rose_griffes | BSG 4.14 'Blood on the Scales'

This started as an attempt at a thoughtful summary of the episode, but... sort of devolved.

Captain Kelly. He was the man who killed Gaius Baltar's lawyer(s). Apparently he was let out of the brig during the mutiny and now he gets a key role to play again. (At first I thought he was one of the Sunshine Boys--a bit of physical resemblance there.)

We start with Hotdog refusing to shoot the President's raptor. Narcho has no such qualms, though, and Roslin's ship barely makes it aboard the baseship. On to the pretty: the basestar's control center has Tory, another very blonde Six (badwig alert!), Gaius, Leoben looking dapper in a red shirt... a photogenic group of people. Roslin's arrival helps start the argument over whether the baseship should jump away. This will continue throughout the episode, as will her attempts to communicate with the fleet via wireless.

Tyrol skulks through the corridors, then moves into the ducts: another thread.

The next thread begins: Romo Lampkin is escorted to what appears to be Adama's own quarters, where Gaeta and Zarek are discussing Adama's trial and execution. Lampkin: "I'm not a very good shot." Heh. Romo's role is to be Bill's lawyer. He 'gets' this lucky opportunity because Gaeta wants a 'fair' trial. Zarek is the judge, though; the odds aren't in Adama's favor.

Romo convinces Tom and Felix to let him talk to his new client. Tom Zarek takes advantage of this break to kill the quorom. Oh, seventies sideburn man, I hardly knew you!

Kelly flinches when he hears the carnage. Important for later.

Felix is stunned when he sees the bodies. "We had the truth on our side. Now--" Tom responds that the truth is told by those who are left standing. Here's where I see Felix as understanding the true cost of working with Tom. It didn't sink in when Zarek killed Laird; he was just one man (and one with no real political clout). Gaeta didn't like it, but I'm guessing he had told himself to expect some bloodshed, some death. This, though... goes far beyond that. Oh, Felix. I'm sorry, but Tom is not the man to trust with power.

Tyrol's airduct crawl takes him right to Kelly's feet. I kind of love this little exchange: Kelly can't ignore the previous ties he's had with Tyrol, because everybody loves the Chief. Tyrol has good people skills; it's what made him so effective when he ran the maintenance crew. It's what helped keep people alive on Kobol. (Well, that and Gaius finally shooting Crashdown.) It's why he was able to help those working against this mutiny and get Laura Roslin and Gaius Baltar off the ship.

Okay, my Chief love is back in place, apparently! Heh. At any rate, he manages to do exactly what needs to happen to keep him alive: get Kelly to remember that they were friends before. Bringing up little Nicky's non-cylon heritage, Kelly says, "Could've told you she [Cally] was trouble."

Tyrol says, "Wouldn't have mattered." Aw. And Kelly lets him go.

Oh, hi Honey! (This is my nickname for this new honey-blonde Six.) I thought she was some new incarnation of head!Six for a moment; she did look angelic in that white robe. BTW, how is it possible for Tricia Helfer to be that gorgeous?

Kara and Lee, the crime-fighting duo, take out the brig guards by the sheer force of their coolness. Whee! Seriously, so cute, with the ~~holy~~ hand grenade.

"Not funny."

"Yeah, it would've been if you thought of it."

It's a bit chaotic as everyone exits the brig; interesting that Sharon is still letting Caprica take care of Hera. Lee's distraught that his father isn't there.

Sam, though wounded, automatically goes to pick guns off of bodies ~~when he sees Kara doing the same thing~~ correction: at the exact same time as Kara and then he's wounded! Bullet to the neck! Oh, SAMMY!

I guess that getting Adama rescued takes priority over taking Sam to sickbay. I guess. (But it's Sam who's wounded! And Kara needs help to move his body, 'cause he's a giant! Speaking of which, good thing Helo is currently mobile on his own. Did he walk himself to sickbay? Go hang out with Caprica and Hera? I don't think I saw him later; he was in no shape to help with taking back the ship.)
eta: To clarify, I know Kara told everyone to go ahead, but I still can't help my reaction of someone help her get Sam to sickbay. Also, yes, Tigh tells Caprica, Hera and Helo to go to Baltar's lair. Thanks to

lyssie, who has better hearing/eyes than I do.

Leoben finds Laura a wireless that works. I think it's Kara's ghost-radio. That's creepy and awesome at once. At any rate, after hearing Roslin's soothing tones several ships disengage their FTL drives.

Romo's penpal! Hah! He actually said that! "Me and my penpal were shot at two times..." He finally agrees to help Kara move Sam to see Cottle. Meanwhile, Kelly, our mutineer with a heart, slips away from Adama's execution cortege, to be found by Lee's little group. Handy, that.

Gaius has a dream about Bill's execution. Honey-Six tries to make everything better with sex, only in a creepy cult-follower kind of way rather than a dommy kind of way. Weird. Anyway, Gaius admits to running away multiple times--this last time out of cult-follower fatigue.
*snickers*
also, that 'cut off my legs' line was spooky, considering the events in the last chapter of

beccatoria's fic The Body Is a Myth.

Roslin and Gaeta have a PA showdown. I'm not particularly fond of how much shouting she did in this episode. Maybe that's just me, though. Roslin has the baseship armed and ready for action... and just in time, our heroes save the day! Tyrol disables the FTL drive! Lee and the gang rescue his father! Everything seems to happen all at once and really fast.

In a symbolic moment ~~of doom~~ Galen spies a large crack in Galactica near the ship's heart.

Laura returns to the ship. I still don't like Laura/Bill in a romantic pairing, but this is nonetheless a sweet moment. I like hugs.

Our final long scene: Gaius and Felix chatting and smoking. My first thought was that Gaius had been sent either to get information or to act as some sort of counsel. But no; this was a last meal. Felix wants nothing to do with Gaius' religion or attempts at comfort. He just wants to talk. We hear the dreams of the little boy who wanted to be an architect, who thought he was good at science, "until I met you." Gaius gets to listen. It's a sort of atonement.

"I hope that people realize eventually who I am." He's right to worry about it. The truth is told by those who are left standing.

Excuse me, I have something in my eye.

Okay. On to the execution: firing squad for both Gaeta and Zarek. Oh, Felix... To me his little smile at Zarek at the end felt like acknowledgment of Zarek's fear. Felix didn't look afraid, though. His line, "It stopped" was in reference to his leg itching, but it felt emotionally true, too. Like everything he had tried to fight for was over.
Yes, the line was a bit cheesy, but I liked it anyway.

What I hate is that he's now bound to Zarek forever, but that's also why Felix was ready for it to end. Zarek, in spite of being a potentially great man, corrupts everything he touches. Gaeta's mutiny was never going to be the right move, even though I think he had a lot of correct principles on his side. Once Zarek got involved, though, everything was doomed to be carnage and destruction.

Interesting that the time stamps we had throughout the last two episodes stopped once the ship was retaken. I'm guessing that not much more time has elapsed, though. The Colonial culture, especially the military side of Colonial culture, isn't going to take a long time to mete out justice. While I still think that Gaeta's mutiny had a lot of good reasons behind it, moving ahead is what's going to keep the fleet alive.

a few more thoughts, actually... as if I weren't long-winded enough: I'm going to miss Zarek. He was a thorn in the side, a muckraker, deceitful... and he had some excellent character beats.

I'll miss Gaeta a lot more. He's been a constant since the beginning. I'm glad that his character was given an interesting and complete arc, something that parallels what a lot of individuals are going through in the fleet.

BSG 4.14 'Blood on the Scales'

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