laura had at the end of season 3 when they jumped away from the Ionian nebula.
• Was Gaius really willing to die for that boy? Does he truly believe in God now?

Quotes

Tigh: "Those bastards can't programme me to help them." - This feels like foreshadowing. Also, Tigh is so much more interesting to me now that he knows he's a Cylon.

Lee: "Dad, what is Zack had come back to us in that viper? If my brother had climbed out of that cockpit? Would it matter if he were a Cylon? If he always had been? When all said and done, would that change how we really feel about him?"

Kara: "You are a better person than I am, Sam, because if I found out that you were a Cylon, I would put a bullet between your eyes."

Episode 2: Six of One

• Laura really looked scared at gunpoint. I don't think we've ever seen her scared like that before.
• Starbuck does seem like the product of some kind of brainwashing or conditioning. She is really determined to find Earth. Her destiny?
• The new Six we are introduced to on the basestar looks a lot more like Gina (from the Pegasus) than any of the other Sixes (it's the hair).
• The fact that Boomer's vote against the rest of the Eights sways the vote in favour of reconfiguring the raiders means there must be equal numbers of each of the seven models.
• Gaius sees Head Gaius! This blew my mind. And I loved the interaction between them.
• The whole scene between drunk Adama and Laura was just wonderful. I wanted to quote the whole thing! Seeing her cry at the end of it as she pulled out some of her hair just broke my heart.
• I'm so glad Lee and Kara kissed, instead of just leaving on a handshake. I think they're going to end up together, though.
• We hadn't really seen much of Dee in a while before this episode. Seems like she and Lee are no longer married. I wish she'd ended up with Billy.
• On the basestar, how would the Six's threat of having Centurions shoot Cavil, the Fours and Fives be persuasive? They'd all just download, surely?
• Does Tory really always cry during sex, or was she just disgusted by Gaius, or at herself for being a Cylon?

Quote

Cavil: "There's millions of Twos have that nose, millions of Sixes possess that mouth, Eights share those breasts and Ones have this brain." - Millions? Wow!

Head Characters

I wanted to talk here a little about the Head character's we've seen, and what this could all mean. Right back in season 1, Head Six tells Gaius that maybe he sees her because she implanted a chip in his brain, and given the lack of a better explanation, I took this to be the case. But then, back in season 2's "Downloaded", we see that Caprica Six sees Head Gaius. Woah. How's that possible?

Now we discover that Gaius also sees Head Gaius, which, if we assume the Head Gaius Caprica Six sees and the one Gaius himself sees are the same, then it would seem that these Head characters are independent of the people seeing them. Now, we could also consider the Leoben that Kara saw in season 3's "Maelstrom" to be a Head character, since he stated that he never claimed to be Leoben.

Are these Head characters angels, as Head Six claimed to be for Gaius? As far as we know, the people they represent don't seem to have any memory of the interactions with the people who see them, so it would also seem that they are independent from the people they represent. So why are they choosing to take these particular forms for certain people? I really hope we get to see more Head characters, and that give us some clues as to who they really are and why those who see them, do. So many questions!

Razor (plus "Razor Flashback" webisodes)

Razor Flashback webisodes

• I enjoyed how the actor playing Adama took on the mannerisms, voice quality and all. Very nice job.
• Interesting to see old Cylon models, and to see what they see.
• How convenient this planet that Adama parachuted down to has a breathable atmosphere.
• "All of this has happened before, and will happen again." I didn't recognise that voice. Whose was it?
• If there's one thing we should all have learnt from television it is that you do not put your hand in a bath of opaque orange water in a room full of pieces of human bodies. You should know better, Bill.
• Was that guy in the room who Husker was trying to get out Leoben? Or is it the actual human that Two was based on? And if so, is that how Adama figured out Leoben on Ragnor station in the Miniseries was a skinjob? Also, could this mean that this is the person Kara was being lead by through her memories with her mother in Maelstrom?

Razor

• Hooray for more Starbuck!
• Flashbacks within flashbacks. At first I thought this would get confusing, but surprisingly, no.
• Gina's surname meaning "resurrection" was interesting, though a little uncreative of the Cylons.
• Why is Cain such a bitch to Shaw, and why is it funny?
• Gina awkwardly joining in with the chant of "so say we all".
• Gina and Cain as lovers was interesting, but it made me realise how this show seems to have no problem presenting lesbian relationships (or at least implied ones, for example between Three and Six with Gaius), but there haven't been any gay ones yet. Unfortunately, this seems to be  a common discrepancy on television (c.f. Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
• Cain killing her XO was just the first of many unbelievable things she did. Does she have a licence for that or something?
• It was kind of sloppy of the Cylons to send a Six with the Pegasus boarding party. They must have realised that would increase the chance of Gina's cover being blown. Perhaps they intended that, as a punishment, or they knew it would happen eventually and were treating her as despensible.
• Which Eight is it that we meet on Pegasus, chained up giving information to Adama and the President? I can't keep up with all the Sharons!
• The man in Adama's flashback is definitely Leoben, or at least the man Leoben is based on.
• I found it very distrubing watching Cain give the order for Gina's interrogation.
• I can't believe Cain gave the order to shoot the families of those who refused to come aboard the Pegasus from the civilian fleet. Worse, however, was that Fisk and Shaw actually carried them out.
• So, we discover, that voice in Adama's flashbacks was in fact the First Hybrid, who unlike the other Hybrid, is able to carry out a coherent conversation. I am inclined to wonder if this Hybrid is in fact the man that Adama tried to save from the Cylon lab, the one upon whom Leoben was based. If he had been taken at that time and made in to a Hybrid but still aged naturally, he would probably look like that 40 years later. This might also explain his knoweldge of Kara being the bringer of the apocolypse. Maybe?
• Could we see Kara being the bringer of the apocolypse as evidence of her being a Cylon? Perhaps, but I think she's possibly even more important. I think she's the daughter of either the Cylon Leoben or the First Hybrid (who may be the same person, essentially, if you follow my previous theory).

