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| Monday, June 9, 2008 02:27 PM |
| (Last updated on Monday, June 16, 2008 02:13 PM) | | On the Viewer - Battlestar Galactica ("Guess What's Coming to Dinner?") |
 by Fëanor |
This episode, besides having a great title, is incredibly thrilling and exciting from its tense opening sequence through to its shocking cliffhanger ending.
(Spoilers ahead, as usual.)
We start off with Demetrius and the base ship preparing to jump back to the fleet. Someone says, "Gee, we'd better sync these jumps up perfectly, or else Galactica will probably blow the base ship out of the sky." Inevitably, the jumps don't go right; Demetrius remains behind and has to spend some time recalculating, while the base ship ends up going forward alone, right into the heart of the fleet, and as expected Galactica prepares to blow it out of the sky. The base ship sits helpless, the crew unable to communicate their identities and intentions thanks to damage to the wireless. Interestingly enough, it's Colonel Tigh who saves them. He feels there's something wrong and orders a weapons hold at the last minute. Demetrius shows up directly afterwards to confirm his feelings. But hey, what was that about? Your Cylon is showing, Tigh!
Tigh makes things awkward and interesting again when he boards the base ship. Starbuck tells him the Cylons are with her, and he asks which one of them shot Gaeta. Um, well, you see, the thing about that is...
Adama, Roslin, and the other command staff have an immediate debriefing with the Six named Natalie, where she reveals the details of the Cylon civil war, and the rebels' plan to unbox the Threes so they can identify the Final Five and lead everyone to Earth. Tigh is visibly uncomfortable with this idea. Roslin wants to know how they can trust the Cylons, and Natalie says the unboxing facility just happens to be right next to the Resurrection Hub which, if destroyed, would eliminate the Cylons' ability to download. Since the rebels can't go back and wouldn't really want to be resurrected into enemy territory anyway, they're willing to help blow the Hub. It's a good offer, but Adama's still about to reject it because of Natalie's refusal to give him the coordinates of the Hub, so she says she will, if she can get his word that they will help unbox the Threes and let the Five go away with the rebels. He agrees. Later he asks Tigh how he knew to give the order to hold weapons, and his lame excuse is that he doesn't know, and they got lucky. Careful, Tigh!
Unfortunately for Gaeta, he gets his leg hacked off. He requests only local anesthetic. Anders looks on with incredible guilt. The command staff begin developing their plan for attacking the Hub. Tigh recommends betraying the Cylons and not unboxing the Threes at all. Obviously he's afraid to be outed as a Cylon himself. But they end up agreeing on a compromise: unbox the Threes, blow the Hub, but then hold onto the Five until they get to Earth.
The Quorom and the Final Four also meet about the plan. The Quorom is pissed off and horrified about this new joint action with the Cylons, and the Four aren't too happy about the possibility of being pushed out of the closet. Except for Anders: he's just obsessed with what he did to Gaeta, and says, "He sings, you know. It's the only thing that takes his mind off the pain." Hoo boy.
But of course, just as the humans don't trust the rebel Cylons, the rebel Cylons don't trust the humans, and plan to take hostages after the attack on the Hub to ensure they get what they want.
Roslin comes down hard on Tory, revealing that she knows that Tory is sleeping with Baltar, and that she feels betrayed by her, but now needs her to figure out who's been slipping the information to Baltar that he's been spreading around via his radio program. Later, Tory's in bed with Baltar, and Baltar is pissed because they're not having sex. She tells him what's wrong, he tells her it's Caprica Six who gave him the information he's been broadcasting.
Lee reveals to Roslin that the Quorom is considering a vote of no confidence in her (just like in Phantom Menace!), and urges her to explain more to them about the attack, to keep them in the loop. She agrees, calls a meeting, explains the mission, and even brings in Natalie Six to speak. Natalie gives an interesting speech about how the Cylons need to take out the Hub so they can have mortality and their lives can have time and meaning. Starbuck is there, and a quick flashback reveals that she realizes this must be what the prophecy means: she is the harbinger of death for the Cylons.
Roslin, Caprica Six, and Athena all have the same dream, running after Hera in the Opera House again, but when Athena awakes, Hera is beside her in the bedroom and says, "Bye-bye." Creepy. When Starbuck mentions the Hybrid's prophecy to Roslin, Roslin recognizes a reference to her Opera House dream, and asks Starbuck's help in deciphering her visions.
Natalie has second thoughts about their hostage plan, and wants to tell the Centurions to stand down. Leoben suggests she stall Adama while he deals with the Centurions, but he looks like he's hiding something; I'm not sure he or the Eights are convinced they should drop the plan.
Then the intense final sequence begins. Athena finds Hera drawing, and flips through her book, horrified to discover that every picture is of Six. Hera disappears and Athena chases after her, reenacting the chase in the Opera House in her dream. And just as in her dream, Six (Natalie, who has come on board to stall Adama) finds the child first and picks her up. Athena asks Tyrol, who is nearby, to take the child away from the Six, and even though Natalie insists she did not come to kidnap anybody, Athena says she will never take her child, and shoots Natalie dead. At the same time, chasing the meaning of her own visions, Roslin has gone to the base star with Helo and Baltar to reconnect the Hybrid and get some answers. But it turns out this is a bad idea; as soon as the Hybrid is plugged back in, it screams, "Jump!" and the base star vanishes.
Holy crap!!! That is one crazy ending. And another great episode. I just pulled down the next two episodes last night, so I'll have to load them up on the iPod and watch them as soon as I can. |
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