Occupation and Precipice By Luke Hung

The new incarnation of Battlestar Galactica in this two-hour season premiere demonstrates why it is an award winning show. It combines the social conscious of the original Star Trek incorporating current dramatic events, flipping them about and trying to foster understanding; and the gritty, dirty, dramatic impact of shows like NYPD Blue or Hill Street Blues. No one in this show is clean and pure and most are so full of human weakness that the audience is left to wonder about how humanity survives. These episodes are what is good in BSG, the human drama with a military Sci-Fi flair, I hope they don’t let it go.

We open with multiple interspersed shots, Tigh in a Cylon version of Abu Ghraib prison, Ellen, getting her freak on with Cylon/Humanoid Cavil, Tyrol and Anders making a bomb, Starbuck getting served dinner, Roslyn praying, and Adama planning a military operation. Tigh looks a little worse for wear as he wears a dirty piece of gauze over one of his eyes as he uses a fingernail to make a hatch mark into his prison wall. Ellen post-intercourse asks when she is going to get what she wants and Starbuck hides a fork under her seat. Cavil, of Ellen humping, but not the one that was actually doing the humping, enters the Tigh’s cell and laughs mocking at Tigh for trying to keep track of his time in prison. He states that the Cylons screw with his calendar every time they remove him from the cell by erasing and placing different hatch marks on the wall. Well, that’s just mean. He also states that they are releasing him so that’s kind of nice, but Tigh lost an eye so that’s bad. Plus, Ellen had to bang Cavil, in a fairly graphic scene, to spring him. Actually she looks like she took a beating too, so who the hell know  how this “relationship” started. 

As the scenes continue to unfold, Tyrol and Anders blow up an unseen Cylon heavy bomber and Starbuck stabs the Cylon Leoben that was serving her dinner with the hidden fork. Right through the neck and you can see it poke out the other side if you look closely. Cool, a little less so, is the cold and detached way Kara later eats the dinner with her bloody hands. Its 134 days into the Cylon occupation and Roslin in reduced to being a re-capper for those new to the series, she basically explains the conclusion of last season and how there are now insurgents fighting a losing battle against the Cylons. She suggests that the insurgents need to strike at a non-resurrectable high profile target. She also tells of humans that have “joined” the Cylons as a police force and an unknown spy in Baltar’s high command that gives the insurgents valuable information.

The Cylons also seem to want to kill a high profile person as Cavil explains for the audience that the Cylons have captured New Caprica to bring the word of God to the faithless. He indicates since fear is an effective means of imposing God’s will, he suggests killing Baltar. Bringing a flat no from Caprica Six and a shocked protest from Baltar who was reading a book during the meeting. The Cylons later agree that since Baltar has been such a toady, that no one would care if they kill him so Cavil changes tacks and suggests “reducing the population to a more manageable number, say a thousand or so.” Ouch that’s cold. This scene is particular impressive as there are multiple versions of the same actor in the frame and the action just flows, there are occasions where the actor interrupts a duplicate of themselves to speak and it works seamlessly.

The latest bit of information from the spy is the security plans for the “police graduation,” which Tyrol picks up on his way home to Cally and their new born baby. Cally grouses that one day Tyrol won’t come back and he promises that won’t be the case. He and Anders reunites with Tigh who doesn’t even take a night off to get a little Ellen loving, but since she’s been with Cavil she’s probably tired. Tyrol mentions that they got a decent chance trying to cap Baltar, but they can’t guarantee no civilian casualties. “Frak that,” counters Tigh very bitterly, if you work with the Cylons you are not a civilian in his mind. Anders brings the conversation over to Starbuck who is reuniting with Leoben who has downloaded into a new body and he says she will one day fall in love with him. He walks upstairs and she runs out the front door right into prison bars. Come on like getting out would be that easy.

On the Galactica, Vipers and Raptors perform a joint exercise that seems to go poorly. Kat is the new CAG and Helo is the new XO of Galactica. They do in fact blow the operation and Helo decides that the pilots should return to base, but Adama vetoes the idea ordering that the pilots run the maneuver again for the seventeenth time this day.  Apollo overhears the order and calls Adama to argue the insanity of his father’s orders. Before they can get into deep dark name-calling there is a collision between two fighters and everyone gets the call to return to base.

Apollo not quite done bitching and moaning, visits Adama on the Galactica where he is told that he is weak and fat. He’s lost his edge and he a poor role model and leader. Well, that’s probably true, and the fat makeup on Bamber is awesome. He looks just like me in the mirror, aside from the fact when he gets home and takes off the makeup he looks like a male model and I still look like a beached whale. Meanwhile back on New Caprica, during a pyramid game Anders and Duck discuss their plan to detonate a bomb at the police graduation ceremony. Duck was a key player in the on-line video episodes, but if you didn’t watch them you have no idea who he is. Tyrol and Tigh argue about the ambiguous morality to ordering a suicide mission, but Tigh is resolute.

