Caution, there are spoilers after the jump.

Despite Ron Moore announcing that last night’s episode would be a smaller, more character driven episode – the last slow episode before a manic resolution arc – it contained a great deal more plot advancement than the week prior.

We now know where the show is heading, and it’s yet another role reversal. When the series first started, and on through the first several seasons, it was the Cylons who were the radicals. They were utterly convinced in their religious beliefs, and in the need for the end of man.

This radical ideology helped the humans, as it mad the Cylons easier to identify as an enemy, and thus easier to fight, easier to hate, and easier to kill. In a race for survival, when every thing including life is scarce, having anything easy is a good thing.

But, the situation has indeed changed. There are not simply a few Cylons in the fleet, but presumably thousands. Tyrol’s misuse of pronouns in last night’s episode certainly showed how hard it is to determine who’s who. The Cylons who are helping the humans are a much more moderate breed, showing compassion at several instances during the episode last night.

Of course, hate is a hard thing to let go of, and it eats away at those who try to harness it for too long. Gaita, once a cheery, respectful young man, has become the tool for change, the default antagonist, as he moves through Battlestar, ferreting out those who possess not only the desire, but also the ability, for insurrection.

He held closed door meetings. He frequently “dropped rank” when speaking with the Admiral – which, as a combat vet myself, I can assure you is a severe faux pas that shows not only a loss of respect, but the increased lack of fear for showing that. And Gaita has completed his fall from grace, his shift towards the dark side, through his meeting and alignment with Tom Zarek. Together, they plot to overthrow the Rosyln/Adama leadership, ejecting or killing the Cylons.

At the sight of this plan, which was foreshadowed early on in the episode, those of us on my couch were instantly angry. We knew which side we fell on. However, it’s not that simple of a decision, one which is forcing the characters (and the viewer) to side against people and characters which they’ve grown accustomed to over many years, and against those who, moderate or not, were responsible for the near-death of the entire human race – not only on the 12 Colonies, but on the 13th as well.

The real theme of the final episodes isn’t mutiny, it’s forgiveness. Of course, as both sides issued at separate points, there will be a reckoning.

Several other telling signs crept on screen last night. Zarek, the pillar of blind ideology amongst the humans, folded under accusations that he was corrupt, despite the evidence being found totally lacking. This was as much an admission of guilt as anything.

Tyrol, who always played the career sergeant card, even when his rank was stripped from him, found himself forced into a situation which likely should have been played ages ago. He lost his son, who turned out not to be his son. The cynic in me says that this was done just to give Hotdog more screen time. This plot twist is pure soap opera and reeks of offscreen politics, as the actor who plays Hotdog is the real life son Edward James Olmos.

There’s another baby on the way, and this time it’s being carried by a very skinny Number 6. It’s the future of the Cylon race, the first all-cylon pairing, and a major threat to the mutineers, if only as a symbol. If Hera was bad, this baby spells doom. Self-reproducing cylons don’t need people. Or so the logic looks like it will play out.

And then there’s Rosyln, whom has finally reached the final stage of her Kubler-Ross progression. She’s accepted her death, after being failed by her prophecies. All that work only to have earned the right to say “Earth? What a dump.”

The final moments, however, still remain shrouded. Will the humans accept the moderate Cylons and forgive them for their hasty actions – an act that likely would have prevented the entire war in the first place. Is there a habitable plant out there, perhaps an Earth occupied by the human remnants of the 13th colony? Will those who have always known war and hatred and fear ever know peace and safety and humanity?

Is it Friday yet?