BATTLESTAR GALACTICA 4.6 – "Faith"

Writer: Seamus Kevin Fahey
Director: Michael Nankin

Cast: Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Grace Park (Sharon), Edward James Olmos (Adama), Mary McDonnell (Roslin), Jamie Bamber (Apollo), Jennifer Halley (Seelix), Alisen Down (Jean Barolay), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben), Bodie Olmos (Hot Dog), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Anders), Alessandro Juliani (Gaeta), Donnelly Rhodes (Dr. Cottle), Tiffany Lyndall-Knight (The Hybrid), Alana Husband (Nurse Shashon) & Nana Visitor (Emily Kowalski)

Starbuck leads a small crew to a Basestar with Leoben, as Roslin confronts her mortality after meeting a fellow cancer patient...

"... you pick your side and you stick. You don't
cut and run when things get ugly. Otherwise
you'll never have anything. No love. No family.
No life to call your own."

-- Sharon Agathon (Grace Park)

Things pick up pace after some intensive religious-themed episodes, focusing on the show's quest to find Earth, which now rests on the shoulders of Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) and her decision to trust Leoben (Callum Keith Rennie). But there's still time for a mystical side, as ailing President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) forms a bond with a fellow patient called Emily (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Nana Visitor), who has glimpsed the afterlife...

The cliffhanger mutiny aboard the Demetrius ends in bloodshed, as Anders (Michael Trucco) sides with one-time lover Starbuck and disables Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) with a shot to the leg before he can FTL jump back to Galactica. Starbuck offers Helo (Tahmoh Penikett) a compromise – allow her to travel in a Raptor with Leoben to a nearby Basestar to consult with their Hybrid, using the available 15-hour deadline before they have to return to the fleet.

Helo agrees, and Starbuck gathers herself a small team: Sharon (Grace Park), to act as a Cylon go-between; Barolay (Alisen Down), one of the few people who trusts Starbuck's instincts; and Anders, who also believes in Starbuck, but maybe also wants to investigate his Cylon brethren. They all leave for the Basestar, hoping to attain knowledge from its onboard Hybrid about how to reach Earth.

Back on Galactica, Roslin (now totally bald – that was quick!) is undergoing treatment from Dr Cottle (Donnelly Rhodes) as her cancer starts to take hold. In sickbay, she meets a woman called Emily who's further along in her decline and bed-ridden, heartened to find she has reached an understanding and accepts her inevitable demise. Emily has a vivid memory of being aboard a ship, travelling up a river towards her long-dead family waiting on the nearby shore. Amazingly, her dream of the afterlife is accurately described by Baltar during one of his sermons, which she has taken to listening to.

Roslin doesn't see Baltar as a legitimate "prophet", but she's intrigued to discover that Emily believes more in Baltar's notion of "One True God" than the traditional belief of Twelve Lords Of Kobol. Roslin tries to make her understand that the surface silliness of the Lords Of Kobol is because they deal in metaphor, but Emily is insistent that she needs answers -- not metaphors.

Starbuck's team arrive at a scene of Cylon destruction, proving the rumours that their enemy are engaged in civil war. Leoben directs her to a battle-damaged Basestar orbiting a giant planet, and Starbuck realizes the scene is exactly like one of her paintings – amused to see that a disabled Basestar is actually the "comet" she interpreted in her art. Enthused that they're on the right path, their Raptor docks at the Basestar and they're greeted by Natalie (Tricia Helfer) and a gang of Number Eights. Leoben implores Six to let Starbuck see the Hybrid, as he believes a truce can be forged and Starbuck's the human who can lead both races to salvation on Earth. Grudgingly, Six agrees.

The Hybrid (Tiffany Lyndall-Knight) is once again seen reclined in her tank of milk-white slime, hypnotically vocalizing system checks in-between snatches of numinous phrases. Starbuck is confused, but Leoben asks her to open her mind and listen to the Hybrid's "ramblings". But Sharon needs to disconnect the Hybrid to start the Basestar's FTL augmentation, so Starbuck agrees for the work to be done. After disconnecting the Hybrid from the ship, she lets out a piercing scream that causes her bodyguard Centurion to open fire – shooting a Number Eight.

