Battlestar Galactica - Occupation / Resistance

Occupation : * * * * / * * * *
Precipice : * * * / * * * *

Key takeaways:

If anything, the third season sure kicks off with two episodes that answer a very obvious question we already knew: Baltar Gaius as President was a complete disaster. As Precipice concludes, it ends with quite a hook: Roslin and Zarek awaiting execution, both interrogated unsuccessfully in regards to who represents the Resistance leading suicide bombings on the Cylons (and humans who work as a civilian police force), as Cally flees (released by a former member of the Resistance and secret member of the civilian police force working in concert with the Cylons, Jammer) gunshots ring out. Robot Cylons were about to fire upon nearly 200 gathered up humans considered possible (and likely) collaborators with the Resistance, which included Roslin and Zarek who can only laugh at the knowledge that her rigging the election to defeat Baltar would have benefited humankind a great deal. It is that irony that left me quite amused even as I never bought for a second Roslin and Zarek would die. With Boomer on Galactica depended upon (much to Apollo’s protest) by a trusting Admiral Adama sent to New Caprica to help the Resistance fighters (hoping to assist them), Anders, Tigh, and Tyrol hope to gain an advantage against the Cylons. Thanks to intel provided by Gaeta, Baltar’s Presidential aide, Tyrol, Tigh, and Anders locate a communication device that can send messages and receive them to and from Galactica without the Cylons detecting them. Gaeta also uses a dog bowl to hide and pass info to the Resistance…this established in the first season episode, Occupation. 

Tigh and Tyrol both have been pushed to the edge, barely recognizable from their duties on the Galactica when under Adama's command, in uniform, working onboard. Tyrol was involved in worker's rights on New Caprica, soon joining the Resistance against Cylon (and Baltar Gaius' Presidency) captivity and dictates. Tigh, twisted into a bitter rival, adversarial due to the loss of an eye and interrogative torture, isn't the least bit conflicted when Roslin presses him on sending fighters into suicide terrorism. Cylons and the humans who collaborate with them are deserved of the end results of these suicide bombings...trying to reason with him in that regard is futile. Admiral Adama corresponding with Tigh, Tyrol, and Anders gives their mission much needed oomph.

Boomer and Number Six (both human sympathizers) had arrived to New Caprica in the hope of forming a peaceful coexistence with the humans but Number Three, the Cavils, and clones of Aaron Doral (Matthew Bennett) and Number Six all seek to cull any further violence or terrorist activity from the Resistance. So you have these two Boomers that are on New Caprica, one aiding the Resistance, the other unsuccessfully trying to convince her fellow human-synthetic skinned Cylons to refrain from encouraging further rift with the humans. It is quite a fascinating sequence of events. The one Number Six sympathizer available to the humans is shot in the head when she continues to argue with Number Threes, the Cavils, and Dorals about executing 200 humans to prove a point. Particularly vocal in encouraging more and more violence as a solution to the Resistance are the Cavils. One of the Cavils is “granted” sexual favors by Ellen (including her “twist” that gets mention in Precipice by an enthusiastic Cavil who commends her for its effectiveness!) supposedly so that Tigh could be released from a cell, losing his eye in the process (in Occupation, he mentions to Tyrol and Anders that it was a like a crushed egg, placed in front of him after it was pulled from the socket to prove a point!) of interrogation to reveal Resistance information he never reveals. Cavil freely offers to Ellen that his release was to learn of who is involved in the Resistance, “urging” her to secure evidence of their activities. This leads to an ambush when Anders, Tyrol, and Tigh coordinate with Admiral Adama on where one of his officers (later determined to be Boomer) can rendezvous with them.

All of this conflict—Roslin unable to appeal to Tigh to stop with the human suicide bombings, Ellen fucking a Cylon Cavil while allowed access to the Resistance’s meetings, Jammer covertly working for the Cylons while still congregating with a kvetched and anxious Tyrol who is coming apart at the seams when they kidnap his wife and mother of his child, Baltar basically forced into signing an execution order for the 200 humans by gunpoint, Gaeta having to quietly provide information accumulated in Baltar’s office for the Resistance because of how the Cylons are corrupting and compromising what little government does exist on New Caprica, Admiral Adama and an overweight Apollo (I was intrigued by this development, seemingly reinforcing a theme of “going soft” over four months, including staying in shape and taking the Pegasus command more seriously and remaining an effective leader) at odds with how to organize a rescue and assist effort to those occupied on New Caprica—places characters in existential and moral crises, trying to determine what action/reaction is best considering the dilemma and quandary brought about by the Cylon occupation.

Leoben Conoy returns after we recall his interrogation at the hands of Starbuck, hoping to influence her into becoming his partner, even including a little girl created from her “ovary” during her captivity at “the farm” on Caprica. I just thought that was fucked up. Starbuck, on New Caprica, is held in a cell that imitates her home back on Caprica, visiting her over and over with attempts to domesticate her, even leaving the little girl in her resistant care in the efforts of manipulating her into caring about the child, hoping that by indoctrinating her into a family situation she’ll relent from her position of rejection. It is a fascinating series of scenes as Leoben, quite patient and driven, despite setbacks when Starbuck kills his “copy” over and over, returning in a clone each and every time, refuses to give up while she appears to gradually succumb to the fatigue of imprisonment and manipulation. By the end of Precipice, she even looks on at her injured “daughter” while Leoben seems to feel her clutch his hand…wishful thinking or is Starbuck’s grip on fighting him loosening?