Quotes

Adama: "Didn't think it possible, you could find an XO meaner than Saul Tigh."

Gina: "No one can survive entirely on heir own. Trust me, Lieutenant, in the end, we're all just human."

Husker: "This cocksucker's mine!"

Season 3, Episode 19 & 20

Episode 19: Crossroads, Part 1

• Six really is very angel like, at least she appears to be in Laura's "dream".
• Lampkin's rant was unexpectedly brilliant.
• Adama referring to Caprica Six as "it".
• I heart Head-Gaius so much.
• It was very brave of Caprica Six to talk to Tigh in the way she did and to hit him back. Was she hoping he would order her to be shot, so she'd download to a baseship?
• It makes me sad to see Adama so angry at Lee. I can deal with the reverse, but this just brakes my heart.
• Lee looks hot in a suit.
• Laura has cancer again. Oh dear. I guess at least now she can take on her role of dying leader again.
• Why is Tory being so touchy about the President revealing her use of chamala?
• I expected a cliff hanger ending, so this disappointed. I guess really this and the next episode are meant to be watched as one.

Quotes

Adama: "You're my oldest friend, Saul. You never embarrass me." This is especially touching after seeing the end of the next episode.

Laura (to Tory): "Pull it together and focus on your job fast. Or I can find someone who can handle the press as well as pull a comb through their hair once a week."

Helo: "Weather's changing, Felix. We need to be ready for it. There's a storm coming." Foreshadowy, much?

Episode 20: Crossroads, Part 2

• I still totally ship Laura and Bill, but I'm starting to judge them for working together to take down Gaius.
• Sam and Tory. Really?
• Laura looks pretty glamorous in her shared dream sequence. This, and the fact that she's sharing this dream with two Cylons (therefore, possibly "projecting") could be seen as evidence for her being the final Cylon. This seems unlikely, however, as when she had cancer the first time, she was cured by the blood of a half Cylon child.
• Gaeta really disappointed me not standing up for Gaius. Bad show, Felix. Bad show.
• Lee sticking up for Gaius, however, was unexpected and his speech, recounting basically the whole history of the show so far, was awesome!
• I would have liked to see the defense call Caprica Six as a witness. No doubt, that wouldn't have been allowed, though.
• All the lights go out, but not in Six's cell. Hmm.
• The last 10 minutes of this episode were what I had been waiting for for the whole 2 episodes.
• So we now know that Tory, Sam, Tigh and Tyrol are four of the Final Five. (Unfortunately, I know who the fifth is, but really wish I didn't). I was kind of hoping at least one of them would be revealed in this episode, but was a little disappointed we discovered all these four at once, because now there's very little suspense left regarding who's a Cylon for me. However, we still don't know who Number Seven is. But then this means there are in fact 13 models, not 12!
• That look between Tigh and Tory as they reported to their seniors was really touching.
• Starbuck is back! Or is she? She seemed rather more sane than usual. Could she just be in Lee's head (i.e. Head Starbuck)? When she said "Hi Lee", it didn't seem to be coming through his comm; it was like she was sitting right next to him.

Quotes

Gaius: "The whole fleet knows this man tried to stab me through the neck and you missed! Butterfingers!"

Lampkin: "As much as I hate to use a cat metaphor, Doctor. I think you'll land on your feet."

Adama: "Not guilty. It's not the same as innocent."

Roll on season 4!

Season 3, Episodes 17 & 18

Episode 17: Maelstrom

• Kara having a sex dream about Leoben was weird but kind of hot. The way her mandala on the wall came back through the white paint as they were lying on the floor was pretty cool.
• Why was the psychic woman crying when she was repeating to Kara what Leoben had said to her? Was she foreseeing Kara's death?
• Kara wanting her photo next to Kat's on the wall was really touching, but I should have known this was foreshadowing. It didn't occur to me that way until the end of the episode.
• Is she really happy for Lee and Dee?
• In Kara's apartment, we see the words "every delicious sip", among others, painted on the wall next to the mandala. This is something we heard the Hybrid say in a previous episode when Gaius was still on the Cylon baseship. Interesting.
• How was Leoben (or not Leoben) showing Kara her past and what could have happened if she had gone back to see her mother?
• All through this episode, I was thinking she can't be a Cylon because she had a mother and all these memories of growing up with her, but then she died and I just couldn't believe it. I don't believe they'd do a whole season of this show without Kara Thrace, and we have no evidence to suggest that anyone else that she knew also knew her mother, or her as she was growing up, so all her memories could be part of her programming. I believe she is one of the Final Five. OMG!
• Adama's crying and taking out his anger on the model ship just slayed me. Also, I later read, that this was improvised by the actor, and the model was in fact a very expensive museum piece!

