“Islanded in the Stars”

Two episodes left after this one..and still we’re crawling to the finish. So much should be happening and yet we are crawling along at a glacial pace. And then to top it all off we have melodrama galore!

With Galactica dying, Admiral Adama has to slowly come to the realization that they will have to abandon her. The ship, the thing he loves most, even more than Roslin as she states. What’s worse is the plan to make the Cylon Basestar the new flagship of the fleet. Of course this goes over like the proverbial ton of bricks.

This could have been a good throughline except there are two problems. One, this invention of the Galactica suddenly being THIS delapitated make it hard to believe. Two. Edward James Olmos’ peformance. Normally I think he is a fine actor, but over the top doesn’t begin to describe it. Especailly during a breakdown in his command quarters as he throws paint everywhere and breaks down like a child. It just was ridiculous. If done subtly it could have been a very powerful moment, but it is robbed of it’s dignity. BSG just doesn’t do subtle anymore and that is to the series’ detriment.

The other brief storyline is Helo trying to save his child and repair his now broken marriage by trying to convince Adama to let him fly off in a Raptor to find her. It’s glossed over and quietly moved on with.

There is a lot of other mishmash throughout that doesn’t really amount to much. Lee fronting the Council who is ready to vulture the Galactica and in what should be a huge deal, but is somewhat lacking is Boomer getting Hera to Cavil. The only matter of importance is that Boomer connects with Hera who can join with Cylon projecting. It might be important, but the way the series is going it might just be a one off.

Finally, there is Starbuck and to a lesser extent Sam. Sam is plugged in like a hybrid and talks like one as he is rebooting. He spouts out many childlike cliches and eventually some repeated notions such as the famous ‘this has all happened before, it will all happen again’ and ‘kara thrace is the harbinger of death, she will lead them to their end’.

But that’s not the problem. The problem is her confession of what she found on Earth to Baltar. Baltar? Baltar sees angels and that’s enough for Starbuck to divulge. When Baltar does some tests, he uses the result that it is Starbuck’s dead body, as an announcement that there is life after death.

Beyond that Starbuck’s little pathetic scene with Lee who accepts her anyways and her putting her picture up on the death wall. It just had no effect.

The show better have a helluva finale because this wasn’t an abomination, it was almost worse in that it was boring.

D+

Previous – 4.17

Next – 4.19