BSG: Everybody Loves Baltar

3.13: "Taking A Break From All Your Worries"

Frack. Half of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA was good last night. The other half was trying. There was one thread that followed the Apollo-Starbuck-Dee-Anders infidelity drama, and then another that was all about Baltar being accused of treason. Can you guess which half was frickin frackin annoying?

A couple episodes back, my friend Dan told me that he didn't understand why the Apollo-Starbuck thing was getting any spotlight at all. I kneejerk defended it, as it's about building the characters, and fleshing out their history in the "present," right? I was also really intrigued by the whole "marriage is a sacrament" programming coming out of Starbuck, and the conflict set-up on the algae planet was fun in a tension building way, y'know? Anders and Apollo going alpha male over Starbuck, and then Dee being sent to bitchslap her and fly them away. But what we had to endure in this episode... well, I'm coming over to Dan's side now. Just unnecessary. The best thing it does for the series and storytelling is to again demonstrate how they're human, just like us, and can get themselves jammed into loveless marriages. That is something I didn't need Edward James Olmos to spend half of his directing opp on.

Actually, it was bearable until Apollo's confession/apology to Dee at Joe's, just a cheeky glance away from Starbuck and Anders. That was just too much. Even more painful was Dee apparently accepting/taking him back. I wondered if this was Apollo's idea of playing the Good Guy (well, y'know, he was messing around w Kara, so, not the Great Guy) and in his head he was hoping hoping hoping that Dee would refuse to take him back.

Okay, even tho it was aggravating to watch, I guess I *did* let myself keep caring, a little, at least.

I might not have minded it so much if the scale and flavors of the betrayals the two threads focused on weren't so disparate, y'know? The back-and-forth cuts/juxtapositions felt forced to me. Maybe it's a bold (Kobol orthodox?) statement to put marital infidelity (or is it really love, and not marriage, that's suffering?) on equal footing as treason, but it's not a statement I buy. As I said before, I don't like that Starbuck so quickly flips on her "sacrament" stand. Maybe she's shaken by her "destiny" thing, but still...

I suppose I just a little bit do like that Starbuck's being gunshy on committed relationships *is* a familiar echo of old-school Starbuck's Cassieopeia-Athena dilemma. Still, all of this would've been better woven into a different episode, later on.

I would've *MUCH* rather have had some follow-up on Athena and Caprica Six! Can't believe they kept them out of the picture all episode (until the very end). They didn't even have Athena and Helo joining in on the lullabying. Foo.

So... What kinds of fights to Tyrol and Kallie have?

The Baltar stuff, although it didn't GO very far, I really dig it. The ethical part of it is a little shakey, maybe inconsistent, and I would've liked some high ground opposition to the suggestions of torture and drugs, or an explicit concession on the part of the President or Admiral that Baltar's is a special case. Or did I miss that in there somewhere? But it went to some interesting places as far as guilt and blame go, and more wavering fun with "Cylon or not?"

Fun to have his "Occurrence At Owl Creek" scenario with the resurrection hot tub. Am I supposed to believe that that was supposed to be a definitive end to Are You There, Gods? It's Me, Baltar? Because I really don't think that's what we saw. Anyone else? It was a *near* death experience, not a death, no?

Maybe, *maybe*, Baltar believes it's settled, that he's human. It's convenient, after all, now that he's back with the human fleet, right? Of course, I won't take away from him his Chosen One destiny. He's still fated to do great, altho not necessarily Good, things.

Honestly, I was caught off guard when the Prez started picking on him about the defense grid back on Caprica. I was focused on his recent historical term as president under the Cylons, and totally spaced on his involvement way back when, implying his collusion w the klankers, treason, and a literal crime against humanity. Of course, as we've seen it on the show so far, he was an unwitting player, seduced by a Cylon lingerie model. Six tells him that he must have suspected *something* though. And he repeats that, so he wonders about it, doubts himself at times. In the end, tho, he reasserts his innocence, or at least, his cluelessness, absence of malice.

I really appreciate that Adama spells it out for everyone. That it's acknowledged. He doesn't believe he's to blame. He sees himself as a victim. The Talented Mr. Baltar.

Another interesting bit. He flashes back to the nuke on Caprica levelling his place. He says that Caprica Six saved him. But frickin frackin how?!

*sigh*

Man, when the drugs took effect and he showed up in the water, in the dark, I was *really* hoping that he was being zapped back to the moment he regains consciousness after the nuke's shockwave back on Caprica. That we'd get to see (and maybe he would, for the first time) just how he survived that.

I was really hoping that when Adama said they had to get someone he'd trust, they were talking about Caprica Six. I knew that it would be Gaeta, as we saw him show up at Baltar's cell earlier, but y'know, I do like my irrational longshots.

Too bad Gaeta overplayed his sympathetic negotiator, Clarice Starling style, eh? I'm not exactly sure what scenario they expected Baltar to believe would NOT have him observed and recorded, tho. Baltar playing Hannibal the psychiatrist was pretty fun, and even vicious. That was surprising. I mean, I thought both that Baltar was being honest and harsh about Gaeta, playing on the guilt that kept him from pleading his own case when the secret tribunal were ready to tube him, but also that he was attempting to implicate Gaeta, just to hurt him, tear him down, by hinting at his involvement in New Caprica atrocities on records (fabrications, with baiting unsubstantial whispers into Gaeta's ear).

Nice pen to the neck action.

Was Baltar bullstuffing about The Five? He spoke as if he experienced D'Anna's vision, which wasn't the case. I was glad to get a confirmation flash (I think?) of the earlier Jiminy Six-enabled projection/vision of that stage with the white banners/drapes, the same as, or at least similar to, the environment of D'Anna's experience. Definitely meant to be the same.

I didn't go looking for the bonus clip online (is that really necessary?), but from the clip at the very close of the show, we see that the Cylons know about how Roslyn had Starbuck's stalker skinbag airlocked. How far away from the Cylon fleet were they? Jetisonning a Cylon *will* kill it, right? It needs to breathe? So, stalkerboy dies in space but gets resurrected so that he can tell the reset of the Cylons about what happened...

Does that seem right? Does this mean... something? That there's a ship in the Galactica fleet, or a station or device within a ship, that relays Cylon downloads? A booster of some kind? I can't remember the exact situation the fleet was in at the time of the interrogation of stalker boy, but I hafta think that they were a FTL jump away from any Cylon base or resurrection ships, right?

Or, is the idea that a Cylon *can* survive in a vacuum (and without food or, I dunno, ethanol?) indefinitely, and airlocking him is like the ultimate form of solitary confinement? But, intact and functional, he can be tracked and ultimately picked up by his Cylon brothers, or just know that he's within range and then kill himself to be resurrected in a tip-top skin job?

One sad thing about having Baltar back w the humans—we lose the whole BaltarTV thing. Without his presence in the Cylon fleet (nor even D'Anna and Caprica Six's) we lose our window into life in the Cylon fleet and culture, y'know?

Keep on keepin on~