Written by Bradley Thompson & David Weddle
Directed by Rod Hardy
“Do your job.”
“Yes sir…”
“And walk out of this cabin…while you still can.”
A solid episode that is quite the change of pace from the previous outings. It’s the definitive statement about the Adama family history, and the enormous baggage that hangs around their necks like a smelly, dead albatross.
We get to fill in the blanks about Zack Adama, Starbuck’s responsibility in his death, and Commander Adama finally learning the truth. The revelation scene in particular is superb, with Edward James Olmos shaking with repressed fury and grief — he simply makes you stare at the screen, without raising his voice, losing his cool, or breaking down. But everyone knows its coming, because it takes all his energy to keep it in check during this episode. That said, Katee Sackhoff give Olmos a run for his money, showing us, for the very first time, the volatile, vulnerable young girl behind the cigar-chomping facade of invincibility.
The lack of fighter pilots, and the training of rookies (love the term used: nuggets) is an idea from the early episodes of the original series, but here it gets a fresh lick of paint, and a lot more credibility. It could have degenerated into a horribly cliched losers-make-good story (as it did in the Star Trek-Voyager episode Learning Curve), but Act of Contrition avoids this trap. It’s simply a matter of necessity, and the heroics in the final act are a natural offshoot of training, as opposed to a forced bonding moment.
Speaking of the final act, it’s here where the artistry of the direction really shines. The ringed planetscape, the dogfights, and Starbuck’s ejection from her dying Viper (a motif repeated at the beginning of each act) are all beautifully shot, their scope counterpointing nicely the close ups that dominate most of this story. Was there even a normal, mid-range two-shot for any of the important scenes? I can’t recall a single moment…
There are some iffy bits — the Caprica scenes are there simply to remind us what’s happening, and it’s almost jarring not seeing any Baltar-Number Six moments. However, the overall content of this first-of-a-two-part-story makes for some highly charged set up. Playing fresh games with old material seems to be one of Battlestar Galactica’s fortes.
9
