I don't think the Virus is necessarily organic. If its a computer virus of sorts, it could be transmitted just by a cylons being within communications range of one another. They mentioned once the Hybrid got infected it spread to the raiders and everything else. Even though the raiders have no physical contact with anything if they aren't docked in the Base Star. As such those infected would also bring it with them as they were reborn on the resurrection ship.

FYI, the actress who plays Cally has a decent sized role in VH1's 80's movie spoof "Totally Awesome" currently airing in rotation...

I got the impression that at the end, right before ot said...To be continued....that Sharon was coming out of Sleeper mode again.
I enjoyed the episode. When Starbuck and Tigh got balled out by Adamma was a highlight of the episode.

This episode easily gets my vote for worst episode ever. Hated almost everything about it. The interior of the basestar looked like a cheesy 1970s sci-fi set... with it's white dots and red stripe on the wall. The endless piano music and dissolves from shot to shot were annoying. Lee not only went from fat to thin since the last episode he got buffed too--hard to believe!

I could care less about what goes on aboard a basestar. This episode was so "out there" that only sci-fi fans could like this show now. I think it used to be accessible to non sci-fi viewers but after "Torn" I think the show has crossed that line.

Where was Dualla? Is Helo the XO now? What is Tigh supposed to do if he wants back in the military? Why is Lee just a viper pilot now when he was recently the commander of a battlestar? Isn't there something in-between for him to do? Seems like a huge demotion.

Aside for a few cool moments, I've been really disappointed so far this season. Season 1 is still my favorite.

You've got to be fucking kidding.

Well, it was designed by robots, after all. They did go a long way to explain why the interior doesn't matter to them with the mental projections and all. Even gave us some "Baltar's a Cylon" fodder with how we've seen him over the last 2+ seasons seemingly imagine himself in other places with his internal #6.

Tigh clearly wasn't ready to resume duties as Galactica's XO. Why Apollo isn't, I don't know. Do we know for sure he's just a pilot? He seemed to be leading the way out there and he stripped Starbuck of her proverbial wings. Have we seen that he isn't the CAG? Possibly that was his decision to be CAG over XO. Certainly a fitting choice for a pilot.

just...wow.

The more I think about this episode, the more I love it. Now it's not an "event" episode like Exodus Pt 2, that gets the fans on their feet screaming at their TV; it's one of those episodes that, while not filler, fills in little pieces and starts creating new threads of things to come. And the direction was just spot on perfect. It wasn't bombastic drama/sitcom music telling you when to feel sad/happy/horny, instead it complimented what was on the screen. I'm continually impressed with the wonderful music that this shows uses week in and week out.

Yes, I'm a scifi fan, but I can enjoy other genres too. This series is set in space, but it's about people. The Cylons are metaphorical if anything. It's about us and our petty little problems with religion and war, and everything in between.

I saw on Apollo's Viper that he is now a Major. So Apollo goes from being the second highest office in the fleet as the Commander of the Pegasus, to being behind the Admiral, Tigh and Helo who is now the executive officer on Galactica?

Just the whole organic tech look in the cylon base ship. When the cylon clones stood around a console and stuck their hands into a fluid control panel. Kind of reminded me of the second generation of Robotech when Dana and her team infiltrate the Robotech Masters ship to rescue Zor and discovered the triumvirate clones. A little bit of that and a little bit of Ghost in the Shell (with that hybrid floating in some translucent organic goop).

BTW, can I just say how smoking hot can Tricia Helfer be??

Exactly what I said. We're only 5 episodes into this season but from what I've seen they've taken this show to the next level, in terms of action and drama. BSG just continues to get better and better. Best show on TV, imo.

Up until this season, the show failed to hook me. Now it has become must see TV. The show seems to be moving at a much better pace than previous seasons, but without losing any of the depth.

Other than a few clunker eps here and there, I've enjoyed every season pretty equally.

I'm not certain if this offers a plausible explanation or not, but in most Navies, the person in command of a naval vessel assumes the rank of Captain regardless of what their permanent rank is. In the Colonial Navy, the equivalent rank appears to be Commander. When Adama Sr promoted Apollo to assume the command of Pegasus, he got the rank of Commander. Now that his command has ended, he has apparently reverted back to his permanent rank, though it may have come with a promotion to Major (I honestly don't recall what Apollo's pre-Pegasus rank was.)

In summary, Commander Apollo reverted back to his permanent rank after his command of Pegasus was terminated.

I do seem to recall Apollo getting promoted twice in rapid succession.

The episode title makes just no sense. Zarek wasn't in this week's episode at all.

I see what you mean now with the Masters' ships, and tri-clones. Does seem kinda familiar, though I don't think Ron Moore is a Protoculture Addict.


He was promoted to Major and made Executive Officer of Pegasus in the "previously on" section of "The Captain's Hand". During that ep, Commander Gardner (former Chief Engineer) left Lee in charge of the bridge (that was the first time he blew the hell out of a Basestar). When Gardner died making repairs to the ship, Admiral Adama made Lee Commander of the Pegasus.

I was thinking they simply hadn't repainted Lee's viper since he got promoted to Major, but he was never a "full time" pilot once he was made XO of Pegasus (that we saw). Lee's non-canon backstory is that he was actually part of the Reserve Forces, and is never happier than "when he's in the kitchen cooking". So it's highly likely that after Peggy's suicide run, Lee told dad he'd be happier flying a viper for a little while.

I do like seeing Helo as XO of Galactica for awhile. He's always been a fave of mine, esp since he wasn't meant to live past the miniseries.

Ok, but shouldn't Apollo outrank everyone except the Admiral now? I would have thought that he would have been made the executive officer of Galactica after the destruction of the Pegasus, making him second in command. It's not as if he was demoted for failure to do his duties, his ship was destroyed saving the Galactica. That's like making a senior VP of a corporation a marketing manager because his office caught fire.

he violated orders in coming after the galactica
plus I think he's a better pilot and CAG than capital ship commander

not sure about the navy, but in the US Army we had frocking

take an officer who is eligible for promotion but doesn't get promoted yet. it can take a few years. A lot of times they will frock the officer to the next rank where he wears the next rank's insignia and is addressed as the more senior rank but gets paid at the present rank

Perhaps you misread the title of the episode? It's "Torn" not Tom.

Another example in fiction, in Star Trek IV (gods help me for dragging Trek into this). Kirk was demoted to Captain for disobeying orders to avoid Earth while the Probe was wreaking havoc. However, he had been miserable as a deskbound Admiral, and was far happier being back in the center seat of a ship, so it wasn't a real punishment. I'm thinking Lee was given the same option by the old man.

People already brought Trek into this discussion with the meticulous discussion of rank!

This appears to be very similar to the now-defunct practice of Brevet ranks where soldiers were given temporary increases in rank (with no increase in pay) usually due to the death of a superior. The rank reverted back to what it was before after the war ended usually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brevet_%28military%29