Epiphanies

Season 2, Episode 13, Aired

Episode Summary

EDIT
go
Hulu
Free
Netflix
Subscription
Amazon
Buy
iTunes
Buy
Comcast
Subscription
VUDU
Buy
9.0
out of 10
EPISODE RATING: Superb
673 votes
  • Your Rating: 10
    "Perfect"
  • Your Rating: 9.5
    "Superb"
  • Your Rating: 9
    "Superb"
  • Your Rating: 8.5
    "Great"
  • Your Rating: 8
    "Great"
  • Your Rating: 7.5
    "Good"
  • Your Rating: 7
    "Good"
  • Your Rating: 6.5
    "Fair"
  • Your Rating: 6
    "Fair"
  • Your Rating: 5.5
    "Mediocre"
  • Your Rating: 5
    "Mediocre"
  • Your Rating: 4.5
    "Poor"
  • Your Rating: 4
    "Poor"
  • Your Rating: 3.5
    "Bad"
  • Your Rating: 3
    "Bad"
  • Your Rating: 2.5
    "Terrible"
  • Your Rating: 2
    "Terrible"
  • Your Rating: 1.5
    "Abysmal"
  • Your Rating: 1
    "Abysmal"
Rate Now!
As President Roslin nears death, Dr. Gaius Baltar must be groomed for the worst case scenario.

Roslin orders the death of Sharon's unborn child.

A sabotaged Viper leads to an investigation that uncovers a movement of people seeking peace with the Cylons.

Baltar discovers an anomaly in Sharon's fetus that may cure Roslin's cancer.moreless
WRITE A REVIEW

Cast & Crew

See All EDIT

Watch Online

Hulu
Free
Netflix
Subscription
Amazon
Buy
iTunes
Buy
Comcast
Subscription
VUDU
Buy

Fan Episode Reviews (21)

See All

  • Epiphanies

    10
    "Perfect"
    By TrueTvWatcher, Jan 16, 2012
    Epiphanies was another perfectly entertaining episode of Battlestar Galactica and I really enjoyed watching this episode because there was a lot of character and plot development along with some action, drama and intrigue. The story was well written and it was great that Sharon's fetus blood could save the President. I also liked how There was a lot of different scenarios going on in this episode and the various characters had their own moments of growth. I look forward to watching the next episode!!!!!!!!!moreless

  • Easier to kill.

    7.0
    "Good"
    By kickdoor, Dec 04, 2010
    It's odd, I would've thought Roslin's "moment of clarity," as they say, would have extended to not making horrible decisions, but I guess not. As ordering the termination of Sharon's pregnancy was one of her worst yet. And screw scientific research, tactically it's a bad call. Sharon has been a tremendous help to them. Who cares why she's doing it? As I said even I have trouble believing that she's 100% with them, but that seems to be the way it is. So why would you ever want to give her a reason to stop helping you? To in fact turn any "gen-u-ine compassion"(as Adama put it) that she may have into genuine hate. Those shots of her trying to fend off the guards as Adama looked on silently were tough to swallow. Of course that all got settled in what would of been a delicious piece of irony, as Sharon's baby was the key to saving Roslin's life, but enjoying it would mean that Roslin was still alive...bit of a Catch-22 there.

    I wish I could say I was surprised, but I would've given odds on Roslin surviving to annoy me for some time to come. Honestly though, it could of been one of my favorite characters and I still wouldn't have liked it. You don't build up a character's death for a season and a half and then not pull the trigger, you just don't do it. No matter what was going on behind the scenes or what you might have planned for the future, it always comes off as a cop out, at least to me it does. And it definitely put a bit of a blemish on the series.

    The plot with the Demand Peace movement was interesting, and frightening. I'm glad it turned out to be Six leading them, as a human coming up with the idea of surrendering to the Cylons seems crazy. Baltar's scene with her where he's unable to control himself when given the chance to be with a physical Six was done well, and helped setup what was to come at the end. I think they missed an opportunity for a better episode title though, "Dr. Baltar or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." I couldn't believe he gave them the nuke and I just wish he was acting less out of a want to be with the corporeal Six and more out of anger over what was going to be done to "their" child.

