Exodus Part I By Luke Hung

We begin exactly where the last episode left off. The prisoners are given an opportunity to “stretch their legs,” as a pretense to get them off the trucks and into the open for the Centurions that are coming over a rise to blast them to hell. Cally gets released by Jammer who tells her to “run and not look back.” She takes this advice to heart and runs like a freak in a horror movie.

We jump back in time to see Ellen help Saul put a bandage over the gaping hole that once was his eye. Ellen looks as if she is going to tell Tigh about her treachery, stealing the map and giving it to the Cylons, but Tyrol rushes in and tells them about the assassination list and how Cally is on it. O.K. Cally is his wife and important to him, but lets be fair, maybe he should mention that the current Vice President and the former President are also on this list. Tyrol is babbling in barely rational sentences and Tigh frustrated by his mania takes the list from him. He quickly assesses the situation and determines that if they move quickly they could beat the Cylons to the termination site and free the prisoners. Great plan, plus it means I don’t have to learn any new character names.

Also back in time, we see Sharon and her marine contingent approaching the rendezvous site. The sergeant is not pleased with the location as she feels it’s too exposed. She mentions that the site can get enfilade fire from three separate locations. In a way this is a nice touch demonstrating the difference in the tactical know how between a career soldier and a partisan. On the other hand the conversation between Sharon and the sergeant was very stereotypical so it’s a wash. So in two fairly brief retroactive scenes Moore removes all the tension in the “cliffhanger” from last episode. I guess I have to reiterate I don’t like retroactive or flashback scenes. I think it’s a cheat, and an artificial way of creating tension by withholding information from the audience that the protagonists have. We are watching them not the other way around. We should have the same amount or more information than the characters. The only exceptions are information that was never important until that moment or keeping us blind to what the antagonists know. Obvioiusly its virtually impossible to watch something if all the villains plans and knowledge is presented to you.

I think they could have shown both of these scenes and still had some tension because no one would know for sure if Tyrol made it on time or if the marines were able to get into position on the ambush. But now we know that in both cases everything is going be to okay because the scenes had to be hidden. If they had no impact they wouldn’t be a need to conceal them. Anyways to attempt to create anxiety, Cally is serendipitously running directly into the line of fire of Tyrol’s team, who indeed made it to the execution site just in the nick of time. Tyrol runs off to get Cally out of the way informing his troops to fire on the count of five. Honestly this scene made little sense because Tyrol’s group is on a rise and Cally ran down a hill. Ignoring that or assuming that she then ran up another rise, which would be stupid cause then she could be seen by the oncoming Centurions, Tyrol’s group could move the five feet it would take to get Cally out of there line of fire in much less time then the five seconds the Chief needed to tackle her out of the way.

Long story short, Centurions get deactivated, most of the prisoners are freed and of note Roslin tried to save Zarek by pulling down the depression that Cally ran into. As Tyrol’s unit sweeps over the convoy they leave a Cavil unit alive to bleed slowly to death on the dirty roadway. Not far off, Tyrol demonstrates the motto that ‘loose lips sinks ships’ and tells everyone within listening distance that the Galactica is coming. Considering that they just left a humanoid Cylon to bleed to death a few feet away makes you think that he would be more aware. Elsewhere, Sharon’s marines see the Centurions moving into position against the insurgents. They wait a moment or two, just enough time to get some people killed before they blow the Cylons to bits. I think they could have moved a little quicker and saved everyone, but whatever. Rescued, the insurgents search the dead humanoid Cylons that were with the ambush party they find Anders’ hand written map. It takes him all of one second to conclude that Ellen sold them out. Luuucccy, you in big trouble.

In a dream sequence, Xena warrior Cylon sees herself carrying a baby, presumably Hera and in another bed we find out that Baltar can’t seem to get himself to attention to service Caprica Six. Well anyone who has been following my recaps knows that’s a good thing. Every time Baltar has sex something horrible happens so his inability to have sex means something good is just around the corner. To cover his impotence, Baltar breaks into his pity me routine, “look I signed the death warrant for 200 hundred people.” Yeah well, if you had a sack in the first place you would have died before signing anything like that, so cry me a river. Cap Six isn’t having any of this either, I kind of like her because she is far less empathetic than his fantasy version. She basically tells him that he is pathetic and she has given up on him, which, if true, is very bad for him because she is the main reason why the Cylons haven’t killed him yet.

In Starbuck’s little prison she is talking to her “daughter” in a fairly maternal way. The kid reaches out and holds Starbucks hand and you can see the ice melting off Starbuck’s heart. Kind of like the Grinch when he heard all the Whos in Whoville singing Christmas carols even after he stole all their presents. Her heart grew three times in size that day. We also see Xena warrior Cylon visiting a human oracle, who in the midst of a drug haze tells her that Hera lives. Why, oh, why would any human help a Cylon without some form of inducement? I mean it’s one thing if Xena came with drugs and bribed her into it, but spontaneously without a threat or a prompt of some sort, come on.

On the Galactica we see Helo rallying the troops on the Galactica. They do some religious prayer that requires a box of salt and some hugging and whatever. The real scene is Apollo and Adama saying goodbye. Adama pretends that he thinks that he and the Galactica will rendezvous with the Pegasus in eighteen hours and Apollo pretends to believe him. Apollo attempts to muster the words to say goodbye and Adama cuts him short, “don’t make me cry on my own hanger deck.” An absolute throwaway line, but the difference is the acting, if you watch the scene it’s touching.

