The Farm

This page covers the episode "The Farm." For the Farms themselves, see Farms.

"The Farm" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
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Overview

Kara Thrace is shot and wakes up in a remote hospital facility on Caprica, and learns that her friendly doctor has his own plans for her future.

Summary

On Caprica

• Starbuck, Helo, and two members of the Resistance (Anders and Sue-Shaun, who were introduced in the last episode) devise a plan to escape from Caprica by commandeering a Cylon Heavy Raider from a nearby airstrip. They will fit as many people as possible onto the craft, and will dispatch a rescue mission for the remainder upon return to Galactica.
• As the team is about to assault the airstrip, they are ambushed, and Thrace is hit by a bullet that grazes off her head and gets lodged in her abdomen. She loses consciousness.
• Thrace wakes up in a hospital. She is being attended to by a doctor named Simon, who tells her that she was brought into the hospital by Anders, and that Anders died from a shrapnel wound. Thrace is devastated.
• Thrace spends the next few days conversing with Simon, who muses that women capable of bearing children are a rare "commodity" now that the Cylons have nuked the Colonies, and suggests that Thrace should consider giving birth to a child.
• Simon speculates that Thrace's reluctance to have children stems from her mother having abused her when she was young, as evidenced by a pattern of fractures in her fingers. This topic upsets her.
• Thrace wakes to discover a new scar on her abdomen. Simon tells her it's from an operation he did to stop some bleeding, but Thrace doesn't believe him, particularly after he calls her "Starbuck"--her pilot call sign, which she has never told him.
• Thrace fakes sleep after crimping her intraveneus drip filled with sedative. When Simon leaves, she follows him into the hallway, where she overhears him having a conversation with a copy of Number Six about the "complete removal" of her ovaries scheduled for the next day.
• A short time later, Thrace stabs Simon with a broken mirror shard and escapes the room. Lurching around the deserted hospital, she stumbles upon a room full of semi-conscious women wired horrifically to machines. Among them is Sue-Shaun, who begs Kara to destroy the "baby machines" and end their misery. She obliges with a prayer, a pair of medical tongs, and a primal scream.
• Thrace staggers outside, braining the Six model with a fire extinguisher in the process, only to find a new Simon standing there to greet her. Just then, Helo and the rest of the resistance emerge from the woods. They pepper Simon with bullets, but soon get bogged down in a firefight with a squad of Centurions. Time for the second rescue in as many minutes: Caprica-Valerii swoops down in a stolen Cylon Heavy Raider and blows the enemy away.
• Thrace relates her experiences in the hospital to the others. Valerii explains that the Cylons have a flaw which renders them unable to reproduce biologically, and that they have been holding human women in "farms" to try to implant them with human/Cylon embryos. This effort has failed, however, leading the Cylons to believe that conception requires "love". According to this theory, Valerii was able to conceive with Helo because of their love for each other.
• Helo, Sharon, and Starbuck leave Caprica on the Heavy Raider. Starbuck has promised Anders to return someday to rescue the Resistance. In the meantime, Anders says he will try to destroy as many farms as he can.

On Galactica

• Commander Adama returns to duty, and is greated by applause in the CIC. He tells the crew that he loves them all.
• To try to rally support to the president, Zarek wants Lee Adama to make a recording denouncing his father. Lee stops in the middle of it and says he can't go through with that. It's left to Roslin to win over the fleet.
• Roslin plays the "religion card" to convince a third of The Fleet to jump with her to Kobol despite an infuriated and staunchly secular Adama. She transfers to the Astral Queen from which she transmits a message imploring the Fleet to follow her and the path the Lords of Kobol have set out for her. Adama didn't board the Astral Queen because he thought only three or four ships would seriously listen to her religious nonsense. Instead, 24 ships ("almost a third of the Fleet") go with her.
• Cally is thrown in the brig for killing Galactica-Boomer. Chief Tyrol implores Adama to release her, because she was traumatized by events on Kobol on not in her right mind when she did it. Adama agrees to let her off easy by charging her with discharging a firearm without permission, which gives her only one month in the brig.
• Adama asks Tyrol if he could love Boomer even though she was a machine. Tyrol isn't quite sure, but it becomes apparent that Adama is asking himself the question as much as he is Tyrol; Adama loved all of his pilots like his children.
• Adama visits Galactica-Boomer's body in the morgue. He asks "Why?" then breaks down crying over her body.

