Battlestar Galactica: Season 2-01: Scattered

By Koenigrules

The Best Scenes in BSG 201:
'Scattered' But Still Powerful


The first episode of Battlestar Galactica's Season Two ('Scattered') delivers on so many levels: it continues the story line in a seamless fashion, it develops the secondary characters (i.e., Tigh and Tyrol) very effectively, and it pays homage to TOS episode, 'Fire in Space.' Adama and Roslin are out of commission for most of the episode; the Commander needs to be operated on at once and the President remains incarcerated for daring to lead an uprising against the Commander. So it logically follows that the other players are given more screen time, and the result is a powerful episode that ushers in Galactica's second year with a BANG!

Some of the best scenes are with Tigh (played very effectively by Michael Hogan). As 'The Old Man' lies dying, he is put in the unenviable position of commanding the fleet. Through a series of flashbacks in which Adama convinces him to rejoin the service, Tigh realizes that he never wanted this. In a rare moment of insight, he delivers the lines to a comatose Adama, “I don't want to command. I never did. Don't you dare die on me now.” Still, Tigh does rise to the occasion and hyperjumps the fleet before the Cylon Base Star attacks. The only problem is the rest of the fleet has jumped to another location, and most of the plot revolves around finding those ships. When interrogating Boomer (a Cylon agent who shot Adama in the Season 1 finale), Tigh restrains himself from shooting her- exercising some control over his own emotions. He even manages to let Lee fly his Viper again when the Cylons attack at the conclusion, trusting that the 'mutinous' Captain will return to his cell in between missions. It is apparent that this man still possesses some good leadership skills in him. However, in one of the flashbacks he is ready to kill himself, driving the point home that Tigh would not be a suitable long-term replacement for Adama. Still, it is nice to see Colonel Tigh shine, however brief a moment it might be.

On Kobol, the survivors of the Raptor try to stay alive while fending off an unseen enemy. We learn that Baltar had 'imagined' most of the interactions with Six on the planet, including seeing his child, although Six does relay to him that he will be a father in the not too distant future. Puzzling you say, but it is interesting that the writers are spending so much time concentrating on the Cylon-human hybrid offspring. Perhaps this is the great Cylon Plan that has yet to be revealed.

Chief Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) is another character who is fleshed out in this episode. He realizes Crashdown should not be leading them, but manages to convince him to take a team back to the Raptor for medical supplies so that they can save a mortally wounded Socinus. Clearly the Chief connects well with the group and even manages to take time to smell the flowers (or in this case, to hear the bird song echoing from the trees). Tyrol handles the brutal gunning down of fellow officer Tarn by unknown shooters reasonably well, getting the man to safety- but not before Tarn is literally peppered with bullets. It comes as no surprise that the officer eventually dies, reminding Tyrol that they need to find a safe haven and soon. Like Tigh, Tyrol adopts a commanding presence and manages to save his team from extermination. My hat goes off to Aaron for doing an outstanding job in this episode.

Besides the shooting of Tarn, some other memorable scenes include the following: Helo preventing Starbuck from shooting the Caprica Boomer because she is carrying his child; Gaeta's attempting to get the coordinates of the missing fleet before the Cylons zoom in on the Galactica's position; an officer in the brig wanting to pray with Roslin as the Cylon missles hit the Galactica; and the introduction of a new (and much larger) Cylon ship that enters the battle and is shot down.

The original series episode, 'Fire in Space,' contained many of the same elements as 'Scattered.' While the Commander is being operated on, the Cylons target the Galactica with all the Raiders they can muster. The Galactica does manage to survive (via a hyperjump that reunites them with the fleet) and Adama pulls through the operation performed by one of the medics, although he is still in a critical state. What the new series does, however, is go one step further than the original. The Cylon ship that was apparently shot down has crashed into the Galactica's starboard landing bay and unloads a number of the metallic Cylons onto the battlestar. The episode ends with the machines getting out of the ship and advancing, with their roving red eyes searching for any humans to kill. This reviewer would have loved to see TOS Cylons duke it out with the Colonial Warriors aboard the battlestar; his wish has finally come through with TNS.

The rating for this episode is 10 out of 10. “Scattered' has many loose ends to tie up, and it does not forget a single one left over from last season. Plus, it moves at a rapid pace from beginning to end; in fact, this is one of the most action-packed episodes of the entire series to date. The follow-up episode, 'Valley of Darkness,' will probably be even more action-driven. And while Adama might not be exerting a dominant role for some episodes to come, it is nice to know that other officers in the fleet (including Colonel Tigh, Lieutenant Gaeta and Captain Kelly- who was last seen in the miniseries) will be in a position to defend the last survivors of the colonies from extinction by the deadly Cylons.

Some unanswered inquiries remain: in the confusion did Dualla simply forget to download the coordinates of the hyperjump destination to the rest of the fleet or was it deliberate? And if it was deliberate, are we looking at another Cylon model aboard the Galactica? Finally, who was shooting at the Chief's group? It did not appear to be a Cylon attack. Hopefully, answers will be provided- and sooner rather than later.