Since there's no thread yet,

From Comcast/TV Guide:

Okay, that was the most... freaking insane teaser/first act this series (or any show in the last decade) has ever seen... Fake-out that the Chief killed himself (I couldn't have been the only one thinking that), then the Chief flipping out and beating up Caly (Poor Caly, dear lord!), Baltar and Rosalin preparing for the debate, then that awesome grinning through bared teeth and quipping at each other, and finally seeing a mission to retake Caprica, with a plan that actually makes sense. When Boomer said a bad thing was coming, all I could think was, "Jesus Christ, you feel it too?!" I'm glad there was a commercial break after that whole thing, or I'd probably be unconscious right now.

Holy crap, Doc Cottle has a twin brother, and he's clergy!

It's interesting to finally get a good look at how completely fracked up the Chief is.

"You... are a genius." "And?" Hehe..

Baltar/Six/Zarek threeway, anybody?

Okay... this week the Chief has a beard and is afraid he's a cylon... last week we saw an unidentified cylon with a beard... am I looking too much into this or are the writers fracking with me?

Jumped inside a mountain... frack... that's a horrible way to go.

I'm surprised none of Ander's Heroes pointed out that Boomer's... well, a Cylon? Hopefully they'll address it next week.

Great first half to what should be a great season finale! Things are heating up! And in two weeks? Doctor Who! Oh, yeah!

I vote we only do season enders and openings from now on.

Well, that was a nice setup ep, but it will depend on the second part.

Fun things: the Chief wailing on Cally and that poor Raptor that became one with the mountain (well, except for their beacon).

Frankly, I was less than enthused with this episode and the soundtrack music sucked except when it used the traditional themes.

It was OK, but it wasn't great.

Hopefully, next week's 90 minute finale will pack much more of a wallop.

Other than all that, it was a very by the numbers episode with everyone's performances placing them around where we'd expect them to be.

But WTF was up with Tyrol turning into Ike Turner?

I feel bad for Sharon... she's got PPD and SID depression going on!

Lee & Kara were sweet... now that's how to let someone go lovingly!

Sigh, it's too bad DeeHo has yet to be airlocked but her time will come eventually... perharps a Serena-like death except this time there would be dancing in the streets!

That is all!

That was a really good hour of television, but considering all the shit that I thought was going to go down from the previews and (gasp!) spoilers.............I'm feeling a little unfulfilled.

RDM, please satisfy me next week--I'm counting on you.

Oops, just missed it.

Too much set up, not enough self-contained action. I did love the Baltar snarkiness though. *yawn*

Awesome episode, but can we get a less violent Chief next time and a less creepy priest? And blanders is back. meh. The scene with Starbuck/Apollo *hurt*. Ditto for Sharon/Helo. Whose bright idea was it to parade her in front of a room full of people with loaded guns?

Anyone else saw Sears Optics commercial open up on the face of a lovely blonde in black-rimmed glasses and think "Gina?!" ? No? Just me then.

I kept saying that Adama Sr. should totally kiss Ma'me Pres, to cure the giggles. I guess that was just me, again. Tough 'ship.

The Jury is still out on whether the Chief is a Cylon or not but I now hate him forever for attacking cally.

It's pretty much unforgivable.

And man, Adama Jr. looks bad in that outfit. All I can think is "I'm wearing my father's clothes. I must feel icky"

I don't care what Stockwell's character's name is or what he does or anything at all about his backstory--that was AL!! Hi Al, I've missed you!!!

Having not seen most of the previous eps, I was extremely pleased with this one. Except the Caprica scenes; I never did care for those. And Chief!!! I missed you too!

Is Al a total cylon or what?

Sam, Ziggy says you have to betray humanity before you can leap out!

Holy Lord Cylon On High, That was a seriously wild ride.

Aaron Douglas can act the hell out of a scene, damn that man has some talent. The recreation of the dream scene, not a word, just movement, expressions and ownage of the whole thing.

I liked the soundtrack, something diffrent and it sorta put me on edge. I will admit I allow soundtracks to lead me around some.

This is the series I wanted to watch, this is the show that I fell in love with.

RevAl, that was cool, reminded me of some preachers i know.

That is all for now, more later I am sure,

Just when I thought I couldn’t love this show more. Roslin’s pregame routine was so great. And Roslin and Adama laughing together! Everytime he throws that toothy grin I love him a little bit.

(But the grammar nazi in me gritted her teeth when Roslin said “…to believe that Cylon technology is not sufficient enough to…”)

I loved that Sharon had installed a port so as to avoid the bloody-cable-up-the-arm thing.