Questions

• Caprica-Valerii says that she knows that Leoben Conoy told Kara she was special during his interrogation aboard Galactica. How could she have known this? How do the Cylon agents communicate to each other?
  • Since it is confirmed that Humano-Cylon bodies do transmit their consciousness or updated information from body to body upon death, this implies that all models share memories between each other, no matter where they are. Caprica-Valerii seems to know much of Galactica's state of affairs when asked. If such communication is the case, wouldn't the relative strength of such a signal from the body be a tip-off for Colonials to locate the remaining Cylon infiltrators?
  • Valerii also says that she "hasn't accessed that data" when asked how many farms there are. Does this mean that Cylons transmit information only upon death? She knew about Leoben during "Flesh and Bone" but she doesn't know the thoughts of the other Cylons on the planet who have not died. Conversely the Cylons seem unaware of her rebellious thoughts.
    • Has the rebellious Sharon Valerii severed her connection with the other Cylons? After she switched sides in "Flesh and Bone", the other Cylons seem unaware of her current thoughts and actions. Perhaps she only knows of events on Galactica before this point?
  • Leoben appeared to acknowledge in "Flesh and Bone" that he was too far from Cylon forces for his personality to be recovered. Was he able to covertly transmit his memories to one of the basestars encountered in Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II" or "Scattered" by way of another agent?
• Will we see Simon again? Is he one of the eight Cylon agents hiding in the fleet?
• How did Simon know Anders name?
  • RDM's blog states that one of the member's of Anders' resistance was probably a Cylon (not necessarily any of the resistance members we saw on screen) who tipped them off to Anders, though this didn't make the final cut of the episode.
• Why does the Caprica resistance seemed more concerned about Kara's disappearance than Sue-Shaun's? Did Kara's love interest generated the greater concern?
• Could Commander Adama's evident grief upon viewing the corpse of Galactica-Boomer in the ship's morgue mean that they were personally involved at some point? Or, perhaps, did the level of humanity that this Boomer showed cause Adama to mourn her loss as he would a daughter or daughter-figure such as Kara? In any case, given her role in Adama's assassination attempt, this is strange and strong behavior.
• Would any viable embryos harvested by the Cylons be accelerated into mature adults or placed in vitro into a host? Would the host be humano-Cylon or human?
  • Caprica-Valerii seemed to imply that no viable hybrid embryos had ever been produced by the Farms, at least up until this point. Then again, she said that they "weren't very successful", which is somewhat vague.

Analysis

• What exactly did the Cylons do to Kara's ovaries? Simon tells Six (listen hard): "...pending lab test results on sample for ovaries, complete removal will proceed tomorrow". Starbuck escaped right after this, which means that they were not able to "completely remove" her ovaries, so at the very least Starbuck can still have children. However, female humans only have two ovaries: how can you have a "sample" one? -- Perhaps what was meant was "egg cells" or "ovum" but this didn't flow well in dialog, so the script was changed to read "ovaries" even though this was not intended. However, in either case it would seem that the Cylons at least obtained several sample egg cells from Starbuck. Will this lead to developments later on?
• In Ron D. Moore's blog entry for October 14, 2005, after finishing the last scripts for season two he jokingly says he has "the reward of time spent thinking about something besides Kara's missing ovaries ("Now, where did I leave those ovaries? They were right here a minute ago...") ". What is meant by this?

Notes

• This episode's opening credits marks the return of the "blipvert" effect used in the first season episodes, which Ron D. Moore uses as an homage to "Space: 1999".
• As of the opening credits, the fleet population is now 47,857, a net loss of 4 since "Resistance". This reflects the deaths of four civillians on board the Gideon in that episode, but apparently not that of Boomer. Was she removed from the count immediately after her assassination attempt?
• According to Gaeta, this episode takes place "a week" after Apollo docked at Cloud Nine in the last episode, although apparently Adama hasn't been well enough to resume command until very recently.
• 24 ships, almost a third of the fleet, have left with Roslin for Kobol.
  • This would mean the total fleet consisted of over 72 ships. In the Mini-Series, there are only about 40 FTL-capable ships able to rendezvous with Galactica at Ragnar Anchorage.
• Cally has been put in the brig for 30 days for discharging a firearm without permission. Tyrol actually tried to help get her out immediately by telling Adama that she was traumatized by events on Kobol and not in her right mind. Adama agrees to be lenient and give Cally the short sentance, and Tyrol is grateful.
• Galactica-Boomer's body is now in the morgue.
• Number Six mentioned that "procreation is one of God's commandments" in the first episode, "33".
• The Humano-Cylons cannot reproduce biologically with each other (they can produce more copies of the existing models, but a male and female Cylons cannot reproduce with each other). However, according to the Cylon religion it is a commandment of God that they procreate; "be fruitful and multiply". Therefore, the Cylons began a project to create a hybrid offspring of Humano-Cylons and Humans (who can easily reproduce biologically), basically trying any way they could to find some way to procreate their new race. To this end, the Cylons have created a large number of "Farms": breeding centers filled with captured Human women hooked up to medical equipment, being used as living incubators (a "baby factory"), which basically amounts to medically raping hundreds if not thousands of women. However, it seems that up to this point, the Farms have not been able to successfully produce any hybrid offspring. Trying to understand their failure, the Cylons developed a new theory: the element they were missing was love, and perhaps a hybrid baby conceived in love would succeed. This was the reason why Helo was set up by the Cylons into being trapped in a position where he would fall in love with the copy of Sharon Valerii and have sex with her. The Caprica-Valerii's unborn child is indeed unique: it is the first Human/Cylon hybrid conceived in love, and as a result appears to be the first and only successful hybrid; it seems that no other embryo survived nearly as long as it already has (it is now about five weeks old, since it's conception in "Six Degrees of Separation").
• Galactica-Boomer was serving aboard Galactica for two years, which means the Cylons had begun infiltrating Colonial society from at least that long ago. This matches the length of time of Six's affair with Baltar while on Caprica.
• Starbuck was the victim of frequent physical abuse as a child; she's suffered many bone fractures in childhood, and all of her fingers have been broken at some point.
• It has clearly been established that there are at least 5 remaining Raptors aboard Galactica. Lt. Gaeta mentions that 5 Raptors were standing by to perform a mission. There might be more that they simply didn't want to use, or there might be more that are currently down for repairs.
• Caprica-Valerii is aware of Leoben Conoy's interrogation by Starbuck in "Flesh and Bone", even of specific things he said during it.
• This episode introduces the 5th confirmed Humano-Cylon, Simon.
• According to a deleted scene this episodes takes place a week after "Fragged".
• After the final commercial break, as Simon enters Starbuck's room (right before she stabs him) you can see that her room is number "254". This scene takes place in Season 2, episode #5, and this is the start of Act #4.

