1.08: Flesh and Bone

[Dave]

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[Dave]

After circulating photos of the Cylon bomber around the fleet, another copy of him is discovered in hiding. The president wants him interrogated, Adama is not sure he will yield any valuable information. Kara is ordered to interrogate the prisoner, who claims that he has hidden a nuclear warhead on board one of the ships, but will not reveal where.

Kara finds that, although a machine, with a conciousness that can be transferred to another machine, he is still afraid to die, because he has travelled so far from home and his conciousness might get lost. She uses this in the interrogation, but ultimately is still unable to get any useful information as the deadline for the explosion approaches.

My TV guide says that "Kara feels guilty when interrogating a Cylon", but I didn't notice that myself. She seemed to relish it, but he did have information about her and her mother that made her uncomfortable.

Anyway, the President arrives as the bomb is about to go off and they instigate the bad cop, good cop routine. He tells her that there was never any bomb, it was simply a way to buy more time... and also that Adama is a Cylon. The President sticks him out the airlock anyway. She is not a stupid as she looks.

What I didn't understand is how she had already dreamed these events under the influence of her cancer drugs.

Meanwhile, Galactica Boomer comes to Baltar and asks if he can do the Cylon test on her. No. 6 is eager for him to try. He finds, to his own disbelief that she is a Cylon, but he tells her that there is no possibility that she is. What he will do next is left hanging.

And on Caprica, Caprica Boomer, No. 6 and the male Cylon seem to be having disagreements over how the experiment is proceeding. I was distracted by the doorbell at that point, so what is going on exactly. Boomer told Helo that they needed to go, but I'm not sure they have anywhere to go to.

It ends with the President and Adama -- is she giving Adama the "are you a Cylon look"? Because there is no way that Adama is a Cylon (unless everyone is a Cylon.) The point being made (who can you trust?) was made much more clearly in last weeks episode.

 

[RangerOne SG13 SOR]

A great episode despite some anomolies.

Like Dave I am confused as to the dream links with both Omen and the President. That is twice now we have seen something a little out of the norm which does not really get explained enough to see how it fits in.

Maybe if the dreams had come after she was informed about the Cylon it would make more sense, oh well lets just chalk that to file 13.

Starbuck was for a suprise choice as interogator but she portrayed a compelling drama. I really did enjoy that although her switch in at the end in regards to her feelings for Omen I felt was misplaced and did not fit in.

Back on occupied Caprica, we start to see tension between the models who made some very relevent remarks about when a Cylon model walks among humans they become too much like humans and this explains Baltars No6 very well.

To help Dave out, what happened was Sharon after she reported in and told of her sexual encounter with Helo she was told by No6 and Darus to go to a prepared sheltar where they were she had to convince Helo that they should stay and build a life together and have a family (boy did that take me by suprise) any as she (Sharon) ran back to Helo past events of how they were manipulating him ran through her mind causing her to react very much different to how you would expect. Instead of preparing to move to the next phase of the "experiment" she told Helo to grab what they could as they needed to move quickly as the Cylons were on their way. Im not sure whether it was her plan to move him to the prepared shelter or whether (after becoming involved and more human with Helo) she has decided to break away with the program to free/help Helo (and yes that also took me by suprise).

Baltar, No6 and Boomer was very much predictable as to the result (we all knew anyway) but his sudden panic upon finding out was great. But Baltar is a very complicated person and it will be interesting to see if he reports Boomer or whether No6 manipulates him to hold back for now.

Then ending with Omen telling the president that Adama was a Cylon was both clever and silly, clever becuase it was a good twist to the plot the president then blowing him out of an airlock and silly becuase the entire plot of BSG would never work with a Cylon at the helm of Galactica, that is why Boomer is the Cylon.

But still the sly look from the president, will we see some form of untrust develop in the future?

One last point, Omen claimed he could see the future and told Kara that she would find Kobos and lead the humans to Earth. If he was truly a Cylon then why not kill her to further disrupt the search ?

One thing that Dave said

"Because there is no way that Adama is a Cylon (unless everyone is a Cylon.)"

Now wouldnt that be the ultimate irony?


Ranger

 

[Rik_the_Riff]

Let's not start theorising that everybody's a Cylon....

Here's a thought, based on being two episodes further on:

The Cylons serve God, and according to No. 6, he has a plan.

What if God's on our side? What if God's plan - which even the Cylons don't seem to know more than the first moves of - doesn't end up with the Cylons in charge? (This could explain the Boomer/Helo 'experiment' - God wanting to test us to see if we are sufficiently advanced for His plan?)

Okay, so it's a typical Rik wild-ball idea, but I think it fits.....

Just a thought,

Rik

 

[Kanazaka]

Not sure if it was in this episode or just around this point (since I didn't have time to rewatch it; it was a rental copy of the box set), but is it just me, or was Number 6's line "Do you wonder why they call her 'Boomer'?" a reference to Bubblegum Crisis? There's a similar M.O. after all, since both Cylons and Boomers are robots that look like humans, and some of them think they are human.

 

[Dave]

I had to google "Bubblegum Crisis" to understand what you meant. I know little about Animé and Manga. I think you might be onto something, but who else would get that reference?

The character was called Boomer in the original series, so I never looked any deeper than that. In a similar vein, why did they keep the name Starbuck, but change the character's sex? Starbuck was a character in 'Moby Dick' and whatever it meant in the Original Series is surely lost now.