Battlestar Galactica - Hero

I’m hot, I’m covered in some kind of stinky Cylon slime, and I’m about fed up with protein paste for dinner every night.  I’ve been through hell and it’s good to be home, but unless you want spoilers, you should get off this flight deck in 3,

2,

1,

Mark.

Show synopsis from TV.com:

A figure from Adama’s past returns to haunt him. His return raises questions about why the Cylons launched their initial attack against the Twelve Colonies.

We open with a recap that shows Adama speechifying from very early in the series about not being able to escape the things that you create.  Which will obviously be important later on.  :)

The show starts with a bloody, pain-filled face, then we cut to Laura cleaning out old files and crap - seems like she’s cleaning up Baltar’s presidential files, including a big painting of his face which she suggests they hang over the toilet. :) She also found some history on Adama.  His former command was the Valkyrie, and I’m guessing that this pilot comes from that command.  Laura wants to commemorate Bill’s 45 years of service.

Aside - Donna is very upset. ;) Naming Adama’s old ship the Valkyrie violates the Roman/Greek naming conventions.  From Wikipedia: ”The word “valkyrie” comes from the Old Norse valkyrja (plural “valkyrur"), from the words “val” (slaughter) and “kyrja” (to choose). Literally the term means choosers of the slain.” I wonder why the writers couldn’t pick one of a bazillion million Roman or Greek names?  Kind of lazy and shows a lack of attention to detail.  Odd, because BSG has always been very attentive to little details like that.

Cut to CIC and we have two raiders chasing a third raider.  Starbuck, up in one of the alert fighters, says she doesn’t know or care why the one is being chased by the other two.

OK WRITERS.  THIS IS RIDICULOUS.  Raiders chasing raiders should feel pretty goddamned familiar to Starbuck.  SHE STOLE A RAIDER AND FLEW IT UP TO GALACTICA, REMEMBER?  Jesus why do TV writers insist, even on this show, on treating us like we’re stupid.  Back to the show.

CIC picks up a signal and Adama recognizes the callsign of the pilot - Bulldog.  He doesn’t look real good, but I suppose years in Cylon captivity will do that.  He does manage to recognize and salute Adama though.

Back from commercial, we see a flashback to Gods only know when, some bigwigs having a “meeting that never happened” with Adama.  Clearly they are planning something to do with a stealth ship being stealthy on a stealth mission that never happened.  You were never here.  In fact, you’re not reading this right now.  Obviously the implication here is that Adama was ordered to do something that sparked the war.

Cut to the doc’s office and Bulldog is 100% human.  When Adama asks him how he escaped, he drops some smartass comments (very Starbuckian) before explaining that they Cylons got sick.  We’re given the impression that the “lymphocytic encephalitis” is spreading.

Flashback to Bulldog killing a D’Eanna model from inside his cell.  The D’Eanna was taking delight in playing with his head and this seems to have somehow led to his escape.  Shouldn’t the base star be sick too?  Since all Cylon technology is made of the same material, could the cell itself get sick or something?

Cut to Adama’s quarters, and we’re going to get an explanation as to what the mission was.  Seems that the Tauron colony was drilling for ore too close to the Cylon DMZ.  Adama and Bulldog are selling a story that the Taurons shot him down, and with no signals from Bulldog’s ship, Bill left thinking he was dead.  I’m not buying it.  That’s not the real mission at all.  No way Laura buys this.

“So, you gonna tell me what really happened?” That’s my girl.  :)

Cut to a D’Eanna model “apparently” walking around Galactica.  I’m betting it’s Gaius’ D’Eanna and she’s dreaming.  HA!  Yes.  She woke up in bed (Not Safe For Work or children) with Cap Six and Baltar.  Even when he steps in shit he comes out smelling like a rose.  Bastard.

Back to Galactica, and hey look, Drunky McDeadWife is playing games with his eye socket as Adama walks in to Saul’s quarters.  Basically he’s here as Adama’s conscience.  He knows whatever secret Adama is hiding, and he specifically said “Have you told HIM what you did.” Him meaning Bulldog, I assume.  After the break, Saul is feeling up his dead wife’s lingerie when Bulldog comes a’knockin’.  Bulldog (name - Danny Novacheck) and Saul is ‘bout to get drunks like skunks.  They are about to, as my gran-momma used to say, get fucking shitfaced like two dirty assholes.  My gramma had a mouth like a sailor and never made a whole lot of sense.  Anyway. while they chat and drink, Adama is chatting with Lee.  Saul is about to drop the secret on Bulldog...and we cut to Adama telling Lee that he shot Danny’s ship down to prevent detection, so that the Cylons would not find out they had crossed the line.  The mission was designed to ascertain the likelihood of a Cylon strike, which means someone had theories before the attacks on the 12 Colonies.

Flashback to the old mission - They were supposed to sneak over the armistice line, gather intel and jump back.  When the Cylons detected the flight, they shot at Bulldog.  Adama ordered Bulldog’s flight destroyed to avoid an all-out war.  I’m pretty sure that by that moment it was too late.  Adama could have made a different decision here...after all, it was pretty obvious that two “unknown” ships had done the damage to Bulldog’s Viper, and it wouldn’t take a genius to figure that those two unknowns comprised a Cylon patrol.  Command is, of course, full of these moments though.  You decide in an instant who lives and who dies and try to never look back and second-guess your decisions.  If you keep looking back all the time, you’ll freeze when you need to make the next decision.  In the moment, Adama decided.  Right or wrong, that was the call he made.

