Battlestar Galactica was back tonight after a month, with a mostly good, but somewhat rushed episode. Many of the individual pieces in the episode were great, but few of them seemed to have room to breathe. In just 40 minutes, here's everything that was crammed in:
The D'Anna Cylon storyline is now apparently completely finished, with the boxing of her entire model. Compared to the slow pace at which we'd been seeing more and more of Lucy Lawless on the show this year, the complete removal of her character seems a bit jarring to me. I suppose her character did get dramatic closure, having seen the faces of the "final five." But I guess I'm feeling a bit of deja vu thinking back to Billy's exit from the show in season two, or Kat's departure earlier this season -- a recurring character gets an unusually meaty storyline in an episode that then leads to his or her death.
There was some fairly good interplay between Dualla and Starbuck, but I found myself wanting to see a little more. The Starbuck/Apollo storyline this year has been interesting, but I find myself even more drawn in when we see not just their perspectives on it, but Dualla's and Anders'.
The Helo/Sharon storyline I found most compelling of all in the episode. Sharon's "assisted suicide" in the teaser was pretty shocking to me, despite the "immortality" of the Cylons. Helo's confrontation with Adama and Roslin was great, and Athena and Boomer's confrontation was even better (with Boomer's attitude downright unsettling). But once again, I just felt like things were cut short. I wanted more of this storyline, but Helo and Sharon basically vanished for the last half of the show.
If you listen to Ron Moore's podcasts, you know that Galactica is notorious for running long after principal photography, and having to make cuts in the editing room. I suspect a lot of good material got left in the cutting room on this one. Which is not to say that what remained wasn't also good -- I just believe the loss may have affected the whole.
Either way, though, there are plenty of interesting developments for the last half of the season -- Baltar's return to the fleet, Caprica Six now being aboard the Galactica, Hera being reclaimed by her parents. It all seems like the sort of meaty material that has led to some of Galactica's best past episodes.
3 comments:
Didn't they press the big red reset button? Baltar and Boomer and Hera back aboard Galactica? Cylons are now bad guys (the only dissenter now boxed)?
I figure 3 was crazy nuts like the hybrid anyway, so small loss on the boxing there. Although I do already miss Xena.
Helo was terrific.
I agree about the reset button thing. It amazes me how they can keep stirring the pot giving lots of resolutions and major things happening while constantly introducing even more puzzles and relationships. and I see a cool pattern for the show. they don't actually have to find Earth, just keep finding clues along the path.
I think we'll see Xena again. It'll be Baltar's new purpose to escape Galactica and find ("un-box") her. she will surely be driven more insane in the box. (maybe Boomer will help?)
the coolest moment was at the end when poor Starbuck learned the cylon creep might have been right about her having a destiny. I just love when they plant seeds like that soooo far in advance. I'm going to have to go back and re-watch the scenes where they showed her apartment to see if it was there all along.. notice how her hands were all messed up so she can't paint anything new?
the mole
Xena will be back.
Because...
She's Xena.
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