Gunplay
From Wiki Frakr
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| "Gunplay" An episode of the Re-imagined Series | ||
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| Episode No. | Season 4, Episode 6 (discuss) | |
| Writer(s) | Seamus Kevin Fahey | |
| Story by | ||
| Director | Michael Nankin | |
| Special guest(s) | ||
| Production No. | 408 | |
| Nielsen Rating | ||
| US airdate |  9 May 2008
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| UK airdate |  13 May 2008
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| DVD release | ||
| Population | {{{viewers}}} Million People Still Watching | |
| Extended Info | {{{extra}}} | |
| Episode Chronology | ||
| Previous | Next | |
| Baltar Gets a Handshake | Gunplay | Guess What I Had for Dinner? |
| Related Information | ||
| Official Summary | ||
| R&D Skit – View | ||
| Dull analysis and bland recap available on Battlestar Wiki | ||
| Online Purchasing | ||
| Available at iTunes – [{{{itunes}}} Purchase] | ||
Contents |
Overview
- Lots of guns are waved around, and people get hurt. The Hybrid unplugs from the Matrix.
Summary
Teaser
- Angry, sweaty and defiant with nostrils fully flared, Karl Agathon refuses to obey orders to travel to a baseship. Kara Thrace attempts to jump the ship herself but Athena puts the old Million Dollar Dream on her.
- Agathon orders Gaeta to jump the ship back to Galactica. Samuel Anders points out that they will be returning as mutineers, but Agathon responds that Admiral Adama will sort things out...he always does, the big ape.
- "Wild-Eyed" Anders intervenes, shooting Gaeta in the balls to stop him from following Agathon's order to jump back to the Fleet. Chaos ensues as Marines arrive.
- Everyone stands down as Gaeta is attended to, in severe pain from a testicular wound.
- Several hours after everyone else, Thrace realises that taking the Demetrius itself to the baseship would be too great a risk. She rescinds her original order and suggests to fly their only Raptor to the baseship with Athena and Anders as crew, taking Leoben Conoy with them (so basically hald the crew goes, thus increasing the risk again). Agathon initially objects but realizes its the best compromise. He tells her that she has only 15 hours to complete her mission before the Demetrius must jump to rendezvous with the Fleet or be left behind. This is known as the big suspenseful setup for later on.
- Every person in this scene flip-flops in character at least seven times.
Act 1
- Tory Foster, neither bald or wearing a wig, is packing things up on Colonial One. Laura Roslin is at her desk, bald and not wearing her wig. Later, she'll put on a nice wrap that COINCIDENTALLY is the same color as her eyes. She tells Foster to keep things going as she finishes the last two diloxin treatments, where she'll be on Galactica and indisposed during that time. Roslin tries to encourage Foster to watch out for sudden moves by the Quorum and to try not to use her secret Cylon powers again till a more important episode.
- It's Day 58 in the Big Brother house/Demetrius mission, and the crew prepares the Raptor. Athena promises to work with Thrace as does Jean Barolay, who, having not been seen much before, is likely to have something eventful happen to her later on.
- The Raptor jumps and finds a massive graveyard of dead baseships and Raiders floating dead in space. Thrace is amazed, having only been told that she would see all this a few hours previously. They are by a large gas giant in a trinary star system, just as her visions suggested. AND JUST AS LEOBEN HAD TOLD HER.
- On the Demetrius, Gaeta is heavily medicated with Starbuck's secret stash for the pain. He asks Agathon not to have Dr. Cottle remove his balls, as he realizes that the longer he doesn't get advanced care, the more likely is is that he'll become a eunuch.
- The Raptor carefully searches for the baseship amidst the mass of visual effect surrounding them. Thrace can hear "music", which turns out to be Barolay beatboxing in the backseats. (Leoben confirms this is a rare trait among some Cylons as well!!) Thrace takes control to fly the Raptor towards the gas giant. She sees the comet she expected, but not in the form; Leoben's stricken baseship is flying past, trailing gas that gives it a comet-like appearance.
- The Raptor cruises past a warhead, which explodes too close to them and damages the cockpit canopy.
Act 2
- Thrace awakens to find the Raptor hasn't exploded.
- Athena arrives to find herself surrounded by lots of Number Eights, who recognize her....as they look exactly the same. They ask her to help mutiny against the oppressive Sixes, but Athena rejects them because....she rejected them ages ago and still doesn't like them.
- In sickbay, Gaius Baltar's Drivetime Radio Hour has begun with a discussion on God, Gods and and other pseudo-theological ranting. Roslin encounters a woman in sickbay, Emily Kowlski, who is gravely ill with cancer as well. They are about to become cancer buddies, but immediately fall out over how loud the radio should be.
- Thrace's meeting with the surviving rebel Cylons does not go well, when Thrace falcon punches a Six.
- Athena taps into the datastream by washing her hands in a pond. As the group preps, Anders considers washing his hands too but decides against using soap made from Raider blood.
- A Six sees Jean Barolay and recognizes her as the human who killed her on New Caprica. Barolay doesn't much care and, not having been seen much before, gets her face smashed in. Anders strikes an attack pose but it quickly subdued by Thrace.
- Natalie kills the violent Six but applying the Cylon Nerve Grip. Coincidentally, the Cylon Nerve Grip is the same as smashing someone over the head with a vase.
- Roslin meets again with Emily Kowlski, who gives her a scarf as a gift. Since it's never that cold or blustery on a spacecraft in deep space, Roslin mocks Emily for what is a pointless item.
