Battlestar 4X08: Sine Qua Non

J James asks...

I am wondering if you'd post your thoughts on exactly what was going on with Rolo Lampkin on Battlestar Galactica this week?

I must have missed something....

What was in that bag?

What was he talking about?

I saw the cat alive in the same episode.

We saw it, and Romo saw it, but no one else did. Lee actually tripped over the cat's (empty) bowl at one point and exclaimed, "don't you ever feed that thing?!" The cat had died sometime between last season's finale and this episode.

Romo keeping its corpse--and fooling himself into believing the cat was still alive--is an expression of this episode's theme, "sine qua non," which (as he explained to Admiral Adama) is latin for "without which, it cannot be." Everyone has a sine qua non -- The one indispensable ingredient in our lives without which we simply could not continue. This would be especially true for the 35,000 survivors of the colonies, New Caprica, et al.

Admiral Adama's sine qua non is, clearly, Laura Roslin.

Athena's is Hera -- which is why she reacted with terminal force when she thought Natalie might take her away.

Saul's is Ellen--Like Romo's cat, Ellen is dead, but Saul can't let her go. It's all that gets him out of bed in the morning.

This is why Lee's gift of the dog at the end was so meaningful: it gives Romo something to live for. Caprica Six's pregnancy gives Saul something to live for, as well... if he's smart enough to latch onto it, as Admiral Adama advised.

Hope that answers your question. All in all, a really impressive episode that merits repeat viewings.