Trials are frustrating and beautiful in their rigid adherence to a certain set of conditions. Those conditions provide unpredictable outcomes -- a celebrity, for example, can walk free despite almost certain guilt -- and society is torn by opinion. Now go a step further and imagine an outside influence that is literally indestructible. When commanded by several individuals who are essentially walking gods, how can a human be found guilty of caving to their whims?

Unspoken in Gaius Baltar's trial is the similarity of the human-simalcrum Cylons to the humans' pantheon of gods. Though we've never really been told the colonies' legends, we can assume that they share more than just the deities' names. Like our Greco-Roman myths, the colonial gods probably walked among humans and yet used their divine powers to command capricious and often sadistic whims.

So... with that background, how can a society condemn Baltar for playing patsy to another set of immortal, super-powered creatures? How does that society react when faced with such a contradiction?

Even if that argument went unsaid, the first part of "Battlestar Galactica's" two-part season finale vividly illustrated the way society's fabric can be torn. Most of the survivors desperately need a sacrifice after the loss of their most recent homeworld, and Baltar is both convenient and reasonably appropriate. So what if he was commanded to sign a list of humans to be executed by a group of superhumans?

Though attorneys Romo Lampkin (Mark Sheppard, Badger from "Firefly") and Lee "Apollo" Adama (Jamie Bamber) may loathe Baltar, they believe he's being set up as a human sacrifice. We the viewers get what seems to be the "Galactica" writers' strong point, a compelling season finale driven by character. Consider the scene where Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) disowns his son Lee after having lost his elder son (Zack, killed off before the series began) and daughter-figure (the recently departed Starbuck). The admiral never hesitated, though the tension exuded by Olmos and Bamber was breathtaking.

Apollo lost another authority figure in President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell), who he skewered on the witness stand in another great scene by revealing her return to hallucinogenic drugs. Is she really dying of cancer again? I suspect not, since we've seen no evidence. That said, drug abuse sure would explain her abrupt mood swing between icily condoning child labor and then laughingly agreeing to allow labor unions a few weeks ago.

I have to hope the alcohol-soaked testimony of Colonel Tigh (Michael Hogan) lands him back out of uniform, though his auditory hallucinations and their larger meaning may do just that. Depressingly, though Tigh and Roslin proved entirely unfit as witnesses, the admiral (one of the trial's three judges) proved willing to overlook them in favor of his own need for a kangaroo court. We're in the sad position of hoping for a deus ex machina, traditionally a deity's intervention -- in this case, totally appropriately, another Cylon attack -- to show the fleet that one pitiful human's actions in the face of supernatural threat wouldn't have made a difference worth jettisoning the rule of law.

Comments

I think Roslin is telling the truth about the cancer because it once again puts her in the role of the dying leader guiding them to earth. I really loved how they re-addressed so many plot threads from early in the series. Besides that your views fall very much in line with mine.

Btw, we have a mutual friend who, after I linked your 'Maestorm' review on my blog, instructed me I should let you know how much I enjoy reading your reviews. :)

Asta77 | Mar 19, 2007 7:42:50 AM | #

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I think this was one of the better episodes this season, but I am still frustrated that no one has mentioned the nuclear weapon that went missing and blew up the cruise ship, bringing back the cylons. Whether Baltar should be found guilty of collaborating or his part in the original attack moot, he is responsible for the destruction of that ship at the very least.

There are one of three possibilities here 1) they bring it up as a surprise, and they find Baltar guilty for that; 2) they ignore it completely as a weak attempt to justify an aquittal; 3) they bring it up and find some other way around it.

I love the show and hope the lack of mention is a deliberate mislead, but if they don't at least address the fact that a nuclear weapon dissapeared from his lab, I will be dissapointed.

hangman | Mar 19, 2007 10:08:31 AM | #

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I think the show is pushing its luck, having people want Baltar to bless their children. Baltar helped kill thousands on New Caprica, was partially responsible for the wiping out of the colonies, and like Hangman mentioned the nuke that killed hundreds more. If Baltar is let off, I think the show will have jumped the shark. Frankly I'm hoping the cylons wipe them out, I wouldn't want this bunch of morons to find Earth.

jbwbubba | Mar 19, 2007 10:18:54 AM | #

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Best show on television.

Best Fan on the Internet | Mar 19, 2007 10:45:19 AM | #

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I was wondering if Roslyn's press secretary is still a cylon. Back when Hera was first born, her press secretary made the arrangements to have Hera adopted by a human couple. At the very end of that episode, there was some allusion that was made to lead the view to believe that her press secretary was either a cylon/cylon collaborator. Any thoughts?

Heather | Mar 19, 2007 12:44:13 PM | #

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I don't think Tori (the press secretary) is a Cylon. I think she's going to be the way that Starbuck returns from the "other side" (ala Spock/McCoy in Star Trek 3:The Search for Spock). There's no way Starbuck is staying dead for long on this show; she's supposed to have "her destiny", as they keep telling us over and over. Hopefully, when she returns, she'll be a little less crazy than she's been this season.

Gregg | Mar 19, 2007 1:23:07 PM | #

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Can I just point out that at the end of the episode the preview had Starbuck's hottie widower saying he was a cylon. It could have been taken out of context I suppose, but if not I'm glad because it meands he'll be stinking around. And, we finally get a hot male cylon. Can't you already see him and Starbuck running around causing trouble together. Fun stuff.

fan | Mar 19, 2007 6:20:08 PM | #

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Wow i guess i'm not the only 1 who thinks that the press secretary and the widower are cylons! I have suspected them ever since they said there were 5 more yet to be determined. Now who are the next 3? Any suggestions would be appreciated

locasana | Mar 19, 2007 9:17:55 PM | #

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Gaeta is a cylon.

| Mar 22, 2007 8:55:53 PM | #

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This was a great character-driven episode. The clues seem to be leading to Tori, Anders, and Tigh (somehow) being Cylons. That leaves a couple spots for Starbuck of course, and perhaps Gaeta? We know Tigh has aged and been around for a while, so he would have to be deep cover if he was a final 5. But there doesn't seem to be another reasonable explanation for his hearing music, along with Anders and Tori's strange behavior.

Jason | Mar 24, 2007 4:23:47 PM | #

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I was also thinking Tori, Anders and Tigh (however shocking that would be!) were cylons. However, when they showed the preview clip for the last episode and Anders said we're all cylons - I figured he probably wasn't one - they would never show such a tidbit as that in a preview. It must be a quote taken out of a much larger sentence.

Sue | Mar 25, 2007 7:02:21 AM | #

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