Needless to say: HERE BE SPOILERS!

I was going to review the last episode of BSG but … well the whole Gaeta/Zarek coup bored the crap out of me; even if poor Gaeta found his peace at the end. So this week, we’re back on the Cylons and it’s time to catch up Ellen Tigh … oh, boy was I excited and seeing ‘No Exit’ makes me wish it was Friday twice a week.

Basically after ‘collaboarating’ with the Cylons (and fraking Cavil to get Saul out of jail), Ellen was murdered by her lovely husband and Final Five member way back in er … series three was it? This episode basically serves like ‘Downloaded’, mostly focusing on her perspective during her confinement by Boomer’s  ’John’ Cavil on one of the basestars. Indeed her reawakening in the goo bath is quite traumatic but it is her relationship with one of the Cylon centurions which surprises; she addresses him – forgive the pun – like a human being. It’s amazingly touching and confirms that she’s no ordinary Cylon but something more ….

But the whole story doesn’t come from her but from Anders. shot in the last episode, he has a bullet lodged in hsi brain and while it might be slowly killing him, it’s also unlocked hidden memories of their original lives on Earth thousands of years before. Basically the thirteenth colony were Cylons who went off to Earth and lived happy lives until a nuclear apocalypse; having learnt to reproduce the human way, these Cylons only rediscovered ressurection (or ‘organic memory transfer’ ) in the last days of their civilisation and the Final Five all worked together on the technology.

Realising that this would probably happen to the human colonies they left behind, the Five used time dilation to travel to the colonies, for them a short time passed but by the time they arrived the Centurions had risen up against their human creators. The Five offered to show them how to creat humanoid forms if they would leave the humans be, believing the Cylons’ all-loving God would give the next generation of the Cylon race the mercy and compassionate side they needed to co-exist with their creators. Of course it never goes like that … Cavil killed the Five – along with the Number Seven model, Daniel, blocked the Fives’ memories and placed them with the humans, hoping they would eventually download and thank him.

The episode itself is full of emotion and while only a few questions – granted they are some of the most important – are answered, it’s a fantastic episode that lays out the motivations behind the entire series of Battlestar Galactica. Cavil, once the defacto leader, suddenly seems more like a dictator whose vengeance is underpinned not by his desire to make the humans pay for enslaving his metal relatives but more out of petty jealousy. Yes he’s messed up and not afraid to shout and vent at the issue. Indeed Boomer gets to witness the whole thing and she goes from wishing to emulate Cavil to sneaking Ellen back to the Fleet.

Ellen Tigh is the centre of the episode and her change in character befitting an ancient being who has recovered a lost part of herself. She’s suddenly strong, confident, wise beyond her years and her spats with Cavil are very entertaining, even at the hint of peril.

The entire episode is beautifully crafted and when interspersed by Anders’ personal peril as he tries to impart as much knowledge to the Final Four (who still believe Ellen dead). Yet Starbuck is on her own personal quest, wondering if she is actually a Cylon (the missing Number Seven model). Ultimately her desire to push her husband for more information has tragic consequences which will make for even more unanswered questions in the remaining episodes.

Questions raised in this episode include:

• What the FRAK is Kara Thrace?
• What will the Cylons do now Ellen has returned?
• What does this mean for the Fleet?
• What and where is the colony Ellen and Cavil mentioned?
• Can the resurrection technology be resurrected? 
• Is Anders’ brain dead and is he gone?
• How will the whole Fleet/Cavil scuffle play out? Is he still coming for them?
• Will the Final Three remember their lives?
• How will Ellen cope when she finds out Caprica Six has Saul’s bun in her toaster?
• How will Saul react when he finds she is alive?
• Virtual Six/Baltar? Anyone?
• What the FRAK is Kara Thrace?
• How did she get to Earth and what did it have to do with the nuclear apocalypse?