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Epiphanies

2006-08-19T00:52:26Z

Cam macleod: /* Technical and Storyline Issues */ typo

{{Episode Data
| image = 2BATejC05.jpg
| title= Epiphanies
| season= 2
| episode= 13
| guests= [[Colm Feore]] as President [[Richard Adar|Adar]]
| writer= [[Joel Anderson Thompson]]
| story=
| director=[[Rod Hardy]]
| production= 213
| pating= 1.9
| US airdate= 2006-01-20
| UK airdate= 2006-04-28
| dvd= {{Season 2.5 NTSC DVD release date}} '''US''' {{Season 2 PAL DVD release date}} '''UK'''
| population= 49,598
| prev= [[Resurrection Ship, Part II]]
| next= [[Black Market]]
| podcast= Y
}}

== Overview ==

: ''Admiral [[William Adama]] questions whether or not [[Sharon Valerii (Caprica copy)|Sharon Valerii]]'s pregnancy should be aborted. Meanwhile Roslin's health declines rapidly as a pro-Cylon peace group attempts to sow violence and discontent within the Fleet.''

== Summary ==

* President [[Laura Roslin]] is brought on board ''[[Galactica (RDM)|Galactica]]'' for intensive care treatment. She has days to live.
* Captain [[Kara Thrace]] and Lieutenant [[Louanne Katraine]] are conducting Viper tests. During a test of the Viper's projectile systems, Kat's port gun is destroyed and a piece of it impacts on Thrace's cockpit.
* [[Cally]] and CPO [[Galen Tyrol|Tyrol]] discover that several rounds of ammunition from the damaged Viper are unusually light and fragile. These rounds break and misfire, leaving the projectile lodged in the barrel. When the next round fires, the overpressure destroys the gun. They determine the ammunition has been sabotaged.
*The sabotage investigation quickly leads [[Lee Adama]] and Kara Thrace to [[Asha Janik]], one of the recent civilian hirees in ''Galactica's'' armory. When they apprehend her, she declares her allegiance to an [[Demand Peace|organization]] claiming to want peace with the Cylons.
*Vice President [[Gaius Baltar]] is given the presidential tour by [[Billy Keikeya]] in preparation for his assumption of the Presidency. Billy reveals a letter from Roslin, to be opened upon her death.
* The new peace movement, led by [[Royan Jahee]], gains momentum as the civilian population begins to realize that victory against the Cylons is impossible and questions the Fleet's 'attack-and-retreat' tactics.
* An infusion of [[Sharon Valerii (Caprica copy)|Sharon Valerii's]] fetal blood ostensibly destroys the cancerous masses in Roslin's system. Valerii's pregnancy is allowed to continue for further research.

===On Caprica, prior to the [[Fall of the Twelve Colonies|Cylon Attack]]===
*Roslin finds out she has cancer.
*Roslin meets with President [[Richard Adar]] to discuss a teacher's strike, and his response.
*Roslin meets with the leader of the educational alliance, Naylin Stans, and strikes an agreement.
*Adar disagrees with Roslin's methods and results, and asks for her resignation.
*Roslin refuses to resign for the moment, and departs for ''Galactica's'' decommissioning ceremony.
*Roslin sees [[Gaius Baltar]] with [[Number Six]] in her dream state. She then seems alarmed to see Dr. Baltar when she wakes up and tries to say something to him.

== Questions ==

*Kara Thrace is flying Mk. II Vipers with ''Galactica's'' pilots again. Is she still the CAG of ''Pegasus''?
**According to interviews with RDM, Starbuck is still the ''Pegasus'' CAG. There's nothing to say she couldn't just continue flying joint missions with ''Galactica'', etc.
***Confirming this, Kat remarks that Starbuck is "late" for flying the [[Combat Air Patrol|CAP]]. Presumably, the patrols are now a joint effort between the two battlestars.
*Now that Roslin recalls Baltar's involvement with a Cylon agent on Caprica, what will she do about it? ([[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II|One answer]])
*Will there be any consequences for Helo's near-mutiny?
**Answer: apparently not. As mentioned of Colonel Tigh in "[[Final Cut]]", they have so few skilled people left that they can't afford to lose any of them.
*Will Roslin's attitude toward the Cylon fetus change following her recovery?
**Ronald D. Moore's podcast implies that her urgency was only prompted by her lack of faith in Baltar's ability to handle the situation. Will she be content to let to Sharon carry to term now that her survival is no longer in question?
*Roslin's recent series of Machiavellian orders (Cain's assassination in "[[Resurrection Ship, Part I]]", and the forced abortion here) appear to have been facilitated by her belief that, given her impending death, she wouldn't have to deal with the ethical ramifications. Will this alter her relationship with Admiral Adama in the long term?
*Is security really so lax that Baltar (whom Adama does not consider especially trustworthy) would be able to smuggle one of ''Galactica's'' very few nuclear warheads off-ship?
**The warhead is the one given to Baltar by Commander Adama to build the [[Cylon detector]]; he's got 24 hours a day unrestricted access to it.
**''Galactica'' and its Raptors are capable of detecting radiological devices. Why wasn't the bomb noticed in transit? (see [[Epiphanies#Analysis|Analysis]]).
**Alternately, is the nuclear device actually functional? ([[Cloud 9|Yes]])
*Why aren't there posters of [[Gina]] scattered all over the fleet to inform everyone of her Cylon identity, making it difficult for her to hide, let alone lead a Cylon-sympathy movement?
**Ronald Moore did admit during his podcast that this was Gina's "Clark Kent" disguise and it was very shaky the way they played it off that nobody would recognize her. Will this loose end be tied-up in some future story line when they get further into the Colonial underground story lines that the next few episodes are supposed to follow?
***Gina was supposed to feature in a recurring subplot throughout almost every episode of Season 2.5 according to the podcasts, but for time reasons these sections of the script were cut and Gina only appears in a select few episodes for major plot developments.
**On the other hand, Gina does not appear to be leaving her room on ''Cloud 9'' that much, and the humans who do see her are Cylon sympathizers anyway.
*Does Gina "remember" Number Six's memories about having a relationship with Baltar on Caprica, or even after? In "[[Pegasus (episode)|Pegasus]]", she did not seem to know him, as Baltar introduced himself to her and explained that he had a relationship with another Cylon copy of her model. Here, however, it sort of seems like she remembers having a physical relationship with him, but isn't "ready" to go back to that after her torture. Then again, her lines also be interpreted to mean that she really never "knew" about him before she met him on ''Pegasus''. The process of Cylon memory-transfer and systematic updating isn't very well understood at this point.
*Why is it that in the last episode, "[[Resurrection Ship, Part II]]," Sharon is not noticeably pregnant even when wearing a close-fitting tank top, but is now suddenly visibly quite progressed in her pregnancy? (This is part of the [[Season two timeline discontinuity]])
**The same may be said of the physical condition of Gina. She now has no noticeable scars or other markings from her ordeal on Pegasus. Baltar does comment when he sees Number Six in the corridor, however, that it has been several weeks since he saw her last. This could help explain the noticeably pregnant Sharon.
***Gina does have several permanent physical scars from her ordeal, but her face has healed by now.
*Now that Roslin is no longer dying of cancer, is she still the "Dying Leader" foretold by the Book of [[Pythia]]?
**From [[Ron Moore]]'s blog on [http://blog.scifi.com/battlestar/ July 27, 2006]:
::" We have had numerous discussions of the fact that since Laura is no longer dying she may not, in fact, be the "dying leader" mentioned in the scriptures. There's also been talk of how that would be reflected throughout the fleet and in particular among the religious community and there will be some follow-up in this area. She isn't taking chamalla any longer, but she will experience some... "experiences" which will indicate that this part of her life isn't necessarily over."

== Analysis ==

* The survivor count this episode is 49,598, a net loss of six since [[Resurrection Ship, Part II]]. [[Helena Cain|Admiral Cain]] and the ''[[Pegasus (RDM)|Pegasus]]'' marine killed by [[Gina]] account for two. Presumably the remaining were pilots or crew lost during the [[Battle of the Resurrection Ship|attack]] on the [[Resurrection Ship]].
** This seems to be extremely good fortune, as the two battlestars engaged in a major fleet action for an extended time.
* Roslin's affair with Adar was suggested by her comment in the [[miniseries]] that "he had a way about him... you just couldn't say 'no' to him."
*Naylin Stans implies that he believes the teacher's strike is a cause worth dying for. This claim is ridiculously hyperbolic.
**The fact that President Adar was willing to use the military to enforce a back-to-work order seems to indicate that the protest must've been more serious than simple wage issues.
*Roslin's medical chart showed her name and other information such as date of birth, but this information was too blurry for viewers to read.
*Roslin's recollections of Baltar on Caprica do not match the same scene in the Miniseries. For example: Baltar and Six did walk together and kiss, and she was carrying the same case in her left hand, but they did not "make out" against a wall. Each character did end the miniseries scene by saying they were meeting someone else, however.
**Logically, it wasn't the same scene. Baltar and Six were on Caprica for a while, and they could easily have been making at a different time on the same day. The episode actually makes no attempt to establish that Roslin is seeing the same scene of Baltar and Number Six (that we the viewers saw in the Miniseries), from a different angle.
*Watching closely during the early scene when Starbuck and Kat are flying the CAP, it seems probable that actress Luciana Carro (Kat) said the real "F word" instead of the ersatz "[[Frak]]", which was then dubbed over (it's a closeup so you can tell her lips don't quite correspond to it). She actually seems to have done this in the past on many occasions.

===Technical and Storyline Issues===

*Roslin's cancer cure seemed somewhat a "deus ex machina." While many viewers may find Roslin's cure a necessary one as she has become a pivotal character in the show, the method of her cure leaves too many medical mistakes and is too easy of a cure.
*Cancer is not a viral disease, like AIDS or the common cold, but an invasive destruction of tissue by mutated cells, which usurp the function of healthy cells. For the cure to work the way it did would require it not only to destroy free-floating cells and metastasized tissue, but to ''repair'' any organs with healthy tissue.
**The human immune system does have some ability to suppress tumors, so a biological cure is not entirely implausible.
*As cancer is not curable here on Earth, for the show to invent a cure at the last minute may feel contrived by some.
**Some cancers are curable, especially at early stages (e.g. childhood leukemia, early cervical and types of skin cancer). Some cancers are caused by or associated with viruses (cervical cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma in AIDS). However, it would have been more plausible to have the cancer held at bay or even remitted but not necessarily cured for good.

