Battlestar Galactica 2.14 — "Black Market" (rag-tag spoilers)

Cafe Society
1

As always, I’m padding the thread with a content-free OP so nobody gets mad that the mouseover preview reveals how Starbuck, searching a hydroponics ship, unexpectedly finds a tall black teenager named WAAAAAAAAALT.

Spoiler policy: If it’s been aired, or if it’s purely speculative, no need for a spoiler box. If it’s from a future episode (as given in interviews, podcasts, etc.), or if it’s speculation based on same, hide it in a spoiler box, and provide a descriptive label for the box so we can decide for ourselves whether or not to highlight it.

2

Where are we at:

Pop Tart is still being toasted in the Boomerwomb.

President Roslin has apparently escaped the clutches of the cancer fairy.

And courtesy of her hallucinations, she has had a shocking revelation about Baltar’s history with the Cylon she knows as Shelley Godfrey.

Speaking of whom, Ginasix, freed and sheltered by Baltar, is now a prominent part of the fleet’s underground peace movement.

And she’s got a nuke.

From the preview for tonight:

The supply question is this week’s crisis. Fisk, XO to and successor of Cain on Pegasus, appears to be tangled somehow with black market suppliers. And Apollo, damn that conscience of his, looks to be continuing to alienate those around him by insisting on prioritizing morality over loyalty.

Questions:

Is Roslin really all better? Are there any ramifications, either physiological, ethical, or political, of her veins being filled with Cylon bloodstuff?

What’s she going to do with her new realizations about Baltar?

And what will Baltar, Cottle, and the other medical thinkers do with the knowledge that the Pop Tart appears to provide a magic bullet against disease? (Better be something. A show this good cannot fall into the Trek trap of dropping important plot threads.)

What’s Ginasix’s plan? And do people really not recognize her? (I haven’t listened to last week’s podcast yet, but I gather Ron Moore has allowed as to how this notion worked better on paper than on screen.)

(And yeah, Ginasix with normal hair and glasses is so much hotter than platinum-topped Fantasysix that I have no words to describe the difference.)

She clearly didn’t expect to get the nuke from Baltar; what’s she going to do with it? (Top speculation: Pegasus go bye-bye.)

Is Starbuck really disillusioned with Adama’s leadership as was suggested two weeks ago? (I asked this in the last thread, but there wasn’t much followup last week; Starbuck’s only scene of significance was at the beginning, re the sabotage. There’s more to do here, I think.)

Is there more to Apollo’s self-destructive spiral than what we’ve seen so far?

And of course: When are we gonna get to see Boomer, Cally, and Dualla do some oil-rasslin’? Got to keep focusing on the important questions, don’tcha know.

3

I wanna know how come Roslyn has an exact count of how many people are in the fleet but they’ve lost two number Six model Cylons and gave up searching.

4

Where we are at?
Dangling our prepositions. :slight_smile:
Ginasix isn’t recognized because the script says so, as you refer to the podcast.

I hope things improve this week.

And watch the references to Trek-as-bad.
We are all one big happy fleet.
Board.
Whatever.

5

Umm…it’s not a magic whiteboard.

“Colonial One, this is the Captain of the Oh-Shit-We’re-All-Gonna-Die. Some dummy forgot to check the vacuum seal before taking a dump. Go ahead and drop the number by one.”

-Joe

6

Rumor has it that Ron Moore isn’t particularly proud of this episode, so I don’t know what to think. Broad predictions, not necessarily for tonight:

  • Poptart’s harvested magic blood will cease to be an issue after the birth, which should be very soon. Kind of like stem cells. Lack of impregnable Cylons will reduce it to a non-issue. They could keep putting buns in Boomer’s oven (and who wouldn’t want that frackin’ job?) but I don’t see things heading in that direction.

  • Possible plot twist is that Roslyn’s base of support among the people starts to erode when word of the Cylon blood running in her veins leaks out.

  • Baltar’s sanity continues to take a holiday.

  • The Space Hippy gets killed by Gina.

  • The show has jumped the shark if they use the nuke on the Pegasus.

7

Why? They could chase the child around with syringes.

I think that’s an excellent plot idea.

