Battlestar Galactica 1.9 — "Hand of God" (now with lemon fresh spoilers)

Cafe Society
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New episode tonight. Title is “The Hand of God.” Given the apparent importance of whatever it is the Cylons call their faith, I suspect this will be significant.

Important note: Stargate SG-1 is 90 minutes tonight, so Galactica starts half an hour later than usual. If you’re setting a VCR, take this into consideration.

Questions:

The preview shows command staff mulling a raid on a Cylon supply facility of some type. What are they so short of that such an apparently foolhardy action is being contemplated? Food? Fuel? Cigarettes? Pocky?

After last week’s apparent completion of the Cylon detector, is President Roslin still looking at Adama with a suspicious eye? And what was the deal with that strange premonitory dream? Cylon interference, or side effects of the cancer and/or herbal therapy?

Will Mrs. Tigh continue to be a prominent presence? Is she still nailing her husband’s uniformed compatriots?

Will anything actually happen on Caprica this week, or will this continue to resemble the midweek installments of the Phantom comic strip where they stretch out a single plot point over several days until they can cut loose as usual on Sunday?

When is Adama gonna get tired of Baltar’s antics and punch him in the neck?

In last week’s ep, it was mentioned that Tyrol etc. are close to figuring out the Cylon Raider’s faster-than-light capabilities. Any developments on that front? And is bot-strokin’ Boomer any assistance?

What’s going on back on the prison ship?

Any more Cylon agents turn up? If so, does anyone waste a centon before blowing them out the nearest garbage portal?

Will Starbuck reveal herself to be the best in the fleet at whipping up a nice creamy hollandaise sauce?

Any explanation for the bizarre behavior of the lone Raider in last week’s ep?

Does Roslin’s curly-haired aide keep dating Lt. Uhura or does he drop her after realizing she was pumping him for information?

Is Master-at-Arms Hadrian still on Adama’s shit list?

Coming into the home stretch now. How many episodes left after this one? Three or four?

Oh, and since it was requested…

Spoiler policy:

Instead of trying to create a complicated set of rules about what constitutes a spoiler and what doesn’t, the expectation will be simple, to wit: Put anything you want in a spoiler box. Just tell us what it is so we know whether or not it’s safe to highlight. Examples—

Re the climax of this week’s episode:Man, that’s a lot of Pocky!
This is something I read on the Internet about the Cylons’ long-range plan:Man, that’s a lot of Pocky!
At the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, why does Dave Bowman say"It’s full of Pocky."

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While you are waiting for the show to start, pick up the April issue of Stuff magazine and gaze on the wonder that is a semi-nekkid Tricia Helfer (Number 6). :smiley:

I’m expecting a run-up to one hell of a cliffhanger. Just my suspicion…no data to back it up.

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I’m guessing fuel. They mentioned they burned half of thier reserves looking for Starbuck when she was stranded.

I hate when paranormal stuff gets mixed in with my sci-fi, so I’m praying that the premonitory dreams are a minor plot element.

Lwaxana Tigh seems to have no intention of stopping her immoral trysts.

I predict that their will be some running from Cylon’s, a narrow escape, and some cryptic dialog from #6 and the other male cylon.

I hope at some point they show us what the rest of the fleet consists of.

I thought they’d decided it was “playing wounded” so that they would let their guard down and it could charge the ship?

I hope to see a return to the bizarre make-out room in the stern of the Galactica, which seems like a doubly strange thing to put on a military vessel.

I think they filmed this season before they had they knew they’d be making a second season, as a result, I’m guessing they try for some resolution in the season finaly.

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[quote=Malodorous
]
what’s pocky??
[/quote]
Pocky.

By the way, in case anyone was curious, the sample spoiler boxes in my OP are not, in fact, actual spoilers.

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I missed last week’s ep. Were there any major developments?

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Quick summary of last week:

At the top, Baltar has his Cylon detector finished, and Roslin is pressuring Adama to be the first to be tested. Meanwhile, Billy (Roslin’s fro-headed aide) is picking the brain of Dualla (the communications officer) for insights into Adama’s behavior, feeding Roslin’s suspicions. Adama’s apparently been hiding transmissions and sneaking around, but it turns out it’s because he’s found Col. Tigh’s wife Ellen, presumed lost, but who was actually in a coma for the first few weeks after the attack.

We also learn that Baltar’s detector is in fact ready, but that it takes eleven hours to get a result on one person, so it’ll take several decades to test everybody in the fleet, so… yeah.

