Exodus, Part II

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"Exodus, Part II" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 3, Episode 4
Writer(s)	Bradley Thompson David Weddle
Story by
Director	Félix Enríquez Alcalá
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)	Lucy Lawless as Number Three
Production No.	304
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	2006-10-20
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate
DVD release
Population	survivors
Additional Info
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Exodus, Part I	Exodus, Part II	Collaborators
Related Information
Official Summary
R&D Skit – View
Podcast Transcript – View
[[IMDB:tt{{{imdb}}}|IMDb entry]]
Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
			@ BW Media
Promotional Materials
Online Purchasing
Amazon: Standard Definition | High Definition
iTunes: [{{{itunes}}} USA]

Overview

Commander Lee Adama of the battlestar Pegasus has serious doubts about the success of the New Caprica rescue mission by Galactica. On New Caprica, Saul Tigh decides the consequences for his wife's betrayal of the Resistance. Aboard Galactica, Admiral William Adama executes a dramatic rescue plan.

Summary

• On Pegasus, Lee Adama and Dualla talk of Galactica's mission. Adama worries that Admiral Adama's mission will fail, and about his impending responsibilities as leader of The Fleet. Dee notes that Lee has given up hope on his father, but expresses her faith in her husband.
• On New Caprica, Samuel Anders confronts Saul Tigh about his wife Ellen's betrayal and tells him that either Tigh "takes care" of Ellen, or someone less sympathetic will do so.
• Ellen Tigh explains her recent actions, that she would do absolutely anything to save Saul, including betraying the resistance. Tigh consoles her and provides her a drink when she asks. She falls unconscious, her drink having been poisoned by her husband. He says that he loves her, rests his head on her corpse, and weeps.
• On Colonial One, Gaius Baltar tells the Cylons that they have failed in their experiment and suggests the Cylons simply leave. A Three voices the concern that one day the descendants of mankind might exact vengeance upon the Cylons, should they be left to their own devices.

Saul handing Ellen her poisoned drink.

• Gaeta suddenly looks up, noticing dozens of explosions can outside the window, signalling the beginning of the Battle of New Caprica.
• Anders and the resistance team has set a series of explosions, mimicing a Fleet attack and causing confusion among the cylons. Tory Foster commands a team of section leaders in the evacuation and orders Maya to head for her ship with Isis.
• Anders and a large group of resistance fighters retrieve weapons from beneath the Pyramid court to rescue the detainees in the detention center.
• In space above New Caprica, Galactica deploys a squadron of Raptors and Vipers. The Raptors launch swallows to mimic the EM signature of two Colonial battlestars. The Cylons pick them up and fall for the ruse, moving two basestars with their Raiders away from the planet.
• When Leoben Conoy leaves the residence inside the Detention Center to aid with the fighting, he keeps Kara Thrace inside. She assaults him and tries to escape, but he knocks her unconscious.
• Tom Zarek tasks Jammer to protect Laura Roslin as she makes her way to Colonial One.
• At the entrance to the shipyard, where the Cylons keep the grounded Colonial vessels, a team under Tigh and Galen Tyrol are pinned down by Cylon Centurions.
• The Cylons detect the decoy drones, but Galactica jumps into the planet's upper atmosphere and plunges rapidly towards the planet. Mid-descent, Galactica launches its Vipers. Before colliding with the ground, the ship jumps back into space. The Vipers begin to attack targets on the ground and clear the way.
• As others are freed from the Detention Center, Anders finds his unconscious wife and carries her away, but when Thrace awakens, she goes back to retrieve Kacey.
• The battle is turning against Galactica. Her FTL drives are down, weapons are offline and there is heavy structural damage from the atmospheric entry. Four Cylon basestars are closing in and the battlestar is soon bombarded from all sides with no hope of survival. At that moment Pegasus joins the battle, Lee Adama having disobeyed his father's orders. He opens fire with the forward batteries and destroys one basestar in the opening salvo.
• The Cylons realize that they have lost and decide to evacuate the planet. Number Three volunteers to stay behind and set off the nuclear weapon that was left in the city for such a contingency. She offers Baltar a place with the Cylons and leaves.
• The Colonial ships initiate intra-atmosphere jumps from New Caprica as soon as they become airborne.
• Pegasus is heavily bombarded by missiles, having left all of her Vipers back with the rest of the civilian Fleet. Admiral Adama realizes that his son has planned a one-way mission for Pegasus, and orders recall of Galactica's fighters.
• On Colonial One, Felix Gaeta holds Baltar at gunpoint, and accuses of having betrayed humanity. Gaeta admits his guilt in idealistically believing in Baltar, but has realized, in the end ,that Baltar was only thinking about himself. Baltar admits his own guilt and begs Gaeta to shoot him. Gaeta relents, however, giving Baltar a final chance to redeem himself: stop Three from setting off the nuclear bomb.
• With Pegasus dying, Lee Adama orders everyone to abandon ship. He sets the ship CBDR with a basestar as the last of the crew leaves in Raptors. Pegasus’ collides with a basestar, destroying it; The remains of Pegasus’ starboard flight pod collides with and destroys yet another basestar.
• Kara Thrace retrieves Kacey, but Conoy has returned and confronts her. She appears to give in to his demands, says "I love you," and kisses him. However, Thrace uses the diversion to stab him. She picks up Kacey and leaves with Anders.
• Three searches Dodona Selloi's tent, but the oracle has left. Outside, Caprica-Six and Baltar find Hera next to Maya's body, still alive. Three arrives, asks to hold the child, and leaves with her. Caprica-Six says Three no longer intends to detonate the nuke, then leaves the planet with Baltar.
• Laura Roslin and a group of resistance fighters enter the now abandoned Colonial One and are the last ship to leave the planet.
• On Galactica, many people are reunited as Tyrol immediately takes charge of ushering the incoming refugees. When Thrace shows Kacey to Tyrol, another woman walks by and recognizes the girl as her daughter, whom the Cylons had taken away. The mother thanks Thrace for rescuing Kacey. Thrace is shocked by the revelation that Kacey is not her daughter after all, but gives her up.
• Admiral Adama welcomes Tigh back aboard, and tells him he brought everyone back. Tigh quietly replies, "Not all of them." The colonists in Galactica's hangar deck begin chanting "A-dam-a, A-dam-a..." and carry the admiral on their shoulders. Adama turns to see Tigh wandering off, numbed with grief.
• Tory Foster tells Roslin that neither Maya nor Hera can be found, and it seems likely neither made it off the planet. Foster apologizes, but Roslin muses that this was part of something bigger than them.
• Admiral Adama shaves off his mustache and returns to a fully staffed CIC, aboard the now very loud, bustling corridors of Galactica.

