Written by Anne Cofell Saunders
Directed by Jean De Segonzac
“When God’s anger awakens, even the mighty shall fall.”
I really, really, REALLY liked Torn…not only because it was a beautifully constructed episode, but it also addressed many of the weakness of last week’s Collaborators…and addressed them with a vengeance!
Take Starbuck’s and Tigh’s little court of poison in the pilot’s rec room…the ugly bitterness, the sheer passion behind their hatred…THAT was the element missing from the by-the-numbers vengeance antics on display last week. This week’s rage and pain was far more palpable…far more powerful…and the reaction of the rest of the crew surprised me. It was a muted, unspeakable torment…especially from Kat, who wasn’t yelling and screaming, but aghast and disgusted by the dissension that Starbuck and Tigh are trying to breed.
And then Adama comes below decks and lays down the law as only Adama can do. Edward James Olmos conveys the most astonishing and powerful presence I’ve ever seen in a leadership figure on television, and he makes no bones regarding how far he will go to protect the unity of the fleet. His actions are brutal, terrifying, and utterly compelling in their finality…and the end result sees one broken woman taking the first delicate steps to recover her humanity…and one damaged & destroyed man taking what is left of his humanity and drowning it in alcohol and sorrow.
The other weakness from last week that is redressed – and with considerable style – is the Baltar-on-the-baseship plot. Instead of creepy disorientation for its own sake, we’re given fascinating insight into the culture of the base ship, and the creatures who inhabit it. This episode will be remembered as a seminal primer on the Cylons: hybrids running the base ships, the Cylon ability to project, the astonishing & creepy non-revelation about the missing five models of Cylon we have yet to see…
Suffice to say…this overload of quality writing and directing provokes some serious “wow” factor…substance AND style, in a way that was completely absent from the weird-for-weird’s-sake glimpse we saw in Collaborators.
Torn completes a hat trick with it’s third triumph: the solid feeling of progress that’s made in this episode. Apollo back in fighting fit form, Sharon’s new call-sign of “Athena”, the search for Earth progressing with more drive than at any time since Home-Part 2, and the discovery that the Cylons are also planning on having Earth as their new home…
…which begs the question: what’s wrong with their OLD home?
Plenty of closure, lots of new plot threads, a vast array of new questions….and a Clyon-killing virus cliffhanger that comes with a hint of serious danger (especially for Galactica-Sharon), and a hint of human culture & technology that comes from a more distant, ancient time…
Torn is a sublime example of why Battlestar Galactica is such a bloody amazing triumph of television.
10
