"Rapture"
Airdate: Sunday, January 21st, 2007

This episode has the most OMG(s)! moments of any episode we've seen in a while.  I mean, not even Jack Bauer had to shoot his own wife, right?  Of course, when Romulonhelo shoots Sharon, everyone -- including him -- knows she's just going to be sent to a Big Bathtub of Goo on a nearby basestar, but does that really make it any better?

First, however, let's take care of...well...first things first: Sarah Kuhn is attending Sundance this week, and that means that I am filling in for her for our BSG iTunes review. She'll be back to cover next week's episode, which looks to be full of more KaraLee mush (that I find it hard to care about), while I get to drool all over this incredible episode.

"Rapture" is, in the parlance of X-Files fandom, a mythology episode (thanks, Kitten!).  It's not about the individual characters, and it's not intended to offer the viewers exposition. Instead, this episode moves ahead several of the broad, sweeping story arcs of the series, revealing many things in the process.

Arc One - When Cylons Go Bad 

During the inevitable stand-down by the Cylons in the face of the Admiral Adama's  nuclear threat, the Three series of Cylons breaks from their brothers and sisters and insists on sending Crazy Lucy Lawless Cylon's ship on to Planet O' Algae with Gaius "Jesus" Baltar on board. The Three rep argues that Adama won't fire off his nukes when it's just a single ship going down to the planet.

She's right, of course, but we see for the first time a disagreement amongst the Cylons turn into outright rebellion from an entire line.

"That," pronounces Brother Cavil, "is not a good sign," as Lucy Lawless Cylon marches out of the big Cylon Powwow Room.  His understated delivery is both funny, and poignant, and he continues by suggesting to the other lines that something may need to be done about the Threes.

This is one of the first echoes of the fractured family thread that we see throughout the ep, and this is what serves as the unifying issue between all of the arcs.  The Cylons, once one big happy clone-like family, suddenly find one of their numbers going it alone, against the express wishes of everyone else.  And, like in any normal human family, the obvious solution is to cut them off like an unneeded toenail, and "box up" all the Threes.

Wait, what?  That's right, the other lines decide that Crazy Lucy Lawless Cylone's quest for enlightenment, and her pursuit of seeing god's face, is not only uncool, it's a symptom of the Three model being fundamentally flawed.

"Well that's the problem right there," pronounced Brother Cavil. "The messianic conviction that you're on a special mission to enlighten us -- look at the damage it's done."

"I would do it all again," responds Crazy Lucy Lawless Cylon.

"Yes," he said, "I know."

And with that, he pulls the plug on her and her sisters, literally.

Arc Two - Athena is Better than Boomer

When I say "better," I really mean that Sharon Agathon is better at being human than Boomer was, which is somewhat ironic considering the process we watched Boomer go through on Caprica.

On Galactica, Sharon begs and pleads with Romulonhelo to do something for her. The interaction between the two is some of the best we've seen for these characters, and we get the feeling she's asking him to kill her. But when it happens, it's lack of build up and the fact that we don't actually see it (there's a muffled gunshot, and blood is splattered all over the wall) makes it all the more horrifying and sad.

It works, though, and Sharon is resurrected on a basestar with Caprica Six there to help her through awakening.  After promising that she's seen how bad the humans are, and that she and Hera belong with the Cylons, Caprica takes her to see her daughter, who is under the frustrated care of Boomer.

When Hera immediately warms to Sharon, Boomer is clearly both jealous and put out. "That's amazing," intoned Caprica, rubbing salt in Boomer's wounds. "You and she are biologically identical, but..."  Boomer's face says it all, and Grace Park rocks my world.

Here's the important part: When Sharon argues she must take Hera to a human doctor, Boomer threatens to kill the baby.  Caprica Six instead kills Boomer, and not only helps Sharon get back to Galactica, she goes with her!

