Battlestar Galactica: S02E04: Resistance

I would like to say that this episode would have far reaching implications for the entire series. In fact, had I written this review on time, that is what you’d be reading right now. Instead I’m writing this a few episodes late, and I have the luxury of realizing that while this episode was fun to watch, it really just started a several episode arc that really doesn’t go anywhere.

The story starts out with Tyrol in an interrogation room under a hot lamp. It’s not a proper interrogation unless you have the guy sweating under a hot light. Sometimes the pop-culture references and homages can work in the story, but it seems lately that they’re too obvious and it’s now distracting from the series. The drunkard and acting CO Tigh is grilling Tyrol about his connections to Boomer. He doesn’t care that Tyrol is human and was just deceived by Sharon (read: hot sex), he just needs an outlet to unleash his pent up ethanol fuelled aggression. Tigh gets smacked around a lot, but maintains his story that he never knew that Boomer was a biocylon. After a few more unnecessary jabs, Tigh orders him imprisoned with Boomer.

Boomer greets him with genuine sympathy. She sees how badly Tyrol has been beat up by Tigh, and knows that she is responsible for his punishments. She tries to comfort him, but he’ll have none of it and turns her away. Actually he threatens to kill her if she ever talks to him again. If only this geezer could do that in real life to the people that piss him off.
Meanwhile on Caprica we see a group of human para-military stalking some entities in the woods. We are meant to think that they are stalking biocylons, but despite the terrifically acted scene, this sadgeezer knew better, that instead they were talking about Helo and Starbuck. The leader, Anders tells his people to pay attention to when he kills the two cylon bastards.

But he and his crew aren’t as stealthy as they would think.
Starbuck and Helo have stopped her hummer and stepped out for a breath of fresh air and to fight over which one got them lost. They’re trying to find the nearest spaceport to highjack a raider home. Nearby Starbuck hears a twig snap and her internal alarms go off. She slyly walks around the car and retrieves some machine guns from her back seat. (funny quip #1) Starbuck, as evidenced by her slum flat, must really live in a shitty neighbourhood if she’s routinely packing an NRA wet dream in her back seat. (funny quip #2) Does she have the proper permit for those guns? She hands one to Helo just as Anders starts taking shots at them.

In a nicely choreographed scene, Starbuck and Helo run thought woods exchanging shots with whom they believe to be biocylons. Eventually they get cornered on a shack and a giant Mexican Standoff ensues. Since these standoffs are so prevalent this season I’m now naming them a “Caprican Standoff”. Pay attention you’ll be tested on this later. Helo acts as the voice of reason in the situation and negotiates a mutual end to hostilities after he realizes that the enemy is the Caprican Colonial Pyramid team, the Caprican Buccaneers. And much like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they suck too! (address hatemail to [email protected])

Back on the Galactica, Cally has sought out Baltar to try to help Tyrol get out of the brig. At first Baltar is expectedly callous. Then Cally threatens to let it be know that he shot Crashdown. This gets his attention, and he very politely shoves Cally against a bulkhead and informs her that she would be dead had he not killed Crashdown. But she has a point he must help the Chief.

Baltar makes an attempt to talk to speak with Tigh in CIC. Apparently it was known that Boomer “passed” the cylon detector test and Tigh thinks that his test is now impotent. Baltar makes up some BS explaining that she was a beta subject and that he has since tweaked his test so that it’s now entirely accurate. Tigh doesn’t care much for his sneakiness and tells him get things right. After he leaves CIC, Gaeta informs Tigh that several of the ships have refused to resupply Galactica until the civilian government is reinstalled.
Apollo is still behaving well on his parole from the brig. He is giving a briefing to the other pilots, and they openly show their support of him, but he has to rebuke all of their support. Respect and support for the CAG is so strong, even Dualla goes out of her way to say hi to Apollo on his way back to his cell and slip him little tidbits of intelligence about Tigh.

