Valley of Darkness

"Valley of Darkness"; An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 2, Episode 2
Writer(s)	Bradley Thompson ; David Weddle
Story by
Director	Michael Rymer
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	202
Nielsen Rating	2.0
US airdate	2005-07-22
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate	2006-01-17
DVD release	20 December 2005 US; 28 August 2006 UK
Population	47,874 survivors
Additional Info
Episode Chronology
Related Information
	Official Summary
	R&D Skit – View
	[[IMDB:tt{{{imdb}}}\|IMDb entry]]
	Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
	@ BW Media
	Promotional Materials
	Online Purchasing
	Amazon: Standard Definition \| High Definition
	iTunes: [{{{itunes}}} USA]

Overview

After rediscovering The Fleet, Cylon Centurions board Galactica and wreak havoc, while Lee Adama and a rag-tag group of pilots and marines attempt to thwart the Cylon's methodical plans.

Summary

On Galactica

After Jumping successfully to the Fleet's location once rediscovering their actual location, Galactica's power systems shut down unexpectedly.
After landing on Galactica, pilots Lee Adama, Kat, Hot Dog, and Flyboy walk through the corridors with flashlights. Flyboy stumbles into a Cylon Centurion, which kills him as the rest attempt to flee.
As Hot Dog and Kat flee up a stairway, Adama attempts to kill the Cylon with his sidearm, but the bullets ricochet off the Centurion. A small group of marines destroy the Cylon from behind with an explosive round. Unfortunately, it was their last round, and only explosive rounds work against this heavily-armored version of Centurion.
Laura Roslin convinces Corporal Venner that she must leave her cell and escape the brig before the Cylons find them. On Captain Adama's advice, Venner leads the group to the safest location on the ship, sickbay.
Adama's group finds the storage locker on deck 12. Inside, they find Jammer (a member of Tyrol's repair crew) and only six explosive rounds.
Lt. Felix Gaeta manages to warn the remainder of the Fleet to stay away from Galactica by wireless before the Cylons jam external communications.
Gaeta notes a Cylon virus has infected some of the ship's isolated computers while they were networked; he has teams cleaning out the infection.
Roslin's group find the bodies of some of Galactica's enlisted crew, massacred by the Cylons except for one survivor: a shell-shocked Anastasia Dualla. As Billy tries to snap Dualla out of her shock, Venner discovers that the Cylons have depressurised the route they had planned to take to sickbay. The group, now with Dualla, heads out along an alternative route that goes past Aft Damage Control.
Tigh gets reports that some of the Cylons have been taken out by teams throughout the ship. He suspects that the Cylons are heading towards two sections of the ship -- one of which is Aft Damage Control -- in order to vent the ship's atmosphere. (After the ship is vented and the crew terminated, Tigh states that the Cylons would turn Galactica's guns on the Fleet.)
Captain Adama contacts CIC, where Tigh orders him to stop the Cylons at Aft Damage Control and prevent the Cylons from overriding the venting safeguards.
Captain Adama, Jammer, Kat, and two marines station themselves near the Aft Damage Control compartment. As they ready the defense against the advancing Cylons, Roslin's group hides in a nearby passageway to avoid being discovered, unaware of how close their group is to Adama's squad and the Cylons. The Cylons run down a hallway towards Aft Damage Control, but are distracted when Keikeya accidentally fires a round. The distraction places Roslin's group in danger but gives Adama and his team enough time to destroy the Cylon attackers.
Having successfully destroyed the Cylons and with sufficient ship control restored, Doctor Cottle is summoned to Galactica. In sickbay, Roslin assures Lee Adama that Commander Adama will be fine, and she is taken back to the brig. Tigh tells Captain Adama that he is still shocked that he would side with the President instead of his own father, and that he is unfit to wear a Colonial uniform. Captain Adama agrees but tells Tigh that he isn't fit to wear the uniform either, deferring what will happen with both of them to his unconscious father once he returns to work.

On Caprica

Karl "Helo" Agathon and Kara "Starbuck" Thrace discuss how the Cylons have a habit of fooling everyone.
Thrace leads them to her old apartment, where she reminisces about how she hated it and how she keeps fighting because it's the only thing she knows. To Helo's suprise, Thrace's apartment is full of abstract paintings of her own making and tapes of orchestral music composed by her father.
They later leave driving Thrace's old army truck.

On Kobol

Gaius Baltar has a dream where William Adama drowns Baltar's daughter.
When he wakes up, he is in Number Six's arms, surrounded by human skulls and bones. Six tells Baltar that they were victims of human sacrifice, and that the Scriptures were lies, fabricated to cover up how barbaric life on Kobol really was.
When he returns to the others, Baltar is harangued by Crashdown.
Chief Tyrol feels responsible for Tarn's death, but Cally snaps him out of his self-pity.
The two return with the medkits, but it is too late to save Socinus' life. Telling him that he is going home, Tyrol reluctantly euthanizes him with an overdose of morpha.

