Battlestar Galactica: "Sine Qua Non" (Episode 408)

Seriously... why the Agent Smith shades IN SPACE?

I don't know if it was due to this essentially being a mid-season episode or whether they just didn't have a great way to get from point A to point B, but this episode, as has been mentioned elsewhere, seemed like filler. More to the point, it felt choppy, without direction and everything that happened in the episode seemed some what... inevitable.

We begin with the Six that was murdered, except she's still alive. She's hauled away to Coddle who works on her just long enough that she presumably sees a vision of heaven. And then she dies. At the same time, the Quorum is having their own little freak-out because the writers didn't let them in on what is happening either. Zarek is acting president, Adama refuses to speak with him and a huge contingent Galactica's pilots went with the damaged basestar when it jumped away. Lee is the only member of the Quorum that Adama is even bothering to speak with. In the Quorum, Lee confirms that there is no way that Adama will ever recognize Zarek as president.

Adama chews out Athena, not so much because she shot a Cylon, but because she betrayed his trust. She tries to explain about the visions and Six taking her child. Of course, we know that this is Caprica Six in the vision, not the one she just killed. Adama tosses her in the brig, separating her from her child.

39,674 survivors.

In CIC, Adama and Tigh awkwardly catch the audience up on events that have occurred and reveal that Starbuck is back as KAG, odd to say the least. Who was running the show between when Lee stepped down and Kara returned from her mission? Elsewhere, Zarek and Lee butt-heads on how to approach working with the military. The fact is Adama will not recognize Zarek as president. He proposes that they form a search committee to find someone to install. At this early point, does any believe that it is not going to be Lee Adama? What a snoozer.

Elsewhere, Romo Lampkin is listening to the radio and petting his cat... all while wearing his sunglasses... in space, where there is no sun (that bugs me so much). Lee has come to him to help him search for the new president. Romo lays out the task, and again I think he's stating that Lee is going to be the president. But no, Romo is going to go searching along with Lee. Yawn. I think I'm going to skip recapping most of these scenes. Lee and Romo discuss options, the cat keeps meowing and eventually Lampkin stumbles upon the obvious.

Adama sends Tigh to try to figure out some information about where the hub could have gone from Caprica Six. Tigh is still flipping between hate and love, seeing images of his dead wife. Odd question: do they give Caprica makeup to apply in the brig or do Cylons naturally come painted? Tigh cuts his visit short through because they've made contact with one of their damaged Raptors. The pilot gave his life to make it back to the fleet and point the direction of where they went. Later, Adama inspects the craft and finds a charred copy of Searider Falcon and he knows that its the ship that Roslin was on. Adama makes the decision to jump away without the fleet. They find the tattered remains from a Cylon battle, with many of their own ships floating derelict. It appears that the Resurrection Hub was destroyed. Why do I feel like the better episode will be the one coming next week?

Adama continues to take the search for Roslin personally. He learns that Roslin's cancer will only get worse with her being away from her treatments. Not good. Coddle also drops some news about Caprica Six. As we learn from the following confrontation with Saul Tigh, Caprica Six is pregnant. Adama insults Tigh and invokes the name of Ellen Tigh and an old man fight ensues. I'm terrified that one or both of them might break a hip. I know that the secret four are “different” but how could they have created a pure Cylon offspring?

Adama tells Starbuck that he's sending her people on a suicide mission. Starbuck seems just... wrong, being so put together all of a sudden. Lampkin appears to even talk off the ear of the elder Adama. He's under the pretense of legal work, but he's really just there to get into Adama's head and motivate the character to do the things that he's about to do next.

Choppily, we jump to Adama speaking with Lee and telling him that he's stepping down from command. Lampkin finally, finally lands on President Lee Adama. For some reason, the writers then felt it necessary to write Lampkin as a nutjob... who has to tell Lee of his realization at gunpoint and who has a cat who has been imaginary all along. Not quite the reveal from Fight Club, but there it is. Lee's political-like speaking skills manage to talk Lampkin down from his idea that the last thing that the dying human race needs is hope. Completely unmotivated and random, its yet another aspect of this episode that feels like it wasn't built correctly due to editing and is resolved far too easily. I would have loved the sequence far more if it was clear that Lampkin's brilliant idea was to fake this whole sequence of events simply to fool Lee into believing that it was his idea all along... And with that, Lee becomes President Adama. And Admiral Adama becomes just plain old Husker, promoting Saul Tigh to Admiral Tigh. So now a Cylon is in control of the fleet. And with my money on Lee Adama as final Cylon, it would mean that a Cylon is president as well.

In yet another bizarre scene, President Adama, through some strange circumstances, gives Romo the dog that was used in the resistance on New Caprica. Husker packs for his long wait for Roslin. Both Adamas know that the chances of him returning are slim. But with no other options available to him, Bill Adama climbs into the Raptor, in complete flight suit. The crew says good-bye knowing that they may never see him again. As Bill watches the fleet jump away, he pulls out the burned copy of Searider Falcon and sets about reading it cover to cover, something that he would never allow himself to do unless he thought he was at the end of his days. And with the last of the fleet jumping away, Adama is alone in deep space, waiting for either a miracle putting him back together with the woman he loves... or waiting to die.

NEXT WEEK: Xena's back and that final Cylon thing in the preview is an utter red herring.