BSG The Ties That Bind, first thoughts

By now, I hope everyone has had a chance to view the episode, if not, read on at your own risk.

We'll start with the Cylon civil war, move onto Starbuck, touch on Apollo's new job, and leave the other big story line to end the post with.

So, I really thought that we were going to get Lucy Lawless back this week, but I guess it makes sense that we'll have to wait, because she knows who the final Cylon is and we have no frakkin' idea.

The second that the number 8 (not Boomer as she split ranks, interesting how different that model is, Boomer breaks ranks and Athena lives as a human even though she knows, as does everyone around her, that she's actually a Cylon) said the resurrection ship didn't make the jump I was yelling for them to jump the frak away.  It astonishes me how much the Cylons are becoming everything they claim they were trying to destroy by killing the humans.  I wonder how that's going to play out.

Starbuck's crew, for the most part, doesn't seem too excited to be on this mission.  I'm glad that Gaeta is on the mission to Earth, because I always feel like his character is best when he's out of the CDC, I want to see if he's suffering any guilt for having lied on the stand in Baltar's trial.

Starbuck is by far my favorite character, but Anders is really growing on me (and I've always enjoyed the times when they're on screen together).  It used to be when Starbuck screwed him over (usually literally) I just felt like he was an idiot for putting himself in the position.  Now, I feel really bad for him, knowing what he's got to be thinking, and knowing that he can't tell his wife, because she's already told him that if she found out he was a Cylon she'd put a bullet in his head without a second thought.  I believe her (and figure that at some point it'll actually happen, and that's not to say she won't feel bad about it afterwards, but she won't hesitate.)

So, Lee is the new Caprican representative (and the original Lee, Tom Zarek, is now the Vice President) and it appears he will do the right thing again despite the fact that it will further destroy his relationship with the President.  I love how everyone uses Apollo's sense of duty when it works to their advantage but get so pissed at him when it's used against them.  Oddly enough, Zarek, the former terrorist, is the only person who has had a fairly consistent relationship with him, one of mutual, but cautious, respect.

Finally, let's take a moment of silence for Crewman Specialist Cally Tyrol.



I'll miss her, I've always liked Cally, ever since in season one when she bit that prisoners ear off, ("That's my girl," says the Chief).

I had the feeling when she overheard them that we were in a "Smallville moment".

"Smallville Moment"- when a character discovers a life changing secret, that character will most likely die soon afterwards.  It happens often in Smallville (hence the name) as when a character finds out Clark's secret, you know their death is imminent.

In fact, that very thing happened this week on Smallville when Lex's assistent witnessed Clark in full Kal-El mode.

It was way too early for anyone else to find out about these Cylons, therefore, Cally had to go.

That being said, the writer's took the Smallville moment and kept it suspenseful.  That isn't easy to do.  If you notice, on Smallville, a character finds out Clark's secret and they're dead about 30 seconds later, the show knows they're going to die, the viewers know the characters going to die, so they don't frak around, they just kill off the character.  On this weeks BSG, the writer's found a way to keep it suspenseful, sure, you probably figured Cally was going to bite it, but when it looked like she was going to take Nicky with her, it got suspenseful.  I was freaking out, hoping Tory would talk her out of it, but wondering if Cally might just take her out the airlock with her (in fact I began to expect it, wondering if there was a spare body waiting for Tory).  It was handled extremely well.

Until Next Time, I'm not surprised, of course.  A show doesn't earn the honorific of Best Show Ever unless they handle moments like that well.