Battlestar Galactica Season 5 Episode 4 – RIP Felix Gaeta – Blood on the Scales February 7, 2009
Posted by showmescifi in scifi.Tags: Alessandro Juliani., Battlestar Galactica, Battlestar Galactica Season 5, BSG, cylons, felix gaeta, Sci Fi, science fiction, scifi
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Battlestar Galactica Season 5 Episode 4 (SciFi calls this Season 4 episode 14) “Blood on the Scales” was one of the best – if not THE BEST Battlestar Galactica episodes EVER.
We don’t know who will get shot, who will live and who will die. Who is in charge? Will they jump? Will they not jump?
From beginning till the end this episode kept us guessing on all those questions.
At first we were certain Adama, Tigh or Rosyln would get toasted, but that didn’t happen.
Zarek issueing the order to kill the whole quarom – WOW…
Roslyn’s argument to fight no matter what…
and the people all those people on Galactica who 
tried to follow their conscience whether that meant following Gaeta or Adama.
Felix Gaeta is truly the great tragic hero of this show. Unlike Zarek he is not evil. Unlike Baltar he didn’t betray his people to the Cylons .
Gaeta from beginning till the end really always tried to do the right thing, whether it was helping the resistance on New Caprica, plotting the right jump point or overthrowing Adama because he didn’t want they Cylons to run the fleet.
Gaeta wasn’t evil he wasn’t thirsty for power – only for justice.
The final scenes of this episode were awesome – Gaeta telling Baltar of his youth and then finally the pain subsiding in his lost leg.
While it was inevitable that Gaeta would die once Adama retook control, it was also a sad ending to a noble and brave character. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get to hear Gaeta sing again before dying and this site for one will miss him.
Rest in Peace Felix Gaeta. Rest in peace.
SO SAY WE ALL.
Show Me SciFi 
I agree I thought this episode was as good as it gets. My only complaint is I think it was a bit rushed. I would have liked to see the siege of Galactica play out a bit longer. I thought Zarek was going to be involved fight up until the very end.
Not looking forward to next week. Elen Tigh as the final Cylon MAKES NO FRAKKING SENSE WHATSOEVER!!!! Sorry had to get that off of my chest.
we agree with you there…and we’re still holiding out for Kara Thrace as some kind of mother of all Cylons or something..
Gaeta wasn’t evil, just a douchebag. I cheered when they killed him, couldn’t stand him.
I’m surprised Zarek faced the firing-squad with Gaeta. Zarek was a civilian and would have faced a different form of execution. Hanging, lethal injection, or spacing.
The firing squad have been reserved for soldiers. Speaking of which, he disgraced his uniform; why was he still wearing his rank pips and insignia when he was lined up to be shot? Were I Adama, I would have made him face the indignity of having the rank and insignia ripped off him FIRST, and THEN shot. And I would have made him KNEEL (a symbolic thing, I admit) rather than allowing him the privilege of sitting or standing. Further, I would not have permitted him the dignity of facing death with open eyes; it would have been the blindfold, whether he wanted it or not.
And now that I think of it, since he betrayed his uniform, I think I might have deprived him of even a soldier’s death. Just spaced him and forbidden anyone to hold any sort of memorial for him.
I say all this partly out of the feeling of betrayal I personally feel, but also because it would have made him an even more tragic and sympathetic character. Adama isn’t always a good guy, and I think maybe… just maybe, he too would have taken Gaeta’s betrayal just a little personally.
SO SAY WE ALL
@ Swordsman –
I disagree. Adama may not always be a good guy, but I think he recognized the Gaeta was trying to follow his conscience, even though it led him down the wrong path. He betrayed Adama but not necessarily his uniform. Not that I didn’t also feel betrayed by Gaeta, but after all he went through I’m not surprised he cracked and made some bad choices.
But truscifi, Adama said right out that Pvt. Chaffee died honouring his uniform, while Gaeta had betrayed his. Well, Zarek was right: The “truth” is told by the ones left standing. How many times did Adama betray his uniform/superiors/whatever. He removed Roslin from office in Season 2, and he also ordered Starbuck to “draw your sidearm… and shoot Admiral Caine in the head” (although he belayed that order at the last moment). But since Adama’s still standing, his version of events is the “truth”. I don’t see him as being particularly magnanimous at the moment, so why was Gaeta still wearing his rank? Lesser crimes than treason mandate demotion and dishonourable discharge; so I figure the highest crimes ought to include demotion and disgrace as well as death.
Even though, I must admit, IRL I don’t believe in the death penalty for ANY crime… but I figure this is fiction so I can let my bluster run wild and play Devil’s Advocate!
Felix Gaeta was the best character….
Great acting in his final scene. Allways did what he thought was right and a truelly tragic end.
After all they have been through, couldn’t Adama have just put him in jail? and released him when (if) they ever find a planet to colonise.
Great character
I was wondering about how the ending was staged. I mean from a filmmaker’s perspective. I know it was dramatic and final to have the firing squad fire its weapons and then cut to credits, but I think that does a disservice to the nature of death by firing-squad. It is not “clean”. It is not “quick”. Bodies twitch and writhe in their death-throes, and the condemned coughs up blood. Eyes stare glassily into space. Death is not always instantaneous — in such instances, it is the duty of the commander of the firing squad to draw his sidearm and dispatch the condemned with the coup de grace shot to the head.
It might have been more effective to show all that. To have Gaeta not be killed instantly, but to be gasping and coughing up blood. Adama would have had to step forward and look him in the eye as he pulled the trigger for the coup de grace. And just before that moment, it would have been really effective to have Gaeta say his last words: “It’s stopped…”
I don’t say this for the gore factor — even though Battlestar has never shied away from gore where it’s warranted — but for the PERSONAL TRAGEDY factor. It would have reinforced that personal connection between Adama and Gaeta (they could even have shown a single tear fall from Adama’s eye as he pulled the trigger). And it would eliminate the illusion that a firing-squad is a humane, quick way to go, and show that it is every bit as violent as going down in a hail of lead in battle.
The other thing it would do is show why Adama is the Admiral and Gaeta is not: because Adama has the stones to take responsibility and do it personally, whereas Gaeta just phoned the order down when he had Adama up against the wall.
Gaeta got what was coming to him. That’s what they should do with all faggots!