Torn

"Torn" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 3, Episode 6
Writer(s)	Anne Cofell Saunders
Story by
Director	Jean de Segonzac
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	2006-11-03
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate
DVD release
Population	41,422 survivors
Additional Info
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Collaborators	Torn	A Measure of Salvation
Related Information
Official Summary
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Overview

Starbuck and Tigh create divisions between those who suffered under the Cylon occupation of New Caprica and those who stayed with the fleet. Meanwhile, Baltar tries to prove his worth to the Cylons.

Summary

On Galactica

• Galactica's air group runs war game exercises among the viper pilots. Captain Thrace breaks formation during the exercise and collides with another pilot, forcing an end to the war games, and causing Apollo to remove her from flight duty.
• Felix Gaeta meets with Laura Roslin and William Adama to discuss matters Baltar related. During the year before the Cylon Occupation of New Caprica, Baltar was obsessed with analyzing the data from Kobol to find the path to Earth. Based on passages in the Scrolls of Pythia, Baltar identified a nebula he believed to be a landmark on the road to Earth.
• Upon Thrace's return to her bunk, she is met by Kacey and her mother, whom she dismisses, telling the Kacey's mother not to come again.
• In the pilots' mess, Lt. Sharon Agathon is given the callsign "Athena." Thrace and Tigh begin to sow dissent between the survivors of New Caprica and the crew that stayed behind on Galactica
• Adama confronts Thrace and Tigh on their behavior. He challenges them to shoot him, as their constant complaining is tantamount to pulling the trigger. When neither do, Adama demands they shape up and move on with their lives.
• Spurred by Adama's words, Thrace cuts her hair and appears to return to duty. Later, in uniform, she visits Kacey and her mother.
• Meanwhile, Tigh returns to his room and begins drinking to excess, finishing off one bottle and starting another.
• In a Raptor, Athena and Racetrack jump into range of the Lion Head's Nebula, and are excited to find what the Scrolls described. They quickly realize, however, that they have jumped right next to the dying Basestar.

On a Basestar

• Gaius Baltar, onboard the Cylon basestar, is having another hallucination. On a sunny beach, Gaius praises Six for returning to him in his time of need, and states that he enjoys having conversations with her. Six implores him to learn anything and everything about the Cylons, as he will need the information in the days ahead. Six also tells him that the Cylons use forms of projection to see the world around them, and when asked what she is, Six tells Baltar that she is an angel of God.
• Having been allowed to stay on the Basestar, Caprica-Six and Three talk with Baltar later on, inquiring about the location of Earth. Gaius initially denies having any knowledge of where Earth is, but then reveals that he does have clues as to where its probable location is. He then finds out that the Cylons intend to find Earth so they can use it as their new home.
• Baltar is apprehensive about helping the Cylons, and Caprica-Six tells him that the Cylons are also leery as to whether his intentions are true or not. Caprica-Six leads Baltar through the ship, telling him that she uses a projection of a forest to navigate the ship. In his mind, Baltar realizes that his form of projection is similar to what the Cylons are using, causing him to question whether he is human or a Cylon.
• Caprica-Six informs Gaius that his rescue of Hera and his assistance in finding Earth has made him a valuable asset, and has gone a long way in impressing the Cylons. Baltar asks why there are only 7 models on the ship, and inquires about the remaining 5 models. Caprica-Six informs him that they don't talk about it. He asks whether they would recognize one of the others, but their conversation is interrupted by Three before she can answer.
• Three informs Caprica-Six that there is a situation, and a Five states that the basestar that went to check the pulsar has not responded back. The group head to a control center, where Baltar finds out that the missing basestar has been infected by a disease, and that any Cylon that dies and uploads to a Resurrection Ship will spread the virus even further. On the urge of his internal Six, Baltar offers to board the infected basestar and collect scientific information.
• Before he leaves on his mission, Baltar encounters the Cylon hybrid that controls the functions of the basestar. The hybrid is hooked into the systems on the ship, and continually vocalizes her seemingly non-sensical thoughts. Caprica-Six informs Gaius that it is thought by most of the Cylon models that the hybrid has gone insane from being connected to the Basestar and that her words hold no meaning, however the Leoben model takes the hybrid's words as coming from God.
• The Cylons provide Baltar with a Raptor to board the baseship, and when he arrives, he finds numerous Cylons, either dead or dying. He collects blood samples and takes pictures of the area to bring back for analysis, and also finds a large manmade object in the hold of the ship. He then finds a dying Six model (curiously with black hair), who informs him that the device the Cylons captured, a probe left by the 13th Colony, infected all of them, and wants to die so she can be released from her pain. Even though Gaius offers to bring her help, she tries to attack him, and Gaius strangles her to death.
• Upon his return to the Basestar, Gaius denies finding anything that could have caused the outbreak of the virus, but Caprica-Six notices the probe object in Baltar's picture, but doesn't let on to anyone else what she has discovered.

