Review

iTunes TV Review - Battlestar Galactica 3.8: "Unfinished Business"

Monday, December 4th, 2006 at 5:50 AM - by

"Unfinished Business"
Airdate: Friday, December 1st, 2006

I love this episode so much. I love the detail-rich focus on key characters and relationships. I love that it is placed exactly here in the season 3 sequence -- late enough to be intensely satisfying, early enough to still be meaningful. I love the way that it makes you feel elated and devastated at exactly the same time. Most of all, I love that Adama and Roslin get totally high and drunk and maybe possibly Do It in the hot New Caprican sand.

Finally, we get a few glimpses of the heady early days of New Caprica, back when the colonists were still hopeful and the weed flowed plentifully and President Baltar seemed marginally sober.  But we need some sort of metaphoresque backdrop for all of these flashbacks, so we get a present-day boxing match. All of our favorite Galacticans get together and blow off steam by beating the crap out of each other. Yay!

Bratty Starbuck is in the midst of all the action, making bratty remarks and wearing some weird cargo shorts and kind of awesomely referring to Sharon and Helo as "the fighting Agathons." She's also fresh off a booty call with poor Anders, who still wants to make their marriage work for some unfathomable reason.  And we pretty much know that this is all leading up to her and Lee getting in the ring together, but first, we're finally going to find out what happened between them on New Caprica, back before Lee got all fat. 

In the flashbacks, there's lots of celebrating, drinking and olde thyme folky dancing going on. (I know olde thyme folky dancing is sort of the thing to show in these situations, but wouldn't it have been awesome if they had shown the New Capricans busting a move to, I don't know,  Fergie telling us how she is so de-li-cious?)  Wimpy Anders and Dualla pack it in early, so drunk Kara and Lee wander off and get it on and scream their declarations of love into the echo-y night sky. I will say that I have not always been completely onboard with the Starpollo 'ship, only because I saw their dynamic going in a more sibling-like direction. But at some point, I caved, and this eppy just sealed the deal. So these flashback scenes are really beautiful and satisfying and just for a moment we see these two constantly tortured characters being genuinely happy. And this is one of those parts where I get happy and sad at the same time, because I know that one of them is going to do something to frak it up.

Turns out it's Starbuck. Good ol' intimacy-fearing Starbuck.  She wakes up next to Lee, freaks out, and marries Anders. Like, right away. Like, before Lee even gets dressed. It's painful and horrible and the looks on both Lee and Kara's faces convey about 500 different levels of emotion. I actually started punching one of my viewing companions and screeching, "This! Is! So! SAD!!" I guess this is why Lee got fat. I can't blame him since just watching all this torment makes me want to go inhale the entire contents of Trader Joe's freezer section. But you know, in a good way since I'm the excited viewer drinking in all of the incredibly-executed drama, whereas Lee is the guy who has just been dumped by the love of his life and has to go marry boring Dualla. 

Anyway.  Kara and Lee are not the only ones to get all carried away in the heat of the New  Caprican moment.  Roslin and Adama also hang out and their scenes together are some of the sweetest I've ever seen on this show. Adama telling Roslin that the color she's wearing suits her (whilst totally ogling her presidential rack) made me feel all warm inside. And then, when they get cuddly and trippy together? Just lovely.  I guess I should say I don't know if they actually Do It, but I'd like to think so. Please,please…more Roslin-Adama! I know I say it all the time, but these scenes just prove how awesome they are together and how much chemistry they have. That sort of tenderness is a much-needed, very human oasis amidst the dark, dark life-or-death drama that characterizes this show.

Oh, we also learn that Adama was quite reluctant to let Chief and Cally leave Galactica to have their baby on New Caprica, but then he eventually gave in. This is important because back in the present, Adama faces off against Chief in the ring, then loses on purpose, then makes a speech. Um, OK. The speech is pretty good (basically about how he shouldn't have let crew members go to New Caprica so easily, etc etc), but you can tell everyone is kind of inwardly rolling their eyes and thinking, "Yeah, OK -- the one episode where we were actually having fun and you have to get up there and blab on and on in your awesomely craggy, attention-commanding voice YET AGAIN? We get it, Admiral Killjoy! Now let us beat each other up so more!"

