In the eighth episode of the third season of Battlestar Galactica, Admiral Adama’s past literally returns to haunt him, and Three has a vision of the future. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Battlestar Galactica.
This season is so satisfying to watch. The Cylon occupation. The war on New Caprica. “Collaborators.” CYLON VIRUS AND GENOCIDE. And in “Hero,” we get a new chapter on the man in charge, and it is a horrifying addition to his character.
“Hero” constantly fucks with our perception from the very beginning. We believe the Cylons have found the fleet, but we’re instead given some sort of trick. Why are the Cylons firing on their own? Impossibly so, Adama recognizes the voice and the callsign that comes from that third Cylon Raider, and our perceptions shift again. It has to be a human, but whom?
When Daniel Novacek, known as Bulldog, drops out of the bottom of the raider, I swear you could hear bee sneeze in that flight deck. I adore how eerily silent that scene was as everyone waited for Adama to give some sign that everything was fine. So he salutes the stranger in return. I’m so glad the camera shows us the reactions of Starbuck and Tyrol because RIGHT. How confusing would this be? But it actually ties in directly to a later moment: what are the sheer odds that Cylon Raider, piloted by a human, would land on the Galactica and the pilot would know Adama?
To be fair, that does play a huge part in what happens as Roslin and Adama go over Bulldog’s disappearance and his escape from Cylon captivity. My first thought was that he was a new model of Cylon. The story was too good to be true, but Dr. Cottle confirms from a blood test that this is the actual man himself. Okay, so he’s not a Cylon, but…this doesn’t feel right. This episode does a great job of giving us both this sense of dread on top of an uncomfortable reality. That uncomfortable moment is in the history of Admiral Adama, as we learn during Roslin’s meeting with Bulldog that Adama left his pilot behind on a secret recon mission. Which instantly put everything in a new light: is this why Adama was so intent all these episodes to never leave anyone behind? It’s never outright said in the episode, but I can’t ignore what happened on Kobol or New Caprica.
But OH. MY. GOD. I did not expect this to turn into what unfolds before my eyes. Roslin is like Adama’s mother throughout “Hero.” The very first thing she says when she dismisses Bulldog is a demand that Adama tell her the truth. She can see right through him in a heartbeat! WHICH I LOVE. Because your mother knows the second you are lying AMIRITE. In Adama’s case, Roslin can see that the shame and guilt runs far deeper than merely leaving Bulldog behind. It’s not just an unfortunate accident, but she doesn’t know why. Adama is incredibly evasive during this meeting and I knew she was right. There was more to being left behind in this story.
So the writers stick Bulldog with both the best and worst person imaginable in this situation: Saul Tigh. It’s an interesting choice because they are both scarred by war. They both have experienced something that few others have, making them feel vacant, lonely, as if they are a disparate part of the military, and it becomes nearly impossible to rectify their past military life with who they are now. (Remember, Tigh feels the man Adama once knew is no more.) Tigh had Starbuck in “Torn” to feel supportive with, but now the universe has dropped a man into his life who might just despise existence as much as he does. I know that’s a depressing thing to say, but both Bulldog and Tigh had part of their lives taken from them. In Bulldog’s case, three years of his life were stolen by the Cylons. And there’s no escaping that for him. Regardless of what your opinions are on Tigh’s execution of his wife, it’s a situation he was put into because of war, because of the military culture and rules he came to live in, and his wife is gone.
But it can’t be that bad, I though. This cannot be some horrific secret of Adama’s beyond being left behind. It’s understandable, if tragic, that Adama thought he was dead. It’s a horrible situation. It explains why Adama is so awkward around Bulldog, but Tigh insists the truth is worse and then ADAMA AGREES. What could be worse than being left to die when you’re alive?
“Hero” gives us that answer in a split scene, a visual dichotomy between father and son, war hero and war hero, and we learn the unsettling truth: Adama thought that Bulldog was dead because he ordered the missiles that destroyed his ship.
