Before you go in looking to review something like the webisodes, you really have to put yourself in the right frame of mind.

It’s going to be filler. There is not going to be any revelations, anything that significantly advances the storyline, or anything of the sort. Anything like that will be saved for real episodes of the series. The best you can hope for is taking some underdeveloped characters and bringing some new semblance of life to them.

In that vein, these webisodes did a good job conceptually, and briefly of filling the gap between “Lay Down Your Burdens Part II” and “Occupation”. The problem, is that there is so much story left untold, that these webisodes barely scratch the surface and the viewer is left with a “why bother?” feeling.

Although, to be fair, while waiting for season three to begin and with no new BSG upcoming, I could see how these could at least have been entertaining at the time, but a SecondView renders them as practically obsolete.

The resistance is forming on New Caprica. This is in no way earth shattering news, and to see the beginning is intriguing enough. You also know that Tigh will be involved, given his standing as highest ranking military officer, but in reality. After his disastrous run aboard the Galactica while Adama was incapacitated, why would anyone think that following Tigh’s lead was a good idea?

The story weaves it’s way mostly around Tigh, Tyrol, Cally, and Jean Barolay (From Caprica’s Resistance) forming the resistance and trying to recruit Jammer and Duck. Duck does hate the Cylons still, going so far as to saying that anyone who works for the Cylons in the newly organized New Caprica Police, are traitors. Duck doesn’t want to join because of he’s trying to live with his wife and hopefully have a child. Of course the Chief doesn’t accept that as he has a wife and a kid.

Jammer also is hesitant, but mostly out of what he sees is collateral damage. When the resistance wants to hide weapons in the temple, he balks out of what he sees as being blasphemous.

The Cylons discover the weapons cache and end up killing ten innocent people including Duck’s wife, causing turmoil about. Duck becomes physically ill and gets introspective before joining the New Caprica Police. He tells Tyrol that an informant must have tipped off the Cylons, and maybe he could find out who if working on the inside.

Tigh, in his oh so sociable way talks about how it’s a good thing. That massacre led to over a hundred and fifty new recruits. Propaganda is key after all. Jammer calls him out on it but TIgh shoots him down.

Jammer gets taken in and interrogated about the Temple, before a Number Five offers him the opportunity to stop the blood shed. Giving him a key card, he is told that he could tell the Cylons anytime blood might be shed and it might just save them.

This was probably the most evocative of the webisodes as Number Five masterfully weaves the web of how the resistance is evil, and that though the Centurions massacred the people, it is the resistance that caused the scene in the first place by hiding weapons in a holy place. He also brings up the good that has gone on in farming, and power plants through collaboration. For someone on the fence like Jammer was, it must have sounded pretty good.

He doesn’t say anything at first but does accept the key card. After the resistance plans to hide a bunch of explosives in a grain silo next to a hospital, Jammer is again upset at the possible collateral damage. But Tigh shoots him down again and Jammer leaves.

The only thing this webisode did for me was to reinforce how flawed a character Tigh really is. There is little redeeming to the man, and it makes less and less sense that Adama trusts him so much….but as I said before, we shouldn’t expect much from this filler.

C-

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