TV Review: Battlestar Galactica – Someone to Watch Over Me

Posted by Kevin Carr (kevin@filmschoolrejects.com) on February 28, 2009

Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica, SciFi, Airs Friday 10/9c

Episode: “Someone to Watch Over Me” (Season Four, Episode 19)

Synopsis: With Boomer in the brig of Galactica, President Roslin has been asked to extradite her to the rebel Cylon Basestar to be tried for treason. Tyrol fears that she will be executed and arranges her escape, only to learn she has a secret plan. Meanwhile, Kara Thrace is trying to come to terms with what happened to her on Earth and why she found her own dead body there.

Review: Last week, there were some that accused the show of marking time, and to a degree I agree with them. The installment last week had only a small amount of new information or plot development that didn’t necessarily warrant an entire episode. I forgave that then because the previous several episodes were so well done.

This week, however, was definitely marking time. On the whole, more happened this week with Boomer’s plans and Starbuck trying to figure out what happened, but there was really only about ten minutes of story with a lot of filler. This does irk me, considering that this was the first of the last four episodes. I was hoping for a little more story with the dwindling series.

However, this is a trend for a show that might now have enough of the overall story to lay out in the number of episodes promised to the network. I saw this with the fifth season of Stargate: Atlantis, which seemed to have a large number of episodes towards the end of its run that really had nothing to do with the end game of the show.

Oh well, at least there’s something to chew on now that Boomer has shown where her loyalties lie. The only problem I have with her character arc is that she had disappeared from the show for so long, and we should have been privy to more of her development. We got plenty of development for Athena becoming loyal to humans, but there was only a few glimpses of Boomer’s conversion to Cylon loyalties. (And I have to wonder what the hell Helo was thinking. With that many eights running around, he didn’t even notice… but is it really cheating?)

Kara’s storyline was okay, albeit predictable. I’m getting a bit tired of her moping, though.

This episode was definitely a let-down for me, but I still have faith that the next three will ramp up the excitement.

Up Next: Adama faces a grim reality with the fragile state of Galactica, while more is revealed about Boomer and Hera.

Read More: Battlestar Galactica Recaps

Did you watch Battlestar Galactica this week? If so, feel free to discuss below.


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  • unknown2009
    I watched that episode last night, it seem alright but it feel like you want to turn off TV? But there are some interesting scenes. So I think that next episode will getting better and more senses, also I hope everything will be on right tracks like Laura's opera vision, Hera with Six and Baltar?, Final Five will find a new home, and Kara "Starbuck" Thrace's destiny. I hope that show will have great ending or memorable?
  • Have to agree with you, the episode was some 90% filler which is seriously disappointing for a show with so many questions unanswered and so few episodes left to answer them in (You just know there's gonna be some loose threads at the end). Wasn't exactly a shocker that the music Starbuck was playing was All Along the Watchtower, but i'm kicking myself for not realising that it was music notes that Hera gave her. It seems like next week's episode should pick up a little.
    http://www.igp-scifi.com
  • Agreed. Another lackluster episode. The finale is going to be 3 hours or something. Why shove it all into that one arc and not spread the love to some more episodes. Pretty boring. And again, the show is ignoring characters. What did Apollo do today? What did Gaius do? None of the frakking Cylons did anything other than Boomer and Chief. What really bothers me is that not only are they rushing and making things up, but they took a hard turn. Seasons 1-3 had a lot of focus on Gaius, Apollo, Starbuck, and Adama. Now the show is about the crappy Final Five, who aren't interesting and were picked out of a hat. It lacks direction as well. I'm seriously disappointed in the final episodes.
  • djjeffhall
    Like you Kevin, I found this episode to be a vast dissapointment. The show has so much to offer, and so many different options it could be exploring but isn't. Ron Moore seems to have one idea and ten episodes to fill. Unfortunately for us that means we have a lot of filler.
  • I'm surprised that you guys found it so lacking this week! I found it fascinating, both Starbuck's storyline (which I also found predictable) and Boomer's. My take was that Starbuck's father, the musician we saw in her memories and at the bar, was a Daniel, the supposedly lost musician Cylon. This would make Starbuck another child of both worlds, just like Hera, which explains why they both had pieces of the song in their head.

    Speaking of Hera, did anyone else think that perhaps Roslin's collapse at the end of the episode was due to her being more than emotionally linked to Hera? After all, wasn't it Hera's blood that saved Roslin from cancer earlier in the show? Perhaps genetic material from Hera still lingers on, explaining the strange link that left her unconscious on the floor, moments after Hera's container was slammed against the wall in Boomer's raptor.

    Overall, it may not have been as fast paced an episode but it didn't feel like marking time to me, more like elaborating and giving us a chance to fully understand what's going on on Galactica and in the universe. Oh, and poor Tyrol.
  • unknown2009
    wow! you make it very clearly, i never noticed these parts. thank you Michelle_FSR. i will thae these comment that i posted, look at first one, so i am still have hope for more answer and more bangs from final episodes. kudo to you!
  • Good call, Michelle. I have been thinking that Starbuck's apparant resurrection has something to do with Daniel, since Earth is where the Cylons lived. And I totally made the connection between Roslin and Hera.

    I didn't hate the episode, I just was disappointed in how slow-paced it was considering it was the first of the final four episodes. Just me grumbling about losing the show this month.
  • I can't believe we're so close to the end of it all either, only 4 hours and 3 weeks til it's all over. Even with a TV movie after this season ends it won't be the same. However, it's definitely best to go out all lamenting the loss than complaining that it's still going and ruining the show's mythos.

    I'm currently at the start of season one again, watching this week's episode was quite weird as I just finished watching Boomer and the Chief break up. Talk about timing, eh? :)
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