Ten Points about BSG: Escape Velocity

By Rhea Dee

1. Jane Espenson wrote this episode. Jane’s the writer of many of my favorite Buffy episodes (Storyteller, Conversations with Dead People) so I hoped for some quality television. Thankfully, Espenson doesn’t disappoint.

2. I feel like the final four (well, three, since Anders is on Starbuck’s super mission) are locked in a race to see who will break down first and admit they’re cylons. They all make a pretty good case: Tory, who seems to be embracing her cylon-ness, might bust out and just kill some people (she’s already got a good start), Tigh’s cavorting with the Six they have captive, and Tyrol looks about 5 seconds away from admitting they’re frakking cylons just so he can dispel the guilt of his wife’s death. Which, speaking of that, his little scene in the bar revealed something that has been rolling around in the back of my mind: the whole ‘Sharon is a cylon’ fiasco that resulted in Admiral Adama getting shot. Was the Chief just drunk, or was he finally starting to see things from Sharon’s perspective?

3. Baltar-tears are back! But I don’t know if I’m digging the whole religious thing. I’m probably being biased. Most religious things bug the crap out of me. Either way, the religion thing is not unexpected; religion has been woven into this show from the start. It’s also a good way to re-introduce the Baltar/Roslin conflict, which I’ve always found fascinating, since Roslin “knows” Baltar better than anyone and therefore feels completely comfortable stealing away his rights. She even said as much to his face.

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4. Speaking of Roslin, I don’t know if I like her whole dying thing. She’s going to use it against everyone (she said so to Batlar). Good thing Lee is there to keep her grounded, right? But then there’s the whole father/son/lover thing, where Admiral Adama is torn between the woman he loves and his son. While this is interesting, I do feel like it’s a bit of a rehash. I mean didn’t we cover this at the end of last season, when Lee was Baltar’s lawyer, and Admiral Adama voted in Lee’s favor? I can’t figure out what BSG is doing with the whole Roslin dying thing. Are they trying to make us see her way because she’s dying? Or are they trying to show that death doesn’t make anybody Saint-like?

5. I wasn’t sure how to feel about Tigh’s whole obsession with Six/Six looking like his wife at first. It wasn’t until the very end, when she beat him up and then kissed him, before I felt like we were getting somewhere. Dark obsessions abound with this bunch of cylons, don’t they?

6. Baltar’s ‘we are all perfect’ speech sent a chill straight down my spine. While I don’t agree with Roslin’s keen targeting of him, this religion thing is so going to get out of hand in the near future.

7. Whoopsie! That shot of Kara reminded me that there was no Kara in this episode. I’m kind of glad, she’s getting weird. Although next week’s promo didn’t look too promising, did it? Sigh.

8. Tory is fast becoming the new Six, isn’t she? I saw parallels when Gaius looks over and his imaginary Six was standing next to Tory. Six always had two distinct properties: Gaius obsession and religious fixation. Looks like Tory is going to have both of those as well.

9. That shot of Tyrol’s baby reminded me: isn’t his kid now a cylon hybrid? Is that going to be addressed in this season? Or did that whole storyline die when good Sharon rescued her baby?

10. You know, ages ago, Jamie Bamber had a feature in Out Magazine about gay characters in science fiction. They talked about Claire’s best friend Zach in Heroes and of course the fantastic Captain Jack Harkness. The article wondered when gay characters were gonna step out of the closet for BSG, since there is so much delicious man flesh running around. Bamber himself expressed dismay that there were no gay characters yet. And apparently there aren’t going to be any. Well, except for Cain, from BSG Razor, who was having a relationship with a Six. But what about hot man touching? I’ve been spoiled by Torchwood, and now that it’s over, I need another fix. Which is why I freaked out when Gaius draped himself over Lee for ten seconds. Ten seconds. It was hard to go ten seconds in Torchwood without males touching. That’s all I’m going to get, isn’t it BSG? A quick drape with Lee’s face scrunched up in disgust? Damn you.

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Rhea Dee loves being a geek. She also loves female revenge flicks, campy horror, trashy novels and rock ‘n’ roll records. Rhea’s love for rock ‘n’ roll led her to be a regular contributor for the now defunct Now Wave webzine. She’s all about Edgar Wright. Important to know.

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