'Battlestar Galactica' Recap: Seize The Day

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The crisis even inspired surprising acts of valor in the least likely of people. Romo Lampkin, after watching Adama, his ''client,'' get summarily convicted and sentenced to death by Zarek, took out his guard with just a well-placed pen in order to save Starbuck's life. And then he even helped Starbuck take Anders, hemorrhaging blood from his neck thanks to an errant bullet, to Doc Coddle. The only other person better at self-preservation than Lampkin? Duh: Gaius Baltar, who'd taken to bed with an especially Miss October-esque Six on the Basestar, only to be startled awake by a vision of Adama getting cut down by a firing squad. The fact that Baltar would even think about the admiral's well-being is remarkable on its own. But the outward champion of the One True God also confessed that (A) he felt true guilt for ''disappear[ing] in the nick of time, again,'' (B) he has always secretly loathed his flock — or as he hilariously puts it, his ''fan club'' and (C) he must return to those followers anyway because…wait for it…''they're my responsibility.'' Baltar? Evolved? Maybe there's hope for humanity after all.

Or maybe not. After all these turns towards hope — including Roslin's insanely awesome declaration that she will fight ''down to my own eye-teeth'' to end Zarek and his mutiny, a moment that brought Baltar and one of the Sixes to tears — we came to a moment of truth: A freed Adama standing before the men who would be his executioners and asking them to help him take back his ship. But the firing squad's commanding officer just can't. ''Sorry sir,'' he says to Adama. ''I've always respected you. But I hate the Cylons. And I can't take orders from a leader who won't fight them.''

And there, dear readers, is the rub — and, I think, one of the organizing Big Ideas for the rest of this season. However pleasing the idealism of a human/Cylon alliance may be, however soothing the notion that we can find enough common ground with our enemies that we can one day come together as allies, even men as level-headed, as solid, as Felix Gaeta can be driven to violent acts of desperation rather than even contemplate the idea of reconciliation. The Cylons wiped out humanity in a nuclear holocaust; a memorial to the lost remains in the halls of Galactica. Like Gaeta's aching stump, some wounds cut too deep to ever really heal, the phantom pain of what's gone forever simply too real to ignore. In just nine short hours, Gaeta and Zarek demonstrated that humanity and the Cylons cannot truly co-exist. They may end their hostilities, but it will be at best an armistice — not real peace.

Whatever understanding they come to, however, it looks like it's gotta be soon. That fissure Tyrol discovered in the engine room — the gash through the ship's heart — telegraphed quite plainly that Galactica's final days are nigh. I daresay they'd better find themselves a permanent home but quick; if they had jumped, it looks like the ship would've been ripped apart.

Enough of my blather. What did you think of ''Blood on the Scales''? Is Anders a goner? And if so, will Starbuck be able to recover from yet another massive psychological blow? (That kiss she gave Lee in ''The Oath'' would indicate the answer is: Maybe.) Will Baltar's newfound sense of maturity actually stick? Can the fleet mend the rift — including the sizeable pile of dead soldiers and civilians — caused by Zarek and Gaeta's uprising? What's to become of, say, Racetrack? Will Roslin form a new Quorum? Is Lee Adama pretty much a lock for the vice-presidency? And with the resurrection of Ellen Tigh upon us, where the frak is Cavil?!

(UPDATE: As many of you have pointed out, Colonial One has landed in Galactica's hangar before. My bad.)