The Farm

Overview

Kara Thrace is shot and wakes up in a remote hospital facility on Caprica, and learns that her friendly doctor has his own plans for her future.

Summary

On Caprica

Starbuck, Helo, and two members of the Resistance (Anders and Sue-Shaun, who were introduced in the last episode) devise a plan to escape from Caprica by commandeering a Cylon Heavy Rader from a nearby airstrip. They will fit as many people as possible onto the craft, and will dispatch a rescue mission for the remainder upon return to Galactica.
As the team is about to assault the airstrip, they are ambushed, and Starbuck (Kara) is hit by a bullet that grazes off her head (wtf?) and gets lodged in her abdomen. She loses consciousness.
Kara wakes up in a hospital. She is being attended to by a doctor named Simon, who tells her that she was brought into the hospital by Anders, and that Anders died from a shrapnel wound. Kara is devastated.
Kara spends the next few days conversing with Simon, who muses that women capable of bearing children are a rare "commodity" now that the Cylons have nuked the colonies, and suggests that Kara should consider giving birth to a child.
In a further display of tact, Simon speculates that Kara's reluctance to have children stems from her mother having abused her when she was young, as evidenced by a pattern of fractures in her fingers. This topic upsets her.
Kara wakes to discover a new scar on her abdomen. Simon tells her it's from an operation he did to stop some bleeding, but Kara doesn't believe him.
Kara fakes sleep, and when Simon leaves, she follows him into the hallway, where she overhears him having a conversation with a copy of Number Six about the "complete removal" of her ovaries scheduled for the next day.
Back in bed, Kara stabs Simon and escapes the room. Lurching around the deserted hospital, she stumbles upon a room full of semi-conscious women wired horrifically to machines. Among them is Sue-Shaun, who begs Kara to destroy the "baby machines" and end their misery. She obliges with a prayer, a pair of medical tongs, and a primal scream.
Kara staggers outside, braining the Six model with a fire extinguisher in the process, only to find a new Simon standing there to greet her. Just then, Helo and the rest of the resistance emerge from the woods. They pepper Simon with bullets, but soon get bogged down in a firefight with a squad of Centurions. Time for the second rescue in as many minutes: Caprica-Boomer (Sharon Valerii) swoops down in a stolen Cylon Heavy Raider and blows the enemy away.
Kara relates her experiences in the hospital to the others. C-Boomer explains that the Cylons have a flaw which renders them unable to reproduce biologically, and that they have been holding human women in "farms" to try to implant them with human/Cylon embryos. This effort has failed, however, leading the Cylons to believe that conception requires "love". According to this theory, C-Boomer was able to conceive with Helo because of their love for each other.
Helo, Sharon, and Starbuck leave Caprica on the Heavy Raider. Starbuck has promised Anders to return someday to rescue the Resistance. In the meantime, Anders says he will try to destroy as many farms as he can.

On Galactica

Roslin plays the "religion card" to convince a third of the fleet to jump with her to Kobol despite an infuriated and staunchly secular Adama.

Questions

Caprica-Boomer says that she knows that Leoben Conoy told Kara she was special during his interrogation aboard the Galactica; how could she have known this? How do the Cylon agents communicate to each other?
Will we see Simon again?
- Is one of the eight Cylon agents hiding in the fleet another Simon model?
How come the Resistance seemed more concerned about Kara's disappearance than Sue-Shaun's?

