Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II

"Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
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Overview

Everything turns on its head as the survivors vote for a new president -- and vote for their fate.

Summary

On Caprica

• Starbuck, the marines, and the resistance continue to take fire from Cylon centurions and artillery. They make their way up a hill, and hold their position.
• The Cylons hold fire, and Sharon remarks that the Cylons will attempt to capture them with non-lethal weapons, such as gas.
• Eighteen hours later, they emerge to find that the Cylons have disappeared. Cavil -- who suddenly appears behind them -- announces that the Cylons have left the Twelve Colonies and that humanity was spared.

In the Fleet

• Cally is cleared back to work by Dr. Cottle, despite having her jaw wired shut (which elicits a sexist observation from the doctor). Chief Tyrol visits her, apologizing for the attack. Cally forgives him, saying that she's always cared for him.

• Dr. Baltar continues to gain in the polls. On Colonial One, Tory mentions there's always a victory plan. Roslin later calls a private meeting with Dr. Baltar, asking to deliver a joint statement of tabling the issue of colonization until after the election, which Baltar rejects.

• Starbuck returns to Galactica, with the resistance fighters, much to the delight of Admiral Adama. She mentions the fact that the Cylons have left Caprica, and a man appearing to be Brother Cavill confirms it. He also says he has a message, but is attacked by Chief Tyrol, claiming he's a Cylon. Both Cavill and Caprica-Sharon are escorted to the brig under marine guard.

• The other Cavill (from last episode) is also taken to the brig, claiming he's not a Cylon, but changes his tune upon seeing his "brother", as he calls him. Both Cavills then talk about the fact that the “war heroes” (Caprica Six & Galactica-Sharon) have talked about how the attack of the colonies and the pursuit of the fleet were mistakes. They were told to relay the message that man and Cylon will go their separate ways. Both Roslin and Admiral Adama are less than trusting regarding the message.

• Election Day has arrived and Baltar has an apparent five thousand-vote lead over Roslin with only a few ships left. On Colonial One, Tory makes a call to Galactica, putting a plan into action.

• Amazingly, Roslin initially appears to have retained the presidency. While most are celebrating, Lt. Gaeta makes a starting discovery regarding the votes, and informs the Admiral that Col. Tigh may be involved in a conspiracy to throw the election.

• Admiral Adama confronts Roslin regarding the conspiracy, saying he has a confession to rig the vote. Roslin admits her involvement and Adama is disappointed.

• Baltar is informed of his nomination as President. He's less than pleased, vowing to have full investigation in time. President-elect Baltar then orders a course for “New Caprica”.

• Gaius Baltar is sworn in as the new President of the Twelve Colonies, and orders the immediate colonization of New Caprica.

• Cloud 9 is destroyed by a nuclear blast, Gina being present before the explosion; in addition to the Cloud 9, at least two other ships are destroyed in the blast. Admiral Adama reports to the president that this may be a Cylon attack, but Baltar ignores him and presses forward with colonization.

One Year Later

• Mr. Gaeta is reporting to the President regarding a Union issue aboard Colonial One, now down on the planet. Baltar is upset, saying there have been no Cylon attacks but the people still complain. He has regressed, turning to alcohol, medication, and womanizing.

• Admiral Adama, now donning a mustache, is walking around a near-empty Galactica, the ship falling into disarray. Over half of the crew has moved down to the planet, and they are running on such a skeleton crew that they barely have enough pilots to fly training missions, much less a good CAP. Adama has a discussion with Tigh about going down to the planet, which Tigh reluctantly agrees to.

• Anders, now Kara’s husband, is sick. Dr. Cottle is saying he can’t do much for him, saying there’s no medication available.

• Kara runs into the Tighs as Tyrol, now a union boss, is making a speech to begin a strike, a pregnant Cally by his side. Saul mentions that there should be some medicine aboard Pegasus.

• Kara calls Lee aboard Pegasus to requesting medication. Dualla is now an officer, serving by Lee Adama's side in Pegasus' CIC. Before Lee can reply, Dualla catches something on DRADIS.

• A fleet of Cylon basestars arrive in orbit around New Caprica. The Adamas are having a discussion about what to do, when Helo asks if alert fighters should be launched. Admiral Adama keeps them in as the defense fleet jumps away.

• Mr. Gaeta informs the President of the Cylon approach. Later, before his assembled staff, copies of Number 5, 8, and 6 approach the President. The Cylons declare that as long as there’s no resistance, no harm will come. President Baltar declares surrender on behalf of the colonists, and as Cylon armies occupy the planet, Kara vows to resist.

