Nina's Known Universe

Original US Airdate: February, 25, 2005

***These articles are full of Spoilers from the entire series to date as aired in the USA...Continue At Your Own Risk--Moreover, the format assumes the reader has seen all of the episodes and specials aired through the first half of season 4, up to and including “Revelations”***


^Borrowed material is duly credited^ Thank you in advance to battlestarwiki.org, surfthechannel.com and any other entity directly mentioned in my ramblings...a polite email to ninanintius@gmail.com will add any notations you desire or remove any references/links to your sites as you wish. Thank you again.



Read the Prior Episode Commentaries Here


Re-Watch the Episode Here First


^Time Line^


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^Day 25:^ A copy of Leoben Conoy is found, interrogated and ejected from an airlock.

When a copy of Leoben Conoy is captured aboard a civilian ship, President Roslin orders his interrogation, and Lieutenant Thrace is assigned the job. She finds herself facing the possibility that the Cylon may have planted a bomb somewhere in the Fleet.


***


Imperial Commentary

We get off to a dreamy start with President Laura Roslin dressed in white linens, bathed in bright light, running through a dark misty forest, seemingly running from Colonial Marines while apparently running toward a LeOben model cylon. He pulls her behind a tree covering her mouth while the marines pass them by. She lifts her hand toward them for a second but doesn't really struggle again LeOben's grasp.

Once the marines disappear into the darkness he releases her...steps backward...looks down and then up....and then 'whoosh' is sucked backward by some unknown force into the darkness...Roslin slowly looks around when she sees him again standing behind her. He says her name "Laura" loud and sternly which startles her awake. She is now in her bed back on Colonial One.

The question still remains, not how she had a vision about a cylon they are about to find on board the Gemenon Traveler, because that could easily be from the Chamalla. No the big question is why in her dream was she running from the Marines - not toward them, and why did she look so angelic?

The Oracles use Chamalla to induce trances which aide in their ability to have visions. However it is generally assumed, even in our reality that such gifts are inherent and only intensified - not caused by the drugs. If the drugs caused the visions - then everyone would take them and tell the future. Most who take the drug will suffer hallucinations. The only real difference between a hallucination and a vision is that the latter generally comes true in one form or another.

It is further possible that the Oracles going back to Pythia or even before, had the gift of precognition and discovered by chance or by vision that the drug would enhance the experience, possibly creating the ideal chemical reaction in ones brain to process these images in more vivid detail.

Of course my wild imagination is merely filling the blanks left by the ones that wrote the story to begin with and until they tell us otherwise its as good a theory as any.

What I am saying here is that Laura Roslin has or rather always has had the gift...The day in the doctors office when she learned of her cancer and prognosis, she had a few flashing images go through her mind even then. And the way she gets lost in her thoughts having to be startled back to reality is similar to cylon projection...and even Baltar's imagination, although his is more in the now.


Laura wakes, sits up, goes to the john and takes some meds. Billy asks her if she is ok through the door and that she has an urgent call from the Captain of the Gemenon Traveler. They have found a cylon hiding on board and have captured it and locked under guard.

Most colonials at this point refer to the cylons as 'it' but later when Roslin ends the interrogation she refers to him as 'this man'. Of course she was manipulating both the cylon and Kara at the time.

As she is looking at LeOben's pic while talking to the Cmdr on the phone, she has a flash from her dream. Cmdr Adama orders the Gemenon Traveler to be isolated. He wants the cylon destroyed. Roslin wants the cylon interrogated by someone who won't easily be fooled. Adama protests stating that this model is too manipulative. Roslin then 'orders' Cmdr Adama to interrogate the cylon and he concedes.

Did I miss the episode where he softened on his whole...this is a military matter and I will make the military calls? Perhaps after he made such a stink over searching for Kara that he feels more respect for her. That she gets his point of view. Or he is already getting a crush on her and letting it sway him.

So he picks Starbuck. Why? Well it is her destiny but seriously why? You can't bull shit a bullshitter...that's why. If you have a delinquency issue at your school you get a former delinquent to assist you. If you have a smooth talking walking male model cyber toy who is known for being a bit smug and proud...you send someone just like him...albeit a female human toy but same difference.

Cmdr Adama and Kara discuss the stolen raider and Starbuck goes on about all they have got working on the thing with the FTL just around the corner.