Did anyone notice that Baltar said to Zarek, sarcastically, “…I’ll just wait for the hand of God to reach down…” Was that intentional? What do you guys think? Zarek didn’t call him on it.

Most Implausible Scene Ever: Lee Adama eating noodles. They found Anders right away. Ok. Chief is a cylon, whatever. But Lee’s eating carbs? Now you’ve lost me.

All I can think of with Al the Priest is a number of odd points...

* Guys get religion on Cylonia, women get Sex? Is it just me or is there two Priests amongst 3 Cylon males a little much?

* Our previous priest Cylon and Al-yon must truly hate each other. Their styles are totally different.

* The Chief is totally Baltar 2.0. He's utterly devoted to his new Cylon buddy I'm sure.

Who was that hottie in Baltar's staff? The one with the dark hair and the nice yes? I did love Roslin and Adama tonight. So sweet. I liked Racetrack and her co-pilot.

Opening teaser: awesome. Opening teaser music: John Tesh was owed a favor by someone. However, the wonderful BSG finger drum from the priest makes it forgiveable. Almost.

Those disappointed by this episode are heretics and action porn addicts who must be purged at once. Finally, finally, finally the writing, dialogue, multiple story lines, and emotion laden silences were back. And the Chief with the most screen time? Fuckin' A.

Great episode. The ending was predictable but a nice set up for next week. I'm little frustrated that no one in Ander's camp acknowledged that Boomer is a cylon. Hopefully, this will be addressed. I don't think the chief is a cylon but the priest on the other hand is a different story. And where did that scene of Lee/Dee come from in the previously on... "I'm leaving galactica. I'm not leaving you." Another scene that made it on to the cutting room floor? I feel cheated. I want my Lee/Dee.

Okay, was it just me or were there "previously on Battlestar Galactica" scenes we've never seen before? Like Lee telling Dee that he is leaving Galactica, not her.

Wow! The Chief beating the crap out of Callie! And what's up with that beard? I don't think the Chief is a cylon. I think the priest is.

The Rebels already know Boomer is a good Cylon from last time Kara visited. Why should they care?

Marymary,

Lee eating noodles was a direct copy/homage (can you do an homage a season and a half later?) to the first scene of Daddy Adama in his quarters. Someone, I forget who, walked in and Bill was slurping noodles at a table, just like that. Continuity, and all that.

Cool.


WNightBlade, I agree. Good catch.

I was expecting the resistance fighters to shoot Sharon. I mean, it's obvious to them that she's a Cylon, right?

I wonder how Baltar's candidacy is affected by the fact that he has terrorist Zarek running around behind him and whispering in his ear. It's like two devils for the price of one.

Oh and I know its not confirmed that Al-yon is a Cylon but its never occurred to me for even an INSTANT that he's not. Anyone else feel this way?

Or am I being foolish?

So, Alylon didn't see the Chief at any of his Cylon meetings, eh? Well, of course not. He was probably too busy discussing religion with the Leobens, or meeting with Torilons regarding the best way to manipulate humans they advise. Meanwhile, the Sixes, Sharons, D'annas, and Dorals are all having coffee, and the nerdy Cylons like, oh, say, Gaetalons and Tyrolons are building things or having LAN parties.

Roslin finally got bit on the ass! Long overdue, but the timing really sucks. Nice build up for the finale. And Baltar really needs to be outed. So tired of his shit. They can keep him on the show as HeroSixes headfriend, though.



God I hope not. Gaetalon I could live with. But Tyrol is the everyman of the show. And Tyrol as the reluctant Cylon would be Boomer pt.2. No need to go there again.

re: the noodles, it was the first episode, 33, and Tigh was eating Adama's noodles "You still eating this?" or something like.


And I was already beaten to the punch on Dean Stockwell being Cottle's twin brother!

GP really impressed me with her depression, her lethargic movement and voice throughout.

How wierd and strained that exchange between Lee and Kara was. Lee knew the 20% fatality projection for the mission, so not only was he potentially never going to see Kara again, if she did come back successfully, it would probably be with Anders on her arm. *heart breaks*

And as commander, he's finally gotten a handle on that whole public speaking/speech-giving that he's been so dreadful at.

And still: no Lee/Laura?! *pouts*

and thank the gods that we didn't have to sit through the debate more than was necessary. How funny was Tori with her eyeroll as Roslin breaks into another fit of giggles.

I like the storyline with Chief. It was kinda sudden, we didn't see it building to this, but there was enough foundation that it wasn't out of the blue. Made total sense. I wonder, what brought this about, is he really starting to feel that he's going to do something bad? Is he getting the same bad feeling that Sharon is having?

Wow. Awesome teaser. The longest so far?

