So this is sort of a semi-recap of There’s No Place Like Home. Thanks to Adam for filling in on Thursday night, much appreciation. Great video on The Orchid as well.

The Oceanic 6

I always think it’s cool when I see  Michelle Forbes in something. She played Miss Decker, the Oceanic PR representative flying the Oceanic 6 back home. She been around for awhile, playing Ensign Ro Laren in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and of course the commander of the Pegasus in Battlestar Galactica.

I’ll echo Adam’s thoughts in his recap on Thursday. The scene with the Oceanic 6 finally coming home was touching and moving. Especially when Sayid and Kate had no one there, while the others enjoyed hugs from their families.

Of course, Sayid quickly finds Nadia, which connects the dots to her death later.

My big question is why are they in shock? When Jack tells them on the plane that the reporters will just think “they are in shock”…Sun answers, “We are in shock, Jack.”

We’ll obviously find out in the finale what happens, but it’s got to be something awful. Even as close as we are to the last two hours, guessing at why these six people got off the Island, and not the rest, is an impossible task.

The other memorable moment for the Oceanic 6 flash-forwards was the funeral for Jack’s father and the appearance of Claire’s mother. When she tells Jack that Claire was his sister, the pain and agony in his face was gut-wrenching. Matthew Fox was amazing.

A last thought about Sun and her father. She uses her settlement money to take control of his company, in revenge for Jin’s death.

That’s a pretty aggressive and devious thing to do if Jin isn’t really dead. And her final comment, about blaming his death on TWO people, one of them being her father, was telling. Who is the other one?

I am about 100% positive now he really does die and isn’t just back on the Island with the rest of survivors.

Also, I loved the numbers on the odometer of Hurley’s remade Z28.

Sayid and the Freighter

Sayid arrives on the Island to start shuttling people to the freighter. Jack and Sawyer are off to find the chopper, but Kate now has Aaron and returns to the beach.

Jin, Sun and Aaron all get on the first raft to the freighter, being guides by Daniel.

Once they get there though, a massive bomb is found in the lower level. Tons of C4 and plastic explosives is what it looks like. I am guessing this is connected to the armband on Keamy to ensure his safety.

We know Sun and Aaron are on the boat now, so it’s not going to completely destroy the ship…but somehow she and the baby get off, but Jin dies. How is it going to happen?

The Orchid, The Others and moving the island

So now we have Kate, Sawyer, Jack and Sayid trying to find the Orchid and the helicopter.

Ben, Hurley and Locke are making their way to the Orchid, the last station on the Island we’ve yet to see.

Always with a plan, Ben gives Locke some directions on how to enter the Orchid. The most interesting part is the “elevator” that takes you down to the ACTUAL Orchid station. A few weeks ago I mentioned that I thought it was underground, and it’s looking like that is right.

But I was thinking the Others would be there too and it might be something bigger than normal. Of course, the Others waylay Kate and Sayid, so they are obviously not inside it.

The video Adam posted about the Orchid shows a rabbit being transported into the future. Or something to that effect. At least…it MOVED.

So what does moving the Island entail? Hurley asks the question about it being dumb to “move the island” with the bad guys already there. Wont they just go with it?

But perhaps “moving” is more of something in time, or something SPECIFICALLY on the Island. If they were able to move the rabbit by itself, then maybe they can just move the soldiers?

I dunno, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me yet. Do the soldiers know about this moving? Is that how they will destroy everyone? By moving it?

The episode ends with Ben turning himself into Keamy and his team.

Final Thoughts

I am wondering how many people might die in the finale. I mean, we only know of the Oceanic 6 and Ben that are still alive in the present. What happens to everyone else? Is Jin the only one who dies? Is Claire really dead?

I hope we see a lot more of Richard in two weeks…I want to learn more about him and how he connects to everything.

And lastly…we’ll find out who is in the coffin next week.

The first thing I have to say is that this was an AWESOME episode.The second is that the next new one isn’t for two weeks and that is total poo-poo.

Not only do I not get Lost next week, but now no Battlestar Galactica? Argh!

Let’s get to the episode tonight, entitled “Guess What’s Coming to Dinner?”

I’m sure that line has been used countless times in lot of movies and television shows (replacing What with Who of course), but when I saw the title I immediately thought back to Pavel Chekov in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country when the Klingons come aboard the Enterprise for the first time.

Turns out that was a pretty fitting comparison.

By the way, on a personal note, if my future child ever walks up to me in the middle of the night and says “bye bye” I’ll totally crap myself.

A TON of stuff happened tonight, so bear with me here.

The Demetrius and the Basestar

Okay, so we join with the crew of the Demetrius and the Rebels onboard the damaged Basestar. They are syncing up their FTL’s so they can arrive AT THE SAME TIME when they rejoin the rest of the fleet.

Only, that doesn’t happen. The Demetrius gets stuck, and the Rebel ship appears right smack dab in the middle of the fleet, a sitting duck. Galactica orders an emergency jump and deploys the alert fighters.

Right before Adama orders all ships to fire, Tigh stops it, having sensed something was wrong. Was it his Cylon instincts kicking in, telling him what was at stake? Or just old war habits? After all, the Basestar wasn’t sending out Raiders or anything.

Then the Demetrius finally returns, confirming Tigh’s response. Helo radios Galactica to tell them Athena and Starbuck control the Basestar.

Natalie appears before Roslin, Adama and every other important member of the military, to explain the situation. Her story includes a new ship and a strategy to change all Cylons into mortal beings.

