This week's episode of Battlestar Galactica ended with a most satisfying conclusion. However, as with any good story, the outcome has produced no end of controversy.

For Allen's sake, I'll continue after the cut...

While Tom Zarek's slimy involvement in the Coup d'État against the Admiral Adama and President Roslin's leadership came as no surprise for most, the shocking treachery of Lieutenant Felix Gaeta stirred up such a hateful maelstrom on the internet that I began to hope that Alessandro Juliani was safely tucked away in a bunker somewhere.

Given my last post, it's no secret that I'm very sympathetic to Bill Adama and Laura Roslin's motivations. However, with the outcome of this week's episode came a broadside from the other faction: those who gave their support to Gaeta. It's hard to argue against them.

The Cylons committed genocide against the Human race. A population of many billions was reduced to tens of thousands, dwindling ever since. Not content with that, the Cylons relentlessly pursued Humanity through space, until they decided to let the rest of the Humans go, announcing as such. But then, little more than a year later, they decided that they were going to corral the Humans on New Caprica and keep them as pets for some reason. Now, some of the Cylons have shown up and announced that they are our friends, and that some people you thought you knew very well are also Cylons. So, when the President and the head of the military say "everything's going to be okay, they're with us" and start working with these genocidal killing machines like nothing bad has ever happened, you can understand how some people might see that as a little naive.

We, the audience, are privileged in that we've been privy to every important thought and discussion in this matter as omnipotent viewers. However, most people in the BSG universe don't have such a luxury. To them, it may very well appear that Roslin and Adama are gullibly leading the Human race to destruction.

Now, does this justify Gaeta and Zarek's actions? Certainly not. Zarek's slaughtering of the Quorum has shocking and damning enough to earn the label "ham-handed writing" by some. Nevertheless, I feel that this sort of extremism has been in Zarek's nature since day one, and has simply been lying dormant until it could express itself. Gaeta is a much more difficult case. He was described by his lover, Lt. Hoshi, as having a strong "moral core". Gaeta truly believes he is doing the right thing. He objects to Zarek's murder of the Quorum, and shows signs of a deep inner conflict throughout the ordeal. While his betrayal of his friends and his uniform was utterly sickening, you can see that it stems not from a lust for power or from hatred, but rather from the deepest moral desire to "do the right thing", even if he has to sacrifice his own immortal soul to do it.

So the naysayers rightly build this argument and then use it to call foul: Gaeta, and perhaps Zarek, are good men who have been sacrificed on the altar of audience opinion. In trying to do the right thing, and in many ways, the logical thing (that is, don't trust the Cylons), they've been unfairly demonized to cast Admiral Adama's righteousness in stark relief. Then, they're summarily executed to audience hurrahs in the same way Gaeta planned to execute Adama. "Ham-fisted writing!" the naysayers call.

I take a different perspective.

I feel the key is the officer that Adama confronts right after the Admiral escapes his execution. The officer essentially says: "Sorry sir. I have the utmost respect for you. But I can't follow orders which would ally us the with people who eradicated our race." It is, or SHOULD be, a pivotal moment of realization for the audience. That the Admiral has his perspective, other people have a different perspective, and in the grand scheme of things, neither can be called wrong.

But this is a time of war, and so an Admiral has to take back his ship, round up the people responsible for the mutiny, and execute them without mercy

And a President has to come out of her selfish shell, playing house with the leader of the military, and make her most impassioned speeches to date to garner support for her cause.

Adama and Rolsin have been the patriarch and matriarch of the BSG universe, where the stories of the episodes have mostly wrapped them in blankets of moral righteousness. Some assume that The Oath and Blood on the Scales are the fluffiest of these blankets... er... episodes. I think the intention was the opposite. I think that Ron Moore intended to take Adama and Roslin off their pedestals. I think that Moore's plan (and he has a plan) was to polarize opinion in the BSG fanbase the same way that the public opinion BSG universe has been polarized. That's exactly what has happened: life imitates art.

And I think that it is brilliant.