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Note: This review contains significant spoilers.

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Battlestar Galactica: "Faith"

Roslin finds her religious views challenged by a fellow terminal 
cancer patient who has found solace in Baltar's words. Kara attempts 
to forge an alliance with a group of renegade Cylons and learn 
details about her destiny from their Hybrid. 

Air date: 5/9/2008 (USA)
Written by Seamus Kevin Fahey
Directed by Michael Nankin

Rating out of 4: ****

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
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"Faith" tells a story combining religion and science fiction about as 
successfully as I've personally seen it done. In that way, it's a 
legitimate rival for my longtime benchmark, 1997's "Contact" 
(although they're admittedly apples and oranges). The result is an 
hour full of probing questions that will likely strike different 
people in different ways. This is a sophisticated and emotionally 
resonant meditation on life and death, struggle and pain, coping and 
humanity, and, yes, faith.

The key reason "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's" issues of faith never 
truly worked as an allegory for the real world was because Bajor's 
prophets were tangible beings that could be physically observed and 
performed physically tangible miracles. The existence of the 
Bajoran "gods" was a simple fact; the only question was whether or 
not one believed the wormhole beings actually *were* gods. As a 
result, the religion issue on DS9 lost a lot of its real-world 
resemblance and relevance. BSG, however, resembles our world 
precisely because the existence of God (or the Gods) cannot be proven 
with evidence. It must be taken on faith.

Before I get into all that, let me first pick up where last 
week's "Road Less Traveled" left off, with the situation on the 
Demetrius about to go sideways (as they're always saying on "The 
Shield"). Sideways it quickly does go, with Kara getting relieved of 
duty, Kara refusing to stand down, Sharon subduing Kara, Helo 
ordering the ship to jump back to the fleet, Anders taking Kara's 
side and pointing a gun at Gaeta and ordering him to halt the jump, 
and eventually Anders shooting Gaeta in the leg to take the situation 
over by force. Poor Gaeta. What did he ever do to deserve all he's 
gotten? (As Clint Eastwood once said, deserve's got nothin' to do 
with it. Later when Gaeta says, "Don't let Cottle take my leg," we 
know his fate is sealed; he's gonna lose it.)

Kara, realizing things are quickly spinning out of control, agrees to 
step down but instead says that she will go herself in a Raptor with 
Leoben to find the damaged basestar. The rest of the Demetrius can 
wait here and jump back to the fleet if they don't return. Anders 
goes with her, along with, interestingly, Sharon, who just seconds 
earlier was holding Kara in a headlock. Kara needs a Cylon who can 
provide interfacing help. Plus, the story needs an additional reason 
to make Helo squirm as the deadline of 15 hours until the rendezvous 
counts down. Also volunteering for the mission is someone who 
believes in Starbuck -- a crewman named Barolay, who should probably 
be wearing a red shirt.

"Road" and "Faith" are two separate stories, which merely use the 
cliffhanger as a jumping-off point for the real story about Kara's 
bizarre and eye-opening dealings with the Cylon renegades (if indeed 
it is they, and the not the Cavil camp, who are the "renegades"). 
Finding the basestar is its own challenge; fortunately, Kara can 
sense which way to go, and to her own surprise realizes the comet she 
saw orbiting a planet in her visions was actually the basestar. 
Nifty, but it again begs the question: Who and what is Resurrected 
Starbuck? It's worth noting that we are now six episodes into 
Starbuck's return and essentially know no more about where she went 
than we did in the first episode. The writers have done a good job 
putting off all answers to the mystery while distracting us with 
character analysis like her realization in "Road" that she has lost 
the person she was and may never get it back. Ultimately, that's the 
right choice, because this is about characters more than it's about a 
plot answer that ultimately will have to be somewhat arbitrary.

Once aboard the basestar, we see the formation of a precarious 
alliance. Renegade Six has no better options with her basestar 
crippled, but she is not especially happy about giving Kara access to 
the Hybrid, nor pleased in general about the Leobens' obsession with 
her. Meanwhile, in what is as amusing an idea as it is interesting, 
Athena is instantly accosted by a horde of Eights that timidly ask 
her to lead a mutiny against the Sixes that mutinied against the 
other Cylons. "You guys make me sick," Athena replies. "You pick a 
side and you stick. You don't cut and run." The Eights were once 
called a weak model; perhaps this is further evidence. Bunch of flip-
floppers. They should heed Stephen Colbert on the virtue of having 
balls.

