Guess What's Coming to Dinner

Well, the down side is that my visiting friend returned home today. We had a great time, but his trip is now over. But I now did get to watch this past Friday's episode of Battlestar Galactica. And it was mostly a good one.

I was pleased to finally see us getting back around to the matter of the vision shared by Roslin, Six, and Athena -- it was really bugging me that this big deal from last season's finale had been shoved under the rug for this many episodes. How Roslin could be so down on Starbuck as a possible Cylon when she herself was sharing daydreams with them was a bit of a sore thumb in my mind.

This revisited plot thread led to a number of great moments. Hera's creepy creepy drawings of "6" were a credit to the show's art department. Athena's confrontation with the "Natalie" incarnation of Six had some nice "is she actually going to go through with it?" tension -- and she did! This will be big trouble for the fragile alliance, and possible trouble for her position on the ship too. (Though Cally got off easy for killing a Cylon "prisoner," so we'll see...)

The scene in which Roslin confronted Tory about her relationship with Baltar was great. Watching Tory wither under the president's stone cold accusation was great, and showed that Tory hasn't quite slipped totally away to "the dark side" yet.

Watching Tigh quake in his boots at the possibility of D'Anna returning to unmask him as a Cylon was kind of a one-note beat, but the note was fun anyway. Tigh has always been a character that has really made for good drama when he finds himself "tortured," and it's good to see that's no different now that we know he's a Cylon.

The thread of Gaeta losing his leg was also a strong one, but I have to say I thought they used the singing a bit overmuch. The first time we heard it, is was very powerful. The second time, when Roslin commented on it, was also effective. But the next several iterations of it lost a bit of dramatic power each time, in my opinion.

But to me, the weakest moment was in the teaser, with the blatant dramatic conceit of the Demetrius' jump engines failing just to create the false tension of the Cylon Baseship arriving in the fleet unescorted. Have jump engines ever failed to work before in the history of the show? Did anyone think for a second that the Baseship would actually be destroyed, or even fired on? It wasn't tense, it was pretense.

Still, the episode was far more good than not, and left off on the tantalizing note that the Baseship has separated from the fleet, taking Roslin and Baltar (and others) along with it. I look forward to seeing that thread continued next week.