Battlestar Galactica - Six Degrees of Separation

* * * / * * * *

Strong Gaius-based episode has the genius, under pressure to develop a "cylon detector", accused by "Shelley Godfrey" (Helfer) as being responsible for bombing the defense system on Caprica, supposedly in cahoots with cylons.

A security recording could very well implicate him, so Commander Adama puts Lt. Gaeta (often an assistant to Gaius Baltar, helping him in his lab on the BG) on the job to determine whether or not the man caught by the camera is or is not Gaius. 

Up to this point, Gaius has been tormented by Number Six, a very present mind intruder who constantly interrupts his daily life, even during conversations with others, often causing him to appear troubled as others walk past. 

Now she's actually in person, acknowledged by Adama and crew (Tighe looking at him with little patience, while Adama just appears tired and in no mood for games cracked me up), while Gaius is perplexed that they now can see her. And with Number Six (or just another "cylon copy/fake") now seemingly out to get him, Gaius' fate could be in jeopardy. 

Eventually a face is visible and it is Gaius', attempts by Baltar to destroy the equipment (obviously casting suspicion on him if anything!) fail, and Adama sentences him to the brig while President Roslin visits him at his cell, condemning him based on "a gut feeling". It definitely does not look good for Gaius, and the episode really stacks the deck against him. 

What seems to start his downfall is dismissing Number Six' belief in God, considering "her" (and other believers) religious devotion tiresome. So she "goes away" and "shows up" on Adama's bridge with claims that he was the central figure in what caused the fall of the human race. All of a sudden Gaius is pleading with whoever will listen that he's being framed, begging Gaeta in the urinal (!) of a BG bathroom (as a sci-fi fan I just want to speak on how pleased I am that a series actually shows us that these exist on ships in space). 

Roslin's health is deteriorating, as she collapses mid-call with Gaius, due to taking more than a prescribed dose of meds. But she sure peers into the face of jailbird Gaius with a look of condemnation that would send chills down the backside of those in the gallows. But Godfrey attempting to seduce Adama is particularly awkward, with him giving her a cold stare that would strike fear in Michael Myers. 

Subplots include Helo and the other Sharon cylon screwing in the woods outside Caprica and Starbuck, in a leg cast, eventually angered by an antagonistic Tighe, aids the clueless Tyrol in determining how to control the cylon raider in their hanger deck. Gaius praying to God, Helfer returning within his mind after her time on the ship (only her glasses remain on the bridge as Adama considers her a threat that must be found), and Roslin declaring him a victim of a frame (Gaeta does discover that the recording is a fake and that Gaius was not the saboteur), deserving their full support; at the end, Baltar has been fully restored and once again in the clear of any wrongdoing despite his inadvertent ties to the cylons' near-annihilation of the human race. Helfer is always a provocative presence, and her sensuality once again is utilized to the fullest.