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Note: This review contains significant spoilers.

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Battlestar Galactica: "The Oath"

Unwilling to tolerate the alliance with the Cylons, Gaeta and Zarek 
stage a mutiny against the existing leadership of the fleet under 
Adama.

Air date: 1/30/2009 (USA)
Written by Mark Verheiden
Directed by John Dahl

Rating out of 4: ***1/2

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
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"The Oath" is a superb, straightforward action show that's more about 
the execution of individual beats of action and character than about 
complex storylines or mythology. Suffice it to say that it's a 
riveting, pulse-pounding experience that moves its pieces (i.e., 
characters) around with near-ceaseless momentum, where the stakes 
couldn't be higher and the drama couldn't be tauter. The overall vibe 
I get from "The Oath" -- from its general action beats and nuts-and-
bolts approach to showing who is where and when -- is that it's a top-
notch episode of "24," right down to the title cards that serve as a 
ticking clock. It doesn't take place in "real time," but it might as 
well have. This episode is a dissection of crisis management, 
punctuated by nice vignettes of character.

It also takes a back-to-basics approach to the series. After all the 
mythology in season four, "The Oath" is simply about the explosive 
uprising on board the Galactica and in the fleet after the weight of 
that my-thology has come crashing down. Earth turned out to be an 
empty promise, and the Cylon alliance is for many the final straw. 
Something's gotta give, and that something appears to be the 
Adama/Roslin admini-stration. Gaeta has organized an alarmingly 
sizable mutiny (perhaps too quickly and quietly to be believed), and 
has coordinated a power grab with Zarek, who is prepared to take 
control of the civilian government.

What's perhaps most interesting to consider about this power play is 
that neither Adama nor Roslin see it coming -- or indeed even as a 
remote possibility. Consider the opening scene, where Roslin, who has 
practically moved into Adama's quarters and is not bothering to hide 
that fact, tries to offer up nuggets of advice for how Lee might 
handle Zarek and the Quorum -- but then she backs off and insists she 
is not getting involved in that morass. If she had an inkling of what 
was about to go down, you can bet she'd be extremely involved. 
Assuming the power grab is ultimately put down, both Roslin and Adama 
are going to have a lot of hand-wringing to do: Roslin for stepping 
aside and creating the power vacuum that allows this to happen, and 
Adama for not having a better sense of the discontent festering under 
his command.

The Galactica mutiny is all the more scary because it seems to be so 
sweeping. It's not just Gaeta and a bunch of nameless marines. There 
are notable secondary characters we know -- Racetrack, Seelix, 
Skulls -- who are in on this. And that says something about the state 
of the fleet. If people who are your friends have bought into this 
uprising, what does that mean for the fleet at large? Perhaps that 
the whole thing is on the verge of coming apart.

The way the mutiny goes down is simultaneously fascinating and 
agonizing. We see how Gaeta has gotten all the pieces in place he 
needs in order to move men and weapons where he needs them, all while 
keeping Adama and Tigh completely in the dark. He's the one-man line 
of communications between CIC and the rest of the ship, and that 
allows him to manipulate the game and stage a series of complex ruses 
that would otherwise be impossible to sustain (and even here is only 
sustainable for so long). Galactica be-comes an exploitable 
chessboard, with Gaeta as the gatekeeper. It's frightening how one 
man, given his unique position, can mastermind taking over the entire 
ship. The episode, in its writing and direction, is expert at showing 
how Gaeta's ambitious plan unfolds, and the reasons for why Adama and 
Tigh are blind-sided by it.

Ultimately it becomes a race. How long can Gaeta keep this up? Can he 
get his men in place before the ruse falls apart? The story generates 
great suspense in the way it puts us on edge for Gaeta as well as for 
Adama. We of course instinctively root for Adama, but the action also 
keeps us invested in the progress of Gaeta's plan.

