Battlestar Galactica—He That Believeth In Me

[FBW Readers Note: Hello everyone. Just a quick word to let everyone know that our wife Mrs. LoveyWonder was discharged from the hospital over the weekend and nearly fully recovered. Thanks everyone for your well wishes and good thoughts. Now on with the show.—FBW.]



The Upshot From Sci-Fi Channel: The thin line that separates humanity from the rapidly evolving Cylons is redrawn, as Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) returns from the dead with claims that she has found Earth.

We suppose you could call the Season 4 premiere of Battlestar Galactica a sleeper episode. No, it didn’t put us to sleep. Far from it.

Despite exploding Cylon missiles and vipers, vipers everywhere, we weren’t exactly blown away by the first new episode of BSG in over a year.

Yet at the same time it kept your friendly neighborhood FanBoyWonder riveted for other the entire hour and we felt near-crushing disappointment when the “To be continued” flashed on the screen….just after Starbuck raised her gun to President Roslin’s (Mary McDonnell’s) head. Fraking-A right “To be continued!!!”

No…we weren’t blown away this episode because the storytelling explosions already occurred at the end of last season…including, but not limited to, the re-appearance of the presumed dead Starbuck.

“He That Believeth In Me” picks up some 30 seconds after last season’s cliffhanger “Crossroads p.2” leaving the viewer to ride the aftershocks of the aforementioned explosive revelations.

Ok….just to sum up—Starbuck (or an incredible simulation) is alive and may or may not be a Cylon. The other confirmed four of the final five Cylons have been revealed as Col. Tigh (Michael Hogan), Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas), Starbuck’s husband Samuel T. Anders (Michael Trucco) and President Roslin’s aide Tory Foster (Rekah Sharma).

We also had confirmed what we had suspected—that the original 7 “skinjob” Cylons don’t know and can’t recognize the final five Cylons.

The massive attack on the fleet by four Cylon basestars and accompanying raiders oddly didn’t do much for us. Whether it was the herky-jerky the space battle was shot or whether it was because it was resolved just a little too quickly—before the opening credits.

Yet it wasn’t quick enough for one of the fleet ships—The Pixus was destroyed by a Cylon raider kamikaze hit with all 600 souls on board blown to bits.

Fleet head count: 39, 698 survivors of the human race.

We are bothered however that nothing more is made out of the loss of the ship and of 600 lives. We hope this is revisited next episode.

Meanwhile in CIC, before he tells his fellow new Cylons later, we see Col. Tigh terrified with indecision—he’s afraid that he could end up just like Boomer (Grace Park) whose programming compelled her to shoot Adama (Edward James Olmos) before she even knew what had occurred.

So when we saw Tigh pull out a gun and shoot the old man right in the eye—we knew it HAD to be a daydream but it was so well shot, everyone in CIC reacted just the right way and it was drawn out just long enough to create enough doubt to make us breathlessly relieved when Adama was yelling at Tigh to snap out of it.

During the battle, nugget viper pilot Anders find himself in combat for the first time but he—like Tigh, is worried about his Cylon programming forcing him to act against his will even as he is frantically trying to shoot the raider in front of him but somehow can’t get his guns to fire.

It’s then when the raider turns, has Anders dead to rights but before it shoots, it’s red eye scans Anders—appears to register something, then it and the entire Cylon fleet bug out just as they were poised to move in and finish the fleet once and for all.

Considering that Anders killed many Cylons—“toasters” and “skinjobs” alike—during two Cylon occupations, it will be interesting to learn if he had first combat jitters or if indeed now that he has been “activated” he is not able to harm another Cylon.

In the hanger bay, Starbuck exits what looks like a fresh from the show room floor Viper, darn near giddy in her proclamation that she has found Earth but oblivious to the shocked crew members who have gathered round.

She believes that she has been gone no more than 6 hours when her ship blew up and was presumed to have died two months ago.

During the de-brief, President Roslin makes it plain that she doesn’t trust “Starbuck”—especially when Kara can’t explain the time discrepancy, how she got to Earth and back or her “feeling” as to how she expects to lead the fleet to Earth.

Adama wants to trust her but he can’t afford to. Apollo (Jamie Bamber) is just so Gods damn happy to see her alive again, he doesn’t care how—Cylon or not.

The rest of the crew however, does not share Apollo’s feelings and they are at best weirded out by her “resurrection.”

Yet despite the circumstances, Kara’s return has eased the tension between the Adamas—even their grief from her death helped drive father and son apart.

Adama offers Apollo his wings and commission back after Lee had resigned it during an argument with his father but the younger Adama says he wants to make is own contribution to the fleet—not in the cockpit but as part of the government. Adama accepts this wordlessly but the viewer can see he is just a little hurt by his son’s rejection.

We FINALLY got to see the scene we’ve been wanting to see as Roslin and Caprica Six (Tricia Helfer) engage face to face. Roslin is looking for answers—is Kara Thrace a Cylon. Six says she is programmed NOT to think of the Final Five Cylons and it’s almost a shock to hear her speak robot speak—she really ISN’T human after all.

Six does tell the President that she can feel Final Five close by. Whether she can really sense them or if she’s just fraking with the President time will tell. But the scene between these two powerful women was all too brief and we want more.

And then there’s Gaius Baltar (James Callis). Freshly acquitted from his war crimes trial, our boy Gaius has gone from pariah to finding himself at the center of his own cult where he preaches—with the help of Imaginary Six (again Tricia Helfer)—that the GODS are false and there is but ONE TRUE GOD.

Of course the vast majority of his congregants in the Church of Baltar consist of nubile, young hotties who desire to worship at his alter, feeling God’s presences (nudge, nudge, wink wink!!!).

Personally, we didn’t think he could top bedding Caprica Six AND Deanna/Number Three (Lucy Lawless)…. AT THE SAME TIME…while captive aboard the Cylon basestar but the man IS a genius after all.

All in all, we were left at the end of the hour with more questions than answers but we also SO can’t wait until Friday at 10 p.m. So Say We All!!!!!