Battlestar Galactica 1.9 - Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down (Discussion/Spoilers)

[Ravenseye]

From www.scifi.com
"President Roslin's fears that Commander Adama is a Cylon are stoked when she learns he's making secret wireless calls to other ships. Then, to make things worse, a single Cylon raider appears near the Galactica and begins acting strangely after being damaged in battle.

When Adama returns to the ship with Tigh's wife, Ellen, an earthy temptress and irrepressible flirt who claims to have been in a coma since their civilization was destroyed, Roslin's suspicions increase. She orders Baltar to screen both Ellen and Adama with his newly completed Cylon-detector.

Meanwhile, Col. Tigh and the rest of the crew watch warily and gather data as the wounded Cylon raider jumps in and out of space.

On Caprica, the Cylon overseers fear that the Cylon Sharon is developing a strange feeling toward Helo — love."

Another solid episode in my opinion. This show keeps impressing me. I also like that it's not afraid to get a little dirty and (even with a parental notification warning prior to the segment) show Baltar being a bit naughty with himself. Starbuck's reaction was spot on.

So now the cylon detector just reads green for everyone. Is it because Baltar doesn't want to deal with it? Also, they said it takes 11 hours. Didn't he do Boomer's much faster? Is Tigh's wife a cylon or just unbearable. You really get a look into why Tigh is the way he is and how his wife must have really fucked him over in the past, drinking, cheating on him constantly I'd imagine.

I also liked the 'make out' observation deck. Kandyse McClure (Dualla) might not be the best actress I've ever seen, she's stunningly beautifull I think. Her eyes are amazing.

[Love Bug]

1. It was a good ep

It was nice to see a little humor surface. Is Tigh's wife a cylon? Who knows? All we know is she is one crazy bitch.

And the cylon detector: do you really think Six was going to let that work? I don't think Baltar is going to risk losing Six or letting his ass be thrown in jail again for crossing her or blaspheming god, so everyone gets to be green. His lack of finding any cylons can always be attributed to the fact it would take years to test everyone. However, I'll bet he won't have any problem giving a false positive to someone who gets too close to the truth regarding him or becomes a threat to the cylon's plan.

[Ravenseye]

2. I think you're right about Baltar and the cylon detector

It's going to be something he can leverage for power. One of the plot lines that's developing definately seems to be that of putting Baltar in a bigger and bigger position of power.

They've had a false accusation against him from someone they suspected was a cylon (by dissapearing)so now they trust him, and think the cylons don't want him to do his work.

Now he's got the one machine that can detect whether someone is good or evil, essentially. He's an oracle, one trusted by the president, and the military leader. Sure they think he's odd, but they think he's solidly behind mankind.

That type of power, where he can declare anyone he wants a cylon, declare anyone else human...that's huge.

As far as Tigh's wife, I also thought it was interesting to see someone reacting a bit differently to the destruction of the human race. Everyone so far has reacted very seriously to it, both human and cylon. It's a huge thing to go from 100 billion or more people to under 50 thousand. Yet here's a woman (or cylon...) who is sort of a 'hey how you doin, lets drink, ha ha ha, more to drink, hey cutie, ha ha ha' type. I mean cause really even if she is human, here's a woman who was a drunken slut before the destruction...how many people like that would just suddenly get serious aftewards? Many I would think, but there would have to be some that would just continue to have the same malfunctions as before.

[Beetwasher]

3. Yeah, This Was A Fun Episode

Things are gonna get nutty w/ Ellen aboard...He he he...There's starting to soap opera it up a bit with her, I think...

So, the Cylon detector DOES work, but Baltar is going to make it read green for everyone? So only HE will know who the Cylons are? I didn't quite make out what was said right at the end by Six and Baltar to eachother except that everyone is going to be green. Can someone fill me in on the actual dialogue? Also, are we to assume it's Baltar's idea to just read everyone green?

Also, just an interesting little thing, on Caprica, when Six was discussing Boomer's "love" for Helo and she CHOKED UP!!! Hmmm, interesting...

Also, I really liked the scene between Tigh and Adama AFTER the Cylon fighter was blown up, where Adama thanked Tigh for being on the ball and said something like "We're friends and I don't want anything to get between that, including Ellen..."

