We open on a shot of Gaius’s face super up close and a clock ticking. Suddenly fighters are launched, Apollo and starbuck are out, Apollo says one minute till mark. They both seem very tired. Countdown is running on the bridge too, everyone seems exhausted and tense. On the colonial one they an intercom message announces thirty seconds till mark. The pilot then says we are out our 33 second mark, preparing for our scheduled FTL jump. On the flight deck Cali and _extremely_ tired looking Cali asks Tyrell why do the cylons come every 3 minutes and Tyrell just tells her to shut up.
On the bridge, the timer has ten seconds remaining, Dee reports that several ships including colonial one have not jumped yet and are reporting FTL issues. Adama notes they’re getting slower, and Tigh says maybe this is the time they won’t show up. All the timers hit zero, alarms go off, and a Base Star warps in. Adama says he has an idea for the next cycle. Gaius tells messenger six that it has been five days, and there are hard limits to the human body and mind, and humanity is being pushed beyond them. The galactica and vipers begin firing, trying to protect the civilian ships that haven’t jumped yet. After a few moments, all civilian ships have jumped away, and the vipers land and the galactica jumps away. Tigh orders the clock restarted and for everyone to begin preparing for the next jump. We get a shot of the clock counting down and then the show's intro (what I like about the intro is it functions as a hype reel for the episode you’re about to watch).
We see the fleet and get some text saying Battlestar Galactica Crew: 130.5 hours without sleep (261 cycles). Adama shaving, talking to tigh. He wants to divide the fleet into groups, who all jump to different locations twice, then rendezvous at a common set of coordinates. Apollo is giving a briefing to the pilots but stops, saying you’ve done it 237 times, you know what to do. No mistakes, let's make it to 238.
Engineers working on the ships, resources are tight. Some guy talking to boomer, he says the rumor is that the cylons look like us now, some people heard about the reporter being marooned on Ragnar. Boomer snaps at him and makes him go check some blocked thruster. Tyrell enters the cockpit with her and says she was rude, she tells him to fuck off. He says Helo’s gone, she snaps again, then apologizes.
Dee is talking to some guy about survivors on the colonial fleet and tries to hand him a photo, which he says they can’t transmit yet. It appears to be an operation to connect survivors with their surviving family aboard the fleet. Dee walks off and stops to check the memorial walls on galactica (there are a lot of them), looking for someone.
On the colonial one, Billy gives Roslyn an updated headcount, Roslyn wants to know why it is 300 people lower. Billy says there were some overcounts, some deaths from wounds, and a few missing during the last attack. Roslyn goes and updates a number on a whiteboard behind her. It reads 49,998. Gaius talking to messenger 6, she asks if he wants children. He obviously says no, she tells him procreation is one of god's commandments. Then he overhears someone saying something about dr amarak and gaius jumps up. Dr. Amarak used to work with gaius at the department of defense and says he has info to share with roslyn about how the cylons were able to overwhelm their defenses. Messenger 6 taunts gaius about his fear of being uncovered. Roslyn comments on how weird he is when he walks away.
We cut to cylon occupied caprica, Helio is running through the woods in the rain, and some text informs us it’s his sixth day on caprica. He is being chased by the old model cylons, and hides behind a tree before blowing them up with some remote explosives.
Back on the galactica dee gives adama a report, there are 12 more cases of nervous exhaustion, bringing the total to 61. Adama orders them to be pumped full of stimulants and be put back on the line, same with the pilots, ⅓ on every cycle. Saul gives adama his ten minute nap turn. On the flight deck Kara is refusing the orders for stimulants, and is mad at Apollo for acting like friends and not the CAG. She goes off and they both laugh about it. She winds up taking them.
Back on caprica helio is injecting himself with anti-radiation meds. He looks rough. He sees a model six cylon just staring at him, then a toaster shows up behind him and holds him up. He is captured. We go back to the galactica after the next jump. One civilian ship is missing, they were left behind. There were 1,345 people aboard. Saul is pissed (understandably, it’s more than a 50th of the human race). Saul yells at the whole bridge about how such a mistake is unacceptable, if they slip up, people die and there aren’t many of us left. We see billy update the whiteboard on the Colonial One. Dr. Amarak is missing, it turns out he was aboard the ship that got left behind in the last jump, so Gaius is safe for now. In his mind palace Messenger 6 says god was looking out for him, Gaius rejects this and she tells him to watch his step or god will be mad at him.
