Battlestar Galactica: Season 2 Discussion

The story thus far: the show has started airing in the U.S., but none of our U.S. staff are doing reviews. If I am to remain the reviewer (and I don’t mind relinquishing the position to someone else, much as I like the show), it will not be reviewed until September, when it returns to Canada.

So here’s a place to discuss the season thus far, until someone starts reviewing it here. Please remember to announce serious spoilers and/or employ spoiler tags.

17 replies on “Battlestar Galactica: Season 2 Discussion”

  1. It’s BRILLIANT!
    Glad to see the promise of the first season is being more than fulfilled. Episode four spoiler:

    I wonder where Gaeta’s loyalties really lie. He covered for Dee knowing about the off-log communications which set up the President’s escape. What does he want? I don’t think he particularly approves of Tigh. It will be interesting to see what happens now that Adama’s conscious again.

    • Re: It’s BRILLIANT!

      Glad to see the promise of the first season is being more than fulfilled. Episode four spoiler:

      I wonder where Gaeta’s loyalties really lie. He covered for Dee knowing about the off-log communications which set up the President’s escape. What does he want? I don’t think he particularly approves of Tigh. It will be interesting to see what happens now that Adama’s conscious again.

      Episode four has so much stuff, it is one of the best so far.
      Spoilers: Tigh is obviously being manipulated by his wife, who could be one of the eight cylons onboard. I liked how there is a small resistance group on Caprica, but I am surprised the Cylons wouldn’t be able to use heat signatures to find them. The scene where Boomer is shot reminded me of Jack Ruby taking down Oswald.
      I’m wondering why the President’s advisor didn’t want to go with her. There has to be another reason for staying than the one he gave.

      One of the great things about this show is that they have a great story arc going. You never feel like there are gaps, only parts that haven’t been told yet. That is what keeps me coming back for more.

      • Re: It’s BRILLIANT!

        Glad to see the promise of the first season is being more than fulfilled. Episode four spoiler:

        I wonder where Gaeta’s loyalties really lie. He covered for Dee knowing about the off-log communications which set up the President’s escape. What does he want? I don’t think he particularly approves of Tigh. It will be interesting to see what happens now that Adama’s conscious again.

        Episode four has so much stuff, it is one of the best so far.
        Spoilers: Tigh is obviously being manipulated by his wife, who could be one of the eight cylons onboard. I liked how there is a small resistance group on Caprica, but I am surprised the Cylons wouldn’t be able to use heat signatures to find them. The scene where Boomer is shot reminded me of Jack Ruby taking down Oswald.
        I’m wondering why the President’s advisor didn’t want to go with her. There has to be another reason for staying than the one he gave.

        One of the great things about this show is that they have a great story arc going. You never feel like there are gaps, only parts that haven’t been told yet. That is what keeps me coming back for more.

        Observation: Not exactly a spoiler, but probably implies your theory which you did mark as a spoiler… anyway, when I saw the picture of Tigh’s wife in the miniseries, I thought at first it was a picture of Six… now, I realize it’s not the same actress, but do we know if human Cylons age?

  2. the doctor
    I don’t understand how Gaius proved that The Chief wasn’t a cylon. He got Boomer to give up some intel, but how does prove anything about anyone?
    Also, how did the pyramid guys know that 2 strangers in the woods that argued about losing money aren’t cylons?

    • Re: the doctor

      I don’t understand how Gaius proved that The Chief wasn’t a cylon. He got Boomer to give up some intel, but how does prove anything about anyone?
      Also, how did the pyramid guys know that 2 strangers in the woods that argued about losing money aren’t cylons?

      I think Gaius has a reality distortion field, otherwise why is he still trusted when he’s clearly insane? The resistance, I think, are pretty stupid – but Starbuck and Helo also seem to be trusting them to not be Cylons. Although Starbuck at least may know that there are twelve models, so they can’t ALL be Cylons. Unless the Cylons have developed some more, of course!

      • Re: the doctor

        I think Gaius has a reality distortion field, otherwise why is he still trusted when he’s clearly insane?

        I disagree, I think people treat his "insanity" as just him being very excentric; to be expected from a genious like him. In fact, any time someone verbally challenges him, the insanity vanishes into this very crisp wit and he talks circles around them.
        BTW, I love the offence taken by the word ‘toaster’ by the cylon chick, and the line "Your child will be half toaster, how does that make you feel?"

