Sine Qua Non

"Sine Qua Non" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 4, Episode 8
Writer(s)	Michael Taylor
Story by
Director	Rod Hardy
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	410
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	30 May 2008
CAN airdate	30 May 2008
UK airdate	27 May 2008
DVD release
Population	39,674 survivors ( 1)
Additional Info
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Guess What's Coming to Dinner?	Sine Qua Non	The Hub
Related Information
Official Summary
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Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
			@ BW Media
Promotional Materials
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Overview

President Laura Roslin's abduction by the Cylon Hybrid triggers a bitter power struggle within the Fleet. The Quorum has little information and demands to know what happened, while Tom Zarek insists that he is to be declared interim president. Lee Adama opposes him and enlists the help of notorious lawyer Romo Lampkin to find a candidate for the post, leading to a surprising decision. Meanwhile, Admiral Adama and Colonel Tigh come to blows over Tigh's relationship with Caprica-Six and Adama's obsession to find Roslin.

Summary

Teaser

• With President Laura Roslin missing, a meeting is held by the Quorum of Twelve. Vice President Tom Zarek heads the meeting and tells the delegates that with Roslin missing, he is to be sworn in as interim President.
• Upon hearing the news, Lee Adama contacts his father, who doesn't take it well.
• Natalie, who has just been shot by Sharon Agathon, is taken to the infirmary. She starts to have a vision or projection that she is in a forest on a sunny day. In real life, she only focuses on the faces of those who are taking her to the infirmary.
• Dr. Cottle immediately starts to operate on her. When she tries to make physical contact, likely sensing that she is about to die, Cottle takes her hand. However, just as they operate, her image of the forest brightens to a bright flash. The second this happens, her heart monitor flat lines, and Cottle announces her death.
• Admiral Adama sees Sharon Agathon and is angered by her decision to kill an unarmed woman, even if she was a Cylon. Agathon starts to explain her dream about a Six taking away her child at the Opera House. Eventually, Adama orders a guard to take her away to the brig and refuses her access to her daughter.
• When Adama returns to the CIC, he hears that the Resurrection Hub has disappeared from its last known location.

Notes

• Sine qua non is a Latin phrase meaning "without which it could not be". It is famously used by Andrew Jackson, who says the following after receiving an honorary degree from Harvard: "E pluribus unum, my friends. Sine qua non."
• Most civilians appear to have incorrectly assumed that the basestar's disappearance was a deliberate act of kidnapping, possibly in retaliation for Natalie's shooting.
• The pistol Lampkin uses to threaten Adama is a Stallion. The model previously appeared prominently in "Home, Part II".
• The episode features the first explicit mention of artificial gravity in dialogue.
• The book Searider Falcon makes another appearance. Adama finds it in the derelict Raptor, somewhat singed.
• The lullaby Sharon Agathon hums to Hera is the same one hummed by Sharon Valerii to a captured Raider in "Flesh and Bone".
• The infamous number, 47, appears in this episode as well: Romo Lampkin tells Lee Adama that they went through 47 candidates for interim president when confronting him on Colonial One.
• While Tom Zarek claims that the government of the "past five years", it has only been about three and a half years since Laura Roslin and William Adama have risen to power.
• It can be inferred that James McManus is talking to Tom Zarek during the wireless interview, given that Zarek calls the interviewer "Jim".
• William Adama's comment about how often he had to repair his model ship is a reference to the end of "Maelstrom", as well as a possible inside-joke about the fact that Edward James Olmos smashed the very expensive prop in and ad-lib during the shooting of that episode.

Analysis

• William Adama's actions in the search for Laura Roslin, namely the unreasonable allocation of resources and putting the Fleet at unnecessary risk, are precisely the same actions he executed when searching for Kara Thrace in "You Can't Go Home Again". Similarly, it is Colonel Tigh who helps bring the end to Adama's irrational actions, this time without Roslin's help and more violently.
• The apparition of loved one dredged up by a survivor—this time Lance, the only remaining physical connection to Romo Lampkin's wife, Faye—is reminiscent of not only Adama's apparition of his ex-wife in "A Day in the Life", but of Saul Tigh's apparition of Ellen Tigh during the fourth season, in which they cling to some memory of their wives.
• Odd as it seems, Romo's erratic behavior towards Lee Adama is not wholly uncontrolled. Throughout the encounter, Lampkin forces Adama to defend his willingness to make tough decisions, his courage, and his optimism. He uses his personal tragedies to full effect, confronting Adama with the dead cat just as he used the memory of his love for Faye to manipulate Caprica-Six. His willingness to use any means necessary to do the job (either to acquit Baltar or to vet presidential candidates). He tacitly admits his plan towards the end, in his response to Adama's determination to make a positive difference: "Is that your last word?....Then swear it."
• Despite the fact that Galactica has left the Fleet before to engage combat, this episode marks the first time that the civilian Fleet is intentionally left without any defense. The only other time the Fleet was left without military aid was after Boomer's assassination attempt of William Adama, when Galactica accidentally jumped to different coordinates than the rest of the Fleet (Scattered).

