Battlestar Galactica - “Resurrection Ship, Part 1”
Written by Scott Collura Thursday, 05 January 2006
The Battlestars Galactica and Pegasus are on the verge of engaging each other in battle when Starbuck suddenly arrives on the scene in the stealth viper with new and vital information regarding the Cylon armada that’s been trailing the Galactica for months. A temporary ceasefire is agreed upon between Commander Adama and Admiral Cain so that the Colonials can combine forces to take on the Cylons, but each battlestar’s commanding officer has plans to take care of the other as well – permanently.
We’re talking assassination here folks. Admiral Cain, who’s at this point being portrayed pretty much as a bad guy through and through, is ready to have Adama and his staff taken out by a cadre of marines upon completion of the mission against the Cylons. And Adama? He’s tasked Kara, now the CAG onboard Pegasus, with the duty of shooting her new commander in the head, also once the Cylon attack is finished. But in the latter case, it’s actually President Roslin who formulates the assassination plan, which Adama grudgingly agrees to. Ms. Roslin is no mere schoolteacher anymore, that much is certain.
While the portrayal of Cain as a baddie is a bit disappointing – and surprisingly one-note, in fact, in this and the episode that follows next week – the rest of the characters approach the grave inevitability of this clash of commands with far less resolve than Cain does. Kara, for one, has come to admire Cain on some level, even if she has been manipulated by the Admiral to some degree by talk of returning to Caprica in order to take back the planet. Adama, meanwhile, isn’t the only one who’s ill at ease with his and Roslin’s decision to off Cain; Lee Adama, now reduced from CAG to mere courier under Cain, visits the Galactica and pleads with his father to rethink the plan. And even Cain’s first officer is sweating out his assigned task of leading the marines against Adama.
But before any nefarious assassination plans get underway, the combined Colonial forces must carry out their attack against the Cylon fleet. Kara’s covert surveillance, combined with Baltar’s interrogation of the POW Number Six onboard Pegasus, have revealed that the large, heretofore unidentifiable Cylon ship that Cain’s team has been tracking is actually a “resurrection ship,” a home away from home, as it were, for the Cylons which allows them to regenerate into new bodies when they’re killed. The destruction of the resurrection ship would be a big win for the Colonials, and they mean to throw everything they have at it in the attack.
As usual, there’s plenty more going on in this segment. Roslin seems to be coming to the end of her losing battle with cancer, even as her and Adama’s bond grows stronger; Helo and Tyrol remain in custody onboard the Pegasus, enjoying a temporary stay of execution but continuing to struggle with their feelings for Sharon; Baltar’s relationship with Number Six – both the version in his head and the flesh and blood one in a holding cell – twists and turns here as much as ever; and then there’s the further revelations about how Cain and co. conducted themselves prior to their meeting up with the Galactica. But the Number Six that lives in my head tells me that we won’t have to worry about Admiral Cain much after next week’s finale to this storyline… B+
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