I had to stop the episode. I paused it, and I sat there, and I thought about it, and I thought about how no matter what military justification Adama I had, I knew Bulldog would be upset. I knew that Adama would be unable to forgive himself for this, and now the man he ordered dead was right there on his ship. We get to see exactly this as Tigh reveals the truth to Bulldog and Adama confesses emotionally to his son. I will forever love that this show repeatedly gives us multiple sides to a story in this way because it allows a much deeper focus for the audience.
In this case, we see Tigh’s vindictive actions. We see Adama’s tragic guilt. We see Bulldog’s palpable rage. We see Lee’s frantic panic and then his disappointment that his father would blame all of this on himself. That detail, that Adama believes he may have helped start the Cylon war in the first place, has been eating him alive the past three years. Lee is right to insist that to blame it all on one person is almost offensive in its lack of foresight. (Which is funny to think about because Baltar believes that he was the sole cause of the genocide of the human race. Will there come a day when Adama and Baltar see each other for what they’ve done?) Adama was following orders. He was a part of a larger effort of a massive military force; it is not comparable to where they are now.
But then Adama damns himself:
“It only takes one.”
And Lee’s desperation to convince his father that he is in the moral right disintegrates instantly. It’s one of the most disturbing things this show has given us, and for all the violence and gore and fucked-up-ness of Battlestar Galactica, that one line seems more haunting than anything else. It only takes one person and one decision to set the tide for the future of humanity. And we have seen examples of that within the show. It took Baltar’s insistence on colonizing New Caprica for disaster to strike and for the Cylons to occupy that planet. It took Baltar’s affair with Six for the Cylons to infiltrate the defense mainframe. It took Tyrol ignoring the signs that Boomer was a Cylon for her to try to assassinate Adama. And it works the other way as well, as Starbuck’s individualism has saved the fleet time and time again. It took Sharon Agathon’s determination to be her own person, separate from the Cylons, to be a hero, to save the people she loves, and to basically be the best badass who ever badass-ed.
AND THEN STARBUCK FIGURES OUT THAT THE CYLONS ALLOWED BULLDOG TO ESCAPE. Look, BSG, I was already upset and full of ~all of the feelings all of them~ at this point, so was it necessary to bring back the doubts about Bulldog’s identity? OF COURSE IT WAS. You’re Battlestar Galactica, and you want my insides to turn to jelly out of terror.
Author’s Note: Okay, I have no idea what happened, but WordPress ate the last thousand words of this review. They’re just POOF! Gone. I wrote this in the actual WordPress admin section, so I don’t even have the rest of it saved anywhere else. So this is why this review just seems to end all of a sudden. I’m sorry about this! Here’s all I can remember from what I wrote:
- I love that for a second, you think Bulldog is a Cylon, but it’s almost worse than that: the Cylons just preyed on his vulnerability to get him to turn against Adama.
- Tigh totally finds the means to turn around his own life through this and it is beautiful.
- omg Adama gets beat up A LOT.
- I had no idea that the Valkyrie backstory made things complicated.
- and
- um
- Where are they sending Bulldog at the end of the episode? That wasn’t clear to me.
Dixoooooooooooon!!
I was in the front row to see Carl Lumbly in The Sunset Limited at SF Playhouse earlier this year. I was too shy to fanboy him after the show—and I was with a friend who had no idea who he was—but I would have done so extrafanboyishly since I had been watching Justice League.
If I yell for a DIXON GIF PARTY, will I get to see him DJing in dreadlocks? I hope so.
Much love to Dixon….ah I miss Alias.
Whaaaaaat, he was the Martian Manhunter? Now I really want him to come back.
I sadly do not have any gifs, but I will always gladly join a Carl Lumbly Appreciation Thread!
Argh, I want to be interested in the moral issues of the episode but there's a tiny voice in the back of my brain screaming "NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY GODS DAMNED SENSE!". The flashbacks tell us that three years ago Bill and Tigh were on the Batlestar Valkyrie for the mission when Bulldog was shot down….okay but haven't we already been told many, MANY times that they were on Galactica for several years before the decomissioning that kicked off the series (which at this point is something like two years ago for the characters, maybe a bit longer?). So what were they in two places at once? So far the show has been good about keeping its timeline in order, random time slip in season 2 aside, which just makes this sudden burst ot Retconning incredibly jarring. Okay rant over.
