REVIEW: “He That Believeth In Me”

Okay so the new season of Battlestar Galactica is underway…there’s spills, chills, and the usual psycho-religious babble from all parties. An online reviewer said: “…it looks like it was the battle of the prophets with Roslin, Starbuck, and Baltar…” vying for the position of “most likely to not get everyone killed”.

So let’s let the review begin…if you don’t wanna hear any spoilers…quit reading the transcript or stop the podcast right now…

So we start this episode right where the season finale left off last year…

[APOLLO: No...no-no this is frakking crazy! I saw your ship blow up! STARBUCK: ‘Fraid not...did you not hear me? I've been to Earth. APOLLO: Earth? STARBUCK: Big blue oceans, fluffy white clouds...you're gonna love it.]

But meanwhile everything on the Galactica is not calm and collected as Roslin and Adama struggle to verify who she really is.

[GAETA: Sir, checking for Colonial recognition codes... ADAMA: Get Lee online! DUALA: I'm trying sir. GAETA: I'm picking up her signature! HELO: It's her voice all right... ROSLIN: Hold on, hold on...It is a trick. ADAMA: Duplicate verification! GAETA: Checking...]

In a tense moment Saul Tigh who we learned last season is in fact one of the Final Five Cylons has a moment where he sees himself shooting Adama in the head…

[ADAMA: I want everything they can fly up there...Saul. Saul! What the hell is wrong with you? SAUL: Nothing Bill, never felt better in my life (gun shot)]

While on the flight deck Anders is about to join the battle but has a quick exchange with Chief Tyrol about whether or not he’s prepared for combat.

[ANDERS: This is crazy! What if I get up there and a switch flips in my head and turns me against my own!? TYROL: Frak is wrong with you! Shut up! Remember what the Colonel said okay? Think of that! Be the man you wanna be till they tell you don't-- ANDERS: Lot easier said than done ‘cause I don't what the frak I am right now! TYROL: Your Samuel T Anders that's all you gotta remember, Samuel T. Anders, now get the FRAK in your ship!]

Anders joins the fight only to be scanned by an enemy and seemingly is recognized as a Cylon…whether or not his position as one of the Final Five gives him an edge, the entire Cylon fleet calls off the attack…

[GAETA: Sir the Cylon strikeforce has just turned back to their ships! Base Ships are spinning up!? TIGH: They're pulling out? ADAMA: Let's do the same damn thing before they change their mind--Helo! Have our fighters cover our withdrawal. HELO: Yes sir! All fighters assume rear cover formation-- TIGH: They had us. Game over. Why the hell did they let us go? FOSTER: Maybe something's changed. ROSLIN: Like what? TIGH: I have no idea, madam President. No idea.]

All of this…before the intro. Adama wastes no time getting Starbuck under observation as soon as she gets on board.

[ADAMA: Starbuck! STARBUCK: I did it boss. I found Earth (laugh). ADAMA: Everybody move back. OFFICER: Detail post! Move in! Step away! ADAMA: I need you in sickbay. Collin's gonna give youa complete physical examination. STARBUCK: Okay what the hell's going on? I'm off this ship for a few hours and everybody--ANDERS: Few hours?! Kara you were gone for over two months. STARBUCK: That's impossible. My ship's clock reads six hours and change. APOLLO: Then your clocks wrong Kara. Sam's telling you the truth. We thought you were dead]

On the other side of the coin, Gaius discusses with Number Six, the one in his head, how preposterous is present situation as cut leader to a band of misguided women is…

[SIX: Today you're free, why the long face? BALTAR: Oh gee I don't know. From President of the Colonies to this...King of fools. Probably best to be hated by everyone then loved by this lot. Doomed to live out the rest of my life in this loony bin.]

Elsewhere an exhausted Kara Thrace is being grilled by Roslin, Adama, and Apollo about what happened during the missing months…

[ROSLIN: Let's go through it again. STARBUCK: How many times do you wanna hear it? ROSLIN: As many times as it takes to make sense. STARBUCK: I followed a heavy raider into the storm, took some hits, passed out, when I came to I was orbiting this planet. It's yellow moon and star matches the description in Pythia. I took these pictures in orbit. The star patterns match, what we saw in the tomb of Athena.]