Quote

Kara: "The only destiny I have is as a world class frak up."

Episode 18: The Son Also Rises

• Seeing Adama look over Kara's file broke my heart. Her birthday card to him was so bittersweet.
• It took me as long as Lee to notice him calling Racetrack "Starbuck". It just seemed so normal for him to be telling Starbuck off.
• Gaius' lawyer: it's Badger, but with an Irish accent and a cat!
• Is that pen that Gaius keeps in his pants the one Gaeta stabbed him with?
• How does Caprica Six manage to still look good after Gods know how many weeks in the brig?
• Six smelling the pen Gaius keeps in his pants!
• Beyond sad seeing Lee and Sam with Kara's photo on the wall, just where she wanted it.

Quotes

Racetrack (of Gaius' first lawyer): "If he takes his shoes off in my raptor again, I might have to kill him."

Laura: "I feel like part of our world just fell down." (After Caprica Six says her love hurts as much as Lampkin's. This really says a lot about Laura's feeling towards the Cylons.)

Lampkin: "I have a calling. So the ringing in my ears tell me."

Season 3, Episodes 15 & 16

Episode 15: A Day in the Life

• Is Adama "projecting" these memories of his wife like a Cylon? I'm suspecting everyone (except Gaius) of being a Cylon these days.
• Laura going for a work out!
• How did they get that photo of Adama so young? Did they photoshop his wife in to a real picture of the actor or take the picture then photoshop him to make him look younger? Either way, he looked really handsome young.
• Adama doesn't like talking about hypothetical situations.
• I ship Bill and Laura so hard right now.

Quote

Lee: "A kick in the butt is worth a thousand words."

Episode 16: Dirty Hands

• Aerilonians speak with a Yorkshire accent, apparently, and Gaius was really brought up as a farmer. I loved the way he switched in to his "native" accent when speaking about Aerilon. Very nice acting.
• Tyrol telling Starbuck to "be nice"!

Quote

Adama (to Laura): "You're always welcome in one of my beds. In a manner of speaking."

I was a little disappointed with these two episodes. They were not what I was hoping for after the previous two. I guess the action I'm anticipating with Gaius' trail etc. is being put off till the season finale.

Season 3, Episodes 13 & 14

Episode 13: Take a Break from All Your Worries

• Gaius' dream of being a Cylon was completely incredulous to me. I do not believe he is one of the Final Five.
• Laura lighting a cigarette for Gaius (so, seeing her with it in her mouth) and then entering in to a shouting match with him seemed somewhat out of character for her.
• Kara and Lee are destined to be together, apparently.
• Adama as a disembodied voice in Gaius' hallucinatons. Great!
• The B story, while necessary, was kind of distracting, especially in the way it was edited with Gaius' story.
• Wow - Gaeta stabbed Gaius in the neck with a pen.
• How is Gaius/Head Six so sure that he isn't one of the Five?

Quote

• Tyrol: "To marriage. Why we build bars." How romantic.

Episode 14: The Woman King

• Hooray for Head Gaius!
• Did Athena really say that she was going to try to bring Six some new clothes? Are the Cylons really that fashion conscious?
• Did Adama imlply that he wanted the epidemic to run its course to thin out his overpopulated ship?

Season 3, Episodes 11 & 12

Episode 11: The Eye of Jupiter

• Kara really believes in marriage.
• Hooray for Head Six being back!
• How did Athena know the Eight who boarded the Galactica was Boomer? I guess the same way Hera knew Athena was her mother in the next episode.
• Laura completely blanking Gaius was harsh, but totally understandable.
• The image of Tyrol dancing around naked with porn in his mother's prayer room makes me chuckle.
• Since when do the skin jobs call each other by their "human" names? This hasn't happened before, has it? Or do they use these names to refer to the specific models? So, Cavil, Leoben, D'Anna, Simon and Doral do not refer to all of the Ones, Twos, Threes, Fours and Fives (respectively), but to the One who bribed Ellen, the Two who held Kara captive, the Three who is in a relationship with Gaius and Six, the Four who pretended to be a doctor on Caprica and the Five who was on the Galactica in the miniseries? Or am I reading too much in to this?
• It was sad to see Three, Gaius and Six's polygamous relationship come to an end, or rather, to see their destinies diverge.
• Brilliant cliffhanger ending!

Quote

Tyrol (of algae): "Well, it's breakfast, lunch and dinner until someone finds a hot fudge planet."