I still don't get how something without a brain can be made to work...so maybe the brain was just the pilot and the raider itself is still a machine. They really need to work that one out for me...It seems if you rip the brain out of a skin job you can't program it to keep walking around so why does it work in the raider. I don't usually poo-poo over this stuff but if it was alive before - it is now dead so it should not be possible that they can make it work.

Mostly because it conflicts with the ideal that the cylons are more alive than we realize. Something I believe the writers and producers want us to realize. Or perhaps its a testament to the various levels of cylon evolution. Perhaps the raiders are just uninvolved enough to be more machine than not.

Now for the fun part - I believe that Scar - was the reincarnated Raider that Kara killed/captured on that planet. His consciousness was ripped from the shell when she removed his brain. That would be traumatic. And would make for one blood thirsty raider. Aka SCAR.

When Adama warns Kara that the LeOben will try to get in her head she replies "It's ok, my mom always said there was nothing in there anyways".

{Random Theories/questions Triggered}
Have the cylons ever been to their home world? How do we know it even exists? How far away was the Hub? The Colonials had to jump with the Cylons but the Hub jumps too. The Hub must follow the cylons or they can just jump really far in those Basestars. The Basestars regenerate and bleed. (Season 4) So what about the other ships? Raiders yes, heavy raider? Res Ship?

And are there a set number of copies for each model - both in spares and those active at one time? Are the cylon Skinjobs in possession of the original Centurion 'Souls'? Are they the primary copy of each model? Or were those original Souls perhaps the source of the final 5 or the Guardians? Will they ever tell us??
{End Randomness}

Later on Boomer visits and hums to the broken raider again. Wondering to Tyrol if what she said about treating it like a pet vs a machine worked...Tyrol said it did and asked her how she thought of it. She says - I am a cylon - he says that's not funny. She asks if she could prove she wasn't a cylon would it make a difference to the chief as far as their relationship was concerned? He didn't answer and she walked off.

We all know what a basket case Boomer was after resurrecting. (Season 2) Finding out her life was a lie and that the lie forced her to betray the ones she loved like family. Add to that the fleets later acceptance of Athena, and the way Helo's love for Athena saved her life - vs Tyrol just dumping Boomer, I would say that Boomer is a classic broken heart who even now struggles to fit in by joining up with Cavil...and he is so sweet..cough..calls her his pet Eight. (Season 4)

Meanwhile Starbuck is on board a Raptor getting permission to dock with the Gemenon Traveler. We then see her outside the makeshift brig discussing with the guard how human the cylon looks both on the inside and out when she notes the model is sweating. She finds it interesting. Then enters and asks LeOben if he is sleeping, he says he is praying.

He ignores her questions about cylons and bombs, asking her name after introducing himself. She prods him further while he tries to play her mind by guessing her name. Though he calls her Lt Starbuck not Thrace. Says he 'saw' her, he knew this time would come and now they can talk. Says he planted a nuclear warhead to go off at 1830 hrs. He refers to her superiors as her masters.

Adama orders radiological sweeps of all ships. Starbuck tells Adama and the President that he guessed her call sign. Adama believes he could have heard it anywhere. LeOben starts giving Starbuck details about herself like the gods she prays too being Artemis and Aphrodite. {There is a funny inside joke to be had here.}

He then says To Know the Face of God is to Know Madness. He says he 'sees' the universe and he 'sees' the patterns. Goes on to tell her that he has a secret to tell her about the future but that they have to see this through to the end. Then lunch comes.

He is clearly hungry but keeps talking about faith whiles she eats in front of him. He then asks for the food. He hasn't eaten for days and says the cylons choose to feel hungry or in pain to be more human. The guard then hits him. LeOben says it hurt. Starbuck explains the way a human would feel pain and that he can't turn it off or admit he is a machine. Then he challenges her to "let the games begin".

Why were people more affronted at Gina being beaten than this LeOben? You take out the rapes and her treatment wasn't all different than what Starbuck does to LeOben, he just got put out of his misery sooner. Hindsight is 20/20 and of course we saw the cheap thrills the Peggy crew was getting from torturing Gina vs the ethical quandary that Starbuck goes through even before she is done with him.

So perhaps I was less bothered by this than the other because of how the torturers felt about it after. It is not the action that bothers me so much as the reaction by those that did it. I guess. LOL (Beings this is not real) And too with Gina - she was not just interrogated for a few days then locked up or airlocked - she was turned into a sex toy for the crew...and that's just shitty.

