Major spoilers. Last summer's mid-season finale was one of the bitterest pills audience have had to swallow in years, with the revelation that the "promised land" of Earth is nothing but an irradiated dystopia. "Sometimes A Great Notion" gives us the raw emotional reaction to that terrible discovery, in one of the most depressing episodes of television in ages. But in a good way...Battlestar Galactica has always been a tough viewing experience, really. Ronald D. Moore's reimagining of kitsch '80s sci-fi tosh has refused to give easy answers or pander to audiences expecting empty-headed FX and explosions. As we creep towards the finishing line, it looks like things are going to get much harder before they get any easier... and I'm not even convinced we'll get a happy ending...
The reconnaisance parties quickly learn that the whole of Earth was nuked 2000 years ago. Even stranger, they discover Cylon-like centurions buried in the dirt and scientific analysis of "human" skeletons shows them to be humanoid Cylon, too – which means the fabled Thirteen Tribe of Kobol were machines! How does that tie into the established theology of the colonials? Did a race of machines created by ancient humans (us) evolve to become the dominant species on Earth, before colonizing Caprica after the planet was nuked, only to forget they were artificial beings? This, of course, would mean everyone on the show is a machine of some description; the ultimate irony, given the racism spat at the "toasters" by the "humans".
Meanwhile, Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) is tracing the source of the colonial emergency locator beacon with Leoben (Callum Keith Rennie) and finds her crashed Viper's cockpit... complete with her own dead body stuck behind the controls. So, it seems Starbuck isn't the real Starbuck as many people suspected -- but she's also not a Cylon, so what exactly is she? And who created her, gave her an identical Viper (configured to find Earth), and sent her back to the fleet? A little theory: did Starbuck's Viper cause the destruction of Earth in some way, having arrived 2000 years in the past through the maelstrom she supposedly "died" in?
In orbit, news of Earth's inhospitability causes severe anguish and heartache from everyone. It's not long before walls are covered in graffiti ("FRAK EARTH"), despondent people are slumped in trashed corridors, and the fleet generally goes to pieces. Even Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) can't keep it together, as he tries to push Tigh (Michael Hogan) into killing him, as he's too cowardly to commit suicide. President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) faces the awful truth that she's been chasing a lie for years, and sets about destroying her precious religious texts that she thought were guiding her, and her people, to salvation. Both are brilliantly acted scenes, as we've come to expect from Olmos, McDonnell and Hogan.
Most distressingly, Dee (Kandyse McClure) hides her real feelings by pretending to be philosophical about the bad news, ensuring she enjoys one final night by rekindling her romance with Lee (Jamie Bamber), before unexpectedly committing suicide in her quarters with a sidearm. It's a genuinely unexpected and shocking moment -- but, to be honest, if there's one failing of BSG for me, it's been how little I care about peripheral characters like Dee and Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani). For that reason, the shock worked because it was engineered so brilliantly, but I wasn't particularly upset. Actually, I'm surprised Dee has made it this far.
Back on Earth, the plot continues to twist and thicken. The Final Four find long-forgotten memories flooding back about their time spent on Earth. Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) finds his own nuked shadow on a crumbling wall, remembering himself walking through a crowded marketplace as the fatal nuke detonated. Anders (Michael Trucco) finds a buried musical instrument and remembers playing the ethereal song that first "awakened" the Final Four to their artificial nature.
And, in the closing moment, Tigh wades into the ocean, grasping at a memory of trying to save his dead wife Ellen (Kate Vernon) from rubble on Earth two millennia ago -- seconds before the planet was destroyed. Even stranger, he remembers her last words to him: "Everything's in place... we'll be reborn... again... together." Tigh makes the shocking connection: Ellen, the wife he killed on New Caprica for being a Cylon collaborator, was ironically one of the Final Five -- just like him!
There's certainly lots of information for fans to start stitching together, as BSG's complex mythology starts to take shape. I might be proved wrong, but I think my long-held belief that nobody's 100% human is coming true. Of course, if "Cylons" on Earth founded Caprica and forgot their true natures through the generations... then how could the Cylons created by Capricans know about the "Final Five" and treat them as lost models? That doesn't make sense to me, yet.
As for Starbuck? Well, there must be some higher power involved that we haven't really had explained to us. Maybe it ties into the hallucinations of Number Six (Tricia Helfer) that Gaius (James Callis) has been having since the very beginning? I also heard an interesting theory that Ellen isn't the Fifth Cylon, she's actually an aged Number Six -- which would explain why Tigh has been imagining Ellen when he interrogates Caprica Six, and mean that the murdered Ellen has now been "resurrected" as a svelte, sexy Six somewhere. Plausible?
Overall, the relentlessly grim and depressing atmosphere is a bit of a struggle, but the magnificent acting and several major plot developments mark this out as an essential instalment. I really hope the writers manage to wrap the show up in fine style and answer all the pertinent questions. This episode contains enough new information to fuel a fifth season, so it looks like we're in for a crazy, jam-packed, brain-frying nine episodes.
16 January 2009
Sci-Fi Channel, 9pm
Writers: David Weddle & Bradley Thompson
Director: Michael Nankin
Cast: Edward James Olmos (Adama), Tricia Helfer (Caprica Six), Grace Park (Sharon), Jamie Bamber (Lee), James Callis (Baltar), Mary McDonnell (Roslin), Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck), Michael Trucco (Anders), Jennifer Halley (Seelix), Rekha Sharma (Tory), Alessandro Juliani (Gaeta), Michael Hogan (Tigh), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben), Kandyse McClure (Dee), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Alexandra Thomas (Hera), Brad Dryborough (Lt. Hoshi), Lucy Lawless (D'Anna), Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Don Thompson (Anthony Figurski) & Sonja Bennett (Specialist 2nd Class Marcie Brasko)
