UNCUT REACTION - Battlestar Galactica S1E4 - Act of Contrition

"Nugget" = a chunk of unrefined precious metal, particularly gold. If you work on it and refine it, you might end up with something valuable.

I would be fine with 1 ambiguous flash forward. 5 was a bit excessive. I'm unsure of the reason, but I assume it is because it's a 2 parter, so they might want you to remember that for part 2? Even if that is the reason, there was a way to less overdo it. But it was still sort of a bottle episode so they padded with their non-existent budget (I literally think that the reason we saw it so many times was to pad the run time, to have as cheap episode as possible so that some money could be saved for later). They already spent money on "better" CGI than it was in mini-series. Sadly 2004/2005 was couple years too early to do that type of CGI on a budget. It's still good enough that it doesn't pull me out of the story (like here where starbuck is falling on the planet, it's a bit obscured by atmosphere - so they try to hide it a bit). But if you compare it to opening which is like 15 FPS (from miniseries scene) - that looks worse, even though models technically look better. Those "slooooow" Raiders do pull me out, but I know a series so I just chuckle and pretend I didn't see it.

Yeah that flash forward thing is a proper 00s editing conceit. It does happen a few more times if I recall and is just as unnecessary 😂

This was the episode that hooked me into continuing to watch the rest of the first season. I found the miniseries good, but then the first three episodes I liked to varying degrees, but they didn't knock my socks off. If I were to order the first five (I watched the miniseries when it aired in two parts) the order would be: Miniseries Part 2 Miniseries Part 1 Ep 3 Ep 1 Ep 2 I was not fully invested in any of the characters until this episode. The level of acting Edward James Olmos displayed during that scene with Starbuck sold me enough that I wanted to at least see where season 1 was going. The way you can tell the emotions Adama is feeling throughout that scene without the need for any verbalization was an incredible piece of acting. I actually liked the flash forward bit, probably because I didn't know who it was supposed to be. I was pretty lost story-wise in the first season so when it was revealed it was Starbuck it had a larger impact on me.

I know you're getting inundated with comments telling you Boomer was soaked from planting bombs in the water tanks, but that's bullshit. The real reason is the same reason that she's hooking up with Tyrol...........he can make any woman wet😎. But seriously, this is a great episode. EJO is a hell of an actor, and there are plenty of examples throughout the show. A few other cast members may surprise you as well. I feel kind of bad for Lee feeling like he betrayed Starbuck's confidence thinking his dad already knew. Telling Starbuck to walk out while she still can sounds pretty harsh, but you gotta think what's going through his head at that moment. Not only did he just find his son's death could have been avoided had she not let her personal feelings cloud her judgement, but he's probably also thinking about how his relationship with Lee was basically destroyed by Zak's death. Lee blamed Adama, and he likely blamed himself almost as much, but now he's realizing this whole other factor is at play with Kara passing Zak when he wasn't ready. I'm not too bothered by the flash forward segments, but that's because I know the episodes already. From the perspective of a first time watcher, I get the criticism. Might have worked better with much briefer flashes that don't make it entirely clear what's happening. I also think it's a ballsy choice this early in a series where there are no reinforcements coming to kill off almost half their pilots. Like in a Star Trek show, killing off some redshirts is pretty low stakes because they'll just get replacements at the next starbase. But here, they don't even have enough trainees to replace the pilots they lost, and that's if all of them make it. Nobody else in the fleet even has any flight experience so there are THE best candidates, so they're kind of writing themselves into a corner with how many times they can have a pilot killed in the future. As for the nuggets thing, I think it's probably because pilots get their "wings" when they finish training, whereas trainees are "chicks" since they're still learning to fly, which leads to calling them "nuggets". It's just military slang, but yeah it's a real thing.

I don't think this is really a spoiler, but Boomer was wet in that one scene because we're supposed to suspect that she planted the bombs in the water tank.

When we first watched this we would turn away during the opening credits so as not to be overly spoiled. Always hated the opening teaser. Never understood why the powers that be felt the need to include it.

According to Ronald D Moore, but old worn equipment killing pilots scene was inspired by the USS Forrestal disaster during the Vietnam War. (1 min recap video bellow). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdI7L2c4XSk WW2 bombs being used when the US was running low on modern munitions combined with lax safety procedures killed 134 men, including the entire firefighter section because of the low cook-off temperature of the old weapons after the initial rocket fired.

Good episode, the acting is certainly top notch in this series. Love to see that thumbs up :-)

The three time line at once thing was a late 90's early 2000's thing I think, at least it seems that way to me. I think of Firefly episode Out of Gas. In fact Firefly had a lot of the end shown in the beginning writing. I think it is something you like or not. I do like it. I like sometimes showing where does the story ends up so I am not confused on guessing and only need watch the how we get there. But sometimes I like the guessing part too so it is subjective.