Major plot elements that form a resolution in the show's past were generally introduced and left "in the air" for suspense over several episodes while both viewers and characters learned their significance.

*These include:
**The search for the [[Arrow of Apollo]] and the search for the [[Tomb of Athena]]
**The Experiment with Helo on Caprica (Season 1)
**Adama's survival after his shooting

The "epiphany" of Baltar's cancer cure could have been worked over at least two or three episodes while he and Cottle studied Sharon Valerii's child, which is a logical way to work a cancer cure. Baltar is a tinkerer--the miracle working viewers saw in this episode would be best left to other characters in science fiction where such "magical" inventiveness might be expected. In "Battlestar Galactica", this sudden resolution of the second major plot element in the series (we hear of Roslin's terminal cancer diagnosis when we first see Roslin in the Miniseries) that has dire ramifications for the Fleet should not be resolved with the proverbial swipe of a writer's pen in a single episode.

It should be noted that the cure might not be permanent and the cancer may return in the future (as hinted by Ronald D. Moore in the podcast for this episode).

For more analysis on this and other scientific matters of the Re-imagined Series, see the article, [[Science in the Re-imagined Series]].

*A nuclear warhead was smuggled from ''Galactica'' to ''Cloud Nine''. How would such a device possibly get past the various [[Radiological Alarm|radiological sensors]] throughout the Fleet?
**This was a plot complication used in "[[Flesh and Bone]]" as well when a copy of [[Leoben Conoy]] claimed that a nuclear device was hidden in the Fleet. "Flesh and Bone" established that Colonial radiological scanning technology is limited; it would take hours for them to scan the entire Fleet. The process does work faster when they ''know'' specifically what ship to scan, such as the ''Olympic Carrier'' when it reappeared in "[[33]]" because it was a potential hostile, or Cylon ships. Here, they didn't know they should scan the outgoing Raptor (how frequently do people move nuclear warheads in the Fleet ''without'' their knowledge?) so they didn't think to scan it; they do not scan all air trafic.
**Like any device, [[Radiological Alarm|radiological sensors]] are only effective when they are online. It is possible that these sensors are intelligent enough to ignore known radioactive sources, such as Galatica's existing stores of nuclear warheads.

*The explosion of the bomb on the refinery ship is powerful enough to create a sizable hole on the ship. While space is a vacuum and so shock waves do not carry as they would in an atmosphere, the Raptor that flew close to the ship and was not very far from the explosion should probably be damaged from flying debris.
**Raptors, being warships, presumably have some shielding against shrapnel.

== Notes ==

* This episode begins 189 days after the Cylon attack on the colonies. There is a 48 hour gap between Roslin's deathbed treatment and her conversation with [[Royan Jahee]]. The number 189 given in this episode, as well as "six months" in the previous one, contradict the [[Timeline (RDM)|timeline]] which ''BattlestarWiki'' has developed to track dates. See the [[Talk:Timeline (RDM)#6 months?|''Talk'' page on the Timeline]] for a full breakdown.
*In the podcast, [[Ron Moore]] stated that a longer, more detailed explanation of the curing of Roslin's cancer using fetal hybrid blood was filmed - explaining that it was the fetal blood stem cells from the baby that were the actual cure - but Moore was afraid that this would be seen as [[technobabble]] and criticized by fans, so it was edited down to a truncated version. Ironically, this resulted in widespread complaint in critic reviews and fan messageboards that there was ''too little'' explanation in the final version.
* [[Lee Adama]] is once again a Captain, and has been reinstated as ''Galactica's'' CAG. His authority apparently extends to the ''Pegasus'' squadrons as well. This is consistent with [[Cole Taylor]]'s authority over ''Galactica's'' air wing, when ''Pegasus'' was the flagship.
* [[Gina]] has joined the Cylon sympathizers. The other members of the resistance are apparently unaware she is a [[Cylon agent]].
* Roslin was in an intimate relationship with President Adar.
*Roslin now recalls witnessing [[Gaius Baltar]]'s affair with a copy of [[Number Six]] on Caprica, prior to the attack.
* The [[Media:Radiation Symbol.jpg|radiation symbol]] used by the colonials is different from the one used in reality, but is still easily recognizable.
*''Galactica'' has been recruiting civilians to handle "grunt work" on the hangar deck.
*Baltar was aware of the [[Demand Peace]] movement prior to this episode.
*At least three bodies can be seen being vented into space after the explosion onboard ''[[Daru Mozu]]''.
*The file photograph of Number Six is of [[Shelly Godfrey]], seen in the episode "[[Six Degrees of Separation]]".
* The nuclear device Dr. Baltar gives the resistance is the same one he was given to create his [[Cylon detector]] in "[[Bastille Day]]".
* ''Pegasus'' is barely featured in this episode, and none of her crew or interior locations are seen, except in the pre-episode recap.
*Admiral Adama continues to wear his commander's [[Uniforms (RDM)|uniform]] with new admiral's rank insignia at his collar.
**Adama is a pragmatist who tends to eschew ceremony.
*This episode, which contained the issue of abortion, was aired on January 20th, 2 days before the anniversary of the United States Supreme Court [[Wikipedia:Roe v. Wade|Roe v. Wade]] decision of 1973.
**The issue of abortion was not, however, directly addressed—very few, if any, real-life abortions happen because of the national security implications of giving birth to a human-robot chimera.

== Noteworthy Dialogue ==

'''President Richard Adar:''' "One of the most interesting things about being President is that you don't have to explain yourself. To anyone."
*Roslin earlier attributed this saying to Adar in the episode "[[Flesh and Bone]]".

'''Secretary Roslin:''' "I am on my way to the ''Galactica'' to represent this administration. When I return, if you still want my job, be prepared to fight."

== Official Statements ==




== Guest stars ==
*[[Colm Feore]] as [[Richard Adar|President Adar]]
*[[Aaron Douglas]] as Chief Petty Officer [[Galen Tyrol]]
*[[Nicki Clyne]] as Specialist [[Cally]]
*[[Bodie Olmos]] as Lt.[[Brendan Constanza|Brendan "Hot Dog" Constanza]]
*[[Luciana Carro]] as Lt. [[Louanne Katraine|Louanne "Kat" Katraine]]
*[[Leah Cairns]] as Lt. [[Margaret Edmondson|Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson]]
*[[imdb:nm1248979|David Richmond-Peck]] as [[Naylin Stans]]
*[[imdb:nm0226597|Holly Dignard]] as [[Asha Janik]]
*[[imdb:nm0674646|Paul Perri]] as [[Royan Jahee]]
*[[imdb:nm1274038|Jennifer Kitchen]] as [[Colonial Marine Corps|Marine]]

== External Links ==
[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/episodes/season02/213/ "Epiphanies"] at scifi.com

{{episode list (RDM season 2)}}

[[Category:A to Z]]
[[Category:Episode Guide (RDM)]]
[[Category:RDM]]
[[Category:Episodes written by Joel Anderson Thompson]]
[[Category:Episodes directed by Rod Hardy]]

Flight of the Phoenix

2006-08-13T22:16:04Z

Cam macleod: /* Questions */ typo

{{Episode Data
| image = Blackbird_FotP.JPG
| title=Flight of the Phoenix
| series=
| season=2
| episode=9
| guests=
| writer=[[Bradley Thompson]] [[David Weddle]]
| story=
| director=[[Michael Nankin]]
| production=209
| rating= 1.9
| US airdate=2005-09-16
| UK airdate=2006-04-07
| dvd= {{Season 2.0 NTSC DVD release date}} '''US''' {{Season 2 PAL DVD release date}} '''UK'''
| population=47,853
| prev=[[Final Cut]]
| next=[[Pegasus (episode)|Pegasus]]
| podcast=Y
}}

== Overview ==

:''[[Galen Tyrol|Chief Tyrol]] throws himself into the task of constructing a new [[Viper (RDM)|Viper]] from scratch, despite the ''[[Galactica (RDM)|Galactica]]'' crew's misgivings and apprehension. [[Karl Agathon|Helo]] must deal with the repercussions of his relationship with [[Sharon Valerii (Caprica copy)|Sharon Valerii]] on Caprica. A Cylon computer [[virus]] long thought deleted reasserts itself in ''Galactica's'' computers, putting the ship and the crew in danger.''

== Summary ==
* [[Laura Roslin]]'s illness has reached a critical level. While she is still well enough to walk, Dr. [[Cottle]] gives her approximately one month to live.
* [[Karl Agathon|Helo]] has become ''persona non grata'' to many of the crew who distrust him due to his romance with the Caprica copy of [[Cylon agent]] [[Sharon Valerii (Caprica copy)|Sharon Valerii]].
* Many of the crew, even the generally level-headed and reliable Lieutenant [[Felix Gaeta|Gaeta]], are showing the strain of the apparent futility and fatigue of running from the Cylons.
* Chief [[Galen Tyrol|Tyrol]], with also little else to do with scrapped Vipers, begins a project to craft a new fighter. Initially, many crew are very skeptical, but they and others help Tyrol.
* Helo suggests carbon composite material for the skin in lieu of the scarce metal plating normally used for Vipers. Like the American F/A-22 Raptor Air-Dominance Fighter's low visibility to [[Wikipedia:Radar|RADAR]], Tyrol's new ship is nearly invisible to [[DRADIS]].
* [[Kara Thrace]] and [[Lee Adama]] nearly suffocate when the life-support systems on the [[firing range]] malfunction.
* A Cylon [[Logic bomb|logic bomb]] has studied all ship's systems. It will fully control ''[[Galactica]]'' once an expected Cylon force arrives to activate it by infiltration. Gaeta and Baltar work together to figure a way to rid the ship of it by erasing the hard drives of all computers. Doing this, however, will leave the ship a sitting duck for an attack while time is needed to restore function and data to the computers.
* Adama, after asking the advice of the President, allows the Caprica Valerii to connect herself to the ship's mainframe and communication systems while Gaeta and Baltar erase the hard drives of all computers.
* A Cylon fighter armada consisting of hundreds of [[Raider]]s and [[Heavy Raider]]s attempts to activate the bomb. However, Valerii responds by transmitting a version of the same bomb to the Cylon fleet, disabling it as the Cylons did the Colonial fleet during the [[Fall of the Twelve Colonies]]. The Viper squadrons annihilate the helpless Cylon fleet in a [[Great Cylon Turkey Shoot|joyous moment of payback]].
* Kara Thrace takes the new fighter, dubbed the [[Blackbird]], for a initially ungainly test flight. This fighter is designed for speed, and soon delivers it. Lee Adama, in a Viper chase plane, is horrified when the Blackbird disappears, but Starbuck rises above to face his ship quietly, proving the new fighter's stealth ability.
* In a ceremony similar to the one given to Commander Adama in the [[Miniseries]], President Roslin inspects and christens the new fighter. Many sign the ship. Tyrol reveals the name of this first fighter: ''Laura''.
* The mere work on the new fighter renewed the creativity and hope of the crew--a reason why Adama allowed its construction to continue, despite the logic bomb crisis.