Analysis

Notes

As of the opening credits, the fleet population is now 47,857, a net loss of 4 since "Resistance". This reflects the deaths of four civillians on board the Gideon in that episode, but apparently not that of Boomer. Was she removed from the count immediately after her assasination attempt?
According to Gaeta, this episode takes place "a week" after Apollo docked at Cloud Nine in the last episode, although apparently Adama hasn't been well enough to resume command until very recently.
24 ships, almost a third of the fleet, have left with Roslin for Kobol.
- This would mean the total fleet consisted of over 72 ships. In the Mini-Series, there are only about 40 FTL-capable ships able to rendezvous with Galactica at Ragnar Anchorage.
Cally had been put in the brig for 30 days for discharging a firearm without orders. Tyrol actually tried to help get her out immediately, and Adama treated her lightly.
Galactica-Boomer's body is now in the morgue.
Number Six mentioned that "procreation is one of God's commandments" in the first episode, "33".
The Humano-Cylons cannot reproduce biologically with each other (they can produce more copies of the existing models, but a male and female Cylons cannot reproduce with each other). However, according to the Cylon religion it is a commandment of God that they procreate; "be fruitful and multiply". Therefore, the Cylons began a project to create a hybrid offspring of Humano-Cylons and Humans (who can easily reproduce biologically), basically trying any way they could to find some way to procreate their new race. To this end, the Cylons have created a large number of "Farms": breeding centers filled with captured Human women hooked up to medical equipment, being used as living incubators (a "baby factory"), which basically amounts to medically raping hundreds if not thousands of women. However, it seems that up to this point, the Farms have not been able to successfully produce any hybrid offspring. Trying to understand their failure, the Cylons developed a new theory: the element they were missing was love, and perhaps a hybrid baby conceived in love would succeed. This was the reason why Helo was set up by the Cylons into being trapped in a position where he would fall in love with the copy of Sharon "Boomer" Valerii and have sex with her. The Caprica-Boomer's unborn child is indeed unique: it is the first Human/Cylon hybrid conceived in love, and as a result appears to be the first and only successful hybrid; it seems that no other embryo survived nearly as long as it already has (it is now about five weeks old, since it's conception in "Six Degrees of Separation").
The Galactica-Boomer was serving aboard the Galactica for two years, which means the Cylons had begun infiltrating Colonial society from at least that long ago. This matches the length of time of Six's affair with Baltar while on Caprica.
Starbuck was the victim of frequent physical abuse as a child; she's suffered many bone fractures in childhood, and all of her fingers have been broken at some point.
It has clearly been established that there are at least 5 remaining Raptors aboard the Galactica. Lt. Gaeta mentions that 5 Raptors were standing by to perform a mission. There might be more that they simply didn't want to use, or there might be more that are currently down for repairs.
Caprica-Boomer is aware of Leoben Conoy's interrogation by Starbuck in "Flesh and Bone", even of specific things he said during it.
This episode introduces the 5th confirmed Humano-Cylon, Simon.

Noteworthy Dialogue

Cylons discussion the surgical testing they are performing on Starbuck:

Simon:...pending lab test results on [sample for] ovaries, complete removal will proceed tomorrow. They've lab tested positive and subject will be removed to processing facility for final disposition.

Number Six: Is that regret I hear in your voice, Simon?

Simon: If it is, it certainly is none of your concern.

Explanation of the Human/Cylon hybrid project:

Boomer: They were conducting research, into Human/Cylon breeding programs.

Starbuck:: Human/Cylon?

Helo:: 'Call them "Farms"...your gunshot wound looks fine...

Starbuck:: So "Farms", that's great...what were they going to do, 'knock me up with some Cylon kid?

Boomer: They were going to try to. We haven't been very successful so far.

Anders: Supposedly they can't reproduce...you know, biologically, so they've been trying every which-way to produce offspring.

Starbuck: Why?

Boomer: Procreation. It's one of God's commandments; "be fruitful". We can't fulfill it, we've tried. So we decided--

Starbuck: To rape human women?!

Boomer: You know, if you agreed to bear children it would be voluntary, maybe even set you up with someone you like.

Starbuck: And you two kids? [Helo and Caprica-Boomer]

Boomer: We're different.

Starbuck: What the frak is that supposed to mean?

Helo: They have this theory; maybe the one thing they were missing was love. So Sharon and I...were set up...

Starbuck: To fall in love?! They didn't ask Sue-Shaun if she wanted to fall in love, alright! They put a tube in her, and they hooked her up to a machine!

Boomer: They know who you are, Kara. You're special. Leoben told you that. You have a destiny.

Helo: [pointing out the other scar on Starbuck's lower abdomen] Starbuck what's the second scar?

Starbuck: I don't know. I don't think I want to know now. You know?

Boomer: No.

Anders: Alright, how many women do they have in these "Farms"?

Boomer: Hundreds, maybe thousands. I don't know, I haven't accessed that data.

Official Statements

Statistics

Guest Stars

Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek
Rick Worthy as Simon

Writing & Direction

Written by
Story by
Teleplay by
Directed by

Production Notes

Series 2 (2005/2006)
Production Number: 2.5
Airdate Order: 5 (of 20)

First Run Air Dates & Releases

UK Airdate: September 2005
US Airdate: August 12th, 2005
DVD Release: Date

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