Six claims that those who die on Kobol are annihilated out of existence; there's no eternity for them. That seems really silly to me. Maybe God has turned his back on Kobol, but I still think he'd damn them. Oblivion is such a silly idea.
There's a really excellent transition point where Baltar strays from the group, and then he appears outside his house. We haven't seen his house for awhile, and it was nice to get back there. We think he's just standing in the woods, but the camera pulls back and it's the house. I like that a lot. I tend to really love those little things that are just simple editing tricks. To me they're much more elegant than fancy effects.
I also really like the info that Callie was only working on Galactica to pay for dental school. Now I'm trying to picture her as a dentist.
Ellen is a real Jezebel. She pretty much manipulates Tigh into leadership that he doesn't want and can't handle. I'm not liking her.
Number Six tells Baltar that she will be his conscience. Great, so let's just call it like it is; they've officially made her Jiminy Cricket. Bob Dylan once sang "Every man's conscience is vile and depraved." I don't know about every man, but Baltar's sure is!
I wondered about the significance of the title, so I looked it up. At first, I was thinking along the lines of defragging a hard drive or something. But I learned that "frag" is slang for a grenade, and that the verb form means to kill an unpopular senior officer with a grenade. While it wasn't a grenade that did it, I think we can say that Crashdown was fragged in this episode. He's not a leader, but he's in command and finally lost his mind. So Baltar fragged him.
It's great when the Chief tells Baltar to sit and shut up. He totally disagrees with Crashdown's plan, but he believes in the chain of command. He's trying to support his superior officer, even knowing he's making the wrong move. As it goes on, he still tries to nudge him the right way, but all the while out of respect. I like the Chief. And it is nicely carried through when Baltar covers for how he died. He shares a look with the Chief, and they both agree to preserve Crashdown's honor, despite everything.
The episode focuses on the unraveling of all the leaders. Tigh is fresh off the fight and doesn't know how to handle diplomatic situations. This of course is nothing like the original Tigh, who was the real rock behind the ship, but I have to resign myself that Saul Tigh is not the same guy. Anyway, President Roslin meanwhile is slowly losing her mind due to Kamala withdrawal. Crashdown gets more and more desperate in his plans to attack the Cylons on Kobol. Ultimately, none of them are up to this task. It really illustrates how Adama is the one who pulls it all together, and how everyone flounders without him. Even when he's at odds with the President (I mean, he put her in jail!), they can usually work it out. I like that because it's an angle of Adama that I don't think came through enough in the first season. Adama really is a unifying force, whether he seems it or not.
The cylons on Kobol are building a large dish to be able to wipe out the coming rescue team and kill all the humans. This seems remarkably similar to me to the Borg building the interplexing beacon on the deflector dish in Star Trek: First Contact. And guess who wrote that movie? That's right, Mr. Ronald D. Moore.
At the end of the episode, Tigh explains to the press why Adama incarcerated the President. Good. They should know. And I like that he's just following Adama's orders. But then he declares martial law. WHAT? Didn't he just say earlier that the old man didn't want martial law? Why then would he do it? I could see maybe if the team was still down on Kobol. He's obviously not going to let the President out of the brig, and the Quorum of Twelve can't be trusted to run things. But with Baltar back on the ship, that means there is a Vice President who can serve as political leader during this time. So what is the justification for martial law? Ultimately this also gets us to where the original series was. I can't imagine that this will last very long. It just felt very out of left field to me.
I thought this was a really engaging episode. It's the best one of the season so far. Suspense, drama, people die, and no Kara Thrace.
Favorite line: "I did hear you, Chief. I just don't respond to the title "Doc." A dock is a platform for loading and unloading material. My title is Doctor or Mr. Vice President, if you don't mind."
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