== Questions ==
* This episode was rare in that Baltar's [[Number Six]] was completely absent in this episode, despite the Cylon-rich plot. What would she have said about Valerii's aid or the logic bomb?
**According to RDM's podcast Number Six was in this episode in one scene which was in the end deleted for time; in it Baltar gets up from working on the Cylon virus with Gaeta and has a conversation with Six standing in the middle of CIC.
**Number Six's brief deleted scene is available in the Season 2.0 DVD set.
*It is unlikely that the Caprica-Valerii's presence on ''Galactica'' is a secret to her crew since extraordinary measures were made to house her. It is possible that Adama is using a lie-of-omission to cover the existence of the second Valerii to the civilian fleet, since it is very likely that her likeness has been distributed to the rest of the fleet as a warning to keep a watch for other copies, a policy established in a Season 1 episode. While is it improbable that the death of "Boomer" Valerii could be fully contained, it is probable that Adama realizes that rumor and innuendo will disguise the fact that they harbor a second copy for interrogation purposes. In the [[Final Cut|previous episode]], Commander Adama angrily ordered [[D'anna Biers]] not to reveal her existence because it could divide the Fleet. There is likely an order to all under Adama's command not to discuss the existence of the second Valerii outside of military circles, although it would not likely stop them from discussing the matter amongst themselves.
**A later episode reveals that [[Sacrifice|the secret does get out]] and causes a [[Sesha Abinell|terrorist cell to appear]] in the Fleet.
*Is [[Anastasia Dualla|Dualla]] attracted to Apollo (or vice versa)? Dualla seemed to "check out" Apollo's "backside" in "[[Resistance (episode)|Resistance]]", and now she's in close physical contact with him ([[The Captain's Hand|Answer]]).
*Helo gets angry at Chief Tyrol for calling Boomer a [[toaster]]; is this a sign that Helo is thinking more sympathetically towards the Cylons than before? Like the Cylons, does he consider it an "offensive racial epithet"?
* Where did Helo get the idea to use carbon-composite on the Blackbird? Is that something he thought up himself, or perhaps did Caprica-Valerii 'point' him in that direction?
**There is nothing to indicate that Caprica-Valerii influenced his decision for this. As a pilot trained in electronic countermeasures per his duties as an [[ECO]], it is logical that Helo would be a type of person trained to know about materials that jam or impede electronics or [[DRADIS]], and so would think differently about the fighter's components.
*Is order on ''Galactica'' starting to break down? In the [[Miniseries]], Starbuck was put in the [[brig]] for striking a superior officer. Now, Starbuck assaults Racetrack but there was no visible punishment, and Tyrol gets into a fight with Helo (who outranks him), also with no apparent punishment. The deck crews aren't bothering to hide the [[Wikipedia:still|still]] they built as much as before, going to far as to have a large "Welcome Back Cally" party with its products in public. Col. Tigh makes a halfhearted verbal chastisement of Tyrol when Tigh finds the still, but doesn't do anything about it and ends up taking a jar of booze for his own use. Also, even Lt. Gaeta is now snapping back at the command officers, shouting and even [[frak|cursing]].
**Commander Adama notes the change himself in the events of "[[Pegasus (episode)|Pegasus]]."
*Was the software code Helo showed to Caprica-Valerii only a virus or did it contain instructions outside the scope of destabilizing and controlling ''Galactica's'' systems? Valerii's response to the code seemed to indicate it had affected her on some level. Perhaps she was merely compiling it in her head.
*If the Cylons are so interested and cautious about protecting Caprica-Valerii and her unborn child as stated by [[Aaron Doral]] in "[[Final Cut]]", why then are they willing to launch a massive assault against ''Galactica?''
*To what extent is Cylon knowledge & experiences shared? We know that [[Cylon agent]]s can transfer their consciousness to other copies of themselves ([[Miniseries]]), but are other Cylon models (such as the drones) interconnected? Is there some 'collective consciousness' at work (similar to the 'Borg' in Star Trek)?
**Caprica-Valerii seemed to imply in "[[Home, Part I]]" that she wasn't involuntarily in constant communication with the other Cylons through some sort of wireless communication net.
**Given how Caprica-Valerii is knowledgeable of many memories of "Boomer" Valerii, there is obviously some sort of collective ''knowledgebase'' that is apparently shared within a model family, if not the whole Cylon agent population. However, this knowledge is not a collective consciousness: [[Ron D. Moore]] has stated in interviews that Cylons are not a [[Wikipedia:The Borg|Borg-like]] group consciousness. This point is confirmed in the episode, "[[Downloaded]]," as well as expressed by [[Number Eight]] copies in the episodes "[[Scattered]]," "[[The Farm]]," and "[[Home, Part I]]."

== Analysis ==
* While Cylon agents appear human to the cellular level, Caprica-Valerii could control a fiber-optic connection inserted into her forearm. This suggests that the biological design of Cylon agents uses light-sensitive cells disguised as regular cells in their forearms as data access nodes. Based on Valerii's extreme discomfort in having to cut herself to interface with the data line in this way, it could be presumed that this is not a typical practice for Cylon agents.
* Tyrol's comment to Lee Adama on the lack of miracles, and his answer to the problem, may remind some of another [http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/character/1112502.html great miracle worker] of television science fiction.
* Despite Valerii's belief that she has become a "liability" to the Cylons, the previous episode made it clear that at least some Cylons considered the survival of her baby a paramount concern. The virus, installed before her arrival, was probably oblivious to this, but the massive fleet the Cylons deployed to interdict ''Galactica'' could not have been. Additionally, an earnest attack would almost certainly have included a [[Basestar (RDM)|basestar]]. We must therefore assume that the Cylons had a more complicated motive in making such a massive material sacrifice.
** It was likely (as shown later through the events of "[[Downloaded]]" to "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]") they there are indeed different Cylon [[Caprica-Six|factions]] working at cross purposes.
* Our heroes passed up a major opportunity by destroying the Cylon fleet. Adama revoked Roslin's presidency on the basis of the misappropriation of a SINGLE captured Cylon Raider, yet they eliminated dozens of crippled-but-serviceable assets in the name of retribution. After all that work to create a single new fighter, wouldn't a squadron of superior Raiders be worth maintaining in the unused starboard flight pod?
**A point against the idea of capturing a Raider involves the lucky manner in obtaining the first one. The Raider in "[[You Can't Go Home Again]]" was brain-dead from a lucky shot. The Raiders here were turned off by a virus, but it may have been too difficult to remove all of their control mechanisms. Since these are in fact organic mechanisms that could still be fighting to survive, they may have their own ability of causing additional harm if captured alive.
**''Galactica'' had no idea how long until Cylon reinforcements could appear. Further, the civilian fleet had jumped away from ''Galactica'' in anticipation of the attack, and ''Galactica'' probably didn't want to leave them unattended too long. There wasn't enough time and it was too dangerous.
**At this point, ''Galactica'' has as many as two Heavy Raiders already—the one that crash-landed into the starboard pod in "[[Scattered]]" and the one Starbuck, Helo, and Sharon returned with in "[[Home, Part II]]." The use of the [[FTL]] drive from one of these ships is mentioned by Lt. Gaeta as part of the planning of the [[Caprica Resistance]] [[SAR]] in "[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I]]."
*As noted below, Helo is now assigned as a Viper pilot. While Helo's specialty to date as as an [[ECO]], it is very likely that ''any'' Colonial officer who wears a [[flight suit]] is also a qualified (if not highly experienced) [[Viper (RDM)|Viper]] ''and'' [[Raptor]] pilot. This appears confirmed through the actions of many characters. Commander Adama is seen himself flying a Raptor in "[[Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down]]." [[Racetrack]] is seen on [[ECO]] duty in "[[Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II]]" but later is Raptor pilot in several episodes.
*It was Helo that suggested the use of carbon composites for the Blackbird, and Starbuck says "Good call, Helo" after it is finished. Despite everything, Helo's opinions are still respected, perhaps symbolic of his redemption in the eyes of his crewmates.

===Deus Ex Machina Dilemmas in this Episode===
Some viewers may express confusion over the amount of time necessary to build the new fighter as well as the time it took to fight off the logic bomb and the Cylon attack. All in all, the whole episode may seem like a series of ''deus ex machina'' events to close up the episode.

To the episode's credit, it appears that several weeks' worth of time elapsed in the episode. This might stretch believability in the fighter's construction, but not in the logic bomb crisis. It must be noted that the breakdown in morale has left many of the crew with ''very'' little to do that's worthwhile in their free time. A monumental task such as building a fighter may be easy for a highly motivated, highly skilled and '''highly bored''' group of people. (Note the near-cheerful disposition of the workers when Lee Adama and Tigh visit the fighter.)

