Resurrection Ship, Part I

"Resurrection Ship, Part I" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 2, Episode 11
Writer(s)	Michael Rymer
Story by	Anne Cofell Saunders
Director	Michael Rymer
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)	Michelle Forbes as Admiral Cain
Production No.	211
Nielsen Rating	2.1
US airdate	2006-01-06
CAN airdate	2006-03-25
UK airdate	2006-03-21
DVD release	19 September 2006 US 28 August 2006 UK
Population	49,604 survivors ( 1)
Additional Info	Season 2.5 Premiere
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Pegasus	Resurrection Ship, Part I	Resurrection Ship, Part II
Related Information
Official Summary
R&D Skit – View
Podcast Transcript – View
Continuity Errors Present – View
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A potential battle between Galactica and Pegasus is only averted by Lt. Thrace's return from her recon mission with important tactical information on the unknown Cylon ship.

Summary

Teaser

• Continuing from the previous episode, a swarm of Vipers from Galactica and Pegasus move into weapons range of each other after Commander Adama challenges Admiral Cain over the imminent execution of two of his crewmen. Neither commanders are willing to order "weapons free" to fire. The Vipers are reduced to playing "chicken," attempting to force each other to fire — or collide.
• Cain orders Captain Cole Taylor to arrest and relieve Lieutenant Lee "Apollo" Adama, who is co-piloting a Raptor about to leave on the recon mission. The Raptor pilot draws his sidearm on Lt. Adama and orders him into the rear of the Raptor.

Act 1 and beyond

• Flying the Blackbird, which goes undetected by the Cylon fleet, Kara Thrace flies right into the superstructure of the Unknown Cylon Ship, taking pictures along the way. Before the Cylons can detect her, she jumps away.
• Confined to the rear of the Raptor, Lt. Adama sends an encrypted text message to Thrace.
• Leading Galactica's Viper squadron, Louanne "Kat" Katraine continually requests clearance from Commander Adama to fire on Pegasus' Vipers, but he refuses.
• Thrace arrives in the Blackbird. After getting over her initial confusion at the chicken-fight, she receives Lt. Adama's message and replies back, wondering what was going on (the Viper entanglement).
• Both Galactica and Pegasus pick up the Blackbird on DRADIS, but its lack of transponder codes leads Cain and Adama to assume that the new contact is a Raider. All Vipers break off their chicken-fight and move to engage the enemy, only standing down when Thrace broadcasts her ID over wireless.
• When Cain looks likely to resume the conflict with Adama, Thrace uploads her incredibly detailed pictures of the Unknown Cylon Ship to Pegasus' CIC. A closeup shows Cylon bodies, including several inactive copies of the blonde Humanoid Cylon known to the Colonials as "Shelly Godfrey" and "Gina Inviere."
• Aboard Colonial One, after being grilled by President Laura Roslin for their near-disastrous actions, Adama and Cain agree to a truce while they prepare a joint attack on the Cylon fleet.
• Privately, Roslin warns Adama that Cain is a loose cannon, who must be killed in order to save the Fleet from annihilation. Adama is surprised at Roslin's candor, and is reluctant to consider the idea.
• Adama learns that Pegasus was also shepherding a civilian fleet, which it abandoned months ago, but not before stripping it of anything useful, including FTL drives, spare parts, and people. Cain ordered the execution of the families of individuals she selected who would not leave with Pegasus.
• Gaius Baltar speaks more with Gina Inviere, who wants Baltar to kill her so she can free herself from her torturous existence. He tells her that she cannot die as her consciousness would only download into another Cylon body. Seeing the copies of reconnaissance photos Baltar is carrying, Gina says she would die if his Fleet destroys the Unknown ship, which she names.
• Baltar briefs Adama and Cain: The function of the Resurrection Ship, as Gina called it, is to allow Humanoid Cylons a place where their consciousness can download, as an agent in the Fleet would be too far from the Cylon homeworld for their consciousness to return. Cain quickly surmises that, without the Resurrection Ship, any Cylon agent killed thereafter would be permanently dead, perhaps making the Cylons more conservative in carrying out their respective missions.
• Laura Roslin's illness is now more visibly apparent. William Adama visits her, and the two have a most unusual, even sentimental talk, with humor about getting a fresh, young Cylon body replacement for Roslin. Adama smiles and says that he couldn't think of her as a blonde, but Roslin smiles and says he'd be surprised.
• Cain finds Thrace's initiative laudable, and promotes her to Captain and CAG Pegasus over Cole Taylor. She initially pulls Lee Adama's flight status, but restores it at Thrace's behest and assigns him to her team. Thrace begins plans on an attack on the Resurrection Ship.
• Helo and Galen Tyrol are pleasantly surprised not to be dead. Lee Adama visits the two and catches them up on events, noting that his father pulled out the stops to ensure Helo's and Tyrol's survival.
• Starbuck and Apollo brief the battlestar commanders and XO's regarding the plan to disable and destroy the Resurrection Ship. The plan will involve both battlestars and all available fighters. Both Admiral Cain and Commander Adama approve of the plan, Adama being the more hesitant of the two.
• Colonel Tigh asks if the Blackbird could be used to sneak up behind the Resurrection Ship with a nuclear missile to destroy the Resurrection Ship outright. Thrace indicates that computer simulations show that the Cylons would pick up the radiological signature of the bomb (which cannot be hidden by the Blackbird's stealth ability). Such detection would destroy their element of surprise and likely warn the Resurrection Ship to jump away.
• After the briefing, Adama consults with Thrace privately, asking her to shoot Cain in the head after the attack. Likewise, Cain transfers Jack Fisk and a squad of Marines loyal to her to Galactica and instructs Fisk to kill Adama and his command staff after the attack.

