I’d like to lock Balthar and Wesley Chrusher in a room and kill the one that comes out alive.
Jesus H. Christ, way do they put up with this obviously seriously demented son of a bitch? And as for Balthar…
Well, of course, it’s a TV show.
Will Sci Fi repeat the episodes I didn’t tape, dammit?
If it’s a chess reference, you move the pawns first, the knights and then the Bishops. Maybe he means it is mid game, or time to bring out more powerfull units.
Just wait 'til the finale. 
Biting my tongue
Will listening to the podcast of this episode spoil anything from the next (final) episode?
I didn’t remember seeing that so I double checked. Caprica-Boomer was shot high on her left shoulder.
Speculation about next week’s Caprica Boomer/Helo/Starbuck arc…
[spoiler]the way i see it, by next week’s ep, Helo may be coming around to realizing that C-Boomer isn’t an “evil” cylon, that she truly loves him, and is trying her best to resist her Cylon programming, as she truly wants to be human, maybe he’s already accepted that fact, and is remorseful for rejecting her and shooting her
Scenario 1 … Starbuck lands the Raider just far enough out of view not to scare off Helo and C-B and is able to find them quickly (she’s also the best tracker in the fleet, too 
), Starbuck sees C-B and thinks “wait a minute, isn’t Boomer on Galactica (now she’s on a ship crashing down to Kobol), what the frak is up with this…Boomer must be a Cylon, and she’s captured Helo!, i need to stop this!”
Starbuck fires and kills C-B (best shot in the fleet), just as Helo was beginning to trust her again, Helo sees Starbuck coming towards him and this drives a wedge of resentment between them, big enough to be played off of in S2
Scenario 2 … Helo sees the Raider land, and sees Starbuck get out of it, he thinks Starbuck is a Cylon and shoots her, killing her, she’s unable to take the Arrow back to Galactica, and therefore the Rag-Tag Fleet™ is at the mercy of the Cylon BaseStar in S2, Helo, and C-B get a pet Raider to hug and feed and call George [/spoiler]
scenario 1 has enough inherent darkness in it to be feasable, it’s clear BSG is a show that isn’t shy about pulling punches
Insofar as the passage of time:
The Helo scene in Colonial Day identified it as being Day 45, and the one in this episode as Day 50. A few days must have passed during the events in Colonial Day since it can’t all possibly have occured in the same afternoon, so my guess would be that the dance at the end of the episode was happening on the evening of Day 49. If true, this also better justifies Starbuck jumping into bed with Baltar - nothing gets the romantic juices flowing like swing music.
Maybe I missed this but I am not following:
I still don’t understand what the Cylon’s original purpose with Helo on Caprica was
Are absolutely positive that the Cylons are looking for Earth too? Aren’t they just looking for Galactica? In fact if not for the “prophet” who predicted finding Kobol and Earth I’d be inclined to say the Cylons are busy chasing BSG and fleet and pay no more attention to looking for a fictional “Earth” [which apparently is not part of their Theology] than looking for unicorns … How do the Cylons know that is what BSG is looking for anyway? They do know – as the Cylon prisoner made clear … but how?
I disagree. When Adama arrives at the dance, the President is surprised to see him there. He says something to the effect of “it’s Colonial Day, I want to celebrate with my team.” That puts the dance on Colonial Day (is Day 45 Colonial Day?)
Speaking of the dance, where was it being held? With the bar and fancy lighting, I assumed it was on Cloud Nine. But that would mean that the commander, XO, CAG, Senior Officer of the Watch, and Combat Information Center communications specialist, were all off Galactica at the same time. That hardly seems prudent.
As I understand it: Helo was left alive so that he could fall in love with Boomer. He had to, or he would be killed. They tested him by kidnapping Boomer, beating her up and waiting to see what Helo would do. He went back for her.
Helo & Boomer eventually had spine-glowingly hot sex. The next day, or whatever, as Six & Doral were waiting nearby for Boomer to report (I guess they don’t have built-in modems?) Six says, “Sharon’s late.” Hee! Anyone else catch that? Anyway, Sharon shows up, says “we had sex,” Doral looks, I dunno, either rapturously happy for her or possibly a bit snidely jealous, after all, Helo does look pretty hot in those space pants, or who knows, maybe he’s got a thing for Sharon. Heck, who doesn’t have a thing for Sharon, gay straight, male, female, Cylon? We all want her. Except Six. Six seems to really have a case of the ass with Sharon. She probably wants her too, though. But I digress.
Anyway, Doral tells Sharon they’ve set up a cabin nearby with food, supplies etc. and she’ll have to convince Helo to stay there and play house and give up his quest to get off the planet & find Galactica. If Sharon can’t convince him, she’s to kill him. At that point, Sharon, in apparent conflict with her programming decides she’d rather take off with Helo and make sure he lives than, I guess try to convince him to play house under the watchful eyes of the overseers. In any event, she has no intention of killing him, or allowing him to be killed, even if it means shooting her own sisters. It appears she is willing to go ahead with Helo’s plan of stealing a ship and getting off the planet.
