Talk Back: "Battlestar Galactica" Mid-Season Premiere ("Sometimes a Great Notion")

And so The Mystery is solved.

Those of you who read my advance review of this week's season premiere of Battlestar Galactica ("Sometimes a Great Notion") know that I was prohibited by the network from discussing any major plot points from the current installment, which kicks off the final batch of episodes of BSG before this gripping and intelligent series takes its final flight among the stars.

But now that the episode has aired (likely to the sound of a collective gasp from fans around the country), we can get down to the business of discussing the head-trippy revelations that this week's episode of BSG, written by David Weddle and Bradley Thompson, unearthed.

Ellen. I'm sure everyone here wants to talk about the fact that we finally learned that the Final Cylon was in fact Ellen Tigh, who was killed by her husband Saul back on New Caprica... for collaborating with the Cylons. Tigh, of course, later learned that he was a Cylon and he poisoned Ellen after she aided the Cylons, unaware of the fact that she herself was also a member of their race.

And that, readers, is called irony. I think that the reveal about Ellen has a perfect symmetry and logic to it and adds yet another shading of tragedy to Saul and Ellen's relationship. It also explains why D'Anna knew instantly that the final member of the Five was not in the fleet, as she knew that Ellen had died on New Caprica. Just what this means for Tigh and the others remains to be seen but given the Cylons' capability for resurrection (after all, she was killed BEFORE the Hub was destroyed), it's entirely likely that Ellen is out there somewhere.

Earth. I absolutely love the fact that the Cylons are actually from Earth and are the thirteenth tribe. Less clear, however, is how the Final Five managed to arrive at the Twelve Colonies roughly 2000 years after the nuclear holocaust on Earth... and are we to believe that we then (i.e., the human race) are in fact Cylons? Curious that. The setting and look of the world that we see through Tyrol's eyes before the blast looks suspiciously like our own world right now. I'm also still very unclear how the thirteenth tribe were Cylons, when the robotic race was supposedly created using technology sixty years before the action of the mini-series (which will provide the basis for the spin-off series Caprica). Unless we are using the notion of paradox, how can something exist thousands of years before it was created? Or are we talking about two different things when we say "Cylon"? One being a race of skinjobs and the other being the metallic centurions? Hmmm....

Kara. I'm not sure what to make of Kara's discovery on Earth but she and Leoben definitely managed to trace the Colonial signal to Starbuck's old Viper... which contained the corpse of, well, Starbuck. Wha-huh? It definitely seems as though Kara did die in the explosion in the supernova during Season Three; after all, the Viper was hers, the body had blonde hair and had her Galactica dog tags and her wedding ring. So what gives then?

Seeing as we seemed to see time fold upon itself right before Kara died, I think that somehow she was downloaded to a new body using Cylon technology when the Viper exploded. But how had they managed to grow a new body for Kara? Well, Simon did have genetic material from Kara and they had extracted her eggs and blood samples back on Caprica, so it's entirely possible that they were able to grow a new body for Kara and set up the system to download her memories and personality. The base star's hybrid claims that Kara was the "harbinger of death," so there's no way that the Cylons wouldn't have prepared for the inevitability of Kara's death along the way. However, even Leoben seems fairly freaked out by the discovery of the wreckage. Thoughts?

Dee. Poor Dualla. I was completely shocked by her suicide, especially coming on the heels as it did of her "perfect moment" with Lee, one in which she seemed happy and finally regained her smile. But as soon as she started humming and took off her wedding ring, I knew that Dee was a goner. She seemed really quite shaken by the discovery of the jacks down on Earth and I don't think she could quite process the fact that another race of people--and their children--was wiped out in one fell swoop. So she engineered a perfect moment with her ex-husband and died happy, a smile on her face. Think this could open the door to yet another romance between Lee and Kara? I had a feeling, after seeing her pick up those jacks, that Dee would either be the Final Cylon (seeing as how the others were so visibly affected by what they saw/touched on the planet) or would be dead very, very soon. Sigh. I'm going to miss Kandyse McClure.

Lee. The scene where Lee adjusted the tally of survivors, removing the number 1 with his finger on the board after Dee's suicide, was heartbreaking. Unable to give into emotion, Lee lets a single tear trickle down his face before he's interrupted by Kara. I never thought that Lee and Dualla would really reconcile but the first half of this episode makes you believe that there might just be a future for them together, until Dee picks up that gun. Lee has undergone such extraordinary character growth and development since we first saw him in the mini-series and I am very curious to see where his character is taken by the writers now that he's gone through Dee's suicide.

Adama and Roslin. Likewise, the scene between Adama and Tigh, with its discussion of the fox riding the tide out to sea, was remarkably well done. Having lost nearly everything he believes in and thrown over the edge by the discovery of Tigh's true identity and Dee's suicide, a drunken Adama brings a sidearm to Tigh's quarters and tries to push Tigh into pulling the trigger on him. How can he go on leading the Galactica after everything that's happened? Similarly, I loved the scene where Roslin arrives back at the Galactica and can't bring herself to say anything about what they found on Earth, before she's swarmed by everyone seeking answers. And then Roslin's dreams quite literally go up in smoke as she burns the Pythian prophecies as she sobs. Have all of their hopes and dreams really turned to ash? Still, the final image of her on the ground with the small flower she took back from Earth offers at least the promise of renewal. They can find a way to start over again, to rebuild, to find a new home. Where do they go from here?

D'Anna. Very interesting that D'Anna, out of everyone, would choose to remain on Earth. Yes, she claims that she doesn't want to die out in the cold, running from Cavil. But I think that there's got to be something more going on here, a mystery that needs to be solved. D'Anna isn't one to shie away from confrontation, even without the Hub to turn to, so why decide to remain on Earth alone? Hmmm. Just what is she looking for on the planet? And when will we see her next?

So those are my thoughts but I'm curious to know what you thought of this week's episode. Were you surprised by the reveal that Ellen was the Final Cylon? Did you gasp when Dee shot herself? And does do Baltar and the opera house fit into all of this? Talk back here.

Next week on Battlestar Galactica ("A Disquiet Follows My Soul"), Tigh tries to deal with the revelation that Ellen was the Final Cylon; Kara continues to harbor her secret; division among the crew of the Galactica could lead to mutiny and an all-out civil war.