Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down

"Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 1, Episode 9
Writer(s)	Jeff Vlaming
Story by
Director	Edward James Olmos
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	109
Nielsen Rating	2.1
US airdate	2005-03-04
CAN airdate	2005-03-12
UK airdate	2004-12-13
DVD release	20 September 2005 US 28 March 2005 UK
Population	47,905 survivors ( 49)
Additional Info
Full Credits
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Flesh and Bone	Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down	The Hand of God
Related Information
Official Summary
R&D Skit – View
Podcast Transcript – View
Deleted Scenes
[[IMDB:tt{{{imdb}}}|IMDb entry]]
Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
Photo Gallery			@ BW Media
Promotional Materials
Online Purchasing
Amazon: Standard Definition | High Definition

Colonel Tigh's world is turned upside down when his wife arrives on Galactica—but is she all she claims to be?

Summary

• Laura Roslin comes aboard Galactica as Adama receives a report that Baltar’s Cylon detector is operational.
• Unable to shake off Conoy’s words to her ^{(TRS: "Flesh and Bone")}, she wants Adama to take the test first; he reluctantly agrees.
• When a lone Cylon Raider shows up, Lee Adama is ordered to intercept, and Tigh is stunned to learn Adama is off-ship.
• The Raider is crippled, and a Raptor is dispatched to gather intel on it, particularly how its FTL drive operates.
• Adama returns to Galactica on a Raptor with a further shock for Tigh: his wife, Ellen.
• Roslin calls Baltar to check on the progress of Adama’s Cylon test – only to find Adama has cancelled so that a woman called “Ellen” can be tested. Roslin orders Baltar to restart Adama’s test immediately.
• Roslin summons Tigh to Colonial One, reveals her suspicions regarding Adama, and challenges a defensive Tigh over Adama’s behavior in leaving Galactica unannounced.
• Tigh takes the wind out of Roslin’s sails when he states Adama was off-ship so he could collect Tigh’s missing wife.
• After Tigh has left her office, Roslin calls Baltar and orders him to stop Adama’s test and resume Ellen’s.
• Later, at a dinner in Adama’s quarters, Ellen behaves with a mixture of her old self – trying to play footsie with Lee Adama under the table, and trying to flirt with him over the table – and a strange curiosity concerning Earth.
• Adama deflects her probing by asking how it could be that she got aboard a ship, the Rising Star, without anyone having any knowledge of her or of treating her during her alleged 3 weeks of being unconscious.
• Ellen simply shrugs off the questions in her apparently drunken state and breaks up the party with her “drunken” playing.
• As she and her husband return to their quarters, they encounter Baltar, with whom she openly flirts, both annoying Tigh and raising Six’s curiosity.
• After Baltar has departed, Ellen deflects her husband’s anger at her behavior by claiming Adama wants her, then dragging Tigh after Baltar.
• In Baltar’s lab, a row is brewing over the various tests that should have been carried out; things become more complicated when Tigh and his wife arrive, and the disagreements and suspicions become a three-way argument, which is broken up when Adama, Lee and Tigh are summoned to CIC.
• The Cylon Raider has stopped behaving oddly, and is on a collision course for Galactica. Alert Fighters are dispatched at Tigh’s order, and the Raider is destroyed.
• Later, back in Baltar’s lab, Ellen’s test results come through and are apparently green. Baltar, however, simply states to Six that having everything turn up green makes life a lot easier.

On Caprica

• Karl "Helo" Agathon and Valerii are trying to avoid the Cylons by running through the storm drains under a city.
• Valerii has a plan—she claims to have overheard the Cylons discussing a huge base at Delphi, she believes they can steal a ship from there and get off the planet.
• Doral and Six are definitely affected by the fact that even though Valerii has run off, she is experiencing emotions they have never had—as is Helo.

Notes

• The script was originally called "Secrets and Lies".
• Three days have passed since the events of "Flesh and Bone".
• There are now 47,905 survivors in the Fleet. A loss of 49 since "Flesh and Bone". Compared to other casualty figures in the first season, this is unusually high for a three-day period.
• Colonel Tigh's drinking problem became drastically worse because of his wife's infidelity and their estrangement.
• Keikeya's relationship with Dualla is picking up, despite his attempts to pump her for information.
• Baltar apparently has no intention of being honest about the results of his Cylon tests.
• Galactica has a forward observation lounge that has become a much sought-after trysting-place, with individuals and couples rotated through it at regular intervals.
• The Cylons have established a major base at Delphi, another major city on Caprica.
• The opera music that Baltar is listening to in his lab while talking to and getting intimate with Number Six is titled "Battlestar Operatica," and was written and composed by Bear McCreary. It is sung in Italian, and directly relates to Baltar's situation. The lyrics translate: "Woe upon your Cylon heart / There's a toaster in your head/ And it wears high heels / Number Six calls to you / The Cylon Detector beckons / Your girlfriend is a toaster / Woe upon your Cylon heart / Alas, disgrace! Alas, sadness and misery! / The toaster has a pretty dress / Red like its glowing spine / Number Six whispers / By your command" (translation given in the liner notes for the Season 1 soundtrack, reposted on this page, with permission).
• Edward James Olmos, who portrays William Adama, also directed this episode. He was originally to direct "Flesh and Bone" but could not do so due to scheduling conflicts.
• Boomer does not appear in this episode.

