Um, every episode starts with the backstory, including “Humans created the Cylons”.
I really liked this episode. My favorite scene was where they were all standing in the lab, and there was a series of rapid-fire revelations: “Wait, who stopped the test?” - “He did.” - “Yes I did.” - “Why?” - “He thought such-and-such.” - “You talked to him?” - “Yes.” - “Wait, but what about…” Just fabulous dialogue, delivered with fabulous rat-a-tat timing. They’ve all been carrying around their secrets and suspicions, and a big chunk of it collapsed into a heap during those few seconds. It was almost like a climactic scene in a screwball comedy. Just great stuff. 
I’ll agree that the middle section of the season appears to have been devoted primarily to character and situation, and not so much advancement of plot. It’s starting to drag a little bit, but to be honest I don’t mind too much, or at least I haven’t yet. There are two reasons for this:
First, the second act (out of three) in a movie is always the hardest to sustain; the first is where you introduce everybody, and the third is where you wrap everything up, but the second is a long stretch where you keep all the balls in the air and develop the relationships between the characters so the ending can make sense and mean something. We’re coming to the end of the second act now (four episodes remaining), and it seems pretty clear that the writers have a plan for the overall story, so I have faith that most if not all of the major plot threads are going to be tied together going to the climax. The way the season has been structured, as a very long movie, feels very familiar to me, and based on the rapturous response from the UK, I’m setting aside my reservations and preparing for the ride to the finale.
And second, after having endured the almost aggressively mediocre Star Trek: Enterprise for almost four years, and having been unimpressed by other genre efforts outside the Whedonverse (e.g., Stargate Atlantis was okay, but not good enough to keep me watching), I find myself unable to register “too much focus on character and interpersonal drama, and not enough plot” as a seriously negative criticism. In some respects, I find myself watching Galactica not as a science-fiction show, but as a drama that just happens to be set in a science-fiction universe. So in an episode like this one, I’ll forgive a lack of movement in the overall story if in exchange I get to be amazed by seeing Tigh go from a solid two-dimensional character to a suddenly very interesting three-dimensional man.
Oh, and for what it’s worth, I sort of liked the mysterious behavior of the lone Cylon Raider. I like that some aspects of the show, especially regarding the enemy, remain somewhat ambiguous. Makes the threat more visceral to me if you don’t know exactly what the bad guys want or how they’re going about it, or even how they will behave in certain circumstances. Heightens the paranoia if you don’t know which dark corners hold the worst dangers. Too much of this isn’t necessarily a good thing, of course (c.f. The X-Files), but the small dose the show’s been using up to this point has been a very nice seasoning in the narrative stew, I think.
P.S. I did take note of the spoiler debate in this thread, and I fully agree with the need for some sort of guideline to minimize fuss and frustration. Assuming I get to write the next introductory OP (if nobody beats me to it), I’ll add something to that effect.
I wonder if it’s possible for Baltar to build more cylon detectors. Now that the prototype works, he could duplicate or even improve it and speed up the time it takes to process.
Of course the idea that it takes 11 hours between suspicion and revelation is a good dramatic tool.
You know, I wonder how long it’s gonna be before someone suspects Baltar’s detector “always comes up green” and tests it on a known cylon. I.e., the dead guy they still have in the morgue or the insides of the cylon raider in the bay.
Despite the fact that the detector needs a nuclear weapon to work?
Easiest work around to that - design it to come up red for all post-mortem samples.
Nahh, just a “wouldn’t it be cool if…”
Yeah, so? Humans created the Cylons, but
Are we in fact human, or are we Cylons. Could we tell?
It’s just kind of a cool idea. I’ve had the similar idea that
The battles between the Orc and the humans were battles between Homo Neanderthalis and Homo Sapiens. But the Orcs were the Homo Sapiens!
I’m fine with Caprica as long as they don’t write in some garbage where Helo finds a ship and rejoins the fleet. The fleets jumped over 200 times since they started to run so it’s not possible.
But what is it used for?
Could two or more machines hook up to the same bomb?
And while I realize that the missles are important for defense, so is finding cylons. They could probably part with a couple more to build a few more machines.
Ah, but it’s not.
If the fleet jumps 200 times in two months and he jumps 200 times in two days, they could be at the same place.