Xena, still confused by her visit to the psychic, bumps into Cottle who is covered in blood. Xena asks whether or not it’s Cylon, which it is. She also pets the dog that is the signal for the secret messages between Gaeta and Tyrol. That dog has gotten more screen time than Billy did in the entire first and half of the second season. I think the scene is there for two reasons, to give Xena and Cottle some extra screen time for her to question him about Hera, but more importantly to demonstrate that there are different levels of complicity among the human population. Even Cottle, a popular secondary character, is performing life saving surgery on the Cylons.

On Colonial One, the newly reincarnated Cavil is complaining about being left out in the sun to die. He states that each rebirth is more painful than the past and his tale of woe enrages the Cylon humanoids that surround him. Baltar, still in self-pity mode, tells them that he knew the occupation wasn’t going to work. The Cylons argue that if they humans will not fall in line willingly, maybe then they should just nuke the city from orbit and that would solve all their problems. Hmm, I don’t think that was the option Baltar was hoping they would come up with.

In a nondescript tent, Anders is briefing Sharon about where everything is in the city. He also suggests she doesn’t get too close to the locals, because a lot of people wouldn’t mind killing a Humanoid Cylon. Yup, that’s a good safety tip. He also asks her to keep an eye out for Starbuck while she is tooling around the Cylon base of operations. Just as Sharon gets ready to leave to search for the ship launch keys, Ellen gets dragged in and put in the secret bunker under the tent. That can’t be good news for her. Anders later speaks to the Roslin who informs him that he must keep Mya and the baby safe and out of Cylon hands. He wonders why Mya and the baby are so important and Roslin says something cryptic about the shape of the future. Anders wonders if worse come to worse should he kill Mya and the baby to prevent their capture. Roslin doesn’t really answer that either saying, “don’t let it come to that.” And that’s called passing the buck people.

A few transition scenes, Xena eyeballing a baby that is about Hera’s age, a coordination meeting where Roslin finds out that the Pegasus is not assigned to the rescue operation, and Anders passing the buck, of protecting Mya and Hera, to his “two best shooters.” Who may not be the best people to assign as protection. In the secret service, shooting is not the primary goal, running and throwing their body in front of bullets is. Ellen takes this moment to escape from her guards long enough to break into this little meeting alerting the one eyed Tigh to something strange going on. When Tigh questions his wife’s incarceration, Anders and an extra bust out the map and connect the dots for him. Tigh then looks accusingly at his wife. Ellen says she can explain and says she did it because Cavil said he would kill Tigh.

Boomer enters a Cylon bunker and accesses some sort light based computer interface. A moment later she enters an empty file room asks for draw 378 aloud, which just pops open to her voice. That’s called crappy security people. The Cylons know Boomer’s probably alive because she was killed over the course of the several months they were able to observe the Galactica fleet and they know she wants to be a collaborator. Also given the “different” personalities of the models and the possibility of capture it is possible that a Cylon willingly or unwillingly will attempt to get the launch keys. On the other hand it’s somewhat understandable to believe that the draw is safe. The only way to get into the base and get the information is to pass security guard and be a Cylon. Also who would actually believe that Adama would send Boomer to infiltrate. Anyways in the middle of getting the launch keys Boomer is surprised by Xena, who takes a moment to figure out that Boomer is the “one.” She informs Boomer that Hera lives and the humans lied to her. She offers to find Hera and together they can hold her in their arms. Boomer thinks it over for a few moments but ultimately is less than convinced. Oh well, Xena’s intuition and accuracy is repaid by multiple bullets to the kneecaps. I guess the rationale is go for the knees so she can’t escape and won’t download, but, ouch. Trust me, that hurts a lot. Tony I promise next week I’ll pay the whole five grand with interest.

In the next scene we see Boomer talking to Tyrol about Hera’s ashes. I guess she was a little more convinced than she let on, but Tyrol honestly states that he spread ashes into space and Boomer half smiles. Oh, that is so going to blow up in everyone’s face. On the Galactica we see Adama being alerted to Sharon’s recovery of the launch keys. He slams his fist into the table and it’s on, it’s so on. He comes to the bridge and gives a speech that is a slight rip of Shakespeare’s Henry V and the war-drums beat in the background and the Galactica prepares to jump into next week.

Overall the episode was a B

Acting: B-, A B minus is a good grade. I was impressed with most of the performances and I really couldn’t find any bad ones. On the other hand there wasn’t too many great ones. Hogan was the strongest, Vernon and Park were the runner-ups but everyone was nice. I think that there is too much diversity for a truly great performance to stand out. Every single main character had lines and most of the secondary ones too and that just spread it out too much.

Plot: B, Exodus was an episode designed to set up the next and tie ups some lose ends of the prior, as such little got done with the exception of the recovery of the launch keys. It did its purpose well, but little else aside from the Xena baby hunt element. Which to me is just annoying, but Moore is very interested in injecting the mystical and divine elements in the show.

Action/Episode Energy: B, Another smooth episode. The tempo wasn’t quite as fast as the prior two and certain won’t be as energy packed as the next, but it was what it was.