Retribution

Synopsis: Lacy's having second thoughts about all the terrorist bombings in Barnabas' cell. Her hesitation leads to a botched job at the spaceport, leaving evidence behind. Clarice returns from Gemenon and starts killing off people in Barnabas' cell. In the end, she takes Lacy and blows Barnabas up as a message to other cells that try to go rogue. Agent Durham of the GDD starts to think that Clarice is involved with the STO, and asks Amanda to help him get evidence. Graystone uses Adama and the Ha'La'Tha to blackmail members of the Graystone Industries board, in hopes of buying their votes to reinstate him as CEO.

They've changed the recaps at the start so that we get character voice-overs that explain what's going on with them at this point. They were heading in this direction with Zoe in the last few episodes, but now they do it with everyone.

I do not understand why Lacy is still with the STO. She only joined to get close to Barnabas so she could earn his trust and get Zoe-bot to Gemenon. Now that Zoe-bot is gone, why doesn't she just leave? Is she afraid he'll kill her? I just don't get what she's doing there.

In this episode as well as the previous one, the STO bombs are these little black boxes with a blinking light. But in the pilot, Ben had a vest of what looked like C4 strapped to his chest. And the materials Keon had in his locker also don't look like these little black boxes. Does having uniform-looking bombs make any sense anyway? Doesn't that just scream "The STO did it!" or is that the point?

They are now using flashbacks to fill in the blanks between "End of Line" and last week. We see Amanda recuperating in the hospital. This is a flashback while Amanda is in the shower. I hated the shower shots because they were weirdly grainy and looked like they were shot on video, which they probably were.

Amanda is not just remembering, she's also having dreams. In one of these, we see a scene of her and Zoe fighting over dinner. Actually, it's Zoe just being a brat at dinner. But is this just a dream or is it an actual flashback? At the end of it, she says, "soon I'll be dead and then we'll both be happy." But Zoe's intention was never to die. She had no plan to die on that train. So what does that even mean? Telling her mom in the pilot, "You're going to regret that for the rest of your life," makes sense because she planned to run off to Gemenon and never see her again. But I have a hard time believing suicide was always her plan.

This episode features frequent dramatic uses of thunder and lightning, and it's just downright silly. It smacks of cartoonish gothic melodrama and doesn't endear me to the series. I might have given them a pass on it once or twice, but it happened too many times for me to take seriously.

After having been to Gemenon last episode and seeing all the stuff with the church elders, I am even more confused about who is in the virtual confessional that Clarice keeps talking to. Who is this guy? What does he want? Who does he work for? Why do they only meet in the holoband?

The STO kids get all mad at Lacy when she forgets to leave her bomb behind. They are all, "Now are plans are ruined! Now we've left evidence behind!" I just don't understand why they didn't just throw her bomb out the car window, and then detonate them all. It seems so simple. Does the detonator have a limited range or something? Seems like a mistake which could have been easily rectified.

Also, the fact that all these terrorists seem to be teenagers makes it that much creepier. Why are the adults just using the kids in this way? Why doesn't Barnabas do anything himself? This episode finally answers the question of why he does what he does: he's just insane. Great. I fear that'll be the answer to everything on this show.

One of the guys Graystone blackmails kills himself. I don't understand this. The blackmail wasn't that extreme. Why kill himself? It just didn't seem so bad to me that it would lead him to suicide. They threatened him with a history of substance abuse. That's it? It all seemed so artificial just to create drama. That's a major criticism of this series in general.

It was so nice to see the GDD finally back on the case though! I like the tenacity of Agent Durham, going after Clarice even though no one else believes him. That dramatic irony rears its ugly head again as we the audience know he's on the right track. This episode also gets back to explicitly telling us that Clarice's cover is as a Sister of Athena. So I'm still totally confused by last week's episode, but at least it seems they really haven't abandoned that.

It rains throughout the episode, and there's this curious detail of Durham's umbrella being broken. I wonder if this was intentional symbolism. It sets him apart visually; he's just a little off from everyone else, but he's on to something. There's something a little off, just as this case seems to be getting personal for him. I'm not sure it this was just a happy accident, but I think it was a nice touch.

While this episode was definitely better than the previous one, and kicks off the rest of the season in a stronger fashion, it still feels like things are happening just for drama's sake without the connecting dots to make it work. Glad to finally be rid of Barnabas and all that nonsense, and it's good to finally get back to the GDD. We'll see if the series can correct itself, or if it's too far gone. I didn't love this episode, but at least things were getting back on the right track.