S04E08 - Sine Qua Non Episode Discusion <spoilers>

Television, Movies Games and Books BSG-2003
#21

or if this is easier:
MD2: bf6f889f2c584d5f3efdf989752fd5a7
MD4: 385dfa1bf23348a72ba1b41c2a7c9a85
MD5: efb9fa7d6e375d59d94500b0cad31f9d
CRC 8, ccitt, 16, 32 : f5, 4881, e0dc, dbb7c40f

CRYPT (form: $ MD5? $ SALT $ CRYPT):
$1$rSKFNq70$FrTkiG3CjIpsQvBvF4Cv…
(form: SALT[2] CRYPT[11]):
psZIjII0GM7V.

SHA1: ab698b7afaea249a76151061fa55c09736f89908
RIPEMD-160:
2566add4 76c4c8ec 2319c4fa 208dc576 a4bff64c
SHA2-256:
b9fbc5189d176eb148b317631b7e167c
c2e0eeee60f234a6152144d9a93a0e3c
SHA2-384:
9743a13448ee56d04dd959565ec57179
64462eb66ab2ce532ddc6a6eb4058bae
a0ab4981ca0840b0834ee6e6d23caa67
SHA2-512:
f28279360a4be363a7d98e304056e13b
9ce79d8047a14aa6a63ba6b24273b613
ae55746b85e7e5d7b4669a3414962467
725242e6e5d77f413b3a13f8bdf7e880

#22

Wow, that was a great episode.

#23

59.8% :frowning: may have to wait till tomorrow morning.

#24

The main story has almost ground to a halt over the past few episodes, but they can’t keep momentum forever (even though they said they were going to).
Regardless, this was still a great episode if in nothing other than the “twists and turns” department.

[spoiler]

  1. It seems extremely unlikely that the crippled base ship with Roslin et al, has already jumped to the Hub and kicked its ass. This is what Tigh surmises based on the wreckage, but I’m not buying it. Plus, I don’t care how many budget constraints they have, I just can’t believe such a battle would be completely omitted from the screen.

  2. I am more unnerved about Romo’s dead cat in a bag than I am about his sticking up Lee. So, is Romo delusional or does he just have a Head Cat?

  3. Adama’s about face was a little rushed and unbelievable. RDM must have been feeling a little lazy that week.

  4. And if I’m not mistaken I think Racetrack makes the first ever BSG reference to artificial gravity when she says the “grav field” is off (on the doomed raptor). Cool, it’s about time!
    [/spoiler]

#25

my thoughts:
[spoiler]1. JAKE is back!
2. So RDM was covering his ass when he said in the podcast that the costume department fraked up and put the admiral pips on Tigh a few episodes ago. :smiley: -My guess, it was shot out of order or was a re-shoot and he didn’t want to spoil us
3. I have the exact same red ball for my puppies that Jake had.
4. awesome episode[/spoiler]

#26

Best part for me was Tigh and his impressive one-eye acting with Bill !

#27

Being from an earlier generation I have no frakkin’ idea how to make one of those cool spoiler boxes, so short of writing an email in Esperanto, I’ll put it this way:

Isn’t the biggest plot news to come out of this that development which has been commented upon the least - That you know who appears to be you know what by you know who? I guess the other you know who, who used to you know what you know who, wasn’t as you know what as the you know who who appears to have caused the you know what. Unless of course, in reality the other you know who is the you know what of you know who’s what.

#28

Um. Could we try the esperanto version?

Spoiler tags like so: [frak]rosebud was his sled[/frak] Except use “spoiler” instead of “frak”

#29

That doesn’t always work. I don’t think people are gonna take me seriously when I tell them to “spoiler off”

#30

Thanks for the instruction.

I don’t know - the “you know who” approach has a certain charm.

#31

I guess I was the only one who found this episode a bit odd…

The directing is odd, the editing is odd… there were a few places that i found the acting a bit odd.

We waited two weeks for this, and it feels like they rushed this one out. But since no one is talking about that, I guess I am the only one…

now for the actual plot

[spoiler]
Even though a lot of us have been saying Lee for president, but they could have done that in a better way. The way it’s edited, from the moment Lee went to Zarek to talk about another candidate, it was clear Lee was the only choice.

So the whole deal with Romo seems forced. Then they throw in Romo pointing a gun at Lee, which I think is a plot device used one too many times on Galactica, but even that seemed really forced.

The only cool thing is that Romo seems to have a head cat…

[/spoiler]

Now, I am in Taiwan, so I get this episode via torrent, and the torrent was for the British version which aired earlier than the States. So I kept thinking if this was just put out there to trick the viewers. I am thinking since they figured the British viewers will get the correctly edited version via the internet anyway, they should just do this to throw people off.

That’s my wishful thinking of course. Because it’s hard for me to imagine that Battlestar Galactica can veer so far from its usual excellent editing style and tempo.