Notes

• The Fleet population is down to 49,604 to account for the death of Alastair Thorne.
• Admiral Cain promotes Kara Thrace to the rank of captain. She replaces Stinger as Pegasus's CAG.
• The Cylon fleet containing the Resurrection Ship has been following the Colonial Fleet. It is speculated that the Resurrection Ship is a safety net for any Cylons who die in the Fleet.
• In case there was any doubt, by this point Galactica crew definitely knows that the blonde woman they first met as "Shelley Godfrey" is a humanoid Cylon, to the point that Roslin cracks a joke that she wouldn't mind waking up inside a gorgeous blonde-haired body.
• Number Six likes pyramid. She went to live games often while she was on Caprica. She says it was because she loved the rush of raw emotions that would sweep over the crowd.
• Thrace still intends to recover Anders' Caprica Resistance fighters from Caprica. Timeline-wise, they have a little over a month of anti-radiation meds left (apparently, they are able to obtain more as time passes).
• Tigh and Fisk continue their status as drinking buddies.
• Roslin has developed a bad cough, perhaps evidence that her cancer has spread to her lungs, or that she has begun to suffer from opportunistic infections.
• Although Commander Adama does a good job of trying to "hide" it, when Adama leaves the sick Roslin he quickly wipes away a tear.

Analysis

• Cain wonders if debating morality is what Roslin and Adama have been doing "for the past six months". However, as shown here, this episode should only take place a little over three months after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. This is actually the starting point of what Battlestar Wiki refers to as the Season two timeline discontinuity: all episodes in Season 2.5 have jumped ahead three months in the timeline, while being consistent with each other (i.e. "Downloaded" is supposed to be 9 months after the Cylon attack, and it does take place 3 months after this episode).
• Louanne Katraine has become the lead pilot on Galactica following the transfer of Lee Adama and Kara Thrace to Pegasus. Given that the ungifted George Birch is apparently the best to be found within Galactica's regular chain of command ^{(TRS: "Home, Part I")}, it is unsurprising that a talented nugget has risen to the top.
  • In hindsight, her abuse of stims is actually in line with the single-minded zeal she approaches her job with. She has apparently learned to channel her perfectionism into a more constructive outlet.
  • In choosing Birch Commander Adama decides to value loyalty way above everything else, about which Tigh is quite surprised. With Adama re-balancing his requirements it is no surprise a better pilot gets the position.
• Both Adama and Cain's assassination plans (taking advantage of a victory celebration in CIC) are exactly the same as the one used by Sharon Valerii in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II".
• Commander Adama likely specifies to shoot Cain in the head, because he himself survived two shots in the gut and wants to make sure that she dies.
• The attack plan is similar to the attack on the Cylon tylium refinery in "The Hand of God". Both times, civilian freighters are used to draw Raiders away from the main target.
• The Cylons are unable to detect the Blackbird, while both Colonial battlestars are able to pick it up relatively quickly. It should be noted that the Blackbird is only detected once it starts transmitting a message. This suggests that it isn't literally detected by its DRADIS signature, but by the wireless signals it gives off.
• Laura Roslin, as President of the Twelve Colonies, probably has the power to remove Cain from active duty status. However, Cain barely recognizes her authority. She does a double take when Roslin is introduced to her as president, and - similar to Adama's reaction in the Miniseries - still sees her as the Secretary of Education. While attempting to get supplies for the civilian fleet, Roslin tells Adama that Cain will not take her phone calls. It is doubtful that she would follow an order to stand down, especially given her propensity for throwing Adama's logged actions back at him. Presumably she would cite his decision to remove Roslin from office and Tigh's subsequent declaration of martial law as precedent for doing same were Roslin to challenge her. (And Roslin was unable to remove Adama from active duty at that time, either, suggesting a possible limitation to her powers as president.)
  • Alternatively, Roslin should have the power to pardon Helo and Chief, or to commute their sentences. The U.S. President has this authority for convictions in military court-martial proceedings, and Roslin subsequently issues a general amnesty for crimes committed on New Caprica. See, Collaborators (Episode). Had Cain refused to honor a Presidential grant of clemency, Roslin would have cause for removing or demoting her, and Adama would have legal cover for moving against her. Dogger55 07:44, 3 July 2011 (EDT)
• Despite demanding obedience and discipline from those under her, Cain admires courage and out-of-the-box thinking and even allows a certain amount of rule-bending at times. In this episode, she promotes Kara Thrace to CAG despite Thrace's known disciplinary problems (the most recent being her unauthorized usage of the Blackbird).

