No Exit

"No Exit" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 4, Episode 15
Writer(s)	Ryan Mottesheard
Story by
Director	Gwyneth Horder-Payton
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	417
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	February 13, 2009
CAN airdate	February 13, 2009
UK airdate	February 17, 2009
DVD release
Population	39,556 survivors ( 47)
Additional Info
Full Credits
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Blood on the Scales	No Exit	Deadlock
Related Information
Official Summary
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Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
			@ BW Media
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Overview

Ellen Tigh is resurrected, and she knows all the answers. Anders' condition releases a flood of visions and crucial memories.

Summary

On a Basestar

Set in the past.

Notes

Crew call sheet for "No Exit"

• This episode title (and production information) are derived from a call sheet posted by Wil McQueen.
• No Exit is the title of a 1944 existentialist play by Jean-Paul Sartre. The story references three people who are trapped in Hell, shown as a stately room with chairs and sofas. Each character in the play loathes the other two characters. The play contains the notable line, "Hell is other people!"
• Ellen Tigh remarks to Sharon Valerii when she comes to escort Ellen to surgery that she "...should have brought a tumbrel." A tumbrel is a two-wheeled cart used to carry various loads, particularly on a farm. [1] On Earth during the French Revolution in the 1780's, many condemned prisoners were carried to the guillotine in a tumbrel. Ellen was sardonically referring to this in her remark to Valerii. Depending on the historical relationship of real life events and the Colonies in the show-if any-maybe she was referring directly to the French Revolution or a similar parallel event on Kobol and/or the Thirteen Colonies.

Analysis

• In the opening Galactica based scene it was evident that Galactica was still suffering from the after affects of the mutiny. The population count during the opening credits was 39,556. That means 47 people had died since the end of "Blood on the Scales". Two of those deaths are of Gaeta and Zarek so it was 45 deaths during the second half of the mutiny, from 10:30 hours to 15:32 hours, including the Quorum members and their aids. Add this to the 40 deaths that happened in "The Oath" you have 85 deaths that occurred during the 9 hour mutiny, 06:32 hours when Zarek was sprung to 15:32 hours when Adama and Tigh retook the CIC, beginning with the death of Alan Laird shortly before 07:00 hours. That is about 9.4 deaths per hour average, but even worse considering the killings didn't really start in earnest until a little after 09:00 hours. a 6.5 hour period making it roughly 13.1 deaths per hour.
• It has been eighteen months since Ellen Tigh downloaded into a new body.
• The humanoid Cylon civilization known as the Thirteenth Tribe reproduced sexually for generations by the time the members of the Final Five were born. Each of them had a Cylon mother and a Cylon father.
• The Cylon religious belief in a single God who is loving and merciful originated with the Cylon Centurions from the Twelve Colonies. The Final Five embraced this belief after encountering the Centurions, and incorporated it into the Significant Eight.

Questions

• Will Anders recover following surgery? Will he retain his memories as a Cylon if he does?
• Will resurrection technology ever be salvaged?
• How will Anders' condition affect any attempts made to salvage resurrection technology?
• Is Ellen truthful when she says that any attempt to rebuild the Resurrection Hub would need all five of them?
• Is Ellen truthful when she says that D'Anna's vision of the Five was not planted by the Five themselves?
• How will Ellen react when she discovers that Saul is engaged in a relationship with and has impregnated Caprica-Six?
• Will Tory and Tyrol rekindle their old relationship?
• Will Boomer and Tyrol rekindle their old relationship?
• How will Boomer react to the news that Cally is dead?
• How will Boomer react to Caprica Six, since she was killed by her at one point?
• Are the Number Fives also aware of the identity of the Final Five? When were any of the others, other than Boomer, told?
• Was Number Seven named after Daniel Graystone, creator of the Cylons on the Twelve Colonies?
• Did any active copies of Daniel survive One's wrath? If so, what became of them?
• Are the names given to the other six models by the Final Five the same as those they used to infiltrate the Colonies? If not, what are they?
• Will Cavil ever achieve his goal of evolving beyond his "primitive" humanoid form?
• Will Cavil ever be able to appreciate the gift of free will?
• How will the Cylon Civil War resolve?
• Is Boomer honestly defecting from Cavil's side, or is this part of a plot?
• Did the Final Five base any of the Significant Eight models besides John Cavil (made to resemble Ellen's father John) on people they knew?
• What is the nature of the "messengers" that warned the Final Five of disaster? In particular, are they related to Baltar's Inner Six and Six's Inner Baltar?
• Ellen seems very different from the woman we knew. How different were the rest of the Final Five in their past lives?

Character Development

• In the episode we see Sharon Valerii for the first time since "The Hub". She has been under the tutelage of John Cavil for thee years since at least after the occupation of Caprica. Before that, when she first downloaded after Cally Henderson (the future Cally Tyrol) shot her on Galactica she still thought of herself as a human with a human out look and hated her Cylon being. She wanted and desired love and felt bitterly that she had from her POV, betrayed her friends as she expressed in Downloaded:

Sharon Valerii: What are you thinking? Do you think I care about your god?

Caprica Six: Look, God loves you.

Valerii: This is love. (Re: a picture of the Galactica crew) These people love me. I love them. I didn't pretend to feel something so I could screw people over. I loved them. And then I betrayed them. I shot a man I loved. Frakked over another man, ruined his life. And why? Because I'm a lying machine. I'm a frakking Cylon!

Ten months ago as of this episode, and approximately two years after she downloaded back into the Cylon baseship and went under the guidance of John Cavil, this was her attitude to love. It occurred in a discussion with Ellen Tigh after Cavil's passionate speech about how she foisted on him the limiting form of a human body:

Valerii: Don't you feel the slightest bit of remorse for what you did to him? What you did to us?

Ellen: No. [turns her head to look at her] Because he's wrong, Boomer! There is no need for remorse or blame. We didn't limit you. We gave you something wonderful!! Free will! The ability to think creatively. To reach out to others with compassion. To love.

Valerii: Love? Who? Humans? Why would I want to do that? Who would I want to love?

Noteworthy Dialogue

• John Cavil had just shown a slide show - as Ellen Tigh cynically put it - of the destruction of the Algae planet, the home of the Temple of Hopes built by the travelers from Kobol on their way to colonize Earth and the Twelve Colonies, when its own star went nova. John Cavil was there to observe it. He relates his experience to Ellen and his disappointment over it, revealing his self-loathing and hatred of his form:

John: In all your travels, have you ever seen a star go supernova?

Ellen: No.

John [repeats] No? Well, I have. I saw a star explode and send out the building blocks of the universe. Other stars, other planets and eventually other life. A supernova! Creation itself! I was there. I wanted to see it and be part of the moment.

John: And you know how I perceived one of the most glorious events in the universe? [sneering] With these ridiculous gelatinous orbs [gesturing to his eyes] in my skull! [disgusted] With eyes designed to perceive only a tiny fraction of the EM spectrum. With ears designed only to hear vibrations in the air.

Ellen: The five of us designed you to be as human as possible.

John: I DON'T WANT TO BE HUMAN! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to--I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to--I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws! [closes eyes] And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me!! I'm a machine! And I can know much more! [softly] I can experience so much more. BUT I'M TRAPPED IN THIS ABSURD BODY! AND WHY? Because my five creators thought that God wanted it that way!

[Cavil walks out of the chamber]

Guest Stars

• Rekha Sharma as Tory Foster
• Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh
• John Hodgman as Dr. Gerard