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How many times do you watch every episode of Battlestar Galactica? The answer may depend, not just on how much you enjoy hearing Edward James Olmos’ smoky rasp, but also on how eager you are to freeze-frame key moments every episode in search of clues. If you look hard enough, there are little details in recent BSG episodes that either give a crucial glimpse of where the saga is going — or they show that fans have an overactive imagination. Decide for yourself (with spoilers) after the jump.

The Mighty Hunter appears! The constellation Orion, aka the Mighty Hunter, appears a few times in last week’s episode of Battlestar, “The Ties That Bind.” You can see it in the background when the Cylon basestars start fighting, and then later when Tory introduces Cally to President Roslin’s running mate. As various people have pointed out, this star formation would only look like Orion from Earth, or somewhere near Earth. So are our heroes closer to Earth than they realize? Or was this just a stock star backdrop that someone threw in there? [Cyn City]

Starbuck paints the Ship Of Lights. In the original 1970s Battlestar series, a ship called the Ship Of Lights appeared in an episode called “War Of The Gods.” According to Galactica Watercooler, the Ship Of LIghts possesses technology far beyond that of either the humans or the Cylons, and it belongs to the Seraphs, glowing beings similar to D’Anna’s vision of the Final Five. The Seraphs bring Apollo back from the dead after a fight with Iblis, who’s sort of the devil. And the Ship Of Lights seems to turn up on Starbuck’s latest masterpiece, painted on the wall of her cabin on the Demetrius. Her paintings have predicted the future before — is she predicting a meet-up with the SOL? Is it something to do with the final cylon? [Galactica Watercooler]

In fact, some viewers theorize that the reason Starbuck came back from the dead, with a mint-condition Viper, was because she already hitched a ride on that Ship Of Lights. Also, Starbuck mentions a comet. Could it be Halley’s Comet, and was it near Earth? If so, then it might have been the year 1986 or 2071. [Colonial Fleet]

And speaking of astronomy, what’s that “triple flashing star” Kara keeps mentioning? Is it Alpha Centauri? (Which fits the triple qualification, but not the “flashing” one.) The ringed gas giant is probably Saturn, but it could be Jupiter. [Battlestar Blog] Screen captures from Galactica BBS.

Much like the opening lineup of a baseball team, tonight’s episode wasn’t very spectacular, but it did its job by loading the bases with enough possibilities for the season finale to knock home a few runs. Following the random shooting of Tommy’s brother, Johnny, it’s finally revealed that the shooter in question was a hired gun paid to kill the cop planning to testify against some low-level drug dealer. Now, Johnny’s dead and Tommy’s out shopping for a casket. This all seems a little too reminiscent of last season’s second-to-last episode (where Tommy’s son, Colin, was killed in a drunk driving accident), but the writers had to find a way to keep his character on the show, and now that Johnny’s out of the picture, you can bet that Tommy will be back with his wife in no time. Of course, if they really wanted to surprise us, Tommy would stick with his initial plans of moving away with Sheila, but I just don’t see that happening any time soon.

Oh well, at least Garrity finally married Maggie. Then again, the ceremony did take place directly following the burying of Johnny – and at the cemetery, no less – but that only gave the writers the chance to introduce the long-lost (and deaf) Gavin sister, Rosemary. I’m not exactly sure why they did this (perhaps just so the hilarious sign-language gag between Maggie, Rosemary, Tommy and Garrity actually worked), but maybe they felt like the Gavin family was losing too many members. Oh well, perhaps we’ll find out more after next week’s season finale. Then again, maybe not.

Tonight’s episode was a tale of two halves. The first – exciting, compelling and intense. The second – slow, plodding and anticlimactic.

Poor Ellsworth. After a humorous scene where he seeks marital advice from a dog, one of Hearst’s henchmen sneaks up on him in his tent and shoots him in the head. Just like that, one of the show’s most admirable, upstanding characters is dead. The news of this shooting sends the camp into a flurry of activity as Swearengen and his men circle the wagons.

Trixie’s reaction when she saw his body was both surprising and courageous. I’ve said all along that for a man with so many enemies, Hearst doesn’t surround himself with enough protection. It was true earlier in the season when he didn’t have any henchmen around and now that he does, they don’t do a very good job of watching his back. Trixie opened up her blouse and walked past six guns in the downstairs of hotel while carrying her small pistol in her right hand.