Laura you totally came up with that medal idea as an excuse to give Bill more jewelry didn't you? Not that I'm judging you for it. Mary McDonnell's hair in that opening Colonial One scene is super pretty as well.
Kudos to the make-up department for the Three in Bulldog's flashbacks, they've made Lucy Lawless look like death warmed over in those scenes.
So much love for Laura's hair in those opening scenes. I'm gonna have to find some pictures I think…
Her hair has been SO PRETTY as of late! I love the red on her!
I like the way it went from a fairly structured 'do that looks like it might have been colored in the first season to something looser and more natural looking. Makes sense since I'm not sure how many hairdressers would be in the fleet to keep up a dye job and set hot rollers.
I was wondering about the timeline because with the way "Hero" presents it, they were only on Galactica for a year at most. Good rant.
There’s also the problem that if the Raiders escorted Bulldog to Galactica, then that means they know where the fleet is…. And how the hell did they know IMMEDIATELY when Bulldog crossed the Armistice line? I guess maybe the black op was in the defense plans Six stole, but it’s still pretty fishy.
My first thought when I heard Bulldog’s voice coming from the Raider was that the Cylons had made this Raider out of Bulldog’s body parts and were using his voice in the hopes of getting the Raider onto Galactica so that it could destroy everyone. Ahahaha…haha…ha….………. I’m glad this episode wasn’t all DEATH AND DOOM as I initially predicted, but maybe I would have preferred that? Shit would go down but Adama would pull it together! He’s as much a hero for the characters as he is for the viewers. Watching him break down and blame himself for everything was just heartbreaking, and for a moment, I, too, felt slightly betrayed by Adama. It never occurred to me to question the reasons behind the Cylon attack so to suddenly think for just a second that maybe the humans started all this, maybe Adama started it, was just terrible. I feel like a traitor. Even though I agree with what Roslin said, that it was a whole mess of things over a long period of time that led to the Cylon attack and it’s not All Adama’s Fault, it’s still upsetting to think of the guilt he must have felt all this time.
"Dr. Cottle confirms from a blood test that this is the actual man himself. "
Yeah, see, this … this is weird to me. Because if a blood test were enough to confirm that someone were who they claimed to be, wouldn't that have been making everything a christ of a lot easier for the Colonials for like three seasons now?
I thought the whole point was that you couldn't detect a Cylon agent because they would seem exactly like who they were supposed to be because they'd always been who they were supposed to be. I mean, if you compared Sharon's blood to Sharon's military medical records, you'd come up with a match too.
Though Sharon came to the ship with a ready-made backstory to explain her lack of previous connections. Bulldog had those (Adama mentions that he should check to see if any of his family survived), so he can't be a Cylon.
Of course sharon will match sharon. Her dna has always been hers. While the cylon can’t make a bulldogcylon that has the same dna as him when he started with the military, that would be cloning and then he would be human.
Yes but my point is, bulldog could have been bulldogcylon from the beginning. Not that *I* think he was, but for all the characters knew it was perfectly possible.
Is this review cut short? It seems to end abruptly…
There's no tags either.
WORDPRESS WHY ARE YOU FUCKING EVERYTHING UP.
Hold on, I'm fixing it.
It's secretly being run by Cylons?
WordPress has evolved. And it has a plan.
LOLOLOLOL
This episode is pretty controversial given the backstory snarls it causes, given all the lines so far that indicated Adama had been on Galactica for several years before the Cylon attack. It doesn't help that David Eick made a statement that they made sure to check and found that the timing of the backstory fit with what came before, but didn't give details on how that was possible.
Personally, I like it just as a standalone character piece, plus by this point the backstory was just one big jumble in my head so it was easy to ignore.
The recap seems unfinished. What about Three's dream?
Probably my favorite part of the episode just for the visual sequence.
Was this uploaded early? Don't get me wrong, terror jelly is a wonderful way to end a review.
