Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

Caution: spoilers for “Someone To Watch Over Me” (4.17)

I know they’re out there … the reviews that say that nothing happened. Where are the answers? Where is the momentum going into the last few hours?

I know they’re out there. And while I certainly understand the sentiment, I nevertheless feel a bit let down confused by the lack of faith.

As an X-Phile, I’ve been burned before. And oh do I know the pain of it.

But in my experience, shows that are going to blow the series finale usually give you plenty of reasons to doubt going in. (Except for Xena. Wow, that resolution was a gigantic mess and a betrayal of the show itself.)

Battlestar has never let me down. And so I choose to keep the faith and enjoy the episodes as they come. I thought the one episode, “No Exit”, that dumped answers everywhere failed to match the storytelling excellence that I’ve come to expect from this show.

With all that said, you may be able to guess that I’m pro-“Someone To Watch Over Me”.

I’m not sure what to think of it yet, but I was undeniably engrossed. As a matter of fact, when my first viewing was over, I started it again right away.

There is something about the mood of this episode that just kept me in my seat, flowing along with the tale.

Cavil turned out to be a much better game player than I had thought. Probably like most of you, I assumed Ellen had “won” when Boomer took her away.

I never understood Boomer’s conversion except maybe she saw how really creepy Cavil is. For me, Ellen didn’t say or do anything strong enough to sway Boomer if Boomer wasn’t ready to make a change herself.

I read that there were scenes cut though so I let it go. Or, I figured we would see why Boomer wanted to leave when she finally saw her chance.

Plus, I wondered how Boomer knew where the fleet was. Now we know. It’s because Cavil knows where the fleet is.

[There is another possible interpretation but it didn’t strike me at the time of my viewings. It, however, is still a good read. Boomer really did want to save Ellen. It was only after she was going to be put to death that she decided to take Hera—as a guarantee when she went back to Cavil. I halfway want this because Boomer’s “forgiving you” response to Ellen’s what-are-you-doing question was so powerful for me.]

I’m sure Athena wasn’t mentioned in Cavil’s and Boomer’s planning sessions though. She did that just for kicks. Or, perhaps she saw an opportunity to conceive herself. For that particular theory, I think you have to have both parents in love though.

It is disappointing that Helo didn’t recognize his wife when they made such a big deal of Tyrol’s ID. Helo is the last stalwart left. I wish they’d leave him alone.

Why mess up Helo when you still have Starbuck around?

Yeah, I’m not working too hard to figure out her projection/internal dialogue/Head Dad. I know it worked emotionally for me. I’m trusting them to talk about Starbuck when the time is right.

For now, I’ll let her try to figure herself out since reflections and images seem to be big themes in this episode.

Starbuck started off seeing her own charred body in the mirror. Later at the bar, she talked as much to her own reflection in the decorative metal as to the imaginary piano player behind her. Even in her dream, she watched herself.

But for his story, the object of Chief’s gaze was Boomer. And he only saw her, the real her, for a few minutes on the flight deck. The rest of the time, he watched her on a monitor, through jail barriers, and in a make-believe world. Even on the flight deck, she was pretending to be someone else.

Alas, Chief. You were examining mirages.

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