Time Immortal

That’s about the only way I can really describe the Cylon Resurrection Hub — a critical, single point of failure in the entire Cylon apparatus. As to why the Cylons made resurrection dependent on a single facility that could be destroyed, I don’t really care to speculate — I’d be willing to accept that the process of resurrection is so ludicrously complex to manage that they had not yet thought out a way to develop a distributed solution (the Cylons aren’t gods, after all — at least as far as we know).

The Hub was a great episode, and one that had a reasonably happy ending (something that’s been in short supply this season of BSG). Grace, especially, rather liked it, and I share that view. As expected, the episode happens in parallel with the previous episode, explaining the “other side” of events only briefly glimpsed beforehand. And it ends where the previous episode ended, with the rebel basestar appearing where William Adama’s drifting Raptor is waiting, fulfilling his hope and faith in the president’s survival.

Which, of course, led to what might have been the best scene in the episode (and also the last): Adama and Roslin finally professing their love for one another. In a season as dark as this one has been, that maybe isn’t that much to go on…but it’s still a beautiful thing, and not really something one can categorize using measures and weights.

>> The Resurrection Hub, proper

As I said was probable, the Resurrection Hub has been destroyed — Cylons are mortal now. This will have interesting implications in the future.

Also, the battle sequence was excellent; it was nice to see a good, action-filled episode.

>> Three is back

D’Anna Biers has been unboxed — but only one copy! Still, there is hope that my theory about Anders being the first of the Penultimate Four Cylons to be “outed” might yet pan out. And I still think he’s the one that D’Anna apologized to in her vision last season.

>> My God, but humanity is corrupt

This is specifically in regard to Laura Roslin’s double-cross of the Cylons — she is utterly unable to trust them which, I suspect, stems from her inability to love (the flaw that Elosha, in Roslin’s visions, points out). There is a turnaround at the end, when Roslin belatedly rethinks her decision to let Gaius Baltar die from his wounds after he admits his unknowing complicity in the holocaust of the Twelve Colonies…and yet, she still goes on to demand a first, and then private, audience with D’Anna — Number Three, as the Cylons know her.

At every turn, now, the show goes out of its way to demonstrate that the Colonial understanding of what is just, fair, or justified is, in fact, in error and destructive. Whether it’s “eye for an eye” justice, an inability to trust, or an inability to love or forgive, humanity is at every turn seeming to be in a real rush to destroy itself.

For the first three seasons, Saul Tigh was perhaps the most visibly destructive human in the show — now, in the fourth season, Roslin has taken hold of that mantle. She is so bloody-minded, and harbours such a deep hatred of Cylons (even ones that risked everything — their very immortality given up! — to help her achieve a goal she dearly desired). There’s little doubt left in the viewer’s mind, after each scene in which Roslin speaks, that were it up to her she would see the rebel basestar destroyed and the Final Five airlocked.

D’Anna ultimately calls her out on this, and on her duplicity, in fact. And the Six’s disappointment with Helo after he admits the need to follow the president’s orders is also palpable, scathing…and damning.

This tendency for pretty much every human on the show — even Starbuck, mind — to display irrational hatred of Cylons is another reason I’m inclined to think that Karl Agathon might be a Cylon; he has, consistently, been the one human who has tried to do the right thing, rather than the expedient or advantageous thing, as the series has progressed. His disappointment at what he is forced to do by loyalty to the chain of command is profound.

Almost too profound; Helo is essentially unique among the human characters in his ability to look past the human/Cylon division.

>> Baltar’s evangelism

I have no idea what Baltar was up to in this episode — whatever apparent humility he had displayed previously has been replaced by a mutated form of his customary arrogance, to the point where he thinks himself singularly able to “calm” the basestar’s Hybrid (which provides for a bit of comedy, it must be noted). His evangelism to the Centurion is both interesting and annoying. Interesting, because I think Baltar is right that the (very active, very involved) God of the BSG universe is, in fact, dearly interested in the fate of Centurions. Annoying, because his motive doesn’t seem to be a genuine concern for God’s work or the Centurion as much as it seems to be an attempt to widen the scope of the Centurion rebellion.

