Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I

"Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
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Overview

As the presidential election looms just weeks away, the accidental discovery of a habitable planet sparks debate in the Fleet: Colonize? Or keep seeking Earth? Meanwhile, Starbuck leads a rescue mission of Raptors back to Caprica to save Anders and his resistance.

Summary

• Adama has finally given Starbuck the go-ahead to plan a rescue mission to Caprica. On Pegasus, she lays out their plan: they will use all of their remaining Raptors — 20 in all — and use the navigation computer/organ from one of the captured Heavy Raiders to calculate the Jumps back to Caprica. Using this, they can make it back to Caprica in a series of 10 Jumps. They will go undetected when they reach Caprica by making a risky jump to just a few klicks above the surface, within the atmosphere itself, below Cylon DRADIS. Their biggest obstacle to doing this was actually interfacing with the Heavy Raider's navigation "computer", but now they will take Caprica-Sharon along in Starbuck's Raptor with it; Sharon will directly interface with the computer (by inserting a fiber-optic cable into her arm, like she did in "Flight of the Phoenix").
• The presidential election is two weeks away, and Roslin is ahead in the polls. The only real arguments that Baltar has against her that give him any ground are when he accuses her of pandering to the religious fundamentalists (i.e. her recent policy switch on abortion) and guiding the Fleet based on the scriptures alone. Conferring with his campaign manager Tom Zarek in his lab, Baltar realizes he'll need more than this to turn the fleet againt Roslin. Meanwhile, Roslin is doing a little rehearsal ritual for the presidential debate with Adama in his quarters.
• On the hangar deck, Chief Tyrol is sleeping on the floor and twitching convulsively, having a nightmare. Cally searches around the deck to find him, and is confused by the sight when she finds him. Cally tried to wake Tyrol up, but snapping right out of his nightmare he attacks Cally, punching her in the face until she is a bloody pulp and unconscious. Realizing where he is and what's going on, Tyrol is horrified, and carries Cally in his arms to sickbay.
• Apollo, now commander of Pegasus, has conflicting feelings about Starbuck's mission to rescue Anders, but wishes her good luck in finding him.
• Helo and Caprica-Sharon travel in Starbuck's Raptor. Sharon is still deeply depressed about her daughter Hera's seeming death, and has been shutting herself out. Helo tells her that he won't let her do that and won't give up on her. Sharon tells him that she has the feeling that something bad will happen in the future; not on the mission to Caprica, but something else.
• On the very first jump out of the series of ten, Racetrack's Raptor jumps to the wrong set of coordinates. Starbuck's orders were to keep going ahead until they lose 3 Raptors, so they go on ahead, while Racetrack prepares to follow her orders to return to Galactica if separated. Her Raptor jumped into the middle of a gas cloud with a lot of interference, and upon clearing it, a new planet is found. Scanners indicate that it is a human-habitable planet. She returns to Galactica with news of the discovery.
• The crew goes over the scans from the planet; it can sustain human life and subsequent scouting shows that in contains animal and vegetative life; they could indeed settle here. However, it is a cold world and somewhat harsh; only a temperate band around the equator covering about 20% of the surface would be habitable. After some prodding from Six, Baltar and Zarek realize that they can use this as their wedge issue to turn the people against Roslin: offer them permament colonization on this planet.
• Tory goes over new poll numbers with Roslin on Colonial One: Baltar has been gaining ground with his new offer to stop running from the Cylons and stay here. The planet is hidden by interference from the gas clouds, and many people want to just stop their constant chase in the refugee fleet. Roslin points out that if the Colonials could find the planet, the Cylons could just as easily. Also, life on the planet would be harsh. Tory points out that Baltar is pandering to the people's hopes, giving them false ones that they greatly desire, while Roslin is pointing out justifiable fears that they simply don't want to hear; people will vote their hopes.
• Shocked by his attack on Cally, Chief Tyrol has asked for religious counselling, and meets with a priest named Brother Cavil. Tyrol explains that it is because he doesn't believe that psychoanalysis works, but is himself a very religious man. Cavil is somewhat loose and sarcastic in his counseling, leaving Tyrol a little pertubed and confused. Cavil tells Tryol that he must look for the problem in himself and questions Tyrol, and when Tyrol denies that he has been having disturbing dreams, Cavil can see through it, so Tyrol relents.
• For weeks, Tyrol has been having the recurring dream that he walks onto the upper level of the hangar deck, climbs over the railing and kills himself by jumping to his death. Cavil says it is because Tyrol has a subconscious desire to kill himself. Tyrol explains that he has had the gnawing worry since Galactica-Sharon died that he might himself be a Cylon. Galactica-Sharon never really knew she was a Cylon, even up to the point that she died, but reported strange fears that something bad was going to happen and she had to stop herself: how would Tyrol, or anyone else, really know if they were a Cylon sleeper agent or not? Tyrol is frightened by the prospect.
• Cavil assured Tyrol that he is not a Cylon, sarcastically quipping that he knows because he is a Cylon himself, and hasn't seen Tyrol at any of the meetings. Tyrol feels ashamed to go back to the hangar deck crew after the accident, but Cavil assures him that they're the only family he has left, and they love him. Cally most of all.
• At the final presidential debate, Baltar's charisma and hopes of finally giving up their run from the Cylons starts to pull him ahead in the polls, and Roslin's warnings that this planet is not safe and determination to keep searching for Earth do not gain wide support. Baltar apparently wins the final debate. Roslin tells him to go frak himself.
• The Raptors rescuse mission makes the final jump to Caprica. Raptor 612 is lost because it jumps right into the middle of a mountain. The remaining Raptors continue on, then Starbuck, Helo, Sharon and the marines continue on foot.
• One klick away from the resistance's base camp, they see movement, and find Anders and his whole group. Starbuck is overjoyed to see him, but Anders warns that the Cylons are right behind them; the resistance's base was ambushed that morning, and half of Anders' men are dead.
• The marines and resistance members start coming under Cylon artillery fire. After running briefly, they reach a point where the arc of the artillery shells is right above them, and cannot hit them. However, the artillery's killzone is now between them and retreat back to the Raptors. To be continued...