    I'm not really placing any blame from the decision to keep Roslin alive on this particular episode. And I enjoyed most of it anyway, just not anything particularly great about it.moreless

  • BSG's first bad episode.

    1.0
    "Abysmal"
    By classicliberal2, Jun 18, 2010
    This was BSG's first bad one, and wow, did they take a nosedive! The English language can scarcely do justice to the cretinous imbecility of virtually every aspect of this unfortunate abomination of an episode.

    It's probably inevitable that a show I'd come to hold in such high regard would eventually come to disappoint, and probably bitterly disappoint, but after such a great first season-and-a-half, I never expected it to happen so abruptly.

    Throughout BSG, there have been story arcs that were better than others, but I can live with most of what I saw as the shortcomings along the way--they were so outweighed by the show's benefits that I barely consider them worth mentioning. The previous episodes' extremely lackluster conclusion to the Pegasus arc marked the first time BSG had ever let me down in a big way. With "Epiphanies," we have, quite simply, the worst episode of the run to date. Even as I'm writing this, the third season having already aired, it remains the worst, and a monument to poor decision-making.

    The lack of bad episodes prior to this, however, means that merely calling it "the worst" doesn't do justice to how monumentally awful this offering was on nearly every level.

    The "Cylon sympathizer" storyline, which looked as though it was going to be a regular feature of BSG for a while, was so poorly conceived and offensively idiotic that I find myself, once again, at a loss for sufficient words with which to adequately envenom it. BSG's creators apparently agreed--after setting it up as what looks like a new ongoing storyline, it's barely mentioned again after this episode.

    For that matter, practically everything that happened in "Epiphanies" has subsequently been erased, reversed, or otherwise abandoned.

    The episode was one of the worst available examples of writers deciding they want to tell a particular story and grafting it on to a show with no regard for whether or not it actually fits there, or makes any sense in the context of the series (or makes sense in and of itself, for that matter--the "Cylon sympathizer" storyline made no sense on any level). At that point, they aren't writing BSG anymore. They're writing whatever they want, and calling it BSG.

    The point of this episode's Laura story was to show that arbitary decision-making on behalf of leaders is fraught with peril. In the flashbacks, set on Caprica before the Cylon attack, Laura was the cooler head who fought against this kind of thing, just as she has throughout her time as President, but in "Epiphanies," she inexplicably succumbs to it, and it almost costs her her life. This is Laura cast as George Bush Jr.

    The obvious problem with this is that Laura is NOT George Bush Jr. Her decision to eliminate the human/Cylon fusion comes out of nowhere and is based on nothing, and while we've come to expect that sort of thing from the present "President" of the United States, it's not the sort of thing the Laura Roslyn we've come to know would do.

    There would have been a million ways to raise legitimate concerns about allowing the fusion to come into existence, most of them requiring no more than a line or two of dialogue. The humans could have hashed out the matter, the way they always do, and come to some decision, maybe a tough one, and maybe it's proven, at the end, to be the wrong one. The writers, however, wanted to tell a story about the dangers of arbitrary decision-making, so the show and the characters get bent into whatever odd angles are required to tell that story, with little or no concern for continuity or consistency. Laura decides she wants the fusion destroyed for unstated "security concerns," and everyone but Baltar immediately agrees.

    Consider that, in the episode immediately preceding this one, the characters faced an ethical crisis--do we really deserve to live? In considering this, it was suggested that assassinating a dangerous lunatic who posed a clear danger to the entire fleet may be some morally unconscionable act. As obviously false as this should have been, Adama actually concluded that it might, and called it off. With "Epiphanies," we're offered a situation where it is suggested that a horror be committed, entirely needlessly, upon the person of a woman--Sharon--who has offered substantial aid to the fleet, including saving it, at one point, and has tried very hard to gain their trust, and no one except Crazy Baltar (in pursuit of his own agenda) even thinks twice about giving the green light for this to occur?

    Whatever.

