As a recent convert of Battlestar Galactica, the gap between the first and second halves of the third season was the first time I had to wait more than a few days to resolve any cliffhangers. With new questions raised and so many old ones on the verge of being answered, I was sure that the month and a half hiatus was going to be unbearable. Fortunately the Sci Fi Channel was there to loosen the tension by showing the least exciting preview ever.
With a generic emo-ballad throbbing in the background, Apollo’s mousey, uninteresting wife trudges through the familiar washed-out desert while her voiceover complains about having to risk her life to save her husband’s mistress. Nobody can really blame her for being upset, but nobody really cares either. The looming threat of nuclear holocaust for half of the cast at the hands of their own leader, yet another Cylon standoff and a sun on the verge of exploding over all of them go completely unmentioned. They do know why people are watching, right?
Though the folks at NBC-Universal marketing clearly don’t, the show’s creators remain perfectly synced with the fans. This week’s return may not have shown the Galactic crew the yellow-brick-road to Earth, but with one longstanding conflict finally concluding, a newer one wrapping up surprisingly soon and the uninteresting love quadrangle taking a backseat to the action, it’s hard to imagine anyone was at all unsatisfied at the end of the hour.
In one of the most Sharon-centric episodes of the series yet, she forces Helo to shoot her, sending her back to the Cylon fleet for the first time since defecting in the first season so that she can find her baby. Her confusing devotion to Galactica and humanity remain in tact as she (alongside a curiously helpful Caprica Six) navigates the Base Star and once again confronts her evil twin of sorts, Boomer. After Sharon’s Cylon-status turned out to be the big reveal at the end of the miniseries, excitement soon turned to frustration as Boomer Sharon’s extremely slow realization and ensuing shame-spiral played out like an after school special about a girl embarrassed over her first period. When the other Sharon, who knew she was a Cylon the entire time, slowly grew to realize there was more humanity in her than she thought, the character (though a different incarnation) was once again captivating. That is why it is so satisfying to see her almost completely take over the role and so fun to see Number Six snap Boomer’s neck; villainous Sharon and deeply conflicted Sharon are useless.
We know Boomer isn’t gone. Though we may not see it, she’s popping up in the Cylon hot tub in a brand new identical body. It’s hard to kill off a character when that character has an unknown number of copies and each one is essentially immortal – but apparently it’s not impossible. Lucy Lawless’s tenure as D’Anna, the self-righteous, power-hungry and “ultimately flawed” Cylon came to an end just as soon as she was enlightened to the identity of the final five models. Finally as annoyed by her as I’ve been, the other Cylons decided D’Anna was just too much of a loose cannon and put every copy of her in cold storage before she had the chance to fill us in on which Galactica crewmember is our secret-Cylon.
Dee does find her way to Starbuck, doing an impressive job of fixing the wrecked ship by fiddling with a few wires. The rest of the crew on the algae planet capture Baltar in the temple, and overzealous editing finds everyone safely back on Galactica, just in time for the ship to jump away as the Supernova engulfs the stage of the last three episodes. The ambiguous “Eye of Jupiter” sort of points the way to Earth and definitely points to something strange about Starbuck.
The rest of the third season is making lofty promises with at least one mystery Cylon finally coming out of the closet, Baltar and Six both aboard Galactica, Starbuck’s rumored/confirmed departure potentially changing the nature of the program completely and almost no chance of having to endure another threesome involving Lucy Lawless (please, no flashbacks!). And if Sci Fi would ditch the schmaltzy melodramatic commercials, I might be looking forward to it a little more.
[...] Had last season’s allusions to the American occupation of Iraq and that “duh” moment of realization that the cylons are, in fact, no worse than the old US of A actually fallen in ‘07… Battlestar Galactica would have most certainly nabbed the number one spot. The beginning of last season was one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen on TV. 2007 was a little different though. The year brought a few too many of their cringeworthy filler episodes followed by a hefty hiatus. BSG was off my radar for the majority of the TV-watching year. But looking back, 2007 was also the year of “Rapture,” of “Maelstrom, “of “Crossroads Part II” and of last month’s rockin’ “Razor!” Sure, Battlestar Galactica occasionally falls short. It’s also capable of a deeply involved allegoric intelligence the likes of which you almost never get. Seeing a fitting end to this awesome series in its final season is my number one reason for wishing this damned writers’ strike would end already. [...]