GALACTICA

Not that much action in this episode, but a few revelations are introduced that really have strong ramifications for future plotlines. This ep pushed some buttons for me, so I have a long post this time.

As with Festivus, we begin with the airing of grievances: way too many "sympathetic" Cylon now. We've now got Caprica Six, Lone Gunman Sharon, Displaced Momma Sharon and Abu Gharaib Six. Soon we'll need a diagram to map out who's doing what to who. Producers, some gratuitous deaths, please (as if there wasn't enough this season).

Clearly, CLEARLY Roslyn is an up-and-coming dictator. How the President of the Colonies, in collusion with the Fleet Admiral, can lawfully claim they have a right to determine the disposition of this baby is beyond me. As I recall, Bill Adama repealed the martial law that Tighe imposed during his leadership meltdown. The President's legal executive authority over the handling of a military prisoner/enemy combatant is dubious, to say less of authority over an unborn half-child (remember, in Galactica-world there is no equivalent to the US President being commander in chief of the armed forces). I guess what upset me most was the barbarity of their decision-making: Momma Sharon saved Bill Adama from a human-conspired assassination back at the Caprica ruins, her baby's cancer-eradicating blood and Baltar's intervention saved Roslyn -- and the thanks Momma Sharon gets is Roslyn's direct order to the chief medical officer, "tell her the baby's dead but we're actually going to give it to somebody else."

I really think Roslyn is going to emerge as a darker character now; I saw a very cruel, calculating Roslyn in this ep and I just knew I wasn't going to like her at all anymore. She used to be a more compassionate figure, the low-ranking Cabinet secretary who found herself thrust into a principal leadership role, forced to make tough calls. That Roslyn is surely gone; the tough calls don't even make her flinch anymore.

The killing off of Billy is much more significant now, too, since Billy would have tried to keep Roslyn grounded to some sense of true humanity; he represented whatever was left of Roslyn's innocence and idealism, and it clearly died when he died. Roslyn's new aide, I don't think we know her name yet, but she is clearly a bad influence on an already bad Roslyn: unquestioning loyalty, manipulative politicking, brass-tacks sensibility, she is going to be Roslyn's personal heat-seeking missile. The new aide bodes ill for Galactica, trust me.

An interesting question considering the previews of the upcoming 2-part season finale: has there ever been some plan to try to find Earth this season? The peacenik's rant about Galactica's "attack and retreat" strategy is dead-on. Bill Adama claimed to know the location of Earth (generally) in the pilot. Did they just stop looking, or are they zigzagging to it, figuring that a beeline to it would visit Cylon horror upon the Pale Blue Dot? What's the grand game plan here?

Saying all this, can't wait for the season finale, and for next season.
 

The Cylon's have to have a bigger and more complex plan than what appears. The Sharon on the Galactica is not as good as she has made herself out to be. It is all a manipulation. I do not buy this crap that she has saved the Galactica on several occasions. I think the Cylon's knew that Sharon would help in the "Flight of the Phoenix." It would give the impression that she is with them. At the time it was OK, because still having the Resurrection Ship, all the Cylon attackers could be "killed" by the humans at no real loss. The Cylon's knew that Sharon was still alive and pregnant. They would not put her in real danger. I think that Sharon will now start to show her true nature with no baby. Do not forget that she was not willing to identify to Adama the other Cylon operatives still in the fleet. The Cylon's wanted the humans to trust her. With the hiding of the baby, Adama will back off on his trust of Sharon.

The wrench in the Cylon plan is the Caprica Six and Sharon. It will be interesting to see where they go with it.
 

As far as I can tell, the goal of the Cylons is still to eradicate humanity (except maybe keep a few as prisoners in order to breed human babies for unknown reasons), however we learned that some human looking Cylons can develop free will and disagree with the Cylon plans.

As Trevor correctly points out above, one shouldn't assume the Sharon aboard the Galactica has free will and is going against the Cylon plans, although it's possible.
 

Trev, Mike, you missed my point. Certainly don't trust Momma Sharon, like let her have the run of the Fleet. And I would point out, she is still in chains and coveralls and enduring the occassional near-rape. But as Baltar said to Bill Adama and Roslyn, "that baby is half human. Can we keep that half in mind?" I guess you could argue that it was an acceptably half-humane decision to just let the kid live instead of flushing it out of an airlock. My rant wasn't about Sharon, it was how they treated the issue of her baby's birth.

However, I have to disagree with both of you on Momma Sharon: you have to give her credit for the tipping of the scale on saving Bill Adama and Roslyn in the previous eps. If the Grand Cylon Plan involved saving those two, it must be one of the worst plans ever, or so advanced in its genius it renders itself incomprehensible to us mortals. Because the killing of both Bill Adama and pre-convalescent Roslyn, at those points in the storyline, would have wrecked the morale of the Fleet and the remaining colonies.

Sure, Admiral Kane (Caine?) would be in the picture, maybe, but even then she would not have saved the day: recall that she wanted to saddle up and shoot back to Caprica guns blazing. That crash-and-burn strategy would have just ensured a wipeout of the last two battlestars in one fell swoop.

Then the remaining Colonial ships would just drift through space, using their FTL drives to stay ahead of the Cylon for as long as they could...

From a production standpoint, the writers/producers just used the old "Add a kid" formula, and now they couldn't figure out how to give it an exit, so I predict it's going to be tucked away for a season or so. We'll see the child again when it's older and the idea well runs dry, either having visions of Earth like some divining rod, or turning into some remote-control insurgent, setting fire to Vipers in the hangar bay and such.
 

