BSG Monday - The Eye of Jupiter - 41,402 Survivors

First off, I'm told they changed the title from the Eye of Zeus. Um, not that we haven't had a mish-mash of Roman and Greek gods before now (Mars has been mentioned) but we've already established Zeus (and where IS Tom Zerek these days?) as the top of the Colonial pantheon of gods. Just saying.

Ok, see? THIS is what BSG used to do, week in and week out. Everybody gets a hand in. Want a Tyrol story? Got it. Sharon? Two of 'em. A little "Why is Six the most sympathetic character in this ep?" Spades. Apollo and Starbuck? YIKES! Sam Anders is back and ADA (Anastasia Dualla-Adama for the latecomers) finally gets something to do! THAT'S juggling the character arcs. (How do you kill a circus? Go for the juggler.)

The "previously on Battlestar Galacticas" are ominous. Let's flash back to all the most complicated stories of the season. No EyeTigh, so that's a small relief. Starbuck and Apollo, Hera, and FINALLY last weeks ep and the current predicament. Oh, and we're back to the 2.5 trick of "Hey, here's plot that we cut from an earlier ep for a nifty character moment when our show clocked in a three hours last week. Sorry."

First we're following up from The Passage. For those that are wondering, we've been there for two weeks, so the gang is getting their vittles. This will become important later on when the fleet jumps away into unprotected and unfed space. They should be ok over the winter break.

We immediately continue along with the MUST (Massively Unresolved Sexual Tension) from Unfinished Business. We find out very quickly that 1) just 'cause we're in space doesn't mean we don't have messed up Catholic girls 2) there's only so much guilt even Lee Adama can take and of course 3) they're not fooling anyone. I DID watch Spoilervision (Next Week on BSG) and while it was brief, it seems to imply that ADA will get more screen time. Good for her.

Anders gets to not only be nine feet taller than Lee, but he's all ripped and greasy and looks like an extra from a razor commercial or some such. And he gets to be right. I hate it when that happens. Lee's look when Anders tells him that not only is Kara fooling around on Anders, she's fooling around on Lee too is the second best in the ep. She's Hellen Tigh without the charm or the moral compass! (This is where we find out if She Who Is My Wife is reading.)

Tyrol has spider-sense! Ok, I was expecting him to be super-mechanic and follow the pinging of a micrometricly out-of-phase fribonic Cylon thingy and find the big bad. But it turns out that he's still working out parent issues. I would love it if Tyrol became a priest. I miss the spirituality that the early shows had. You had some true-blue believers like the priests and Six, some in the closet yet fiercely religious folk like Kara, and you had the balance with Wild Bill and Gaius "I Am God" Baltar. I think that adding Cavil into the mix is terrific (especially when he plays off of Six and Leoben) but they need to bring up the other end. It was a nice touch seeing both Tyrol and Kara struggling with their upbringing. And of course I loved Cally telling him that this side of him wasn't so bad. All this AND heaping helpings of plot. This is BSG on all cylinders.

Felix (SEE? EVERYBODY gets something to do this episode. Except the Nuggets - they had their ep last time and look what happened.) gets to tell us that the world is about to end and that "Hey, I don't believe ANY of this, but it makes you think, eh?" (Yeah, I know, EyeTigh is the Canadian.)

It amuses me to no end that people can still think Wild Bill is bluffing. Especially when it comes to protecting The Fleet. When he orders the nukes deployed EyeTigh gives him this great look that says "I've never loved you more." Laura tries to play the "Aren't you the guy that will throw away the whole of humanity for your kids?" card. Doesn't work. Lee and Kara? You need to be friendlier to the old man.

I slipped up. I had no idea that Wild Bill didn't know about Hera. I have been laboring under the assumption that it was really really going to hit the fan when Athena found out that Adama had kept Hera from them. For some reason I wouldn't have been nearly as worried that just Laura had lied to them. I mean, still hugely dramatic arc, but I didn't see any way back from my imagined Athena/Helo/Adama fallout. (LOOK at all the balls in the air this ep!) I still like Helo, I just don't care what he says anymore.

The Gaius Baltar show - Oh, this is a messed up little man. When he radios over the the fleet is a truly terrific moment for everyone. They'll take Boomer back and giver her her own hangar bay to play with before they even give a kindly LOOK to Dr. Baltar. These are the looks that beat out Lee finding out about Kara's extra-extra-curricular activities.

Six - I've come to the conclusion that nobody but nobody looks hurt the way Tricia Helfer does. I've said before, she may have been cast because she's a supermodel, but this gal can act. "Here, play the same character nine different ways. Most of them look and dress exactly the same. And we need to be able to distinguish them all. Good luck." Nice to see GB still has a Six in his head. I want to see what the GB in Six's Head is saying about all of this. I won't be at all surprised if at the very very end of it all, Six is the hero. Or she has a tragic ghastly end. Either way. (It's not a Joss show. It's not a Joss show. It's not a Joss show.)

Cavil. I can't think of the last character that I loved to hate this much. That's a tough trick. You either actually love the character or you hate them so much you don't want to see them. I really love to hate Cavil. I think the other Cylons feel the same way.

Leoben is now officially the Cylon equivalent of Dualla.

Caught a picture of Xena: Warrior Princess this weekend and thought "Hey! It's New York Times reporter D'Anna Biers!" I'm sure it's not supposed to work like that. Her arc continues to be interesting. I think the difference between Six and Three is three- er, is that Six really knows who GB is (better than he does) and (for WHATEVER reason) loves him anyway, really unconditionally. Three THINKS she knows who he is. I really don't think Three totally GETS GB. It's like in the gazillion monster movies where the scientists try to harness or control whatever unharnessable or uncontrollable thing - Six is the one standing by saying "You're meddling with forces you can't possibly understand." And Six is ok with that. There will come a moment (soon, I'd expect) where Three will be confronted with the awesome purity that is Gaius Baltar's ability to make the WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG choices.

According to Jane "The Passage" Espenson, there is a writer who can just rattle of pages and pages of Hybrid dialogue. Everyone has a skill.

Ok, I know it's only the mid-season break, but I'm sick sick sick sick of the now mandatory cliff-hangar. It comes to the point where when you know it's a break of some kind, you can just see the dominoes being lined up for the big "ARRRRRRRGH!" moment. Cliff-hangars are easy. They really are. Resolving them satisfactorily is not. And writing a satisfying END to something is the hardest thing to do. Which is why it's not done much. We're going to come back next season. Write us a tiny bit of closure and then pick up again next year. You know, last week would have been a good closer.

I wouldn't mind if next season was the last. Maybe season 5. I desperately want this show to have an END. And yes, I want the colonials to find Earth. Maybe that's not the End. Maybe that's the beginning of the last act. Whatever. (My guess is that the Fighting Agathons will be the only ones of the Gang that live to set foot on Earth.) Just don't rattle away on us, Ron.

Ron Moore still hasn't done his podcast this week. No scotch for you, producer man!

Ah well, see you January 21st, when Sci-Fi fraks up my whole BSG viewing routine and moves to Sunday nights.