A Disquiet Follows My Soul

Battlestar Galactica - Episode 4.12

After an emotionally wrenching episode last Friday, this week's offering is more subtle in tone while moving pieces in to place for some volatile payoff down the road. It is also worth noting that this is show creator and head writer Ronald D. Moore's first turn at directing. He does a decent job and doesn't fall into the trap of trying to be too avant garde like many first time directors.

It's good to have Edward James Olmos playing a cooler Adama this time around. He chewed up so much scenery over the last two or three episodes, that I feared that there wouldn't be any set left to act on. While it was heavy handed, the man still was amazing to watch in those performances. Still, Olmos is one of those actors that can convey so much more without saying a word than when he speaks and "A Disquiet Follows My Soul" plays to those strengths.

The repetition of the admiral's daily routine helps to reinforce that the man is trying to pull himself together after all the bombshells that were dropped on the fleet as of late, as well as a demonstration of a man trying to lead by example. Earth sucked, but life must go on, even if it means keeping the deck clear of discarded pieces of paper. He's not prepared to give up just yet.

Laura Roslin is different matter, though. She's caring the burden of guilt over leading humanity to what appears to be a dead end. Also, she's coming to grips that all the medication she's taking won't cure her cancer, so she would rather spend what little time she has left doing things that make her happy, like exercising or being with Bill. Her scene with Bill in the corridors of the Galactica, after he catches her running, was very real. He doesn't want her to overexert herself, yet he let's her win this argument, because he loves her so much and wants her to have some semblance of happiness before the end.

The funny thing is, Laura thinks that Bill needs a break from everything, too. This is probably a combination of her concern that now he is piling full responsibility for the fleet on his own shoulders now that she has checked out and her desire to spend time with the man she loves. This relationship continues to feel mature and real and is one of the best romances I've ever seen depicted on television.

The revelation about Tyrol's son made sense. The writers needed resolve a potential conflict in the series' mythology due to the reveal that the chief is a Cylon. Hera has been hailed as some sort of figure of divinity due to being half human and half Cylon, but little Nicky has hardly been mentioned. Moore and company went with an Occam's Razor solution and Tyrol isn't really the kid's father. It will be interesting if Galen continues to act as Nicky's dad now that Hot Dog has been revealed as his real father. Maybe they'll pull double duty, which their scene in sickbay seems to indicate.

Tyrol has some great moments during the briefing with Adama, Lee, Tigh, Gaeta, and Helo. He keeps having identity issues when referring to the Cylons. He stumbles over "them" and "we". The biggest impact of this scene is that the rebel Cylons want to join the fleet with full membership plus a seat at Quorum. In return, they will refit FTL drives of all the colonial ships with Cylon technology. This will triple their jump range, allowing the fleet to find a new home much faster.

The scene between Starbuck and Gaeta was extremely intense. He's got a lot reasons to hold a grudge against her. Keeping with her character and the fact that she's still reeling from having to dispose of her own corpse, she doesn't take any of his crap. Between the "Face of the Enemy" webisodes and these last two hours, Felix is without a doubt being set up to facilitate a civil war within the fleet. His partnering up with Tom Zarak seals his fate. This is not going to end well for the one-legged officer.

Once again, Battlestar Galactic gives us another hour of sophisticated television that we can mull over for a week until the next episode. With only eight more shows to go, there continues to be a feeling that anything can happen and anyone is expendable. With Earth now out of the equation, there's no telling how this series will wrap up.

8 out of 10