Pure, watch more spy show/movies. The bad guys always have someone in deep that gains the trust of the good guys. I am not talking about a sleeper agent. Someone who knows what they are doing. Also, Sharon has no reason to "help" anymore. Remember, helping Adama and Roslyn previously kept her baby alive, not just the fleet. Time will tell. I am sure we will enjoy seeing it unravel.
 

That's true. I'm looking forward to next season, too.
 

I have Been watching these blogs for sometime. The whole second part of season 2 sounds pretty good. ( i only own up to pegasus and season 2 isn't out in Australia), however i wonder aloud whether either Roslin or her "new Billy" is a Cylon

It has been said that Roslyn has become a "darker" character, however based on her history, her political career, where she has come from, i don't think she has become a darker person, i just think that we know more about her now, more like discovering more of her history ect.

And Dr. Baltar.... well i think that number 6 is not a medical condition in his head, and although he has nothing in his head ( flight of the phoenex), number 6 says she is an ..." angel sent from God...". I am more enclined to agree with this advancement more becuase there is no evidence that number 6 can somehow transmit her image into Baltars head.

And can someone fill me in on the Promotions etc. of everyone, i heard Commander is now Admiral, so who else has been promoted, is Saul tigh now a commander?
 

On the promotions, when Admiral Kane (Caine?) got killed, only a full admiral could command two battlestars, so Adama as senior commander became Admiral Adama. As was mentioned by Michael, the blog owner, in previous updates, Pegasus went through two "cursed" commanders after Kane's death, both of whom also died. Now Lee Adama was promoted from captain, to major, to commander in a span of 3 or 4 eps. I say nepotism. In the military officer corps, you cannot receive a promotion if you just got one in the previous year. Then again, battlefield promotions abounded in World War II.

As far as Galactica Six being in Baltar's head or not, she could have still been a delusion, which does not need an organic etiology in one's brain to become operative, so Baltar's medical exam wouldn't have detected an anomaly. And I bought the delusion explanation -- until this last episode, when as Mike described, the writers got cutesy and gave Caprica Six a Baltar "angel." What to make of this is anyone's guess.
 

Remember that the Six in Baltar's head is most likely a projection of his own thoughts. It is just in the form of Six. The subconscience is more observant and remembers everything we see. We just cannot consciencely remember everything. I have been paying attention to the conversations Baltar has with Six. Really she does not give information that Baltar's subconscience could not come up with. When we reason things through our own mind, sometimes we might hear thought in the context of someone elses voice. Example: If I did something bad and my Dad had not found out yet I might play through what he would say in my head when he found out. So Baltar and Six's "angels" are really them speaking to themselves. They actually see their angel because they are going wacko. Plus, let's not forget. Having Baltar see Six is just alot more interesting and entertaining TV. For me they really do not have to explain why Baltar can see Six. It makes good TV. Not in an unbelievable way. Just better.
 

Excellent observation in regards to the Baltar and Six "visions." It does make for some damn great tv.
 

Baltar is a cylon... a cylon with a conscience and that conscience is Caprica Six... This works both ways as Baltar is the conscience of Caprica Six. It's part of the master plan. The thing the cylons couldn't replicate -- conscience and love.

Think about what Sharon said to the #3
 

After watching the last season episode - the whole "one year later" stuff, I am a bit disappointed. But I do have a few points to bring up about the possible nature of the humanoid cylons.

In an interview, the writers mentioned that the humanoid cylons are representative of human archetypes. They decided that humans essentially all exist as some form of one of these 12 "types" and formed themselves accordingly. They specifically said that the mechanicals don't count as part of the 12 models. (so if someone is easily labeled as "this or that" type of character - they may just be a cylon!)

I've also noted that the "age" of the cylons appears to show in their "number" with lower numbers being represented by older-looking cylon models.

So that leads me a couple of observations about the cylons and the humanoid bodies.

We've never learned anything about their organic technology. Exactly how long does it take to grow a cylon body?

Do they just build one lickety-split, or do they take a while to grow - as in a full lifetime? If they had accelerated aging, would that show up in a test? (though how a fiber optic cable in a forearm got past them . . . )

Ok, stay with me for a minute more. If (and it's a big IF) cylon bodies grow at normal human rates, then how's this for a theory - all the bodies of a particular "model" were seeded at the same time. So all the bodies grow simutaneously in storage - meaning there's a limited supply, while there is a more finite number of "minds" to use them.

That would explain one thing I have observed - lower model numbers look physically older than higher numbers. Sharon is an 8. Six is a, well, Six. And "Xena" is a three. etc.

It may also explain the decades long "peace." The oldest looking model we've seen so far is the "priest." Though we haven't heard his number yet, I'm betting it's 1 or 2. He has that "been around the block" jaded agnosticism. If the cylons had developed the technology to grow bodies just before the war ended, he'd be an infant during the first few years of peace.

Ok - that's a big leap of a theory, but it's the kind of background detail that can affect how characters make decisions.

I've been impressed with the background detail in the series, so I'm always looking for clues to point out the bigger picture.

So with that in mind. I think Billy is a 9 or 10 model and that he'll show back up - perhaps less sypathetic than Sharon or Caprica Six given his relationship troubles.
 

Whatever happened to Boxy?