Battlestar Galactica, Episode 9 "Secrets and lies / Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down"

c0y0te

Fenster asked me to throw up this poll in his absence, so here ya go

Episode 9 is the first one to be directed by Edward James Olmos (Adama to you and me!), so it should be interesting to see where he goes with the plots that have been developing to date.

There are two titles knocking around for this episode - "Secrets and Lies" and also "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down". I'm not sure which one they are using, so I just picked one:)

Episode Extract: "Until now assumed dead, Col. Tigh's estranged wife turns up on Galactica, seeking a reconcilliation".

As ever, hold your polls until after the episode airs and then get stuck in with the usual debates and opinions.

c0y0te

Stark

It was Great

coyote wrote:

As ever, hold your polls until after the episode airs

Might want to try following your own advice there...

c0y0te

I'd rather watch Andromeda

erm - in what way Stark?... I haven't voted yet, I've only just setup the poll in advance as requested

c0y0te

Fenster

It was Crap!

I said I wouldn't be around "tomorrow"

David Stewart

It was OK

The Sky EPG is using 'Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down' as the title while Digital TV And Satellite Weekly is using 'Secrets and Lies'

Stark

It was Great

It was amazing, I'd rather watch Andomeda!!

I prefer the name "Secrets and Lies", "Tigh me up, Tigh me down" sounds way too corny.

Praetorian

It was Great

Thanks to Boston for voting already. Messer!

c0y0te

I'd rather watch Andromeda

Problem Solved

Kevok

It was Great

God I love this show.

That was an incredible hour of television. And the Caprica thread is actually starting to take a turn for the better!

Guies is still hard to figure, he's now just going to tell everyone that they pass? Then why bother doing the tests at all?

Definately one of, if not *the* best episode so far.

Calibos

It was OK

Not back till January 3rd!! GRRRGGHHH

Good episode though

Peace

It was OK

Voted great:

Caprica plot starting to get on my nerves. I like where its going but don't like the fact its going so slowly.

Can anyone tell me why the frack baltar doesn't grass out the cylons?

Calibos

It was OK

Am I right in thinking that I heard 'the prisoner' mentioned. Was that in referance to ellen? While watching I assumed that it referred to galactica boomer and figured that gaius did turn her in after all. Then at the end Six makes the comment that "everyone seems to pass these days", which makes it seem like he didn't turn boomer in.

Confused!

secret_squirrel

It was OK

Hmm Interesting episode....nice to see them trying a bit of comedy...was quite chucklesome too.

Last scene of Gaius sitting there with mad grin on his face as Six gave him the ride was a classic.

Actually seeing some development in the Caprica storyline - shock/horror!!

A few WTF's though :

WTF1: 11 hours where did Gaius get that from - I assume Six put him up to it. Boomer was tested in seconds wasnt she?

WTF2: Everybody passes?? - Is the man going loopier or what are him and Six up to??

In all a good episode - hope its the last potential infiltrator storyline for a while though - as a plot device its getting tiresome and turning into the most contrived part of the episodes.

No BSG until Jan 3rd :eek:

Stark

It was Great

Can anyone tell me why the frack baltar doesn't grass out the cylons?

Because they'll kill him if he does. Actually yeah in response to last week's argument about "Why doesn't he tell the crew about Boomer behind her back", I believe the answer was "Six would still know, and he'd still be in trouble".

For what looked like a filler episode, that was a quality piece of television. I guess we won't know anytime soon whether Helen was a cylon or not. Can Cylons get pissed and make total asses of themselves. I laughed out loud when jumped and said "boo" in response to people suggesting she was a cylon Gaius getting caught masturbating by Starbuck was a nice piece of toilet humour Yeah I was wondering what the story was with Gaius and the cylon detector tests

Dunno about the Caprica plot, I was defending it but really this week it took the piss for lack of advancement. Damn Six is an interesting character, though frustrating because we get such brief glimpses into what's really making her tick. Why is she so obsessed with love? She reminds me of the path some people can go down the way she goes around cracking onto everyone and anyone in the hopes of finding it. Was she jilted in a previous "human life" or something? Is she in love with Gaius?

