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Note: This review contains significant spoilers.

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Battlestar Galactica: "He That Believeth in Me"

The crew of Galactica is stunned to learn that Kara is still alive, 
and quickly becomes suspicious when she claims to have been to Earth. 
Meanwhile, four members of the crew who have learned they are Cylons 
must grapple with their new realities. 

Air date: 4/4/2008 (USA)
Written by David Weddle & Bradley Thompson
Directed by Michael Rymer 

Rating out of 4: ***

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
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At the end of the review, I wrote, "If you step back and look 
at 'Crossroads,' it is really a story about hope." That seems far 
less true after seeing "Razor" and now "He That Believeth in Me," 
which reveals far more trepidation than hope. Clearly there is a fork 
in the road here. There are questions to ask and arguments to make. 
And it may not be long before sides must be taken. (Surely you 
weren't expecting uplifting things to happen in a "Battlestar" season 
premiere? Ye of too much faith.)

Kara Thrace has returned from the apparent dead, which happens right 
in the middle of a battle zone in a nebula where the Galactica is 
vastly outmatched by the Cylons. Meanwhile, the four Cylons unveiled 
at the end of "Crossroads, Part 2" -- Tigh, Tyrol, Anders, and Tory --
 proceed with business as usual, fighting as Colonial warriors, but 
fearing that they might very well be capable of turning at any 
moment. In a powerful moment of subjective internal point of view, 
Tigh imagines himself shooting Adama in the head in a crowded CIC 
right in the middle of the battle. More powerful than the shock of 
the image itself is Tigh's anguish in the immediate beat afterward. 
To be at the mercy of things completely beyond our control is among 
the worst of all fears.

The opening teaser is a tour de force of chaotic, beautifully 
designed space battle action. It may very well be the most elaborate 
and well-made CGI action yet on this series, and that's saying 
something. Still, despite all the hardware and explosions and 
visceral impact (a civilian ship is destroyed with 600 people on 
board) the most haunting moment is played out in excruciating slow-
motion, as Anders, in his first flight as a Viper pilot, has an 
encounter with a Cylon Raider. His weapons misfire, and the Raider, 
rather than blowing him out of the sky, beams its sweeping red light 
straight into Anders' eye -- and then the entire Cylon fleet suddenly 
withdrawals from a fight where they had every advantage.

So what has happened here? Was Anders sent a program by a Cylon that 
recognized him? The close-up on Anders' eye as it briefly turns red 
can absolutely not be dismissed, but the story plays its hand close, 
and Anders proceeds on as if unchanged by the experience. I'm still 
holding out hope that the Final Five Cylons play by different rules 
than the other seven, but one can't rule out any scenario based on 
what we see here.

Then there's Kara, who believes she has only been gone for a few 
hours when it has actually been nearly two months. Roslin immediately 
smells a Cylon trick. Is Kara a Cylon? Kara brushes off the idea as 
absurd, but cannot explain away the many holes in her story, like how 
she traveled to Earth and then to the nebula without an FTL drive in 
a matter of hours (or even two months), or why her Viper is brand-
new, with none of the wear it had before she died/disappeared, or why 
her flight log is blank. She has photos from her orbit of Earth, but 
that's about it.

Roslin immediately takes to the "Thrace is no longer trustworthy" 
camp and seems firm in that belief. Not only is she unwilling to 
follow Kara's alleged path to Earth (which Kara describes as a 
feeling more than a science), but Roslin would just as soon have Kara 
thrown in the brig, arguing that the crew's closeness to Kara would 
be exactly what the Cylons are counting on as an avenue of trust to 
exploit.

About that, I have my own questions. Why did the Cylon fleet jump 
away when they could've wiped out the entire fleet? Either the 
writers are toying with us (or letting themselves off the hook of 
their own cliffhanger), or destroying humanity is no longer the 
Cylons' goal, possibly because Anders and other Cylon infiltrators 
are now (apparently) known to them to be in place. Either way, the 
motivation of the Cylons seems a bit muddled. They come out firing 
and then they pull a 180. Their New Plan must really be something.

For that matter, everyone on Galactica should probably now assume 
that simple destruction is no longer the Cylon goal. The Cylons 
could've destroyed the fleet, but didn't. So what do they really 
want? Perhaps answers about Earth? What do the Colonials have that 
could actually help in that regard?

