WhateverThings

BSG 313: “Taking A Break From All Your Worries”

[Spoilers] Two main storylines going on here, the tangled relationship web of Lee/Dualla and Kara/Anders. That part of the storyline is getting a little old for me and I hope that this episode is the last we see of that for a while. The show is very much character-driven and I don’t want that to go away, I just have not cared much for this old lover storyline. It was well-done but a little tired.

More interesting was the interrogation of Baltar. It’s interesting that they chose to use more psychological means of information extraction than the Cylons who used pure physical torture. On the other hand, Adama and Roslin seem willing to quickly use this experimental drug to get the information they want with no thought of the ethics. I wonder if that was an intentional move by the writers to make you think about it; rather than having the characters have a moral debate, there is none which makes you ask, “shouldn’t somebody be asking the question?”

What struck me most though was the whole question of Baltar’s guilt or innocence. Is it guilt if you are unknowingly involved in something? I had this discussion recently with some other pastors where we talked about Wesley’s definition of sin as a willful transgression of a known law. Baltar certainly seemed unaware of his involvement in allowing the Cylon attack to occur; he appears to have simply been used. But, the question then becomes how he acted after he realized what had happened. He worked hard to cover up what he had done, primarily probably for self-preservation. But, as Gaeta notes in an earlier episode Baltar will do whatever it takes for Baltar to survive.

Baltar does come to the point where he admits “mistakes were made” but he never says I made a mistake. A great picture of the way we sometimes dance around confession of our own sins (leaving aside the question of what sin, if any, he committed). Mistakes were made. I was tricked. I was used. Do I do the same thing when I go before God, seeing myself as a victim rather than a perpetrator? To add to that, do I have to feel like I am drowning before I will even admit that much?

The good news is that I can go to God with my faults and sins and confess them and that he won’t send me out an airlock. Instead I can stand before him, forgiven and free. So say we all!