Speaking of which, Tigh is having plenty of problems of his own. Namely his alcohol addiction and the source of it, his wife Ellen. Ellen makes it quite clear why Tigh is driven to drink himself into oblivion. She whispers into his ear suggestions of what to do, things he knows are wrong, but he feels compelled to do anyway. For instance in this encounter she convinces him to exert some muscle to take the supplies from the other ships.

Tigh orders marines sent to the resisting ships to take the supplies. Due to the lack of officers, he forced to make pilots the co’s for the mission. y’know pilots, the alpha personality types. The shoot first ask questions much much later types. And that’s just what happens; the Galactica forces encounter some resistance on the Gideon when collecting coffee. Many people would argue that coffee is a very important resource. The passengers forcefully resist their presence and lob cans of coffee at the marines and pin them against the supplies. In the confusion, someone fires a shot, and the marines follow suit. All told, 4 dead and a dozen others wounded. Much like the Boston Massacre, this is soon to be remembered as the Gideon Massacre and a sign of the resistance against Tigh and the Colonial Forces.

When Roslin and Apollo learn of the shooting they determine that they must escape the brig and save the fleet from Tigh. They begin plotting their escape, and each knows of plenty of supporters on the outside to help them.
Meanwhile in another brig, Baltar pays a visit to the happy couple, Boomer and Tyrol. Baltar relieves the guards, and enters the prisoners’ cell. Under the auspicion of testing Tyrol for being a cylon, he secretly kills him instead! Nice work ass-hole! Kill off the one character who’s actor routinely communicates with the fans. But its all a ruse of sorts, not really Tyrol is technically dead! Baltar wants Boomer to tell him how many biocylons are in the fleet, and won’t revive Tyrol until she tells him. He knows the Boomer is unaware consciously, but that she does know subconsciously. He tells her that after 10 seconds Tyrol’s death will be very permanent. He starts to count down:
Baltar: Only you can save him! Ten… Baltar: Nine… do you love him? Do you love him, Sharon?Boomer: Eight. There are eight.

Why eight, check out dissecting the episode at the end of the review.
With the newfound knowledge, Baltar revives Tyrol. He awakes with no idea of what just happened.

And so the conspiracy begins… Roslin sees Dr. Cottle for a routine medical exam and asks him for help. Billy discusses things with their guard Cpl. Venner. Dualla has Tigh sign some fake work orders to “decompress” a corridor. Lastly Apollo makes a visit to sick bay to say goodbye to his dad. Adama starts to stir immediately after Apollo leaves.

It almost goes off without a problem. But the highly efficient Gaeta notices some of log calls going out. He confronts Dualla about it in the washroom. He knows. She knows he knows. He reminds her that off log calls are against protocol, and she agrees and feigns knowing nothing about the anomolies. Gaeta tells her correct and walks away smugly.

Later that day on his way back to his cell, Apollo meets Dualla in the hall. She tells him that everything is okay. Soon thereafter Racetrack meets Apollo and asks for some help fixing a raptor. Apollo leaves his marine escort to “fix the problem”. Meanwhile another marine knocks out Venner, he made it look good, but not too good. The other marine escorts Billy and Roslin to the raptor loading bay. They use the “spaced” corridor to get there. A marine guard spots and stops them, but soon Roslin persuades her to let them pass. Everyone meets up at the raptor to leave the Galactica. Roslin, Elosha, and Apollo board the raptor and fly off the ship under the guise of a medical emergency. Billy stays behind because his conscious wouldn’t let him do something that could cause a civil war, and because he wanted to leave the show at the time.

When Venner awakes, he alerts CIC. Tigh soon learns that a raptor was launched and is heading for Cloud 9 under false medical clearance. He orders the cap to intercept but when push comes to shove, he backed down. Tigh couldn’t bring himself to order the raptor destroyed, which carried Adama’s son. Tigh however still needed to find a scapegoat, and grills the CIC about off log calls and how they couldn’t have espcaed without help. At this time I though Gaeta would dime out the entire conspiracy, but he didn’t. Gaeta very quickly announces that no off log calls have been made. Too quickly! But Tigh likely isn’t sober enough to ever notice that subtlety.

