Jammersreviews

Note: This review contains significant spoilers.

-----
Battlestar Galactica: "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2"

In the midst of a Cylon threat and the discovery of Kobol, Roslin's 
interference in a military decision creates a rift between her and Adama, 
which threatens to escalate to the point of no return.

Air date: 4/1/2005 (USA)
Teleplay by Ronald D. Moore
Story by David Eick
Directed by Michael Rymer

Rating out of 4: ****

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
-----

As a general rule, I'm tired of cliffhanger season enders. Cliffhangers have 
long since become cliche. The newer template of serialized cable 
television -- as evidenced by shows like "The Sopranos," "The Wire," or "The 
Shield" -- has managed to get away from the network presentation of the 
cliffhanger season cap. Cable series now often treat seasons as book volumes 
where certain plot lines are resolved in some form, even as new plot lines 
are set up. Usually they end on a note of quasi-resolution rather than a 
note of "to be continued."

Not "Kobol's Last Gleaming." But I'm certainly not complaining. I'll take 
any cliffhanger as purely entertaining -- and that promises to be as 
life-altering -- as what we get in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2." Not only 
does the episode end on a true "Mr. Worf, fire" moment of unexpected shock, 
it's like five cliffhangers all at once, united in the big quagmire that is 
the story. Just about every character ends up in the jackpot, and for some 
characters, things will never be the same (or at least I would hope not). 
This is a cliffhanger for which there will be hell to pay. How is this all 
going to play out? One legitimate concern is whether season two can pay off 
what has been set in motion here.

Let's start with Helo and Boomer on Caprica. Not the season's best story 
structure, I'll grant you. Basically, they've been running around in the 
background of 13 episodes. Dramatically, aside from Helo recently learning 
Boomer is a Cylon, this has been a long road of relatively inconsequential 
events. It has allegedly encompassed 51 days, but it feels more like a 
couple weeks. And what's Helo's brilliant plan? Still to get off the planet 
and get back to the Galactica. What in the world makes him think Galactica 
is going to be anywhere to be found after nearly two months?

Whatever. Helo and Boomer go to the museum that holds the Arrow of Apollo --  
the same Arrow that Starbuck has jumped all the way back to Caprica to 
retrieve on behalf of Roslin. Is it a coincidence that Boomer has brought 
Helo here? Or do the Cylons also have a plan involving the Arrow? If they 
do, why have they waited 51 days to go after it? And is it a coincidence 
that the Cylons have taken orbit around Kobol right after the fleet 
discovered it?

Aboard the Galactica, the situation quickly deteriorates. Roslin, having 
gone around Adama and betrayed his secret to Starbuck, admits her 
complicity. Adama immediately asks for her resignation. She refuses. Oh, and 
she's called the press to hear everything unfold. Noting that "she's 
dangerous," Adama intends to board the Colonial One and force her to step 
down. Both think the other is bluffing, but make preparations in case they 
aren't.

Who's to blame for this situation? In a way, everybody and nobody, but I 
guess this is ultimately about crossing lines. Clearly, Roslin crossed a 
line by going to Starbuck. But the choice, ultimately, was Starbuck's to 
make; Roslin didn't force her to do anything. By demanding her resignation 
and sending an armed party to arrest her, is Adama justified, or is he 
himself now crossing the line in bypassing due process of the law? One 
wonders how anything can ever be the same again when the head of the 
military sends guys with guns to arrest the head of the civilian government.

Don't forget -- we also have a stranded Raptor team on Kobol and a Cylon 
base star in orbit. The new plan is to send a Raptor with a Cylon 
transponder to go nuke the base star. With Starbuck gone, Adama chooses 
Boomer to fly the mission ("I need every pilot") with ECO Racetrack (Leah 
Cairns). For obvious story reasons Boomer needs to be on this mission, but 
would Adama really send her in light of Boomer's suspiciously "accidental" 
shooting of herself? Perhaps this is what trusting your fellow soldiers is 
about, but one wonders if Adama asked himself the question.

The stranded team on Kobol is mainly concerned with basic military survival 
tactics, and I liked the story's continued commitment to character details. 
Lt. Crashdown is in command, but he's clearly not nearly as experienced as 
Chief Tyrol, who has better instincts about where the team needs to be 
going. There are early signs of some friction/competition here, even as 
Crashdown realizes he's wrong and Tyrol's right. Meanwhile, Six plays the 
part of guardian angel for Baltar, saving his life at one point, and then 
promising him answers. She leads him to some nearby ruins of the Kobol opera 
house, in a sequence that's visually and musically arresting.

Starbuck arrives on a very Cylon-occupied Caprica (although most of the 
Cylons seem to be in orbit), and there's a nifty FX shot of her Raider 
flying through a ravaged cityscape of damaged skyscrapers. She quickly finds 
the museum and the Arrow, but is just as quickly ambushed by a copy of 
Number Six. This leads to the best brutal beating between blonde babes that 
I've seen since the fight between Uma Thurman and Daryl Hannah in "Kill 
Bill, Vol. 2." The stunt work isn't nearly as elaborate or inventive, but as 
a simple, dirty, dusty, grueling, violent slugfest, it's well done and 
entertaining. The music made me think of "Black Hawk Down." Starbuck can't 
really go head-to-head against a Cylon, but that doesn't stop her from 
trying, and I enjoyed her spirit, even if the dogged underdog is nothing we 
haven't seen before. The fight ends the only way it can (and the only way 
Kara can win it), with a reckless, desperate explosion of Starbuck madness. 
Yes, Kara should probably be dead from such a fall, but I'm heartened by how 
on this show even the slugfests end in a way true to character.

