I like how complex and shifting the agendas are, even at this early stage -- because really, this is the season premiere for all intents and purposes -- like how if the humans hadn't bullied Natalie's crew into giving up the Hub, they wouldn't really need protection now, or how the discovery that the Final Five are A) basically human and B) not that awesome, not to mention the bullshit that is Earth, means all they've really got now is the Fleet. For the first time, they can find a joy in life itself, instead of the plan or the glorious abnegation of will Cavil preaches. They're naked, and broken, and for the first time they can really see themselves.

Chief confirms for Lee that they're very intense about this, because they're Cylons and half the Plan is always waiting around for somebody to tell them what they can do so they can fuck it up. And now they want Bill Adama for their daddy, just like everybody else in the entire universe except Cavil, at this point. The Chief has thus convinced them that he takes this stuff very seriously: "That he would rather lose the Fleet than break the oath." Tigh grumbles, "Unlike certain other people," but I've thought about it and thought about it, and I don't know exactly what he means. The way Chief takes the hit and is like, "yes yes, unlike other people" made me think he was taking shit personal, like saying that Chief betrayed the oath of the Final Four sticking together, but no. And it's not about Chief going to the Basestar, because they still haven't told us he did that. It's not about the Cylons breaking their word, is it? Because they've only done that like three times. Now, granted, in each case humanity was decimated, or I guess novimated, and we can't forget that. On the other hand: they are big dumb machines full of love and destruction that won't leave you alone. They're like Cujo. Basically this entire show is Cujo.

So Chief is like, "Unlike certain other people, whatever you mean by that," and Bill is like, "I see exactly where the Cylons are coming from. I get it. I am also very drunk, though, so take that into account." Also: DRINK! That's going to bite you in the ass. It's also how we're going to live through this, but still. Jacob Clifton loves Bill Adama, but the number one reason I love him is that he's incapable of racism: he only ever gets mad at individual Cylons when they do shitty things. He'll yell at Boomer's corpse or smack Athena around, but otherwise he's always been cordial. The whole show is basically constellated around that fact: he doesn't like war and he doesn't like hate. Given the chance to pull a Cain, he never ever would, because that's not who he is. He's not the fox that runs away, but he's also not going to email you a genocide, unlike certain people. Even the hawk/dove stuff with Roslin has played out that way: she spent the last couple years clearcutting the forest to save the forest from deforestation, while Adama's on this constant cycle of tending these individual beautiful bonsai trees while the forest dies around him, then feeling bad about it and promising to be more like her, and then going back to being nice ten minutes later because he cannot help it.