That doesn’t stop Roslin from calling Baltar to nag him about the Adama result, at which point Baltar tells her Adama cancelled his own test in favor of checking out the mysteriously reappeared Ellen. Roslin countermands that order and tells Baltar to resume the Adama test. This gets reversed again when Roslin learns who Ellen actually is, which leads to a very funny scene where Adama hears Roslin is suspicious of him, Tigh has been talking to Roslin about her suspicions behind Adama’s back, and everybody is leery of Ellen. We also find out that Ellen is apparently a world-class skank, and even if she isn’t a Cylon, Adama would still rather not have her around, because Tigh loves her despite how she bangs anyone in a uniform. (There’s a dinner party welcoming Ellen back during which she gets drunk and plays footsie with Apollo. Well, I guess it’s not really footsie if her foot is in Apollo’s crotch, but whatever.)

Nothing of import happens with Boomer II and Helo on Caprica. They’re still fleeing, there’s some mention of a big Cylon base where they can swipe a ship, and Boomer wants Helo to think the Cylons are chasing her particularly more than the two of them together. That’s about it.

Oh, and a single Cylon scout shows up, behaves weirdly (damaged? can’t FTL jump? caught in a programming loop?), and gets blown up while attempting to suicide-ram Galactica, the defense against which is made possible by Tigh’s foresight when everybody else was thinking about other stuff, which tells us that the reappearance of his harpy wife hasn’t completely incapacitated him.

Then at the very end, everybody’s in the lab, and Baltar announces that Ellen has passed the test, and is human. Everyone is relieved, except that Number Six appears and says, “Really?” and Baltar says, “I’ll never tell.” So we don’t actually know anything about anything.

Here endeth the recap.

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Thanks, Cervaise!

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I really liked this episode. The one thing that the new BSG has been lacking is space battles.

The only thing I didn’t like about this episode

SPOILER FOR THIS EPISODE

The way Apollo says “Mission Accomplished” at the end. He shouldn’t be suprised.

Next Week


We get back to the prison ship, Mrs. Tigh and the President has to make a tought political play. It is an entirely ‘internal’ show with basically the humans trying to figure out thier political system and it is IMHO a great episode.

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For this episode

Oh and in case you couldn’t count them there were 12 vipers in the cargo ship.

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Jesus, just watch BG for an SN Helfer.

:slight_smile:

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I’m getting kinda sorta tired of this Cylon religion junk.
Let’s resolve something, dammit.
I’m also getting tired of waiting for Our Heroes to figure out that Balthar (sp) is a fruitcake. Allthough I’m afraid he was vindicated in this episode.

Nice having the fighters hiding in the freighter.

Didn’t tell the Pres…are we really worried she is a Cylon?
Hell, I’m begining to wonder if the folks I work with are Cylons. Always happy, happy, don’t have a clue about what’s going on.
:slight_smile:

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Maybe all of us are Cylons and you are Helo, our rat we have running through a maze.

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Okay, okay, I gotta get Aileen Wuornos to whack him off and if his spine glows, she whacks him for real.* Oh frack, she’s fracking dead.* Let’s consider Plan B.
Non-Cyclon help would be appreciated concerning Plan B.

Now that I think of it, has anyone seen Aileen Wuornos and Six Together At The Same Time?

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Spoiler for this week’s episode, general thoughts on various plot points, and rampant speculation

General Thoughts

I enjoyed the storytelling and the way they presented Starbuck’s plan to attack the mining colony. I had an inkling that she had something up her sleeve, but it was nice to feel the surprise in the moment with the president.

I thought the battle was interesting, although when the strike force was coming in and dodging the flak and when Apollo flew into the mine shaft that they definitely laying the ground work for a future video game.

*Re: No. 6 and Baltar ‘giving himself into God’s hands’ when he guessed on the target area for the bomb run. *

I thought we were going to get a little more info in the form of 6 providing exposition. Developing the religious and prophetic elements via the priestess and the president’s discussion was a nice touch.

What do you think of the president’s visions? The fulfillment of prophecy factor is interesting, although I don’t generally like mixing my sci-fi and paranormal either. IMO there’s some link between the new age medicine and the vision. Whether this has any relevance whatsoever remains to be seen.

I’m getting the impression that Baltar’s 6 is functioning as an angel or emissary type from the Cylon God. I’m unsure, however, whether it’s that she’s serving as a plot development vehicle or this ties into the storyline down the road.

Re: Caprica

I’m fairly certain that Boomer’s sickness is morning sickness. If this is true (and IMO there have been hints that they are looking to develop a breeding program or something) what’s the general speculation on the Cylon goals in this regard?

What’s the deal with 6 and her platoon of toasters? Some kind of experiment to test Helo’s resolve to stick with Boomer? If they are engaged in some kind of breeding program, could they be ready to kill Helo or capture him for genetic material/sperm/intelligence?

