Revelations Review: A Badly Cut Diamond

Still a diamond, but a massive disappoinment. If you were to take a rare and precious giant gemstone, say a 100-carat diamond, and cut it in such a way as to waste much of its mass, and create facets that are not geometric but askew and lopsided, and fail to polish it to a fine clarity you get the idea of what went terribly wrong with Battlestar Galactica's mid-season finale episode Revelations. I expected radiance and sparkle, most of all clarity at last to some of the inner secrets of this treasure. I seem to be alone with my critical review amongst the nearly universal praise the episode is receiving elsewhere, but I've detailed carefully what I see as the episode's shortcomings. Scroll down for full review

Last Cylon Ghost Visible in Last Supper Image

I think it's new. I don't think I missed it in
my previous analysis of the BSG Last Supper
image. Between Natalie/Tigh and Lee there is an area that moves much the way the now
color-matched pot of burning Kamala moves
in relation to Roslin. The Last Cylon is already in the image - it is just color-matched to the background - and it looks as if it is wearing a cloak - as seen in the Opera House visions. They will turn the image "on" when the show reveals the Last Cylon (over 9 months from now!) Go the the Sci-Fi.com/battlestar page, and after the Last Supper image loads, click on it to activate it, then scroll left and right and you can see the area that is distinct. To quote Miss Swan, "He looka like a man."

Battlestar Delayed

[revised 7.28.08] 6 months! Sci-Fi Channel, thanks a lot. The pilot for Caprica in the Fall, and only one 2-hour Galactica tv movie (to be shown after BSG concludes!?) are supposed to tide us over? At least 6 more episodes of season 4 are already in the can. Lame. Beyond lame ... Actually, kind of cruel.

Revelations - Review

[3.0 - revised]
Whoa! Thanks again Sci-Fi Channel for giving away WAY WAY WAAAAAY too much in the trailers. Sadly, very sadly, the trailers were better than the episode itself this time - they packed more drama and suspense and were more satisfying frankly and bespoke of a much more dynamic and action-packed episode. This season-cliffhanger "finale" was a partial washout. A sad sigh rather than a bang. That sinking feeling I was getting prior to air-date (which reminded me of the end of Season 2 with the jump-ahead of over a year) was well-justified.

Muted, pale, restrained, with contrived drama, this episode was bound, tortured, awkward when it should have brought light and bliss. We were sold a bill-of-goods by the trailers. After The Ties That Bind this is the most unsatisfying episode of this uneven season.

[Note to RDM/DE: the Sci-Fi/Space/Hulu trifecta of trailers are giving away the store - they are not teasers but mega-spoilers much more massive than what is speculated about in the blogosphere - the Sci-Fi execs who greenlight those adverts need to develop some restraint]



The rebel Base ship and a Colonial Raptor jump back to the Galactica and D'Anna decides to play hardball and tells Adama to return to the Galactica and give up the Final Five, er, Four Cylons or else. Previously, on the Base ship, Roslin whispered to Adama not to do it since they are the way to Earth and to, "blow this ship to hell," [with her on it] if need be. Tables have now turned and spicey sexy D'Anna is in charge again. Good thing the Cylon wardrobe had her size - and leather.

Good scene with D'Anna returning with Adama to the Galactica and discretely eyeing TTTA [Tigh, Tyrol, Tory and Anders] among the greeting party. D'Anna says, "We're in contact with them now," - the "four Cylons in your fleet" [er, wasn't it FIVE Cylons? ... so D'Anna wasn't pulling Roslin's leg after all?] ... that reveal, and monkeywrench in the plot, must wait and wasn't strongly questioned by Lee or anybody else!? Five is now Four??? And WHY do the Cylons want to go to Earth anyway? That question has never been answered, or even asked by the characters. It's a big galaxy. They are machines. They can wait. They can "live" anywhere. Tory takes the invitation, using the cover of delivering Roslin's medicine [contrived: she could've just declared "I'm out and I'm proud"]. And, back on our rebel Base ship, Tory comes into her own - power to the people! Cylon people, baby.

