...And Gaius Baltar is His Prophet: Battlestar Galactica 401

Religion once again takes center stage in the season 4 opener of Battlestar Galactica, and once again the quisling Gaius Baltar is at the middle of it. Baltar, who was the Cylon's puppet president on New Caprica, secretly converted to Six's monotheism back in the first season episode "The Hand of God." But since then he's been pretty tight-lipped about matters spiritual (with the exception of his self-flagellating prayers and his hallucinated conversations with his Cylon familiar, of course). He's breaking that silence in the aftermath of his trial—in the chaos of the Cylon attack that closed out season 3, a group of his followers spirited him away to an out-of-the-way cargo hold. The group—which seems to be mosty-if-not-entirely women—believe he's a prophet, and Baltar, sporting a rather messianic beard, isn't ashamed to play along.

When one of the women complains that her prayers to the gods of the humans' religion feel empty, Baltar invites her to become the second human monotheist:

"If you feel empty when you pray to Zeus or Poseidon or Aphrodite, it's because it is empty. It's a totally empty experience. They're not real. They've been promulgated by a ruling elite to stop you from learning the truth... There is only one God."

The scene is played for laughs, or as close to laughs as we get on BSG, because it's obvious Baltar is just trying to get into his disciple's pants (and he does). But he shows us a glimpse of his true, self-punishing spirituality later on when he utters a heartfelt prayer that God take his life rather than that of the sick child of one of his followers:

"How can you take him and let me live? After all I've done, really, if you want someone to suffer, take me. We both know I deserve it."

You don't need a spoiler warning to know what happens next: the prayer works, and the child lives. God does want Baltar to suffer, it seems, and that end is best served by allowing him to live and continue punishing himself.

Battlestar Galactica now has three prophets in its regular line-up: Baltar, Laura Roslin (whose brain tumor-induced visions guided the fleet closer to Earth), and Kara Thrace (whose apparently spontaneous visions may or may not get them the rest of the way there). The picture is complicated by the fact that the three are in opposition to one another, but that's one thing that the final season will reveal: which prophet's god(s) are right?

For more on Baltar's spiritual journey, see the previous entry: "Is there Cylon redemption for human sin?"

Comments

[SolShine7]

I'm a late-comer to this show but I really like how it's done minus all the fraking. Baltar is such an interesting character and I think the President might be the cylon.