On the Galactica, Adama and Boomer chat in her cell, she is unchained and there are no guards about. She seems pretty comfortable for a prisoner. He confides that he doesn’t even know his son anymore and she is his closest confidant. Which is just sad, because he stole her baby and lied to her about it and we all know it’s going to blow up in both of their faces. It’s just a matter of when. In a mirrored conversation on the Pegasus, Apollo and Dee discuss his bitching out by Adama. Nice touch is watching Lee Adama scarf down food as he complains. Dee does the I’m not saying anything face, which any guy who has ever been in a relationship knows is the,  “you’re wrong, but I love you so I’m going to wait until you drag the negative thing I want to say out of me.” Dee apparently agrees that Apollo is weak, and soft, but not in the fat way he’s weak in the gutless way. Gee thanks hon, I knew there was a reason why I married you.

The insurgents get a package from their unknown source, who we later find out is Gaeta, on the jamming frequency. They get a signal though to a Raptor that is hanging off in deep space. There is a cut about five or six characters who all wordlessly express happiness and relief. Olmos kind of messes the moment up with his line “it will all be okay,” but I guess its too much to ask that they do something that important silently. Again Roslin gets a recapping job mentioning how there are 200 candidates at the police force graduation. Duck does a little praying and Gaeta finds out that Baltar has decided not to go to the graduation. Tigh chooses this moment to back off his suicide bombing idea enough to concede that if Baltar isn’t there, there is no reason to go through with the plan. Of course Gaeta and Tyrol miss each other by moments and Duck doesn’t find out in time to not blow himself to bits. Frankly it is a horrific explosion and everyone is lying unmoving on the ground.

Part Two:  Precipice

 

We open with Roslin in jail now. Well that was fast and she had nothing to do with the suicide bomber, but I would have had her in jail already anyways. Baltar is escorted into her cell and states that they should together condemn the bombing. He offers his protection for this joint statement. Baltar states that 33 people were killed in the explosion, which seems a little light to me considering how no one was even moving at the end of the last episode. She counters that desperate people do desperate things, Baltar suggests that she listen to her principles and has her released.

Simultaneously the Cylon have their Gestapo take a number of suspected insurgents into custody. Anders, Tigh, and Tyrol miss the sweep as they are in their bunker communicating with the Galactica’s Raptor. However, Cally is taken and a crying baby is left in her wake. The New Caprica Police force shots are done in the night vision look that is so common on CNN now a days. In the bunker, Tyrol bitches to Tigh that it’s wrong that he wants to bomb the marketplace, which is full of innocents on his next attack, and he questions whose side are they on. Tigh counters that they are on destruction’s side and they are here to lay waste to all. Ahh, Tigh your bitterness is uplifting as it is sour.

On the Galactica they are having a planning session. They learn that Tigh has 1,150 armed effectives and the Cylon’s have removed the launch keys from all the grounded transports. Some suggestions are banded about on how the help the insurgents, but Apollo shoots most of them down from a corner of the room. Kat spews some venom in his direction and ultimately they decide that the best thing for all is that they send a liaison down with a few marines and help the insurgents get the keys for themselves.

In the next scene, Tyrol bitches at Gaeta on how they took Cally. He wants some information or help, but Gaeta has none to give. Tyrol basically calls Gaeta a traitor and storms off. He later bumps into Jammer, who actually is a traitor, and talks about how they are going to “string up” all the collaborators starting with Gaeta. Jammer tries to make some excuses for the police force, but Tyrol isn’t having any of that. He makes a knot tying gesture with his hands and Jammer visibility gulps, yeah I feel ya.

Elsewhere, Leoben brings in a young girl into his “happy” home with Starbuck. He informs Kara that the little girl is her daughter from when they stole her ovaries. The girl looks older than one to me and when he introduces her to Kara she says hi. That’s a little quick for a one year old and actually since she should have been in the “womb” for nine months of that year that’s a little temporal problem.

On the Pegasus, Lee learns that Adama is going to dispatch a recon team with Boomer in command. He is especially concerned about Sharon and despite Adama’s good points, that the Cylons can’t tell that she is on their side, and that he trusts her. Lee continues to vociferously object. He counters that the civilians on New Caprica is an unreasonable gamble. They should protect the 2,000 civilians they have now and not go traipsing off after the 35,000 they left behind, much like they did when the colonies were destroyed. Adama confesses that Lee might be right but he can’t leave so many humans behind again. He orders Lee to take the Pegasus and the civilian fleet to continue the search for Earth as he takes the Galactica back to New Caprica.

