Episode Name: Faith (Battlestar Wiki)
Episode Number: 406/408
Written by: Seamus Kevin Fahey
Directed by: Michael Nankin
Original Air Date: 5/9/08 on SciFi Channel
Episode Summary:
The mutiny that began in E5/E7, "Escape Velocity," continues after Helo refuses to follow Kara's order to jump to the Cylon Basestar so Kara can learn more about the path to Earth via the Hybrid. In the commotion that follows, Kara attempts to jump the ship herself and Anders shoots Gaeta who was following the counter order to jump the ship back to Galactica. Chaos continues until everyone agrees to stand down and Kara admits that she was "wrong," that she never should have considered risking the lives of the crew. She states that instead that she and Leoben will fly only a Raptor to the baseship with Athena and Anders as crew. They have but 15 hours to complete the mission before the Demetrius must jump to rendezvous with the Fleet or be left behind.
On this, day 58 of their mission, the crew prepares the Raptor. Despite the mutiny, Athena promises to work with Kara Thrace, as does Jean Barolay, a former Resistance fighter.The Raptor makes the jump and finds a endless graveyard of Cylon baseships and Raiders, lifelessly floating in space.
Kara seems relieved and in awe. They are near a large gas giant in a trinary star system, just as her visions foretold.
Bear McCreary, BSG's composer has this to say about it: (SPOILER-ish)
"I also have to mention that the entire visual effects team are outdoing themselves this season. The debris field left in the wake of the basestar battle, and the ringed gas giant are some of the most compelling images they've ever produced. And they’ve got even more impressive visuals coming in the next four episodes. "
On the Demetrius, Gaeta is heavily medicated with morpha for the pain. He asks Helo to promise to not let Doc Cottle amputate his leg, as he realizes that the longer they put off treatment the more likely he will lose the leg.
The Raptor carefully searches for the baseship amidst the exploding weapons of Cylon civil war. Kara hears music which Leoben mentions is a rare trait. She takes over control of the Raptor directing it towards the gas giant. She sees the "comet" that has been in her dreams/premonitions, but not in the form she thought she'd seen. Instead, Leoben's crippled baseship flys by, trailing gas that gives it a comet-like appearance. The Raptor cruises past a warhead, which explodes too close to them. Kara awakens from a knock to the head to find the Raptor safely landed within the baseship interior. When Athena disembarks from the Raptor she finds herself surrounded by an army of her twins--the Number Eights, who admire her for being unique because she was the first Cylon to rebel against her programming. They ask her to help mutiny against the oppressive Sixes who they once trusted but now fear. Athena, clearly disdainful, dismisses their pleas telling them to find their own individuality and help her or get out of her way.
Athena accesses the liquid datasteam interface in order to determine how to mate the Raptor's jump drive to the baseship. Doing so requires disconnecting the Hybrid. As the group preps, Anders considers touching the interface but stops himself.
A Six who appears to be suffering from PTSD, attacks and kills Jean Barolay (Alisen Down, below) in retaliation for killing her on New Caprica. Anders takes the Six down and is ready to kill her but Kara Thrace manages to distract him, talking him down. "PTSD" Six who killed Barolay speaks to Natalie, admitting that she thought she had put her (own) death on New Caprica at the hands of Barolay behind her but now it's obvious she "couldn't." After kissing the distraught Six, Natalie grabs Anders' hand and pulls the trigger on his gun, killing the Six permanently as there is no Resurrection Ship nearby, asking if
the shocked Colonials if this "justice" is enough for them.
Kara arrives in the Hybrid's chamber. The Hybrid speaks continuously, rambling on, discussing ship functions, status reports, all the while repeating "prophetic babble." None of this makes sense to Kara who grows more tense as the clock ticks down. You probably noticed a weird camera movement/close up on Kara's face, in the Hybrid's chamber meant to evoke the Eye of Jupiter, with Kara's single blue eye in the center, "ringed" by her bloodied eyebrow and blonde hair.
Kara and Natalie continue to listen to the Hybrid's nonsensical ramblings though Leoben tries to aid Kara in listening by telling her that the Hybrid can't be rushed and that they have to absorb the Hybrid's words. He says that "the fate of two races can't be expected to come easily."
Athena appears, reporting that the modifications are complete and they must leave to make it back to the Demetrius in time. Kara listens to the Hybrid for a few more moments and then orders the Hybrid taken offline.
An Eight moves to disconnect the Hybrid, tugging sharply on it's the cable. As she does this the Hybrid begins screaming. A sentient Cylon Centurion reacts by shooting the Eight. Kara and Athena take down the Centurion and Anders moves into the room.