On the galactica the timer lapses, but no Dradis contacts appear. There’s a bunch of tense waiting. We get the text that they are now 132.25 hours without sleep. The clock is still running, at 45 minutes, still no Cylons. Adama calls to speak to the president. They wonder if the Olympic Carrier has anything to do with it. She asks what to do. He says they’re gonna step down to condition two to let their people rest. Roslyn asks him to tell them she’s grateful to them.
Adama orders Apollo to set up a combat patrol and have his other pilots land immediately. Boomer and Starbuck are on the first rotation, the rest are to grab a 3 hour nap. The rest of them are pretty hype on drugs. Apollo asks boomer how she’s doing, the doc says she’s holding up the best, starbuck jokingly says because she’s a cylon and boomer threatens to kick her ass.
Saul tells adama that all this has him feeling more alive than he has in years, Adama says you look it, it’s nice to see you without a cup in your hand. They joke around but Gaeta shouts that they have a Dradis contact, and it is confirmed to be the Olympic carrier. Adama orders condition one, the clock restarted, and all vipers ready to launch. In Gaius’s mind palace Messenger 6 tells him he’s being punished for his lack of faith. He asks for a rational explanation, and she says maybe the olympic carrier was infiltrated by cylon agents and they’ve been tracking it all along, and in order for them to escape it must be destroyed.
Boomer tries to raise the olympic carrier, and they respond. She asks where they were and their captain says they had trouble with the FTL drive and it took almost three hours to fix. Adama wants to know how they escaped from the Cylons. The captain replies that the cylons were closing in after everyone jumped away but they just broke off. The captain says that Dr Amarak is on board and is nagging him to speak to the president about a traitor in their midst. Gaius tells Roslyn to cut off communication with the ship. He yells about how there’s a cylon agent aboard the olympic carrier. Adama agrees with Baltar, and so does Roslyn. Dee gives the order to jam comms with the Olympic Carrier, and to send a message via signal light. The message is hold position and do not approach the fleet until further notice. Roslyn and Adama are spooked about where this is heading, Adama says if it poses a threat they will destroy it.
The carrier ignores the message and keeps heading for the fleet (in a camera fly by shot you see a bunch of red lights and white flashes in the carrier's windows). Apollo orders Boomer to break wireless communications and tells them to stop over voice. The ship keeps going. Starbuck is ordered to fire shots across the bow, but it keeps going, heading directly towards the galactica. Adama orders the fleet to do another jump away as the cylons appear. Boomers ship registers a radiological alarm from the olympic carrier, it has nukes on board, and Adama tells Roslyn they need to destroy the ship, she doesn’t want to. Messenger 6 says Gaius must repent, he says he does, then Roslyn says to do it. The pilots get the order, they fly close and see no one through the windows. Apollo readies to strafe the ship, starbuck is freaking out about it, but he opens fire, then starbuck does too, and the ship explodes and is fully destroyed.
On Caprica, Helio is in handcuffs with his head in a bag. A model 6 removes it and asks if he’s alive. He gives his name, rank and number, and she removes his cuff and says she knows who he is and is a friend. She kisses him and you hear a shot and she dies. Boomer runs up on him in uniform (note this isn’t boomer actually, she’s with the fleet). We see another cylon and another model 6 watch them run away.
On the galactica we see Apollo updating the flight schedule. Apollo is kinda mad, Adama says he gave the order, it's his responsibility. Apollo says he pulls the trigger and it’s his. On colonial one Billy wakes up Roslyn and tells her that it’s been 24 hours and there have been no Cylons, it was the right choice. She tells him she wants some time alone. He says there is a head count update, she asks subtract how many., and says she can add one, a baby boy was born on the Rising Star. She updates the whiteboard, there are 47, 973 humans left. The episode ends on a shot of her crying happily.
Episode 2 - Water
This
is the first episode where we get the regular episode intro text. It
reads:
The Cylons were created by man. They rebelled. They
evolved. They look, and feel, human. Some are programmed to think
they are human. There are many copies. And they have a plan.
