Colonial Day

Mark here...so this episode, "Colonial Day" was a switch, from being sort of an action episode to an episode where the action was more political.  The fleet decides to reconstitute the Quorum of the Twelve, essentially the Senate/Congress, which has been missing since the cylon attack.  In doing so Tom Zarek from a previous episode shows up again.  He is a former terrorist/political radical and his first move is to become nominated for Vice President. Roslin switches into political mode and refuses to allow him a role in her administration.  First she nominates her aide as a nominee.  When he proves to be not popular enough she promptly dumps him.  This shows us her political savvy, as does her new nominee, Baltar.  He ends up winning the role in a tight vote.  Clearly, this is a writing device to once again give Baltar a role in the show.  While it makes sense he's popular, this gives a reason for why Roslin and Adama put up with him.  As Roslin says, "the devil you know."

On Caprica, Helo starts to figure out the Cylons can take human form and in a cliffhanger finds out Sharon is a Cylon...

Laurel here...not much to add except to elaborate on a point that Mark explained to me...  We already know Roslin is a capable leader.  She's fair, just, moral, and capable of making hard choices.  But in this episode we find out that she is a super good politician too.  Hopefully her gamble of picking a vice president to hitch her wagon to who she knows is a sketchy character will pay off politically so she can be in a position to do more good for the people in the long run.  We also are lead to suspect that colonel Tigh's wife is quite the politician, and that she may be in league with Zarak in some way.  Some heavy looks are exchanged.

OMG!  The way Helo finds out that Sharon is a cylon is that he witnesses her killing one of her replicas!!  I was hoping this would make him realize that this robot he is in love with is rejecting her program but when he realizes what's up runs away from her...

Side note, there is a political ball where we see many of the main characters dressed up in civilian party clothes.  Starbuck by her own claim is supposed to "clean up well" and when Apollo encounters her in a dress and makeup at the ball he seems stunned by how awesome she supposedly looks.  In reality she looks like an inexperienced drag queen.  I feel like this may be the only time during the whole series that we will see her in civilian clothes, and she is in the most unflattering dress and the most unflattering hairstyle possible.  Boo on the wardrobe department!  Boo on hair and makeup!  She is a perfectly good looking woman and they could have actually made her look stunning instead of just making Apollo act like she looked stunning.  Poor thing.