909 Watches TV: Peaky Blinders

[909]

MICKEY

You'd figure that Mickey is finally going to have his shining moment as a character, well, I guess it's in this episode and it's about time. This is an episode where many hidden truths are revealed to the other characters who are previously oblivious to them. I guess there are two in particular deserving of equal praise. Firstly, it is revealed to everyone that Sean has cancer. It is also revealed that it will be covered up by Needles, so nothing should happen to his job so long as he survives surgery to remove his cancerous kidney. Then, it is revealed that Tommy must give a speech at an AA meeting in order to get a DVD containing footage of his son back. In said speech, he has to tell the truth about his relapse into drinking. This scene is perfectly acted by Denis Leary. Unfortunately for Tommy, Mickey has given him a different DVD featuring Mickey Mantle talk about his liver disease prior to his death at the age of 63. Like, have any of you seen pictures of Mickey Mantle when he died? He looked like he was in his 90s. Some other parts of this episode feature Sheila rejecting Tommy. No big deal. Good episode besides that seeming to not fit tonally with everything else.

DISEASE

This on the other hand is not a very good episode. In some part that's because Sean is still in a coma after his surgery and as a result there isn't a lot of focus on much of everything else. Franco goes on a date, Lou is seeing the prostitute who previously broke his heart, and Mike meets a nurse at the hospital when fake crying over Sean. Meanwhile we get a rather hilarious scene where Katy has returned home to live with her mom, but she wants Colleen and Black Shawn to be there. This leads to a great dinner scene, and your mileage may vary but I thought all that was good. It's everything else that isn't. The date scenes are really not good at all. Lou and the prostitute just aren't interesting as a pairing. This is like in The Sopranos when they have those episodes where you can't remember a ton of shit because they aren't good or bad? That's what this is.

 

[909]

TORCH

I forgot to write about these yesterday because I had a lot of shit going on. Anyway, this is an episode almost entirely about Tommy. From his reaction to a gruesome death of a child to the ending where he's comforting a room full of children with cancer, this hour of television is all him. But even when it's not him, the events revolve around the deaths and the other character's reactions to it. Franco uses it to help him train, for one. It seems that all the events here culminate in Tommy getting really upset when watching a video of his son, leading to him feeling like he needs to check to see if he can still feel something. If he can still feel anything at all, that is. So, he takes a torch to his leg, and yeah, he feels alright. Then he goes to bang Sheila with a huge wound on his leg making the whole act painful. Good episode here, but the return of Teddy and Maggie was quite awkward. At least Sean woke up.

WHEELS

This episode, on the other hand, is pleasantly weird compared to everything else in the show. Some of this stuff isn't that good and I'm namely speaking about how Colleen treats Black Shawn now. Besides that, the fire house takes some trucks to the children's cancer ward that we saw at the end of the previous episode. This leads to a scene where a kid steals one of the trucks while Lou hangs off from the side like this is a bad 90s comedy movie. Except in this case it's a pretty funny scene. The stuff with Franco's new girlfriend and the assumption she's a lesbian on the other hand is not so funny, at least until Damien starts joking about it. At this point reality sets in and it's obvious Damien will be part of the house in the upcoming episode or the one after. This will introduce what should be a good, new dynamic to the series. I also cracked up when it was revealed how much money Sean stole. I should also note that this storyline with Lou and Candy really sucks.

 

[909]

I'm gonna turn the rest of these for this show into seasonal reviews. That doesn't mean I'm not liking the show, it means I don't see much use in writing them. Then for other shows I'll go back to regular reviews depending on which show it is.

 

[909]

Rest of Season 5

So I felt like this was a good season overall compared to what I was expecting from it, but the ending of the season is nauseating and ruins the whole thing. And by that I mean when Sheila does something so reprehensible that it will be forever impossible to look upon the character positively again. That's a problem given that she should have been written sympathetically all along and yeah, this just shouldn't have happened. It's bad writing. The scene with Tommy getting shot by Teddy on the other hand is not nauseating and I found it to be interesting and properly tense. The sole problem I have with it is that this was a cliffhanger left unresolved until the next season aired. I hate when shows do that to their audience and I feel like a show that does that doesn't even deserve to have an audience.