Episode 12: Rapture

• They really drew out the launching of the nukes.
• Gaius believes in God now? WTF?!
• Caprica Six really gets emotional about the baby. I was surprised that she even killed Boomer so that Athena could take Hera back with her.
• Why was One with Three and Gaius in the Temple of Five?
• So much suspense with Three seeing the faces of the Final Five! I can't wait for them to be revealed (partly because I think I already know who two of them are, and I just want no longer to be in spoiler limbo!)
• I feel really bad for Dee.
• Has Caprica Six defected to the humans? Also, did she know Gaius would be on the Galactica when she got there, and if so, did knowing that influence her in going with Athena back there?
• Kara has been seeing the Eye of Jupiter since her childhood. I'm looking forward to learning what her destiny is.
• The gooey resurrection bath doesn't look as nice when it's not lit up from underneath. Gross.

Quote

Tigh: "You've seen one nova, you've seen them all."

Season 3, Episodes 9 & 10

Episode 9: Unfinished Business

• Seeing Apollo and Starbuck so hot for each other in such an aggressive way was kind of gross.
• The music that they dance to at the breaking ground party on New Caprica in flashback would be right at home in an episode of Firefly!
• Laura knows her stuff about boxing!
• Cally brought her baby to "the dance"?
• Wow - Kara is so messed up, marrying Sam right after she says she loves Lee. That woman has serious issues.
• Their fight turning in to a hug was really cute in a tragic kind of way.
• I'm undecided about whether I liked this episode or not. It was certainly very different in feel and style from a "regular" episode, but I found the whole boxing a little boring, but the flashbacks were really nice and gave us some really solid character development.

Episode 10: The Passage

• I loved the music upon Kat's return to the Galactica after losing the Carina. Is this going to be her theme?
• No eating paper due to a paper shortage. Oh dear. And Tight and Adama giggling like schoolboys!
• Three sees the Final Five - ooh!
• Coud Gaius be more self-involved thinking that being a Cylon would make him a hero?
• Gaius must be really good at doing cryptic crosswords, as evidenced by him being able to decipher the Hybrid's seemingly meaningless ramblings.
• Seeing Starbuck place Kat's picture on the wall of photos was sadder than her actual (or eventual since it's not shown on screen) death.

Quote

Gaius: "Did you know you have some dry goo in your hair? That can happen when you resurrect."

Season 3, Episodes 7 & 8

Episode 7: A Measure of Salvation

• Athena having an emotional reaction to seeing all the Cylons on the baseship and being called a traitor by another Eight.
• Gaius kissing up to both Three and Six. He's such a bumbling buffoon sometimes!
• Showing us Head Six while Gaius was being tortured was interesting. Him then saying to Caprica Six that he loved her seemed very genuine for Gaius.
• Helo & Athena are indeed married. (Apollo referred to her as "Karl's wife" and Helo himself said "I'm married to a Cylon"). That's nice.
• Does Three think Gaius loves her?
• Seeing Athena cry about the potential genocide of the Cylons broke my heart a little. (I'm starting to like her more this season.)
• Laura and Bill on first name terms always makes me happy!

Quotes (so many good ones!)

Helo: "Genocide? So that's what we're about now?"

Gaius: "I believe if God exists, our knowledge of him is imperfect. Why? Because the stories and myths we have are the product of men, the passage of time. The religion you practice is based on a theory, impossible to prove, yet you bestow it with absolutes like 'there is no such thing as coincidence'."

Laura: "You're making an assumption that posterity will define this as genocide. If they do, at least there'll be someone alive to hate us for it."

Starbuck: "Hey, let's see if we can't frak up some toasters on this joyride, people." [Classic Starbuck!]

Episode 8: Hero

• Laura deciding to put Gaius' portrait over the toilet was genius!
• Bulldog's emergence from the Cylon raider was very much like a birth. Symbolism?
• Adama's flashbacks look even more like a documentary than the rest of the show.
• Oh dear - Three, Gaius and Six in a threesome. Gross!
• Adama started the war with the Cylons? Or was he set up?
• Three is addicted to dying?
• Laura telling Adama off like he was a student who had been misbehaving! Ha!

Quote

Adama (on medals): "They give them out for anything these days. Good behaviour, attendance, playing well with others." This nicely referenced the way Laura spoke to him previously.

Season 3, Episodes 5 & 6

Episode 5: Collaborators

• They really killed Jammer? How was that helpful?
• Gaius' dream was cool! Great callback to Litmus (season 1, episode 6), with Adama saying "you wouldn't like her when she's angry".
• I'm really excited for what we're going to see of the Cylons now that Gaius is with them.
• Never thought we'd see Tom Zarek as the vice president.

Quote

Gaius: "And you need me! I probably should've started with that." 

Episode 6: Torn

• Seeing Apollo (no longer fat) and Starbuck back in the vipers was nice.
• The piano music we hear with Gaius on the Cylon base ship is new.
• Sharon gets a new callsign! It now seems as though she's been accepted by Galactica's crew.
• Gaius is a Cylon? No way. Much too obvious.
• The Cylons never talk about the other five models. Hmm.
• Tigh sounds more and more Canadian the drunker he gets.

