Battlestar Galactica: Season 2 Blog
October 26, 2009
Season 2. Episode 16.
“Sacrifice”
49,590 survivors. Terrorism among the fleet! Several of Galactica‘s personnel are on Cloud 9 for shore leave. Billy Keikeya proposes to Dualla, but she rejects him. Later on in a lounge on Cloud 9, Dualla talks about her problems with Apollo, and Billy sees this. Ellen Tigh comes in and flirts with Apollo. Shortly after, three men and a woman named Sesha Abinell hold the place down with gunpower, and they lock the doors to the lounge. They take all the people inside as hostages, and demand that the military hand over Sharon Valerii for execution. Sesha lost her husband during the Cylon attack, and she now believes that Valerii is playing Adama and is planning the destruction of the fleet. Little does she know, several of the hostages she is holding are Galactica crew members, military types. Apollo and Ellen are hiding in the bathroom while all this was happening; Apollo was suspicious of the three men, so he dragged Ellen with him to the bathroom—Ellen, being the loose woman that she is, thought about something else. Apollo then goes into a wall fixture inside the bathroom and finds the control panel to the lounge’s oxygen system. He sabotages the system and the oxygen begins to thin out. One of the terrorists come into the bathroom to check for more survivors, and Apollo attacks him and takes his gun. Apollo threatens Sesha that he will kill the man, but then Sesha threatens to kill Dualla. Apollo gives in. Sesha soon finds out that Apollo is Adama’s son, and she uses this to her advantage. She tries to negotiate with Adama by using his son as bargaining. Tigh warns Adama of the inherent dangers of negotiating with terrorists.
Meanwhile, Starbuck, who is also on Cloud 9 for shore leave, contacts CIC and gathers a Marine assault team to rescue the hostages. Apollo warns the Sesha of the damaged control panel, and that they could die of oxygen depletion if they do not allow a mechanic to come and fix it. Sesha agrees, and Starbuck disguises herself as a mechanic. When Starbuck comes in to the lounge, Ellen notices her, and Sesha immediately sees her reaction. The marines storm in and kill one of the terrorists, but two marines are shot dead. Starbuck accidentally shoots Apollo in the chest, and she is shocked. Starbuck and the remaining marines leave.
Later on, Adama agrees to give up the dead body of Sharon Valerii to Sesha—the corpse turns out to be the Boomer-Valerii model, and not the Sharon in the brig. Sesha notices this, but then Billy grabs one of the terrorist’s guns and kills one of the terrorists, but he dies in the process from return fire. Dualla is distraught as Billy is dead and Apollo is critically wounded, and his life hangs in the balance. Everyone is rescued, but at the cost of many lives. President Roslin mourns over the death of Billy.
This is episode was better than the last two episodes, but it still does not focus on anything important. Yeah, sure, it focuses on the importance of Sharon Valerii to the President and the Admiral, but I’m sure this episode was only a filler episode. Oh, and another thing, Billy’s death was cheap. Anne Cofell Saunders wrote this episode, by the way. And although she wrote one of my all-time favorite episodes, “Pegasus”, she really could’ve done more with Billy’s death. He played a pretty significant role in the miniseries and in the first season, so killing him off in this fashion felt really cheap to me. Overall, this episode was not exciting. It is worth noting a couple of good scenes, though, particularly, the scene with Roslin mourning over Billy. Mary McDonnell’s acting in this scene is top-notch, and her portrayal of Roslin in grief is such an amazing one. Great acting, weak plot, and a cheap death. Two and a half out of five.
Location viewed: My room
Source: Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series (Blu-Ray)
Time viewed: 10:00-10:50 PM
