Graystone stock has dropped 29%. The scene is set 20 hours before something (but what? :) ). Philo has pity on the robot. He also notices that Cylon Zoe flinches when the other lab tech lights cigarette. In a tough, but not unexpected decision, Daniel sells the Caprica Bucs because they need the funds to produce 100,000 robots by next month.

At the STO meeting, Clarice told STO contacts that Barnabus no longer has STO sanction. Therefore, he can’t get any more arms. Clarice wants everyone to lie low for a little while to throw suspicion off them, but Barnabus (James Marsters)  wants to build a power base for violent attacks.  Clarice and her people jump him with their guns, but Barnabus’ men are armed too. Clarice tells Barnabus he can’t claim to be “chosen” by god because god chooses people after they die. Clarice and her people leave with the air very unclear.

::flashforward:: A van has been commandeered by Cylon prototype.

In a possible reference to current American politics, a story about Daniel stealing the chip is titled “Say it ain’t so.” Amanda is clearly still disturbed by the possibility that Daniel is a thief and is having flashbacks of her brother. In the background, we here a story about the history of bridge he died on, but it’s unclear whether she is watching or listening to a program or simply remembering. Amanda calls Clarice confides that she can’t talk to Daniel. They both have secrets from each other. Clarice really thinks Amanda should talk to him, but for her own motives involving Zoe’s avatar, not for Amanda’s mental health.

Lacy is trying to join STO so that she can secure the box for Zoe. The members of STO pray in an infinity circle made of candles. After the prayer session,  Barnabus offers a box with a green tag that’s exempt from inspections and will clear customs. However, this box comes with a deal. Barnabus demands that she does a “small, but important task.” Barnabus says that he wants to track Clarice; Lacy has to place a tracking device on her keys. After Lacy agrees, he says, “Welcome to MY cell.”

Joseph Adama has become addicted to the holoband. His secretary and Sam are taking care of him. The secretary clearly cares for Joseph because she tells Sam that they can’t just rip off the holoband because Joseph needs nourishing Tauron food and to be cared for.

V-world Zoe is still having a relationship with Philo. He doesn’t know she’s Zoe Graystone and likes her because she’s smart. She is still trying to convince him to take the robot out for a walk, but he still resists the idea. Then, it turns into a make-out session. The scene was oddly set in a bed on a lake.  At school, Lacy is staking out Sr. Clarice’s office. Once she leaves, Lacy rushes in and replaces her remote car key with the tracking device.

A military woman from the Procurement Department of the Department of Defense visits Graystone’s lab. He shows her all the tests that the prototype has passed, but she’s not satisfied because there is still only one Cylon. Daniel says that there will be 100,000 robots as promised, and she accuses him of having to reverse engineer stolen technology. Then, she says that they will be moving the deadline up to get results. In a forceful tone, she states that if he can’t do it by the next week, he can’t at all.

::flashforward:: Vipers in pursuit of the stolen van.

Philo wants to create a psyche profile, so that they can can take out the anamoles and copy the chip to create more robots, but says that this process will take months. Daniel decides to irridiate it, burn the chip clean to make a copy. Philo tries to resist, but is forced to out of fear of losing his job. In, V-world, Lacy says that they can’t load the Cylon in box for another week. Zoe gets angry because she’s gonna be destroyed and says Lacy is betraying her like she betrayed the real Zoe. But, before they can resolve anything, she gets pulled back into the robot.

Meanwhile! It’s Eros Day and daniel is cooking for Amanda. When Amanda walks in the kitchen, Daniel starts lamenting his hard choices. Amanda tells Daniel that he made her sane because she could always count on him. Then,she reveals that Vergis came by and told her that Daniel stole the chip.  Daniel responds,  ”It’s complicated.” Dissatisfied, Amanda leaves.

Joseph is a total addict. He’s now using an inhaler instead of drops to administer the sense-enhancing drugs in V-world. When he returns to his house in the virtual world, he finds Tamara. She tells him she doens’t want him following her because he’s killing himself and wasting his life. To put him out of his misery, she shoots herself then shoots Joeseph. Then screams, “I love you dad!” We finally find out that his mysterious v-world friend is also his secretary. She removes her holoband and goes to comfort him.

Zoe admits to Philo that she’s the robot and rachel and he’s the only one that cares about her. She corners him and says that her father trapped her in there after she died. He yells for help and freaks out. After panicking some more, he says that he’ll help her because he really doesn’t care what she looked like.However, when he goes to the computer, he starts to erase the program. Cylon Zoe freaks out and kills him by throwing him against a post. Not only is he dead, but he can’t tell anyone what the Cylon told him.

Zoeis having flashbacks as she drives the car away. On the scene of Philo’s death at the lab, Xander says robot percieved what he was doing as a threat so it defended itself. Daniel disagrees, but says they need to recover the robot to find out. Then, Xander says the project is lost because they lost control of the cylon. Across town, the military woman from procurement (who visited Daniel’s lab) tells Tomas he can have the company, the chip, and the Cylon project.

Amanda is looking at her scars on her wrists and walking in the dark. She sees the bridge that she’s been thinking about. Meanwhile, Cylone Zoe is having multiple flashbacks about her identity. She sees her dad saying, “It’s not a pet and definitely not a person” and Lacy saying “It’s Zoe.”

Lacy goes to Barnabus’ headquarters and says that she needs the box. She realizes she’s been part of Barnabus’ plan to kill Sr. Clarice. He is going blow her up with a bomb in her trunk so that they’ll think she was a terrorist. Barnabus declares that as far as Lacy’s concerned he is STO leadership, although Clarice was on her way to Gemenon to exile him from the group. Barnabus also reveals that Keone designed the bomb and is part of the plot.

Amanda stands by the edge of the bridge, taking off her ring and her high heels.

Over the Vipers’ radio, it’s announced that use of force authorized to disable vehicle, but not to harm the prototype.

Lacy tells Keone that he doesn’t have to do this. Barnabus takes the phone from him and gives it to lacy.He threatens shipment then quickly upgrades the threat to her life and then her life and Keone’s life. As they lose the feed of Clarice;s car, she sees Amanda on the bridge. Then Amanda is remembering her dead brother and Daniel’s innability to confide in her. In a fit of despair, she jumps. Lacy is in crisis at Barnabus’ headquarters. However, Clarice is out of the car when it blows up because Amanda was jumping.