Perhaps Kara is a plan meant to take the fleet in the wrong direction 
while the Cylons continue in the right one. Who knows? All I can say 
is: Kara is sure she knows. She is convinced she can find Earth, and 
every FTL jump following the original course (the wrong one, to her) 
is like a shock to her system, and her internal Earth beacon fades. 
In a powerfully quiet scene acted with great precision by Olmos and 
Sackhoff, Kara makes an emotional appeal to Adama to believe in her. 
But he can't, because the evidence brings up too many unanswerable 
questions.

There's another quietly affecting scene in the pilot's ready room, 
where Lee repeatedly watches his flight video of Kara's death 
in "Maelstrom." He asks his father, should we believe our eyes our 
hearts? The scene reveals the full complicated nature of the two 
Adamas' relationship, with both the love and the strained hardship. 
Like that first scene between them in the miniseries, where Adama 
never even looked at Lee, director Michael Rymer uses the physical 
space to suggest the emotional distance; here Adama and his son sit 
in the chairs on the farthest opposite ends of the row.

Interesting that Lee does not accept reinstatement when Adama offers 
it to him. His life as CAG is apparently over, and he talks of a job 
opening in the government. He also asks his father a tough 
question: "If my brother had climbed out of that cockpit, would it 
matter if he were a Cylon -- if he always had been? When all is said 
and done, would that really change how we feel about him?"

It's one of the series' big questions, and it's an intriguing one. 
(Note that it comes from Lee, who has previously been in favor of 
destroying the Cylons completely.) The hatred for the Cylons runs 
deep in such a seemingly monolithic way, but when push comes to 
shove -- if Kara is really a Cylon -- then does it?

Apparently it does for Kara, who tells Anders she'd put a bullet in 
his head if she ever found out he were a Cylon. Not something you 
want to hear from your resurrected wife when you've just found out 
you're a Cylon. BSG relationships sure are tricky...

I think the point here is that it's not even clear anymore what it 
truly means to be a Cylon. Certainly not for the recently self-
discovered four, who know of no hidden motives or agendas, and vow to 
kill themselves before turning on their comrades (not that they know 
if they would even have that choice). And how about the irony of six 
people in a room discussing the possibility of Kara being a Cylon 
agent -- when three of those six are, in fact, Cylons? Yes, the 
layers of identity crises are most definitely stacking up here.

What didn't work so well for me was the subplot surrounding Baltar's 
new life as the subject of worship by a cult of crazies looking 
for ... well, I'm not sure. Faith in ... something. In Baltar They 
Trust, although I have no idea why. (Is it because of his prison 
manifesto? It's not mentioned here.) While I found interesting 
Baltar's struggle with himself, his past misdeeds, and looking for 
some meaning or sign from God, I found the cult itself to be 
underwritten and too broadly played. Strange, how Baltar's cult is so 
overwhelming young, attractive, and female. (This would undoubtedly 
be for the same reasons Caprica Six can sit in a cell every day and 
still look like she's had her hair and makeup done by professionals.) 
Also curious is how these civilians have their own private area in a 
large storage room on Galactica, where they can come and go (and beat 
people to death) as they please. Wouldn't security have something to 
say about this?

One of the cultists offers her body to Baltar on behalf of, I guess, 
the Cult Welcoming Committee. (Baltar gets just the cult that suits 
him, conveniently appealing to his natures as an egoist and a 
womanizer.) I did find interesting Baltar's witnessing of a miracle 
in the recovery of a sick young boy. I also liked the inevitable run-
in with comeuppance via the man prepared to cut his throat, where 
Baltar seems quite prepared to die for his sins. But leave it to 
Baltar (earlier, with the young boy) to use prayer not only during a 
genuine crisis of personal conflict, but also as an opportunity to 
perform on his stage for his new followers.

Undoubtedly, next week's episode will answer the question of what 
happens after Kara puts a gun to Roslin's head in an effort to force 
the fleet to follow her. Lines will be drawn.

--
Footnote: Is there a rhyme or reason for when "to be continued" gets 
used at the end of a BSG cliffhanger? Sometimes they use it (like 
here), and sometimes they don't (like "Precipice"). I could do 
without it entirely, because we *know* a serialized show is to be 
continued. Duh.

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Copyright 2008, Jamahl Epsicokhan. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this article is 
prohibited.

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Jamahl Epsicokhan - jammer@...