I wonder what's up with Gaius and the cylon detector. It seemed obvious that by the end of the episode he would no longer be stuck testing them for 60-odd years. Does he just test the ones he's interested in these days and not bother with the rest, just telling people they passed? Does he have to sit over them for 11 hours or can he go away and make himself a cup of tea(if they had teabags) or whatever while the sample is being processed?

c0y0te

I'd rather watch Andromeda

Sad to say, I thought this episode was actually crap... and that's a first for me in the series to date :mad: . Here we go with the review, but I'm really pissed off at this episode at the mo...

The good:-

It had some good points going for it, but nothing amazing as far as I was concerned...

The Trouser Snake - Baltar and his zipper are just wonderful to watch in action, and the scene where Starbuck interrupts his little fun and games, and finds him with trousers around ankles.. pure class :rolleyes:

Paranoia - Started out quite well, building on the issue of 'who is the cylon' from last week. Ramped it up quite nicely until they went over the top and fell into the comical realms, unfortunately.

Dream Jeanie - The references to dreams by Tighs wife, following on from El Presidento's dreams last week.. seems to keep a theme going at least, but its flimsy at best.

Play With Me - The lone raider, playing tag, playing dead, playing hide and FTL seek... nice touch. Weird, but nice. A bit silly that the fleet would not have fighters around EVERY INCH of the little shagger tho. :rolleyes:

Boo! - I like the surprise at the table. That caught me off guard but it doesn't make up for the shortcomings in this episiode (see below).

So Like A Woman - The best piece of scripting I've seen in an episode yet...It must have been written by a woman. The little scene, Ellen walking out, camera to El Presidento in foreground, she takes the bottle of ambrosia up and offers it behind her, without even looking, knowning that the drunk blonde will be needing it. Pure class. I've seen that look a few times in my life on a woman who doesn't like someone else in the room, and Mary Mac nailed it beautifully.

Profile 6 - That was some nice camerwork and setup.. the scene where Baltar meets the XO Wifey, and 6 slides in to profile shot, does her thing, then fades out - still in profile with Baltar - leaving us with just Baltar doing his thing. Wonderful suggestive stuff there about manipulation, sharing head space and economy of movement.

An now, unfortunately we move on to the bad. There are a few things that really pissed me off this week as follows:-

Overboard - The character of Ellen was totally over the top, completely obvious and ridiculous. It was a complete cariciture and unworthy of the subtle and understated acting we have seen from most of the cast to date.

Cool Runnings... NOT! - Jebus, did you ever see such crappy CGI before? A bunch of running cylons .. I say running but what I actually mean is bouncing, wobbling, sliding etc. Considering how nice these fellas are portrayed to move when walking, or scanning.. having them run like retarded or Drunk Walkers from a bad star wars b-movie was just aweful to watch. Are cylons supposed to instill fear into their opponents through uncontrollable laughter as they approach?

Dumb as a Plank - So, only now does helo actually notice that Boomer doesn't slow down, ever? Oh please... this is getting so old its painful to watch the planetary scenes. Long, boring, drawn out and now with new improved non-sensical additions to the every expanding pointeless story line. In fact that whole arc should be renamed PLANET POINTLESS.

Let's do the timewarp again - So, last week it takes seconds and some nervous energy to detect a cylon, and this week it takes 11 hours. Someone dropped the ball here.. it makes no sense.

And now for the ugly....and boy what a dousie this was....

The Ugly:-

Laughed?...I nearly died - The entire episode was completely over the top, using very obvious and advertised mechanisms to draw out the big 'is she or isn't she' storyline. Acting waaaay over the top from the newcomer, Playing the scenes for laughs just didn't fit or make sense. I was so dissappointed with this episode because I thought Eddie Olmos would do something special with it, but in the end it was nonsensical, overacted drivel. Playing for laughs just doesn't work in this plotline at this point in the story, and not with such overacting either.


So - overall i was dissappointed with this. I believe previous episodes have been much much better. I am totally over the planet of love story arc and couldn't care less if they ever go anywhere with it, because it's lost all importance for me at this point, its just too drawn out. I hate where Olmos took this episode and I really don't appreciate using such obvious devices with the wifey of the XO when it would have been much more effective to underplay that role. Leave her as bad influence, leave her as negative and even suspicious... but really did we need drunk, sexed, habitual lying, memory lapsed, politically incorrect and blonde?

