"Torn"
Airdate: Friday, November 3rd, 2006

You all knew it was coming, right? Finally, after whiling away the hours on such important projects as mustache shaving and calling Lee a fatass, Adama gets his Big Frakkin' Awesome Moment. And I loved every second! No one lays the smack down like Edward James Olmos. Like, who can even compare? The grizzled leader guy on NCISJAGWHATEVER? No. Simon Cowell? I don't think so, and also did that reference just arrive in a time machine from 2002? The smoky black cloud thing on Lost? Uh, did the smoky black cloud thing on Lost refer to its former daughter figure as a cancer? It did not.

I guess I should back up a little bit. Said smackdown comes about thanks to Kara and Tigh acting like big jerks in the mess hall. They basically posture and piss everyone off, trying to brew even more conflict between the folks who were on New Caprica and the folks who weren't. Adama finally stomps in, tosses a gun on the table and tells them to just shoot him, already or -- as my mother used to say -- act right. And he calls Kara a cancer -- a cancer! I still can't get over that.

Anyway, Kara actually seems a bit moved by his words and chops her hair into a trim pageboy. I will admit, I don't like it as much as her long, pretty hair, but it's infinitely superior to the bowl cut she rocked way back when. She also reconnects with Casey after rebuffing the kid in an extremely harsh way. And here I just have to praise Katee Sackhoff a whole lot, because that scene where she's hugging the kid and stuff? It could have been maudlin and annoyingly heartstring-yanking and all that. And if you thought that it was all that, please, please...look at her eyes. Her eyes are so conflicted, so deeply afraid. She's heartbreaking in this moment, and though we don't feel like everything's going to be totally OK, we at least feel like things could maybe get a little bit better, that Kara might be reconnecting with her humanity after all. I like this, because I had sort of assumed we were going to be subjected to Angry All The Time! Kara for at least a few more episodes. This turn offers more room for growth, for developments we haven't seen before.

Tigh, on the other hand... Well, he basically tells Adama to frak himself and stumbles off drunkenly and has hallucinations of Ellen. And that's really how it had to be in keeping true to who Tigh is, but it's sad all the same.

In other Galactica-set developments, Sharon earns herself a callsign and it's the sweetest moment in the whole hour (although it's kind of ruined by Kara and Tigh being haters). I love this so much, because it really shows us what the series can do with such a small, small moment. Sharon's discomfort with being called "Boomer," Helo's determination to make his wife feel like she belongs, the eventual christening of Sharon with the awesomely old school callsign "Athena"...all such good stuff.

Meanwhile, Baltar gets a big fat tour of the Cylon lifestyle and it's every bit as insane and juicy as you might imagine. It is also about as druggy hallucination-esque as the "Heffalumps and Woozles" bit from Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. At least I can't say the Cylons are boring this week! Baltar learns all about the Cylons' "projection power," which is sort of like their own version of the holodeck, only, you know, more awesome. He is also introduced to their weird-ass "Hybrid" pilot, who speaks in some sort of incomprehensible Darmok language. Oh, and those other Cylon models we've never seen? They don't talk about those. Oh, and the Cylons want to settle on Earth! What...what?!?

Also, Baltar might be a Cylon...but I kind of don't think so, since that theory is to this show as "they are all totally in purgatory!" is to Lost.

Both Galactica and the Cylons end up sending teams to investigate this pretty cool double nebula, which is maybe a signpost for Earth. The Cylon scout ship is infected by a nasty virus and Baltar volunteers to investigate. He discovers a weird satellite thingy onboard, but completely neglects to mention this to the Cylons. I have a feeling Caprica Six is going to dump his ass even more in the next episode.

We're left hanging as to what happens to the human team, but, sigh, Sharon's with them and is suddenly dangerously close to that virus-ridden Cylon ship and I think I bit all of my nails off as we faded to credits. So much beautiful, beautiful tension.

I have to say, I really think this eppy does everything last week's eppy should have, and that makes me very happy. We're seeing gripping character development with both Kara and Tigh and we're feeling the effects of the New Caprica debacle in a way that's deep and true. And while being on the Cylon ship still makes me feel floaty and swirly-eyed, it's about 1000 percent more fascinating this week.

All this, plus Fat Apollo is not Fat anymore. I guess he jump-roped a lot.

iTunes Links

Battlestar Galactica - Series
Battlestar Galactica - Season 3
"Torn"