The premise of this week's episode is the discovery of a Cylon (identical to the one Adama fought at Ragnar Station) onboard one of the civilian transports. Naturally, Adama sends Starbuck to interrogate the Cylon because Starbuck is not only the best pilot and the best shot in the fleet, but she's apparently also the best interrogator. A woman of many talents, to say the least.
The Cylon immediately tells Starbuck that he's placed a nuclear device on one of the fleet's ships and that it will detonate in eight and a half hours. He then manages to guess Starbuck's name, beginning a tit-for-tat interrogation session during which Starbuck attempts to wring the location of the bomb from the Cylon while he tries to get inside her head. As with Number Six, this Cylon is a devout believer in God, and he even offers up some of Cylon dogma: God created humanity first, but humanity was flawed and sinned against God, so God created the Cylons. A pretty logical origin story for the Cylons, who were in fact created by humanity, but it doesn't really help us much.
The episode quickly devolves into a 'is torture justified' storyline that really doesn't tell us much, because Starbuck isn't torturing a human, but a Cylon. It's hard to consider the morality of pounding on a toaster oven, even if the toaster oven is cleverly disguised to look like a human being. Still, it appears that the Cylon got what he wanted, as he is able to get inside Starbuck's head to such a degree that she prays for his soul at the end of the episode, and he warns President Roslyn that Adama is a Cylon shortly before she orders him thrown out an airlock.
The biggest flaw in all this is that the Cylon is apparently telepathic: President Roslyn dreams of the Cylon even up to his sudden disappearance when he's sucked out the airlock. When he's being tortured, he suddenly appears to Roslyn to tell her he has something to tell her. The Cylon knows who Starbuck is and knows a great deal of her history. It may make for a more interesting episode, but unless they're planning to reveal some pretty significant Cylon abilities in future episodes, it's also pretty questionable plotting.
The sideline plots are a bit more interesting. The Boomer-copy on Caprica reports in to her controllers and is told she will have to now convince Helo to set up shop in a cabin the Cylons provide for them. Apparently the Cylons are attempting to learn something about how humans live normally or some such. If Boomer can't convince Helo to stay at the cabin, her instructions are to kill him. Apparently Boomer doesn't like this plan much, as she returns to Helo and tells him that they have to flee, but faster than before. The implication is obvious: Boomer has fallen in love with Helo and she is going to try and escape the other Cylons with him rather than risk his life. An interesting twist, and one that will be interesting to observe in the future episodes.
Back on Galactica, meanwhile, the original Boomer is still trying to get back together with the Chief. Apparently she believes that Chief thinks she might be a Cylon and is staying away from her for that reason. So she goes to Baltar and demands he test her to see if she is a Cylon. Apparently Baltar has actually been working on his Cylon-detector, as he goes ahead with the test and discovers that Boomer is, in fact, a Cylon. But since his conscience/Number Six tells him that if he reveals to Boomer that she's a Cylon, she will probably kill him, he decides that discretion is the better part of valor and tells her that she's human. If they follow this up next week with Baltar doing something about this discovery, things could get very interesting.
All in all, this wasn't much to write home about. The various threads had potential, but only if they are further developed in future episodes. If these threads disappear, this will stand out as an exceptionally weak episode.
Update: Jim Henley disagrees with me on the episode's value, and perhaps he's right. But the use of torture on a Cylon seems a bit of a cop-out to me. Torture is a horrific thing (a fact the episode, to its credit, did highlight). But by using torture on a Cylon rather than a human being, it seems like the creators left themselves an out. Sure, torture was used, but only on a Cylon. Given the Cylon's lack of humanity and penchant for genocide, it's a bit harder to argue against torturing them on any grounds save simple practicality, as there's certainly no evidence Starbuck's use of torture had even the slightest effect on the Cylon.
Posted at February 26, 2005 07:12 AM
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Tracked on February 28, 2005 05:59 AM
There is much you do not yet know. The story of the President's visions will provide much of the plot for the second half of season one.
Be more patient and less cynical.
Posted by: Jeff Harrell at February 26, 2005 04:52 PM
Cynical, moi? If I wasn't patient I wouldn't be watching the show at all. BSG is the only TV show I follow. But call me a picky perfectionist: when I see a plot hole, I bitch.
If it makes you feel better, remember Teddy Roosevelt's comments about the critic.
Posted by: Andrew at February 26, 2005 05:03 PM
Hmm. Yes, I think "bitch" is exactly the right word to use here.
Posted by: Jeff Harrell at February 26, 2005 06:21 PM
Actually I see no evidence that the cylon "humans" are anything except brainwashed genetically engineered humans. They're genetically identical to humans, and possess no mechanical parts, how this is distinguishable from being a human is quite a bit beyond me. Even if they do possess some non-human parts, I don't think we'd consider a genetic human with a mechanical arm non-human. I actually think that the show has been hinting at this.