The music is still playing in TTTAs heads and this time TTA (remember Tory's on the Base ship) are drawn to the freshly minted Viper "dead" Kara returned to the fleet with her reappearance (but Tory, not being nearby, can only listen to the squawking of the signal in her head Kara's reborn Viper is sending out).

D'Anna starts spacing Colonial pilots, and after only one, Tigh's loyalty kicks in and he outs himself to Adama - who at first thinks his friend Saul has just gone batty, "You aged, you used to have hair" "I've known you 30 years," Adama protests to Tigh. But Tigh persists, admitting that he must be a "different kind of Cylon" and that he "switched on" "like Boomer" back at the Nebula - he growls, "I AM A CY-LON!"

Tigh is arrested and taken to an airlock by president Lee while Bill Adama falls apart, waylaid by the information, he suffers an emotional breakdown [admitting his love for Laura cracked him open?].

Lee comforts him and out of necessity, takes charge.

Smarty-pants Lee now plays hardball in kind with D'Anna and a lot of back-and-forth ComLink discussion takes place as they threaten one another - Lee tells D'Anna he'll space Tigh - which gives her pause.

There is an interesting visual moment in the air-lock with Tigh [image not yet available]. We see him framed in the center of the shot standing directly in front of the air-lock door, positioned so that the pattern on the door looks like the figure of a man with outstretched arms, holding two lights in each hand [I'm assuming this was meant to convey he held the fates of the Four in his hands, or it's an homage to the historic Wicker Man and Tigh's fate is to be a sacrifice and/or to herald the boon].

Meanwhile Anders and Tyrol get Kara and tell her to check the Viper, that they "have a feeling" - and she needs to trust them the way she's asked the fleet to trust her. She is skeptical and resistent [wouldn't she jump in there in a heartbeat to vindicate herself?] then Lee busts up the little Viper party with a contingent of Colonial Marines he's sent, and Anders and Tyrol are arrested on the spot. Kara is shocked, SHOCKED, but in that subdued spacey way only a clone can react. TA is bound and taken to Tigh's airlock for 3/5s of a Final Five farewell party.

Kara decides, well yeah, maybe I should turn on the gadgets in the cockpit of the magic Viper. Lee ups the ante with D'Anna and now threatents to space Tigh, Tyrol AND Anders when, cue anticlimax, Kara deduces something from the Viper's display panel and rushes in (well, after running an overlong mile and up a Star Trek tube too!) to save them at the ..... LAST SECOND!!!

D'Anna's decision to force the timetable (Lee: "We are cooperating!") and the countdown clock device of the button Lee is about to push to space Tigh were sheer contrivances. I know, there had to be a dramatic propulsion to forward the story, but it could have been solved so easily and not felt fake: suggest that the Cavil faction is hot on their trail and they may all be blasted to oblivion (perhaps a 1-4-5 faction Cylon Heavy Raider jumps to their position and discovers them then jumps away, forcing the timetable).

Kara shouts, "Those three Cylons gave us Earth!" She doesn't even refer to them as people - and Sam is her long-suffering husband ... and this indignity from a clone! [How's that little scar where your ovary once was Kara? Oh that's right, your cloned body doesn't have the scar anymore]

Baltar gets much better very quickly. We never see if the Cylon Base ship has a medical bay or if his gaping wound was ever stitched up [Roslin could have gone to one of the Sixes and said, "Caprica Six, from your model line, loves him. Can you do something for him?" - again, a simple fix to reference Six to Baltar, fix the wound, and show how Baltar's feelings have change all in one brief scene] but however it's happened he's stopped bleeding and can now walk around and thanks Roslin for not "murdering me," and volunteers to try to talk D'Anna down from her brinkmanship with Lee. He walks to the Base ship command center and appeals to D'Anna, "Do you really think god brought you back for this?" "Brute force didn't work on New Caprica, didn't work on the algae planet," he implores.