Meanwhile, the guards run out of the way as Cylon Zoe speeds toward them in the van. Zoe keeps going, having multiple flashbacks, drives into the trucks and flips over, resulting in a firey crash.

At the Graystone home, Daniel answers the phone, “This is Graystone…”

This episode went in a million different directions at once. Lacy is about to sacrafice her life to save Cylon Zoe who is becoming more robot and less “human,” as she attempts to shut herself down (as she said in last week’s episode) and as her lack of control with Philo shows. Daniel is a somewhat ambivalent character. I think he’s being an asshole. He seemed to be ignoring his wife’s needs and I’m still upset about him psycologically torturing Zoe, but then again he said he had to “make hard decisions,” so perhaps he really does care for his robot daughter. Tamara did exactly what she should’ve done and left me wondering where her role will go from here. I thought perhaps she might also become a Cylon or play some part in developing the chip technology, but so far her influence has been limited to V-world. Amanda went fucking nuts. I was not surprised at all by her suicide. Daniel’s singular line at the end also made me have pity on him because he MAY have lost his Cylon and his daughter in that firey crash, leaving him dealing with two deaths. I also suspect Tomas’ reveal to Amanda was no accident. Perhaps he knew about her instability? Since the military is now also against Daniel, I’m wondering if he will be working on his lone Cylon from the fringes of society and work his way back in when Vergis’ project fails (just a hypothesis).

Speaking of people who went Ape shit, Barnabus is the craziest. I mean insane. Dude wants to run his own cell of vigilante STO and I’m still not sure who’s gonna win the battle. Monothesists are still looked down on in Battlestar Galactica, so I suspect Barnabus has a bigger part to play still. With the death of Amanda, Clarice may be up a creek. All routes to Zoe have closed, except for perhaps Lacy who may have pity on her now that she’s seen Barnabus try to kill her. I’m really hoping Lacy doesn’t become a terrorist. However, I suspect Barnabus and the rogue STO’s aren’t the only ones after Clarice. Her husband seemed to be in on the bombing and her line at the beginning “god choses people when they die” may be prophetic.

Overall, I am psyched for the next half of the season. I think we may continue to see Amanda in flashbacks, particularly if Zoe survived (which I’m sure she did in some form. I think Vergis may scrap her and STO recover her – this is another idea slightly different from what I mentioned earlier). We didn’t see any of Willie in this episode, but now that Joseph is locked out of V-world, we may see them butt heads some more. Willie is more Tauron than Joseph and is bound to do something rash soon.

Overall, I give this episode a 4/5 classic Cylon heads because while it was a little predictable it was a lot of exciting, but also very dramatic (which can be somewhat draining in terms of quality depending on your perspective).

The Adama household is in a chaotic state. Willie is skipping school with Joseph sitting or rather sleeping idly by. Sam comes to the Adama house and chastises Joseph for not going to work for weeks and for not bringing Willie to school. Later, Joseph receives a phone call and learns that Willie has been skipping school. While Sam has been tutoring Willie in the ways of being Tauron, Joseph has been ignoring his son’s needs. In a disastrous attempt at being a father, Joseph decides to take his son fishing. Willie and Joseph go to the spot where they used to go fishing with Tamara and Shannon, but Willie is taunted some teenagers for being Tauron. Willie’s patience is tested; he gives in and jumps on the kid, pummeling him. Joseph pulls him off but realizes something needs to be done. Joseph realizes Willie needs closure on his mother and Tamara’s deaths and decides to have a Tauron ceremony.  In the ceremony, they give coins to the priest (presumably for the ferryman, Charon, in Greco-Roman mythology) and Joseph gets a tattoo to honor their memories.

Meanwhile, Tamara is wandering around V-world trying to find her way home, not knowing that she died in the MAGLEV bombing. She discovers an underground world where users play a Russian Roulette-type game and de-res, if they die. Although she is shot, she does not de-res, making her valuable to the gang leader for playing the “game” in New Caprica City.  Heracles guides Tamara to New Cap City. Their goal is to steal the identity of the most powerful player in the game so they can get into his vault and steal his money. Tamara distracts the guards so that Heracles can download the code. Although the guards shoot her again, she does not de-res. Heracles and Tamara make it to bank, and Heracles alters his avatar to look like the other player. He sends the guards away so that they can open the vault, but after the vault has been open for a few seconds more guards are summoned. They attempt to shoot Heracles and Tamara, but Tamara defends him and gets shot twice. Then, she makes the guards disappear.

Tamara finds the leader of the gang and brings her the money, but the leader can’t hold up her end of the bargain and tells her there’s no way for her to get out of the game because she died in the MAGLEV attack. Confronted with this fact, Tamara grabs Heracles’ guns and shoots all the users in the room. Then she walks up to the leader and says, “I’m awake,” before killing her. Tamara sends Heracles to her house, to find her father, hoping that he will know what to do. Heracles finds Joseph, just as he’s finishing up the ceremony. He tells Joseph that he saw his daughter in V-world and she needs to be woken up, but Joseph tells him that she’s dead. Heracles is shocked by this information and flees with Joseph chasing after him. Joseph doesn’t catch him, but is now on a mission to find the boy who’s seen his daughter alive.

Daniel Graystone is close to losing his company. In a surprising move, he reveals his working Cylon model to the board of directors. Although this saves him from being removed as head of the company, his speech is filled with rhetoric that would make any Cylon cringe. He calls them, “a race that will walk beside us,” but then, “tireless workers who  won’t need to be paid and do work without question.” He describes them as slaves to the human race. Despite this, Zoe obeys him when he says to pull her arm off. It seems that Zoe does not see herself as part of the Cylon race, but rather as a girl trapped in a robot body. Whatever the case, this sets the tone for the eventual clash with the Cylons.

I give this episode 4/5 Cylon heads. It kept me entertained and on my toes. I’m interested to see what Tamara becomes let loose in New Caprica City. She’s now angry, on the rampage, and showing more of her Tauron side than ever. I was a bit surprised by the wording of Daniel’s speech. His attitude directly contrasts with that of the adorable lab tech who dances with Cylon Zoe. I’m glad that the existence of the Cylons has now been made public (although there is still only one) because I think the show will move rapidly now.

