nBSG Episode 405: "The Road Less Traveled"

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Showtime for the fifth episode of the final season in two hours.

[Deathstalker]

Rat bastard writers, they killed the sarge!

[Agent Fisher]

I agree. And, holy shit, Helo, gut punch and pistol whipping?

[Falkenhayn]

If Tyrol falls for this fucking bullshit I'm going to be on bad terms with Ron More. For fuck's sake cap this asshole.

[Lonestar]

Good Man Helo.

[Agent Fisher]

Did I just see Anders put a round through Helo's leg?!

[CaptJodan]

Did I just see Anders put a round through Helo's leg?!

I thought it was Gaeta's leg

[KhyronTheBackstabber]

Did I just see Anders put a round through Helo's leg?!

I thought it was Gaeta's leg.

[Lonestar]

Did I just see Anders put a round through Helo's leg?!

yup.

[LadyTevar]

Now now, boys... talk about THIS week, not next week

Nitram and I were discussing... Is relieving Kara of command Mutiny, or the right thing to do when the Captain is obviously not thinking straight?

[Burak Gazan]

Helo cited an Article (Article 10) of Colonial Fleet Regulations, which likely applies to when the commanding officer is considered by a majority of his or her officers to be impared or unfit for command (and given her behavior, Bucky qualifies under "complete fucking loon asshole" )

The really annoying part, is if she ends up being "right" there will be no end to her oh-so-Starbuck bullshit.

She should have stayed dead

RIP Gunny

[CaptJodan]

Up one from last week for me.

When they showed us the previously, they covered Starbuck (which was obvious to anyone who saw the preview), Cally's death, Baltar, and Cylon civil war beginnings. I was so hoping we'd be seeing more inner Cylon workings. Bastards.

Anymore, I'm actually blown away when a character does something that makes sense. I worried that, being that Helo would be involved in this episode, Moore would opt to find him doing something depraved, because he enjoys that kind of stuff. But happily he remained true to his character. Loyal until it was obvious that there was no way they could follow her psycho orders. Good for him.

Seelix still lives for the moment. I wondered at first if that was her outside, but was glad to see it wasn't. Didn't know it was the Master At Arms. Have we even seen her since she was removed from her job?

I feel like Sharon's character continues to take a back seat to whats going on. She's a logical choice to have some of these plotlines intertwine with hers, but they're not really using her that much.

Baltar. Oh poor, poor Baltar. You've become Ron Moore's little mouthpiece. What insufferable dren comes out of that man. "I was a scientist and a skeptic, but now I believe in the One True God." Listen, we get it, he's reformed. He believes in the OTG. They've beat this horse. Can you please show me where this may be headed? Baltar's humor factor doesn't make up for this.

Overall, I give it a 3. There were some nice bits here and there. I was glad to see the Chief in the tube with Tori. I keep hoping this is headed somewhere for a big payoff, but something tells me I'll be pretty disappointed when we get there.

[Skylon]

This felt more like build-up honestly.

It was also kinda weird to have no Adama or Roslin (a first I think).

[Skylon]

U
Seelix still lives for the moment. I wondered at first if that was her outside, but was glad to see it wasn't. Didn't know it was the Master At Arms. Have we even seen her since she was removed from her job?

Different characters. The Master at Arms was Sgt. Hadrian (who since only got mentioned afterwards). This was Sgt. Mathias who I think first appeared in "Exodus" and later showed up on the Algea planet and in "Razor".

[CaptJodan]

Different characters. The Master at Arms was Sgt. Hadrian (who since only got mentioned afterwards). This was Sgt. Mathias who I think first appeared in "Exodus" and later showed up on the Algea planet and in "Razor".

And I thought I was doing well keeping track of the ol flightdeck crew.

[Anguirus]

I don't mind THAT they killed Matthias, I mind HOW they killed her. She was the senior Marine NCO to my knowledge, and they have her not only going off on the Demetrius, but doing an EVA? It seems like the writers just picked "someone we recognize but who isn't that important."

I also agree that they aren't using Athena to her full potential. I liked that the one Viper pilot mouthed off about her and got his ass beat for it, but it seems like instead of doing logical things, like talking to Leoben, discussing the possibility of a Cylon civil war with the crew, etc., they are just having her act as much like a human as possible and automatically distrust ANYTHING any other Cylon has to say. Which is a bit foolish IMO considering that the Colonials (some of them) lied to her about Hera and it was the actions of two other Cylons that let her get her daughter back. (Speaking of which, where IS Hera? Just languishing in Galactica daycare while Caprica-Six and Roslin forget about her for no reason?)

Anyway, these flaws bring the ep down to 4 for me...but really, I liked most of it. I'm incredibly intrigued by where this plot seems to be going (btw I called Demetrius finding Cylon rebels weeks ago, hah) and the preview for the next episode looks amazing.

[CaptJodan]

I also agree that they aren't using Athena to her full potential. I liked that the one Viper pilot mouthed off about her and got his ass beat for it, but it seems like instead of doing logical things, like talking to Leoben, discussing the possibility of a Cylon civil war with the crew, etc., they are just having her act as much like a human as possible and automatically distrust ANYTHING any other Cylon has to say. Which is a bit foolish IMO considering that the Colonials (some of them) lied to her about Hera and it was the actions of two other Cylons that let her get her daughter back. (Speaking of which, where IS Hera? Just languishing in Galactica daycare while Caprica-Six and Roslin forget about her for no reason?)