Posted by: Asteele at February 27, 2005 06:08 AM
That's an interesting hypothesis, but there are at least two indications that the Cylons are, in fact, mechanical. One, they're incredibly strong (witness the assault Leoben makes on Starbuck when they're alone), and two, Baltar's Cylon detector can detect differences between humans and Cylons. So there's certainly something significantly different between them, although that doesn't necessarily eliminate your hypothesis.
Posted by: Andrew at February 27, 2005 06:36 AM
There is some subtle biological difference between the Cylons and the humans that makes them susceptible to certain forms of radiation. If you remember the pilot movie, the another copy of the Cylon model from this episode was ill due to some form of radiation present at the weapons depot. The basis of Baltar's Cylon detector seems to involve using this radiation susceptibility. That is why Baltar needed the nuke.
Posted by: ATM at February 27, 2005 06:57 PM
There is some subtle biological difference between the Cylons and the humans that makes them susceptible to certain forms of radiation. If you remember the pilot movie, the another copy of the Cylon model from this episode was ill due to some form of radiation present at the weapons depot. The basis of Baltar's Cylon detector seems to involve using this radiation susceptibility. That is why Baltar needed the nuke.
Now, I don't know why the Cylon has superhuman strength, because you would think that would be detectable on the basis of some genetic of physical difference that could be easily detected.
Posted by: ATM at February 27, 2005 06:58 PM
I'd agree there not exactly the same. But I'm arguing more that their difference from humanity may be more a there Vulcan way (pressumably in the class of things we shouldn't torture.), not a there a toaster way.
Posted by: Asteele at February 27, 2005 09:06 PM
He didn't seem like a toaster to me. I think the whole point of the episode (such as there was) was to show that Starbuck came to discover that a thing was a "person", in the sense of "someone with rights".
So yes, it sure seemed like torture to me.
As for detecting they're different -- even now, with current technology, it is quite possible to determine with pretty high confidence the difference between human races, using genetic tests that look at the tiniest fraction of our DNA. So a cylon detector is not a huge surprise. The only way to make a detection-proof cylon would be to have "it" be fully human. Now these cylons, it appears, are detectable; but only marginally so. So they are only marginally different than human.
Now consider that we have laws against torturing creatures that are much more marginally human, such as dogs. Do you really think torturing a person who can talk, feel pain, sweat -- do you think that is morally distinguishable from torturing a person? I'm having a hard time seeing that.
Posted by: Leonard at February 28, 2005 07:26 AM
I didn't think much of this episode at all. I "get" the torture stuff, down to the "washboarding," comment on Abu Ghraib probably and the "inhumanity of humanity." I didn't get all the "God" philosophy stuff at all, it's like they are trying to cause some debate over the role of Christian extremism on one hand and the question of what depicts a soul on the other. If human-cylons are machines, why would torture work? If they are genetically grown humans, okay, I wish they'd make that clear (or that I had thought of that earlier... thanks Asteele).
The clash between the executive branch versus the military is getting old. Where's the Prez's SecDef or cabinet? I'd like to see more of the civilian interaction (although I like the military aspects of this scifi). I like the reverse engineering of the Cylon ship, am losing patience with Galactica-Boomer's paranoia/spiral into dispare and Caprica-Boomer's love-spy activities.
Jeff says be patient. Grrrrrrr. Too much intellectual stuff, need more action. A little humor every now and then would not be bad. I swear if it wasn't for Starbuck's character, there would be no wise-cracking at all.
Posted by: J. at February 28, 2005 07:50 AM
Part of the appeal of BSG is the sense that larger things will be revealed as the series plays out. This was part of the draw for Babylon 5 as well. If this pays off as well as B5 seasons 3-4, I will be a happy camper indeed. So I can be patient, if it's worth it.
Establishing the sense that the Cylons are living, sentient beings, hence "persons" with "rights", is essential to introducing moral ambiguity to the protagonists. Otherwise attempting to exterminate them is fraught with no more drama than stepping on a bug. For the worst entertainment example of turning the enemy into non-entities and hence giving free reign to destroy them wholesale with no regrets, see the "droid armies" in Star Wars Episodes 1-2.
Posted by: BD at February 28, 2005 04:45 PM
BD,
That's a good point, and perhaps I should have more faith in Ron Moore. To his credit, his blog is quite interesting to read, and he seems to have a pretty good idea of where he wants to go. The hot button issue for me was the dream: it implied a level of telepathy and precognition that gave me quite a bit of heartburn. I think they would have done better to make it dovetail somewhat less neatly with actual events.
Posted by: Andrew at February 28, 2005 09:19 PM
I interpreted the dream as meaning that President Roslyn had been romantically involved with a Cylon of that model sometime in the past (or even the human template, if such exists). The part of the dream where he's sucked out of the airlock might have been her subconscious realizing that they Cylon would have to be killed.
Posted by: Barry at March 7, 2005 08:22 AM
The Cylon is not able to read minds, the vision is part of greater plot line, it will make sense as the prophesy`s pan out.
Posted by: Anonymous at March 20, 2005 04:08 PM
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