The Eight's body falls beside the Hybrid's tub and blood drips into the tub as the Hybrid continues to scream. Kara leans over the Hybrid and wants to know what it wants from her and then says, “please, I need you.” The Hybrid stops screaming and reaches towards Kara, touching her face and says, "The dying leader will discover the truth about the Opera House, the missing Three (D'anna Biers) will be used to find the (Final) Five, who come from the home of the Thirteenth Tribe (Earth?)," and that she, Kara Thrace, is "the harbinger of death that will take all to their end." Kara is understandibly totally freaked out by this news.
The group deciphers the Hybrid's message. All come to the conclusion that the final five Cylons came from the Thirteenth Tribe and so must also know the way to Earth. The Number Threes will lead them to the Final Five having gazed upon them in the Opera House before being boxed by "Brother" Cavil. Athena fully disconnects the Hybrid's cable, which throwing the basestar into darkness. The group leaves to meet the Demetrius.
The Demetrius, led by Athena's husband Helo, is prepping to leave as the seconds count down... Just as he is about to order the jump, the baseship arrives and broadcasts a Colonial identity. Both ships begin preparing to jump to the Galactica and the Fleet.
On Galactica, President Laura Roslin meets with Admiral William Adama in his quarters. She tells him that something may be truthful in Baltar's words, but Adama is reluctant. A sad and weary Adama talks of Starbuck's death and return, son Lee's quitting the military. He worries too, about all the crew he sent with Kara, wondering if he will see ever see "those kids again." Roslin is a comfort to him, telling him she is "right here."
Another tender moment is shared between the two--both smiling, tearing slightly--as Adama tells Roslin that she helped him to believe that they really will find Earth (in a a voice like only EJO could be the owner of).
Things that make me go "hmm" in this episode:
Why did director Michael Nankin not realize how ridiculous that skull cap made Mary McDonnell look?
It took me right out of the scene and into the land of WTF?
I understand the point was to "shock" the audience--the diloxin treatments have left Roslin bald but for one thing, it's really not at all shocking as we've seen the President pulling clumps of her hair out, weeping. What would've worked--and been so easy to do was to use the skull cap with a kerchief/scarf/bandanna tied over her head so one could see that she was "bald" but not that Mary still very much has a full head of hair under the skull cap. (See photo above for my suggestion in action.)
Anders' bizarre behaviour was distracting--there was too much ping-ponging about.
He's had many months to reconcile (as well as one would guess he could) that he is Cylon. He's spent the past two months living and working aboard the Demetrius with Sharon "Athena" Agathon, a Cylon who has adapted extremely well, living as part of the Fleet.
Instead, he is all over the map in a weird, just for the helluva it way and this is leaving aside shooting Gaeta through the kneecap--kind of an un-Fleet-like thing to do.
When first viewing the control area of the damaged Cylon baseship Anders surreptitiously contemplates dipping his hand into the liquid datasteam interface but before he can he is called away. So he's confident enough to be curious.
Then he goes completely off the rails when a Six kills Barolay in a hand-to-hand fight. It's possible that the killing was accidental as Barolay hit her head against the Raptor (granted, the Six hit her twice). Anders never made any time for assessment; he would have just blown the Six's head right off if Kara hadn't talked him down.
After that situation was more or less straightened out, Anders enters the Hybrid's chamber whilst Kara is trying to understand the Hybrid's monologue stream before the Hybrid must be taken offline for the ship to be able to jump with the Raptor back to the Galactica.
Husband and Wife: Sam Anders and Kara Thrace (Michael Trucco and Katee Sackhoff)
When the Hybrid screams out in shock/agony and the sentient Centurion shoots down the Eight who is trying to disengage the Hybrid, Anders tenderly holds the hand of the dying Eight and gently tells her he is "with" her.
I was left going huh? It was just too much in too short a time unless Anders is truly losing his mind.
Finally, It didn't sound right to me when Kara said that the Cylons don't know how to work an FTL drive and Battlestar Wiki confirms this saying, "Why should the Cylons have any trouble figuring out the Raptor's FTL system? They have previously used Raptors (Torn)."
Indeed.
Regardless, this was a fantastic episode. I couldn't wait to re-watch it (and in fact, I didn't).
While all that drama was happening with the Demetrius and the Cylons on the Galactica there was a bit of drama as well. I thought Mary McDonnell as the cancer-stricken President Laura Roslin was fantastic but the story itself--it's been on the Lifetime Channel, Movie of the Week, and many other places, many other times. I'll just recap it and be thankful that they gave Mary McDonnell some significant screen time on her own, mostly. (With help from the The Patriot Resource and Battlestar Wiki).
Laura Roslin is finishing the last two diloxin treatments, where she'll be on Galactica and indisposed during that time. Laura tries to encourage her trusted assistant (murdering Cylon) Tory to watch out for sudden moves by the Quorum of 12, nearly breaking down in tears while doing so.
