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Duck's bomb only killed 36 people out of the 200, and also Gaius wasn't there, which was the whole point, and also Jammer was about ten inches behind him, but didn't die. In the wake of the Duck bomb -- and others -- the Cylons decide to round up a bunch of people for no reason, using the SS. Which means that Jammer, in a balaclava, kidnaps his old friend Cally in the middle of the night, leaving her kid screaming and unattended. Later on, feeling bad, he asks Boomer to check on Cally in the detention center. Cally isâ¦ungrateful for the attention, to say the least. Speaking of, Chief goes apeshit on Gaeta about Cally, because he still hasn't figured out that Gaeta's their contact in the administration. Roslin and Gaius have a horribly tense moment about the ethics of suicide bombing. Ellen learns that the Cylons were going to release Tigh anyway, because they know he's the head of the Resistance, so the total whoring of herself to Cavil that she's been doing has been for no reason really whatsoever; he tells her to hand over their rendezvous or else they'll just pick Tigh up for detention again, and torture him even worse. So she does, because she loves her husband, and because she is a retard. Just so happens that the rendezvous is with a detachment from Galactica herself, which is double scary; the contingent is led by Sharon Agathon, whom Adama commissions as an officer! â¦Just after he tells Lee to take the Pegasus and the civilian Fleet back to looking for Earth, leaving just our girl up there in the sky. Meanwhile, Leoben steps up Kara's creepy Prisoner-style torture just a bit more by presenting her with -- apparently -- their child, a little blonde girl named Casey. Kara's disinterest in the kid is thrown off after the girl is injured in a scene no less brutal than the episode's dinner murder scene. Kara seems to give in a little bit to Leoben's construct over the child's hospital bed, but who can say? She is completely nuts right now. Gaius, while in a Six Fugue, signs an executive order condemning like 200 detainees to execution. This group includes Cally, Roslin, and Zarek; Jammer cuts Cally loose -- friggin' of course -- and the episode ends with her running through the New Caprica landscape and the sound of a grip of Centurions opening fire on the detainees. I was weirdly worried about Cally and happy that she did not get shot in the head, which is especially weird if you take into account how rude she was to Boomer. Like, just because she shot Adama and is now a member of the fascist ruling class, you have to be rude? Whatever. If Roslin dies, Adama is going to kill all their asses with a karate chop. And then I will beat up whoever is left. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Laura sits in a Cylon cell, feet bare, shivering. I guess the whole suicide-bombing thing wasn't taken lightly. Gaius peers at her through the cell door and enters; the light coming down is bright and she shields her eyes. He carries in one chair and a New Caprica SS guy, in his mask, brings in another one. Laura drags her chair closer, with a foot, and sits. Gaius hands her her glasses and she puts them on, regarding him cordially. He tells her he can help her -- I think he says, "In ways I can't help myself" -- and that he can protect her. "But you have to understand the situation has changed. The insurgency has crossed the line. Suicide bombings?" She looks away. "It's abhorrent. Contrary to everything we believe in." She shrugs at the pronoun. "So you and I, we will publicly condemn these tactics. They cannot be legitimized in any way." She smiles at him; McDonnell's touch is as deft and heart-wrenching as ever. "There's something that scares the Cylons after all," she says quietly, holding her ground. But he's got her: "I should think using men and women as human bombs should scare us all." He's right but she can't say that. "Desperate people take desperate measures," she says, faltering, and he raises his voice, begging her to look him in the eye and say she approves of "sending young men and women into crowded places with explosives strapped to their chests." She can't do it. She looks down, then at him, shakes her head with a tiny sad smile.
"Thirty-three people killed," he says, "and their only crime was putting on a police uniform. Trying to bring some order to the chaos out there... " And she's off! "Order? By arresting innocent people in the dead of night? Detaining them without charge? Torturing them for information?" And he lies, repeats the lie, because he has to believe the lie: "Nobody has been tortured." I'm glad this show knows well enough to leave the current political situation alone! It would be so crazy if they were talking about Iraq! He stalks toward the door and she sneers: "Tell that to Colonel Tigh." He repeats the lie, and stares at her, and loses his cool. "We're done here." He knocks on the door and the SS guy opens it. "I hope you understand the severity of the situation, and ask you to obey the dictates of your conscience." She looks at him. "... Which is what I've always done." It's sad. Gaius is sad. He believes this, still. He's never fucked up so terribly bad that he couldn't lie to himself after the fact and assure himself he was doing the right thing. He's never had to look at it and say that he didn't obey the dictates of his conscience. No matter how bad it got, or the consequences. "Of that I have no doubt," she says, with great disgust. They stare at each other more hatefully than ever before. "Please give this lovely lady her shoes back. And get her out of here."
