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November 25, 2006

My Review/Recap of Battlestar Galactica 4.03 "The Ties that Bind"

April 19, 2008 03:51 PM EDT (Updated: April 20, 2008 05:02 AM EDT)

views: 182 | comments: 17

Notes from last episode: (Six of One)

Survivor count: 39,676

Natalie (New Six) asks the Ones, Fours, and Fives to reconsider lobotomizing the raiders. They refuse. Natalie calls in two Centurions, and do not respond to One's orders to leave after he states they have no vote. Natalie says since they lobotomized the raiders, the Sixes, the Twos, and the Eights have given the Centurions the gift of reasoning by removing their telencephalic inhibitors. And they show their disapproval of what is being done to the raiders by shooting the One, Fours, and Fives present.

Starbuck keeps begging for Adama to turn back, that they are going the wrong way. At the end of the show, he has her brought from the brig to the hangar. He tells her he wants to believe her and he's tired of Roslin always being right. He gives her the Demetrius to command to search for Earth.

The Ties that Bind

The Cavill that was shot by the Centurions is reborn. He says the Sixes have no idea the threat that has been unleashed. He wants to return to his ship. Another Cavill tells him that the Sixes and her acolytes have done some ethic cleansing. Boomer says the fleet is split right now the middle. "So much for my swing vote." And then she kisses Cavill! (Yuck)

Cally Tyrol and baby Nikolas are sleeping until the baby wakes up and starts crying. Cally starts remembering the fight she had with Tyrol about how he's never home. Her memories also show her taking some pills. Finally she gets out of bed to try to calm the baby. Nothing works. She calls someone, probably on the hangar, to try to find him, but he's not there. She looks for more pills on the table and finds a "Joe's Bar" napkin sticking out of Tyrol's pocket.

Tyrol's at the bar alright. And he's telling Tory that before he found out he was a Cylon, he knew what he was: husband, crew chief, and father. Now, he has no idea.

Cally goes searching for Tyrol with baby Nikolas in her arms. The scene is all fuzzy around the edges and the music's kinda wonky, I guess to give us the idea she's doped up. She finds Tyrol at the bar, with Tory flirting with him. Cally goes to confront him, but pukes instead. Then she runs off.

Survivor Count: 39,676 (no losses)

Laura Roslin's getting a treatment in sickbay for her cancer and Doc Cottle tells her the nausea should go away in about an hour. Just as the nausea hits and she's trying to keep her mind off it, Admiral Adama sits down by her bedside and starts reading from a book, Eleven Bullets, taking place on Caprica.

Later, Lee Adama holds a press conference announcing his placement on the Quorum of Twelve. The first question from the reporters is for President Roslin, "Does this placement mean you do not have any hard feelings towards Mr. Adama for his role in the Gaius Baltar trial?" Roslin blows off the question like any practiced politician would. Another reporter asks about the Demetrius, which jumped away three weeks ago. Roslin lets Admiral Adama answer. He gives the standard, "It's a military mission, and we don't discuss military missions." Another asks if it's true Kara "Starbuck" Thrace is captaining the Demetrius. Adama doesn't comment on rumors. Roslin ends the press conference.

In private President Roslin tells Admiral Adama this business with the Demetrius isn't going to blow over. She's obviously not happy. She tells him that she's going to be covering for him on this for a while. He says he wanted to give Kara a chance. He wanted to give himself a chance. "Appearantly," says Roslin as she sits down to do paperwork, a way of dismissing Adama.

On the Demetrius, it's day 22, and Starbuck is frantically working on starcharts, trying to find the route she took back from Earth. The crew is not happy about their lack of success. Helo is constantly telling the crew to can it with their constant bitching about Starbuck.

Back on the Galactica, Tyrol is trying to convince his wife that he's not having an affar with Tory. She ignores him, tells him he needs to drop Nicky off at daycare and tell them not to feed him the algae mash, she thinks he's allergic. She's off to a doctor's appointment. Tyrol slams his fist on the table, making the baby cry.

On the Cylon Basestar, the centurions are wiping up the blood from the conference room where the One, Fours, and Fives were gunned down. Cavill remarks how they are cleaning up their mess. Natalie says it's not their mess. "So that's why you're not lending a helping hand," says Cavill. One of the cleaning Centurions cocks its head like it just had a thought.

Cavill asks what can be done to stop this and reunite. One of the Eights replies that they can stop lobotomizing the Raiders. Cavill agrees to that. Natalie wants the D'Anna model (Three) unboxed. Cavill isn't keen on that idea. Natalie says he wants unity, they want all 12 models united. Cavill says he'll talk to the others. Natalie orders a Centurion to escort him off the ship. It doesn't move. "Please." It moves.

Back on the Colonial One, Lee Adama looks around an empty Quorum room and finds his place, "Caprica". Vice President Tom Zarek walks in, "A government of the people, for the people, and answerable to the people. Well that's the idea anyway." Lee tells Zarek he wanted to see the President about some bills and what not he wanted to discuss be she wasn't in. Zarek says she was in, but not for him. He tells Lee he crossed a line with her during the Baltar trial.

