Tag: Battlestar Galactica Blood on the Scales

Battlestar Galactica: No Exit

Wowsers. With Sam doing his little I’ve-got-a-lot-to-tell-you bit, this had to be one of the most informative episodes of the entire series. Let me run down what I think we know at this point…

– Those that are still holding out hope that Ellen wasn’t the fifth Cylon can stop – she is. She was resurrected 18 months ago and is considered to be the “mother” of all the skinjobs. The Ones (or one one in particular) seem to have a major problem with the fact that she made them (somewhat) human. By the end of the episode, the Ones were ready to open up her brain to find the secret of resurrection, but Boomer snuck her off to parts unknown. I’m not clear on when this escape coincides with current events, so if anyone has a clue, be sure to comment.

– Ellen still likes to drink, even after resurrection.

– The final five were living on Earth and they reinvented resurrection. Tyrol was credited for having done a ton of work towards this end, but Ellen was the one that made the final leap to make resurrection possible again. For whatever reason, they had a ship in orbit, waiting for Earth to be destroyed. (And, as far as I know, we still don’t know why Earth was destroyed.) The Cylons living on Earth were able to procreate, which is why they did away with resurrection in the first place. I believe that the implication is that all Earthlings are actually Cylons. That’s good to know.

– Once Earth was destroyed, the final five started off to the 12 colonies to warn them about creating Cylons (and/or treating them badly). They were not able to make jumps, so the travel was very slow, which is what accounts for the 2,000-year difference between Earth’s destruction and when the fleet fled the colonies.

– The final five found that the centurions had a belief in one true God, and that they were experimenting with making hybrids, but nothing would live yet. The cylons were at war with the colonies, so the final five made a deal with them that if they ended the war, they would show them how to make skinjobs. This is why the Cylons went away for a while.

– They made eight models, but the Sevens (Daniel) were apparently killed by the Ones, due to jealousy over Ellen’s favoritism towards the Sevens. Cavil was also the one that took Tigh’s eye.

– Cavil also banished the final five, stripping them of their memories and sending them off to live with the humans not knowing that they were in fact Cylons until a certain point in time. (We do not know why he did this. It would seem to work against his goals to place the five within the human fleet where they could eventually help the humans find a new home.)

A few other notes about this episode…

– The ship is falling apart and Bill had to make the tough decision to use Cylon technology to fix the hidden fractures throughout the ship. Between this and the Cylon FTL upgrades, if the fleet does in fact find a new home, they’ll have the Cylons to thank.

– Tigh had a great line – “Yeah, you point a finger back far enough and some germ gets blamed for splitting in two. No!”

– Cavil said to Ellen, “They destroyed the hub but they don’t know about the colony.” He’s referring to Earth, right? For that to be the case, this conversation had to take place after the hub was destroyed but before the fleet found Earth.

– Roslin passed the torch to Lee. Now he could become the “dying leader” that takes the fleet to find a new home.

– He did a great job as the “brain guy,” but it was a little distracting to see The Daily Show’s John Hodgman (a.k.a. “PC” from the Mac commercials). That guy is soooooooo funny.

– Even though the operation was a success, Sam is apparently brain dead. Hey, if he stays that way, at least he went out with a bang.

Awesome episode.

Battlestar Galactica: Blood on the Scales

Well, with only seven episodes left, we knew that the Gaeta/Zarek coup couldn’t last too long. By the end of the episode, it looks like this storyline is wrapped up nice and neat with a little bow. The Gaeta/Zarek alliance started to splinter when the latter made the executive decision to murder the entire quorum. At that point, Gaeta realized that Zarek was a power-hungry psychopath that did not have the best interests of the fleet at heart. By the time that the Admiral was rescued and on his way to the CIC, Gaeta had already seen the writing on the wall. The coup was over. (Presumably, Gaeta and/or Zarek gave the Admiral the coordinates for the 25 ships that jumped away so that they could re-join the fleet. That’s going to make for some awkward moments in the halls!)

Romo Lampkin made a surprise appearance as the Admiral’s counsel. I’ve always thought there is more to him that meets the eye, and when he used a pen to kill his captor, it was clear that he’s no stranger to physical confrontation. Once the soldier was down, Lampkin searched his pockets for his sunglasses. Classic.

I don’t think that we saw Lampkin after he grudgingly agreed to help Starbuck get Anders to sick bay. His decision to help might have saved Sam’s life and in turn may change the fate of the fleet. Another minor character, Aaron, was instrumental in the coup’s failure. First, he let Tyrol escape (which eventually led to Tyrol disabling the FTL drives) and he told Starbuck and Lee that they were about to execute the Admiral. Without Aaron’s crisis of conscience, the coup might have succeeded.

Speaking of Tyrol, he saw some black marks in the engine room. I’m not sure what it was all about, but don’t be surprised if it comes up again in a future episode.

The last thing I want to discuss relates to the “scenes from next week,” which CONTAIN MAJOR SPOILERS for those still wondering about the true identity of the final Cylon. So stop reading if you don’t want to spoil the surprise.

Are they gone? Good.

Well, if we’re to believe the scenes from next week, Ellen is indeed the final Cylon. They refer to her as the final Cylon, show her coming back to life (I thought the hub was destroyed?) and they say that she “knows everything.” I’m still bummed that she’s the final Cylon — I always found the character annoying as hell, but hey, it is what it is, right?

Also, I wanted to share this excerpt from an interview with Aaron Douglas (who plays Tyrol) from last October:

“The four that were revealed at the end of season 3 are what they are, but they’re one-offs,” he points out. “They’re the original Cylons. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, when there were 13 colonies on Kobol, 12 went that way and one went that way to find Earth – or create an Earth – and that colony was actually Cylons. They’re individuals, there’s no multiple models. The seven that we know are a different kind of Cylon that came much later. They’re probably ten, 20 years old, born out of the metal machines that fought back 40 years ago in the Cylon wars of the 12 colonies. So they’re essentially like the gods. And we were on the new Earth, and destroyed that and came back to the 12 colonies to rejoin humanity to find out the cycle of time.”

We knew that the bones on Earth were 100% Cylon, but Douglas is confirming that there were never any humans there to begin with. The 13th colony was Cylon and presumably, the other 12 colonies knew that when they parted ways.

Or did they?

Hmm.

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