Battlestar Galactica - Faith

Emotionally potent, spiritual episode (the subplot, specifically, President Roslin must endure cancer treatments, striking up a warm friendship with a dying patient played by an incredibly strong Nana Visitor, the wonderful actress from the great Star Trek series, Deep Space 9, the two discussing a particular dream where those Visitor loves await her "on the other side of a gleaming body of water) has two ongoing plots.

How the title relates to both stories is such a part of what makes the episode so impactful. Starbuck needs to make it to earth and Leoben is seemingly a method towards that goal as the separatist Cylons wish to find earth and do so willingly with humans, and how “Faith” halts what appears to be a mutiny in progress certainly subverts expectations. Poor Gaeta is just following orders as Helo orders him to start up a jump for the Demetrius, with Anders shooting him in the leg; the wound is deep and devastating, with Helo willing to negotiate a deal with Starbuck where she takes a Raptor, as Leoben, Sharon Athena, Anders, and human, Barolay (Alisen Down), who believes in Kara and her mission, to find the attacked Cylon Basestar that he’ll wait on a jump for them to return until a specific time limit. So Gaeta (and the remaining crew) sweats it out while Starbuck and company eventually meet up with the Basestar (she saw in her vision as a comet), with the expected tension and lack of trust. This is a big episode for Anders, because he’s definitely involved in the A plot quite extensively. He’s the one who won’t tolerate the mutiny and jump before Starbuck has met her goal, while on the Basestar when a Number Six kills Barolay (Barolay was responsible for a previous clone’s drowning death on new Caprica and that traumatic memory haunted her), Anders is there on the verge of shooting her in the head. Then there is a scene where Anders is near the “tank” of the hybrid, with Starbuck hoping to understand her gibberish, having a hard time, despite Leoben’s encouragement to “listen”, deciphering gobbledy-gook…Cylons can “read” a console that encircles the hybrid’s tank, and Anders quietly tries to put his hand across it. And then there is Anders holding the hand of a shot clone of Sharon, one of the “toasters” responding with gunfire as the hybrid wails aloud as a connection to the Basestar she has control of must be disconnected in order for the Raptor to help guide the ship back to Demetrius. Although the Sharon clone (among its fellow clones requests Athena to help her take command of the Basestar) asks forgiveness from Athena, it is Anders willing to hold her hand into death. Without a Resurrection Ship, any killed Cylon will not return. So plenty of loss in the episode.

Back to the subplot featuring Roslin, her seeing her dead mother awaiting her, the President “pulls back”, unwilling to accept the same fate as Vistor’s cancer-ravaged patient, feeling that there is still some life left to live. Although Baltar’s “message” of a God, instead of “metaphor” gods, can be heard over a radio on her food tray, Visitor only listens because of her own experience, told to Roslin. Roslin visiting a worrying Admiral Adama, the two sharing a sweet conversation about being there for each other during the hardest of times is such an uplifting way to close the episode. The series is often quite depressing, quite tragic and dark, but there are times when heartfelt human moments of gentleness and tenderness, that resonate and land affectively, and the end of “Faith” is such an example. Bill Adama sent Helo, Gaeta, and Kara on a dangerous mission and they have been gone a bit longer than expected. Without word, the wear and tear of that silence clearly and visibly shows in Bill’s face and countenance. Any belief in earth that Adama now has is because of Roslin, and the love and respect they have for each other is pivotal to the show’s emotional vitality and strength…and Olmos and McDonnell are such class acting talent, they can get anything the series needed across powerfully. 4.5/5

*The hybrid telling Starbuck that she is the harbinger of death and will lead all to “the end” definitely gave me pause and I had an actual gulp. That is a “yikes” kind of comment, prophetic or otherwise.

**Speaking of Anders, his face spoke volumes as he is right there when Six, Leoben, Starbuck, and Athena speak of the “five” and how D’Anna has the answer they desire while the five are key to getting back to earth. That secret Anders knows will sure knock a lot for a loop once he and those on Galactica are discovered.

***Although a brief dialogue scene, Roslin putting faith into Tory Foster to help keep her going through all the cancer difficulty and workload has its irony. A skinjob who murdered Callie and sleeps with Baltar is Roslin’s close aid and confidante.