Sacrifice

"Sacrifice" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
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Overview

The Cloud 9's lounge is under attack by terrorists who are convinced that Sharon Valerii is playing the military. The leader of this quartet, Sesha Abinell, demands that the invaluable Valerii be brought to her -- otherwise Ellen Tigh, Anastasia Dualla, Lee Adama, Billy Keikeya and others will be executed.

Summary

• Billy Keikeya proposes to Anastasia Dualla, who flatly refuses. Later on, Dualla and Lee Adama discuss the incident while on leave aboard Cloud 9, at one of the ship's drinking and dining establishments.

• Keikeya, also aboard Cloud 9, finds Dualla there. An awkward moment arises when he discovers that she is with Lee Adama. Adama leaves the two to talk, going to sit at the bar, where he encounters Ellen Tigh, who begins to flirt with him.

• Three men and a woman named Sesha Abinell lay siege to the establishment, taking the guests hostage, and sealing the area off from the rest of the ship. Abinell's husband was killed aboard the Greenleaf when the Cylons attacked it ten weeks ago, and she decides to exact vengeance.

• Before the terrorists lay siege, Lee Adama asks Ellen Tigh to come with him into the restroom. Tigh follows, thinking that Adama has invited her for a sexual tryst. But Lee Adama had predicted the situation. As a gambit to confuse the terrorists, Adama takes the dry ice from Tigh's drink and uses it to sabotage one of the oxygen sensors. In the meantime, Tigh leaves the restroom and loudly announces herself to the terrorists.

Sesha Abinell.

• Abinell demands that Admiral Adama and President Roslin turn over Cylon Sharon Valerii to her, seeking Valerii's life in compensation for her husband's. She is infuriated that Admiral Adama and Roslin continue to allow one of their greatest enemies to live in their midst, even caged. She believes that Valerii is compromising the security of the Fleet, and that the Cylon holocaust was due to similar Cylon infiltration of the military.

• Abinell sends one of her men into the restroom to find anyone else they haven't rounded up. Captain Adama gets the drop on him and takes his gun, taking him out, threatening to kill him if the hostages are not released. Abinell threatens to kill Dualla if Adama refuses to surrender. Adama drops the empty threat and surrenders.

• Captain Adama's small-scale sabotage works, and the terrorists demand repairs to be made to the ship's oxygen systems.

• Kara Thrace, along with a detachment of marines, are also on leave aboard Cloud 9. They quickly plan a recon mission — Thrace disguises herself as the technician sent to repair the air system. Her job is to reconnoiter the situation and return with details.

• Thrace's cover is blown when Ellen Tigh recognizes her as one of Galactica's pilots. Thrace draws two pistols and begins shooting at the terrorists, soon aided by the marines. Two marines are killed, along with one of the hostage-takers. In addition, Thrace accidentally shoots Lee Adama. Thrace and the surviving marines retreat, and the situation is only exacerbated.

• The situation prompts Admiral Adama to once again consider the value of Sharon Valerii to him. Speaking with Valerii, she reminds the admiral that she saved the Fleet five or six times. Adama asks if she would reveal the identities of other Cylon agents in the Fleet. She refuses. Oddly enough, this seems to reaffirm her value to him.

• Admiral Adama agrees to give the terrorists the dead body of Sharon Valerii in return for the hostages. However, he secretly delivers the dead copy of Valerii known as Boomer. When the terrorists realize the ploy, Sesha orders the terrorist Vinson to kill Anastasia Dualla. Billy Keikeya seizes one of the terrorists' guns and kills Vinson, but is mortally wounded by Vinson's return fire as marines storm the lounge. Abinell is killed by marines, her body falling atop Boomer's body.

• In the aftermath, Dualla stays with Lee Adama in the infirmary, promising to stay with him until he recovers. Neither notice Starbuck quietly leaving sickbay as she says this. Laura Roslin grieves the death of Keikeya, who had become "the closest thing [she] had to family."

