A look back on Battlestar Galactica’s incredible episodes and arcsBy Matthew Martin| July 2, 2020 TV Blogs Previous Page SPOILERS ARE HERE! NEW CAPRICA ARC – 10/10 Lay Down Your Burdens part one – 9/10 Lay Down Your Burdens part two – 10/10 Occupation – 10/10 Precipice – 10/10 Exodus part one – 9/10 Exodus part two – 10/10 Collaborators – 10/10 The end of season two and the first quarter of season three constitute the “New Caprica” arc, one which features surprising story decisions, including the election of Baltar as President, a shocking time-jump, a new Cylon plan, the realigning of various characters’ relationships, and most of all: Lee Adama getting fat. Let it never be said that BSG didn’t dare to have bold shake-ups. Shooting the old man and taking him out for multiple episodes was shocking. Introducing a second Battlestar was shocking. Everything about the New Caprica arc is beyond shocking. What’s best about it, though, is that it doesn’t forget to be allegorical. It doesn’t forget to explore the human condition. At the same time, while it’s debating the ethics of things like “suicide bombing” and “collaborating with the enemy to help the allies,” it also doesn’t forget to be riveting drama and pulse-pounding action. The famed “bucket drop” scene (also known as “The Adama Maneuver”) is the cherry on top of one of the most intense sequences in the show (or any show for that matter)… Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Maybe my favorite thing to come out of this arc is how it solidifies Tom Zarek as a man of principle. Even if you don’t like all of his principles all of the time, if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself on his side more than twice. He went from being Baltar’s VP to being a prisoner because he refused to strike a deal with the Cylons. He’s not just a villain in it for power, or glory, or anything else so two dimensional. More on him later. The arc ends with everyone back on Galactica, but also everyone forever changed by the horrors they experienced on the planet. The focus on Gaeta as the scapegoat for the survivor’s rage and desire for justice is a wonderful seed planted that won’t be watered until the show is nearly ended. But when that seed sprouts, hoo baby. More on him later. Torn – 9/10 A Measure of Salvation – 9/10 In the aftermath of the New Caprica arc, it’s not just the humans who have to come to grips with what happened. The Cylons do too, and their new chapter begins with this two-parter, focused on a virus that threatens to wipe them out. The plot allows the story to ape TNG’s “I, Borg” but in this case, the decision is to go ahead with genocide, albeit with the President and Admiral knowing it’s wrong and being willing to bear the guilt of it. That’s a nice spin on the story, and marks their obvious difference from someone like Picard, who proudly refused to wipe out the Borg with Hugh and went on with his life without any thought for the ramifications. Of course, the plan fails because Helo plays the role of Picard, proudly refusing to go along with the orders because it’s not right. What I love the most is that Helo suffers no consequences. Adama knew genocide was wrong, he just didn’t have the courage to do what Helo did. Hero – 6/10 = Pass. Unfortunately, you can’t skip this one entirely because, while the A-plot featuring Bulldog is bad and even mildly infuriating with how it tries to rewrite Adama’s history, the B-plot with the Cylons is both intriguing and critical to the upcoming Eye of Jupiter arc. If there were a way to take the B-plot and attach it to “The Passage” you could skip this one with no repercussions. Unfinished Business – 9/10 = As with “Pegasus,” the extended version of the episode is the way to go. This is an oft-debated show in the series, with some hating it and others loving it. I’m in the latter category because I love the way it closes the door officially on New Caprica, shows a glimpse of the kind of happy life that was almost had, and lets our characters come to grips with how their hopes were cruelly ripped away from them. That’ll happen again soon enough, but here at least there’s enough life left in the fleet for some catharsis to occur. EYE OF JUPITER ARC – 9/10 The Passage – 8/10 The Eye of Jupiter – 9/10 Rapture – 10/10 The “Eye of Jupiter Arc” is another big, mythos-advancing arc in the show, albeit the weakest of them all. Nothing here is bad, mind you, but it lacks a lot of the sense of urgency that the Kobol arc or the New Caprica arc had. The Passage introduces us to the Algae planet, though the focus is on the journey to get there and the sacrifice of Kat to make it possible. I enjoyed her moments with Starbuck and the Admiral and her need to prove herself. What I didn’t enjoy was the contrived backstory. It was too much like Hero. Cut that out, replace it with the B-story from Hero, and you improve the quality of season three big time. As for the two-parter than follows, it works to plant the seeds relating to the Final Five, and really sets the stage for the final season. As world-building goes, it’s really good stuff. Rapture in particular is excellent. There are great parts here, but the sum of them are just a hair underwhelming. Taking a Break from All Your Worries – 6/10 = The episode is a mess. Edward James Olmos directed both this and “Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down,” and both suffer from the same problem: Good ideas lost to bad tone. The Baltar interrogation is bizarre. The subplot with the bar is listless. The dissolving of Lee and Kara’s marriages plays out without much to react to, despite caring so much about the characters involved. SOLO STORIES ARC – 7/10 The Woman King – 7/10 A Day in the Life – 7/10 Dirty Hands – 8/10 Okay, so these three aren’t an arc by any stretch, but they go together, ironically, for that very reason. These three are stand-alone stories that each focus on a particular character (Helo, Adama, Tyrol). Their quality is not up to the standard of the rest of the show, largely because the stakes in each episode are non-existent. I like all three, but I also recognize that all three are expendable for the most part. We already know Helo is a man of conscience. We don’t need “The Woman King” to spend 45 minutes telling us that. Likewise, we don’t need to get to know Adama’s dead wife, go back over their failed marriage, and see how much he’s found something better with Laura (though neither are prepared to admit it yet). And we don’t need to spend a whole episode on worker’s rights, though I would argue of the three that’s the most needed, as it at least offers a good allegory for viewers to reflect on. This is still science-fiction. The fact is, though, these three episodes exist because the Sci-Fi Network ordered twenty episodes for the third season. Had this been on HBO or a streaming network (years later) the season would have been 10-15 episodes, leaner, meaner, better overall. That being said, all three are good one-offs. I can’t say that about “Black Market” or half of “Hero.” I’m not going to complain about “just good” BSG episodes. KARA THRACE AND HER SPECIAL DESTINY ARC – 10/10 4 Maelstrom – 10/10 The Son Also Rises – 9/10 6 Crossroads part one – 10/10 6 Crossroads part two – 10/10 While season three might have dragged a bit in the second half, when comparing it to the first two seasons, the final four episodes of the year close things out with a bang and lay the foundation for the final season to come. The trial of Gaius Baltar serves as the big picture story, while the death of Kara Thrace and the torturous struggle of Lee Adama to come to grips with it provide the meaty character stuff. Once again BSG goes big before a finale. The Hand of God had a finale-sized battle in season one, then Epiphanies cured Laura’s cancer in season two, but here…Killing Starbuck with three episodes to go before the finale takes the cake. Keeping her dead for the remainder of the season (but for the last minute) was the boldest of bold moves. They played it perfectly. Bring her back to start season four and you look desperate. Bring her back the next episode after she dies and it’s just a stunt. Wait till the final moments of the season and it’s a perfectly played hand. As for the trial, credit to the writers for giving Jaime Bamber a speech that convinced me (who knows all Baltar’s secrets) that he deserved to be set free. Credit Bamber for delivering it perfectly, too. That final moment of part two is what will stay with me, though. The whole two-part finale was magical, really, with All Along the Watchtower being such a bizarre idea that worked better than it ever should have, followed by the zoom out and discovery of earth. What a…not a cliffhanger, but a “what now?” ending.