The storyline with Kelly also badly sets the show backwards in that we're back to the Sheila/Tommy/Janet situation and I feel like this show would be looked back on a lot more fondly had everyone known it was time to stop doing that. This isn't the only plot that spirals. The storyline where Tommy finds out that at one time Jimmy slept with Janet should have led to the absolute end of his relationship with Janet, Sheila's confrontation with Kelly should have led to him ending it with Sheila for good, and then we all move on and he finds someone new in the sixth and seventh season. Except having watched the first episode of the sixth season, he did not. The Franco boxing storyline also dies a terrible death, Lou and Candy's relationship ends in a really foolish way, and their wedding was stupid too. So yeah. This was a good season that ended very fucking badly to the point it was ruined. Some of these characters are completely useless to the plot and they have to invent storylines just to get them in the show. That's when it's time to bring their stories to an end, and it's not like they have to be killed off. Transfer them to another house and get new cast members or some shit. I dunno.

 

[909]

SEASON 6

Well, this definitely was a thing. Not really a good thing either. Almost every plotline was revolved in a way that left us the same way it was before. Tommy wants to become a better person, which actually takes and is one of the very few ways in which this show changes. The main story at the firehouse on the other hand is bad. They are targeted to be shut down and it turns out they are not shut down. This is really the only thing of value Mike and Sean do all season. It seems that there were times where characters should have died, except they didn't and stuck around way too long. On that subject, Teddy is one of those kinds of characters as well. After he shot Tommy, they should have written him out of the show. Instead they do not and he is there to try to make Tommy go through with the changes Tommy needs to make. I don't like it.

As far as Tommy goes, the storyline about changes is also supposed to deal with Tommy's relationship with Janet and Sheila. This time he is actually made to choose. He chooses Janet. Problem is, at the end of the season, Damien winds up having a ceiling fall on top of his head, which turns him into a vegetable. He now sits in a wheelchair and Tommy spends his time going over there and feeding him when Sheila can't. This leads to a time jump, where Tommy still does that and it makes Janet upset because Tommy no longer spends as much time with his family, and this is one of the ways in which I hate how they write the female characters in this show. I honestly have a very hard time believing someone would actually be like this. The storyline with Colleen becoming a drunk is a good one though. I also burned through this season really fast so it couldn't have been too bad.

 

[909]

SEASON 7

This season really bothers me because it feels like in this last effort, the show fully transitioned from a drama into a slapstick show. When thinking about the first few seasons I feel like it was anything but this, so that's a big problem. A show that peaked when Tommy beat up his own brother should not have these kinds of valleys. In the last two episodes it feels like there's an attempt to rescue (pun not intended) the show by having Lou eat it, but the overall tone of the season overrides that and this leads to more slapstick moments. I'm just not a big fan of this because this just isn't what the show should have been. As the seasons went on this also regressed more and more from a show that was about Tommy's whole life into one that's largely about his family. This lack of balance is part of why it took me so long to finish the series. This was supposed to take a little more than a month and instead it took two months. The end of the series itself, as in the last few scenes, those were pretty good. I was just hoping this season would bring more to the table and it didn't. Another really big issue is the way certain characters became compromised by not acting like themselves and Franco at the end is a really good example of this.

 

[909]

Favorite Episodes: Sanctuary, Balls, Reunion, Rebirth, Discovery, Retards
Least Favorite: I'm just gonna say almost everything in Season 7.

Favorite Characters: Some of the characters evolve a lot, but the constant in this show is that Sean and Mike are stupid. Lou stays the same the whole time too. And that's good enough for me.
Least Favorites: Almost too many to count. They made Janet and Sheila into shrews, but the worst characters are Teddy and Maggie. That guy Tommy was sponsoring is on the list too. This show had a great capacity to make characters intolerable.