Questions

• Did Raptor 612 Jump "into" the mountain by crashing into it, or did they jump inside of it?
  • RDM confirms in the podcast that by "jumped into the mountain" it doesn't mean "they jumped close to it and thus crashed", it means, exactly like a Star Trek transporter accident, that they materialized from the Jump into solid rock, "half-phased".
• If Raptor 612 was destroyed by jumping into a mountain, how was their transponder still operational?
  • Perhaps that part of the Raptor was in an air pocket in the rock, and thus not phased into it. RDM says in the podcast that the Raptor Jumping into the mountain wasn't like "swapping" spatial matter between two points: like a teleporter accident, the Raptor and its crew were horrifically merged into the rock itself.
• Is the previous distance limit for Colonial FTL jumps on account of something like mathematical calculations? Have any of the other Raptors, besides the lead Raptor, been modified, or do they just receive coordinates from the one Raptor with Caprica-Boomer and the Cylon device?
  • No, or at least, not entirely. Based on Starbuck's jump back to Caprica in a Cylon Raider and other comments made in season 1, the Cylon FTL drive is far more capable to begin with. Colonial navigation systems would not be designed to take advantage of a markedly superior FTL drive because there would have been no need. Even by using the Cylon navigation computer, with its much better calculations, they needed ten jumps to return to Caprica.
• Does the fleet have the resources to sustain long term settlements on the newly found planet?
  • Shelter could be taken care of by canabalizing the ships of the fleet for building materials. But the question of how many homes can be made for how many of the 49,000+ survivors simply by recycling the materials availible still remains. Even if Galactica and Pegasus themselves were recycled, would there be enough materials, or would the Battlestars still be necessary for orbital defence?
  • The planet itself may have natural resources—in "Scar", a mining ship collected metals to build new Vipers, so mining the planet itself may be possible. In this case it would be unnecessary to cannibalize the fleet.
• Zarek says the people have been cooped up in metal boxes since the attack. How literally does he mean this—for instance, are people living inside converted cargo holds as they were in the original series?
  • Judging from RDM's podcast, he just meant being stuck inside of cramped ships in general, i.e. even the Galactica crew (who have dedicated crew quarters).
• How was the Raptor able to jump back to the fleet if their FTL navigation computer was not working properly?
  • Racetrack's navigator says she gave him the coordinates, so it is possible that she relayed them incorrectly rather than a malfunction in the computer. Alternatively, they could have tracked down any fault and repaired it. In any case, the coordinates for the Raptor's original jump point would probably still be in the system.
• What about the Cylons hiding within the fleet? With the possible settlement of the planet being openly debated can the Cylon infiltrators not contact the Cylon fleet and inform them of the Colonials intentions?
  • Perhaps the interference around the planet is blocking long range communications?
  • Caprica-Sharon implies that there are Cylons amongst the fleet by telling Adama she would not identify them if asked.

