Episode Report Card Strega: C | 88 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT KodaChrome
By Strega | Season 2 | Episode 8 | Aired on 2005.09.09
Cut to the Caprica One. Biers and Bell sit at a table. The camera swings around to show that Billy, Adama, the Prez, and Tigh are watching the finished story. Kat's interview continues on the monitor, as Biers tells her that she just made a mistake. Kat says that because of her, they're short a pilot now. Kat: "Yeah, except now my flight's a pilot short. Those guys, they're just as tired and they're just as messed up as I was." Lots of reaction shots as Kat explains, "I've worked my ass off defending this ship. I've been frustrated, I've been angry. I've been everything that you can possibly think of. This is the first time that I've felt ashamed." We finally see the monitor, and Kat looks to be near tears. Oh, and so does Adama. He's such a soft touch. Over his shoulder, the Prez just looks mildly intrigued, heh. Tigh, stone-faced, says he's seen enough, and Biers stops the playback. Tigh complains that the fleet will think even less of them after seeing this. "You show us with our pants down and our asses hanging out." He asks for Adama's opinion, and Adama calmly says, "I think it's great." Tigh is never going to learn that he should always say the opposite of what he thinks if he wants Adama on his side. I wonder if Adama keeps Tigh around as his own personal George Costanza. Adama says that Biers "put a human face on the guardians of the fleet. Warts and all." He says she can show it to the fleet. The Prez makes a smug face and says that she'd like to see the ending. Adama agrees, so Bell starts the recording again.
Over a montage of crewmen working, and the memorial corridor, Biers narrates that she expected to find arrogant egomaniacs before coming to the Galactica, but once there she learned a Valuable Lesson: "These people aren't Cylons. They're not robots blindly following orders and polishing their boots. They're people." Okay, it's great that she and the fleet learned that, but we knew it already. Moore does say that this is the show's thesis, and I totally agree, and that's why we didn't need to spend an hour relearning it. As the montage of profundity continues, the original Battlestar Galactica theme starts tweedling slowly. Biers says, that the Galacticans are "the thin line of blue separating us from the Cylons." Ew. She mentions that, according to Gaeta, not one member of the crew has asked to resign. She goes on and on about that for a while, and now we see the show is going out to people gathered around monitors throughout the ship, and presumably throughout the fleet. The montage finally lets up for a shot of a crewman mopping up a floor and whistling the original theme as some pilots stroll by for added poignancy. Biers says, "The story of Galactica isn't that people make bad decisions under pressure. It's that those mistakes are the exception." I'm getting the impression that while their technology may be more advanced, the media standards in their world are much, much lower. I think I prefer it here.