Show: Battlestar Galactica
Title: “Taking a Break From All Your Worries”
First Aired: 1/28/07

The capture of Greasebaltar on Algae World allowed The Powers That Be at Battlestar Galactica to draw even more parallel lines to our present, post-911 Earth. It also made it possible for Edward James Olmos to don his director’s cap and conjure some of the gutsiest performances of the season from his fellow thespians.

As the Colonials hunger for revenge against the instrument of the human race’s destruction, there’s a haunting undercurrent that reminds us of the importance of listening to our better angels. The result is an episode that is as beautiful as it is ugly. The Sci Fi Channel should hire Admiral Adama’s alter-ego to direct more often!

“Taking A Break…” opens with another breathtaking view of the ragtag human fleet as it passes a desolate planet. Inside the battle-scarred Galactica, the boxing ring has been replaced with a bar, where Apollo’s two-fisting it. The four-way frak-fest between Apollo, Dee, Starbuck, and Anders is about to reach an emotional breaking point as, elsewhere on the Battlestar, another four-way of sorts is taking place between a delirious Greasebaltar, his former Vice President, Roslin, and Adama. In the middle of the night, Gaeta tromps to Greasebaltar’s cell and finds him swinging from a noose cobbled together from pairs of black socks. Before that first heart-galloping commercial break, we learn that Greasebaltar is not, according to the vision that greets him in one of the resurrection pools, a Cylon. Back in the real world onboard Galactica, the macho knuckledragger guarding Greasebaltar’s cell revives him with some unexpectedly homoerotic mouth-to-mouth.

Starbuck and Anders tumble in her cramped bunk, while mere yards away, paper pushers are pushing paper. The scene is heartbreakingly painful, with Anders telling Starbuck he loves her, but that he’s willing to let her go if that is her wish. Equally brutal to behold is the disintegration of Apollo’s marriage to Dee. At one point, Apollo plays a game of spin-the-wedding-ring on the new bar’s countertop, only to later lose it when he’s jostled in a body-packed corridor, an action that causes him to flip out on unsuspecting passersby.

More brutality ensues. To get badly needed intel from Greasebaltar, Rozz and Adama agree to use an experimental truth serum. Greasebaltar gets strapped down ala Hannibal Lecter and takes his first of two jabs to the neck in this episode. High on drugs, he talks us through the role he played in the destruction of the Colonies. Cue the well-traveled stock footage from the 2003 miniseries! Greasebaltar almost dies during the interrogation, so Rozz decides on a different tactic. Gaeta offers Greasebaltar creature comforts and a stay of execution in exchange for information on the Cylon fleet. Taunted by his former boss from New Caprica, Gaeta snaps and drills his fountain pen’s nib into Greasebaltar’s throat, thus fulfilling that aforementioned second neck-poke.

Greasebaltar is taken to the infirmary, as Rozz and Adama quietly plot their next move. On the other four-way front, both estranged couples return to the hangar deck bar to either save or abandon their marriage vows. Apollo pleads with Dee to forgive him and to grant him one last chance. Silently taking his hand in hers, she agrees. Starbuck and Anders kiss, having apparently made their own decision to stay together. Again, things play out in ways that are alternatingly beautiful and ugly, as in any real-life relationship that’s derailed by temptation. Well done, Galactica.

In two weeks, the trial of Greasebaltar commences and, as Tom Zarek warns, it could divide the fleet in ways as yet unseen.