As for Sharon, she is clearly, clearly more comfortable with humans, and considers them family, despite everything they have done to her.  Boomer, on the other hand, is full of bitterness (in part, I think, because Sharon has what she wants), and clearly doesn't have a home or family. 

In one last note within this arc, Romulonhelo gets to knock President Roslin off her pretty little soapbox.  Laura tries to say that it would have been OK for him to have allowed Sharon to get back to the Cylons if it was only his family at risk.  He cuts her off and reminds her that had Laura not stolen his and Sharon's child, telling them the baby was dead, that they wouldn't be in the position of needing to rescue Hera from the Cylons in the first place.

Note to Laura: You don't get to argue morality to the father of the baby you stole. You just don't.

It's gratifying to see Laura's decision continue to have ramifications. It's not quite like Xander lying to Buffy about Angel maybe having his soul back in season two of that show coming back to be an issue in season six, but this is one of those small things that sets BSG apart from most other shows.

Arc Three - Since When Are They The Final Five?

Down on the planet, The Chief can't figure out what the Eye of Jupiter is, and Anders and Lee Adama have to try and use guerilla tactics to keep the Clankers -- my new favorite name for Cylon soliders -- at bay. 

At the same time, Lee  orders his wife  to go and rescue Kara, the woman with whom he's been cheating on his wife.  Kara is eventually rescued, and there's some dynamite tension-filled scenes between the two women.  I find it hard to care about Karalee, though, so this is all the mention that gets.

As the Cylons get closer, The Chief and his helpers wire the temple to blow it up, but Crazy Lucy Lawless Cylon defuses the explosives before they can.  When Brother Cavil then tries to execute her (see Arc One), Baltar shoots him with a stolen gun, leaving the two of them alone in the temple.

Right about now, the star is going supernova, and the pieces all fall into place.  It is this nova that is the Eye of Jupiter, which is somehow a key to finding Earth.  As the sun is doing its Novaing thing, lights go off in the temple, and Crazy Lucy Lawless Cylon is taken to the Baltar's Opera House where she sees what she calls The Final Five Cylons.

Now, it used to be that there were simply five models of Cylons no one has seen.  In "Rapture," however, they are now known as The Final Five, and they are all glowy and object-of-worship-like. Did I miss something somewhere?  

Crazy Lucy Lawless Cylon approaches one, looks at his face, and apologizes for something (we specifically don't know what), saying, "Forgive me, I had no idea."

And neither do we.  Who is the Final Five person she looked at? From her interaction, we are clearly supposed to think it's someone in the human fleet she saw on a daily basis back on New Caprica.  Since Baltar is clearly a giant red herring, who else could it be? Speculation on the Web has the money being on Gaeta, but I'll personally wait and see.

Unfortunately for Crazy Lucy Lawless Cylon, she then dies in Baltar's arms. It's unfortunate for Baltar, too, because he's freaking out trying to get her to tell him if it was him that she saw.

Oh, but it gets worse for Baltar, because right about then The Chief sticks a gun to his head, and then pistol whips him into unconsciousness.

Oops.

Arc Four - The Eye of Jupiter

The least time is devoted to this story arc, but it's one of the most important arcs of the series, finding Earth.  The Eye of Jupiter is a supernova, and may well (also) be a supernova that took place some 4,000 years ago.  With that thought in mind, they decide that the supernova itself may be a marker for which way the 13th Tribe went.

More oddly, the pictorial representation of the Eye found in the temple is very similar to one of the paintings we saw in Kara's apartment back in Caprica.  Romulonhelo recognizes it as such, and we find out that Kara's been obsessed with this image since childhood.  She talks about someone telling her she had a destiny that had already been written, and with that we begin our travels into a new element of the mythology of the series. Maybe Starbuck isn't all balls and testosterone after all...

Darla Sasaki contributed to this article.

iTunes Links

Battlestar Galactica - Series
Battlestar Galactica - Season 3
"Rapture"