Home, Part II

"Home, Part II" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
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Overview

Adama leads a mission to Kobol to find President Roslin and her team of tomb-hunters, reconcile with his son, and reunite the divided fleet.

Summary

• Laura Roslin's scouting team makes its way through rain and cold towards the Gates of Hera and the Tomb of Athena. With the death of Elosha, Roslin now has to interpret what information they have of the Sacred Scrolls by herself or using the help of the second copy of Sharon Valerii.
• Meanwhile, on Galactica, Commander Adama and others on the command staff pore over their topography data of Kobol to determine Roslin's whereabouts. Adama plans a Raptor expedition to Kobol, travelling himself to "reach out" to Roslin there and work to mend fences.
• Meier and Tom Zarek continue to seek an opportunity to eliminate Lee Adama to gain a political advantage with Roslin and the Fleet. Zarek warns Meier that any action against Captain Adama must not occur before the team finds the Tomb.
• Gaius Baltar begins to strongly deny the existence of his virtual Number Six. Six turns the tables by reappearing in a more casually dressed manner and claiming that Baltar is, indeed, crazy. Six claims that Baltar doesn't really have a "chip" in his head implanted by the Cylons, and that she is actually part of his own subconscious "frakking with (his) mind." She challenges him to visit sickbay for a brain scan to convince him of her "revelation."
• Adama brings along Galen Tyrol and Billy Keikeya aboard Racetrack's Raptor to accompany him on his expedition. Adama feels Billy's presence will help his mission with Roslin. He relates that Roslin feels that Keikeya will become president himself one day.
• Helo's Valerii is happy to be "back in the Fleet", although she herself was never physically there; she is sharing her memories of her dead Galactica counterpart.
• Kara Thrace relates information on the Caprica resistance to Roslin, but Roslin states that her current thoughts are focused only on the location of the Tomb, cutting off Thrace's first attempt to fulfill her promise to Samuel Anders.
• Meier begins to solicit Sharon Valerii's help as a pawn to kill Lee Adama so as not to leave suspicion on himself or Zarek. He twists the story of the fate of her Galactica counterpart to upset her.
• A brain scan performed by Dr. Cottle confirms for the agitated Baltar that there are no mechanical devices or abnormalities in his head. Cottle writes off Baltar as another hypochondriac.
• Commander Adama's team finds Roslin's camp. The commander, his son and Thrace exchange warm hugs, and Commander Adama gives a sincere welcome to Roslin. Roslin is particularly happy to see Keikeya.
• The mood of the reunion sours when Commander Adama sees the second Valerii. Upset, he attacks her and throws her to the ground, but stops his assault when the pressures of his recovery form anxiety that causes him chest pain. Valerii says, "And you ask 'why?'" (mysteriously answering Adama's question, "Why?" said over her Galactica counterpart's dead body).
• Roslin and Commander Adama bury the hatchet in their first heart-to-heart conversation about themselves and the Fleet. When Roslin brings up the Caprican resistance and whether abandoning the Colonies was the best idea, Commander Adama cuts her off, stating that Roslin saved his life, and that of his son. If he did not take her advice, they would all be dead.
• With Commander Adama in the group, Tom Zarek tells Meier to abandon their plans on Lee Adama, but Meier secretly continues the plan, giving Sharon Valerii one of his civilian sidearms to shoot Lee Adama while he and another Zarek team member work to shoot Commander Adama.
• Valerii relates her feelings to Helo on how the Fleet sees her and other Cylon agents: as machines, not people, with no rights. Realizing what Meier is trying to do (but not relaying the story to Helo), she tells Helo to trust her in what must be done next.
• The team finds the Tomb of Athena. Immediately, Valerii raises her gun towards Commander Adama as Meier raises his gun to Lee Adama's head. But Valerii is feinting: She shoots Meier instead while Lee Adama kills another Meier conspirator that raised his gun at him. Valerii states to Commander Adama that, unlike "Boomer", she is aware of who and what she is, and that she makes own decisions on her destiny. She surrenders her gun to Commander Adama as her first of many overtures of good faith.
• The Arrow of Apollo is not a key to the door of the Tomb; the expedition pushes the door open. Commander Adama leaves Zarek, Valerii, and Helo guarded by Tyrol outside while Roslin, the Adamas, Keikeya and Thrace enter the Tomb. Inside, they find sarcophagi, each bearing statues that represent the tribal symbols. One status, Sagittaron, is missing his arrow.
• When the Arrow is placed on the Sagittaron statue, a hologram of sorts activates around the team, placing them on a grassy field surrounded by stone pillars with glowing representations of the ancient tribal symbols that would later form the symbols of the Colonies. They soon deduce that they are standing on a representation of Earth in a planetarium of sorts that shows the Zodiac: the constellations form a representation what the Thirteenth Tribe would see from the vantage of Earth's sky.
• Lee Adama finds what they came for in the virtual sky above: The Lagoon Nebula, a celestial point known to the Colonials as well, which now provides the Fleet both a destination and a direction to Earth, although Commmander Adama warns that the Nebula is very far away.
• Back on Galactica, Adama completes his reunification of the Fleet and fence-mending by leading a rousing ovation for the reinstated President Roslin at an assembly in the port hangar deck, complete with cheers from the crowd.
• Sharon Valerii is placed in the special brig designed for her counterpart. Helo visits her while Gaius Baltar watches with his virtual Number Six, who now returns in her usual form. She claims now that she is an "angel of God" with a mission to guide and protect Baltar "until the end of the human race."

