Taking a Break From All Your Worries

"Taking a Break From All Your Worries" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 3, Episode 13
Writer(s)	Michael Taylor
Story by
Director	Edward James Olmos
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	2007-01-28
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate
DVD release
Population	41,403 survivors
Additional Info
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Rapture	Taking a Break From All Your Worries	The Woman King
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

Baltar is rigorously questioned about his past and what the Cylons know about Earth. Meanwhile, both Kara Thrace and Lee Adama struggle with their feelings for one another and are forced to make a decision about their respective marriages.

Summary

Teaser

• The episode begins as the Fleet moves past a small planetoid. Viewers hear a lullaby being sung as the shot moves past duty lockers as people sleep, to show Gaius Baltar, in a brig on Galactica, tearing strips of fabric.
• To pressure him into revealing any secrets or tactical knowledge of the Cylons, Baltar has been forced to stay awake. In turn, the prisoner has gone on a hunger strike, and believes that the Fleet's leadership will eventually kill him outright, rather than give him a fair trial.
• Baltar's virtual Number Six appears to question his actions, but only briefly. She soon begins to "aid" him in his task; he ties the fabric strips to form a hangman's noose.
• Elsewhere, Lieutenant Felix Gaeta cannot sleep. He dresses and heads for the brig. A marine on guard stops his advance.
• The virtual Six "pushes" Baltar's cot, and the man begins to choke on his noose. Six tells him to take slow, deep breaths.
• Baltar appears to awake in a Cylon rebirthing tank, surrounded by three Six copies. He shouts in celebration, believing that, at least, he knows his true nature as a Cylon.
• The Sixes gentle touches suddenly become harsh scratches and lacerations. A Six tells Baltar that he is not, in fact, a Cylon, but a human about to die. All three push Baltar into the tank's gelatinous mixture. One Six enters the pool, lying above him and kisses him as he is held to drown.
• Baltar's mind was likely suffering from oxygen deprivation, as his marine guard cuts him down and successfully resuscitates him. Gaeta leaves to find Dr. Cottle.

Act 1

• Admiral Adama, Saul Tigh, Dr. Cottle, and President Roslin sit in Adama's quarters, discussing what to do to get information from Baltar. Acknowledging that his hunger strike and suicide attempt have soured his mood, Roslin suggests an alternative plan.
• When Lieutenant Gaeta is asked why he was at Baltar's cell so early in the morning, he tells the president that he couldn't sleep and wanted to speak with the former president.
• Elsewhere, Lee Adama treats his friend Galen Tyrol to a little surprise: A number of crew have created a bar in a corner of the otherwise unused starboard hangar deck, complete with a Pyramid arcade game, an old Viper Mark II hanging above for atmosphere. "Joe's Bar" is filled with many people who have managed to put aside the troubles of the day. Tyrol and Adama have a drink as they discuss their marital problems; Tyrol and his wife Cally have had an argument that has apparently left him "in the doghouse." Adama is reluctant to interact with his wife, Anastasia Dualla, as his angst over his love of Kara Thrace continues to fight with him.
• Major Adama returns to his quarters, quite drunk, to find Dualla still awake and doing some work, apparently drinking some liquor or type of wine. She tries to confirm if they are still going to have dinner later that day as Adama dozes off, leaving Dualla disappointed.
• A similar conversation is occurring at Kara Thrace's bunk, as Samuel Anders resists an attempt by Thrace to get more intimate. Thrace darkly pokes fun at herself, calling herself a "two-timing" spouse. Anders does not return Thrace's darkness, but asks if she is in love with Lee Adama.
• When Thrace hesitates to answer, Anders tells her to explore what she feels, believing that Thrace's alleged destiny and her feelings about Anders may still be significant. The former resistance fighter leaves Thrace to herself in her bunk.
• President Roslin appears in Baltar's cell. Mirroring a similar event on New Caprica weeks before where Roslin is incarcerated by the Cylons and Baltar arrives to speak with her, Roslin hands him his glasses. Baltar, realizing the reference, takes his glasses and puts them on.
• After lighting a cigar for him, she sits. Baltar complains of having been force-fed by Cottle's staff, to which Roslin is non-plussed. She asks him questions about his involvement with the Cylons. She questions him using her personal knowledge of his interaction with a known Cylon model before the Cylon attack, asking if he allowed a Cylon access to the Colonial Defense Mainframe.
• Baltar equivocates at first, then stands his ground about his involvement, calling Roslin's accusations a "rehash" of the same lies as she did prior to the presidential election.
• Roslin shakes her head, and escalates her questioning. She shows Baltar a series of pictures of the dead on New Caprica who were killed by Cylons for supposed insurrection. Uncharacteristically, Roslin's voice rises to a shrill, yelling at Baltar as she flings each of the pictures. She yells for Saul Tigh to have Baltar taken from his cell and carried to the airlock.
• Baltar shouts his innocence as the marines move him through the memorial hallway as Roslin tries to haunt the former president with faces of the Colonies' dead. Baltar stops his "executioners" to show one photo of a man he knew. After telling them that he would not do anything to harm his friend, his wife and Baltar's godchildren, the marines cart the scientist away.