She got a clear shot at Hearst, but she was only able to hit him in the shoulder. I’m more than a little surprised that she was able to get out of the hotel alive. After the shot was fired, I assumed she would be stopped and searched coming down the stairs. Certainly the guns had to consider her arrival and the shot to be more than idle coincidence, right? Maybe they were too busy staring at her rack to see the smoking gun in her hand.

Regardless, she wasn’t able to finish the job and she rushed to Sol for help. He took her to Swearengen’s, which says something about the man’s reputation of strength and cunning. At this point in the show, I thought all hell was going to break loose, but things became oddly calm.

Bullock was in Sturgis campaigning for Sheriff and had to ride back to camp once news of the shooting reached him by telegram. He rushed back to Alma and the child’s side and eventually escorted her back home. And that’s all he did.

I’m not sure why Hearst hasn’t yet dropped the hammer. It seems like his attack on Ellsworth was just the beginning of his assault on the entire camp, but he seems hesitant for some reason. At one point, he’s watching the camp’s activity and he says to one of his bodyguards, “I was not born to crush my own kind.” Is the magnate having second thoughts after his brush with death?

Meanwhile, Al has made a deal with Wu that would bring Chinese reinforcements to camp. He had to make this deal due to his lack of confidence in Hawkeye, who telegrammed Al too quickly after receiving instructions to hire guns in Cheyenne. Al is usually right, but this smells like a setup and I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if the infamous Hawkeye showed up.

The news has spread that this is the show’s final season, but the network is calling next week’s episode the “season finale,” when the term “series finale” is usually used in such cases. On last week’s blog, one of the readers commented that the cast and crew didn’t know about the show’s cancellation so that there’s a distinct possibility that the series could end unresolved. There are also rumors of a mini-series to allow creator David Milch to finish the series the way he originally envisioned. Obviously some sort of conclusion would be better than a cliffhanger for a finale. Here’s hoping that HBO shows the same intelligence in ending the series as it did in greenlighting it in the first place. It’s bad enough that “Deadwood” is going off the air, it would be a tragedy if it ended abruptly.

Ever since “Entourage” debuted, the two biggest potential conflicts were Vince and Eric going their separate ways, and Vince canning Ari. While Vinnie and E have nearly split on a couple of occasions, Ari’s never been in much danger of losing Vince as a client. Well, that may all change now that Ari’s insistence on keeping Bob Ryan out of the loop while they pitched “I Wanna Be Sedated” to the studios has apparently cost Vince the lead role in the film. Would Universal consider Vinnie for the part? Unlikely, though you’ve got to wonder if this could potentially lead to reconciliation and renewed talks about “A2.” Again, it’s unlikely, but the writers have done a great job of keeping us guessing this season, so you never know.

Regardless, Ari’s on thin ice. And yes, I saw the previews for next week, but the signs have been there all season. Ever since Ari moved into his new digs, Vince and E haven’t been getting their typical star treatment, which I suppose is understandable considering Vince hasn’t worked a single day this season (seriously). Plus, Ari’s already proven himself to be a snake on several occasions, tendencies that don’t mesh well with Vinnie’s principled nature. This Bob Ryan catastrophe could very well be the final straw, or at least the event that’ll spur the “will he fire him or won’t he” cliffhanger finale next week. My wife said there’s no way Vince would fire Ari because Ari’s too important to the show. Well, duh (don’t tell her I said that), but that still doesn’t mean Vince can’t send Ari packing. In fact, a desperate Ari would be a lot of fun to watch next season as he does whatever he can to get back in with the boys. I say Vince ends it next week, and we’re all left wondering how long the break will last.

Some good stuff from Drama this week, huh? I can’t imagine being able to focus enough to do the deed while an entire TV crew is waiting for you outside of your trailer, but it didn’t make the scene any less funny. I wonder if the writers are actually going to have Drama’s pilot take off. It’d be a nice change of pace for Drama but even if it enjoyed some initial success, I can’t imagine it’d last too long since out-of-work Drama has always been funnier than employed Drama. As for Turtle, I’m sorry, but $20,000 for a pair of fucking sneakers? I don’t even know how to respond to that. Honestly.

Tonight’s Ari moment came right after the successful meeting with Universal, when he told E that he was calling Paramount to start a bidding war: “It’s like high school, E — you can’t fuck the prom queen until she finds out her best friend jerked you off underneath the bleachers.” Man, people who don’t watch this show have no idea what they’re missing.