Battlestar Galactica Kobols Last Gleaming Part 2 Review
Battlestar Galactica
"Kobol's Terminal Gleaming, Part 2"
Air engagement: 4/one/2005
Teleplay past Ronald D. Moore
Story by David Eick
Directed past Michael Rymer
As a full general rule, I'm tired of bewilderment flavour enders. Cliffhangers take long since become cliche. The newer template of serialized cable tv — as evidenced by shows similar The Sopranos, The Wire, or The Shield — has managed to get away from the network presentation of the cliffhanger flavor cap. Cable series now oft treat seasons as book volumes where sure plot lines are resolved in some class, even as new plot lines are set up. Normally they end on a note of quasi-resolution rather than a note of "to be continued."
Not "Kobol's Concluding Gleaming." Only I'grand certainly not lament. I'll take whatever cliffhanger as purely entertaining — and that promises to exist as life-altering — as what we make it "Kobol'southward Terminal Gleaming, Part 2." Not only does the episode end on a true "Mr. Worf, burn down" moment of unexpected shock, it'due south like five cliffhangers all at once, united in the big quagmire that is the story. Merely about every character ends upward in the jackpot, and for some characters, things volition never be the same (or at least I would hope not). This is a bewilderment for which at that place will exist hell to pay. How is this all going to play out? One legitimate concern is whether season ii can pay off what has been ready in motion here.
Let's get-go with Helo and Boomer on Caprica. Not the season's all-time story structure, I'll grant you. Basically, they've been running around in the background of xiii episodes. Dramatically, aside from Helo recently learning Boomer is a Cylon, this has been a long route of relatively inconsequential events. It has allegedly encompassed 51 days, but it feels more similar a couple weeks. And what's Helo's brilliant plan? Still to go off the planet and become back to the Galactica. What in the world makes him think Galactica is going to exist anywhere to be found later nearly two months?
Whatever. Helo and Boomer go to the museum that holds the Arrow of Apollo — the same Arrow that Starbuck has jumped all the way back to Caprica to retrieve on behalf of Roslin. Is it a coincidence that Boomer has brought Helo here? Or exercise the Cylons too have a plan involving the Pointer? If they do, why have they waited 51 days to go later it? And is it a coincidence that the Cylons have taken orbit around Kobol right afterward the fleet discovered it?
Aboard the Galactica, the situation rapidly deteriorates. Roslin, having gone around Adama and betrayed his secret to Starbuck, admits her complicity. Adama immediately asks for her resignation. She refuses. Oh, and she's called the press to hear everything unfold. Noting that "she's dangerous," Adama intends to board the Colonial One and force her to pace down. Both call up the other is bluffing, just make preparations in case they aren't.
Who's to blame for this situation? In a way, everybody and nobody, but I judge this is ultimately about crossing lines. Clearly, Roslin crossed a line by going to Starbuck. But the choice, ultimately, was Starbuck's to brand; Roslin didn't force her to exercise anything. By demanding her resignation and sending an armed political party to abort her, is Adama justified, or is he himself now crossing the line in bypassing due procedure of the law? 1 wonders how anything can ever be the same again when the head of the military sends guys with guns to arrest the head of the civilian government.
Don't forget — we likewise take a stranded Raptor team on Kobol and a Cylon base star in orbit. The new program is to send a Raptor with a Cylon transponder to go nuke the base star. With Starbuck gone, Adama chooses Boomer to fly the mission ("I need every pilot") with ECO Racetrack (Leah Cairns). For obvious story reasons Boomer needs to exist on this mission, just would Adama actually ship her in light of Boomer'south suspiciously "adventitious" shooting of herself? Perhaps this is what trusting your fellow soldiers is about, but one wonders if Adama asked himself the question.
The stranded team on Kobol is mainly concerned with basic armed forces survival tactics, and I liked the story's continued commitment to character details. Lt. Crashdown is in control, but he's clearly not almost every bit experienced as Chief Tyrol, who has better instincts near where the team needs to be going. There are early signs of some friction/competition hither, even as Crashdown realizes he'south incorrect and Tyrol's right. Meanwhile, Six plays the part of guardian angel for Baltar, saving his life at i point, and and so promising him answers. She leads him to some nearby ruins of the Kobol opera business firm, in a sequence that'southward visually and musically arresting.
Starbuck arrives on a very Cylon-occupied Caprica (although most of the Cylons seem to exist in orbit), and at that place's a nifty FX shot of her Raider flight through a ravaged cityscape of damaged skyscrapers. She quickly finds the museum and the Arrow, but is simply every bit quickly ambushed by a copy of Number Six. This leads to the best brutal beating betwixt blonde babes that I've seen since the fight between Uma Thurman and Daryl Hannah in Kill Bill, Vol. 2. The stunt work isn't about as elaborate or inventive, but as a simple, muddied, dusty, grueling, violent slugfest, information technology's well washed and entertaining. The music made me think of Black Hawk Down. Starbuck can't really go head-to-caput against a Cylon, but that doesn't stop her from trying, and I enjoyed her spirit, even if the dogged underdog is nothing nosotros oasis't seen before. The fight ends the only way information technology can (and the only way Kara tin win information technology), with a reckless, desperate explosion of Starbuck madness. Yes, Kara should probably be expressionless from such a fall, merely I'1000 heartened by how on this show even the slugfests end in a fashion true to character.
