'Battlestar Galactica' Retro Recap: 'Torn'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Sometimes in order to advance a story leaps and bounds, television shows will occasionally take a short cut. Often times that involves glossing over events that should fundamentally change the characters to their core, and unfortunately that's a move that tends to remove the power and gravity that came with that particular episode or storyline. Thankfully however, that's something that Battlestar Galactica works hard to avoid and just how far this incredible saga will go to keep lasting effects going from important events was demonstrated in impressive fashion in 'Torn'.

Because when you think about it, 'Collaborators' could have served as the conclusion to the New Caprica Storyline and the fleet could have moved on with everyone happy and unified. But that would have been a true betrayal to what this show stands for, and this particular tale decided to dig right back in to the fallout of humanity's temporary stay, taking the time to demonstrate how some people struggle with letting issues go, trauma to be specific, and how that decision can be justified and of course, what would become of Gaius Baltar. In fact, let's take a moment to talk about the former President of the Colonies first, because his storyline continued to make Baltar a tragic character. 

Granted, I don't think anyone will disagree that he deserves this kind of beat down seeing as to how, you know, he helped bring down all of mankind, but holy cow...at every turn this guy keeps getting stomped on and it's at the point now where you're starting to feel a pang of pity for him since he simply cannot get out of his own way. Because while he's found safety aboard a Basestar, the Cylons are simply smarter than he will ever be, and they're immune to his charm, so he's truly on an island unto himself and every waking moment of his life now is about earning his keep with machines that expect him to keep up with their pace and he does get big time credit for helping the Toasters out with the infection they find aboard another Basestar that jumped to a location that could serve as a marker to the way to Earth. But once again, he lies, he puts his foot in his mouth and if by chance he could ever stop with the self serving crap, than maybe, just maybe...Gaius can be someone worthwhile. But this particular episode demonstrated once again that he sticks to what he knows and his life is truly in danger at this point for lying once again.

As for the more philosophical notions of trauma and how we deal with it, that was explored in great detail by way of Starbuck and Colonel Tigh. Because they simply could not escape the events that transpired during their time on New Caprica and the nicest way to say it...is that what was on their minds, was poisoning their souls. For Starbuck, her anger and fury pushed Lee to pull her off of the active flight roster and it sent her to the same place as Colonel Tigh, into the Officer's Mess where they drank all day and spoke ill of their comrades and that forced the Admiral's hand to have a powerful confrontation with the two of them, where he called them out on their crap and that's where we saw how some people rise to the occasion when it comes to trauma, since Starbuck took the Admiral's words to heart and cleaned up her act but Saul...well he justified his decision to remain in the darkness, he wanted the pain and sorrow in his heart from putting Ellen down and made known his intentions to disappear and drink his days away.

If anything, it was truly pleasing to see that Baltar is finally having to face up to the fact that he can't talk his way or charm his way out of every single situation, and I truly appreciated the care that went into the trauma storyline and how sometimes anger and regret and hurt can transform into something poisonous and it was beautiful to see the Admiral confront it head on and reach at least one of them and while those two plot lines alone would have made the episode perfect, this story found the opportunity to give us quite the surprise. Because that mystery illness aboard the Cylon Basestar is something special...and the fact that a marker/beacon/probe from the Thirteenth Tribe is the reason for it, is quite the intriguing little twist and it would seem that this mystery is where we pick up next time since this little gem ends with...'to be continued...'

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