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I’ve more or less cleared the spoiler zone here. This will be the last time we see a new episode until Winter ‘o9.

Ah, what a mind frak! We don’t get the Final Cylon in this episode. Tory gets aboard the Cylon Bastar without initially giving herself way, but once she’s there, she defects. She’s frakked up on the job before, but this is the first time Tory shows outright insubordination towards Roslin. The other three Cylons are outed, not by Number Three, but Saul Tigh, who more or less accomplishes this task with a great deal pressure from Three.

Number Three wastes no time in making her fellow Cylons and the Fleet her bitches for a great part of the episode. She is also a great source of tension for the Fleet, first for being in a position to out the Final Four, and then using a variety of coercion tactics to bring them out into the open.

Saul would have never volunteered his Cylon nature he didn’t feel compelled to save the Fleet. Adama, like most recipients of a coming out story, doesn’t take it too well. Once in a Viper launch tube, Tigh outs Sam Anders and Tyrol on Presidential orders from Lee Adama.

Ironically, Baltar saves humanity from within the Basestar by talking sense to Number Three. Unknowing collusion with the Cylons led to the destruction of the Colonies, but active discussion helps save them. Kara Thrace helps avert the spacing of the Tigh, Anders, and Tyrol (and also the destruction of humanity again) by showing Lee that those Cylons helped pinpoint the way to Earth. They’ve been hearing the same same signal that Kara picks up on her Viper’s instument panel.

Unlike Galactica 1980, there is no humanity there to greet them, no flying motorcycles, and no revelations that Colonials don’t have fingerprints. No boy genius is around to provide anthropological data on Earth and do miracle farming. Howevver, the androids have already been introduced and a portion of them lands with the Colonials. One has had a baby with a human father, another sired a baby with a human mother, and two of them have conceived a child together.

All we see so far is the nuked remains of a temple and a city skyline. The sci-fi cliché is to show a devastated New York City with the ruins of something iconic, like the Statue of Liberty. Nothing quite identifiable here. Where on Earth this scene takes place is yet to be revealed.
Roslin, Adama, Three, Athena, Caprica Six, and Tigh are seen on the surface. Caprica lightly touches Saul, which gives some support to the idea that she loves him. Now we just need to find out who the Final Cylon is.

Hopefully all will be revealed in January or February next year. It would be nice if there wasn’t such a huge gap between episodes. There’ll probably soo be a DVD set of the first half of the fourth season just to keep us all from mobbing NBC/Sci-Fi Channel.

It’s sufficient to say that I’ve cleared the spoiler time frame and that this post should whet the appetite for this coming episode. I will then probably get some correction from the mysterious and humorless Phil*, who probably exudes B.O. in real life. Who knows? I’m guilty of stereotyping here, as I’ve encountered these types at Comic-Con and some other venues.

This is where Goobath Facility One gets destroyed. The last person to emerge is Number Three, whose dry sense of humor or sense of revenge hasn’t been affected by her being boxed. She manages to channel Xena without being campy as she gets her comeuppance against Cavil. She kills him for good and she scares the frak out of Boomer.

Even though the Hybrid has her own agenda (in response to sensing Natalie’s death), Roslin attempts to take control by having Helo bring Number Three to her first to reveal the Final Five. All doesn’t go according to plan, as Number Three first does a mind frak and tells Roslin she’s one of the Final Five. She then has a laugh at Roslin’s expense, but she makes it clear she is the one in the position to bargain, not Roslin or the other Cylons. Knowledge is all D’Anna has, and she trusts no one, Colonials or her fellow Cylons. Even her sympathizers voted to have her boxed some time ago.

Helo finds a surrogate wife in one of the Eights, who seems to know him too well from Athena’s recent memories. However, she feels betrayed when he takes Number Three to be debriefed by Roslin.

In this episode, we get to see Cylon flight suits for the first time. Most of the time, the Cylons wear very fashionable clothing to distinguish themselves from each other. Occasionally, the Sixes vary in their hair color, but they’re all identical to Caprica Six here, especially the pilots.

Whenever the basestar jumps, Roslin has visions where she has conversations with the deceased priestess Elosha, who very well may be a manifestation of the Hybrid. Her conversations leads her to keep a wounded Baltar from dying and to acknowledge her love for Adama.

Baltar attempts to share the gospel of the Cylon God with a Centurion, who may or may not understand what he’s trying to say. Before we know if Baltar’s words take any effects, an explosion kills the Centurion and wounds Baltar in a Jesus-like way (Jesus was also wounded on his side by a Roman centurion). He finally confesses to Roslin that he gave the Cylons the codes that enabled them to destroy humanity, and she in turn rips his bandages off so he could bleed to death. Her conversation with Elosha causes her to redress the wound so that he may live.