Act 2

• The Fleet's leadership convene once more. Roslin's plan failed; Baltar called the bluff about being thrown in an airlock, and the marines have returned him back to his cell.
• When Roslin suggests a different, less aggressive approach, Admiral Adama suggests the use of a special hallucinogenic drug used experimentally by the Colonial military. Roslin's expression is a mixture of awe and surprise, but asks if Galactica has this drug onboard.
• Lee Adama and Dualla have an argument about Kara Thrace and the future of their marriage. Dualla says that she married Adama because she loved him, choosing to have him for as long as he or Kara Thrace would let him. She resigns herself to her marriage's failure and tells Adama that she will not stand in his way if he were to choose Thrace over her.
• Kara Thrace and Lee Adama meet privately. When Thrace asks Adama if he loves her and would be with her if she were to leave Anders, Adama equivocates, remembering Thrace's fickleness after he declared his love a year before. Thrace leaves him to think about the situation.
• Major Adama returns to the bar and drinks more, toying with his wedding band. He asks Chief Tyrol if he ever thought about what his future with Boomer would have been like, or had any regrets. With a quick drink, Tyrol replies in the negative.
• Major Adama stumbles back to his quarters, losing his wedding band somewhere in Galactica's corridors.
• Baltar is strapped down in sickbay as Roslin authorizes the administering of the interrogation drug to Baltar. Adama warns not to make any loud noises and orders additional restraints on the prisoner's head.

Act 3

• Baltar finds himself floating in a nondescript dark body of water, with only a dim light shining from above.
• Adama and Roslin talk to Baltar in his hallucinogenic haze, asking him questions about the Cylon's knowledge of the whereabouts of Earth, and his mission at the Temple of Five.
• Baltar, genuinely believing that his life is in peril, tells how he believed that he was one of the final five Cylons and was seeking an answer.
• Medic Layne Ishay accidentally knocks over some equipment, creating a loud clang, which interrupts Baltar's interrogation momentarily.
• Adama warns Baltar to cooperate so that he would be able to "get out", then turns off the flashlight he was using to create the lighting effect in Baltar's illusory world.
• Baltar begins to talk about Caprica Six and her involvement, as a vision of Six appears and disappears next to him in the water.
• Baltar vision shifts to him in a Cylon rebirthing tank again, this time, however, he is surrounded by dark figures that are later revealed as the Colonial dead from the Colonies. As he tries to explain himself, the figures push him into the water, and a young girl hovers over him as he continues the dark descent.
• As Baltar sinks in his vision, in the real world, Baltar's vital signs begin to drop as well. Dr. Cottle calls off further interrogation and proceeds to revive Baltar.

Act 4

• A final attempt to gain information from Baltar uses Lieutenant Gaeta to lure Baltar into a sense of comfort by aiding the Colonial officer in his calculations to Earth, hoping that he will leak any information on Cylon tactics or technology.
• Initially, Baltar acquiesces and begins to correct Gaeta's work until he senses Gaeta's awareness of something else in the cell.
• Baltar realizes that his cell has a surveillance camera, and becomes belligerent, which begins to anger Gaeta.
• Realizing that Gaeta's anger could make things much worse, the Fleet leadership leaves their observation room to interdict Gaeta, who has now taken the pen he brought into the room to stab Baltar in the neck.
• Adama manages to subdue Gaeta, and Cottle looks over Baltar, whose injuries are not serious.
• Meanwhile, Lee Adama and his wife meet in Joe's Bar.
• Adama confesses that he has loved Dualla and how dedicated she has been to him, never realizing how much he needed her affection.
• As the two embrace, Adama tries to avoid looking across the bar at Kara Thrace and Anders. Thrace returns the glance before Adama breaks it off.
• Laura Roslin and Admiral Adama rest in the admiral's quarters, with Roslin reclining on a bunk and Adama sitting at the foot of the bunk. They debate, with the failure of both measures of interrogation on Baltar, what to do with him.
• When Adama suggests that there is still an opportunity to make Baltar "disappear," Roslin touches Adama's arm tenderly but briefly, reminding him of his humanity as she responds that they couldn't do that to him.
• Roslin suggests that one option is still on the table: Give Baltar a trial.

Questions

• What is the nature of Chief Tyrol's worries? Does he really have marital problems with Cally?
• What is going to happen to Caprica Six aboard Galactica?
• What will the civilian reaction be once it is known that Baltar was captured?
• Will Apollo and Starbuck keep their vows to their respective spouses from this point on, or will there be another intimate encounter between the two?
• Why did Galatica have the experimental interrogation drug that Adama spoke about?
• What secret is Gaeta afraid of Baltar revealing to the Fleet?
• If Gaeta had intended to kill Baltar, why didn't he attempt to stop the soldier from performing CPR on Baltar and keep him alive?

Analysis

• Baltar, despite extreme stress, various forms of torture, and attempted suicide, maintains a high degree of self-preservation. Even at moments when it appears he is about to confess all of his wrongs, knowing that his life might be in danger, he finds a way to circumvent the questions and redirect them to someone or something else that makes him look to be the victim.
• Adama, during the interrogation session, seems to know more about the capabilities of the hallucinogen than it initially appears when he mentions the drug to Roslin. He appears to have done this type of interrogation before.
• The episode draws connections between Baltar and Roslin and their respective roles, especially in how both have now switched places. For example, Roslin almost word for word quotes Baltar when it comes down to the best interrogation method, using a stick vs. a carrot. The same type of analogy Baltar used with Admiral Cain in "Pegasus".
• This episode displays the darker side of Adama as throughout the episode he is consistently the one to display a bitter streak towards Baltar. He cites many different options and choices that one would consider to be contradictory to his own stances of how humans were to treat each other before. For example, he directly opposed President Zarek when it became known that people were "disappearing" without given a trial (Collaborators). Yet, with Baltar, Adama suggests to Roslin that it is not too late to make him disappear.

Notes

• This is the second episode of the series to be directed by Edward James Olmos. The first was Season 1's "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down".
• With 30 characters, this episode has the longest title of any Re-imagined Series episode to date.
• The title is also a partial quote from "Where Everybody Knows Your Name," the theme song to the television program Cheers written by Gary Portnoy & Judy Hart Angelo. — "Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got./Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot."
• Part of a bonus scene was shown after the original airing of this episode on Scifi Channel and the full scene was made available on SciFi's website. In it, Roslin talks with Caprica-Six after overseeing her transfer to a cell on Galactica, saying that all the Colonials have surmised so far is that Baltar was not involved in the initial Cylon attack. Roslin tries to gain information by promising Six that she won't be executed, but Six counters that Roslin made the same promise to Leoben and broke it (Flesh and Bone). Roslin asks for Six's name and is given it ("Caprica"), and recognizes the authenticity of her feelings for Baltar. Caprica-Six wonders if the Colonials' justice system has withered away along with their conscience and adamantly states that she will not reveal any information unless she is assured that Baltar will receive a fair trial. If he does, she will be willing to be the primary witness and share all the information that Roslin wants to know.

Official Statements

• Tyrol's toast to Lee Adama after discovering Joe's Bar:

Tyrol: To marriage. Why we build bars.

Guest Stars

• Kerry Norton as Layne Ishay