Favorite Death: I actually enjoyed it when the chief killed himself cause I hated that guy.
Least Favorite Death: They killed Johnny off too soon. There was a lot more ground to cover.
Best Moments: Tommy beating up Johnny. That's an obvious one. It's good when the guys beat up Tommy for banging a widow. Tommy freaking out and kidnapping his kids too. And then there's the countless scenes where Sean and Mike are stupid. Teddy killing the drunk driver too.
Worst Moments: The rape scene. It's almost unfair to suggest that anything is as bad as that was. Sheila date raping Tommy is on that level though. Nobody asked for this.

Season Ranking

2
3
1
4
5
6
7

Overall Rating

6/10

Look. A show about fire fighters should have more fire fighting and more focus on the characters Tommy worked with. Which it did, for a while. Once that stopped though, this became progressively more difficult to watch.

 

[909]

Oh yeah, next up I'm watching Battlestar Galactica. But I have to watch the miniseries first.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

so excited for bsg, i might rewatch it myself so i can talk about it with you with it fresh

 

[909]

MINISERIES PART 1

The biggest compliment I can give a show like this is that I only checked my phone twice while I was watching it. That's hard to do and especially when it comes to first episodes, where I don't know any of the characters and have yet to be sucked in. But it feels like this is what it should have been. I don't know anything about the old show or this one, so don't spoil fucking anything for me please. I don't really know what to make of any of this, other than that considering this is a miniseries everything happens the way you'd expect it to. That is, except for homeboy giving up the seat on his ship. I thought Dr. Gaius would just steal the old lady's lottery number. So maybe he ain't as much of a selfish asshole as it seemed like. The dynamic with the Adama son and father should be interesting as well. Ultimately, difficult to draw too much from this. Except the robot chick is hot. And the show doesn't treat the viewer like an idiot.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

I rewatched the first episode just now and there are a TON of minor characters I had totally forgotten and are really good. EJO is perfecting casting. No one gives a speech like him.

 

[muzzington]

I never finished the whole series but the first season was one of my favourite things on TV for a while.

An excuse to post this too:

 

[909]

MINISERIES PART 2

My brother just had some really good house related news so I'm a little frazzled and I don't know where to start. I guess I would say that a lot of things here are not what I would have expected. The ending was ESPECIALLY not what I expected. But see, because of some of these things, now I don't understand exactly how things stand and that makes for a good show. Hot chick in red dress however, I don't know what her motivations are. She definitely did implant something in Gaius' brain as she claimed. But why have Gaius leave the Cylon behind? Is it because he wouldn't be able to report back? Because they needed someone who'd been onboard with the Galactica? I dunno. I'm glad not to know. This bit with Adama at the end was pretty funny though. He went straight for the religious pitch. Afterwards he gets a note saying there's only 12 Cylon models. Who gave him that? And then, we have the big Cylon reveal with Boomer. But what if she ain't even loyal to the Cylons? I dunno. I really liked this shit though. I don't have very much space shit on my list so this will be a good watch as long as it lasts. They just don't make much of it anymore.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

I don't have very much space shit on my list so this will be a good watch as long as it lasts. They just don't make much of it anymore.

The Expanse needs to be on your list. Plz.

 

[909]

The Expanse needs to be on your list. Plz.

It is, but...I think it's gonna be a while unless I change the format of how I'm going through these shows. I have too many people wanting me to do shit now on top of that.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

I'd suggest waiting until S6 comes out, which most people are guessing will be December of this year. It will be the final season, unfortunately.

