Spoilers. This was the kind of episode you appreciate by the end, as it filled in a few gaps in our knowledge and included some good scenes, but it's difficult to love because it was worryingly low-key for an episode taking place hours before a series finale. The calm before the storm? Quite possibly. Another example of BSG trying to answer a few more questions the best way it can, far too close to the finishing line? Definitely.
"Someone To Watch Over Me" is, to be very cynical, an hour of watching Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) learn to play piano, after befriending a pianist called Slick (Roark Critchlow) at a Galactica bar. We learn that Starbuck's father (a "creative man", thus painting Starbuck as a warrior-poet of sorts) was a keen pianist, who taught her a few songs when she was a girl -- although she's having problems remembering one particular song that made her both sad and happy at the same time.Elsewhere, Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) visits his old flame Boomer (Grace Park) in the brig, now that she's facing charges for attempted murder after shooting Adama (Edward James Olmos) in the stomach back in season 1. There's a different dynamic between the former lovers now, mainly because Tyrol's been exposed as a Cylon himself, and gets to experience a Cylon "projection" (that terrible underused ability Cylons have to construct lifelike imaginings), after touching Boomer's hand. In the shared projection experience, Tyrol is shown Boomer's private mental retreat: a fantasy of marital bliss with the Chief, and a make-believe daughter.
Tyrol thus takes pity on Boomer and facilitates her escape; an act that appears to play into her masterplan, as she replaces Athena (a fellow, identical Eight) and -- after cruelly having sex with "husband" Helo (Tahmoh Penikett) as the real Athena blearily watches on from inside a toilet cubicle -- steals Hera (Iliana Gomez-Martinez), the first Cylon-Human crossbreed. Her deception and kidnap is later discovered, but Adama's attempt to prevent Boomer escaping in a Raptor fails, forcing her to engage her jump-drive in close proximity to Galactica -- causing widespread damage to the ship. So, has Boomer been working towards stealing Hera and delivering her to Cavil all along? Was she faking her feelings for Tyrol, or does she genuinely still love him? And why is Hera so important to the Cylons? Even if Cavil intends to kill the child as an abomination, her existence still proves that humans and Cylons can procreate together. You can't put the genie back in the bottle.
A few questions important to the mytharc are answered with Starbuck's storyline, too, as we learn that her father's name was "Dreilide" (not a million miles away from "Daniel", the seventh Cylon that Cavil apparently terminated), and one of her dad's album covers advertises him performing "LIVE AT THE OPERA HOUSE" (which obviously has great significance, because Roslin's been dreaming of a strange opera house for a long time now.) Indeed, it seems obvious that Starbuck's father is Daniel, meaning she herself is a Cylon-Human hybrid like Hera -- neatly explaining why she apparently died in her Viper after crashing on Earth, but was "resurrected" and sent back to the fleet. But, who built her a new Viper to travel in? Is her Cylon father on Earth, somehow manipulating his daughter and Roslin into leading the fleet there -- with visions of the opera house and the maelstrom Starbuck drew as a child?
I think that all sounds quite likely, particularly with Ellen (Kate Vernon) talking about a "higher power" guiding them -- although why would Daniel be considered a higher power, if he's a model of Cylon the Final Five created after Cavil? Anyway, in a rather nice little twist (that I know a lot of people guessed, but I must have been having an off day), it's revealed that Slick the pianist is a Cylon-style projection of Starbuck's father -- and the song Starbuck remembers being taught is Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower". Even stranger, Hera has been unwittingly composing the song's musical notes in her drawings, which helps Starbuck solve the mystery. And playing the song immediately draws the Final Five to her, with Tigh (Michael Hogan) demanding to know where she learned to play it.The strange thing about this episode, which obviously contains some big puzzle-pieces and a satisfying subplot for Boomer, is that it actually felt quite flat and uninvolving for long periods. The Starbuck storyline was particularly flaccid until it sparked to life in the last fifteen minutes with its various reveals. Still, a decent amount of information was imparted by the end (including the alarming news that Galactia, even with the Cylon goop smeared into its cracks, can't survive more than a few jumps.) I'm placing my bet right now that we can expect the whole ship to tear itself apart and explode in the finale. Who's with me?
Overall, "Someone To Watch Over Me" scraped by thanks to an involving and revealing climax, but it certainly struggled to hold your attention for much of its runtime, but I get the impression that the writers are clearing the decks for a three-part spectacle to end the series on a big, emotional high.
3 March 2009
Sky1, 9pm
Writers: Bradley Thompson & David Weddle
Director: Michael Nankin
Cast: Grace Park (Boomer/Sharon), Tricia Helfer (Caprica Six/Sonja), Jamie Bamber (Lee), Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck), Mary McDonnell (Roslin), Edward James Olmos (Adama), Bodie Olmos (Hot Dog), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Trucco (Anders), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cottle), Kate Vernon (Ellen), Michael Hogan (Tigh), Rekha Sharma (Tory), Brad Dryborough (Lt. Hoshi), Torrance Coombs (Lance Corporal C. Sellers), Ivan Cermak (Corporal D. Wallace), Curtis Caravaggio (Nathanson), Cherilynn Fulbright (Dionne), Patrick Gilmore (Rafferty), Samantha Caine (Off-duty Crew Person), Erika-Shaye Gair (Young Kara), Darcy Laurie (Dealino), Sonja Bennett (Specialist Marcie Brasko), Iliana Gomez-Martinez (Hera Agathon) & Roark Critchlow (Slick)