Back to Saul and Danny.  Saul tells Bulldog that he’s always known the truth deep down, that Bill left him there for the Cylons.  He’s right, of course.  He also told him that surviving can be it’s own death sentence, something Tigh knows all too well.

Adama and Lee drop the nugget that two ships were following Bulldog, and that all these years he’s been lying to himself by pretending it could have been the Taurons.  It’s a nice piece, because the line that Saul just delivered to Bulldog applies right here to Bill - deep down he’s always known the truth.  Adama then tells Lee that he believes it was this mission that started the war, that sticking his nose over the line proved to the Cylons that humanity was the warrior race that the Cylons feared them to be.  Lee takes the position that the Admiralty, the military were to blame, they ordered Adama out there.  That is absolutely true, but:

It was an illegal order, plain and simple.  One Adama chose to follow.  It broke the treaty with the Cylons, and no Admiral has the right to make that call.  Bill could have refused it.  They would have sent someone else, certainly, but he could have refused it.  Then he never would have been in the position to have to make a decision about Danny in the first place.  If there is anything to second guess in all of this, I think that’s where he should be concentrating.  The mission happened, you can’t change that...but you can learn from the decision, and since right now Adama is the ranking military officer in all of humanity, he can learn to never put someone else in that position.

Back to the base star.  Xena Warrior Cylon (Safe for work!) is ordering a Centurion to kill her so she can be reborn.  It seems like she’s experimenting?  I got the impression that she tried to retain her consciousness during the resurrection process.  Has no other Cylon every experienced an “in-between” place?  Is it possible that what she saw was simply the ability that Cylons have to project a vision of reality for themselves?  Maybe she saw what she wanted to see.  I’ll be curious to see that more fully explored.

Back to Galactica - Starbuck is watching tape of the dogfight and notices that the Cylons chasing Bulldog were intentionally missing his ship when firing on him.  Quick cut and Danny calls Adama for a meeting.  Kara goes to Saul with her theory that the Cylons let him escape.  They’re here to kill Adama, people!  Starbuck figures out that the virus story is bullshit.  Meanwhile, Danny attacks Adama when he opens the door to his cell, ties Bill down and starts pouring his soul out.  Adama picked up that the Cylons left the door open to Danny’s cell.  Cylons don’t leave doors open.  Ever.  Tigh shows up in the nick of time and gets his gun knocked away, but the old drunk bastard is tougher than steel...he beats Danny’s ass in about two seconds flat.  So.  Drunk or not the man can be a soldier.  He then proceeds to give a speech that really does not apply to Danny at all, but rather to himself, about how a man gets used to losing his dignity in a bottle.

“So how do you put away that bottle, Saul?”
“I dunno.  One day you just decide to get up and walk out of your room.”

Saul’s back. Maybe not today, but soon.  :)

Back from commercial and Adama is trying to resign.  I don’t see Laura allowing this.  She makes a good point, that the military may have sent Bill out there to provoke a war that they wanted.  They say that if you give a man toys, he will want to play with them.

Roslin tells Adama that his penance is to stand up knowing his own shortcomings and give the fleet the hero they need.  I can actually see that making sense.  She knows better than anyone that Bill Adama has a conscience, maybe more of one than she does.  The things he has to do eat away at his soul, decision by decision, day by day, year by year.  He stands on that wall, or at that line, and he does the things that need doing.  She sees this, and she knows that doing his job will be more of a burden to his conscience than any punishment could ever be.  Or maybe she knows he’ll learn something from this and be a better Admiral to the fleet than the Admiralty was to him.

Cut to Danny leaving Galactica, and Adama stops him.  Like the complicated man that he is, he gives Bulldog his uniform back.  I’m not sure if this means he’s in the fleet as a Viper jock, because that would mean he’s not leaving Galactica, which he did.  So...loose end.  If he does come back...is he a better pilot than Kara?  I see a lot of friendly rivalry developing between those two if he comes back as a jock.  Could make for some great banter and funny moments.  Plus, I mean, he was captured by the Cylons, she was captured by the Cylons, she stole a raider, he stole a raider…

Dude, it just hit me.  She’s not going to stay with Anders.  She might actually click with Danny though, and he would understand her a lot more.  Yes?  No?  Am I crazy?

Adama’s Quarters - Door knocks.  Saul enters.  “I hear you won a medal?” “Yeah they give ‘em out for anything these days.” Come on, guys, you two need to patch the shit up and get back to work.  I guess it starts with a drink together, although why you would pour a drink for a boozer that can’t control himself is beyond me.  Maybe Adama is going to accept Saul - drinking problem and all - just as he always does.  I suppose that when the chips are down, when it matters, Tigh does his job.  Does anyone really have the right to ask for more than that?

*UPDATE*

See more thoughts on this episode here

Posted by JimK at 09:00 PM on November 17, 2006
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