Battlestar Galactica recap: "Escape Velocity" (S4x04)

The last few episodes of Battlestar Galactica have been all about the evolution key characters are going through.

Thus was the case in Escape Velocity, the fourth episode so far this season. Only six to go until the hiatus before the final 10.

According to the BattlestarWiki, “Escape Velocity” means: the minimum initial velocity an unaccelerated object needs to escape a body’s gravitational field.

I struggled to find the meaning of the title, and my only conclusion is that it refers to the “escapes” that a few characters made emotionally this episode.

The first of which is Chief Tyrol, who is in utter depression over Cally, but perhaps it’s not all about her. It’s more. He almost causes the death of Race Track on a Raptor after a botched repair job, and his head is just not in the game anymore.

At Cally’s funeral, Tyrol touched Tory as she walks by, grabs her arm and then Saul’s next. It was an strange moment, and there was a look in his eyes of shock and also blankness.

Did he sense that Tory killed Cally? I want to think he did, but then again, he didn’t get upset or angry over it.

And later, maybe we know why. Admiral Adama goes to talk to Tyrol in the bar, and instead of a nice heart-to-heart, the Chief explodes in anger and professes his disdain for Cally and his love still for Sharon. It was a brutal sight, watching Tyrol totally stomp all over the memory of Cally and blasting Adama.

At the end, Adama demotes him and schedules him for reassignment.

Perhaps now that he’s a Cylon, he feels his love for Sharon never died and perhaps it was right and good that he loved her.

Tyrol is now free of his guilt over Cally, in essence, he escaped it.

Meanwhile, Baltar’s group is attacked by the Sons of Aires, as “the gods” fight back according to the Caprica Six in his head. He makes a stand against the church of the gods and ends up in a cell again.

President Roslin, ever trying to hinder any move Baltar makes, tries to pass a ruling to limit public gatherings to 12 or less people. This would stop his group from meeting entirely.

But Lee Adama argues against it, and convinces the Quorum of 12 to vote on it. They do it and overrule the President.

Next comes one of the most intriguing scenes so far this season. Baltar returns to his people, but the guards are still enforcing the rule of 12 or less. As he’s not allowed to pass, and in front of his followers, he listens to Caprica who tells him that he has to make a stand.

He tries to walk past the guard and gets blasted in the mouth with the butt of a rifle. Each time he’s knocked down, Caprica pulls him up and throws him back at the guard.

The beauty of the scene is seeing him without her in the picture, acting like a puppet, almost as if indeed SOMETHING is actually pulling him to his feet.

Is it really an Angel of God leading and guiding him, and lifting him up when he needs help?

At the end, as he rejoins his people, he gives an emotionally draining message about God loving them because they are perfect. Lee and Tory watch from the back, but only Tory has a smile on her face. She’s become almost wholly a Cylon now, even being able to embrace her guilt and not let it control her. Lee walks away in silence.

His people cry and cheer in response, Baltar “escapes” again, this time perhaps to total enlightenment and belief in God. Breaking free of any remaining ties to his old faithless ways.

The final “escape” of the episode was Saul Tigh, who keeps visiting the Six in custody. When he sees her, the face of his wife Ellen appears in the place of Caprica’s.

His main question for Six is how she lives with the guilt of murdering humanity. Can she turn off the pain?

Saul is still in pain over Ellen’s death, and keeps returning to Six until she tries to make him “feel the clarity” of his pain by beating the crap out of his face. But then she realizes it was the wrong tactic and kisses Saul.

We don’t see more than that, but did it go further? Perhaps.

It’s amazing to me that the Six can’t see that Saul is a Cylon. Maybe she is slowly realizing it without being aware.

The scenes with those two were some great moments.

Lastly, Roslin is wearing a wig now and is starting to get closer and closer to death. Adama spends much of his time with her, reading a book out loud during treatments, and escorting her around the ship.

We get a brief glimpse of Starbuck and Anders during Baltar’s speech, but nothing much else about that side plot, nor the Cylon civil war that’s brewing.

What did you think of the episode? What did I miss that you felt was important?