There are a couple of terrific key scenes in this storyline. The most 
psychologically compelling is when Crewman Barolay has a run-in with 
a copy of a Six in the docking bay. They get into a brief verbal 
exchange, and the Six kills her. Just like that. Turns out that 
Barolay had killed this copy of Six on New Caprica, and now she takes 
her revenge. Evident here is the ugly cycle of violence that begets 
violence. Like the best aspects of BSG, there's a real-world message 
to be found here, but it's elevated into the what-if realm by the 
ever-so-slight sci-fi tweak: Because this Six had resurrected, she 
was able to later face the woman who killed her. And she just 
couldn't let it go.

The point of the scene is how the Cylons *are* indeed very much 
psychologically affected by the violence inflicted upon them: Despite 
all this Six's counseling and her struggles to put being killed 
behind her, she couldn't do it: "I still see her face when I try to 
sleep." So now this Six faces her end at the hand of Renegade Six. In 
an act of "justice" to make a point and provide an answer for 
Barolay's death in the interests of the fragile alliance, Renegade 
Six shocks everyone by pulling the trigger and putting down one of 
her own sister models. There is no resurrection ship; "She's as dead 
as your friend." Fascinating and powerful -- it's a statement of what 
she sees the stakes are.

The other big moment here is when Starbuck finally gets to visit with 
the ever-cryptic Hybrid, who at first doesn't say anything remotely 
relevant or even react to Kara but instead seems to exist somewhere 
in her own world halfway between a "Star Trek" engineering deck and 
your office's IT department.

Eventually, when it seems the Hybrid isn't going to say anything 
useful, and they're about to pull the plug, a strange series of 
events occurs. A Centurion shoots the Eight that is about to unplug 
the Hybrid from the basestar's control, causing the Hybrid to let out 
an endless, disturbing shriek before finally seeing Kara and 
imparting some information that makes for some of BSG's most 
significant mythology material yet. I'll simply quote it: "The dying 
leader will know the truth of the Opera House. The missing Three will 
give you the Five who have come from the home of the Thirteenth. You 
are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead them all to 
their end." Wow. It's not just in what is said, but how it's said and 
how it's lit and shot and directed and scored and edited. Absorbing 
stuff. And what's said is surprisingly decipherable.

(By the way, I must do what I think I've somehow failed to do in 
every review up to this point and mention that the Hybrid is played 
by Tiffany Lyndall-Knight. Her performance is effective -- creating a 
presence that is profoundly creepy and yet at the same time strangely 
comforting.)

Within the basestar storyline are some smaller touches that are also 
nice, both involving Anders. One comes when he moves his hand toward 
a basestar interface panel but ultimately doesn't follow through. 
What would happen if he, one of the mysterious Final Five, were to 
attempt to interact with Cylon technology?

The other comes later; when the Eight is shot and lies dying, she 
reaches out for a kindred hand, hoping to be comforted as she dies. 
Her sister Eight, Athena, reaches out but just barely balks, as if 
she can't bring herself to do it. When Athena demurs, Anders steps up 
and takes the dying Eight's hand. Good stuff worth pondering: Why 
can't Athena bring herself to go there? Is she so disgusted with her 
origins and sister Eight models? She seems so much now to identify 
herself as being human. Meanwhile, Anders tries to oblige this dying 
Eight, as if trying to step into the Cylon role he now knows he must 
fill.

So, yes, "Faith" is extraordinary stuff, and I haven't even delved 
into the storyline that's of probably more significance to "Faith's" 
real intentions -- the stuff dealing with the faith. After last week 
featured no Roslin or Adama at all, we now get a story all about 
Roslin and her battle with cancer as it takes place in the Galactica 
ICU. Season four is proving that it can leave entire plot lines and 
characters off screen for whole episodes at a time and then bring 
them back with unhindered effectiveness. I have no structural qualms 
with that whatsoever.