Questions

• Why don't Cain and her crew grasp the concept that survival of the human race supersedes the military way of life? (Answer)
• What was the fate of the other civilians in Pegasus's civilian fleet, the ones who weren't brought to Pegasus as useful assets or executed after the civilian ships were stripped? (Answer)
• If Dr. Cottle were to perform a psychological examination on Cain, could Adama strip her of command for medical reasons? Would Cain or her crew even accept such a move?
• Why does Commander Adama rely on gossip from Cally Henderson and Tigh, rather than debriefing Laird personally?
  • Laird is probably too intimidated by Cain to give Adama any information that could be used against her.
• When did the Resurrection Ship begin following the Fleet? Was it able to rescue Aaron Doral (Suicide Bomber Copy) (killed day 17), Shelly Godfrey (disappeared day 24), Leoben Conoy (Gemenon Traveler Copy) (killed day 25), or Sharon Valerii (killed c. day 54)? (Answer regarding Boomer)
• Starbuck gets some close shots of the Resurrection Ship, so much so that Admiral Cain is able to identify the Cylon agent she knew as Gina Inviere. Could any of the other humanoid Cylon models be identified, including the ones that the Fleet aren't aware of yet? (Answer)
• Since Lee Adama is ultimately included in the mission to assassinate Cain anyway, why didn't his father deign to brief him at the same time as Kara Thrace? Having Thrace fill him in later doubles the chance of their plans being overheard.
• Baltar says that he is tired of the fantasy-world in his head that he retreats into; not of Number Six herself, but of his bachelor pad on Caprica. Is this a further sign that Baltar is shifting closer into the Cylon camp? It could mean that he no longer misses his old life on Caprica and has stopped clinging to it.
• To what extent is the chain of command still in effect? Adama fully intends to have Cain killed, but still stops short of demanding Agathon and Tyrol's return, and Cain believes he will still accept Fisk's transfer to Galactica as a spy.
• Is Admiral Cain telling the truth when she says to Starbuck that their "ultimate goal" is to return to the Twelve Colonies and liberate them from the Cylons? While the idea fits to her previous actions against the Cylons, could it just be a way to gain Thrace's trust?

Official Statements

• Michelle Forbes (Helena Cain) on the different choices her character and Edward James Olmos' character had to make:

That's indeed what she did [in order to ensure Pegasus's survival]. And Galactica had many difficult choices. [Edward James Olmos' character is absolutely mesmerizing to me. The questions [William Adama] has had to face – ethical dilemmas, life and death questions. He's just made them from a more human place. He hasn't lost his sense of humanity and compassion and he's constantly questioning that. That's what’s so wonderful about the [Season 2] Pegasus arc, you have these two forms of leadership in juxtaposition and just examining that.

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Upon returning from the recon mission.

Starbuck: Starbuck to all vipers-- do not fire... repeat, do not fire! I am a friendly, okay? We're all friendlies. So, let's just...be friendly.

• In Galactica's CIC.

Col. Tigh: Ahh, another one of her crazy ass stunts... thank the Gods!

Commander Adama: You can say that again!

• During the meeting on Colonial One

President Roslin: Admiral, surely... The spirit of the law requires something more here than summary executions.

Admiral Cain: Is this what the two of you have been doing for the past six months? Debating the finer points of Colonial law? Well, guess what, we're at war! And we don't have the luxury of academic debate over these issues.

