Islanded in a Stream of Stars

"Islanded In a Stream of Stars" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 4, Episode 18
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Story by
Director
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	420
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	March 6, 2009
CAN airdate	March 6, 2009
UK airdate	March 10, 2009
DVD release
Population	39,521 survivors ( 35)
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Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Someone to Watch Over Me	Islanded In a Stream of Stars	Daybreak, Part I
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Overview

Repairs on the Galactica continue, but it seems little headway is being made. The ship's power and temperature are fluctuating, and the creaks and groans of metal fatigue can be heard constantly. A major hull breach kills about 60 people, human and Cylon alike. Lee "Apollo" Adama struggles to convince the newly-elected Fleet Quorum that Galactica can be saved, but many councilors are worried about becoming dependent on the Cylons for military protection. Once the Galactica meets its inevitable demise, the Basestar will be the logical choice for the new flagship. Sonja assures them that the Cylons will continue to respect William Adama's military authority when he transfers to the Basestar, along with the rest of Galactica's crew and their planes and munitions. Other representatives begin calling first dibs on certain parts of Galactica, which will of course be stripped once its time is up. Laura Roslin's cancer is killing her, and she is now confined to bed in the ship's hospital. She gradually convinces Admiral William Adama that he has to abandon Galactica and move everyone over to the Cylon Basestar. Ellen Tigh tries to convince Colonel Saul Tigh that Roslin is right, but he refuses: The decision is Adm. Adama's alone.

Karl "Helo" Agathon's marriage to Sharon "Athena" Valerii is falling apart, as she cannot overcome the loss of her child, Hera, or the knowledge that her husband had sexual intercourse with the Number Eight known as "Boomer". Trying to save his marriage, Helo tries to get Adm. Adama to approve the launching of a Raptor to find Hera. Adama has already permitted Sonja, the Cylon representative on the new Quorum, to secretly take a Heavy Raider to the Cylon home world, known as "the Colony". The Colony though has already been moved to a new location by Cavil prior to the Cylon Civil War; sending Helo out in a Raptor to look for it would be a suicide mission. Adama finally refuses to give permission, to which Helo appears devastated.

Gaius Baltar continues his religious broadcasts to the Fleet, and his latest message focuses on angels walking among humanity. Baltar encounters Caprica Six, who rejects his romantic overtures. She tells him she's changed and that he has not. Baltar breaks down over the loss of his former lover. Later, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace meets Baltar while they are both in the ship's head. Kara tells him that she died on Earth, and discovered her own body there. She gives him her dog tag to analyze. He scrapes blood from the dog tag, and finds it came from a body which was already dead. When the Galactica crew, Cylons, and Baltar's believers meet on Galactica's flight deck to bury those who died in the hull breach, Baltar reveals what he discovered about Starbuck and calls her an angel. He preaches about eternal life, but Starbuck slaps him and the service breaks up. Later, Apollo meets with Starbuck and offers her his unconditional love and support. They part as friends. Starbuck puts a photo of herself on the memorial wall of the dead.

Aboard the stolen Raptor, Hera keeps crying for her mother, infuriating Boomer. Boomer almost sedates the child, but cannot bring herself to do so; they keep jumping toward their destination. In an attempt to calm Hera, Boomer reveals her "Cylon projection" dreamworld to Hera. Hera can see the world, too, and bonds with Boomer. Boomer begins to develop strong emotional ties to the child. When the two arrive at the "colony", a Cylon base on top of a small, rocky planetoid, Cavil takes Hera from Boomer and declares that soon she will have many playmates. The child weeps and calls out for Boomer, and Boomer also sheds copious tears unwilling to part from Hera.

After an emotional breakdown, Adm. Adama realizes the ship must be abandoned. He meets with Col. Tigh, who initially resists the evacuation order but gives in after a brief discussion. All civilians are to be removed over the next few days, arrangements are to be made to put the military personnel aboard the Basestar, and Galactica is to be stripped for parts. Rather than let the ship break down, Adama intends to destroy it "in style."

