io9
Things are getting awesomely ugly on Battlestar Galactica, with the humans squabbling over sex and the justice system while their arch-enemies the Cylons march towards all-out bot-on-bot civil war. One of the more stylized, surreal episodes of BSG, last night's "The Ties that Bind" was full of weird camera angles and blurred-out backgrounds that perfectly capture the mental disintegration of several major characters. And one person's life takes a seriously unexpected turn in a scene that had me yelling "HOLY CRAP!" at my monitor. You guessed it: spoilers lie ahead.
We begin with Cavil's resurrection in the Cylon goo chamber, where a bunch of his buddies (including the "swing vote" Sharon) are toweling him off and getting seriously grumpy about how the Six models got the Centurions to blast the shit out of them. Turns out "swing vote" Sharon is doing the nasty with Cavil, and they start making out even before he's scraped all the rebirth sludge off his face. Nice.
Sharon calls the Six rebellion a form of "ethnic cleansing" because it eliminated all the Cavils and Simons from one of the Cylon ships. We know something bad is going to happen when Cavil grins evilly and replies, "Teach me to trust a democracy." I love the idea that Cylon society is based on democracy, but one that's being destroyed by the religious mania of the Sixes. Later in the episode, that point is driven home when Cavil and his buddies trick the Sixes and Sharons into an ambush. Out of range of the Resurrection Ship, they begin bombing the shit out of the Sixes, "really killing them" as a Sharon puts it.
"They will have their god to look after their immortal souls," observes Cavil.
"What about ours?" asks swing-vote Sharon.
"We don't have souls — we're machines, remember?" he replies tartly.
Atheist robots against evangelical robots in deep space! Now we're cooking with gas.
Meanwhile, on Starbuck's secret mission to scout for Earth based on her visions, things aren't going so well. Starbuck is sweaty most of the time, totally doesn't know where she's going, and keeps painting pictures of Earth's solar system on the ceiling of her cabin. I like macho Starbuck, but weird art girl Starbuck not so much. Luckily, her angst explodes into some seriously rough, angry sex with Anders.
It may be all nookie and art projects for Starbuck and Co., but back on Galactica the press corps are starting to ask questions. Why are Starbuck and a bunch of the crew gone for three weeks on a classified mission? In one of those oddly West Wing moments in this show, we are treated to a fairly lengthy meeting of the quorum — with Lee Adama sitting in as the most junior member — where the action gets explosive when Lee points out in front of the press that the president has a secret "executive order 112" to create puppet courts whose judges are all appointed by her. BSG creators Ron Moore and David Eick are not afraid to get wonky, you know what I mean? This is practically an ACLU press release about the Patriot Act.
So Lee is standing up to Roslin, which is awesome. But he's being coached behind the scenes by Zarek, which is not so awesome. On the bright side, Roslin is dying and we get to watch Admiral Adama reading to her in the hospital from a Dashiell Hammett-sounding novel about a detective in Caprica City called Love and Bullets. I hope the author of said novel shows up in spinoff show Caprica. I've always wanted to find out what it would be like to write hard boiled fiction on another planet.
The best subplot by far in this episode, however, is Cally's discovery that hubby Tyrol is a skinjob. She's been snot-nosed and depressed as usual, screaming at Tyrol about not spending enough time with her. In between popping space valiums, she decides to find Tyrol when he's late getting back to their cabin — and discovers him in the bar with Foster, who is talking in her newfound Creepy Voice about how great it is to be "open to changes" as a Cylon. While inappropriately stroking Tyrol's elbow.
It all looks very bad, so you can understand when Cally flips out and then follows Tyrol on a different night, only to discover the real reason he's been hanging out with Foster. She eavesdrops on a meeting of the sleeper agents, figures out that there's a skinjob conspiracy, and goes completely batshit. After braining Tyrol with a wrench (not fatally), she tries to suck herself and her hybrid baby out the airlock.
And here's the awesome dose of awesome: Foster comes into the airlock in the nick of time and talks Cally down in a hazy scene of tearful bonding and "yes we're Cylon but we're not evil" PSA messages. Just as Cally is coming around and deciding not to commit suicide, Foster punches her in the face, steals her baby, and sets the airlock to "kill Cally." Holy crap! I am liking this new evil Foster a lot.
By the way? I am so glad Cally is dead. She was a whiny bitch who never did anything but cry.
Comments
This episode really felt like a turning point, what with all the offings and what not.