Night time, all along the watchtower, Centurions everywhere. Jammer steps into the foreground, looking dangerous and scared. A Centurion looks at him and lets him go. There are nervous whispers as the SS comes together for the raid. Obeying the dictates of their consciences. A very Earth-like military truck pulls up, and Cavil gets out in his crazy Night Of The Hunter garb with the creepy flat-brimmed hat. "Everything clear?" he asks Jammer, tells him not to worry. "We have your back." Jammer looks from him to the "we": scores of Centurions everywhere in lines.
Anders and the Chief discuss the latest retaliation: the Cylons have cut food rations. They have two minutes to wait until the transmission from the Galactica Raptor; the Cylons have suggested they might shut down the marketplace, as a security risk. Tigh shrugs and says they'll come up with a new plan, freaking out Chief. That's the most innocent combat zone you can think of, it's horrible. "We need to figure out whose side we're on." Tigh gives... a very lovely speech. "Which side are we on? We're on the side of the demons, Chief. We're evil men in the gardens of paradise, sent by the forces of death, to spread devastation and destruction wherever we go. I'm surprised you didn't know that." (He doesn't watch Doctor Who, I guess.) Anders and the Chief both get gut-sick OMG faces and the Raptor establishes contact. Tigh lights a cigarette and hobbles around madly, telling him to send their sitrep twice. "1150 armed effectives," it says. Against an army that cannot die.
Jammer looks at the detainee list for tonight's raid and wigs on Cavil. "I know some of these people!" Cavil is unsurprised. "They're all insurgents, Jammer. We have to break the cycle of violence." Oh, well then. Because it's such a great thing they're doing, everybody puts on black balaclavas; Cavil tells them they won't have to wear the masks much longer. "Eventually the people will see you as heroes." Jammer sighs: "Not tonight." Things shift to night vision, green and black. Jammer directs the squads out into the city and we see people being taken, disappeared, in the dead of night. A man, a woman. Cally. A man knocks down Baby Nick's mobile as he screams and his mother struggles. They load Cally into a truck and she stares out, scared stupid.
Later, all alone in the Tyrol tent, the baby cries. Chief enters, sees the signs of struggle, lights on the empty bed, and picks up his son. "Momma's coming back. It's okay. It's okay."
Big meeting of the Fleet leadership. Helo reads about the 1150 members of the Resistance -- "That's way less than there should be" -- and Dualla's like, "Probably because they're all dying in horrible ways?" Admiral Adama notes also that the Cylons took all the launch keys from the ships they left on the ground, and nobody knows where they are. Kat suggests they manufacture new launch keys and bring them along, but Lee says it'll take forever and it's too hard. Bill agrees, saying the best option is to let Saul and the guys on the ground find the keys themselves. Dualla asks if the Cylons might have permanently destroyed them, but Kat and Helo know those ships are too valuable. She suggests that they make a weapons drop to the insurgents, to help them get the keys and get mobile, but Lee -- who's very Tigh-like right now, due to the fact that he doesn't care what happens to New Caprica -- says the Cylons would notice the firepower, and then they'd know about the Raptor, and then "your plan" is fracked. Everybody looks at him like, You are so Tigh right now. All their faces are saying, he's been like this for four months; Kat says, "Funny, I thought this was our plan." Shut up, Kat, except not exactly, because she's cool now, and Lee sucks twice as much as ever. Bill keeps the tense meeting moving right along.
The SS walk the streets; Chief and Gaeta discuss Cally in that insouciant leaning-against-things way that secret agents have. Gaeta tells Chief that he knows neither why or how long she'll be taken. Chief bitches at him at length; they call each other by first names. Gaeta is apologetic about everything but Chief's freaking out; he calls Gaeta a collaborator and makes to run off in a snit. Gaeta promises to try and find things out, and because Chief I guess still doesn't know he's the administration mole, acts like Gaeta's useless. He might know and just be acting like this because he's freaked, but they made such a big deal last episode about how the mole must stay secret. But it's pretty obvious that Gaius and Caprica know that he's double-dealing, so I don't know why that would still need to be true. Chief's just out of his mind and there's no talking to him about anything, so whatever, maybe Cally's rubbing off on him, but I don't want to go into that. Don't poke the bear.