The federal agents et permission to search the Athena Academy. We also get a glimpse into Sr. Clarice’s cozy group marriage bed. She is warned by someone about the search and sends out an e-paper message to warn Keone and other students she is allying with (though we don’t see any, presumably there are). Keone manages to empty his locker in time to not look suspicious.

Daniel is rehearsing the script for the Sarno show, still feeling a bit uncomfortable. He doesn’t want to defile Zoe’s memory. Amanda complains, “I can’t believe you’re going out there to dance on our grave like this!”  She thinks Zoe is not guilty that they don’t know for sure what happened. She says that she didn’t mean to be on camera and he shouldn’t purposefully go on camera because they should be more parents than company spokespeople, but Daniel points out that they are no loner parents. Meanwhile, Sam  Adama is observing him from afar with knives, plotting with Joeseph for revenge.

In the Graystone lab, the cute techie is back, giving Zoe compliments and planning to give her a name. He and Cylon Zoe dance, and Zoe enjoys every minute, while Daniel Graystone tries to distinguish between being “troubled” and  ”having troubles.” Pryah insists that he should call Zoe troubled because it will console the public.

Although Willie is hanging out more with Sam than his father, his grandma accepts this fact because at 14 on Tauron he would be a man. Willie’s grandma gives the very Tauron advice that you get more from enemies than friends. Sam is still observing the Graystones whose house is being searched. The Feds say, “We’re just trying to figure out who turned her into a bomber.” They search the living area but not the lab; all they find is the infinity broach. Since they didn’t find anything at the Graystones, they plan to search the school again, particularly communication devices to find the leader who they think messaged the whole student body.

Finally the Sarno show! Graystone opens with humor and then states the “facts:”  troubled daughter growing up with halobands and learning that there are no consequences. Sarno suggests that she hated it because it was making her want to blow things up, to the thunderous applause of the audience. Amanda storms on, right before commercial break. She “corrects” Daniel’s statement claiming that Zoe was like an other teenager, angry, defiant, rude.

THEN, Daniel admits that he talked to the avatar and explains that the sacrafices and sex in the Vworld made her seek STO. He says it’s his failure because the company failed to control the content. He says that the company will make no more profit on haloband or Vworld licensing, instead the money will be donated to charity. After the show, Sam pretends to be  Baxter’s driver to take Amanda home. Joseph tries to message and call Sam but he can’t get in touch with him, meanwhile Sam seems to be prolonging he and Amanda’s drive through Little Tauron.

When Sam gets back to Joseph’s house, he’s asleep. Sam wakes him up and tells him that Larry doesn’t like it when he comes home bloody. Then he says that you can’t tell the difference between animal blood and human blood. Joseph feas for the worst, but Sam quells his fears, telling him he didn’t kill Amanda, just scared her a little.

The episode ends with Keone setting up a meeting for Lacy to meet Barnabus and talk about going Gemenon. Sr. Clarice is re-watching the Graystones on Sarno, feeling that she is close to finding Zoe’s avatar. Amanda and Daniel settle into bed to watch TV and miss their daughter.

This episode was pretty suspenseful because I kept wondering if one of the Graystones was going to end up dead or if Sam would get caught without ever getting on the premises (though I thought he was too good for that). I actually enjoyed the emotionalism of this episode. It reveals how the Graystones are dealing with loss and confusion a little bit more and how that conflicts with their need to maintain public image (which will always factor into anything they do). This episode also revealed more about Tauron society, but since as Willie’s grandma says the aren’t at peace in death until their deaths are avenged and the Graystones die, will there be more attempts on the Graystones lives? Particularly by Taurons which would pose a conflict of interest for the very Caprican Joseph. (Yes, i know this is a fragment, ignore. :) ) I give this episode 4/5 because I have hope for the next episode’s awesomeness.

When we rejoin the dynamic, soap opera-esque  world of Caprica after Amanda has revealed that Zoe may have been involved in the bombing, we see the repercussions. Amanda may be fired and Graystone is being boycotted. Amanda is being interviewed after the surprising reveal and has a bottle thrown at her. However, the reporter is less concerned about Amanda and more about herself. The Graystones have clearly fallen in social standing. (also, note the use of ancient microphone technology).

Amanda is not the only Graystone under attack, as the boycott demonstrates. Daniel is the subject of jokes on the colonies’ most popular political comedy show, Backtalk with Baxter Sarno. Sarno jokes that the title of Graystone’s autobiography will be wow, I didn’t See that Coming, instead of The Man who Can See the Future.

After Xander tries to convince while he’s sparring at the gym that he should hire a new PR rep, Daniel has a run-in with the Adamas. Joeseph and Sam beat up Graystone and then Joeseph demands to see his daughter. Daniel says that he can’t, but Adama is persistent. He also demands an avatar for his wife, but Daniel says that he can’t create one because the program is gone (really something you should have copies of). As they are leaving, Sam remarks that he should drive himself because they got access to him by paying off his driver. (This seems to be a method preferred by Taurons)

Willie has begun skipping school under his uncle Sam’s (hehe) influence. An overheard conversation remarks about the Taurons’ place in colonial society, “Virgans could frak their wives in front of the cops and they’d throw us in jail for it.” Willie tries to be friendly by bringing breakfast tacos (at least that’s what it looks like), but then alleges he has been in jail which the guys mock him for. Although Willie seems a bit out of place now, Sam intends to help him become part of the group, beginning with skipping school for “Tauron devotion to Mars.”

Although Daniel wouldn’t admit it to Xander. The media is getting to him. He cancels all recordings of his name in the press and deletes recorded ones. Amanda returns from not only mentally being harassed by the media and public, but physically as well. She and Daniel discuss the problems with announcing their daughter’s potential innocence to the world, but both express personal doubts about her innocence, leaving the issue somewhat unresolved. The scene culminates in the unfortunate Cylon Zoe witnessed her parents frakking. Meanwhile, Sr. Clarice tries to get closer to Lacy by saying that she was Zoe’s confessor and could play the same role in Lacy’s life.

Despite Adama’s name change at the start of the series, Adama seems to still adhere to the Tauron values he denounced. He’s been paying off a judge, but the judge complained, talling Adam that he couldn’t just assume that he was in Adama’s pocket. Then, he demanded twice the usual payment. Meanwhile, federal agents realized they has Ben Stark in custody a year before but let him go, despite being out after curfew and having wires in his backpack. They destroy the tape and begin planning a way to redeem their behavior for the cheif.

