The last two episodes have offered very little on key show mysteries. This doesn't mean they were not good episodes. The Oath was one of the best of the series for drama. Blood on the Scales was good, but suffered because there was not so much suspense over the outcome. It's still too far from the end to be rid of Adama. I thought the death (and return) of Tigh would have had some interesting consequences but it's not too bad to see him make it through it. The only question was how Gaeta and Zarek would fall. For a while, I was expecting we would see a firing squad scene with Adama, and Gaeta would have instructed his men (in advance) to execute Zarek instead, Zarek being there to witness it. But I'm glad they didn't go this over the top.

In particular I was glad that they also did a more realistic sabotage of the FTL drive. In so many shows, the character would have found his access codes still working, even though he's effectively left the fleet. And in so many SF shows, his simple sabotage of the FTL engine would have had explosive results and spectacular special effects. Instead, the FTL did what any complex computerized machine would do if a part was damaged or removed -- report the fault and shut down. Nicely done.

The sabotage of the FTL turned out to be not needed. Moments later Adama retook the control room, and had the ship jumped he could have jumped it back. Presumably this scene leads us to something else because of the stranding of the Galactica, and the apparent structure damage to the hull in the jump room.

These ships, meant for basic jumping around a close group of colonies, should never have been made so well as to travel 15,000 light years. Perhaps a military-spec ship would be, but it would have been a good touch if the trip to Earth had involved several ships breaking down, forcing the fleet to go back and redistribute their populations into more crowded remaining ships. Simple civilian ships should never have been able to go this far, for this long. The Galactica, while old (and not having jumped in 20 years) would not be the first to fail.

We see Caprica Six, hearing of Saul's death, not taking long to get back in with Baltar, presuming that's her. It does need to be her, as with Ellen's upcoming return, something has to break in that relationship. (Update: Whoops, this is in error. Though we are going to see something about that love triangle, I am sure.)

And of course, the previews for next week show...

They show Ellen awakening in a Cylon resurrection tank, alone but with a centurion on guard. Since the Final Five's own resurrection technology is thousands of years older than the current models, I had expected it to look entirely different. I certainly felt it would have to be on a ship different from the Cylon one, though we see that in the previews. However, I have also always suspected that the new Cylons got their tech and resurrection hubs from the final five, but don't know it. And it is no stretch to suggest that since the raiders and seven have programmed-in rules about the Final Five, so would the centurions (inhibitor or not.) So this just might be a scene from the modern Cylons' resurrection system before it was destroyed.

Ellen knows the truth, we are told, and Anders also gets all his memories back. Possibly the Final Five can no longer resurrect until they build or activate another facility. Does add more suspense with death being more permanent for them. This suggests Ellen has been playing a part in various events -- the trip to the Algae planet, the battle at the Nebula, the locater beacon in the viper on the 13th colony, Starbuck's bizarre journey.

So back to the mysteries next week.