My only fault with this scene was the lack of surprise on Roslin and Adama’s face when Starbuck tells them the Final Five are from Earth.

There is a ship where the Three is boxed (Deanna), and it’s called the Resurrection Hub. The Hub controls the functions of every resurrection Ship in their fleet. It protects itself by periodically jumping to random coordinates and relaying them back.

Take out the Hub, and the Cylons can’t resurrect. They become mere mortals.

The plan is to jump in, unbox Deanna, find out who the Final Five are, and let the Rebel Cylons leave with the Five.

Only the humans don’t plan on releasing the Five until they get to Earth, and the Cylons don’t trust the humans either, so they put into place the Centurions to hold human’s hostage once the Five are found.

Now, I wish I had a screenshot of the Resurrection Hub, because it’s the coolest looking ship I’ve seen on the show yet. Simply awesome. I said that out loud right before the Raptor pilot said it was “almost beautiful.”

Gaeta

Apparently the destroyed leg on Gaeta wasn’t just a meaningless side plot. He does lose it though (thank you Cottle), but in doing so, we discover that Gaeta (and actor Alessandro Juliani) has a beautiful singing voice.

He sings every time he feels his phantom leg, and this strikes Anders as important for some reason.

But more importantly, what is Gaeta singing about? Is it prophetic or insightful, or just meant to be background music?

Even more to the point: Does any of these have to with him being the final Cylon to be revealed?

Roslin’s line was so great: “What a way to discover such a beautiful voice.”

Agreed. But I also think this was a way to discover something even more important. We’ll find out down the road if I’m right.

Roslin

Roslin finds out that Tory is sleeping with Baltar, and asks her in such a coy way. “What is it about the Galactica that gives you such a glow?”

Nice Roslin…hilarious.

She is upset that someone is telling Baltar about her dreams of The Opera house, yet doesn’t suspect Tory for whatever reason.

With her wiry Cylon wit, Tory sleeps with Baltar and then gets the info out of him: The Six told him during his Trial about it.

Lee comes to see Roslin a few times in this episode, but mainly to persuade her to talk openly about the operation with the Rebel Cylons, because the Quorum has no faith in anything anymore, and they need to put a face to the joint-mission.

So she does it. With a lot of guards, Bill, Starbuck and Athena, Roslin talks to the Quorum and then brings in Natalie to tell them why the Rebel Cylons need help.

The Opera House, Roslin, Hera and Athena

We know that A Dying Leader will find the Secret to the Opera House, but when? Well, it almost happened tonight. Almost.

But before that, Athena, Roslin and the Six all dream again of Hera running though that Opera House, with the Six and Baltar finally taking it through closing doors.

This all becomes too real for Athena, as she wakes up in the middle of the night with Hera staring at her saying “bye bye.”

Creepy as all heck. And then when Athena returns home that day, Hera has done nothing but draw pictures of a blond stick figure with the numbers “6″ all over, and a little girl figure with dark hair.

The dream of Hera running to the Six.

Suddenly Hera is gone and Athena tries to find her. The pursuit mimics her dream-journey through the Opera House until she catches up with Hera running into NATALIE, who is being escorted to see Adama.

Wow. But the wow’s don’t end. Athena pulls her gun on Natalie, telling her to leave her daughter alone.

The Hybrid, the Death, the Jump and the Singing

The end of this episode was pulled off with such perfection. A mini-orchestra of musical pieces that are connected by Gaeta singing in the background, even if we can’t hear him until the end.

Starbuck finds Roslin in sickbay, and tells her the Hybrid’s words: “A dying leader will learn the truth of the Opera House.” Roslin is stunned, wants to see the Hybrid and takes along Baltar since he’s in the dream as well. Helo goes along with a group of marines.

Natalie was going to see Adama so she can stall the mission while Leoben tries to stop the Centurions from their plan of taking hostages once the Hub is destroyed.

Athen holds a gun on Natalie while she asks Tyrol to take Hera away.

Roslin tells a Sharon to plug-in the Hybrid.

Athena sees the Six taking Hera in her dream, says “You are never going to take my baby” and then shoots Natalie twice.

The Hybrid gets plugged in, who awakens yelling “JUMP!”

The ship disappears from the fleet, having jumped away.

And then we hear Gaeta singing, and the scene switched to a pan of his face, as his eyes look at the camera. The final verse he sings twice:

To have her please, just one day wake.
To have her please, just one day wake.

Final Thoughts

First off, the special effects this season are out of this world. The scenes abord the Basestar, the new Resurrection Hub, the space shots, everything. Top notch, the best on television period.

So what were the lyrics sang by Gaeta? I tried to listen to them a few times and this is what I could come up with:

—

Alone she sleeps in the shirt of man
With my three wishes clutched in her hand

The first that she be spared the pain
the comes from a dark and laughing rain

When she finds love may it always stay true
This I beg for the second wish I made too

I wish no more, my life you can take
To have her please, just one day wake
To have her please, just one day wake

—

Whatever it was, the singing was beautiful, the lyrics even better. You can read more about this song and the lyrics over on Bear McCreary’s blog, the composer for Battlestar Galactica.

I am loving what is happening right now with the characters. Tigh is afraid of being discovered and what that will make them. Anders can only think of others around him – the dead Sharon last week, Gaeta this week.

Roslin walking into the room with the Hybrid was just surreal. What will she find out next week?

What did you think of the episode? Did I miss anything vital? Is Natalie dead or will she pull off an Adama-like miracle?

Do the lyrics mean anything?