In sickbay, amidst Gaius Baltar's voice on the wireless discussing his god, Laura encounters a woman, Emily Kowalski (Nana Visitor) who is dying--very soon--of cancer as well. Their first encounter does not go well as Laura offends Emily when she dismisses Gaius Baltar's speech on the wireless and Emily reacts by ordering her to leave.
Laura meets again with Emily, who gives her a scarf, a present. The two make small talk of what they will do after they get well. She warns the President that her sickness will get worse and to be prepared.
Emily goes on to tell Laura why she listens to Gaius Baltar speak on the wireless. The night after Doc Cottle gave Emily the news of her impending death, she had a dream in which she saw people standing on the opposite side of a river: dead loved ones. She felt a presence, a warm loving presence that calmed her. Laura questions the dream but Emily notes that the dream is real.Emily and Laura continue to discuss the authenticity of the Lord's of Kobol and Baltar's God. Laura becomes upset when she talks of her mother's death from cancer and the striking lack of anything noble or calming at that moment. As Emily tries to comfort her, the woman suddenly has a violent seizure of pain. Doc Cottle arrives with medication, but tells Laura that Emily's end is near.
Emily's vision of a river comes to pass in a dream Laura experiences. The two stand on a boat, looking at a shore where human figures begin to appear, smiling and waving at Emily. Emily disappears to meet them, materializing on the shore. Laura feels joy, then sees her own mother, smiling and waiting for Laura to join her. She tells her she is not yet ready, stepping away from the boat's side, as the dream ends.
Awakening from her dream, Laura goes to see Emily but finds her bed empty. She died some time while she slept. Only her wireless receiver remains, still switched on.
Quote
"Kara comes back from the dead. I let her go off chasing her vision of Earth. Well she's overdue. Lee turns in his wings. Helo. Athena. Gaeta. Will I ever see those kids again?" -- William Adama
Survivors: 39,675
Main Characters That Appear: Admiral Adama, President Roslin, Kara Thrace, Athena, Baltar (voice)
Recurring Characters That Appear: Tory, Gaeta, Anders, Helo, Seelix, Barolay, Leoben, Doc Cottle
Guest Characters: Emily
Cylons That Appear: Tory, Anders, Athena, Natalie, Leoben, Hybrid, Centurion, Eights, Sixes
Starring :
Edward James Olmos
Mary McDonnell
Katee Sackhoff
James Callis
Tricia Helfer
Grace Park
Co or Guest-starring:
Michael Trucco as Ensign Samuel Anders
- Tahmoh Penikett as Karl Agathon
- Rekha Sharma as Tory Foster
- Alessandro Juliani as Lieutenant Felix Gaeta
- Callum Keith Rennie as Number Two / Leoben Conoy
- Donnelly Rhodes as Doctor Cottle
- Bodie Olmos as Lieutenant Brendan "Hotdog" Costanza
- Alisen Down as Jean Barolay
- Tiffany Lyndall-Knight as Hybrid
- Jennifer Halley as Ensign Diana "Hardball" Seelix
- Nana Visitor as Emily Kowalski
- Alana Husband as Nurse Sashon
Now, there are a number of lawsuits pending against Chiquita and their top
ranking officers on behalf of the murdered Colombian families, and Colombia
wants the top executives extradited to Colombia for prosecution (good luck with
that!). They estimate that Chiquita's payments not only funded the murder of
thousands, but destabilized efforts at legitimate government cracking down on
paramilitary groups.
When I hear things like this, I am unbearably sad for a number of reasons.
First is obviously the oppression and murder of other human beings in the
pursuit of greed and cheap labor practices. It makes me embarrassed to be American.
What bothers me more, though, is that Chiquita is not an anomaly in its
business practices. Dole and Del Monte have also been implicated in paying the
guerrillas in Colombia (but of course deny it), and I'm not naive enough to
believe that practices like this aren't happening all over the world at the
hands of multinational corporations. If I stop buying Chiquita bananas to
express the only kind of power I really have--buying power--are there not
dozens of other corporations I support with my dollars doing the exact same
thing? How is it really possible to know when your dollars enable exploitation
and the suffering of others? How is it possible to stand on principle with anything
when you don't know what corporations are doing beneath the veil? It makes me
feel helpless and hopeless.
I belong to the County Line Riders of Catalina horse riding club. Today, Mary Jane hosted a ride out form her place the "Broken Pipe Ranch." Weather was perfect...well maybe a little hot towards the end of the ride. But no wind this morning. We gathered together and rode out from Broken Pipe Ranch a little after 9:00 am. There were 8 riders and all the horses got along great...that is always a plus!
Here are two photos of some of the group before we left.
Look at that little girl her name is Gaby and she is 10! Her horse is bandit and she is a 21 year old mare. The gentleman to her left is her grandfather Bill. The guy on the black paint is Ron.