A case of too much, too late as far as I'm concerned. It's just as well they are taking a break until after Christmas, I'm dreading the next ep if its anything like this. Ultimately this episode came across as being a bit silly, and thats not something I'd ever wanted to associate with BSG given the gritty nature of eps to date.

c0y0te

Stark

It was Great

Dream Jeanie - The references to dreams by Tighs wife, following on from El Presidento's dreams last week.. seems to keep a theme going at least, but its flimsy at best.

If Helen and the president have been replaced by cylon "sleepers", then the dreams could be byproducts of the memory transfer process.

Someone suggested that Baltar could be a cylon himself, or replaced by one. It would explain how he somehow survived the nuke explosion on Caprica and how Six installed herself so easily in his head.

I was so dissappointed with this episode because I thought Eddie Olmos would do something special with it

Ah now, he did frown a lot

I was thinking for the season cliffhanger we might see him crack a smile

monkeyfudge

It was Crap!

I wasn't too crazy about this episode either. I hope they don't try to do too many comedy episodes from now on...

At least it makes it easy to wait until January. It's always hard waiting when an episode gives you a really great cliffhanger, such as in Lost last week.

Nukem

It was Crap!

I only say it was ok. Com'on would they be that calm if a raider is just floating round the place?
Granted a bit of comedy was a weird welcome. Trouser snake as so put.
Caprica is getting somewhere i think - I hope.

Haruspex

It was Crap!

I agree with what most of you have stated here regarding the flaws with this episode. As Stark mentioned, I had feared a filler episode but actually enjoyed it as a whole, although we have fared better in previous weeks.

Caprica subplot got more screentime and hopefully has hastened Boomer and Helo's probable escape from the planet! But are we ever going to see a devasted Caprica? It still just shows us a pristine deserted city. I still think 28 Days Later. Budget limitations maybe?

And now I need your eyes to tell me that mine weren't deceiving me! But...did any of you get the feeling that Sky may have cut a few seconds from the scene where Starbuck walks in on Gaius? :eek:

Or was it just really bad editing? It just seemed to me that something was missing. I'll rewatch it again this week and see if I get the same impression. Disappointing if it's true but I guess we're stuck in a pre-watershed timeslot.

ixoy

It was Crap!

I voted OK...

* Humour was good but, Gaius aside, I felt that it was at the expense of good characterisation. I felt the Prez., in particular, was almost a paranoid parody of herself. It didn't fit in well with what we knew of her - particularly the gravitas tone demonstrated by the show so far. It jarred.

* Caprica - I don't see why people are saying it moved this week. How did it move anywhere from last week? Boomer admitted love last week. They took flight last week. The tensions caused by this were all started last week. Nothing new came this week unless I missed something! It's not like Six agreed with her actions last week either.

* The Cylon detection device. I thought Boomer got checked instantly last week? Why the 11 hour delay now? Also, given their natural paranoid tendancies, why has noone demanded the Doc get checked? Sure he was exonertated recently but that shouldn't cloud judgement from Adama.

So whilst the episode might have been good on its own, I didn't think it fitted well into the flow of the series so far. That may be just me....

NeoSlicerZ

It was Crap!

..BSG and that amount of laughter = bad. I mean ffs, Helen sucked, badly.

Ave

It was Crap!

HER NAME WAS ELLEN

Belisarius

Why tell the truth when a lie will do? , Gaius is just a lovable selfish coward , Like most people which is why its easy to empathise with his predicament despite being responsible for billions of deaths. As for passing everyone on the detector , thats to give the impression of work: Slacker 101 tbh


As for the episode in General, good stuff And I rated it great (there should really be a "good" though) Good Paranoia at the start, though If adama is a cylon you wonder what the effing point is.
I think the humour at the expense of Comedy is very apt , While it perhaps added depth to Cmdr Tigh and Introduced the Lady tigh it was at odds with the Dour Adama and touchy feely Prez who all and all are prolly the anchor characters at this point ,mebbe with competition from the "happy couple" anyway all felt a bit forced I think


Caprica finally going somewhere ,but still isnt making much sense.Surviving on a nuked planet (In suprisingly good nick as stated above)is a stretch enough but to think there are still military bases functioning is pushing it ,surely these would have been Ground Zero? Anyhow Im looking forward to Helo finally making a break for BSG and seeing the end of Craprica for good, and the eventual Boomer v Boomer scenario
Again thoughGreat Gaius stuff .
I thought that last scene said it all for a great character in a great situation , A fugitive serene in chaos enjoying his one step ahead of disaster.Hes really really is making the show for me


Also on the BSG in general :
Who knew the bridge was that big ? Always looked a bit small and cheap till today
WTF is with that lame ass Observation deck ,I cant believe people are supposed to cue for that

Scruff

missed it again *sigh*:(

Stark

It was Great

. I felt the Prez., in particular, was almost a paranoid parody of herself. It didn't fit in well with what we knew of her - particularly the gravitas tone demonstrated by the show so far. It jarred.

