Good point about their exploring their own identities. Tyrol has the proof of his frak-up on Racetrack’s Raptor to remind him that he is *not * perfect, so I’d say he’ll stay “human” - even more so than the Baltarians.
Yeah, I’m not a fan of the Baltar mystical religious messiah thing either but it’s probably important to the ending, otherwise, I see no point in keeping him alive and wasting my screentime.
I’d love a more hard-core scifi ending with the Fleet arriving into Earth space with the Cylons hot on their tail and both being confronted by a super-advanced Earth ship.
I’m pretty sure Ron Moore confirmed that HeadSix is not, and never was a chip. So, she’s either purely a figment of Baltar’s fragmented mind or she’s magic.
Yeah, that was cute.
I’m not sure why she would. She hasn’t been in communication with her fellow Cylons and I suspect Raiders aren’t big on communicating in words. I think as far as the skinjobs are concerned, the Raiders just all started misbehaving and need some lobotomies. Remember, skinjobs can’t think directly about the Final Five, but Raiders are probably indifferent about which Cylon they’ve just encountered.
Well, you can’t blame him for wondering. He’s genuinely concerned how human or Cylon he is, and whether Cylons really can shut down pain or Tory is just a sociopath. Six didn’t answer him directly either. She just said “I don’t want to shut down the pain.”
Didn’t Boomer find a bomb planted in her Raptor way back in season 1? Tyrol made the point he’s not sure anything he’s ever done wasn’t just programming. I think he really wants to believe he fraked up and didn’t do it on purpose due to his programming.
We have two facts of the show that in tandem seem to cause the most concern:
-
BSG is generally uninterested in the science.
-
There are inexplicable events that could potentially have religious causes.
This show does, indeed, have a focus on religious iconography. There are scriptures with legends, visions of the future, characters with destinies and so forth. But as I see things, this focus on religion is not to provide the characters of the show (or more importantly, we the viewers) with an easy simple answer tied up neatly in a pretty box.
Rather, the ambiguity of the religious prophecies and the multiple religious views show (to my mind) a deep and abiding interest in the human condition in the real world. The show has multiple religions because real human beings have multiple religions, and the show will ultimately refuse to offer a clean religious explanation because our world has no clean religious explanation.
No mystical being will suddenly show up and answer all our questions. Not in the show, and not in our own lives.
But that’s not to say that “science” will solve all our questions either. Even in the real world, we don’t have scientific explanations for absolutely everything. In fact, according to some philosophies of science, it is impossible to have a complete scientific understanding of the universe.
So the show, in keeping true with our own real-world experiences, will leave a few questions open, with either science or the gods as possible explanations, and each viewer will be left up to decide how best they want to interpret things. To do otherwise, to provide incontrovertible proof that the One God of the Cylons exists and that Baltar is his prophet, would work against the realism that this show has developed for so long.
And that realism, again, is based not on the show providing answers, but by withholding them.
Which is one reason why I frakkin love this show so much, and this episode in particular. Maybe I missed someone else pointing this out already, but Baltar has fundamentally changed as a character. He acted in this episode in favor of his new religion not because of wealth or power (Six: “Surely such a man must be magnificent. Larger than life. Godlike himself.” Baltar: “It’s not about that at all.”) Head-Six played to his ego, like she’d done so many times before, and he didn’t care. He was far more concerned with protecting his flock. Finally, he has turned a corner. Finally, he has become (slightly) less petty. He is now doing what he’s doing because he thinks it’s right.
He hasn’t moved very far, not yet (witness his unwillingness to challenge the marine if it meant he might be hurt), but this is still a fundamental shift, and I’m excited to see where it leads. He is totally going to frak the fleet over yet again (I mean, he’s Baltar), but this time he’s going to do it not out of some sense of personal spite or pettiness, but because he thinks it’s the right thing to do.
And I squealed with glee when Head-Six invisibly appeared to visibly lift him off the ground and forcibly pushed his face back into the butt of that guy’s rifle. Shit, that was cool.
Yeah, Boomer found a bomb, and the implication was that she put there it herself. Her conscious mind didn’t see it, and yet she almost set it off unconsciously when she and Crashdown found more water. Her evil programming didn’t want her to succeed.
Interestingly, the Six in the brig told Tigh that experiencing pain was part of their learning process. IOW, implying they aren’t sociopathic Terminators that just shut off pain or guilt in order to achieve their goals. So I wonder if Tory doesn’t quite “get” being Cylon and it will create some problems later on.
Looks like the Chief (er…Specialist) hated Cally as much as the rest of us!
I enjoyed every scene in this episode.
However, one thing is foremost in my mind – Brig Six was looking hotter than I’ve ever seen her. (eyes boggling)
You mean the scenes where she looked like Ellen Tigh? 
I kept thinking, that’s nice lip gloss. They provide that in Colonial jails?
The show is ending - I don’t think they are. If she’s got weeks to live, all the rest of the episodes could contain just that small amount of time.