Here is Ganilla and and Mary Jane getting ready to ride.
We had a great ride up and down hills and through washes. Saw a couple of other horse back riders and several bike riders. In one wash there were two deer resting. The deer just watched us pass and didn't move from their shade. As we were approaching Boken Pipe Ranch, I looked down and it was if the ground was moving. At first I thought it was forgs moving about. As we got closer, I could see that it was baby quail chicks. They must have been newely hatched and we scared them so they were running around in front of us. So cute!
When the ride was over, I took a photo of Winn all dressed up. Photo is at a strange angle as i was holding on the reins so he was close to me.
After the ride Mary Jane treated us to nice cold water mellon and drinks under the shade.
Nice ride with great friends...lovely way to spend a Mother's Day morning!
Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one Mother,
the wide world over.
~George Cooper
Yesterday, I rode Winn and took a couple of photos while he was tired to the trailer before we went on our ride. Yes, he is a pretty boy! He is still shedding out from his winter coat and will look a little better in a couple of weeks.
This is my favorite.
Happy Mothers Day to all you Mothers. My Mom is coming down this week. So we will celebrate then. Funny thing is we talked on the phone this morning and neither one of us remembered it was Mother's day. lol
She gave me shit because through the years I was always late with Mother's Day and Birthday's.
We missed the worst of the storms. I worried all night about my petunia. It is looking okay.
My BFF took her daughter back to St. Louis to the airport and should be home today. She spent the night with her brother he lives up there somewhere.
Here is my problem with Mother's Day.
It's about miniature heart-shaped candy boxes and burned waffles from the kiddies.
It's about floral cards and floral bouquets and gifts of floral-scented perfumes.
It's about expressions of adoration and love and "you're the best" in cards and e-mails, in paintings and drawings and the scrawl of a child or the penmanship of a man.
It's about the word mom expressed in 10 different tones in as many situations in a TV telephone ad.
It's about stories on the radio about great moms and contests and prizes and crowded restaurants and popular brunches with free mimosas for the mothers.
The blogosphere, including Vox, is prolific with bloggers writing about their mothers or about being one and extending Happy Mother's Day wishes.
I am here to offer support to the mothers unseen.
To the mothers forgotten and overlooked on Mother's Day.
I am here for the mothers for whom this day is tremendously painful.
The mothers who have lost their children to stillbirth.
To accidents and murders and suicide. To mothers who have lost their children to illness. To mishaps. To war. To death and corridors in life that resemble death.
To mothers unable to conceive who adopt and to mothers who have relinquished their children.
I am here offering my acknowledgment of you. I see you. I feel you. I am with you.
I would like to see television commercials that remember the mother who has lost. I'd like to hear radio programs that allow mothers to call in and speak about the sadness that Mother's Day means for them.
I would like to see one courageous cardmaker come out with a wide selection of cards that read "Remembering you on Mother's Day."
Our world is one myopic and skewed to the syrupy and the sentimental, the happy and the celebratory on this day.
But I am here to remind that there are many, many mothers for whom this day is filled with pain, with sorrow, with grief, with loss.
I acknowledge you. This posting is for you. And these flowers are just for you.
`
It's Mother's Day! I got all my text messages from Australia yesterday because if they don't do it then, the kids forget on (their) Monday. I also received some beautiful flowers.
My sister has most of our old family photographs so I don't have any of my young mother except a few I took myself. My first camera was a little Kodak Instamatic. Here is the family in 1965 - of course I am behind the lens so I am not in the photo:
I'm in dire need of a haircut. Or at least a pair of thinning scissors. But of course I hate going to the hairdresser. I hate the whole boring, time wasting experience. And I hate paying a small fortune to get what I didn't want.
Then a friend said to me
Why don't you call Robin?
It seems Robin is a hairdresser who comes to your home. And she's cheap as chips because I don't have to pay for her electricity, her water rates, her superannuation or her stupid magazines. So I can pay her half the amount to get something I don't want in the comfort of my own home.
So she's coming in the morning. And as well as a haircut we're going to discuss a way to blend in my grey roots. Which are coming at an alarming rate. She's even allowed time in case I want a colour.
But then I had a thought. When you go to the hairdresser they put on the colour then leave you and go see to another client. But what does Robin do while my colour is on? Do I have to entertain her, or can I leave her in front of the television while I do other things?
Maybe I should wear my anti-socialite tshirt to make it clear to her how I feel about things. I'm the one on the right.
I'm thinking a fringe. Even though I always regret a fringe. But I'm feeling a strong urge for a thick fringe. And what the hell, it's only hair - it grows back.
Don't worry - I'm under no illusion that what I end up with will at all resemble the picture I have picked out.