 

[909]

SEASON 1

33

It's always interesting what someone decides should be the first episode in a series. And by that I mean, when it isn't a pilot and they've already been picked up and need to fill the order. But maybe I'm wrong. In this case they went straight for a nice concept. What if the enemy you're trying to flee won't stop following you? For days and days, the Cylons follow the Galactica and the other human ships whenever they try to escape via FTL jump. After 238 jumps done across the course of 120 hours or so, one of the ships does not follow. It is a passenger carrier with 1300+ people on board. About an hour later, it finally follows and heads straight for the Galactica with a nuclear weapon onboard. It may or may not still have people on it. The ship is subsequently destroyed. So the question for future episodes is if Apollo and others will come to grips with their decision. Meanwhile, the man who was left behind on Caprica is running and he's actually alive. And another model of Boomer saves him, or manipulates him, or I don't even know. Great episode.

WATER

So, the question I think everyone was asking after this episode is how Boomer was able to override her programming. Has she become too attached to the humans on this ship, or is the programming just not that good? It's impossible to know. Meanwhile the Boomer on Caprica is helping Helo try to escape, so I don't know what's to come of that. But I do think that she's using Helo to find the military units they spoke about, and subsequently to kill them. I cracked up when Gaius was put in that situation not knowing how to detect Cylons and all that shit, and soon enough he'll be punished for it. But for now, it seems the most important thing here is to understand how it would be possible to survive in space under these conditions. Gaius makes pretty clear how much food and stuff they need. Apollo being the President's military advisor seems like a thing that's going to become a THING, but I'll wait and see. What I really like from great television shows is how well they tend to fill the early spaces of their first season. These episodes are like building blocks. You don't want to give away your best stuff, but you don't want to use filler either. It's difficult for some writers to find that balance, but that isn't the case here.

 

[909]

BASTILLE DAY

Alright, so the Galactica found water as we know, but what we didn't know is how hard it would be for them to get it. Apparently there will need to be some use of slave labor. And what do you know, they have a ship prison in their fleet and seem to have no problems with using the slave labor. They say that if these guys do what they're supposed to, they'll give them their freedom within the fleet. Which, you know, isn't much freedom in any case. These guys were also sentenced to hard labor because I guess they're really bad. Anyway, when Apollo goes over there to make a deal with them, they take hostages. They're led by a dude named Tom Zarek, and he wants some elections because they're due to happen and nobody elected Laura anyways. This leads to an unexpected conclusion, with Tom Zarek winding up in control of the prison ship and a promise of elections. Not sure how they were allowed to do that after one of these guys tried to rape Cally, but there you go. I also liked the scene where Gaius is pressed into asking for a nuclear warhead. Overall though, I'm not sure this is such a good episode. The "you made us this way" thing is really played out, and Zarek knows better than that because none of these people had any factor in there even being a penal colony.

ACT OF CONTRITION

Now this is a better effort. This episode largely centers around Starbuck's role as a flight instructor, both now and in the past. We learn why she passed Adama's other son even though he didn't deserve it, and Adama himself learns exactly what happened. I think I've watched too much corny television because I expected him to forgive Starbuck immediately. Instead he told her to get out of his face and to stop treating the new recruits like shit. I dig that the new recruits are called nuggets though. Very Owen Hart of them. But prior to that, to get the point where we need new recruits, a drone explodes on deck and kills 13 pilots. Starbuck has a bad attitude about the whole thing, and the episode ends with her shooting down a Cylon fighter, it hitting her Viper, and she careens down to the surface of another planet. This thing on Caprica with Helo and Boomer, I don't know what to say about it yet so I can't really say shit. Really strong episode here. The singular focus on a character boosted it.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

one of the cool "easter eggs" was Zerek was played by the Captain Apollo from the original BSG.

 

[909]

YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN

The cliffhanger that ended the previous episode is resolved in this one, as we spend most of our time following Starbuck being stuck on this moon, as well as everyone who's out there trying to look for her. The President gets highly upset about the resources being used on this search, which leads to it nearly being called off and you've seen that kind of story before and how someone gets rescued and all that shit. There is some real information here though. It turns out the Cylon fighters are actual synthetic beings and not just some shit that the robots fly. The thing I like most in this episode is that it shows that the characters reactions to events are somewhat unpredictable, and that the characters are intelligent enough to realize when the others are fucking up. The storyline with Helo and Boomer is also moving along at a slightly more brisk pace than expected.