Cylon Zoe discovers a way to tape into the virtual world from her Cylon body. Lacy tells Zoe about her recent encounter with Sr. Clarice and confides that she thinks Sr. Clarice is fishing and that she wants to know that the avatar exists. Zoe tells L not to trust her that the real Zoe didn’t trust her, contradicting Clarice’s assertion earlier in the episode.  Zoe and Lacy begin to explore Daniel’s personal virtual space and find Tamara. Tamara says that she can’t feel her heart beat causing Lacy and Zoe to suspect that she’s pure avatar and wonder, “Can you be free if you’re not real?” Tamara leaves the two girls and says that she can find her way home.

Luciana Carro, who played “Kat” in BSG, makes a re-appearence in this series as Pryah the PR person for Graystone.  Pryah teaches Graystone how to speak to the public, stressing that he must portray Zoe as a “troubled child,” though he doesn’t want to. Daniel must convince the public that the Haloband was not the cause as Sarno has been alleging.

Lacy enlists the help of Keon Gatwick whom Zoe believes to be trustworthy because he was a friend of Ben’s. Gatwick and Zoe must now figure out a way to get Zoe to Gemenon as Zoe intended. Meanwhile, Sr. Clarice in her virtual world that looks oddly like a confessional tells the unidentified person on the other side of the screen that she believes she can get to Zoe’s avatar.

The Stocks on Greystone keep taking a dive after the public finds out that the Graystone’s house cant be searched. To the Caprican Justice Dept.,  good police-work and juicy journalism are synonymous. The head of the department instructs them to find something in Greystone’s house. Daniel also gets booked on Sarno, an interview not be forgotten. And, Sam Adama is gay, but it doesn’t seem to mess with his tough guy gangster persona, so Caprica’s sexual equality is to be commended (we’ve already seen their group marriages).

I watched this episode really late because I had a lot of work to do but I enjoyed when I was catching up. It made me look forward to Graystone’s interview and the sketchy policework on Caprica. I’m not sure how much I like Keon because I fear it may end up being teen drama-like with him and Lacy but we’ll see. Sr. Clarice is being very sneaky, so I look forward to seeing that. The Adama’s story line seems to be the least dynamic right now, but I think the writers are working hard at giving us the future-Admiral’s family background. I give this episode 3.5/5 Cylon heads. Good middle of the road episode. Oh, plus Patton Oswalt will be back on in the next episode, wee!

Last week’s Caprica left us wondering about the future of the centurions because Zoe’s identity appeared to be wiped from the robot. However, in a befuddling turn of events, at least to Daniel Graystone, the MCP only works in one robot. He refuses to admit the connection has to do with his daughter’s avatar.  However, one of the lab techs takes exactly the opposite approach and begins calling the centurion “she” and “her.” While one tech treats Zoe as a work of art, the other calls her “just a machine.” Because of this, Zoe takes the first action of violence against humans and bites his finger.

When Daniel brings home Zoe to work on the project full time, Zoe contacts Lacy to visit the house. While Daniel and Amanda are at the memorial for the MAGLEV train bombing, Lacy visits Zoe and talks to her about her new form. Zoe, like any teenage girl, is concerned about her appearance and asks, “Do I look male to you?” Lacy nods a tearful yes, and the girls reunite. Sr. Clarice, who is part of an unconventional, to Earth standards, group marriage, is still pursuing Lacy’s confidence. I got the feeling that Sr. Clarice is trying to set Lacy up to become part of the family, by the way she introduced her younger husband, Nester. The family also seemed suspicious and slightly disapproving, particularly when they mentioned she has a habit of it.

The federal agent’s theory about Zoe and Ben finally get to Amanda. Distraught that she doesn’t know as much about her daughter’s life as she thought and feeling guilty for the murders, she pours her soul out to the grieving families at the MAGLEV memorial. As she is revealing her daughters’ involvement in the bombing, she interrupts Adam and Daniel coming to an agreement about their daughters’ avatars. The crowd erupts into anger yelling “Murders!” at the Graystones. They flee the scene in a car as Adama looks on bewildered.

While Joseph was trying to get in touch with Daniel to speak to him about the avatars, Willie was spending time with his uncle, learning the ways of the Tauron crime ring that their family is a part of.  Willie talks more to his uncle than his father; this may set up a conflict between the two later in the series.

This episode left Caprica in shambles. The MCP is still functioning in only one robot. The unique group marriage structure has not been explained, but I hope we will learn more about this and other cultural aspects of Caprica as the show develops.  I will be surprised if Amanda’s outburst does not have dire consequences. The anger of the crowd seems foreboding, given what we’ve seen happen with crowds in BSG. Lacy is becoming more of a central character; I think we can expect more from her part of the story in the coming weeks. I give this episode 4/5 classic cylon heads for leaving off on a great lead-in to the next episode. Although there’s still a lot left unexplained, I don’t think the writers will leave us in the dark for long.

Before I begin discussing the show in depth, I’d like to point out a little about the ads for the show. The ads depict Zoe biting into an apple. As we all know, the Cylons are devout monotheists. And in the Christian tradition, the apple represents sin and Eve bites into the apple, bringing sin upon mankind. After sinning, she offers the apple to Adam. From this ad, viewers can infer that Zoe brings the first sin – but to Cylons or humans?  Humans have clearly sinned before this point in time, but as a Cylon she is the first to, presumably, shed blood and eventually bring the torrential downpour of nuclear weapons that attempt to bring the end to the human race.

The pilot introduces us to the Graystones and the Adamses. The Adams (not Addams… dun nun nun na) have Tauron heritage, a fact that haunts Joseph Adams.  He doesn’t want to deal with the mafia-like structure of the family and wants to be a clean, respectable lawyer [insert lawyer jokes here].  Daniel Graystone is a successful scientist and robot expert, and his wife is a doctor. Unbeknownst to them, their daughter is a member of a monotheistic cult, Soldiers of the One, and has almost a separate life in a virtual world. She has also made a virtual copy of herself who she believes will change everything, though her view is limited to the battleground between monotheism and polytheism.

Zoe inadvertently becomes part of a terrorist bombing of a MAGLEV train when her boyfriend, Ben Stark, blows up the train taking them to Geminon. Daniel Graystone discovers by following Zoe’s friend Lacy that her avatar is still alive.  Using Adams’ connection to the Tauron mafia and bribing him with the possibility of seeing his daughter who was also died on the train, Graystone acquires the MCP, a crucial part necessary give his military robots a personality and make them successful.

