A Warning on the Watchtower, in a Spellbinding Season 3 Finale for Battlestar Galactica ("Crossroads, Part 2")

"There must be some kind of way out of here," mumbles Tigh, his ear pressed tightly to the metal walls of his cabin, straining to hear the melody that's driving him mad. Chief, always oddly spiritual, doesn't fight it. He's just sleepwalking, wondering, listening to something only he can hear, falling into a trance as he leans his cheek against cold metal. Tory and Anders lose themselves in grief and sex, trying to ignore the "something else" nagging at them from all around the edges. Until they're all standing in a circle, staring at one another, and at the truth of a single revelation: They are the enemy.

What an episode. What an ending to Season 3.

Baltar heard music of his own this week -- the welcome sound of a "not guilty" verdict. While it enraged poor Roslin, and pitted her against Adama with a venom that will probably continue to echo into next season, it was the right outcome.

And Lee's unexpected and beautiful speech on the stand -- delivered pitch-perfectly by Jamie Bamber, was what set Baltar free. Bamber is one of those quiet, serviceable actors who can always be depended on, yet I suspect he tends to be overlooked because he does tend to play things a bit under the radar (or DRADIS). So major props to Bamber for his performances over the past two episodes, which have just been sensational, absolutely on par with the best acting this series has ever seen. Bamber's heartbreak in questioning Roslin last week (and her whispered "don't do this" was as devastating as it was manipulative) was palpable -- his voice broke noticeably when he asked her why she was taking the healing hallucinogen chamalla. You could see and feel the affection, the pain, and the betrayal on both sides. Roslin, whose "Captain Adama" had helped to save Colonial One so long ago... and Lee, seeing secrets everywhere, fearing Roslin's blindness as he fears his father's.

And then this week, when called upon to ask why Baltar should be found not guilty, there was Lee, once again trusted to say the hard truth, and to say it with withering force, in a gorgeous speech that features some of the best writing of the season:

"What would you have done? If [Baltar] had refused to surrender, the
Cylons would've probably nuked the planet right then and there. So did he appear to cooperate with the Cylons? Sure. So did hundreds of others. What's the difference between him and them? The president issued a blanket pardon. They were all forgiven. No questions asked.

"Colonel Tigh? Colonel Tigh used suicide bombers, killed dozens of people. Forgiven. Lieutenant Agathon and Chief Tyrol? They murdered an officer on the Pegasus. Forgiven. The Admiral...The Admiral instituted a military coup d'etat against the President. Forgiven.

"And me? Well, where do I begin? I shot down a civilian passenger ship. The Olympic Carrier. Over a thousand people on board. Forgiven. I raised my weapon to a superior officer, committed an act of mutiny. Forgiven. And then on the very day when Baltar surrendered to those Cylons, I, as Commander of Pegasus, jumped away. I left everybody on that planet alone, undefended, for months! I even tried to persuade the Admiral never to return. To abandon you all there for good. If I'd had my way, nobody would've made it off that planet. I'm the coward. I'm the traitor. I'm forgiven."

These were words that desperately needed saying. This entire season, Baltar's been so easy to demonize, so easy to torture and hate, while so many other profoundly troubling behaviors and actions went by the wayside (forgiven). Baltar's no saint -- he is certainly one of this show's villains -- but he's a hauntingly human one, a screwup, a weak, vain little man whose biggest evil is probably the fact that he doesn't mean to do anything truly horrible... he just can't say no. The tantalizing humanity of the man, those glimmers of real insight and goodness, the very real possibility of Baltar's redemption -- those are the things that keep me riveted and invested in the character. I still think Baltar may find his way to the light.

And how ironic, and how tragic, was it that Baltar was betrayed by Gaeta, who committed perjury on the stand over the one truly heroic moment Baltar has ever had? How ironic that Baltar took a stand against the Cylons over the death lists and refused to sign. Refused when the gun was leveled in his face. Refused over and over again when Doral threatened pain and death. Refused even when Doral shot his beloved Caprica Six right in front of his face. Only when Doral put the burning hot muzzle of the gun to his temple, screaming, did Baltar relent, sobbing. It was a horrible moment, one I've never forgotten, not least because Baltar tried so hard, and hung in there for so much longer than I suspect many would have (and it's worth noting that his death would have afforded no one any protection -- the Cylons would have kept shooting until the next puppet signed, that's all).


For some, the act of capitulation here signifies cowardice. For me, however, it capped one of Baltar's few genuinely heroic moments. He tried, he actually tried, to be brave, to hang in there, to be the man he pretended to be. So when Gaeta took that away from him, Baltar's heartbreak, the sadness in his "Oh, Felix, what have you done?" was palpable. Gaeta has every reason to hate Baltar. But Baltar himself encouraged Gaeta to shoot him in the evacuation of New Caprica, and Gaeta relented, letting Baltar go so that he could prevent the nuke being set by D'Anna (Three) -- a mission that succeeded when Three found Hera.

Even with the music of a Not Guilty verdict, I don't think Baltar will ever quite recover from the events of this season. He has always seemed squirrelly, a man on the edge of a breakdown. But as Season 3 wound down, this Baltar seemed broken. Taunted and ostracized by the Fleet, huddled over his small box of belongings as he darted through the hallways, Baltar is more of an outsider than ever. As he is carried off by his few supporters (and cray-zee religious supporters at that), Baltar's situation doesn't look much better than it ever does.