Leoben plays with Kacey as Starbuck watches from behind the webbing of the house’s staircase. Leoben walks out of the home leaving Starbuck alone with Kacey. Frankly that is one hell of a risk, Starbuck has shown a proclivity for killing just about everything. We cut out to Roslin who orders Tigh to stop the suicide bombings. He calls her a collaborator, which earns him a slap. She apologizes, but he doesn’t care about the slap, he says dead is dead, whether its by a suicide bomb or in a Viper.

We later see Jammer loading captives into a truck, he talks to one of the Boomers and informs her that Cally was taken prisoner. Boomer wanders into Cally’s cell and Cally spits “that she wishes she had a gun.” Boomer seems to want some sort of forgiveness, but Cally just wants out. She curses Boomer a little and crouches in the corner. Back to Starbuck who refuses to interact with the child identified as Kacey. She runs into the bathroom and she is in there only a moment when there is a scream. She leaves the bathroom to find that Kacey has fallen and can’t get up. Okay, she’s fallen and there is a puddle of blood under her. Now that is one clumsy baby. The child is fairly seriously injured as she lies in a hospital bed and Leoben and Starbuck hold vigil.

In another sector of the colony another suicide bomber blows up a power substation. 23 Cylons kind of killed, the brain trust of Cylons argue in Colonial One what to do. They seem pretty pissed, but honestly since they just reincarnate, I don’t get why they are so angry. Ultimately they decide that they should terminate the two hundred suspected insurgents they captured. They try to force Baltar to sign the death warrants, which he refuses to do showing some guts for a few moments until they shoot Caprica Six. Well, she’ll be back in a few hours but Baltar won’t if they shoot him, which is exactly what they threaten. He goes into a fugue where he sees Holo-Six who encourages him to sign the order to save his life. When he returns from his fantasy land the order is signed.

In a small ceremony on Galactica  Sharon Agathon is reinstated in the Colonial Fleet. It’s a sweet moment, and during a conversation with Helo she promises that she won’t betray the fleet. Back on New Caprica, Ellen gives Cavil another go, in something that falls in the category of things I didn’t need to know, Ellen used the twist instead of the twirl in their tryst. And that’s called alliteration people. Cavil wants information about the insurgency, Ellen tries to deny any knowledge, but Cavil makes it clear he knows that Tigh is a leader. He threatens that Tigh will lose more than an eye if Ellen doesn’t comply.

And in the very next scene, Tigh, Tyrol, and Anders are meeting to coordinate the rendezvous between Galactica and the insurgency. They also find out that Sharon is the liaison officer Tigh grouses some more, but he is quickly calmed. Ellen walks in and offers to burn the maps of the rendezvous site, but instead pockets them. Yup this is going to be bad. On Colonial One Gaeta asks if Baltar signed the order, which he confesses he did. Now on the trucks the rearrested Roslin meets Zarek who apparently was imprisoned throughout the entire occupation.

In a bunch of quick cuts, Boomer and two Raptors jump to New Caprica and she and the marines meet the insurgents. They talk for a few moments about their plans when Boomer hears something, they try to move to cover and some Centurions open fire. They hit a few rebels, finally a Cylon that can shoot straight. Then in the hospital Starbuck prays over her daughter and when she opens her eyes Starbuck reaches to hold the hand of Leoben. Now over to the trucks the 200 prisoners are driven to an open field. Laura confesses to Zarek that she tried to steal the election and he says he wishes that she had gone through with it. The prisoners are dropped off and Jammer uses this opportunity to release Cally telling her to run and not look back. At this moment a half dozen Centurions march over a rise and raise their weapons. We cut to Cally who runs manically and during her run we hear weapon fire.

Overall the episode was an A-

Acting: B, In most respects it was tough to give big acting points as the episodes moved very fast and were packed with short clips, but what was important was how there was no overacting. Heavy drama requires a light hand. The scene, dialogue, and circumstance need to be smoothly interwoven and it was. Douglas and Callis were a little heavy in their scenes but Baltar is a heavy character who is drawn in broad strokes and Tyrol had to demonstrate a lot of rage so I’m not going to go overboard with them. I liked Hogan and McClure a lot in these episodes.

Plot: A, Again as I said in the introduction for these episodes the reversal of the current political landscape and the switch of suicide bombing as a viable technique for our heroes is very poignant. They also started a lot of plot threads for the upcoming season, and I can’t wait for the whole Sharon thing to come a tumbling down.  

Action/Episode Energy: A, Nice smooth and fast. Its amazing the incredible tempo they carried with absolutely no combat whatsoever. This is a real quality episode all around.