Battlestar Galactica: "The Road Less Traveled" (Episode 405)

Aaron Douglas doing the work of his life...

I like this new format that the show has taken, focusing on a couple of characters and their storylines for the length of an episode. You still get plenty of story pushed into the hour and you don't end up with storylines that you have to struggle through, like Helo saving the disenfranchised Sagittarons from Bruce Davidson. I was almost through the episode when I realized that we didn't actually see many of the main characters in this episode; no Adama, no Roslin, no Six... and the ending of the episode just snuck right up on me. It distresses me to realize that we are halfway through the batch of currently scheduled episodes and a mere fifteen from the end of this fantastic series.

We begin on the Demetrius, the sewage ship that was commandeered to give Kara a chance to find Earth. Helo checks in on Starbuck who is spiraling inwards. It's amazing how much the story of mutiny parallels the classic sort of seafaring story, with the Captain socked away in the cabin, losing his mind, researching a crazy lead (Earth, a great white whale) while the crew scrubs the deck and works in terrible conditions, in this case literally scowering the outside of the hull of a heavy raider for traps. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Kara shows Helo a promising lead, or at least it would be if they hadn't checked it twice already. It's almost time to rendezvous with the fleet, but Kara's not interested. She hasn't completed her mission yet. Starbuck decides to get back behind a flight stick for the first time since leaving the fleet, almost two months ago.

Is he going to sing "All You Need is Love"?Back on Galactica, Baltar's religious popularity continues to grow. His “services” are growing larger and he has begun to broadcast pirate transmissions of his sermons. His words and his intentions seem pure... but its Baltar, you know. I'm not sure if I believe his words. I think last week we were at least shown that he believes his words now. He continues to preach his words about how the gods don't exist. Of course, his one true god does. But what's up with Head Six and Head Baltar? Does a higher power exist? Something is manipulating events to some end.

The bald head seriously make him look tougher...Elsewhere, Baltar's words are broadcast into Tyrol's quarters (not the Chief anymore), where a newly bebalded actor is jumping rope and getting more spartan. He shuts off the broadcast, but this upsets Lil' Chief (he's still Lil' Chief) so he reluctantly turns it back on.

On the Demetrius, the crew is restless, but Helo does his best to put the unrest down, even when the words of discontent are coming from his wife. Kara heads out on a recon run with Hotdog and knows she's waiting for something to happen, but she doesn't know what. Suddenly they get a dradis contact. Turns out its a Cylon raider alright, but its a heavy raider that's damaged beyond repair. Kara begs to the raider to something and suddenly the voice of Leoben reaches out across the void. He says that he knew that he would find her. He comes offering a truce between human and Cylon and the offer for Kara to complete her journey.

39,676 survivors.

The raider has been docked with Demetrius. The ship is dead and its only the one Leoben on board. They bring him in shackled and he can see that Kara has changed. He knows that Starbuck has purpose now. He tells her that she needs the remaining Cylons from his side because her crew doesn't trust her. Is Starbuck going to be the Moses of the Cylons? Leoben tells Kara that she can learn amazing things from the Hybrid and she has to go to her. Kara isn't convinced, but demands that Leoben be taken to her quarters, causing even more doubt of her sanity among the crew. Reluctantly they comply.

Back on Galactica, Tyrol continues to ponder the death of his wife. He's a changed man and its all because of Cally. Tory speaks with him, but isn't coming clean about her involvement in Cally's death. Tyrol doesn't believe that Cally could have killed herself, but honestly, what was she going to the airlock for in the first place? In an amazing performance, you can see the maelstrom brewing behind Tyrol's eyes.

"Why won't these humans listen? Oh yeah, that nuclear holocaust..."Anders has returned to the Demetrius and is brought up to speed. He walks into the quarters to find Leoben tenderly helping Kara paint her mural and Anders clocks him and has him locked up in storage. Kara is starting to believe that the Cylons know about Earth and are able to help them. That of course isn't going to go over well with anyone. Anders has a similar conversation to the one that Tigh had with Six. The Cylon says some veiled things, perhaps sensing that he's in the presence of one of the final five and Anders doesn't know how to take it, but believes that he hears truth in the words. It makes him confusing and homicidal. Leoben makes it clear that this is it for him. There's a few of them left, set adrift, no chance of resurrection. The Cylons are at war with themselves. He asks for alliance again and offers the chance for the Hybrid to show Kara the righteous path to the promised land.

The crew doesn't know how to take this news of Cylon alliance. They're extremely concerned with giving the Cylons a possible path back to the fleet. Oddly enough, one of the biggest supporters of going against this and Kara is Athena, speaking of mutiny. Is there something about the Sharon model that makes them contrarian? Kara's made up her mind and they're going to the baseship, trap or no. It's a chance to find Earth that can't be passed up.

Lost in the woods...Tyrol pokes his head into one of Baltar's services, intrigued. It's a mystery though as to exactly what he's thinking. Tigh comes by and demands Tyrol's time. He tells him that he needs to get it together. Tyrol isn't about to listen to Tigh, what with his free time with Six. Tyrol can't live with his past life and he doesn't know where to turn.

At the Demetrius, one of the crew members is still checking the outside of the heavy raider's hull for tracking devices or the like. She has the horrible misfortune to be staring right into a crack in the hull when the reactor goes up, rocking the ship and killing her instantly. And with that, the outcome of the mutiny is sealed.

Would he resurrect? Even if there was a ship nearby?On Galactica, Tyrol wanders into another Baltar service and is actually in the process of leaving when Gaius spots him and begins to speak to him. He makes the misstep however of telling Tyrol that Cally would have wander Tyrol to forgive him and take his hand. Tyrol has a freak-out and begins to choke Gaius in front of his congregation. Tyrol is angry, but he's perhaps more angry at himself because he cannot forgive himself the way Baltar can. In his rage he ponders suicide, but can't bring himself to it. He sees a photo of Cally and Lil' Chief and it calms him.

Kara beats the hell out of Leoben, angry that she let herself believe Leoben's crap, but he won't admit that he intentions are less than pure. Kara can't bring herself to kill him because he speaks too much truth. Leoben doesn't know what happened to her while she was missing, but he knows that the Hybrid can help her. Kara attempts to have quick remembrance ceremony for their dead crewmate, but isn't very reassuring to her crew. When she tells them that they're not going back to the fleet and are instead going on to the baseship, the crew almost loses it right then. Helo temporarily puts down the insurrection... with the butt of his gun.

Wondering what he's going to do without this show...In Tyrol's quarters, he can't do much more than lie quietly and ponder Cally's photo. Baltar comes to see him. With a monologue delivered by James Callis and an absolutely amazing performance from Aaron Douglas without uttering a single word, Gaius apologizes to Tyrol and tells him how he's been offered a chance at redemption because he's chosen to accept his fate and not fight it anymore. And with that he cuts through the maelstrom of emotions to reach Tyrol, to give him reassurance (about being a Cylon no less) and gains a new follower.

On the Demetrius, its mutiny time as Kara readies the crew to jump. At the last minute, Helo tells Kara that he cannot obey her orders. She tells them that there's no time to reconsider and there's no time to return to the fleet and resupply. She tries to relieve him of command and asks Gaeta to make the jump. He also refuses to obey. The only one that seems to still be on Kara's side is Anders. Helo tells her that he's relieving her of her command and the mutiny is complete.

TO BE CONTINUED!

NEXT WEEK: Somehow Kara gets to that Hybrid...

Is it hot in here?