Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by Robert Young
“Galactica is slipping away from you, drop by drop. You are pouring Cylon blood into her veins.”
Awkward: the best word to describe Deadlock: an exceptionally strange episode of Battlestar Galactica.
First of all, we have an awkward sub-plot, slotted into the final stretch of the series…and for the life of me, I’m not sure if it’s a brilliant last-minute ploy on the part of the writers…or an idea to simply bulk out the last few episodes before the final conflict with Cavil’s Cylons (which we know is coming). Baltar comes back to his cargo-cult, finds them in munity against his authority…and suddenly, Head-Six pops up and persuades him to persuade the Admiral to ARM his harem and become the new security force for the civilians on board Galactica, in order to enhance Baltar’s god-like leadership!
Or…is Baltar actually listening to his conscience, in that strange, unpredictable way only Gaius Baltar can articulate?
At times I felt as if I was watching an altogether different series than the Battlestar Galactica I was used to after five years. That said, future complications look exceedingly grim (did you see the way one of Baltar’s babes was caressing her brand-spanking-new rife?!?), and while I have every confidence it will all fit into the final equation somehow, I do question the wisdom of this last-minute plot development. It just feels…wrong.
Secondly, we have an important plot that is handled with complete and total awkwardness. What in the name of the Lords of Kobol is going on with the soap opera that Ellen manages to unleash among the Cylons? The crazy sex, the broken hearts, the near cat-fight between Ellen and Caprica-Six, and the climax with Six’s miscarriage…it generated one hell of a big “HUH?!?” Some of it works…but the rest feels like a cut-rate episode of Dallas, complete with Kate Vernon as Sue Ellen Ewing! At the very least, it ends with some genuine grief on the part of Tigh (his scene with Adama is achingly sad), and some genuine concern for the future of Cylon biological procreation.
Finally, we have the good stuff in the plot…pushed to the fringes by all the awkardness it has to fight through in order to breathe. Baltar’s warning to Adama about potential revolution and the blended future — Human & Cylon — that seems all but inevitable, is disturbing, ominous, and foreboding…in that particularly delicious way only Battlestar Galactica can manage. If this had been the true core of the episode, then it would have played like a tragic aria…but too many layers muffle its power.
Luckily, it ends on a surprisingly hopeful note, as Adama and Roslin both realize that Galactica’s blended future might not be a disaster. Let’s hope this final upswing in quality and emotion carries into the next episode.
5
