Scattered

Overview

Chaos is rampant as paramedics try to save Commander Adama's life after he is shot, and the Galactica is separated from the fleet.

Note: This is part one of a two part episode, part two being "Valley of Darkness".

Summary

On the Galactica

After the shooting of Adama, a Cylon basestar ambushes the Colonial fleet, prompting Colonel Tigh to execute an emergency FTL jump procedure for the fleet to rendezvous at another point. When the Galactica jumps, it finds itself stranded from the rest of the fleet, and in the middle of nowhere.
After being shot by Boomer, Adama is rushed to the ship's infirmary. Due to the fact that Doctor Cottle is not onboard the ship, a team of medics must work to stabilize Adama's condition.
Lt. Gaeta devises a plan to find the co-ordinates of where the fleet jumped: he networks all the onboard computers aboard the Galactica, so it will only take 10 minutes to compute where the fleet is. The only problem is that the Galactica will have to jump all the way back to Kobol, and hold off the Cylons until the calculations have finished.
Colonel Tigh goes to see the incarcerated Boomer, who insists she knows nothing about what's going on.
Apollo is given permission to leave the brig on a provisional basis by Colonel Tigh and helps lead the squadron that will attack the basestar.
Once the Galactica has jumped back to Kobol, the Viper's manage to hold off the oncoming waves of Cylon Raiders, although a Cylon troop carrier is shot down and crashes into the Galactica's starboard landing pod.
Gaeta manages to calculate where the fleet is, and successfully jumps to meet with them.
The medics successfully stabilize Adama's condition, although he is still in pretty rough shape.
The crashed Cylon troop carrier seems completely destroyed as it lays on the Galactica's flight deck, but multiple sets of red sensors soon light up from inside, and a group of Cylon soldiers make their way out of the craft.

On Caprica

In the Delphi Museum, Helo and Kara Thrace (Starbuck), after Starbuck attempts to shoot Sharon Valerii, talk about her being pregnant; Helo believes her, while Starbuck refuses to accept the fact.
After Starbuck's attempt to shoot Valerii, she absconds from the Delphi Museum's grounds in the Cylon Raider. (Exclaims Starbuck: "Bitch took my ride.")

On Kobol

On Kobol, the survivors of the Raptor crash head into the forest to avoid being seen by the Cylons.
Because Socinus is dying, Chief Tyrol, Cally, and a crewmember named Tarn go back to the crash site to retrieve a medkit. On their way back, the trio are ambushed by Cylons, and only Tyrol and Cally manage to escape unharmed.

Questions

Does Tigh recall that Gaius Baltar first tested his Cylon detector on Valerii? Or did he know in the first place?
Regarding the firewall status display: What is not to say that the Cylons programmed the display, or more accurately the GUI interface for it, to show a false reading on their intrusion progress?
Interesting connundrum: If Kelly is the Galactica's third-in-command, then why haven't we seen (or heard) more from him in the past? It seems to be more or less contrived.
- Note: Captain Kelly is the supervisor on the Galactica's flight deck (which was mentioned in the mini-series).
- He was first seen (possibly his only other appearance) in the mini-series when Adama first appeared in the mini-series. Adama was going over his decommissioning speech and Kelly thanked Adama for the opportunity to serve with him.
- He was third in command at the time of this episode but there is no telling how many other officer level people were either lost since the attack or transfered to command positions in other, possibly military, ships in the fleet. Possibly contrived but fully recoverable with sufficient back story.
Just how many aboard the Galactica agree with Adama's decision to jail Roslin?
What is the significance of the number "3"? It is prominently shown on a door that a younger William Adama enters (in Colonel Tigh's flashbacks); when Lieutenant Gaeta arranges 3 bars of soap beside each other after washing his hands in the bathroom, and is also shown during the sequence with the firewall (that Lieutenant Gaeta devises to slow down the infiltration of the Galactica's network by Cylon forces), that has 4 levels of encryption, with 3 sub-encryption codes for each barrier.
How much time has passed between the point when the Galactica finally jumps back to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet, and when the Cylons make their way out of the crashed troop carrier? And for that matter, why hasn't anyone gone to clean up the wreckage from the flight deck?
- RDM stated in audio commentary (podcast) for this episode that this landing pod - originally set up as a museum - is not in active use.