Further, the fighter was aided by specialists of particular fields in its construction--something that the Chief hasn't the luxury of having while in combat situations. As such, he had more willing and able resources at his command to create the ship than during any Viper repair. The crew also was not under pressure to build the system rapidly; there were many contributors, and work such of this led to a fast build time. It may also be presumed that the Viper design, of which the Blackbird is derived, may have a simple construction of [[avionics]], crew pressure module, engines, and superstructure. These ships are designed for rapid repair and redeploy, so, aside from the Blackbird's initial framework, much of the ship would likely be similar to a Viper. Also, the Blackbird is likely built with more modern technology than that found in the older and harder-to-service Viper Mk. II fighters--the Blackbird is likely descended more from the advanced Mk. VII Viper, of which Tyrol's crew was trained to understand and maintain, not the ancient Viper Mk. II museum pieces.

It was also established in the episode that there were spare spacecraft parts available to Tyrol—at the beginning of an episode he marks a severely damaged Viper for scrap, and Col. Tigh walks in on his still and informs him of some extra engines and other parts that another ship in the fleet is trying to dispose of. Given the ability to cannibalize already-built parts, the assembly of the Blackbird is not as great a task as building a Viper from scratch might be.

Given that the Blackbird wasn't employed in the main plot to, say, take on the hundreds of Cylon fighters in a desperate attack using last-minute technology, the ship was an interesting development. Some viewers may wonder why the Colonials have never built (or why viewers have never seen) a stealth craft to date, or why the Cylons haven't used them in their attacks. Generally speaking, technology usually appears when there is a need for it, and not merely a desire for it. Since both sides are very dependent on DRADIS for coordination and tactical advantage in a fight, the idea of commanding a squadron of ships you cannot see on your own tactical plot can be a bit challenging. Further, while the Colonials still had a standing force in case the Cylons returned, such sneaky technology may seem out of mind to defense strategists when there's no enemy about to test it--especially an enigmatic one such as the Cylons. The Colonials were more intent (at least, up until Baltar's time) to defend itself by using less sophisticated technology and basic war principles such as armor and superiority of numbers, not in making high-tech, fly-by-wire ships with complex evasive ability. As Starbuck seemed to prove in the Blackbird's maiden flight, no amount of technology will compensate for the power of a good pilot and her [[Mark One Eyeball]].

''In his podcast for this episode, [[Ronald D. Moore|Ron D. Moore]] acknowledges the build-time dilemma for the Blackbird, and notes that the vagueness of time elapsed to build the machine was intentional so as to allow it to be built and done with in one episode, instead of drawing out the building into two or three episodes.''

== Notes ==

* Population count is 47,853. This is the first time this season that there has been no net change in the count from the previous episode ([[Final Cut]]).
* ''[[Wikipedia:Flight of the Phoenix|Flight of the Phoenix]]'' is the title of a 1964 novel where survivors from a plane crash in the middle of a desert attempt to rebuild the plane from the wreckage. Two movies, one made in 1965 and the other in 2004, were also made following a similar story line inspired by the book.
* The [[Wikipedia:Phoenix (mythology)|phoenix]] is an animal from Egyptian mythology (and those derived) that, at the end of its lifespan, burns into ashes from which another arises.
* The [[Blackbird]], a new stealth fighter craft, has been constructed by Chief Tyrol with help from the crew.
* There is a wide shot when apparently ''all'' of ''Galactica's'' Vipers are deployed where it's possible to count how many they have: there are 42 Vipers visible onscreen. Oddly, the current count says that there should be no more than 34, and even with [[Joe Palladino]] (unrealistically) on parole after [[Final Cut]] and Helo in a Viper, ''Galactica'' shouldn't be able to muster more than 25 pilots.
** There are at least 7 Viper Mk. VII's visible in this shot. This agrees well with the events of "[[Scattered]]."
* This is the first episode without an appearance by [[Number Six]].
** She appears in a brief scene in CIC which was ultimately deleted; it is available on the Season 2.0 DVD set and on Scifi.com.
* When Chief Tyrol reconciles with Cally (regarding her killing of Boomer), she reaches into a Viper and fixes something he couldn't reach, and he responds "Nice to be small, huh?" This is reminiscent of the scene at the end of the [[Miniseries]], when they have almost the exact same exchange. In that scene, they were reconciling after ''Cally'' got angry that Tyrol was having a relationship with "Boomer" Valerii.
* President Roslin returns the book "[[Dark Day]]" to Commander Adama, which he gave to her back in the second episode, "[[Water]]."
* Chief Tyrol and Boomer were planning to leave the military together and get married before the Cylon attack.
*This is the first episode of the Re-imagined Series that does not involve any characters appearing on a planet. There are only nine such episodes in the entire series. Further, "Flight of the Phoenix" is the first episode whose story is contained entirely on ''Galactica'' (or its Vipers) and doesn't even visit another ship in the civilian Fleet, such as ''[[Colonial One]]''. "[[Scar]]" is the only other episode with a story contained entirely on ''Galactica'' like this.

== Noteworthy Dialogue ==

*Apollo: Nobody's expecting a miracle.
:Tyrol: Maybe that's the problem.

*''Discussing Helo's return to ''Galactica'':''
:Duck: So he's the Cylon lover.
:Starbuck: You know what? I don't care who or what he fraks. He saved my ass down there, all right?
:Duck:How could anyone fall in love with a toaster, though?
:Starbuck: Same way I hear everyone was high-fiving our Sharon right before she put two in Adama's chest. The bastards frak with your head.
:Hotdog: Yeah. Just ask the Chief.

*''Card game in the Viper pilot's lockeroom:''
:Racetrack: Been playing with these cards for so long, I know every fold.
:Starbuck: So life's a bitch. What do you want to do, cry about it?
:Racetrack: No, I just want it to end, okay? The bad food, the endless rotations, pretending that a card game is the high point of our day.
:Starbuck: It's not going to last forever, all right? Earth is out there.
:Racetrack: Right. We could all be chasing our tails over some half-assed planetarium show.
:Starbuck: And you guys can all go to hell. I'm going to go find Helo.
:Racetrack: Good idea. Maybe that Cylon whore taught him a few tricks.

:''(Starbuck politely turns around, walks over to Racetrack and grabs her by the neck and slams her head into the card table).''

*''Helo is sitting in Sharon's old Raptor when the Chief walks up:''
:Helo: Hey! Look, Chief. I never intended for Sharon and I to-- You know, it just kind of evolved.
:Tyrol: Just a couple lovesick kids, huh?
:Helo: I know how she felt about you, okay? She loves you.
:Tyrol: Did she fill you in on the rest of the plan? She and I were going to muster out at the end of our service. You know, then we would get married. Maybe we would have children. I guess I'm just a big frakkin' idiot, though, huh? Probably that goddamn [[Toaster]]'s plan all along.
:Helo: Don't call her that.
:Tyrol: Sucker some moron into giving her a kid. Hey, you know, but you know what? I should probably be grateful to you. Probably be grateful. You know why? Because that freak in her belly could have been mine! ''(Helo and Tyrol fight)''

*''Lt. Gaeta is starting to lose his composure under constant pressure:''
:Gaeta: Sir, I'm running every diagnostic we've got. Checking each line of code could take days.
:Tigh: I am not interested in excuses. Fix it!
:Gaeta: (''shouting'') It's not an excuse, sir. It's a frakking fact!

*Commander Adama: Months on the run, and what do we have to show for it? Casualties. Deteriorating conditions. This crew needs a rest. It's finally hitting them, that's all. Our old lives are gone. The only thing we have to look forward to is this.

*''Tigh walks into the tool closet on the hanger deck''
:Tigh: What's this, Chief?
:Tyrol: I'm making solvent, sir, to clean machine parts.
:Tigh: Solvent my ass. I know a still when I smell it.

*''Starbuck is taking the [[Blackbird]] on its first test flight while Apollo follows:''
:Apollo: Starbuck, Starbuck, where are you? Starbuck, come in. Starbuck, do you read? Kara, are you okay?
:Starbuck: (''Starbuck turns the lights of the Blackbird on; she's actually got her ship feet away from Apollo's, facing it'') Of course you lost contact. It's a damned stealth ship, remember?

*Roslin: Oh, you're much too modest. After what we've been through, it would be very easy to give up, to lose hope. But not here. Not today. This is more than a ship, Chief. This is an act of faith. It is proof that despite all we've lost, we keep trying. And we will get through this, all of us, together. I promise.

== Official Statements ==

*In an [http://www.battlestargalactica.com/outside_docs/bg_outdoc0050.htm interview with BattlestarGalactica.com on December 28th, 2005] RDM was asked about the continuity problems noticed with the number of Vipers deployed in this episode:

: "Q: In the battle scene with the Cylons in "Flight of the Phoenix", some think they see more Vipers than pilots, there is the presence of many Mark 7 Vipers, and the Blackbird is in flight before its maiden voyage. Was this effects shot the victim of a script change or something in the editing room? Was the episode originally intended to appear after the Pegasus encounter?

: RDM: To be honest, I don't recall the exact number of Vipers in the shot or where we were in the continuity at that point. I do recall the topic coming up in various VFX and production meetings, and I think there was at least an initial rationale for the number on screen -- but it's entirely possible that we cheated a bit in Post in order to make the shot a little sexier. Sorry. It happens."

* In issue #348 of ''Starlog'' magazine, p. 32, Nicki Clyne (Cally) said:

:"It was an honor that the writers let Cally shoot Sharon; that was a big moment in the show...but then Cally is locked away in a jail cell, and that was pretty boring. When she gets out, everyone gives Cally an anti-climactic little party and she goes back to work. That's one of the funny patterns about my character: She has all of these crazy, intense, traumatic experiences, and then in the next episode, you'll see her back on the ship, turning a screw. There's a lot going on, obviously, that you ''don't'' see, and as actors, we do our best to fill in those blanks. But yes, essentially, after whatever horrible things happen to Cally, in the end, she just goes back to work!"

