The Torn in the title refers to the internal conflicts in Starbuck, Ty, and Baltar, the eternally conflicted. Torn was a great episode to watch and a significant episode as far as fleshing out the Battlestar Galactica universe and advancing the storyline. The more exciting half of the episode occurred on two Cylon basestars, one detaining Baltar and the other, an even more fascinating one, being a base star sent by the Cylons according to Baltar’s direction and encountering a biological weapon that “kills” the entire Cylon crew. Dissimilarly to the original series, the writers for the new series won’t turn Baltar completely over to the Cylons; Baltar does agree to collaborate with the Cylons after pathetically begging for his life, but he holds back information from the Cylons whenever he feels his life is not in danger. Baltar’s ambiguity is in keeping with the producer’s higher concept for the new series.
We also learn that the Cylon’s have a “hybrid” Cylon that runs the base star. The hybrids reminded me of the pre-cogs in Tom Cruise’s Minority Report, an idea I don’t find brilliant. The viral weakness of the Cylons is exciting as it gives us hope of a human victory.
The story on the Galactica was inconsequential and represented a tidying-up of loose threads from the previous two episodes.