I think it may have jumped the shark with the Magical Alien Baby. Good gad, let’s hope it doesn’t grow up in a couple of episodes to be River “Buffy” Chrusher. :slight_smile:

8

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Please great Lords of Kobol don’t let that happen.

Wasn’t there a thread awhile back about what happens to shows once someone has a baby?

9

Okay, who the FRAK was Apollo just recreating (to use a Farscapism here) with, she doesn’t look familiar…

she’ll either turn out to be a Redshirt or a Toaster then, or maybe a Redshirt Toaster?

Hmm, Fisk may be down and out, maybe he’s pissed off the Fleetfather? does the RTF actually have a crime boss (well, other than Zarek, that is…)

10

Apollo ain’t no Jack Bauer, but I’d say the Black guy is a walking dead man.

11

Not a bad episode so far, not up to their normal high standards, but certainly a damn sight better than the last two…

child slavery/porn/abuse, eh? that pisses me off, time to send either a boarding party to the black market ship, or turn the Galactica’s guns on that ship and take it down…

or, Apollo can simply give the Fleetfather a terminal case of lead poisoning…
it’s what Jack Bauer would do…

12

Yeah, yeah, Adama is depressed, we get it. I would’ve liked more to happen in this episode, especially with Baltar.

13

Heh heh heh.
Can I call 'em, or can I call 'em? :slight_smile:

14

I thought it was a really good episode. No Boomer, Helo, Tyrol, Starbuck…Apollo just about carried the whole thing himself and did an outstanding job. Nice to see them developing the character…

…albeit into something of a moron. Zarek was transparently using him to set himself up as black market king.

And it looks like Pegasus will need a new CO. They’re dropping like flies in the captain’s quarters over there.

15

Not a great episode by any means, but a good one. Fisk’s unceremonious dispatch was a good moment, and the black market stuff was interesting. The kids-in-cages stuff was pretty cliche, however, and the, uh, escort’s final speech was Lame with a capital L.

All in all, however, CSI:BSG worked pretty well.

16

How the FRAK do assassins keep getting into the CO’s private office? Oh well, at least we’re rid of Fisk.

Thank the Gods they took a lesson from Firefly and had the hero do the sensible thing: shoot the SOB.

Baltar should be wearing one of those t-shirts that show a junkyard dog flashing the finger and read “I have developed an Attitude”.

Dualla’s out of the picture, for now anyway.

17

Fisk always struck me as a throw-away character anyway. He had opinions and information, but never made any decisions.

Was Dualla a little catty there at the end? I had to look down for a second and missed whether of not she kissed Billy. I’m glad for Billy though. Hate to see him get thrown aside while Dualla keeps a couple of guys hanging.

The preview apparently sets up a drinking problem for Starbuck. I’m hoping that Tigh gets a comment in. Something like, “Welcome to MY world.”

18

If Baltar goes up against the President, my money is on Madame President, invisible friends or no invisible friends.

19

I liked this episode quite a bit. Nice development, nice balance. Apollo’s character is really coming into focus.

I had only one problem, and it’s kind of a biggie.

And that would be it. Jarringly poorly written – obvious, on-the-nose, and inelegant – considering the rest of the script. And in exactly the wrong place in the show, Apollo’s emotional climax, which magnifies the effect. Ugh.

Other than that, spot-on.

I’m going to listen to the podcast now to see if I agree with whatever Ron Moore apparently thinks is wrong with the show.

20

Podcast complete.

RDM’s criticisms have some merit. I don’t agree with all of them; I see what he’s getting at in one area but I had a somewhat different take on what he deems an unsuccessful element of the story. I’m going to digest a bit, and let people discuss the show, before describing and considering his comments.

I will say that to some extent he seems somewhat overly self-flagellative about the show. It works better, I think, than he says he feels it does. Part of me wonders if he’s being honest, if he really is so disappointed in failing to meet a particular goal that he can’t see what else has been achieved, or if perhaps he’s been somewhat stung by the criticisms of the last couple of installments and is deliberately selling this show short in hopes that the audience will be sympathetic and not as harsh. His commentary has an unusual tone, and I’ll leave it there for now.

He does say at the end that he’s really happy with next week’s show. So there’s that.

More tomorrow.