BATTLESTAR GALACTICA 4.9 - "Hub"

Writer: Jane Espenson
Director: Paul Edwards

Cast: Edward James Olmos (Adama), Mary McDonnell (Roslin), Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck), Jamie Bamber (Lee), James Callis (Baltar), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Grace Park (Sharon Valerii/Sharon "Athena" Agathon), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Lucy Lawless (D'Anna), Dean Stockwell (Cavil) & Lorena Gale (Priest Elosha)

The colonials trapped aboard the damaged Basestar travel to the Resurrection Hub, hoping to revive Number Three...

After last week's pitiful episode, which seriously messed with the storyline and didn't earn any of its big changes, things get back on-track with "Hub" -- although I'm beginning to lose patience with BSG this year. There haven't been many shocks you couldn't predict, and those that have surprised haven't made much sense.

Seriously; Tigh (Michael Hogan) is exposed for having sex with prisoner of war Caprica Six and is given the admiralty hours later? Lee (Jamie Bamber) nominates himself as President and is given the position because Roslin (Mary McDonnell) has been gone, what, 2 days? "Hub" is a more exciting and believable episode than last week's debacle, but it still essentially does what you kind of expected it to do. I's like the show is actually playing catch-up with the viewers' imaginations, instead of leading the way. One thing's for sure: beyond wanting to know the identity of the Fifth Cylon and what happens if/when they find Earth, I'm not as invigorated as I was 5 episodes ago...

Written by Jane Espenson, "Hub" leaps back in time by 2 days, so we can see the past few days' events from the perspective of those stuck on the battle-damaged Basestar after "Guess What's Coming To Dinner". Having awoken the Hybrid, the colonials find themselves trapped aboard a Basestar that's jumping around the universe -- apparently because the Hybrid was spooked by the death of Natalie (Tricia Helfer) on Galactica. No matter that her climactic scream of "jump!" after being plugged in didn't actually coincide with Natalie's moment of death.

It's also a bit convenient that the Hybrid's jumps are taking them to the Resurrection Hub, which they hope to destroy and turn every Cylon into mortal beings - thus evening the playing field. Roslin and Baltar (James Callis) kneel before the Hybrid and try to make sense of her obscure ramblings, while trying to get answers about Roslin's opera house visions. Roslin also starts experiencing strange "trips" whenever the Basestar jumps -- finding herself aboard an empty Galactica with Priest Elosha (Lorena Gale), to witness her own death from cancer, surrounded by friends in sickbay. It's not certain if these moments are really happening, or just Roslin's imagination. If the former, she seems strangely at ease with the spiritual journeys; if the latter, why is she thinking about her own death, and why does she choose to imagine it only when the ship jumps? It's all a bit vague, which is irritating.

After arriving at the Hub, Roslin makes Helo (Tahmoh Penikett) promise he'll bring D'Anna to her when they smuggle her off the Hub with the help of the Six's and Eight's. As we know, D'Anna/Number Three (Lucy Lawless) is the only Cylon model who knows who the Final Five are -- and Natalie told Roslin that the Five are aboard the fleet and know the way to Earth.

The mission involves flying Raiders (piloted by Six's and Eight's) to the Hub, towing powered-down Raptors. At the last moment, the Raptors will fire up their engines and attack the Hub while rescuing D'Anna from her limbo state. Aboard the Hub, Cavil (Dean Stockwell) and his Eight (Grace Park) have already "unboxed" D'Anna, apparently to help them win the Cylon Civil War. I don't quite follow this, as won't D'Anna's strong belief in an afterlife and the Final Five mean she'd side with the rebel Cylons? Whatever. I'll go with it, for now. Besides, D'Anna quickly kills Cavil and is smuggled away by Helo during the colonial attack.

During another glorious space battle sequence (honestly, this CGI rivals most movies), Baltar is injured in an explosion and Roslin rushes to his aide. As she does her best to patch up his stomach wound to stop the bleeding, an injection of morphine clouds Baltar's mind enough to have him unburden himself of his guilt -- admitting to Roslin that he unwittingly gave the Cylons access codes that resulted in humanity's near-extinction. Roslin, troubled by the revelation, decides to punish Baltar by undoing his bandages and letting him bleed out. Fortunately for Baltar, another jump-instigated vision with Priest Elosha inspires a change of heart in Roslin, and Baltar is patched up once again.

D'Anna later arrives to see the President, but won't give up the identity of the Final Five -- although there was a superb moment when she joked it was Roslin, and you could hear everyone's mouths drop, until D'Anna herself cracked up at her joke. Now that D'Anna is mortal, she's in no hurry to give up the one bit of knowledge that might keep her alive, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens. It does beg the question, though: would she even know who Anders and Tory are?

"Hub" is a good episode, even if its events generally fail to surprise. The only thing that really snared my interest was Roslin's ghoulish decision to let Baltar die, which once again required a powerhouse performance from Mary McDonnell. I'm actually not a big fan of Roslin (mainly because her slightly dictatorial leadership gets a bit too high-and-mighty for me), but McDonnell is definitely a fine actress the show takes full advantage of. Likewise the excellent James Callis, although it's a shame his amusing conversation with a Centurion (tipping poison into its metal ears about slavery) seemed weird and unnecessary. This is likely because an entire storyline about these free-thinking, sentient machines has been cut from the season's tapestry of plot-strands.

As for Roslin's visions; I find myself becoming a bit irritated by their use overuse on BSG. Roslin's opera house visions are fine and suitably mysterious, but now Roslin's having visions every few episodes and their smothering ambiguity bugs me. Prophetic dreams I can cope with, but being shown "the future" by a ghostly priestess in the split-seconds between faster-than-light jumps? Sorry, it's just coming across as indulgent codswallop now. I don't accept Roslin's imagining these moments, nor do I think they're glimpses of the future, or beamed into her head from some divine being.

Still, McDonnell's performance just about makes it work, and the impact these indulgent visions have on her actions were enjoyable and controversial. It did seem like half the reason she almost let Baltar die was more to do with his monotheistic preaching than his admitted "crime" of helping wipe-out billions of people -- which, of course, he was tricked into by his lover Caprica Six anyway. I also like how Roslin's becoming tougher and less ethical as her death approaches; she's almost turning into the machine she's fighting to save her people from.

And of course, the ending was really nice -- with the Basestar returning to its original coordinates and Adama (Edward James Olmos) arriving in his Raptor to embrace Roslin. It seems they've finally decided to admit their feelings for each other, which I'm glad to see as a long-time fan of the show. Mind you, I'm still bitter about last week's claptrap -- will Roslin just takeover as President again, 2 days after Lee appointed himself? Why didn't the damn fleet stay behind with Adama, at least for a few days? Will Adama relinquish Tigh of his two-day admiralty now he's got Roslin back?

It's the last episode next week, as the show is expected to go on extended hiatus -- as they split season 4 into two halves to stretch BSG out into 2009. I'm expecting a brilliant cliffhanger (the identity of the Fifth Cylon will be revealed by D'Anna, surely), so hopeful BSG can sprint to a decent, plausible, exciting and compelling series finale next year.


10 June 2008
Sky One, 9.00 pm