-Joe
I can’t find it, but it was in an interview with Moore (or possibly Eick). He mentioned that Razor technically the first two episodes of season 4, but it’d be set before season 3 and not address any cliffhangers.
They won’t. This is the final season and Roslin just has to stick around until the finale. I liked that moment between her and Adama where they were talking about Cally’s memorial service and she told Adama “I want you to know what I like.” Has anyone else noticed that Roslin’s wig is the same as her hair in the opera house scenes in Crossroads? Last Supper aside I’m realling starting to think the Roslin is the final Cylon. To bad we didn’t get any scenes dealing with the Cylon civil war.
Have they even mentioned a non Greco-Roman deity before? They’ve used Greek and Roman names interchangeabley, but Mithras? Mithrasism was also a rival (all-male) mystery cult to Christianty at one point. I don’t think they’re monotheists though. Baltar’s monotheisism wouldn’t be as nearly shocking unless he were the first to claim that “My god is the only god; yours don’t exist at all.” Just imagine the shitstorm when it gets out that not only his he preaching blasphemy against the Lords of Kobol; he’s worshpping the Cylon god! I think while the Colonials do have different sects emphasizing particular gods and godesses those sects don’t go so far as to deny the existence of other dieties.
Well, that and we see what’s happening with three of the final four. Tigh is cracking up, Tory has definitely embraced the Dark Side, and Tyrol is beginning to be cut off from any and all positive human contact. I expect he’ll be simple for Tory to manipulate from here on out.
Until he finds out what really happened to Cally. Then she’s getting kilt.
Deus Ex Humanis? No thanks.
-Joe
I watched this episode again today on Hulu, and some of my other thoughts on the show crystallized a bit better.
Last week, I withheld judgment on the “Is Tory evil?” question because we didn’t have the aftermath of her decision. Was she being so ruthless because she felt she had no choice, or were there more superficial considerations at work? This week we’ve got more insight, and it pushes me firmly toward the “Tory is evil” camp. But it’s not quite that simple: she seems to be falling in with Baltar in part because of religious fanaticism, and that’s a captivating twist to what would otherwise be an annoying shallowness.
Baltar is doing what he thinks is right, which provides a salve for those weary women on Galactica (plus that one weird lookin dude).
But Tory is doing what she thinks is right because she’s a perfect machine, which gives her the right to do what she wants.
Truly the two faces of religion: providing comfort to the distressed, and self righteousness for the wicked. Both aspects make sense to me. It’s not unusual for the conquered to take up the religion of their conquerers. Meanwhile, the fact that this was originally the Cylon religion provides a nice easy justification for Tory, something she can latch onto to justify whatever she does without suffering any sharp pangs of conscience.
I’m wondering whether there’s some broader historical investigation going on here about monotheism replacing polytheism in Western society.
With the other Cylons, it’s further fascinating to me that Tyrol and Tigh are having extremely similar reactions to their own distress. They both claim to want to maintain their humanity, and they both sought out punishment for what they are. Tyrol provoked the admiral to demote him, whereas Tigh received an actual physical beating. They’re both having “illusions”, too. Tigh saw a vision of himself shooting Adama and saw Six as Ellen; Tyrol misheard the beginning of his conversation with Adama in the bar.
I’m not sure whether the fact that this is happening to both of them is an indication that some malevolent force is at work here.
Question - how the heck is Tigh going to explain the beat-down he got from Six? “She got the jump on me, after I ordered out the guards, and also the monitoring crew.” Seems like the first thing Adama would do is implement an “absolutely no alone time with Six” policy, or even a new “defenestrate Six” policy. 
Also - it makes sense that they’d try to make Six lot even hotter than usual for this ep. From what she says, it’s clear that Tigh’s had a bit of a thing for her for a while now, and this is when he finally acts on it. We’re seeing her very much through his eyes, even when she doesn’t look like his dead wife - so of course they want her dialed up to eleven.
Slight, and absolutely immature and shallow, hijack: Who do you think is hotter? Tory or Six?
Me, I’d say Tory, no contest. Anyone disagree?
I didn’t get to watch this one in Hi-Def, so my TV was stretching the picture horizontally. So, what happened was Six had more of a round face and less of a mannish face. Looked much better than usual.
-Joe
Adama’s previous ship (from the episode with his old pilot buddy who’d been captured by the Cylons, and who has never shown up again) was named the “Valkyrie”.
Six dressed up as Starbuck was way hotter than any of 'em when they’re all tarted up.
Eh? When was she dressed as Starbuck?
This was pretty much my exact reaction to that post. Ha!
Waaaaay back, in “Home, pt. 2”. Baltar is in Galactica’s brig, talking with (IIRC, naked) Six, who is snidely commenting on his attraction to Starbuck. He turns around, and suddenly she’s in pilot’s sweats with her hair pulled back like Starbuck – and is smokin’ hot.
Oh, yah - you’re right, she was smoking. I still contend, however, that Tory is frakking thermonuclear.