And even as Baltar was rushed away, music, hauntingly vague and just out of reach, curled its way like smoke through the metal bones of the Galactica this week, and when four unlikely suspects followed its siren song, they found themselves confronting something they'd never suspected.

"We're Cylons," said Chief, staring.


Tyrol, Anders, Tory, and Tigh? Really?


The news hits them all differently. Tyrol is dreamlike, quiet, accepting; this news is the voice of his dreams; it's why he recognized the home of the Eye of Jupiter; it's why he loved Boomer. Or so he will tell himself. Anders is the quickest to understand... and the first to freak out, as well, as the revelations come fast and furious. Not after Caprica. Not after New Caprica, the rebellion, the Circle, Starbuck. And Tory just looks small and numb, terrified at the distance between what she loves -- Roslin, service -- and what she is, what she may betray.

But no. Tigh cannot be a facsimile, a copy, a replica of anything or anyone. He's too strong, too unique, and he's lost too much. Tigh, the man so human and fragile and flawed and magnificent, he's practically Shakespearean.

And yet here, he rises to the occasion with all Tigh's trademark grit and poetry. He glares at each of them through the venom of his one eye, his face a mask of pain, rage, and loyalty. And he says: "My name is Saul Tigh. I am an officer in the Colonial Fleet. Whatever else I am... whatever else it means, that's the man I want to be. And if I die today, that's the man I'll be."

And yeah, there's only one response to that. I did both -- cheered, and wept.

Marc Bernardin over at EW (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20015293,00.html) said it wonderfully last week:

"Michael Hogan, gods damn it, may actually be the best actor on a show full of great actors. Because he never shows off. You never see him doing it. He just shows up and...hurts. Right there in plain sight."

And what does the nebula have to do with this? Did it activate the four Cylons in some way? Or simply bring to light some subversive programming planted in them perhaps while they were imprisoned on New Caprica?

I loved that Kara's back, and that it's as much of a mindfrack as ever. Is she alive? Lee did see her on DRADIS even if as an "Unknown" entity. And why the shiny new Viper? And where did she get it? And can anyone else see her? Until we know for sure, my money's on Starbuck being a ChipStarbuck similar to the oddly divine apparitions seen by Six, Baltar, and Kara over the past three seasons.

Ultimately, the season 3 finale of Battlestar Galactica was a mindblower, the ultimate mindfrack. There are a lot of differing opinions out there about Season 3 -- was it a success? Does it measure up to Seasons 1 and 2? For me, it's no contest: It was a gorgeous season, sure occasionally uneven ("The Woman King" was definitely one of the stinkers of the season), but it hit sublime highs that were among the show's all-time best. The occupation of New Caprica by the Cylons, with its creepy echoes of World War II, the firing squads, Kara's disturbing imprisonment, the gorgeous, shattering joy as Adama came back to rescue his people, oh, I loved it all. I also loved so much rich character evolution -- the mystery of what drove Kara Thrace, Three's increasing preoccupation with the human questions of what lay beyond death (and her willingness to explore this even if it meant dying a thousand deaths to find out), Baltar's continued disintegration into madness, ChipSix's increasingly mysterious abilities to tap into the divine, Sharon's acceptance by the Fleet... all these things made me care more, watch more closely, each week.

Most of all, I loved the glimpse behind the wizard's curtain, the ways in which we got to know the Cylons for who they are (and who they are striving to become) -- the mysterious Basestars, the concept of projection, the differences between the Cylon models, the introduction of the mystery of the Hybrid, the elusive visions of those Final Five.

As Season Three ends, with Earth so tantalizingly close, I'm with those who think this season will hold up even better on DVD, and that its breakneck speed gave us an anomaly on TV -- a plot that progressed, week to week, a story that only grew richer with each passing chapter.


And now there are all these questions... the music, the Four, Starbuck's return... and that crazy appearance of "All along the Watchtower." I know the song's use here was a deal-breaker for some (many, even, who feel its use heralds that appearance by Fonzie along with some waterskis and a toothy water predator). I'm sure there are BSG fans out there right now in emergency rooms being treated for massive eyeroll in response to the revelation of what that song actually was.


But me, I loved it. It was brassy and ballsy and creative and ridiculous, a real leap of faith, and I loved it. The moment Tori, Tigh, Anders and Chief began speaking the lines aloud, I laughed aloud, joyfully, at the perfection of it.


"Watchtower" worked for me here in the same way references to Yeats's sublime "The Second Coming" always work whenever there's a threat to the end of the world in some movie or book (King is obviously in love with it as well, for instance, quoting it frequently in The Stand). Like "The Second Coming," "Watchtower" is a poem, a warning, and a threat. It's a song with strong archetypes and stronger apocalyptic overtones, about kings, thieves and fools. It's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. It's the horseshoe nail that lost the kingdom. It's a song about something on the horizon, a shadow and a fear. Who or what is the source of the song? Who's listening -- and who's broadcasting?

"Watchtower" is the sound of the divine, the roar of distant thunder. Something's coming, perhaps it's even "some rough beast, its hour come round at last." What is it? What's waiting to be born?

It's just too bad we'll have to wait for 2008 to figure out what.