"The truth is told by whoever is left standing."-- Tom Zarek (Richard Hatch)
Major spoilers. Last week heralded a return to the thrilling action and seismic shifts we've come to adore about BSG, as it once again underwent a political earthquake of epic proportions. Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) and Zarek (Richard Hatch) collude in a mutiny that finds Galactica overrun by personnel who have lost faith in President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) and refuse to follow Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) because of his cooperation with rebel Cylons...
Roslin has now been smuggled away to a Cylon base ship with Baltar (James Callis), where she meets with the rebel Cylons over how to prevent further damage to their disintegrating system of government, aiming to at least broadcast news of the mutiny to the 35 colonial ships in the fleet.
Aboard Galactica, Gaeta finds he has a very different approach from Zarek in how to pull off a successful mutiny; aiming to officially court martial Adama, with the help of defence lawyer Romo Lampkin (Mark A. Sheppard), while Zarek callously slaughters the Quorum to effectively become a dictator. Adama's facing a kangaroo court with Zarek as judge, so it seems inevitable that the Admiral will be killed by firing squad.Meanwhile, Lee (Jamie Bamber) and Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) mount a resistance, aiming to release the incarcerated Cylons, rescue Adama from captivity before he's killed, and regain control of the CIC from Gaeta and his blinkered followers. Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) has his own mission to complete: sabotaging Galactica's FTL drive, effectively crippling the ship if Roslin decides to attack with her Cylon allies.
Truly, this is an episode to treasure. It's littered with many great character-based moments: Adama being fed misinformation that his best-friend Tigh is dead, likewise Roslin over Adama's fate, Baltar's fake-out dream of Adama's death, Roslin's rallying call before her Cylon-assisted attack ("I'm coming for you!"), the understated brilliance of Romo Lampkin's appearance, the Quorum atrocity (hauntingly kept off-screen), Gaeta's unspoken misgivings and shock (shown by his infernally itchy leg stump; the symbolic last vestige of his humanity), Adama and Tigh's reunion ("they told me you were dead" / "for a while, I was"), Tyrol's personal connection with a colleague who catches him crawling through vents, stormy-faced Adama marching back into his CIC, and a bravura final sequence with Gaeta having a coffee and cigarette with his friend Baltar, before being sat beside Zarek in an airlock... both sharing a knowing smile... as they're shot for treason. Absolutely tremendous.
Overall, the only minor downside to this episode was the sense of certainty that Gaeta and Zarek's mutiny was doomed to fail within this hour -- partly because there are so few episodes left of BSG to dedicate to the narrative, but also because Gaeta's control was noticeably slipping very early on. Roslin's scenes were also slightly wooden, although her battle-cry just about overcame its potential for cheesiness. Shame Baltar's role has been so limited since mid-season, too, but I liked his resolve to stop running from problems after bedding another Number Six, and he'll hopefully come into play as we approach the end-game.
I suppose you could argue that that "Blood On The Scales" was too rushed (the coup itself lasted a trifling five hours, and would surely have been a New Caprica-style run of episodes if it hadn't arrived so late in BSG's lifespan), and was slightly undercooked in a few spots, but it was also a monstrously exciting and compelling hour of high drama and action. A few niggles aside, I was glued to my chair throughout and eagerly awaiting the big mytharc questions to start being answered, now the political nature of the show appears to have been sated.10 February 2009
Sky1, 9pm
Writer: Michael Angeli
Director: Wayne Rose
Cast: Grace Park (Sharon), Tricia Helfer (Caprica Six), James Callis (Baltar), Jamie Bamber (Lee), Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck), Mary McDonnell (Roslin), Edward James Olmos (Adama), Rekha Sharma (Tory), Sebastian Spence (Narcho), Richard Hatch (Zarek), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Michael Trucco (Anders), Ty Olsson (Aaron Kelly), Leah Cairns (Racetrack), Alexandra Thomas (Hera), Mark A. Sheppard (Romo Lampkin), Michael Hogan (Tigh), Alessandro Juliani (Gaeta), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben), Bodie Olmos (Hot Dog), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo) & Mike Dopud (Specialist Gage)
