| By Steve West, cinemablend.com,
on 22-01-2007
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Favoured : 110 |
When we last saw the crew of Galactica and the Cylons an intense and volatile standoff was in place between the two races. Last night’s episode of ‘Battlestar Galactica’ should definitively prove the show doesn’t use such a visceral gimmick just to entice viewers. “Rapture” brings the conflict to a real and life-altering conclusion for each individual member of the two warring species. Faced with a choice, which could alter their own personal journeys and that of their respective race, everyone must make a decision. This week, the people we’ve come to love and respect make a stand and one comes face to face with her destiny.
We pick up with the nuclear standoff between Galactica and the Cylon Base Star. The Cylon models convene and decide the risk of losing the temple is too great, so they turn the Raiders around. All but the D’Anna, who keeps the ship carrying another D’Anna and Baltar on course for the algae planet. Her assertion that Adama won’t fire on a single ship turns out to be correct, but the Brother Cavil comments that this breach of protocol is a serious problem that will need to be taken care of soon.
Lee is tasked with a dilemma that’s pits his personal feelings for Starbuck at odds with what he knows is proper military procedure. Anders, who may be a fighter but is still a civilian, tells Lee, “If my wife dies out there, I will kill you myself.” Lee looks at him and states simply, “If she dies. I’ll let you do it.” Apollo knows what he should do, but he simply can’t. The choice he makes, which was already made for him the moment he confessed his love to Starbuck, will change everything for him.
Dualla is near Starbuck’s crash, scouting out the Cylons who shot her down. When Apollo radios her for a report, she informs him that it’s pretty open and dangerous to get to the downed ship. In response, Apollo orders his wife to save the woman he loves. Once again proving her loyalty to Galactica, Dualla obeys the command given to her by a superior officer. She sets out to save Starbuck. The sequences that follow involving Starbuck and Dualla are beautifully poignant. Dualla finds Starbuck severely injured and in pain, but she does everything she can to help her crewmate. As the two sit in the cockpit of Starbuck’s Raptor, Starbuck confesses that she both loves and hates each of the men in her life. “Gods, I have to cheat just to keep the pieces all nice and neat,” she states as she drifts off. Immediately Dualla slaps Starbuck, a move that is both practical and rife with emotional pain. Throughout it all, Dualla remains stoic.
Meanwhile, aboard Galactica, Helo and Athena are dealing with the news of their child being alive on the Cylon Base Star. Athena makes the decision to go back, and the easiest and most logical way would be to die and download into a new body. While he understands that his wife won’t truly be dead, it’s a plan Helo has trouble with. He tries convincing her to find another way. She tells her husband, “Listen to me. You’ve always been the strong one. You believed in us, when no one else would. I’m begging you to do this.” As he embraces his wife, Helo tells her he loves her and shoots her.
Admiral Adama and President Roslyn confront Helo on the incredible risk he’s taken. Athena has codes and information that could lead to the end of the human race; a fact Roslyn is quick to point out. Helo, obviously understanding this, tells the President that if she hadn’t lied to them they would not be where they are. Right or wrong, he made his choice. Roslyn tells Captain Helo, “Now all of our lives are in the hands of Sharon Agethon. All we can do is hope your wife is worthy of the unconditional trust you have placed in her. Yours too Admiral.” What none of them could possibly know is the changes that are occurring with the Cylons, and the advanced pace of their emotional evolution from drones to individual personalities.
Aboard the Cylon Base Star Athena awakens with Caprica Six standing over her. After convincing Six that she believes Hera is safer with the Cylons she is taken to see her child. Hera, who is crying in pain, is immediately quieted when her mother picks her up. A fact that fascinates Caprica Six, who says to Boomer, who was with Hera, “Look at that. That’s amazing. You and she are biologically identical. Hera recognizes her mother.” Boomer is not impressed and exclaims that Athena can have her. Athena tells Boomer that she knows her doppelganger still loves Chief Tyrol. A fact Boomer denies, saying that she learned humans and Cylons can’t get along when she was on New Caprica.
