Friday, February 24, 2006

Battlestar Galactica

Tonight's episode was very interesting. Usually when something seems to go the human's way I get this "waiting for the other shoe to drop feeling". It seems that everything that happens, even the seemingly good things, to the human survivors is all part of the Great Cylon Plan ™. I didn’t get that feeling this time. It would seem that the Cylons have suffered a genuine setback.

Particular impressions. Well, first, when I saw Baltar standing beside Caprica 6’s giant Vat O’Snot I was. . . excited. I have had a theory for some time that Baltar died when his house was flattened in the Cylon attack. I believe that the Baltar on the Fleet is a clone prepared by the Cylons. This is why his brain contains Six’s complete personality, but the Doctor couldn’t find any sign of a chip in his brain.

Of course it turned out that only Caprica Six could see him, providing a kind of poetic counterbalance to the Six in Baltar’s head. Interesting also that the invisible Baltar manipulates Caprica Six in the same way that Six pulls Baltar’s strings back on Galactica. Could this phenomenon be a kind of unintended side effect of the process that put Six’s personality in Baltar?

The fact that Boomer and Caprica Six both have radically different attitudes from the rest of the Cylon collective is interesting, as are the things revealed about the Cylon mindset. I’m thinking of Cylon Zena’s “they don’t respect life like we do” as she was about to gleefully blow Pyramid Johnny’s head off. The humanity tainted twins are going to be apostles of true love and change the way the Cylons do business. This could wind up bringing about a Cylon religious civil war.

The birth of Sharon’s baby on Galactica was also interesting. It was born prematurely because of a detached placenta. This is not the first time Sharon has needed human medical help to keep the child alive. It would seem that the Cylon body is just not engineered to be a life-giving vessel (sort of like Darla on Angel).

The fact that Adama and the President were able to successfully hide the baby from the Baltar/Six collective consciousness was a good sign. I wonder if it never occurred to Six that if God were determined to raise the child up to lead the next generation of Cylons that He wouldn’t have let it die. I mean, if Herod’s soldiers had actually managed to kill the baby Jesus wouldn’t that have meant that he wasn’t the promised messiah?

I wonder if Galactica Sharon’s cooperation will dry up now that she blames Adama and the President for the child’s death.

One last thing. Did anyone else find Dr. Caudle’s “I don’t kill my patients” a little bit hypocritical since he earns cigarette money by doing freelance abortions?