Galactica: “The Oath” is Broken. Damnit Felix!
Any Galactica fans not shaking mad after The Oath probably are severely misguided about the show’s vision. Before I start going off about this week’s episode let me give a big Frakkin’ THANKS SCI-FI for pretty much making the cliffhanger moot by immediately launching into the preview for next week’s episode which lets us know that President Roslin’s shuttle makes it, Tigh dies, and Adama is captured. Obviously the Sci-Fi Channel knows that viewers don’t want to be bothered being kept in suspense for an entire seven days.
As I’ve been lurking through various forums over the past week there seems to be a clear split amongst fans over the events that are unfolding on the show. While I feel that the clear majority are with Adama and Human-Cylon alliance plans, there does seem to be a poor contingent, the aforementioned “misguided” few that seem to think that Zarek and Gaeta are supposed to be the good guys now.
My initial response to this is, as Penn & Teller so eloquently would say, BULLSHIT! If after The Oath you feel this way, you are probably one of these “Ends Justify the Means” type of people. While it’s certainly arguable that the alliance may be hastily considered and a mistake, certainly you can see that the murder of innocent people, Zarek’s now open bloodlust, and this potential race-destructing rebellion are just plain wrong.
We could see in Gaeta’s face that he is slowly coming to the realization that this is not what he expected. Zarek’s unsurprising disappointment that they did not execute Adama on the bridge should show that this action initiated by Zarek is simply a power play and really has nothing to do at all with opposition or agreement with the alliance. And what a supreme disappointment in Gaeta as well when his moment of truth came and he fails the test by deciding to order the destruction of the President’s shuttle.
So those of you that still think Zarek and Gaeta are the new heroes of Galactica, see a therapist immediately. We may share a love for Battlestar Galactica, but yer frakkin’ crazy.
For the record, I would say that The Oath was one of the most expertly constructed and paced episodes since the series began. As the story unfolds we begin to see that the roots of the conspiracy are a bit more widespread than we might have thought. We are taken in to complete despair as the bridge is captured, played the other way as we see Adama’s escape and Roslin’s address to the fleet and just as we start to think that there may be hope that things are coming back into hand, the rug is pulled out from under us again at the end as Adama and Tigh are pinned in a suicide stand and things look even bleaker than they did 60 minutes previously. If this is any indication of how this show is going to go out over the next 8 episodes I’m up for it. Brilliant work.
And so my weekly state of Galactica summary
• Starbuck gets her shots in. I hate needless violence, but Godsdamn it was good to see Starbuck drill some bullets through some people. Love the blood splats on Lee’s face as she executes the traitor. She has a bone to pick, and I have a feeling that Gaeta’s reckoning may come at the hands of Ms. Sackoff’s character in the coming week or two.
• Roslin grows some testicles, so to speak. Finally, President Laura “just let me die in peace” Roslin realizes that if she hadn’t gone to pieces and given up power after the Earth debacle this whole thing could have been avoided. Is her slap of reality too little too late? Looks like Mary McDonnell has some awesome yelling scenes next week from the preview. Bring on the bitch!
• Tigh Prediction. If the preview mention that Tigh dies in the assault isn’t a red herring, then at least the death of one of the best characters on television won’t be in vein. A Cylon giving his life to defend the President of the colonies and the Admiral of the fleet should go a long way to earning some trust with the unwashed human masses that don’t know what’s right anymore.
• This Week’s Spinoff Idea: Battlestar Galactica: Love Boat. After the conclusion of the series and the remnants of the Human and Cylon races are settled together on some planet that’s not too terrible, Galactica is refitted as a luxury cruise ship where Cylons and Humans take glorious vacations together to help stimulate the re-population of the races. Tigh (who didn’t die after all) takes command of Galactica while all sorts of crazy romantic misadventures happen. Tyrol becomes the ship’s crazy, fun-loving bartender and Starbuck becomes Cruise-Director where she is famous for pistol whipping any passengers when they get out of hand at ship-board events. In the pilot episode, an aging Charo boards the Love Battlestar in an attempt to find a Cylon to fall in love with. Several passengers fall ill after a wacky misunderstanding that causes her to be locked out of her cabin naked. Sam Anders becomes athletic director on the ship and creates a Pyramid League.
Oh well, no real entertainment until Sunday. Maybe they can get Anders to come in and play wide receiver for the Cardinals. They may need all the help they can get.
Technorati 
Del.icio.us 
StumbleUpon 
Digg 
Facebook 
Mixx 
Reddit
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
2 Responses to “Galactica: “The Oath” is Broken. Damnit Felix!”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
January 31st, 2009 at 9:18 pm
I’m going to have to rewatch that preview because I missed Tigh being dead and if that is the case then I think it really fucking sucks. If the Admiral ends up dead then I’ll be pretty fucking pissed at that too.
One thing that was really surprising to me was Lee’s attitude with Tigh.
February 1st, 2009 at 7:48 am
Lee historically has always placed loyalty above his own feelings and opinions, while it was a bit of curve to hear that he personally has serious problems with the Cylons that this he is still doing what he things is the right thing. I think the only reason that the viewer can really trust the rebel Cylons is that we’ve had the fortune of seeing the show from the Cylon POV as well as the humans. We know that the rebel Cylons are Machina-non-grata with Cavil and the other Cylons. We KNOW that they really did give up their ability to resurrect with the destruction of the resurrection ship. We KNOW that the final 5 did not know they were Cylons until a few months earlier and we know how conflicted they are about it.
None of the humans, including Lee and Big Adama have no reason whatsoever to implicitly trust or believe any of it.