So that was the plan. You probably weren’t asking for all that, but what the heck. Can you tell I like talking about BSG, and don’t have anyone at home to talk to about it?
We’re left to speculate: Why’s it so important for Helo & Sharon to play house on Caprica? What plan did Sharon have for when they eventually did get off Caprica? She can’t exactly just show up on the Galactica, unless she’s got a really good plan for convincing everyone that she’s the real Sharon, and the other one is the fake.
At least now we know that if they do get their hands on a Cylon ship, they can FTL that sucker pretty much as far as they want. We also know that BSG takes place in a strangely shaped galaxy where the only direction you can go is more or less towards Kobol, so catching up with the Galactica will probably be easy.
They know because Adama made a big announcement. Since it’s pretty much a given that there’s Cylon agents in the fleet, well, that’s that.
The purpose with Helo on Caprica…I figured that was just to get Boomer all babied-up. But as someone else pointed out, why? If they can manage cloning, they can surely artifically inseminate someone. Maybe it’s against their religion?
Maybe it’s just to see if Humans can actually love a Cylon.
For that matter, do we know why the Cylons originally rebelled?
-Joe
Something about parking toasters in handicapped spaces.
Geez, we can’t be sure of *anything * on this show, can we? That said, I thought it was clear, but maybe not, that the humans had created the Cylons as cheap slave laborers. Unfortunately they built them with too much self-awareness and reasoning ability of their own.
Oh, and Helo was on Caprica by happenstance. His leaving the Raptor to make a space for Balter was his own doing, not a Cylon plot, so I think the humanoids are improvising an experiment to explore human emotions. They’re kind of like teenagers learning about relationships for the first time in that regard. But Helo’s just a plaything, some animal they caught and put in a cage.
You know that for sure, do you?
Everyone keeps going on and on about how all this has happened before and will happen again. How many times do you need to be nearly exterminated by your own sentient toasters before you learn from your mistakes?
-Joe
Chalk this up to bad writing. In the beginning of the show the journalists say that the Quorum is scheduled to meet for the first time on Colonial Day, yet clearly the Quorum didn’t hold nominations for Vice President, have an (albeit short) campaign season, hear Baltar on the wireless, see Wally back out, Baltar nominated in his place, and then vote for Baltar all in one afternoon. Perhaps the first meeting of the Quorum is on the actual day, and the dance at the end is on the day the government formally observes Colonial Day (just like Washington’s Birthday is always observed on a Monday?)
I know I’m probably beating a dead horse about this, but I think Balter’s little performance in the President’s office should have been quite enough to get somebody(Roslin) questioning Baltar’s stability and mental health.
Paritculary considering this guy is now Vice-President. Didn’t Thomas Eagleton get booted for similar problems?
Considering Baltar is so important to the fleet, I just find it very strange that nobody is taking his increasingly erratic behaviour more seriously. I mean, I know he’s a “genius” and supposed to be somewhat strange, and I know Roslin hasn’t been all herself lately, but seriously, this is getting disturbing.
Can someone spoil the last five or so minutes of this episode for me? I set the VCR wrong and missed it. I got all the way up to Starbuck asking Adama, “So how much longer until we get to Earth, boss?” and that’s it. I’d be much appreciative.
Anyone besides me think that…
<speculation for the second half of the finale>
[spoiler]…Roslyn’s gonna be a little off concerning “Apollo’s arrow”? I don’t think you need to send anyone back to Caprica at all (besides to get Starbuck there to retrieve Helo so they can reveal the GalactiaBoomerBot in a big finish). Remember, we’ve got a good pilot - his name’s Apollo - and his fighter can shoot projectiles - which one could conceivably call arrows. I’m just sayin’. Seems to me the whole “return to Caprica” thing is misdirection, except of course, that you need to get Starbuck there to retrieve Helo to reveal GalacticaBoomerBot.
At least, I’m really hoping it’s misdirection. I’d be kind of disappointed if going back there and retrieving a statue really is the key to taking out the base star.[/spoiler]
Pure speculation on my part so I’m not going to put it in a spoiler box:
Regarding the whole “circular time” thing- the way to Earth is through some sort of space-time warp, and it turns out Earth is Kobol in the distant past. The Colonial Fleet finds Earth inhabitated by primitive tribesmen who are the descendants of the thirteenth colony, and the Galactica people end up becoming the legendary Gods of Kobol.
Well, at least we know one thing for which Starbuck isn’t The Best In The Fleet™.
She’s not The Best Lay In The Fleet.