Razor opens with a very intense and moody close-up of
Kendel Shaw flicking a knife, a voice over starts and she talks about making
up for past misdeeds.
Where given a montage of scenes from the episodes
Flight of the Phoenix
and Pegasus, with the Battlestar Pegasus and the Galactica meeting, plus the
scenes with Gina (Pegasus’s version of Number Six) and Cane’s death. After
this it basically goes over the events of season three after her death – In
quick succession before the title sequence kicks in.
Lee makes a speech about being made commander of the
Pegasus, but it’s made very clear that the crew are less than enthusiastic
about their new leader. One of the Pegasus Crew – a dark haired Australian
who is later named as Lutenant Kendel Shaw seems less than impressed. She
injects herself with something, and there’s a flashback to a very bloody
scene. She goes to visit Lee, who tells her that although Kane only wrote
positive things in reports about her the other officers claim she’s
insubordinate.
We cut too a flashback at the Scorpion fleet shipyards,
ten months previously, where the Pegasus is being repaired. Kane talks to
one of her officers about shore leave why the Battlestar is being repaired,
but she claims to be too busy. LT Shaw boards the Pegasus for the first
time, and is given directions by Gina to the CIC. Her first meeting with
Kane doesn’t go well, and she’s berated for getting lost. She’s dismissed,
and while someone tries to take her too her quarter’s fire rips through the
corridor suddenly. She goes into shock, but is snapped out of it by Kane
slapping her! They both go the CIC where things are just as bad, blood and
wires everywhere.
Kane asks what happens, and she’s informed they’ve been
hit by nuclear weapons, and from this she deduces Cylon attack. She issues
her orders, and the Pegasus jumps from the fleet repair yards.
It then flicks back to Kendel’s meeting with Lee, and
she tells him that most of her superior officers we’re a mess and un-fit too
where the uniform. Lee actually agrees with her on this. He asks her what
she thinks of him, and she replies: ‘you’re a step up’, but then tells him
that he’ll never fit in here. He’s been brought in too fix the Pegasus and
people resent him for it. He then offers her the chance to be the Pegasus XO
(second in command), and although she’s surprised at first she accepts.
We cut too Kendel overseeing arms training, and she’s
rather aggressive about it. Adama and Lee are watching and Adama makes a
comment about her being meaner than Tigh. Predictably Lee makes a comment
about her and Kara not getting on. Adama and Lee walk, and they chat about
the job of an XO and how Lee needs to be able to trust her. Adama asks Lee
to put together a search and rescue team to locate a lost raptor. Kendel and
Lee in the CIC observing the mission is interspaced with Kendel and Kane in
the CIC after the Cylon attack and trying to get some semblance of order.
Kane orders two raptors too jump back to the colonies and see what happened.
Kane makes an announcement too the fleet about the
Cylons, and the truth of the destruction of the colonies. She claims that
all they can do is fight.
Later Kane is having a meeting with her staff about an
un-named Cylon ship they’ve found, Gina enters the meeting and it’s implied
that she and Kane have a very close relationship.
Gina and Kendal are discussing the ships systems; Gina
is the systems analyst but doesn’t have the proper clearance. Kendel says
that Gina should have her security clearance increased and they discuss
Kane: it’s confirmed that Gina and Kane are involved. Kendel trusts Gina
because she is so open, and gives her the security code.
Kara and her recon fleet encounter Cylon DRADIS contact
and flee back to the Pegasus. They encounter a bit of difficulty, and Shaw
orders weapons fire from the Pegasus to destroy the Cylons, but almost gets
Kara killed in the process. Kara bitches to Lee afterwards that Shaw is ‘a
lose cannon’ (she’s one too talk) and that what she did was dangerous. Lee
aggress but tells her it probably saved her life. Kara confronts Shaw, and
we go into flashback mode with the Pegasus and an attack on a Relay station.
Kane launches a squadron of vipers to take down the Cylons, but more raiders
appear. Kane refuses to run, and sends out more vipers, her XO argues with
her but she refuses to listen. He refuses to carry out her orders, and Kane
shoots him with his own gun, and then promotes Fisk. Who predictably carries
out her orders promptly.
The Cylons board the Pegasus and Shaw is sent after
them, for some un-known reason, alone. She spots Gina running down the
corridor and sends her to the CIC, but Shaw turns the corner, spots another
Gina and just starts shooting. She runs back to the CIC and points a gun at
Gina. Kane refuses to believe her until she’s shown the dead body of what
looks like Gina through a security feed. Security tries to take Gina away
but she flips and starts lashing out. She almost succeeds in shooting Kane,
but Shaw stops her. The flashback ends there and Lee starts giving both Kara
and Shaw into trouble.
It’s interrupted by some ominous music and the arrival
of a very odd looking ship. Everyone stands around it, discussing why the
Cylons would bother with this model. Sharon tells them that the ships might
just been here all along. She says they’re called the Guardians and are
meant to be the protectors of the first Human/Cylon hybrid, which some
believe is still alive.