President Roslin: You want to cut through it, fine. You have Pegasus, he has Galactica. Two heavily armed, very powerful warships. Now, I am sure that Pegasus would prevail in any fight--

Commander Adama: --I wouldn't count on that--

President Roslin: --But certainly, there'd be heavy damage and you'd take significant casualties. So you can go out there and fight it out with Galactica or you can compromise. And those are the only two options on the table, period.

Admiral Cain: ...How the two of you have survived this long, I will never know.....

• Discussing Admiral Cain.

President Roslin: I afraid this can only end one way. You've got to kill her.

Commander Adama: What the hell are you talking about?

President Roslin: Like she said, let's cut through it. The two of you were willing to go to war today. Do you think she's going to step down from that? She's going to bide her time and hit you the first chance she gets. That's a given. I hate to lay this on you Bill, but she is dangerous and the only thing that you can do is to hit her before she hits you.

Commander Adama: I'm not an assassin.

• First thing Gina speaks.

Gina: I want to die. Will you help me do that? Will you kill me, please?

• After giving Gina new clothes.

Baltar: Were you aware of your true nature as a Cylon when you boarded the ship? Or would you describe yourself as a sleeper agent?

Gina: I knew what I was. I was a soldier. I-I had a mission, I carried it out. I thought that when it was done I was going to die. That you would kill me. Then I-- then I would download into a new body...be reborn. But you didn't kill me. The things you did to me.

Baltar: What they did to you was wrong... Evil. But I'm not one of them. You have to believe me. Things are going to get better for you. From this moment on. I promise.

Gina: I don't want things to get better. I want to die.

• President Roslin is bedridden, dying of cancer, and coughing profusely.

Commander Adama: What can I get you?

President Roslin: A new body. Perhaps, one of those young Cylon models from the Resurrection Ship.

Commander Adama: I can't see you as a blonde.

President Roslin: You'd be surprised. (Laughs)

• Scene intercuts between Commander Adama telling Starbuck to assassinate Admiral Cain, while at the same time Cain is ordering Col. Jack Fisk to assassinate Adama.

Admiral Cain: Jack, I want to transfer a detachment of Marines to Galactica. And I want you to handpick them. Completely reliable. Completely loyal. Razors.

Commander Adama: I have a mission for you, Kara.

Starbuck: Anything for you, you know that.

Commander Adama: Don't accept too quickly. You won't like this one. I don't like it. But I've decided that it has to be done.

Admiral Cain: I'm transferring you to Galactica, as well. I'll tell Adama that you're there to be my eyes and ears. He'll hate it. He'll think you're my spy and try to freeze you out of decision-making. But he'll accept it. Now I want you to stay in CIC throughout the attack. Stay with Adama.

Commander Adama: After the attack is completed and you've accounted for your pilots, I want you to land your bird on the Pegasus to report directly to CIC. You'll take Lee with you. He'll watch your back.

Admiral Cain: Position Marines in key areas throughout the ship and keep a squad posted just outside CIC--

Commander Adama: --There'll the normal chaos and emotional high after the attack--

Admiral Cain: --They'll be slapping each other on the back, celebrating the victory--

Commander Adama: --That'll keep their guard down--

Admiral Cain: --Security will be lax--

Commander Adama: --I will ask for you over the wireless--

Admiral Cain: --I will call you directly, and when I have you on the line and you hear me give the command, "Execute case orange"--

Commander Adama: --When you hear me say "Downfall"--

Admiral Cain: --You are to signal the Marines to terminate Adama's command...starting with Adama--

Commander Adama: --I want you to pull out your weapon...and shoot Admiral Cain in the head. (Starbuck is shocked)

Cast

• Michael Hogan as Colonel Saul Tigh
• Aaron Douglas as Chief Galen Tyrol
• Tahmoh Penikett as Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon
• Nicki Clyne as Specialist Cally Henderson
• Alessandro Juliani as Lt. Felix Gaeta
• Kandyse McClure as Petty Officer Anastasia Dualla
• Donnelly Rhodes as Dr. Cottle
• Graham Beckel as Colonel Jack Fisk
• John Pyper-Ferguson as Captain Cole "Stinger" Taylor
• Sebastian Spence as Lt. Noel "Narcho" Allison
• Luciana Carro as Lt. Louanne "Kat" Katraine
• Vincent Gale as Chief Peter Laird
• Peter-John Prinsloo as Lt. Mei "Freaker" Firelli
• Brad Dryborough as Louis Hoshi