Battlestar Galactica: A Disquiet Follows My Soul

“A Disquiet Follows My Soul” may be the single most apropos episode title in Battlestar Galactica history. After watching this nasty, spiteful little episode filled with nasty, spiteful little people doing nasty, spiteful little things, a disquiet is certainly following my soul. Also, this episode has too many loving close-ups of Edward James Olmos brushing his teeth. If that’s not disquieting, I don’t know what is.

All the good stuff happens in sickbay this episode. While Cottle and Ishay perform an ultrasound on Caprica Six, Caprica rhapsodizes to Tigh about how their spawn, the result of the first-ever successful Cylon/Cylon union, will ensure the survival of the entire Cylon race. An eavesdropping Gaeta, who is nothing but sunshine and joy this episode, bitches ominously to Ishay about how the Cylons are getting all the attention. As if to prove his point, Tyrol rushes in at that moment, in a panic because his son Nicky is peeing blood. Nicky is suffering from acute renal failure and may lose a kidney. While discussing treatment options, Ishay and Cottle let it slip to Tyrol that he’s not Nicky’s father. See? Told you all the good stuff was happening here.

Adama gives an ill-received press conference about a possible permanent alliance with the Cylons. Apollo does a fair amount of grandstanding during this, which leads surly Zarek to quip, “Are you the president again? Sorry, I get confused what your job is from day to day.” I think it’s fair to say we all have that problem, Zarek. Before his morning coffee, Apollo himself probably has trouble remembering whether he’s presently a Viper pilot, or a battleship commander, or a lawyer, or a Quorum member, or the President of the Colonies.

Adama meets with his officers to consider upgrading the fleet with Cylon technology--he estimates this will triple their jump capacity, for starters. In return, the Cylons want to be recognized as a full and equal part of the fleet. Gaeta, still a ray of sunshine, lurks and glowers and makes passive-aggressive snipes about the Cylons; Gaeta, my love, I liked you so much better when you were a cheery optimist instead of a surly racist.

Oh, goodness gracious. Here’s a nasty, spiteful scene in the commissary, in which Starbuck is her usual nasty, spiteful self, while Gaeta is his newly-discovered nasty, spiteful self. They’re so bitchy and vicious and cruel towards each other that I’m a little surprised their conversation didn’t end with one shooting the other in the face. Frankly, I’m not sure we’d be worse off. Gaeta, who holds a grudge for the time Starbuck nearly chucked him out an airlock, and for the time her husband blasted his leg into pieces, and for the time her husband probably played a role in the deaths of billions in the attack on the colonies, drops a few not-terribly-veiled threats about an approaching day of reckoning. An unrepentant Starbuck mocks the loss of his leg and tells him, “In case you’re wondering, I will definitely hit a cripple.” To which Gaeta replies, “So I guess a pity frak’s out of the question, then?” Zing! They may both be utterly miserable excuses for human beings, but Gaeta’s funnier.

Zarek sows unrest in the Quorum, which votes not to allow any Cylon to board any ship without permission. Meanwhile, Roslin, who has pretty much given up both on living and on being President, tosses away all her pills and stalls Adama when he wants her to publicly support a Cylon alliance.

Baltar preaches to his flock. Because Baltar can always be counted on to add a fun random element to any tense and unpleasant situation, he goads his followers into blaming God for leading them into despair. He claims God should come down and beg their forgiveness for being such a loser of a deity. I’m not sure Baltar quite has the hang of being a religious icon, actually. In the middle of Baltar’s half-baked sermon, it dawns on Tyrol that Hot Dog is Nicky’s father (oh, Cally, Cally, Cally… Hot Dog? Really?). A fistfight ensues, after which Tyrol gives Hot Dog a crash course in fatherhood during a vigil at sick Nicky’s bedside.

The crew of a tylium ship mutinies at the idea of a Cylon partnership. Adama launches Vipers to bring them in line, but, at Zarek’s behest, the tylium ship jumps away, leaving the fleet stranded without fuel. Adama has Zarek thrown in the brig, where he extracts the location of the tylium ship from him by threatening to expose Zarek’s past misdeeds and ruin his shot at martyrdom. He’s bluffing, but Zarek falls for it and coughs up the location. After Adama leaves, Gaeta visits Zarek in the brig and forms a partnership with him. An evil, shifty, underhanded partnership. A partnership that will end in chaos and ruin. Damn, Gaeta. What happened to that sweet kid who used to swap gossip with Dualla and bat his lashes at Baltar?

The episode closes with Adama snuggling in bed with Roslin in his candlelit quarters while the Galactica goes to hell around them. And if I felt something other than exasperated contempt for these two--indeed, for the vast majority of the characters at this point--this might be a romantic and hopeful note on which to end. As it stands, it’s… disquieting.