As the Hybrid continues to scream, the Centurion is killed by a hail of retaliatory gunfire, as blood from the shot Number Eight oozes into the Hybrid's fluid tank, turning it deep red. This seems to enable the Hybrid to gain sudden clarity, delivering a coherent message to Starbuck: "Thus will it come to pass. The dying leader will know the truth of the opera house. The missing Three will give you the Five; who have come from the home of the Thirteenth. You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead them all to their end."

After interpreting half the message, concluding that they have to resurrect the "missing" Number Three model (whose line was boxed by Cavil) to lead them to the Final Five (who have come from the Thirteen Tribe/Earth), Starbuck's crew return to the Demetrius with the Basestar in town, seconds after their 15-hour window runs out.

For me, BSG on at is best when it deals with the overarching mysteries and driving narrative of the quest to find Earth. I enjoy its spiritual side, which here allowed McDonnell to give another bravura performance, but the search for Earth is the goal that the show has been working towards, and consequently the more compelling storyline. Of course, the mysticism is increasingly tied to that search, and the fourth season is really benefiting from the combined focus. The show just works much better when it's dealing with the big themes, and I'm pleased there's been no time for the standalone diversions that spoiled the third-quarter of season 3.

A big piece of the puzzle was delivered by the Hybrid (the "harbinger of death" part already being known to those who watched the Razor TVM). But I'm not convinced it means Starbuck's going to kill everyone. The "lead them all to their end" is a separate sentence, so seems to suggest Starbuck will get everyone safely to Earth. The "harbinger of death" part could just mean that her return foreshadowed the death of so many Cylons in the civil war? Either way, I don't think she's the wolf in sheep's clothing some have suspected. But, I may change my mind!

The opera house line refers to the visions shared by Roslin and Caprica-Six, but I'm still not sure what they mean. I have a suspicion they're linked to the "in-head" characters that regularly speak to Baltar and Caprica-Six, but everything's still too murky to really lay out a workable theory. I have to admit that BSG probably has the most frustrating mythology of any TV series. People can moan about Lost all they like, but it's logically written and you have a definite sense that the writers know what they're doing. I don't quite get that feeling of safety with BSG.

It's well-known that Ronald D. Moore and his writers are making stuff up as they go along (the whole idea of the Final Five was only devised mid-way through season 3!), so I just hope they're not going to find themselves snared in a trap of their own making. Fans are notoriously nitpicky and will quickly tear-apart any inconsistencies and illogical ideas. I'm already bamboozled by the idea (long suspected) that the Final Five came from Earth.

If so, did they travel across space to help build the metal Cylons in their own humanoid image? Surely not, as the Final Five (Tigh, Tory, Anders, Tyrol and the mystery one) were on Caprica believing they were humans! They must have been babies at some point, too! Maybe the Final Five are actually immaterial consciousnesses that have inhabited Tigh, Tory, Tyrol and Anders remotely? I don't know, it gives me a headache just thinking about it. And how could that Temple in season 3 (created thousands of years before Cylons were even made by Capricans) be built to worship the Final Five Cylons? I just hope the writers have a water-tight solution to my many, many questions.

As a big fan of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it was wonderful to see Nana Visitor on BSG – assumedly at the behest of showrunner Ronald D. Moore, who worked on DS9. Visitor's a great actress who never caught a break post-Trek, and her scenes with McDonnell (both the best actresses in their respective shows) were excellent. I'm very interested to see if Roslin drops her beliefs in the Lords Of Kobol (following her own river dream of the afterlife) and reluctantly accept Baltar might be onto something with his teachings...

There was also a few intriguing moments sprinkled through the episode. I think everyone watching was desperate to see Cylon Anders dip his fingers into the Basestar's fluid-controls – as he should be able to connect with their systems. And it was fascinating to see how much stock Cylons place on touch – as the dying Eight reaches out to "sister" Sharon, who snubs her, but secret-Cylon Anders finds himself going to her aide instinctively. And, after a Six gets revenge on Barolay by killing her, she's kissed full on the lips by Natalie, before being killed herself as a display of justice.

Overall, Faith is a great episode that kicked the season back into top gear. For the majority of fans that love BSG when it's tackling the big-picture mysteries, this is a vital episode that's backed up by some excellent performances from McDonnell and Visitor. My mind still does cartwheels whenever I try to patch together a decent chronological theory for the Final Five, the Thirteenth Tribe, the birth of the Cylons, etc... but I'm keeping the faith.


13 May 2008
Sky One, 9.00 pm