Helo and Boomer happen upon Starbuck but in time to watch gravity become her (painful) best friend. Speaking of Helo/Boomer, Sharon reveals to Helo that she's meaning, and that what they had together was important for spiritual reasons. The unabridged season on Caprica has basically been building up to this discovery, and the sci-fi/religious implications and questions are endless. What does this mean? Why practise the Cylons want hybrid children? Do they require humans to conceive? Why destroy a culture in order to replace information technology in the aforementioned paradigm, complete with hybrids?
All of these questions are tantalizing. The i hesitation I have is that they seem like they could potentially accept arbitrary answers (or, for that matter, none at all), like the 10-Files conspiracy plots or Enterprise's Temporal Common cold State of war. The Cylon master programme is either seriously flawed (couldn't they take engineered a love/sexual run across in far simpler ways?) or spiraling out of their control. One interesting idea is that perchance Sharon is a wild bill of fare capable of more than contained thought than the Cylons predictable. There's certainly bear witness to support that theory.
Like, for example, Sharon being capable of blowing up the Cylon base star orbiting Kobol. Faced with a malfunction, Sharon and Racetrack are forced to land their Raptor in the base star docking bay, and Sharon must remove the nuke from the side of the Raptor and arm it. While doing this, she's confronted by a small-scale army of naked Sharon copies (who emerge from strategically placed shadows). This is a truly eerie scene, and Sharon's response ("This isn't happening") is pretty expressionless-on. The gentleness of the Sharons toward Sharon is especially disturbing, equally if they're just incapable of harming one of their own. Why do they let Sharon go? Do they even know that she's planted a nuke on board their ship? They don't appear to, anyway, until it'due south too late. Sharon gets into the Raptor and they exit. KA-Smash.
Dorsum on the Galactica, Roslin doesn't show any signs of continuing down as the boarding party arrives, and the unfortunate prospect of the arrangement collapsing is demonstrated through a squeamish touch where Dualla and Billy ask each other if their respective bosses are really going through with this. As if the Cylons weren't enough trouble, now human beings are suddenly on opposing sides of internal strife. Lee's major decision grows out of his speech on democracy in "Bastille Day"; he pulls a gun on Tigh at the concluding minute and stands non exactly with Roslin, but confronting a military machine coup that is terminating the current government. The volatility of the standoff prompts Roslin to back downwardly. Adama has her put in the brig, in a scene of dialed-down straightforwardness and quiet regret.
And then, after all that, comes the shocker: About to be publicly congratulated on her successful mission, Sharon pulls a gun and shoots Adama in full view of anybody in the Galactica CIC, leaving him bleeding to death. It'south so swift and unexpected that it could non take been predicted.
So, aside from the obvious drama circling the "volition Adama die?" question (gee, what do you lot call back?), the reason this works equally a bewilderment — and works so well — is because it cannot exist undone. Information technology has huge consequences for the characters, who by the end of this episode are scattered all over the place.
For starters, the true cat is out of the bag — Sharon is a Cylon and everyone knows it. There's the added complexity that the Caprica Sharon seems willing to defect (and is meaning, which has endless possibilities), even while the Galactica Sharon shot Adama on what looked like autopilot (will she even call back doing it?) after destroying the base star.
We have Adama out of commission, meaning Tigh volition have to stride upwardly into total-fledged command. Nosotros take Lee in handcuffs for mutiny, having gone against his father, who now lies badly wounded. Nosotros have Roslin in the brig for willfully undermining a military decision. We have what appears to be no working government for the fleet.
We have Starbuck, Helo, and Boomer on Caprica, in possession of the Arrow of Apollo, which might or might not mean something bigger. We have a armed services team stranded on Kobol. And, as usual, we have Baltar off in his ain trivial world, being taken on journeys of God and destiny past Vi, who foretells Baltar equally the one to watch over the new generation of God's children — the hybrids.
That all of this actually makes sense and holds together and seems to emerge from a single coherent narrative with a consequent through-line, and has artistic ambitions without coming across equally pretentious, and has a large dose of mystery without seeming aimless — well, that's pretty damn amazing.
Heck, "Kobol'due south Last Gleaming" is plenty to convince me that cliffhangers are still worth doing. This episode, and the season in general, makes me feel more like a cheerleader than a critic. And so be information technology. The cards lie where they fall. Hopefully season two volition not be agape to fully confront this intriguing shuffled deck.
Previous episode: Kobol's Last Gleaming, Role 1
Next episode: Scattered
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