LITMUS

I have to admit that now I am kind of confused. Not by a lot of things in this episode, but certainly by the ending scene. It's difficult to know when Boomer's Cylon programming is kicking in on the Galactica. Her reaction at the end here makes it seem like Cylon control was the case for the entire episode. I don't know though. I also don't know how this will all be explained if Helo makes it back to the Galactica. I assume he will not. Of course, the main thing in this episode is the PR guy Cylon showing up and detonating a suicide bomb. This leads to everyone being told there are Cylon copies throughout the fleet, and people need to be aware of that when going through their daily routines. Gaius also wants to stop his detector but the hot Cylon in his head tells him not to. I wonder why. This is a fantastic episode though. Chief Tyrol being made to see the ramifications of his mistake is a hell of a scene. The tribunal scene is great and is open to wide interpretation. Best part? I have no idea where any of this shit is going other than that at the end of the show I think it will have something to do with Earth. But everyone could figure that out.

 

[909]

SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION

I was wondering when the hot chick was going to come out of Gaius head and make an appearance on the ship. It didn't take very long. The fake photograph worked so well that everyone is fooled. Gaius is thrown in the brig and accused of having done something to cause the Cylon attack, which we know he did. But the suggestion is that he bombed something, which he did not. Gaius then triggers a fire alarm and tries to sabotage development of the photograph, which he gets busted doing. But I don't like how this episode ends with everyone believing him and shit despite some extremely suspicious behavior. They know that "Shelly Godfrey" is a Cylon, but still. Everything Gaius did reeks of guilt. Chief Tyrol is also starting to think everything Boomer is doing reeks of guilt. It does reek of guilt. Gaius is left thinking that this was done to bolster his reputation, which it may have been. In the end I was pretty confused by all of this even though it was a good, intriguing episode.

FLESH AND BONE

This is the best one yet. On one of the ships, a copy of Leoben has been found hiding. Given that these are Cylons, we don't know if he was actually hiding or if he was wanting to be found just so the Cylons could see what would happen. This potential double meaning to everything probably isn't going to get old anytime soon. Of course, Starbuck is sent to torture him, which gets them nowhere. The President then gives a speech about people losing their perspective once again, which is starting to make me suspect her of something. And maybe that's the point. But she does have cancer and feels like shit all the time. Instead of questioning him further, the President orders Leoben to be sent out the airlock, so this copy of him is gone. Leoben says a lot of things here that may or may not be true, but he does say to the President that Adama is a Cylon. To me, there is no way this is true and I refuse to believe it. But will she suspect him?

Also in this episode, there's some great conflict with Boomer's programming again. This time on Caprica. Gaius also uses his Cylon detector on Boomer and it shows that she is a Cylon. But, given advice by the internal dialogue in his head, he is afraid to tell on her in fear of her killing him. And isn't it possible she would know what Gaius did? Anyway, I'm really digging this shit.

 

[909]

TIGH ME UP, TIGH ME DOWN

I didn't like this episode very much. I feel like the show has introduced an extremely annoying character in Tigh's wife, who based on Gaius comments at the end may or may not be a Cylon. I'm assuming she is not. Boomer trying to escape Caprica with Helo is weird, but it feels like we're destined for him to leave her behind and see Boomer on the Galactica. This...will be weird. If it happens. Of course, most important in this episode is that the President still suspects Adama, then changes her mind multiple times on who should have their blood tested first, and this is a bureaucratic disaster all the way around. Tigh's wife is a huge troublemaker though. She said Adama wants to have sex with her, and while this is all going on a Cylon raider decided to launch a suicide attack. The suicide attack is thwarted and that's seemingly all there is to it. This is the first episode that really felt like filler.