Questions

• Who leaked out the information that Valerii was on Galactica?
  • Given that Caprica-Valerii has been taken to the middle of CIC, to Adama's quarters, to sickbay, and transferred through open hallways, it could have been just any random crewmen by this point.
  • Now that this information has been confirmed, thanks to the actions of Abinell and her conspirators, what kind of backlash should Roslin and Adama expect to face?
  • Sesha seemed to have some conspiracy theory leaflets suspecting Cylon reproduction programs, etc. but whether these were substantiated or based on pure rumor is unclear. Rumor could possibly have spread from guards, personnel, etc. who can see that she is now pregnant.
  • As noted in previous episodes, it it likely that Admiral Adama had a blanket order to all crewmembers not to discuss the existence of the second Valerii to civilians. However, with the introduction of Pegasus, the fog of rumor that may have kept Valerii's existence vague likely dissipated.
• How did Abinell know that a Cylon agent infiltrated the Ministry of Defenses on Caprica?
  • Baltar was openly accused of this in "Six Degrees of Separation", and Roslin even had a Fleet-wide press conference to exhonerate him of these charges.
• Who will become Roslin's new assistant? (Answer) Was there a replacement groomed for the position at all previous to the events in this episode?
  • During early episodes of season 1, nameless aides with no dialog can be seen trailing Roslin and Billy. In the DVD commentary for these episodes, RDM and Eick explain how they gradually just stopped using an entourage of aides with Roslin, and mulled over the idea of eventually working them back into the show. Perhaps this could be used to compensate for Billy's removal.
• Where did Abinell and her people get the weapons? Were they purchased from the Black Market?
• What were Ellen Tigh intentions? (She practically gives away Thrace's cover and announces that she is the wife of Galactica's XO.) What was the purpose? Was there one at all, or was Ellen Tigh just being an idiot again?
  • Based on her demeanor, it would be safe to say that she was looking out for her interests, knowing that her position (being the colonel's wife) would keep her relatively safe.
• Is the relationship between Apollo and Dee against military protocol in the same way that Tyrol and Valerii's relationship was, or have the rules on Colonial officers and NCO fraternization been relaxed?
  • Just how far does the non-association protocol even extend anymore? What is the exact nature of the non-association protocol? Is it against officers having relationships with enlisted crewmen, or even enlisted crewmen having relationships with other enlisted crewmen (i.e. preventing Tyrol and Cally from having a relationship)? In "Litmus," Tyrol was willing to lie under oath (and all of his deckhands were willing to lie under oath) rather than let Tyrol face the punishment associated with continuing his relationship. Apollo and Dualla are in the same position as Boomer and Tyrol; one is an officer having a relationship with an enlisted crewman. Apollo and Dualla have an even greater gap between them, as Apollo is among the highest-ranking officers on Galactica, and Dualla is a lower-ranking enlisted crewman than Tyrol was.
    • In "Litmus", Sergeant Hadrian questions Commander Adama: "Sir, isn't it true that you knew that Lt. Valerii and Chief Tyrol were having an illicit relationship, in violation of regulations?" The expressions on Tyrol's deck crew and others aboard Galactica (Miniseries) as Tyrol and Valerii (poorly) attempt to cover their intentions indicate many members of the ship were quite aware of their affair. The rules on fraternization are likely very similar to those found in the US Army regulations that prohibit business or personal relationships only between an officer and an enlisted crewmember. (Chief Tyrol, while among the highest ranking members of Galactica's crew, is still a non-commissioned officer.) However, with the near-annihilation of humanity and the need for population growth, the rules are likely relaxed, with command staff monitoring the situation on a case-by-case basis (note Admiral Adama's last statement to his son at the end of the episode, "Black Market," indicating that the admiral, too, has his sources of information about the personal affairs of his officers).
      • Given the growing closeness between Adama and Roslin (which, even if not an actually romantic relationship, has some hints of it), and the decidedly morally-ambiguous idea of a relationship between a head of state and her military chief, Adama may have concluded that he had little room for pointing fingers at Lee and Dualla.
• Saul Tigh's prejudices were fully and repeatedly exposed in relation to Caprica-Valerii (eg. describing her as a thing, objecting to William Adama's reflexively referring to the prisoner by her assumed name). Will this begin to affect the close relationship between these two in future episodes? Will it deteriorate to a point where the XO will be relieved again in relation to a decision made by Adama as he once was in You Can't Go Home Again?

