Battlestar Galactica: Sometimes A Great Notion

January 17th, 2009

Season 4, Episode 11

Disclaimer: Spoilers! The posts covering the last ten episodes will undoubtedly be full of spoilers and are intended for discussion after watching the associated episode. If you’re not up to speed, look away now.

Synopsis

Earth is revealed to be a destroyed, uninhabitable world. Disappointment is evident on the faces of everyone in the landing party. Upon returning to Galactica, Roslin is unable to address the large group of people waiting on the flight deck.

Excavation reveals a mix of Cylon and human corpses. Tigh says they are all Cylons – the thirteenth tribe was made up of Cylons that looked human.

On the planet, Chief touches a shadow on a brick wall and has a flashback to Earth at the time of its destruction. He is dressed in ordinary clothes on a busy city street, looking at fresh fruit, when a nuclear explosion goes off. Later, Anders picks up the neck of a guitar and recalls playing All Along The Watchtower.

Starbuck and Leoben find a crashed Viper with a corpse still in the cockpit. The dog tags are Starbuck’s – she has found her own body. Disturbed, Starbuck recalls the hybrid calling her the “harbinger of death.” Leoben backs away, frightened, as Starbuck asks him, “what am I?” She later burns the dead body in a funeral pyre.

Adama finds Roslin burning her copy of the Book of Pythia. She wants to cease her cancer treatments, saying she was wrong about Earth and feels guilty for leading humanity on this pointless quest.

Lee asks Dee out for a drink. They reminisce of better times and kiss. She returns to her locker, a bit tipsy, and briefly chats with Gaeta. She takes off her wedding ring, pulls out a gun, and shoots herself. Later, aboard Colonial One, Lee tells Starbuck about Dee’s suicide.

Saddened by the discovery of Earth and Dee’s suicide, a drunk Admiral Adama feels he has let everyone down. He enters Tigh’s quarters with a pistol and a bottle of liquor, calling Tigh a machine with no guts, and mockingly recounts Ellen’s promiscuous behavior. Guns are pointed at heads. At the last moment, Tigh relents.

Adama recalls a childhood memory of trapping foxes against a river. When cornered, they would jump in the water and keep swimming even as they drifted out to sea to certain death. Tigh calls this stupid and prods Adama back into leading the disillusioned remnants of humanity.

Admiral Adama and Tigh return to the bridge. Hoshi is told to take over Dee’s post. Adama addresses the fleet, acknowledging the pain of discovering a destroyed Earth, but presenting a new mission to find a new home, just as their ancestors must have thousands of years ago.

On Earth, Tigh tells everyone to return to their ships. Number 3 contemplates staying behind, wanting end this circle of destruction.

Tigh wanders to the shore and walks into the water. He has a flashback to being in a bank during the moment of destruction, and sees Ellen buried beneath some wreckage. She says “Everything’s in place. We’ll be reborn again, together.” The memory is broken as a wave crashes over Tigh, and he says “Ellen, you’re the fifth.”

Thoughts

Big thumbs up to Dee’s suicide – totally unexpected. But it’s past time major characters started dying. I was sad but also glad to see Callie go, and this revives my secret hope to have the show end with just Admiral Adama in a rowboat amid the shambles of space wreckage. Her death underlines the disappointment felt by the entire fleet upon finding the destroyed Earth.

Starbuck’s discovery implies that she is a clone. Perhaps this will point back to her stay in the Cylon hospital on Caprica.

My favorite scene was Adama and Tigh’s intense face off amid guns and alcohol. Dee’s suicide moments before added to the tension. The fox story and Tigh’s prodding inspires Adama to get his act together and return to leading the fleet.

The fifth Cylon: Ellen was definitely not whom I expected, but on further pondering, it makes almost too much sense. It’s worth recalling the episode Tigh Me Up Tigh Me Down which introduced Ellen. Her discovery is mysterious – alongside a jumping raider – and the episode ends with Adama demanding Baltar test her to see if she’s a Cylon – Baltar coyly kept the results private, just as he did Sharon’s. Ellen was also part of the resistance on New Caprica along with the rest of the Final Five.

For extra sauce, one can refer to that Entertainment Weekly “Last Supper” photograph and see how everyone is paired in couples. Lee and Chief are alone because Dee and Callie are dead. So the missing spot (who is supposed to be the last Cylon) can clearly be filled by Ellen, as a partner to Tigh.

Still, the reveal personally felt off because Ellen is not a major character, and resurrecting a dead character seems a bit of a cheat.

That bit with the final Cylon aside, I really liked this episode. Battlestar Galactica shows all too human reactions to situations beyond their control. Here, we dealt with disappointment on a grand scale upon the discovery of a destroyed Earth – when everything one hopes for turns out to be unfulfilled. It’s shown most bluntly by Dee’s suicide, but we also see Roslin’s guilt, and depression washing over the entire crew. At moments of crisis such as this, a leader must take charge and re-instill the masses with purpose. Adama’s speech acknowledges the disappointment and presented the fleet with a new purpose to strive for.

Next Episode: A Disquiet Follows My Soul
Previous Episode: Revelations

TV Shows: Battlestar Galactica

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