We open on water dripping into a pool. It’s water dripping from a hand. The camera pans up and zooms out, it’s boomer, she wakes up sitting in a supply closet and is absolutely soaked. She has a bag in front of her. She unzips it, takes out a towel, and inside of it is a uniform with her name on it. She goes to change out of her soaked flight suit into it and underneath it is an enormous block of plastic explosives with a detonator attached. She is clearly very confused and panicked. She removes the detonator and leaves the closet.
She’s stopped by Cali, and finds out it’s 5:45 in the morning. She takes the bag to the small arms closet and goes to put the detonator back in the case (it’s labelled G-4 detonators lmao). But six more are missing. We see shots of them armed and beeping more and more rapidly, then a zoomed out shot of the galactica before we cut to intro.
Saul is rummaging through a closet looking for a sash for his dress uniform. He stops to consider a liquor bottle and does some alcoholic shit of measuring out how many drinks of it are left. We cut to Apollo going to open a locker and getting a flashback to him blowing up the Olympic Carrier. We see him talking to Adama about how he can’t stop thinking about it. Adama tells him to leave the second guessing to the historians. He asks if as a leader he has an obligation to second guess himself, but adama tells him a leader accepts the consequences of his decisions, right or wrong.
The Colonial One docks with the Galactica and Roslyn is complaining to Billy about being greeted with full honors every time she boards the Galactica (“the military sure does love protocol”). Billy suggests telling them she doesn’t like it, and she says she thinks it makes adama comfortable which makes him easier to deal with. Roslyn gave a speech to the bridge thanking them for their service.
Boomer is on the flight deck and pulls Tyrell aside, he puts on a show before going into the supply closet assuming they’re gonna fuck, Cali shakes her head. The Virgon Express prepares to connect with galactica. Adama explains to Roslyn that they have almost 100% effective water recycling, it’ll be years before they need to refill, but ships like the Virgon Express are not and will need to refill from them. Boomer tells Tyrell about the problem, and he looks freaked out. Saul says they are ready to begin refilling. Tyrell tells Boomer to stop screwing around and tell the master at arms. She says she didn’t tell anyone because they’re gonna think she’s the one who took them.
We see the refueling arms extend and attach to the Virgon. Billy tries to hit on Dee but biffs it in a hilarious way. Apollo tells Roslyn the entire ceremony was Adama’s idea and that he hates it. He’s trying to make her feel like the president. The refueling begins. Boomer tells Tyrell about what happened to her. He immediately tries to tell her someone is setting her up, she must have been drugged. She doesn’t want to report because they’ll think she’s a Cylon. The ship suddenly shakes because of explosions, and we get an external shot of water being vented from tons of tanks on the galactica, they immediately break connection with the Virgon and have it move away. Saul says every tank has been ruptured, they are venting all their water into space.
We cut to Tyrell in a suit entering the now totally empty water tank. There is also a raptor outside the hole, Boomer is in it. They have a coded conversation back and forth where he reassures her they’ll figure it out. In the situation room Gaeta reports that they lost 60% of all drinkable water reserves. Adama immediately orders emergency rations, no laundry or showers. Roslyn asks how long the reserves will last. Gaeta says six days on the Galactica, but ⅓ of the fleet was counting on them for replenishment, so they’ll run out of water in two days. Roslyn orders them on rations too, saul says there will be riots. Roslyn asks what happened, and Gaeta tries to bluff, adama tries to stonewall her too, then Gaeta says the most likely explanation was that it was weakened by the cylon nuclear attack and that caused it to buckle and rupture. Adama orders them to begin scouting nearby systems for water sources.
In the tank Kali finds scorched grating and says it looks like burn marks from explosives. He tries to protect Boomer by saying it’s tough to tell, it looks rusted out, Cali gives him a look indicating she’s on to him. Saul reports there are 5 nearby systems that might have either frozen or liquid water. Roslyn wants to know the odds, and Saul says it’s extremely low. Gaius says given the current population they are shorter on water than they thought.