Baltar has been with all of these Sixes on the Base ship yet there hasn't been a single moment we've seen where any feeling passed between them? Has he lost interest in his obsession with Caprica Six completely? Why? Why? He was sleeping with Tory, sure, but doesn't love her. And where-o-where was Head Six??? Two episodes in a row with Baltar-centric plot developments that demanded her presence and comment. Did her virtual contract expire?

Lee checks the magic Viper himself and sees the signal no other ship in the fleet is receiving. Kara passionately argues that it can only be Earth, that they are all being manipulated by some force that wants them to find it, ALL of them to find it. This is a moment that should have felt revelatory, as did D'Anna's sojourn into the starlight on the algae planet, but it was just commented upon offhand (!?). So, turning on a dime we - CUT TO: D'Anna and the Final Four [TTTA] are now present at the magic Viper (along with several Centurions [How many college kids can you stuff into a Cylong Heavy Raider and how exactly did the Centurions get down that tube Kara had to ascend in the earlier running shots?]) - Lee allows them to check the signal and offers a comprehensive peace, "We go together," and references the 'All of this has happened before and will happen again' refrain the Cylons use and suggests they can break the cycle by cooperating - again, a HUGE aspect of the story dispensed with with a single line (!?!?) - beyond anticlimactic. What the fuck is the repeating cycles of time thing the Cylons referene anyway? When do we get to see it? How do they experience it?

D'Anna reluctantly takes Lee's hand and the deal is sealed. Snap. Just like that, all is forgiven and Tigh is back drinking in his quarters, Tyrol is bouncing baby Nicholas on his knee, now-sensitive Anders is cozying up to a reflective Kara (who tells dead Kat's picture "We found it," or some such). The final jump to Earth is made (cue camera-lens twisting), star patterns are confirmed [once again a transcendent moment from Home Part II - when they saw the star patterns in the Temple of Athena - is reduced to a throwaway line - confounding!]. We get a shot of the bright pale yellow sun and PAN over to a quarter-Earth shot with our Colonial fleet and the rebel Base ship jumping in and pullback to see the ships backlit by the sun and poised like needles facing their new home.

Strange, baffling choices with the visuals this time out - nothing lush, nothing warm, rather staid framing of shots. Color seemed drained, a bleak feel pervaded the episode despite momentous events unfolding. I'm frankly shocked at this episode because my two favorite writers from the series and probably the best director as well did this episode.

Now cue: MONTAGE (you can almost hear the South Park parody song) of the fleet celebrating (day-work for some Canadian extras at least) - including a Baltar and his harem [doesn't it hurt like hell to lift that left arm Gaius?] and then we see a screaming assemblage of ships zipping through the white cloudy atmosphere from the fleet toward the surface.

Lest I forget, early in the episode poor Gaeta is shown with his stumpy leg [they have endless booze but not one amputee's prosthetic?] and in a totally contrived moment Tigh asks if he wants to be relieved from duty - I get it, we're giving Gaeta and Dualla screen time to remind the audience they're there and will factor in later in the season. This is the perfect moment to sum up where Battlestar Galactica is at its weakest. They do a big Gaeta-dangle, offering him up as a potential Final Cylon in Guess What's Coming to Dinner - even going so far as to have him sing - seemingly giving voice to "the unstruck music vibrates within us all, few can hear it" Leoben line only to reduce him to a pathetic state this episode without any transition inbetween.

Cue dubious creative choice:

Adama picks up a handful of radioactive soil and we see reaction shots, dismay on the faces of Roslin, Adama, Lee, D'Anna, Leoben, Six, Tigh, Anders, et al as they walk upon the surface of Earth for the first time. This Earth is a grey, cold and unhappy place (post-apocalyptic Earth - no Minoans 1500 B.C. - boo-hoo!). The warped steel of the ruins denotes a modern society after a nuclear wipeout. The sets in this scene looked cheap and fake (piling up the sand a bit higher would have done wonders) and an old matte painting from Beneath the Planet of the Apes would have looked better than the city-in-ruins image in the background we were given. Usually superior visual effects were sorely lacking in this set of shots. Again, baffling.