 

[909]

THE HAND OF GOD

Can't say I expected the show to go down this road. We delve into some mysticism and prophecy here, with the potential fulfillment of a prophecy once told long ago that most in the fleet are simply unaware of in any capacity at all. Or the people involved could actually be Cylons. Speaking of Cylons, Caprica Boomer starts throwing up which can really only mean one thing. How could that have happened? Cylons are capable of procreation too? That's not really what the episode is about though. The human fleet needs fuel. They don't have it. The Cylons have decided to create bases on some planets/stars/asteroids that have the fuel the humans need, and as a result at some point the humans must put up a stand and fight. They don't have a choice. The time to put up a stand is now. They have enough fuel for two more jumps and that doesn't work. Unfortunately, Starbuck cannot be part of any fight. Adama also decides that he can't tell everyone all of his plans and keeps some things to himself. Gaius also makes a contribution that can best be described as a wild guess. The culmination of this makes it sound like he now believes he's a tool of God. When I'm referring to God I think I'm talking about the Cylons God. But I don't know. This is a great episode here. The graphics are dated, but that's fine.

 

[909]

COLONIAL DAY

We're building towards things that I think will have a larger impact in the seasons that follow. Tom Zarek is trying very hard to become Vice President and it seems that he will do anything to gain some form of control. It appears that he hired an assassin who is later killed after being interrogated. Who killed him? Who knows. All this leads to Gaius being made Vice President even though it would seem that someone here is doing dirty shit, and it's not clear who that is. It could be Tigh's wife. I assume we'll find out later. Anyway, at the end of this episode, we get the reveal I've been waiting for. Helo finds out that Caprica Boomer is a Cylon when a copy of hers confronts him. Caprica Boomer kills the copy, but it doesn't matter and Helo runs away as fast as he can. I still think we'll eventually get to the point where Helo is on the Galactica, but who knows when that's going to happen and what that will mean for Galactica Boomer.

 

[909]

KOBOL'S LAST GLEAMING

This was a two parter where a lot happened, but I find when I'm working this much my desire to write things is decreasing because I'm filling some of my needs with other activity. I watched the first part of this earlier this week and couldn't watch the second until last night. The first part is about what I expected but the second part is not, and Boomer shooting Adama is legitimately shocking. Why is it shocking? I can't really answer that because it's actually standard television now for some shit like that to happen. But back then, it wasn't. This bit where the Cylons can get pregnant is a whole other thing and I have no idea what to expect of it. It seems that one will eventually give birth. Until then, is it a manipulation tactic? I assume that it isn't.

The second part of the episode also revolves around Adama trying to force the President to resign, which doesn't work and ends with her in the brig and him shot. It also ends with his son in the brig for pulling a gun on Tigh. The stuff with Boomer on the Cylon base is great though. We also end the season with so many unresolved plot lines. Starbuck is on Caprica. The Chief and Gaius among others are stranded on Kobol, with Gaius now seeing visions constantly. He is being rather well manipulated into doing something later that may be heinous.


SEASON 2


SCATTERED

After Adama gets shot, it's full on freak out time. The Cylon base was blown up, but somehow they came straight back to the fleet. This forces a now-in-command Tigh to jump the fleet, and it doesn't go well. The Galactica is subsequently separated from everyone else. We get some flashbacks to when Adama and Tigh were younger, and they don't even look younger because it seems nobody tried to make them look younger. Tigh is freaking out because he feels he shouldn't be doing this. Meanwhile, Boomer leaves Helo and Starbuck behind on Caprica. Who could've saw that coming? Galactica Boomer's programming kicks in while being interrogated and she acts like a complete shit, but she ain't dead just yet. There's also seemingly a Cylon ambush on Kobol, and there's no way for the fleet to get over there anytime soon. The best part is the ending though. A new model of Cylon ship crashes into the Galactica, which jumps. There are Cylons in that ship. The metal ones. This leads into the next episode and was a great ending. I think this episode has some mistakes though. We needed some scenes where Apollo and the President argue more about what happened. She didn't back him up.

