Razor/Noteworthy Dialogue

This is a subpage of the "Razor" article, listing dialogue from the episode.

• Admiral Cain talks to Kendra Shaw about her conduct during the crisis:

Sometimes we have to leave people behind so that we can go on. So that we can continue to fight. Sometimes we have to do things that we never thought we were capable of, if only to show the enemy our will. Yesterday, you showed me that you're capable of setting aside your fear, setting aside your hesitation, and even your revulsion. Every natural inhibition that, during battle, can mean the difference between life and death. (opens folding knife.) When you can be this for as long as you have to be, then you're a razor. (closes knife.) This war is forcing us all to become razors. Because if we don't, we don't survive. And then we don't have the luxury of becoming simply human again. Do you understand me?

• Opening narration by Kendra Shaw:

You're born, you live and you die. There are no do-overs, no second chances to make things right if you frak 'em up the first time. Not in this life anyway. [...] Like I said, you make your choices and you live with them. And in end you are those choices.

• Jurgen Belzen to Helena Cain:

Alright, listen to your XO. Once in a while it's okay to get off the treadmill.

• Gina Inviere about Helena Cain and their relationship:

She has needs, just like the rest of us. No one can survive entirely on their own. Trust me Lieutenant, in the end, we're all just human.

• Admiral Cain gives a speech to her crew after the Cylon attack:

This is your admiral. I know there've been a lot of rumors going around...about the destruction that's been visited on our homeworlds by the Cylons. I would like to tell you that they're exaggerations, but in fact it can not even come close to convey the horror that's been unleashed upon us. The facts are...that our colonies have been destroyed, our cities have been nuked, and our fleet's gone too. So far there have been no indications of any other survivors. I imagine you're all asking yourselves the same question I am: What do we do now? Do we run? Do we hide? I think those are the easy choices. A philosopher once said "When faced with untenable alternatives you should consider your imperative." Look around you. Our imperative is right here, in our bulkheads, in our planes, in our guns and in ourselves. War is our imperative. And if right now victory seems like an impossibility, then we have something else to reach for: revenge, payback. So we will fight. Because in the end it's the only alternative our enemies have left us. I say let's make these murdering things understand that as long as this crew and this ship survive, that this war, that they started, will not be over. Thank you.

• Cain and Shaw in the aftermath of the attack on the Cylon communications relay:

Shaw: 32 Vipers destroyed. 61 badly damaged. The acting chief says we don't have enough parts to repair them all.

Cain: It's a rather high price for a tactical insignificant victory.

Shaw: I wouldn't say it's insignificant, sir. I'd say we put the enemy on notice. The price we paid is my fault.

Cain: How do you figure that, Lieutenant?

Shaw: I gave her, it, my access codes. [...]

Cain: You gave it something far more important. You gave it your trust. As did I, but this thing really knows how to manipulate human emotion. Preys on it.

• Shaw's opinions about Pegasus's previous commanders and Lee Adama:

Fisk was a black market sell-out. Piece of garbage. Unworthy of the uniform. Garner was a martinet who tried to micromanage this ship like it was some balky piece of machinery. [...] You're a step up. That doesn't change the fact that you're an outsider who was brought in to clean up our mess. Or the impression that your daddy just gave you a battlestar; like he was tossing you the keys to a new car.

• Kendra Shaw and Kara Thrace meet in the ship's galley:

Thrace: (catching Shaw injecting a drug) So the XO's human after all. I used to do that myself. Scrub through the wireless bands. Reminds you you're not alone out here. (pauses) Got any more?

Shaw: More of what?

Thrace: Whatever you're about to stick on your neck.

Shaw: You don't miss much, do you?

Thrace: Whatever floats your boat, right? I came down here looking for a loose bottle and you came down here for...guess we're both just trying to take the edge off, right?

Shaw: Guess so.

Thrace: That's good. Cause I'd hate to think that Lee's new XO can't handle the pressure. Maybe wants to get busted back to peeling potatoes.

Shaw: I'd hate to think that Lee's favorite pilot wants to find herself scrubbing floors for pilfering ship's stores.

Thrace: (smirks) You keep my secret, sir, I'll keep yours.

• Shaw and Thrace preparing for the rescue mission and assault on the basestar (extended version only):

Thrace: Hope for the best, plan for the worst, as my mom the sergeant-major used to say.

Shaw: That all she taught you?

Thrace: Fear gets you killed; anger keeps you alive.

Shaw: Admiral Cain said the same thing. She said to me once, "If you can be this" (opening the blade) "for as long as you have to be, you're a razor." A weapon can't feel fear, has no regrets. It just is.

Thrace: Noticed you would've gotten along just fine. Of course, my mom was full of crap about a lot of things. Held on to her anger so tight that at the end, that's all she had left. She died alone. You ask me, fear, anger -- two sides of the same coin. You gotta let go of both.

• The first Hybrid speaking to himself as Shaw's squad storms the basestar (extended version; dialogue may be inaccurate because it is hard to understand):

Hybrid: At last, they’ve come for me. I feel their lives, their destinies spilling out before me. The denial of the one true path, played out on a world not their own, will end soon enough. Soon there will be four, glorious in awakening, struggling with the knowledge of their true selves, the pain of revelation bringing new clarity, and in the midst of confusion, he will find her. Enemies brought together by impossible longing, enemies now joined as one. The way forward at once unthinkable, yet inevitable. And the fifth, still in shadow, will claw toward the light, hungering for redemption that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering. I can see them all. The seven, now six, self-described machines who believe themselves without sin, but in time, it is sin that will consume them. They will know enmity, bitterness, the wrenching agony of the one splintering into the many, and then they will join the promised land, gathered on the wings of an angel. Not an end, but a beginning.

• Shaw and the first Hybrid:

Hybrid: Come in, Major. I've been waiting for you for a long time.

Shaw: You're what all this is about, aren't you? What are you?

Hybrid: What am I? A man? Or am I a machine? My children believe I am a god.

Shaw: Are you ... a god?

Hybrid: I have seen things. Your life, Kendra Shaw. The things you have done. Things you felt you had to do. All leading to this moment. You wish to be forgiven, my child. ... Do you wish to be forgiven?

Shaw: Yes.

Hybrid: Then come up closer. There's something I have to tell you. Come. (Grabs her arm.) Kara Thrace will lead the human race to its end.

Shaw: What?

Hybrid: She is the herald of the apocalypse. The harbinger of death. They must not follow her.

• The first Hybrid and Shaw, just before Shaw detonates the nuclear warhead:

Hybrid: As my own existence comes to a close, only to begin anew, in ways uncertain.

Shaw: You're scared, aren't you, mother-frakker? You should be.

Hybrid: All this has happened before, and it will happen again...again...again...again...again...again...again...

• William and Lee Adama discuss Cain's actions:

William Adama: I've been going through Cain's log and from a tactical perspective it's hard to find fault in anything she did. Or that Kendra Shaw did.

Lee Adama: They butchered innocent civilians, Dad. Come on. How can you ignore that?

William Adama: I know that I didn't have to face any of the situations that she did. I had the President in my face, arguing for the survival of the civilian fleet. I've Colonel Tigh keeping me honest, balancing my morality and my tactics. And I had you. Now...you don't have any children, so you might not understand this, but you see yourself reflected in their eyes. And there are some things that I've thought of doing with this fleet, but I've stopped myself, because I knew I'd have to face you the following day.