Meant to convey a deliberately vague sense of camaraderie, "Deadlock," the 16th, season four episode of "Battlestar Galactica," tells a poignant story about how war complicates the identities of both sides that it engages.
Less often suffering is Gaius Baltar (James Callis), who appears to be turning a new leaf, but does not to the writers' credit make a dramatic leap from a weasel to a saint. He returns to his flock of female followers, allowing them to believe that the one true god for which the former fleet president claims to speak abandoned them and that his own absence was meant to test their ability to survive. But not all Baltar's myrmidons instantly swoon past his faulty explanation.
Even how and why Baltar chooses to cement his position as their leader by providing the civilian members of the fleet with food is dubious because it is uncertain if his actions are motivated by a need to show up Paula Schaffer (Lara Gilchrist) or to impress an attractive woman.
Making the character even more ingeniously complex is that he nonetheless seems to enjoy helping others before gaining more influence by the episode's end.
Ellen herself is shown to be more than just a vindictive temptress in backing off once she has done something horrible.
Questionable about the episode is how quick the suddenly loyal again Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) and Tory Foster (Rekha Sharma) are to jump on the band wagon of abandoning the fleet so as to preserve the 13th tribe in its purest form given that they were once mesmerized to even learn that they were Cylons. Maybe this is meant to show their innate duplicity or tendency to view living among their enemies as unacceptable?
What finally comes into perspective in "Deadlock" is the reality that comes with any kind of warfare in the long run. Soldiers crossing borders mate with enemy women, learn one another's cultures and incidentally become one whole microcosm, subtly shown in Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) and Tricia Helfer's Caprica's Six's baby, the presence of many of her doubles throughout the Galactica battleship and the Cylon goop holding it all together.
Perhaps this is why it is necessary for there to have been in a death in the episode so that both sides could share a common pain, and the last scene really provides this notion with a sense of heart.
"Deadlock" is a surprisingly well-structured transitional episode that is sure to make whatever it is setting up all the more meaningful.
Popcorn rating:(4 out of 5 pieces)
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