Questions

• With Baltar missing at the conclusion of this episode, who will become the President of the Twelve Colonies? (Answer)
• What will be the final disposition of the Pegasus officers, and the former military personnel who have returned from New Caprica? (Answer)
• Did Ellen Tigh know or suspect that the drink was poisoned?
• What consequences will Ellen Tigh's death have for her husband? Will Saul Tigh return to his old alcoholic habits? (Answer)
• What equipment and people were left behind on New Caprica?
• Will Gaeta be the target of persecution or assassination as a collaborator? Or will people believe in him when he is found out to be the secret informant? (Answer)
• Will Cally Tyrol identify Jammer as the NCP officer who released her, based on his voice? (Answer)
• Why did Kara Thrace wait to stab Leoben until they kissed?
• What about the Cylons, such as Leoben, who were killed during the insurection? If they were dependant on a resurrection facility on New Caprica, is said facility still operational? If not, is there a resurrection ship in range? (Possible answer.)
• What, besides Galactica and her crew, was gained by the sacrifice of Pegasus?
• Now that Galactica is carrying the Viper squadrons from both battlestars, will the starboard flight pod be returned to service?
• What are the Cylons plans for Gaius Baltar?
• Now that Hera is in the custody of the Cylons, what are their plans for her?
• How does Internal Six know that the baby Maya had was Hera?
• Where is Boomer?
• How many ships are in the Fleet as of the Battle of New Caprica? Also, in light of the exodus, what of consumables and other resources needed to sustain the Fleet? Were these loaded into ships already as part of the escape plan?
• The woman who claimed to be Kacey's mother, was she really her mother or is Kacey really Starbucks kid? If Kacey is really Starbuck's kid, then does that mean Kacey's "mother" is a Cylon agent?

Analysis

• There is a major plot hole concerning the continuity of the story from Exodus, Part I. In Part I, D'Anna sees Caprica-Sharon in the detention center and is shot by her. Yet in Part II, D'Anna is in Colonial One, apparently unharmed, and has not alerted the Cylons to Sharon's presence.
  • That is a different D'Anna. You'll note the D'Anna in Colonial One before the attack is wearing all black, whereas the D'Anna that encountered Sharon typically wears lighter colors. The two D'Annas are seen together in The Occupation.
    • This is NOT a different D'Anna. This is the same D'Anna that dreamt about Hera and relayed this information to Sharon Agathon, and later carried Hera in her arms as her dreams foretold. The plot hole stands.
      • Some time had passed once the fleet received news that Sharon retrieved the command codes. D'Anna might have been released/resurrected within that time span. We are not told whether she had informed the Cylon leadership of Sharon's presence.
        • It is questionable whether Biers could have bled to death from being shot in the kneecaps/legs since Sharon had stated she didn't intend to kill her; if Biers was released, not only would she have been unable to walk, but she would almost certainly have been questioned by those that found her.
          • D'Anna would likely have committed "suicide" to free herself of the knee injuries. She probably did tell the others about Sharon, but it was too late to do anything about her at that point.
      • It's been established that different Cylon models usually vote the same way when reaching a consensus. It's entirely possible that one Number Three discussed her dreams with her "sisters", one of which discovered Sharon in the “safety deposit box room”.

