'Battlestar Galactica' Retro Recap: 'A Measure of Salvation'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Despite the many wonderful things that mankind has accomplished throughout history, and the strides we've made toward building a better world, there's one ugly part of our society that we have been unable to shake...war. We still march to fight, we still find reasons to fight and while this recap could turn into a diatribe about how awful war is, that's a discussion to best be settled on a different website, or in science fiction, the always comfortable place to examine the worst parts of our kind, and as it turns out, war and the possible repercussions for taking it too far were explored in great detail in the Battlestar Galactica episode, 'A Measure of Salvation'.

In fact BSG accomplished this analysis by challenging the crew in incredible fashion by picking up where last week left off, with a Raptor team from Galactica, boarding the infected Cylon Basestar. Unfortunately for the away team, they are completely unaware of the infection present aboard the ship and upon discovering this unsettling pathogen, head back to the fleet with five sickly Cylon prisoners in tow, all in the hopes of finding out as to whether or not the team is sick and if this illness can harm human beings and thankfully, the crew is fine and they are indeed immune...but it does give Lee quite the idea. If by chance, the Galactica can draw out the Cylon fleet and the Resurrection Ship with it, executing the sick prisoners would force them to download...and take the infection with them, and that move could mean the end of the war and the Cylon race altogether. 

So the more I think about this plot, the more I realize just how brilliant it turned out to be, because holy cow...this show actually bothered to take an in depth look at genocide and ponder upon a practical execution of it and the dangers of crossing that line, and it did so in a 'no holds barred' style of storytelling. On one hand, we get the President's and Lee's perspective, wherein the Cylons are indeed the biggest threat to the fleet's safety, and the Cylons had no issue committing genocide when they attacked the Twelve Colonies, nor do they seem to have any issue with relentlessly pursuing the last vestiges of mankind through space, so a pre-emptive strike made sense to Roslin, but it was a plan that was met with some resistance from Helo, for obvious reasons...and there was also protest from an unlikely source as well, the Admiral himself.

Both men fully agreed with the fact that an eye for an eye is not always the way in life, and by taking this bold step to remove their enemy from the face of the galaxy...mankind would never be the same. There would no longer be any boundaries when it comes to right versus wrong and while the Admiral followed his orders from the President to carry out the plan, Helo was having none of it. He took matters into his own hands, and found a way to anonymously put down the prisoners, foiling the plan and when all is said and done...wow what a plot to bring to the table. It's rare to see a show challenge such a notion as genocide, much less in a scenario such as this, where humanity did indeed have a shot at winning the war and ending the Cylon threat for good. In the end though, I'm quite glad that someone took the high road and didn't let mankind slide down that particularly slippery slope. 

Yet the episode wasn't quite done blowing our minds with just that plot line alone. It also took the time to confirm that the beacon that made the Cylons sick was indeed one left behind as a marker by the Thirteenth Tribe. Meaning that the fleet is on the right path after all, and more and more, it truly does seem that Earth is out there. If anything, I guess my only complaint when it comes to this episode is the Baltar storyline. He really didn't have much to do outside of endure torture and it seems as though with him out of the fleet and away from science, he doesn't have much to do here. So here's to hoping they find a way to involve him in bigger plot lines sooner rather than later. Otherwise, we've reached another pseudo crossroads, where I'm not looking forward to watching the next episode. Because 'Hero' is another weak one, but one worth enduring to get to the other great stuff that season three has to offer. Until next time.

---