"Battlestar Galactica" Recap: "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Up"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Once in a great while, and I do mean once in a GREAT while, Battlestar Galactica would do the impossible and actually bother to have a little bit of fun. It might only be a joke here or there but it was always welcome since the show always carried with it much heavier themes, and let's be honest, a truly silly or camp episode would have undoubtedly damaged its reputation as a whip smart show. 

But in the first season, it's clear Ronald D. Moore and the writers room wanted to inject at least a healthy amount of humor into one episode to see if something might stick and the ninth entry in the series, "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" was that grand experiment. Now I remember watching this one during its original broadcast and having fond memories about a story that reunited Saul Tigh with his estranged wife but as the years have progressed, and as I watched it again the other day...it's not as strong as I remember it.

In fact, it may be the weakest entry of the first season and quite frankly, it is the dreaded filler episode, designed to quickly wrap up the big time revelation from "Flesh and Bone" that Adama was a Cylon. But while this particular chapter in the series may not be as earth shattering as some of the other ones, it still has merit. For one, I do love the fact that this is a tale permeating with fear and doubt because that little nugget from Leoben plants just that within the fleet and watching the President consistently question whether or not Adama is the enemy is quite interesting to say the least. 

Of course that madness only grows throughout the episode when Ellen Tigh returns to the fleet and that's where the humor begins. Ellen is...as wild as they come and the dinner scene with her, Saul, Lee, Bill and Laura is something that is incredibly anti-BSG. I mean hey, the Tighs are drunk as all hell throughout the whole thing and this was the first time we saw some classic comedy tropes pop up on the show when Ellen tries to "seduce" Lee in the middle of dinner and while it definitely establishes what a pain in the ass Ellen is and how much she influences Saul...it comes off a little awkward.

But there were still some important things that went down in this episode. For starters, we gained a little more insight into the Cylon's guile with the mystery Raider that felt the need to toy with the crew before making an attempt to slam itself into the Galactica and we learned that Baltar has way too much power when it comes to his Cylon Detector since he never quite reveals the results of Ellen's test. I know that was designed to continue to create doubt as to whether or not Adama was a Cylon, but that tends to lose its luster on a second viewing of the series when you know how it ends...and quite frankly how season one ends plays into that as well. But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet, there's only four more episodes to go in this inaugural season and thankfully the next one packs a serious punch. Until then.

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