  3. There’s *so* much going on now …
    It’s going at a fever pitch. I’ve never seen a show work up to a climax like last season’s finale, and have it carry over into next season’s regular episodes.

    Spoiler-ridden comments: Where the Hell did Boomer Caprica go? How will we know the one that returns is really her, *if* it/she returns? Regarding the pyramid team, Starbuck and the team leader’s bantering back and forth, how many penalties, etc. seemed to establish between both of them that the other is human. As for Baltar “proving” the Chief is not a Cylon, remember his Cylon detector *does* work. He could simply re-test Boomer using his “revised” detector, in front of a witness or two, to demonstrate a “positive” Cylon detection, then tested Chief … Because he knows the machine works, he could even do this after he gives his certification that the Chief is Cylon-negative … An irony would be if the Chief were also, really, a Cylon, and never tested by Baltar’s machine. :)

    OK. Bill Adama is back awake. How do people think he will handle the current crisis? I suspect he’ll back Tighe by using careful wording (“the colonel was implementing draft emergency plans that we never had time to revise, plans that were put in place before we had established the legal presidency”) while simultaneously placating the other ships in the fleet (“we deeply apologize for the loss of life, yadda yadda, here’s a new fail-safe procedure to prevent it in the future …”) When he tries to explain everything to Bill, will Ex-O Tighe blame his wife for the screw-ups? Will the crew ever again be able to work with/for Tighe?

    As for where I think things are going, I think Billy stayed onboard the Galactica to be with Dee. I think Gaeta’s loyalties lie with what he believes are Adama’s best intentions. I think Tom Zarak is going to kidnap the President and Apollo, or at least that’s the assumption Bill Adama will be operating under, and we’ll have a flip-flop with elder Adama working to re-establish the legitimate government he suspended, probably by naming Baltar as the acting president, with Billy as one of his aides.

    Pure conjecture: I’d guess from what I have read of spoilers for the upcoming season that Roslyn will never again be president. Instead she will stay out in the fleet, in semi-hiding, gathering followers and power as a religious leader. When she finally does declare herself to the fleet in general, Adama will claim she’s under the influence of Zarak, and we’ll see a Roslyn/Zarak alliance against Baltar?

    Who will be President at the end of this season? Baltar or Zarak? My money is on Baltar.

    -Joe

    • Re: There’s *so* much going on now …
      The show is definitely awesome, I had some misgivings about the first episode of this season but it picked up nicely at episode 3.

      You make some good conjectures there, what I’m really curious about is what they’re going to do with the girl who killed Boomer. Also I have a suspicion the chief is a Cylon, I also have a few other suspects which made me realize what great writing/acting is being given to us when you’re paranoid about everyone :) . I hope this can keep up, the show is amazing.

      • Re: There’s *so* much going on now …

        The show is definitely awesome, I had some misgivings about the first episode of this season but it picked up nicely at episode 3.

        You make some good conjectures there, what I’m really curious about is what they’re going to do with the girl who killed Boomer. Also I have a suspicion the chief is a Cylon, I also have a few other suspects which made me realize what great writing/acting is being given to us when you’re paranoid about everyone :) . I hope this can keep up, the show is amazing.

        More conjecturish spoilerage: Callie is intensely loyal to the Chief — I suspect she’s in love with him. Because she shot a Cylon she didn’t really murder anyone, but she did destroy valuable military property (which can still be dissected, dead or alive. It just can’t have psych or IQ tests run on it.) I’d bet she is slapped on the wrist, because skilled personnel are too hard to find. Not only that, she did what 9/10 of Galactica’s personnel would have liked to have done. Who would *really* blame her, other than the old man, and Baltar? As for where things go between her and Chief, I have no clue.

        -Joe

        • Re: There’s *so* much going on now …
          <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE="cite">
          More conjecturish spoilerage: Callie is intensely loyal to the Chief — I suspect she’s in love with him. Because she shot a Cylon she didn’t really murder anyone, but she did destroy valuable military property (which can still be dissected, dead or alive.
          </BLOCKQUOTE>

          Now see Joe, you’re just not paranoid enough. Recall how the Xylons set their mole Gaylen up to be a hero so no one would question his loyality? Wellll….what if they are doing that for Callie as well – same reason. Maybe *she’s* model #4 (or 5 …whatever..). And she has the same benefit that Boomer did as a mole – access to the Chief. Hmmmmm……. <g> ;) And since the Xyln detector isn’t working these days (or rather it’s worked by anther Xylin operative) then Callie has little to worry about….