Questions

The remains Baltar and Six find cannot be thousands of years old; they would not have survived in the open. Did the Thirteenth Colony leave Kobol recently? Do humans, at least until recently, still inhabit Kobol? Or were all the remains merely fabricated hallucinations by Six?
- Were the human skeletons real, or a hallucination created for Baltar by Six? If the skeletons were real, was Six lying when she said they were the result of human sacrifice (i.e. they could have been from the cataclysm that drove humanity off of Kobol)?
  - When asked about this episode writer Bradley Thompson answered: "The question at the bottom of this is: "Who is Six?" In such cases, I'm not going to embellish what Ron & David have put on the screen."
Why would later humans have felt it necessary to cover up the nature of civilization on Kobol? Is it related to the reason why Kobol was abandoned in the first place? How would the Cylons have found out? Did Six just make it up, or could it be the Cylon interpretation of the Scriptures?
How did Tigh know where the Centurions were heading? Did the Cylons use this tactic in the first war?
- Note: The series bible notes that during Tigh's enlistment in the first Cylon War, his ship was boarded -- it is likely that he learned of these tactics during this conflict. (see: Saul Tigh)
- Note: A deleted scene for this episode shows more flashbacks between Tigh and Adama in which they reminisce about old battles in the Cylon War. One particular recount involved the Cylons boarding a vessel and heading for two specific locations; Auxiliary Fire Control and Aft Damage Control.
Is Helo starting to fall for Starbuck?

(Answer: Most likely no. Starting from the miniseries (at the poker game), Helo and Starbuck appear to have always been fairly close comrades.

While pointing out different parts of the ship where Centurions were destroyed, it's mentioned that Sgt. Hadrian led a group of Marines that managed to destroy several Cylons. However, at the end of "Litmus," Commander Adama had her confined to quarters. Did Adama eventually release her before this episode? Did the Marines release her now because they needed every experienced Marine they could find?
- It is possible that she has to spend her off-duty time in her quarters, but continues to perform her duties the same way Lee Adama did under Colonel Tigh's command. Given the overall shortage of personnel and the type and length of punishments Commander Adama hands out for these reasons in past and future episodes it's likely she was released since "Litmus."
Why does Dualla tell Keikeya they haven't met in person "in two weeks" when they were last seen dancing together on Colonial Day, two days ago at the most? ("Kobol's Last Gleaming" starts the night after "Colonial Day," if Starbuck's wearing the same dress at the beginning)
- Presuming they take place concurrently, the captions for the scenes on Cylon-occupied Caprica indicate that Part I takes place three days after "Colonial Day" and "Part II" the day after that. "Scattered" and this episode almost certainly take place on the same day as "Part II," however, so it's been at most four days since they saw each other.

Analysis

The Centurions in this episode can only be destroyed by explosive rounds, which is a large plot element. However, in episodes before and after "Valley of Darkness", Centurions have been seen being destroyed by regular bullets. These Centurions might have heavier armor because they are being used for a boarding action and will see heavy fighting. When episode writer Bradley Thompson was asked about this by BattlestarWiki, he answered:

"Centurions are constantly being upgraded - new ones come out with better armor, quieter servos, better battle software. Some are designed for different uses (the ones designed for submarine use have REALLY heavy armor but are exceptionally slow, and have reduced ammunition carrying capacity.) Not to mention that the Colonials have remarkably bright backyard engineers -- they've been hot-loading our small-arms rounds, coming up with better armor-piercing projectiles -- it's the constant ebb-and-flow of wartime technology."

Notes

The fleet population cited in the opening credits is 47,874. This is one less than the previous episode—prior to the opening credits, a Cylon is seen killing a Galactica crew member.
First episode without an appearance by Sharon Valerii (except in opening montage).
Helo reveals to Starbuck that the Cylons recovered the bodies and brought them to cremation centers, hence the lack of bodies.
Socinus, initially slated to die in early drafts of "Scattered", dies in this episode -- euthanised by Tyrol.
Colonials use internal combustion engines (Starbuck's Humvee). Assuming that it was the Colonists that brought organic life along with them to the Homeworlds (terraforming) (as Kobol's wildlife (birds and trees and such) is identical to Caprica's, this is likely the case), it probably does not burn fossil fuels, though, since the Kobol's refugees arrived on the Colonies only thousands of years rather than the millions of years it takes for fossil fuels to form. However, Kobol's life forms could also simply have replaced or supplemented less evolved or less strong life forms on the Colonial planets, as happened several times on Earth where non-ingenious life forms can wreck havoc on a local ecosystem; or the local life forms may have died out through a catastrophic event. Both scenarios leave enough time for original life forms to be turned into fossil fuels.
Kate Vernon is listed as a guest star in the opening credits. However, her character, Ellen Tigh, never makes an appearance in this episode. She is only shown in the deleted scenes.
The music that we hear in Kara Thrace's apartment and again during the closing act of the episode is Metamorphosis One, composed by Philip Glass. It is from Glass's 1989 album Solo Piano.
The fate of the Heavy Raider in the starboard bay is unknown. It's possible that, like Starbuck's captured Raider, they kept it for study. However, the crash may have damaged it beyond repair.
In the German broadcast redubbing of Cally's now-infamous "Talk to me, you motherfrakker!" line, "motherfrakker" is replaced with "blöder arsch", which translates as "stupid ass". The real world equivalent of the curse word "motherfrakker" doesn't really exist in German, and a direct translation into German would have sounded particularly obscene, so the line was changed, and the joke is therefore somewhat lost in translation.