Season 3, Episodes 3 & 4

Episode 3: Exodus, Part 1

• Tyrol is beardless again!
• The idea of Tigh and Ellen stepping up as foster parents for Cally and Tyrol's baby took me by surprise. Are they God parents or something?
• Galactica = home.
• Why does Number Three sleep on Colonial One?
• Gaius reporting that Number Five told him that toilet paper was the way to win the Humans' trust!
• I really hate this story line with Kara and Casey. I find it to offensive that Kara would change so much. The way she's acting just seems completely out of character. Not all women like or want children, and I feel that this idea is what they're playing on here. Perhaps it's all a trick.
• The Adama family theme chokes me up.
• Three is so creepy.
• Listening to Number One explain how he kill himself so he coulee download made me feel queasy.
• Loved the hint of Sharon's theme at Three spotting baby Hera.
• How did Three recognise Galactica Sharon?
• I was so proud of Sharon for not letting Three persuade her!
• Adama's speech at the end was cheesy, but also kind of awesome!

Quote

Crazy lady: "Wish I had some chocolate caramel." Such good timing with this line right after she conveyed her message from God to Number Three!

Episode 4: Exodus, Part 2

• Tigh actually killed Ellen. Wow.
• Galactica's entrance and exit were amazing. Inter-atmosphere jump = awesome!
• Just when I thought the Galactica was going to be destroyed, the Pegasus arrived, and I was blown away, despite it being kind of predictable since they would never kill of Adama.
• The Pegasus going down and wiping out two base stars!
• Leoben asking Kara to say she loved him was beyond creepy and right in to psychotic. And the kissing, oh god - I was so relieved when she finally stabbed him and made it stop!
• I'm glad we got another glimpse of Head Six. I was starting to wonder if she'd vanished now that Gaius and Caprica Six have been reunited.
• I was so glad Casey wasn't really Kara's daughter in the end. And my prediction about her being a trick was right.
• The scene in which Adama goes directly from realising that his best friend has lost his wife to having his name cheered was kind of heart-breaking.
• It was nice to see Tori finally show some emotion.
• The ending felt like it was season 1 all over again, with Adama moustache-less and all!

Quote

Dee: "We have to survive. We have to find Earth. If we don't, there'll be no one to remember a man named William or a Battlestar named Galactica."

Season 3, Episodes 1 & 2 (plus "The Resistance" webisodes)

Hooray for season 3! But before that, I almost forgot about "The Resistance" webisodes, so I sat down and watched them all in 25 minutes. I liked how they focused on minor characters, most of whom we hadn't seen for a long time. Before I dive in to the first two episodes of season 3, here's what I have to say about the total 10 webisodes:

• Tigh: "We need more people or this resistance movement is going to die in its crib." (In the presence of Cally and Tyrol's baby, no less)
  Celery is not worth dieing for, Nora.
• Number Five's position on peace was interesting.
• Tyrol referred to Sharon as "Boomer" (she told him that Jammer was in the detention centre and that he would be let out). We haven't heard her called by her call-sign for a long time.
• New Caprica looks fracking depressing.

Episode 1: Occupation

• The opening music was awesome.
• Death by chopsticks! (Followed by Kara managing to eat straight after killing Leoben - gross.)
• Number Three calling Caprica-Six simply "Caprica".
• Lee looks kind of ridiculous in that fat suit.
• Sam and Kara have matching tattoos
• Adama and Sharon as BFF!
• I'm glad I watched the webisodes before starting this season, so as to properly understand Duck's part in the story.
• What an ending!

Quote
 
Adama: "I don't do guilt."

Episode 2: Precipice

• The buzzing of the light in Laura's cell at the detention centre was almost unbearable.
• It made my stomach turn when Leoben brought in Casey. So wrong.
• I love the development of Adama and Sharon's relationship, and how much he trusts her.
• Laura slapping Tigh!
• Did Leoben orchestrate the accident with Casey so as to make Kara fall in to his trap? I found it kind of offensive that she suddenly cared about Casey after that.
• Number One describing the other Cylons asking Gaius to sign the death warrant as them "covering their existential asses".
• I thought the Cylons respected life? Number Five shooting Six when she said that forcing Gaius to sign the death warrant was crazy, was pretty crazy.
• Sharon being made an officer on the Galactica. It was nice to see her in uniform again - it felt right. Also, are she and Helo now married, since she has the same surname (Agathon) as him?
• Poor Ellen whoring herself out to Number One. I didn't think I would've been able to feel sorry for her.
• Tom wishing that Laura had gone through with stealing the election a year ago!

Quote
 
Tigh: "Which side are we on? We're on the side of the demons, Chief. We're evil men in the garden of paradise, sent by the forces of death to spread devastation and destruction wherever we go. Surprised you didn't know that."

Final 18 minutes on Season 2, Episode 20 & Thoughts on Season 2

As I said last week, I decided to write my thoughts on the final 18 minutes of Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2 separately from the rest of the episode, as it feels almost like an entirely separate episode, and is much closer in style to (I imagine, since it is probably setting things up for) season 3.

