Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | 2 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Six Of One...
By Jacob Clifton | Season 2 | Episode 18 | Aired on 02.23.2006
Ten weeks ago, on Galactica, the poundy drums were in full force. Sharon Valerii, having been in hack after shooting Adama at a really inconvenient time, was hustled down a corridor. The faces of her former friends and compatriots were angry, but she kept looking at them all. Cally ran forward, twisted with rage, and shot her stupidly in the abdomen. In the birthing tank, now, Sharon's eyes twitch. She remembers, downloading: kissing Chief Tyrol, waking up all wet with no idea how she got there, many naked Sharons, the word "Cylon" scrawled across her locker mirror, a gun in her mouth, Chief coming to her post-suicide attempt, shooting Adama, his hand outstretched, screaming in the brig, Tigh with a gun to her head, and sitting with the betrayed Chief in hack. The drums stop, and Chief says, disgusted: "I'm not a Cylon. You're a machine; I'm not." That's her question, the entirety of her question. The whole Brokeback Mountain of her Season 1 storyline has led Sharon to this download: she is the line between the human and the Cylon, the blurring of her two identities, the love of Chief. Put her together with the Six above, and something magical might happen. The drums continue, and again, Sharon dies, Chief holds her, a drop of blood splashes on the deck.
"I know there's pain," says Biers, "but breathe -- ride through it. You're going to be okay. Trust me." Sharon's hands are shackled. Again, there are three women present for the rebirth: self-sufficient, older model Biers; loving, sexual, triumphant Six; little sister/fighter/mother Sharon. I didn't get Starbuck at Hera's birth later, but I'll make do with this. Biers: "You're in God's hands. We're all here with you. That's it." Sharon coughs and retches, and Biers continues in her soothing tone. "This will pass. Trust me. Everything's gonna be all right." Six smiles lovingly: "Welcome home, sister. We're here. We're going to take care of you." At Natasi's resurrection ceremony twenty-six weeks ago, it was the Boomer that was closer, a Six standing a bit further back; this time, their positions have changed -- I guess it's traumatic enough without having a you all up in your grill. Doral stands by, so proud. I wonder if he's there for the same reason as the shackles: I imagine that since Sharons are always a little buggy -- it was a non-sleeper Sharon that turned on them recently -- you want to be extra-very-careful with a sleeper one. The Sharon attending is wearing the same lovely shirt, with ruffles and such. I wonder if this as momentous, as ceremonial a thing as we'd probably assume? Given the way they all go around constantly pronouncing things as God's Will and stuff, you think they'd like the pomp. The Sharon standing by smiles down, full of love and care: "We love you." The acting is great from her, this terrible desire to help Sharon, to calm her, to make her believe that they're all there for her and that they love her. The pain of being rejected. Sharon in the tank starts to scream ("Noooooooooooo!") and the camera pulls up, up, up until the glowing birth tank is just a blip. Very "sci-fi," but well done. Credits. 49,579 souls in the Fleet, and then an ad for Dr. Who, coming to Sci-Fi, in this timeslot once the season is over in two weeks, two episodes a week for two weeks and one thereafter for the full fourteen episodes. If, um, if that interests you at all.