I liked Artsy Fartsy Starbuck far more than Crazy Shouty Starbuck, but this whole "I feel detached from life" thing is far too... Well, Buffy really. Girl dies, comes back, feels detached. Hmmm.
I think I see where they want me to think they are going with this, and I'm thinking red herring.
Heres to the death of Cally and the birth of Evil Tory.
But need more angry pirate Tigh
@OW-Holmes: Yes! Angry pirate Tigh has been so awesome lately. I predict an episode focusing on him very soon.
I dunno...arty Starbuck was weird, but something about Lee being a aggressive and almost snide 'politician' just didn't feel right.
Otherwise the dissension among the Cylons is intense.
i did like the somewhat suspicious behavior of the cylon centurions and its not clear how cylon war is going about...just saying. damn 7 days
The knowing "look" from the one Centurion doesn't bode well for either side of the numbered Cylons. I'm thinking they'll get a peace imposed on them by the Raiders and Centurions.
@Dunny0: I hadn't related Starbuck to Buffy, but now that you mention it I can see where this is leading.
A musical episode.
I liked Cally until New Caprica. I miss the fire of the girl who tore a guys ear off when he tried to rape her, or went all Jack Ruby on Boomer. She's been whiny and ineffectual pretty much since Tyrol beat the shit out of her.
I'm not sad to see that Cally go.
@Nelson:
Complete with a Centurion chorus line?
Don't know if anyone else has suggested this, but I get the feeling that there may be a reason that Cavil dumped on Tigh so badly when he was imprisoned on New Caprica.
Anyone reckon the Cavil's remember Tigh in some way...
Great episode.
I loved when Starbuck yelled at Helo to come and talk to her... She was standing on the level above him with a bright light behind her so you could only see the bottom of her feet. Very metaphorical.
anyone notice that the met in weapons locker 1701D?
nice touch Ron Moore.
@modernboy: I don't get it, please elaborate.
Good episode. While I'm not a fan of crazy, shouting Starbuck, I did enjoy her aggressive, "I just wanna frack!" speech. The Cally story was great, too. I'll have to fully admit that I've loved Cally ever since she popped onto the show. Hey, she's cute. That didn't stop me from actually cheering for her death, since she was pretty much a bitch the entire episode. But evil Tory? I don't know how I should feel about that. And the preview for next week, with Tory saying that they're perfect in every way? So much for thinking the unnumbered bunch are all on the side of humans.
@modernboy: I'm glad someone else noticed this. Let's go, STTNG!
@Nelson: NoNo, think bigger. Think: Musical series finale.
Really, I think it's the only way to properly end the show at this point.
Kidding aside, this was another great ep. Well, back in the cryo-tube for another week! (if only)
Here's the thing that really pisses me off about where the show might be going.
Where the fuck is Hera?
There is no way the Helo and the Athena we saw at the end of season 3 would trust Adama enough to leave Hera on Galactica. No way in hell.
That's the type of writing that makes me think the season 4 writers don't care who the characters were before they got the task of writing these new ones.
@OW-Holmes: i'll pass on angry Tigh. He always feel irrelevant.
@aspiringexpatriate: i was wondering the same thing now that there are 2 half cylon, half human babies in existence
I did not care for the artsy-fartsy stuff in this episode. It went overboard. Were all of Cally's scenes filmed in a blurry fisheye to signify she was in some paranoid drug haze? It didn't work for me.
But that ending was cold, cold, cold.
@se7a7n7: USS Enterprise NCC-1701D same number as the weapons locker
@aspiringexpatriate: Seriously..
Not to mention he is the freaking CAG.
I get Boomer being on there.. good raptor pilot and she is 'our' cylon... (nice that Anders is there.. too I wonder Tigh made sure he went...
But what the tell is Helo doing there? His kid is back on Galactica (I guess because on the space tug is even goofier), and he is the CAG.
I guess Adama wanted all his good senior pilots away... Who is left Hot Dog and Kat?
@DocGratis: Oh and oops.. I ment Athena... Boomer is playing kissey face with #1.
Well Callys sendoff was better than suicide which had that been the case I would have been done with this show, but I still dont like that the only NORMAL crewmember on the damn ship got spaced.
She might have gotten whinny since New Caprica, but she also went from a deckhand to a mother AND wife on New Caprica whos husband managed to routinely get het almost killed (arrest, torture and near execution on New Caprica, spaced onces before because she was trying to see her husband who kept blowing her off since New Caprica). I think she had a right to be a bit whinny.
@DocGratis: Aint Hot Dog and Kat spacedust?
