Lucy Lawless - Battlestar Galactica - Season 2 Episode 8 Final Cut

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Lucy Lawless - Battlestar Galactica
D'anna Biers / Cylon Number Three

Season 2 - Episode 18

Downloaded Review

Review by MaryD
ausxip@gmail.com

Story So Far | Quotable Quotes | MaryD's Review | Lucy Bits

 

Story So Far: “On Caprica, the reincarnated Number Six (Tricia Helfer) and Sharon (Grace Park) are hailed as Heroes of the Cylon for the key roles they played in the near-destruction of the human race. But these are tortured heroes. Number Six’s thoughts are haunted by Baltar (James Callis), just as she haunts his thoughts on Galactica. And Sharon has so fervently embraced her love for Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) and the fake human life the Cylons created for her undercover mission that the Cylon leadership – D’Anna (Lucy Lawless) and Doral (Matthew Bennett) – are thinking of ‘boxing’ her (putting her consciousness into cold storage). Meanwhile, the human resistance – under the leadership of Kara’s lover, Samuel Anders (Michael Trucco) – is preparing to strike a savage blow, however futile, against the Cylon occupation.

“On Galactica, the captive Sharon gives premature birth to Hera, the child she conceived with Helo (Tahmoh Penikett). As the infant fights for life, she becomes the focus of intrigue, as President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) and the Cylons hidden amongst the fleet fight to gain control of this newborn symbol of hope… or harbinger of human extinction.”

Quotable Quotes:

“God loves me.” Thwack and down goes Three when she gets hit by Six with a rock. I’d say God wasn’t loving her all that much. Yep sure looks that way to me.

“Humans don’t respect life, like we do.” Hello pot, this is the kettle! You nuked billions of humans! Three has a VERY short memory. Memo to the Committee: Gotta work on Three’s memory for the next download.

"Life is Short, but the next ones not. Let your heart adrift and your soul will get caught." Who knew Baltar can be such a poet.

MaryD’s Review

Battlestar Galactica is one of those shows that starts off with a bang (literally) and gets better and better. This episode is just wonderfully written, beautifully acted and a great addition to the series. Added to this great series is the addition of Lucy Lawless, beloved by many as Xena Warrior Princess and now as Number Three (or D'anna Biers from a previous episode Final Cut).

Before I begin this review I want to make an observation (which will lead some people into thinking I have no life). Number Three wears yellow A LOT. Or a pukey green. D'anna Biers wore yellow or a pukey green on Galactica. Caprica has a yellowish tinge (I hope that's not nuclear fallout) to it. Is the Cylon colour a pukey green or yellow? Number Six wears red A LOT but as we learn Number Six isn't a true blue Cylon. She's been infected with too much human contact which might explain the red outfits instead of the yellow. Something to think about.

Okay onto the review:

What happens when a Cylon dies? Do they go to Cylon heaven? Depends if you are Number Six or Sharon (Boomer) aka Number Eight. You go to the Cylon version of hell and you’re threatened with being “boxed” if your memories are tainted. Not a nice way to spend eternity.

A quick recap on Six: after the nuclear holocaust on Caprica by the Cylons, Six dies saving Baltar from the explosion (I can only guess that’s how Baltar survived). She gets reborn into a new body. Something weird happens and she can see Baltar – he’s her subconscious. Nifty. Your enemy is your inner voice. Except that Six loves Baltar. How human of her.

A quick recap on Eight (aka Sharon): Oh what a tangled web. Let’s start with Sharon who turns out to be a Cylon (who didn’t know she was a Cylon sleeper) and she shoots Commander Adama (bad girl).

Galactica Sharon then gets shot by Cally (bad girl but understandable). We won’t go into Caprica Sharon and Helo’s baby here. Galactica Sharon (aka Eight) gets reborn and is none to happy to find herself with the Cylons and in a gooey bath surrounded by Herself, Six and Three.

Both ladies are royally screwed up – both loved humans and pay a terrible price. They know they did the wrong thing. One can see her lover and the other has serious guilt issues.

Enter the ever wonderful, talented Lucy Lawless. We first saw Lucy as D’anna Biers, the scheming, arrogant, annoying fleet reporter in Final Cut. She was such a fantastic character and you knew she was coming back at the end of Final Cut. We saw Three, Six, Eight and Five in a viewing room watching D'anna's story.

We now get to see Lucy Lawless as Number Three; a member of the ruling Cylon Welcoming Committee for Screwed Up Cylons (or is that Cylon Welcoming Committee for Newly Downloaded Cylons). Three shows her caring, sharing, loving Cylon side by reassuring the newly Downloaded Cylons that everything is okay. They are heroes of the Cylon. Everything will be okay. Trust her. (Heh yeah but would you buy a used planet from her?)