Heh. I read these threads avidly but i’ve never posted to one. It’s fun speculating.

One question regarding the spoiler box usage, directed at the OP but input from everyone is welcome: Should we separate out the various sections into different spoiler boxes - i.e. 'Regarding Baltar & 6" or “The Space Battle” - or make one big box for thoughts regarding each episode (current or future)?

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Heh. I read these threads avidly but i’ve never posted to one. It’s fun speculating.

One question regarding the spoiler box usage, directed at the OP but input from everyone is welcome: Should we separate out the various sections into different spoiler boxes - i.e. 'Regarding Baltar & 6" or “The Space Battle” - or make one big box for thoughts regarding each episode (current or future)?

Six is trying to capture Helo and Boomer. There is obviously something going on, but that is her objective.
Breeding program…interesting, but if they can make human Cylons, I don’t see why they would need a breeding program.
Sperm and Intelligence are mutually exclusive.

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carnivorousplant

May I ask why you displayed my entire, fairly spoiler laden post outside the spoiler box?

If this was unintentional on your part (as I assume it was) could a mod please re-box or edit it at their earliest convenience?

P

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Oh you know she is so Cylon :slight_smile:

She certainly did seem overly upset that she didn’t know every secret detail of the plan…especially since it worked. Not something that someone in her position would usually worry about.

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I thought it was the other way around. He was pumping her (heh) for information about Adama and if he’d been acting strange.

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This show continues to impress me - I especially like the grimness of it all, coupled with the explosive joy after victories (Starbuck returning, Apollo’s “mission accomplished”). I know that I’m being manipulated when the entire navigation deck erupts in protracted cheering & applause. But that’s forgivable because of the scenes that affect me.

It’s the little things. How Caprica-#6 shows great sadness when Caprica-Doral mentions “I wonder what it’s like to feel love.” Devastating. (Ms. Helfer is turning out to be more than just a vixen.) How Caprica-Boomer has managed to fall in love with Helo. And in tonight’s episode, how, while the rest of the crew is rejoicing, Lt. Gaeta closes his eyes and leans up against the wall (?) momentairly, showing great relief. Those are the scenes that tap directly into my emotions.

There are usually a few trivial nitpicks, but I’m more than willing to suspend disbelief, simply because the show is so good. Perhaps Starbuck’s being The Best at everything is going to be a running joke. Maybe Baltar’s goofiness was legendary on Caprica before the Cylon attack, so nobody mentions it now.

TV note: I was watching the “100 Scariest Movie Moments” marathon on Bravo tonight, and realized that the weekly scene where Boomer & Helo almost get caught is pretty spooky in its own right. All those marching Toaster Cylons!

Another TV note: Mrs. Albert and I were watching her brand-spanking-new Miami Vice, Season One DVD (Valentine’s Gift!), and got to the first episode in which EJ Olmos appeared. I said “Adama!” and she laughed. Interestingly enough, his character (Lt. Castillo) is grim, intense, humorless, stoic, honorable, etc.

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It has certainly been my impression that breeding may have been part of the helio plan, however I think that Boomer is taking things further and now somehow wants to live some kind of fantasy where she lives happily ever after with Helio and her baby.

There are certainly questions raised in this episode:

The president has visions and sick as conveniantly spelled out in their bible. She is either now a prophet that has been fortold by the gods, or as I believe that both the visions and her cancer are designed to mislead, and part of the cylon plot, as she is truly cylon. It is so nice that she can fill the holy texts’ prophecy so perfectly.

The whole cylon god seems to becoming increasingly ambiguous, as appearly it give “secret” info to Balter which allowed the based to be destroyed. This of course may be advancing the greater cylon agenda, as god clearly has a plan and part of it is leading to some kind of confrontation on Kobol (as foreshadowed by Six at the end). None-the-less god is becoming more “god-like” and the writers are opening up a lot of new questions. To discuss these elements see whats up with the cylon god thread

As pointed out, Capria Boomer starts experiencing real or imagined morning sickness. I think that cylons are trying seriously capture/destroy them at this point, as boomer is no longer fully following their exact agenda(as stated above). Lets hope the toasters don’t catch them.

Meanwhile the starbuck extravaganza continues as Starbuck is once again able to show off her “superabilities” as a tactical expert and trick the cylons/president with her double fakeout manuaver.

Of course this was all preordained by the cylon god. So what is god’s master plan? When will “god” speak or show itself. What are they trying to do? Why do they need/want to have a showdown on Kobol? Is there a real baby, or is it a figment of boomers imagination? IF real, why? What new superability will Starbuck show? Will the president wake from her next vision a shiny silver toaster?