And I’m still hung up on what I feel are some blatant reversals of what’s been developed over the past couple of weeks. The Tyrol stuff was particularly bothersome, and neither Jane Espenson’s comments nor Aaron Douglas’s have changed my mind about that. I get what they’re saying re: the motivation of the character, but I don’t think the episode itself effectively communicated those intentions, or explained the break between Tyrol’s actions here and in “No Exit.” And maybe it’s a simple consequence of something crucial hitting the editing room floor—ditto Adama giving Baltar the guns—but ultimately it’s still a failure of the story as presented in these 43 (or whatever) minutes. And I’m in complete agreement about needing to see and experience the pain of what Adama’s having to adjust his mind to, but revealing it in the same way over and over just felt lazy to me, because we weren’t learning anything new, and it wasn’t moving anything forward. It just turned his whole arc here into one long holding pattern. (Why we wouldn’t see him discussing this with Laura, of all people, is beyond me. I know that we're supposed to assume that a lot of stuff is happening that we just don't see, but sometimes I feel like they leave some really critical pieces on the sidelines.)

And I do love that Ellen and Saul still have that same old dysfunctional human baggage to deal with, but to have her behave so completely like old, human Ellen – discounting everything she recalled last week about empathy and forgiveness and love – to have her blame Saul and Six for believing she was dead when they had no other reason to think otherwise? For falling in love when they had no way of knowing how they were connected? That made no sense to me – and again, it’s mostly because of the disconnect between this and “No Exit.”

I’ll also plead guilty to hating the whole Baltar prophet storyline, so I’m of no use there at all. Likewise, the character of Six has gotten so fragmented for me over the past couple of seasons that I forget who we’re watching when, and I just never bought into this pregnancy. If that makes me a lazy or apathetic viewer on some of these storylines, I’ll accept it. I can’t feel this show any stronger than I already do, or I would probably explode. ☺

So yes, I see this one as mostly a lost opportunity, but I’ll take what we learned from it and move on. And looking at the whole ep. as a way of drawing some sort of line between the past and the future – having them all hit their heads against their own useless prejudices before they can move on – at least gives me a little more hope about where they’re going this Friday.

This certainly wasn't my favorite episode ever, but at this point in the series I'm along for the ride, wherever that goes. i can definitely see where some of the criticisms are coming from, so I'm writing with maximum respect to others who had a different take, but I thought that there were a lot of subtle, important things in this episode, and that most of it worked pretty well from where I was sitting.

First off, I was 100% wrong about Ellen last week, when I predicted that she would be all cool Zen mother lady about the Saul-Caprica6 baby. Couldn't have been more wrong about how that would go.

I really liked watching Gaius having to adapt to the changes in his harem while he was away, and liked him trying to figure out what his own motivations were when he returned (merely regaining control or actually having a message worth speaking?). His actions made sense in light of his recent epiphany about what a little worm he usually is, as well as, um, the reality of what a little worm he usually is! Everything about that rang true – his self-delusions, his manipulative tendencies, as well as his generally vague altruistic ambitions. But I have been finding Prophet Baltar interesting as the season has progressed (which lots of folks obviously haven't), so this just adds to that. I like that Baltar is better than most other characters at adapting to the changing world, and here we see him again adapting – this time to the semi-empowerment of the women of his harem. As far out there as Baltar is, he understands a basic truth that many others have yet to comprehend – that to survive, you must adapt, you must change your approach when things around you change. And he's nothing if not a survivor.

I felt terrible for Caprica 6 basically the whole time – its interesting how C6 has come sort of full circle, from orchestrating the genocide against humanity, to coming to terms with her own mortality, to creating new life that nobody thought possible, and having that life ripped away. What a tragic journey her character has gone through.
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I also liked the quiet scenes of Adama personally overseeing the "upgrades" to Galactica. They didn't seem overdone to me, I got a whole "butterfly and cocoon" vibe – that all these literal and figurative changes are quietly fermenting within the fleet, and that there is a transformation slowly taking place, and that something new is going to emerge. Watching Ellen and Tigh falling back into old patterns of dysfunction (which lead to disaster) was like a metaphor for how the old patterns and habits and animosities have gotten everyone into trouble over and over again. Same for the desire of the cylons to get the heck out of dodge – falling back into old patterns. I thought it worked, for the most part – I think that is is important to examine the old patterns that haven't worked before embarking on something new, and that's what I felt this episode was all about – a final revisiting of all the past dysfunction that led them to that point, and them all having to learn a lesson about the damage that it causes – it gave a lot of folks a chance to learn that lesson on a very personal level. I still have hope for some ray of light, although its getting less and less likely.

Plus, there was humor! And little throwaways like Kara saying "its like watching my parents make out" – which might or might not have any deeper meaning. All in all, I didn't have a problem with this episode, it just made me really curious about what's coming next.

And there were times last night when I actually thought we'd transitioned into another scene, and then realized it was just the camera switching to a different angle — odd, too, since I believe Robert Young directed "Unfinished Business," which was one of my favorites. Or maybe it was how they edited it together. But there just wasn't much that worked for me last night.