== Guest stars ==
*[[Aaron Douglas]] as Chief Petty Officer [[Galen Tyrol]]
*[[Nicki Clyne]] as Specialist [[Cally]]
*[[Leah Cairns]] as Lt. [[Margaret Edmondson|Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson]]
*[[Donnelly Rhodes]] as Dr. [[Cottle]]
*[[Dominic Zamprogna]] as Specialist [[Jammer]]
*[[Bodie Olmos]] as Lt. [[Brendan Constanza|Brendant "Hot Dog" Constanza]]
*[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0356501/ Jen Halley] as [[Seelix]]
*[http://imdb.com/name/nm0856351/ Christian Tessier] as [[Tucker Clellan|Duck]]
*Don Thompson as [[Anthony Figurski]]

== External Links ==
[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/episodes/season02/209/ "Flight of the Phoenix"] at scifi.com

{{episode list (RDM season 2)}}

[[Category:A to Z]] [[Category:Episode Guide (RDM)]] [[Category:RDM]]
[[Category:Episodes written by Bradley Thompson]]
[[Category:Episodes written by David Weddle]]
[[Category:Episodes directed by Michael Nankin]]

Final Cut

2006-08-13T21:22:41Z

Cam macleod: /* Notes */ typo fixes

{{Episode Data
| image = s2finalcut.jpg
| title=Final Cut
| series=
| season=2
| episode=8
| guests=[[Lucy Lawless]] as [[D'anna Biers]]
| writer=[[Mark Verheiden]]
| story=
| director=[[Robert Young]]
| production=208
| rating= 2.0
| US airdate=2005-09-09
| UK airdate=2006-02-28
| dvd= {{Season 2.0 NTSC DVD release date}} '''US''' {{Season 2 PAL DVD release date}} '''UK'''
| population=47,853
| prev=[[Home, Part II]]
| next=[[Flight of the Phoenix]]
}}

== Overview ==

:''In an effort to stem [[The Fleet|the Fleet]]'s growing resentment toward the military, [[William Adama|Commander Adama]] and [[Laura Roslin|President Roslin]] allow an outspoken anti-military journalist complete access to the [[Galactica (RDM)|Galactica]] and its crew.''

== Summary ==
*Reporter [[D'anna Biers]] is preparing a special report on what she's hyped as the "[[Gideon massacre]]", when she is escorted by [[Colonial Marine Corps|Marines]] to ''[[Colonial One]]''.
*President [[Laura Roslin]] and Commander [[William Adama]] meet her, and she complains that all of her requests to interview Marines involved with the Gideon incident have been denied. Roslin and Adama tell her that all that is about to change: they want to mend the relationship between the military and the civilian fleet by allowing Biers to shoot a documentary on life on ''Galactica'', with unrestricted access.
*Biers and her cameraman [[Bell]] are flown to ''Galactica'' with Adama in [[Margaret Edmondson|Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson]]'s Raptor. On ''Galactica'', Petty Officer [[Anastasia Dualla]] is given the task of showing them around, pointing out fairly everyday things like carbon dioxide scrubbers for atmosphere and vegetable refrigeration units--information that Biers writes off as trivial.
*Biers starts filming one-on-one interviews with several crewmen. She asks Dualla why she joined the Fleet, and she says her father didn't approve but she wanted to believe in something.
*Biers and her cameraman are walking through the halls when [[Brendan Constanza|Brendan "Hot Dog" Constanza]] and [[Louanne Katraine|Louanne "Kat" Katraine]] chase each other out of the showers wearing towels. Biers follows them into the senior pilot's locker room, where [[Lee Adama|Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama]], (who nearly drops his towel accidentally) tells her to respect their privacy and get out. Kat moons the documentary camera, and gets yelled at by her [[CAG]].
[[Image:Dressing_Room.jpg|thumb|left|Camera crew filming certain awkwardness in the locker room]]
*[[Ellen Tigh]] calls Colonel [[Saul Tigh]] down to their quarters, where someone has left a threat for Saul by writing a line of Caprican poetry in red paint on their mirror.
*Biers then interviews Lee, and she accuses him of thinking the pilots deserve preferential treatment. He tells her that he does think they deserve such treatment; despite suffering as much loss as everyone else they risk their lives every day for the fleet, and while they don't need pity, they do deserve respect.
*Biers interviews Private [[Scott Kelso]], one of the Marines involved in the ''[[Gideon]]'' shootings. He insists that he and the other Marines were just doing their jobs, and that the "unarmed civilians" were attacking them, and that he has a scar on this head that required ten stitches to prove it. At the same time, Kelso thinks the whole thing was a "command [[frak]]-up"; that the Marines weren't trained for crowd control, and he isn't surprised that someone wants to kill Colonel Tigh.
*Biers then interviews a disheveled Lieutenant [[Felix Gaeta]], who is smoking a cigarette while displaying a level of frustration and fatigue that he doesn't normally show.
*On the [[Hangar Deck]], Kat yells at [[Galen Tyrol|Chief Tyrol]] when her [[Viper (RDM)|Viper]] malfunctions, although it wasn't the Chief's fault. [[Kara Thrace|Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace]] breaks it up (as Biers follows her) and Kat storms out.
*Biers is then allowed into the [[CIC]], where Commander Adama orders Colonel Tigh to attend a meeting of civilian leaders on ''[[Cloud Nine]]'', which Adama thinks will be a good chance for them to vent their frustration instead of seething at Tigh in private. However, as his [[Raptor]] is about to depart, it malfunctions and smokes until a damage control team can put it out. Tigh gets out and Tyrol tells him it looks like someone sabotoged the Raptor with a hammer, and if they had gotten into space the atmosphere inside would have vented, killing him.
*[[Margaret Edmondson|Racetrack]] lights a candle for her lost loved ones in the memorial hallway, and is then interviewed by Biers. She tells Biers that she assumes that she's already as good as dead going out on missions, and she just hopes she can kill as many Cylons as possible before her day comes.
*D'anna also interviews [[Karl Agathon|Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon]], who says that in combat you're supposed to turn off the human part of you because it will get you killed, but that nothing is that easy to do.
*Helo then visits [[Sharon Valerii (Caprica copy)|Caprica-Valerii]] in the [[brig]], where she in unresponsive in her bed until pulling a blood-stained hand from under her sheets and sobbing. Helo calls for [[Cottle|Doctor Cottle]] to come right away.
*[[Louanne Katraine|Kat]] gives an interview to Biers which is emotionally unrestrained. She then freaks out while attempting to land her Viper, and despite [[Aaron Kelly|Captain Kelly]] and Thrace trying to talk her down, she misses three passes, then on the final try crashes her Viper into the [[Landing bay]]. Biers follows Thrace and Lee to the flight deck. Getting out of her Viper, Kat is incomprehensible and disoriented. Thrace finds [[Stims]] on Kat's person: Kat had been taking them by the fistful to stay alert, and now she has overdosed. Kat is forcibly strapped down to a gurney while kicking and screaming and taken to [[Sickbay]].
*Biers follows Kat to Sickbay, where she accidentally goes behind a curtain and sees Doctor Cottle arguing with the terrified Sharon Valerii; Cottle is trying to save her baby before Valerii has a miscarriage. Biers is then shoved away, but not before catching Valerii on film.
*Later, Commander Adama arrives in Sickbay and demands that Biers hand over the tape. Biers notes that the woman she saw looked exactly like the deceased [[Sharon Valerii (Galactica copy)|Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii]], and that news that ''Galactica'' is harboring a Cylon could turn the Fleet against him. Adama counters that, after the ''Gideon'' incident, this new revelation could devastate morale in [[The Fleet (RDM)|The Fleet]], and whether that even matters to Biers. Reluctantly, Biers gives him the tape and he leaves. When Adama is out of sight, D'anna pulls the ''real'' tape out of her shirt.
*Baltar begins a less than great interview with Biers but is interrupted when an [[Action Stations|action stations alarm]] goes off: two Raiders are on a collision course with ''Galactica''. Biers heads to the CIC to film there while her cameraman covers the flight deck. We only see the fight from the perspective of those on the ship listening over the radio; the Raiders are destroyed.
*Saul Tigh returns to his quarters to find Ellen tied up. It turns out that his would-be murder is [[Joe Palladino]], who is distraught that Tigh's orders resulted in innocent people being killed by men under Palladino's command. He pulls a gun on Tigh, but Tigh presses the gun to his forehead and talks Palladino down. As Biers reviews the tape, she sees Palladino reading a book by [[Kataris]] (which she recognises as containing the poetry line used to threaten Tigh), and alerts the crew. The marines rush to Tigh's quarters, where they see Palladino and take him away.
*Back on ''Colonial One'', Roslin, Adama, and Tigh review Biers' finished documentary. Adama decides that he likes the accurate portrayal that she did, and lets them broadcast it across the entire fleet.
*In the documentary, Biers does an ending voiceover where as the music swells in the background she explains that the story of ''Galactica'' is that they'll never give up. As people watch it on monitor screens throughout the Fleet.....
*...the humanoid Cylons are watching the documentary as well in an abandoned movie theater on Cylon-occupied [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica|Caprica]]. A copy of [[Number Six]] is impressed at the resilience of the humans, and asks about the fate of Caprica-Valerii's baby. A second, Caprica-based copy of D'anna Biers then turns around (Biers is now revealed to have been a [[Cylon agent]] the whole time), and tells her that both Caprica-Valerii and her baby survived her near-miscarriage. [[Aaron Doral]] says that the baby must be protected at all costs, and they must proceed with caution.

