Kara Thrace (Katie Sackoff) was brilliant tonight. We’ve seen her messed up in the past, an emotional wreck, a rogue pilot with a chip on her shoulder.

But at the beginning of this episode, she was truly alone. And passionate and desperate. The acting and emotion coming from Starbuck was so convicting that I was yelling at President Roslin to pull her head out of her dying arse and listen to Kara.

They way they show her in agony the further they get from Earth was spellbinding.

I know it’s hard to trust her…but Kara had a point when she had the gun pointed at Laura’s head. Kara trusted a simple vision from the President, so much so that she traveled back to New Caprica in order to get the Arrow of Apollo.

And now Roslin can’t do the same thing in return? I get Roslin’s reasons, but I am also pretty surprised at her lack of faith in this matter. Almost so much so it feels out of character.

Am I the only one who thinks so?

Perhaps they are turning her so very against Kara in order to make Admiral Adama’s decision to believe her that much bigger. It only took two episodes for her to convince Bill, and now off she goes on a smelly freighter in search of Earth.

The Cylons

There were three other subplot in this episode, the biggest of which would be the Cylons starting what could be called a civil war within their fleet. The Cylon Raiders suddenly stopped attacking in the season premiere because they sense the Final 5 in the midst of the human fleet.

We find out in Six of One that they are now aware of what is going on around them. Which scares Brother Civil. Number Six wants them to stay aware, and Civil doesn’t, so there is a vote.

Without Number Three anymore (Lucy Lawless), having been boxed in season 3, the vote ends up in a tie.

But then Boomer casts her OWN vote, which has never happened before in Cylon history. All models vote the same, but Boomer votes differently than the rest of the Eights, thus giving Civil his permission to reprogram the Raiders in order to “dumb them down.”

But Six will have nothing doing, as she pulls the inhibitors from the Centurions, which suddenly makes THEM aware of what is going on with the Raiders. Two Centurions walk in and blow Civil and his cohorts away in a massive scene of blood and bullets.

Lee Adama

A nice little subplot dealt with Lee Adama leaving his commission to take up a political job elsewhere. The send off was great, the final scene in the hangar deck emotional. The hug with Dualla was a tear-jerker.

The kiss and goodbye to Kara in her cell was also moving. I’m curious as to what is in store for Lee in the coming episodes.

The Four

The Four, Tigh, Tyrol, Anders and Tory, are all continuing their nightly meetings. They feel a need to know who the Fifth is, and without any better leads, they task Tory with finding out what Baltar knows. This of course leads to her sleeping with him, which could prove an experience she wasn’t expecting.

Baltar is finally convinced that there is only one, true God and it appeared to mean something to Tory.

And how about the scene in which Baltar sees HIMSELF instead of Six giving him internal advice.

What is up with that guy’s head?

What did you all think of the episode?

(update: I incorrectly had this as S4x02, when in reality it’s episode 4. Razor parts 1 and 2 were considered season 4, episodes 1 and 2)

He That Believeth In Me was the premiere episode’s title for Season 4 of BSG, a title likely referring to more than one character in the show.

As always, please skip these recaps if you have not seen the episode as they are full of spoilers.

First you have Gaius Baltar, suddenly turned into a Jesus figure, who not only has a group of hot, young women believing in him, but also apparently the one, true God. He prays to God to give his life for that of a young boy Derek.

In the end, both live and it appears Baltar finally believes that God does exist and he is definitely part of his plan.

And then there is Starbuck, who appears two months after being thought dead, although only a few hours have passed for her. She has pictures of Earth, but her Viper is brand spanking new without an ounce of flight recorder data.

Why?

Lee believes in her, but no one else does. Bill Adama wants to, but can’t honestly bring himself to do it. In the meantime, the fleet is jumping and jumping, seemingly away from the direction Starbuck thinks they should be going.

In fact, everytime they jump, she feels the pain of it, realizing her feeling of knowing where Earth is diminishing.

We’re left with Starbuck holding a gun to the President’s head, likely an attempt to persuade her to change the direction the fleet is going.

In the meantime we have four newly aware Cylons who are still struggling with the knowledge of who they are. Tigh daydreams that he blasts Adama through the eye, while Anders can’t decide whether or not he didn’t shoot a Cylon Raider because he is just a nugget pilot, or was under control of the Cylons.

The Raider scanned him during the ensuing battle, and we don’t know what happened in that moment. The Cylon fleet suddenly bugs out of the fighting, so did they realize that the Final 5 are alive? Or did they pass information to Anders that he will be made aware of later?

I personally think the Cylons suddenly know that the Final 5 are with the humans and now they have to be careful. They can’t destroy them, so they run off, retreating.

The episode itself wasn’t exactly the thrill-ride I was hoping for, but it was still good nonetheless. I like the idea that Kara is the next clue to finding Earth, but I firmly believe she’s not a Cylon. She’s always been part of the overall path to find Earth, having a destiny, drawing the Eye of Jupiter, and I think she’s something else entirely.

The only hard part of the show for me now, as we near the end, is that things are growing complicated. There are now almost more Cylon characters than normal Humans it seems, and you almost have to keep remembering who is what.

We do seem to now know that the 5th Cylon resides in the fleet, which isn’t likely anything new.

Update: I wanted to make sure I added this in, because I meant to last night. I’m sure special effects over the years have gotten better, and maybe cheaper to do at a high level. All that to say the opening battle in this episode was top notch, awesome and beautiful to see. The graphics were crisp and clean and just looked soooo much better than they ever have.

