Unfinished Business

"Unfinished Business" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 3, Episode 9
Writer(s)	Michael Taylor
Story by
Director	Robert Young
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	2006-12-01
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate
DVD release
Population	41,422 survivors
Additional Info
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Hero	Unfinished Business	The Passage
Related Information
Official Summary
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Listing of props for this episode
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Overview

Admiral Adama re-institues a military tradition onboard Colonial warships, in which crewmembers disregard rank and fight each other in a boxing ring to relieve tensions aboard ship. Tensions which have existed since Galactica discovered New Caprica.

Summary

• The episode begins on Galactica in a boxing ring, where Helo and Lee Adama are exchanging blows. Helo has the advantage.
• Several flashbacks occur where we see Lee Adama waking up on a planetary surface (New Caprica), confused and looking for someone as he sits up slightly.
• Kara Thrace and Samuel Anders complete a lovemaking session, but when Anders wants Thrace to remain, she rebuffs him and leaves her officer's duty locker, throwing the "in use" boots back inside the locker's door.
• Thrace is seen in a flashback, lying on the chest of Lee Adama, suddenly startled and frightened.
• Lee Adama is losing his fight as he is distracted by memories of 17 months ago, or 8 months prior to New Caprica's occupation. Eventually, Dr. Cottle, who has been enjoying the fight while monitoring the damage of each boxer, removes Adama from the fight, leaving Helo with the win as Saul Tigh, acting as the referee, calls the match.
• Flashbacks show Lee Adama boarding a Raptor and passionately kissing Anastasia Dualla.
• Admiral Adama arrives to watch the match, as does Thrace, from separate sides of the ring.
• Laura Roslin greets Admiral Adama and happily tells him of her father's joy of boxing, which she has inherited.
• Another flashback occurs, with Admiral Adama sitting on New Caprica, his uniform tunic open. He is relaxed and enjoying the moment. Roslin appears and sits by him. She smiles and notices his relaxation, with the sand between his toes. While he corrects her that the soil was "alluvial deposits" from a former river mouth, not sand, Roslin corrects herself but not without another joke about Adama letting his guard down in the beauty of the moment. She says it is good to see him, and he returns the compliment as she squeezes his arm.
• Roslin and Adama, in the present, appear to show the same look of a close friendship while the boxing transitions to Hot Dog, who unwisely challenges Thrace to a match. Hot Dog initially makes a few blows before Thrace KO's the cocky pilot.
• Several flashbacks occur where Thrace, Adama, and Dualla are seen at a dance.
• Another flashback with Roslin and Adama, who are drinking alcohol and smoking a native plant that apparently has a mild narcotic effect. Their conversation continues.
• Adama recalls when Chief Tyrol requests that he and his wife muster out of the ship's fleet to have their child on New Caprica. Adama, hurt by the idea that a boy won't be born on Galactica, denies the request.
• A later flashback shows Tyrol attempting to convince his wife that staying on Galactica would not be so bad, while the scene changes to Adama and Roslin on the planet, as she discusses how important it was for many people to get on with a regular life.
• Adama changes his mind and accepts Tyrol's request to muster from the service, but Adama appears hurt behind the smile he presents.
• Admiral Adama hands his glasses to Roslin and tosses his tags into the ring. He challenges Tyrol to a match: "Chief, get your big fat ass up here."
• Adama and Roslin lie together outside, watching the night sky. Later, she snuggles closer to his shoulder, her hand on his chest. Both are quite comfortable, and Adama notes briefly how comfortable he was with Roslin so physically close and with the stars overhead.
• Roslin questions whether if this will all last--the colony, and their respite from the Cylon's chase. She happily resigns to the fact that, no matter what the future holds, the present is good to have.
• Adama's boxing match gets ugly when Adama cold-cocks Tyrol (who has his back turned) as soon as the horn sounds to start the match. Adama appears very edgy.
• The match continues, but Tyrol's anger and youth begins to edge over Adama's experience. During the round's break, Roslin enters the ring, visually concerned and giving boxing tips. Adama states that he can't win this fight, but don't necessarily infer that trying to win was his objective.
• Another flashback, with Thrace and Lee Adama, who are both drunk. Dualla is aboard ship, and Thrace has literally drank Anders, now unconscious, under a nearby table. The two former Viper pilots exchange intimate words and soon find themselves outside of camp, getting very intimate.
• The two have a gratifying sexual session. After which, Adama happily yells into the nighttime sky that he loves Thrace. Giggling and embarrassed, Thrace soon returns the gesture into the sky, and they return to lovemaking after Adama suggests that they each break up with their respective lovers to become a couple themselves.
• Thrace awakens, confused, and leaves the area, leaving Adama to awaken some time later, alone.
• Lee Adama returns to camp, where his father tells him that Thrace had found a priest and had married Anders earlier that morning. Lee Adama is visibly heartbroken.
• Lee Adama encounters Thrace and Anders. Adama is still visibly upset but hides it long enough to shake hands with Anders in congratulation and to wish Thrace luck: "You're going to need it."
• Recalling the reason for Lee Adama's passion, viewers see Adama and Dualla kissing on the Raptor once more.
• In the present in the boxing ring, Adama is overcome by Tyrol's fight and is knocked to the mat. Everyone watching is silent in concern, and Tyrol helps the admiral up. Adama speaks to the crowd, indicating that, over the last year, he had let his crew, his family, become too close, relaxing their mandate and responisibility to the safety of the Fleet. He notes that his weakness led to the loss of lives. Adama curtly informs the crowd that such lax operations will now cease, and leaves the ring, escorted by Dr. Cottle, Roslin, and her entourage.
• The enthusiasm for boxing has been extinguished by Adama's speech, and Tigh calls it off and dismisses the group. But Thrace challenges Lee Adama to a match by name-calling and an exchange of blows.
• In the ring, Adama initially takes it easy, but a few well placed blows from Thrace dispatch Adama's reticence. The two begin to bludgeon each other, Thrace adding a kickboxing element to kick Adama and keep him off-balance.
• The match soon degenerates into something that the crowd does not enjoy, and many begin to leave. Anders and Dualla stand together, watching the match with no small amount of disappointment, aware of the dark mood between Adama and Thrace, and its history.
• Too tired and beaten to fully continue fighting, Thrace and Adama fall together in a boxer's hug. Thrace whispers that she missed Adama, and he returns the message in kind.

