Jammersreviews

Note: This review contains significant spoilers.

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Battlestar Galactica: "Flesh and Bone"

When a Cylon is discovered hiding in the fleet, Roslin insists he be 
questioned, so Adama puts Kara in charge of an interrogation to get answers.

Air date: 2/25/2005 (USA)
Written by Toni Graphia
Directed by Brad Turner

Rating out of 4: ***1/2

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
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Here's a session in the box that's intense enough, deep enough, 
psychological enough, and acted well enough that I'm willing to say it could 
be compared to some of the top-shelf box sessions from "Homicide," which of 
course is the undisputed champion of the box.

Because this is "Battlestar Galactica," however, there are additional 
considerations, like debate over religion and sci-fi concepts, the 
mysterious mythology of Kobol, the warfare between civilizations, and the 
characters' self-granted right to torture the subject who is in the box. 
It's a brave new world.

A Cylon copy of Leoben Conoy (Callum Keith Rennie), whom Adama killed in the 
miniseries, is discovered hiding on a ship in the fleet and is immediately 
taken into custody. Adama recommends dispatching this Cylon at once, lest he 
cause damage to the fleet or start putting dangerous ideas into people's 
heads. Roslin, however, wants Leoben interrogated for information about the 
Cylons. Adama puts Kara in charge of the interrogation with a warning that 
Leoben is a master of psychological manipulation, and that he will try to 
get into her head.

Thus begins a duel of wills between the interrogator and her subject. The 
interrogation takes up most of the episode's running time, but the show is 
not confined to the interrogation room like "Homicide's" famous "Three Men 
and Adena." This episode cannot be fairly held up to the likes of "Three Men 
and Adena," but it's worth noting that it made me think of that episode on 
more than one instance.

This interrogation is not about guilt or innocence. That Leoben is a Cylon 
is beyond dispute. He fully admits it. He's guilty of being a Cylon, and so 
far in this universe, there is no innocent Cylon; they are all the enemy. 
(One wonders what will happen once Sharon is revealed as a Cylon.) No, this 
is about learning about the Cylons and their tactics, something that will 
hopefully garner strategic knowledge.

The thing about Starbuck as played by Katee Sackhoff is that she's 
believable balancing the no-nonsense intensity with the abrasive sarcasm. 
She can pull off the role of badass, but at the same time she has a 
condescending grin that reminds me of Garak's philosophy of adversarial 
encounters: When in doubt, smile, because it confounds your enemy.

It does not, however, confound Leoben, who immediately claims to have 
planted a nuclear warhead somewhere in the fleet -- a claim that cleverly 
narrows the scope of the interrogation's information-gathering goal. Not 
that it matters, because Leoben's refusal to answer questions quickly turns 
the interrogation into a battle of wills and a discussion of Leoben's 
existence as a human mimic.

For example, Leoben admits to being hungry, having not eaten in days. 
Starbuck asks him, what's the point of being a machine programmed to feel 
hungry? Wouldn't that simply interfere with the efficiency of operation? For 
that matter, why feel pain? That's a question for when the beatings and 
torture begin. Can Leoben, who is a machine, flip a switch and turn off the 
pain? And if he does so, does that make him less "human"? Starbuck's 
assertion is that it would: Human beings are forced to suffer through their 
pain, and if a Cylon can simply turn their pain off, they really aren't 
human.

But Leoben either cannot or refuses to turn off his pain, and takes his 
beatings -- followed by being repeatedly dunked into a bucket of water -- as 
if it were his duty.

Between the torture are discussions that venture into philosophy. Leoben 
says he sees "patterns" in the universe that humans cannot see, which he 
claims gives him the ability of prescience. Furthermore, he says "I am God," 
and says that all Cylons are gods in a way, because they have a foresight 
that humanity can't grasp. More specifically, in an iteration of a speech 
Leoben gave Adama in the miniseries, he says the Cylons were created by God 
as a punishment for humanity's sins.

Callum Keith Rennie's performance as Leoben is effective in its 
straightforwardness. Here's a Cylon whose goal under duress is to turn the 
screws of mental manipulation, to be menacing via his utter Cylon 
implacability, and yet at the same time he maintains an underlying 
sincerity, as if he believes every word he says to Starbuck (which he very 
well might). The claim of the nuclear warhead, we suspect all along, is 
simply the device by which Leoben buys himself time to start in on his Cylon 
philosophizing.