With her story seeming less and less credible, things don’t look good for Starbuck. Then of course there’s the issue of her viper…

[TYROL: I had my crew clean it up. There's not a ding or a scratch on it. It's got the same tail number as the one she flew out on. But I've been fixing up that old bird since day one and this thing looks like it's been rolled off the showroom floor. ROSLIN: So it's not the same ship? TYROL: Unless she found a helluva body shop out there, no ma'am it's not.]

When the Final five meet up to discuss things, its questions all around…

[TIGH: Is anybody still hearing that frakking song? TYROL: Maybe it stopped when we figured out who...what we are. FOSTER: Could have been some kind of trigger...to switch us on. ANDERS: Y'know after that raider scanned me with that...red light...damn thing just cut and ran. TIGH: They all did. TYROL: You think he recognized you as a Cylon? ANDERS: I don't know. Maybe that's why he didn't shoot me. More important, why didn't I shoot him? Maybe Stark was right, you just made a dumb nugget mistake. ANDERS: Did I? Maybe I was programmed to leave my gun safeties on. TIGH: Those bastards can't program me to help them. No way. TYROL: Boomer, thought the same thing. And then she shot the old man. TIGH: Boomer, didn't know what she was. We do! That is not gonna happen.]

Meanwhile President Roslin meets with Caprica Six in the brig and receives a startling revelation.

[SIX: The Five are close. ROSLIN: What? SIX: I can feel them.]

And on the bridge Starbuck struggles with the star maps to find Earth, when asked by Adama how “it” works [meaning her ability to find Earth] she says:

[STARBUCK: I didn't use nav fixes to get there and back. When we were at that nebula it was so clear to me but every jump we take farther away, the clarity fades. If we keep jumping like this I won't be able to find our way back. ADAMA: That'll be all. DUALA: All hands prepare for jump in 10-9- ADAMA: President's adamant. We're gonna continue on the course laid out by the Eye of Jupiter. DUALA: 5-4-3-2-Jump! STARBUCK: (gasp) We're going the wrong way! If we keep jumping like this I'm going to lose the feeling completely and never be able to take us back.]

Half the ship away in an abandoned cargo hold, Baltar’s cult sleeps while the newly appointed “prophet” of God struggles and finally has a selfless conversation with God.

[BALTAR: Please God, I only asking you this one last time. Don't let this child die. Has he sinned against you, he can't have sinned against you. He's not even had a life yet. How can you take him and let me live. After all I've done. Really, if you want someone to suffer, take me. We both know I deserve it. I'm selfish, and weak. I have failed so many people and I have killed. I'm not asking for your forgiveness. I'm just asking that you spare the life of this innocent child. Don't take it. Take me, take me please.]

A prayer that’s answered within the hour after Baltar and one of his “believers” are seemingly delivered from the hands of two would be assassins. While Kara decks away stares at her photo on the memorial wall. She struggles with Sam about the possibility that she might be a Cylon that they may have copied her while she was away. But when Sam tries to comfort her he is chilled by her response:

[ANDERS: No-no, hey no, Kara no, listen to me. If you were a Cylon, then you've been one from the beginning. STARBUCK: Like Boomer. Spend my entire life thinking I'm one thing-- ANDERS:Hey and then you wake up one day, and discover you're another. It still doesn't change who you really are. Still doesn't change the fact...that I love you, no matter what. STARBUCK: You are a better person then I am Sam because if I found out that you were a Cylon...I would put a bullet between your eyes.]

And of course it ends the way it ends…I won’t go that far, just in case you still haven’t seen the episode and desire to watch it. But it’s an ending that will leave you shouting at the TV and cursing the name of Ron Moore all the way…Overall I’d give it a solid 4 out of 4 stars. Let me know what you think by commenting on the main article or visiting our forum at forum.vulkon.com.

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The Music of ‘Heroes’

Ok -I’m not sure how enthusiastic I am. I mean ‘yes’ there are some serious artists on this soundtrack but in truth, what are we the fans interested in? The score right? It’s like when Warner Bros. put out the soundtrack to the first Batman movie. Did we get any of the over-the-top-and-in-your-face Danny Elfman stuff? Of course not! We got Prince’s Bat Dance.

So make you’re own call the soundtrack is available at Best Buy.

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