The Passage By Luke Hung

We open to a pair of glamour shots of space glowing yellowish orange with vapor-like wisps of white. The fleet hovers outside this field and a Raptor piloted by a very tired and sick looking Athena flies within. Over the wireless Roslin, Adama, and Doc Cottle fills the audience to the plot of the episode. The fleet’s food supply is low due to a processing ship sending out contaminated rations. The rations are so bad that the uncontaminated food that came in contact with it is also bad. Sharon is on a recon mission to find a ‘passage’ though the radiation field so they can get to a wondrous algae planet that would solve the food problem. Failing to find the passage would cause the fleet to starve within ten days. Roslin asks where Sharon is and Helo who I didn’t notice at first informs her that she is still searching and three hours overdue.

In a scene designed to show the desperate the situation is the pilots stand around a table collecting small bits of food that they happened to have stashed. Kat states she has nothing and Starbuck counters with “to share.” Kat continues to state she gave her last protein bar to Doc Cottle and Starbuck gives the greatest line of the series, “right after I gave him head.” That was awesome. She mouthed/whispered the last word, but its definitely there TIVO never lies. I guess even on cable they’re concerned about censors. However, that line also gives me an excuse to toss out this joke. I think that’s fair, Kat gave Doc Cottle a protein bar and he gave Starbuck a protein shake. Yes that was disgusting, so what, get over it.

Back to Sharon, her Raptor skims through a radiation wave and bursts into flames and corrodes right before our eyes. Nice shot. They also show some clips of her standing in the back of her ship holding on to some straps as it is rocked by turbulence. It looks like she’s going to throw up in her helmet, which is one of the worst things you can do as a pilot. After the commercial break we see Sharon return to the Galactica. They go through some radiation procedures and clear her. Her radiation badge is all black, which is bad, but Apollo dismisses it calling her a Cylon and saying she can handle it. Helo is not as assured and calls for Cottle, but Athena also agrees saying she can handle it. However that doesn’t mean the humans can. 

In the CIC Athena shows them how to get to the algae planet in two jumps, however one will be in the midst of the radiation field. I can not explain any radiation field so wide that interstellar, faster than light jumping, starships can’t go around, through, or over, but I know that Moore decided not to explain such things so this show wouldn’t get overrun by technobabble like Star Trek. Anyways the radiation field would kill 80% of the crews of the civilian ships as they are not significantly protected against such things, worse still the civilian dradis also would get screwed up so if they jump in they can’t get their bearings to jump out. Okay that option sucks. Some ideas are bandied about, but ultimately they come up with putting the crews of the civilian ships on Galactica and using a Raptor to relay jump coordinates to a radiation shielded bridge crew. The only weak parts of that plan are that it will take five round trips, the Raptor pilot would be exposed to radiation, although not as significant as a civilian ship, and that the field is so blinding that they could lose the ship they are partnered with. Well, that’s a piece of cake, not. Kat and Starbuck fight some more about the use of stims for the pilots, and Starbuck hits her with a stim-head joke earning her a dirty look.

As the crew of the first wave of ships boards the Galactica a tall grungy looking fellow calls after Kat yelling Sasha. Hmm, Sasha is it? That’s not the name you’ve been using for 40 episodes. Kat you got some explaining to do. Kat gives him a dirty look and says, “My name is Louanne Katraine. Sasha and you were a lifetime ago.” He says something about being sinners and we cut to commercials.
 
On the Basestar the suicidal Three slinks out of the bed she shares with Baltar and Caprica Six. Caprica and Baltar hypothesize on her destination but don’t let us in on anything. Later Baltar bumps into Xena/Three he asks where she has been and she makes up some story, but Baltar calls her bluff. She caves quickly and Baltar let’s her know he knows about her multiple suicides. How he found out is beyond me, but he’s a genius. On the Galatica Kat/Sasha drags this mystery guy into a supply closet. He starts by saying “relax baby,” which is bored writer speech for ‘hi, I’m a druggie low life if you didn’t figure that out by my scruffy beard and long and stylishly mussed hair.’ He basically threatens to let her secret out if she doesn’t feed him. She says she has no food so he changes tacks and looks for sex. Kat tells him to get his hands off of her and stalks out. Anyone out there been on a diet? Have you ever been at that point of the day when you are starving for some food but you can’t eat because its too early or you are over your calories? If you have - remember that moment, that feeling, did you want to have sex? Of course you didn’t. 

On another part of Galactica, Tigh wanders outside the CIC. He steels himself for a moment and then comes in. This of course is an excuse for more clapping, which Gaeta does not participate in. Tigh shut that down fast with “Don’t you people have work to do?” Without looking up Adama says, “Welcome back.” On to the mission the Raptors fly out to meet their partnered civilian transport. The jump into the radiation field and all hell breaks loose. The ships are buffeted and Hotdog and several other pilots almost immediately lose their ships. As time progresses all the Raptors re-link with their partners except Hotdog. He can’t find his transport and they are out of time. Adama informs them they the have reached their maximum exposure and orders the next jump. Apollo relays that order and Hotdog begs for more time. The Raptors and their partners start popping out and Hotdog gives one last quick scan and curse and winks out leaving the Adriatic behind.

We jump forward to trip four. This time Kat can’t find her ship and they have to leave it behind. When she lands on the Galactica we see that pilots are taking a beating. Hotdog is puking and another pilot gets carried off his ship. Kat looks like death warmed over and Apollo, who is giving a briefing, sounds like he just finished eating glass, or like Whezey from the Jeffersons. You remember that show.  Now according to Apollo they just got eight ships through losing one. Which to me suggests that nine pilots are needed, if so why do they keep using the same nine over and over again. Wouldn’t it be safer to rotate pilots, since they using Viper pilots anyway they should have plenty, although as we learn later from Tigh whether you are in the Raptor or in the ship you are getting a pretty decent dose of radiation.

