Battlestar: Galactica 2.7: "Home: Part II"

Written by David Eick and Ron Moore
Directed by Jeff Woolnough

In which the search for the Tomb of Athena comes to an end amidst suspicion and violence, while back on Galactica, Baltar must deal with the possibility that he has lost his mind…


Before the second season aired, Ron Moore made an interesting comment. Essentially, he commented that the first season should have been 20 episodes (at the very least), and that as a result, the first third of the second season would play out as if it were the rest of the first season. I have to say that I completely agree. As much as the first season finale ended things on a high note, it was really the end of a complication phase of a much larger arc; this season has been all about the resolution of everything that happened in “Kobol’s Last Gleaming”.

A ton of plot threads reach their momentary end in this episode. On the plot side of the fence, there’s the culmination of the search for the Tomb of Athena. I find it interesting that the writers kept all these pieces in the air without really knowing how it would play out, beyond some general sense of direction. For all that doubt regarding how the puzzle would come together, it works very well.

There are issues, of course, and the writers admit it. There’s not one spot on Earth where a person could look up and see all 12 classical Zodiac constellations at the exact same time, at the same basic declination in the sky. But that’s hardly the point. The point is that Earth is the planet where the constellations would, when seen from that point in space, look as they do in the hologram. From that perspective, it works.

I do wonder, however, how this was supposed to make sense. Earth is supposed to be the lost 13th colony. So how would the constellations, as seen from Earth, end up on Kobol? Was Earth once still in contact with the homeworld, before things all fell apart? I can’t remember if that was established in the mini-series or the first season, but it struck me as a possible continuity issue. (I’ll be pleased if someone can correct me if I’m wrong, since I can’t seem to find the information right now.)

It’s incidental, however, because it gives them a general direction, without promising that the journey will be successful. After all, Boomer made it very clear that the Cylons know all about the scriptures and prophecies of the Colonists, perhaps even better than the Colonists do (not hard to imagine). Sounds to me like the Cylons might have taken the search for Earth into account after all.

There’s been plenty of evidence to suggest that the Cylons wanted to keep some small population around, and that they’ve avoided the deathblow that would wipe the Colonists out. Certainly their resources should be big enough by now! So why let the Colonists get this far, beyond the breeding experiments? What if the Cylons are using the Colonists to locate Earth? After all, the Colonists want to end the human race, and Earth would have humans on it (or so one would assume). So wouldn’t the Cylons want to wipe those humans out, too?

Six mentioned to Baltar that he was meant to lead humanity to Earth, but that he would be the last to survive. That would fit into this “Cylons want to wipe out Earth” theory rather well. A lot of what Six does in this episode is about breaking down Baltar’s growing resistance to her influence, ensuring that he can continue to act on their behalf, the ultimate sleeper agent. (It is wrong to think that Tricia actually looks even more attractive in civvies?)

Character is key in storytelling, and as usual, Adama and Roslyn provide some wonderful fireworks in the dramatic arena. They finally come to an understanding, and the human race is all the better for it. The challenge, of course, will be dealing with the rifts within the population that the two of them initially created and fostered. Adama’s emotionalism and Roslyn’s faux-religious stance could very well undermine their authority, once the masses begin to question it.

A lot of agendas are left unspoken and unrevealed. Who knows what Boomer is up to? Would Helo follow her into the fire, if her agenda is still aligned with her people? I like Boomer (and lust for Grace Park), so I hope that she sticks around and turns out to be a human sympathizer. Even so, I loved Adama’s reaction to her presence, and how it’s going to twist the knife in the gut of Galactica’s crew for her to be there. And then there’s Zarek, who seems to be gaining more sympathetic character traits by the minute.

Part of me is worried that a less serialized run of episodes will follow, and that some of the momentum of excellence will be lost in the process. I have faith in the writers, but the weakest episodes of the first season were more self-contained. While some might have found this two-part story to be stretched thin (and it was, according to the producers and writers), I reveled in the chance to see more in-depth character development. Hopefully, with the true beginning of the second season, we’ll see that continue.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 8/10