Battlestar Galactica Recap: A Day in the Life

Title: “A Day in the Life”
Original Airdate: Feb. 19, 2007
GMMR Recapper: MichellePreviously, Bill and Lee had some deep seeded, unresolved father-son issues. Laura and Bill got high and dreamy-eyed on New Caprica. Chief and Cally weren’t adjusting to married life on Galactica very well. Roslin decided to give Baltar a fair trial.

Bill dreams about his old life on Caprica and his wife. It’s their wedding anniversary and even though their marriage ended in divorce, he still feels connected to her. Tigh joins him early in the morning and offers to relieve him of his duty, but Bill just wants to be any other day. FigmentWife is cranky with him for not moving on. There’s some continuity issues with the picture frame he’s holding, but I’ll let it slide because this entire episode is emotionally heartwrenching and warming all at once.

Chief and Cally have to go into work because two others called in sick. Cally’s unhappy about this especially because the Chief sets the work schedule. He takes his son to the daycare before joining Cally in an airlock they have to fix. She’s upset because they promised not to let strangers raise their son. Before they can get into it, the doors suddenly lock on them. It’s an emergency response when the pressure drops in the airlock, which means there’s a leak. Chief thinks as soon as they patch the leak, then they can get out.

41, 398. Bill uses memory tricks to learn the names of the crew. FigmentWife gives him a hard time about Laura Roslin and seriously I’m glad someone’s finally making him face the truth. Laura claims she was having cabin fever on Colonial One. Roslin discusses how they are going to handle Baltar’s trial with Bill. Um, Laura, you’re President, you’re not fooling anyone. Oh, but she would like assign Lee to oversee Baltar’s trial. She also asks to use Galactica’s gym.

Pilots meeting. Lee tears into the pilots for getting too comfortable since it’s been nearly fifty days since the last Cylon citing. Bill watches on, admiring his son’s work but unable to ever tell him that. Bill asks Lee about heading the committee. Lee seems interested but plays it cool.

Chief’s patch isn’t holding and now they are losing air fast. The manual override of the doors is out. The only other option is to take them out the front through actual space. There’s a small survival chance, so Cally asks Bill to leave their son with a civilian family. Athena guides a Raptor near the door. They blow the door and the Chief and Cally get sucked, without a suit, into space and into the Raptor.

Bill tries to connect with Lee as his father. Lee and Zach lived with their mom after the divorce, but their mom was unstable. As Lee falls apart spilling the details, Bill can’t take knowing the truth. FigmentWife denies the allegations and blames it all on Bill for letting his work keep him away from the family.

The Chief and Cally are alive but messed up. They resolve to keep their family together and find a way to balance their duties. Lee returns to his wife to find his grandfather’s law books. His dad sent them to him.

Laura gives Bill a book, which is a call back to the first season. Bill brings up their special night on New Caprica and her red dress. Laura gets a big ol grin on her face as do I. He asks if the Cylons hadn’t come back, would she have built her cabin. She asks if he would’ve stayed on Galactica. She cracks herself up over their double speak conversation. He’s basically telling her he loves her without those words. It’s written all over her face that she totally hopes he’ll kiss her but he doesn’t. He says they can’t be together because of their responsibilities. She tells him yes, she would’ve built her cabin and when she returns to Galactica in a few days, they can continue their conversation.

Now this is how you handle an episode that focuses on one character. The parallel between Chief and Cally making it work versus Bill having chosen the wrong path and wallowing in the regret is powerful. Plus, it blows my mind that Laura and Bill could stand so far apart in that ending scene and yet be so close.

Jo works a boring job in a small Texas town and reserves the right to spell it “ya’ll”. One day she’ll be a novelist, but until then you can read her sarcastic thoughts about TV at http://brickstorm.blogspot.com

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