Flesh and Bone

"Flesh and Bone" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 1, Episode 8
Writer(s)	Toni Graphia
Story by
Director	Brad Turner
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	108
Nielsen Rating	2.5
US airdate	2005-02-25
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate	2004-12-06
DVD release	20 September 2005 US 28 March 2005 UK
Population	47,954 survivors ()
Additional Info
Full Credits
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Six Degrees of Separation	Flesh and Bone	Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down
Related Information
Official Summary
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Overview

When a copy of Leoben Conoy is captured aboard a civilian ship, President Roslin orders he is to be interrogated, and Lieutenant Thrace is assigned the job. She finds herself facing the possibility that Conoy may have planted a bomb somewhere in the fleet.

Summary

• Laura Roslin has a Chamalla-induced dream in which she sees Leoben Conoy. She is awakened by Billy, who informs her, that a Cylon agent has been captured aboard the Gemenon Traveler.
• The Cylon turns out to be Leoben Conoy, and while Adama wants him destroyed, Roslin insists he is interrogated.
• Kara Thrace is assigned the interrogation task. Meeting with her, Adama warns her that Conoy cannot be trusted. Not that he lies, but rather he twists everything into half-truths and masks fiction with the veneer of truth.
• They briefly discuss the Cylon Raider Starbuck is still working on (You Can’t Go Home Again, Six Degrees of Separation), and Starbuck informs him good progress is being made: the avionics are now understood, and they are focusing on the FTL systems.
• Later, Sharon Valerii visits the Raider for a second time (the first being in Six Degrees of Separation), and appears to comfort it by humming.
• Tyrol arrives, and she asks if her previous comments help. He confirms they did, and asks how she came up with the idea. She claims it’s because she’s a Cylon -- something Tyrol doesn’t find remotely funny.
• Elsewhere, Thrace travels by Raptor to the Gemenon Traveler. Once there, she observes Conoy, noting that he is sweating, before she enters the room in which he is being held, wanting to know what he is doing with his head on the table.
• Conoy claims to have been praying. Their religious differences are immediately outlined as she refers to “gods”, he to “God”.
• When he starts playing games with her over names, she tries to walk out – and Conoy reveals he knows who she is, which stops her. He then claims to have hidden a nuclear warhead somewhere in the fleet, which will go off in just under nine hours.
• Shaken by the fact he knows her name, Starbuck reports the news on the bomb to Adama and Roslin. Adama orders radiological searches to be made aboard all ships and tries to reassure Starbuck that Conoy could have learned her name from anywhere.
• When she returns to the holding area, Conoy continues to question her about her beliefs, outlining the key difference between humans and their religion and Cylons. A meal arrives for Starbuck and she eats, allowing Conoy to finish what is left.
• As he finishes the food, a systematic beating commences, Starbuck convinced that because he is programmed to act completely like a human, Conoy will be forced to react like a human, take the beating until the pain forces him to start talking.
• As this starts, Boomer visits Gaius Baltar in his lab and demands he runs a test on her to determine whether or not she is human. Baltar is reluctant to do so, but Six prompts him into doing it.
• Conoy’s beating fails to get him to talk about the bomb, only to talk more about God. As the subject of water has formed a lot of his analogies, Starbuck opts to up the torture by using it, and sends the guards from the room.
• When they are gone, Conoy demonstrates his supernatural strength, breaking the chains that bind his wrists and pins Thrace to the wall. He could kill her, but he doesn’t – he has something to tell her, soon. A surprise.
• On Galactica, Adama visits the cadaver of the Conoy he encountered at Ragnar Anchorage (Miniseries), his rage almost causing him to beat the body with a telephone handset.
• On the Traveler, Starbuck commences sessions that involve holding Conoy’s head underwater for increasingly lengthy periods to try and get him to talk – convinced that he is too far from Cylon influence to transfer his consciousness to another body, should this one die.
• Conoy talks – about Starbucks’s childhood and upbringing, demonstrating he somehow knows a lot about her. The dunkings continue.
• Baltar finishes a scan on a blood sample from Boomer – it confirms she is a Cylon. Terrified of what will happen if he tells her, he fakes the result to look human.
• In her private quarters on Colonial One, Roslin has another vision of Conoy, prompting her to order a shuttle to take her to the Gemenon Traveler.
• On the Traveler, Starbuck halts the water torture and Conoy reveals his surprise to her: the humans will find Kobol, and Kobol will lead them to Earth. What’s more, Starbuck’s specific role is to deliver his soul to God.
• At that moment, Roslin arrives and puts a stop to the torture, as it has failed to reveal the location of the bomb.
• When Conoy has been cleaned up and dried off, she tries to reason with him, and he confesses there is no bomb; grabbing her, he whispers that Adama is a Cylon.
• Shocked by this, but her mind made up, Roslin has him ejected into space – fulfilling the sequence of events in her dream.
• Later, on the Galactica, Starbuck prays for Conoy’s soul, while Roslin meets with Adama, Conoy's words clearly having cast doubts deep in her mind.

