Hero

Was it really a good idea to introduce yet another ancillary character?

This episode was all right. Not fantastic, but all right. Does the Galactica get to keep Bulldog's stolen Raider? There are a lot of ideas floating around in this one but few of them pay off. We know the Cylons let Bulldog go, but why exactly? Just to kill Adama? Just to mess with his head? The D'Anna story was just glimpses that confused me and hasn't gone anywhere yet. I felt like they just threw it in for the sake of having a B-story. What was with the little menage a trois with Baltar? 

And just in case you didn't find the human race entirely culpable in the miniseries, we learn now that humanity may have essentially restarted the war! Were the Cylons gearing up for attack? Of course they were. Any idiot could have figured that out WITHOUT crossing the armistice line. If the actions of the Valkyrie did indeed lead to the destruction of mankind, though, that adds aggravating gravity to everything. That would make Adama almost more responsible than Baltar! It feels like an element just suddenly made up here. Adama has never given the impression of having guilt for starting the war. Moments like this futz with character backstories a bit too much. 

What did the Cylons want with Bulldog anyway? Did he give them information? If they were bent on destroying humanity, why not just kill him? I don't like learning of yet another ship that Adama was on because it throws away some of the established continuity. Why the Valkyrie? Why not the Galactica? I don't really see why they would have given Adama command then over an old bucket for a year before decommissioning it. The way I understood it, Adama met Tigh, they served together, then Adama got on the Galactica. But this throws that into upheaval. 

I do like the slanty point of view of the shots with Bulldog on the Cylon ship. It signals that something about this is askew. I also really like the effect of Tigh's missing eye. I have never seen an empty eye-socket done on TV like this. Usually they just burn the skin over it. This was a great effect. I also like that Tigh and Adama are reconciling; great when he came in to beat on Bulldog.

Besides these spikey bits, the show didn't hold much for me. It was decent, but not terribly engaging for me.