The Cally death was spoiled for me last week, so I wasn't expecting much impact from it. When the ep started, I was disappointed to see the emphasis on the drugs and insomnia, etc. It felt totally cliche and I thought her death would be by-the-numbers.
Well... wow. I couldn't have been more wrong. The storyline really turned itself around. It felt believable. It completely came together and felt believable once she discovered 1701D. I was in genuine suspense by the end, even doubting the spoilers I'd heard, thinking maybe the death in the ep was Tyrol, not Cally. And ultimately, it kicked me in the teeth. That last shot of Adama and Tyrol just sitting there in silence was absolutely devastating.
My guess is that the other 3 are going to find out about Foster killing Cally, and they are going to do her in. She's acting like a cylon. And whatever else they are, Anders, Tigh, and Tyrol do not like cylons that act like cylons.
Still no Simon.
I'm surprised that no one is commenting on Tory Foster's evolution into Cylon slut. Maybe the skinjob variants started out as sex toys.
My kids have a phrase that I found myself using when I watched this episode.
'Oh, Snap!"
I used it 3 times, I think.
I had avoided spoilers, and "preview" adverts, so I would have no preconceived ideas.
Snap #1: Foster doing the evil tramp thing. Making subtle hints of possible hook-up with Tyrol.
Snap #2: Weapons locker 1701D. Anyone who doesn't catch the reference should slap themselves in the face.
Snap #3: Cally's encounter with Foster in the launch bay. That whole "I'm as scared as you are, and by the way:Now that I have the baby, here's a slap to knock you across the room. Wave buh-bye to Mommy!"
I lost interest last season. This season has me hooked at only 2 hours in. *fan-boy drools*
@jaynesworth:
I think it's more of a erasure of moral responsibilty, not a newly awakend Sex Toy.
Foster might be thinking: "Now that I know I'm not Human, I don't have to follow the ethics I thought I did. Everything is all new and exciting. What a lovely new Sandbox. Let's blow it up!"
It'll be interesting to see how it all comes together. They just keep throwing stuff into the air, and leaving us wonder when it's all gonna come down.
Anyway, I don't think Centurions are going to so much impose peace as decide they're a little tired of taking orders from a bunch of whiny skin-jobs and decide that maybe they should stay dead.
Great episode, probably my favourite of the three so far.
The ending did leave me wondering, did Tory just take the baby because all she cares about is Cally dying (since she knows the truth) or does she have some particular interest in the half Cylon.
I'm convinced that Doc Cottle is the fifth cylon. Notice how he gave the drugs to Cally that made her loopy and even more paranoid than usual...
He is the puppetmaster, methinks.
But I cheered when Tori blew that whiny brat out of the airlock. And at least Tori seems to care that Nicky is another Human/Cylon hybrid...the fact that no one has mentioned it (esp. since Tori was part of the whole Hera soap opera) is really odd.
The Lee/Quorum of 12 thing hasn't sparked my interest yet...it's obvious that they're setting something up there, but I'm not sure I care.
cant wait another week damnit
@Falconfire: According the Battestarwiki.. Hot Dog is alive and Kat is dead...
Which just further supports my point.. Why did they send the CAG(Helo) on this mission..
Was I the only one amused by Adama playing mother hen/grief councilor? The character's been such a complete badass more than often that seeing his sensitive side is refreshing and awesomely three dimensional.
On the flip side, the domestic violence in this episode was shocking, mostly because of the spin that it attempted on stereotypes of domestic violence (but failed at utterly in parts). I found myself disgusted by Cally wishing Tyrol would beat her, and horrified when she pummeled him on the head with a wrench. Starbuck has been abusive to Anders as well, but I have the feeling that the writers are falling back on the "character can't love because she was abused as a child" trope, which (while it does have some truth in reality) isn't necessarily a complete truth.
I feel that the only reason I'm really sticking with this show right now from week to week is for the awesome Cylon Civil War. And for sexy Lee Adama's campaign for justice and democracy. Screw the Final Cylon; I want to see how the Cylons frak themselves over and how Lee sticks it to the Man (er, Woman).
@DocGratis: Why did they send so many damn good pilots for that matter?
Im really hating the way the use Frak sometimes.
Starbuck saying "I want you to Frak me" after ranting with the word Frak 2 or 3 times before that had me laughing... not turned on.
It's better when it's under used IMO.
@Lizfu: Well Athena I can see.. as she is a good raptor pilot and I guess that Sanders (not a good pilot) was put there by Tigh..
Helo? again.. no reason.