Poor Bulldog. I'm glad he's starting a new life in the fleet, but he's like the people from New Caprica; they've been permanently affected by what they went through. I hope this wasn't just a one-off appearance.
It seems like the war with the Cylons was inevitable, but like you and Adama say, it takes only one. I can almost forgive Baltar for his initial mistake because I'm sure the Cylons would have eventually disabled the Colonies' defenses with or without him. But oh, Adama. Thinking he's guilty for starting the war and being one of the only military leaders to survive? That's gotta weigh heavily on him.
The most important thing about this episode to be was seeing Dixon from Alias all up on my tv screen again. Also, I've said this to you before, but YOU SHOULD WATCH ALIAS. IT IS SO GOOOOOD (at least the first 3.5 seasons).
I gave up on Alias when she was holding a ball of solid Uranium or Plutonium or something in her lightly gloved hands and not dying of radiation poisoning within minutes. That and the one where they were told they could break the encryption on a computer by freezing the processor. I can accept pseudoscience in science fiction shows, because by definition they rely on scientific knowledge that doesn't exist yet. But if you're going to make scientific references in a show that's allegedly set in the real world present day, and that claims to be serious drama, then don't make the science COMPLETELY NONSENSICAL, plz k thx?
I did like the plot and the characters and stuff but the nonsensical science was just too jarring for me to overlook.
There were only two seasons of Alias. Actually, only partially two: There wasn't a finale for S2, which would have messed up the franchise and killed my love of the show and its characters.
This is my story, and I'm sticking to it. (Spy Mommy and Spy Daddy 4eva.)
My love for Spy!Parents knows no bounds.
When we were watching this episode, I totally thought the voice from the raider said Baltar and I was like OMG BALTAR THIS IS GOING TO GO SO BADLY FOR YOU! Looks like it's going pretty good for him on the Cylon ship though 😛
I have no substantive comments about this episode. Just that Mary McDonnell's hair was so incredibly pretty in each scene she was in, it was sort of distracting. In a good way.
This is basically how I feel about the entire show.
Can somebody who understands military rankings explain something to me? Why is Lee "Major" again while Adama is still "Admiral"? Yes, Lee no longer has a ship to command, but Adama doesn't have multiple battlestars to command either.
Lee's argument about why Adama wasn't to be blamed for the Cylon attacks reminded me very much of the Eichmann defense (I'm sorry, I've mentioned this is the time period my mind always goes to), you know, "I was just following orders." Not that I think this was even close to being the same, mind. Orders can only take you so far and then your conscience needs to step in. But what I find significant about this whole exchange is not Lee's desperate attempt to defend his father, but how Adama simply refuses to take this route. He accepts responsibility and it feels really admirable to me (I'm restraining myself from saying he's an admirable Admiral, but I gotta throw it out there somewhere). Personally, I agree with Roslin's theory that the Admiralty might have wanted to provoke an attack. Who's to say? I just love how Bill refuses to pass the blame, even though he shouldn't put it all on himself since he doesn't deserve that.
I know nothing about military ranks, but I think there can be temporary promotions, which covers Lee. I'm a little more iffy about Adama. Maybe it's because he's the highest ranking military man left, so they just left it. He sort of has a fleet, even if it's not military. I don't know. He's Adama, he does what he wants.
I also appreciate the way that Adama's owning up to what he did. It was wrong, but if he wasn't a decent person, he could have easily ordered Starbuck and Kat to shoot Bulldog down rather than face up to his mistakes.
Yeah, I kind of figured since Adama's supposed to be a hero (a newly medal-ed one and everything!), they probably don't want to demote him for morale reasons. As for the temporary promotions (which I still don't understand), I guess it could be like "Interim Commander" but that doesn't really work since he wasn't temporary Commander between permanent Commanders. He had the position, he just…you know, lost his ship. I personally find it unfair that they demote him for not having a ship to command when he sacrificed it to save people. He could be Commander of something, right? Like the CAG or the port side of the ship, whatever. Or Commander Honorarium (that's a word, yes?).