== Questions ==
*The Cylons deployed two [[Raider]]s to ''Galactica'' to transmit D'anna's video documentary back to Caprica. Does this mean the Cylons know ''exactly'' where [[The Fleet (RDM)|The Fleet]] is, and have simply chosen ''not'' to intercept it? Is keeping the Fleet alive part of their "Plan"?
** Possibly, in the "de-briefing" towards the end of the episode, Caprica-D'anna meant the two Raiders transmitted the footage she cut from the documentary (showing Helo's Boomer in the Sickbay). It is likely they meant that they picked up the whole "show" from fleet transmissions and the snippet from the two Raiders.
**Or, are the Cylons ''now'' refraining from sending in a full [[Basestar (RDM)|basestar]] and Raider wing to attack ''Galactica'' because they are worried that a direct attack on ''Galactica'' will result in the death of Caprica-Valerii and her hybrid daughter? That is, they would have attacked it if this Valerii wasn't on board, but was sending two Raiders in now simply a reconnaissance mission? The Cylons did say that they want to proceed cautiously.
**Then again, the two Raiders didn't jump in to the Fleet's vicinity, they flew in normally. Perhaps the Cylons actually ''don't'' know exactly where the Fleet is, and these Raiders may have been searching for days to find them. Seeing as the Cylons on Caprica weren't aware that the Caprica-Valerii was still alive, perhaps they also truly aren't aware of the Fleet's location, and other Cylons in the Fleet cannot transmit messages back to Caprica because they are out of range (though a nearby Cylon ship might be close enough). (''[[Pegasus (episode)|Answer]]'')
**In light of all this, have the Cylons ''not'' been using their entire strength against the Colonials in combat? Have they, in effect, been "toying" with them? This could explain the relative lop-sidedness of the Colonials' military victories since the initial destruction of the Colonies.
*Did Biers discovery of pregnant Caprica-Valerii on ''Galactica'' alter her intended goal with the documentary?
**Would the documentary have presented ''Galactica'' and her crew in a more negative light and thus perform a journalistic hatchet job on how the rest of the fleet perceived Adama and the military?
**Would Adama and Roslin still have allowed the documentary to be broadcast if it had been 'negative?'
*Now that the documentary has aired, with Biers' image visibly throughout the film, has Sharon Valerii seen the film? Or, has the film been banned for her viewing?
**If she had viewed the documentary, would Valerii inform ''Galactica's'' command of Bier's true nature, or the identity of other agents in the Fleet?
***Does Valerii actually "know" what all of the other Cylon models look like? She seems have been on a need-to-know basis when it came to Cylon intelligence ("[[The Farm]]"), and she might not actually know "who" all of the other models are, if this particular copy of Sharon has never met them.

== Analysis ==
At the end of the episode, D'anna says that the Cylons "lost two Raiders relaying the images back to ''the Fleet''" from ''Galactica''. She didn't say "from ''Galactica'' back to ''Caprica''". Does this imply that there is a main Cylon fleet following ''Galactica''? (That is, as opposed to many Basestars spread out across a large region of space in a search pattern). (''[[Pegasus (episode)|Answer]]'').

== Notes ==
*Population count is now 47,853, a loss of two since [[Home, Part II]], to account for the two [[Tom Zarek]] henchmen killed in that episode.
*Onboard ''[[Colonial One]]'', Roslin is no longer surrounded by her [[Presidential Security Service]] agents, but rather by ''Galactica'' Marines - Adama's insurance against any more misbehavior, perhaps?
**Perhaps they were only there to escort Commander Adama while he was off of ''Galactica''.
*D'anna Biers makes the same comment about Baltar that Roslin made in ''[[33]]''.
*We finally learn [[Anastasia Dualla|Dualla]]'s first name as she is interviewed by [[D'anna Biers]]: ''Anastasia''.
*Gaeta's first name is revealed as ''[[Felix Gaeta|Felix]]''. He also showed a wild side in the form of a tattoo on his chest he got when he was drunk. He's also taken up smoking. Perhaps this isn't so much a sign of a previously unrevealed wild side, but a sign that Gaeta's composure is starting to get frayed from constant stress. ''(This is confirmed in the following episode, "[[Flight of the Phoenix]]".)''
*The [[ECO]] known as Racetrack has a full name: ''[[Margaret Edmondson]]''.
*The music aired at the end of the documentary is the Colonial Fanfare last heard in the [[Miniseries]]: the theme from the [[Battlestar Galactica (TOS)|original "Battlestar Galactica" TV series]]. In the [[Battlestar Galactica (RDM)|re-imagined Battlestar Galactica]], it is apparently the "national anthem" of the Twelve Colonies.
*Adama uses the phrase "warts and all." This phrase was coined by 17th-Century English dictator ("Lord Protector") [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell Oliver Cromwell].
*Timeline-wise, Col. Tigh says there's been no Cylon contacts for 10 days. Col. Tigh was in command of ''Galactica'' for "over a week" (from "[[Scattered]]" to "[[Resistance (episode)|Resistance]]").
*Colonial video feeds are octagonal, but video screens are (oddly) rectangular.
*Capt. [[Aaron Kelly|Kelly]] appears fulfilling his duties as Landing Signal Officer by coordinating Viper landings. This scene further explains the "where was Kelly between the Mini-Series and Season 2" question: Kelly doesn't work in the [[CIC]], but in the port [[Flight pod|flight pod]] itself.
*Roslin and Adama have not only buried the hatchet by this episode, but are working jointly and appear to have developed a camaraderie.
*This episode contains the first scene on ''Colonial One'' since "[[Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II]]".
*Cultural/Linguistic oddity: Apollo refers to Kat and Hot Dog as "tweedledum and tweedledee", a reference to [[Wikipedia:Lewis Carroll|Lewis Carroll]].
*Dualla states that Galactica's carbon dioxide scrubbers run "24 hours a day"; this would seem to establish that the Colonial Fleet operates on a 24-hour day. This could possibly be based on [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica|Caprica]]'s orbital rotion (where the seat of the [[Government]] was located); still, all 12 Colonies couldn't possible all have the same axial rotation time. This 24 hour day might seem an automatic assumption, but keep in mind that on other scifi series set in space there isn't always a 24 hour day: For example, on [[Wikipedia:Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]], space station Deep Space Nine actually runs on a 26 hour day, because it follows Bajor-time (which has a 26 hour rotation period).
*In Helo's interview with D'anna Biers, the caption reads "Karl C. Agathon, Lieutenant, CF". This is not just a clipped writing of "Lieutenant, Junior Grade": according to an [http://scifibrain.ign.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3165&Itemid=0 interview] with [[Tahmoh Penikett]], when Helo returned to ''Galactica'' after being stranded on Caprica for months he was promoted to full Lieutenant.
*The original airdate was to be September 2nd, 2005. However, SciFi Channel ran a Stargate SG-1 Viewers Choice Marathon for the [[Wikipedia:Labor Day|Labor Day]] Weekend.

== Noteworthy Dialogue ==
* ''After meeting Dr. Gaius Baltar for the first time:''
*: '''D'anna Biers:''' What a strange little man.

* ''D'anna Biers is filming an interview with Apollo:''
*: '''D'anna Biers:''' You seem to think that your pilots deserve special consideration.
*: '''Apollo:''' Actually, I do. Like everyone else, my pilots have lost their families, their friends, everyone they ever cared about; but on top of that they're asked to put their lives on the line every single day, for a fleet that seems more interested in what they do wrong than in what they do right. They're not asking for your pity, but they damn well deserve your respect.

* ''D'anna Biers is interviewing Racetrack:''
*: '''D'anna Biers:''' Are you afraid when you go into combat?
*: '''Racetrack:''' First thing they tell you is to assume you're already dead.
*: '''D'anna Biers:''' Well that sounds ghoulish.
*: '''Racetrack:''' Yeah, maybe. But dead men don't get scared and freeze up under fire. Me, I'm just worried that hell's gonna be a lonely place, and I'm gonna fill it up with every Toaster son of a bitch I find.

* ''D'anna Biers is interviewing Lt. Gaeta. Gaeta is slightly disheveled, and is smoking a cigarette:''
*: '''D'anna Biers:''' Does that help you cope with the stress?
*: '''Lt. Felix Gaeta:''' Not really. Look, um, all that I ever wanted was to be an officer on a Battlestar, okay? I trained my whole life, I trained harder than anyone in my unit. Basically, I put my life on hold until I was assigned to ''Galactica''. Then the Cylons hit and I realized that this is all that I know: tech manuals, commands, and tactics, you know? I'm not saying that I'm unhappy...I'm just wondering if there's something more.
*: '''D'anna Biers:''' And what have you discovered?
*: '''Lt. Felix Gaeta:''' ...[takes a long drag, coughs]...I hate cigarettes. Ambrosia's good with a chaser. And, if you have enough Ambrosia...[Gaeta pulls back his shirt to reveal an ugly tatoo of a tiger on his upper right chest]...it don't hurt that much.

* ''The closing voice-over narration to D'anna Biers' documentary on the Battlestar Galactica, which runs over a montage of images from the ship. The Colonial Anthem tinkles in the background and gradually builds to up to a grand swell:''
*: '''D'anna Biers:''' I came to ''Galactica'' to tell a story. In all honesty I thought I knew what that story was before I ever set foot there: how an arrogant military let their egos get in the way of doing their jobs, safeguarding the lives of the civilian population. But I found out that the truth was more complex than that. These people aren't Cylons. They're not robots blindly following orders and polishing their boots. They're people. Deeply flawed, yes, but deeply human too, and maybe that's saying the same thing. What struck me most is that despite it all - the hardships, the stress, the ever present danger of being killed - despite all that, they never give up. They never lie down in the road and let the truck run them over. They wake up in the morning, put on their uniforms and do their jobs. Every day. No pay, no rest, no hope of ever laying down the burden or letting someone else do the job. There are no relief troops coming, no Colonial Fleet training new recruits every day. The people on ''Galactica'' are ''it''. They are the thin line of blue that separates us from the Cylons. Lt. Gaeta told me a remarkable statistic; not a single member of Galactica's crew has asked to resign, not one. Think about that. If you wore the uniform wouldn't you want to quit? To step aside and say "enough! Let someone else protect the fleet"? I know I would. But then, I don't wear a uniform. Most of us don't, most of us never will. The story of ''Galactica'' isn't that people make bad decisions under pressure, it's that those mistakes are the exception. Most of the time the men and women serving under Commander Adama get it right. The proof is that our fleet ''survives''. And with ''Galactica'' at our side, we '''''will''''' endure. This is D'anna Biers, Fleet News Service.

* ''The camera pulls back to show a movie theater on Cylon-occupied [[The Twelve Colonies (RDM)#Caprica|Caprica]], where the humanoid Cylons are watching a copy of the documentary, as D'anna Biers' ending narration finishes:''
*: '''Aaron Doral:''' That was shown across their entire fleet.
*: '''Number Six:''' Their resilience is remarkable.
*: '''Sharon Valerii:''' Play the footage that was cut. [camera footage plays of Helo's Sharon in ''Galactica's'' Sickbay]
*: '''Sharon Valerii:''' I'm still alive?! She's still alive! I told you.
*: '''Number Six:''' That's incredible. And the baby?
*: '''D'anna Biers:''' [speaking without her usual New Zealand accent, but with a general American accent] It was saved. We lost two Raiders relaying the images back to the Fleet, but I think the sacrifice was worth it.
*: '''Aaron Doral:''' We must proceed with caution. The child's life must be protected at all costs.
*: '''D'anna Biers:''' Yeah. Truly is a miracle of God.