Back in the lab Baltar is studying tissue samples while Head Six gives him a neck massage. She says "look what the cat dragged in" when Boomer shows up at the Hatch.

Baltar puts his suave on while Head Six asks him if he has ever wondered why she is called Boomer? Boomer then starts to ask about the cylon detector. He says its hush hush, and asks her why they call her Boomer. She ignores him and asks to be put in the first batch. When prompted by head 6 he asks her what her rush is and makes excuses about not playing favorites...if he is even working on anything.

Boomer then reminds him how her ECO gave up his seat and that she brought Baltar back to Galactica...saving his life and that he now 'owes' her. Head six smiles and says...'she shoots...she scores'.

Head six wants him to do it as the results will be quite interesting. he says they aren't ready yet for large scale testing but could use a Beta test subject. It is really not clear at this point if Head Six knows that Boomer is a sleeper or just knows she is a cylon or if she is just guessing...I think she knows...but I don't think the cylons know about her - Head Six.

Back on Caprica... the other Sharon is watching Helo sleep while the Six and Doral walk through a playground commenting that Sharon is late. When Doral comments on Six referring to this model as 'Sharon' Six states she prefers to think of Sharon as one of 'them' the humans, not because she doesn't like her but because 'in the grand scheme of things, we are what we do...and if she acts like one of them and she thinks like one of them...she is one of them."

That is an interesting statement sort of like if it walks like a duck...and it follows to say that the more the cylons are around humans...the more they all begin to exhibit all manner of human behavior, therefore making them more human. Not all humans are well behaved of course.

Like Kirk said...'We are all human' and whether or not Spock finds it insulting or not...being Human has nothing to do with your species and everything to do with your behavior.

Human should equal humane since the words are related. Sadly it doesn't, but someday perhaps it will. Even the cylons found it inhumane for the resistance fighters on New Caprica to leave them, the cylons to die slowly. Of course putting a drill bit in a guys ear is perfectly ok. LOL For Deanna. {Season 3}

Athena arrives at the swing set and tells them she had sex with Helo. Six wants to know if he has professed his love for her. Athena says no but that she thinks he does love her despite Six insisting that he say it out loud.

It is not clear if this is the Caprica Six that saved Baltar or the "Are you Alive" Armistice six we have seen killed twice now. Her obsession with hearing the words "I love you" leads me to think this is Caprica Six the one that saved Baltar. The other Six only says "Are you Alive?" LOL

Doral then tells Athena they have set up a nice love nest and she has to convince Helo to set up house there or she must kill him. When asked if she can handle it, Athena doesn't answer, she just leaves them thinking she will handle it then runs toward Helo, and tells him they have to run now. Even faster than before. "Trust me" she says.

Kara is still with LeOben trying to get him to give up the nuke. Now he is telling her he is God. She laughs. He begins to preach about how humans wasted the love of God and that is why God created the Cylons. The Marines leave and LeOben tells her what he could do before they get back. Then he does it...breaking his bonds...and pinning Kara to the wall with one hand.

Cylons have super human strength but they rarely use it...perhaps it is against their religion. I wonder why Gina didn't fight back so they would just kill her. Maybe she really loved Cain and couldn't bear the guilt over betraying her trust or maybe she was just as brokenhearted that Cain could do order those things to be done to her and lost her will to live. Or fighting back would be considered suicide.

I suppose even cylons can be weakened to being unable to fight back - she was shackled also. But it just seemed like they choose not to fight back when they are perfectly able to...like the Amish. Or its more likely that they have learned that humans cannot be beaten one on one. Perhaps explaining the original attacks. Perhaps they are just as unpredictable as humans? Perhaps its guilt over the devastation that stops them. Most likely it is a belief that they must not use that strength as it is too machine like.

Adama visits the first 'dead' LeOben in the morgue. The one from Ragnor Anchorage. Time is running out so he orders that the fleet distance themselves from each other. Whichever ship has the nuke will be far enough away from the others to minimize damage. He stands over the body with the phone receiver in his hand clearly thinking about pummeling the cylon with the handset. He doesn't.

Meanwhile Starbuck tries water torture on LeOben who mentions her destiny. They discuss cylon resurrection. And cyborg technology. He swears he has a soul. And begins to mention Kara's mother. He has Kara's attention. He strikes a nerve giving vivid details about her childhood and the things her mother used to tell her...and do to her...so she tells the marines to start again. LeOben stops resisting. He seems to be enjoying his torture. Perhaps its the smugness of having envisioned these events, and having them come true?