Final 18 minutes of Season 2, Episode 20: Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• Of course Gaius would have a self-portrait in his presidential office.
• Adama with a moustache, and smoking without filters.
• Kara with long hair. And married!
• Kara and Tigh hugging.
• Laura as a teacher! (I wish I had students who were as enthusiastic about homework as hers.)
• Apollo looks a lot more than a year older.
• The skinjobs are always so well dressed.

Quote

• Head-Six: "Judgement day."

Thoughts on Season 2

On the whole, I didn't think season 2 was as strong as season 1, but I did enjoy where it took the story and how much character development there was. My two favourite episodes were Final Cut (episode 8) for being in such a different style from the others and Downloaded (episode 18) for the insight in to the Cylon psyche, and Caprica-Six in particular. On the other side, however, was Black Market (episode 14) which just felt completely out of place, seemed to bear no relation to the rest of the story being told and introduced too many new characters who turned out to be completely inconsequential (at least so far - I'm hoping Siobhan and her child don't return).

The characters who I'm most enjoying remain the same as at the end of season 1 (Gaius, Kara and Laura), but the character I most miss is certainly Billy. I hate them for killing him off. Six is by far my favourite Cylon; I just can't get enough of Gaius and Head-Six's interactions, though now with Caprica-Six reunited with Gaius, things should get really interesting.  I'm starting to find Sharon a little annoying, but I still enjoy and understand the necessity for her role in the story. I hope her presence really pays off in season 3.

Probably my absolute favourite thing about this show at this point is the suspense of not knowing who all the Cylon models are. We are now aware of 7 of the 12, which means we've only had 2 new ones revealed since season 1 (Three and One). Unfortunately, I think I've been spoiled on one other, so I hope that one will be revealed soon, though I somehow doubt it. Watching this show a few years after it being aired means that whenever I need to look up something about an episode (like the title, the name/spelling of a character or location or the name of an actor) I run the risk of being spoiled on something, and this is what happened for this Cylon model; I got too excited in Wikipedia and clicked through one too many links!

At roughly half way through this show, I'm happy to say that I love it and am really intrigued to see where it goes from here. See you in season 3.

Thanks for reading!

Season 2, Episodes 19 & 20

Episode 19:  Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 1

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• Laura's mania before the debate, followed by her adopting Adama's father's ritual of breaking pencils, then the giggles! So cute!
• Gaius trying to insult Laura before the debate began while trying to appear to be joking with her.
• Tom Zarek, sexy? Really, Six?
• The reunion of Kara and Sam (Anders) made me realise that I'm starting to prefer them together over her and Lee.
• The ending seemed like it was trying to be a cliffhanger, but didn't quite succeed.

Quote

• Cavil: "Do you know how useless prayer is? Chanting and singing and mucking about with old half-remembered lines of bad poetry. And do you know what it gets you? Exactly nothing."

Episode 20: Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• Having a "previously on Battlestar Galactica" at the beginning but no teaser before the credits was interesting. Building hype for the finale, I guess.
• Sam didn't seem at all confused about Sharon helping the Galactica crew, and he didn't even get an explanation. I guess Kara told him about it off-screen.
• I just LOVED the reveal of Cavil as a Cylon, though it seemed odd that none of the crew on Caprica was surprised to see him there. Also, Sharon not saying anything, nor even giving a reason for not doing so, was interesting.
• No harm done, eh?

 Question

• Why doesn't Gina wear a bra? Or any version of Six, apparently.

Quote

• Gaius: "I don't have to listen, I'm the President." - this was a nice contrast to Laura's idea borrowed from Adar of not having to explain oneself as President.

I'm going to leave the final 18 minutes of the season 2 finale for a separate post, coming next week, which will also cover my thoughts of season 2 as a whole. Thanks for reading, and see you then!

Season 2, Episodes 17 & 18

Episode 17: The Captain's Hand

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• Dee's hair is nice. I see why Billy said so in "Water" (season 1, episode 2).
• Laura looking at the framed picture of herself and Billy. Still can't believe they killed him off. Boo!
• The whole abortion issue was fascinating. I am pro-choice on this matter, but I was at first surprised that anyone would consider abortion in face of the extinction of the human race, then surprised again that Laura wasn't against it for that very reason, and that it was Adama who pointed out that "that number" doesn't go up very often. And then she made it illegal - WOW!
• As Admiral Adama gave Lee command of the Pegasus, we hear that music again that we heard in "Hand of God" (season 1, episode 10) and "Home, Part 1" (season 2, episode 6). I guess this is their theme.
• Gaius speaking out against Laura and then stepping up as a candidate for Presidency!

Quotes

• Laura: "You have your pound of flesh and I suggest you take your victory and you move on." - A reference to Shylock from Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice"?
• Kara: "You should hear the way my brain works sometimes!"