Graystone steals Zoe’s avatar and downloads it into the robot but it stumbles and collaspes. Graystone believes the data was lost and wonders again what will happen. Adams changes his name back to the Tauron name Adama after his faith in his family is revived. He realizes he has only his son and wants him to know what it means to be Tauron not Caprican.

While recovering from the shock of her lost friends, Lacy learns that Sr. Clarice Willow leads a group of monotheists at the Athena Academy, making the cult a bigger phenomenon than Caprican news sources have let on. Federal agents pursue both Lacy and Zoe’s mother, Amanda, to gain information at Zoe who they hypothesize may be linked with the bombing.

Daniel Graystone comes off as slightly abusive and certainly a cheater. Zoe seems to be a misguided youth; her fervent belief in monotheism is based more in rebellion against her parents than spiritual calling. Lacy will be used because of her closeness to Zoe by the other monotheists. She does not seem firm in her commitment to the belief because she fled the train, but she seems to be willing to let others, like Sr. Clarice Willow, head of Athena Academy, guide her.

“Pilot” reveals that the Cylons are not only the children of humanity because Graystone built the robots, but his child also became the mind of the first one. I give “Pilot” 3.5/5 classic cylon heads. The episode reveals a little about both families and sets up the rest of the series, but it doesn’t have a lot of pop. Ben blowing up the train didn’t come as a surprise, and I mistrusted Graystone to begin with. The episode was slow at some parts and seemed more informative than anything else.

CATEGORY: Overall Series

Best Comedy Web Series
Childrens’ Hospital
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
The Guild – Winner
Onion News Network
You Suck at Photoshop

Best Dramatic Web Series
2009: A True Story
After Judgment
Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy – Winner
Gemini Division
Sorority Forever

Best Hosted Web Series
Boing Boing TV
Diggnation
EPIC FU – Winner
Project Lore
Wine Library TV

Best Reality Web Series
Amtrekker
Lo-Fi St. Louis
The Mortified Shoebox Show
Penn Says
The Shatner Project – Winner

Best News or Politics Web Series
Alive in Baghdad – Winner
MobLogic
Monkey News Source
Rocketboom
Talking Points Memo TV

Audience Choice Award
After Judgment
Dorm Life
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog – Winner
The Guild
The Hayley Project
The Legend of Neil
Project Lore
The Shatner Project
Tiki Bar TV
The Wingmen

CATEGORY: Directing

Best Directing for a Comedy Web Series
Casanovas
(Casey Casseday, Geoff Bunch)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
(Joss Whedon) – Winner
The Guild
(Sean Becker)
The Legend of Neil
(Sandeep Parikh)
Overkill: A Love Story
(Joshua Sternin, Jeffrey Ventimilia)

Best Directing for a Dramatic Web Series
After Judgment
(Michael Davies)
Heathens
(Jesse Petrick)
Pink
(Blake Calhoun) – Winner
Sorority Forever
(Douglas Cheney, Chris Hempel, Chris McCaleb, Ryan Wise)
With the Angels
(Mary Feuer)

Writing

Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series
Break a Leg
(Yuri Baranovsky, Vlad Baranovsky)
Childrens’ Hospital
(Rob Corddry, Jonathan Stern)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
(Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon) – Winner
The Guild
(Felicia Day)
You Suck at Photoshop
(Matt Bledsoe, Troy Hitch)

Best Writing for a Dramatic Web Series
After Judgment
(Michael Davies)
Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy
(Jane Espenson, Seamus Kevin Fahey, Ronald D. Moore) – Winner
Gemini Division
(Andrew Black, Lawrence Frank, Brent Friedman, Joshua Stern, Jacqueline Zambrano)
Sorority Forever
(Chris Hampel, Chris McCaleb, Ryan Wise)
With the Angels
(Mary Feuer, Jonathan Robert Kaplan, Werner Trieschmann)

CATEGORY: Acting

Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Amir Blumenfeld  — (Jake & Amir)
Rob Corddry — (Childrens’ Hospital)
Nathan Fillion — (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog)
Neil Patrick Harris — (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) – Winner
Sandeep Parikh — (The Guild)

Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Felicia Day — (The Guild) – Winner
Lisa Kudrow — (Web Therapy)
Megan Mullally — (Childrens’ Hospital)
Kristen Schaal — (Horrible People)
Taryn Southern — (Private High Musical)

Best Male Actor in a Dramatic Web Series
Joel Bryant — (After Judgment)
Justin Hartley — (Gemini Division)
Alessandro Juliani — (Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy) – Winner
Seth Mendelson — (Take Me Back)
Christopher Stapleton — (30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust)

Best Female Actor in a Dramatic Web Series
Rosario Dawson — (Gemini Division) – Winner
Taryn O’Neill — (After Judgment)
Rachel Risen — (The Hayley Project)
Jessica Rose — (Sorority Forever)
Tara Rushton — (KateModern)

Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series
All’s Faire
Childrens’ Hospital
Dorm Life
The Guild - Winner
Horrible People

Best Guest Star in a Web Series
Fernando Chien — (The Guild)
Felicia Day — (The Legend of Neil)
Eva Longoria Parker — (Childrens’ Hospital)
Paul Rudd — (Wainy Days) – Winner
Tay Zonday — (Nite Fite)

Best Web Series Host
Xeni Jardin — (Boing Boing TV)
Kevin Rose — (Diggnation)
Zadi Diaz — (EPIC FU)
Alex Albrecht  — (Project Lore) – Winner
Gary Vaynerchuck  — (Wine Library TV)

CATEGORY: Craft Awards

Best Editing in a Web Series
Backyard FX — (Erik Beck)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog — (Lisa Lassek) - Winner
The Guild — (Sean Becker)
Jake & Amir — (Amir Blumenfeld, Jake Hurwitz)
Tiki Bar TV — (Jeff Macpherson)

Best Cinematography in a Web Series
The All-For-Nots — (Jack Ferry)
Captain Blasto — (Christopher Preksta)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog — (Ryan Green) – Winner
The Legend of Neil — (Richard E. Stark)
Pink — (Alan LeFevre)

Best Art Direction in a Web Series
Captain Blasto — (Christopher Preksta)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog — (Alethea Root)
Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show — (Pogo Saito)
The Guild — (Leah Mann)
Tiki Bar TV — (Kim Bailey) - Winner