What you mention exemplifies a lot of missed opportunities thus far. Sharon is the shining examples of a Cylon who can overcome its base programming and be loyal to the humans, or be herself independent of the Cylon will. She wanted to be Sharon Vellari so bad that she went through hell to convince people that she was loyal. At least one of the new Cylons want to be who they've always been, and possibly two others as well (Tori being the notable exception). Going to Sharon and asking her how to ensure they stay who they want to be seems like a reasonable, if not risky step. It may blow up in their face, but at this point the Chief almost blew his head off. It can't get much worse than that. We already know you can't kill yourself even if you want to.

At some point, I hope we see Sharon as the go-to girl. Granted she's away from the fleet and those most apt to seek her council don't have access to her, but so far its not even hinted at. Tori and the Chief are going to get their jollies from Baltar, and Tigh is going to enjoy some S&M with Caprica.

[Tsyroc]

Helo cited an Article (Article 10) of Colonial Fleet Regulations, which likely applies to when the commanding officer is considered by a majority of his or her officers to be impared or unfit for command (and given her behavior, Bucky qualifies under "complete fucking loon asshole" )

The really annoying part, is if she ends up being "right" there will be no end to her oh-so-Starbuck bullshit.

She should have stayed dead

I agree.

She's been mostly extremely annoying since she got back. She had a few moments this week where she wasn't horrible but she's still psycho obsessed. I really really hope that she doesn't end up being right in this and that if the Demetrius finds Earth it's in spite of Starbuck and not out and out because of her.

On the subject of mutiny they are generally bad news regardless of whether someone is right or not (The Caine Mutiny and Crimson Tide show this pretty well). Ideally Helo and Co. would be okay because they all think Starbuck is whacked and have put up with an awful lot given the circumstances of Starbuck's return. If she wasn't so obsessed about her mission and herself Starbuck would have seen that an awful lot of people bent over backwards for her. Although, I have to wonder if Helo volunteered since, as it's been pointed out, his daughter isn't along on the trip. I'm kind of surprised that Athena went along without Hera since it would have made sense for one parent to remain behind with the child but her coming along might have more to do with how much she's not excepted if Helo isn't around as a buffer.


I'd like to add that the more this season progresses the more I become concerned about where they are going with the series. I read what Moore had intended for the end of Andromeda, and while it was better than what went on without him it still seemed like crap to me. It certainly didn't live up to the build up and Galactica with all of it's current freaky assed stuff is starting to concern me along the same lines.

Now, if they really want to shake things up how about Starbuck gets capped in the next episode?

[JME2]

Would Starbuck and Baltar both just fucking die already? I'm sick of the religious angles both characters have undertaken since last season. Liked a few bits, but it still felt like filler.

3/5

[Rye]

Baltar. Oh poor, poor Baltar. You've become Ron Moore's little mouthpiece. What insufferable dren comes out of that man. "I was a scientist and a skeptic, but now I believe in the One True God." Listen, we get it, he's reformed. He believes in the OTG. They've beat this horse. Can you please show me where this may be headed? Baltar's humor factor doesn't make up for this.

No, Baltar has become Jesus, not a mouthpiece for the writer's religious beliefs, have you not been paying attention? Did you not even see how he looked at the start of the season? Hell, last week had the Mithras cult saying Baltar's teachings was just like theirs. Baltar has turned into Jesus for what is presumably the plan of the "neural clone/angel" Six and Baltar and the "One True God" whatever that will turn out to be.

Right back in season one, Baltar gave really good reasons for not believing in any gods, and after his experiences with the Six in his mind, it's not that unreasonable that he would believe in God and pray, since it actually gets results. As it is, it all depends on what the cylon god ends up being.

[NeoGoomba]

For it being my least favorite episode this season (I cant fucking STAND Starbuck), I did really like the scene where Baltar went to Tyrol to apologize. That took guts, guts that I didnt think Baltar had.

[[R_H]]

Baltar. Oh poor, poor Baltar. You've become Ron Moore's little mouthpiece. What insufferable dren comes out of that man. "I was a scientist and a skeptic, but now I believe in the One True God." Listen, we get it, he's reformed. He believes in the OTG. They've beat this horse. Can you please show me where this may be headed? Baltar's humor factor doesn't make up for this.

It's fucking annoying, so much of the episodes this season are filled with the preachy OTG bullshit. I'd prefer to see more of the Cylons than Baltar's lame ass cult.

[Anguirus]

I dunno, I expected to hate the Baltar stuff but I'm really finding it more and more intriguing.

The old Baltar could never have a) realized that what he said to Tyrol was wrong, nor b) risked his neck to go and apologize for it. I actually fully expect Starbuck, if she ever makes it back to the fleet, to lead a roaring resurgence of the old gods, cause she is seriously into them (though she's nowhere near as charismatic as Baltar, if she gets wind of Earth's location from the Hybrid she'd have an ace to pull).

From the stuff Moore has said so far I think the two faiths will have to reconcile, just like the Cylons and humans have to reconcile, in order to survive. He has said that the two religions are connected and each have part of the universe's "truth."

[Imperial Overlord]

I don't mind THAT they killed Matthias, I mind HOW they killed her. She was the senior Marine NCO to my knowledge, and they have her not only going off on the Demetrius, but doing an EVA? It seems like the writers just picked "someone we recognize but who isn't that important."

She's a marine in a space fleet. It's quite likely that she was the most EVA qualified of any of the characters on the Demetrius. Demetrius's crew seems to be rather small, but stocked with some of the best people in the fleet.

[Anguirus]

^ I guess that's a point, but I was still quite surprised to see her face beneath the helmet, considering her presence on the ship was never foreshadowed, nor were her technical qualifications (she wasn't storming the ship, she was trying to get at the computer I thought).