The Morning After: Basestar Galactica

My sense is that the jump was a reaction to pain - the pain of being disconnected/reconnected, of course, but on a deeper level the pain due to the behavior of the Cylon rebels: allying with the humans, ending their resurrectability, while plotting against the humans - that is, acting extremely human.

Something that the show might possibly be exploring this season is the Cylon "supporting cast" - why are the humanesque models making all of the decisions? The raiders and centurions and hybrids are sentient - making the base star a cauldron of different thoughts and motivations, not just the simplistic debates of the numbered models.

Or maybe there's not enough time to do that justice and we'll get no explanation - either way, it was such a moment of dramatic purity that I almost stood up and cheered. Galactica is back!

So they finally had a decent episode this season. I thought the JUMP! was fantastic. I immediately thought that the hybrid jumped because it was a sitting duck surrounded by its enemies. Now I don't know how hybrids work or if it was aware that the skinjobs pulled the plug, but if I were a hybrid who had been nearly destroyed, had gone offline and the first thing I encountered upon revival was the human fleet, I think I'd jump too.

@TyrantKing: One question that raises is just what function the Hybrid performs. I had always been under the impression they carried out the instructions of the skinjobs. I wouldn't have thought a Hybrid would be empowered to make that call.

The Hybrid: I thought she had died after the plug was pulled. How convenient... I don't think we can attribute any kind of common logic to the Hybrid (i.e. enemies around = jump away). The hybrids always seemed to innately know a lot more than their gibberish conversations imply. The jump has to serve a purpose more than just getting away from the human fleet. I guess we will find out in two weeks.

Hera: Is Hera considered a hybrid? The other hybrids we've seen were confined to a tank with unidentified goo in it, much like a cylon cloning tank. They seem to be more of an intermediate step to the human models, even though they seem to have a strict function in cylon society. If Hera is a hybrid, is she the first perfect one? Are the writers going to make the argument that love was the missing ingredient all along, and therefore the reason why the cylon birthing program has not succeeded to date? And what's with the creepy Six coloring book? Yeah, she's definitely a cylon.

RIP Natalie: I was bothered by her death, not so much that she died, as life is cheap in the BSG Galaxy (or any galaxy for that matter), but more because I knew it was going to happen the minute Athena pulled out her sidearm! Way to be predictable BSG writers. This is a classic theme of a situation looking up followed by some boneheaded move on somebody's part that results in a massive clusterfrack. At this point, do we need more clusterfracks? Whereas, there was the neat eye for an eye solution of killing the six as revenge for the death of Barolay, this particular six model (natalie) is /was a bit more important. If the alliance can't even seem to truly work together towards a common goal, how will the cold blooded killing of Natalie help the situation?

The Blue Fairy: I'm struck by the Pinnochio analogy of the Cylon story. Much like Pinnochio, who desperately wanted to be human because he felt human in every way, except biological, the Cylons also desperately want to be human - love, mortality, propogation, etc.

Gaeta: He's got a set of pipes on him. Who knew?

Fantastic episode. How are we supposed to wait 2 weeks?!!

But is Natalie really dead? I remember back in S1 when Boomer shot Adama twice at point blank range, and he survived. Seems like Athena would have gone for the head shot if she truly wanted to kill the rebel leader. Maybe she is gone (I try to avoid spoilers), but I wouldn't necessarily count Natalie out yet.

@ James

Agreed. The hybrid seems to control the baseship and be responsible for maintaining the autonomic functions of the ship. Even the gibberish is most times related to what sounds like ship maitenance issues. Tactical decisions have always been made by the skinjobs. The hybrid seems more concerned with the functioning of the ship than anything, but I suppose if they were so inclined they could make independent decisions.

What was interesting this episode, was that it further bought into play a neglected section of Cylon society, namely the Centurions/raiders/hybrids. The rebel cylons has to convince the Centurions to go along with the plan and then Leoben needed to try to go back to them to convince not to carry out the plan. It will be hard for the writers to expound on the centurions/raiders/hybrids, the service component of the fleet, as they don't talk or if they do talk they don't make much sense, but I would be very interested to understand the dynamic here. The three service models don't seem to get a vote in the decisions, but i always assumed that they lacked sentience needed for independent decision. Clearly now they are sentient beings and have picked sides in the civil war. Does the Cavil faction even have control over their centurions and raiders now? Or have the Centurion's higher functions only been released on the rebel basestar? Have all the Cavil raiders been lobotomized now?

@ gogo

I thought that there was a chance that Natalie may still be alive, but after re-watching that part a few times this morning. I think she is dead. She literally flies back after Athena shoots her the first time and then Athena follows-up the shot with another to the chest while Natalie is on the ground. The final closeup of Natalie's face seems to imply that she has departed this plane of existence for the giant Best-buy in the sky. That being said, never count out a six.

Anybody know where the Six's human name, Natalie, came from?

Much has been said about the body language acting of the Galactica Four as they all mentally cringe whenever they are mentioned by the Rebel cylons, but what about the look Tyrol gives Athena as she asks him if he has seen Hera?

It's hard to read anything into it as his shaved head gives Tyrol a bit of madness to him, but is there some element of hatred or dislike in there? Does he unconciously dislike Athena, because she reminds him of Boomer and the life they could have had?

Obviously, Athena is more like Boomer's twin sister than anything, but the constant reminder of her and Helo's happiness can't be good for the Chief's fragile state. Especially now that he knows he is a Cylon. The once-huge insurmountable issue of her being a cylon is not so much an issue anymore (except for her frakking Cavil).