Back in the lab, Baltar tells Boomer it will only take a few minutes to test if she is a cylon. She mentions being from Troy - not Aerelon - a mining colony. And her whole family was killed in a well known accident.

Now Head Six appears to point out the test results and wonders if Baltar will tell her and if Boomer will react well...that most likely Boomer doesn't even know she is a cylon and that her cylon nature will probably take over and break his neck before he can tell anyone. So Baltar panics as usual and changes the results. He send Boomer on her way happily thinking she is no cylon. In later episodes he states the test actually takes 11 hrs per person. Probably a plot rewrite to make it seem a more daunting task.

{Theories}
Why didn't Baltar go to Adama? Perhaps his head six doesn't want him too. But it is more likely that he was just being lazy and avoiding the effort of having to testify against Boomer - whom did save his life sort of. Helo did technically. Of course now that Baltar let Boomer go she is now free to shoot the Old Man at the end of season 1. We could postulate that Baltar could have prevented it but could he? How do we know that Boomer would not have activated the moment exposed and killed everyone in the room?
{End Theories}

On Colonial One Laura Roslin takes a nap and has another dream about LeOben - he says he has something to tell her. she wakes and makes arrangements to go see the cylon.

Kara is not getting anywhere with the torture. LeOben is getting better at holding his breath and at getting into Kara's head. He quotes scripture about how All this has happened before and all will happen again. He then tells her that her role this time around is to deliver his soul unto God. That they (the fleet I assume) will find Kobol and the way to Earth.

In walks Roslin. Who asks what is happening and seems to be playing the "Good Cop" role chastising Kara for not getting anywhere torturing 'that man'. She begins to make LeOben promises. Removes his shackles. Mentions peace between their peoples. "Tell me what I need to know - and you will live".

Roslin makes this promise and breaks it over an over again. And not just to Cylons. She is way too good at playing politics for a former teacher. If anyone on this show has a dark past they are hiding its Roslin...and not just the affair she had with Adar. (Deleted Scenes.)

LeOben then states the bomb was a ruse, that Kara was right, he was afraid they were too far away from a resurrection ship and he was stalling for time. {Sort of tells us the Cylon Fleet needed time to catch up but are near.} He then asks her to take pity on Kara for doing her job, pauses and then hugs her - freaking out the guards while whispering to Roslin "Adama is a cylon". He lets her go and steps back.

When the bomb doesn't go off the President orders him airlocked. Kara protests that she can't do that after promising...Roslin says "yes I can and I will". Roslin then makes a speech about dangerous machines and not keeping them around.

Kara walks up to the glass and places her hand over LeOben's. In the subtitles it seems Kara tells LeOben telepathically or perhaps she lipped it and I missed it...that she will pray for him..."You promise?"..."I promise"...because then LeOben does just as he did in Roslin's dream...lowering his head then raising it as he is sucked in the blackness of space. Afterward Kara prays to her deities for his soul - if he has a soul - to be cared for and presumably delivered to his God.

At the end in Cmdr Adama's quarters, he questions Roslin's motives for going there in the first place...she says that President Adar once said "The interesting thing about being president....is you don't have to explain yourself to anyone." The Cmdr just smiles. Remember he didn't like Adar. But he clearly likes Laura. Whether or not this is good for the fleet remains to be seen.

***

Thank you for reading
~99

^Additional^ notes copied from http://en.BattlestarWiki.org regarding this episode - full text is available here.

* Conoy to Starbuck, towards the end of his interrogation, just before Roslin's arrival:

Conoy: Each of us plays a role; each time a different role. Maybe the last time I was the interrogator and you were the prisoner. The players change, the story remains the same. And this time – this time – your role is to deliver my soul unto God. Do it for me. It’s your destiny. And mine. (He pauses) And I told you I had a surprise for you. Are you ready? You are going to find Kobol, birthplace of us all. Kobol will lead you to Earth. This is my gift to you, Kara.

***

In the next episode, 'Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down' the estranged and assumed dead wife of Colonel Tigh is alive and well. Her appearance coincides with a stray Cylon Raider and stirs things up like a Brothel Madame at Temple.

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Thank you for reading,
~99

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