Battlestar Galactica - Hero

What really lets you know that the Battlestar of Galactica of 2004 is quite a different animal that the kid-friendly 70s era version that provided a skeleton for it is in the episode, Hero. You think you know everything there is to know about the Cylon attack on Caprica and the other colonies and Hero unloads quite a whopper: Adama very well could have been on a Battlestar (Valkyrie) that might have been responsible for pushing the Cylons to attack humans due to proving they were the actual “warmongers”. So once revealed to Apollo by his father when talking about a returning pilot missing three years during a black ops orchestrated by the Admiralty prior to the Cylon attack during the armistice in order investigate whether or not the Cylons were “up to no good”, viewers are left to realize that all this time he was carrying a weight that must have been grueling. Perhaps before Lt Danny Novaceck (nickname, Bulldog) arrived with two Raiders pursuing him, somehow making it back to Adama inexplicably despite every reason never to see his commanding officer on the Valkyrie again, the “Old Man” was able to push it in the back of his mind as other matters took precedence. But old demons always seem to surface, journeying from the nether regions to awaken the past in order to confront what ultimately haunts you. In this case, Adama had to address the elephant not only in the room but spitting water in his face while rampaging towards him. What I also dug about this episode is how Saul Tigh can no longer waste away in his quarters as if it were a cell, the memories of his dead wife not consigned to the periphery but quite active and eroding. Smokes and booze cannot soothe a tortured soul nor can being locked away from everything outside the cell. When Bulldog returns, and Admiral Adama must acquiesce to his past—while on the Valkyrie he ordered to have Bulldog’s Viper shot down in order to avoid detection by the Cylons which led to the pilot being captured by them and held in a cell for three years while being mocked by his captors often—in order to ever quell the guilt that long has rode him. Saul realizes Adama can’t seem to tell him the truth, and a conversation (that is tense, of course) between them further emphasizes that the guilt for the Admiral (and just wanting to past to stay the past) keeps him from doing so. Saul believes, though, Adama had told him, as Bulldog visits his old friend which sets forth a furious pilot needing to rage against the commanding officer who left him out there to die. The whole chickens eventually come home to roost trope often more than not leads to great drama and fireworks. Carl Lumbly, doing pushups, sweating it out, his eyes building and building in intensity, is definitely up for the task while Olmos—the consummate actor’s actor—has exceptional expressive bouts of weighty angst, emotionally toiling and grinding as he accepts his part in how their black ops mission left a pilot lost and potentially started the near annihilation of their race. Apollo, in a nice moment for Bamber, tries to ease his father’s conscience, making sure he doesn’t voluntarily bear the albatross on his own. He did follow orders and do as the Admiralty asked. Later Roslin assures the conflicted and worn Adama that there were many, many reasons why the Cylons led their attack mission, hoping to assuage taking all the blame on himself. And the 45 years of service celebrated, Adama might not have wanted the medal, feeling unworthy, but Roslin made the point to convince him that his crew needed it more.

The subplot has D'anna contemplating her dreams, awakening naked in bed with Caprica Six while Baltar sleeps (while being tortured, Baltar, actually speaking to Head Six while having imaginary sex with her, looks up at D'anna and tells her he loves her), contemplating a possible spiritual "middle" between when Cylons die and before they download into another body. This part is but a small part of the episode. The A plot certainly takes a greater role in the episode. 3.5/5