          • Re: There’s *so* much going on now …

            Now see Joe, you’re just not paranoid enough. Recall how the Xylons set their mole Gaylen up to be a hero so no one would question his loyality? Wellll….what if they are doing that for Callie as well – same reason. Maybe *she’s* model #4 (or 5 …whatever..). And she has the same benefit that Boomer did as a mole – access to the Chief. Hmmmmm……. ;) And since the Xyln detector isn’t working these days (or rather it’s worked by anther Xylin operative) then Callie has little to worry about….

            You know you’re the first person in here I have seen complain about spoiler tags being used … I use them because I have seen at least a dozen other complaints about people who do *not* use them.

            You can’t please everybody.

            Anyways, if you don’t appreciate the fun of speculation, and don’t like spoiler tags, why are you here, unless you find complaining fun? Although I am violating my own rule by bothering to comment, I was always taught if you don’t have anything nice to say, say nothing.

            Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

            -Joe

      • Re: There’s *so* much going on now …

        The show is definitely awesome, I had some misgivings about the first episode of this season but it picked up nicely at episode 3.

        You make some good conjectures there, what I’m really curious about is what they’re going to do with the girl who killed Boomer. Also I have a suspicion the chief is a Cylon, I also have a few other suspects which made me realize what great writing/acting is being given to us when you’re paranoid about everyone :) . I hope this can keep up, the show is amazing.

        Actaully I really hate the anyone can be a cylon crap. I know its all about the DRAMA you can get from that, but it strikes me as reverse Dues Ex Machina where the writers magically destroy the machine at every turn. Just so they can put crap like “Adama’s a cylon” in the plot. Sure Gaeta might be a Cylon, or many other people, but here’s my point. If there is a real reason for someone to be a cylon and if it makes sense for them to have gotten to the position that they are in, I won’t mind. But if even 6 of the remaining 8 models are in high positions of athority, the writers will be manipulating the show too much. An why on Caprica whenever there are groups of cylons, they are always the ones we’ve seen before. I really want this show to be about survival and the struggle against the cylons. I think the battles with toasters early on in the season really worked to establish some of that. But the writers almost lost me as a veiwer last season in the 2-3 episodes where they absolutely nuked the cylon detector in order to maintain their drama.

    • Re: There’s *so* much going on now …

      Spoiler-ridden comments:
      As for where I think things are going, I think Billy stayed onboard the Galactica to be with Dee.

      -Joe

      The real reason Billy had to stay is explained in the Official BSG podcast. Apparently the actor might have had contractual obligations so they had to write an “out” for him. Turns out that he didn’t get the contract so he will be back.

  4. some thoughts…

    first, here’s an odd thought: what if the cylons are trying to help the humans in some odd way? It’s because of them that galactica is only a stone’s throw away from Earth, perhaps that was the point all along?

    Second, I still can’t wrap my head around Adama’s reasoning for trying to overthrow the Prez. I know she sent Starbuck off on the wild goose chase to dig up apollos arrow but that doesn’t seem like a reason to overthrow his government in what most would agree is at least a somewhat illegal act that seems very un-adama-ish. Roslin is right tho, if the fleet is divided it will be that much harder to defend against cylons.

    I think it’s quite possible that Ellen is a cylon, at the very least she isn’t a good thing. At least now maybe Tigh will grow a backbone against her and put down the bottle…

    • Re: some thoughts…

      I think it’s quite possible that Ellen is a cylon, at the very least she isn’t a good thing. At least now maybe Tigh will grow a backbone against her and put down the bottle…

      Correct me if I’m wrong. In the ep that Introduced Ellen, wasn’t there a scene were Tigh and Baltar were talking, and Ellen and Number Six actually shook hands?

  5. Spoilers …
    So is anyone else but me AS INCREDIBLY FRAGGIN’ ANNOYED when half or more of the verbage here is "spoilered out?"

    What a !@#$! Nusiance!

    Here’s a wacky idea…. if you don’t want to know what’s going on in a thread how about just NOT READING THE FRAGGIN’ THREAD !! Is it that difficult?

    OK…. I feel much better now….

    • Re: Spoilers …
      Just hit ctrl-A (Select All) when you load this page, and all the spoiler comments will be visible. If not for that, I’d find it annoying too.

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