And very true about Adama facing his mistakes. Way to go, Bill!
Lt. Colonel of the mess hall!
I don't think of it as a demotion, he just wasn't needed in that position anymore, so he returned to being a Major. It'd be kinda weird to have him jump a few ranks, but it must be awkward to drop back down after having his own ship. At least there aren't many people who rank above him? I think his dad and Tigh are the only ones.
I'm pretty sure it's a demotion to bring him back underneath Tigh in the chain of command, more or less, but I think one could say that "Commander" is really like our "Captain" — it's both a technical rank but it's also what you call a person who's in charge of a boat, no matter how small. So, in the Navy, if you're the skipper of a tiny supply ship you're still called Captain, even if you're technically a Lieutenant. Similarly Lee was a Commander while he commanded Pegasus, but then gvve that up when his ship blew up. That doesn't entirely fit since he gets the actual Commander insignia, but, um, that's all I got. 🙂
Brevet rank. His permanent rank was major. Adama got an actual promotion.
First of all, lol admirable Admiral
Secondly, about "Orders can only take you so far and then your conscience needs to step in." I suppose, but consider that the military is specifically designed for killing people. You have to shut off at least part of your conscience in order to be a soldier at all. So I can see how once you've crossed that line, others might not be so clear to you and you might cross them without noticing.
Mark is obviously ending the review this way to replicate the feeling we get at the end of most BSG episodes: wanting more! 😛
Okay, so on BOTH sites, WordPress either erased entire sections or deleted formatting. I have no idea why this happened, but I added the few points I wanted to make. Sorry!
Tigh totally finds the means to turn around his own life through this and it is beautiful.
I'm glad his "you'll never see me again" was just a flounce and not an honest threat. I know he'll never be the same after New Caprica and killing Ellen, but I'd like to see him back in the CIC, being cranky.
(Sorry about your post. That sucks.)
OK, this isn’t my favorite episode so far. Mostly because it just feels like a big retcon. My issues aren’t so much with continuity, though, but with characterization. I would think if something this huge had been weighing on Adama’s mind, there would have been some indication. Not saying that I wanted clues and flashbacks sprinkled throughout the series, but by believing that his actions were the main catalyst for the attacks on the colonies, Adama would therefore have to believe, on some level, that the attacks were NOT entirely unprovoked. That just doesn’t line up with any of his actions or the stances he’s taken. I can buy that Bulldog’s return brought with it a lot of guilt about having to shoot him down, and that’s like something that could be fairly easily repressed, but not feeling responsible for the deaths of billions of people. To me, it seems like the writers just went off the speech he gave in the mini and decided to give us a different context in which to view that.
(ETA: It’s been a few days since I wrote this, and in that time I’ve been thinking about it more, and I can concede that it isn’t as entirely implausible as I had originally thought. Adama has hardly been going “let’s annihilate all the cylons THEY ATTACKED US COMPLETELY UNPROVOKED”, and in fact, his reluctance to commit genocide in the previous episode makes sense in this context! So, to humbly borrow a term from spectralbovine… stop yelling, past me. :P)
Man, the parallel scenes where Adama tells Lee and Tigh tells Bulldog the truth about what happened… wow, the acting was fantastic on all sides.
Speaking of fantastic, how about Roslin in this episode? She knows Adaa so well by now she IMMEDIATELY knows he’s not telling the whole truth. And I was thrilled that she told him exactly what I was thinking when he tried to resign- that there was no simple explanation for the Cylon attack, and it was naïve of him to assume it could be traced back to his own actions and blame himself.
Um, I feel like we missed a whole chunk of information in the cylon baseship storyline, because going from torture to polyamorous relationship doesn’t seem like a logical progression to me. (Maybe it's just me-I am pretty vanilla when it comes to these things. :P) But in all seriousness- what ever happened with the virus? Remember that? Obviously they finally figured out that Baltar had nothing to do with it. Anyway, I do find D’Anna increasingly fascinating, even if I don’t know what’s behind all her dreams and visions, or why she wanted to die and resurrect.