    The magic cure for Roslyn's cancer is probably the episode's lowest point. It's exactly the sort of awful plot device BSG has always rigorously avoided, to the point that it's one of their trademarks. Now, she's been returned to health, and, even worse, she now has, after all this time, a sudden memory of seeing Baltar and Six together back on Caprica.

    Even Baltar's bizarre moment of glory at having saved Laura was dashed by yet another idiotic creative decision that had him acting radically out-of-character in the service of a prefab plot.

    Final analysis: not worthy of the dust on the boots of my BSG.moreless

  • Overall, this is a good episode centered in Roslin, but compared of the last 3 episodes, seems that this episode lacks in something, like interesting conflicts.

    7.1
    "Good"
    By Dante_Edy, Sep 02, 2009
    ***This review details this is a "I" perspective, based in what I like and recognize to be good or interesting, this is not a "god" where the guy thinks what he thinks is the true or the "you" perspective where I know what you will like and what you dont.***

    After 3 episodes centered in a difficult situation where every character is involved somehow, the writers decided to make an episode centered in a character and the first choice was of course the President. After so many time, I wouldnt believe that she could die, I knew from the beginning that Gaius could discover a way to save her and this is exactly what happens in this episode. As usual, Sharron is linked to the President, first the unnecessary "pregnancy terminated", then the solution arises near the end. Since Roslin couldnt participate in coma state, she had dreams, where she remembers about one important thing, very convenient. Not only Sharron was linked in Roslin Story, Gaius too.

    Presentation Phase - (7/10) nice, just because the details of the flashback,
    Complication Phase - (7/10) saving Roslin, seeing flashbacks and one filler,
    Climax Phase - (7/10) light climax, the explanation was more interesting,
    Ending - (7/10) light ending,

    Details/Progress (To point A to B) - (7/10) the necessary progress, curing a cancer,
    Time and Scene Management - (8/10) some filler in the mix,
    Plot Details/Holes- (10/10) fine,
    Storyline - (7/10) too depressive and slow, but is good anyway,

    Drama - (14/20),

    Overall, this is a good episode centered in Roslin, but compared of the last 3 episodes, seems that this episode lacks in something, like interesting conflicts.moreless

  • A different side of story

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By Parricida, Dec 17, 2008
    It really looks the legacy of previous episode is that the cylon fleet backs up for a while and they have to deal with their inner crises - and it is mostly the cylon escaped from Pegasus who has been creating her own resistance and she has no plans to give up, under no circumstances. On the other main storyline is Roslin, whose death is getting near and she is having those flashbacks and in one of them, she remembers something very important and that really looks even more that next coming episodes might be the flight between Roslin and Baltar.

    And Sharon and her unborn child storyline was expected too. They were going along with it too long and now it was a real danger. i most say the moment on the corridor - where Halo is stopping them.. it was good one.moreless
WRITE A REVIEW
 

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

See All

FILTER BY TYPE

Battlestar Galactica Forums


Add a Topic See All
Last Activity
Replies

Watch Battlestar Galactica Full Episodes

See All

Related Shows

Season 2 Episodes

See All
Ep 21
Battlestar Galactica: The ...
Ep 20
Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2
Ep 19
Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 1
Ep 18
Downloaded
Ep 17
The Captain's Hand
Ep 16
Sacrifice
Ep 15
Scar
Ep 14
Black Market
Ep 13
Epiphanies
Ep 12
Resurrection Ship, Part 2
Ep 11
Resurrection Ship, Part 1
Ep 10
Pegasus
Ep 9
Flight of the Phoenix
Ep 8
Final Cut
Ep 7
Home, Part 2
Ep 6
Home, Part 1
Ep 5
The Farm
Ep 4
Resistance
Ep 3
Fragged
Ep 2
Valley of Darkness (2)
Ep 1
Scattered (1)

Contributors

Become a contributor
More
Less

TV Listings

Full Listings
TV.com Properties | Shows | Videos | News | Listings | Forums | People | Photos | TV.com Blog

CBS Entertainment | About TV.com | About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Ad Choice | Terms of Use