'Battlestar Galactica' Recap: Ride the Tide

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DUALLA'S LAST HURRAH

She's trying to live, as Lou Reed would put it, her perfect day. Playing with Hera, going on an impromptu date with Lee...in other words, living the life she always wanted but never had. Giving the only gifts she had to offer: companionship, inspiration, relief, clarity. And it must've all been so clear for her, how to spend her last day alive. Such clarity can be frightening. Because one of the hardest things to recognize in ourselves is weakness. Not only did Dee recognize that she wasn't strong enough to carry on, but she embraced it. Abject despair is like a fingerprint; it's different for everyone.

One of the reasons I love this show is that it can spring something so surprising — like Dee's death — while still making it feel like a logical conclusion. Not that you'd ever think that she would've done that, but afterwards, you feel like the signs were all there and you just missed them.

And it's as if Dualla's death is what kicked the desperation into high gear. Everyone on that ship was looking for a way to numb the pain. Some turned to suicide solutions — Roslin stopped taking her meds; Adama picks a fight with Tigh, hoping to goad him into a shootout; Galactica crewmen are turning ''the Bucket'' into a riotous ghetto.

(Call me a heretic, but I thought Adama's drunken confessions — over Dee's body, to Tigh after their faceoff — was some of Olmos' worst acting in the series. Too deliberate, too forced, too much weird stuff happening with his mouth. It's a tough thing to do, I'm sure, convey that kind of self-destructive anger, but it took me right out of both of those scenes.)

THE THIRTEENTH TRIBE WERE CYLONS

Four different science teams spread out across Earth's surface and found toaster-y Cylons and what looked like human bones, all buried together. But, as Baltar discovers, they're not so human after all. ''A tribe of Cylons came to this planet and called it Earth.'' As the old saying goes, all of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again. So, does this mean that everyone is a Cylon? All of the tribes were machines? Trippy.

THE FINAL FIVE ARE IMMORTAL-ISH

Each of them remembered being on Earth 2,000 years ago, before the bombs went off. Tyrol shopping in a market; Anders playing ''All Along the Watchtower''; Tory watching him perform — but how? They age like humans, or Adama would've noticed his best friend never got older. According to the 2,000-year-old Ellen, they'll be reborn...but why these five? What's so special about them that they're chosen, Kal-El-style, to be the standardbearers for their dead civilization? As ever, we got some answers, but they were answers that begged even more questions.

So, here we are, right back where we started. Adama making a promise to the fleet that he will lead them to a new home. Lying to himself, and everyone else, in order to motivate them. But does anyone still believe?

I will say this: Aside from the Ellen reveal, everything about this episode felt right. Every emotion rang true, even if, at times, a little extreme. It was a funereal hour of television, and it couldn't have gone any other way. But I also can't say that it was dramatic. Revelation, and the aftershocks of revelation, is an inert experience. Emotional devastation is powerful, but it doesn't move. We learned some stuff, sure, but aside from Dualla's suicide, not that much actually happened. Just one mention of the Separatist Cylon threat from the Cavils. Barely a word from Baltar and the Sixes.

In all honestly, I liked what I got, but I was hoping for just a little more from this, the beginning of the end.

What did you think? Who would you rather have seen revealed as the Fifth Cylon? Is Lee gonna find himself back in the Big Chair? How will the fact that, apparently, everyone is a Cylon affect the ongoing war?