No Time To Lose

While better than the previous episode, the latest Battlestar Galactica, "Someone To Watch Over Me," was still less than satisfactory.

There'll be SPOILERS, of course, but if you haven't followed the show this far, you probably don't care any more.

Just like last week, I thought the return of Ellen, and thus the reuniting of the Final Five, should have galvanized them into action. Instead, they sat around a bar and moped. Okay, Anders is (conveniently) out of action, but they're together, so do something, make a plan.

The main action was with 8. I'm gonna call her 8 because I have trouble keeping Sharon Agathon/Boomer/Athena separate. In fact, the gaps between the seasons have been so long I can't remember all the things this model did.

Anyway, as many suspected, it appears Ellen's convenient escape from Cavil was a stratagem that allowed 8 to steal Hera. (I was waiting for Hera to come into play, since so much of previous seasons was about her importance, and this season cleared the way even more with the retrofit of Tyrol not fathering his own child.) She managed a close escape, while taking out a lot of the already-damaged Galactica. I didn't particularly like the plot, and Galactica kept up its sterling reputation for useless security, but at least something was happening, while most of the other characters were in stasis.

We also saw 8 use a little Cylon projection, which I guess has been done before, but never so clearly. It appears (though who knows for sure) that this explains Baltar's Head 6 (and has always been part of the plan the show pretends the Cylons have always had?). I might add that while last episode Tyrol inexplicably wanted to leave Galactica against his character, this time they gave him a good reason to leave and he decided not to.

In the other major plot, that was way too arty (a common flaw on BG), we kinds sorta got into dealing with Starbuck's big question. There are only a few episodes left, so why are they only giving us partial answers?

In the same dive where the Five hang out, Starbuck talks to a pianist who is either a figment of her imagination or more Cylon projection. Turns out the guy is her father, who taught her the Magic Melody of the Final Five, which, in a further twist, Hera also knows. It gives Kara Thrace a little closure, but not us--we still want to know exactly how she found her own body and is tied in to the Cylons. (Fans are saying her dad was Daniel, #7, and he played at the opera house. Fine, so what does that make her?)

Oh yeah, Roslin is dead/near dead. As always.