After last week’s jam-packed episode, the series downshifted a bit, delving into the minutiae (i.e. the food shortage) that played such a prominent role in the first two seasons. While Baltar and Paula were arguing about food, I was wondering if this was really how we were going to spend the last five episodes. This detail-oriented stuff was interesting when the show was finding its feet, but with all that has happened, it just feels trivial. The major plot points to come out of Baltar’s storyline is that Caprica Six is back in his head (yay!) and that he managed to convince Bill to give him a trunk load of guns to defend their food stock. (I’ll admit that it was funny to see how Baltar picked the prettiest mom to help, resulting in a major eye-roll from Paula. Some things never change.)
It was nice of Boomer to bring Ellen back to the fleet, but their arrival has all sorts of consequences. First and foremost, Ellen is still an annoying bitch. When she finds out that Tigh and Caprica Six are expecting, it throws her into a jealous rage and she tries to manipulate the situation to get back into Saul’s arms. The plan may have worked too, as it could have been the stress of Ellen’s return that sent Caprica’s pregnancy off the rails. Now that the baby is out of the picture, I’d expect Tigh and Ellen to pick up where they left off. (Baltar and Caprica Six may too, for that matter.)
Tory, Tyrol and some of the numbered Cylons suddenly want to leave the fleet, and given what Sam said before his surgery — “Don’t leave the fleet!” — Tigh is more than a little reluctant. Since Caprica lost the baby, the whole Cylons-can-procreate argument doesn’t really hold much water, so they may decide to stick around for a while. Bill’s worried about Galactica’s dependence on Cylon technology, but the lesson (probably) is that humans and Cylons need each other to survive.
Boomer’s return creates another issue — what does Bill do with her? She tried to assassinate him and then defected from the other 8’s to join Cavil in the Cylon civil war. As one of our readers suggested last week, she may have come back to rejoin Tyrol. He’s single and obviously still has feelings for her. This could drive a wedge between Bill and Tyrol, and that’s not good.
Finally, I have to mention a subtle yet hilarious exchange in Bill’s quarters when Baltar was pleading for help…
Bill: The two of you can listen to this.
Lee: Where are you going?
Bill: To the head, to do something constructive. A little project I’ve been working on.
The term “head” of course means the toilet, so Bill is saying that taking a dump is more constructive than listening to Baltar speak. That’s some dry humor there. Great stuff.
