Sine Qua Non

[narfna]

4X08 -- Sine Qua Non

• Natalie! She's not dead . . . yet. Because on this show, they like to toy with your hopes and dreams.
• ??? = Which reminds me, why the brown hair? She and Gina are the only Sixes we've seen as brunettes. Is there something different about them?
• Athena is back in chains for the first time since season two, after ruining everything. And Adama lets her have it. That old dude is scary sometimes.
• Starbuck is CAG again -- less 40 Vipers and most of her pilots -- so at least some things are going right. She sure does clean up well.
• Lee's "facts on the ground" speech to Zarek is great, but I'm not sure why.
• Romo Lampkin, Lee's crazy mentor, is back to help find the next (temporary?) president. Can you see where this is going? I can, and I LIKE IT.
• Also, Mark Sheppard is fabulous.
• Either Tigh is more perceptive than we've ever given him credit for, or Roslin and Adama are the last people to know that they're in love with one another.
• Question: What would one have to do to earn the callsign "Skulls"?
• Inside the mystery Raptor: Pike is dead, and Searider Falcon is badly beaten up. What happened out there? We won't know until next time.
• Using coordinates found in the Raptor, they jump and find the remains of a large Cylon ship, Vipers scattered here and there. Tigh, perhaps out self-protective pessimism, thinks it's the President's basestar, but Adama is hopeful -- he has to be -- and professes loudly that they must have destroyed The Hub. He will continue searching; Tigh just shakes his head.
• Adama is just diverting everything possible all willy-nilly to the search for Roslin without regards for anyone or anything.
• The scene where Adama talks to Cottle about Roslin's health makes me insanely giggly inside. He is so concerned about her. Also:
• Tigh frakking knocked Caprica up. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. "Interrogating the Six." Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
• Seriously, Tigh's face is awesome. It just, like, goes SLACK. Like a sixteen year old who just knocked up his secret girlfriend. Whoops. Forgot the condoms, didn't you, eyepatch?
• Have I mentioned that this is my favorite development? A close second: what's about to happen to Lee.
• And then the old men fight! Over their womens! Like five year olds! GLORIOUS! "What are you going to do about that woman?" "What are you going to do about Roslin?" HA!
• Seeing Starbuck and Adama together again now that she's sane is just so nice. I'm also struck by the fact that they've essentially switched places. Now Adama is the crazy one on a mission for something he believes in, consequences be damned. And he has to learn his lesson, just like Starbuck did.
• The idea of sine qua non is just wonderful to me. It's one of the reasons this episode makes me so happy. "Everyone has their limits," says Lampkin, and Roslin is Adama's. His "without which not." He ain't him without her.
• So Adama basically confesses his love for Roslin to Lee, and it is awesome. He says he's lost his objectivity, and he steps down as commander of the fleet, once again leaving Tigh in command. Does he never learn?
• Just kidding, I'm cool with Tigh now that he has an eyepatch.
• Lampkin always knew it was Lee, of this I'm sure, but I'm not entirely convinced that Lee wanted it all along. Sure, he wants it now, but did he always?
• Lampkin's reasons for pulling the gun on Lee, for not wanting him to be President, really punch me in the gut: "Hope is the last thing we need; we're a doomed race." But the dead cat is just too much for me, even if it is his sine qua non.
• Integrity, honesty, and the belief in choice and doing the right thing are Lee's.
• I love the cut from Lampkin with the gun in Lee's face ("Then swear it.") to Lee (LELAND!) being sworn in as President, his father by his side.
• SQUEEEEEEE!
• Okay, so I was wrong. Laura is Bill's sine qua non, but more generally, his sine qua non is family: "We all need our family."
• "At least this time I'm only risking my own neck." Lesson learned, Bill.
• More squee: "Because I can't live without her."
• Bahahahahahahaahahahahah.
• HUSKER!
• You know what? I really needed a scene between our new President and his woman, if ya know what I mean (and I think you do). They barely acknowledge one another. But it's still a nice scene: Adama's two kids, there to see him off. His family :) "Nothin' but the rain."
• Confession: I never ever thought they would actually let Roslin and Adama be together. I should have known better.
• He waits for her.