On Caprica Helo and Boomer are scouting the raptor Boomer claims to have landed in, and it’s swarming with Cylons. She swears she wasn’t tracked and he gives her a hard time about it. Back in the situation room Tyrell is reporting that there are five rupture points in the tanks, and based on the burn marks he suspected G-4, and when he requested a report from the master-at-arms she told him that there are six detonators missing, so they suspect one is still missing. The master at arms is also opening an investigation, but due to lax security protocol since the initial cylon attack they may never know who took the detonators. Adama dismisses everyone but Tigh, Roslyn and Baltar. Adama tells them there is at least one Cylon aboard the galactica.
Roslyn says to keep this quiet. Adama asks Baltar how he’s doing with the screenings. We cut to his mind palace where Messenger 6 asks about the first time he lied to a woman. He relates a gross story about manipulating a girl in the 4th grade. Back in the galactica gaius claims he has struggled to do any screenings because he ran out of resources. Adama cuts him off when he tries to outsmart them. This backfires, Adama assigns Gaeta to help him with the screenings. Messenger 6 reminds him that he actually has no way to detect a cylon.
On the flight deck boomer is about to take off in her raptor on a water scouting mission. Tyrell walks up to her and offers her reassurance that right now she is not a suspect, but in a way that makes her think that he believes she did it. Adama and Roslyn are in his office, and they talk about books, and he gives her one. Gaius and Gaeta walking down the hall, Gaeta studied genetics (aka may be able to reveal gaius doesn’t know shit) and Gaius manages to ditch him at the pilot's card game. Roslyn requests soldiers from adama to police some ships with water shortages, and he declines because “ the reason you separate the military and police is one fights enemies of the state, one serves and protects the people. When you combine the two, the enemies of the state tend to become the people.” Roslyn pushes him harder and he says he’ll send troops to the problem ship.
Boomer and her ECO jump into a system and begin scanning for water. They have some conversation then the camera pans down to reveal the last detonator which is armed attached to explosives, under her seat. Back at the card game everyone but Gaius and Starbuck fold. Gaius grandstands, and flirts a little, and Gaius wins. Starbuck seems mad, and Gaius gives her a rolly and she blows smoke directly in his face and he walks away his affections rejected.
Back on the bridge reports are coming back from raptors, so far everyone but boomer has reported back, no water found yet. On boomers ship her ECO finds nothing, and Boomer says she’s found nothing, but her screen reports multiple H20 sources detected. She seems extremely confused, like she is aware that what her eyes are telling her isn’t reality, and she orders them to sweep again. She struggles to shake whatever it is, and can’t say what she sees on the screen. As she fights against her programming to try to report water, she also begins reaching down toward the explosive. It’s really tense but she manages to report she found water and remove her hand from the explosive. They jump back to the fleet and report the water, the bridge cheers. Adama speaks to the entire fleet over coms, and reports the water. Boomer looks down and sees the explosive and begins panicking.
On Caprica Sharon is injecting anti radiation meds, and Helio complains about the food. He asks her why she came back for him, and she says she hates to fly alone. He pushes harder, and she implies she has romantic feelings for him. Their radio picks up a military signal, and they hug. They give each other horny looks and then Helio says they just need to find them.
On the flight deck Boomer and Crashdown unboard. Boomer asks Tyrell to personally look at her ejection mechanism, and he finds the detonator. Roslin and Apollo are speaking. She talks to him about the Olympic Carrier, and Apollo repeats what Adama says. She recounts a story from when the Adar did something that got a bunch of soldiers killed, and he kept the names of the dead in his desk drawer. He said it was important for a leader to remember and learn from their mistakes. She pulls out a piece of paper with Olympic Carrier written on it and says “I don’t have a desk drawer yet, but I have a pocket.” She then asks him to be her personal military adviser. He thinks she’s trying to go behind Adama's back and she says “I’m not looking for military advice, I’m looking for advice about the military.” He agrees. Boomer and Tyrell are making out, he says he gave the master at arms the detonator saying he found it during maintenance. It makes it look like someone tried to kill her. He says he won’t let anything happen to her and calls her sweetie. She immediately leaves and walks away and we get intense music as the camera zooms in on her determined face.
