And a good one it was. Good job.

Supersymmetrical | April 26, 07:00 CET

Supersymmetrical,

I was going to post "And it was a good one." LOL.

Anonymous1 | April 26, 07:22 CET

I hate to say it, but I think Jane Espensen's episodes are my LEAST favorite. They never seen to move the plot forward.

Out of Objects | April 26, 07:51 CET

And Olmos directed.

As I understand it, the writer doesn't make the sole decision about what plot points are moved forward, so I'm not sure that's her fault. However, I haven't liked all her episodes for BSG.

This was a particularly dark episode, but I thought it was good, and it did move the struggles of the four new human Cylons forward. And there were a few characteristic Espensen lines of humor tossed in.

palehorse | April 26, 08:36 CET

http://www.janeespenson.com/archives/00000556.php

She's also apparently at the filming of another one she's written.

Jobo | April 26, 09:05 CET

I thought it was a pretty decent episode. All the religious mumbo-jumbo's starting to bore me, but there -was- a major revelation regarding Baltar and his "imaginary" Caprica 6. So, it kind of balanced out.

QuanticoMVP | April 26, 09:33 CET

I thought it really was a wonderful episode with lots of great moments for most of the characters. Who needs to move the story forwards or action if you can have some awesome character drama with good actors and amazing dialogue? From all of Jane Espenson's BSG episode, this might be my favorite one so far.

If Jane were to read this: Thank you for writing such a good, interesting and multi-layered episode. I hope Joss steals her for DOLLHOUSE once BSG wraps up and DOLLHOUSE gets to staff up.

She's just amazing. I'd really like to meet her in person.

Donnie | April 26, 11:49 CET

I agree with Donnie, excellent episode. And I do think it moved the plot forward, on a number of fronts and for a number of characters. But I'll save the rest of that for the BSG thread on .org.

And a great job by Olmos, directing. Far more impressive than his previous outing as a director.
As for "particularly dark" .... well yeah, BSG. Wouldn't want it any other way. ;-)

Shey | April 26, 13:48 CET

Well, yeah, I know people are going to complain about yet another episode of not moving the plot forward, but with characters who are so multi-layered and complex, I am really enjoying this season so far. How emotionally complicated was this episode? Like very few shows I can think of, it really asked a lot of the viewer to understand where everyone was emotionally - particularly the Chief and Tigh, but also Six and to some extent Roslin (who is so close to dying she cares less about her decisions).

I get wanting to move the plot forward, but in essence the major plot now is "find Earth" and you know how much is there left in that plot? How can that be complicated any more than it already has been? Besides, it seems like the arc of this season will be political and religious philosophies - and perhaps that will inform the search for Earth (which is now gotten to the point of, they'll find it when they find it, until then...)

Olmos' direction was great, although I remember his last episode being great also. Jane's writing was fabulous, as always.

And with RDM writing the final episode now, I guess she will be free by the time Dollhouse fully staffs up.

crossoverman | April 26, 18:15 CET

I loved how this episode was thematic and each character's issues were connected. I think it took a lot of skill to weave the same questions about guilt and redemption through all the storylines and still have it make sense. After last weeks most depressing 40 minutes of television EVER, it was nice to be able to step back for a moment, and look broader at the storytelling itself. Yay Jane :)

noonien | April 26, 18:57 CET

I thought it was a great ep and easily the best of JE's eps so far. Up till now I haven't thought she was a good match for this show but this ep is outstanding.

Vinity | April 26, 19:37 CET

Still a junk episode *g*

Pumps | April 26, 19:47 CET

A downer I'll wager.

magnus carnage | April 26, 20:34 CET

Definitely my favorite episode so far this season.

UnpluggedCrazy | April 27, 04:27 CET

Jane explains a bit about how she wrote the Admiral and Chief bar scene - which is quite interesting, from a writing stand point. Certainly that is a trick that has been used on the show before.

I really don't think the episode was a downer. I mean, how can it be a downer when it ends on the line "You're all perfect"? ;-)

crossoverman | April 27, 04:33 CET

"I mean, how can it be a downer when it ends on the line "You're all perfect"?"

Maybe because earlier in the episode it was theorized that a perfect being could do whatever it wanted without feeling guilt...? ;)

Loki | April 27, 06:04 CET

I know. Isn't this show delicious? :-)

crossoverman | April 27, 08:36 CET

I didn't really like "The Passage," Jane's first BSG episode, but I thought "Dirty Hands," her second, was good (not great though). This was definitely the best episode she's done for BSG so far, and great direction by Olmos. Kudos.

cfeuille | April 27, 08:52 CET

Thanks for the link, crossoverman. I meant to check Jane's blog to see if she had anything up about this ep, but hadn't got around to it.

Shey | April 27, 09:00 CET

Care to elaborate?

m'cookies actual | April 27, 09:20 CET

Espenson's writing is brilliant, but it's not down to her to decide how she advances the arc. In last season in particular, the network wanted more stand-alone episodes to try and attract new viewers, and that's how a lot of last season's more unpopular episodes were written (they weren't Espenson episodes though, I'm just making a point).

Not only that, but a lot of the episodes people want (i.e., drama with a backdrop of epic space battles), are just too expensive to make every week. The fireworks in the season premiere were just extra-ordinary, they were better than you'd expect in a film. There's just no way they can keep that sort of thing up.

I think these are the things you sacrifice by wanting a ~20 episode instead of a ~12 episode season.

MattK | April 27, 12:47 CET

Ummm 20 episodes, I am melting.

Tina | April 27, 12:56 CET

Judging by the scene between Baltar and Tori, I'd say Jane Espenson might have a head-Marti Noxon.

curlymynci | April 27, 13:22 CET

That was easily my favorite episode of the new season. It's also my favorite of Jane's BSG episodes. She really aimed for the fences with that one. Phenomenal.

orphea | April 27, 15:15 CET

Loved this episode. Baltar never fails to fascinate, and ditto for Roslin.

Saturn Girl | April 27, 22:08 CET

So many great things in this ep. Tyrol continues to be my favorite character on the show. His final scene in this, where he loses it at the bar - so many delicious layers. I still can't decide how much he actually meant, how much was grief talking, and how much was designed to piss Adama off and get some kind of punishment.

And the question of what Head-Six is once again became more intriguing. Her physical interactions with Baltar have always danced on the edge of being tangible, but that last lift she gives him here... He's all but dangling above the ground.

And that tiny little scene of Kara and Anders that plays briefly during Baltar's 'sermon', over those particular words...

Still the best show on the air.

Winther | April 27, 22:52 CET

The more I think about the episode, the more I love it. Television rarely works this way - some shows I love watching once, but fall apart on closer examination. This show? The more you look, the more you see - and this episode is very intricate.

These complaints about the plot not advancing - I just don't agree. I think it advanced a lot in this episode, because clearly spiritual belief is a strong component of the series - and the division amongst both Cylons and humans about what to believe is key to finding Earth.

crossoverman | April 28, 04:56 CET

Judging by the scene between Baltar and Tori, I'd say Jane Espenson might have a head-Marti Noxon.

Hehehehe - brilliant!

crossoverman | April 28, 04:57 CET

I enjoyed the episode- some very interesting developments. I also wondered if Michael Hogan sent Jane some flowers, because Tighclops has never been so lucky. :)

onthedrift | April 28, 10:48 CET