Episode Name: Rapture Episode Number: 311 Written by: David Weddle & Bradley Thompson Directed by: Michael Rymer Original Air Date: 1/21/07 on SciFi Channel Review Posted: 1/27/07
Back from the break, the Centurions walk into the ambush, but Lee's squad is only able to destroy one at the cost of Hilliard before the other two withdraw. Lee doesn't seem too happy with the results. Kara can't keep herself in the air, but always manages to avoid serious injuries when she crashes. Dee, who had last been seen running away, now pops up at Kara's downed Rapter having managed to evade the Cylon snipers. She treats Kara's leg injury, while getting in a couple of good jibs about Kara and Lee.
The Cylons have been watching Baltar like a hawk even though he's done just about everything he can to help them, yet they allow Athena, who has betrayed them more than once, to stroll through the ship straight to her daughter with minimal security. Guess blood is thicker than water even with the Cylons. Once Athena reaches Hera's nursery, she has a great reunion scene with Hera, who seems to recognize her birth mother immediately in spite of them being split when she was a newborn and her mother in a new body.
Athena finds that Hera is indeed sick and wants to bring her back to the fleet so that the doctors there who have experience with children can check her. Boomer, who is quite looking jealous of Athena and Hera's reunion, sniffs out Athena's plan. She voices doubts that Hera really is the first of the next generation and the key to "things to come" then threatens to kill Hera. Caprica Six puts an end to that by killing Boomer and expressing hat she still believes in Hera's future.
Athena and Hera's reunion was long expected and this sequence delivered and had the added twist of Boomer's turn away from being one of the only sympathetic Cylons. After all, she hadn't known about her programming to kill Adama and then had turned Caprica Six to want to push for peace and a fresh start with the humans. Grace Park mentioned that the scene was filmed several times with "different emotions." The take that was chosen for the final edit was perfect.
Grace walked a fine line in the scene, but managed to be convincing by portraying the bitterness and jealousy Boomer has to have over Athena and Cally each getting a family with the two men that she was closest to: her ex-boyfriend and her ECO. They each got what she had openly talked about with Tyrol before her suppressed programming kicked in. The one weakness to the sequence is how easily Athena was given access to her daughter and how easily Caprica Six turned on what the audience believes is her closest ally. The explanation that Caprica Six wants to protect Hera and her destiny as the first of the hybrids wasn't convincing because Tricia didn't bring as much emotion to the scene as Grace did in both her parts.
Act 3:
After the break, Kara and Dee have moved to the cockpit of the downed Raptor. Dee reports that the Raptor looks to be in good order except for the "flywheel." Guess she's picked up some experience as a mechanic capable of carrying out a complete pre-flight check while answering the phones up in CIC. Kara takes this opportunity to reassure Dee that Lee won't cheat. Considering who it's coming from, Dee's nonplussed response is more than appropriate and we bet she finds it cathartic to jab Kara, even if she's actually giving her morphine to dull the pain.
As Lee reaches Tyrol, who has cleared out of the temple, Tyrol just can't bring himself to push the "button" and blow the temple up. This gives Baltar, D'Anna and a Cavil just enough time to disarm the detonators. After the scene on the cliff with just Baltar and D'Anna, the Cavil's appearance is jarring. Where did he come from and why was he with Baltar and D'Anna in the first place? If he came along, why not representatives from the other models as well? His surprise presence, on the heels of the averted bombing seemed like a plot device to up the drama in the temple leading to the big reveal.
Cavil smokes out that D'Anna wasn't interested in finding Earth, but rather the indentities of the Final Five about the same time that Baltar lets slip where Inner Six told him the Eye of Jupiter was. Either Baltar is a genius to once again outthink everyone else combined, OR he has his own "destiny" OR Inner Six is a whole lot more than a delusion. Elsewhere, we find out that the star has started to nova. Amazing how the fleet and the Cylons happen to show up just in time for a star to go nova, but we'll go with it and chalk it up to the mythology about everything happening before. Tyrol surmises that the nova itself is the Eye.
Back in the temple, Baltar shoots Cavil (ending that little forced plot device) which allows D'Anna to again presume too much by heading for the Eye on the floor so she can get bathed in nova light. Once there, she has another one of those temple visions (like we saw back on Kobol) and she stands before the Final Five. Her reaction indicated that she recognized at least one of them and presumably the audience would as well, which has launched endless speculation. Hopefully, the final reveal on that one has already been planned out by the writers.
The figure touches D'Anna, who then slumps out of the light. She lasts just long enough to tell Baltar that he was right (about what?) before dying. Baltar stands on the Eye and even "prays" in hopes of his own vision and answers, but it's too late. Tyrol shows up to "welcome" him back and then club him. Once again, Baltar has been denied finding out whether he's a Cylon. Our guess is that this question won't be answered for sure until ALL the Final Five Cylons have been revealed, so stayed tuned for more Baltar identity angst.
