“Red, white, whatever … guys are all the same!” - Liz Sherman (Hellboy)

By Lisa Fary

There are so many things that are bugging me about this. Was this episode supposed to make President Roslin a sympathetic character again? If so, it didn’t work. I used to think Laura Roslin was awesome, but now I just hate her.

I hate her because the very thing she sought to protect and maintain from the beginning, government, now appears to be a sham under her leadership. The decisions are made by her and Admiral Adama and the Quorum of Twelve is largely left out and ignored.

I hate her because her animosity toward Baltar’s one god movement is unreasonable. For her, it’s not about theology - it’s about maintaining her position.

I hate her because she doesn’t use her teacher skills. Her questioning technique of the hybrid was all wrong - she should have approached the hybrid like a student. You can’t badger a student with question after question and expect anything more than a nervous ramble in response. You’re more likely to get something useful if you wait a few seconds and then listen to what the kid has to say.

That brings me to my next point of contention. Why didn’t one of the Cylons, or maybe Baltar, tell Roslin that the hybrid doesn’t really interact or respond to direct questions? That Roslin would have to listen and deduce the meaning? Didn’t Baltar learn that about the hybrid after the exodus from New Caprica, when he was locked in a perpetual threesome with Six and D’Anna aboard the basestar? That would have been a helpful tidbit for her to know.

Another helpful tidbit would have been a backup for the resurrection hub. Now that it’s been destroyed, the Cylons have lost the ability to resurrect. Death is permanent and the playing field between human and Cylon is leveled.

And none of the Cylons thought, “Maybe we should have more than one hub since our existence sorta depends on it.” Or even, “Let’s keep a copy of the plans, just in case.”

See, after Luke Skywalker blew up the Death Star, the Empire just went back to the plans and built another one (and much more quickly than the first time around, I might add). Even George Lucas figured out that the plans for something that important would be saved somewhere; I’d think someone with BSG would have figured that out, too. It doesn’t make sense - particularly for the Cavils who are so insistent that the skin jobs are machines - for them to have no recourse for a destroyed resurrection hub.

However, the Cylons don’t always finish what they start, like whatever it was they had planned for Starbuck’s stolen ovary from season two. They also used to be love-obsessed and believed that they couldn’t procreate without love. That’s not exactly a rational, machine-like thought.

From that Cylon belief to Roslin’s utterance of “I love you” to Admiral Adama, love seems to be an important aspect in the show. If this whole thing comes down to the power of love to save us all, I’m going to puke. Then I’m going to put that puke in a zipper baggie, put that baggie in an envelope, and send it to Ron Moore and David Eick.

I hope it doesn’t come down to that (because, really, that would be a disgusting package), but my faith in the storytelling on BSG is running thin.

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Lisa Fary is a graduate of the English program at Florida State University and holds an advanced degree in Special Education. Her early exposure to classic Battlestar Galactica in 1979 is largely responsible for her lifelong interest in science fiction and her childhood ambition of being an intergalactic space cowgirl.