Episode Report Card Jacob: A- | 0 USERS: N/A YOU GRADE IT Blackbird Singing In The Dead Of Night
By Jacob | Season 2 | Episode 9 | Aired on September 15, 2005
At CIC, listen to Tigh: "You want to what?" (4) Gaeta wants to erase the drives and restart the ship using backups from before everything went to hell. Tigh points out that this will leave them defenseless until the system comes back up, and then immediately retreats to Adama's authority just in case someone questions him: "The Commander will never go for this." Luckily, Gaeta and Gaius have already talked to Adama about it, and he's considering it. I love this combination -- when it takes place outside the restroom and isn't totally creepy, of course. They're both so prickly and smart and passive and focused and kinda prissy, and it's so, so nice to see. Especially if their joint project involves busting Tigh's nuts. Tigh snaps at Gaius, again with the spurious power-by-proxy, about how "the Commander told you to stay out of this," which we didn't see, and I don't know why he would do that, but I'm sure Gaius was being irritating as usual and Adama just couldn't handle it. Gaius: "I'm sorry, do you want to survive this one or not, Colonel?" It's wonderfully played, this; a vastly more catty companion to Gaeta's insubordination earlier in the episode. This time -- and I can't help wondering if it's because Adama's all the way over in his quarters -- Tigh lets it go, advising that the Fleet jump immediately before this happens, to buy them time. Sounds reasonable, but Gaeta points out that Galactica is becoming increasingly hostile as the virus takes over, and that they might end up jumping into a sun. Gaius and Gaeta -- knowing that you sometimes have to lead Tigh by the hand, trade lines like Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, reminding him about the signal they're also transmitting, which puts them up against two separate deadlines that both point right to: GAME OVER.
Adama explains to Roslin about his visit to Boomer, leaving out how totally rude he was to her, and says she's offered a possible solution. Roslin puts her finger on it: "And you're wondering if you can trust her." He admits that he came close to strangling Boomer yet again while he was in there, and Roslin nods grimly. You know she's thinking, "I haven't thrown anyone's ass out an airlock in weeks." Adama angsts about how he's even thinking about doing something so nuts as to agree to use the help this woman has offered. And yeah, it's a lot more iffy if you don't buy that she's not transmitting to the Boomerplex, but I do, which means she's in the same danger as the whole Fleet, not to mention that damned toaster baby. "We both know the Cylons are experts at manipulation. They will do anything to confuse you," says Roslin, with a lot of her signature pregnant pauses. She's such a joy to watch. She makes me want to be an actor. Adama protests, somewhat obliquely, that this Boomer is not the one who shot him, which is kind of tangential to what she just said, but it gives Roslin the opportunity to give a particularly airlock-esque speech: "Can they really be that different from one another? Commander, if you're asking me if it's possible that your judgment's been clouded by your history with this particular Cylon model, well, I'd have to say yes. But..." There's a long pause again, and Roslin allows as how "We created them. There's always a chance we might find common ground." Besides how she's going to die, forever, just like you all, unless you fix this?