Adama and Roslin at least get some good moments in the present as well -- the best is Roslin giving him advice on how to totally kick Chief's ass. I really think the amazingness of Roslin knows no bounds at this point.

So finally, the moment we've been waiting for! Kara and Lee get in the ring and use boxing as a substitute for the sexing they would really like to get into. All right, so maybe it's a little more complicated than that. Their relationship is pretty frakked up, after all. But the whole thing is just great and interlaced with Starpollo montage and Dualla and Anders just look on sadly. I think Dualla and Anders should get together and have pretty babies. The whole thing ends with Kara and Lee locked in a weird sort of embrace, staggering around the ring. Kara chokes out what she should have said a long time ago: "I missed you." Lee says he missed her too. I cry and cry and cry, because this episode is one of my favorites of the season and because Starpollo can't deal with their feelings unless they're in a frakked up situation such as this and because I really want to know if Roslin and Adama Did It or not.

iTunes Links

Battlestar Galactica - Series
Battlestar Galactica - Season 3
"Unfinished Business"

Need more? Talk about Battlestar Galactica in our new iPodObserver.com forums.

Sarah Kuhn is an L.A.-dwelling writer with a weakness for block-style action figures, spandex-clad superheroes, and the collected works of Joss Whedon. Her work has appeared in such fine publications as Back Stage, IGN.com, Creative Screenwriting Weekly, and StarTrek.com. You can catch her geekblogging at Alert Nerd and Great Hera!.

Battlestar Galactica Archives.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Dec 04, 2006 7:06 am

I'm sorry -- Sarah Kuhn looks like Ugly Betty. But that's a good thing. As in not at all ugly -- in fact very cute!

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Dec 04, 2006 10:56 am

This episode was just much like the O.C. or some other primetime soap. Seemed like everyone was a high school kid with hormones they couldn't control. Our hero's (Starbuck & Apollo) really are just sad examples of human beings. There mates (Anders and Dualla ) there in good faith and basically being embarassed in front of the entire crew. Think the Chief is the only one whose come out looking good in this so far ... okay, except the whole Sharon thing earlier but he at least seems like a stand up guy now both in his professional life and personal life.

Please, get me back to the cylons.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Dec 04, 2006 11:09 am

Sorry, that was the worst episode ever. The plot arc was not advanced in any way, it was just a bunch of soap opera flashbacks. Why the hell would I care about the inner demons of the show's heroes, when they don't actually DO anything heroic? Go kill some Cylons, for frack's sake!

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boric*acid said:

member since 13 Jun 2006 with 28 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Dec 04, 2006 11:54 am

Um . . . I think they were smoking cigars. Maybe Cigars get you high, I dunno. I thought it was a funny edit too--you see Roslyn with hers and then POOF! The awkward cut, and it doesn't make another appearance in the scene. What I'd like to know: what was Bill eating when Lee comes up to him the day after? At first I thought he was doing a Burt Reynolds with some gum.

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DanielDecker said:

member since 15 Apr 2005 with 23 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Dec 04, 2006 12:24 pm

Guest wrote:
Sorry, that was the worst episode ever. The plot arc was not advanced in any way, it was just a bunch of soap opera flashbacks. Why the hell would I care about the inner demons of the show's heroes, when they don't actually DO anything heroic? Go kill some Cylons, for frack's sake!

If you didn't appreciate this episode, then get off my show, we don't need fans like you, 'frakking it up'. Jeez, if you can't understand how this story advanced the depth of every character involved, and how these constant little tragedies are what MAKE these characters heroes, then why do you watch?

This episode advanced the plot arc for the series as a WHOLE. I have to admit that I was not excited due to the previews, but once I saw "Unfinished Business" I was sold on BSG 75 all over again.

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pak150 said:

member since 04 Dec 2006 with 3 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Dec 04, 2006 12:28 pm

boric*acid:

According to Ron Moore's podcast (he's the exec producer) - Bill & Roslyn were smoking something other than cigars during that scene (I believe he called it "getting away with @&*@ on TV.")