Episode 18: Downloaded

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• I thought this episode was in general, amazing, as it felt like it was exactly what I wanted to see at this point in the show, but hadn't realised it.
• The "previously on Battlestar Galactica" clip at the very beginning was actually quite awesome. I'm not usually a big fan of these, but it was very helpful, especially in reminding us how many Cylon models have been revealed (which is 6 of the 12; Numbers Two [Leoben], Three [D'Anna], Four [Simon], Five [Doral], Six and Eight [Sharon]).
• I just LOVED the reveal of Gaius being in Caprica-Six's head, and being introduced with the same music she is when in his head! That whole opening scene was just perfect - Six's apparent guilt at her successful mission of disabling the Colonial defenses was surprising and almost exactly mirrored Gaius'.
• Number Three as a mother figure was creepy.
• Anders uses the term "skinjob" to refer to the human-model Cylons; I think this is the first time we hear this.
• The reversal of Six and Gaius' roles was so amazing. He was doing for her almost exactly what Head-Six does for him; I couldn't get enough of it!
• The car under which Anders was trapped had the number plate "Sexy Mom". Hmm.

Questions

• Is the apparent existence of a Head-Gaius evidence that there is some kind of physical link between him and Caprica-Six, and that they are therefor not simply figments of their imaginations, or is it just evidence of their love for each other? Or of nothing? It's kind of confusing.
• Why did Sharon stop Anders shooting Three? She didn't seem too bothered when Six killed her instead.

Quote

• Head-Gaius speaking cryptically: "Life is short, but the next one's not. Let your heart adrift and your soul will get caught. [...] Believe the lies, ignore the truth, listen to me, I will show you the proof. Speak from your heart, say the things that you know to be true."

Season 2, Episodes 15 & 16

Episode 15: Scar

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• Starbuck drunk is not pretty.
• I'm glad the issue of replacing the lost vipers was addressed.
• I found the formula of a series of flashes to the space battle before each act a little more effective than the single flash at the beginning of the episode before we're told what happened "48 hours earlier".
• Helo and Starbuck's fake wrestling was cute.

Question

• Did Starbuck really think Anders had no chance at all of surviving on Caprica? That wasn't the impression I got after she left him there.

Quotes

• Lee: "Bright shiny futures are overrated anyway."
• Kara: "Ever since I got back, you have been on my ass like a bad rash!"

Episode 16: Sacrifice

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• This episode was really intense, which was welcome after a few week episodes to which I had been somewhat indifferent.
• I didn't believe Adama when he says he would shoot Sharon.
• Billy's proposal to Dee was completely out of the blue.
• As soon as Lee was shot, I thought it would be his death that the episode title referred to. I had no idea it would be Billy instead.
• I loved Sharon's admission to Adama that she wouldn't reveal who the other Cylon agents in the fleet were. (I'm really enjoying the suspense of not knowing who they are!)
• It was quite clear that Adama would use the body of the Sharon that was shot by Cally to assuage the terrorists.
• When Billy took the gun from the guy who Sesha had ordered to kill Dee, in my head I had the chorus line to the song "Billy, Don't Be A Hero" by Paper Lace.
• I can't believe they killed off Billy. I both love and hate TV shows for doing this.

Questions

• Are unisex toilets the norm in this universe?
• What was Starbuck doing on Cloud 9? She looked like she was dressed up for something special.

Season 2, Episodes 13 & 14

Episode 13: Epiphanies

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• Flashback! (as indicated by a different hairstyle!)
• We finally get to meet President Adar and hear the line that he told Laura that she quoted in Flesh and Bone (S1E8).
• I had forgotten that Gaius would become President if Laura died!
• Laura and Adar as lovers!
• Cylon blood is the cure for cancer!
• Gaius giving the Cylon sympathisers a nuclear warhead. He is insane.
• Laura knows Gaius was in cahoots with the Cylons on Caprica! Squee!

Questions

• Is Adama turning in to a military dictator?
• Why does Gina (Six) need to wear glasses?
• Does Laura's past relationship with President Adar have anything to do with her having become President of the Colonies after the Cylon attack? Too obvious?

Episode 14: Black Market

Thoughts/Questions

• This episode kind of bored me. I was not as gripped as usual.
• Why the "48 hours earlier" again? This is starting to feel repetitive, unnecessary and overused.
• The whole thing with Lee and Siobhan was confusing. Was the girl Lee's daughter?
• Were Fisk and Ellen having an affair? (because of her bracelet in his quarters.)

Season 2, Episodes 11 & 12

Episode 11: Resurrection Ship, Part 1

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• The close up of the Cylon bodies inside the resurrection ship just before cutting to the credits made me jump -- and make the title make sense.
• Adama speaking up against Laura's prediction that the Pegasus would win a fight between the two Battlestars. ("I wouldn't count on that.")
• Adama apologising to Sharon for "the attack".
• Six misses sports! (I enjoyed how this was referred back to in the next episode.)

Questions

• Why didn't the guards rush in to the cell and shoot the Six model on the Pegasus whe she started strangling Gaius?
• Did she (Gina) want to die so badly that she was willing to compromise the Cylon's plan by helping the humans destroy the resurrection ship?

Quote

• Tigh (of Starbuck): "Another one of her crazy ass stunts. Thank the Gods!"

