Written by Michael Taylor
Directed by Rod Hardy
“That’s right. They killed my cat!”
“They?”
“They! Those debased dregs of humanity out there! Lost a tribe in search of a new home…so they can roost and rot again!”
This review of Sine Qua Non should be summed up in three little words: OH MY GOD!
Lee Adama is President of the Twelve Colonies? OH MY GOD! I should have seen it coming…a blind man should have seen it coming. The culmination of a long character arc, it takes the returning Romo Lampkin to point out (with a loaded gun) that great men have power thrust upon them - this has been Lee’s modus operandi since day one. A man with very little ego, stoic and willing to serve, and never oblivious to the consequences of his actions. In other words, he’s his father’s son, and it never shines more clearly than it does with his rise to executive power.
Admiral Adama gives up his command, and stays behind to wait for Roslin and the others? OH MY GOD! This has also been a decision long in coming. Again, so obvious to everyone but himself…but this time, this blindness is the result of being THAT close to another person. Someone you’ve become part of…intertwined with…someone you love so much that you can’t live without them. William Adama loves Laura Roslin, and he can’t live without her, so he stays behind and waits…
Colonel Tigh is in command once again? OH MY GO…wait a minute! Colonel Tigh has IMPREGNATED Caprica Six? OH MY FRAKKING GOD! I don’t even know where to begin with this one…other than the fact that when Admiral Adama tells Tigh that he’s a changed man since the events of New Caprica, his disbelieving bulging eye-ball spells out his astonishment and fear far more than mere words could successfully convey. Bloody hell, I though he was going to have a heart attack then and there!
And we haven’t even TOUCHED on the pregnancy just yet…
Romo Lampkin’s cat has been dead for a LONG time…but he still sees him wandering around? OH MY GOD! Could he be projecting? Does that means he’s a…?
Don’t even dare contemplate it! It’s somehow so ordinary…yet so undeniably incredible. We shall wait and see…
In a season that’s given us nothing but pressure…pressure…small release…pressure…pressure…we finally get ONE HELL OF A RELEASE! This is easily the most mind-blowing, most satisfying episode of the season to date, where no single moment could be foreseen, in spite of ALL the foreshadowing! Choices have been made, roles have been chosen, consequences will result…and now I’m positively ACHING for more. This is about as shrewd and powerful as Battlestar Galactica gets…and it’s virtually a bottle show!
That said, it makes the impending mid-season break seem more and more like cruel and unusual punishment. Damn them! :-/
10
