Faith

There are several things going on here, but mostly revolve around the notion of faith, hence the title. Some of it works for me, some of it doesn't. At times it felt very slow. 

Hey, it's DS9 alum Nana Visitor! When she is listening to Baltar's broadcast in the beginning, he quotes Shakespeare, referring to death as "the undiscovered country" and follows on with the rest of the line. I have a real problem with this. Should they really be quoting Shakespeare in this universe? Even after the whole "All Along the Watchtower" thing, does it fit? I feel like it doesn't. How would Baltar know this? The suddenness of these broadcasts springing up also bothers me. What is he transmitting from? I feel like I've missed something between episodes. But then, I've been feeling that a lot this season.

There's a very curious moment when one of the Sixes attacks whats-her-face because on New Caprica she had killed her. We learn that it had greatly traumatized Six. But it shows just how ridiculous that whole scenario was. Resistance members were just randomly jumping Cylons and drowning them? Again, what good does that serve? THEY DOWNLOAD. Because of that action, that woman is dead; the downloaded Cylon came back and killed her. So the shadows of New Caprica rear their ugly heads yet again, if I may mix my metaphors. The humans did horrible unjustified things that were wrong on a moral level and a tactical level. 

Now, why is there a cancer ward on the Galactica? How long has that been there? We never saw it before. How long has Nana Visitor had cancer? It seems odd to me that once we need to see cancer victims, we do. But before that, we never did. Are we to believe she was sick before the fleet left the Colonies, or is this a recent development?

On the subject, I've just got to vent about something that constantly bothers me on TV: the head scarves. Now, please don't get upset with me all you cancer patients. I just don't understand the point. You've got cancer and you are bald. We know you are bald. The scarf doesn't hide anything because the only people who wear such scarves are bald. I say just be bald! There's nothing to hide! If you're really concerned, go wigged, but that's it. (and by the way, Roslin's wig is UGLY.) Now, maybe in real life there's some sense to wearing a scarf in public; if nothing else, it protects one's head from the sun. I guess I'm okay with that. But where is the sun on this ship? They are inside! And they're inside all the time! So why is Roslin wearing that scarf? It's not even that it couldn't sometimes be justified as a character thing. That may be. But generally, the "cancer scarf" is TV shorthand for saying a character is sick without saying it. And I'm sick of seeing it. 

The thing about crossing the river of death and the boat has certain mythic overtones. But for me, when I saw them in the boat at the end, the first thing that came to mind was Scully in the boat on X-Files when she was dying. In the same way, it was a kind of metaphoric representation of her spiritual state. Also, the river crossing and the glory on the other shore brought to mind The Pilgrim's Progress wherein Christian crossed the river of death before entering the Celestial City.