Questions

• How did Adama and the others return from the map of Earth?
  • What exactly was the map of Earth? Were they in the same room in the Tomb of Athena, and a 3D hologram was projected around them? Could it have been "all in their heads?" If so, would it even be perceived by the Cylons if they tried to view it?
    • In Ron D. Moore's blog on the official Scifi.com site, October 14, 2005 entry, Moore says that the map was "probably a holographic projection of some sort". As for what was preventing the Cylons finding the map now that the Tomb was open, Moore said that they planned to have Cylon Centurions attack again at the Tomb, destroying the hologram projector, however it was decided not to do this because it didn't flow well dramatically.
      • Presumably, the Colonials took the Arrow with them, and without it, the map won't turn on.
  • Did they retrieve the Arrow of Apollo? Is the map still active? If the Cylons find the map in working order and can use it, could they use the strength of their information networks to find Earth before the colonials do?
• Just who or what is the copy of Number Six that Dr. Baltar sees all the time? It is firmly established that she is not some sort of computer chip in his head, but at the same time it is established that she can't possibly be just a hallucination by Baltar's guilt-ridden subconscious mind. Baltar himself has come to the realization that she is aware of actual facts (like that a Cylon copy pregnant with a hybrid child would be brought into the new brig) that his own subconscious couldn't possibly have known of. Six herself simply said that she's "an angel of God sent here to protect you [Gaius]". Is she truly some form of supernatural force (like Count Iblis in the Original Series)? Repeated medical scans showed no foreign objects in Baltar's mind.
  • Could Gaius Baltar himself be a Cylon?
  • Could the Cylons simply have developed an "organic chip" that would be indestinguishable from Baltar's normal brain tissue when scanned? (Cylons do seem to have mastered much of bio-mechanical engineering.) If so, does Six exist more like a transponder from a nearby Cylon source, where his body and mind can be monitored by what he sees and does, and responses and an image of Six sent to him. Obviously, from his virtual sex with Six, the connection also can control his senses and manupulate him like a marionette: Six's image could even assault Baltar (Six Degrees of Separation).
  • While the Cylons have made notable advancements in macro-bioenginering, they may still lack the required expertise in micro-bioengineering as it relates to cells, most notably demonstrated by their inability to create human/Cylon embryos at will (The Farm). If there is not a chip in Baltar's head, and he is not hallucinating, could this add more to the speculation that Baltar himself is a Cylon agent? (See Gaius Baltar's page for arguments for and against this theory in the Speculation section.)
  • How was Six capable of moving the chair in the Cylon holding cell? The chair was seen in both positions in "objective" shots (i.e. shots not from Baltar's POV that didn't include Six.)
    • This may be a simple continuity error or it might suggest that Six can selectively appear as a physical manifestation, as hinted at by the appearance of Shelly Godfrey.
    • Baltar could have simply hallucinated that she moved it.
• Caprica-Boomer reminded Adama that he asked her Galactica counterpart's corpse "why" in Resistance. How did she know, without also knowing that Galactica Boomer had been killed? Or, was Boomer answering Adama's question of "why" from his attack: that humans have always abused Cylons as he had just done?