With Faith and Guess What's Coming to Dinner Battlestar had really hit its stride - two of the best episodes of the entire series, yet with Sine Qua Non and The Hub, it entered a scattershot period ... too many plot twists and turns coming too fast without coherence nor a satisfying sense of the tapestry of the story skillfully and beautifully weaving together. With Revelations, story threads were inartfully clumped and twisted and left a frayed, a knotted cloth hanging there. I didn't hate the episode, but almost. So now there are 10-12 hours [10 official episodes] left and where is the conflict to the story? Our great journey - the quest - the raison d'être is over. Did they forget that cliche the journey's the thing? The rest of the show is learning to live together on Earth? Fighting the Cavil-allied Cylons? Dragging out the Final Cylon reveal - and to what end? Piano players? I'm left depressed and confused about what's coming, not elated.

Is Baltar Zeus?

If they don't end the story at a post-apocalyptic Earth and do as I hope ... land in the Eastern Mediterranean around 1500 B.C., will Baltar be Zeus?

The Hub - Episode Review

Okay, Ron Moore, David Eick (the show's creators) and the writing staff have decided to just go dark with the tone and story developments and The Hub was downright cranky in its tone. I had hoped for elation, elevation, and enlightenment, but there was nothing of the sort this time around. Even the gentle Elosha was snarky and disputational in her many scenes with Laura. At first it seemed the Hybrid was jumping the Base ship to allow Roslin to have these visions and discussion with Elosha in That Space Between ... but by the end of the episode she was seeing and talking with Elosha right there in the presence of the Hybrid. It is Head-Elosha now? And her message from beyond? Find love in this lifetime, as in acknowledge the mutual feelings with Adama! Hmmmm, I had hoped for something a bit deeper and directed at their quest for Earth and survival. Hate to be snarky myself, but is The Beatles All You Need Is Love the next 1960s song to play in the show?

One of the absolute high points of the entire series was when D'Anna had the religious experience in the Temple of Five/Eye of Jupiter and saw in the starlight of the supernova the faces of the Final Five Cylons, and collapsed and said, "So beautiful, so beautiful." Her eyes went white and she died. Terrific scene, wonderfully acted.

And now we get a petulant and bitter D'Anna - not one who is joyous at the knowledge she now possesses. She says with utter condescension to Cavil about Boomer-Sharon, "Just put something shiny in front of her," [Mreeow] regarding her lone allegiance to the 1-4-5 side in the Cylon civil war, and then viciously snaps Cavil's neck. She seems to see poetic justice in the attack on the Hub during a her initial tête-à-tête with Cavil.

Remember how happy and fulfilled she seemed when Cavil boxed her in the Rapture episode? Hopefully the show will provide a good explanation as to the shift.

The attack on the Cylon Hub was ridiculously easy. If the Hybrid on the rebel Base ship knows when D'Anna is resurrected and can gather data about it remotely, why then didn't the Hybrids on the many other Base ships allied with the 1-4-5 faction defend the Hub in great numbers? Huge error in logic [yeah I know, the CGI budget is not unlimited] If the Hybrids can jump at will - free will - we need to know why they are willing to make war on each other - perhaps because "It likes violent vibrations ..." A tiny band of Colonial Vipers was able to get Helo and a Sharon inside the Hub and they found D'Anna quickly and easily on that big ship. Er, far-fetched - but it saved time, eh? Then they get out and the humans nuke the Hub and KerBlooiE, it's gone ... and now all Cylons are mortal. What about the smaller resurrection ships? And we've heard in the past that there are "millions" or "billions" of copies of the humanoid Cylons. Why, for one? Second, where the hell are they - especially when there be some fightin' goin' on???

