Battlestar Galactica 2.16: "Sacrifice"

Written by Anne Cofell Saunders
Directed by Rey Villalobos

In which a small band of terrorists take hostages on Cloud Nine, including Billy and Apollo, in an attempt to force Adama to hand over Boomer and the baby in exchange…


It seems as though my opinions fall in line with Ron Moore’s own opinions on the podcasts, which is sometimes amusing. I say that because his reactions are far more extreme than my own. He was a lot more critical of “Black Market” than I was in the end, and he was a bit more impressed by “Scar” than I turned out to be. This time around, though, we share a certain dissatisfaction that can’t be completely defined.

There’s a lot that I liked about this episode. Dana Delaney does a very good job with a difficult part. In a lot of ways, this is a follow-up on the concepts brought up by Admiral Cain and her people. As I said then, there’s a certain amount of justification for treating Boomer like a machine. Even she would be quick to point out that she’s not human. And there’s reason to believe that Adama is treating Boomer as if she was the human being he remembers.

But she’s also exactly what Adama mentions: a potential military asset. He would be foolish to listen to everything she says without some kind of verification, but his instincts aren’t completely wrong. Even if the fleet discovered that the Cylons held the hybrid in primary importance, there would be reason to leave Boomer and the child alive, if only to attempt understanding of what the Cylons want. (In fact, one could argue that holding what the Cylons want is a good start towards future survival.)

And so this episode, on the face of it, is structured very well to test the resolve of three very important people in the fleet: Adama, Tigh, and Roslin. I can tell, even without Moore’s commentary, that the intention was to use that as a trigger for the philosophical debate over the value of a military asset over the cohesion of the fleet vs. giving in to terrorism. Underneath it all is the love triangle between Dee, Billy, and Lee, which has been building for quite a while.

The problem for me was very simple. I was able to predict from the very beginning that something horrible was coming for Billy. I had no idea that the actor was in demand and therefore being let go in a memorable way, but the episode began in a way that suggested some final moment to come. But even as that side of the episode was telegraphed, the underlying philosophical debate surrounding the hostage situation never really went as far as I would have liked.

For all that, I’m far more impressed by the brutal escalation of the episode than the final act itself. The botched rescue attempt was notable for the frank bloodletting, and the effect that shooting Lee will inevitably have on Starbuck. The end of the hostage situation should have been equally brutal, but since Billy’s death was expected, it didn’t have much impact. The gambit with the previously killed Boomer was rather obvious as well. The only thing in the final act that got my attention was Roslin’s grief, which struck me as very genuine.

Ever since “Resurrection Ship: Part II”, the season has been searching for some sense of direction. I thought that Baltar’s actions in “Epiphanies” would have been the first step in the next phase of the arc, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. At the same time, I noted that the destruction of the Cylon fleet would inevitably force the story inward, leaving the writers to explore the effects of recent events on the fleet as a whole, and that’s what we’ve gotten. Now that the episodes should be turning back to the arc, I hope the quality will return to a more consistent form.

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 7/10