Maybe someday we'll get an episode that consists entirely of "previously" scenes that we've never actually seen.

The Roslin/Adama stuff was great-- I wonder if the 'giggling' started off as accidental but it was so great they decided to work it into the episode?

Don't get where they're going with the Tyrol stuff, nevertheless, it's good to see Chief again (screwed up or no)! But is he in the habit of taking naps in the hanger bay, or what's going on there?



HA! So accurate. I'd love to see these two in a scene together.

ETA: Did anyone catch that pic of Lee in what I think was Dee's locker? It looked like the same pic that Kara has of him that she folded in half-- what the hell is Dee doing with it, or did I see that wrong?

This episode was brilliant but it seemed kinda herky-jerky.

Was I the only one wishing that the pilot of the mountain-squished Raptor was Kat?

Well Pharoah (I do love that description of Roslin) doesn't like having her decisions countermanded, so I can understand why she was doing some fear mongering but that's an ugly side she displayed to the public during the debate.

I gotta say though, giggling? I swear, that's worse than Baltar's obvious schizophrenia for public confidence reducing.

I'm not sure how much input Boomer (whether she was aware of it or not) had on the jump coordinates but I can't help thinking that maybe she sent Racetrack there to that planet to lure the fleet into possibly settling there and then the Cylons attack.

Ok, I normally do not like to post 2 times in the same hour, but I wanted to mention a segment of the directing that was intresting to me that I ave not seen brought up yet.

I loved watching the camera angles in the Starbuck-Cmdr.Apollo scene, everything was off kilter in the beginning, and as they talked and danced around the 500 pound elephant they were still off kilter.

When Lee wish her luck and hoped that she brought him (Anders) back her camera leveled out, and her world was back to normal. Lee still loves her and is willing to put up with her and her fracked up relationships SitNorm.

At the end, after Kara leaves, Lee's camera shot was still angled, his world is not right and may not be for a while.

I thought it might be a directorial attemt to put some prespective to the emotions and minds in the scene.

This was a great episode. The music during the teaser was a little un-Galactica, but by the end I kind of liked it.

I loved the cute giggle-fest between Laura and Adama. I wanted Laura to take Baltar aside and give him the cold hard facts of what his life would be like as president on that shitty planet. I think if he knew all of the work involved, no one could convince him to do it.

I love Dean Stockwell! I kept waiting for him to start yelling about Gushi! I think that Al is totally a cylon though. From the moment he started eyeballin Cheif, I figured him for a cylon. The question is, why is he the only old cylon. I would be pretty pissed if everyone else got to be young and hot, while I kept reincarnating as 70 year old man.

I will obviously be watching next week, but I can't say that I found the cliffhanger to be all that compelling. I like Helo and Starbuck, but I don't know how upset I would be if either got blown the hell up.

What was with the extra-Gaeta flesh on display tonight? Do you think that panther tatto is actually some kind of signal to the cylons?

As soon as I saw Lee sitting in his room, eating ramen with his shirt undone, I thought someone was going to come in and shoot him. I was glad to be wrong on that one.

Not quite up to the same standards as their other part 1s--granted, they've set a pretty high bar. Part of the problem was that the three different plots were running absolutely independent from one another, making tracking a little trickier.

That said...

Just when you thought that there was simply no fracking way Mary McDonnell could be any more adorable...

It's nice to see Dean Stockwell back in action.

Baltar's kind of just pissing me off at this point. I'm wondering if Starbuck's gang can bring back CapSix, and then we can have a nice little meltdown. There's still the issue of Roslyn's memories of Baltar and Six together, just waiting for a little nudge. And, of course, Gina's out there running around with a nuke.

Basically, here's how to approach part I. It put three or four locomotives in gear, all headed to the hub at the same time. Most of part 1 involves each locomotive gaining steam.

What happens then all those engines arrive at the station is anyone's guess.

But hey, Apoolo's got himself a nice crib, eh?

Actually, the Tigh bit with the noodles was the 2nd scene with them. The first was with Roslin.

Hi, long time lurker here.

I for one am getting sick and tired of the "previouslies" that were never seen before they became "previouslies." I spent most of the first part of the episode wondering what Starbuck was talking about, what mission they were talking about, until it was rather casually slipped that oh yeah, we're going back to Caprica. When the heck did that get decided? What happened to "We lost, let's go have babies?"

Wouldn't that have been a nice scene, the whole Starbuck convincing Adama & co. to go back? Instead we're left with some perfunctory dialogue from the Raptor.

In my opinion this series is starting to get sloppy.