Act 3
- Thrace sees the Hybrid, but the Hybrid sees right through the furrowed brow acting of Thrace and keeps working.
- Back in the sickbay again, Emily tells Roslin why she listens to Baltar's Drivetime Radio Hour. She tells of a dream where she saw people standing on the opposite side of a record turntable: dead radio disc jockeys. She felt a presence, a cheesy catchphrase filled presence that calmed her. Roslin questions the relevance of a dream about dead DJs but Emily notes that she does have cancer.
- Thrace and the gang continue to listen to the Hybrid's utterances. Leoben instructs Thrace to unlisten what she has unlistened till she can listen.
- Athena is ready to activate the jump engines and disconnect the Hybrid. Irritated at getting nowhere with the Hybrid, Thrace orders the jump. When it is unplugged, the Hybrid screams out, causing a Centurion guard to randomly fire at everyone. Fortunately, nobody important to the main plot threads gets hit.
- As Cylon blood mixes with the Hybrid's bath water, it gives Thrace a silly message about five opera singers going into a pub. Three of them order wine, but Two of them order spirits. The barman says that'll be Thirteen credits. But before giving the punchline, the Hybrid calls her a bitch, slaps her stupid face and unplugs. The Hybrid then deactivates, leaving everyone in shock.
- Kowlski and Roslin continue their cancer drug influenced drivel. Roslin becomes upset when she realises she left her oven on. As Kowlski tries to comfort her, the woman suddenly has a violent seizure of pain. Cottle arrives with medication, but tells Roslin that she'd better go turn her oven off incase it destroys a bulkhead.
Act 4
- As Team Thrace wait around, the dying Eight speaks to Athena and reaches out for her. Athena back away as she has no intention of getting Cylon Flu. Anders steps in to comfort the dying Cylon, as he reckons Cylon Flu won't affect him and his crazy eyes.
- The group deciphers the Hybrid's message. They all agree that Thrace is a bitch and that Hybrids are no good at telling jokes. The group leave to meet the Demetrius having not learnt that much new, but gaining a giant spaceship at the cost of only three lives.
- Kowlski's vision of a long past disco kings is passed to Roslin's dreams. Roslin feels joy, knowing she'll never have to listen to that annoying woman and her radio again
- The Demetrius is is about to leave, when Team Thrace arrive in the basestar. After communication is established, Agathon, knowing what a good episode opener it'll lead to, enthusiastically begins to prep both ships to leave for the Fleet
- Onboard Galactica, Roslin meets with William Adama in his quarters. She tells him that her cancer drug induced state has got her addicted to radio drivetime shows. Adama is reluctant to get involved, thinking more about what's happened to all the top crew and Viper pilots he sent off on a stupid mission. But Roslin comforts him, understanding what it's like to make rash, illogical decisions. The two smile as Adama cracks open another bottle of Roslin's hallucinogenic medications.
Notes
- Baltar's radio broadcast contains a number of phrases from the "Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook" Monty Python sketch, including "My hovercraft is full of eels", "Do you want to come back to my place, bouncy-bouncy?" and ""If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?" These phrases refer to the lack of sense of humour in the fleet and Baltar's camp sensibilities.
Analysis
- Even though Baltar is is not a big fan of 70s band "Styx", he does appear to enjoy listening to their 1977 LP "The Grand Illusion". This is a reference to the illusion of power the ruling classes have...or something.
- Emily Kowlski's description of the Lords of Kobol and their behaviour is quite consistent with that of previous episodes featuring extended theological ramblings.
- Some of the writers' misdirection from "He That Puteth In Me" becomes clear. The "giant swathe to steel across two spheres", assumed to be a binary star system, is revealed to be the gunshot wound to Gaeta's groin. This also explains how Conoy was able to help Thrace paint the scene in the previous episode, since he had always wanted to see that happen to Gaeta for being overly whiney on New Caprica.
- A close-up of Kara Thrace in the Hybrid's chamber evokes the comic phrase "I'd like to see a close-up of her Hybrid chamber, know what mean? NUDGE NUDGE WINK WINK" ....no?
Questions
- Are the Centurions capable of getting an clear signal from a homebuilt crystal radio set?
- What does the Hybrid's statement that "the two who saw the seven will find the eight who likes the twelve" mean?
- Were the Final Five made on Earth, the home of the thirteenth tribe? Did they voyage to Earth hoping to find a pair of humpback whales and judge mankind?
- Does "the thirteenth" really refer to "The One Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken" mentioned in "The Eye of Jupiter", to whom the Temple of Five was dedicated in the "Ceremony of the Three" which mentions the "Journey of the Seven Ships" to the "Land of the Nines"?
- Will Thrace tell anyone about the Hybrid calling her "a stupid bitch"?
- Will Helo and the others have to answer for their mutiny, or will they try and cover it up as usual?
- And even if the did answer for the mutiny, will the Old Fart let them off, as usual?
- Will Cottle bust out the bonesaw[1] on ol' Gaeta's balls?
Official Statements
Noteworthy Dialogue
- Starbuck: I'll stake my reputation on it.
- Helo: Captain, you haven't got a reputation.[1]
Guest Stars
- Nana Visitor as Emily Kowlski
- Alana Husband as Nurse Shashon
- Ryan McDonell as Lieutenant Eammon "Gonzo" Pike
References
External Links
- Composer Bear McCreary on the episode's score: [1]
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