Zarek goes on to tell Lee that Roslin is sidelining Lee just like she sidelined Zarek. He goes on to tell Lee about what you see from the sidelines. How every decision the President and the Admiral make are classified, and how her directives are reading more like decrees. Records of her meetings are not allowed. Secrecy and control are her obsession. Zarek leaves after handing Lee a folder marked "classified".

Back on the Galactica, Cally is asking the Doc for a sedative to help her sleep. She says she hasn't had a night's sleep since they reached the Ionian Nebula. She tells the Doc that she caught her husband with another woman and how she's being told that she's imagining things. Doc says he's a fool that doesn't know what he's got. Fatigue and antidepressants are a helluva paranoia cocktail.

Back on the Demetrius, Starbuck is painting the gas giant and stars that she saw and is searching for on the ceiling. Anders tries to talk to his wife, and she gets mean. Telling him that her marrying him was safe and easy, that's all, and he was pathetic enough to go along with it. She starts hitting and pushing him, and it turns into angry sex.

Afterwards, Starbuck asks if she seems different. She says everything seems so far away, the way they feel, taste, like she's watching but not experiencing. "Like my body is just this alien thing that I'm still attached to." Of course Anders thinks she's a Cylon like him probably.

On the Cylon Basestar, Two Cavills talk to Natalie and a two Eights. The Cavills were outvoted, the others agreed that unity is what counts. The Threes are going to be resurrected, the nearest Resurrection Ship that can do that is six jumps from their present location. They agree to take their own jumps to the Resurrection Ship.

The Quorum of Twelve is meeting on Colonial One. The representive from Sagittaron asks about the Demetrius. Once again Roslin says this is classified. The Quorum is visibly upset by this. Lee Adama stands up tries to calm the meeting with insights from his military background, that the President and Admiral are exploring all possible routes to Earth. Roslin cuts him off at the knees for trying to be her "spokesperson."

Lee interrupts another member to bring up Executive Order 112. This order is about tribunals and judges picked by the President and answerable only to the President. Roslin tries to move on from this subject by saying this is a work in progress. She proposes that they put this matter on the docket of the next Quorum meeting. And puts this Quorum meeting to an end.

The Cylon Basestars jump to the agreed upon cordinates, one of the Eights says the Resurrection Ship didn't jump. Cavill's basestars are moving into position to attack. They fire. Natalie, "They're really trying to kill us!" Cavill tries to soothe Boomer. "They started it." She's upset that they are really killing the others, and her sisters. He tells her that their god can watch over their immortal souls. Boomer asks about their souls. Cavill tells her they have no souls, they are machines.

Back on the Galactica, Cally appears to be in her doped up state, recalling finding Tyrol and Tory together. She tries to find more pills, but only finds empty bottles. She kisses her son and goes to leave (with the baby alone on the bed!), and finds a note stuck in the locking mechanism of the door to meet at 1330 in Weapons Locker 1701D (which is the ST:TNG's Enterprise's number, and Ron Moore was also a producer on ST:TNG).

Cally follows her husband and sees him meet up with Tory and Tigh. She crawls through a tight area behind the weapons locker to lisen in on the three of them. She's shocked when she hears Tigh say that her husband is a skinjob (Cylon). She knocks over a metal plate which they hear. They start to leave. She makes a hasty retreat because she left the access panel off when she entered the tube. She makes it out before they do, but isn't able to put the panel back on in time. Only Tory notices this.

Cally goes back to her quarters totally wigged out. Tyrol comes home not much later, and tries to apologize for not being home much lately. She smacks him in the head with a huge wrench. She hits him a couple of more times to knock him out, takes some keys from him, grabs the baby and hightails it out of there.

Cally goes to a launch tube with Baby Nikolas and unlocks the safeties. Tory shows up. Cally shuts the launch tube door closing her, the baby, and Tory inside. Tory tries to talk sense into Cally, and eventually is able to take the baby from Cally's arms. She then hits Cally with what appears to be Cylon strength sending her flying.

When Cally wakes up, Tory is in the control booth, holding Cally's baby. She hits the button, and Cally is sucked out into space. We see her swollen, frozen, dead, body float by.

Adama is presumably telling Tyrol about Cally's death in scene that only has music.

Next week:

Tigh's dead wife is wearing a Six wig and asks if there's something he wanted from her. He does a double take and it's just the Six they have in the brig.

Six comes flying across the brig and knocks the crap out of Tigh.

Tyrol tells Tory he doesn't even know what he is anymore. She says they were made to be perfect.

My thoughts:

That spinning light that shows moons and stars on the walls for Nikolas would drive me insane too if it was left on all the time. Which it appears it is.<

In Starbuck's vision, the gas giant looked like Jupiter.

I liked the little nod to ST:TNG with the 1701D on the weapons locker.

Does Natalie's faction get away from the ambush in time?

Since both Helo and Athena are on the Demetrius with Starbuck, who's taking care of Hera?

Will Lee Adama regret joining the Quorum?

Taking Tory's recent actions (and the glimpse of her in the previews), mean that she's changing her alliegence from the humans to the Cylons?

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