Battlestar Galactica: 102: Water

The second episode in the New Battlestar Galactica series has a very different feel than that of the first episode, which is somewhat relieving. While singlular episodes that are fairly depressing are good, other episodes mixed in will be good. Not to say that this episode isn't as dark as the first, it just takes on a different form.
Sharon Valiri wakes up soaking wet in her quarters, not remembering what happened. She opens her bag and finds a detonator. She goes to Tyrol, her boyfriend, and explains her concerns, that she's gotten missing memories and suddenly has a detonator. Meanwhile, President Roslin is on board for some ceremony while the Galactica transfers some water to a civilian ship. While this is happening, there's several explosions, and the fleet is suddenly faced with a massive water shortage. Adama sends out people to look for water in surrounding systems, and Tyrol and his crew go to the water takes to take a look at what happened. 5 explosives had been placed. Sharon her crew find a moon with some water on it, and Roslin and Apollo talk about the destruction of a civilian ship, the Olympic Carrier, that Lee was forced to destroy. She askes him to be her military adviser, because she knows almost nothing about the military.
This episode was just as good, if a little different than the first. There are multiple storylines playing out. The first and main story, the water shortage, will lead to the 3rd episode, where the government staff will be tasking a ship full of prisoners to mine for water, when they revolt. The second storyline is with Sharon, and the fact that she is a Cylon. Number three is with Helo and the other Sharon on Caprica, trying to escape the Cylons there. Story four is with Baltar working to hide the fact that he doesn't have a Cylon detector.
Story One is the most important to the episode, and it shows some interesting things with the show that really haven't been done before. We see a panel, where various characters have conducted studies regarding their current status, which is something that I don't think that I've seen before in Sci-Fi. The Galactica's problems are numerous, faced with shortages of water, but also food, eventually. The episode also opened up space a little, and shows how mobile and sort of crowded space is, as the Raptor teams are send out to find water. The mention of X-Ray telescopes is interesting.
Sharon's part of the story is also very interesting. She's obviously the one who planted the explosives, probably soaking after actually swimming in the tanks, and still doesn't know what happened. I would bet that she was 'activated' when the Olympic Carrier came close and Apollo had her talk to the crew, telling them to turn back. Later, she urges Tyrol not to say anything, because either she still believes that she's human, or she's just playing the role. Later, she almost blows herself up in the Raptor, when she finds water, but manages not to. I think that she's also fighting her programming a little bit.
The Helo Storyline is also interesting, because we see another Sharon there. This part is fairly short though, and we see that there is definently something between Helo and Boomer, as she supposedly came back to rescue him. Now, they're looking for other survivors. This will definently play out more. The total content of Helo's storyline will probably amount to a single episode, and I've seen some people and websites complain about this, but Helo's storyline can't be restricted to a single episode, in the middle of the season, because people would wonder where he came from and generally be confused. This way, it's a subplot that doesn't take too much time, and takes us off of Galactica.
Finally, it seems that Dr. Baltar's Amazing Cylon Detector doesn't work, and really doesn't exist. He can't tell Adama, because he'd be punished, and Adama takes his reluctance to talk much to mean that he needs more help and assigns a staff, Lt. Gaeta, to help him. A commercial showed Baltar asking Adama for a nuclear warhead, so this is definently going to play out more, although I'm pretty sure that he actually gets a Cylon detector running.
One of the things that I was thinking about earlier, regarding Baltar and Number 6. I've gotten the impression since they mentioned something in the commentary of the miniseries, saying that Six hasn't said anything that he couldn't figure out in his head. I'm wondering if Six is really there, or if he is just imagining her. It'll be interesting to see where that goes.
So, this series is definently going to good places. Next episode, Bastille Day, is one that I'm really looking forwards to. Old Battlestar Galactia alum Richard Hatch is starring as a new character, a political activist/ terrorist, and we're going to see some good action, I'm predicting.