Just damn good acting, character development and, well, EVERYTHING. This show is just friggin' great!

[Ravenseye]

4. Yeah I wonder about Caprica Six

She obviously was choked up talking about love...

so the question is....is she the same six model that was with Baltar on Caprica in the first place?

She's obviously different than the one that showed up in person on Galactica.

The thing is. If she were in contact with Baltar, in his head, would she still get choked up about it?

My guess is that 'Caprica' six is the same one as with Baltar originally, and she loved him. She protected him as much as she could. Now she misses him, because she indeed did love him. The thing is that means she's not in touch with Baltar on board the Galactica. This means that Baltar is either hallucinating or is a cylon himself. I'm going to say he's completely hallucinating, his mind snapped when he though himself responsible for the deaths of 100 billion people. If he were a cylon, why would six 'miss' him?

Then again. The whole god thing going on with Baltar and Six seems to parrellel some other cylon behavior such as the one last episode...Which leads me to think that Baltar is somehow in communication with Cylon Six...through chip in his brain or something more sinister, or that he is in fact a cylon.

So many possibilities and it's still building up. Great story.

[Beetwasher]

5. It Depends On How The Cylons Work

Caprica's Six may be the same one that was PHYSICALLY w/ Baltar, so, even though the Cylons may be in touch w/ Baltar via a chip in his head (or something) SHE'S not w/ him, and therefore misses him.

I think that the Cylons do in fact have some sort of link w/ Baltar through an implant of sorts and can keep tabs on him and that he's not insane and hallucinating. That's how they knew to send the OTHER Six to Gallactica, for example (what DID happen to her? How did she disappear???).

I'm going to go out on a limb here (well, not much of a limb) and say that there is a Central Computer that controls ALL Cylons, or at the very least is CONNECTED to all Cylons. They've alluded to this in that the Cylons DO have an uplink that keeps them in contact. That Central Computer is their "god". However, each Cylon has SOME degree of independence and can develop on their own. And some have developed human traits, like love (Boomer and Six). I suspect this development will be considered a defect of those models.

[YankeyMCC]

6. Feeling "alive"

I thought the most telling line was when the male cylon on caprica (Don't recall his name) said that the Caprica Boomer must feel "so alive" because of her love for Helo.

On the cylon detector. I don't understand the discrepancy in the minutes it took for Boomer and the 11 hour time they said it takes now either. And at first I was annoyed that "everyone passes" I thought it was a cop-out for not revealing Boomer but I ended up thinking along the same lines as Ravenseye and the growing power of Baltar. By the end of the episode I realized of course Baltar would keep the knowledge to himself because knowledge is power, especially this knowledge, and it is consistent with his character to keep this knowledge to himself until he can use it to best of his advantage. There's going to be a big open betrayal by him in the future. An interesting twist from the original series where the open betrayal happened at the beginning of the series.

Hope that made sense, I typed quickly as I rush to work. :)

[Ravenseye]

7. This Baltar's Betrayal will be so much more powerfull

I think to the original series, and I often compare the basic plots of both the new and old. I know I shouldn't but I can't help it.

In the original series, Baltar was plain evil. Insane. You could tell. Yeah he was a member of the council of twelve, but you never really got any back story. You just saw him acting kinda smarmy saying 'trust the cylons'. He was killed in the 'movie' but when they made the ongoing series, they cut that part out, and used him as the head cylon baddie.

This Baltar...You're seeing his rise to prominence. You're not looking at a totally loony evil guy thinking 'Why are they trusting this bastard?' Sure they started out looking at him as being an eccentric genius, but his power is growing and growing, thanks in part to the cylons helping him gain power....why, we don't know yet...

The betrayal of this Baltar would be hugely felt, and I don't think it'd happen for a while to come. He'll continue to get power, and maybe even start to use that power subtly.

[Ravenseye]

8. Audio Commentary

Keeping this in the episode thread instead of starting a new one. I figure if people are interested in BSG they'll read this thread.

They have audio commentary for the episodes on Scifi.com. You can go and download mp3 audio commentary tracks for each episode and play them while you watch the broadcast. How cool is that?

[YankeyMCC]

9. excellent stuff

I liked all the background he gives on Tigh and Will Adama.