Analysis

• Why doesn't Caprica-Sharon want to tell Adama who the other Cylons in the Fleet are, if she's been trying to show that she's helping the humans and not the Cylons?
  • Possibly Sharon just doesn't want anyone to have to die, human or Cylon, and thinks that the Colonials will kill the Cylons hiding in the Fleet if she outs them. However, the Cylons hiding in the Fleet are striving to bring about the deaths of all surviving humans, so this leaves the question of why Sharon doesn't believe that capturing or killing them would prevent the deaths of an even larger number of people, perhaps the entire Fleet. She might just be unrealistically optimistic about the entire situtation.
• Sesha Abinell's husband Ray was killed during a Cylon attack ten weeks prior to this episode. The only change in the survivor count which remains unaccounted for was between "Home, Part I" and "Home, Part II", however, those episodes must have taken place well before Ray Abinell's death ten weeks prior to this episode. Other possibilities include Ray's death during the Battle of the Resurrection Ship, although Greenleaf would have been far from the site of combat; or his death being offset by a birth in between episodes.
  • One of David Eick's Video Blogs is devoted to discussing the scene where Ray Abinell dies. Apparently, although in the final version it's a dialog-less flashback, originally it was supposed to be Ray talking on the phone to Sesha, then seeing the Raider coming. He then says goodbye, hangs up, and runs down the hallway. This might feature in a deleted scene.
• The final scene recalls that of Resurrection Ship Part II, except that Starbuck and Dee's roles are reversed.

Notes

• Continuing from "Scar", this is the second episode in a row that Dr. Gaius Baltar and Number Six have not appeared in.

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Saul Tigh observing Sharon Valerii's exit from William Adama's office:

Saul Tigh: You know, if people knew how much you've relied on that thing's so called intelligence, they'd be scared out of their wits.

William Adama: What about you, Saul? Are you afraid of her?

Saul Tigh: You know, the truth is I don't like the way it's gotten under your skin.

• After a bout of negotiations with Sesha Abinell, leader of the Cloud 9 terrorists, Adama briefly confers with Tigh:

William Adama: Saul, we can't give her Sharon. I hope you know that, right?

Saul Tigh: I know that. Against our dealing with the terrorists... if we start now, it'll open the floodgates; and it will never stop. And by the way, it's not Sharon. It's a frakking Cylon.

William Adama: You don't think I know that?

Saul Tigh: I think there's part of you that looks into that thing's eyes and still sees that young girl that reported aboard two years ago as a rook pilot. Well, it's not. It never was. Bill, it's a machine.

• Crisis conference between the President, the Admiral and the XO regarding how the terrorists demands should ultimately be dealt with:

Saul Tigh: What if they're right? What if Sharon has been playing us all, plotting our destruction with every passing day? What if the terrorists are right?

Laura Roslin: This isn't about Sharon. It's about something much bigger than that. It's about the long term survival of the Fleet. It's about the way we conduct ourselves in all of this.

Official Statements

Paul Campbell discusses the decision surrounding Billy Keikeya's death:

It was kind of my choice in a way. I was kind of given an ultimatum eventually because in between the end of season one and the beginning of season two I had actually gone to LA and booked a pilot. Because Battlestar production didn’t have me under contract, I was free to go and do that. And it was their loss if the show got picked up and I wasn’t able to come back for season two. I think that was a problem they had with a few of the cast members, that everyone was a free agent after season 1, and I think that scared them a little bit. They could have potentially lost half their cast after season 1, and I think after that, they pretty much ended up signing everyone to a contract. But I’d already been cast in another show and decided to go off on my own and see if it worked. As it turned out it didn’t work, and I ended up having a two episode hiatus after episode 4. I was gone for 5 and 6, then came back for Home Pt. 1, I think it was. Or Home Pt 2, I came back for. So after that kind of gave me the ultimatum and said sign a contract for 5 years, or we kind of need to go our separate ways. And I kind of put it off and put it off, then eventually they just said “Look, we can tell your not really committed to the show, and we can’t write story lines. So we’ve decided to kill the character. It wasn’t really a surprise, but I wasn’t expecting it to happen when it did. But I certainly wasn’t surprised that they had to do that.Paul's Official Website

Guest Stars

• Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh
• Dana Delany as Sesha Abinell
• Unknown as Chu
• Unknown as Vinson
• Unknown as Page
• Michael Ryan as Ray Abinell
• Adrien Hughes as Lt. Terry Burrell
• Erica Carroll as Civilian
• James Upton as Environmental Specialist
• Georgia Hacche as Petty Officer Sion

External Links

"Sacrifice" at scifi.com