There's a lot of meat in "Flesh and Bone." In addition to Leoben's pervasive 
dialog, there's also the interesting underlying religious themes, including 
the polytheism versus monotheism in the difference between the Colonial 
Lords of Kobol versus the Cylons' singular God. What does all of this mean? 
I don't know that it means anything specifically right now, except to 
suggest the nature of the Cylons having established their own independent 
religion and their belief that they have souls of their own. Can a machine 
have a "soul"? (Starbuck's initial belief is that Leoben has software, not a 
soul, but she begins to question that belief.) Perhaps one way to look at it 
is that any being intelligent enough to comprehend its own death and ponder 
its meaning probably has the right to lay claim to the concept of a soul.

What's interesting is how this process wears on Starbuck, the interrogator. 
Leoben eventually is able to get into her head by telling her things about 
herself that seem too personal to have been researched in a background 
check. Leoben either has unique insights, or is a master of psychological 
manipulation. Eventually, he begins prognosticating, saying that humanity 
and the Cylons are involved in a cosmic, historic struggle destined to 
repeat itself. He quotes from Colonial religious scripture (either that, or 
"The Matrix Reloaded"), saying, "All of this has happened before, and all of 
it will happen again." He tells Starbuck that the Galactica is going to find 
Kobol.

Beyond the prognostication, the simple fact is that Starbuck beings 
empathizing with her subject. When Leoben refuses to give up information, 
she calls his willingness to endure more torture a malfunction, a state of 
sickness. Eventually, she can't stomach it anymore. The more Leoben talks, 
the more questions Kara has, and the more troubled she becomes. Sackhoff 
shows a solid range in her character's gradual shift from hard-line 
interrogator to one of surprising vulnerability. One of the show's best 
strengths is its moral ambiguity; by the end Kara is praying for Leoben's 
soul, if he has one.

Kara isn't the only one empathizing in this story. There's also Sharon on 
Caprica, who meets with her fellow Cylons to report that she's had sex with 
Helo. "Does he love you?" Six asks. The Cylons tell Sharon to convince Helo 
to stay on Caprica, or to kill him. This puts Sharon at a crossroads, where 
she chooses Helo over her co-conspirators, and decides to truly go on the 
run with him rather than pretending.

Meanwhile, the other Sharon on the Galactica reaches the end of her 
frustration. Her humming and stroking of the captured Cylon Raider 
(ever-so-eerie, that) raises Tyrol's eyebrow a bit, to the point that Sharon 
wants to clear herself of being a Cylon once and for all. She visits Baltar 
in the lab and insists on being the first test subject for his Cylon 
detector. When he demurs, she plays the "you owe me" card, reminding him 
that she and Helo saved him from annihilation on Caprica. I like the 
continuity of this moment, which reminds us how all these players have been 
moved into place.

The scene where Baltar analyzes the results and is about to inform Sharon is 
a mini-masterpiece of hypnotic tone and dialog. Baltar realizes Sharon is a 
Cylon, and then must decide what to say to her. Six tells him Sharon's 
likely to go into Cylon mode and break his neck on the spot. Can't have 
that. I liked the musical continuity, melding what I'm willing to call Six's 
theme and Sharon's theme (see the opening minutes of "Water") into a tense 
undercurrent. Sharon stares at Baltar, awaiting his answer, as if 
unconsciously waiting to explode. Below the tension is the humor of Baltar's 
panicked facial expressions, as he looks back and forth and decides what to 
say. Of course he says what he must to protect himself from possible death, 
and tells her that she's 100 percent human. Of course, the implications 
arising from Baltar's discovery have their own foreboding.

Back in Leoben's storyline, Roslin orders the interrogation ceased and 
promises to spare Leoben's life if he tells her where the warhead is. 
Ironically, Leoben comments -- in regard to being tortured -- that the 
military are trained to dehumanize people, even as the interrogation itself 
had forced Kara into doing exactly the opposite. He confesses what we 
suspected all along -- there is no warhead. But then he whispers to Roslin 
that "Adama is a Cylon." Roslin has her own response: "Put him out the 
airlock." Which they do.

This is some pretty dark stuff. Interestingly, the character arc for Roslin 
in the episode is the opposite of Kara's. Roslin begins the episode in a 
vulnerable place, having prescient dreams involving Leoben, and waking up in 
particularly rough shape from her illness. By the end, she shows a side that 
I didn't know existed, willingly venting a man into space without a trial or 
hearing. Because he's a Cylon, he has no rights, is guilty and is given an 
automatic death sentence. End of story. It raises some tough questions, to 
say the least. That the story doesn't compromise or supply easy answers is a 
credit to its makers.

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Copyright 2005, Jamahl Epsicokhan. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this article is prohibited.

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