Battlestar Galactica
Season 2.5 Episode Summaries
"Epiphanies" (#213):
Analysis:
Roslin now remembers that Baltar was with Six together in that park before the Cylon attacks, so she is likely to be even more distrusting of him and may even out him as a Cylon sympathizer.
After having been grounded by Cain, Lee has returned to his position as Galactica CAG.
Starbuck appears to back onboard Galactica as just one of the pilots.
Tyrol also apparently has been reinstated as Galactica Chief, which seems to indicate that Admiral Adama has undone the mix of personnel that Cain had instituted.
Gina has fallen in with the peace movement. However, she has not divulged her identity as a Cylon in spite of the movement's claim of wanting to make peace with the Cylons.
Baltar is totally smitten with Gina, probably because she is the physical/corporeal double of his Inner Six. Though Gina resisted his advances, she has to know that she has some ability to manipulate him.
Baltar initially resists cooperating with Gina's plan because he says that he will not be responsible for the destruction of mankind. However, he's already responsible for how potent the original Cylon attacks were. He basically is already responsible for the destruction of mankind. He's just not yet responsible for the extinction of mankind.
Cottle voices the timeless apprehension over technological advances and discoveries when he says that it might just be Roslin's time to die. Many newly developed medical procedures throughout history have been argued to be unnatural when they were first introduced.
Not only was Roslin very low (43 rd ) in the hierarchy of President Adar's administration, but she was facing a fight to try and keep her job at the time of the Cylon attacks.
Baltar has discovered that Sharon and Helo's child has blood that appears to be able to fight off serious and otherwise fatal diseases. Baltar possibly has made other discoveries concerning the child that he has not revealed.
The Cylon child has an amalgam of Cylon and human blood, which allows the Cylon enhancements to eliminate human diseases. This would seem to make the Cylon child dangerous for another reason: it could possibly withstand some sort of biological attack that would wipe out the rest of the fleet. The Cylons have shown an interest in the child and if they learn of the child's immunity, then they may not be so cautious when attacking.
Baltar chose to listen to his Inner Six and save the Cylon child, rather than listen to Gina, allow Roslin to die and assume the Presidency. Of course, Gina probably does not know about the Cylon child, or at least she doesn't indicate that she does. Perhaps, Baltar ultimately made his choice because, as his Inner Six pointed out, he felt his Presidency would not be supported by the military at this time and thus be nearly meaningless.
Sharon 's fetal was the key to curing a previously irreversible cancer. The resolution to this storyline could be a pandora's box, because such a resolution would imply that the blood could cure other diseases and improve the viability of the last remnants of the human race. This could trap the writers with a 'deus ex machine', or with the equally difficult question of why the same solution is not used in subsequent storylines.
Roslin's cancer and impending death was played up as a part of prophesy, but that has now seemingly been eliminated. This would seem to indicate that the prophecy storyline will be minimized or even dropped altogether.
Roslin has now been saved by the very thing that she had ordered terminated and thus the technology of the Cylon enemy that she's been fighting.
Roslin now joins much of the Galactica crew as being directly affected by the Cylons, and her case, the Sharon model specifically. Much of the Galactica crew including Adama and Starbuck had befriended the rookie pilot, Boomer, long before they learned that she was a Cylon. This Sharon has already saved the fleet at least once and now she's directly responsible for saving Roslin herself.
Roslin has been making her decisions based on the survival of the human race without having to worry about the long term implications for herself since she was dying. Now that she can expect several more years (rather than days) of life, her decision-making may take on a slightly more selfish facet.
Roslin was the one person in the fleet that would never grow complacent with their situation since she has been on death's door for some time. Now, that constant reminder has been removed, so she is as susceptible to complacency as everyone else is after periods of calm without Cylon attacks.
When Roslin agreed to elections, she did not expect to be around for those elections. Now she will be and as such, politics and polls will probably affect her from here on in a way that it hasn't previously.
Baltar and Inner Six's reaction to Roslin's letter smacks of paranoia, since Roslin is the one who first offered Baltar the position of Vice-President.
Baltar is all over the place in this episode. He has a chance to become President, but gives it up in order to save the baby. Then after a childish temper tantrum, he gives a nuke to Gina and the peace movement. As damaged as Gina is, Baltar might have just proven that he's more damaged that she is.
Baltar continues to listen to his Inner Six in an attempt to keep in touch with Gina. Inner Six suggested that he use the nuke, so he uses the nuke by giving it to Gina, another Six model. Baltar may find that listening to one disturbed Six model in his head may not always be the best way to learn how to reach out to the other emotional damaged Six (Gina).
Adama stood by when Roslin agreed to listen to the peace movement, but he can't be happy with the possible repercussions of such an agreement.
Roslin's flashbacks to the situation with the Education Alliance are interesting. Adar was going to use her as a scapegoat to save the rest of the administration. She will have no such scapegoat and has put herself in a position to possibly alienate herself from both sides of the issue: those who are against the tactics of the peace movement (like Adama and Tigh) will be upset that she agreed to listen to them and if she doesn't give in to the peace movement's concerns, she'll lose their support as well. Her bargain with Jahee has every chance of backfiring on her.
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