  • Along that line, in the previous scene with Helo, Caprica-Boomer mentions how she was able to remember portions of her life (such as getting her wings), and not others (such as the assassination of William Adama). Is the communication between copies delayed or possibly selective, even in death?
    • Caprica-Sharon elaborated on this more in "Resurrection Ship, Part II", in which she is actually referring to Adama's question of "Why are we as a species worthy of survival?" asked in the Miniseries. The connation that she is referring to Adama's emotional question of "Why?" to Galactica-Sharon's corpse in this same episode could just be the result of messy editing.
• How can Adama use the Messier number M8 to refer to the Lagoon Nebula? The Messier catalog was created in 1774, on Earth. Possible answers:
  • Language and nomenclature in the show is allegorical. Same reason the Colonials speak English, same reason Adama references the game of craps ("gotta roll a hard six"), same reason all the characters have Western names.
  • Parallel development between Earth and the Twelve Colonies extends past attire, vehicles, medicine and government documents to include highly specific astronomical nomenclature.
  • The show is set in the past, and Galactica arrives at Earth in time to influence 18th century astronomy.
  • The show is set in the distant future, and the inhabitants of Kobol are actually descendents of an Earth-based population, some of whom returned after a vaguely-alluded-to disaster.
    • This is supported by otherwise difficult to explain terms such as the Battlestar Columbia, which appears to be named for the 15th century Earth explorer Christopher Columbus.
    • It is also supported by the setup of the map itself. Only someone who could have been on Earth originally could have properly plotted out the Zodiac constellations as seen from Earth. Unless of course the map was created by the Lords of Kobol, whoever or whatever they were.
• What are Tom Zarek's true motivations? We see in Home, Part I that he had a desire to become the next "Fleet Commander", like William Adama, and willing to go along and eliminate anyone in his way, such as Lee Adama. Yet during the foray on Kobol, he reverses his position and applauds Laura Roslin when she re-assumes the presidency.
• Caprica-Sharon's claim that the Cylons know more about Colonial religion than the Colonials raises interesting questions. The Cylons had direct access to the Arrow of Apollo and had at least a token presence on Kobol. If all of them knew where the Tomb of Athena was as Valerii claims, why didn't they use this knowledge to locate Earth themselves?

Analysis

• The map to Earth is believable and satisfying: no goofy special effects or flaming letters spelling out "Go This Way," just basic astronomy. It gives the Colonials both a "compass" and "landmarks" to follow.

• The compass is the Lagoon Nebula, an actual nebula visible from both Earth and the Colonies. Assuming the Colonials' astronomical instruments are advanced enough to permit them to see the nebula from a greater distance than we can, the Lagoon Nebula gives them a general direction to head toward. They also know that Earth is within realistic traveling distance, and they know that Earth will be in a sphere centered on the Lagoon Nebula. The twelve star groupings that appeared on the Colonies' original flags are actual constellations, the twelve signs of the Zodiac (Aquarius, Aries, Cancer, Capricorn, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Pisces, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Taurus and Virgo). These constellations will serve as landmarks: at the right planet, or within perhaps a few light-years of the nebula, these constellations will begin appear as they do on the Colonials' flags, assuming that they compensate for the natural drift of stars relative to Earth over time, as constellations are not static.