@PeteRR: I am really hoping the Centurions devolop the capacity for speech. (likely they already have it, just no way to vocalize.) It would be amazing to see centurions calmly arguing with the Cavils, or flirting with the raiders.
Katie Sackhoff (Starbuck) is such a bad actress. She's making this show nearly unwatchable for me. Originally I thought it was the character as construed by the show's writers. Then Bionic Woman came along and showed me that, no, it's just her.
@extracrispy: I'm with you on the artsy fartsy stuff. I mean, it was OK, but I'm guessing everybody got the idea in the first few seconds. It's not like they used it enough to qualify for actually trippy. It illustrated their state of mind. OK, got it, get on with things.
My problem with Tori's spacing of Cally is that right hand. Even accounting for your usual TV over-acting, that was too much. She lifted Cally off her feet and knocked her what? Six feet through the air? Underhanded? While holding a baby? Did she suddenly discover her Cylon power cell or something? My memory might be off on the particulars, but I was distinctly impressed and surprised.
That's another question overall, of course. If they're so human a doctor needs to check their blood to find out, how could they be stronger? I'm thinking that would be obvious.
@1369ic: The super strength could be just programming. There are cases of ordinary humans performing extraordinary feats of strength because of stress and adrenaline. But it's not something people can do by will. If cylons can trigger that kind of actions from programming, they don't need to have any special hardware.
Also remember Starbuck and Six fought in melee and they were pretty evenly matched.
I think Tory's spent too much time with Baltar. Maybe his evil is contagious or something. Or maybe she's releasing all her pent-up rage from working in bureaucracy for so long.
Oh man, I hope the religious Cylons aren't totally taken out by the atheist ones. Intelligent Centurions and Raiders are far too cool to be annihilated.
Cally definitely needed to die, her weakness got one of my favorite minor characters, Crash, killed.
@Dr. Futurity: I made the same conclusion after I watched maybe half of the first episode of Bionic Woman before turning it off in disgust. Worst...show...ever.
@dawfydd2001: I remember in one of the podcasts (I think it was for Rapture) that Ron Moore said that Cavil was the cylon secret keeper and thus knew who all twelve cyclons were. It was why he tried to stop d'anna on the algae planet and why he boxed her line when she found out who they were.
on't know if anyone else has suggested this, but I get the feeling that there may be a reason that Cavil dumped on Tigh so badly when he was imprisoned on New Caprica.
Anyone reckon the Cavil's remember Tigh in some way...
It's also been shown that the Cavils are pretty much a bunch of dicks.
I will be quite unhappy if the Cylon schism simply goes away because of ambush.
I am so glad Cally is dead. She was a whiny bitch who never did anything but cry.
Q-F-T! It would have been nice to see her go from young and innocent to battleworn and weary, but the character never seemed to develop that way.
Airlock FTW.
Another good episode! Really like the way things are shaping up. All gloves are truly off! Can't wait till next friday. :)
@Annalee Newitz: Could you imagine a whole base ship full of Tighs? That would be pretty funny.
@DocGratis: Kat's dead....Starbuck found out about her pre-war past as a criminal and was going to use it to turn Adama against her so Kat basically killed herself by exposing herself to lethal doses of radiation in the episode where they had to jump the fleet through the radiation cloud.
@daveNYC: I'm sure enough of the 2,6 and 8s survived to make trouble for the rest...in one of the previews Tigh is talking to a Six that acted like the one who unlocked the Centurions.
Another brilliant airlocking, love bad Tori, can't stand weird sexed up-crazy-and-yet-more-angry Starbuck, but WHAT is going on w/ Roslin's face?
Someone please tell me they've noticed the weird ass difference in her lips...or is this part of the "Space Cancer Returns!" storyline?
Tory has always been shady (election-stealing baby kidnapper), but this is a new level of awesome quite frankly.
The entire FF has gone to the dark side way before they discovered what they were, and they all did it on behalf of humanity.
Loving this show.
@Dunny0: I feel you; me and my wife started singing "I went to earth and it freezes me, I looked into it and it's black..."
@kingzilch: The big reveal: James Marster is the 12th cylon.
@kingzilch: The big reveal: James Marsters is the 12th Cylon
@Tibeerius: O kay but you know that's not the reason Kat exposed herself to all that radiation right? She was just trying to prove herself, it had nothing to do with the threat of Thrace exposing her.
@kingzilch: That's just awesome on so many levels...
@Nelson:
Well, it is about that time. I think there's a law now where Mr. Marsters must make an appearance in all SciFi shows. A law I fully endorse.