A Number Eight and Number Six have hooked Samuel Anders up to a Hybrid tank in a an attempt to help his brain reboot, but there is no apparent change. Starbuck (Cpt. Kara Thrace), Anders's wife, goes to Anders' bedside alone, and decides to kill him rather than let him live in a vegetative state. But as she aims a gun at his head, Anders comes awake. He babbles like a Hybrid, but his ravings also indicate that he's aware of the threat to his life. With one hand, he subdues Starbuck and she drops the pistol. Anders continues to babble, but some of his rants indicate that he is reintegrating, perhaps even repairing, his mind. The Galactica's power and temperature fluctuations were because Anders was connecting to the ship, as the Hybrid tank and the Cylon polymer used to repair the battlestar are giving him the power to interact with the ship's computers. Tigh deems this too dangerous to continue, as Anders might jump the ship. Anders is disconnected from the Hybrid tank, and he falls into a coma again.

A few days later, Starbuck meets with the comatose Anders. She brings Hera's drawing of the song (the song which helped awaken the Final Five in the episode "Crossroads", and about which further complications were revealed in the episode prior to this one, "Someone to Watch Over Me"), and states assertively, that together, they will discover what is going on. She reconnects him to the ship's power systems. He awakens again, and begins speaking in the kind of a hybrid.

Summary

Notes

• The title comes from the book The Outermost House, by Henry Beston, where he chronicles his time spent living on an isolated beach in Cape Cod. In the chapter "Night on the Great Beach" he wrote, "For a moment of night we have a glimpse of ourselves and of our world islanded in its stream of stars— pilgrims of mortality, voyaging between horizons across eternal seas of space and time."

• Two original Cylon Raiders can be seen inside the Colony.

Analysis

• When Caprica Six was at Baltar's congregation and he spoke to her about hearing about her living arrangement and offered a place to stay. From this it seems after the in utero death of Liam Saul Tigh and Caprica Six has broken up as a couple. As a side effect, Col. Tigh has reverted to his "us" and them" attitude toward Cylons as a whole despite himself and his wife being Cylons
• Chief Tyrol was no where to be seen in this episode. Even a unknown crewman gave a report to both Admiral Adama and Colonel Tigh of what the attitudes of the Cylons, particularly the Leobens, thought as to how many jumps Galactica had in her. We had no indication of an arrest or death of Tyrol. It is likely he is holed up in his quarters suffering from deep depression, similar to after his wife Cally Henderson died.
• Hera has the power of projection, which she demonstrated at the beginning of the episode playing in a projection of CIC on top of the tactical light table with the ship miniatures including a model of Galactica which she pushed, a Cylon Baseship and three Cylon Raiders. It is not known if Hera was ever in CIC but her mother has been. This indicates strongly that Hera and Athena have been sharing projections for months probably years, conceivably since birth. Also included in the projection was the embers of welding torches, structural repairs are also going on in Galactica's corridors and Hera almost certainly saw them. She very likely thought they were pretty and incorporated it into her projection.

Questions

• What does Cavil mean when he tells Hera that she'll be having playmates?
• Will Galactica be stripped after all?
• How conscious is Anders?
• Can the Colony be found by Galactica's planes?

Guest Stars

• Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh
• Donnelly Rhodes as Dr. S. Cottle
• Rekha Sharma as Tory Foster
• Iliana Gomez-Martinez as Hera Agathon
• Dean Stockwell as Number One
• Bodie Olmos as Lieutenant Brenden "Hotdog" Constanza
• David Patrick Green as Captain Xeno Fenner
• Kerry Norton as Layne Ishay
• Lara Gilchrist as Paulla Schaffer
• Leela Savasta as Tracy Anne
• Darcy Laurie as Dealino
• Susan Hogan Captain Doyle Franks
• William Samples as Captain Jules Tarney