My feeling was that D'Anna was already fascinated with/attracted to Baltar, and either Baltar or Head!Six picked up on that. So that appealing to it –pretending he returned her fascination — saved Baltar from further torture but then he had to follow up on it by responding to her sexual interest. I don't think he's all happy-fields-of-flowers about a relationship with D'Anna, but she seems to be oblivious of that fact in typical Cylon fashion.
An interesting note on this episode: Lucy Lawless wrote her own dialog. The scene where she taunts Bulldog in the cage was meant to be silent, and so she just made up what she said to him, but they thought it was so great that they kept it in.
Because she's Lucy Flawless.
Things I love:
– The Billy mention and then Roslin and Tori looking through the pack that he made for her.
– Three's storyline here. Getting addicted to resurrecting. I mean, if you believe in God/heaven etc and you know that for a moment you can perhaps catch a glimpse, have all the mysteries of the world explained to you and then you'd still live again… it's pretty tempting. And then of course she gets those mysterious Opera House visions…
<img src="http://i52.tinypic.com/24ys0hz.jpg" alt="Three is shot">
<img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/2wlvoy9.gif" alt="Three has visions of the opera house">
"there's something beautiful, miraculous between life and death"
<img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/2rdc6d2.gif" alt="Three awakes back on the basestar">
Oh dear.
The A storyline isn't a favourite of mine, despite it bringing up an interesting idea that maybe it was the humans that provoked an attack in the first place.
The Billy mention and then Roslin and Tori looking through the pack that he made for her.
It's probably in every episode but in the later scene where Bill attempts to resign you can see that Laura still has the photo of herself and Billy on her desk. <3
"It's probably in every episode but in the later scene where Bill attempts to resign you can see that Laura still has the photo of herself and Billy on her desk. <3"
When I saw that I was amazed that she still had it. Either she didn;t bother to retrieve it from Colonial One and Baltar didn't bother to get rid of it (unlikely), or she had it with her on NC and had it with her during the evacuation- I guess it could have fit in her bundle of papers. Whatever. I was happy to see it was still there. <3
Just a minor thing I noticed, Tory is spelt with a Y.
Hey Mark, can I recommend the Lazarus extension? It's available on Chrome and Firefox and saves anything you type into a textarea, including WordPress posts, in case you lose them. Just for next time!
Oh jeez, I didn't even realize until just now one of the most interesting things about this episode — we definitely get to see that the Centurions are under humanoid-Cylon command, and seem not to have self-will or to make decisions. D'Anna is able to order the Centurion not just to shoot her, but to forget it after obeying her command.
Yet at some point the Centurion models must have become self-aware, because there were no humanoid Cylons during the original Cylon wars. So what happened? Did the humanoid Cylons effectively subjugate the Centurions as humans were not able to do? Where did the sapient Centurions go?
In "Precipice", Adama said that Athena told him the humanoids designed the Centurions not to be able to distinguish between them. So these aren't the same as the ones who rebelled against the humans.
AND THEN YOU'LL FINALLY SEE THE TRUUUUTH, THAT A HEEERO LIES IN YOOOOOU
Previously on the show: the entire show.
Welcome to Galactica, Bulldog. HAVE SOME NOODLES.
I was not looking forward to re-watching this episode. I couldn't remember why–just that it left a bad taste in my mouth. I still don't know why I don't like it. There's just a lot of bad feeling going on–Bulldog's bitterness, Adama's self-blame, Tigh's self-loathing, etc. And despite the fact that they supposedly wrap all of those things up by the end, they… don't really. I mean, there's a step towards resolution, but it still feels wrong somehow.
Also, as someone else mentioned, it seems like a giant retcon. Adama started the war? O…kay, if you say so, show. Also, the timeline of the Valkyrie doesn't fit with what we know of the time Adama's been on Galactica. Maybe they wanted it to seem recent so they wouldn't have to de-age the actors or anything, but even making it six years in the past instead of three would have been more consistent with the established timeline.
Hey, it's the first appearance of the TighPatch!
Adama isn't the hero the Fleet deserves, but he's the one it needs right now. /Gary Oldman