The raptor arrives on Cloud 9, the hub for the RTF, the escapees leaves the craft to quickly board their next ship. Their escort; Tom Zarek. Apollo figured that Zarek has enough shady connections to help them disappear and start up a resistance in the fleet.

On Caprica, Starbuck and Helo are introduced to the resistance base. An abandoned high school. The solders asses the situation and realize its pretty bad. But the survivors might be strong enough to allow them a minor diversion so that they can steal a ship and get off world.
Later that day Starbuck discovers that the resistance has built a regulation pyramid court on the “base”. She plays a little bit until Anders shows up. We learn that Kara almost played professionally, but had to leave because of a knee injury. Inevitable the two play a game against one another, with all the testosterone and adrenaline filled sexual tension that one would expect. Anders lost the game, but he’ll likely win later that night.

On the Galactica, Ellen is debasing Tigh for letting Apollo escape. She says that he should have ordered the raptor destroyed. She calls him weak, largely because he could never hurt Adama. She says all sorts of nasty things about him, while Tigh remains loyal to his long time friend. It was all timed perfectly because Adama walks in and asks to speak privately with Tigh. Ellen politely leaves with her feet in her mouth. Tigh confesses to Adama that he has frakked up big time, but Adama is 100% supportive. But he is curious what happened to his son…

Tyrol has been cleared from being a biocylon agent. But a far worse fate is in store for his ex, Boomer. Baltar plans to put Boomer through a series of physical and psychological tests in a specially prepared cell for her later. That’s right folks, Baltar will finally learn what makes the ladies tick! Boomer is being escorted to her new prison by the marines. Along the way, scores of crew taunt her and throw objects at her. Yeah, it really sucks to be her. But her pain and humiliation is short lived. Cally comes of the crowd and pulls a Jack Ruby. Boomer has been assassinated! She falls into Tyrol’s arms and she confesses her undying, or is that soon to be dying?, love for him. He never gets to tell her that he loves her before she passes in his arms.

And that’s the episode. It was a pretty exciting one, and edited very nicely with the conspiracy scenes. My hat off to the director and editor.

This one gets an initially exciting 36,735 out of 10.

Dissecting the Episode:

Are there really 8 biocylons in the fleet?Could be, I doubt it though. The next number Baltar would have counted down to would have been eight. Boomer knew that any non zero number would have satisfied Baltar. So with impulsive thinking and her thoughts on saving Tyrol, she picked the first number to come to her mind, that number was home many seconds Tyrol had before his death would be permanent. Eight.Arguments for eight cylons, are that it is believed that there are 12 models of Cylon all ogether.

The humans know of four already. This leaves 8 unknowns, and since duplicates would be the first to be found and eliminated, this allows for the most amount of operatives without blowing one or more covers accidentally. Why did Gaeta support the insurrection?Gaeta is part of the new younger generation of Colonial Officers. Much like Apollo they/he can be idealistic in his beliefs.

Beliefs such as democracy and freedom above all else. The belief that the system does work. Gaeta trusts the system he knows so well, even if it is flawed. He has shown signs and subtly expressed concerns about Adama’s actions last season. We saw that he didn’t believe that Roslin should have been sacked in Kobols Last Gleaming Pt.2. But Gaeta is intelligent and knows that he can’t openly defy the system, and must work within it to best help correct it. His only failing in helping the insurrection was saying too quickly that there were no off log calls. Had Tigh been sober, he would have asked how Gaeta knew so quickly.

Gaeta’s good, but not good enough to hold up to the pressure of an experienced superior officer. He loyalty wouldn’t allow his lie to remain hidden for long. His false logic wouldn’t hold up under close scrutiny. This is why he sucks at cards! Will Anders get lucky that night?Frak yeah! Starbuck is the female equivalent of a player. She sleeps with anyone she wants, usually as quickly as possible. It’s a way for her to feel accepted by others, Nevermind her other overachieving qualities. The last time she flirted with someone, Baltar (Colonial Day), she was getting boned a few hours later. Anders will be gettin’ some later that night!

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Copyright 2005 Ryan Bechtel

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