Last week’s episode of Battlestar Galactica was one of the most intense hours of television seen in a long time. If this week’s episode, “Blood on the Scales” had matched that level of intensity, chances are about half the cast would have been killed off. Fortunately “Blood on the Scales” didn’t need the same kind of intensity that “The Oath” had to be a great episode. “The Oath” was about people getting in over their heads; “Blood on the Scales” was about those same people realizing just how out of their depth they really were.
Going in, I think pretty much everyone who wasn’t Tom Zarek drastically underestimated the amount of bloodshed that would be necessary to make the mutiny work. In their minds, they would just grab some guns, march into CIC and tell Adama that they didn’t like this whole Cylon deal. Adama would gracefully step down and Gaeta would be made the new leader of Galactica.
The mutineers managed to keep it together long enough to remove Adama from power, but they soon realized that removing Adama didn’t magically make their problems go away, not everyone was willing to blindly accept the change in leadership, and that neither Zarek or Gaeta are much good at effectively quelling dissent or leading the fleet. The more Zarek and Gaeta struggled to keep control, the more people second-guessed or outright abandoned the mutineers.
Hotdog was the first to question. He refused to fire on the President’s raptor and while he didn’t actively try and stop Narcho from firing, he was in Narcho’s line of fire long enough that Narcho had very little time to actually try and destroy the raptor.
And while Hotdog was the first to question the wisdom of the mutiny, he was far from the last. Everyone from the formerly imprisoned Lieutenant Kelly to Gauis Baltar to Romo did their own part to try and ensure the defeat of Gaeta and Zarek.
You know, through all of “The Oath” and most of “Blood on the Scales” I was really looking forward to seeing Gaeta having to pay for his actions. Even when they were repeatedly showing shots of Gaeta’s obvious hesitance, and unhappiness with the way things were unfolding, I still felt no sympathy for him. But between his accepting that he had lost and refusing to fire on the Cylon Basestar (while Zarek was spazzing out beside him) and his conversation with Baltar, I actually did feel sorry for the guy, kudos to the writers and to Alessandro Juliani for that one. Given the nature of the fleet, it was quite understandable that he would be executed, but it was no longer the happy moment I was envisioning while watching “The Oath” last week.
I’m very curious as to what happens now, both with the military and the Quorum. Obviously, Adama can’t execute or imprison everyone who was part of the mutiny; that would leave him with a veritable skeleton crew. But considering the number of people killed, and atrocities committed,
during the mutiny, it seems highly unlikely that Gaeta and Zarek’s executions would be the extent of punishments doled out either.
On the political front, the government is pretty much gone. The President and one of the twelve members of the Quorum are all that remain. This seems like an ideal time to reform the political system. The current Quorum model, with one member for each of the twelve colonies, is outdated. With the exception of the Sagittarions, the citizens of the colonies don’t really have a colonial identity anymore. A new system of government (perhaps one where representatives are elected by ship, with the larger ships getting more representatives) is necessary. As an added bonus, overhauling the political system would also easily allow them to include government representation for the Cylons.
I do have one complaint to make about “Blood on the Scales” but it’s a relatively minor one. The whole thing with Baltar dreaming Adama’s execution seemed like it existed solely so they could show Adama being shot at by a firing squad in the previews. It wasn’t really a necessary catalyst for Baltar’s decision to return to Galactica. Zarek claiming Tigh had been killed served a purpose other than just being something shocking to put in a preview.
Another excellent outing for Battlestar Galactica this week. I honestly can’t think of a show that has had such a strong run as BSG is having this season. Let’s hope that continues for the rest of the season.
Prediction for Next Week:
The preview for “No Exit” was pretty straight-forward, not a lot of quick shots or one liners to analyze. It was basically Ellen Tigh wakes up on a resurrection ship, and Sam tells Kara that he remembers everything about the Cylons’ history/purpose/etc. I’m guessing that the Ellen bit is part of a flashback/memory that Sam will have; she’s not actually back (yet, at least).
Trevor MacKay is the sci-fi/horror/fantasy/cheesy/random geeky stuff guy. If something is geeky and/or unbelievably cheesy, he’s there.
