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| Thursday, June 12, 2008 09:19 AM |
| (Last updated on Monday, June 16, 2008 02:12 PM) | | On the Viewer - Battlestar Galactica ("Sine Qua Non") |
 by Fëanor |
Right after I started watching this one, my Dad warned me that it was quite bad, especially compared to all the really good episodes lately. It's possible that his comment influenced me, but regardless of why, I definitely agree with him.
The episode opens up with everybody trying to deal with the insane events that took place at the end of the last episode. The Quorum freaks out, but Zarek just points out that he should be sworn in as interim President now that Roslin is gone. Adama gives Athena a serious dressing down, then sends her to the brig and doesn't allow her access to her child. Adama is also obviously not interested in cooperating with "President" Zarek (he won't even take the guy's calls!), and the split between them could tear the fleet apart, so Lee immediately starts a search for a new interim President. Unfortunately, he decides that the only man to help him with the search is the gruff alcoholic lawyer from the Baltar trial episodes, Romo Lampkin. I didn't really care for this character all that much when he first appeared, and he's even more irritating in this episode.
In the chaos, the Resurrection Hub has already jumped away from its previous position, but Adama plans to search for it, as he suspects the rebel Cylons are on the way there with President Roslin. He reveals to Tigh that he knows of Tigh's visits to the Six in the brig, and tells him to ask her where the Hub is. Tigh seems to refuse the idea, but then goes down to interrogate her about it anyway. She appears to him as his dead wife again and asks if he loves her. As a condition one alarm starts ringing, he says the mind games end now and stalks out. The alarm is about the return of one of the Raptors that disappeared with the base ship. It's empty except for a dead body, but they are able to determine the coordinates it jumped from, so Adama orders Galactica to jump right there immediately, leaving the fleet alone with no explanation. They find nothing but wreckage, but Adama wants to keep searching until they find something. He finally consents to jump back to the fleet and leave a few Raptors behind to continue the search. The Quorum continues to freak out, but Adama continues to ignore them and Zarek, and instead goes to talk with the Doctor, who reveals that they need to find Roslin soon and continue her treatment or she could die. But the Doc has a much bigger bombshell for the Admiral: the Six in the brig is pregnant! Adama confronts Tigh about this, as he assumes (apparently correctly) that Tigh is the baby daddy. Tigh is shocked, but just comes back at Adama about his poor judgement when it comes to Roslin, and before you know it they're brawling. But they seem to be friends again after the dust up, and just wonder what they'll each do about their respective women. Good lord, what a ridiculous soap-operatic sequence.
Lampkin has a short conversation with the Admiral about what happens to people when they lose the thing they can't live without - their last piece of hope. Next Lampkin comes to the inescapable conclusion that Lee Adama is the one and only choice for interim president, then heads out to shoot him with an antique pistol, because, he says, hope is the last thing humanity needs, and somebody killed his cat. Uh, yeah, okay. Who thought that having a scene where Lampkin pulled a gun on Lee and said, "Because they killed my cat!" would be a good idea? Stupid, lame, melodramatic, ridiculous, bad. But the point is, Lampkin has lost the last thing that mattered to him; he's lost his hope. Lee somehow talks him down with a lame, cliched speech that would frankly have convinced me to shoot him even if I hadn't wanted to before, and is then sworn in as interim President. Then the Admiral suddenly decides he shouldn't be in charge anymore and hands over command to Tigh, which even Tigh realizes is a really, really bad idea. Adama also tells Tigh to reunite Athena with her daughter, because "we all need our families now." In another scene of lameness, Lee gives Lampkin a dog to make up for his missing cat (the same dog, in fact, who had a part in the New Caprica resistance movement). What?! You think you can make up for the cat he nearly shot you over by giving him a random dog? Sigh. Adama stays behind alone in a Raptor to wait for Roslin while the fleet jumps ahead, which is another tremendously bad idea.
It seems to me like this episode was just a lot harder to believe, a lot cornier, and a lot more sloppily written in general than any of the other episodes this season. Still, even if the plot was a little ridiculous, I remain interested in the characters and in what's happening to them, and I've already started watching the next episode. |
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