BSG: The Hand of God

After weeks of shows that focused on how no one in the fleet trusts anyone anymore, this week's episode gets us back to fighting the real enemy.

The show begins with the President fielding questions from concerned reporters about the state of the fleet's fuel reserves. It seems that the human race only has enough fuel left for two more hyperspace jumps before they're SOL and the Cylons can just swoop in and finish what they started.

The press conference starts going badly, not only because there's no real contingency plan in case the Raptors can't find fuel, but because Roslyn is high like a mofo off of the camalla extract she's taking to combat her cancer. She starts seeing coral snakes coiling all over her hands and the podium and she has to wrap the press conference up in a hurry. Billy stands by, impotent as usual.

Galactica-Boomer and Crash Down fly out in their Raptor and easily find an asteroid teeming with fuel and swarming with Cylons.

Roslyn confers with the priestess Elosha about her hallucination. The priestess links the symbolism of the snakes to something called the "Pythian Prophecies" made over 3000 years ago. Pythia, a female prophet, spoke of a leader who would bring the human race to a promised land, though she wouldn't see it because she would die of a wasting disease. Needless to say, Roslyn is stunned.

The military leaders on the Galactica -- Adama, Tigh and Apollo -- gather to review the surveilance photos of the Cylon fuel depot. Adama stuns everyone by saying they're going to take the fuel instead of running. He brings Starbuck into the mix because his gut tells him he needs someone who can think out of the box to punch holes in Tigh's plan. "Out of the box is where I live," she says.

Adama pulls in Baltar and Roslyn to hear Starbuck's plan, which involves using civilian transport ships as decoys. They turn to Baltar for help in locating the position necessary to blow up the refinery. He pleads for help from Number Six (AKA Shelly), who predictibly tells him to trust God. He randomly points at a spot on the photo with his middle finger and tries to sound confidant.

Adama comes to Starbuck in the weight room and tells her that Doctor "Dutch" says her knee is still too torn up for her to get back in a Viper. Still, he gives her a chance. He piles on weights on a leg resistance machine and if she can press the equivalent of six G's for 10 seconds, she can lead the mission. She blows it, only pressing 3 G's for four seconds.

Still smarting over having to step aside for Apollo, she meets with Lee to discuss what he needs to do to make her plan work. He is irritated by her lack of confidence in his abilities. Undaunted, she warns him not to "frak things up by overthinking."

Adama gives Lee a pep talk and his father's lucky lighter.

On Caprica, Helo and Boomer temorarily shack up in some stables. Helo finally comments on the fact that they haven't seen a single human being since Boomer rescued him "from that woman." That makes it clear that he thought Number Six was a collaborator, not a Cylon. Moments later they spot the same woman leading a patrol of Centurians. Helo is completely freaked -- "You shot her! She bled on my lap!" -- but Boomer forces him to start running again.

Oh, Boomer vomited early in the segment, a sure sign that an evil hybrid baby has been spawned!

Back on the Galactica, Starbuck joins the "heads" in CIC as the plan gets underway. The Cylons don't take the bait and head for the Galactica. Baltar stresses as the Vipers, piloted by Starbuck's newbies, quickly get overwhelmed. Starbuck reveals a back up plan and Roslyn is pissed that she wasn't in the loop.

The whole rest of the episode was very "Battle of Yavin."

The white girl newbie locks on the target, but her missles are deflected by some kind of force field. Apollo tells them they'll have to get closer and go manual. Some of the pilots we've come to recognize on sight -- the white girl and the Asian guy -- get blown up.

"It sounds frakking awful out there! We're outnumbered five to one!" Baltar wails.

Apollo decides to pulls something out of his ass the way Starbuck would and he flies into a tunnel that he prays leads to the spot Baltar pointed out on the map. The Viper defies the laws of physics incredibly by stopping on a dime, making 90 degree angle turns, etc. Hot. Apollo gets to the spot, drops some missles, speeds out and the place actually blows up like Baltar said it would. The scene is actually cheapened by a strange lack of sound or music accompanying the explosion. Why get realistic now?

No one is more surprised at the success of the mission than Baltar, who is now starting think that it's logical that he's an instrument of God. Shelly helps this belief along by giving him her own interpretation of the Pythian Prophecies. In her version, the "snakes numbering one and ten" are the Vipers.

There's a celebration in the hangar bay as Apollo and what's left of the squadron return. And now there's music. Very distracting pseudo-Celtic martial music. And singing.

Precious champagne is wasted as pilots spritz each other. Maybe Tigh and Helen will come by and lick the floor later.

Strangely, Apollo and Starbuck don't seem all that friendly. If all were forgiven, they should be play-fighting like they were at the start of "Act of Contrition" where they were planning Flat Top's 1,000th landing party. Instead, she offers him a cigar and says she had her doubts. He agrees that he had his doubts about her plan and drinks his wine when he should've dumped it on her head.

Interesting.