He That Believeth in Me

"He That Believeth in Me"

"He That Believeth in Me" is the third episode in the fourth season (as the producers regard the two-hour movie special Razor as the first two episodes) of the reimagined science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. The episode aired on SCI FI and Space in the United States and Canada respictively on April 4, 2008, and aired on Sky1 in the United Kingdom on April 15, along with the following episode "Six of One". The episode's title is a reference to the Book of John, chapter 11:25-26 in the New Testament of the Bible, which quotes; "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live..." The episode was generally well received and also won an Emmy Award.

Following the events in "Crossroads, Part 2", the fleet arrive in the Ionian Nebula to find a clue that will lead to Earth, only to find that the entire rag tag fleet had mysteriously powered down, and hopelessly surrounded by Cylons. Lee Adama also encounters Kara Thrace, who was thought to have been killed in "Maelstrom" and claims to know where Earth is. The episode also deals with the aftermath of the identity of four of the five final Cylons, Samuel Anders, Tory Foster, Saul Tigh, and Galen Tyrol. The survivor count shown in the title sequence is 39,698.

Plot

While Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber) and a newly returned Kara Thrace (Katie Sackhoff) head to Galactica, the advancing Cylons manage to destroy one ship and damaging others, killing at least 600. After discovering their true identities, Cylons Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan), Tory Foster (Rekha Sharma), Samuel Anders (Michael Trucco), and Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) continue their jobs. Tigh is ordered to send every Viper to defend the fleet, but has a vision where he assassinates Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) before carrying it out. New Viper pilot Anders is sent out, worried that a hidden Cylon program would make him turn against the fleet. His guns are unresponsive while targetting a Raider, which turns around to face him. Anders' Iris glows red at it, where all the Raiders respond by retreating to their basestar and jump away, much to the surprise of the fleet.

Gaius Baltar (James Callis) is taken to a monotheistic cult who erected a shrine to him, and one of the members, Jeanne (Keegan Connor Tracy) believes he could save her dying son. Though reluctant at first, Baltar prays and offers "the one true god" to take his life instead, since he caused the genocide of the twelve colonies, and the child is innocent. The next day, he is escorted to a bathroom where he can shave. However, Charlie Connor (Ryan Robbins), whose son was killed on New Caprica plans to kill him. However, instead of begging for his life, he begs Connor to kill him, since his desire to take the child's place. His escort then breaks free brutally attacks the captors. After the two return to the cult, Gaius is astonished to find the boy has been miraculously cured.

Starbuck returns with a seemingly brand new Viper, who doesn't recall being killed, and believes that she was only gone for six hours, rather than two months. However, President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) believes that she is a Cylon, despite being cleared by the Cylon detector. Starbuck claims to know the location of Earth, and insists that following the clue from the Eye of Jupiter is misleading. Furthermore, everytime the fleet performs an FTL jump, her "feeling" of Earth's location fades after experiencing short headaches, and her attempts to convince Roslin fail. After another jump and headache, and desperate to stop Roslin before her feeling fades forever, she subdues the Marines guarding Adama's quarters, and holds Roslin at gunpoint.

Production

Aaron Douglas attempted a rather obscene ad-lib on one of his scenes.

Even though "He That Believeth in Me" is the continuation of the season three finale "Crossroads, Part 2", the episode is often referred to as the third episode in the fourth season, since the producers widely regard Razor as the first two episodes in production. In the battle sequence for the teaser of the episode, Ronald D. Moore wanted to keep "the ring ship" (later known in the series as the Zephyr) from being destroyed, as he gotten fond of the ship, and always wanted to have the interior of the ship in some sequences, so the ship was only damaged in the episode instead.

Moore stated the battle sequence as "remarkable", even though at that point of the series, there were already several previous space battles. Moore felt that they were not going to top the previous ones, but the visual effects team were able to pull it off as "the best battle sequence we've ever done." A scene that was cut from the teaser's battle sequence was Samuel Anders aiming his Vipers' guns at Diana Seelix's after discovering his Cylon nature. Another Anders scene that was cut was the scene where he or another crew member cuts off the cast of his leg, due to the absence of his leg injury sustained from "The Son Also Rises". With Baltar's storyline, the writers refer to the rooms used by his cult as "Baltar's lair". Also, as the writers were aware that Baltar himself was visually similar to Jesus, Moore points out that he is not Jesus, though he admitted that the visual similarities help to "drive some things home".

Aaron Douglas, who portrays Galen Tyrol attempted an ad lib on one of his scenes. On that particular scene, Tyrol told the Viper pilots in the hanger, "lets go nuggets! your momma's aren't going to save ya today." In one take, Douglas replaced this with "drop your dicks and grab your sticks!" According to Douglas, "five seconds later Harvey [Frand] (producer) says from video village, 'you can't say dicks on TV'. We had to do it again. [...] It's great to be back but it's sad to see it go."

In the scene where Saul Tigh has the vision where he shoots William Adama in the eye, and his reaction was not done by one continuous take around Tigh, but was edited in a way that would only become noticeable if one looks at the scene closely. After the scene was completed, Moore kept considering cutting the scene despite loving that scene, but eventually decided not to.

Reception

In the United States, the episode did a 1.3 household rating and a 2.0 share, with a 1.1 household rating and 3.0 share in the 18-to-49 year-old target demographic. The episode had 2.138 million viewers, making it the third most-watched primetime cable program on Friday, April 4, 2008, the fourth most-watched program in the 18-to-49 year-old demographic, and the most-watched show in the coveted 25-to-54 year-old demographic. The episode was the show's best performance in the 18-to-49 year-old demographic since "Resurrection Ship, Part 2" aired in the United States on January 13, 2006. It was the show's best performance in the 25-to-54 year-old demographic since "Occupation" aired in the United States on October 6, 2006 (the series' Season 3 premiere). Forty-three percent of the episode's 18-to-49 viewership in the U.S. was female.

When viewers watching the show on DVRs over the seven days following the episode's initial airing were included, the episode's ratings rose to a 1.9 household rating, with 1.8 million viewers aged 18-49, 1.9 millions viewers aged 25-54, and 2.6 million total viewers. This was the series' best performance in all three key demographic categories since the season two premiere in July 2005. This also made "He That Believeth in Me" the most-watched cable program for the day in both the 18-to-49-year-old and 25-to-54-year-old demographic categories. In 2008, the visual effects team for the episode won and received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects.

The SyFy Portal received the episode positively, praising the return of Starbuck, as well as the space battle in the beginning, but criticised the episode that it was generally for the "existing viewer". IGN rated the episode an "impressive" rating of 8 out of a possible 10, stating "Galactica is back, about frakking time" and that the episode "quickly reminds us why we love this show, the world it exists in, and the people that populate it." IGN also praised the episode for Starbuck's return, as well as James Callis' portrayal of the several sides of Gaius Baltar.

External links

• He That Believeth In Me at the Battlestar Wiki