This week’s episode was a bit of an oddity. It was a filler episode, which presumably was aimed at saving some money (the flashbacks were probably filmed earlier in the season and the boxing setup couldn’t have been terribly expensive), but, for all that, it still managed to do quite a bit.
The flashbacks were nice to see. Back when it first aired, the season two finale was pretty jarring. All of the sudden a bunch of time had passed and things had changed. There was far too much going on during the webisodes and the beginning of season three to go back and visit some of those changes, but it was nice to finally fill in the blanks a little bit.
It was interesting to note that, when they first settled on New Caprica, everyone was pretty upbeat about the whole thing. Even people who were staunchly against settling on the planet, like Laura Roslin, were quite happy to have an opportunity to rest, even if it wouldn’t last. It is quite a contrast to the situation on New Caprica we saw immediately prior to the Cylons arrival. That sense of optimism did not last very long.
Of course, the main focus of this week’s episode was on Starbuck and Apollo. We, of course, knew something had happened between them to sour their relationship in that missing year but we had never been given what that something was. I can’t say it was terribly surprising that they got drunk, had sex and then Starbuck freaked out about their announcements of love once they had sobered up the next morning. It really made a lot of sense however, and fit well with what we knew about both Starbuck and Apollo so I liked it. It’ll be interesting to see what happens now that Starbuck and Apollo seem to have patched up their friendship with a boxing match.
The stuff was Admiral Adama was good too (if a bit uncomfortable to watch at times). Other than that, there’s not really a whole lot to say about this episode. It was a good episode, but not one that is likely to be important even a few episodes down the line.
