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.	306
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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Listing of props for this episode
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			@ BW Media
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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 exercises with the Viper pilots who settled on New Caprica and are thus out of shape. Captain Thrace breaks formation during the exercise and collides with another pilot, forcing an end to the war games, and causing Lee Adama - who resumes his post as CAG - 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 and two associated pulsars 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 visit her again.
• In the pilots' rec room, Lieutenant Sharon Agathon is given the callsign "Athena" after she points out that, despite appearances, she is not "Boomer".
• 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's Head Nebula, and are excited to find what the Scrolls described (an eye that blinks red and blue). They quickly realize, however, that they have jumped right next to the dying basestar.

On a basestar

• Gaius Baltar, aboard 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. Baltar 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 Baltar 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 seven models on the ship, and inquires about the remaining five models. Caprica-Six tells 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 reported back. The group head to a control center, where Baltar finds out that the missing basestar has been infected by a disease. The Cylons speculate and that any Cylon that dies and uploads to a Resurrection Ship might spread the virus even further. As a precautionary measure the Resurrection Ship is kept out of range. 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 ship's systems and continually vocalizes her seemingly non-sensical thoughts. Caprica-Six tells Baltar 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 considers 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. Even though Baltar offers to bring her help, she tries to attack him, and he strangles her to death.
• Upon his return to the basestar, he 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 seven 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?
• If Baltar was able to extrapolate the location of the Lion's Head Nebula just from reading the sacred scriptures, can we not assume someone else could have conducted the same research at an earlier date?
• What is Caprica-Six going to do now that she realizes Baltar may be withholding critically sensitive information?
• Cally and Galen Tyrol are both seen working on the hangar deck. Who is taking care of their baby? Has a system been put in place to take care of crewmembers' children?
• 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?
    • This is unlikely, as Baltar remarked that the probe looked very old.
• 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 speculation that it could survive through a download process implies that it could technological in nature (i.e. computer virus). Or 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?

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 his old position as CAG, with Kat and Hot Dog as senior pilots under him. Starbuck is as well, until Adama revokes her flight status for reckless behaviour.
  • As mentioned, it seems Kat has been demoted from CAG to leader of Blue Squadron.
  • As implied in "Collaborators", Helo keeps the XO slot aboard Galactica for now.
  • 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 Tyrol 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 Agathon 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, acquired during the occupation of New Caprica or from undestroyed Colonial military assets on the Twelve Colonies. This raises the possibility that the Cylons may have other Colonial ships in their possession.

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. Recent television series with living CPUs include Babylon 5, with human telepaths in the Shadows vessels, and Farscape's Pilot, though in the latter case, Pilot is more like a conduit between the crew and a sentient ship in its own right.
  • The idea of a living being serving as CPU for a space vessel is explored, in detail and from the ship's perspective, in Anne McCaffrey's Ship Who... series of novels and short stories.
• According to the podcast for the episode, the hybrid's visual look was inspired by the precogs in Minority Report.

Noteworthy Dialogue

• On Galactica's flight deck:

Chief Tyrol: (checking Starbuck's Viper) Captain, how did you land this thing?

Kara Thrace: Pointed it towards the deck and stopped when I got here.

Hot Dog: Bone-dry, she says. Landed the bird without a drop of fuel.

Lee Adama: (walking up to Kara) If you want to die, I will open up an airlock for you, but you are not taking one of my Vipers with you.

Kara Thrace: The bird's on the deck. I'm on the deck. I don't know what you're bitching about.

Lee Adama: I don't give a frak what you do, Starbuck. You're done flying.

• In the crew mess aboard Galactica:

Helo: (referring to the rescue on New Caprica) Hey, we all made sacrifices.

Saul Tigh: Is that so?

Helo: Yes, that's right.

Saul Tigh: Well, while you were pinning wings on your Cylon girlfriend, our people were strapping homemade bombs to their chest, doing what they could to take the bastards out. So forgive me if I don't get all misty over your sacrifices.

• 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.