I’d Have Voted With Adm. Adama, Too

That was a hell of a bombshell on the Season 3 finale of "Battlestar Galactica" -- and no, I don’t mean learning the identities of four of the Final Five Cylons.

Sure, the unmasking of some of the Final Five sent shockwaves that will last well into Season 4. But the real shocker was Baltar’s acquittal. Or rather, how, precisely, Baltar (James Callis) got off.

Going in, I was certainly as ready as Adm. Adama (Edward James Olmos) said he was to see Baltar’s backside fly out of the business end of the nearest airlock. Not that I thought killing and writing out the series' top villain was seriously in the cards – I figured it more likely Baltar would find some way to slink back to the Cylon baseship – but just from the facts of the story, how, precisely, could he be found not guilty?

As a viewer, I had had an even broader perspective than that of the individual characters -- and I had seen Baltar sign the death warrants on New Caprica. I had seen him do it. Given that, what reasonable doubt could there be, after all?

It was Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber), strangely enough, who introduced that doubt. Lee took the stand and delivered what I think stands as the most significant speech of the entire series. Until he gave that speech, I couldn’t really understand what Lee was doing working so adamantly on Baltar’s defense team – what was his real motivation? Obviously, he never had any personal friendship with Baltar, so just why would he risk his marriage – and being isolated and ostracized in general – to help the former president?

And in his speech at the witness table, Lee gave the answer. He had shot down the Olympic Carrier. He clearly still feels guilt over that – two years later. The Olympic Carrier had happened back in Season 1 – so long ago that when Lee mentioned it in “Crossroads,” I had to think a beat and remember, “Oh yeah, that’s right.”

It says something about the quality of the series that its continuity is so good that an event at the beginning of the series can still be a great motivating factor so far into it, that the producers hadn’t forgotten it as easily as I nearly did.

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