On Caprica

• After sleeping with Helo, Valerii meets with Doral and Six and informs them of developments.
• Doral informs her that a little love nest is being set-up nearby. Six adds that she must lead Helo to it and keep him there – or kill him.
• Reacting to the instructions, Valerii returns to Helo – and goes on the run with him, leading him away from her Cylon colleagues.

Questions

• Why is Thrace given the job of interrogating Conoy? Why not another officer?
• Is Conoy's comment to Starbuck concerning Kobol meant personally - that she will find Kobol - or at least recognize it for what it really is? (Answer)
• How will Roslin react to Conoy's claim about Adama? She has already demonstrated a willingness to readily accept the worst about a person without proof (her reaction to Baltar's situation in Six Degrees of Separation). (Answer)
• Why is love so vital to the Cylons? (Answer)
• Was Troy destroyed in an genuine accident, making it a convenient "cover" for the Cylons to create Boomer's "history", or were they responsible for the destruction of the colony? (A moot question: Sharon Valerii was never an actual human)
• Other than silica pathways and the substance discovered by Gaius Baltar in the cremation process of the genetic material of a Humanoid Cylon, are there any other major differences between them and humans? (See the humanoid Cylon article for details)
• Why does Roslin run towards Leoben Conoy and away from the marines in her dream? She already knows what he looks like from the press conference in Litmus.
• Do Conoy and the Cylons truly possess powers of prophesy?
• With resources in the Fleet at a premium, why isn't Conoy stripped of his clothing and then jettisoned?

Analysis

• Originally, many might have labeled Galactica-Sharon the "Good" Sharon and Caprica-Sharon the "Bad" Sharon. However, actress Grace Park has repeatedly said she never viewed one or the other as good or bad, and in this episode Caprica-Sharon switches from helping the Cylons, to actually aiding Helo and switching to the Colonials' side. Meanwhile, by the end of Season 1 Galactica-Sharon becomes an increasingly darker character.
• Boomer's memory of leaving Helo behind on Caprica (in the Miniseries) appears amongst the other Sharon's flashbacks in this episode, indicating that she possesses Boomer's memories up to that point. She later states that to be the case in "Scattered", "Home, Part II", "Resurrection Ship, Part II", and "Scar".

Notes

• This episode takes place within 24 hours of those portrayed in "Six Degrees of Separation".
• Doctor Cottle has apparently been successful in his quest for Chamalla – Roslin is now using it in her fight against cancer.
• There are 47,954 survivors in the Fleet, presumably including Galactica’s crew, as the figure has fluctuated between 45,000 and 50,000 over the past few weeks in rounded figures. This represents a net loss of 18 since "33", with doubtlessly uncertain census counts throughout the interim.
• Laura Roslin may have precognition, and / or Cylons may be psychic.
• Boomer believes her family were all killed – together with almost her entire past - in a “tragedy” that destroyed the colony of Troy.
• Baltar’s Cylon detector works. It takes "a couple of minutes" to process Boomer's sample.
• Baltar now knows Boomer is a Cylon.
• Leoben Conoy's execution via ejection from an airlock is relatively "unspectacular" compared to similar sequences in many Science Fiction films. Whether the decision not to show his death in a more gruesome fashion may owe as much to Standards & Practices as it does to scientific accuracy, it is at least more in line with what is known about human physiology and hard vacuum.
• At the beginning of this episode, Boomer is humming a melody when she touched the captured Cylon raider. The melody is from a Korean children's song, 'The spring pool on the mountain'.

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Conoy to Starbuck, towards the end of his interrogation, just before Roslin's arrival:

Conoy: Each of us plays a role; each time a different role. Maybe the last time I was the interrogator and you were the prisoner. The players change, the story remains the same. And this time – this time – your role is to deliver my soul unto God. Do it for me. It’s your destiny. And mine. (He pauses) And I told you I had a surprise for you. Are you ready? You are going to find Kobol, birthplace of us all. Kobol will lead you to Earth. This is my gift to you, Kara.

Guest stars

• Michael Hogan as Colonel Saul Tigh
• Tahmoh Penikett as Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon
• Aaron Douglas as Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol
• Callum Keith Rennie as Leoben Conoy
• Matthew Bennett as Aaron Doral
• Christina Schild as Playa Kohn
• Biski Gugushe as Sekou Hamilton
• Eric Breker as Gemenon Traveller Captain