BSG: Resurrection Ship, Part 2

The episode starts with Lee floating on his back in a lake. It’s a peaceful scene, but there’s a falseness to it and an underlying tension which blossoms into full-blown tension when the scene morphs into an image of space. A battle rages silently in the background while Lee in a spacesuit and strapped to a chair, drifts helplessly away.

The opening scene sets the tone for the episode since the all-out space battle, which would be the crux of a “normal” Science-Fiction show, is essentially meaningless. It’s everything else that really matters -- the parallel assassination plots scheduled to take place when the battle against the Cylons is done, Tyrol and Helo awaiting their execution, an increasingly ill Laura and Baltar’s attempts to break through to the wounded Cylon, Gina.

Things I Liked:

• The viciousness of the Pegasus’s crew may start at the top with Cain, but it filters down even to the lowest levels. A couple of specialists, angered that the executions of Tyrol and Helo have been put on hold, take it upon themselves to give the prisoners a “blanket party.” The culture of violence on that ship is pervasive and it remains to be seen if it can be changed.


• The XO of the Pegasus stops the beating of the two men, but he does so with little emotion. He has no sympathy for two men who killed an officer who in his opinion was doing nothing wrong. As he puts it, “You can’t rape a machine.”


• Cain seems to have a genuine desire to mentor Starbuck.


• The way the battle between the two battlestars and the basestars was filmed was stunning, even though it was strictly background material.


• The decision of both commanders not to go through with their original assassination plans is handled well. Each has different reasons -- Adama doesn’t go through with it because an assassination (to him) would prove the Cylons are right about humanity no deserving to live. Cain stands down because... Well, it’s not clear. Perhaps because she saw that Kara didn’t want to kill her.


• Cain goes out well.


• Laura promotes Adama to Admiral.

Things I Didn’t Like:

• When Apollo is ejected from the destroyed stealth ship, he discovers a hole in his suit. At first he tries to cover it with his hand (bad science alert), but then he exposes the hole and waits to die. I’m sorry, but I don’t get it. Why is he suicidal all of a sudden? And more importantly, why wasn’t some effort made to make this act the meaningful?


• How come Baltar isn’t in trouble for letting Gina escape and kill Cain? Or does that come in the next episode?

Fears:

• What’s up with Dualla sneaking around the pilots’ quarters and listening in on Kara and Lee having a private talk? She’s got the Jones for him now? Please.