Battlestar Galactica: Daybreak (1)

March 14th, 2009

Season 4, Episode 19

Synopsis

Flashback to Caprica City, before the fall. Baltar rides in a limo with Caprica Six, Roslin is visited by her sisters, and Lee pays a visit to Starbuck and his brother Zak’s apartment.

Baltar receives an emergency call from his elderly father’s caretaker, who has just quit. Baltar’s father mocks him, and Baltar asks Caprica Six to leave. Some policemen inform Roslin that her family has died in a car accident. In shock, she bathes herself beneath the spray of a public fountain. Later, Baltar returns to his home with a brunette and finds Caprica Six there. She has placed his father in a pleasant nursing home.

Lee discusses dismantling Galactica with a crew member. Starbuck tries to match the musical notes of Hera’s song with numbers. Chief (who is in the brig) tells Helo that Cylons can’t be trusted.

Aboard the Cylon colony, Hera covers pieces of paper with dots. Cavil tells the others to prepare the child for medical experiments.

Admiral Adama runs into Hot Dog who is pulling photographs down from the memorial wall. Adama sees Hera’s photograph. He decides to ask Anders about the location of the Colony. Anders has a flashback to his time as a pyramid athlete and his quest for the beautiful moment where action meets reaction.

Batlar asks Lee for government representation for his many followers. Lee declines, saying Baltar is only interested in regaining power and has never performed a selfless act. He asks Baltar to name one self-sacrificing moment. Baltar doesn’t reply.

In a flashback, Lee returns home, drunk, to find a pigeon trapped in his apartment, which he chases with a broom.

Admiral Adama calls the Galactica crew to the hangar deck, announces a suicide mission to rescue Hera from the Cylon colony, and asks for volunteers. People filter one way or the other, including a weak Roslin who has left her hospital bed. All the major characters (including the Final Five) volunteer, including Caprica Six. Baltar is noticeably absent.

A raptor goes on a recon mission to observe the cylon Colony. It is near a singularity (similar to a black hole) surrounded by debris. Due to the gravitational forces, there is only one location where Galactica can jump. Adama tells the others they have work to do.

Thoughts

Despite the noticeable lack of answers, I liked this episode.

The flashbacks to “before the fall” take us back to the miniseries, and served as reminders that the characters we’ve come to know and love for their heroics and self-sacrifice were originally just ordinary individuals. Under extraordinary and often tragic circumstances, ordinary people can (and sometimes must) rise to the occasion and be better than they thought possible. Tragedy was visually symbolized by the falling rain and fountain on Roslin’s face, and Lee’s aspirations for something better visually symbolized by the pigeon he can’t catch, that moves skyward toward the light. The blinding light spills in from windows, emphasizing the natural sunlight missing from years of being on spacecraft. The light itself could hope, or the world beyond all these characters are headed for.

Most personally notable was Baltar’s flashback, where he demonstrates his typical selfishness, but the six model tries to guide him toward something better, through caring for his father. In the present day, Lee finally calls Baltar on his perpetual self-preservation, asking him to name one time he ever performed a truly heroic act. Unsurprisingly, he can’t name anything. This point is hammered home when Baltar is offered yet another chance for redemption — volunteer for Admiral Adama’s “one way” rescue mission. All the main characters volunteer except Baltar.

But of course we must remember the Opera House prophecy. It ends with a Number 6 model and Baltar with Hera. Will Baltar finally sacrifice himself to shepherd in a future Cylon / Human hybrid future? Or will Galactica go for the painful, cynical ending — all the “good” humans perish (remember, Starbuck as the harbinger of death?), leaving the future in the hands of the most self-centered human (there must be a reason why his followers loaded up on guns, and if the Galactica goes, surely the fleet stays behind) plus his Cylon lover, a monotheistic “better half,” trying to keep him from frakking things up? A machine more empathetic than a human because it was programmed with a belief in God is a very bold statement.

There’s also a comment on what it means to be human, through the illogical suicide mission. Through insurmountable odds, through tragedy, through the impossible — the principal characters still manage to see some semblance of hope and purpose. This might be a one way trip, but it makes sense that many of them would volunteer. It’s stupid, but that is humanity — on some basic level they believe they can pull it off and live to see another day.

Then on the more spectacular side — we’re set up for something we haven’t seen on the show in quite some time — a huge frakking space battle. It’s a fitting way to end things — the destruction of Galactica itself. Just as the show ends, so does the ship it’s named after.

Next Episode: Daybreak Part 2
Previous Episode: Islanded In A Stream Of Stars