Analysis

• Timeline:
  • Zarek states that the people of the fleet have been "cooped up in metal boxes for nine months", putting this episode not long after "Downloaded".
  • At the beginning of the episode, the election is still "two weeks away".
  • At the beginning of the first debate, the announcer states Balter declared his bid for presidency a month ago.
  • At the conclusion of the second debate, the polls will open in three days.
• Margaret "Racetrack" Edmonson is apparently assigned to Pegasus at present, since Dualla refers to her mission as the "Pegasus survey team".
  • She could have been flying a Pegasus Raptor.
• Lee Adama is now wearing a wristwatch, perhaps Barry Garner's from "The Captain's Hand".
• It is safe to emerge from a hyperspace jump inside a planetary atmosphere at 2km, but not within solid rock. For comparative purposes, the density of air at 2km in an earth-like atmosphere is about 1 kg/m³, while the density of silica rock is about 2,600 kg/m³.
• BattlestarWiki has been trying for some time to reconcile on the Timeline the apparent jump from 3 months to 6 months that occured at the beginning of Season 2.5, a part of which was that back in "Bastille Day" it was stated on screen that the presidential elections were due in seven months. However, over 7 months passed by the end of "Scar", and there wasn't even talk of the elections until "The Captain's Hand". In the podcast for this episode, Ron Moore appears to reveal that he has simply forgotten this point. When he refers to the fact that "elections were promised back in "Bastille Day"", Moore says that he remembers that the line in "Bastille Day" was nine months, not seven. This is more than a one-episode goof, becuase one month after "Bastille Day" in "Colonial Day", it was stated that the elections were six months away. In the podcast it seems that Moore is truly and simply mistaken, and there is no explanation for the descrepancy betwen the "seven months after the attack" figures given in "Bastille Day" and "Colonial Day", and the new "nine months after the attack" figure at the end of season 2.5. It is simply a mistake.

