Battlestar Galactica: Exodus, Part 2

I’m kind of torn about this week’s installment of Battlestar Galactica. On the one hand, I loved just about everything that unfold on-screen. But there was one huge niggling detail that really seemed a bit too convienent and easily resolved (from a conflict standpoint..I have faith the impact on the characters involved will be far reaching).

I’m referring to Kaycee, the alleged daughter of Starbuck.

Deep down, I knew that despite all of Lebonen’s claims to the contrary that Kaycee would not be the daughter of Starbuck. But the way in which Kaycee is so quickly taken from Starbuck back on Galactica seemed a bit too convienent. I’d love to have seen a few weeks of how the hard-edged pilot and fighter that is Starbuck, who last year admitted she had nothing to fight for except that was all she knew how to do, suddenly have something to fight for. And would being a mom somehow affect her as a pilot? Would she be more ruthless and determined to take out the Toasters now that she had something to fight for? Though one off-shoot of this that I wonder about is will Starbuck now feel the call of motherhood and try to have a baby with Anders? Or has this soured her and burned her out to where she’ll close off from everyone around her?

OK, so maybe I talked myself into it being sort of a good idea, if they can go somewhere with it.

And that’s the big if.

Also, I have to wonder just how long will Roslin’s honeymoon as the apparent re-instated president of the Colonies last. Sure, she’s a better alternative that Baltar but how long will it take for Zarak to begin to question whether or not she should hold the office.

Last season it took eight episodes to wrap-up the various threads from the cliffhanger. This year, it took four to get back to where we were, though I don’t believe the fall-out from this one is even close to over. We have humans who joined with the Cylons against their brothers, we have the extreme methods the resistance used to stir up trouble for the Cylons and we’ve got the changed dynamic of many of the character relationships on the show from the big jump. I think we’ve got plenty of character ground left to cover.

That said, this one was pretty jam packed, edge-of-your-seat full of action. You could really see the budget for this show spent here with the battle sequences. The thing I loved was they were easy to follow but yet there was an urgency to them that you could feel just coming off the screen. The sight of Galactica plunging through the atmosphere behing the defenses of the Cylons to deliver the Raptors to New Caprica…wow. And the sight of Pegasus ramming the basestar was just spectacular.

But while the Colonials won a battle, there were losses. Gaeta was ready to kill Baltar. Also, Tigh had to make a huge sacrifice, killing Ellen. The scene as Tigh poisons here was moving as was his return to the Galactica. The part where Adama is lifted up on shoulders as some hero while Tigh, who made some huge sacrfices and is just as responsible for the success of the rescue as Adama, is left to slowly fade into the distance. Tigh is the right-hand man without whom none of what happened would be possible but yet the crowd has forgotten that. And it’s intersting that this time last season, Tigh was under heavy fire for stepping in and doing what needed to be done with Adama down. Could this lead Tigh to become bitter and deeper into the bottle?

And then there’s Baltar. So I guess he’s travelling with the Cylons now. And we should see him in the swivel chair any day now.

All I know is–New Caprica has been left behind. And now we’re ready for the next run of episodes to see where the fleet goes next. I am hooked and can’t wait.