Any chance Brain Guy’s name was Daniel?

Who knew?  Attached to the back of Ander’s neck is the exposition tap.  It got shot the frak off last week and it’s spewing knowledge out all over the place.  Fragments of plot, motivations and explanations came pouring out of every cinematic pore of No Exit.  We follow Ellen’s resurrection from eighteen months prior in a device reminiscent of a Lost story.  A previously unrevealed side story has Ellen arguing with John; John we’ve known as Brother Cavil until now.  Ellen is his creator.  Say what?  Okay, let’s start at the beginning of this endless cycle.

     ^{3000 years ago}  The Cylons and Humans are all lovey dovey on Kobol, where the latest cycle started.  Then they fled Kobol.  Cylons dodge left, they go to planet E.  The big Earth.  Humans, they say “poo on you bastards,” they dodge right.  They establish the twelve colonies.

     ^{2000 years ago}  The Cylons get all fraked up and the Final Five do a Superman to the twelve colonies.  Up until their departure they’d been working on resurrection technology.  It’s an ability that was common aeons ago but Cylons had evolved away from its use.  Cylons lived normal lifespans until the Final Five un-crated it and brought the TECH along with them. 

But they’re travelling at light speed, no fancy jumpdrives.  For them, the journey is a short one.  For the rest of the universe time passes super quickly until..

     ^{40 years ago}  The Final Five arrive in the midst of an already raging Cylon/Human war.  The Cylons are still mucking about with primitive Hybrids.  The Old Cylons meet the Current Cylons and they do a corporate merger.  So the unbelievably inventive Cylons with their fancy technology isn’t such an achievement; they’ve had silent partners.  Our Final Five (Tigh, Anders, Tory, Tyrol and Ellen) create eight new models of Cylon skinjobs in exchange for ending the war.  The Five are going to “guide” the primitive Cylons along the right path.  Because subjugating and controlling other people’s destiny always goes so well on this show.

So it’s not just the humans that can’t get along with themselves.  Cavil -- uh, I mean John, betrays the Final Five.  He kills all instances of their current iterations and allows them only to resurrect within lives he’s designed.  Lives designed to give them a ringside seat to the human apocalypse.  Holy frak, this guy’s egomaniacal villain complex is fully developed.  So at least one Cylon did have a plan like the opening credits have insisted.  Our man John (né Cavil) had a plan to make the Five suffer and recognize his correctness.  (I’m a little hazy on when.  When did Adama meet Tigh?  When was Tigh created?)  But Ellen, at least, recognizes this is all growing pains of an mechanical life that fails to see its so-human traits.

Wow wow wow!!
Holy frakin’ WOW!

     ^{18 months ago}  It felt like a theatrical play, using few sets, no action and just dialog between characters.  Kate Vernon (as Ellen) and Dean Stockwell (as John) crackled and sparked off each other’s presence.  Their dialog was riveting simply for the mythology it hinted at.  The actor’s delivery kept it all personal, however.  The two deliver the Encyclopaedia Galactica Historica in a condensed form and keep the drama alive with a relentless pace.  Bravo!

     ^Today  There’s even more packed into this tour de force:

• Roslin had that simple conversation with Lee Adama, where she told him she was finished with public life and he was to take the reins.  It was a move I’m happy to see.  Roslin’s going to do her own thing but she ensures the fleet has someone worthy to take her place. 
• Sharon demanding _{Why would I want to love? Who would I love?} was such a brief but telling moment.  Forget the logical arguments she may be spouting because it’s so clearly personal to her, a reaction to her own past. 

   
  Only two months away!

  Have you heard that a BSG spin-off show, Caprica, is being made?  It’s already got a series order and it’s 2 hour mini-series arrives on DVD April 26, 2009. 
  
  source: G4; thanks to Cliff for the heads-up

• Originally there were eight skinjobs until a mysterious Daniel was killed, leaving the seven we know today.  Is Daniel actually Starbuck?  A story to be told in Caprica?  Something I haven’t thought of yet?
• Adama and the Chief, meanwhile, toured the suddenly rusty and rotten parts of the good ship Galactica.  It felt good when Adama so readily re-embraced the Chief but he quickly pissed on that good will, and for the rest of the episode.  Adma has ordered Cylon TECH installed on other ships (and faced a coup as a result) but he wants only human personnel and TECH on Galactica.  Adama is ultimately willing to trust Tigh and the Chief as they’re part of the Galactica family.  He still doesn’t trust the Cylons but decides he loves Galactica more.

Will Anders live to see another day?  Has Boomer been taught about the swirl?  (in my fantasies: yes) Tell me what you're thinking because my head has exploded!