I am so damn curious who it’s going to be. If you analyze the four we just discovered, two of them are second-in-command for leaders, the third essentially could destroy the ship on a whim if he felt like it, and the final one is married to Kara.

They are all positioned in important, key spots.

At this point, my two guess for the final Cylon are: Bill Adam or Gaius Baltar. I really see no other names that could bring the massive impact for fans if one of those two were the last one to be revealed.

So what did you think of the season premiere? Did you pick up any clues that I missed, any key plot points?

Who do you think the Final Cylon is?

First off, let’s just be thankful to SciFi for making sure this was shown in high-definition and 5.1 surround sound. There were some great visuals and cinematography in this movie/episode, plus some nice sound effects.

I’m going to talk about the movie itself first in this review, but towards the end, I plan on delving into how it relates to season 4 that is coming in March. This basically means if you haven’t seen season 3 all the way through yet, you probably will want to stop reading.

I like to discuss things that happen in TV shows, instead of just writing a review without revealing spoilers. So you read at your own risk. Movies I treat differently, writing standard reviews without giving stuff away. But Razor wasn’t a movie in my opinion, more like a side-episode in the series.

So here we go.

Razor spoilers continue from here. Don’t read ahead if you haven’t seen the movie

The movie. Where to begin.

My initial reaction was that it was everything Battlestar Galactica has ever been about. There were the topics that it deals with on a regular basis: Politics, warfare, moral decisions and love. The only ideal really missing from this episode was the religious aspect that dominates the series.

Kendra Shaw is the star of this movie and it’s a damn shame we’ll never see her again. Granted, it would have been strange for her to pop up in season 4, but with the way Razor was ending, I thought perhaps she wasn’t going to pull that trigger to detonate the nuke. But alas, she did and she’s lost forever.

A strong force and militant XO, Shaw was just awesome. Strong, just like Admiral Cain, whom she followed to the letter, even executing civilians in the heat of war.

I liked how Bill and Lee Adama talked about those choices made by Cain before they met up with Galactica and how they themselves could have made the same ones had circumstances been different. If the President hadn’t been a part of the civilians rescued, Adama may have chosen more of a military path, instead of the one they ended up on.

The episode also showed what a great leader Lee is, in knowing how to choose Shaw as his XO. Knowing enough to help appease the Cain crew by putting her as his number two was a genius move.

Maybe it was a shocker, and maybe I just forgot, but one of the big “surprises” in this episode was Cain being lovers with Gina, or Number 6, the blonde Cylon. It showed how easily and deeply the Cylons penetrated the humans defenses and lives, to get close to their sensitive areas. We saw how it was discovered that she was a Cylon and then how the interrogation began. Shaw even trusted her enough to give up the password to their network, thus compromising the mission later on.

Razor was perfect in how it gave us a back story that made all the actions of Cain during season 2 that much more believable and explainable. We truly can understand more of the how and why when it came to her actions.

The story involving the Pegasus, Cain, Gina and Shaw was exactly what it should have been and was highly enjoyable I thought. It’s worth seeing again and I likely will be buying the DVD when it’s released in a week or so.

But I tend to look for those little tidbits in these things, hoping to discover secrets for upcoming episodes. Well, it wasn’t too hard to discover that this movie was going to reveal something big for the final season. Or at least, make us think about it.

Season 3 and 4 spoilers and thoughts. Do NOT read ahead if you haven’t seen season 3 yet or want to know any tidbits for season 4

The one thing that I always struggle with from season to season in a lot of shows, Lost, BSG, Heroes, etc., is remembering all the dang little plot points along the way. I tend to forget things if I haven’t watched the show for awhile.

That being said, the big “surprise” here, which came at the very end of Razor, was the revelation to Kendra Shaw and to the viewing audience, that Starbuck, Kara Thrace, is the “harbinger of death” and will “lead the human race to its end.”

The Hybrid they discover tells them this, and that they must not follow her.

At the end of season 3, we find out who 4 out of 5 of the Cylons are and we see Kara return from the dead, flying a Viper and telling Lee that she’s seen Earth and knows the way there.

And that she’s taking them to it.

Okay, so much to swallow here and so much of it is confusing to me.

First off, why is the Hybrid warning the humans? Why help? What is the frakking Hybrid anyways?

His words “As my own existence comes to a close, only to begin anew in ways uncertain.”

“All this has happened before, and will happen again.”

Obviously the Hybrid isn’t going to resurrect like the 12 Cylons there are now, so in what way will it begin anew? And all this has happened before…is this a repeating history, sort of like The Matrix?

I hope not…but the words and phrase are cryptic to say the least.

My opinion on the Hybrid is this: He was human once and the successful link between the old Cylons and the new ones. His human side is warning Shaw about Kara, to save them all.

So do we actually know the 5th and final Cylon? Is it indeed Kara Thrace?

The sad thing is, we got a big preview of things to come in season 4, and in one of the scenes, you see Kara’s husband talking to her saying she was a Cylon from the very beginning.

It would make sense, since the final one has to be someone huge, someone important. Kara would be the right choice in my book, but who knows at this point.

It’s really too bad the season is so far off and the WGA strike could influence it starting. The final episodes will likely be awesome and provide an amazing conclusion to an amazing series.

What did you think of it? Good, bad? And what of the upcoming season? Do you know more than I do about the Hybrid and what it means?