• If each of the Twelve Tribes had an associated symbol that the Thirteenth Tribe identified in their constellations, did the Thirteenth Tribe have one of their own? There is a thirteenth constellation in the Zodiac, Ophiuchus the snake-bearer, which is not included in astrology.

Ophiuchus may, however, be included in Greek mythology, as it is speculated that the snake-bearer represents Asclepius, the healer. The story of Asclepius is that he learned the secrets of life and death while watching one snake cure another snake he had wounded. Zeus struck Asclepius down out of fear that, under his care, the human race could become immortal.

• As the nebula and constellations in the map to Earth are recognizably ours, this would appear to indicate that the Tomb of Athena isn't a Cylon construct intended to lead the Colonials astray.

• Even so, it could take the Colonials years of searching within the vicinity of the Lagoon Nebula to find Earth.

• This may be the first episode where Adama and the President call each other by their first names, and not formally: "Bill" and "Laura." By the end of this episode, it appears that Adama realizes that, while Roslin did step over the line with her redirection of Starbuck, that there was a logical need to get information on Earth in any way possible. After his near-death experience, Adama seemed more resigned that they should all meet their doom or glory together rather than separate. Roslin reinforced the fleet's hope and gave it direction and purpose. Adama's rousing formal applause generation for Roslin at the end of the episode shows that Adama has firmly buried the hatchet between himself and the President.

• Commander Adama's sense of humor is returning: first in his talk with Billy about Roslin's comments on his future of being president someday ("Don't let it go to your head: Adar was a moron.") and in his glib comment on how well their luck was going so far, as their Raptor's descent subjected them to several G-forces and pressed both of them firmly, visibly and uncomfortably against the bulkheads.

• Helo is already experiencing repercussions regarding his relationship with Caprica-Boomer. First by Apollo, who voices his uneasiness about the pair to Starbuck and then later, indirectly, by Commander Adama himself who makes a point of leaving Helo outside the Tomb of Athena with Zarek, Boomer and Tyrol. Tyrol was given the order to guard them which indicates that the chief is the only one of the four left outside that Adama trusts.

Notes

• Population is 47,855, a loss of three since Part I. Two of these were seen on-screen in the last episode (Elosha and a Laura Roslin faction Redshirt). The other may have happened offscreen in the same ambush.
  • At episode's end, the count is now 47,853, with the death of Meier and one of Tom Zarek's lackeys.
• The fleet has been reunited, and Commander Adama has restored Laura Roslin to the Presidency.
• The Fleet now has a general idea of the direction they need to take to find Earth.
• Helo still loves Caprica-Sharon, although he knows she's a Cylon.
• Caprica-Sharon's hybrid child is a girl. She claims to just "know" this.
• The child that Six claims she and Baltar will have (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II) is actually Caprica-Sharon and Helo's biological daughter.
• Caprica-Sharon does not "remember" shooting Commander Adama, and she was unaware that Galactica-Sharon was killed by Cally (she thought she was just in the brig). Sharon thinks of herself as a "person" and not simply "a machine".
• Caprica-Sharon possesses the memories of Galactica-Sharon's two years aboard the Galactica. She "remembers" how exhilarating it was to get her wings and how it felt to be a member of the "family" that is the Galactica's crew, and she considers Chief Tyrol a dear friend of sorts, even though she admits she herself has never actually met him. Caprica-Sharon herself acknowledges that it's weird that she has deep-seated memories of things she fully knows she's never actually done.
• Caprica-Sharon apparently still believes that there is only "one true God" and that the Colonials "worship false idols".
• Caprica-Sharon flat out says that the Cylons know more about the Colonial religion than the Colonials themselves.
• According to Starbuck's observations, the Cylons have a plan for Caprica; "they're cleaning up the bodies, moving in the heavy machinery to repair the infrastructure..."
  • Ron D. Moore has stated in interviews that this is actually a major plot point. Also, while the Cylon Farms (the hybrid experiments) are logically a plan for the Twelve Colonies, RDM said that it is not their only plan.
• Dr. Baltar has had a medical scan performed on his head, and it appears that there are no "foreign objects", like a metallic computer chip containing a copy of Number Six's mind, within it.
• Baltar has come to the realization that the copy of Number Six he sees cannot be just a hallucination, because she knows things his subconscious mind couldn't possibly know.
• This episode probably begins a few hours after Home, Part I, although it could conceivably begin immediately after it.
• If the map displayed in the Tomb of Athena was from the perspective of an earth-bound viewer, the Lagoon Nebula should have been in Sagittarius, not Scorpio.
  • This could be accounted for by drift through time. The map was made millennia ago, by now the angle of view could have changed significantly.
• Since Lee and Cmdr. Adama both recognized the Lagoon Nebula, and the nebula appears the same as it does from Earth, the Colonies must be located on a line that passes through Sol and the Lagoon Nebula. This would place the Colonies - and Kobol - in the Cygnus Arm of the galaxy.
• Between Sharon's Heavy Raider that's been returned to the fleet in this episode and the Heavy Raider from Scattered and Valley of Darkness, the fleet may have up to two captured Heavy Raiders by this point. However, the one that crashed into the starboard flight pod may have been too damaged to be salvageable.

