Review: 'Battlestar Galactica' - Sometimes A Great Notion

This review contains MAJOR SPOILERS for "Sometimes A Great Notion," the Season 4.5 premiere of "Battlestar Galactica."

The problem with watching any episode of "Battlestar Galactica," let alone a season premiere or finale, is that you're pretty much shooting yourself in the foot for the rest of the night -- at least, as far as television watching goes.

Don't count on finishing the night off with a rerun of "Stargate" or finally getting to that "Law & Order" episode that's about to delete from your Tivo. It just isn't going to happen. It's much more likely that you're going to be sitting in front of your blank television screen for quite some time thinking long and hard about what the frak just happened before your eyes and what it all means. Everything else will feel empty and unfulfilling in comparison.

After such a long and painful mid-season break, I'd completely forgotten about this phenomenon and thus was left a little shell shocked when the closing credits of "Sometimes A Great Notion" suddenly rolled. "Well ... how the hell do you follow that up?", I asked myself. You just have to sit back for a moment, let it all sink in.

This episode didn't deliver a whole lot of progression to the overall plot of the series, instead focusing on the physical and emotional fallout from last season's "Revelations." However, you shouldn't take that to mean that nothing happened - quite the opposite. The Final Four begin to have flashbacks of their previous lives (and deaths) on ancient Earth -- apparently, Chief Tyrol used to be a total square and Anders used to be a rock star ... Tori, meanwhile was forgettable even 2000 years ago. Not surprisingly, the crew of Galactica and the ragtag fleet are not taking the discovery of a radioactive Earth very well and for many of them, this is the final blow that sends them over the edge.

Roslin, having her religious beliefs and prophetic destiny suddenly called into question by the revelation that the mythic 13th tribe of Kobol were in fact cylon, is left unsure of how to continue on. She burns the pages of her Pythian prophecies one by one and begins to grow increasingly reclusive as the episode progresses.

Lee is having to step up and "carry the ball" for her and the colonial government, despite his own feelings of helplessness. Adama continues his downward spiral - retreating more and more to the comforts of the bottle -- culminating in an incredibly powerful, "I can't believe they went there" moment between him and Tigh that features some of the most intense, visceral performances by Olmos and Hogan to date.

Meanwhile, Starbuck sets out with Leoben to discover the source of the Colonial transponder signal that brought them to Earth in the first place, making some gruesome discoveries along the way. Old school spoiler-heads weren't surprised to see Kara Thrace's rotting corpse inside the mangled cockpit of her original Viper, a scene that has been rumored for quite some time - but they may have been surprised to see that the corpse also possessed her dog tags and wedding ring on a chain around it's neck. Attentive viewers will note that the current Starbuck returned with both tags and ring in tact back at the beginning of Season 4. Let the wild speculation begin!

But perhaps the most shocking and powerful moment of the episode is one that no one saw coming -- the suicide of Chief Petty Officer Anastasia "Dee" Dualla. I have to admit, the writers had me hook, line and sinker on this one. In the moment, I really thought that Dee and Apollo would get back together and then BAM! Literally. There aren't many instances where I yell at my TV screen, but I'll cop to trying to talk Dee down from the ledge once I figured out what was coming. I don't think it makes me any less of a man. "Don't do it, girl!"

PS. Like it or not, Ellen Tigh is the Fifth. Get over it. If you didn't see it coming by this point, then you automatically get the Galactica patch ripped right off your geek badge of honor. All the signs were there.

What Worked

... Pretty much everything. I'll be the first to admit that I'm definitely a Galactica fanboy, but I'm not completely blind to it's faults. There are some subplots I have a hard time swallowing and there have been a few moments that still make me cringe on repeat viewings, but honestly, there wasn't much of that going on here. Even the melodramatic moments were handled with such sincerity and honesty that it was easy to believe that these characters reactions were all genuine to the situation they were experiencing.

Michael Hogan and Edward James Olmos' acting chops. They went there and I commend them for that.

The backstory. Flashbacks didn't bog down the story, exposition was kept to a minimum.

Leoben. Nothing says "game changer" like Leoben leaping back like a scared schoolgirl.

The artsy stuff. One of my favorite aspects of Galactica is the show's ability to be very writerly and literary without beating the audience over the head with it. It's ripe with symbolism and metaphor, but poignant moments aren't always emphasized by overwrought string crescendos. Water is frequently used to symbolize death in the Galactica universe -- from Searider Falcon, to the stream that separates life and death, to Adama's drowning of Hera in the river on Kobol in Baltar's vision, to Lee's near brush with death in "Resurrection Ship" -- and Adama's story about foxes treading water down the river is another example of this ongoing metaphor. It's little flourishes like this that really give the series infinite replay value and enough source material to fuel geeky debates until the end of time.

What Didn't Work

Waiting seven months. It's hard to fault the show for a network's decision, but the extended hiatus really did dull the impact of some of the biggest reveals of the episode. If "Sometimes A Great Notion" had aired a week after "Revelations," I don't think many people would have seen the Ellen Tigh thing coming, or the cylon 13th tribe, but 7 months is a long time to let things marinate and Aaron Douglas, bless his heart, just couldn't keep his mouth shut. When I had all that time to really think about what was going on and rewatch all those old episodes a lot of it just fell into place.

SciFi Channel's marketing department. I'm not going to delve into the whole KFC "Frak Pak" thing or even the beating the Fifth Cylon like a dead horse for 7 months thing...hell, I'm not even going to bring up the laughably bad artwork for the Season 4.0 DVD release. But what's with not even being able to put forth the bare minimum of effort in follow through with the you will know the truth.com promotion? Did the intern they hired to update that site just have more important things to do? Graphic design work for "Raiths of Roanoke," perhaps? It's not as if this is their network's flagship show or anything ...

I agree with this guy on many level's. It took too long for this to come back out.I belief they could at have a bigger audian's if it's not for this long wait.Only the hard Core one's stuck with it.Waiting...waiting. GTO

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