Galactica.com - The trials of Gaius Baltar

By blogs.chron.com, on 15-03-2007

Favoured : 160

Romo, Lee and Baltar

Beware, mind games and spoilers ahead. (But I'll warn you first.)

After last weeks conclusion to Starbuck's long story arc -- really a three season arc -- it was a little tough to get fully back into the politics surrounding the trial of Baltar.

The show may have milked Starbuck's ups and downs, and downs and downs, too much this season, but it also built relentlessly toward a conclusion that, when it came, seemed inevitable and delivered a big pay-off in its sense of doom and human tragedy. Starbuck has always been on a hell-bent path toward destruction, but there were plenty of folks to push her along the way. Mom included.

Appropriately, "The Son Also Rises" opened with plenty of linguring pain over Kara's death, particularly, of course, among the three men who loved her most.

It seemed, rather satisfyingly, to draw Lee and Sam together, while creating a competition between Apollo and his father. (Did we actually have a scene in which Lee and Adama were arguing over who misses her most?! Boys will be children.)

But slowly the show moved on into current affairs, namely Galactica's trial of the century.

Some people change lawyers, some get their lawyer changed for them.

In this case, the assassination of Gaius' lawyer may be the luckiest thing to happen to the genius former President of the Colonies.

Fortunately for us, after the death of Gaius' lawyer, the replacement is as complex and as difficult to deal with as everyone else in the Colonial fleet. Rolo Lampkin (frequent TV character actor Mark Sheppard) is a full-bore egoist but also, it appears, a crusader with a cause. He may be even more conniving than Baltar.

He's also a keen observer, and quickly detects the importance of Baltar to Six -- yes, the witness for the prosecution still loves the defendant with all her milk vat-grown heart.

Perhaps more important, he detects the bitter rivalry in the love-hate relationship between Apollo and Adama, and plans to use it fully to his, and presumably Baltar's, advantage.

And so Baltar gets a secret note from Romo:
"There is no greater ally, no force more powerful, no enemy more resolved, than a son who chooses to step from his father's shadow."

This strategy will prove important in the season's final episode.

I loved the source of the episode's title, The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, even if it was chosen more as a pun than for relevance. It may not have anything to do with the plot, but the love-starved, empty souls of the lost generation characters from that classic novel, forever wandering (in their case in search of purpose), would have been right at home on the Galactica.

IN MEMORIAM: (Until we learn better)
Starbuck, we hardly knew ye.

I wasn't able to do an entry last week on Maelstrom and the death of Starbuck. My apologies.

Needless to say, even though we had long been forewarned this was likely, it had strong impact. The personal torment that has stalked Starbuck throughout her time on the series was extended backward through her entire life. It was a well-structured episode that further explained the troubled woman she became.

If indeed that is her real past, not one fabricated for her.

OK, I'm not a believer in spoilers, but some fans are and I'm not above playing along. Stop reading here if you're not a believer.

One thing probably seems obvious, or would on a show less determined to surprise us than Galactica. We aren't done with Kara Thrace. On the Galactica there are no human patterns stored in transformers, but there are, of course, Cylons. Beyond that, it's more fantasy than real science fiction, so anything is possible.

Here's the deal: NBC/Sci Fi sent out a DVD of the final four episodes of this season. So, as another series used to say, the truth is out there, if you look around hard enough. The episodes were not completed and without many of the sound effects and special effects. And who is to say Sci Fi is not playing some mind games, and there might not be misleading footage?

There will be a strong split in opinion between Roslin and Adama. We will see more Cylon(s) among the crew before the season is over. We will see a dramatic trial and a powerful surprise testimony. We are far from through with Baltar. There will be a sighting of the final five Cylons, but the specific sighting itself will reveal little and not be strictly reality anyway. Of course, the Cylons in the crew may (or may not) reveal some of their faces. We're not sure how rigid this 12 model rule is anyway.

The long missing Cylon fleet will not be gone much longer -- you knew that anyway -- and the season will close with a very dramatic surprise. Also expected. It's a bonus, two for one. And that's only after several other surprises.

Want more? Here's an interesting speculation on Buddy TV that has some spoilers and some interesting but half-wrong guesses. I'm telling you this now. Some of these 'guesses' are right. Some are not. Some are part right.

So go there at your own risk.