== Official Statements ==

== Guest stars ==
*[[Lucy Lawless]] as [[D'anna Biers]]
*[[Donnelly Rhodes]] as Dr. [[Cottle]]
*[[Luciana Carro]] as Lt. [[Louanne Katraine|Louanne "Kat" Katraine]]
*[[Leah Cairns]] as Lt. [[Margaret Edmondson|Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson]]
*[[Bodie Olmos]] as Lt. [[Brendan Constanza|Brendan "Hot Dog" Constanza]]
*[[imdb:nm0346885|Jeremy Guilbaut]] as Lt. [[Joe Palladino|Joe Palladino]]
*[[Ty Olsson]] as Captain [[Aaron Kelly]]
*[[Matthew Bennett]] as [[Aaron Doral]]
*[[Kate Vernon]] as [[Ellen Tigh]]
*[[imdb:nm0006820|Aleks Paunovic]] as Sergeant [[Fischer]]
*[[imdb:nm1724301|Kevan Kase]] as PFC [[Scott Kelso]]
*[[imdb:nm0365798|Patrick "Flick" Harrison]] as [[Bell]]
*[[imdb:nm0875114|Yee Jee Tso]] as Staffer
*Curtis Hicks as Marine Sergeant

== External Links ==
[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/episodes/season02/208/ "Final Cut"] at scifi.com

{{episode list (RDM season 2)}}

[[Category: Episode Guide (RDM)]]
[[Category: A to Z]]
[[Category:Episodes written by Mark Verheiden]]
[[Category:Episodes directed by Robert Young]]

Valley of Darkness

2006-08-13T05:13:44Z

Cam macleod: /* Questions */ typo fix in personnel

{{Episode Data
| image =Valley_of_Darkness-Starbuck_Helo.jpg
| title=Valley of Darkness
| series=
| season=2
| episode=2
| guests=
| writer=[[Bradley Thompson]] [[David Weddle]]
| story=
| director=[[Michael Rymer]]
| production=202
| rating= 2.0
| US airdate=2005-07-22
| UK airdate=2006-01-17
| dvd= {{Season 2.0 NTSC DVD release date}} '''US''' {{Season 2 PAL DVD release date}} '''UK'''
| population=47,874
| prev=[[Scattered]]
| next=[[Fragged]]
}}

== Overview ==

: ''After rediscovering [[The Fleet (RDM)|The Fleet]], [[Cylon Centurion]]s board ''[[Galactica]]'' and wreak havoc, while [[Lee Adama]] and a rag-tag group of pilots and marines attempt to thwart the Cylon's methodical plans.''

== Summary ==

===On ''Galactica''===

* After [[FTL|Jumping]] successfully to the Fleet's location once [[Scattered|rediscovering their actual location]], ''Galactica'''s power systems shut down unexpectedly.
* After landing on ''Galactica'', pilots [[Lee Adama]], [[Louanne Katraine|Kat]], [[Brendan Constanza|Hot Dog]], and [[Flyboy]] walk through the corridors with flashlights. Flyboy stumbles into a Cylon Centurion, which kills him as the rest attempt to flee.
* As Hot Dog and Kat flee up a stairway, Adama attempts to kill the Cylon with his sidearm, but the bullets ricochet off the Centurion. A small group of [[marines]] destroy the Cylon from behind with an explosive round. Unfortunately, it was their last round, and only explosive rounds work against this heavily-armored version of Centurion.
* [[Laura Roslin]] convinces Corporal [[Venner]] that she must leave her cell and escape the brig before the Cylons find them. On Captain Adama's advice, Venner leads the group to the safest location on the ship, [[sickbay]].
* Adama's group finds the storage locker on deck 12. Inside, they find [[Jammer]] (a member of [[Galen Tyrol|Tyrol]]'s repair crew) and only six explosive rounds.
* Lt. [[Felix Gaeta]] manages to warn the remainder of the Fleet to stay away from ''Galactica'' by [[wireless]] before the Cylons jam external communications.
*Gaeta notes a [[Virus|Cylon virus]] has infected some of the ship's isolated computers while they were networked; he has teams cleaning out the infection.
* Roslin's group find the bodies of some of ''Galactica'''s enlisted crew, massacred by the Cylons except for one survivor: a shell-shocked [[Anastasia Dualla]]. As Billy tries to snap Dualla out of her shock, Venner discovers that the Cylons have depressurised the route they had planned to take to sickbay. The group, now with Dualla, heads out along an alternative route that goes past [[Aft Damage Control]].
* Tigh gets reports that some of the Cylons have been taken out by teams throughout the ship. He suspects that the Cylons are heading towards two sections of the ship -- one of which is Aft Damage Control -- in order to vent the ship's atmosphere. (After the ship is vented and the crew terminated, Tigh states that the Cylons would turn ''Galactica's'' guns on the Fleet.)
* Captain Adama contacts [[CIC]], where Tigh orders him to stop the Cylons at Aft Damage Control and prevent the Cylons from overriding the venting safeguards.
* Captain Adama, Jammer, Kat, and two marines station themselves near the Aft Damage Control compartment. As they ready the defense against the advancing Cylons, Roslin's group hides in a nearby passageway to avoid being discovered, unaware of how close their group is to Adama's squad and the Cylons. The Cylons run down a hallway towards [[Aft Damage Control]], but are distracted when Keikeya accidentally fires a round. The distraction places Roslin's group in danger but gives Adama and his team enough time to destroy the Cylon attackers.
*Having successfully destroyed the Cylons and with sufficient ship control restored, Doctor [[Cottle]] is summoned to ''Galactica''. In sickbay, Roslin assures Lee Adama that [[William Adama|Commander Adama]] will be fine, and she is taken back to the brig. Tigh tells Captain Adama that he is still shocked that he would side with the President instead of his own father, and that he is unfit to wear a [[Colonial]] uniform. Captain Adama agrees but tells Tigh that he isn't fit to wear the uniform either, deferring what will happen with both of them to his unconscious father once he returns to work.

===On Caprica===
*[[Karl Agathon|Karl "Helo" Agathon]] and [[Kara Thrace|Kara "Starbuck" Thrace]] discuss how the Cylons have a habit of fooling everyone.
*Thrace leads them to her old apartment, where she reminisces about how she hated it and how she keeps fighting because it's the only thing she knows. To Helo's suprise, Thrace's apartment is full of abstract paintings of her own making and tapes of orchestral music composed by her father.
*They later leave driving Thrace's old army truck.

===On Kobol===
*[[Gaius Baltar]] has a dream where [[William Adama]] drowns Baltar's daughter.
*When he wakes up, he is in [[Number Six]]'s arms, surrounded by human skulls and bones. Six tells Baltar that they were victims of human sacrifice, and that the [[Sacred_Scrolls|Scriptures]] were lies, fabricated to cover up how barbaric life on Kobol really was.
*When he returns to the others, Baltar is harangued by [[Crashdown]].
*[[Galen Tyrol|Chief Tyrol]] feels responsible for [[Tarn]]'s death, but [[Cally]] snaps him out of his self-pity.
*The two return with the medkits, but it is too late to save [[Socinus]]' life. Telling him that he is going home, Tyrol reluctantly euthanizes him with an overdose of [[morpha]].

== Questions ==
*The remains Baltar and Six find cannot be thousands of years old; they would not have survived in the open. Did the [[Thirteenth Colony]] leave Kobol recently? Do humans, at least until recently, still inhabit Kobol? Or were all the remains merely fabricated hallucinations by Six?
**Were the human skeletons real, or a hallucination created for Baltar by Six? If the skeletons ''were'' real, was Six lying when she said they were the result of human sacrifice (i.e. they could have been from the cataclysm that drove humanity off of Kobol)?
***When [[Battlestar Wiki:Official Communiques#Human sacrifice|asked about this]] episode writer [[Bradley Thompson]] answered: "The question at the bottom of this is: "Who is Six?" In such cases, I'm not going to embellish what Ron & David have put on the screen."
*Why would later humans have felt it necessary to cover up the nature of civilization on Kobol? Is it related to the reason why Kobol was abandoned in the first place? How would the Cylons have found out? Did Six just make it up, or could it be the Cylon interpretation of the Scriptures?
*How did Tigh know where the Centurions were heading? Did the Cylons use this tactic in the first war?
** '''Note:''' The [[series bible]] notes that during Tigh's enlistment in the first [[Cylon War]], his ship was boarded -- it is likely that he learned of these tactics during this conflict. (see: [[Saul Tigh]])
**'''Note:''' A deleted scene for this episode shows more flashbacks between Tigh and Adama in which they reminisce about old battles in the Cylon War. One particular recount involved the Cylons boarding a vessel and heading for two specific locations; [[Auxiliary Fire Control]] and [[Aft Damage Control]].
*Is Helo starting to fall for Starbuck?
:([[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II|Answer]]: Most likely no. Starting from the miniseries (at the poker game), Helo and Starbuck appear to have always been fairly close comrades.
*While pointing out different parts of the ship where Centurions were destroyed, it's mentioned that Sgt. [[Hadrian]] led a group of Marines that managed to destroy several Cylons. However, at the end of "[[Litmus]]," Commander Adama had her confined to quarters. Did Adama eventually release her before this episode? Did the Marines release her now because they needed every experienced Marine they could find?
**It is possible that she has to spend her off-duty time in her quarters, but continues to perform her duties the same way Lee Adama did under Colonel Tigh's command. Given the overall shortage of personnel and the type and length of punishments Commander Adama hands out for these reasons in past and future episodes it's likely she was released since "Litmus."
*Why does Dualla tell Keikeya they haven't met in person "in two weeks" when they were last seen dancing together on Colonial Day, two days ago at the most? ("Kobol's Last Gleaming" starts the night after "Colonial Day," if Starbuck's wearing the same dress at the beginning)
**Presuming they take place concurrently, the captions for the scenes on Cylon-occupied Caprica indicate that Part I takes place three days after "Colonial Day" and "Part II" the day after that. "Scattered" and this episode almost certainly take place on the same day as "Part II," however, so it's been at most four days since they saw each other.

