“Sine Qua Non”

Wow. What a hunk of junk. I could almost end my review there but I don’t think that would do this episode justice. It is a full on mess of everything wrong with Battlestar Galactica.

Admiral Adama has never seemed such an incompeteny leader that his absolute disaster of Tigh to take over for him actually almost seems like a good idea. Who the hell is this Bill Adama?

The only good part of the epsiode happens when the fleet assumes that he basestar jumped because Athena killed the Natalie-6. That made logical sense and it was a good opening. Furthermore Zarek’s attempt to take over the presidency, which was by right his was also spot on. Even Adama’s initial reluctance to legitimize Zarek as president is spot on given their differences and Adama’s obvious loyalty to Roslin.

It’s the length that Adama goes to completely shut him out. And it’s not as if the Delegates are trying to do something that Adama doesn’t want to, he just bypasses them for no good reason other than he doesn’t like Zarek. What?

Dr. Cottle tries to operate on Natalie Six to no avail. Well at least we know some people can die from two shots at point blank range.

The next sequence is…laughable to be honest. Adama vs. Athena where Adama takes out all his frustrations on Athena. He’s quick to believe Roslin’s visions and Starbuck’s visions, but Athena’s are ridiculous. He claims she broke his trust and that she is to go back to the brig. It all seemed like overdramatic acting.

As Adama makes it back to the CIC, we hear that the resurrection hub has jumped as the basestars have as well. Adama demands they continue looking for the hub as that will lead them to the basestar.

Tigh reports that Starbuck is having trouble fielding a complete squadron to protect the fleet so she suggests that the ships fly in tighter formation despite the problem with untrained civilian pilots. Adama agrees.

Apollo asks Zarek to step down as they need someone Adama will support. Zarek is upset and rightfully so. Why should the government bow to the whims of Adama? It further makes Adama look like a dictator and a selfish character. But that’s par for this epsiode.

Apollo goes to Lampkin to help him find the right candidate. Why? I guess they worked well on Baltar’s trial but it still doesn’t make much sense.

Adama notes that Tigh has a rapport with their prisoner Six and that he should attempt to interrogate her. He tries but once again she turns into Ellen briefly before Tigh grabs her by the neck and tells her that the mindgames are over. Tigh is called back to the CIC for a Condition One.

One of the missing raptors from the basestar has jumped to the fleet but won’t respond to communications. Racetrack and Skulls pilot a raptor to search and rescue and discover Pike’s dead body within. After retrieving the Raptor, Adama discovers a copy of the book he gave Roslin, slightly burned, confirming that it was the Raptor that Roslin took over.

They recovered the coordinates from where the Raptor jumped from, and Adama orders the Galactica to jump there, leaving the Fleet in the lurch and ignoring Zarek’s request for a briefing.

Apollo and Lampkin see the Galactica fly off suddenly and Apollo is shocked.

The Galactica jumps into the middle of a debris field. Fragments indicate resurrection technology and radiation signatures indicate nuclear weapons. Now maybe I’m wrong, but what resurrection technology has the Fleet studied to tell what it indicates?

Adama insists that the rebels must have lived so they are to search for clues as to where they jumped next. Tigh notes that the Fleet is unprotected. Adama comes to semi-reason and leaves only four raptors behind to continue the search “until they find something concrete”.

Ok, so we get it. Adama loves Roslin. And it’s not as if he hasn’t put the fleet in jeopardy to help individuals before, but it just seems overdramatic and even more insanely committed this time if that makes sense.

Apollo and Lampkin come up with a list of names but none of them fit their needs. Apollo kicks over an empty cat food dish, causing him to ask Lampkin if he ever feeds the cat, and where is he anyways. Lampkin doesn’t answer as he watches Lance run underneath the desk. Lampkin grows frustrated and erases the names.

While Adama asks Cottle about what the break in her treatment will do to Roslin’s cancer, Cottle informs him that Caprica Six is pregnant.

Furious Adama calls Tigh out in his quarters, yelling at him about judgment, while Tigh rightfully lays into Adama about his judgment in the Roslin search. Par for the course, it gets overdramatic to the point of the absurd and Adama and Tigh have a playground brawl, until Tigh falls on Adama’s model ship, forcing his quip, “Do you know how many times I’ve had to fix this”. They both settle down and wonder how they are going to deal with their respective women.

Sigh. That’s what BSG has been reduced to.

Adama goes on to order Starbuck to continue the search with more raptor. She respectfully disagrees, saying that they don’t have the ship power. Again Adama ignores his friends and tells her it’s not a request. Lampkin comes in with some writs of forfeiture, for Adama to sign, relieving the civilian ship’s captains of any wrongdoing during the rescue operation. Lampkin seems to reach Adama in a way that no one has, but then makes the mistake of saying while Zarek may not be ideal, he’s far from the worst choice.

Adama shuts off at that moment.

Lampkin returns to his quarters obviously distressed and he grabs the board writing the name that he professes everyone knew he had to get to eventually, especially Lee…and especially the audience for that matter to. He grabs the bag the cat has been known to travel with Lampkin in, and storm out. The dry erase board shows the name…

Lee Adama. Well I predicted this one a while back, but I am very dissatisfied with how it was done. Oh well.

Lampkin confronts Apollo saying he knew all along that it had to be him and that he used Lampkin to come to the same conclusion. He then says Apollo will never serve though, and pulls a gun on him. He yells at Apollo to open the bag. Apollo does and it seems that Lance has been dead for weeks at the hands of, “those debased dregs of humanity”. Lance was his last connection to his dead wife. Apollo is able to talk Lampkin down and promises to make a difference.

This whole sequence was confusing and ridiculous and in one foul swoop ruined Lampkin’s character. I just don’t care about him now. I understand kind of what they were going for, but I don’t get why Lampkin wanted to shoot Apollo.

Apollo is sworn in as president.

Then everything that was bad…just got worse.

Adama resigns as military leader, finally realizing his obsession with Roslin is endangering the fleet. Ok so let’s start here. One major thrust of the episode is to find a president that Adama can support and work with.

And then he resigns, negating the whole reason Apollo was sworn in.

Ok then, to make things worse, even acknowledging his utter failure in a previous attempt, Adama hand picks Tigh to run the fleet in his absence.

What? Wasn’t it quite clear that Tigh couldn’t do it before? Oh but things have changed and Tigh is so much better.

I will admit the one line that is humorous in this sequence. Adama tells Tigh he’s finally found out who he is. Tigh’s expression is priceless.

But come on now. Really? Really Really?

And then furthermore, Adama is going to stay behind in a Raptor to continue the search on his own.

Sigh…I wanted to like where it was going, and hopefully next week’s episode will right the ship some more, but this drek was hard to watch. BSG has turned into an overdramatic caricature of itself

F

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