Battlestar Galactica - End of the Third Season

because I just have life issues (at one point during the early part of the week the phrase “life fatigue” sort of popped to mind) like anyone else (the usual home financial problems like outside and inside plumbing and nagging tree roots), interference with blog posts is expected. I actually watched the final four episodes of the third season of Battlestar Galactica (“Maelstrom”, “The Son Also Rises”, & “Crossroads” Parts 1 and 2) in one evening. I had held onto the Blu-Ray of the season way too long, not on purpose but time goes by and you realize that you have to get on with it. Just the same, an incredible way to bookend a mostly successful third season. I thought, particularly, Starbuck’s arc takes a neat turn and the revelation that Tigh, Tyrol, Sam, and Roslin’s assistant, Tory, are the actual mysterious secret Cylons (!!!) was an incredible shock that left me gobsmacked. Tigh, the alcoholic right hand of Admiral Adama, tortured by Cavill on New Caprica, having influenced his wife to take poison for helping “the enemy” learning he is in fact the very thing he most despises, especially is a lot to absorb! Tyrol, the chief over mechanics and engineering crew that keep the Vipers/Raptors (and machinery) up and running, realizing he is not human, just trying to come to terms with it while Sam, who led a human insurgency on Old Caprica, having an extremely difficult time swallowing this certainly results in some heavy turmoil to unpack. A specific tune that they had been hearing brings them eventually together. They go back to their respected posts, trying to integrate all the while knowing that they harbor a secret that could be perilous to all humans in the fleet. And Starbuck seeing a Cylon ship inside a gas giant (a planet of gas with radiation that the BG and fleet uses to mask themselves against Cylon detection), eventually going too deep into it after visions of her dying abusive mother, Leoben guiding her through memory (and some fictitious reunion in order to come to peace with the past so she can prepare for the future), eventually realizing that her destiny is still ahead, although it would appear she perished in her exploding Viper while a horrified Apollo can’t stop her and save her (only for Apollo to later see her emerge in space with promise to lead the fleet to earth because “she’s been there”) with “Maelstrom” takes us on quite a dramatic roller coaster. And with the trial of Gaius Baltar and all the different emotions and developments attached to it (Roslin wanting to see him punished while Apollo in highly charged and weighty counteraction to her and his father’s consideration of his guilt and why he should get any trial at all often resulting in butting heads and harsh words), the end of the season certainly left us with a lot to chew on as the final season (essentially two seasons in one, sort of designed in two parts). A cult starting to develop in Baltar’s honor, with one mother even sure his touch could heal her child (!), while a lawyer in shades, despite not liking Gaius, carries himself with swagger and confidence, Romo Lampkin (Mark Sheppard in a memorable turn) takes the trial in some quirky directions. Apollo deciding to help represent Baltar costs him his marriage yet allows him to speak to all in attendance that none of them are without fault and despite errors in judgment were forgiven (New Caprica’s Cylon occupation and all that came with it specifically a point of reference). That testimony by Apollo, coming to a nasty disagreement with his father over just being a part of the trial (names were drawn to determine who would be judges at the trial, with Admiral Adama among them to serve), serves to remind the likes of Roslin and Admiral Adama that they aren’t without sin themselves. The cancer returning and using chamala extract again, seeing a vision of Hera, Caprica Six, Sharon in an opera house, all the buildup to the fourth and final season is right there in those final episodes. Baltar getting off (Admiral Adama admitting to Roslin he was one of the three that decided in favor of Baltar’s innocence thanks to his son’s convincing testimony), with the cult eventually carrying him off with them so he wouldn’t be assassinated also prepares us for his own unique direction going forward.