Analysis

Notes

The second season introduced the practice of showing the current fleet population in the opening credits. Throughout this episode, that population is 47,875. That represents 22 total casualties since "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I".
Socinus's lungs are filling with fluid.
Captain Kelly is now the third in the chain of command, after Tigh.
- Note: It is possible that Kelly is only third in command because of the malefactions of Apollo, and that, typically as fourth it is not a surprise that we have not seen him before. The sudden incapcity of two superiors has bumped him up the ladder. It is also worth noting that Doc Cottle holds the rank of Major, as stated in "Bastille Day", which would make him third in command, were it not for his absence from Galactica when Adama was shot.
- Note: Another possibilty is that Dr. (Major) Cottle might not even be in "Galactica's Line of Sucession" at all (he is a medical officer, not a combat officer); in the United States military there are times when a lower ranking person will be in "Operational Command" of people who are technically higher in rank. For example, in the United States Navy SEAL Teams, an officer may find himself under the "Operational Command" of an Enlisted/Non Commissioned Officer (NCO) if that Enlisted/NCO is more experienced/qualified in say, underwater transit. The United States military recognizes while a person may technically be a higher rank, that does not automatically entitle the individual to be command in situations that they are not trained or qualified for. To put things in perspective, does anyone honestly think that the Chief Medical Officer onboard a United States Navy aircraft carrier could actually find himself/herself in command of that carrier?
Adama and Tigh served on a merchant freighter together after leaving the military; Adama was responsible for bringing Tigh back into the military when he reentered.
This episode marks the first (known) attempt at networking Galactica's computer systems, at least under William Adama's command.
Tigh's distrust of Baltar seems evident in this episode, particularly in the reply he made to Gaeta regarding the trust he had in the Lieutenant's programming abilities over Baltar's.
Tigh's wife has taken residence in Tigh's quarters.
Starbuck seems to incorrectly assume that there is a "real" Sharon and that the Sharon on Caprica is just a copy of her.
This episode introduces the first combat depiction of the Cylon Heavy Raider, previously seen during Colonial Day.
This episode showed the first change in the intro sequence, including subtitles, a lack of the "episode clip" sequence, and the use of the theme music previously used only in the UK showings of the first season.

Bloopers

During the scene on Caprica, Helo exclaims "for God Sakes" instead of the more Colonial "for Gods' Sakes" or Cylon "for God's Sake".

Noteworthy Dialogue

Colonel Tigh: (to Commander Adama) You never should have brought me back into the service. If you had just let me be, I'd have died back there on Caprica along with everyone else, and been happier for it. I don't want a command. I never did. Don't you dare die on me now.

During a flashback sequence:
Saul Tigh: So, how'd you do it? How'd you get off this frakking freighter?

William Adama: Connections. Fran's father has a friend in the Defensive Committee.

Saul Tigh: So the new wife comes through for you. I wish I had in-laws with pull.

William Adama: Give me a couple years, and I'll have some pull. You watch me. I'll have my own Battlestar someday.

In the Galactica's brig:
President Laura Roslin: (to Tigh) Colonel, once we find the fleet, I'd like to have a word with you.

Colonel Tigh: There's nothing to talk about. You went up against the old man and you lost.

Tigh's pep talk to the CIC crew:
Tigh: This is his command. His orders are still the word of the Gods on board this ship. Just so we're clear. This will be Adama's command until the day he dies. And we are not going to let him die. So say we all.