Once D'Anna is brought back to the rebel Base ship she is taken by Helo (following orders) to see Roslin first - violating the deal with the 2-6-8 faction with whom they've allied themselves (D'Anna was supposed to be shared). This upsets the Sharon who had been working with Helo - she feels betrayed and we have another unstable 8 to deal with now (they had bonded over a backrub). Once at Roslin's "room" on the Base ship D'Anna is brought in and the girls talk. D'Anna looks to Roslin and taunts her that she may know about the Final Five but says, "You don't know you're one of them" and then they give us a reaction shot of Roslin. Would Sci-Fi Channel really give that away in the trailer? Sure, they gave us Tory backhanding Callie. Roslin considers it for a moment. Hold on ... it's a CHEAP fake-out, with D'Anna laughing, then saying that she's the "only 3 in the Universe" and she must now look out for herself and doesn't trust the Cylons either so no one should expect the truth from her until she feels secure.

Roslin's visions with Elosha keep showing her on her deathbad with Adama there (and Lee and Kara at one point) ... declaring his love with his presence and body language - he even places his ring on her finger after her last breath. The end of the episode is the rebel Base ship jumping to the coordinates where Adama is waiting, alone in his Raptor [good reaction shots by Eddie Olmos] and, later, on the hangar deck of the Base ship he and Roslin embrace and finally, tenderly, declare their love. Touching, but not wholly satisfying.

Subplot with Baltar was odd. He shouts at the Hybrid when it won't respond to Roslin's questions when actually it did become lucid more than once and answer, or make a statement. Roslin, a Sharon, and Baltar all discuss openly their various experiences in the Opera House vision - Hera was the focus, a need to protect her, and Roslin was shut out by a closed door, but Baltar was inside with Hera and a Six. But these questions were peppered at the Hybrid, an in almost off-hand jabs and spars. Baltar gets fed up and leaves the Hybrid chamber and goes to have a curious one-way chat with a Centurion metal model - at one point about a dog holding a biscuit on its nose until its master let it eat it - we get it ... and cue: EXPLOSION rips into the Base ship during the assault on the Hub and the Centurion is torn to shreds and Baltar seriously injured (a large gash cut into his midsection - Roman spear-zone anyone?). Good follow-up scene of Roslin tending to his injury only to react (terrific acting again by Mary McDonnell) to Baltar's delirous rant about his freedom from guilt for his terrible crime (he finally admits to her giving the access codes to the defense mainframe for the Colonies to Six and hence being responsible for the deaths of billions of humans). Roslin had gone from disdainful empathy to a flailing yet murderous intent only to rebound (after another Elosha moment) into savior mode and re-bandage the wound she had already bandaged and then tore off. Baltar drifts in and out of consciousness. And where was Head-Six ??? If EVER there a was a moment Baltar's "angel sent by God" was needed, it was this one. Curious curious creative choices. When D' Anna is brought in she shouts, "Gaius!" and tends to him and declares that "he'll live," and Roslin has a window onto that relationship. Fits and starts. Fits and starts.

Roslin and Baltar were teased as the possible Final Cylon this ep, which begs the question -What then was the point of the big Gaeta-dangle in Guess What's Coming to Dinner??? And why would Roslin and Baltar both share the Opera House vision? So far the reveals havn't had much of a payoff feeling, so hopefully the Opera House vision will be a doozy.

Sine Qua Non - Episode Review

The title refers to "an essential element or condition," and the characters in the show mention the title and give a slightly different variation. I think they could also offer these gems: Too Many Hard Left Turns. Or, Too Cute By Half. Or, Rush Job ... oh you get the picture. A misfire this time out. Some good moments, but this episode was C-O-N-T-R-I-V-E-D. I don't know if it's the credited writer's fault, or, more likely, the writing team's fault for the forced feel of this episode and its shocking but empty major developments.

As I predicted on a post weeks ago on Galactica Sitrep, Lee Adama is made president. Too much of the episode was devoted to this development. They missed a real chance to show more complexity and depth in the Tom Zarek character (and shorted Richard Hatch his big episode). And unfortunately the reintroduction of Romo Lampkin fell flat. And there was this weird moment where he says his cat has been killed and Lee Adama says the cat's been dead for weeks. Weeks went by??? Using the Romo character in this way felt gratuitous. He was rendered a lesser being than what we had known, but in doing so he wasn't made more interesting. It felt like they were giving the fans what they wanted - More Romo - but it could have been done much better. Are they going to bring back Bulldog Novacek too?