Episode 3 - Bastille Day
We open on Gaeta giving the wake up call for the ship. Saul immediately does two shots. Saul walks into the situation room and is briefed on the water found in the last episode. There is a subsurface ocean underneath all the ice. Temperatures are 180 below, methane and CO2 venting issues. Saul reminds them there will be riots. The water is mostly salt, but the ice is fine. They’re gonna have to harvest and melt ice blocks. It’ll take about a thousand men to pull off. Saul asks where they’re gonna come from and we cut to Roslin and Adama. Roslyn is pissed because adama proposed using the prisoners from the astral queen who have been sentenced to hard labor, and their ship was not designed for long term storage. Apollo suggests they might welcome the opportunity to get out and do something, and Roslyn insists it must be voluntary and they cannot be treated like slaves. Apollo suggests points toward freedom, as they were on their way to caprica for parole hearings, which implies they may be ready for release.
Roslyn says Apollo should go to do screening to weed out hardened criminals and adama insists that a representative from galactica go along as well, Billy suggests Dee. Roslyn then asks if they have a doctor aboard, he asks what’s wrong, and she stonewalls. Apollo catches up with adama who tells him he has nothing to say to the personal representative of the president, apollo reminds him he’s the lead pilot, and adama says he has nothing to say to him either, and that apollo should remember every man has to decide for themselves which side they’re on.
Cut to the astral queen. The captain gives Apollo the intercom and he tells them about the water crisis, and where they found it. He says any volunteers will earn freedom points that can be applied towards their release, and says anyone interested can step out of their cell. They then open all the cell doors. One man named Zarek steps out and says thank you for the offer, we respectfully decline. He’s apparently a terrorist. All the prisoners begin banging on their cell walls and chanting Zarek.
In the commander center of the astral queen people are discussing tom zarek.Billy respects him, dee is pissed. He blew up a government building because his colony was exploited by the eleven others for centuries, and dee says he does not speak for their entire colony. Apollo suggests they speak directly with Zarek since they are united under him.
On Caprica, Boomer and helo are in a city, shouting for help (the show tells us it’s been 12 days). There’s no one in the city, everyone is presumed dead or fled. They hear a loud bang, and it’s a bunch of rats eating a corpse. Boomer is kinda panicking, and Helo tries to reassure her saying someone must be looking out for them. On the roof above a Model 6 is talking to a reporter cylon, saying she’s a good actor. 6 says the city makes her sad, the cylon race has killed their parents.
On the astral queen Apollo and the guards approach zareks cell. Zarek bigs time him about how he knows nothing about prison. He sits on his bunk and Apollo enters and is locked in his cell with him. Zarek tells him they aren’t his men, they belong to apollo. Apollo says he respects Zarek and reads his book, Apollo says without their help people will start dying. The guard that was with Apollo incapacitates another guard and cuts the cameras. Apollo says he and the president just want to offer them a chance to earn their freedom. Zarek says he’s finally told the truth, freedom is earned (not innate). The guard opens all the cells, and Zarek tells him to stay where he is, it’ll all be over soon. Prisoners storm the command center with pistols, apollo gets the fuck beaten out of him, and zarek just lays down on his bunk. The prisoners have seized control of the entire ship. Dee, Cali, and Billy are locked in cells.
Starbuck dunks on Gaius. Starbuck is currently the CAG while Applo is away and is giving a briefing in sunglasses while smoking a cigar (it rules). Saul walks by the door and is extremely pissed about it.Starbuck is with the kid boomer was talking to in the mini series. Saul asks him where his mom is and he says “Dead, where’s yours?”. She calls him an alchy and walks away.
Gaius is in adamas room, adama clearly dislikes him and rejects his attempts to flatter him and just asks where his cylon detector is. Gaius says it’s taking longer than necessary, and adama asks what the problem is. Gaius gives some excuses, and adama just asks straight out if he has a way of detecting cylons. Gaius says he doesn’t think he’s the right man for the job. Gaius tries to get out of his job. Messenger 6 screams at him and he drops adama’s glass and says he’s exhausted. Adama says unfortunately for the both of them, he’s the best man for the job. Messenger 6 has him say “The truth is, there is one way. I didn’t want to have to ask you for this, but what I really need to complete the project is a nuclear warhead.