Questions

• Would it be possible for the Colonials to salvage the derelict basestar for their own purposes?
• What has happened to the remaining five Cylon models? Are they so secretive that none of the other 7 variants have any knowledge of them? Did the Cylons permanently box the other models because they were dissenters to the cause of the Cylon race?
• What is Caprica-Six going to do now that she realizes Baltar may be withholding critically sensitive information?
• Cally and Chief Tyrol as seen both working on the deck. Who is taking care of their baby? Has a system been put in place to take care of crewmembers' babies?
• Is Athena infected with the Cylon virus?
• As the probe is supposed to come from the 13th Tribe, and is affecting Cylons, does that mean that Cylons have been exisiting in times of the 13th Tribe? Or is just by accident that is viral for Cylons?
  • What is the "genetic pool" that the human form Cylons all come from, and has it existed for longer than the Cylons themselves?
  • Could the people on Earth be aware currently that the Cylons are after them, and have sent the probe to hinder the Cylons' efforts?
• Is the virus biological or technological in nature? The "inevitable once we took human form" and "genetic pool" lines indicate that the Cylons think it is biological. On the other hand, their belief that it could survive through a download process implies that it is technological in nature (i.e. computer virus). This would seem to be a contradiction. Is the virus both biological and technological, like the Cylons themselves?
• Why did then-President Baltar investigate clues to Earth's location, given that he advocated abandoning that very search in his election campaign?
• Why is Lee Adama a Major again? Is it a case of brevet rank?

Analysis

• The crew-position shuffle continues from last episode, but some definite decisions have been made:
  • Lee has been demoted back to Major, and has resumed the CAG slot, with Kat and Hot Dog as senior pilots under him. Kara is as well, until Lee revokes her flight status for reckless behaviour.
  • As mentioned, it seems Kat has been demoted from CAG to leader of Blue Group (Although "Blue Group" may only exist for training purposes and not be a permanent viper squadron).
  • As implied in "Collaborators", Helo has resumed the XO slot aboard Galactica.
  • Gaeta appears to have inherited Baltar's mantle as the scientific advisor (it is unclear whether he holds any additional positions), and is focusing his efforts on refining a course for Earth.
  • Cally is shown working the flight deck alongside her husband, showing that she is once again active in the Fleet.
• Following her actions during the Battle of New Caprica, Sharon seems to have garnered some degree of acceptance among the Galactica air group.
• "Athena" is the name of Adama's daughter in the original series. This may be an allusion to the changing relationships on Galactica: Sharon Agathon has replaced Kara Thrace as William Adama's surrogate daughter. (He tells Thrace, "You were like a daughter to me once. No more.") As Hot Dog states, Athena is also the name of a Lord of Kobol.
• The Baseship hybrid appears to be viewed by the Cylons in the same way as the Centurions and Raiders. The hybrid has no vote in the Cylon decision-making process, despite its ability to express its thoughts and feelings, after a fashion.
• The Cylons have a Raptor and flight suit at their disposal, possibly acquired during the occupation of New Caprica. This raises the possibility that the Cylons may have other Colonial ships in their possession.
  • The Cylons also have the unused resources of the Twelve Colonies to work from. Cylons were able to use Colonial equipment during their experiments with Karl Agathon and his future Cylon wife, Sharon, as evidenced in "33" and on.

Notes

• According to an interview with executive producer David Eick, episodes 5 and 6 are a two-part story in which Galactica discovers a dying Cylon Baseship, and deals with a plague that has befallen the Cylons. (Eick is counting "Occupation" and "Precipice" as one episode.)
• The phrase "end of line," uttered by the Cylon hybrid in this episode, is a possible reference to the film Tron, in which the Master Control Program finishes its sentences with "end of line."
  • This may also be a play on the episode title. Torn is an anagram of Tron.
  • End of line is also a computing term, referring to the character used to signal a new line in text-based protocols.
• In the PC game Homeworld, Karan S'jet, a young female neuroscientist, integrates her physical body into the Mothership to serve as its living CPU. This is similar to the function of the Cylon hybrid. (Although S'jet chose to do so voluntarily, and it is unlikely, from comments by Three, that the Cylon hybrids were given a choice.) The backstory to the game's sequel Homeworld 2 descibes S'jet as undergoing a similar metaphysical experience while integrated with the Mothership as Caprica-Six describes of the hybrid.
• The idea of using living creatures as central processing units of large ships has been visited before in both literary and filmed science fiction. For example the pilots in Dune serve a similar function while under the influence of the Spice. In Norman Spinrad's novel "The Void Captain's Tale", some women become pilots because they believe to achieve a better insight into god's creation, thus having a spiritual experience. This is similar to Leoben's beliefs about the hybrids.
• The hybrid's visual look was inspired by the precogs in Minority Report.

Noteworthy Dialogue

Adama's feelings towards, and regarding, Starbuck:

Adama: You were like a daughter to me once - no more. You're malcontent and a cancer, and I won't have you on my ship. So you have a choice - you can figure out how to become a human being again, and an officer; or you can find another place to live, off of this ship. You're dismissed.

The Hybrid's objection to leaving the infected Basestar behind:

Hybrid: Mists of dreams drip along the nascent echo, and love no more. End of line.