The Meat of the Story

Haven't stopped reading yet? Wonderful!

For those of you who are new to the series, the "current" events in "Razor" are anchored in between second season episodes "The Captain's Hand" and "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I", following Lee Adama's (Jamie Bamber) appointment to be Pegasus' commander. I want to say that the "current" events happened before Sharon Agathon's (Grace Park) giving birth to Hera in "Downloaded" (the episode following "Hand"), however it is hard to tell as all the camera angles featuring her were conveniently filmed either from behind or from the chest up.

While there is a flashback that dates back to the end of the first Cylon War with a young William Adama (Nico Cortez), a majority of the flashbacks take place during the events of the Miniseries and up to "Pegasus", the episode that introduced Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes) and her crew. Most of what happened in that interim has already been explained in "Pegasus" and the "Resurrection Ship" two parter, so nothing that happens in these flashbacks is really new, aside from a few clarifications of who did what.

However, during these flashbacks, there are nice touches to the backstory of the battlestar Pegasus. These primarily deal with the interplay between Cain and her former XO and friend, Jurgen Belzen (Steve Bacic), in addition to her lesbian relationship with Gina Inviere (a Number Six played by Tricia Helfer). Cain's relationships tend to humanize her, even if one of them is with a manipulative Cylon.

The revelation that her lover Gina is a Cylon only further allows Cain to be galvanized as a Captain Ahab of the Colonial Fleet. To detractors who scoff this "convenient" relationship that ended up being the betrayal that cut her deep: Cain was already well on her way to becoming Ahab when she ordered the all-out attack on what initially appears to be a lone, lightly defended communication's relay, despite the fact that this became an obvious ambush and the subsequent objections of Colonel Belzen. Of course, she dealt with this truth by asking him for his weapon and shooting him in the head, which is a scene that makes you want to reach out to your television and smack sense into both of them.

In any event, the story follows a new character, Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Jacobsen), who ends up being Cain's protege and represents her legacy: one that isn't liked by most of the Colonial Fleet, including her new commander, Lee Adama. Most of the "A" story tie in with her, which isn't such a bad thing, since Jacobsen is able to pull off this story of a soldier's redemption very nicely. This is well done, considering the fact that she's a character no one's ever heard of before and hasn't been referred to since. One could neatly explain that as wanting to cover up the shameful, immoral acts that surrounded Shaw.

As we get to see, Shaw's major claim to "razor-hood" is that she's responsible for the events of the Scylla, which resulted in her putting a bullet in a woman's head to force these civilians to capitulate to Cain's demands. Much like Lee Adama, who may have killed over a thousand civilians on the Olympic Carrier in "33", she's still having a difficult time coping with her actions. However, like Galactica's XO, Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan), she deals with the pressures through chemical means, up until the point where she sacrifices herself to complete the mission to destroy the ship of the first Cylon hybrid.

The "B" story is the one that sets up the events for season four and ties in to Kara Thrace's "destiny", the latter of the two is probably the most annoying aspects of "Razor", which (thankfully) rears its ugly head only at the end. Although it could be worse in that this could be shoved in the audience's face-which it very nearly was at the end-the way in which the destiny is jokingly referenced by Thrace herself is fairly well done.

Along with the story, there are various touches that can make fans squeal for joy. In addition to the appearance of most of the Pegasus crew, including conscript Peter Laird (Vincent Gale) on the Scylla, we have various nods to the original 1978 series as well.

The old school Centurions make an appearance in CGI-and unlike their original series counterparts, these Centurions are actually a force to be reckoned with! We also see the old Cylon Raiders. Regrettably, we discover that the Raiders are controlled by three Centurions, which is an aspect that shouldn't have made its way into the re-imagined series due to the sheer lunacy of the concept. There's also a few homages to crafts, aside from the obvious. These include an over-sized landram in one of Pegasus' bays cleaning up the remains of a Cylon boarding craft and a ship looking conspicuously like the Rising Star, which is part of the civilian fleet Pegasus finds and loots from.