Poor Natalie (shot by wack-job Athena-Sharon) doesn't live ... she projects, and sees that favorite green forest that platinum-haired Six told Baltar she projects when he was on a BaseShip (see image in right column) while she is dying - her POV is blurry and she sees Doc Cottle, who offers the warmth of human touch in a latex glove as she expires ... and the point ??? She did seem to see the light and not be fearful.

Adama and Tigh have their big showdown scene, which works for a while, then there is this weird moment of the Tigh character in close-up with the Adama character behind him and the director had actor Michael Hogan do a contorted face reaction shot to Eddie Olmos's line - and it was campy and took you out of the moment. Then the fight continues and the big model ship is smashed - and a lame joke line is spoken to diffuse the moment. The scene started strong and fell apart. Earlier there had been a scene where Adama had told Tigh to get information from Caprica Six in the Galactica brig and he has an Ellen moment and snaps that she is playing head-games with him and it must stop. She says she's never lied to him.

While the power politics of the civilian leadership plays out Kara is made CAG again and is slightly less spacey and aloof as she has been since this clone version of her has come to the fleet. Since half the Viper wing is on the BaseShip that also has Roslin, Baltar, Helo and many Colonial pilots and support staff, the thinned Galactica and fleet personnel requires all hands, hence the suspicions about Kara are ignored this episode.

THE WHOLE SEASON IS BEGINNING TO FEEL RUSHED at this point - as if all the cool twists and turns the writers came up with are being crammed into episodes as the inexorable march toward the finale continues apace. This episode shows that some pruning or objective eyes might have helped (even the cat's).

The fight between Tigh and Adama in response to Doc Cottle informing that Tigh has impregnated Caprica Six during his visits somehow bonds them again, and Adama realizes he's in love with Roslin (but the words aren't said, yet) and he's lost his good judgement and put the fleet and the Galactica at risk in his hell-bent desire to locate her and get her back. We're told that she'll feel better at first and then worse if her cancer kicks in again. Well if Helo-Sharon amniotic fluid cured her before wouldn't Tigh-Six amniotic fluid be even better? It's beginning to get silly. They're rushing the story without tying up loose ends.

Don't get me wrong, the episode was entertaining, and I really liked some moments - the reaction shots by Jamie Bamber as Lee when Zarek tried to calm a frenzied Quorum were good, and the EVA done by Racetrack when a damaged Raptor suddenly jumped into the fleet was kinda cool. But they were few and far between this time out. When the Raptor was found, they tracked back to its last jump coordinates and found lots of Baseship debris and evidence of Colonial involvement and they surmise that the Baseship and Cylons they'd allied with must have gone and attacked the Resurrection Hub by themselves and that it and the allied Baseship may both be destroyed. And they don't know where either is at present or if one or both did survive. But we are informed by Caprica Six that only the Hybrid's can locate the Hub.

In this episode: No Baltar. No Roslin. No Basestar. No Anders. (and why not?) No TTTA meeting for once [Tigh/Tyrol/Tory & Anders].

Subplot with Athena-Sharon had a good moment when she told Adama of her vision and his contempt for these visions the women are having was palpable - that's the moment the Emmy voters should remember, not the cheesy fight scene. We get a "putting this family together" (remember Seaspon 2, Home Part I?) line again from Adama and Athena-Sharon is given Hera to stay with her in the brig (she's there, remember, since she killed Natalie) ... and Adama RESIGNS. His admits his judgement is clouded by his love for Roslin (but he didn't use the word, yet, remember) so he puts Tigh, who he just found out got Six pregnant, in charge !?!? And now "Husker" Adama is off on a solo mission, in a lone Raptor, with Roslin's burned book, to wait for her return.

A frustrating episode. Good, but just barely. The story advanced, but it felt forced and some of it unnecessary and not all that interesting, frankly. Perhaps it's just a tee-it-up-episode for great things next episode - The Hub. Fingers crossed that that's the case.

