Battlestar Galactica: Resistance

April 11th, 2008

Season 2, Episode 4

Synopsis

On Galactica, Tigh harshly asks Chief why he protected Boomer for so long, wondering if he’s a Cylon. In the brig, Chief tells Boomer he will kill her if she comes near him.

Callie urges Baltar to help Chief, threatening to reveal what happened to Crashdown if he doesn’t. Baltar tells Tigh he wants to use the Cylon detector to retest Chief’s blood.

Baltar visits Chief in the brig to gather a blood sample. He injects a fast-acting poison instead. With Chief dying, Baltar asks Boomer to reveal the number of Cylons hidden in the fleet. She says there are eight. Baltar administers an antidote.

Meanwhile, Dualla tells Lee that the fleet is protesting Tigh’s declaration of martial law. Various container ships are unwilling to give Galactica their supplies. Tigh angrily dispatches marines. They fire upon civilians during a near-riot over cargo.

Lee and other military helm an audacious plan to free Roslin and reinstate her as president. Billy drops out, fearing insurgency and civil war. Lee and Roslin escape Galactica via raptor.

Tigh threatens to shoot the raptor down, but relents, letting it land at Cloud Nine. He asks Gaeta if he noticed any scrambled communications. Gaeta covers for Dualla, who aided the escape. Lee and Roslin are met by Zarek, who has enough underground connections to hide them amid the civilian fleet.

Tigh has to admit to Adama — who is finally well enough to get up — that things haven’t gone very well in his absence.

Callie shoots Boomer as she is transported from her cell. Boomer dies in Chief’s arms.

On Caprica, a band of human survivors attack Helo and Starbuck. They come to a standoff, and after initial suspicion they decide they’re all humans and can team up. The survivors are a “pyramid” athletic team that survived the attack on Caprica. One is named Anders.

Thoughts

This episode was very entertaining. The initial scene of Tigh accusing Chief of being a Cylon now comes across as slightly humorous, now that we know both are Cylons themselves. Sharon’s death also has additional poignance, especially her drop of blood hitting the floor paralleling Chief’s — they are of the same blood. We also see Anders (also a Cylon) for the first time on Caprica. Damn there are a lot of Cylons here!

Also interesting is how Lee’s plan to free Roslin was aided in silent but important ways on the part of Dualla, Gaeta, and the guard just outside the brig.

The marines’ altercation with civilians recalls the movie Razor, and the hard-line military clamp-down on democracy when the Galactica meets the Pegasus later this season. The Galactica benefits from shepherding a civilian fleet and its democratic leaders, as they keep the military power in check. But judging by the fleet’s reaction to Tigh’s martial law and the home-grown military subversion (and to a lesser degree, Callie, Chief, and Baltar’s “mini-rebellion” on Kobol) — ignoring the people’s will leads to revolt.

Callie is quite mentally traumatized following her experience on Kobol, and looking for someone to blame, literally takes out her frustrations on Boomer.

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