VALLEY OF DARKNESS

This episode has no frills and no bullshit. There are Cylons on the Galactica and they are hunting, they are trying to vent everyone out into space. They must be stopped. After they're stopped, Apollo and the President are to report back to the brig. There's also scenes on Kobol where Chief Tyrol has to euthanize someone, and on Caprica, Starbuck goes back to her house with Helo and they get a truck. This is a good episode but it feels very much like Star Trek and I'm not sure that's what anyone wanted. The scenes with the Cylons are fantastic though, without exception. And I'm starting to think this Billy guy who's with the President all the time is a Cylon. He fucked up so badly, almost too badly for it to be legitimate. The President would have died if Apollo and some Marines weren't there. We'll see though.

 

[909]

FRAGGED

This is a pretty good episode that featured characters considering doing things that were obviously stupid, them doing those things anyway because it's true to their character to do so, and the audience knows that all of these things will blow up spectacularly in their faces. Or in the case of Crashdown, with Gaius putting a bullet in the back of his head because Crashdown is insistent on carrying out a foolish plan. The other really stupid thing here is Tigh deciding to push martial law on the fleet. There's really nothing he could do that would be worse, and when Adama wakes up the end ramifications of this will not be good for him. He is incapable and incompetent, he can't command the ship on his own much less the fleet. His wife's plan blows up spectacularly in their faces when someone smuggles the President her drugs, and clearly that's going to ruin his whole career. There are also some very good scenes here about humanity's role in the universe and our propensity to default to violence and start killing each other. A lot of people could do with watching them.

RESISTANCE

I'm not too sure I like this storyline with there being a resistance group on Caprica. Maybe it will grow on me. For now, I don't care very much though. We have some other very critical moments though. First, Gaius is forced by Tigh to find out whether or not Chief Tyrol is a Cylon. He decides to practically kill him unless Boomer is to tell him how many Cylons are with the fleet, she seemingly makes up a number, and Gaius saves Tyrol from death. At the same time here, we have a replication of the Boston Massacre, created by Tigh objecting to other ships deciding they weren't going to give supplies to the Galactica. This leads to Apollo and the President making a jailbreak. They need help though. Help here comes from Tom Zarek, so all of this comes a bit full circle. At the end on Galactica, the chick who later joined the sex cult shoots Boomer dead. What this show does a really good job of doing, is to ensure that the focus is on how the humans destroy each other and are incapable of pulling in the same direction. That is human nature. The only difference is that in a real scenario the fleet already would have broken apart over nonsense, or the Galactica would have had to start shooting ships to prevent anyone from leaving. That is how we are. Adama wakes up at the end here, so I doubt we'll ever get to that point.

 

[909]

THE FARM

This is an episode where the focus isn't much on the Galactica, and rather on Starbuck and her ordeal on Caprica. The ordeal on Caprica is as such. The Cylons have captured human women and are attempting to make a baby with one. If we recall, Caprica Boomer claims that she has been impregnated by Helo. Apparently the reverse (Cylon man to human woman) may be completely impossible. I'm still most definitely not sold on what Caprica Boomer is selling. The thing is, the resistance on Caprica is somewhat beholden to her here. The reason? Starbuck was shot, captured, and given emergency surgery...by a Cylon named Simon. For most of the episode, it's supposed to be in question whether or not Simon is a Cylon. He is obviously a Cylon and as such those scenes don't really work. The farm here is in reference to a Cylon setup of machines pumping something (semen???) into women's bodies, and Starbuck has to make the difficult decision to spare all these women a life of pain and kill them. Boomer is needed in order to find Starbuck and the reproduction farm. After all that, Starbuck, Helo, and Boomer leave Caprica and head back towards where they think the fleet is.