Our "heroes" are having a tough time adjusting to life especially Number Eight who can't get over being a Cylon, shooting Commander Adama and betraying her friends and lover. Number Six can't get over Baltar. It doesn't help that he pops up when she least expects him. I like this Baltar.

Six is seen admiring the work being done on the park until she is reminded by Baltar that many died in that very park. He had to ruin the moment <g>

Six’s musings are interrupted by Three when she comes over and sits down on the bench next to Six. Three strokes Six’s ego (do Cylon’s have egos?) that she is a Hero of the Cylon when she destroyed the Human defences during the Cylon initial attack on Caprica. We see a whole lot of Cylon models (Threes, Sixes, Fives and Eights) walking about or sitting down. Six is known as Caprica Six and is revered after accomplishing a difficult mission.

As a hero of the Cylon, Three asks Six to help with a small problem they are having with another hero of the Cylon, Eight (who insists on keeping the name Sharon). Sharon is having major problems adjusting to the fact that she betrayed her friends and her lover.

Can Six save this tortured Cylon and help her come back into the fold. Or does she have a bigger plan.

Six and Eight discover they have a mutual love for humans and that can get in the way of the murdering Cylon way.

The question is did Three know about Six and her phantom lover and that’s why she was sent to “help” Eight? Was this a ploy to uncover them both?

Meanwhile nearby, the resistance on Caprica (led by Anders, Starbuck’s lover) blows up the café with all the cylons causing Three, Eight and Six (now we really see who is the odd number out…sorry, couldn’t resist. I had a severe case of déjà vu to my high school math class) to get stuck under the collapsed building. They were saved by the stairwell. Six suffers a broken, mangled leg and Three kindly offers to hit her over the head and put Six out of her misery <g> One way to deal with a broken leg, the Cylon way.

In a Cylon version of truth or dare, Six and Eight realize that they were grouped together for a reason and because they are Heroes of the Cylon, their voices will be heard louder than Three or any other Cylon. Is that what the Cylon leader(s) fear?

Lucy Lawless comes into her own here. She knows how to play bad (boy, does she know how to play bad) Three is a fanatical fundamentalist Cylon. Believes in the cause, knows what is right, abhors what is a corruption of the Cylon way. Six and Eight are corrupted in her eyes.

Three's metamorphosis from eager helper of the two heroes to snarling, gun brandishing, dirty and bloody Cylon is remarkable. Three puts up quite a fight and we all know how well Lucy can fight.
 

The image of Three brandishing a gun and snarling at the very unlucky Anders is a sight to behold. Hell yeah! Oops I’m not supposed to be rooting for the Cylon, am I? Ahem.

We see once again how Eight and Six show their love for humans by how they both try and stop Three from shooting Anders. Three's reasoning for wanting to shoot Anders (other than he's a human) is “Humans don’t respect life, like we do.” Not like Cylons who murder billions of people, no sirree. Eight and Six "convince" Three to interrogate the human instead.

Three was “restrained” by Sharon but I got the feeling that Three could have easily brushed off the pesky Cylon but she didn’t. Another ploy to see what Six and Eight had in mind? Looks that way since the two damaged Cylons played into Three’s hands by revealing their true feelings once again. No doubt on the next download Six and Eight are going to get boxed, never to see the light of day.

Lucy played Three to perfection. She was bad, she was slightly mad and great covered in dirt. The subtle changes from carer/helper to a Cylon without fear of death was remarkable. You get the feeling for a very brief moment that Three felt compassion for Eight's plight. Three truly believes that Eight is a damaged machine who believes she is human. A damaged machine that can't "infect" the rest of the Cylons, thus the need for her to be 'boxed'.

When Eight reminds Three that she not a murderer (another Cylon with a SHORT memory). Lucy’s play on Three’s reaction is perfect, a subtle shake of the head and you know what’s she’s thinking. <g>

The opportunity arises for Anders (who I bet can't believe his luck at being stuck with three Cylons in an underground car park) to grab the gun that Three so graciously left on the ground for him. IN all the brouhaha that follows, Anders loses the gun again and Three picks it up and utters the line:

"God loves me" Heh. Yeah right. I fully expected Three to say "Go ahead, make my day" by the look she was giving him <g>

Six’s recuperative powers are pretty cool since she managed not only stand up on a broken, mangled leg but also pick up a good sized rock and thwack Three on the head! Not once, but twice but I guess that was because Six was injured. or maybe because Three has a tough head.

So we have Six and Eight now in the resistance against the rest of the Cylons. I bet Three won’t be forgetting that when she’s downloaded.

Bring on Season 3 where we find out if Three can be One.

Bet she's gonna have one hell of a headache
when she downloads....


 

 

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