Questions

• What "number" is Cavill?
• Where did the defense fleet jump to?
  • Likely a prearranged rendezvous point, similar to that of the miniseries.
• Where is Caprica-Sharon?
  • Most likely, still in Galactica's brig. This is probably why Helo is still aboard ship, having taken a CIC officer's position.
• What happened to Zarek?
• Why is Leoben looking for Starbuck, specifically?
  • Could it be the same Leoben Conoy that Starbuck interrogated in "Flesh and Bone"?
  • Consider: "Maybe the last time I was the interrogator and you were the prisoner." - Leoben Conoy (Flesh and Bone)
• Did the Cavils lie about the pursuit of humanity being a mistake? Or were they telling the truth?
  • If they were telling the truth, perhaps not all Cylons are readily able to admit and rectify their mistakes as the Cavils believed.
• Why has the population (until Tyrol's recent union speech) accepted Baltar's imperious rule? People were hardly so passive under Roslin. Indeed, Adama executed a military coup over a rather less important issue than giving a nuclear weapon to a Cylon agent.
  • Admiral Adama wasn't conclusive as to how the weapon got on board Cloud Nine.
    • Baltar pointed out there have been no attacks since he took office. Under Roslin the attacks were common. Perhaps for a year the people decided they preferred the safety Baltar gave them to their liberties.
• Are the Six and Eight that Baltar surrendered to Caprica-Six and Galactica-Sharon?
  • Judging from Six's reaction to Baltar, almost definately.
• Where did the Cylon fleets go, after they left the Twelve Colonies? Cavil was deliberatly vague when asked if they simply returned to the Cylon homeworld.
• How many people died in the Cloud Nine explosion?
• When Gina-Six was instantly vaporized due to being only two feet from a nuclear detonation, did she still transmit her consciousness? Was she even capable of transmitting considering that any internal hardware responsible for this task would have been instantly destroyed?
  • They have already established that with the Resurrection Ship destroyed, Cylon in the fleet that are killed will actually die. Gina expressed suicidal impulses as early as "Resurrection Ship, Part I".
• Given Roslin's memories of Baltar with Six, why didn't Admiral Adama suspect Baltar of handing over the nuke to the cylons? If he did suspect him, why not act on it?
  • He had no real proof.
• Did the events of "One Year Later" actually happen, or were they a dream or vision sequence given to Baltar?
  • Although Baltar has had elaborate visions in the past, this vision left Baltar's point of view several times, addressing issues such as the marriage of Kara to Sam Anders and Adama's friendship with Tigh that are of little knowledge or importance to Baltar.

Analysis

• Baltar's arrogance seems to have led to corrupt rule during his year on New Caprica—he replaces Roslin's modest desk with a larger, elaborate one, replaces the population count whiteboard with a portrait of himself, and keeps a harem aboard the landed Colonial One.
• After a whole year, everyone is still living in tents. There is a vital shortage of medicine, the military is of no use, and labor conditions are apparently intolerable. Baltar's administration is apparently as incompetent as Roslin feared.
• Tyrol's union speech alludes to Mario Savio's address during the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley in 1964.
• It's ironic that the obligations of duty keep Lee Adama aboard Pegasus while everyone else goes planetside—he is a reserve officer, and promised to build his pilots a bar as soon as they found a habitable planet.
• Ron Moore has once again decided to play with viewer's expectations; in the podcast for "Resurrection Ship, Part II" Moore commented on how everyone assumed that Pegasus would be destroyed by the end of the episode, and thus he thought it would be a good twist to keep Pegasus alive as another ship in the Fleet. Here, many viewers assumed that the nuke that Baltar gave to Gina in "Epiphanies" would be used to destroy Pegasus this time, but it wasn't.
• 29 people died between this episode and the preceding one? One or two Raptors were lost, and some Marines died on Caprica, but that doesn't seem high enough.

Notes

• According to Ron Moore's podcast, although Scifi Channel was willing to air this episode as a 90-minute special, it had to be heavily edited down for international distribution; outside of the United States, viewers will only see a 1 hour version of the episode, which Moore regards as "almost incomprehensible". Many plot threads, such as the entire Cally/Tyrol subplot, were completely removed from the one hour version.
• Ron Moore's podcast for episode 13, Epiphanies, states that the Nuke given to Gina will come back in this episode, to the benefit of the Cylons.
• In RDM's podcast for the previous episode, he said that in early drafts of this special 90 minute long episode, the writers actually tried to make it a 2 hour special, but this was soon dropped (these times are including commercials).
• The election board appears to have a definative list of the names of all of the ships in The Fleet (RDM). Not all of them are clearly visible, but this would seem to indicate that the writers do have an actual list that they get new ship names from. Ship names visible on the chart are: Demetrius, Diomedes, Embla Brokk, Enkidu, Epheme, Galactica, Gideon, Gemenon Traveller, Greenleaf, Monarch, Odysseus, Pegasus, Persephone, Prometheus, Swordfish
• The framed photo of President Roslin and Billy Keikeya was still on her desk during the election.
• When Roslin "won" the rigged election results, Roslin received 24,265 votes, while Baltar recieved 22,266. This means that the elligible voters in the Fleet number 46,531. In the podcast, RDM explains that he quickly came up with these numbers, to try to reflect roughly how many survivors are below the voting age.
• Toward the end of the episode, President Baltar refers to a government body called the "People's Council". This may be the proportionally elected lower house mentioned in by RDM in his blog post on January 30, 2005.

Noteworthy Dialogue

• The Cylons occupy New Caprica:

Tyrol: "What do we do now, Captain?"

Starbuck: "Same thing we always do. Fight them until we can't."

• Trying to bring order to a Union meeting:

Tyrol: Everyone, please be quiet.

Cally: Hey! Shut the frak up! (crowd quiets down)

Official Statements

From the official site (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/): When Baltar wins the vote, Roslin considers stealing the election because she believes he is a Cylon collaborator.

Statistics

Guest Stars

• Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek
• Dean Stockwell as Brother Cavil
• Michael Trucco as Samuel Anders
• Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh
• Donnelly Rhodes as Dr. Cottle
• Callum Keith Rennie as Leoben Conoy
• Matthew Bennett as Aaron Doral
• Rekha Sharma as Tory Foster
• David Kaye as James McManus

Production Notes

• Series 2 (2005 / 2006)
• Production Number: 2.20
• Airdate Order: 20 (of 20)

First Run Air Dates & Releases

• UK Airdate: Date
• US Airdate: Date
• DVD Release (UK): Date
• DVD Release (US): Date
• Nielsen Rating: X.X million households, XXX share

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