#32

I totally agree with you hansioux, this episode was really odd. At times it didn’t felt like Galactica for me. And I also got the episode via torrent (no way I would wait like a year till is broadcast in Brazil), but I don’t think that they would put out a different version. EZTV is pretty acuratte when it comes to rips. It’s not skyone or sci-fi who puts these torrents out, it’s normal people like us.

[spoiler] I liked the episode although I also think they spent way to much time on Romo and Lee "figuring out the next president when we all knew that Lee would eventually take the position. Also the dead cat on a bag was pretty creepy, as was Romo suddenly threatening Lee. I really hope that was just his twisted idea of a test, like someone already said.

ANd if Lee becoming president was not a big surprise I didn’t expected Adama to step out of command, specially in such an instable time for the fleet. The man really loves Roslin. And when he was fighting Tigh how come Tigh didn’t use his cylon super-force?

And, how on earth can Tigh makes Six pregnant? These final cylons seem to just switch between cylon and human everytime it’s convenient.[/spoiler]

#33

I didn’t read ANYTHING above, but I just want you all to know it is KILLING ME[SIZE=2][COLOR=silver] every time I come to the GWC forums and there are new posts in this thread. Must. Wait. For. Friday. Willpower. Failing.[/COLOR][/SIZE]

-K

#34

i am still believing that the friday’s show will be totally different from the one I saw via torrent. So you aren’t missing out on ANYTHING.

to PopCandy, I don’t think the EZTV edited weird. I believe the producers edited weird to throw us off, so that on friday everyone in the States can still be shocked. At least that is what I am hoping, otherwise I am gonna have to admit they just rushed this one out…

#35

I’ve already written about how silly some of the parts of the torrent version were. But I doubt they allowed a diminished version to be aired in the UK just to throw off the minority of US audiences that would torrent it.

I mean, I hope you are right because this episode needs some work for sure (would someone please just frakking shoot Lee?! and if Romo was cool before he sure ain’t now). I fear that Friday night the exact same version will air in the US.

#36

I know, my judgment is telling me that’s just how they are going to leave it before the mid-season break, but my heart is begging that i was fooled.

sad really.

i hate to have a un-cool Romo either, they might as well left him out of this and have Zarek figure it out with Lee.

#37

I completely concur.

I think they thought it would be cool if Romo set Lee straight instead of Lee being a fearful leader and not assured of himself, so it was Romo’s task to bring that out in Lee, but it was just terrible TV. I really can’t decide whether the Lee/Romo or the Tigh/Adama storyline was more nonsensical

#38

I have more to say, but for now I leave you all with this.

Elegy to Natalie

An awakening consciousness of moral direction
Contrary to that of the community she loves
Leading a small, decimated yet important section
Of those who share her desire to learn from above

A single shot from the turncoat mother
Shattered the womb of the truth-hungry emissary
The motions, the cries, the efforts of another
Could not retrieve her from the woodland imaginary

To resurrect no more, her model loses a sister
The Sixes without their beloved and courageous guide
Perhaps now to be caught in an unholy twister,
Unbeknownst to humanity her firm heart inside.

True death for the cylon woman Natalie
Concealed behind forests and familiarity.

OK I’m not a poet and I don’t remember how versification works in English, but there you have it.

#39

I’ve thought a lot about this episode during the day and I have to say, I wasn’t quite sure what to think about it right after I saw, but now I’m appalled. The writing really really sucked.

  1. Io9.com has a review for this episode in which they ask why Starbuck is CAG again all of a sudden - that was the least of my worries about this episode

  2. I don’t buy Adama’s behavior. I don’t buy his subjectivity about Roslin and I don’t buy his stepping down from command to do what? Wait in a Raptor? Wait for what? And handing command over to Tigh? TO TIGH? After he had impregnated the enemy? TIGH IS SUPPOSED TO BE FIT FOR COMMAND OF THE FLEET? TIGH IS A NUTCASE RIGHT NOW! The most sensible thing would have been to bring Lee back as commander of the fleet. Anyway, why is Tigh an admiral now? He commands ONE ship.

  3. I feel insulted by the way the presidency issue was handled. THEY WASTED HALF AN EPISODE ON THE LAMPKIN/LEE story when it was CRYSTAL CLEAR that Lee was going to become President in the end, anyway.

  4. Romo Lampkin used to be one of my favorite characters - and now they destroyed him. That wasn’t the Romo we knew from the Season 3 finale. That was just BIZZARO Romo.

  5. WHO THE HELL IS WRITING THIS BULLCRAP? In the one scene, Romo decides to talk to Lee and tells the cat to “come on” and in the next scene, Lee digs around in Romo’s gym bag and finds that the cat has been dead for three weeks? Did Romo kill the cat and then put her into his time machine?

This episode was worse than Black Market because it seriously damaged my belief in the writers’ ability to pull off a great ending for BSG. I can only hope the resurrection hub episodes will be A LOT better.

#40

Mebbe it’s a head cat?