Battlestar Galactica 2.18: "Downloaded"

Written by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle
Directed by Jeff Woolnough

In which the humaniform Cylons, based on Caprica, bring together the resurrected Six and Sharon who once loved Baltar and Tyrol, but things do not progress as planned…


This turns out to be the episode where Ron Moore and I don’t quite see eye to eye. Ron believes this is one of the best episodes of the series. I come from two viewings with a somewhat less enthusiastic response. It wasn’t until well after I listened to the podcast that I realized what my issue with the episode really is.

The point of this episode is to show how Caprica-Six and Sharon, based on their long-term relationships with humans, changed so dramatically that they decide to change the course of the Cylons. That’s all very well and good, since C-Six mentions that it’s all about the love and how following God should not mean killing and genocide. Sharon certainly had plenty of experience with the better side of humanity with Tyrol.

But if the episode is about change, and profound change, then the audience should have a solid understanding of where the Cylons were philosophically prior to this change. And that is my problem with this turn of events. The Cylon agenda has never been particularly clear. It’s not clear why the Cylons tried to wipe out humanity, why they pushed Boomer into Helo’s arms to have a hybrid baby, why they’ve let the fleet stay alive all this time (and it is a matter of letting them survive), and so on.

Equally troublesome is D’Anna’s attitude about humans and the treatment of the two Cylons who “went human”. The fact is, that’s what the Cylons programmed them to do, and there’s plenty of evidence from the first season to suggest that the Cylons wanted a Sharon and a human to fall in love for the purposes of the hybrid. And since D’Anna noted in “Final Cut” that the hybrid was the key to the Cylon agenda, why would this D’Anna be so adamant that human emotions were some kind of weakness?

The point is that the Cylon agenda was never clear to begin with, and so it’s hard to see how this movement beginning with C-Six and Sharon is supposed to be a kind of revolution. Such problems litter the episode. While it’s very clever to have C-Six channeling a version of Baltar, it brings up an issue in Ron’s discussion of it. Ron suggests that Baltar is C-Six’s conscience, just as Six is an expression of Baltar’s guilt. The problem, of course, is that Six has revealed information and has acted independently of Baltar on several occasions. If that’s the explanation, then two seasons worth of evidence strongly contradicts it.

Finally, I’m not particular impressed with the response to the birth of the hybrid by Roslin and Adama. For one thing, it would make no sense to kill it, for the same reason that pretending it died is a horrible idea. The Cylons want the hybrid. They have the hybrid. Placing the hybrid in a secure area with plenty of security will force the Cylons to expose their plans, and could also force Cylon models that haven’t been identified to expose themselves. If the Cylons believe the child is dead, instead of with the fleet, and the hybrid was the most important thing…well, why should the Cylons keep the fleet around?

Of course, all of these things could come back into play as the season finale unfolds, so it may be premature to grumble about contradictory plot elements or lingering plot holes. This is one series that typically avoids such pitfalls, so perhaps that faith is not yet unwarranted. Still, this is one with some glaring questions left unaddressed, and if those questions remain unanswered, this will be remembered as the episode where it all began falling apart.

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

Final Rating: 7/10