I loved the episode - it answered many questions about the early days of New Caprica, and what caused Lee to turn into Fat Lee.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:11 pm

DanielDecker wrote:
If you didn't appreciate this episode, then get off my show, we don't need fans like you, 'frakking it up'. Jeez, if you can't understand how this story advanced the depth of every character involved, and how these constant little tragedies are what MAKE these characters heroes, then why do you watch?

You know, you are allowed to like bits of a show without thinking the whole thing is wonderful. If you honestly think that constantly shooting yourself in the foot adds depth to a characters then frankly you're a loon. These people aren't heroes and their tragedies are all of their own making. It's long past time they grew up.

Stop being such a damn cultist and start using what critical faculties you may have. This show is simply falling all over itself to put sex to the forefront of the story simply because it can. Looking back I'm pretty much convinced that's why they made so many of the characters female in the first place - more sex. Any group of people on the run who can't think beyond their own genitals would get caught and wiped out, especially when the stupid bug seems to have hit senior military staff.

And let's not even touch the whole stopping on New Caprica thing "Hey let's stop here, this looks like a nice planet. The Cylons will never find us here, it's got a magic sensor blocking cloud."

I can see it now aboard the chasing basestars "Hey, why don't we just fire in a couple of probes and see if they're not hiding in this dark cloud?" "Dont be so damned stupid who would hide where we can't see them?"

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:48 pm

Guest wrote:
You know, you are allowed to like bits of a show without thinking the whole thing is wonderful. If you honestly think that constantly shooting yourself in the foot adds depth to a characters then frankly you're a loon. These people aren't heroes and their tragedies are all of their own making. It's long past time they grew up.

I agree with your first sentence here, but nothing else. The eppy DID add depth to the characters, and was quite good. You're right in that they're not ideal heroes, but that's the POINT- they're both heroes AND human beings- FLAWED human beings.

What you seem to want (idealized heroes who almost always do the right thing) has been offered to us before, umpteen times, in various Star Trek series incarnations. Heck, Ron Moore helped offer many of those idealized heroes, since he was a writer on those series. Guess what? Most characters like that are very very BORING after awhile. Next Gen got away with it, due some amazing acting from their 'Big Three' and a family feel to the ensemble, but its failed more often than its worked since then, and thank goodness Ron Moore didn't revert to type on this. Starbuck and Apollo are frakked up, and that's real.

Quote:
Stop being such a damn cultist and start using what critical faculties you may have. This show is simply falling all over itself to put sex to the forefront of the story simply because it can. Looking back I'm pretty much convinced that's why they made so many of the characters female in the first place - more sex. Any group of people on the run who can't think beyond their own genitals would get caught and wiped out, especially when the stupid bug seems to have hit senior military staff.

Actually, I think having sex play a role is again, just being realistic. Its a primal human urge, and while it'll go away when you're under the gun, the second you have any breathing room, it comes back. At the time Lee and Kara hook up on New Cap, they'd been there nine months with no Cylon attacks. Sorry, but that combined with the booze made what happened entirely plausible, even if you personally did not like it.

Also, I don't think the increase in female characters over the original was sex-based (ok, maybe a little- most of the female character are fairly hot, but that's TV in general- even the women in cleaning product commerials are good-looking). Again, its realism. It wasn't realistic in the original series to have 90% of the characters be male, unless we assume the Colonial military is like our military- and why should it be? In a space navy, do you really need to be able to bench press 250 pounds? Generally, nope. Smarts and discipline would seem to be much more important. So why wouldn't the Colonial military be 50-50 male-female, or close, unless you buy into the idea that women are inherently mentally unsuited for warfare (something the Israeli military disproved, I believe).

Quote:
And let's not even touch the whole stopping on New Caprica thing "Hey let's stop here, this looks like a nice planet. The Cylons will never find us here, it's got a magic sensor blocking cloud."