• Either the scenes aren't in order or Baltar is not aware of what is going on. In the Gaeta-Baltar scene, Baltar says, "The Cylons have a nuke in this complex. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is getting off this planet alive unless I stop D'Anna." But this is after most of the civilian ships have already jumped.

• Further, until Hera is discovered by Baltar, Three is still looking to set off the nuke -- even though it is clear that the colonists are all long gone.
  • It's possible Three wasn't seeking to set off the nuke, but said she was as a ruse to go seek answers about her premonitions concerning Hera.
    • Any nuke held by the Cylons would likely be stored somewhere inside the guarded Cylon perimeter. It appears that this Three made a beeline to the Oracle, and was upset that she was not there. While going through the tent, knocking things over, she is quoted as saying "frackking liar!".
• It is hard to believe that the Cylons were not keeping closer tabs on the whereabouts of the launch keys -- no alarms, etc -- and didn't notice they were gone until the attack started.
• In general, the Cylons seem to have left the planet implausibly underguarded. Considering the strategic nature of the site, as well as the well-known fact that two battlestars remained at large, one would have expected the Cylons to have an overwhelming amount of protection for the planet -- perhaps dozens of basestars.
  • It has been established beforehand that the Cylons are overstretched with the occupation. This could account for the lack of protection. At any rate, four basestars against two battlestars is hardly an even match, let alone two half-strength battlestars.
    • A Basestar does not seem to be a 1 to 1 match for a Battlestar. They lack offensive and defensive gun batteries, the ability to maneuver quickly, and have a critical design flaw that is easily exploited (central hub holding the six arms together). Basestars depend on missiles and large numbers of Raiders. Adama felt that the Galactica, even barely manned, could hold up to two Cylon Basestars.
      • Additionally, RDM has mentioned in his podcasts that the Cylons do have major operations elsewhere hinting at future storylines in the season. It is possible that the Cylon higher command made a strategic decision to guard the planet with what they deemed the minimal required number of basestars to defend against 2 battlestars.
        • One may also be prone to over estimating the number of Basestars the Cylons have. When preparing the attack on the twelve colonies, the Cylons knew that they had surprise and the backdoor computer virus on their side. As such they may not have produced a very large number of basestars (perhaps not even enough to match the number of battlestars the Colonies had). Furthermore, the knowledge that the colonials were ignorant of the location of the Cylon homeworld may have also played a part in them having a smaller fleet. If, for some reason, the attack failed, the cylons could simply retreat and bide their time before trying again. After all, when one is sure he can render his enemy defenseless, there's no real need to produce a pointlessly large army.
• With the former crew of Pegasus onboard Galactica now, the ship has something close to its standard crew size. (Galactica's crew was deduced to be 2,693 in the episode "Water", and Pegasus's was introduced with a crew count of 1,752 in "Pegasus" (see Crew tally). William Adama notes that over half of the crew has settled on New Caprica in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I", and Lee confirms that both ships are at half-strength in "Occupation".) Military operations should be much smoother now, and repairs to the ship in general are more feasible.
  • However, many repairs, such as structural, will require shipyard or dockyard facilities equiped with replacement parts and heavy repair machinery required for such repairs, and these facilities are no longer available. The Galactica may never again be the fighting force that it once was.
• While the combination of the Pegasus and Galactica air groups give the latter battlestar a full-strength fighter wing, the Fleet has suffered the loss of its most advanced and best-armed warship. With it also went the capability to build replacement Vipers, unless one of the civilian ships can be converted for such a purpose. Defensively, the Fleet is pretty much back to the position it was in when it left the Colonies.
  • However, the Galactica did take significant structural damage during the conflict, therefore, it currently isn't in the same state of battle readiness as it was at the time it left the Colonies.
• It appears during the whole conflict in atmospheric combat that the Raiders were spending most of their time running from the Vipers. This may be due to the fact that Colonial Vipers have a far superior atmospheric design where Raiders are optimized for space operations. The Viper has a stabilizing vertical wing which aids the pilot in manuevering through the atmosphere just like all real-life combat aircraft. The Raider lacks this stabilizer wing much reducing their effectiveness in aeronautic combat and manuevering thrusters are not as effective in air as in space due to resistance. This made the tactic of depositing the Galactica's Vipers into a solely air-support role for evacuating ships very effective once the Space-borne Raiders were decoyed away from the planet so that the Galactica only had to face the Basestars, not the Raiders.
  • The lack of a stabilising fin might not impede the Raider's atmospheric performance, as there are certainly ways of compensating for it (see, e.g., the B-2 'Spirit'). And with several months of occupation (during which we see Raiders making fly-bys), the Raiders should have had more than enough time to become familiar with the quirks of atmospheric manoeuvring.
    • However, the B-2 'Spirit' is a bomber and not a combat fighter and there is no example of a successful combat fighter without a stabilizing wing (or wings) on the tail. Compensating for atmospheric forces would make flight exceptionally difficult for craft designed primarily for spaceflight.
• Pegasus seemed to fulfill its role just like the original Pegasus, as it fought to the end to defeat two basetars and allowed Galactica along with the last of the fleet to escape from the Cylons.

