THIS guy needs to walk out of an airlock, and soon!

Perhaps it was the addition of a lot of beer and watching the episode MST3K style at a FALL-IN convention that made me hostile to this episode's ending, because when I saw it on TIVO later it made sense up to a point.

major spoilers alert

When we last tuned in, the Cylons had discovered the space junk probe left by.. humans? It would appear so as results indicate. This episode opens up with Apollo and the newly christined "Athena" reconning the dying Base Ship from the last episode. They quickly come to the conclusion that something isn't right here. The landing party discovers five dying Cylons, including a Simon model and a Sharon model. Athena (I like that name, I will use it for the Sharon that is an ally of humanity from now on) is very helpful in determining exactly what happened.

Bigtime missed opportunity.. if the 12 colonies didn't leave that probe out there, who did? Did I miss some dialogue? You'd think that would be a major important artifact, yes? Nope, they just leave it there in time for it to be exploded in the Base Star's self-descruct sequence. Oh well, opportunity blown.

They DO bring back the five Cylon prisoners, and discover that:

A) the disease not only kills Cylons, it CAN be transmitted during the resurrection process, or so the Cylons think. and
B) The Simon rats out Baltar, ensuring he won't be welcome in the ranks of humanity forever...

This is all a big setup for classic TV drama manby pambyness. The Cylon disease can be used as a weapon! Lee Adama leaps on the correct conclusion immediately: jump into Cylon space near a resurrection ship, kill the cylons, have them resurrect on the Resurrection ship and infect the whole frackin' Cylon race! Bravo! Brilliant! Way to go, Lee, you are shaping well!

BUT. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....
We are then subjected to the standard hand-wringing as Helo (and also Admiral Adama) agonize over "Gee, will it be doing the right thing to exterminate the Cylon race?"... to the point where the only person with gonads sufficient to make the correct decision is Laura Rosslyn!

How realistic is this??? That part of the script was an enormous letdown. When a society is faced with overwhelming might, superior technology, and a relentless adversary that will NOT stop from exterminating YOU, you actually take a couple of seconds to pause and think if God hands you a means of deliverance? I wouldn't.

And THEN... the real capper, after Laura gives an executive order (IN WRITING) commanding Adama to execute the disease attack, Helo sabotages it by killing the prisoners before they get into Cylon space. This is the act of a traitor to humanity FAR more serious than anything Baltar has done (directly). By doing what he did, Helo might have doomed humanity. I say, shove his self-righteous ass out of an airlock and make him breathe vacumn.

End Note: If ever I'm being tortured by a relentless robotic race, remind me to implant a fantasy version of Tricia Helfer in my head. It sure did wonders for Baltar..