"Blood On The Scales" Episode Review
By Major A-Dog
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here!We begin with the chase after Laura Roslin's Raptor. Hot Dog's got orders to shoot down the Raptor. He insists on following protocol by not firing until the Raptor has a fair chance to identify itself. Meanwhile, Tigh and Adama are the recipients of a flash concussion grenade and taken into custody. Tigh is sent to the Cylon holding cell while Adama is taken to the bridge. Both Gaeta and Narcho try to goad Hot Dog into firing first and asking questions later but he isn't buying it. Roslin gets on the com and announces herself to Hot Dog. Narcho flys past him and opens fire with a missile that an Eight dodges. The missile hits the Cylon Base Ship and the Raptor makes it on board. The Eights, Sixes and Leobens are confused as to why they're being fired upon and roslin states "they want me." Tory and Six exclaim that it isn't safe and they need to jump. Roslin convinces them to give Adama time and to hide the Base Ship amidst the fleet as Gaeta won't risk hitting a civillian ship. Gaeta brings Adama to the bridge and asks him "Admiral I will ask you one more time to call Roslin and tell her to surrender." Adama then tells Gaeta "you're the Admiral now" and removes his pips and tosses them to Gaeta.
Colonial One arrives as Mr. Zarek and Racetrack make their way to the bridge and Apollo and starbuck look on. Roslin is trying to braodcast to the fleet with no joy due to signal jamming. Zarek and Gaeta discuss a trial for Adama and those that must "pay for what they've done."
Romo Lampkin led to the Commander's quarters to be briefed on defending Adama at his trial. Lampkin and Adama both know it's a sham as Zarek decides HE will be the judge. Adama tells Gaeta to "shove it up your ass; I don't need a frakkin' lawyer!" Gaeta then formally charges Adama with treason.
Back on the Base ship, Roslin continues trying to broadcast while the Cylons discuss their fears of being vulnerable and unprotected by the fleet. Tory calls for a Cylon meeting.
Tyrol breaks into a crawl space and starts to move about the ship in an attempt to subvert the coup. Zarek tries to sway the Quorrum to back Gaeta and himself as new leaders. They diagree and ask Zarek to leave. Zarek goes up the hall and orders his henchmen to assasinate the Quorrum. As kelley goes to get Gaeta we hear massive gun fire in the Quorrum chamber.
Gaeta comes to Colonial One and views the dead Quorrum. He angrily confronts Zarek and tells him they had the truth on their side butu not now. Zarek says "the truth is always told by those left standing."
The Cylons have decided that they want to jump away. Roslin confronts them and convinces them to stay. Tyrol ducks out of the causeway and is caught by Kelly. They exchange words and Kelly, who is now understanding what the coup has done, allows Tyrol to leave. They too are understanding it is more than humans vs. cylons...it is about everyone's survival.
Adama refuses to cooperate with Romo. He will not betray his beliefs and knows the coup will fail. As a soldier goes to use the bathroom his skull is pounded of the wall by Starbuck so hard the light on the wall blows out! She takes his gun and arms Apollo with it and they move on. On the Base Ship, Baltar is surprised to see yet another incarnation of Six. This one seems innocent and child like in a sense. She is the spitting image of Natalie.
Starbuck and Apollo overtake the brig guards and free Tigh, Helo, Athena, Six, Anders and Hera. They all escape and start moving to find Adama. They are caught and sam takes a bullet to the head.
Gaeta is grilling the Admiral about New Caprica and Kobol. As they call to tell Zarek that the Cylons have escaped he lies and tells Adama that Tigh is dead. The trial quickly becomes a lynching. Leoben helps Roslin get on the air to talk to the fleet before she's jammed again. Kara keeps trying to move Sam to Doc Cottle when Romo and a guard show up. Lampkin stabs the guard with a pen and then helps Starbuck with Anders. Roslin's transmission convinces several ships to take their jump drives off line. Gaeta tells Narcho to give the jump away coordinates to those ships that stayed loyal only and then tells him to take Adama to the air lock with an execution detail.
Kelly breaks away from the execution detail and breaks down as he realizes what he's done. He tells Apollo where they've taken the old man and they all run to rescue him.
Baltar has a dream of the firing squad on Adama and wakes up in bed with the Six. He returns to true redemptive form and says he's done running and has to go back as they're his responsibility.
Roslin and Zarek banter back and forth across the com. Gaeta tells Narcho to carry out the execution but it's too late as Starbuck and company have come to the rescue. Zarek attempts to lie to her and tells her Adama is dead. Roslin, fueled by anger, refuses to believe him and screams to Zarek that she is coming for him. The Cylons are emboldened by her strength. The Base Ship brings all her guns to bear on the Galactica.
Meanwhile, Tyrol has made it to the engine room and proceeds to disable the FTL thereby preventing the Galactica from jumping away. As Adama and company work their way to the bridge they are accompanied by more and more crew that are loyal to Adama. Zarek emplores Gaeta to fight but instead he realizes the jig is up. Adama's crew storms the bridge and takes the mutineers into custody. Tyrol looks around the engine room and notices a wide gash forming on the wall. The old girl is starting to break apart.
Gaeta sits and speaks to Baltar about who he is and what his aspirations were as a child. His biggest fear is that no one will ever know who he was. Baltar tells him "I know who you are."
We then move to the air lock where Zarek and gaeta are tied to chairs in front of a firing squad. "Ready...Aim..." Gaeta looks down at his stump and says "it finally stopped." "FIRE!"
For those of you that can't watch the episodes on Hulu it is also available at the SciFi Wire by clicking
here. Both Hulu and SciFi Wire both have the episode with Commentary as well.
Here are the teasers for next week's episode...