And now is probably a good time to consider some of the Hybrid's words, since she will probably factor prominently in The Hub: "The children of the one reborn shall find their own country. Intruders swarmed like flame, like the whirlwind. Hopes soaring to slaughter all their best against our hulls. Centrifugal force reacts to the rotating frame of reference. The obstinate toy soldier becomes pliant. The city devours the land...the people devour the city...All these things it wants and many more, not because it wishes harm, but because it likes violent vibrations to change constantly. But you are a spark of God's fire. Core update complete."

My guess is there will be a big battle - or they'll flashback to the battle inferred by Adama, et al in which many die - perhaps the 1s, 4s, and 5s die en masse). The one "reborn" ??? Roslin? Athena-Sharon? "It wants" ??? "Violent vibrations" ??? "Core update complete" makes me think this Hybrid (or maybe all of them) have had their own plan all along. And the show has taken "They have a plan" out of the opening credits. Perhaps most importantly in terms of story development - why all of the sudden is it okay for the Cylons and humans both to find Earth? When Natalie Six was being interrogated and later when at Roslin's sickbay bed (last ep), it seemed a given that both Cylons and humans would find Earth (even if it is the rebel Cylons). Big story shift - but glossed over.

BSG Last Supper - the blog

Look who has wings! The Last Supper image solved. Visit my other site:

http://www.bsglastsupper.blogspot.com

Final Cylon: Dangling Threads and Loose Ends

The Last Supper image has been altered (on the Sci-Fi.com/Battlestar website). The burning pot of Kamala (or whatever it is) is now extinguished and out of view (if you really look you can still see the outline of the container - it's just been color-matched to her suit).

In releasing the Last Supper image, show creator Ron Moore teased, "It's all right there," and what we see are two factions - one with the Colony Bible closed and the other with the Bible open.So it looks as if Roslin/Natalie/Tigh compose one faction who have closed the book on the Old Gods, and Adama/Athena-Sharon/Helo composing the other faction - and still believing in the Old Gods. Lee and Tyrol seem the Odd Men Out, and the couples - Baltar/Caprica Six and Kara/Anders - are in the middle, perhaps literally as well as figuratively.

Gaeta was my number 3 pick for the Final Cylon (see Last Supper post below), and after Guess What's Coming to Dinner, I think Baltar has been knocked out of contention for the job. And possibly Roslin as well - they probably cancel each other out. Those two were my first and second choices (see post at bottom of page). What they have in common is they share the vision of the Opera House, so even if they are human they are humans gifted with divine insight. And how can one be the Final Cylon and the other not? Baltar has Head-Six and now Head-Baltar and Roslin has felt Cylon attacks before they happened, twice. Gaeta has been in the thick of the action all along, and has been associated with the top person in power (Adama on Galactica and Baltar on New Caprica) - and he made short work of building those networked-computer firewalls against Cylon intrusion way back when.

Guess What's Coming To Dinner - Episode Review

How can it be expressed? All one could have hoped for and more. Guess What's Coming to Dinner blew the doors off! BSG is going exactly where I'd hoped and in strange and amazing ways ... and Gaeta's Lament - unexpected, bold, strangely beautiful (in that Bronze Age sort of way) ... and portentious. I was reminded of the song sung by Britt Ekland's character in the original 1973 version of the brilliant film The Wicker Man - it served to frame the tale yet to follow. Gaeta gave a look at the end - can he be the final Cylon? What of Roslin's visions and her sensing of events before they happened? They're frakking with our minds (and I like it).

A play on words the title, in reference to the 1967 interracial romance film Guess Who's Coming To Dinner with actor Sidney Poitier. Our factions of humans and Cylons are beginning to line up for the ultimate battle to determine all their fates at season's end (look to the Last Supper image for the factions - yes, Roslin will ally with Natalie Sixes and Tigh).

The damaged Base Star jumps into the thick of the Colonial Fleet and is viewed as hostile (despite not sending out raiders to attack) and the fleet begins a mad scramble - many ships jumping away. Galactica turns to fire but Col. Tigh yells, "Weapons hold!" (the Demetrius had trouble jumping and shows up at the last second and declares the Base Star under their control). This is artificial drama designed to set up Adama's suspicion of Tigh for later plot development - but it works. Adama is not suspicious yet because Tigh is honest, "I don't know," he says when asked why.

