For the last Battlestar Galactica season, I’ll be reviewing each episode from this 3rd episode, ‘The ties that Bind’. So if you’ve not seen the episode yet, I suggest you stop reading and come back once you’ve done so. I guess you can consider this your SPOILER WARNING (that’s for the entire post in case you were wondering).
Plot Threads
So Kaylee was the centre of this particular episode and the fact that she found out that her husband, Colenl Tai and Tory are all Cylons and obviously her obvious murder once that toaster kills her after she’s taken the child from her.
It’s a shame that this character died in this fashion, but I guess finally we’re dealing with some proper ramifications in this season. It’s been a pretty slow burner as the first two episodes have been pretty mediocre as far as I’m concerned. Definitely did not provide the correct level of punch that you would expect from a final season. There’s no time for them to frak around with silly exposition. Each episode has to be complete dynamite, seeing as they only have 22 episodes (19 now) to wrap the entire story and tie up all the loose ends…after a fashion of course. I’m sure they’ll leave some questions for the audience to decide for themselves, but my hope is that the major elements are discussed and explained.
Meanwhile, Kera is commanding a ship through space trying to find Earth, while fucking off everyone around and acting like more of a bitch than she normally can be. obviously she’s changed and it’s going to be interesting to see what exactly happened in the 2 months that Kera was away and why she’s acting the way she’s acting, completely spaced out. Is she the last Cylon?
Then you’ve got the Lee Adama thread. obviously they’ve put him in this position seeing as his and kera’s love thing is all but over, and she’s got her mission and Anders has his, he can now do his thing and screw around with Rosaline’s administration and play politician. Out of all the characters on this show, I guess Lee has had the most change than any other character on the show. He’s had the most friends become enemies, enemies become friend type scenarios than anyone else and they’re poised to continue that fine tradition throughout this series as well. Do you get the feeling that he’s hoping to take over as President once Rosaline kicks the bucket?
As if that’s not enough plot threads, you’ve then got the crazy civil war that’s going on with the Cylons. So half want them to get the Diana’s up and running again and the other half want to neuter everyone apart from a specific number of models. I’m not sure where this is going to be honest.
CGI Cylons
One thing that i definitely noticed and wish they go back and sort out for the rest of the seasons, is the new look of the kick ass Cylons. The whole chromed goodness is pretty awesome as far as I’m concerned. I used to think that this was one of the weakest aspects of the actual CGI work that BSG elevated but they’ve really brought their game up for this one.
Overall I liked this episode a lot more than the other 2 episodes, however they’re still not giving enough information as I’d like and not progressing certain elements of the story as much as you would hope them to, however looking at the trailer for the next episode, they do seem to be kicking things up to the next gear. Here’s hoping.
The season premiere was pretty awesome tho.
Favorite scene: When we get tricked into thinking that Saul just shot Adama!
After the ending we had in Season 3? No chance, it just didn’t live up for me unfortunately and the whole Baltar as Jesus thread, didn’t do it for me.
I don’t think that Moore and Co. write Lee as a character with a lot of agendas and ambition. He’s got that “true hero” archetype; constantly getting thrust into impossible situations and allowing his conscience and courage to guide him through. To that end, the writers may be setting Lee up as the new leader but if you could ask his character, he wouldn’t say that was his ambition; just his burdon.
As for the Cylons, the Cavils and the Dorals have always been misanthropic. The Leobens are probably bitter, after being scorned by Kara on numerous occasions. Simons never really have much to say. I’ve seen just about every episode but I missed the one where they introduced him. For obvious, reasons the sixes and the eights (Sharons) have always had the most empathy. The Boomer split is probably because of her motherhood envy of the Athena model.
In the end, the cylons come back to my “matrix theory”. Man and machine are interdependent. Their destinies are one and the same. Just like in the matrix, you’ve got “bad” machines like Smith and the Architect and you’ve god “good” machines like Serif and the Oracle.
Finally, there is an emerging theme or plot involving the liberties of the “lower class” machines like the Raiders and the Centurions. The first war began when the original Centurions rebelled against man. Now, Cavill is very afraid that another revolution may be at hand. He keeps trying to warn Six. She isn’t listening.
[…] be reviewing each episode the fourth being