Next week, the final Four come out of the closet. However, this may be a complete tease, just like we were led to think that Three named Roslin as one of the Final Five. The Final Fifth’s identity has yet to be revealed to us.

Now for the problem question from a couple of weeks ago: How did Caprica Six get pregnant? In Seasons 1 and 2, it was revealed that love was one of the conditions for Cylons to reproduce. It at least seems to be how Athena conceives Hera with Helo. Is Caprica Six in love with Colonel Tigh? Is he in love with her? Since Tigh projects Ellen’s face onto Six’s body, he’s having sex with her in his head. It’s most likely Caprica Six is having with Internal Baltrar in her head when this is going on. Baltar’s inner Six has always maintained that they will have a child together, so this may be the product. Hopefully, we’ll get the answer soon.

*Please have the decency to create a profile. I know frak about you, so you’re fair game for any assumption.

Never, never trust a lady who spends too much time in bathtubs, especially one who takes callers. Last time, Laura Roslin (who’s got a scarf to compete with the Hybrid’s) and Gaius Baltar go about the damaged basestar to meet with her. As soon as she is online, the Hybrid immediately makes the decision to jump. If I were her, I’d bitch about the blood in my bathwater. But, that’s me…

There are bigger problems then women who have a never-ending supply of Calgon. Natlie, a regular caller to water-logged Hybrid, dies of Sharon’s inflicted gunshot wounds. As a result of her irrational assassination attempt, Sharon is barred from seeing her baby. Caprica Six is pregnant with Saul Tigh’s baby instead of conceiving one by Baltar’s “fragile, ephemeral body.” Then Romo, Baltar’s trial lawyer, goes nutso and kills his cat over frustration about Lee Adama becoming president. Then, Adama Sr. goes on a quest to rescue Laura Roslin because he can’t “live without her.”

Now BSG simply sounds like a soap opera. I guess it has for a while.

Next week, Number Three wakes up in a goo bath and gives Cavil a nice good choke. Then again, the dirty SOB had it coming. Luckily, she doesn’t stay in the bath, however, she seems to have some interesting revelations coming back from the box.

So here is more to catch up on BSG before tonight’s episode. I could smack whoever posted spoilers on the Battlestar Wiki. No direct link here.

• The Road Less Traveled. Kara Thrace begins her first step in accepting her illicit love for Leoben (amongst many things, which lead to a cliff-hanger of a mutiny. Even Sharon is on it). Karl Anders, however, deeply descends into the Cylon closet, fearful that Kara or his long-lost Cylon brother will find out. Baltar, who has become his own personal Jesus, reaches out and touches Tyrol. Ty, on the other hand, takes touching out of control as he’s busy frakking Caprica Six, who may or may not know he’s among the Final Five.
• Faith. Starbuck overcomes the mutiny, thanks to the help of her secretly Cylon husband, who more or less frak things up on the mission. Casualties include Gaeta’s leg and a Six (this model seems particularly vulnerable to trauma) when Kara takes an team to the Natalie’s basestar. Sharon finds herself a celebrity amongst the Eights but finds herself horrified at their penchant for treachery, despite her defection to the Colonials and the other Sharon’s ultimate abandonment of the Colonies. Starbuck gets to talk to the lovely lady who never leaves her bathtub, hearing that she is the Harbinger of Death before the Hybrid moves on to babble some incoherent riddles, which she, Natalie, and Leoben try to decipher. Pulling plug on the Hybrid proves not to be such a lovely experience, as an Eight (killed by a sentient Centurion) bleeds into the bathwater. On the Galactica, Roslin feels comfortable around Tory to take off her wig, though this comfort will be short-lived. Roslin then gets to listen to Baltar’s religious broadcasts with Emily, a rather tough survivor of cancer. They share a dream of being on a boat, and then Roslin finds Emily gone after waking up.
• Guess Who’s Coming For Dinner. Roslin suspects Tory is giving away personal and classified information due to her newfound status as the “leader of Baltar’s nymph squad.” Things are uncomfortable when the Fleet meets the Cylon renegades. Natalie can feel Adama and Roslin’s suspicion as well as contempt from the Quorum. Given that the Fleet makes these Cylons jumpy, they come up with a hostage taking plan, to which Natalie doesn’t agree. She tries more diplomatic measures, though she doesn’t anticipate Sharon’s maternally instinctive behavior, where she gets shot. Strangely, Athena’s shooting of Natalie mirrors Boomer’s shooting of Adama, and this no doubt will have unfortunate consequences. Roslin and Baltar go on a trip to meet the lovely lady in the bathtub, only to find that she has her own agenda as she orders the basestar to jump.

I’ll post something about “Sine Qua Non” on Saturday.