On Caprica Sharon beng "right":
Starbuck: She's right, huh? Sharon the Cylon is right. Let's all just listen to Sharon the Cylon. Do whatever she says. Because that's a good idea.

Helo: Hey, Kara, she helped me get this far.

Starbuck: OK. I get it. I get it, Helo. You and I go way back, so I get it. All right? I remember how you felt about her, but she is not the real Sharon. That is some cheap, knock-off copy.

After Starbuck shoots at Caprica Sharon:
Helo: I'm not going to let you kill her. She's carrying my child.

Starbuck: My Gods, men are so painfully stupid sometimes! How do you know that?

Helo: I know, all right? She's not lying.

Starbuck: They lie about everything, Helo. Their entire existence is a lie. They're not human, Helo, they're machines. You can't have a baby with a machine.

Helo: I don't know what to tell you, OK? But I believe her. It's hard to describe, we've been together for a long time. I mean, I know what she is, but she's not like the others! Look at me, she is not.

Lee gives his word to Tigh regarding his parole:
Lee: All right, you have my parole. When I'm on duty, I will make no attempt to free her or sow insurrection among the crew. When I'm not on duty, I'll report back to this cell.

Tigh: (matter-of-factly) Pre-flight brief is underway in the ready room.

Lee: Right.

Starbuck, upon the realization that Caprica Boomer has just stolen her Cylon Raider:
Starbuck: Bitch took my ride...

Official Statements

"We shot a scene where I’m in the brig, and Tigh is trying to get in my face, and I’m all, 'Just shoot me now, you pussy.' It was great." -- Grace Park, [1]

We've almost completed shooting the opening of Season Two, with Michael Rymer back at the helm filming a two-parter written by David Weddle & Bradley Thompson called 'Scattered' and 'Valley of Darkness.' Things have been going well so far, with a good mood on the set and a feeling of satisfaction and pride running through the whole team at their accomplishments in year one and anticipation for year two." --

From RDM's Sci-Fi Channel Blog

From Podcast

Regarding the bar room scenes (i.e. how Saul Tigh and William Adama met) that were filmed, but weren't fully utilized:
"We were going to open this show, with just that scene, to show how the two men met. And then come into this scene we're watching now, where Tigh takes command of Galactica, and Adama's been shot, and there's all this chaos. And the episode was going to continue to sort of flashback onto their relationship. On the early days of Tigh and Adama. [...] And we shot those sequences. And edited it together, and we looked at them, but ultimately we didn't like them. We just didn't feel -- they weren't quite the show. [...] You can't really put your finger on any particular person, except maybe me, because it is my concept. [...] I don't know if I created, or had the writers of this episode, Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, I don't know if I really gave them a rich enough environment to tell that backstory. "
On splitting the original "Scattered" into "Scattered" and "Valley of Darkness".
"We've always struggled with the length of our scripts, the length of our episodes. If you look at it, there's only 40 minutes in change of actual program content. And our scripts tend to run, in the early drafts, in the 50s or low 50s. [...] 60 page scripts are not unheard of. An ideal page script for us, going into shooting, is usually around 46-47 pages. Sometimes we make that, sometimes we don't. [...] And I think we did on 'Scattered', I think in the final draft it was around 47-48 pages. The shows are still too huge. They're still too long. The style of storytelling -- I might have talked about this before -- just requires spending more time on character, creating momenets, really, sort of, taking your time as you go through the show. [...] So we essentially divided it into two and created another action storyline for part two."

Statistics

Guest Stars

Writing & Direction

Written by David Weddle & Bradley Thompson
Directed by Michael Rymer

Production Notes

Series: 2 (2005 / 2006)
Production Number: 2.01
Airdate Order: 1 (of 20)

First Run Air Dates & Releases

UK Airdate: September 2005
US Airdate: July 15 2005
DVD Release: (UK)

Ratings

USA Nielsen Ratings: 3,053,000 viewers; 2.6 household rating

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