Five idle weeks have gone by since the new season of Battlestar Galactica began and for a while there I was losing hope. Luckily this week’s episode harked upon the good old BSG days of excellent and engaging writing. Here’s what happened in this week’s episode, “Faith.”

A trigger happy Anders puts Gaeta’s leg at risk and helps kill a Six. Photo courtesy of the Sci-Fi network.

Warning! Spoiler Alert!

On the Demetrius, Helo commands Starbuck to be jailed and tells Gaeta to have Demetrius jump back to Galactica. Anders, who’s only aim is to do what he thinks Starbuck wants, shoots Gaeta in the leg to prevent the jump. Starbuck helps patch-up Gaeta’s leg and tells Helo to have the Demetrius jump back to Galactica while she, Leoben and Athena take a viper to the cylon basestar to meet with a hybrid. Later they decide that Helo will wait 15 hours before jumping to Galactica, giving the viper crew some time to get back before the Demetrius jumps. However, Helo is put in a hard position when Gaeta says he’ll likely lose his leg if they don’t jump back to Galactica soon. Starbuck, Leoben, Athena, Anders and Barolay head out to the basestar. Amid all of the wreckage of the destroyed ships Starbuck sees the basestar streaking across a planet and realizes that the comet she had been dreaming about this whole time was actually the basestar.

Inside the basestar, Athena is approached by several Eights who consider her a hero because she was the first cylon to rebel against her programming. They want her to lead a rebellion against Six who they believe has been making crucial leadership mistakes. A disgusted Athena tells them they need to learn loyalty. Anders gets close to putting his hand in the cylon control consol but gets distracted when a Six recognizes Barolay as the person who drowned her on New Caprica. The Six beats Barolay to death and Anders threatens to shoot the Six. Natalie-Six consoles the Six and asks her why she killed Barolay. The Six explains that she couldn’t get over the fact that Barolay treated her so savagely on New Caprica. Knowing there’s no hope for resurrection, Natalie-Six kills the Six to ease tensions between the cylons and the humans. Starbuck meets with the hybrid who seems to be spewing a whole bunch of crazy. Starbuck tells an Eight to unplug the hybrid so they can fix the basestar’s jump drive but a Centurion objects and kills the Eight. Starbuck kills the centurion and the hybrid tells Starbuck a cryptic message and ends by saying that Starbuck will bring everyone to their end. The Eight lays there dying, apologizes to Athena and holds out her hand hoping Athena will comfort her. Instead, Athena stands there and watches her die while Anders holds her hand and tells her everything’s going to be fine. Natalie-Six and Leoben try and decipher the message (look at the quote of the week below) and conclude that the only way they can get to earth is through the help of the final five. They believe they need to unbox D’Anna because she’s the only one who can recognize the final five. A worried Anders sits near the dead Eight listening to the whole conversation.

On the Demetrius, the clock counts down to zero and Helo prepares to jump when suddenly the basestar, under the control of Athena, appears.

On Galactica, President Roslin is undergoing intense cancer treatment. She’s completely bald and places all her trust in Tory. While receiving her treatment, Roslin befriends another cancer patient who constantly listens to Gaius’ pirated radio broadcasts and who has come to believe in a one true God. The patient tells Roslin that she believes in God because she dreamt herself crossing a river and saw her deceased family members waiting for her on the other side. Roslin remains unwavering in her disbelief but soon after the conversation she has a dream where she’s crossing a river and sees her deceased family members on the other side. She wakes up to a radio broadcast of Gaius preaching about the river that separates the visible world from the unseen world. Roslin talks to Adama about her dream. He says that Roslin has convinced him that the search for Earth is not a fantasy.

Opinion: Yes! This is what I’ve been waiting for. I’m just so happy that I don’t even know what to write. The best scene was definitely between Natalie-Six and the other Six. The writers did a great job of showing how human cylons are and how cold humans can be (as seen through Barolay, who took pleasure in watching the Six drown and threatened to do it again).

Quote of the Week: Thus will it come to pass. The dying leader will know the truth of the opera house. The missing three will give you the five who have come from the home of the 13th. You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead them all to their end. End of line. -Hybrid

Next week: The Demetrius and the basestar crew transfer onto Galactica. Athena sees that Hera has been drawing images of Six. Hera walks towards Natalie-Six while Athena runs up behind her with a gun telling Natalie-Six to get away from her daughter.