Hero

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"Hero" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 3, Episode 8
Writer(s)	David Eick
Story by
Director	Michael Rymer
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)	Carl Lumbly
Production No.
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	2006-11-17
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate
DVD release
Population	? survivors
Additional Info
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
A Measure of Salvation	Hero	Unfinished Business
Related Information
Official Summary
R&D Skit – 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

A figure from Adama's past returns to haunt him. His return raises questions about why the Cylons launched their initial attack against the Twelve Colonies.

Summary

On Galactica

• Galactica detects three Raiders. Much to the surpise of the CIC crew, two Raiders are pursuing a third. Starbuck and Kat are dispatched. After destroying the pursing Raiders, they go after the third.
• In CIC, Adama orders Kat and Starbuck to escort the Raider to Galactica, after hearing Bulldog's communication squaks.
• Kat and Starbuck escort the Raider in. In the hangar bay, Adama and the party that meets the Raider, surprised at the fact that a human appears to have piloted the craft. A visibly weak Bulldog salutes Adama; Adama returns the salute.

On a Basestar

• In a dream, Three is trying to avoid marines on board Galactica. The marines corner her against a hatch labelled End of Line. The marines raise their weapons and Three tells them to shoot.
• As the shots go off, Three wakes up in bed with Baltar and Caprica-Six. She has apparently been having a sexual relationship with Baltar and possibly Six as well.
• In the Cylon control room Caprica-Six questions Three about her bad dreams. Caprica asks if the dreams are about Baltar and Three tells her that it's nothing like that, but does not elaborate.
• Three gives a centurion orders to shoot her, and then delete any information regarding the incident. The centurion obeys and shoots her in the head. In the moments before she is downloaded, she experiences images from her dream mixed in with memories from New Caprica and other more cryptic scenes.
• Three awakes in a rebirthing chamber where a worried Caprica-Six tries to help her recover. Three tells her, "There's something beautiful between life and death."

Questions

• Did humans taken prisoner well before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies provide the original genetic pool for the humanoid Cylons?
• What class of Battlestar is the Valkyrie?
  • The CIC of Valkyrie is very similar to that of the Pegasus. Given that the Mercury class was the main battlestar type in service at the time, it's reasonable to assume that Valkyrie was of that class. In fact, she may be the ship Adama referred to in the extended version of "Pegasus" when he mentioned that it had been a long time since he was aboard a Mercury-class.
    • Shots of the Valkyrie during the episode show that it is a third, unnamed class.
• Why would Bulldog have been compelled to lie about the manner in which he escaped the basestar, and what motivated him to say what he did??
• Why would Starbuck go to Tigh about her findings, rather than report to Lee Adama, her superior officer?
  • Because of their shared experiences on New Caprica, and their shared semi-pariah status, she may feel more comfortable talking to him. Also, there is the continued awkwardness between her and Lee.
• Was the Valkyrie's mission the only one the Admiralty undertook or were there others?
• Was Laura Roslin right in speculating that the Admiralty might have sent the Valkyrie in order to provoke a war?

Analysis

• At the end of the episode, Saul Tigh appears to be attempting to try and deal with his guilt over his wife, but he does not seem to want his job as XO back, at least not any time soon.
• Adama's feelings of guilt over his actions during the Valkyrie's mission seem to shed new light on the motivation for his speech at Galactica's decomissioning ceremony at the begining of the series.
• The Cylons seem to have been able to detect and destroy an advanced stealth fighter that had only entered two kilometers into their space. This seems suspicious given the fact that they were unable to detect the Blackbird, presumably a far less sophisticated design. Either the Cylons had more advanced detection equipment on the Armistice Line, or they had advance knowledge of Bulldog's mission.
• Bulldog's story is even less believable given the fact that it took Kara Thrace several hours to gut a raider and learn how to fly it. Granted, the raider Kara captured was damaged, but it would still have taken Bulldog some time to adapt the raider for his own use.

Official Statements

• A video blog gives an insight to this episode during filming.

Guest Stars

• Barry Kennedy as Admiral Corman
• Lucy Lawless as Number Three
• Carl Lumbly as Lt. Daniel Novacek
• Donnelly Rhodes as Doctor Cottle
• Matthew Bennett as Number Five
• Rekha Sharma as Tory Foster