IN THE MEANTIME we have some really good plot developments that will matter later. Cally is barely punished for killing Galactica Boomer. Adama is quick to remind people that they will see Boomer again at some point. Lastly, something that will happen almost immediately is when the President and Apollo leave the fleet along with a third of the fleet's ships. Back to Kobol they went. The stuff on Caprica didn't really work for me here, but I liked the B plot on the Galactica.

HOME

This is another two part episode. The first part introduces a new character played by James Remar, and Roslin/Apollo's portion of the fleet decides it's time to go on Kobol to look for a tomb. In the process the Priestess is killed. I am so incredibly thankful for this. Please get the religious aspect the fuck outta here. I actually laughed when she died. There are so many more practical reasons to look for Earth, those reasons are established in the second part of the episode. Firstly, Adama promised everyone and it has to be done to keep the fleet together. Secondly, it is extremely far away from the Cylons. I don't think there will be any aliens in this series, but I'm not completely sure. I'll assume not (don't tell me). The big ticket in both parts of this episode are when everyone sees Caprica Boomer. I forgot to mention that Starbuck and Apollo dock with Roslin, and in the second part everyone is reunited in no small part due to Adama listening to crew members and taking inventory on their morale. He also promoted someone to take Apollo's place and they sucked.

There are so many good moments in this episode, I can't even list all of them. Of course the new character introduced in the first part dies. More surprising was that it was at the hands of Boomer, who was attempting to get people to trust her. She goes her own brig anyway. That's not all though. Gaius doesn't have a chip in his head after all. The scene at the tomb is fantastic. I left a lot of shit out for brevity. I liked all of it. I wasn't too sure that this needed to be a two parter until the last twenty minutes, but I realized at that point it had to be one. I get the feeling Helo is going to kill someone.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

At the end on Galactica, the chick who later joined the sex cult shoots Boomer dead.

Did you guess or did you look it up?! I don't like to judge but she looks like the type to join a cult doesn't she.

 

[909]

Did you guess or did you look it up?! I don't like to judge but she looks like the type to join a cult doesn't she.

I guessed and then looked it up.

 

[909]

FINAL CUT

Alright, the first thing I noticed here, and the main thing...is that Lucy Lawless appears as a Cylon. About time they started showing the other models, but that's a great choice in guest star. This is a weird episode because the focus is on what she's reporting rather than advancing any story in a meaningful way. There are other shows that did this kind of episode, like the X-Files. They're usually pretty cool. I liked this one too. The second story here is about the massacre that happened while Tigh was in command of the ship. Eventually this becomes part of the report, but the reporter discovers other things too. Like, for example, Sharon having a potential miscarriage. The baby is saved, Adama asks her not to report it, and she does not. HOWEVER, there's an added twist at the end here. It turns out the Cylon raider attack showcased in the piece of reporting was done to transmit the reporter's footage back to the Cylons. And it also turns out that the reporter did a positive report, which I assume is in the hopes of gaining further access. The scene at the end with the Cylon copies watching the report? Really good. Obviously, while watching this I was thinking of the Iraq War and how it was being reported on, and how it was happening at the time this show was being made and how something like that would influence the filming and portrayal here. I really liked it.

FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX

Earlier in this season, remember how it was decided that the Galactica needed to plug in a network, which led to a Cylon virus? Well, the network is long gone but the virus is still there. After the events of the last episode, now it feels like the events of this episode took place so that potentially the Galactica crew could trust Sharon more and more. That's an awful lot of Cylon raiders to sacrifice in order to achieve that though. Maybe I'm way off. While the virus is slowly working its way through the ship, Chief Tyrol starts a new project to build a stealth ship. Part of this is done because he needs to occupy his mind after what's happened, he gets in a fight with Helo, etc. Some of their shit is falling apart. They're gonna have to do something, right? Anyway, the project works. They decide to dedicate the ship to the President, and earlier in the episode we found out she's very much near death. This episode is poorly paced, but come the end I think I loved it. The last scenes should be corny as hell, except they're not. The writers did such a good job bringing the characters to this point, so it isn't corny even in a situation where it should be.