Anders is becoming one who feels deeply, and he is remorseful to the extreme over his maiming of Gaeta. He reports back to the TTTA meeting (where do they find the time and place to always meet in secret?) that Gaeta is singing and to him it is meaningful - met by blank stares from the others. Tory gets outed for sleeping with Baltar (and she admits her conversion to monotheism) by Roslin but is not fired, instead she is tasked with getting information to stay in Roslin's good graces. Tyrol is just a growler at this point, bitter, and aloof. Tigh seems to be a bit more comfortable, but in the braintrust meeting with Adama and Roslin advocates extreme prejudice against the Cylons because it still seems to be his comfort zone.

Really super cool dream sequences and waking warped visions: Roslin, Caprica Six, and Athena-Sharon all have another intense Opera House session - chasing, chasing little Hera - and into the arms of Caprica Six and Baltar she goes and into the main auditorium and the doors close. Panic for Athena-Sharon - in her Viper uniform. Kara has the coolest waking mental warp - things go out-of-phase and meld into memory of what the Hybrid said, "A dying leader will know the truth of the Opera House." Perhaps it's because Kara is a clone.

Little Hera is growing up and Mommy Athena does not like what she's been drawing of late: not pretty dark-haired Asian Mommy, but blonde (hissssss) Number Six.

In a previous scene Athena-Sharon wakes from her shared vision of the Opera House to find Hera standing there, staring at her and the little girl says, "Bye-bye," with finality. Chilling.

The 8 model is clearly unstable ... Athena-Sharon breaks up a lovely meet-and-greet by Hera and the Natalie Six (from the damaged Base Star) - draws her weapon and orders Tyrol to take away Hera and once she's certain Hera is out of the area blows away Natalie in cold blood, screaming, "You're not going to take my daughter!" The Marine contingent must just think the Cylons are wack-jobs.

Super cool cross-pollination of humans on the Base Star taking it over for a joint op to unbox the D'Annas at the Cylon Resurrection Hub, and Natalie Six back-and-forth to Galactica - even meeting the Quorum to sell the op.

Leoben and Base Star Sharon plot with Natalie to abandon the op after they get D'Anna but things get complicated. Is there to be a double-cross, a triple-cross, abort? They're in a fine mess. And they think they're being watched, judged, by the Final Five - my how their expectations appear poised to be dashed.

Kara goes to visit Roslin in the sick bay and quotes the Hybrid, "And a dying leader will come to know the truth of the Opera House," and that's it, Roslin has heard enough - and we're off to see the Hybrid. Helo is tasked to arrange it and before you know it Baltar is being marched down to the hangar deck (cleaned up) and loaded onto a Raptor and sitting there is ... Roslin. "You are in my visions, " she tells him - they are going to get some answers dammit.

BSG is brilliant at building to a climax, and the marching of our characters and the edits back-and-forth between the action in different places (combined with the music) - is perfectly executed. A Sharon leads Roslin and Baltar to the Hyrid Chamber on the damaged Base Star while on Galactica Natalie Six and Hera approach from opposite directions and meet. Hera loves Six instantly and wants to hold her, and the Natalie Six is overjoyed. Then the unstable 8 shows up (this woman shouldn't be allowed near weapons) ...

Our poor Geata is healing after Doc Cottle took the lower half of his right leg and he heals by singing - even when he's asleep it seems - a wonderful lament, hypnotic and full of emotion (see article on Galactica Sitrep or composer Bear McCreary's site [http://www.bearmccreary.com/blog/?p=349] about this song) ... Geata's soul is expressing itself as he heals. He peers directly at camera at close - a very very knowing look. Methinks he has a 50% chance at being the Final Cylon at this point. I believe he knocked Baltar out of the running with this episode.

The episode climaxes with Roslin ordering the Hybrid to be plugged in and the moment she is awake she says with all her being, "Jump," and the Base Star is gone.