Notes

• "Exodus, Part II" was awarded the IGN.com Editor's choice award, following a review in which it recieved a rating of 9/10. This marks the second of such awards presented for the third season, the first of which was awarded for the season premiere Occupation.
• There is also a TOS comic named Exodus!
• The two parts of "Exodus" were originally planned as one episode. However, it was quickly realized that the story was far too large for one episode and it was split in two. This happened before with "Scattered", "Valley of Darkness" and "Resurrection Ship." It also helped save money because the construction of New Caprica, the extensive location shooting, the number of actors, as well as the special effects for "Exodus, Part II" were very expensive and the production was over budget.
• Apparently the viper Mk.VIIs deployed by Galactica in this episode have a yellow engine-glow instead of their usual blue. This may be a visual-effects gaffe or the engines might have been affected by the nebular gas or by using a different type of fuel or engine.
• The moment where Lee pauses to look back at the Pegasus CIC and says "thank you" references a parallel moment in the Deep Space Nine episode "The Changing Face of Evil", in which, after the doomed Defiant is ordered evacuated, Captain Sisko takes a long look back at his ruined bridge. As with the Pegasus, in the next shot, the ship is destroyed. Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, who wrote "Exodus, Part II", were staff writers on DS9.
• This episode marks the destruction of the Pegasus

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Discussing the failure of the occupation:

Number Three: What would you have us do, Gaius?

Gaius Baltar: Leave. Pack up your centurions, and go. Please. Go.

Number Three: And then what? What would you do if we really just left you here? You'd live out your lives in peace and never trouble yourselves with thoughts of us again? Or would you raise your children with stories of the Cylon, the mechanical slaves who once did your bidding, only to turn against you? Killers who committed genocide against your race, the occupiers of this city until we just ran away? Would you tell them to tell the story to their children, and to their childrens' children, and nurse a dream of vengeance down through the years so that one day they could just go out into the stars and hunt the Cylon once more?

Gaius Baltar: Blood for blood ...has to stop one day.

• Roslin heads to Colonial One:

Roslin: My ship's up there.

Zarek: You sure have a sense of the dramatic.

• Adama comes to accept Galactica's end:

Admiral Adama: Then that's it. It's been an honor.

• After Hearing Pegasus Has Joined Galactica

Admiral William Adama: Damn You, Lee ...Thank You, Lee.

• The Pegasus is evacuated before its destruction:

Dualla: Alright, people, let's move. Out! Let's go. (To Lee): You too, Commander.

Commander Lee Adama: Yes, sir. (Begins to leave, then stops and looks around at Pegasus): Thank you.

• As the two Adamas reunite after the battle:

Admiral William Adama: I guess you didn't understand my orders.

Commander Lee Adama: I never could read your handwriting.

• Adama welcomes Col. Tigh back to Galactica:

Adama: You did it, Saul. You brought them back.

Tigh: Not all of them.

Guest Stars

• Michael Hogan as Saul Tigh
• Aaron Douglas as Galen Tyrol
• Tahmoh Penikett as Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon
• Nicki Clyne as Cally Tyrol
• Alessandro Juliani as Felix Gaeta
• Kandyse McClure as Anastasia Dualla
• Michael Trucco as Samuel Anders
• Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek
• Rick Worthy as Simon
• Callum Keith Rennie as Leoben Conoy
• Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh
• Matthew Bennett as Number Five
• Rekha Sharma as Tory Foster
• Luciana Carro as Lt. Louanne "Kat" Katraine