This is the first episode written by Michael Angeli, a man about whom I know little and wish to know less. Basically, I'm not at all surprised that his first effort includes an extended "comedy" scene in a bathroom and ends on gratuitous shots of Tricia Helfer undressing (although to be fair, the episode also contains the most plot-centric sex scene since The Terminator). Angeli's other efforts include such gems as "A Measure of Salvation" and "The Woman King," but to be fair, he also gave us "The Son Also Rises," which introduced Romo Lampkin, and "Blood on the Scales," which concludes my favorite arc on the show.
...so from that data, it appears that any Angeli episode in which Helo doesn't do something important is going to be more well-recieved than an episode in which Helo does play an important part.
So anyway, Baltar got the majority of the human race nuked because he was thinking with the wrong organ and let a Cylon into the defense mainframe. In this episode, another copy of that Cylon arrives and presents damning (false) evidence of his guilt. So basically, this episode is going to live or die based on how sympathetic you find Baltar.
And in real time, it's only been, what, two years since the Miniseries, where he did not steal a nearly-blind woman's seat. And that is the best example of a "good" thing Baltar has done: he did not do a bad thing.
You listen to the audio commentary for the Miniseries, and you find yourself wondering how smart Moore and Eick really are. Apparently, it was actor James Callis who came up with the idea to make Baltar funny (and therefore remotely likeable); without that, this episode would have been dead in the water from the word go.
So here are the only reasons to root for him:
1: he's funny.
2: he has a really hot imaginary girlfriend.
3: his Cylon detector may be the key to saving the human race. Except if you watch the show all the way through, it's not. He never uses the detector to out one single Cylon. But at this point you don't know that. As far as you know, it's still an important asset for humanity's survival.
Now, credit where credit is due; this episode does have one really awesome moment in it. You might think it has two or three (the third being the aforementioned gratuitous shots of Tricia Helfer undressing), but the second one's really more of a cheap gag than an awesome moment. It's still funny, but by no stretch of the imagination is it as side-splittingly hilarious as some people seem to think the "You've messed with the wrong Gaius" line is. (Oh, wait. That groaner was in this episode too. And actually, that one's Moore's fault.)
The one that really doesn't count comes after Head-Six walks out on Baltar and he gripes about it being his fantasy, so he'll just dream up someone else, maybe a brunette. Sure enough, somebody bangs on his door, and it's Dee, a brunette. To quote Starbuck in "Disquiet," "Rimshot. Applause, applause."
The one that is awesome, though, comes immediately after this. Baltar is summoned to CIC, where what we think is Head-Six is waiting for him, only she's more covered up than usual. Adama tells Baltar that Shelly Godfrey has brought some disturbing accusations against him. Baltar asks where Ms. Godfrey is, and it takes him for-frakking-ever to realize that she's the Six right in front of him.
And thus begins the first story where the guilty-as-sin Dr. Baltar is accused of doing something he's actually not guilty of. It's hard for me to be engaged in a story where a guy is falsely accused, but he's actually guilty anyway. Basically, Godfrey-Six has faked a picture of Baltar planting a bomb in the Defense Ministry's mainframe the day before the attack. Adama doesn't have the magic photo enhancer from Blade Runner on him, so it's down to Lt. Gaeta to analyze the reflection in the photo and see whether or not it actually is Baltar.
Baltar starts scrambling to save his own ass; he corners Gaeta in the bathroom, then does the same thing to Godfrey-Six, appeals to the President, and finally, when the image is resolved, he tries to just smash the computer screen. Good grief, Baltar, I thought you were some kind of genius. Is this real? Just how smart is Baltar, really, even when Six isn't messing with him?
So then Gaeta re-analyzes the picture and discovers that it is a fake anyway, and then Godfrey-Six disappears. Per The Plan she was a Cylon and she was airlocked. And this is one of the reasons I take a selective view of The Plan's veracity; "Daybreak" proves that Godfrey-Six isn't the only blonde who just vanishes into thin air once her mission is complete. Baltar seems to have jumped the gun on the whole "angel of God" thing, asking if Godfrey was ever real at all...
Because Godfrey-Six did two things: she got Baltar to convert, and she put him above all future suspicion. This is why his trial at the end of Season 3 focuses only on his collaboration on New Caprica and not his... indiscretions prior to the fall of the Colonies. If God is really watching out for Baltar, then Godfrey-Six did a great job keeping him safe.
But no, per The Plan she was actually a Cylon trying to discredit him. You want to discredit Baltar and his magic Cylon detector? Activate Boomer and have her accuse a certain someone in Adama's inner circle of being a Cylon. Adama won't believe it (because he sure as hell didn't in "Revelations") and will declare the whole thing a fake. Boom, done.
Speaking of Number Eight, this is the episode where Sharon and Helo frak and concieve Hera. Helo's been running around on Caprica for a while, dodging Cylon patrols, getting rescued by Sharon, and finally rescuing her in turn. Here we learn that he's actually had feelings for her all along. Despite the fact that Sharon is a Cylon, one who (as far as we know) is just faking her affection for Helo in order to have his baby, this is still a far more realistic and believable love story than the one in Attack of the Clones...
One last thing. Baltar gains access to the lab by setting off a fire alarm. It takes CIC all of about ten seconds to realize that the alarm is a fake. Contrast to 4.12, "The Oath." (Gaeta was there, he saw how they figured out the alarm was a fake, and filed that information away for three years.)
Baltar works as a character the same way that Zarek works; he's usually right, but people don't want to acknowledge that because of his past. Each man serves himself first and foremost, but what's good for him happens to also be good for the fleet/democracy (until 2.20 and 4.13, respectively). The problem is, in this episode, we never see any of Baltar's redeeming qualities on display. Instead, he's lustful, panicky, stupid, cowardly, wrathful, and underhanded.
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