After the boxing episode, I was a doubter. I thought Battlestar Galactica was heading to Turdville on a bullet train. But Friday's awesome mid-season finale "The Eye of Jupiter" did more than mollify me. It was a nearly perfect episode, full of freaky encounters between the Cylon and the humans, as well as some hot Starbuck-on-Apollo action. Going deep into Cylon society this season has been a risky proposition because it could have led to a simplistic "our enemies are just like us" resolution. As the Cylon become more sympathetic on BSG, however, the situation is delightfully ambiguous. In "Eye," we're starting to see what it looks like when the humans and Cylon have to negotiate as equals rather than play the cat-and-mouse in space game. Plus, I loved how the giant thingy-thing in the temple looked like a huge Cray computer. (Warning: spoilers ahead.)
In search of a religious artifact that may point the way to Earth,
the Cylon and humans have converged on the same algae-encrusted planet.
Desperate to get the widget, the Cylon offer Adama Baltar in exchange– knowing that Adama and Tigh would love to break Baltar's head open.
I loved this whole sequence because it underscored the way ex-presidentBaltar has become everybody's butt boy, a pawn in some incomprehensibleCylon game. It was a nice echo of another scene where D'Anna and Baltaressentially break up with Caprica. Essentially, D'Anna tells Capricathat Baltar is now her little toy, and Baltar looks sort of helplessand mumbles a lot. He's like the imprisoned princess who has to sleepwith powerful politicians to secure her future. Meanwhile, Baltar'scounterpart on the human ship – the Sharon Cylon – has a strangemeeting with her own people when Boomer tells her that hybrid baby Herais still alive. What we've got here is a very rich and well-writtenset of encounters between humans and Cylon that shows how the twopeoples are changing and possibly heading towards hybridizationthemselves.
The other great part of this episode, as I said earlier, was the Starbuck/Apollo makeout fest. What I love about Starbuck is that she's very macho, a total jock, and she treats sex accordingly. She wants to fool around with Apollo because he's pretty, but she has no intention of ending her marriage over it. It's just "bending the rules," as she says. Meanwhile, Apollo is a big softie and can't deal with his feelings for Starbuck so he stops the steamy encounter. Obviously they're both being total idiots in some sense, but it's fun to see a horny girl jock and a romantic boy instead of the usual, boring Leia/Han Solo "whiny chick pines for brusque pilot" scenario.
So the cliffhanger wasn't exactly cliffy – obviously they're not going to kill Starbuck – but I'm still psyched to see what happens when Sharon visits Hera, D'Anna kills herself again, and Starbuck has to recover (yet again!) from a horrible injury.
