We all lose people. And how we deal with that loss shows what they meant to us, and, really, who we are in the end, as this episode of Battlestar shows us.
1. Billy Keikeya
Billy is a boy, whoops, I mean man, thrust into a position of power as Chief of Staff to President Roslin following the original Cylon attack. Over time, he proves himself to be capable and intelligent and begins to assert himself in his position of power, which makes Roslin proud, as she’s come to view Billy as family. It seems Billy’s defining feature is being a nice guy. He fits the mold. And he’s been dating Dee for what seems like a short period of time, so when he presents her with his high school debate team ring, and tells her he loves her, so naive, I assumed it was some sort of promise ring, even this second time around. Whoops. Nope. He was proposing. And Dee denies him, flat out. Ouch. But what really stings in all of this is when Dee goes on a date with Lee Adama on Cloud 9 immediately afterwards and tells him all about the incident with Billy. I mean, I get it. Lee is the dangerous one, but can’t a good guy get the girl?
2. Hostages
The Cylons make for quality bad guys. They’re machines. They’re of mankind’s own creation. They’ve committed genocide. Almost makes you sympathize with the main hostage taker in this episode, Sesha Abinell. Almost. Her husband was killed in a recent Cylon attack, and she wants her revenge. Turns out, she’s convinced herself the Cylons have infiltrated all facets of the military, including Galactica, especially including Sharon Valerii, to whom Sesha has turned all of her anger; Sharon is who she wants in exchange for the hostages she’s taken aboard the Cloud 9 lounge, who conveniently include Ellen Tigh, Lee Adama, as well as Dee and Billy, apres awkward confrontation after Billy spies Dee and Lee on a date. The kind of awkwardness where I pull the blanket up over half my face so only my eyeballs are showing. Can I watch people being shot? Yes. Awkward romantic confrontations? No. Those make me cringe.
3. Starbuck
No episode would be complete without an unbelievable Starbuck win or a royal Starbuck fuckup. Wouldn’t you know she’s conveniently on Cloud 9 looking for some R&R, which I can’t really picture Starbuck enjoying. What’s she doing? Getting a pedicure and a massage? Not likely. But, luckily for her, there’s a hostage situation and Commander Adama needs her to lead a force of Marines to extract the hostages, but in a weird, uncharacteristic blunder, she blows the rescue operation. Or maybe this is just an extension from last episode. Maybe this is why she’s off getting some R&R. Starbuck has been knocked off her pedestal and she hasn’t climbed back up yet, and this is just another example of her literally crawling on the ground, trying to get back up there. While she’s on the ground, firing at the hostage-takers, she makes a mistake, she shoots Lee. Friendly fire, as she confesses to Adama. If Starbuck is anything, she is honest.
4. Can we fight our humanity?
We’ve seen Commander Adama refer to pregnant Sharon Vallerii as “that thing” throughout numerous prior episodes this season. But things are beginning to change; he’s been calling her Sharon, a change not missed by his XO and friend Saul Tigh. What is it that’s changed for Adama? Sharon has given the Commander some information that has saved the Galactica and the fleet numerous times, but she won’t give him the names of Cylons embedded in the fleet. She’s still part of a race of machines hell bent on eradicating the human race from the universe. Tigh reminds Adama this is not the Sharon he once knew, and the Commander assures his XO he knows that, but is it bigger than that for Adama. The Cylons are the children of the human race. Does Adama see Sharon as an individual, not as a part of a whole? Is that what humans are programmed to do? Is that what gives us our humanity? Is this something that Adama doesn’t quite recognize yet in himself?
Continued below5. Who is making the sacrifice?
As Dee and Billy are on the floor, desperately attempting to quell the blood flowing from Lee’s chest, Dee sees Billy thinking about going for a gun. She’s military, she’s trained, and she tells Billy he’s not and not to think about it. But what does a good guy do? When he has the chance, Billy goes for a hostage-taker’s gun, uses it, but is shot himself. And while Galactica’s Marines storm in and kill Sesha and her men, who are fighting for what they believe in, Billy makes the ultimate sacrifice in taking down one of the men. Adama made the choice to give Sesha a decoy Sharon, putting the life of every hostage in danger, including his own son, because negotiating with terrorists is an absolute no-go. Doing so only opens the door to other terrorists. Now the president has lost the only person she considers family for the greater good. And we see Dee more concerned with Lee’s recovery than with Billy’s death. But Adama and wins, the terrorists are taken down, and the hostages recovered. But he still has the existence of Sharon Vallerii to contend with, and the fact that the fleet knows of her existence.
In the end, loss shows us who is truly important, and it seems Starbuck has again been shown how important Lee is to her.