Best Visual Effects in a Web Series
Backyard FX — (Erik Beck) – Winner
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog — (Nicholas Onstad, Jesse Siglow)
The Guild — (Doug Luberts)
Kirill — (Oliver Smyth)
The Pop — (Sevan Najarian)

Best Animation in a Web Series
Happy Tree Friends
Homestar Runner
The Meth Minute 39 – Winner
Stickman Exodus
Zero Punctuation

Best Original Music in a Web Series
The All-For-Nots — (Kathleen Grace, Thom Woodley)
All’s Faire — (Thom Woodley)
Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy — (Bear McCreary)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog — (Jed Whedon) – Winner
The Guild — (Eanan Patterson, Don Schiff)

Best Ad Integration in a Web Series
The All-For-Nots — (Dodge Nitro)
Back on Topps — (Skype) - Winner
Blah Girls — (Vitamin Water)
Gemini Division — (Windows Mobile, Cisco Systems)
Whatever Hollywood — (Popchips)

Best Artistic Concept in a Web Series
Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction
Stephen King’s N
The Ten Commandments of La Vida Loca
Wreck & Salvage
You Suck at Photoshop – Winner

Our sincere congratulations to the winners and nominees. There are some amazing ideas being explored with new media and it’s pretty exciting to see them get recognized. We’d be happy to talk to any of the shows on a future podcast.

Battlestar Galactica’s

Spoilers ho!

The core of the plot is sound.  In the last hours before abandoning Galactica, Admiral Adama decides to go on one last mission to save Hera from Cavil and possibly rescue the human and cylon races from themselves in the process.  He tells Starbuck that he knows what she is, and she is his daughter.  He says it with so much love and conviction, that it feels real.  And it reminds some of us in the audience that we love Starbuck, too.  It’s such a great moment.

Together, they get the coordinates of the Cylon colony from the Anders hybrid and draw a red line on the floor of the hanger deck.  Volunteers for the suicide mission on one side, everyone else on the other.  Baltar is noticibly on the “stay behind” side, while Doc Coddle is one of the first to cross.  Coddle is turned away, because he’s too valuable to die, and Baltar will through guilt ultimately change his mind.  Baltar’s journey this week is possibly the most plausible and has the best payoff.

They have the smallest side, but it’s enough to crew the mission.  

Then, we discover that the Colony is hidden in the well of a singularity — a black hole.  And that there’s only one spot to jump into, a spot that’s covered by powerful Cylon weapons.  But no matter, hybrid Anders can disable the Colony’s hybrid and give Galactica a fighting chance.

So Adama makes a speech about how the old girl has protected them before, and if they are true to her, she will be true to them and see them home.  With Eddie Olmos’ rousing speech quota fulfilled for the act, they jump straight into the hornet’s nest and start their plan.  There’s a ton of destruction, heavy cannons firing, raiders launching, people dying.  

And then, when the cannons finally go down after Anders connects to the colony’s hybrids, Adama and company spectacularly ram Galactica into the side of the colony and use the ship itself as a way of inserting crew inside.  Meanwhile, a fleet of Raptors moves to invade through the Colony’s roof, and old friends/mutineers Racetrack and Skulls get taken out along the way by a large piece of shrapnel.

Caprica Six and Baltar are reunited as part of the reserve marines aboard Galactica.  Baltar is terrified, but he’s also doing the right thing for once — because of this, you can see the beginnings of a rekindlilng of the love he and Caprica shared in the past.

Lee leads a group of marines and centurions into the Colony, fast-roping down from Galactica and threading their way through the giant craft.  The majority of the defenders are classic Galactica Cylons — and we get to see the new school centurions take on their 1970′s counterparts in an extremely expensive effects sequence.

In the colony science bay, Simon is continuing experiments on Hera.  Boomer can’t take all the guilt she feels, so she breaks his neck and steals her double’s daughter again.  Eventually, she comes across Helo and Athena’s party of marines and hands Hera over to her mother.

But, she says, they can’t go back the way they came — their raptors have been destroyed.

Not to worry, says Athena, they’re not the only ones who have boarded.

Starbuck tells her not to give away the plan, but it was never Athena’s intention.  As Boomer tells them to let Adama know that she owed him one, Athena guns her down.

We then get a flashback of a rookie Boomer getting dressed down by Adama and Tigh.  She should really be taken off of Raptor pilot duty, but Adama decides to give her another chance.  Boomer tells him that when he most needs it, she’ll owe him one.  This amuses the Commander, but little does he know, it will come in handy in the future.

They get Hera back to the ship, but soon lose her amidst the gunfight.  Doral shoots Helo, critically wounding him.  Athena has to decide whether or not to stay with him, or head after her daughter.  Helo urges her to follow Hera, even though he may bleed out if left alone.

Meanwhile, Cavil and his skinjob cronies have boarded the ship in search of Hera.  Like Darth Vader in the beginning Star Wars, he’s flanked by a crew of Centurions.  

And then we get one of the most magnificent sequences in all of Galactica.  Cutting back and forth between the firefight on the ship and the Opera House dream sequence, we see Roslin finding Hera, losing her, Baltar and Caprica Six getting Hera, and taking her into the doors of the Opera House.  Just as in the dream sequence, Athena arrives too late, watching the door slam shut and lock ahead of her.  It’s beautiful, the emotional strength of the sequence accented by one of Bear McCreary’s classic compositions from the first season (“The Shape of Things to Come”).

It turns out that the CIC is the Opera House.  And when Baltar and Six look up at the Opera House balcony to see the Final Five in the fantasy, they also look up to see the real Final Five in the CIC.  Amazing.

Then Cavil and company enter, and Cavil grabs hold of Hera.  He’s going to kill her if they try to stop him from taking her away.

It’s at this point that, Baltar fulfills his ultimate purpose, giving a speech about the cosmic force — god — that has been manipulating events.  It is neither good or evil, but it has been with them throughout the entire time.  It’s now time to stop fighting, to break the cycle of violence, and take a leap of faith.  End the killing, reconcile, have peace.  Cavil is swayed somewhat, but needs something more.

To cement the deal, Tigh offers to give the Cavil Cylons resurrection again.  This is enough to move Cavil to agree to a ceasefire — the fighting stops, and everyone waits for the Five to transfer the resurrection knowledge to the colony.

