User Reviews

When Ellen Tigh was killed on New Caprica it was assumed that she was dead; but now we learn that she did in fact download in the same way as other Cylons; this fact remained hidden because she was kept hidden by Cavil. The episode follows her time aboard the basestar and current events on Galactica where a seriously wounded Anders remembers their past on Earth and tells the story of how the Final Five survived the nuclear holocaust there and returned to the Colonies. By jumping between the two time lines we learn that the five Cylons from Earth had intended to help the colonies avoid the problems they had but arrived too late; the first Cylon war was already raging. At this point they set about creating the eight new 'skin-jobs'; the first of which, John Cavil, didn't share his creators desire for peace and despised them for designing him with a human body with human weaknesses. For this he killed them and when they resurrected he stripped them of their memories and left them to live amongst humanity. We also learn of Daniel, Cylon number seven, who is permanently killed by Cavil. Away from the Cylon history lesson Tyrol informs the Admiral that he has discovered cracks in Galactica; not just one or two; the ship is riddled with them and without Cylon technology it is only a matter of time before there is a catastrophic failure.

After the non-stop action of the previous two episodes this episode seemed much slower paced; this was probably needed to settle things down and prepare us for the inevitable conflict when Cavil's Cylons catch up with the fleet. It was interesting to learn how the Final Five could be linked to an Earth that had been destroyed two thousand years before and what their connection was to the models we knew before. It was also good to learn why Sharon was number Eight if there were only seven known models... even if I do suspect it was just the series creators correcting an oversight! It was nice to see Kate Vernon return as Ellen and it is always fun to see Dean Stockwell's performance as Cavil; I hope we'll see plenty more of him in upcoming episodes.

Like many others I have invested a significant amount of time and money on this series, so much so that one becomes a bit proprietary about it, but hey we're all entitled to an opinion (maybe!).

Anyway after the foolishness of the last two episodes what we have here is an enormous improvement, tautly written (dontcha just love clichés?) and focusing on plot exposition and character development. This is what drew me to BSG, not high tech spaceships and robots and guns and battles. A story about people and yes I include the non-mechanical Cylons as people, finding themselves in an epic struggle to survive, to understand their place in the universe and a to find a home in both a physical and spiritual sense.

Sam with a bullet in his head is experiencing total recall of what occurred on Earth and is telling the others what he remembers of the final five and the significant seven and how history repeats itself. Interestingly Sam says that the final five saw people that no one else could see, which could suggest that Baltar has had the same condition? Still unexplained as to who or what Starbuck is if that was indeed her body in the downed Viper. Cavil barking mad, 20 years without sleep! How come no one boxed him? Expect more twists and turns before season end! Good to be back on track!

OK, I realize that the identity of the final Cylon was revealed four episodes ago, but I thought (and hoped) it was just a red herring; it seems like this episode finalizes the matter. And after so much build-up over the years, let's be honest here: it's a let-down. The final Cylon is a minor, not even recurring, character. I bet the theorists at the time of the original airings were not pleased! I don't have much else to say about this specific episode - Dean Stockwell has some good scenes. *** out of 4.

Am I the only one feeling like this season is just not what it could be? As with the rest of the fourth season, this episode has a few shining pieces of brilliance in performance, writing and editing, but again, like most of this last season, it mostly fails. We can see that the writers are desperately trying to wrap up loose ends (the final five, Earth, Ellen to name a few) and explain things left so far unexplained (Cylon motivation, various mythologies), and clean things up that have been poorly done during the 4.0 season (Gaeta's change, Tom Zarek) but its like the main writers and director's are letting amateurs do it. To try to get Apollo and Starbuck back together they are unconvincingly killing off other attachments like having Dualla off herself and by killing Anders (we assume he's brain dead now). Then, to try to explain what's going on with the Final Five, they have Anders suddenly recover lost memories and read off Cylon history, like a poor dramatist trying to clean up a poorly written play in one speech during the last five minutes. And can somebody tell me who's knucklehead idea it was to bring an obvious, well-known contemporary comedian in his comic glasses, basically doing his standard schtick, onto the show doing brain surgery on Anders?!?!? Really? John Hodgeman? The few bright spots include Cavil's brilliant speech about life trapped in the limiting body of a human and as always, Mary McConnell's nuanced performance. I desperately want to like this season and this episode and I want to see an incredible ending to what has been an incredible series . . .but so far I can only like three or four 4th season episodes. But you know what . . .I've committed three years to this enterprise and I suppose I'm going to stick it out . . .hoping that the writer's can pull it together and thrill us at least once more.