US TV review
US airdate 16 May 2008 (Sci Fi Channel)

The rebel Cylons, desperate to unearth the Final Five and unbox the Number Threes, put forward a tantalising plan to Admiral Adama - team up to take out the heart of the Cylon's resurrection network, the Hub…

This dark and twist-laden episode is a testament to the BSG writers’ ability to fiendishly intertwine parallel story arcs, structuring them on different tracks then eventually pushing everything towards an unbearably tense collision.

The man/machine boundaries have become blurred with the intermixing of the two races, as Starbuck's rebel Cylon basestar jumps amid the fleet, nearly getting taken out by Galactica in a standoff (a stunning FX showpiece). In keeping with the uncertainty over the nature of the Final Four aboard Galactica, Tigh mysteriously orders a hold fire, saving the basestar and allowing a meeting of the two sides.

The integration of the basestar into the fleet propels the churning political and military machinations into new and interesting terrain while nurturing the key subtexts of BSG. The Cylons by now are a legitimate three-dimensional unit of characters to invest in, and much time is given over to their wrestling with the decision to take hostages from Galactica to ensure the humans will let them leave with the Final Five once the Hub is destroyed and the Threes freed. A fascinating hidden element of the Cylons is also revealed - the Hub, around which much of the season will pivot.

Lee Adama and the Quorum are shaken by the alliance, while Tyrol, Tigh, Anders and Tory agonise over the prospect of being revealed. Adama and Roslin too have their own agendas: they will honour the deal with the Cylons only to a point – the Final Five will be kept with the fleet and used to find Earth. Humans and Cylons, possessed of all-too-similar fears and flaws, plot to deceive each other even as they are all battling with doubts about their own faiths and identities.

Woven throughout this episode is Roslin's determination to finally discover what the Opera House visions mean, and why she, Sharon and Six share it - a thread long left dangling in the background. To do this she turns to the Cylon hybrid and her old enemy: Baltar. The welcome convergence of Baltar and Roslin in the shadow of the now-iconic Opera House, combined with a sweeping rush of events at the episode's end, cranks up the anticipation as the mid-season finale looms. Owen Van Spall

VERDICT: 8/10