I'm going to call him Alyon even if I'm not utterly confirmed that he's a Cylon, just because he manipulates poor Tyrol so utterly and completely that he's got to be a Cylon.

So Tyrol is one of the religious crewmembers? That's interesting. I thought he was a fallen Geminese.

Also, I think this episode put the final nail in Boomer as a servant of the Cylons. She's too utterly messed up by her doe in the headlights look to be a Cylon agent.

"I'm going to wipe the floor with you" & "Why don't you go frak yourself" are now my official favorite President Roslin quotes. Also loved the Adama/Roslin opening. So cute together.

Is it wrong that I don't give a frak about Anders and the others on Caprica?

The chief's problems seemed to come out of nowhere. Poor Calli.

This episode rocked. Great setup for next week. Is it next week yet?

Just last week Anders expositioned that Sharon told them how Cylons ressurect. They know she's a Cylon.



I quite like the moody guitar music (returning from the end of The Resurrection Ship, part 2. Consistency and repetition is good too.) Makes me think Twin Peaks more than Tesh -- he plays piano, anyway.



I don't mind this so much, since previouslies are ultimately designed to catch people up who haven't been watching or paying attention. If you have been watching and paying attention, then they're spoilers for subjects that will come up in the episode.

Excellent teaser, excellent episode. So many threads going, but it didn't feel rushed. Can't wait for next week! (...and then it's time for a lot of waiting. Ugh.)

Longtime TWoP poster - first time on the BSG forums. I spent the last weeks watching the S1 DVDs and the S2.0 DVDs and the rest of the eps on iTunes until I caught up to real-BSG-time tonight. Am, of course, loving the series - sorry I'm only finding it in time for the finale though!

Agreed. They know she's a Cylon and that she helped Starbuck and Helo escape last time. I imagine that they aren't very surprised to see her.

I see that people think the priest is a Cylon. Maybe. I TOTALLY think that Dee is though... off her look about the nebulae or whatever hiding the new planet from the Cylons.

ITA.

I loved it. Solid "A". Kept from an A+ by utter and complete lack of naked Lee. Or even Lee in his hot pilot tanktops. An episode without Lee's shoulders is like a day without sunshine...

Oh me, oh my! I'm so sorry for being an...action porn addict. But the episode wasn't disappointing because it was lacking any of that. I think it was disappointing because it was serving simply as a setup to next week's finale which I hope will save this tail end of the season. To me, Downloaded and Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I were both simply ok setups to something that is going to trump them both. What I really loved in this episode was the political side to it. The direction during the debate was very network-newsish ith little camera movement and fixed cameras on the candidates. Kind of entertaining in itself. The character reactions were pretty much all amazing to watch, especially Chief's breakdown. Still, I've lost all hope of Grace Park emoting with a raised voice...

But seriously, that cliffhanger? For their amazing CG space effects, I was expecting a better ground combat special effects team, but the problem is it just didn't split that well. Definitely not as well as Kobol's Last Gleaming did last season. For all of it's spectacular scenes, it just didn't flow, and that's too bad. B+ in my mind, but I have high hopes for next week.

Great teaser, but then..., really, it felt like just more teaser. The whole thing was really just one long set up for next week, when one assumes the story will finally get moving. Tonight I felt like we never really got through act 1.

Chief's not a Cylon, because then the whole thing with him & Boomer makes no sense. And niether is Reverend Al, but only because they slammed us in the face so hard with the possibility. But really I don't care if Rev. Al is a Cylon or not, I just want to see more of him.

More timeline wonkiness this ep, but at least this time it's all self contained. If we assume all events are shown in order, than in the time it takes Team Starbuck to make 9 FTL jumps on their way to conducting Operation Dumb Idea, the lost raptor finds a planet and reports back to Galactica, at which point the Adamas organize & send out what seems to be a whole series of orbital surveys of the planet, which collect data, which is then extensively analyzed, which leads to it becoming a political issue, which causes the polls to start to tip in Baltar's favor, so that Roslin is forced to address the issue at their next debate. Meanwhile, Chief is (I guess) having regular meetings Rev. Al in what seems to be a police interrogation room, but it *really* feels like it was all one long meeting that they kept cutting back to. It looked like a couple of weeks at least were flying by in the Discovery Of The Planet plot line, while for the rest of the show it seemed like no more than a couple of hours.

Well Reverend Al or Alyon, I tend to think that Tyrol isn't a Cylon either. However, it would be a pretty good way of distancing him from Helo actually if he was.

Also, we'd see if males COULD impregnate human females.

BTW, Cally should NOT be with Tyrol now. What he did ruined that.