We get a flash-back to the first Cylon war with Adama on a Cylon ship, on
which he sees a glass cabinet filled with blood and bits of humans, wires
coming out of them. He spots one of the Cylon resurrection baths, walks
over. It’s filled with blood and goo, and for some silly reason, he decides
to stick his hand in it. He starts having hallucinations of people in cages,
and lot’s of screaming. It’s a very eerie sequence. A very creepy voice
starts, and it repeats the Cylon mantra: ‘all of this has happened before,
and all of this will happen again’. He walks towards the source of the
voice, which is behind a door. He’s reluctant too go through, but someone
calls ‘help’ and throws themselves at the door. They beg him for help,
saying ‘they (the cylons) left us here’. This is enough to make Adama try to
pry the door open, but then the ship starts too shake as it begins take off.
The people behind the door send him away, order him to go get help. I love
the colour palate of the sequence, lots of oranges and greys.
Just as Adama escapes the ship takes off. He radios the
Galactica, telling them too shoot the ship down but is informed that an
armistice has just been signed.
Adama, lee and Roslin are in Adama’s office looking at
print-outs from the raider’s data-banks, curtsey of resident genius Gaius
Baltar. They’ve found the location of a ship/base and Adama is convinced
that’s where they’ll find the missing raptor crew.
Shaw comes up with a plan, and it’s very risky. She
tells Lee that Kara is the only pilot she could trust to do the job
properly. Lee then asks if he can trust her. He asks about an incident
on-board a civilian ship that Kane had ten people executed from, and what
Shaw’s part in it was. She admits she was there, and gives him a lecture
about Kane. Lee is very cool about it and is just like: you done? He then
gives her a lecture about wallowing in self pity. He approves her plan and
she goes to listen to a radio broadcast, which is intercut with flashbacks
set after Pegasus deals with the attack on the rely station. Shaw takes full
responsibility because she gave Gina her security code, but Kane informs her
that Gina took something far more valuable: both their trust. Thorn comes in
and Kane orders him to interrogate Gina and find out what she knows, and
horrifically pretty much gives him full licence.
Kane is called to the CIC and told by her XO that a
bunch of civilian ships have been found. Everyone is delighted but Kane
orders that the ships be boarded and everything the Pegasus needs taken.
Shaw and a bunch of other officers board one of the ships and issue the
orders, funny enough it doesn’t go down well. Fisk ‘calls’ Kane and tells
her that the crew are refusing to cooperate. She just casually tells him
that he’s too say they’ll just shoot the families of anyone that wont
comply.
Fisk threatens them with this and things start to get
out of hand, and people start firing. We’re shown the aftermath of this and
it isn’t pretty. We flick back to the present day and Shaw is injecting
herself again, but is caught by Kara whose sitting drinking – out of sight –
at the other end of the canteen. Kara makes a comment about Shaw being human
after all. Kara actually tries to talk to her, but Shaw just remains quiet.
They end up chatting – you just know they’re going to end up liking each
other, they’re too much alike not too.
We’re shown a scene with Shaw and Kane talking about
Shaw being promoted. Kane talks about what happened with the civilian fleet,
and she actually looks quite human. Some nice acting there. The title of the
episode becomes clear: Kane explains that putting aside natural impulses,
anger, fear, revulsion, all the things that could get you killed, are the
mark of a good officer. She says that when Shaw can do that, for as long as
necessary she’ll be a ‘Razor’.
The recon plan kicks in full throttle, and seems to be
going well, until Kara and Shaw encounter some Cylon raiders. They destroy
the viper, but not before Kara and Shaw have escaped. We do a flick to the
inside of a raider and I almost died: old style – ad in original series –
honest too god Cylons. With there bulky build and metallic voices. The
phrase ‘by you’re command’ is even uttered. I thought I’d died and gone to
heaven, but now I’m expecting too see Baltar in a cape laughing
hysterically.
A brief space-walk later and they’re inside one of the
Cylon base ships. Lots of creeping along corridors until they find a room
with two people in it, hooked up to a glass case, all blood and wires. Kara
orders they remove the two people from the wires. They try but the noise
attracts an old style Cylon, and they’re forced to flee. One of the soldiers
fall, and the cylons start dragging him away. Shaw flips round and shoots
the guy, but is struck in the back by Cylon fire shortly afterwards. She’s
alive but badly hurt. When the Pegasus believes the mission will fail Lee
orders a nuke to destroy the ship – which would kill those on board but stop
them becoming part of the Cylons experiment.
Just as they’re about to launch the nuke Kara manages
to radio them. Kara tells the rest that they need to set up the nuke and get
the hell of the ship. Turns out though that the auto-trigger is broken and
it needs to be manually activated. Kara takes over the mission and
practically drags Shaw to the evacuation point. Kara is away to manulay set
the nuke when Shaw points a gun at her, and tells Kara to go. Kara argues,
but eventually gets the message and evacuates with the remainder of the
missions personnel.
A voice re-verberates
through the Cylon ship, repeating the mantra: all this has happened before,
and all of this will happen again. She finds the source of the voice, and
has a nice theological discussion with it about the nature of identity and
God. Not to forget the concept of forgiveness of course. Kendra is told that
Kara will lead the human race into destruction, and that they must not
follow her. Kendra becomes annoyed and activates the nuke, destroying the
ship, the hybrid, but also herself.
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