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The Hour Is Getting Late: Clues, Betrayals, and Double-Crosses on "Battlestar Galactica"

I offered up my theories about Kara Thrace, the piano player, and Cylon projection last week before the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica ("Someone to Watch Over Me") had aired but now that it has, I'm wondering what many of you thought of the episode and its clues about the true nature of Kara Thrace.

Written by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, "Someone to Watch Over Me" offered an installment that was heavy on atmosphere and character development, delivering a slow burn that escalated in the last few minutes to become one of the most emotionally wrenching conclusions to a single episode of Battlestar Galactica to date... while also keeping our interest piqued for the last few episodes of this brilliant series.

It had us learning something about Starbuck's parentage and Boomer's true allegiance, while also featuring Bear McCreary's gorgeous and haunting arrangement of "All Along the Watchtower."

As I correctly surmised last week, Slick, the mysterious piano player in Joe's Bar who connected with Kara, was (A) not actually there in the flesh and (B) was her father. Both of those things are exceptionally important to exploring just who and what Kara Thrace really is. The truth is that the piano player wasn't in Joe's Bar (as clearly shown by the fact that Kara is sitting alone at the piano) which points to the use of Cylon projection technology. Which means that either Kara is subconsciously using this technology herself... or someone is projecting onto her, much like the relationship between Gaius and Head Six or between that of Tyrol and Boomer in this week's episode. So who is projecting then? I don't think it's Kara sub-consciously; something is pulling her strings and it points to the man known as Dreilide Thrace.

It's worth noting that the world "dreilide" is German for third eyelid or third eye: the inner, hidden eye that is the gateway to the soul, the unknown, the higher powers that mere mortals can't perceive with their physical eyes. Daniel, as we know, was artistic and therefore in touch with higher powers of creativity, spirituality, and, based on the name, perception.

Via Cylon projection technology, Kara converses with this enigmatic figure and recalls her childhood and accesses part of herself that she had long closed off after her father left her and her mother (the part of her that was attuned to piano-playing and therefore the mysteries of the universe). Via her connection with her sensory memories and this figure, she is therefore able to play "All Along the Watchtower" on the old piano at the bar... a song which has significant meaning for the Final Five.

How does Kara do this? It's a song from her childhood, she explains to an incredulous Saul Tigh, and she's aided by the drawing that Hera gives her, a drawing that fills in the notes missing from her memory. So how did Kara learn this song? She was taught it by her father, Dreilide Thrace, a concert pianist whose best known work (which Helo returns to Kara) is entitled "Dreilide Thrace Live at the Helice Opera House." (Gee, could that be the same opera house we've seen in numerous visions?)

Which means that Dreilide is either a survivor of the holocaust on the planet Earth... or is so intimately familiar with the Final Five that he learned the song from them and passed it onto his daughter Kara. I posited last week that Dreilide was actually a Daniel, one of the Model Sevens who managed to escape Cavil's murderous rage and secreted himself among the humans in the Twelve Colonies and I absolutely stick by my theory after watching "Someone to Watch Over Me."

Kara is therefore extremely important for several reasons: for one, like Hera, she is a rare member of inter-species cross-breeding and could represented the blended future for the human and Cylon races. And, more interestingly, Simon knew this when he had her ovaries removed on Caprica... or her true parentage is actually unknown to Cavil's people, which could make Kara an ace in the hole when it comes to taking down Cavil once and for all.

Someone had to have known Kara's purpose and background: after all, they arranged for her download into a new body after her death in the nebula, even granting her a vision of her mother just so she could learn not to fear death. This person, I believe, was
Dreilide/Daniel himself, who then recreated Kara's Viper, wiped her memories, and planted her back in the fleet.

(And if Kara were to conceive a child with Sam Anders--who, yes, will download to a new body, as I predicted--it could be the product of not one but three different races. Now wouldn't that be interesting?)

As for Boomer, she showed her true colors in this week's episode. Her rescue of Ellen Tigh was just a ploy to gain access to the Galactica... and, more specifically, to Hera Agathon. Boomer cleverly plays on Tyrol's deep romantic feelings for her in order to escape from the brig, even promising him a domestic future that could never be and sharing this fantasy with him via Cylon projection. It's a way to worm into his good graces, twist him round to a shared sympathy for her situation (vis-a-vis her imminent trial and likely execution for treason among the Cylons), and enable her to grab Hera... after having sex with Helo (while a bound and gagged Athena was forced to watch).

Does Boomer care for Tyrol? Perhaps somewhere in her damaged psyche, she does. But she's so filled with self-loathing and has been so corrupted by Cavil's warped view of the universe and their place in it, that there's no hope for redemption for Boomer. She made her choice the second she stepped on that Raptor with Ellen and managed to "escape" from Cavil's base ship. She engineered the circumstances for her escape from the brig, threw Hera in a box and even had Chief help her load it onto her ship... and then still managed to blast off while the pods were retracting and warped away dangerously close to the Galactica, knowing full well what the spatial disruption would do to the hull. (I'll also go so far as to say that she knew the structural integrity of the hull was compromised ahead of time.)

