Episode Report Card Jacob: A | 85 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT That Old Song They Used To Play
By Jacob | Season 3 | Episode 19 | Aired on 2007.03.18
When I keep saying it's not just Gaius's trial, I mean that literally. I mean that there's no difference between the Maelstrom and what just happened, what's continuing to happen to Lee. To Chief, throwing himself again and again on the engines he built with his blood. To Laura, or Bill. To Tigh, or Sam and Tory, whatever that is. This is what it looks like from Lee's angle: daddy issues, the law against the government against the military, "Apollo" and everything he means. Zak in the background, Kara in the foreground. The rules principles he hangs onto, his very oxygen, turning in his grasp like a serpent, changing shape like fire. His father replaced by this strange lying thief. Dualla leaving in a scene or two... That's all of it, right? Everything that makes him who he is? Turn the glass a bit and you have Three, dying to be reborn -- just one fraction of an angle difference and it's the same story. Boomer, going down in a hail of bullets over some other woman's crib. Helo, who finally made it back to Galactica after a lifetime of struggles, only to find it changing shape around him every week. Kara, flying faster than she ever had before. The Admiral's Lie of Earth, in which he now believes, gone rudderless in her absence. And Laura? You bet your ass. Her more than everybody, and the hits coming from the most surprising, the most damaging places imaginable.
Act Three. Lee whispers into Lampkin's ear: "Let me do this." Romo asks "the Major," and don't think that wasn't intentional, if he's sure. Lee, looking beautiful and deadly in his lovely suit, smiles ruefully. "It's 'Mister' now. And yeah, I'm sure. It should be me." (This too, borne of his principles, his father's accusations ringing in his ears like a sound across the water: no knives in the back. Be a man.) Gaius complains that a glorified "security guard" (and don't think that wasn't intentional) will be serving however briefly as counsel; Lampkin shuts him down without even a look. "We're waiting, Mr. Lampkin," says Franks, and Lampkin introduces his "associate, Mr. Adama," who will finish the questioning. Adama spits nails; Franks allows it. This trial, I tell you what.