Battlestar Galactica: Season 2-04: Resistance

The Best Scenes in BSG 204:

'Resistance' Is Definitely Not Futile!

By Koenigrules 

'Resistance' continues the fine storytelling of the previous three episodes.  Tigh continues to get unraveled, suspecting Chief Tyrol of being a Cylon and abusing him like one of the enemy.  Starbuck and Helo meet up with a resistance team led by Anders on Caprica.  Roslin convinces Apollo to get her out of jail.  Adama recovers and asks Tigh what the hell is happening on his ship.  And Boomer gets shot aboard the Galactica by of all people, Cally.  Sound like a lot happening in this episode.  Well, 'Resistance' juggles a number of sub-stories into the plot while providing enough action that had this reviewer riveted to his seat for the full hour.

 Some of the best scenes are ones involving Tigh.  His treatment of Tyrol at the beginning of the episode is despicable, although understandable as the man was having an affair with sleeper Cylon agent Boomer.  He then treats Baltar in pretty much the same fashion when the doctor reminds him of his status as Vice President which, in Tigh's opinion, doesn't mean 'a helluva lot' as the President is incarcerated.  Tigh's interactions with Ellen are very interesting.  Although he knows she is manipulating him, he goes along with her and even gets 'turned on' by her commands.  At one point, like an obedient dog on a leash, Tigh follows Ellen's lead and instructs teams of military to seize supplies from other vessels that are not following his orders.  But there is a price to pay for giving in to Ellen and not resisting: civilian deaths occur, all because Tigh did not reason things out, but instead let his emotions cloud his judgment. 

By the time Adama recovers and is back on his feet, asking Tigh for an update, all the latter can say is that he made 'a lot of bad calls' and that there are 'a lot of pieces to pick up' as a result of his misjudgments.  Surprisingly, Adama listens to all the excuses that Tigh gives him, and then informs him that whenever one assumes command, there are always risks that can occur.  But, both of them will pick up the pieces together.  Personally, I did not quite understand how Commander Adama could be so forgiving of what Tigh had done or be so calm given the current set of circumstances.  Of course, Tigh did omit certain things such as the civilian deaths and Apollo's engineering Roslin's escape from jail.  My guess is Adama will lose his patience very quickly when all the information is revealed to him.   

Another sequence of scenes has to do with Roslin's escape from prison.  It appears that she has the support of many people aboard the Galactica: Dualla, Corporal Venner, Lee Adama and even our cigarette-smoking Doc Cottell.  Tigh is not even aware of the influence Laura Roslin exerts over the crew of the Galactica.  Unlike Tigh, she is a natural-born leader who has the charisma to create a growing number of followers to her cause.  When Apollo gets Laura and Elosha off the Galactica in a raptor, he heads to the Cloud Nine vessel and re-introduces Laura to another colleague-in-arms: the devilish Tom Zarek (Richard Hatch) who welcomes her with open arms.  This strange new alliance between a former resistance fighter and the President of the Colonies should be an interesting one that unfolds in subsequent episodes.  Still, Apollo's reasoning is pretty sound: Laura needs a resistance group to protect her from Adama & his military.  Tom can certainly provide the manpower to help Laura out here.  Plus, his leadership abilities will certainly be of benefit to Laura in the days and weeks ahead. 

Baltar is turning out to be a darker character of late.  In the last episode, he shoots Crashdown.  In this episode, he poisons Tyrol so that he can extract from Boomer just how many Cylon copies are aboard the Galactica.  When she reveals (very reluctantly) that there are eight, he administers an antidote to the Chief.  For Baltar it looks like human lives are expendable in the greater scheme of things, and one wonders what other transformations await the doctor.  Will Baltar ultimately become more Cylon than human??  Will he have the willpower to resist the metamorphosis from man into machine? 

I was glad to see Starbuck and Helo's return and their running into a human resistance movement on Caprica.  They definitely need help if they ever want to get off the planet, and Anders' ragtag group can assist them.  Plus it looks like Starbuck is attracted to the rugged Anders as she plays a game of pyramid (although it looks more like TOS triad sport) with him. 

Finally, to save the best scene for last, Cally's shooting of Boomer seems straight out of the history books as it reminded me of Jack Ruby's assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald- right down to the very same camera angles.  This begs the question as to why Cally killed Boomer.  My guess is she has a bond with the Chief and does not want to see him hurt by one of the enemy.  And he did put his life on the line when he challenged Crashdown for his threatening Cally at gunpoint back on Kobol.  My guess is Cally wants to protect the Chief as he did her. 

Interestingly, Tyrol cries for the deceased Boomer and holds her in his hands very lovingly.  He can't resist the feelings that come to the surface.  The blood from Sharon's wounds drips down to the floor and makes a significant splash as it hits the surface, reminding the viewer of the opening scene where Tigh interrogates Tyrol and slaps him hard across the face, causing the Chief's blood to fall to the floor in a similar fashion.   Perhaps the bond between Cylons and humans is so strong that nothing can remove that connection.   Food for thought, eh? 

I would rate this episode, like the first two, a 10 out of 10.  It was just so god- damn good.  Edward James Olmos reappears, Tigh screws up more, the President and Zarek are developing an alliance, Cally takes charge of her own destiny, and Tyrol shows us that expressing love can make humans strong but weak too.  Definitely, a must see episode!