Season 3, Episode 11

Okay… this was a “frakking” awesome episode (after several blah ones). Several plot themes came to a head and collided, creating an intense experience, with so much stuff going on that I found it hard to keep track - of let alone describe. No one subject got enough screen time, leaving me wanting more.

Everything culminates around the algae planet from last episode, that the Galactica fleet traveled to in order to replace a spoiled food supply. The Cylons arrive there in hopes that they can find the “Eye of Jupiter” which will point the path to Earth. Chief finds the “Temple of Five” left by the original 13th tribe which presumably holds this item, although we don’t find out exactly what it is.

The Cylons are armed with three four base stars. Also on board are Baltar and baby Hera. The Cylons make their intentions clear: if the Eye of Jupiter is brought up from the surface, the Cylons will destroy everyone and everything in order to get it.

Meanwhile, it’s discovered that the planet’s sun is about to go nova. Gaeta feels there are some religious overtones - how the odds are so remote that this could happen at the exact moment both the Cylons and humans find the planet with a temple on it - that there must be something preordained or a higher power at work here.

Baltar and Number Three decide they must personally to go to the temple to solve some personal mysteries of their own: who the unseen five Cylons are, their relationship to this “Temple of Five”, and whether Baltar is a Cylon. Number Three doesn’t want Number 6 to participate, and so Baltar betrays yet another - this time his lover and muse - for totally self-serving reasons. I love to hate that guy.

What else: Athena finds out Hera is alive, and Roslin was responsible for the deception. Meanwhile, Starbuck and Apollo are having clandestine meet ups.

I’m sure I’m leaving stuff out, but it all ended with an appropriately tense situation as the Cylons launch a bunch of Raiders down to the planet, where the crew (including Lee and Starbuck), communication-less and unaware of the impending fight, are in a state of confusion, pulling guns on each other. Adama arms a bunch of nuclear warheads in preparation to nuke the planet to ward the Cylons off. Nobody - even Tigh and Roslin - knows if he’s bluffing or not, especially after the episode Hero where he sacrificed a pilot in order to save himself.

You might be detecting a theme of backstabbing and distrust. Well, that’s one way to make for an exciting half-season cliffhanger. The next episode is weeks away, and there are less clues than ever about how any of these confused characters will react under the impending pressure. Even Number Six may sell her Cylon brethren out as the jilted, odd woman out of the Cylon threesome.

One thing we can be sure of is with the planet going nova, Galactica will have to make a hasty escape. I’m on board, once again.

Next Episode: Rapture (2)
Previous Episode: The Passage

TV Shows: Battlestar Galactica

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