As she puts Hera down Athena notices that her daughter’s stomach is hard as a rock. She pulls Caprica Six aside and tells her the child must be taken to a human doctor. Boomer accuses her of planning this all along, and Athena tells her to feel Hera’s stomach. Boomer does, and she too can feel how hard the stomach is. As Athena tries convincing Caprica Six to let her take the child to Galactica, Boomer states, “Maybe Brother Cavil was right. Maybe we weren’t meant to have children. Maybe it’d be better if I just snapped your little neck!” As she puts her hand around Hera’s throat, Caprica Six takes her stand. She punches Boomer, and then straddling her snaps her neck. When Athena returns to Galactica with Hera, Caprica Six is also with her. Adama orders Six placed into custody.
The standoff over the Eye of Jupiter comes to a climactic conclusion for the D’Anna models, and more importantly for Starbuck herself. Chief Tyrol, who is outwardly working on the problem of deciphering the hieroglyphs on the pillar in the temple, is also dealing with a faith he has denounced most of his life. As Apollo and Anders hold off the Centurions, Chief works desperately to figure out where the Eye is. If I have to criticize the episode at all, it’s in this aspect. I don’t understand how it could be more apparent what the purpose of the temple was with the crystals on top of the pillar and a hole in the top of the temple. Obviously light is meant to shine in and reveal the Eye. When Chief deciphers part of the writing, “I got references to an eye, a star, and an explosion of some sort,” the truth was right in front of him.
As time runs out, Apollo orders Chief and his men out of the temple so that it can be blown up. It’s here where D’Anna, a Brother Cavil, and Baltar enter the empty temple, ready for her to fulfill her destiny. They immediately remove the detonators from the C4. When Chief is unable to detonate the explosion, Apollo takes the trigger away and does it himself. Unfortunately nothing happens.
Back in the temple D’Anna tells Brother Cavil, “This is my destiny. To see what lies between life and death.” Cavil tells her, “And to look upon the faces of the Final Five. That can’t happen.” She remarks that it’s her destiny and begins to walk away; as Cavil prepares to shoot her Baltar kills him. Baltar’s motives, as always, are not altruistic. He believes that it’s truly his destiny that D’Anna strives for, and he simply wants confirmation on whether he’s a Cylon or not. Outside we see the star going nova as Chief realizes that the Eye of Jupiter is the nova.
In the temple, D’Anna stands on an eye and enters a chamber with the Final Five. This is reminiscent of what happened in season one when the Arrow of Apollo was used to find the map to Earth. She walks among the white clad figures and comes to one who seems to surprise her. “I’m sorry. I had no idea,” she tells the figure as she is yanked back to reality. Baltar desperately tries to get her to tell him whom she saw. She enigmatically tells him, “You were right,” and then passes away. The humans subsequently capture Baltar. When the D’Anna awakens on the Base Star a Brother Cavil greets her. He informs her that they’ve decided to box the entire D’Anna model, and she lets him know that he’ll see the faces of The Five someday. I hope he’s not the only one, because I’m a bit interested to know myself.
Back on Galactica everyone is reunited and they are examining the evidence gathered on the planet. Gaeta points out that another nova occurred 13,000 light years away; at about the time the temple was built. Helo, who is holding a picture of an eye from the temple, seems preoccupied. He goes to Starbuck and asks if she has pictures of her apartment on Caprica. She tells him she does, and when he pulls them out he finds a painting she did that looks just like the eye from the temple. He shows it to her, asking why she painted something that was built 4,000 years ago. She said she’d been doodling it since she was a kid, “I liked the pattern.” When she starts, Helo asks her what’s wrong. “Just something Leoben said once,” Starbuck says, “That I had a destiny. That it had already been written.”
So now we’ve returned from an intense cliffhanger and are thrown full force into the face of destiny and change. Caprica Six has made a stand for Hera and at odds with the Cylons, Chief has confronted his faith and found it isn’t as lacking as he believed, Lee has chosen the woman he loves but still goes to his wife, Baltar is in the brig on Galactica ready to be confronted with his decisions, and Starbuck now stares into a destiny she has always felt but never known.
Where does the crew of Galactica go from here? Will Starbuck fight her destiny, or go willingly as she did in season one? Whose faces were under those white cloaks? Source Link: http://www.cinemablend.com/television/TV-Recap-Battlestar-Galactica-Rapture-2465.html Submitted by Zipper Talk about this article on our forum: http://galacticabbs.com/index.php?showtopic=1058
Last update : 22-01-2007
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