Please be aware that this post contains detailed spoilers for episode 18 (4.20)

(“Islanded in a Stream of Stars”) of the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica so do not read on if you have not seen the episode and do not want to be spoiled

One Sentence Review

A Welcome Return to form and sets up the finale nicely

Plot Summary

The episode opens with Hera projecting that she is on the bridge and plays with a model of galactica that she collides with a baseship. On Galactica a 6 and a human member of the return team bicker until an 8 breaks them up we then see another part of the bulkhead fail.

In Adama’s quarters Adama, Lee and Starbuck meet with Ellen, Tigh and Tory and they ask him and Lee to authorise a rescue mission for Hera who they believe is vital to the survival of both races. Adama is dismissive being fed up with “destiny” and the situation they are in. Adama eventually agrees to let a Heavy Raider scout the site and Helo and Athena are not to be told. At the same time Helo is trying to comfort Athena who is distraught.

We then cut to the Opera House and the dream of Hera being taken by Caprica 6 and Baltar. While Roslin talks to Adama a Bulkhead fails completely leading to several deaths in the repair crews when it opens out to space.

When the repair crew chief reports to Adama he says that the Galactica can only last another 5 jumps at best before it is destroyed. Adama also receives word that the cylons want to know when he will transfer his flag to the baseship. At the meeting of fleet captains after initial opposition to the idea of transfer to the baseship, the captains start taking “dibs” on galactica’s parts assuming it will be broken up, until Lee reminds them that nothing will happen until the Admiral tells them they can, to which a Fleet Captain responds what does Baltar say to that to Lee’s incredulity.

In Baltars latest transmission (heard by Starbuck) he talks about Angels guiding them and how he sees them. He then sees Caprica 6 taking food and tries to talk to her and offers her support, she then says he has not changed while she has and she walks away from a visibly upset Baltar.

In sickbay a dying 8 asks to speak to Tigh who she views as her father and as she dies she says “too much confusion” leaving Tigh shocked.

We then cut to Boomers raptor which jumps in close to a Jupiter like Gas Giant. Hera is crying asking for her mum, after initially threatening to drug Hera to put her to sleep, Boomer stops and thinks about what she is doing.

In Tighs quarters he looks for a drink while Ellen tries to get him to take more action in the search for Hera. Ellen tries to convince Tigh that the humanoid cylons are his children and that he has millions of children while comforting him over Liams loss.

After another jump in the raptor, Boomer tries to get Hera to eat and starts to comfort her and is surprised to find that Hera can join in with her projections.

In a restroom on Galactica, Starbuck mocks Baltar over his angel speech, she eventually tells him what happened to her and gives him her original dogtags to run tests on. Starbuck then goes to see Anders who has been put into a hybrids tank in order to try to heal him given his cylon nature. After an 8 leaves she pulls a gun on him and gets ready to kill him to put him out of his memory and is shocked when he grabs her hand stopping her and starts speaking like a hybrid on a basestar. It then becomes clear that he has interfaced with Galactica like the Hybrids do on basestars.

In sickbay Roslin tries to convinve Adama that it is time to get everyone off Galactica or he may lose both the “women” he cares about at the same time. We then cut to Baltar running tests and back to Anders where Tigh orders him taken off line in case he has interfaced with the FTL drives.

It then cuts to a report on the scouting mission and we find that Cavil moved the colony about 5 months ago just prior to the start of the cylon civil war and they have no idea where it is. Later Helo tries to convince Adama to let him and Athena take out a Raptor to search for Hera but he refuses and  continues on to the funeral for the recent deaths.

After Adama dismisses the people at the funeral Baltar starts to speak, and tells everyone about Starbuck and how she returned from the dead. Starbuck responds by slapping him and walks off to the wall of the dead. Lee meets her there and tells her that it does not matter to him and all that matters is that they are both here at the present time.

We then cut to a massive cylon facility when Boomer jumps in and lands after passing what appear to be original cylon raiders (See Image). After she lands she is greeted by Cavil who is sorry he wont be able to see Ellens face when she realises she has been played. Boomer gives Hera to Cavil , but Hera wants Boomer leaving Boomer in tears.

Adama walks through Galactica’s Halls and removes his Admirals pins and walks to his quarters where he throws paint on the walls and breaks down. Back with Anders, Starbuck plugs him back in, in order to try to find out why she is there and what the pattern is in the music.

Back in Adama’s quarters Tigh arrives and Adama tells Tigh that he has made some decisions and starts by saying he is stopping all repairs on the ships. He then moves on to say that he wants Galactica stripped and everything offloaded by the end of the week. Tigh tries to stop him but eventually agrees after Adama tells him the ship never let him down so they will send her off in style. The episode ends with them toasting Galactica the best ship in the fleet then sitting in silence.

My Thoughts and Speculation

From the way this episode shaped up it looks like Galactica will be destroyed in the last episode presumambly by ramming the cylon colony. Like the last 2 episodes their where no real answers aside from it looking like Starbuck did return from the dead rather than being a cylon which raises the question about Baltars miraculously surviving a nuclear blast which killed Caprica 6 way back in the pilot/mini-series and it is  possible something similar happened to him. I felt that this episode gelled together alot better than the previous episodes and there was little that felt out of place and no sudden changes of pace.

My main problem with the episode is that there was no mention of what happened to Tyrol following his freeing of Boomer, I am assuming that he was thrown in the brig explaining his abscence but a line somewhere to explain if that is the case would have been nice. Boomer is also looking like a character who will die but will do so in a way that redeems herself in someway and it will likely happen when Cavil goes too far with Hera. I also noted that the planet she jumped into initially looked a lot like Jupiter and that the cylon colony facility (I assume thats what it was) looked like it had original Raiders parked for some reason. It is possible they are a legacy from when the facility was originally built or it may be that due to losses they are again having to use them.

The main purpose of this episode though seemed to be dealing with Adama reluctantly accepting that he has to let Galactica go and that she can no longer be saved, the only question is will it be a peaceful or destructive death.

They also seem to be setting the scene for a Caprica 6 and Baltar reconciliation given their conversations in this episode. I am just waiting for them both to see a Head Character at the same time. Baltar has also gone public with what he has been seeing so another question is will one of the final five remember about what Anders said about seing people or remember for themselves and take action.

With the final episode rapidly approaching I hope that some of the questions get conclusive answers and there are not too many loose threads, though I will understand if a few are left to be answered in the spin off series Caprica

Episode Rating

9/10 – A Dialog Heavy episode but sets the scene nicely for the finale