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Cylons discussion the surgical testing they are performing on Starbuck:

Simon:...pending lab test results on [sample for] ovaries, complete removal will proceed tomorrow. They've lab tested positive and subject will be removed to processing facility for final disposition.

Number Six: Is that regret I hear in your voice, Simon?

Simon: If it is, it certainly is none of your concern.

• Explanation of the Human/Cylon hybrid project:

Valerii: They were conducting research, into Human/Cylon breeding programs.

Starbuck:: Human/Cylon?

Helo:: 'Call them "Farms"...your gunshot wound looks fine...

Starbuck:: So "Farms", that's great...what were they going to do, 'knock me up with some Cylon kid?

Valerii: They were going to try to. We haven't been very successful so far.

Anders: Supposedly they can't reproduce...you know, biologically, so they've been trying every which-way to produce offspring.

Starbuck: Why?

Valerii: Procreation. It's one of God's commandments; "be fruitful". We can't fulfill it, we've tried. So we decided--

Starbuck: To rape human women?!

Valerii: You know, if you agreed to bear children it would be voluntary, maybe even set you up with someone you like.

Starbuck: And you two kids? [Helo and Caprica-Boomer]

Valerii: We're different.

Starbuck: What the frak is that supposed to mean?

Helo: They have this theory; maybe the one thing they were missing was love. So Sharon and I...were set up...

Starbuck: To fall in love?! They didn't ask Sue-Shaun if she wanted to fall in love, alright! They put a tube in her, and they hooked her up to a machine!

Valerii: They know who you are, Kara. You're special. Leoben told you that. You have a destiny.

Helo: [pointing out the other scar on Starbuck's lower abdomen] Starbuck what's the second scar?

Starbuck: I don't know. I don't think I want to know now. You know?

Valerii: No.

Anders: Alright, how many women do they have in these "Farms"?

Valerii: Hundreds, maybe thousands. I don't know, I haven't accessed that data.

• Adama wonders aloud about the nature of Cylons and humans

Tyrol: I don't believe she [Cally] was in her right mind when she shot Boomer--

Adama: Did you love her, Chief?

Tyrol: 'Scuse me?

Adama: Boomer. Did you love her?

Tyrol: Thought I did.

Adama: Well, when you think you love somebody, you love them. That's what love is. Thoughts... She was a Cylon. A machine! Is that what Boomer was, a machine? A thing?

Tyrol: That's what she turned out to be.

Adama: She was more than that to us. She was more than that to me. She was a vital, living person aboard my ship for almost two years! She couldn't have been just a machine. Could you love a machine?

Tyrol: No, sir. Guess I couldn't have.

AdamaCally discharged a firearm without permission, endangering life of her fellow shipmate. 30 days in the brig. Dismissed.

Tyrol: Thank you, sir.

Adama: You'll see her again, Chief.

Tyrol: Excuse me?

Adama: There are many copies. You'll see her again.

• Simon, talking about Starbuck's reluctance to have children but also perhaps talking about the Cylons view of themselves (and maybe the "human" cylons).

Simon: Children of abusive parents often fear passing along that abuse to their own children.

Official Statements

Ronald D. Moore mentions in his Podcast that because of Kara Thrace's promise to Anders to return with help, we'll probably return to Caprica.

Guest stars

Aaron Douglas (CPO Galen Tyrol)
Nicki Clyne (SPC Cally)
Michael Trucco (Samuel Anders)
Tamara Lashley (Sue-Shaun)
Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek)
Rick Worthy (Simon)

Statistics

• USA Nielsen Ratings: 2.0 household rating

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