Helo and Boomer happen upon Starbuck just in time to watch gravity become 
her (painful) best friend. Speaking of Helo/Boomer, Sharon reveals to Helo 
that she's pregnant, and that what they had together was important for 
spiritual reasons. The entire season on Caprica has basically been building 
up to this discovery, and the sci-fi/religious implications and questions 
are endless. What does this mean? Why do the Cylons want hybrid children? Do 
they require humans to conceive? Why destroy a civilization in order to 
replace it in the same image, complete with hybrids?

All of these questions are tantalizing. The one hesitation I have is that 
they seem like they could potentially have arbitrary answers (or, for that 
matter, none at all), like the "X-Files" conspiracy plots or "Enterprise's" 
Temporal Cold War. The Cylon master plan is either seriously flawed 
(couldn't they have engineered a love/sexual encounter in far simpler ways?) 
or spiraling out of their control. One interesting idea is that maybe Sharon 
is a wild card capable of more independent thought than the Cylons 
anticipated. There's certainly evidence to support that theory.

Like, for example, Sharon being capable of blowing up the Cylon base star 
orbiting Kobol. Faced with a malfunction, Sharon and Racetrack are forced to 
land their Raptor in the base star docking bay, and Sharon must remove the 
nuke from the side of the Raptor and arm it. While doing this, she's 
confronted by a small army of naked Sharon copies (who emerge from 
strategically placed shadows). This is a truly eerie scene, and Sharon's 
response ("This isn't happening") is pretty dead-on. The gentleness of the 
Sharons toward Sharon is especially disturbing, as if they're simply 
incapable of harming one of their own. Why do they let Sharon go? Do they 
even know that she's planted a nuke on board their ship? They don't appear 
to, anyway, until it's too late. Sharon gets into the Raptor and they leave. 
KA-BOOM.

Back on the Galactica, Roslin doesn't show any signs of standing down as the 
boarding party arrives, and the unfortunate prospect of the system 
collapsing is demonstrated through a nice touch where Dualla and Billy ask 
each other if their respective bosses are really going through with this. As 
if the Cylons weren't enough trouble, now human beings are suddenly on 
opposing sides of internal strife. Lee's major decision grows out of his 
speech on democracy in "Bastille Day"; he pulls a gun on Tigh at the last 
minute and stands not exactly with Roslin, but against a military coup that 
is terminating the current government. The volatility of the standoff 
prompts Roslin to back down. Adama has her put in the brig, in a scene of 
dialed-down straightforwardness and quiet regret.

And then, after all that, comes the shocker: About to be publicly 
congratulated on her successful mission, Sharon pulls a gun and shoots Adama 
in full view of everyone in the Galactica CIC, leaving him bleeding to 
death. It's so swift and unexpected that it could not have been predicted.

So, aside from the obvious drama circling the "will Adama die?" question 
(gee, what do you think?), the reason this works as a cliffhanger -- and 
works so well -- is because it cannot be undone. It has huge consequences 
for the characters, who by the end of this episode are scattered all over 
the place.

For starters, the cat is out of the bag -- Sharon is a Cylon and everyone 
knows it. There's the added complexity that the Caprica Sharon seems willing 
to defect (and is pregnant, which has endless possibilities), even while the 
Galactica Sharon shot Adama on what looked like autopilot (will she even 
remember doing it?) *after* destroying the base star.

We have Adama out of commission, meaning Tigh will have to step up into 
full-fledged command. We have Lee in handcuffs for mutiny, having gone 
against his father, who now lies badly wounded. We have Roslin in the brig 
for willfully undermining a military decision. We have what appears to be no 
working government for the fleet.

We have Starbuck, Helo, and Boomer on Caprica, in possession of the Arrow of 
Apollo, which might or might not mean something bigger. We have a military 
team stranded on Kobol. And, as usual, we have Baltar off in his own little 
world, being taken on journeys of God and destiny by Six, who foretells 
Baltar as the one to watch over the new generation of God's children -- the 
hybrids.

That all of this actually makes sense and holds together and seems to emerge 
from a single coherent narrative with a consistent through-line, *and* has 
artistic ambitions without coming across as pretentious, *and* has a large 
dose of mystery without seeming aimless -- well, that's pretty damn amazing.

Heck, "Kobol's Last Gleaming" is enough to convince me that cliffhangers are 
still worth doing. This episode, and the season in general, makes me feel 
more like a cheerleader than a critic. So be it. The cards lie where they 
fall. Hopefully season two will not be afraid to fully confront this 
intriguing shuffled deck.

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

Star Trek: Hypertext - http://www.st-hypertext.com/
Jamahl Epsicokhan - jammer@...