Episode Report Card Jacob: A+ | 562 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT There's Beauty In The Breakdown
By Jacob | Season 4 | Episode 4 | Aired on April 25, 2008
"Wherever Gaius Baltar is, violence happens. And if he doesn't cause it, he draws it. My job, Mr. Adama, is and always will be to keep the people safe." She's so intense you could almost miss the love behind it. She's not a stupid woman and she's not a woman given to falling into silly fights with cockerels. She knows damn well he's right, and that he's not going down without a fight. Every time he challenges her, he's trying to make her love him again -- to be redeemed, to be forgiven by this mother, to be loved. But redemption is the process of remembering we are already redeemed, and her love is something she withholds but never rescinds. Ask Bill. She adds him to the list, to the objects she's juggling, and the more she respects him the harder she'll hit back, and he will never, ever get it. Ask Kara.
Delegate Reza Chronides asks if this Provision 170 couldn't be used against other offshoot religious groups, and the President calmly explains that, as we all know, Gaius Baltar is a special case, which Lee points out we're doing by fueling his argument. (Laura lies it's because of everybody else, but means it's because Gaius is a shitstirrer; Lee points out that while Gaius is a shitstirrer, the problem is still everybody else.) "After all, is he preaching violence? Immoral acts?" The President scoffs that she would even know what the fuck goes on in his quote-unquote "services," kind of undermining her whole argument, and earning another look from Tory. "It's not that far from what some of our own Mithras followers believe," says Reza, and the Geminon Delegate pipes up: "We have Mithrasarries among the Geminese. Can this order be applied to them?" No! Gods, it's a special case. "Clear your heads. We are talking about Gaius Baltar. Everyone in this room experienced tragedy at New Caprica. Have we forgotten?" Reza asks if she'll open the provisional order to a Quorum vote and, denied, Lee reminds everyone that they can override that: "I cannot let this stand."
(Sol Invictus Mithras, the Invincible, is linked to Apollo, and his worship to the messianic Gods and demigods, including Christ. Ahura Mazda explained him to Zoroaster thus: "I created him to be as worthy of sacrifice and as worthy of prayer as myself." Invincible Mithras, perfect just as he is, partaking in the life of God and created by God to be loved, and forgiven, and unstoppable.)