Meanwhile, the episode is ruthless in its momentum. Violence is 
uncorked, marines go marching, and prisoners are seized in successive-
whammy scenes of high adrenaline. The resident Cylons (Caprica Six, 
Athena, Hera, Anders) and Helo are rounded up and thrown in a cell. 
The hatred and angry words are allowed to boil over, after having 
simmered for so long. One touch I liked: Spc. Gage (Mike Dopud), one 
of the Pegasus dudes who beat Helo and Tyrol with a bar of soap back 
in season two, appears here to grab the Agathon family from their 
quarters -- and he makes it clear that bygones are *not* bygones. 
Gage's presence as a former Pegasus crewman, as well as Narcho's 
(Sebastian Spence), is in deference to poor Chief Laird (Vincent 
Gale), who gets a wrench to the head from Zarek, and is the first 
victim of the mutiny. (I'd wondered who replaced Tyrol after his 
demotion.)

The action is also expert at putting in place the various characters 
who, from the lower decks, will be instrumental in resisting the 
mutiny. Kara gets a show-stopper of a bitchin' scene where she 
rescues Lee without the slightest hesitation in using deadly force, 
but while still doing so discriminately. She's so pumped up by the 
adrenaline rush (as are we) that she says, "This is the most normal 
I've felt in weeks." They slide quietly through the ship attempting 
to make sense of the chaos, "Die Hard" style.

Then the marines take CIC by force. Adama's surprise to the mutiny is 
telling, but even more compelling is his promise to the 
mutineers: "If you do this, there will be no forgiveness, no 
amnesty." It begs the question of what the aftermath of this mutiny 
(again, assuming it will fail) will look like when so many people 
have participated in it.

Adama and Tigh are led out of CIC to the brig. In another of the 
episode's bitchin' moments of adrenaline, Adama and Tigh overpower 
the marines. I like seeing these old guys in action. This is Adama's 
frakking ship, and he's not going to be marched quietly into a cell. 
Ultimately, Adama/Tigh meet up with Kara/Lee. And Kara won't hear 
anything about taking prisoners. She bluntly tells Adama that it's 
shoot to kill here: "They are not your men anymore! They are the 
enemy!"

The president, meanwhile, is shocked by these developments back into 
action, which leads her to try to get on the air to make a personal 
appeal to the entire fleet, and Zarek's coup from displacing the 
entire establishment. The only available person with a radio capable 
of broadcasting this address: Baltar. There's a nice little exchange 
where Baltar and Roslin fence over their roles in creating this mess. 
Roslin to Baltar: "I never really believed in your conversion, so I 
was counting on your well-honed sense of self-preservation."

Roslin's appeal to the fleet got me thinking about the value of 
leadership. She makes her case, and it's a compelling one. People may 
be pissed off with the leadership that led them to the dead end that 
was Earth, and even more pissed off about having to ally themselves 
with the very Cylons that destroyed them. But what, really, is the 
alternative? Watching Gaeta's uneasy place in CIC as he tries to take 
command of Galactica only drives the point home more. Okay, so you've 
staged this mutiny. Assume you can take over the fleet and expel the 
Cylons. Then what? What is your brilliant plan from there? Where do 
we go?

The episode is occasionally canny in its choices of re-establishing 
character details: Baltar tries to appeal to Gaeta's better sense. 
When that fails he mentions their "little secret," the one sealed 
with the stab to his neck with a pen. Here, the information from 
the "Face of the Enemy" webisodes comes in handy.

Lee has a moment of playing devil's advocate when he makes a speech 
about the fleet's very real inability to put the past behind them. He 
rails at Tigh for being a Cylon. It's a valid point when Lee says 
that the destruction of humanity has left everyone with very few 
options. Still, just once, I'd like to get the sense that people like 
Lee actually understand that Tigh is not simply "a Cylon" but an 
individual who had absolutely nothing to do with the destruction of 
humanity and has fought every day for its cause. Tigh has been 
through every bit as much of an ordeal as any Colonial, and then some.

The overall feelings of "The Oath" are summed up with the 
(inevitable) ending cliffhanger, as Adama and Tigh get the president 
off Galactica before making what they know could be their final 
stand. It's well-staged action, great cinematography and editing, and 
Bear McCreary's score sells all of it. At its core, it's about these 
two lifelong military guys defending their turf against those who 
have abandoned them. If need be, they'll go down fighting. To Adama, 
Tigh is not a Cylon; Tigh is and always will be Saul Tigh: "It's been 
an honor serving with you, my friend."

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Copyright 2009, Jamahl Epsicokhan. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this article is 
prohibited.

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Jamahl Epsicokhan - jammer@...