>> Laura Roslin, Cylon?

Well, it would be ironic and perhaps poetically just were Roslin to turn out to be the last, missing member of the Final Five. But I very much doubt she is — I think the teaser trailer’s red herring presentation of D’Anna’s revelation, coupled with the way that red herring is itself revealed to be another red herring (since D’Anna was evidently just playing a joke on Roslin), has pretty much put Laura Roslin in the clear, as far as Cylon speculation is concerned. It would be painfully contrived for her to be “outed” now.

>>Predictions — mind the spoilers!

1) I’m still convinced that Helo is the last Cylon, more so now in light of D’Anna’s throwaway remark to the Number Six that expresses disappointment in the corridor toward the end of the show. Double-crossing, D’Anna explains, is a human trait. She’s not really addressing Helo with that remark, not by her tone, and it should be noted that Helo himself really doesn’t want to betray his new allies, especially after they’ve spoken at length about the value of shared trust.

It might just be…telling.

2) With the Hub gone, the only way the Cylons can survive is through reproduction — that’s more or less a cut-and-dried fact now. With that in mind, and given that at least one of the Final Five now seems to have demonstrated the ability to reproduce with a fellow Cylon, I’m thinking we’ll see further revelations in this regard in the second half of the season.

3) I’m still convinced — especially since his faith in Roslin has paid off in spades — that Adama won’t end the series as an atheist.

The passage he reads from the detective novel is interesting, too — it is really a sinner’s lament. Taking the form of a description of a man trying to build a garden on the shore of an island that he washed up on, it describes how the fruits of the man’s labours seemed to be but an ugly scar along the face of the beach; a wholly unfitting tribute to the island that had saved the man’s life. That’s certainly a rather apt description of the guilt of sin when sin is understood in light of the perfection of the divine, and how that sin mars the beauty of its creation.

4) As predicted, Galactica made no attempt to engage the Hub. I expect that Adama has the coordinates for where the fleet jumped to stored on his Raptor, and so will be able to guide the rebel basestar back to the Fleet. That, I think, will be the start of the next episode (which will be the mid-season finalé, unfortunately).

5) With the Threes back in action in the form of D’Anna, we can’t be far from seeing some of the Penultimate Four Cylons being outed (I don’t think we’ll get all five before the mid-season break). Some of this is confirmed in the trailer for next week’s episode: Tigh admits being a Cylon to Adama, and Tory apparently elects to return to “her people” aboard the basestar. Also, it appears that at least three of the Four will nearly be executed by Lee Adama, in his capacity as President of the Colonies. But apparently, Starbuck will intervene, claiming that the Cylons in question somehow revealed to her the coordinates for Earth.

6) I’m thinking that the discovery of Earth will have something to do with at least three of the Penultimate Four (Tigh, Samuel Anders, and Galen Tyrol) being summoned to, and perhaps tampering with, Kara Thrace’s Viper — she discovers this later on, and interrupts the execution of the Cylons. As to why the Cylons are to be executed, I’m not sure, but I wonder if perhaps it doesn’t have something to do with Tory, who chooses at some point to board the rebel basestar. Perhaps she continues her progression toward a more anti-human mentality, and in the capacity of a messianic leader elects to go against both the plans of the Cylons to co-operate with the humans, and against the humans themselves. That might be enough to movitave Lee to respond by threatening to execute the other three Cylons.

7) It looks like they find Earth, at least from the trailer. That was kind of expected, according to various rumours floating around; equally, the expectation is that Earth will be abandoned, and perhaps even post-apocalyptic.

I note, from the trailer, that Roslin appears to make it to Earth. This would seem to fly in the face of the idea that she is the dying leader foretold in ancient Colonial prophecy.

9) I still think Anders will be the first Cylon outed, and that this will have something to do with D’Anna’s apology to one of the Final Five in her vision last season, just prior to her being boxed.