Seriously? Larry is dead?! What a sad end to a life.

One of his executioners commented disdainfully  Good riddance, fracker’s been up Adama’s ass since he transferred in from Pegasus. Excuse me?! Cain shot his entire fracking family.  You may safely assume that ^{ingratiate yourself with the command structure} is instinctual at this point.  Poor bastard rocks himself to sleep chanting:

They won’t kill me if they know me.
They won’t kill me if they like me.

Zarek himself did the deed.  This is the Galactica equivalent of having the bad guy shoot a puppy dog.

I also know a little about revolution Mr. Gaeta; success doesn't hinge on some grand operatic idea of the will of the people it hangs in the cumulative moments, each one building on the next and it can be lost with the slightest hesitation.

I’m not revoking the sympathy I expressed last week for Zarek.  He’s a committed revolutionary, like Che.  Not saying they’re the same man but both will go to extremes and are heroes to the people they champion. To their opponents: criminals to behead. 

Zarek recently (4x12) chided Adama The only difference between you and me is that you wear that uniform ~ well Bingo!. When Zarek does whatever it takes he’s acting exactly like Adama declaring something a military matter.  Both desire to control a situation’s outcome.  They both want to accumulate power and hold it. But, y’know, only because they deserve to.  They believe themselves honourable men pushed by extreme circumstances.  If those shifty malcontents would only see it their way, things could go differently.

Typical Galactica hyperbole? True to character? Did she mean it or was it merely a fun way to focus Lee on the task at hand?

We haven’t seen these two suit up all commando-like in quite some time.  Skulking through the hallways, the two brought a return to the most fraktasticicaly welcome action plot . When the series began I easily assumed that might be all we’d ever see from this pair: kick ass, take names, look good and frak like stallions. 

But they’ve matured and changed. They’ve lived through so much that when they do return to their heroic archetypal roles they seem all the more real and alive.  They’re no longer just the show’s action figures.   We see two frail human beings that care for each other and kick ass for Galactica and the Almighty Adama on High.

And at least one of them’s most almost certainly very likely a human.  Almost certainly. The other… well, she’s got some issues she hasn’t shared with the group.

C’mon Starbuck.
Tell us where Leoben touched you?

It’s the second punch to the bloodied skull that tells the story.  It’s the visual point demonstrating they will go unnecessarily far. It’s personal.  When I saw YehawBoy^#2 I thought “hey that guy!” then I cringed, “Oh shit, this will go badly.” BSG characters have pasts that haunt them (mostly; where’s my Helo/Baltar post-Caprica scene! Bitches!). Helo’s past mistakes, however righteous they felt then, have come back to haunt him.  It’s microcosm-esque of the heathens at Adama’s gate.  They are bitter people who have moved beyond negotiating and aren’t above bringing a world of pain to those they feel have wronged them.

Once you’ve realized nothing will change and only one side can prevail the only remaining course is that of action.  I’ll betcha a Cylon once said something very similar about humans.

[when this is over there's going to be a reckoning and live or die it's how you act today that's going to matter … I'll be damned if I'm going to let a guy like you run me off my own ship] ~ Admiral Adama

Believe it or not, I had hope for Roslin.  I’ve been so into her journey and potential transformation, commenting on how remarkable it all was. How limitless her potential path. Then Lee bursts into her quarters and is all ^{Zarek’s back on Colonial One, he wants the Presidency} and Roslin's all _{Fraking Zarek, he always had dangerous ideas … I will do whatever it takes and I will not allow Tom Zarek to assume the Presidency under any circumstances}. Lee even urged her to ^{address the fleet, call for calm, the people will listen to you}. But no.

No, no, no. Don’t let its helpfulness to the plot distract you from the painfully accurate, true-to-character writing.  The change doesn’t draw much attention to itself but it’s fully consistent with Roslin’s portrayal.  She has been bitter and petty and her RealPolitiking is used to subdue and control rivals.  She lives for the crisis solving and the times, they are a crisis-y.  But throughout she’s been driven by her hatred of Baltar and/or Zarek more than she’s ever cared about the survival of humanity. Her soul-searching may have been fun: but lose to Zarek?  Her ego can’t take that.

For all I hoped Roslin might become it’s disappointing to see her backslide into old habits.  Ah Roslin, may yet ye find that better way.  Well met, regardless, ’tis been most gay.

The episode does a superb job establishing the intrigue and claustrophobic tension of a coup in progress.  I find no such thing as a typical episode; Galactica’s good at changing things up.  Today’s adventure is reminiscent  of when Cylons boarded Galactica (2x02). But that was Human vs. Cylons.

In fact, the setup of The Oath is so effective in the way it plays us against them that its easy to forget that the Human vs. Human melodrama is being played on a canvas of less that forty thousand beings. Adama & Tigh are hardcore bad-asses that are not going quietly into anyone’s goodnight and it ^roxors to see them kick ass. Adama all plugging Maldonaldo between the eyes.  And hella good, Starbuck rescuing Lee and she’s all like I could do this all day, who’s next? Racetrack? Conner? But don’t overlooked that she knows their names.  Not fifteen seconds earlier the point is made that Adama knew the man he was about to kill.

Civil war has come to Galactica and god it’s an ugly thing.  How fracking pathetic that when the stakes are this high the humans will fight for dominance instead of trying something new.  I fear that’s a true observation. 

This story wears the appearance of an action adventure story, as does Galactica as a show.  Go ahead and root for the good guys but the realities have become so nuanced it feels more like a documentary.