'Battlestar Galactica' Retro Recap: 'The Hub'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

​Over the course of its four-year run, Battlestar Galactica was able to accomplish a great many things storytelling wise. It served as a wonderful analysis of the human condition and was able to mirror our world by way of quality social commentary. It pushed the envelope for science fiction on a regular basis and heck, it was even able to analyze religion without wildly offending everyone that tuned in. But of the many, many incredible things it accomplished when it comes to storytelling, perhaps it’s greatest achievement is that when it chose to dig into philosophical territory, it did so in incredible and magnificent fashion.
 
For proof, look no further than the next episode of this magnificent saga, ‘The Hub’, since this tale went to some supremely philosophical places, the kind that leave you thinking for hours on end and it managed to accomplish such a feat, simply by filling in a necessary blank when it comes to the story as to what exactly happened to President Laura Roslin and her companions shortly after the Basestar jumped away a couple of episodes ago and as it turns out, for the President and the pilots from Galactica, it was business as usual for them and they stuck to their plan of attacking the Hub to end Cylon resurrection and that mission, and rescuing D’Anna  all ended in success.
 
But the simplicity of those actions, is what brought about the deeper moments since a fair chunk of this episode was dedicated to pondering upon the harsh reality that is mortality. Because the end of the Hub meant that Cylons everywhere would now face a permanent end like their human counterparts and I loved how the gravity of that fact impacted the human characters in this story as well, specifically Laura, since she spent a lot of time in this episode taking inventory on her own life by pondering upon what kind of existence she’s led and the mistakes she’s made along the way.
 
If anything, that alone should have been enough to carry this episode and leave us with plenty to chew upon, but the story was content to take the philosophy a little further by also examining the need for mankind to change course now that their enemy was more or less vanquished. Not only out of a necessity for peace and to preserve the thirty-nine thousand-ish lives left, but because…this mission signaled that the time had come for humanity to simply be better in general. To value life rather than extinguish it and in a stunning moment, Laura embodied this mantra. Because Baltar finally confessed to her that he gave the Cylons the access codes when he was badly injured and rather than let him die in an act of revenge, she saved his life.
 
As an added bonus, this episode also saw Laura finally open up emotionally as well, something she hasn’t done for some time in order to keep her head on straight as President of the Colonies because upon the Basestar’s return to Galactica’s former position, she was able to reunite with Bill, who was still waiting for her in the Raptor and at long last…she told him she loved him and well, when all is said and done, this turned out to be quite the beautiful episode. Its themes were so uplifting and lovely and suddenly, it makes perfect sense as to why this tale went that direction because the series will revisit such matters again before it ends. But also, because, now is a good time to give us something lovely to hang on to since the journey to Earth is about to take a dark and disturbing turn… 

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