Episode 12: Resurrection Ship, Part 2

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• I loved how Sharon answered Adama's question about why the Cylons hated them so much by referencing something he said himself, and so far back as in the Miniseries, no less.
• So often in this show there's a space battle going on, with all the amazing special effects (and they really are quite impressive), but it's not the main or only focus of the story -- there are always personal battles between characters going on at the same time.
• I enjoyed the imagery of Lee drowing in water as a simile for what he was feeling in his leaking space suit, but given the ending, the "48 hours earlier" bit at the beginning was rather pointless.
• How very neat that Cain died and Galactica's problem of being under her command went away, despite what Starbuck said.
• I'm so happy for Laura and Bill! Also; note how right I was about predicting their relationship! However, this was their first on screen kiss, but they weren't acting like it was their first kiss ever, especially doing it in front of Billy.

Question

• Why was Dee eavesdropping on Lee and Kara? Is she a Cylon?

Quote

• Sharon: "Where do we go from here?" (Whedon fans: you know why I picked this one.)

Season 2, Episodes 9 & 10

Episode 9: Flight of the Phoenix

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• Practicing in the shooting range with a picture of Sharon printed on the target was harsh.
• Apollo and Dee? Really?
• Tigh loves the "being caught with pants down" metaphors!
• Gaeta addressing Sharon by name.
• Watching Sharon cut her hand open and sticking the tube in it was so gross.
• It was touching to see how Sharon and Adama exchanged grateful looks after she had sent the virus over to the Cylon fleet, but then hearing him say "take this thing back to its cell" dampened that feeling somewhat.
• Naming the Blackbird "Laura" made me cry. Also, I really thought she was going to smash the bottle of champagne on it!
• I was so glad Tyrol picked up the phone to talk to Sharon.

Question

• Does Adama trust Sharon now?

Episode 10: Pegasus 


Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• The music in the opening scene felt rather like the opening to an 80s power ballard.
• Star Trek taught me that Admirals don't command ships, so I was surprised to see Cain in command.
• Six's reaction to seeing her own model locked up on the Pegasus was so perfect, and so human.
• Gaius talking to the Six model, telling her about how he was in love with the Six he met on Caprica, and finally watching the imprisoned Six move to eat the food left for her was really very touching.
• Rape (while pregnant, no less) as a form of interrogation? Wrong, much?
• The 12 Colonies enforce capital punishment? Really?

Season 2, Episodes 7 & 8

Episode 7: Home, Part 2

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• Sharon surrendering (by stopping struggling) when Adama tried to strangle her.
• The President and Commander calling each other by their first names. Couple, much?!
• The part where they were transported (?) to Earth from the tomb of Athena felt very Stargate to me - using constellations to locate a planet. Nice.
• Six is an angel sent to protect Gaius. "To what end?" "To the end of the Human race." Awesome!

Questions

• Was Adama lying to Billy about Laura having told him that he reminded her of President Adar and that he'd be president one day?
• How did they get back from (simulated?) Earth to Kobol? Should I just suspend my disbelief?

Quotes

• Six: "wake up and smell the psychosis already!"
• Doctor: "Fricking hypocondriacs. One of every bloody ship."

Episode 8: Final Cut

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• Even TV screen images have the corners cut off.
• The set up of the episode seemed kind of clumsy and out of nowhere. However, I guess it feeling unrelated made sense as we were supposed to be seeing the crew of the Galactica from an outsider's point of view.
• Gaeta smokes, but hates cigarettes. Also, he has a tattoo!
• It was kind of obvious D'Anna had kept the real tape that captured Sharon when Adama asked to have it.
• Dee has daddy issues.
• It was interesting to witness a Cylon space battle from inside rather than outside the Galactica. I guess it was also cheaper to film.
• Nice reveal of who had threatened Tigh by having Diana notice the book of poetry in her video.
• D'Anna being a Cylon was obvious as soon as we cut to the scene on Caprica with the four models watching the video and saw just the backs of their heads. I love when we discover new models!

Season 2, Episodes 5 & 6

Episode 5: The Farm

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• Starbuck in bed with Anders: what about Lee?
• Laura not knowing how to use a tape recorder.
• I felt that the hospital where Starbuck was being held was a Cylon trap immediately, but thought that would be too obvious. Nice double-bluff.
• Commander Adama crying over Sharon's body, despite (or perhaps because of) the memory of her shooting him.
• All the Cylons need is love!

Questions

• Why should the resistance guys have believed that Starbuck and Helo weren't Cylons?
• Is Starbuck now pregnant?
• Where did Caprica Sharon get the Cylon ship?

Quote

• Tom Zarek: "Zeus has returned to Olympos."
  

Episode 6: Home, Part 1

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• Surprising but pleasantly reassuring kiss between Lee and Starbuck.
• Commander Adama talking like his son is dead.
• Great transition shot from Adama and Tigh coming out of the press conference to Gaius smoking in his lab with Six.
• Dee is awesome.
• The final scene featured the same music as the final scene of season 1's "Hand of God" (episode 10), I think.

Quote

• Gaius: "Why is it when things go wrong, they go wrong so well?"