Written by Michael Taylor
Directed by Robert Young
“When you step on this deck, you be ready to fight, or you dishonor the reason why we’re here. Now remember this…when you fight a man, he’s not your friend. Same goes when you lead men. I forgot that once. I let you get too close, all of you. I dropped my guard. I gave some of you breaks, let some of you go, before the fight was really over. I let this crew and this family disband, and we paid the price in lives. That can’t happen again.”
My friend James’ review of Unfinished Business brought up the point that the episodes following the Occupation/Second Exodus have put to rest any worries that Battlestar Galactica would recoup the cost of those mammoth epics with small, run-of-the-mill bottle shows. In fact, only Collaborators has been, in any way, a disappointment…in all other respects, this is a season that is firing on all cylinders. As for Unfinished Business, if it ran any hotter, it would be a Ferrari ready to explode.
This could well be the rawest episode of the series. The boxing matches…the flashbacks…the sex…the most base, feral, and violent of human emotions, mixed in with lashings of unrequited love, regret, disappointment, and longing. It’s an exercise in filing in the gaps of the past, while simultaneously pointing down the road to the future.
The relationships on display showcase some of the best acting EVER in this series. I defy anyone not to be affected by the warmth of the companionship between Adama and Roslin…it’s as if they were made for each other – all their ideological and tactical conflicts having burned away the facades they initially confronted each other with…and now? They lie back in grass, snuggled up & smoking up, as if they’ve been together all their lives. If Doctor Who had Ian & Barbara, then Battlestar Galactica has William and Laura.
But let’s not forget Apollo and Starbuck. Everything they go through – from their making love in the quiet night of New Caprica, to beating the snot out of each other in the ring – hurts! REALLY hurts! We’re talking physical & spiritual hurt that can only exist between two people with a love so powerful that continents can shift when they’re together.
There’s not much more I can say here, because Unfinished Business is an episode that must be experienced…FELT…not described. It’s an episode of passion, brutality, and heartache, and it will leave you trembling. It’s Battlestar Galactica at the height of its powers.
10