Noteworthy Dialogue

• On "Earth":

  Cmdr. Adama: I thought we were in the Tomb of Athena.

  Starbuck: I think that was just the lobby.

Official Statements

In the podcast for this program, Moore and Eick commented on their attempt to have a more colorful turn of phrase in the dialogue on the Raptor from Chief Tyrol and Adama. Tyrol's original line, in his frustration on reading a map was, "Topography's for pussies, anyway." Likewise, Adama's comment about President Adar to Bill was originally "...Adar was a prick." Both lines were changed at the behest of the studio's standards and practices unit.

• From Hollywood North Report's interview with Edward James Olmos:

Robert Falconer: One watches the series with the sense that William Adama is either an Atheist, or a man who is very private about his religious beliefs, which is interesting considering he’s part of a society whose cultural iconography seems innately tied to its religion. Has the discovery of the Tomb of Athena changed his mind about the existence of Earth, or his religious beliefs, if any?

Edward James Olmos: To answer the first part of the question, I think the beliefs Adama held were spiritual, and that he believed in the spiritual nature of humankind, but he was never a religious person, per se. He studied religions, but it wasn’t his thing, which is part of why the whole idea of Earth merely seemed like mythology or folklore to him.

As to events altering him as an individual…a lot has changed there. The biggest change Adama went through spiritually and emotionally was his own death. And when you come back from a death experience, where you’re “clinically dead” and your body stops functioning and then all of a sudden you’re brought back, at that moment you’re gone from this understanding and reality…not just lingering there, but gone.

Now nobody really knows what happens during those moments, but that disembodiment, where you’re just looking at everything going on as though watching a movie, is a profoundly altering experience by all accounts. And I think that experience has changed Adama the most.

The second life-altering experience for him was the discovery of the Tomb of Athena. One moment he’s standing in the tomb, the next he’s standing “outside” on open land for reasons not fully understood at this point.

I think those have been the most startling moments for Adama – those and discovering first-hand the new strengths and powers of the Cylons. When Sharon (Boomer) – who I loved like a member of my own family – is lying in the morgue and I ask her, “Why?”…then later I discover the other copy of Sharon on the surface of Kobol while I’m trying to reunite the family and the fleet, and she whispers in my ear, “And you ask me ‘why?’”…I realize the full implications of what we’re dealing with and I say to Lee later, “They’re much stronger than we are.”

And so all these things cause everything to change for Adama.

Guest stars

• Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek
• Leah Cairns as Lt. Margaret "Racetrack" Edmonson
• Aaron Douglas as Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol
• James Remar as Meier
• Donnelly Rhodes as Dr. Cottle

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