TV Recap: Battlestar Galactica - Daybreak Part 1

This is it people, we’re in the home stretch. Tonight was the first hour of the three-hour series finale of our beloved Battlestar Galactica. Not since Firefly have I been so completely caught up in a spaceship drama and I honestly don’t know how I’m going to fill the void this show is going to leave behind when the series comes to a conclusion in next week’s two-hour finale. This week, we found out what Adama’s final mission is. It’s a one way trip to the colony. Hera or bust!

The pace of these last few episodes has been kind of odd but we all knew it was building up to something and tonight we got a good indication of what that is. Galactica’s final mission is to bust in on Cavil’s party at the colony and get Hera back. Every working part of Galactica is being stripped away and doled out to the other ships in the fleet. During a stroll through Galactica, Adama runs into Hotdog (literally) and we get to see a rare Olmos/Olmos scene between Edward James and son Bodie. Hotdog drops a bunch of pictures and tells Adama that he took them from the memory wall. He says the only pictures left are of people no one remembers anymore, most of whom likely died during the Cylon attack on the colonies.

Adama visits the wall and finds a photo of Athena and Hera together. Judging by the way Athena speaks of Hera as though she’s already been cut to bits by Cavil, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was she who put the picture up. She’s lost all hope. Looking at the photo, Adama decides they should try to get her back. He visits Kara by Anders’ tub and she shows him the music notes and a bunch of mathematic equations she’s been working on, believing she might unlock the mystery of the song through math. Adama and Kara briefly discuss Baltar’s recent revelation that Kara was dead. Kara tells him about burning her own body but says she doesn’t know what she is. Like Lee, Bill Adama sees Kara as Kara. Whatever else she is, doesn’t really matter (right now anyway). He tells her she’s his daughter. I guess with the impending loss of Galactica and Roslin’s illness, Adama can’t really afford to write off the people who mean the most to him.

Adama has Kara ask Anders where the colony is and he sends a raptor on a mission to scout out the location. They find it not far from a black hole. The only safe place to jump in is “one click” away from the colony and they know it’s likely they won’t be able to get in there and not get pummeled by the baseships the second they pull into the driveway. He gathers the entire crew (minus a few people left to keep an eye on things) in the hanger and tells everyone that they’re taking Galactica on what is likely to be a one-way mission to the colony and they’re invited to come on a voluntary basis. He insists that they all make their decision based on the knowledge that they might not be coming back.

Caprica Six, the final five (well, four since Anders' is out but Tyrol is released from the brig to join them) and of course, Helo all step to the starboard side, where the volunteers are asked to stand. We watch as some other crew people make their way to the starboard side, while others head on over to port side, not wanting to put their lives in jeopardy for the mission. Doc Cottle goes starboard but Adama stops him, telling him they can’t afford to lose a doctor and thanks him for volunteering. You rock, Cottle, now get on over to port side and go back to smoking cigs, curing people and acting gruff. Even Roslin gets her wig on, gets dressed and shows up to take her place next to Adama.

Baltar remains portside. Earlier he had a conversation with Lee wherein he asked Lee for a spot on the government so that the people he leads can be properly represented, Lee essentially laughed in his face and asked him when he’d ever done anything that was truly selfless. Even Baltar couldn’t argue with that. Now we see him standing with some of his women portside, looking at Caprica and the other brave volunteers on the other side of the red-line. For a second I thought he was actually going to cross over and volunteer. Maybe he still will but tonight, he doesn’t. He’s not a selfless man and diving into a suicide mission without some motive or at the very least, some solid inspiration isn’t his style. Plus Angel-head-Six told him he’s going to be the one to survive to write humanity’s final chapter and he can’t exactly do that if he’s dead, can he?

While all of this is going on, we get various flashbacks of life before the fall of the colonies. We learn that Roslin had two sisters, (one pregnant) and a father, all of whom were killed in an accident when a drunk-driver side-swiped their car. Talk about tragedy. She nearly loses it when she learns of their deaths and takes a swim in the local park fountain. Three months later she’s on the phone with someone who is convincing her to go out on a date with a younger man, whose name is familiar to her. Sean Ellison? Or Allison? Is that name supposed to be familiar to us?