Does Boomer want to destroy everything that she believed in as "Boomer": love, loyalty, duty, home? Does she want to annihilate the very "human" essence of herself? Sadly, she'll learn that she's mistaken: in the end, no matter how much we might try, our pasts cannot be recovered nor recovered from.

What did you all think of this week's episode? What are your own theories about Kara and
Dreilide? How does it all tie into the Opera House? And what is going to happen next? Discuss.

This week on Battlestar Galactica ("Islanded in a Stream of Stars"), Adama resists abandoning Galactica, despite the massive damages it received at the hands of Boomer, and encounters an unlikely voice of hope in the form of Gaius Baltar.

Comments

Anonymous said…
How did Boomer know how to find Galactica when she "escaped" with Ellen? I've been assuming that Cavil didn't know where the humans and/or rebel Cylons were, else he would attack. Was he withholding until he captured Hera? Will he attack now? Or am I totally off-base here?
Anonymous said…
I was a little underwhelmed by this episode, but you just made it sound so much more worthwhile. Thanks!

I have been disappointed and disturbed by Boomer for quite a while now but I was hoping to finally see her redeemed. This episode took any last shred of sympathy I had for her.

The only question I have about Kara regenerating is how did she do so on Earth? Had someone been waiting there for her? Was there some weird time warp in which she actually met the Final Five before the explosion? Is the Colony on Earth somewhere and she popped out of that?

I somehow think that the time warp happened and the Final Five brought her back before the nuclear war. Sam said that he sang to the woman that he loved. We know so far that the only woman he has loved is Kara.

I was first resistant to the idea that her father is Daniel, but that does make the most sense. So, what the hell is Baltar?
Anonymous said…
Oh! I forgot to add that I think Cavil is going to hold Hera hostage until the Final Five agree to rebuild regeneration technology. They are going to have to rebuild it if we are to do this all over again.

And it was painful as hell to watch Helo have sex right in front of Athena. They have the strongest relationship in the fleet and it is constantly tested by the most degrading, horrific tests. I hope Athena doesn't begrudge Helo for this, and I don't think she will, but damn--how much more will they be put through?
Asta said…
The popular theory regarding Sam (at least in my little corner of fandom) is that he will become a hybrid, likely for Galactica, but possibly on the baseship if they go with the Eight's suggestion of plugging him into the data stream. It already seems that the various power surges and drops on Galactica are tied into his increased brain activity. And I wonder if the Cylon goo isn't repairing the Galactica as Tyrol hoped it would because there is no Hybrid to direct it's regenerative properties?
Page48 said…
I struggled mightily to pull any shred of "All Along the Watchtower" out of that piano piece, but I loved it anyway.
Anonymous said…
When you're right, you're right Jace. :) Glad to see some of your theories pay off uncannily. I think that Cavil knew that Ellen could find the other members of the Final Five and that the Colonial frequency in the Raptor could locate the Galactica. No?
technotory said…
As horrible and disturbing as it was to watch, I was forcibly reminded that Athena used Helo's memories and feelings of Boomer as her means to ensnare him originally.

All this has happened before...
Anonymous said…
During one of the interrogations of Ellen, Cavil dropped a line like "... they don't know the whereabouts of the colony ..." regarding the 2nd rebuilding of resurrection technology and mentioning Ellen's old lab. Being a flashback, this happened before Kara's transponder led Galactica Earth, so I assume he refers to Earth, where the final five's first laboratory was.

I take that as indication, he at least knows exactly how to reach earth...

Of course Cavil still has to tread carefully, with resurrection gone. Any too drastic measures against humans and rebel cylons will endanger his existence.

Concerning Baltar: Caprica Six is/was haunted by an avatar Baltar the same as Baltar is frequently guided by an avatar Six. When Baltar saw his own avatar (in the scene meeting Tori in the bar), I was a little confused. Since Baltar not being pure human would redeem him in a small manner for betraying mankind and being a lowly douche-bag, I don't want his story to twist that way.

Him maybe being cylon was a good way to motivate him and a nice red herring for us, though. I prefer the theory, that (because projecting can be shared and seems to be metaphysical rather than technological) his survival on Caprica being shielded by Caprica Six (a scene still in the intro) fused them together on a spiritual level, transfered this involuntary projection ability to Baltar and drove him over the edge of sanity completely...

Lastly, in StarTrek I abhorred the 'resurrection' of the Enterprise capital ship between seasons/movies. I would hate to see it happen to good old Galactica, a ship with a soul. However, having Kara's ship factory-new redelivered sadly implies access to a working industrial infrastructure compatible with human technology. So, the season will most likely end with the death of a ship to be resurrected, again. All this has happened before...

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