I got the impression Six wanted it for nefarious purposes, and it had nothing to do with detection.
When asked for it, Adama mentioned they don’t have very many. I think less than a dozen.
They need to find a planet where they can mine fuel and fissionable material.
Hell, they need to find food. Right now the only place in the universe known to have humanly edible food is in Cylon hands. I wonder what the biological Cylons do for food - synthetic nutrients? Maybe the Colonials steal a Cylon food synthesizer and we see the fleet subsisting on something like Robocop’s “baby food”.
I have no idea how it could be done credibly, but if Helo never rejoins the fleet, I don’t see how anything that happens to him could matter in the long run. He dies? Big deal. He stays a fugitive on Caprica for the rest of his life? Big deal. He gets off planet and wanders a barren empty galaxy? Big deal.
Here’s a pure guess of mine: the Caprica Boomer tearfully confesses to Helo that she is a Cylon - and he blows her head off.
I figured that the cylons were using the boomer/helo situation on caprica as an experiment on human behavior. However that experiment turns out would dictate the strategic decisions that the cylons make on dealing with the refugee fleet.
That’s the only way Helo’s odyssey can be relevent in my opinion. I highly doubt that he will ever make it back to the fleet but I do think that an act of heroism on his part will, at least in a small way, affect how the cylons either have mercy on or condemn the rest of the humans in the end.
Just my speculation…
The question is: Is that even possible? Assuming that he even knows where the fleet is…
Is what possible, jumping?
19th century ships that parted arranged rendevous months in advance. If it’s needed for the plot, there would be some Cylon proof rendevous arranged for military vessels.
What for? Remember, they’d been at peace for 40 years - no one had even seen a cylon in ages. Remember the guy’s surprise when Six shows up at the signing in the miniseries? No cylon had come to that since time out of mind. To the humans, the cylons were simply not a threat any longer - they were a non-entity.
Of all the things the human military had to plan for, I doubt any sort of cylon/meeting points were built into it. Remember how backwards everyone thought Adama was?
I’d be rather disappointed too, if this gets built in and Helo rejoins the fleet.
Surely there is some plan for FTL military vessels to find each other if they become separated.
Some things I’ve been wondering about:
Did they flee in a straight line and equal distances at each jump, or did they move in different directions and distance?
If planets with water are rare, then planets with food must be, too.
What are they doing when they aren’t jumping, just cruising around at sub light?
Where are they going? Do they have some idea where earth is, or are they just wandering about in infinite space?
How much of space has been explored by humans and by Cylons?
The preview for the upcoming episode shows the human leadership weighing a raid on a Cylon-controlled supply facility of some sort, so I suspect a few of those questions will be clarified if not answered.
Ah, yes - the Cylons who are indistinguishable from humans need food, too. Raiding the enemy’s supplies is a time-honored tactic. We haven’t yet seen anything to prevent there being replicators or resequencers or something onboard, though - just an offhand mention that BSG’s water recycling system was exceptionally efficient.
The jumps? I thought they were intended to be long and random. Since the fleet scatters a bit during each one, they need to close up formation a bit before the next one or the civilian ships will arrive too far away from BSG. If Adama knows the location of Earth along with the secret fraternity handshake, that’s where they’re headed. Otherwise it’s just an escape.
Agreed Helo is a rat in a maze - the Cylons are looking to see how he reacts in situations they set him up in. The humanoid Cylons may, however, think they’re a more advanced model than the toasters, are designated or just destined to take over from them, and are trying to learn how this emotion stuff works. Religious certitude they already got.
In the miniseries, the Cylon in the weapons dump was affected by the radiation around it, while Adama and the other humans were not. So they’re using the fissionables to irradiate the blood samples and look for some effect. I think that was Baltar’s explanation to Adama when he asked for the nuke. At the time, Adama said they have only five.
Of course, you wouldn’t want to leave the fissionables in the nuke for the test - and once you’ve removed them it would be a lot harder to get a chain reaction.
Did anyone else notice that Ellen brought a bottle of Ambrosia to dinner? I like the occasional nods to the original series.
And what was with the makeout room at the nose of the Galactica? Were they all Battlestar personnel in there, or are they letting anyone from the fleet onto the only military vessel for some luvin’ when they can’t even reliably detect Cylons yet?