That's kind of the whole point- we can see its a bad idea, and even a lot of the Colonials did, but unfortunately the 51+% who voted for Baltar and settlement were blinded by their hunger to get out of their cramped little spaceships and find a new home to settle on. Its not so hard to understand is it? Though I do blame Ron Moore a bit on this one... there should've been an eppy that showed us just how harsh life in the ragtag fleet was for the civilians.

In any case, it isn't hard to figure out why folks would follow someone who tells them what they want to hear. We do it all the time in America today.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:57 pm

Quote:
This is important because back in the present, Adama faces off against Chief in the ring, then loses on purpose, then makes a speech. Um, OK. The speech is pretty good (basically about how he shouldn't have let crew members go to New Caprica so easily, etc etc), but you can tell everyone is kind of inwardly rolling their eyes and thinking, "Yeah, OK -- the one episode where we were actually having fun and you have to get up there and blab on and on in your awesomely craggy, attention-commanding voice YET AGAIN? We get it, Admiral Killjoy! Now let us beat each other up so more!"

I loved your review Sara, but disagree with this one point. Adama Sr. made a very good point- when you lead someone, you're not their friend. He 'frakked up' royally by dropping his guard slowly, eventually, during the settlement period, and feels that more people died because of that. But the friend dynamic was still there (as evidenced by Tyrol blowing off Adama's request to fix some Viper NOW) and Adama needed to shatter it, dramatically, publicly, and explain why. I thought it was great, committed leadership, though probably it wouldn't have been so awesome if Tyrol had knocked him the frak out (no speech then). It was a gamble, but the right call to make given their situation.

Still, I'd have to say that the best parts of the eppy were Roslin and Adama Sr. apparently hooking up on New Caprica, and Lee and Starbuck's long, slow, frakked-up-yet-incredibly-touching clinch/embrace at the end. I guess they really are perfect for one another, in a disturbing sort of way. Nice episode.

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DanielDecker said:

member since 15 Apr 2005 with 23 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Dec 04, 2006 4:01 pm

Guest wrote:
DanielDecker wrote:
If you didn't appreciate this episode, then get off my show, we don't need fans like you, 'frakking it up'. Jeez, if you can't understand how this story advanced the depth of every character involved, and how these constant little tragedies are what MAKE these characters heroes, then why do you watch?

You know, you are allowed to like bits of a show without thinking the whole thing is wonderful. If you honestly think that constantly shooting yourself in the foot adds depth to a characters then frankly you're a loon. These people aren't heroes and their tragedies are all of their own making. It's long past time they grew up.

Stop being such a damn cultist and start using what critical faculties you may have. This show is simply falling all over itself to put sex to the forefront of the story simply because it can. Looking back I'm pretty much convinced that's why they made so many of the characters female in the first place - more sex. Any group of people on the run who can't think beyond their own genitals would get caught and wiped out, especially when the stupid bug seems to have hit senior military staff.

And let's not even touch the whole stopping on New Caprica thing "Hey let's stop here, this looks like a nice planet. The Cylons will never find us here, it's got a magic sensor blocking cloud."

I can see it now aboard the chasing basestars "Hey, why don't we just fire in a couple of probes and see if they're not hiding in this dark cloud?" "Dont be so damned stupid who would hide where we can't see them?"

Best I can tell, I didn't de-volve into name calling, so I don't see why you felt the need to do so. I'm not a "loon" or a "damn cultist", so why don't you stop being a frakking jerk?

I'm critical of this show when it deserves it. As I said, based on the previews I was not looking forward to this, but was impressed non-the- less. There have been bad episodes, "Black Market", even "Scar" was a little lame, but this was not one of them.

To finish; Bite me.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:55 pm

seemed that the flashbacks were way too numerous; for me they began to feel forced and rhythm-busting, and by the fourth or fifth one, I was wincing at each one.

adama and roslyn were great together, as was the final starbuck/lee clinch, but I thought the endlessly bloody boxing scenes could have been cut way back while still making the point of unfinished business.

