The Conservative Cat

The thrust of the fourth season has been the issue of trust between enemies. The cylons are in the midst of a civil war, and the rebels (twos, sixes, and eights), have been maneuvering to get their hands on the final five cylons, who know the location of Earth. The identities of four of the final five were revealed in the season 3 finale. In last night's episode Revelations, the humans find out the truth about those four. Just minutes from a battle that will end in mutual annihilation, two of the four give Starbuck a clue that enables her to find Earth's location, and the cylon rebels join with the humans to make the final jump to the lost Thirteenth Colony. Because these two enemies were able to trust each other, we have an almost-happy ending.

In the run up to that ending, the cylons are discussing whether or not they can trust the humans, and the last surviving Number Three opines that the humans are probably still upset about the billions of people the cylons killed back when the series started.

That is a very good point. All throughout the second, third, and fourth seasons, the writers have portrayed the humans as being a not very trustworthy bunch who refer to the cylons by the racial epithet toaster and treat their enemies in a completely inhumane fashion. Watching the show, you feel strongly that the cylons are not being given a fair shake. This is because you've watched hundreds of movies and TV shows before, and you know that problems are always solved by the good guys and bad guys deciding they have to overcome their trust and work together.

It's possible this is the lesson the show's creators want us to learn, but it's a huge mistake to think that real life works the same way. In point of fact, the Munich conference didn't stop Hitler from invading Poland, and the Palestinians are still trying to kill Jews.

So yes, Battlestar Galactica is fun to watch, and I really do want to see how it all ends, but when you're sitting there wishing that President Roslin would just stop being so paranoid so we can move the plot along, it's because you know it's a TV show, and she doesn't.

You can't afford to forget that.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat