Hero

"Hero" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 3, Episode 8
Writer(s)	David Eick
Story by
Director	Michael Rymer
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)	Carl Lumbly
Production No.
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	2006-11-17
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate
DVD release
Population	41,421 survivors
Additional Info
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
A Measure of Salvation	Hero	Unfinished Business
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
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Overview

A figure from Adama's past returns to haunt him. His return raises questions about why the Cylons launched their initial attack against the Twelve Colonies.

Summary

On Galactica

• Galactica detects three Raiders. Much to the surpise of the CIC crew, two Raiders are pursuing a third. Starbuck and Kat are dispatched. After destroying the pursuing Raiders, they go after the third.
• In CIC, Adama orders Kat and Starbuck to escort the Raider to Galactica, after hearing Bulldog's communication squaks.
• Kat and Starbuck escort the Raider in. In the hangar bay, Adama and the party that meets the Raider, surprised at the fact that a human appears to have piloted the craft. A visibly weak Bulldog salutes Adama; Adama returns the salute.
• Over a meal (noodles eaten with chopsticks) Adama asks Bulldog how he escaped. He relates a story of plague on the Basestar and escaping after killing a Number 3 with a blow to the nose delivered through the cell bars.
• Bulldog is debriefed by the president with Adama present, where they tell a (decidedly shaky) story of a mining facility too close to the Armistice Line. When it is concluded she asks Adama if he is going to tell her what really happened. He replies that it is his mess and that he will deal it. After she leaves he kicks over a table in frustration.
• Bulldog goes to see Saul Tigh in his quarters shortly after Adama talks to him. Saul informs Bulldog that he was shot down by the Valkyrie to get rid of evidence.
• At the same time, Adama confesses the mission's actual specifics to Lee, and his belief that he provoked the Cylon attacks on the colonies. Aghast at first, Lee then tries to console his father, blaming the admirals in command and saying that he was "only one man." Adama responds, "It only takes one."
• Starbuck reviews the gun film from the fight with the Cylon Raiders and realizes that they were deliberately missing their target, letting Bulldog get away. She goes to Saul Tigh with this information, who deduces that Bulldog was sent there by the Cylons to kill the admiral.
• Tigh finds Bulldog in the process of killing Adama and stops him. Bulldog has flashbacks to being let out of his cell.
• Later, Adama is talking to the president when she tells him that part of his penance will be to accept a medal for 45 years of Colonial service on the Galactica flight deck.
• After sending Bulldog off to a berthing on another ship with a uniform, Tigh and Adama sit down for a drink in the admiral's quarters.

On a basestar

• In a dream, Three is trying to avoid marines on Galactica. The marines corner her against a hatch labelled End of Line. The marines raise their weapons and Three tells them to shoot.
• As the shots go off, Three wakes up in bed with Baltar and Caprica-Six. She has apparently been having a sexual relationship with Baltar and possibly Six as well.
• In the Cylon control room Caprica-Six questions Three about her bad dreams. Caprica asks if the dreams are about Baltar and Three tells her that it's nothing like that, but does not elaborate.
• Three gives a centurion orders to shoot her, and then delete any information regarding the incident. The centurion obeys and shoots her in the head. In the moments before she is downloaded, she experiences images from her dream mixed in with memories from New Caprica and other more cryptic scenes.
• Three awakes in a rebirthing chamber where a worried Caprica-Six tries to help her recover. Three tells her, "There's something beautiful, miraculous between life and death."

Questions

• Did humans taken prisoner well before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies provide the original genetic pool for the humanoid Cylons?
• Did Bulldog know of or see other human prisoners during his three years of captivity?
• How was Bulldog directed to the precise location of the fleet?
• What class of battlestar does Valkyrie belong to?
• Why would a "Stealth Ship" in enemy territory break radio silence?
• Was Valkyrie's mission the only one the admiralty undertook or were there others?
• Was Laura Roslin right in speculating that the admiralty might have sent Valkyrie in order to provoke a war?
• Why did the Cylons have one craft jump in and fire on the stealth star, then jump out? Then send in two more ships to finish the attack? Could the first ship have really been a Colonial ship sent by the admiralty to expose the stealth star?
• Who were the white-robed figures Three saw in her vision before downloading?
• Were the Cylons on the baseship where Bulldog was held really sick?
• Does Bulldog have information regarding the other humanoid Cylon models that nothing is known of?
• How did Baltar's status change from torturee in "A Measure of Salvation" to an apparent sexual relationship with Caprica Six and Number Three?

Analysis

• Adama and Roslin know each other well enough by now to tell when the other is lying, or is not fooled by a lie, even when others around can't.
• At the end of the episode, Saul Tigh appears to be attempting to try and deal with his guilt over his wife, but he does not seem to want his job as XO back, at least not any time soon.
• Adama's feelings of guilt over his actions during Valkyrie's mission seem to shed new light on the motivation for his speech at Galactica's decomissioning ceremony at the begining of the series. Also, they explain his near-monomania with safeguarding and/or rescuing those under his command or protection.
• The Cylons seem to have been able to detect and destroy The Stealth-Star that had only entered two kilometers into their space. This seems suspicious given the fact that they were unable to detect the Blackbird, presumably a far less sophisticated design. Either the Cylons had more advanced detection equipment on the Armistice Line, or they had advance knowledge of Bulldog's mission.
  • It is only speculation that the Blackbird's stealth capabilities were less effective than those of the Stealth-Star. The reason that the Blackbrid went undetected by the Cylons is that it's hull, at Helo's suggestion, was made of carbon composite. There is no way of knowing whether or not this was true of the Stealth-Star.
    • In addition, the Cylons near the Armistice Line would have known to look for stealth ships, as they probably suspected that the Colonial fleet would try to gain intel into Cylon military status. After the destruction of the colonies, it is unlikely that the Cylons believed that the Colonials were still in possession of any kind of stealth fighter and would not attempt to detect one.
• Bulldog's story is even less believable given the fact that it took Kara Thrace several hours to gut a raider and learn how to fly it. Granted, the Raider Kara captured was damaged, but it would still have taken Bulldog some time to adapt the raider for his own use.
  • As the episode implies that Bulldog was deliberately released by the Cylons in an effort to direct his anger towards Adama, it is possible that the Cylons allowed Bulldog to gain a working knowledge of the raider.
• Bulldog probably could have stolen a Heavy Raider, which unlike the light versions seems to have a crew compartment and perhaps piloting controls, but then the production crew couldn't have re-used the captured-Raider prop from "You Can't Go Home Again" on the flight deck set.
• That Kara Thrace goes to Tigh with her findings is an acknowledgment of their shared semi-pariah status and the connection that was shown in "Collaborators" for the first time
• The last two scenes of "Hero" appear to have been edited to ensure that the final scene was with Adama and Tigh. Right after the celebration scene, Adama is seen giving Bulldog a new uniform, but Adama is wearing his everyday uniform. In the final scene with Tigh, Adama is wearing his dress grays from the celebration. It appears at the very least, the two scenes were in reverse order, meaning the episode originally ended with Adama giving Bulldog his new uniform.
• The architecture of the place Number Three visits between life and death is similar if not identical to that of the operahouse on Kobol which Baltar and his internal Six entered in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II".
• Three's flashbacks after being shot indicate her to be the same individual who was killed on Caprica by Caprica-Six in "Downloaded" and who found Hera in "Exodus, Part II". It is of course possible that some of these recollections are the result of memory-sharing rather than direct experience.
• There's at least one other doctor of some kind in the fleet, because Cottle instructs Bulldog to report to him.
• The Cylons appear to know the current location of the fleet.

Notes

• In Number Three's dream, the door at which is she is shot by the marines is labeled "End of Line". As well as being a metaphor for death, this is a statement repeated often by the Cylon Hybrid.

• This episode shares some plot elements with the TNG Episode "The Defector" - written by RDM. Notably, beginning with a dramatic chase delivering a dubious ally into friendly hands that is later shown to be staged. Additionally, both episodes feature plots revolving around a contested border.

Official Statements

• A video blog gives an insight to this episode during filming.

Guest Stars

• Barry Kennedy as Admiral Corman
• Lucy Lawless as Number Three
• Carl Lumbly as Lt. Daniel Novacek
• Donnelly Rhodes as Doctor Cottle
• Matthew Bennett as Number Five
• Rekha Sharma as Tory Foster