Okay, where the hell do I start with this one? "No Exit" basically blew the lid of the mofo, if you take my meaning. Many questions answered, many more posed.

I just recently upgraded my Tivo to HD, so I have to start out by remarking on how absolutely gorgeous "Battlestar Galactica" is in high definition. I've watched most of the show in standard definition when it airs and then later in HD when the DVDs come out and it really is amazing how much more subtle detail you see. The sets look amazing, you can see the little red/purple piping details on the uniforms, even the Centurions seem to blend into the environment better in HD. And those space shots...wow! It's hard to believe after watching "Lost" struggle to make a CGI smoke cloud look convincing for so many years that a television show could actually be this beautiful. Excellent work by the Art Department.

Now onto the good stuff. The reveals came at breakneck speed this week with the resurrection of Ellen Tigh and the brain prodding of Anders by that PC guy resulting in copious amounts of verbal diarrhea regarding most aspects of the Final 5's history. We learned, amongst other things, that the 13th tribe had long forgotten resurrection technology by the time they had their Cylon war and the Final 5 are only alive today because they were somehow able to reverse engineer the ability just in time to avoid joining their brothers and sisters in that big Windows Recycling Bin in the sky.

We also learned that the Final 5 did not resurrect continuously throughout the 2000 some-odd years between the Earth holocaust and the Colony holocaust as previously speculated, but rather, they traveled at sub-luminal velocities (not quite the speed of light) to reach the colonies. Techno-babble is usually kept to a minimum on BSG, so for all of you that didn't pay attention to the Einstein chapter in science class, the basic idea here is that when you travel at or near the speed of light, time and space around you begins to bend in such a way that time slows down for you, but remains constant for everything else. So while they were traveling to the colonies only a few years of time would have passed for the Final 5, while outside their spaceship, thousands of years had gone by. Pretty clever way to avoid having to recount 2000+ years worth of history, even if it is a little cheap feeling.

Perhaps the biggest and most disturbing revelation was that Ellen Tigh had sex with her own father! And her own son! At the same time! And she did it all for her husband! That's right, while it may sound like a plot twist from "Days of our Lives", it technically is true. The Final 5, after having reached the colonies just in time to discover that the humans were already at war with their own Cylons, struck a deal with the Centurions - you're obviously trying to evolve, we'll help you create skin-jobs if you call off the war and go play somewhere away from the grown up table. And thus, the 7 humanoid Cylons were born.

"John" Cavil was designed by Ellen Tigh based on the image and personality of her own father. And then, after mind wiping them and sending all the Final 5 back to the colonies with fake memories and personalities, Cavil snuck in a few quick fraks with his mother/daughter when the opportunity presented itself on New Caprica. Hello, creepy. And to make things even more twisted, there once was a 13th Cylon named Daniel that was "killed" by Cavil in a fit of
biblical rage. It remains to be seen whether or not Daniel will make an appearance on the the back five episodes or if this was just a throw away bit of info to resolve an issue many fans have had since the Final 5 were revealed in the third season.

Hmm, what else am I forgetting? Oh yea, Galactica is royally screwed. The newly reappointed Chief Tyrol discovered that Galactica's original construction crew back during the Cylon War cut a lot of corners and now the whole ship is showing signs of major structural damage. Basically, if anybody sneezes a little too hard, the whole ship could blow apart and vent everybody aboard into space. From this point on, anyone that sneezes goes out an airlock, STAT!

Things are moving pretty damn fast now that the end is nigh. Only five more episodes until "Galactica" is no more. I can feel the tears welling up already.

What Worked

Cavil getting all Shatnered out. Dean Stockwell's monologues about the frustration and resentment he feels toward his creators for limiting his ability to perceive the truth of the universe were well delivered and added some much needed depth to his character. And his performance channeled William Shatner like crazy -- "I want to ... smell ... stars!"

Adama's drinking. It's been floating around since the beginning of the season that the Admiral is having a hard time staying away from the bottle. While Saul was the resident drunkard for most of the series it appears that as the pieces begin to fall in place, Bill and his Cylon buddy are trading places. Saul has been forced to step up and Bill is being forced to suck down. Adama has always been a kind of stoic, suffer-in-silence type and his reliance on the ol' ambrosia reinforces his character's motto about making choices and living with them. He's making a lot of impossible choices and he's having a hell of a time living with them. A very unexpected turn for such a strong character.

What Didn't Work

The episode on the whole was a little heavy on the exposition. Inevitably, when you have to end a show and wrap up a lot of loose ends there's going to be a lot of explaining, but usually the "Galactica" writers are so good at making it come off natural that when it is heavy handed it's really noticeable. That's only because they've set the bar really high.

The Final 5 backstory. Though it's certainly interesting to finally know how the skin-jobs came about and the part the 5 had to play in it, the whole thing felt kind of patched together. Perhaps because there's been scenes that have been cut for time, I don't know, but I got the feeling there was a checklist being run through and they were only going to briefly touch on just enough detail to make it convincing and no more. With a subject as interesting as the Final 5 and the 13th tribe, I'd like to see it expanded on a bit more. Hopefully this won't be the last we hear about their histories.

Daniel the missing 7th Cylon. The mystery of the 7th Cylon has been speculated about for years, but to me it was always just a plot hole. They named Sharon #8 before they knew that there was a Final 5. Simple. I don't think they really needed to explain it away in the canon. I guess it's nice that they're making the effort, but honestly, we're all (well, mostly) grown ups here, we can see it for what it is. Just take your lumps and move on. We can make up the reason there's no #7 for ourselves. And with so much still left to reveal, why waste time with yet another new character at the risk of cutting out other,
more important things?

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

"Battlestar Galactica" stars Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Michael Hogan, James Callis, Katee Sackhoff and Jamie Bamber. "No Exit" was written by Ryan Mottesheard and directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton. "Battlestar Galactica" airs on The SciFi Channel Fridays at 10 p.m. ET.