This involves a sort of mind meld between the Final Five, involving a sharing of all their memories.  In advance, Tory tries to warn them about the horrible things she’s done, and asks to be forgiven.  This is not to be the case, though.  Halfway through the transfer, they see her memory of how she murdered Cally and stole Nicky.  Enraged with betrayal and grief, Tyrol breaks the connection — and Tory’s neck.  Cavil views this as a betrayal of their deal and announces an immediate end to the cease fire.  But the humans and their allies have the advantage in the CIC — Simon and Doral are taken down, and Cavil, seeing the writing on the wall, kills himself.

In space, a fluke occurance causes the dead Racetrack’s hand to bump against the nuke launch button on her Raptor console.  The dead recon ship then fires a barrage of nukes at the Colony.  It begins to come apart and careen towards the singularity.

Galactica has to jump, or the ship will be destroyed.  Adama orders Starbuck to do it — to jump anywhere — but she doesn’t know how to get back to the fleet.   However, she does remember the song notes Hera wrote, the song her father composed (well, the song that Bob Dylan composed), and her theory that the notes correspond with numbers.  She figures them out, plays them on the control panel like music on a keyboard and jumps the ship.  To earth — our earth.  The real earth.

If this was the ending of Battlestar Galactica, then I would have been very, very satisfied.  But it’s not — there’s still another hour left, and that final hour is where all the seams show and the “make it up as we go along” plot comes apart.  Some of the great scifi finales of the past are Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “All Good Things …” (also co-written by Ronald Moore), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s: “What We Leave Behind”  and Angel’s “Not Fade Away.”  Alas, “Daybreak”  may not be among them, but have faith true believers, time may revise my current estimate.  

It’s our earth in the prehistoric past.  They land on Africa and discover primative humans with matching DNA to the colonials roaming the plains.  There are designs on starting a new city, but Lee disagrees — the only way to stop the cycle of violence is to dispense with their weapons and technolgy and live primatively on the planet.  The centurions will be given the baseship and allowed to go free — they just have to trust that they don’t return to start problems with the humans in the future.  Surprisingly, everyone agrees, so after the humans and cylon skinjobs are distributed across the planet on different continents (to increase chances of survival), Anders will pilot the fleet into the sun.

Starbuck goes up to say goodbye to him one last time, and leaves her dog tags and wedding ring with him.  As she leaves, Anders’ personality returns: “See you on the other side, Kara Thrace,” he says.  We then watch as the original BSG theme plays, and the fleet heroically makes its way to its ultimate destruction.  This is the last purely great moment of the finale that isn’t spoiled by the nonsense that’s to come.  It’s so sad and so right, and one can’t helped be moved by the final image of the ships that carried them this far and the idea that Sam Anders, such a great character, is now only half-sentient and on his way to his ultimate end.

On the planet, Tyrol tells Tigh and Ellen that he’s done with people and Cylons — he’s going alone to a rugged Island (Great Britain?) off the coast of the northern continent to live in solitude.  It’s sad, but it makes sense after everything he’s been through.

Then we reach some of the biggest bullshit moments in the entire series, of any series, really.

Dying, Roslin would like to get a closer look at some of the wildlife.  Adama concurs, so loads her into a Raptor to fly her there.  At this point, he says goodbye to Lee and Kara — and it’s fairly clear that he doesn’t plan on coming back.  Now, I know that Laura’s about to die, but unless he’s going to commit suicide, there’s no good reason for Adama to leave his family and friends forever, but that’s exactly what he’s doing.  But more on that in a second.

Lee and Kara both agree that that’s the last time they’re going to see him.  Then Kara tells Lee that she’s fulfilled her destiny, and that she can feel that she’s going to be leaving soon, too.  She asks him what he’s going to do — he talks about relaxing, not doing a lot of work, and exploring this new world they’ve found.  When he turns to look at her, we see that Kara has disappeared — she’s just gone, like Bruce Willis in the Sixth Sense.  Was she real?  A ghost?  An angel like the head characters?  We’ll never know.  This is the last time we get to see Lee Adama, too, who I assume is now going to live alone on this new world without his father or the love of his life.  And he seems happy about it.  It’s total bullshit.

Roslin slips away on the Raptor, as Adama talks about where they’re going to set down and build their dream cabin.  He realizes she’s gone and slips his wedding band on her fingers, setting down the Raptor, anyway.

We cut to a group of humans, being lead by President Romo Lampkin, down in the plains.  Caprica Six and Baltar get a final visit from the head characters, who we now know are angels (or demons?) of god, manipulating events through the two of them.  We learn that they’re done with them now — that Caprica and Baltar’s lives are no going to be a lot more boring.

As they leave, Baltar tells Caprica that he spotted some land up in the mountains that would be good for cultivation.  ”I know a lot about farming,” he says, his voice breaking up as the man who fought to escape a working class farmer’s life is embracing it.  ”I know you do,” Caprica says, kissing him.  Of all the characters on Galactica, I think Baltar’s journey is ultimately the most satifying.  He is totally redeemed as a character, as is Caprica Six, and the two now get a second chance of a life together.  It takes some of the edge off of what happened to Adama, Starbuck and Lee.  But not enough.

We then cut to Helo, Hera and Athena nearby, talking about what they’re going to be doing as a family.  They’ve always been the emotional heart of the show, a strong, loving family unit that defies all the odds.  The fact that they’re all alive and together is a good way to end the show.  I’m surprised that Ronald D. Moore let it happen.

Then we cut one last time to Adama, sitting on the site of his future cabin next to the buried remains of Laura Roslin.  He tells her about the light there, how it reminds us of her, and it’s so mercilessly sad that he’s decided to stay alone on this hilltop with the corpse of his dead love.  Seriously — what about his son, or his best friend?  The camera pulls out and the sun sets, and that’s it.  The biggest disappointment is that Adama did not get to say goodbye to Saul Tigh, whose relationship with him was arguable one of the central relationships of the show.  Seriously, Ron — not just a handshake, or anything?  And what about a final reconciliation with Lee — we never really got that, either.

But then, a little more.  We see Hera playing in the grass — and then we cut 150,000 years in the future to our own present day.  Head Baltar is in Times Square, reading a news report about how the remains of “Mitochondrial Eve” — who we are lead to presume is Hera — have been found in Africa.  The camera reveals that Head Baltar and Head Six are reading the story over series “developer” Ronald Moore’s shoulder!  Way to break the fourth wall, guys.

