Tag: Tahmoh Penikett (Page 2 of 3)

Battlestar Galactica: Someone to Watch Over Me

February 28, 2009 /

When this episode started, and Kara got into a conversation with some random dude in the bar, I was thinking — why are they introducing a new character at this point in the series?

My “twist-dar” went off when they failed to show her dad’s face in her flashbacks, and it really went off when he lit up a cigarette (after she reminisced about the “smell of tobacco” earlier in the episode). Then the meaning of Hera’s drawing was revealed and suddenly Kara and her “dad” were playing the “Battlestar Galactica” version of “All Along the Watchtower.”

Kara’s trip plodded along, but it was still quite intense, because the nature of her existence is still one of the big questions yet to be answered. This mellowness provided a nice balance to what was going on elsewhere on the ship, as the Chief made a bad, bad decision by trusting Boomer again. Roslin’s demeanor towards Tyrol was unnecessarily harsh, and she bears some responsibility for his actions. Boomer is (mostly) evil, a fact confirmed by her sexual encounter with Helo right in front of Athena. That has to be a tough pill for the Chief to swallow — he breaks her out of the brig and the first guy she screws is Helo? Ouch.

The scene where Boomer made her escape was one of the most nail-biting of the entire series. It was clear that the Chief didn’t know Hera was in the trunk because Boomer had to tell him to “be careful” with it. Still, he’s a dope for falling for her act again. Way to go, Chief.

So now Galactica has a hole in the side of the ship, and after weeks of intimating that the old girl was on her last legs, the ship is truly falling apart. Cavil has (or will have) Hera, and there are only three episodes left. We still need to find out the truth about Kara and the fleet needs to find some sort of home. They wouldn’t end the series with the fleet just drifting aimlessly in space…would they?

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Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock

February 21, 2009 /

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.

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Battlestar Galactica: No Exit

February 14, 2009 /

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.

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Greetings to the New Show: Dollhouse

February 13, 2009 /

“Hi, I’m Joss Whedon. You may remember me from such shows as ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ ‘Angel,’ and ‘Firefly.’ Or perhaps my internet sensation, ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.’ Or, of course, my role as Douglas the car rental clerk in the famous ‘Rat Saw God’ episode of ‘Veronica Mars.’ And let’s not forget that I also wrote the screenplay for ‘Toy Story.’ Basically, what I’m trying to say is that I’m awesome, and you should watch my new show, ‘Dollhouse,’ because I created it, and everything I create is genius. And also because Eliza Dushku is hot.”

The above is, in fact, not an actual quote from Joss Whedon. It is, however, a nice summation of the things that Fox is hoping you’ll remember and keep in mind when tuning into “Dollhouse.” There are a lot of rumblings about how the show is only “meh,” and how if it was by anyone else, it wouldn’t inspire anyone to watch beyond the pilot episode. I’m here to tell you that this isn’t…well, okay, I can’t say it’s completely untrue. In fact, there’s some stuff that goes down during the first 15 minutes of the episode that will make you feel like you’re being hit over the head with a hammer, so obvious is it attempting to set up the show. Survive beyond that, however, and you’ll probably find yourself intrigued enough to come back next week.

Continue reading »

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Battlestar Galactica: Blood on the Scales

February 7, 2009 /

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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