Notes

• The re-cap for this episode includes scenes not actually shown in previous episodes—for instance, Starbuck demanding to the dying Roslin circa "Epiphanies" that they go back and rescue the Caprica resistance.
• When Baltar sarcastically quips that Zarek (and Six) expect him to just sit around and wait for "The Hand of God" to deliver them something they can use to their advantage against Roslin, he is of course referencing the previous episode titled "The Hand of God". Ironically, Baltar considers himself the hand of God in that episode. Further, a "chance serendipitous event" (namely the discovery of an inhabitable planet) does deliver them something they can use against Roslin.
• Likewise, when Apollo wishes Starbuck "good hunting", there's a tone of concern, and he seems to pause before saying it, as if Apollo meant to say something else but changed his mind. This may be a reference to "33", when Starbuck tells Apollo to say "good hunting" instead of "be careful out there".
• This episode has many parallels to "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I" and "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II": the discovery of an inhabitable planet, Gaeta plotting a Raptor jump dangerously close to a planet surface, Starbuck's use of captured Cylon technology to return to Caprica, the intercutting of several plot threads in the teaser, a character contemplating suicide out of fear of being a Cylon, and difficulties between Helo and Sharon. In addition, Tyrol's assault of Cally is something of a parallel to Helo shooting Sharon in "Kobol's Last Gleaming"—in both cases, a man driven to rage physically and emotionally wounds a woman who loves him.
• When Lt. Gaeta takes his shirt off in the head, he can be seen to still be sporting the tiger tatoo that we first saw in "Final Cut".
• The combined Colonial fleet had 20 Raptors in this episode, of which 1 was destroyed before the end. Previously, Galactica was confirmed to have at least 5 left (The Farm), with the suggestion that there may be as many as 8 (Resistance). Doubtlessly, Pegasus brought at least an equal number of Raptors with it when it joined the Fleet, but 20 is still a high number for this. Perhaps a disproportionately large number of Raptors escaped to Ragnar Anchorage during the Miniseries. Or perhaps like in real life with American Nimitz class Aircraft Carriers that carry a larger number of fighter aircraft compared to older Forrestal class carriers, the Pegasus, being a larger and more modern Battlestar than Galactica, it has the capability to carry a larger complement of Raptors. Unlike Vipers, Raptors do have FTL drives. We actually saw Boomer and Helo escaping the destruction of their Viper squadron, because Raptors do not engage in frontline combat, and because they have an extenstive ECM suite which Helo was trying to jam the Cylon virus signal with. Indeed, Crashdown was a Raptor ECO, but Boomer stated that he was not from Galactica, but a refugee "from Triton" (either a battlestar or a planet).
  • Also, more Raptors could have been built with extra materials after the Viper squadrons were manufactured (Scar).
• The jump error that landed the Raptor in the nebula was attributed to a "firmware error" by the crew. This may be an indication that there was firmware upgrade to deal with the increased FTL jump distances provided by the Cylon computer.
• When Cavil is consoling Tyrol's fears that he might unknowingly be a Cylon sleeper agent, just like Boomer was, Tyrol asks him how he can know for sure. Cavil sarcastically answers that it's because maybe he's a Cylon, and he hasn't seen Tyrol at any of the meetings: Number Six also sarcastically remarked to Baltar in the Miniseries that Aaron Doral could not be a Cylon, because she hadn't "seen him at any of the good Cylon parties"...but of course, Doral actually was a Cylon, implying that Cavil is truly more than he seems.
• Tory actually paraphrases the title of this episode aloud, saying that the new planet offers people in the Fleet the hope that they can "lay down their burdens" and stop running.
• During the premiere airing of this episode on the Sci-Fi Channel, before the Teaser segment a "Parental Discretion Is Advised" black and white message was inserted. At the end of the Teaser, Tyrol beats Cally to a bloody pulp.
• Lee Adama is now wearing a new uniform as Commander of Pegasus: it is a Commander's uniform, denoted by the new red trim (with gold inner trim), and it has a white "Pegasus BSG-62" patch, replacing his old gold "Galactica BSG-75" patch.
• Dualla's photo of Adama is the left half of a group shot with Kara Thrace and his brother Zak Adama. The original belongs to Thrace, and she has kept it in her locker on Galactica since the miniseries.
• Dualla refers to "rivers of milk and honey" on the newly discovered planet. The phrase "land of milk and honey" is a common epithet for the promised land in the Torah, appearing in Exodus 3:8, 3:17, 13:5, 33:3, Leviticus 20:24, Number 13:27, 14:8, 16:13-14, and Deuteronomy 6:3.
• Commander Lee Adama is seen eating noodles with chopsticks in his quarters, just like his father in "33", etc. Interesting note Adama sticks his chopsticks inside the bowl of noodles so that the chopsticks stand up in the bowl, which is a sign of bad luck to the Chinese. Non-asians that use chopsticks frequently do not pay heed to the bad luck superstition, similiar to the Japanese custom of not giving knives as a wedding present for the same reason (bad luck). This is a sign of cultures borrowing from each other piecemeal.
• In the podcast, RDM states that originally instead of Starbuck, Helo, and Sharon leading the other Raptors in another Raptor, they would have been flying in the captured Heavy Raider itself. However, the 2 part season finale went overbudget and cuts had to be made, and the cost of building the Heavy Raider interior was deemed prohibitively expensive. Thus, they bring the Heavy Raider computer/organ with them in a normal Raptor. Moore said he believed that fans "wouldn't miss" an actual appearance by the Heavy Raider.
• Col. Tigh appears in this epsiode twice but doesn't speak a single line.

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Chief Tyrol is worried that like Galactica-Sharon, he could just as well be another Cylon sleeper agent:

Chief Tyrol: How do you know I'm human?

Brother Cavil: Oh, well, maybe because I'm a Cylon and I've never seen you at any of the meetings.

• Brother Cavil: Do you know how useless prayer is? Chanting, and singing, and mucking about with old half-remembered lines of bad poetry? And you know what it gets you? Exactly nothing.

• Gaius Baltar: I'm not sure if you're aware, Tom, but the mob isn't usually in the habit of electing ungodly apostates who denegrate people of faith.

Official Statements

• In an interview in issue #197 of TV Zone, James Callis (Dr. Gaius Baltar) said: "the arrival of the Pegasus has helped galvanize our characters into who they are and who they’re trying to be. These later episodes [in Season 2] also further drive home the fact that the Galactica’s crew could be exterminated by its own kind, meaning that Humans are potentially far more terrifying an enemy than perhaps the Cylons."

Guest Stars

• Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek
• Michael Trucco as Samuel Anders
• Dean Stockwell as Brother Cavil
• Aaron Douglas as CPO Galen Tyrol
• Nicki Clyne as Specialist Cally
• Leah Cairns Racetrack
• Rekha Sharma as Tory Foster
• Alisen Down as Jean Barclay
• Colin Lawrence as "Skulls" McCall
• David Kaye as James McManus

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