On the astral queen, Zarek tries to get information out of Apollo on Roslyn and Adama's relationship, but Apollo stonewalls and says they will be of the same mind when it comes to dealing with terrorists. Zarek says “I thought you respected me”, Apollo says that was before you resorted to violence and hostage taking (lib shit), and zarek says it’s always better when the oppressed don’t fight back isn’t it.
Adama and Gaius are talking. Gaius says technically he needs the plutonium inside, cylons are susceptible to certain kinds of radiation, and by doing science bullshit with it he can create a filter that will preferentially ionize synthetic molecules to identify the cylons. Adama says they only have 5 nukes and might need them, but ultimately agrees.
Boomer
and Tyrell in the storage closet, Tyrell tells her that the master at
arms has no clue what’s up. Saul walks in as they’re
hugging and Saul says that he needs to speak to the Boomer alone. He
opens with “You don’t honestly think you’ve been
fooling everyone do you? I know, the old man knows. The whole ship
knows about you and the chief”. He tells her to break up with
Tyrell, and he is called away to the CIC. Zarek is on the line with
Adama. He has two conditions for releasing the prisoners:
1. The
government is illegal and illegitimate. It must submit to the will of
the people. He demands Roslin and her cabinet resign.
2. He demands free and open elections.
He says they are not for him and his prisoners, but for all people who have survived the cylon holocaust and the human race.
Adama is on the phone with Roslin, he thinks no one will listen to him, Roslin disagrees, people are already rioting over water. She asks when the troops are going in. He says they aren’t ready to go in. Starbuck is being sent in as a sniper with marines. She has orders to assassinate him if she gets the chance. On the astral queen some prisoner is trying to harass Cali, he is portrayed as unstable and is clearly interested in her. On galactica starbuck and the marines board a raptor.
Zarek talking to Apollo, he is worked up about how no one voted for Roslin. Apollo says they need a government and rules and Zarek says they need to be free or they’re no different than the cylons. Zarek points out that his callsign apollo is a god of healing, and that only a god can heal the wounds of both sides. Gaeta calls the astral queen, and Adama is speaking to Zarek. Adama wants to know they’re unharmed. Both sides refuse to step down, and the marines raptors attach to the underside of the astral queen.
The prisoner enters Cali’s cell and takes her away at gunpoint. Apollo realizes that Zarek wants them to storm the ship. The marines begin cutting through the floor. Apollo accuses Zarek of wanting a bloodbath. Zarek says once Roslin uses soldiers to massacre this ship, the people will never forgive them and the government will collapse. Apollo says it’s all about Tom. The marines enter, and hear cali scream and a gunshot, the marines move in. Zarek hears it too and he runs off. Cali bit off his ear, and he shot her in the gut. The marine teams move into position. The prisoner is freaking out and is about to kill Cali when Apollo grabs the guards gun and kills him. Apollo holds Tom at gunpoint and asks if he’s ready to die. Apollo says he’s gonna make them work for their freedom and solve the water crisis, then they’re gonna get their elections, because he’s right about the consent of the people. Zarek says how does he know adama and Roslin will agree, he says you don’t, you can have this ship and make your last stand if you want. Zarek agrees to his terms and has the prisoners stand down.
Starbuck is about to take the shot on Zarek when Apollo yanks him out of position and calls a ceasefire. Zarek is upset he almost died. Adama and Roslin are pissed at Apollo. All the guards and support personnel have been moved to other ships, and the prisoners control the Astral Queen. Adama thinks they’re a threat, but the ship has been disarmed and depends on them for food, fuel and water. Roslin is mad about the elections in less than a year, and Apollo points out she’s merely serving out the remainder of Adar’s term, he merely committed her to upholding the law. Apollo says that’s the articles, and if you are throwing out the articles, no one is in charge here and I don’t owe you anything. Adama says I guess you chose your side.
Starbuck enters sauls room and pours water out of a flask and drinks with saul. She tries to make amends with Saul, and he is rude to her and dismisses her. Tyrell visits Cali in the hospital (“specialist lazy, asleep on the job.” “I didn’t think you’d find me here”). Roslin says she respects Apollo, and he says in seven months you’ll have my vote. She invites him to sit and talk with her more. She tells him about her cancer, and that Adama doesn’t know, but asks no matter what
(Yes, this is where these ended. Blame Chris. - F)