Failed Coup Jumpstarts BSG

Any fears that Battlestar Galactica would ride off quietly into the sunset in its final season were firmly put to rest, as the most recent two-parter, about Felix Gaeta and Tom Zarek's attempted coup of the Fleet, ranks among the series' best. BSG often slips into a bit of a malaise midseason, with forgettable episodes like the workers' strike. With Roslin abandoning her job to depression and Adama happy to retire with her, this season could have fallen bad. All it took was a little "revolution" to get everyone back in action.

The drama worked so well because of how easy it was to hate the two head conspirators. You would never have expected Gaeta to emerge as a major character, always quietly doing his job. But in just a few episodes, he changed from background drone to the kind of whiny, sniveling weakling that you wanted to slap everytime he feigned authority. The more he tried to justify his actions, the more you longed to see him shoved out an air lock.

Zarek, on the other hand, was always a compelling villain. His suits, his title, and his switch to Roslin's side on New Caprica fooled us into thinking he could be good. But this time the former terrorist showed his true colors, especially in ordering the massacre of the Quorum. Loved Zarek's expression, as it seemed his hurt feelings over the Quorum's failure to support him led him to the decision. Still, the Quorum has always been such an annoyance that they'll hardly be missed. There's one way BSG makes 24 look like MSNBC - it's the only show that makes democracy seem like a stupid waste of time.

While this episode may have been Gaeta and Zarek's send-off, to me the episode belonged to President Roslin (Mary McDonnell, this is your Emmy submission). Her speech to Zarek after he tells her Adama is dead, well, I think we're gonna have to watch that:



Seriously, how awesome is President Roslin? No more jogging around Galactica for her. Zarek may be a cold-blooded killer, but even he was left speechless. 24's President Taylor's got nothing on her.

This was also a recharging episode for Adama, whose anger gave him a really good reason to go on fighting. His snarl as he threw his admiral pin at Gaeta and his refusal to play along with Gaeta's "field trip to justice" showed a side of Adama we haven't seen in seasons. Watching him storm through the ship with his ragtag group of loyalists to retake control of Galactica made for an ultra satisfying end to the whole ordeal.

Other characters moved forward because of the fight. Baltar, super excited to discover a new look to his fave Cylon model, could have happily stayed in bed with his sexbot. But for once, he actually thought of something other than self-preservation. He admitted his scorn for his "fan club," but still chose to come back for them (even if the ship was restored by them). Romo Lampkin also got to do the right thing after awesomely killing a guard with a pen by helping Starbuck carry Anders to Cottle.

As for Starbuck, she finally got a break from all of her Earthbound drama and got back to kicking ass. Last week, she and Apollo got to play like John McClane in Die Hard by taking on Gaeta's army all by themselves. This week, she also got to be human again when Anders was shot, clinging to him when the rest of the team moved on. Nice to see Starbuck still cares about her husband, Cylon or not. But what happaned to him? Did he make it to Coddle?

Tons of drama over the past two episodes by focusing just on the human end. Next week we go back to the sci-fi with the return of Final Cylon Ellen Tigh. Maybe that will mean some more screen time for characters like Helo, Athena, Anders, and Caprica 6, all stuck in the brig the past two weeks. Like Lost, BSG seems to be profiting from the end date. If the remaining episodes are as strong as the first four, this could be BSG's best season.