Politics has always played a major role in this series, but lately it has taken a back seat to the more spiritual storylines as the fleet sought out Earth. But as is often the case, when there’s a spiritual crisis, there are people who would seek to capitalize and attempt to seize power, and that’s just what Tom Zarek tried to do this week.
The disagreement revolved around an FTL upgrade that would require Cylons to board all of the ships in the fleet. The upgrade would (at least) triple the chances of the fleet finding a suitable planet to colonize, but the Cylons want full citizenship in return. Zarek and his supporters don’t want the any part of a permanent alliance with the Cylons.
Strictly speaking, this felt like a setup episode, and was a bit tedious at times. However, there were a couple of major plot points. First, we learned that Tyrol is not Nicholas’ father. I thought for a moment that the father would turn out to be another major (or minor) character, but it turned out to be some dude we’ve never seen before a very minor character, Hot Dog, so it was kind of a letdown. I wonder if this was the plan all along with Nicholas or if it was a last-minute decision by the creators to wrap up his storyline.
The other major revelation was Gaeta’s decision to align himself with Zarek. After Bill nimbly tricked Zarek into giving up the position of the fuel ship, I thought the politicking might be over for a while, but it looks as if Gaeta intends to lead some sort of an uprising. It’s kind of surprising, really – Felix has never been all that popular with the crew, but now he’s going to rally the troops? It just seems odd is all.
Meanwhile, it appears that Roslin has checked out. Given the show’s penchant for twists and turns, it has always been in the back of my mind that she was in fact not the “dying leader” that found a home for the fleet. It will be interesting to see how this storyline shakes out, because more and more it looks as if Bill is taking over control of the fleet’s direction.
Two more things about this episode…
– I loved Baltar’s line at the beginning of his speech: “Are you all just children? Well, obviously, you’re a child.”
– Something is going on with the nurse in the infirmary. When Tigh and Six were looking at the ultrasound and talking about the “future of the Cylon race,” the nurse was looking awfully suspicious. It’s possible that her reaction was meant to characterize the uncertainty of the fleet about its association with the enemy, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she tries to do something to Six’s baby.
It wasn’t a bad episode; it was just kind of slow and lacking drama. Based on the scenes from next week, it looks like things will pick up very soon.
The actress’ discontent allegedly stems from a lack of camera time, and writers have acquiesced and written in a death scene for the actor’s character should she fly the coop. However, if negotiations don’t work and the actor is retained, writers also have a plan to easily bring back the actress through one of Heroes’ death loopholes (in this case, Claire Bennett’s regeneration abilities and Tracy Strauss’ wonder twin powers).
