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By John Davis
 The second season finale of BattleStar Galactica totally reset everything. In the second half of season two, almost every episode opened with a month or more having passed since the previous episode. According to many, this was done to advance the pregnancy plot far enough that the baby could be born this season. But Lay Down Your Burdens Pt. 2 takes the jump to the extreme, skipping an entire year in the last 30 minutes.
The episode featured a cease fire on Caprica, and the return of Starbuck, with Anders at her side to the Galactica. Also along for the ride was the priest, who was really a Cylon bearing a message. Played by Dean Stockwell (Quantum Leap), a sci-fi icon himself, the good Brother explains that the Cylons have realized that they made a mistake. Largely spurred on by the “Hero’s of the War”, a six and an eight that the Galactica crew knows as Sharon Valleri, the Cylons have realized that they made errors in attempting genocide, and in pursuing the surviving fleet. They will now be going their separate ways, “No harm done”. Though why exactly
Sharon
is considered a hero is not exactly clear. She failed in her attempt to assassinate Adama, destroyed a basestar, and generally didn’t do much to advance the Cylon cause.
In the episode also, we see the President’s aide, Torry, attempting to fix the election when it becomes clear that Baltar will win. Gods, we miss Billy!!! He never would have let Roslyn get herself into such a mess. When the trickery becomes clear, Roslyn has no choice but to resign, thus setting the path for Baltar’s presidency.
Baltar’s first act is to ignore Admiral Adama’s concerns over the security of the fleet, and to order colonization of the planet. Then we skip the year. We see Galactica and Pegasus orbiting the planet as the orbital defense mechanism. On the planet, we learn that Starbuck and Anders are now married, and there has apparently been some huge falling out between her and Apollo in the missing year. Roslyn is now a teacher, and the Chief, along with a pregnant Callie by his side is now the president of the union workers.
As Starbuck contacts Apollo, to beg for medicine for a very sick Anders, Dualla (by Apollo’s side on the Pegasus) notices something on the Dreadas screen. It appears that the Cylon fleet has found them. The Galactica and Pegasus, along with the rest of the fleet, jump away, but the Admiral promises that they will be back in Season 3. On the planet, we see scores of Cylon raiders and transport ships in the sky. Finally, on Colonial One, which is now sitting on the ground, the Cylons make their appearance. Doral, Baltar’s six, and Sharon Valleri enter his office.
Sharon
tells Baltar that if they offer no resistance, they will not be harmed. Baltar surrenders humanity to the Cylons, and we see centurions marching thru the crowds of humans in the market place, as we fade into a voice over with Six. She promises that humanity will now be cared for, with the Cylons in complete control.
Prior to watching the episode, I have to admit that I had sought out spoilers, so wasn’t really shocked by the events as they unfolded. But in reflection, this is a pretty shocking change for the show. The entire dynamic has now been changed. The fleet is no longer perusing Earth. We now have humans planet side, to offer resistance to the Cylons, while the vastly undermanned colonial fleet will likely come back to attack in hit and run missions.
Season 3 should offer some interesting scenes as
Sharon
learns that the Chief has apparently moved on, and is now with Callie. Expect to see Roslyn, returning to a leadership role as the leader of the resistance. And Baltar and Six will now be free to renew their relationship. It will be interesting now that they are again in physical contact to see if each retains the mental version of the other. It is clear, however, that both the actual Baltar and Six seem to have grown in very different ways than their mental counterparts. Baltar has now betrayed humanity three different times; on the colonies when he helped Six, when he gave Gina the bomb, which ultimately leads to the Cylons finding the humans this time, and when he surrenders. It will be interesting to see if the man ever develops a conscience, or continues to think only of himself.
In general, I find myself wanting to lash out at these plot twists, and to say that these new developments fracking suck!!! But, then again, this is Ron Moore’s baby. And Mr. Moore has been entertaining me for years, with his earlier stewardship of Star Trek,
Roswell
, and finally BSG in the first two seasons. It isn’t the first time I’ve wondered what the frack he was doing! But with some of those other strange twists, I’ve come to really love the results, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here.
One thing though, that I would like to remind the show runners in case they have forgotten, or just missed it. This past season, Fox came out with a new show called
Reunion
, in which every episode jumped a year ahead. The idea was novel, but in practice it got extremely annoying, and there was way too much missing time, so that the characters didn’t make sense.
I really hope that we can have some linear time progression for awhile on BSG, and knock off the foreshadowing 48 or 96 hours ago plots. Linear time would be a good thing, without these massive jumps. It would be good to see how the characters deal with the events packed into last weeks show rather than jumping ahead until the previous episodes tragic events have faded to irrelevance.
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