And then, the two head cases spy all the new developments in robotics played on screens in Times Square as “All Along the Watchtower” plays on a nearby boombox.  Yes kids, all of this has happened before and all of it will happen again.  We’re creating the cylons ourselves!

Fade to black one last time.

There’s no doubt that the first two hours of the finale will go down as some of the best — but the final hour on our earth was a bit disappointing.  It’s pretty clear to me that Ronald Moore had no reasonable explanation for Starbuck’s resurrection, so by having her just vanish, he made it so that the audience would have to make it up themselves.  It’s lazy writing — implying that she’s some kind of divine being playing her role in God’s plan was extremely unsatisfying.  I know some will like it, but it just shows the overall lack of story plan that’s plagued the show all along.  It defintely hurt the preceeding hours.

Also, Adama’s decision to leave the rest of humanity and live alone with his dead lover may have made dramatic sense, but it didn’t make sense to me for the character.  This is not a solitary man — his son and friend still have great meaning to him.  It may have seemed “poetic” to RDM and his writing staff, but it just didn’t ring true to me.  He wouldn’t have taken them that far just to leave them all on their own.  Since I’m forced to believe that Starbuck was some kind of spiritual avatar of God, then I’ll just let myself pretend that Adama eventually gets it together and explores the new world with his son.

Finally, the head charcters showing up in the present was a bit much.  Did we really need that?  Though it was nice to see that we in the show’s audience are the future of both the Galactica humans and the skinjob cylons, there was something cheesy about two angels showing up to comment on the story.  I’m reminded of It’s a Wonderful Life.  It was a bit over the top for me and very unlike BSG. 

All and all, Battlestar Galactica will be thought of as one of the best scifi series of the contemporary era, remembered with reverence alongside the most beloved shows of the genre.  Its ending, though terribly flawed, is better than the ending of other shows, such as X-Files or Farscape.  And individual arcs and episodes will still stand out as classic and groundbreaking many years from now.  

Still, more than any other “serialized” series, Galactica was made up without any grand plan — Ronald Moore literally wrote it as they went along and was incapable in the end of tying it together in a satisfying way.  Through retcons and other tricks, they avoided the continuity errors of other shows (Lost comes to mind), but they just quite couldn’t end the story.  Starbuck’s ressurrection, finding her corpse on earth, and then her eventual disappearance will never be explained.  Fans will try to rationalize what it means, but in the end, it doesn’t mean anything.  Deus ex machina in its purest sense is tough to rationalize. 

For me the show went off the rails into what TVZ contributor Steve Lee calls “existential melodrama” when it revealed the Final Four Cylons.  At that point, it ceased to be one of television’s greatest examples of military science fiction, and turned into something else entirely.  Fantasy, maybe?  I’m not sure.  As engaging as these final episodes have been, they have also served (I hope) as a lesson to other creative teams — figure out your story ahead of time.  Introduce plot and character points when you know why they’re there, not just for shock value.  You can’t just backfill continuity and expect the viewer to accept it.

Battlestar Galactica was as beautiful and flawed as its finale.  Despite my criticism of the consistency of some of the writing, I am definitely a fan and will miss it for a long time.  The first two seasons will go down in history as some of the best scifi on television, and the beginning of the third season will also be similarly well-regarded.  They’re not going to be making shows like this on the newly rebranded SyFy network, again.

Despite its weaknesses, the finale’s high points still stand out as exceptional.  Four and a half out of five chrome toasters.

It’s pretty frakking depressing.

Meanwhile, Athena hates Helo for having sex with Boomer (more, probably, because he couldn’t tell the two 8′s apart, not because of the act itself), and Adama won’t let them take a Raptor out to find their daughter. It’s worth noting that Tahmoh Pinkett’s performance in this episode of Galactica puts his befuddled Dollhouse FBI agent to great shame. What a waste of a good actor.

Boomer continues to struggle with her choices, as wishy washy in evil as she was in anything else. She cannot bring herself to think of Hera as an object, and begins to try to make her feel better, perhaps like a kidnapper who begins to have delusions of closeness with her victim.

We learn that the Cylons have agreed to let Adama take military command of the rebel baseship in exchange for a seat on the new quorum. Yet Adama resists letting Galactica go. Just as he won’t believe that Roslin is really dying.

Baltar announces to the ship that their angels out there — the he see’s them — and that the angels can help them. We better get a more full explanation about the head characters than this.

More happens in the episode: a Six on work detail saves a bigoted human crew member, who then unsuccessfully tries to save her. The new quorum, made up of ship captains, wants to strip Galactica of all her supplies, just as Galactics stripped them of their supplies. Laura Roslin discovers that she never felt more at home than when she and Bill Adama were together in these past few desperate months. Lee reveals that he still loves Kara, though Kara doesn’t really return the feeling. And Baltar realizes that he still loves Caprica Six, even though it’s much too late for them to get back together.

Starbuck goes to Baltar to find out anything she can about her resurrection. Baltar runs some tests on the dogtags and wedding ring and discovers that it’s Starbuck’s blood — only it was her blood after she died. He reveals this to everyone at a funeral, basically announcing to the fleet that she’s Jesus Christ — the hope they all have for eternal life.

Cavil gets a hold of Hera at the creepy Cylon station called “the Colony.” She begs for Boomer to help her, and Boomer cries.

In the end, Adama starts painting his room with Cylon goop(?), and then throws a fit and starts chewing up the walls, even getting Cylon goop in his mouth. Luckily, director Edward James Olmos allowed that old guy who plays Adama to really bring the acting. This breakdown signifies his realization that Galactica is well and truly frakked.

The episode ends with Adama and Tigh together in his quarters, sharing a drink. Adama tells him that he’s cancelled the work crews and that they’re going to start transferring the crew off Galactica. Tigh is incredulous, but Adama has accepted it. The ship is dying and so is the show.

Let’s hope the final three hours make better use of their time than this one. I can see why the writers thought this one was necessary, but the show hasn’t been this pointless since before the mutiny. A lot of this could have compressed down in an episode that had real things happen. At least next week looks like Adama’s taking the ship and his crew on a one-way volunteers-only suicide mission against Cavil.

2.5 out of 5 chrome toasters.