Lots of good stuff, but the biggest annoyance with me was all the waste these people do. The Presidentis tearing up paper and pencils all willy-nilly, and it's not like they can run down to Wal-Mart and replace those babies. And all the vote for Baltar flyers? Do they really have all that much paper to waste?

Otherwise, great set up to next week. I can't wait.

The Caprica yellow filter was making the bombs look really weird. That scene in the woods was very off and it kinda gave me a sour taste after this episode. I was really enjoying it, then that scene, then...black. But I am looking forward to the 90 minutes.

Word about the unseen previouslies. Once was like eh, but this is, what, the 5th week in a row (at least) with showing unseen previouslies. Note to people in charge: if you need to rely on it for future episodes, you can't cut it out just to put it in the previouslies. Shame on you. We deserve better.


I did notice. I think it was intentional though, Baltar believes in no gods but he snarks most of all about Six's Cylon God. It seemed strange that Zarek didn't comment, but I'll wank that Zarek is mostly immune to the hysterical ramblings of his slimy puppet.

I love the Pres. She's fabulously played, of course, but this evening she was exceptionally adorable with the predebate ritual and the giggles and you could see her anguish as she was losing the debate to Baltar over this planet. She may be fighting an uphill battle, but I will love her forever win or lose.

Terrified of Baltar assuming the presidency. Kiss humankind goodbye.

Has anyone caught information about how much time has elapsed since "Downloaded"? Sharon looks amazingly unpregnant, and even though we've dropped the dying-of-cancer and impending-baby storylines, it'd still be useful to know how many months post-genocide we are.

Did anyone else catch Baltar referring to "the Cylon" or the "hand of God"? Zarek doesn't seem to notice or care, but the rest of the populace is going to find that a little strange. It's nice to watch the creeping monotheism get to him.

As for the previouslies that weren't, I'm irritated by them but the episode would have been totally unintelligible without the deleted clips. Forced continuity is better than no continuity at all, I guess.

This was a great episode in a "get ready" way. My pulse wasn't heightened, but when it ended, I was bewildered because I hadn't noticed the time passing. For me, that's always a good sign of well-written TV.

Adama and Roslin together were priceless. It was great to have my sympathetic Prez back, if only for a moment. And why doesn't she push the message that it's too convenient to have found the planet? Yes, Gaius is painting her as a fear-monger, but she could still win by pushing the right fear button.

Besides, it is too convenient a find. I smell Really Big Trap, if only because ChipSix wants them to land.

Poor Chief. I'd never thought of him being a Cylon, but the way it was written tonight, it suddenly makes all the sense in the world. After all, GalBoomer had blackouts before her black ops programming finally kicked in successfully. Nightmarescould be analogous. If so, Poor Chief, indeed. (Otherwise, the nightmares could simply reflect a natural, albeit faulty, reasoning on his subconcious' part: 'I could only have loved a Cylon if I was a Cylon.)

Dean Stockwell rocks. He's only gotten better as he's gotten older; in fact, he's grown old believably enough that his previous characters didn't keep intruding on me as I watched. He was just a cool old no-nonsense priest. And I really think that's what he is.

Of course, now he'll end up really being a Cylon and I'll end up with egg on my face. (But I have to admit, if he and Loeben are true representatives of the male Cylon models, they've got a lot going for them in terms of wisdom.)

I don't think Anders and his folks had any time for Sharon's presence to truly register on them before the Cylon attack started. I look for some reaction happening next week. I hope it's along the line of "Hey, I just saw another model of you, and she actually acted kind of weird, like almost human. And she didn't kill me. Gee, I wonder...." from Anders.

Now we have to sit and wait. Ack.

I pray that Chief is not a Cylon, as it would totally invalidate his (hopefully first) story arc. On the other hand, without being Boomer's love interest and Boxy's surogate dad (Moore's initial plan way back when) there's not much for him to do. Except being randomly perfect and insane.

Father Al Cylon I could go with.

Didn't much like this one. There were good bits, it didn't in any way suck, but it felt like it ended with no internal resolution. It was not on the same level as Pegasus 1.

It could quite possibly be that Kara gave the picture to Dee. But this is just wishful thinking on my part. I didn't realize Kara had a picture of him but I did notice the camera's "not supposed to be obvious but still obvious" way of showing us that Lee/Dee are in fact an item. But I'm not complaining.

Was this the first time we heard Laura say "Frack"? It was, wasn't it?

And I missed Dean Stockwell's name at the beginning, because right then I turned up the volume and it covered the names. But while he was talking to Cheif, he made an eye guesture right when he said something with a tone in his voice, and I suddenly started saying, "Al! It's Al!"

They get the best guest stars for this show. From Xena to Al Calavici!