Battlestar Galactica: Someone to Watch Over Me, Episode 4x17

The episode's opening moments demonstrate the monotonous passage of time that has occurred since the fleet found Earth. Repairs continue, the pilots are flying the same flight plans and on the same mission. Little moments of life go on, but everyone is in a holding pattern. Kara's drinking or working and arguing with a piano player in a bar.

What We Knew

Hera is the product of Helo and Athena. The child is sought by all factions for what she portends the interbreeding of Cylon and human. Hera's presence in visions shared by Athena, Caprica Six and President Roslin indicates the significant influence of the child. Sam remains in a coma, Saul mourns the loss of his son in the previous episode and the Chief works tirelessly to repair Galactica, all the while, haunted by the images of the Eights he sees everywhere.

What We Learn

The Cylons now have a representative on the Quorum of Twelve (if that's what they are still calling it). Sasha (a Six) is the newly elected representative. Sasha addresses the fact that as the new representative, she plans to petition the Quorum for Boomer. When Roslin protests that Boomer shot the Admiral and committed crimes against the Fleet, Sasha assures her that the rebel Cylons do not want Boomer's freedom, they want to try her for treason. When Boomer sided with Cavil against her model, she contributed to the deaths of many thousands of Cylons. They want to hold her responsible for that crime among many others.

Boomers, Battlestars and Bangs

The Chief protests the idea that they might kill Boomer. In part, he grows weary of death, but he is also reminded of the fact that he 'settled' for Cally because he could not be with the one he really loved. His feelings for Boomer mix with his own remorse and regret for shunning her after the reveal of her Cylon nature. In the past, the Chief has wrestled with those feelings concerning Athena, but Athena was never Boomer and he made that distinction.

He begs Roslin to spare Boomer, but the President refuses his claims. She reminds him that Boomer specializes in manipulating emotions and that the Chief should avoid her and get back to work. She then just dismisses him, because in Roslin's mind it's a done deal. Roslin shakes and trembles throughout her conversations. Her fragility mirrored in the constant rumbling moaning of the ship. Power breaks down frequently and the groans, shivers and shakes disturb the crew as they all gaze around, wondering if the next tremor will destroy the ship.

The Chief ignores Roslin's advice and returns to Boomer. She shows him through Cylon projection, the house they planned to build on Pycon. She tells him she built it in her head, it was her safe place where she could go and be with him, even when they could not be together. Galen begins to weep as he gets caught up in the memories of all the things they wanted to have together. When he sees their daughter that never was, he sobs. The Chief has never really mourned the loss of "his" child and very few people even seem to be aware that it has happened, but in that moment, the Chief lost all sense of reason as he mourned the life they never had together.

He leaves the brig, determined and in a moment that is beyond sanity, takes advantage of the frequent outages to cause a power outage and the death of an Eight. He places the Eight's body in the cell and releases Boomer.

Someone is Sleeping in My Bed

Boomer makes a beeline for Athena's quarters. It takes Athena a moment, but she recognizes Boomer who attacks her and beats her down. When Helo arrives in their quarters, Boomer is washing her hands. Helo is feeling the urge and soon, he and Boomer are making mad, passionate love while Athena watches from her vantage point in a locker, bound, gagged and bloodied. She tries to close her eyes, but she can't block out the sounds.

Refreshed from her roll in the hay, Boomer suits up in Athena's flight gear and fetches Hera from the daycare. She urges the little girl to drink down her juice and a few minutes later, Boomer is loading a cargo box onto her raptor. The Chief offers to help and when Boomer urges him to come with her on her escape, he tells her no. They share a mad passionate kiss and Boomer loads up.

Meanwhile, Helo is walking pilots through their simulations when Athena stumbles in, bloody, bruised and busted. She tells him that it was Boomer he was with and demands to know where Hera is. Helo snaps out orders for a medic for Athena and someone to alert CIC to Boomer's treachery as Athena screams.

Attempts to prevent Boomer's departure fail as she flies out of the rapidly closing flight pod, damaging her raptor and sending her spinning out of control. To Hot Dog's horror, she jumps too close to the Galactica and the ship rocks as the fragile hull rips away.

Roslin's lethargy is disturbed as she realizes Hera is being taken and as Galactica shudders under the blast, Roslin collapses. Is this the end of Galactica and Roslin?

The Piano Man

Unfortunately, the piano player's presence throughout in his debates with Kara and her conversations should have been more powerful, but they all felt like filler to kill time until Kara remembered the piece of music her itinerant musician father taught her. Earlier in the episode, Helo invites Kara over to cheer her up with the stuff of hers he bought back from the other pilots. Hera gives her a picture she's making of colorful stars and Kara snatches out the tape with her father's name on it.

As Kara works with the piano man, she struggles with what she is and what it means now that she found her body on Earth. The piano player encourages her to play the tune she and her father used to play together. When Kara struggles to remember it, he writes some of the music down. Kara recognizes the notes as being similar to the star pattern. She layers the pattern under the music sheet and sees the full song.

She plays it and it affects Saul, Ellen and Tory powerfully. The three surround Kara at the piano and demand to know where she heard it, Kara is startled to find herself alone and starts to say that her father taught her, but swallows it as they want to know. She must then tell them about Hera. Later Saul and Ellen sit in the now-empty daycare and muse on how the small child could know THAT song, because apparently THAT song is of great imp0ortance. Ellen suggests that Hera is plugged into something greater than all of them.

Unfortunately, none of these revelations were a great surprise. The revelation that Boomer is still loyal to Cavil and that she came with Ellen specifically to snatch Hera is a stretch, but likely true. Galactica is dying, Roslin is dying and the fleet is going nowhere fast because no one is leading.

Is Daniel Kara's father?

Does that mean that Kara is a hybrid like Hera?

What the heck does THAT song have to do with it?

Will Kara's father's music reactivate Sam? Is he rebooting or is something else going on?

Did one of the Cylons really suggest plugging him into their hybrid pools?

Will Galen confess his part in Boomer's escape and Hera's kidnapping?

Is Roslin dead?

Will Adama give up now that both of his girls seem to be?

Only three episodes remain.