Battlestar Galactica"The Road Less Traveled"
Original Air date: May 2, 2008
Brittany – TwoCents Reviewer
Here is another episode that has been painfully hard to watch more than once. It was hard enough the first time. Is it just me, readers? Here it is the last season, and it feels like the writers are twiddling their thumbs, taking their time while we wait for something meaty. I understand Starbuck’s whole road to Earth thing is integral, but it seems as if this was a poorly executed misstep. Or am I completely alone?
Continue reading...
[Photo: Carole Segal/SciFi]
Posts
Battlestar Galactica"The Road Less Traveled"
ReplyDeleteOriginal Air date: May 2, 2008
Brittany – TwoCents Reviewer
Here is another episode that has been painfully hard to watch more than once. It was hard enough the first time. Is it just me, readers? Here it is the last season, and it feels like the writers are twiddling their thumbs, taking their time while we wait for something meaty. I understand Starbuck’s whole road to Earth thing is integral, but it seems as if this was a poorly executed misstep. Or am I completely alone?
Tonight’s episode was one of those episodes that felt tightly packed, but in the end, not a whole lot happened to advance the actual plot. Starbuck was still painting the walls in her quarters, and Helo talks to her as if she’s still capable of making a rational decision. You know that Helo knows she’s out of her mind, but at first he’s just too nice of a guy to say anything. The crew though, made up of most of Galactica’s best pilots and CIC crew is sick of the mission and wants to rendezvous with the fleet. Here’s hoping the Cylons don’t attack the fleet, although as we already discussed in a previous recap, they’re busy killing themselves.
The cylon civil war makes it convenient for Leoben to pop in, spouting more of his lies that could be truths. Starbuck demands after finding Leoben floating in space in a damaged heavy raider, that he be brought on board. He talks about Starbuck and her journey, saying that she’s different now than she was back on New Caprica. She has him taken to her quarters, much to everyone’s dismay, where he stands behind her, guiding her hands as she paints. When Anders comes home and sees this, he gets justifiably but hypocritically upset, using Leoben’s face as a punching bag. Starbuck though, is convinced that Leoben can help them find Earth and that they should trust him. Of course, Anders goes to visit the cylon in the storage room-cum-brig, demanding to know what Leoben wants. “For her to understand her destiny”, he responds. Then he goes onto say a bunch of things to Anders to make him think that maybe Leoben knows that he’s a cylon. Vague things such as “You always knew you were destined for more.” And Anders reacts in a way that makes it clear he is most definitely NOT a cylon.
Anders later relays the message that there is a cylon civil war going on, and that Leoben proposes that the Six’s clan join forces with the fleet so that they can find Earth together. As expected, everyone but Starbuck is pretty against the idea. She’s in charge of the mission though, so instead of meeting up with Adama and the rest of the fleet, she excepts everyone to be okay with jumping even further away based on Cylon intel. Helo’s on the fence until Sergeant Mathias is killed during an inspection outside of the ship. Another one bites the dust in space and Helo refuses to agree to Starbuck’s terms. It’s mutiny all over again! Starbuck relieves Helo of duty and puts Gaeta in command, only he refuses her orders, too. There’s a stand off, and it all ends with the words ‘To Be Continued’. Which probably means I have to sit through another episode without Adama and Co. next week.
The story line that does take place on Galactica isn’t any better than what took place on the Demetrius. Galen Tyrol has gone G.I. Jane, shaving his head and working out in his quarters. He’s listening to Gaius on the radio and slowly coming to reason with what the other, slightly less crazy man is saying. Gaius is still sleeping with Tory, but it looks as if she cries less and laughs more in a maniacal way. (Now that I think about it, there wasn’t even any Head Six in this episode.) Chief goes to one of Baltar’s speeches, which are being broadcast on pirated radio, and Tigh spots him there. The elder cylon says that Baltar is full of crap, then tells Chief that he needs to buck up and get over Cally’s death. Chief brings up the fact that Tigh is spending a lot of time with the Six in the brig and that it’s behavior contrary to what Tigh said about being the same man he was before he found out he was a cylon.
After being spotted by Gaius in a crowd of people, Chief is called up to the stage to hold onto Gaius’ hand so that they might properly grieve for the loss of his wife. That was the wrong thing to offer, because Tyrol cannot forgive Baltar for the things that happened on New Caprica. Instead, he wraps his hands around Gaius’ throat before storming off, upset that Gaius could ever try to indentify with a woman like Cally. Tormented, he starts pacing his quarters, then grabs a gun and tries to kill himself. He stops when he sees a picture of Cally holding Nick, and instead lies down. With the gun on his stomach, he gazes at his wife’s picture as Gaius walks in. He’s dressed in a hoodie, trying to be inconspicuous. He speaks while Tyrol just lays there. “I know it’s hard to make sense of things sometimes…I understand now that there is a purpose to it. We change. We evolve. Maybe we even learn something along the way.” Then he goes on to say that he feels he’s been offered a chance at redemption because he actually accepted his fate and stopped fighting it. As he gets up to leave, Chief reaches out for Gaius’ hand and becomes the latest follower. Didn’t see that one coming.
One question I’ve had since Helo and Sharon ended up on the Demetrius is: Where is Hera? It doesn’t seem like there are a ton of baby sitters in the fleet, or that the Agathon’s have a lot of friends. Are the writer’s taking a misstep by focusing solely on the Starbuck story line? Did you miss Adama and Laura or were you glad to be free of them for a while? What’s your Two Cents, dear readers?
I just (read: finally) started watching season one so I haven't read your recap/review for fear of spoilers, but I wanted you to have a comment! Yay! Keep up (what I assume is) the good work!
ReplyDeleteI admire your dedication. There's no way I could watch this more than once. Like you said, the Starbuck thing is important and everything, but it feels like they're wasting my time, and as it's the last season, there isn't a whole lot of time to waste! The one plus to this episode was Leoben is great. Also, Katee Sackhoff is phenomenal.
ReplyDeleteDid you miss Adama and Laura or were you glad to be free of them for a while?
BRING THEM BACK NOW. NOOOWWW. Or the mutiny that Kara faced will be NOTHING to what RDM and co have coming for them.
Seriously, where IS Hera? I don't need to see her or anything, but it would be really great to know where she is.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping this episode would be a good one because it seems like this Kara storyline should be interesting, but I just couldn't get into it. *sigh*
I missed all the characters and storylines that weren't on this week.