== Analysis ==
*The Centurions in this episode can only be destroyed by explosive rounds, which is a large plot element. However, in episodes before and after "Valley of Darkness", Centurions have been seen being destroyed by regular bullets. These Centurions might have heavier armor because they are being used for a boarding action and will see heavy fighting. When episode writer Bradley Thompson was [[Battlestar Wiki:Official Communiques#Centurion armor|asked]] about this by BattlestarWiki, he answered:
:"Centurions are constantly being upgraded - new ones come out with better armor, quieter servos, better battle software. Some are designed for different uses (the ones designed for submarine use have REALLY heavy armor but are exceptionally slow, and have reduced ammunition carrying capacity.) Not to mention that the Colonials have remarkably bright backyard engineers -- they've been hot-loading our small-arms rounds, coming up with better armor-piercing projectiles -- it's the constant ebb-and-flow of wartime technology."

== Notes ==
*The fleet population cited in the opening credits is 47,874. This is one less than the previous episode—prior to the opening credits, a Cylon is seen killing a ''Galactica'' crew member.
*First episode without an appearance by [[Sharon Valerii]] (except in opening montage).
*Helo reveals to Starbuck that the Cylons recovered the bodies and brought them to cremation centers, hence the lack of bodies.
*Socinus, initially slated to die in early drafts of "[[Scattered]]", dies in this episode -- euthanised by Tyrol.
*Colonials use internal combustion engines (Starbuck's Humvee). Assuming that it was the Colonists that brought organic life along with them to the Homeworlds (terraforming) (as Kobol's wildlife (birds and trees and such) is identical to Caprica's, this is likely the case), it probably does not burn fossil fuels, though, since the Kobol's refugees arrived on the Colonies only thousands of years rather than the millions of years it takes for fossil fuels to form. However, Kobol's life forms could also simply have replaced or supplemented less evolved or less strong life forms on the Colonial planets, as happened several times on Earth where non-ingenious life forms can wreck havoc on a local ecosystem; or the local life forms may have died out through a catastrophic event. Both scenarios leave enough time for original life forms to be turned into fossil fuels.
* [[Kate Vernon]] is listed as a guest star in the opening credits. However, her character, [[Ellen Tigh]], never makes an appearance in this episode. She is only shown in the deleted scenes.
* The music that we hear in Kara Thrace's apartment and again during the closing act of the episode is ''Metamorphosis One'', composed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Glass Philip Glass]. It is from Glass's 1989 album ''Solo Piano''.
*The fate of the Heavy Raider in the starboard bay is unknown. It's possible that, like Starbuck's captured Raider, they kept it for study. However, the crash may have damaged it beyond repair.
*The "[[R and D TV|R&D TV Animation]]" skit during the credits is a take-off on the plot of "Valley of Darkness", a group of Cylon Centurions walk by the office window and ventilate David Eick with bullets.
*In the German broadcast redubbing of Cally's now-infamous "Talk to me, you motherfrakker!" line, "motherfrakker" is replaced with "blöder arsch", which translates as "stupid ass". The real world equivalent of the curse word "motherfrakker" doesn't really exist in German, and a direct translation into German would have sounded particularly obscene, so the line was changed, and the joke is therefore somewhat lost in translation.

==Goofs==
*When Kat finds a box of explosive rounds with only 6 shells, the shells in the container start out scattered within the box, but as the camera cuts back and forth in the scene the shells switch from organized to scattered many times.

== Noteworthy Dialogue ==

* ''On the surface of Kobol, Chief Tyrol and Cally are on their way to rendezvous with the rest of the Raptor crash survivors:''
:Cally: (exhausted from walking) What do you say we take five?
:(Chief Tyrol is still in a state of shock [having lost Tarn to a surprise attack by the Cylons in the last episode] and leans against a tree)
:Cally: How much further, do you think?
:(Chief Tyrol ignores her)
:Cally: Tarn getting shot...it wasn't your fault, you know that right?... Chief?
:(Chief Tyrol is silent)
:Cally: Talk to me, you motherfrakker!
:(Chief Tyrol turns around and looks at her strangely)
:Chief Tyrol: (laughing) Motherfrakker?
:Cally: Socinus better appreciate this.
:Chief Tyrol: He's probably lying in the sun, staring up at the birds like some Gods' damned emperor. He's an idiot.
:Cally: I hope he's okay...

* ''Regarding [[Sharon Valerii (Caprica copy)|"Sharon, the Cylon"]]:''
:'''Starbuck:''' (to Helo, sarcastically) "Your girlfriend’s from a ''lovely'' family, good people."

* ''In her apartment on Caprica, Starbuck and Helo stop to rest:''
:Kara Thrace: (sitting on her couch) You know, I never really liked this place anyway. The air conditioning doesn't work in the summer, the heater doesn't work in the winter, the rent's a crime...(lights a cigarette)...after they attacked, I never pined over any of my old crap. Never missed it. Stupid VO's in the parking lot, broken toilet in the bathroom...you know, everyone I know is fighting to get back what they had. I'm fighting because I don't know how to do anything else.

* '''Lee Adama''': "Let’s go [[toaster]] shopping."

* ''Chief Tyrol and Cally have rejoined the others on Kobol, and they find out that Socinus isn't going to survive much longer:''
:Chief Tyrol: How's he doing?
:Selix: He's not going to make it.
:Chief Tyrol: What? What do you mean? What are you talking about? We got the medkit! Give him a shot! Give him another shot!
:Selix: It's too late.
:Chief Tyrol: What do you mean, it's too late? I got you the medkit! What else do you want? (looking stunned) So we...got the medicine you asked for...Tarn...and for what? For this? Come on! You have to do something. You have to do something!
:Selix: We can't change that he's going to die, Chief. It's going to be slow and painful, and we can spare him that if we give him the morpha from my kit and the one that you brought back.
:Chief Tyrol: What? No. (looks at Crashdown) LT..LT, come on!
:Crashdown: He's your man, Chief.
:Chief Tyrol: Give it to me. (takes morpha from Selix and leans down beside Socinus) Hey buddy. It's the Chief. How you doing?
:Socinus: (wheezing) What's going on?
:Chief Tyrol: Oh, you know...listening to the birds. I got you a little something for the pain. (injects morpha into Socinus) Good news, buddy. The recovery party's here. Raptors just landed. We're going to put you on one and take you back to Galactica, okay?
:Socinus: We're going home?
:Chief Tyrol: Yeah...(tears welling in his eyes)...we're going home.
:(Socinus passes away)

* ''In ''Galactica's'' sickbay:''
:Colonel Tigh: I can't believe you sided with that woman against [[The Old Man|the old man]]. I wouldn't do that if you put a gun to my head...and you did! As far as I'm concerned, you're not fit to wear a uniform.
:Lee Adama: Huh. You're right about that part. I am not fit to wear the uniform...and maybe I never was. Then again, neither are you. But this isn't my ship, and it sure as hell isn't yours. (motions at Commander Adama) It's his, and when he wakes up, he'll decide what to do with the both of us. (Captain Adama leaves for the brig)
:Colonel Tigh: Thank the Gods I didn't have kids.

* ''In Aft Damage Control, preparing to fight the Cylons:''
:'''Lee Adama''': Sometimes you got to roll a hard six.
:'''[[Jammer]]''': What does that mean, sir?
:'''Lee Adama''': Uh, I don't know. It's something my [[William Adama|dad]] says.

== Official Statements ==




* "We've almost completed shooting the opening of Season Two, with [[Michael Rymer]] back at the helm filming a two-parter written by [[David Weddle]] & [[Bradley Thompson]] called '[[Scattered]]' and '[[Valley of Darkness]].' Things have been going well so far, with a good mood on the set and a feeling of satisfaction and pride running through the whole team at their accomplishments in year one and anticipation for year two." -- {{from_RDM_blog}}

* ''"[[Lee Adama|Apollo]]'s betrayal of [[William Adama|Adama]]'s decision to arrest the [[Laura Roslin|president]] is detracting from the believability of the show for me. I'm listining to your [[podcast]] of [[Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II|ep. 113]] as I write this and you just said Lee is "a more capable, more competent, leader . . ." He's also struck me as a fairly honorable character. If he had doubts about this mission I think he would have at least voiced them and then not gone along with the strike team so he would not have been put in the position he was. I hope you won't use Adama's near death experience at the end of season one/start of season two to "write off" these betrayals, esp. Apollo's. His was much more unforgivable considering his relationship with Adama, his leadership role in the fleet, and the battle between the president and Adama. I find it hard to see Lee continuing as [[CAG]] after this. "''

: You bring up valid points and we are planning to play out the consequences of Lee's decision as it impacts both him and his father over the course of the season. -- {{from_RDM_blog}}

== Guest stars ==
*[[Aaron Douglas]] as Chief Petty Officer [[Galen Tyrol]]
*[[Nicki Clyne]] as Specialist [[Cally]]
*[[imdb:nm0356501|Jennifer Halley]] as [[Seelix]]
*[[Leah Cairns]] as Lt. [[Margaret Edmondson|Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson]]
*[[Luciana Carro]] as Lt. [[Louanne Katraine|Louanne "Kat" Katraine]]
*[[Bodie Olmos]] as Lt. [[Brendan Constanza|Brendan "Hot Dog" Constanza]]
*[[Ty Olsson]] as Captain [[Aaron Kelly]]
*[[Alonso Oyarzun]] as Specialist [[Socinus]]
*[[Kate Vernon]] as [[Ellen Tigh]]
*[[Dominic Zamprogna]] as [[Jammer]]
*[[imdb:nm0189162|Garvin Cross]] as [[Collishaw]]
*[[imdb:nm0520562|Brad Loree]] as [[Bonnington]]
*[[imdb:nm0829608|Lori Stewart]] as [[Twinam]]

== External Links ==
[http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/episodes/season02/202/ "Valley of Darkness"] at scifi.com

{{episode list (RDM season 2)}}

[[Category:A to Z]] [[Category:Episode Guide (RDM)]] [[Category:RDM]]
[[Category:Episodes written by Bradley Thompson]]
[[Category:Episodes written by David Weddle]]
[[Category:Episodes directed by Michael Rymer]]