We also see Baltar interact with his father when he has to stop home after an outing with Caprica Six, whose name he doesn’t even know at the time. Does he ever learn that? I need to rewatch the miniseries. Anyway, he goes to his father’s house and yells at the nurse, who is quitting. This is the third nurse that’s quit on this job and Baltar’s fed up with it. His dad keeps yelling at him about being all snooty and changing his accent. Baltar doesn’t like being reminded that he comes from a working-class family. Certainly not in front of his hot blonde friend. He asks Six to leave so he can tend to (yell at) his father. Sometime in the not so distant future when Baltar comes home with some random woman he’s about to frak, Six is waiting for him there. It freaks him out at first that she broke into his home and he’s about to call the cops when she tells him she found a home for his dad. It’s a place where they’re encouraged to grow their own food, so his father can be a farmer again. She says she already showed him the place and he loves it. She tells him that his father’s a complicated man but it takes a few simple things to make him happy. Baltar’s confused by appreciative of her willingness to help. Of course, he probably doesn’t bother to read in to what she was telling him.

Perhaps Caprica could relate to Baltar’s father. She said earlier that she prefers not to have to rely on other people. Maybe she saw that in Papa Baltar too, which is why she found a place for him where he could almost take care of himself and feel like a whole man again rather than being tended to by a nurse all the time. Baltar prefers being tended to though, so he really wouldn’t get that. Caprica Six’s generosity is sweet, though it’s likely that place she had his father sent to was destroyed in the Cylon attack of the colonies, of which Caprica played a pivotal role, so I guess it’s all relative.

We also get a little taste of Kara and Zack’s relationship during a flashback that shows the couple having dinner with Lee at Kara’s apartment. This is the first time Kara ever met Lee. Zack makes a joke about Lee stealing his girlfriends, which is kind of amusing. It’s also weird to see Kara in a semi-wife-ish role. The only other part of that series of flashbacks involves Lee returning home drunk and trying to swat a pigeon out of his house with a broom. It was kind of strange and I’m assuming we’re going to get more flashbacks in the second and third hour of this finale that might explain that scene.

The only other bit of flashback we get is of Anders being interviewed by a reporter while soaking in a tub (clearly he’s comfortable in tubs) after a pyramid game. Anders tells the reporter that it’s not really the game he’s into but more the joy in perfection. He cherishes the opportunity to make the perfect catch, throw or save and celebrates the math or physics of it. The passion in his eyes as he talks indicates that even on Caprica, Anders was never the stereotypical jock.

As for Hera, despite what Athena said about Cavil having probably chopped her up already, Hera’s still in once piece. She continues to draw the notes while the other Cylons watch. They only see dots and are more concerned with the fact that Hera’s not eating. Boomer says she wants her mother but Cavil doesn’t care. Hera’s the future of the Cylon race to him, not some child who wants her mommy. It’s typical of Cavil to dismiss the humanity in Hera. He sees it but it’s not important to him. If she’s the future of their race you’d think he’d at least try to understand human nature a bit better.

Last but not least, is Tyrol. Anders goes to visit him earlier in the episode to talk about what happened. Tyrol’s washed his hands of the entire Eight line. He recognizes his mistake in trusting Boomer and when Helo tries to argue that each Cylon is their own person (specifically, his wife), Tyrol says Athena’s just a blow-up doll. That they’re all the same because they were all made the same. He goes on to tell Helo not to trust Athena. As Athena seems to have lost any shred of hope that her daughter’s alive, it might not be a bad idea for Helo to keep an eye on her.

Next week: Lots of explosions, people will probably die and we’ll finally know the truth. That last part’s a bit vague I know but hopefully whatever answers are provided will give us the satisfying conclusion to this fantastic series.

Question for the readers: Does anyone know if the BSG Watchtower song is available for download anywhere (legally)? If not, it should be! I'd love to hear the full version of it.