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Bryan said:

member since 11 Jun 2001 with 7334 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Dec 05, 2006 4:45 pm

Guest wrote:
I loved your review Sara, but disagree with this one point. Adama Sr. made a very good point- when you lead someone, you're not their friend. He 'frakked up' royally by dropping his guard slowly, eventually, during the settlement period, and feels that more people died because of that. But the friend dynamic was still there (as evidenced by Tyrol blowing off Adama's request to fix some Viper NOW) and Adama needed to shatter it, dramatically, publicly, and explain why. I thought it was great, committed leadership, though probably it wouldn't have been so awesome if Tyrol had knocked him the frak out (no speech then). It was a gamble, but the right call to make given their situation.

That's excellent analysis, Guest, by which I mean I agree with you and was thinking the same thing.

Hard to find fault with anything Sarah writes, but I definitely think this was a very important subplot-development.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Dec 05, 2006 6:18 pm

Bryan wrote:
Guest wrote:
I loved your review Sara, but disagree with this one point. Adama Sr. made a very good point- when you lead someone, you're not their friend. He 'frakked up' royally by dropping his guard slowly, eventually, during the settlement period, and feels that more people died because of that. But the friend dynamic was still there (as evidenced by Tyrol blowing off Adama's request to fix some Viper NOW) and Adama needed to shatter it, dramatically, publicly, and explain why. I thought it was great, committed leadership, though probably it wouldn't have been so awesome if Tyrol had knocked him the frak out (no speech then). It was a gamble, but the right call to make given their situation.

That's excellent analysis, Guest, by which I mean I agree with you and was thinking the same thing.

Hard to find fault with anything Sarah writes, but I definitely think this was a very important subplot-development.

Thanks. I think the hard part for the audience though is that perhaps what Adama did wasn't stunningly obvious, so perhaps it was easy to sit there like a lump and go, "Blah blah blah. Why is Adama letting Tyrol beat the hell out of him and then is giving a speech afterwards? OMG."

Still, it was obvious ENOUGH. One of the nice things about BSG is that it does demand some engagement by the viewer. If you can't do that, then you should be watching something else.

I guess one thing you can lay on Ron Moore and Co. is that some of these things do seem to come a bit out of left field, and without much (if any) build-up and foreshadowing. I do wish he'd do something about that.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Dec 06, 2006 2:40 pm

Is it me or the show started sliding into a "chick-flick" category? I know, I know, it's not nice or politically correct to use this term. I have nothing against chick flicks as a date movie, or a pastime for girls night in. But BSG started as a sci-fi show with cylons and spaceships and fighting and shooting! All the things we 2-dimensional males like. And now it's become a drama. I don't mind drama as long as the sci-fi part is still there. Unfortunately, there's less and less of action and more and more talk. I've missed the last episode and I don't even feel bad about it (and I haven't missed a single one in seasons 1 and 2).

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Dec 06, 2006 9:48 pm

Guest wrote:
Is it me or the show started sliding into a "chick-flick" category? I know, I know, it's not nice or politically correct to use this term. I have nothing against chick flicks as a date movie, or a pastime for girls night in. But BSG started as a sci-fi show with cylons and spaceships and fighting and shooting! All the things we 2-dimensional males like. And now it's become a drama. I don't mind drama as long as the sci-fi part is still there. Unfortunately, there's less and less of action and more and more talk. I've missed the last episode and I don't even feel bad about it (and I haven't missed a single one in seasons 1 and 2).

Uhh... chick flick? The last episode was pretty much everyone beating the hell out of each other in a boxing ring. And a couple episodes back, a burning battlestar free-falled into New Caprica orbit while launching Vipers and then all hell broke loose when the Pegasus entered the fray and blew up a couple of basestars while suiciding itself.

Yeahhh... I see stuff like that in chick flicks ALL THE TIME. WTH have you been smoking?!? :\

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Dec 11, 2006 5:35 pm

DanielDecker wrote:
Best I can tell, I didn't de-volve into name calling, so I don't see why you felt the need to do so. I'm not a "loon" or a "damn cultist", so why don't you stop being a frakking jerk?

Devolve? I think you've picked the wrong word. Either way, when you open with

DanielDecker wrote:
If you didn't appreciate this episode, then get off my show, we don't need fans like you, 'frakking it up'.
I don't think you can claim any moral high ground when it comes to being dismissive.

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