Charly and Isaac develop a weapon that will annihilate the Kaylon and a peace treaty is brokered. But the Moclan and Krill alliance has other ideas and so do elements of the Fleet…

This is a weird one. It’s another near-movie, clocking in at comfortably over the hour and it deals with the moral implications of genocide, the collision between duty and ethics, bigotry as a defence mechanism and how one person in the right place at the right time can make a difference. It’s almost all ambitious, it’s almost all great, it’s basically all brave. But it doesn’t all work.

What does work, though, works like a charm. The opening battle not only gives you a weirdly fun reveal on why Union ships are shaped like that, but also finishes with a  moment of destruction so absolute you think it’s a sim. Then, as Ed and Kelly walk to the front of the bridge in silent horror and the camera pulls back, and back and back and back and BACK, you realize it’s nothing of the sort. It’s horrifying. Ed and Kelly are horrified. And so are you.

The shockwaves the weapon sends out, born as it is in a moment of human/Kaylon collaboration, change everything. Halsey’s gutsy play at a peace treaty unfolds pretty quickly, but not before the chilling destruction of two more waves of Kaylon. There’s no catharsis, just horrific violence and power and the use of that power tears the Fleet apart. Halsey uses it to broker a peace. Admiral Perry steals it so it can be used by the ‘right people’, the Moclan/Krill alliance. He knows full well his career is over, he knows he’s enabling genocide. He pays for it with his life but does so, if not gladly, then certainly willingly. Time and again, from Ed and Kelly and co’s abject horror to Teleya’s brutal efficiency, the weapon is used as a dark mirror to reflect the mindset of the people wielding it.

Which brings us to Charly Burke. Anne Winters’ thankless task as the new recruit, and ship’s bigot, has led up to this and she lands her final episode (?) with aplomb. Charly sees Isaac spare a life, she sees the damage the weapon causes. She remembers who she is and how that matters more than who she hates. Her final line is deliberately ambiguous and fans are already reading the fourth dimensional escape hatch they think it represents. I have no doubt they’re right, but, honestly, I hope she doesn’t come back. Not because Winters did bad work, she’s great, but because Charly’s actions have changed the universe of the show forever and that sacrifice deserves to stick.

All of this is impressive and all of it’s brave but unfortunately not all of it is successful. The emotional core of the episode is perfect but the action around it finds the show embracing its 1990s Next Gen touchstones in one deeply unsuccessful way. The epic four way battle between the Kaylon and the Fleet on one side and the Moclan and Krill on the other is brilliant and throws in everything from an emergency skydiving tactical insertion to Gordon and John doing their best Luke and Wedge. It’s all fun and it all looks great but the dialogue around it never rises to the occasion. You will hear the word ‘acknowledged’ more in ten minutes of this episode than you’ll hear for most of the rest of the week and after a while it really drags the episode down. It’s a shame too given that the show’s sparky dialogue has always been a standout, not to mention that shows like Battlestar Galactica did a great job of doing this exact sort of dialogue with far more character and snap.

This really is small potatoes though. The episode is big, brave and serious.

Verdict: It feels like a victory lap for the show and if it is, it’s a damned good one. Let’s see what they’ve got ready for the season finale. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart