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Romo Lampkin : Redemption
I was really happy with the use of Romo Lampkin in "Blood on the Scales." Very nice work by actor Mark Sheppard. (This is Part 2. Part One, episode 15, "The Oath," is here.)
I couldn't see this chunk of the story from any other angle but redemption. Romo is a thief, a liar, and overall pretty self-serving. That he should reconsider his choice to help someone who is quite literally dying very much gave Romo Lampkin a bit more humanness, certainly his likability factor improved a great deal. And he mentioned as being taken captive, that they need to feed Jake, the dog Lee Adama gave him after discovering that Romo's only surviving family member, his wife's cat, Lance had died. His was only one of a number of characters being turned upside-down in "The Oath". My favourite one after Romo was Captain Aaron Kelly, who Tigh, when he recognized him as one of his captors, the former third-in-command of Galactica, called him a "brig rat." Prior to Baltar's trial in Season 3, Kelly had insisted that the only way to keep him from killing Cylons was to put him in the brig.
From his bio on Battlestar Wiki
When the trial of Gaius Baltar draws near, Kelly tries to disrupt the proceedings with a series of bombings. One of the attacks kills Baltar's lawyer. An attack on his next lawyer, Romo Lampkin, is thwarted only by chance. A third attack injures Lampkin. When questioned, Kelly says that he couldn't handle sending off pilots to their deaths anymore, and would continue to try if he is not locked up (The Son Also Rises). Because of this, it is unlikely that he is currently on active duty in his role as LSO.
After the discovery of a devastated Earth (and likely after being freed from the brig by the mutineers), he joins Felix Gaeta's mutiny and leads a squad of marines in pursuit of Admiral Adama and Colonel Tigh. (The Oath)
He later defends an arms locker and runs into Tyrol and after a discussion with him, lets him go. He splits off from Adama's firing squad and later tells Lee and his group where Adama is and joins them in their rescue of him. Kelly takes part in Adama's recapturing of Galactica as well. (Blood on the Scales)
But this is what he should be doing: Captain Aaron Kelly is possibly third-in-command aboard Galactica, ranking behind Admiral William Adama and Colonel Saul Tigh; his standing in relation to Major Lee Adama in the chain of command is unclear. As the LSO (Landing Signal Officer), he is responsible for flight operations - launching and landing spacecraft - on the ship.
I had a friendly disagreement about him. I knew Kelly had attained a high-level in the military and remembered seeing quite a lot of him in the show, but not lately. I'd forgotten about the bomb intended for Baltar's lawyers back during the aftermath of New Caprica. And I did not-- unlike quite a few of the hardcore bad guys I saw-- think he came from Pegasus.
I must note again that the storyline and characters are as good as the group collaboration that brings them together. The actor who plays Kelly, Ty Olsson did a great job in this episode from depicting a man who was acting out of hate and fear to his realizing how hatred and fear doesn't solve a problem. Finally, the biggest leap for Kelly--that Galen Tyrol, who had been close enough to Kelly once to call him a nickname, despite being a cylon was still Tyrol, still his friend --and so he let him go during the mutiny. That was the tipping point but the massacre of the Quorum, the way in which Adama in particular was captured--as series of wrong and or/violent acts against the Fleet got through Kelly's ("dumbass") skull and the character went through a huge shift in perception. Fun to watch, well-played, well written, (Michael Angeli).
Captain Aaron Kelly (Ty Olsson) breaks down in the sanctuary of the memorial to the dead.
Thanks to Battlestar Wiki: Summary-
Zarek and Gaeta’s mutiny continues when Adama and Tigh are arrested, while Laura tries to convince Tory to keep the base ship within the fleet and assist in stabilizing the Colonial government. Meanwhile, Galactica crew and civilians continue to battle throughout the ship, Zarek has the Quorum delegates murdered aboard Colonial One, and Gaeta insists on a court martial of Adama before his execution.
Below: Lee needed some weaponry so Kara shoved a (bad) guy's head into the wall while he was relieving himself standing up. ;)
I capped these. It took forever. Labour of love. Rights are SciFi Network/NBC. Plus there are two studio publicity shots mixed in there. You can tell. They are bigger than the others. These are just one-offs for when the video expires. No high res stuff. Sorry.
Note: Battlestar Wiki (source)
In re: Michael Trucco who plays Samuel T. Anders who was shot in the neck in this episode:
In December of 2007, Trucco was involved in a motor vehicle accident. He broke his neck, but managed a full recovery from an injury that most likely should have resulted in paralysis or death. As his injury occurred during the WGA strike, he was fortunate to be able to recover before production resumed. "I didn't want BSG to have to rewrite Anders as a sniveling, whining ball of despair who's hiding out in the corner."
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| Trucco now has a distinctive scar on the back of his neck. "I've been told they want to incorporate [it] into BSG--but that's all I'm allowed to say." |
Please welcome "Lida" a Six model introduced in this episode.
Finally, the recently-aired 10 webisode Internet short series The Face of the Enemy.
For Felix Gaeta his overt hostility towards the Cylon mirrors his coming back to the Galactica and the meeting referenced by Tigh in the webisodes. Beginning with the episode prior to this one (Part 1), "The Oath," is the first Felix is back from his little space adventure with a killer robot. In hindsight Dualla ("Dee") wasn't the only one who needed some serious emotional help.
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Thanks again to the Ultimate Battlestar Galactica reference source: Battlestar Wiki. All the character links below direct you to BSG Wiki.
Battlestar Galactica stars
Mary McDonnell as Laura Roslin's defiant "I'm Coming For All Of You" speech video clip:
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