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.