Analysis

• Continuing from the previous episode, Caprica-Sharon now seems to be honestly trying to lead Helo away from the Cylons and truly escape.
• This is the first mention of the city of Delphi and Helo's hostile reaction to the news of its being used as a Cylon hub. Plausibly the emotional reaction is due to Delphi being a spiritual center for the Twelve Colonies.
• The test apparently takes 11 hours to generate results (although Boomer’s result in "Flesh and Bone" was obtained in far less time than this – "a couple of minutes," according to Baltar, and about 60 seconds of screen-time).
  • Baltar claims in "Resistance" that he allowed Boomer to believe she was human "for [his] own purposes". Does he have the ability to determine other Cylon infiltrators in a much shorter time frame than he chooses to admit in this episode? Perhaps he was just going through the math in his head - but then why the half-serious jokes about suicide as he contemplates the task?
  • Perhaps a "positive" result with a real Cylon takes much less time, but it takes 11 hours to be definitely sure someone isn't a Cylon.
  • There was a scene change between Baltar agreeing to Sharon's test and Baltar and Sharon getting the final results. It is possible that Baltar conducted the bulk of the test in the intervening time, and the audience only saw him conduct the final phase of the test after the bulk of the eleven-hour process was completed off-screen.
• Is it possible that the Cylon Raider is there to transmit instructions to other Cylons within the Fleet (as later in "Final Cut")?
  • In a deleted scene, it is mentioned that they noticed a high-frequency burst which could have been a Cylon within the Fleet sending out a signal, but couldn't track which ship it came from.

Questions

Answered Questions

For answers to the questions in this section, click here.

• Is Ellen Tigh a Cylon?
• What is Baltar hoping to gain from keeping the test results secret?

Unanswered Questions

None yet.

Official Statements

Concept and Tone

The producers discuss the transition from the dark themes of "Flesh and Bone" to a lighter, more comedic tone, as well as the episode's title and original "Crimson Tide" inspiration.

'Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down' was originally called 'Secrets and Lies', or 'Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down' by Jeff Vlaming. And when I saw those titles on the script, I knew we had to go with 'Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down'. It was too good. Too good a title to let lie on the cutting room floor.

—Ronald D. Moore, Podcast for "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down"

'Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down' began life as a very different episode than it ultimately came out to be. It was originally going to be a riff on 'Crimson Tide'.

—Ronald D. Moore, Moore on the original concept

The long and the short of it was that we had just come out of a very heavy, very dark, very disturbing episode. And the very next episode was supposed to be 'Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down' which was all about a very disturbing, very dark, very (sort of) unhappy episode where our two—two of our lead characters started pointing guns at one another. So there came a point when I just decided, well, let's just punt... Let's try something that's closer to a comedy, or as close to a comedy as Galactica can withstand.

—Ronald D. Moore, Moore on the tonal shift

Set Design and the Observation Deck

The introduction of the Observation Deck provided a psychological break for the crew from the metallic confines of the ship.

It did feel right that, perhaps, there was one place; that perhaps there was one area of the ship, which accepted a window or a port to look out and that it would be a fairly confined space for the crew on these very long, deep space missions... And that there might be a place where they can go to and just stargaze. And in this situation, it seemed like there would be a lot of people lining up to try and look out at the stars, you know, a break from the monotony of staring at metal walls.

—Ronald D. Moore, Moore on the observation area of the Galactica

Noteworthy Dialogue

Commander Adama and Laura Roslin discuss the deployment of the first Cylon detector in CIC:

Adama: Madam President, we are the proud owners of the universe's first bona fide Cylon detector.

Roslin: Well, that is great news. So... when do we begin?

Adama: Doctor Baltar would like to start widespread testing as soon as possible, but there are some serious limitations, because he can only do one person at a time and verification takes hours.

Roslin: So, who's going to go first?

Adama: (thinking for a second) The test... right. I think people in sensitive positions should go first.

Roslin: I completely agree. How about you?

Adama: Excuse me?

Roslin: If you're a Cylon, I'd like to know.

Adama: If I'm a Cylon, you're really screwed.

(Adama and Roslin both start laughing)

Roslin: Seriously, I do think you should go first. Show everyone in the fleet that they can trust the people at the top.

Adama: Well then, maybe YOU should go first. (silence) All right... I'll go first.

—Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down

William Adama, Saul Tigh, Ellen Tigh, Lee Adama, and Laura Roslin share a tense dinner:

Ellen Tigh: So Bill, now the question on everyone's mind — (and, I do mean everyone) — is "Where's Earth?" and "When are we going to get there?"

William Adama: Yeah... that's classified information.

Ellen Tigh: Oh, there's that word again!

Saul Tigh: Ellen, leave the man alone.

Ellen Tigh: Come on! If there aren't privileges to being an XO's wife, then what's the point? I mean, Bill, we're all family here, so come on!

Roslin: The need for secrecy is paramount, Ellen. Oh, I'm sorry. Perhaps you don't know that the Cylons look like us now.

Ellen Tigh: Oh... that. Yes. Yes, I knew that.

Roslin: It's recent news. Most people just found out a few days ago.

Ellen Tigh: (thinking) A thing like that would travel fast.

William Adama: Any one of us could be a Cylon.

(The entire table goes silent)

Ellen Tigh: BOO!

(Everyone jumps in their seats, while Ellen and Saul start laughing)

—Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down

Guest stars

• Michael Hogan as Colonel Saul Tigh
• Aaron Douglas as Chief Galen Tyrol
• Tahmoh Penikett as Lieutenant Karl "Helo" Agathon
• Kandyse McClure as Petty Officer Anastasia Dualla
• Paul Campbell as Billy Keikeya
• Alessandro Juliani as Lieutenant Felix Gaeta
• Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh
• Matthew Bennett as Aaron Doral
• Alex Green as Deckhand