Tigh in the next scene informs Adama that the last batch of passengers kicked up a ruckus. ‘Could you describe the ruckus?’ if you are over 25 you should know that movie reference. He also said they expected to get fed immediately upon arriving at the other side of the radiation field. “like there is a chef and diner waiting.” Adama “is it true that they are eating paper?” Tigh “nope, paper shortage.” Heh. Adama and Tigh laugh completely out of proportion to the actual humor of that joke, but it’s really just a tension releaser. In the landing bay Starbuck who looks pretty good in comparison to the other pilots sees Kat and her mystery man fighting on a catwalk. She frowns and clicks her pen.

On the Basestar Three and Baltar discuss her suicides. He divines that she sees the faces of the other five Cylons when she resurrects. He hopes that his will be one of the faces of the five. That would make him a hero, not a traitor. Screw that, he’s not a Cylon and he is a traitor. I do think its cool that even the Cylons don’t know who the other five models are. I don’t get how, but I like it. Three pulls out some Picasso like drawings of the images she sees when she resurrects but they could be anybody. Hell they are so obscure they could be anything. Later Baltar and Three visit the Cylon who is part of the Baseship (Hybrid). She is ranting in fragmented sentences. Baltar reaches down into the goo that surrounds her and she spring up grabbing his hand. She says, "Find the hand that lies in the shadow of the light. In the eye of the husband of the eye of the cow." I, of course say… ‘wha wha what?’ Fortunately Baltar and Three are smarter than me and they deduce that the Hybrid was talking about the Eye of Jupiter. It will make more sense next episode.

Back on the Galactica, Enzo, the mystery man, is chatting up a girl. Again flirting is not on your list of things to do when starving. Plus if you haven’t eaten your breath stinks, so as close as they were talking their breath should have been knocking the other out. Starbuck calls him by name and the girl scatters. Hmm, how Starbuck knows this guy is also curious, but they don’t go into that. Without further dialogue we see Starbuck being informed by Kat how she took the name of some who died during the holocaust to get her through the Viper background checks. Apparently she was a drug runner and Enzo was her supplier. Starbuck says that drug runners may have been how the humanoid Cylons got from the outer colonies to the capital. She says that Kat could have helped the Cylons destroy the colony. She stops short of calling her a traitor but instead says she lied her way into the company of good people. She also brings up the point that the Admiral thinks she’s smart. Which really explains why she is so pissed. Kat is now the Admiral’s favorite and she wants to knock her down. Kat begs for an opportunity to tell the Admiral herself and Starbuck sneers at her.

Kat stares in the mirror following her confrontation with Starbuck. She brushes her hair with her fingers and a few clumps fall out. She then looks down at her radiation badge and notes that it’s completely black. In a series of quick clips separated by Kat walking around her Raptor stroking it’s hull. We see her meeting up with Enzo and getting her freak on, sneaking in the pilot’s locker room and swapping her black radiation badge for Helo’s less dark one, then finally a clip of her with the other pilots marching to the flight line. People you don’t have to watch as much television as I do to know what all those scenes mean.

Anyways on the final trip we are back in the radiation field. Again Kat seems to have lost her charge. This time it is worse because the radiation has warped the hull of the Galactica and she needs to jump now. Adama orders all ships to jump immediately and they all pop out aside from Kat. Starbuck is the first to notice that Kat hasn’t jumped. We see Kat continuing her search for the missing transport as the crew of the Galactica hold vigil. Kat’s eyes go glassy as a ship seems to appear in front of her and then fades away. She breaks into a barely perceptible smile as we cut back to the Galactica. Kat and the missing transport appear on the Galactica’s dradis and Kat reports mission completed. The pilots, Adama, and Tigh huddle behind a radiation shield as Kat stumbles out of her Raptor. They break into applause, as is their wont and Kat raises her hands much like Rocky then collapses.

In the sickbay, Kat has called for Starbuck. She wants to make amends and Starbuck apologizes for her comments. She says everybody is stuck somewhere. She also offers Kat a vial of sleeping pills, “enough, to you know, so take them if you want.” Ouch. Starbuck runs off to be replaced by Adama. He goes into a speech and promotes her to CAG. Kat comments that “you know I’m not getting out of here.” Yeah he knows, we all know. She also tries to tell him about her dirty past, but he stops her. “I know all I need to.” He also surprises her by staying until the end. When we see him again he walks to the flight roster and pulls Apollo’s name from the CAG spot. He replaces it with Kat’s name and the pilots stand in the background in solemn reverence. After the ceremony Starbuck places Kat’s photo on the wall of lost souls. See ya Kat we knew ya, but would have liked to know you better.

 Overall the episode was an A-

Acting: A-, Wonderful performances all around aside from Enzo who I forgive because his lines sucked and his character was stereotypically one-dimensional. Luciana Carro was a tad over the top during her confrontation with Sackhoff but she had to establish a near suicidal drive. Ultimately her death was her act of contrition for a tainted past, which I feel her present more than made up for. . 

Plot: A, There were some very intentional attempts to pull at the heart. Adama calling Kat the daughter he never had (which I guess he says to all the girls), the changing of the CAG, but I bit on most of them. Kat having to die was a little tough, but on the other hand this is war and people tend to die. First Billy, then Ellen, and now Kat, I wonder who is next.

Action/Episode Energy: B+, Nice energy, there was some very odd editing with Enzo and so the flow wasn’t perfect. There wasn’t any combat but there was some real drama in regard to losing the ships and people falling down ill and starving.