Cylons

• The child of Caprica-Six and Tigh will be the first known fully Cylon child, should it come to full term.
• The ability of Tigh to impregnate Six indicates a fundamental difference between the Final Five and Significant Seven, as Significant Seven Cylons have been thus far unable to conceive with one another.

Questions

• What is the significance of Natalie's dying visions?
• Will the unseen occurrences aboard the rebel base ship and the Resurrection Hub be shown?
• How will the Fleet react to an Adama as president?
• How will Caprica-Six's child be explained to the rest of the fleet?
• What will happen to the child if it survives to be born?
• How will the Quorum and the Fleet respond to Tigh's being left in charge of Galactica and the military?
• Did the group aboard the rebel base ship manage to unbox the D'Annas?
• If so, what will happen if she identifies military leader Tigh as a Final Five Cylon?
• What happened regarding Pike aboard the the derelict Raptor?
• Will Adama manage to find Roslin by waiting out in deep space?
• Has Kara truly been so easily re-accepted by her comrades?

Official Statements

• Michael Taylor discusses his spoiler-free impressions of a scene:

I was in the editing room, watching one of our talented editors assemble a rough cut of a single scene. Not a huge scene, just a relatively brief but quietly powerful scene between Adama and Tigh (you’ll see it in Episode 8, “Sine Qua Non”). What struck me is that while the dialogue was relatively simple, these two actors brought so much to it that the smallest looks and gestures carried immense weight. It made me realize anew how, after four seasons, these characters have accumulated so much history and nuance. As embodied by actors like Edward J. Olmos and Michael Hogan, they are wrenchingly human. Less characters than people I have now spent years with, and who still surprise me.

Noteworthy Dialogue

• William Adama confronts Saul Tigh about Caprica-Six's pregnancy:

William Adama: I know that you've been spending a lotta time interrogating the Six, but now the brig guards tell me that every time you order them out, you turn off the cameras.

Saul Tigh: I'm not torturing her, if that's what you're worried about.

Adama: I'm not. That I could almost understand. This I can't. Cottle tells me she's pregnant. What the frak have you been thinking, colonel? Do you deny it...? You don't... You can't. What the hell have you been thinking? Who's interrogating whom? How many of our secrets have you told this thing?

Tigh: How can you even ask me that? Question my loyalty?

Adama: Your loyalty? I need more than your loyalty. You're my first officer, I need judgment. I need your competence. You're jeopardizing this ship, putting it at risk because of your weaknesses.

Tigh: My weaknesses?

Adama: Yeah, your weaknesses!

Tigh: You're risking all our lives—for what? Our missing pilots? No—for a frakking woman! A frakking woman!

Adama: You watch what you frakkin' say about that woman! She's the president! Not some frakkin' skinjob that I've been banging! What do you think Ellen would say about this?

Tigh: Leave Ellen out of this.

Adama: What do you think Ellen would say about her husband impregnating a frakkin' Cylon prisoner?

Tigh: You motherfrakker! (violence ensues)

Guest Stars

• Michael Hogan as Colonel Saul Tigh
• Kandyse McClure as Lieutenant Anastasia Dualla
• Kate Vernon as Virtual Ellen
• Mark Sheppard as Romo Lampkin
• Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek
• Donnelly Rhodes as Doctor Cottle
• Rekha Sharma as Tory Foster
• Leah Cairns as Lieutenant Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson
• Colin Lawrence as Lieutenant Hamish "Skulls" McCall
• Ryan McDonell as Lieutenant Eammon "Gonzo" Pike
• Alexandra Thomas as Hera Agathon
• Donna Soares as Gemenon Delegate
• Andrew McIlroy as Jacob Cantrell
• Judith Maxie as Picon Delegate
• Iris Paluly as Speaking Delegate #2
• Veena Sood as Quorum Delegate
• Laara Sadiq as Priestess