Battlestar Galactica – Someone to Watch Over Me

Frak you, Cavil, it is ON.

This episode drew the threads a little bit closer around the Colonial fleet and Cavil’s Cylon fleet, pushing them toward the inevitable final battle.  I say inevitable final battle because, let’s face it, this series is going out with a bang—they’ve obviously been saving the majority of their special-effects budget in Season 4.5 for something, and a confrontation with The Enemy is both the most logical way to blow it all up in one place and the only way the series can end with any sort of…end.  If the fleet is just set adrift in space to wander endlessly, there is no finality.  No conclusion.  Ergo, they must take out Cavil or die trying. 

And the story arc around Boomer was all about making that conflict happen.

I loved the way the show toyed with my emotions.  When the Six requested that Boomer be extradited to the base ship to stand trial for treason, I was feeling Chief’s frantic concern.  His desperate pleas to President Roslin and Admiral Adama to keep her on Galactica.  His agonized fear at the thought of losing her…again, and really, truly forever this time.  I remembered how sweet the Chief/Boomer relationship was.  The scenes reminding us of that—and his thoughts after her death, about nobody ending up with who they really wanted—were very well chosen.

At the same time, I couldn’t disagree with Roslin’s decision, but it was a cold comfort to think she had no choice.  Also it made me smile to recall her earlier attitude, back when she was all hardline anti-Cylon, let’s kill these infected Cylons while they can still download and take care of this threat once and for all, a genocide for a genocide style.  She’s gotten away from that with her sickness and the alliance with the rebel Cylons, but this contempt of Boomer was a good reminder for all of us that Roslin will do what needs to be done in the end.

All the same I was kind of proud of Chief for orchestrating a way to save Boomer…until she attacked Athena.  Then Roslin’s point, that Boomer was a danger to everyone, that she preyed on emotion, was proved correct.  And proved correct over and over again as she maliciously slept with Helo just to hurt Athena, kidnapped Hera, and jumped away from Galactica without concern for what her jump will do to the ship. 

Frak it.  Kill her.  She is Cavil’s creature now, no matter how true her feelings for Chief might still be.

The other focus of this episode, of course, was Starbuck.  Specifically, Starbuck remembering a song her father taught her and putting together that Hera is drawing out the notes of it—only to discover that it’s the Cylon theme song.  Crr-eepy!  Yet another set of memories that may or may not be real that just make you wonder what the hell she is and why is she there?

Aside from the discovery aspect, I loved the interactions between her and the composer for the emotion involved.  (Who, by the way, I thought was maybe being played by the show’s real score composer, Bear McCreary, which would have been an awesome nod to him and the fantastic work he’s done, trust me, I have all the soundtracks, I should know…but I looked, and it wasn’t).  I think Katee Sackhoff played pretty brilliantly the hurt and the anger of being abandoned as a child against the love she can’t help but have for her father and his music.  And the slow building of the composition, as a process of revelation for Starbuck’s epiphany about the music, was nicely paced and deeply atmospheric.  I was fascinated by the piano player and his song right along with her; I was drawn in by her memories and nightmares and visions; I wanted to see her re-learn how to play her father’s song.  A much more compelling way to do nothing but exposition than, say, last week’s Cylon deadlock.

As far as continuing plot threads go:  I retract all complaints about the Cylon resin making too easy a fix for Galactica’s structural problems.  Obviously it is turning out to be either not as effective as Chief thought, or too little too late to save the ship. 

Also, can I just say that I really miss Apollo?  He’s been getting marginalized more and more since Season 3, and I hate that.  He gets a cameo in all the episodes, but right now there’s almost nothing that revolves around his decisions.  I guess when Roslin finally lets go (assuming we see that), then he’ll become important again as the new president.  But right now, he’s gotten lost in the shuffle.  Really, a lot of characters have—there’s just not enough time to focus on all of them anymore, so only those whose fate or actions directly affect the fleet get much attention anymore.  I guess that’s what happens when the story gets so sprawling and epic. 

And heading into the last three episodes, it looks like the show will pull together for an epic ending, indeed.