Goofs

When Kat finds a box of explosive rounds with only 6 shells, the shells in the container start out scattered within the box, but as the camera cuts back and forth in the scene the shells switch from organized to scattered many times.

Noteworthy Dialogue

On the surface of Kobol, Chief Tyrol and Cally are on their way to rendezvous with the rest of the Raptor crash survivors:

Cally: (exhausted from walking) What do you say we take five?

(Chief Tyrol is still in a state of shock [having lost Tarn to a surprise attack by the Cylons in the last episode] and leans against a tree)

Cally: How much further, do you think?

(Chief Tyrol ignores her)

Cally: Tarn getting shot...it wasn't your fault, you know that right?... Chief?

(Chief Tyrol is silent)

Cally: Talk to me, you motherfrakker!

(Chief Tyrol turns around and looks at her strangely)

Chief Tyrol: (laughing) Motherfrakker?

Cally: Socinus better appreciate this.

Chief Tyrol: He's probably lying in the sun, staring up at the birds like some Gods' damned emperor. He's an idiot.

Cally: I hope he's okay...

Regarding "Sharon, the Cylon":

Starbuck: (to Helo, sarcastically) "Your girlfriend’s from a lovely family, good people."

In her apartment on Caprica, Starbuck and Helo stop to rest:

Kara Thrace: (sitting on her couch) You know, I never really liked this place anyway. The air conditioning doesn't work in the summer, the heater doesn't work in the winter, the rent's a crime...(lights a cigarette)...after they attacked, I never pined over any of my old crap. Never missed it. Stupid VO's in the parking lot, broken toilet in the bathroom...you know, everyone I know is fighting to get back what they had. I'm fighting because I don't know how to do anything else.

Lee Adama: "Let’s go toaster shopping."

Chief Tyrol and Cally have rejoined the others on Kobol, and they find out that Socinus isn't going to survive much longer:

Chief Tyrol: How's he doing?

Selix: He's not going to make it.

Chief Tyrol: What? What do you mean? What are you talking about? We got the medkit! Give him a shot! Give him another shot!

Selix: It's too late.

Chief Tyrol: What do you mean, it's too late? I got you the medkit! What else do you want? (looking stunned) So we...got the medicine you asked for...Tarn...and for what? For this? Come on! You have to do something. You have to do something!

Selix: We can't change that he's going to die, Chief. It's going to be slow and painful, and we can spare him that if we give him the morpha from my kit and the one that you brought back.

Chief Tyrol: What? No. (looks at Crashdown) LT..LT, come on!

Crashdown: He's your man, Chief.

Chief Tyrol: Give it to me. (takes morpha from Selix and leans down beside Socinus) Hey buddy. It's the Chief. How you doing?

Socinus: (wheezing) What's going on?

Chief Tyrol: Oh, you know...listening to the birds. I got you a little something for the pain. (injects morpha into Socinus) Good news, buddy. The recovery party's here. Raptors just landed. We're going to put you on one and take you back to Galactica, okay?

Socinus: We're going home?

Chief Tyrol: Yeah...(tears welling in his eyes)...we're going home.

(Socinus passes away)

In Galactica's sickbay:

Colonel Tigh: I can't believe you sided with that woman against the old man. I wouldn't do that if you put a gun to my head...and you did! As far as I'm concerned, you're not fit to wear a uniform.

Lee Adama: Huh. You're right about that part. I am not fit to wear the uniform...and maybe I never was. Then again, neither are you. But this isn't my ship, and it sure as hell isn't yours. (motions at Commander Adama) It's his, and when he wakes up, he'll decide what to do with the both of us. (Captain Adama leaves for the brig)

Colonel Tigh: Thank the Gods I didn't have kids.

In Aft Damage Control, preparing to fight the Cylons:

Lee Adama: Sometimes you got to roll a hard six.

Jammer: What does that mean, sir?

Lee Adama: Uh, I don't know. It's something my dad says.

Official Statements

"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

"Apollo's betrayal of Adama's decision to arrest the president is detracting from the believability of the show for me. I'm listining to your podcast of ep. 113 as I write this and you just said Lee is "a more capable, more competent, leader . . ." He's also struck me as a fairly honorable character. If he had doubts about this mission I think he would have at least voiced them and then not gone along with the strike team so he would not have been put in the position he was. I hope you won't use Adama's near death experience at the end of season one/start of season two to "write off" these betrayals, esp. Apollo's. His was much more unforgivable considering his relationship with Adama, his leadership role in the fleet, and the battle between the president and Adama. I find it hard to see Lee continuing as CAG after this. "

You bring up valid points and we are planning to play out the consequences of Lee's decision as it impacts both him and his father over the course of the season. --