Man, Josh, you really aren't helping yourself by bringing up that "Why was she wet" in a second video. 🙃 This is a very flashbacky episode. In a way, the whole thing is a flashback from Starbuck in her Viper, flashing back to the hangar bay accident, which causes Starbuck to flashback to Zak's funeral, in which she flashes back to telling Zak he passed.I suppose I can't blame you for getting a little lost. One thing I think to keep in mind is that usually when this show does flashbacks, it's not just a narrative tool to tell the audience about the past, but to show what the CHARACTER is thinking about. think of Lee back in "Water" he looks in a mirror and suddenly we're seeing him shoot down that ship. It's not just to remind us about that, but to show what he is thinking of. This episode is just that on a grander scale. So yes, we see some scenes and moments repeated often, but it to get into the character's heads a bit. Adama in the miniseries asks Lee how Lee's mother is, to which Lee respondes :Getting Married," so it would follow that Adama is divorced. As far as the flash-forwards I wonder if that's another casualty of HD televisions. I think back then it was thought that we wouldn't be able to tell who was in the cockpit. Her helmet lights were off, her face not illuminated. I think the were trying to push the tension by making it unclear who was in the cockpit. Unfortunately with clearer picture, it's obvious who it is in that Viper, killing the suspense.

I never thought about how bad the flashforwards were in this, and you are completely right. I think if they had maybe not shown it was Starbuck, made us wonder, then we see Hot Dog go back to save her, maybe they could have made us think it was at least him crashing. Then to show it was Starbuck at the end might have worked better. Who knows. But you did bring up a valid point that I never thought about.

One thing I noted this time watching (and wouldn't have if it hadn't been for you two talking about it) was that in the last flash-forward to the ejection scene, right after the intense conversation between Admiral Adama and Starbuck, they make a point of showing the character's face through the visor, and it's clearly not Starbuck, but still left unclear who the other one in the crash is. Probably a bit too subtle, but that ratcheting up of the "who else is it involved in this?" I think was well done.

I had heard a discussion on this two parter where the writers said that the ship going down was symbolic of how Starbucks life was crashing leading up to the flight with the pilots dying, the recruits not doing well and that scene with Adama. I still think they went back to it too much and we could have lived without it. In the miniseries they said Adama’s wife had gotten remarried and he said they had met and settled things to part on good terms. Of course it is assumed she died in the Cylon attack.

Great reaction! This was one of the episodes that really got me hooked the first time - I had to watch the continuation right away, and that was the moment I realized I loved the show.

With all the flashbacks I wonder if the writers thought we would misinterpret the ejection bit as another flashback and then be super surprised when, oh wait, it hadn't actually happened yet. But it didn't hit as a surprise to anyone I knew watching it at the time either.

Hot Dog is played by Bodie Olmos, Eddie's son.

The cockpit was a flashforward because I guess we are to know she is supposed to abandon ship, and this is the events that led up to it, the fight was not meant to be the main course or what we are worried about I think. Going back to something J said at the beginning, Boomer was soaking wet aboard Galactica and discovered first a bomb in her duffel bag, then 6 more missing from the small arms locker. An explosion went off in the water tank, and Cally found the charred remains indicating an explosion. Boomer does not know she is a cylon and has no idea how the bomb in her bag got there or where the missing ones went, but draw your own conclusions. The doctor is great, the actor sadly died about 5 yrs back. On a different topic, J indeed does have an insane memory for titles. and knows episode titles of TOS I don't know, but the funny part was when J was trying to rattle names of actors off, it was A who had them all to finish J's thoughts.

All the actors gave up the goods throughout BSG's run, but Edward James Olmos absolutely acted the hell out of this role from front to back. There are at least a dozen Oscar caliber scenes with Adama I can think of off the top of my head over the course of BSG that should have gotten him nominated for everything.

"Nugget" is actually a real life term for novice aviators that the show borrowed: https://www.thehistoryreader.com/historical-fiction/naval-academy-nuggets-p-t-deutermann/

The actor who played Galactica's doctor was the real-life brother of the actor who played the doctor in the miniseries who gave Roslin her cancer diagnosis.

Josh! Boomer was wet in that previous episode because she'd gone into the water containers to plant the bombs. The Boomer on Caprica with Helo is a different copy who knows she's a Cylon, and what they're going through is occurring simultaneously as the rest of the story on Galactica. And there was no "Baltar switch"; that was your captions putting the wrong name up for the Cylon named Doral. I totally agree with you guys about the unnecessary "flash-forward" to Starbuck's Viper crashing. This was a WAY overused director's (or editor's) gimmick from that time which I guess was meant to build tension but actually achieved the opposite result. This was also in the same period as the tv series "Lost" which used flashbacks and flashforwards to great effect (usually), so maybe they were trying to mimic that style. IMO, this show succeeds best when it just lets the actors do their jobs. Edward James Olmos is continually amazing, and the character of Chief Tyrol, played by Aaron Douglas, grows increasingly engaging and multilayered.