First, a couple of important announcements. Michael Trucco, who plays Sam Anders, has just signed on as a regular cast member (this will be important when I get to this week’s episode). Also, as you know if you’ve watched any other Sci-Fi Channel series, the Sci-Fi Channel as always broken their seasons into two parts, with a hiatus in the middle. When BSG returns from the hiatus in January, it will move to Sunday nights. Now, on to the episode.
After a couple of comparatively lame episodes, Battlestar Galactica is back on track. This week’s episode, “Unfinished Business,” opened on a boxing match on the ship (by the way, the boxing was fairly realistic, so if you have small children, you should take that into account) between Helo and Lee. It’s explained that the boxing matches are fairly regular events, and allow everybody to work off steam. Helo slams Lee, and Lee has a flashback — and that sets up the format for the episode.
The point isn’t the boxing match. The point is the story told in the flashbacks, which take place 17 months previously on New Caprica, 8 months before the Cylon occupation.
After Starbuck blows off Anders, she goes to the match and challenges Lee — who just had his butt kicked by Helo. He refuses, and she insults Dee by asking how she likes taking sloppy seconds, and Lee punches her, then accepts the challenge.
Adama then comes to the match and is talking with Roslin. We then flash back to the Chief asking Adama for permission to leave the ship for New Caprica so they can raise their son on the planet. Adama refuses.
Adama suddenly gets into the ring and calls the Chief out. During the fight, we find out through flashbacks that the crew of Battlestar Galactica was on New Caprica for some sort of festival — and what was it with the Irish jigs? — and it seemed to imply that Adama and Roslin were being more than just pals, if you catch my drift. After the, ahem, postcoital scene (it may not have been that, since they did have their clothes on, but that’s what it looked like) Adama changes his mind, and tells the Chief and Cally that they may move to New Caprica.
After Tyrol wins the fight, Adama struggles to his feet and tells everybody that he made a mistake and let himself get too close to the crew. He says that because he was too lax, they were unprepared when the Cylon fleet arrived at New Caprica, and that it would not happen again. Adama then leaves the ring, and Tigh declares the fights over.
Starbuck won’t let Lee get away without fighting her, so they get in the ring. During flashbacks, we find that they had bumped nasties, and both proclaimed that they loved each other — and that Starbuck had agreed to tell Anders. When Lee appears the next morning at the camp, Adama tells him that Starbuck had gotten up, found a priest, and married Anders.
Lee promptly finds Dee and kisses her. So it seems that Starbuck was right, and Dee was a rebound.
In the ring, Starbuck and Lee are beating each other up pretty good, and they collapse into each other’s arms as Anders and Dee look on. Anders is not a happy camper and leaves, and Dee looks stricken as Starbuck says, “I missed you,” into Lee’s ear, and he says, “I missed you, too.” End of episode.
The sexual tension between Starbuck and Lee has been there since the first season. More than just sexual tension, actually. It’s been pretty obvious that the two have it pretty bad for each other. The events the night before Starbuck married Anders, and the fact that she did run off and marry Anders, demonstrates (again) that Starbuck has serious relationship issues. I doubt that we’ll see Starbuck and Lee living “happily ever after.” But the episode sets up tension between Starback and Lee and Anders and Dee.
Good episode. No thinly-disguised politics. Back to the characters.
Thumbs up.
