After watching the whirlwind events of “Revelations” and last week’s “Sometimes A Great Notion”, this week’s episode, written and directed by Ron Moore, definitely provided a slower pace and less meaty morsels for people to chew and savour. However, I think this was a wise move and will probably serve the overall story arc well by giving the audience a chance to catch their breath after the major roller-coaster ride of the last two episodes.
“A Disquiet Follows My Soul” did feature some intriguing character developments and the much needed time to explore how some characters are handling their new reality. I was thrilled to see that Gaius may finally be returning to his old, bitter self again (perhaps his shortened coiff is indicative that we’ll see a complete rejuvenation of the old, narcissistic, self-serving Gaius in the episodes to come. Or at least we can hope). However, I was disappointed to see what a short-shrift he was given in this piece after we saw that old fire returning to his character. One can hope that this scene is the segue to more Gaius-centered subplots in the subsequent episodes. I also liked the fact that they revealed that Tyrol’s son is in fact Hotdog’s child. Given the importance that was put on Hera, I always found it odd that none of the Final Four wondered how Tyrol could have sired a son. That is, unless they knew it wasn’t his all along – after all, the grapevine has to be pretty small on a ship like Galactica. Of course, this new revelation no doubt adds to Tyrol’s growing disconnect to his life on Galactica in light of realizing he had a life on Cylon Earth, as evidenced by his identity confusion at the start of the first act in Adama’s quarters.
Unfortunately, this episode also suffered from some tired and well-worn bits – the whole plot surrounding Tom Zarek felt too much like a been-there/done-that sort of deal. He’s not someone who’s looking out for the fleet’s best interests, but instead his ‘legacy’ in history; okay, we got that already several seasons ago. Sadly, Zarek’s character is one of those that never really got fleshed out into something more deeper and multi-dimensional and as a result, all his actions end up being predicated by the same motives. Given his background as a ‘rebel’ or perhaps more accurately, someone who sees things outside of the majority viewpoint, there was the potential for his character to serve as a more effective foil against the position of Adama and Roslyn – when those two were in agreement, that is. I did enjoy his rimshot line at Lee Adama where he asks him which role exactly was he currently playing. Well served – point goes to Zarek.
Of course, it’s interesting to see who struck a deal to be Zarek’s new partner in crime. Granted, Gaeta felt a little too sneering and bitter in this episode – it has been some time since he lost his leg, so it can’t be because of that. I assume the resentful and angry Gaeta was meant to demonstrate the growing frustration of the fleet’s populace now that it’s sinking in that they have no real concrete plans for a future, that they’ve all been hooked on this dream fix called Earth. Still, I would have liked to have seen a little more of that frustration and inner rage in Gaeta glinting in last week’s episode so the build-up here would be more reasonable. And did anyone else catch the focus on water as a visual element throughout this episode? A few times in the episode, the scene direction played particular attention to the presence of water in the scene – Adama running the shower (water conservation is not an issue?), Roslyn with her glass of water, and so forth. This scene between Zarek and Gaius may hold the rationale for that as I did get the impression of Zarek playing the part of Pontius Pilate, washing his hands of the bloodshed he’s about to set forth (again, no big surprise that Zarek would ask for a ‘partner’ since he’s shown the shrewd approach of playing the puppet-master in such situations).
Regardless, I’m glad to see that Moore and Eick are not shying away from dealing with the reality that the fleet should start to sink into the darker side of humanity as a result of Earth’s discovery. It’s often said that one of our species’ greatest assets is our ability to hope, to see a better tomorrow in spite of current conditions. The reality of this is that the flip side of this coin is how quickly we fall from that state of grace, and start turning on each other to express our rage and sense of disillusionment, if not betrayal of that vision. Will the fleet hit rock bottom only to start picking up the pieces? Guess we’ll find out over the course of the remaining episodes.
It’s clear that this episode is setting up some new arcs and that for me is a very reassuring sign since that means that Moore and Eick are not content with using these remaining episodes simply to tie up existing plot-lines; rather, they want to use it as an opportunity to create new ones that will make this final leg of the journey, hopefully, a very memorable one. So, in that regard, I don’t mind a ‘quiet’ episode like this one, since a good storyteller knows that he/she needs to give their audience a chance to take in all that has happened before sending them back into the chaos.