Okay, maybe one. There's an early scene where we finally we see Tory 
and Roslin talking on Colonial One. I'm not positive, but I don't 
think we've scene such an occurrence yet this season, and only now in 
retrospect do I notice how much of an oversight it might've been. 
Roslin praises Tory's job performance for stepping up (after falling 
apart in "Crossroads"). I wish we'd seen more of this, because from 
what we in the audience have seen, it's less than apparent that Tory 
has been doing any job at all, let alone a good one. (But I suppose 
the point here is that they made the point.) Some meaty Roslin/Tory 
intrigue was something that seemed like an obvious wealth of material 
when we found out Tory was a Cylon. So far it hasn't materialized 
(but it's not like there hasn't been plenty else going on instead).

Anyway, Roslin lands for an extended stay in the ICU, where she 
shares times with another terminal cancer victim, Emily (Nana 
Visitor, of the aforementioned DS9-prophet-worshipping Bajoran 
persuasion). Roslin has lost all her hair from cancer treatments. But 
the more direly ill Emily (who is mere days from death's door) 
ominously warns her: "It's gonna get a lot worse. Be prepared for 
that."

The two bond over their shared experience of illness. Emily listens 
to Baltar on the radio, who preaches his One True God sermons that 
eschew the traditional Lords of Kobol that Roslin has always prayed 
to. Roslin wonders what Emily sees in Baltar's ramblings, but therein 
lies the key to the episode. Emily experienced firsthand what she 
surely believed to be God and the afterlife, and Baltar's sermons -- 
not the traditional religion -- mirror what she is certain she 
experienced.

The question here becomes: Could the truth of the afterlife actually 
be about the one true God that Baltar speaks of? Is that one true God 
the same as the Cylon God? And is faith in one true God a heresy 
against the Lords of Kobol? If so, what does it mean that this 
movement is now taking place among humans after having had such a 
foothold among the Cylons -- and perhaps been their impetus for 
destroying humanity in the first place? Certainly in our real world 
religion lies in the eye of the beholder. Is the eventual overthrow 
of the establishment simply an question of numbers?

Sometimes it has nothing to do with the establishment. As the dying 
Emily says, "I don't need metaphors. I need answers." She's not the 
only one. A dramatic highlight in the episode is Laura's tale of her 
own mother's death, which to her revealed merely emptiness and 
nothing else. For Laura, at that young age, she saw only devastation. 
No comfort or reason to believe her mother was going to a better 
place. And it's a tough thing for her to talk about, all these years 
later. As Emily astutely points out, that experience was filtered 
through what *Laura* saw, not what the truth might actually have been 
for her mother. And that's the point here about faith. It's about the 
individual more than anything else.

Later, Roslin has an experience where she apparently witnesses Emily 
crossing over into the afterlife. It's not a dream. It's ... 
something more. Faith. These are powerful images, despite their utter 
simplicity. "Faith" has things to ponder about big human questions. 
When Roslin wakes up and Emily is gone, in her bed is only Baltar's 
voice, on the radio. It really gets inside her head. Maybe there's 
actually something to what he's peddling.

That this episode can raise so many recognizable real-world questions 
even though it exists in its own sci-fi universe is a testament to 
how truly it embodies the mission of science fiction. It is really 
about its characters, about us, about society, about issues in the 
real world.

And I absolutely love that the ending of this episode is about 
emotions and characters and *not* about the plot. Yes, there is, 
previous to the final scene, a lot of plot-based buildup and a 
ticking clock that counts all the way down to zero. But, ultimately, 
the episode's send-off has nothing to do with any of it. The writers 
know that we know that the deadline crisis has been averted, and so 
they turn the ending inward to the characters.

This attribute is a virtue of "Faith" that does not call any 
attention to itself whatsoever. But I must herald it, because it 
instead simply believes in its characters to connect with the 
audience and drive home the emotional points. It does so superbly. 
The final scene between Adama and Roslin -- which reveals Adama's 
emotional abandonment and how Roslin may be the very essence of his 
remaining soul -- is so straightforward and yet so moving. Here's an 
episode that knows it has enough plot to be a game-changer, and yet 
puts all its final efforts into finding just the right understated 
words, tone, and feelings between the admiral and the president. 
Bravo.

That's how it should be. This is an example of why the first 10 
episodes of BSG's fourth season are among the series' very strongest 
batch of shows.

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Copyright 2008, Jamahl Epsicokhan. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this article is 
prohibited.

Jammer's Reviews - http://www.jammersreviews.com
Jamahl Epsicokhan - jammer@jammersreviews.com