Questions

• What will occur now that Kara Thrace and Lee Adama have begun to mend fences?
• What will be the fallout, if any, in Thrace's and Adama's current marriages?
• Now that Adama admits to letting the crew get too close to him, will he be harder and stricter on his crew?

Analysis

• This episode confirms what causes the rift between Kara Thrace and Lee Adama. Thrace avoids the notion of feeling too close with Adama by marrying Anders, and Adama returns to Dualla and soon takes to overeating.
  • From Kara's remarks about how Lee doesn't know "when to make his move and when to pull back", it's also possible that she did not feel the same way towards him as he did towards her.
• On New Caprica, Adama and Roslin are as relaxed with each other as the two leaders could be, not necessarily chasing romance, but allowing themselves a moment of mutual relaxation, physical closeness, and contemplation. This level of open affection may have seemed more permissible due to Roslin's status as a private citizen during the Baltar administration, although the two appear to remain good friends even in the present.
• Ships are seen flying in heavy power generation equipment of some kind, suggesting that this and many other colonization resources that were too large to retrieve during the Second Exodus were later abandoned on New Caprica, foretelling an eventual supply shortage.
• Kara Thrace does not feel obligated to follow rules of engagement when she starts to lose. During her fight with Lee Adama, once it became obvious that she stood a good chance of losing she quickly began using armlocks and kicks to gain an advantage. Once knocked to the ground, she swept Adama's legs out from under him. During the fight Lee continued to use only standard boxing techniques despite Kara's departure from the rules.
  • It should be clarified that Lee and Kara's fight took place after the boxing tournament was officially closed. No referee was in the ring, and no bells were rung to signify rounds, making their bout something of an unregulated fight in any case.
• The Fleet population count has risen by one since "Hero." This is almost certainly not Daniel Novacek, since his arrival in the teaser act of the previous episode was accounted for in the population count in that episode; similarly, the nearly 1,700 member crew of the Pegasus was instantly added once they were discovered. It is possible that the on-screen figures are more realistic this season, incorporating births and deaths that would naturally continue to happen anywhere but would not be depicted on-screen.

Notes

• According to Grace Park in an interview with IGN.com, "Unfinished Business" is an episode that is mostly composed of flashbacks to events that happened during the one year ahead jump foward that happened at the end of season 2. Ron Moore also said in the podcast for "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II" that there would be flashbacks revealing some of these events: they might be interspersed in several other episodes as well, but Park confirmed that this particular episode dealt almost entirely with various flashbacks to things that happened during the year that was skipped over.
• At a convention appearance, Jamie Bamber said that we would find out in flashbacks in this episode what happened between Apollo and Starbuck during the skipped year that caused a rift between them. He discussed the boxing scene in which Apollo and Starbuck beat the hell out of each other in the final act.

Guest Stars

• Aaron Douglas as Chief Galen Tyrol
• Nicki Clyne as Cally Tyrol
• Alessandro Juliani as Felix Gaeta
• Donnelly Rhodes as Doctor Cottle
• Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh
• Bodie Olmos as Lt. Brendan "Hotdog" Constanza
• Christian Tessier as Tucker "Duck" Clellan
• Jen Halley as Seelix
• Don Thompson as Anthony Figurski