A long trusted reader comes to the Worst Episode Yet® — he writes:
Sorry to be chiming in so late but…are you kidding? Friday’s
episode–like the season so far–was marvelous.
I thought the episode was rather too preachy…found myself fearing that the
show was turning into Star Trek. And what about their going on board a
Cylon ship without wearing their full spacesuits? That was transcendently
dumb, not only because it exposed them to the virus, but also because it put
them at risk for countless other nasty things the Cylons could have done,
like depressurizing that part of the basestar. No proper military boarding
party would have done something that stupid.
But Helo’s objection to the complete annihilation of the Cylons makes
perfect sense. After all, he’s married to one. And that Cylon has shown
herself heroically loyal to the humans.
This means that a Cylon is capable of having a change of heart, capable of
rejecting the idea of genocide against mankind and embracing the ways of
peace. As we’ve seen in earlier episodes, not all Cylons are alike. Some
have moral qualms about their war on humanity, believing that it was a
mistake and that humans and Cylons should stop killing each other. If
Cylons are capable of guilt, shame, impulses toward mercy, then by what
right do we simply say, “big deal? Kill ‘em all?” Strikes me as an
exceedingly immoral proposition.
Think of it this way. Would it have been morally justifiable for the Allies
to have exterminated all the Germans or the Japanese? If not, why would it
be acceptable to kill all the Cylons?
Adama got it. Just as he was unwilling to mutiny and murder Admiral Cain.
He realized there are certain things you just don’t do, even to win a war.