Battlestar Galactica - Flesh and Bone

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That the cylons are not treated as just robot toasters, developed with far more complexity in the re-envisioning, episodes like "Flesh and Bone" give us all the necessary essentials to come away quite well pleased. Because another Leoben Conoy (Callum Keith Rennie) model is found on one of the Colonial ships, Commander Adama sends Starbuck to interrogate "it" (Adama does not want to refer to Leoben as "him" or "he"), when President Roslin demands "to hear what he has to say" instead of just destroying the cylon immediately. 

This is once again an example of how Roslin has the direct authority to undermine Adama's direct order to just carry out what he so desires. A dream about Conoy is what inspires Roslin to initiate the interrogation, the catalyst in what ultimately results in Starbuck's use of torture techniques (obviously a creative decision by the writing team to address these tactics used to get information in real life) to try and secure the location of a supposed warhead planted on one of the ships. Adama tries to prepare Starbuck for Leoben's attempts to "get inside her head" and use "half-baked philosophy and mumbo jumbo", while Roslin continues to see him/it in her dreams. Roslin is often contending with her Cancer pain by overmedicating (her doc telling her that she could end up in a coma), believing there is something to Leoben's presence. Meanwhile he makes some personal statements to Starbuck about her upbringing and how it has molded her into someone who believes she deserves pain, while she tries to use whatever methods are available to get the location of the warhead (like physical violence and head-dunking into a bucket of water). Starbuck's past revealed a bit to us gives us an 

understanding of what baggage she carries even as she tries to remain tough and guarded about it. 

Her use of torture (hours that don't get an answer, with Roslin arriving, giving him humane treatment that ultimately gets results) fails but discussion on God and fear of the "soul leaving the body" seems to indicate the cylons are evolving, considering spiritual matters beyond the "execute their creators for their sin". Leoben proves he could just kill Starbuck if he so chooses, pressing her up against a wall with a firm grip around her throat. It is almost a dance of mind games as Leoben uses this interrogation to introduce and stir dialogue with Starbuck, asserting that she is so much more than a Viper pilot/instructor/interrogator. This dialogue certainly raises Starbucks mystique as well as adds intrigue to the cylons, indicating that they aren't just AI who turned on their masters, seemingly interested in more than just annihilating humankind.

Caprica City's outskirts once again provide cylons studying Helo, awaiting his vocal admittance to loving Boomer, as she meets up with them to follow further instructions. There is actual dissension among even the cylons as clone of Number Six admits to not liking Boomer, with her receiving orders to make sure Helo complies with certain expectations or else will die. I still don't know where this is heading but I'm a patient viewer, as the cylons appear dedicated to mimicking humans seamlessly, looking to secure affection from humans. On the BG, the Boomer model (who doesn't know she's a cylon) goes to Baltar Gaius hoping he can prove whether or not she's a cylon, as Number Six mocks him in his mind, encouraging him to test her then questioning if he should tell her once it is realized she is. I have continued to enjoy this ongoing crisis Gaius can't break free from as Number Six never fails to give him much time to himself, often serving as a symbol of guilt or debate where every decision he makes comes under scrutiny and is subject to contentious tensions.

Roslin having Leoben's cuffs off, speaking to him with respect, offering to give him sanctuary without harm only to send him out of the airlock (and Starbuck placing her hand on the glass as he does from the other side, as if to indicate regret and emotional connection) are startling / surprising developments. Roslin can't have a cylon knowingly walking the corridors of any ship in their fleet and Starbuck has been forever changed by meeting Leoben, his words about her resonating despite efforts to force him to talk during interrogation. Leoben telling Roslin that Adama is a cylon plants a suspicious seed that very well could be a tactic used to cause distrust.

The question of cylons developing beyond their programming, functioning similar to humans, gradually thinking, feeling, contemplating their having a soul, wanting to continue in the "human experience" is far more substantial in intellectual merit than the original which aimed to thrill kids...not that I have any problem with that, but to tickle my intellect is altogether another matter I embrace wholeheartedly.