If you're referring to the scenes with her, Adama and Ellen, she's a woman, she's entitled to step outside her presidential role a bit, especially after a few drinks. As for the paranoia, well being told Adama was a cylon would tend to shake her.

* The Cylon detection device. I thought Boomer got checked instantly last week? Why the 11 hour delay now? Also, given their natural paranoid tendancies, why has noone demanded the Doc get checked? Sure he was exonertated recently but that shouldn't cloud judgement from Adama.

From what I remember last week, Gaius took a blood sample the day she visited, and next day she came back as he was just finishing off the results.

Johnny Storm

It was OK

I really enjoyed this episode. It was a bit of a return to form IMHO. I thought the humour was excellent. In fact I laughed out loud during it which is very unususal for me.

The scene where Starbuck interrupts Gaius was really funny. I agree with another poster who refered to toilet humour but it was still a classic. In fact it was even better than his other toilet scene - "you didn't wash your hands"

Also the scene in Gaius's lab where El Prez, Adama and Tigh find out about each others treachery and paranoia was suberb. It was like a scene from Frasier or something (and I mean that in a very good way). I was just trying to imagine if the cardboard cutout charactors from Enterprise could ever do that? - nahh! And I speak as a long term Trekkie.

On the other hand Tigh himself didn't get much developement out of this ep and I was constantly wishing they would find out his wife was a Cylon so that we wouldn't have to see her again next week. The only time I want to see her again in in the airlock. Way OTT

During Balthers imaginary scenes with 6 this ep we saw Balthar alone more than usual which of course makes him look completely demented. This guy is a very watchable actor.

The bit where he was spinning around on his chair oblivious to the world was both funny and sad.

telemachus

It was Great

I enjoyed this one quite a bit, i think the smattering of levity if anything enhances the "grittyness" so often referenced. If it's too constant and too heavy it just becomes a parody where everyone wears a face like Adama and and mutters Nostradamusly about impending doom. Point in fact was the Tigh scene with the scary looking green "ambrosia", i found it really poignant amidst the laughter sections given all the previous snatched scenes of Tigh and his bottle.

It also further hinted that the cylons had made their infiltrator hybirds too human in an attempt to pass them off and out of contact with the "god"/cylon collective they may well either become attached to the humans or go off on a personal tangent (six?)

Sooner or Later

It was Crap!

I was disappointed with this week's episode and only gave it an okay. The whole episode felt like filler material, with the plot arc registering no movement whatsoever. The paranoia had already been stirred up nicely last week. Why bother introducing this new, over-the-top and frankly implausible character? Hopelessly over-acted.

Helo continues to win Most Gullible Person in the Universe awards on Caprica.

The saving grace was Baltar, who seems to be the best developed character in it, and who always seems to get the best scenes. The closing shot of him sitting in his chair in a room full of people, oblivious to them all, lost in his own erotic dreams with Six was priceless.

Stark

It was Great

Helo continues to win Most Gullible Person in the Universe awards on Caprica.

Well to be fairness, he has no idea that the cylons now look human. Though he should have figured something strange after six jumped him and started kissing him for no apparent reason with two cylons just standing by him.

But still, it's not everyday you think "hmmm, my friend's quite a good runner and she's acting a bit oddly under all the stress, maybe she's a robot?".

Praetorian

It was Great

I enjoyed it. I meant to vote great, but it doesn't matter. They didn't do any long term harm to the show by giving us something to laugh at. Ixoy summed it up pretty much perfectly, I think I just appreciated the humour more for some reason.

Fenster

It was Crap!

I finally got to see it, and I have to say that I liked the episode for Tigh's wife. She was utterly OTT and jarred with the setting, but it was otherwise fun. It was amusing to see that even when doing a "fun" episode, the new Galactica is dour and serious.

Alas though, that Tigh's wife kills the episode.