Jammer walks the streets, goes to the Tyrol tent in slo-mo and sees the broken mobile. He crouches and begins to cry, freaking out; Chief appears and gives him one second of comfort before twitching off again, but Jammer brings up Cally, having heard that she was on the list last night. Chief bitches about the NCP and how they're traitors, and Jammer tries to explain that whole thing, how probably those guys are in over their heads, especially now that Duck's bomb has gotten the Cylons all hardcore. "Maybe they thought they were doing something good, get the Cylons off the streets and police our own... ?" Chief snarls and asks if Jammer knows any of them; he says he doesn't. Chief's very pissy about how useless Gaeta's being, and Jammer protests that Gaeta will help as much as he can. Chief gets in his face: "He's a fracking collaborator! You know, one day when this is all over, guys like Gaeta are going to get strung up. And guys like you and me are gonna be there tying the knots. Making them tight." He runs off, and I kind of don't like Chief anymore, shockingly. He was crazy two years ago and he's just getting more wear and tear all the time. Jammer cries outside the Tyrol tent, utterly fracked on both sides.
Dinner with Kara. A treat as always. Leoben smiles, that luminous creepy smile he has: "It's been a couple of ugly days. I know you don't care about that," I guess because she's caged off from the outside world and doesn't know anything, "but life means something to us." Or is he saying she's down with suicide bombing? She might be. "So I've decided to show you just how precious life can be. Even in the worst of times it can restore your faith." He stands and heads up the stairs, asking if she remembers the horrible rape farm on Caprica; she says she remembers mainly blowing the frack out of it. I love this girl. He says it wasn't a total loss: they salvaged a bunch of samples and things. The shoe finally drops: "Like your ovary." He opens a door upstairs, and Kara starts to wig. In a second, he reappears on the stairs, with a little blonde girl. She's already done the math, did it before he opened the door, but she asks anyway: "What's that?" He carries the girl down the steps in slo-mo. "Casey, this is Kara. Your mother." The little girl smiles shyly. "Hi." Starbuck goes even more crazy.
Dee storms into Lee's area and tells him about the Admiral's plan to "put some boots on the ground" and send a liaison officer to coordinate the rescue op. The problem? "Who he's sending." Dualla hands him the brief and Lee wigs, immediately heading to Galactica.
"You can't do this! She's a Cylon!" Bill is mild: "I trust her." Lee calls this a mistake, and Bill does the usual rhetorical Bill thing: "My mistake." Except this time it's not actually true: "You're gambling with the lives of everyone on this ship, and my ship... " Bill says in no uncertain terms that he's not interested in a lecture -- from Lee in particular, I think -- about the responsibilities of command. He dismisses Lee and leaves, but his son follows him into the Galactica corridor. "This is risking the lives of the human race, not just your command," he protests. Bill says he's saving the human race, and Lee protests that he's not seeing the real deal here: "The human race is the 2000 people in the Fleet, huddled in those civilian ships. They're the safe bet." He wants to safeguard them, just like last time, when the show started and they left survivors all over the place in their haste. Bill changes the subject to how Sharon's a great person for this op because the Centurions can't tell her apart from the other models. He laughs at the irony: the Cylons did this because they didn't want the machines to become self-aware and rebel against them. "Dad," he shouts, jumping in front of him. Bill nods and admits that he knows what Lee is saying, but there's a responsibility to the people they left behind. Lee quotes Roslin: "Our first responsibility is the survival of humanity. We can't lose sight of that. Over the last year we've lost sight of almost everything. We got soft," he says, throwing his father's words back at him. "But if we go back to New Caprica now, and we lose? It's over. Humanity just stops. Admiral's stars don't give you the right to make that gamble." This show is hard because whoever's talking, that's who I agree with. I haven't felt like that since I was seven years old. Bill nods. "You're right, son. Make plans to resume the search for earth with the Pegasus and the Civilian Fleet." So the Galactica will stay behind? "I know why we left those people behind, and I know that it was their choice in the first place to be down there, and I realize the survival of the human race outweighs anything else, but this time I can't live with it. Can't face it. Maybe I'm a coward but I'm going back." Lee promises his father he won't stand a chance; meaning, of course, that his bad-assery is going to blow everybody's mind. "I'm going back, son." They embrace; a shaft of light shines down on them. Thank goodness they're okay.
Casey plays on the floor of Kara's apartment. Leoben is exceedingly creepy: "Once I fertilized your egg, we transferred it to a human woman, who carried it to term. She was pretty funny. Great smile. You would have liked her." That is... the most fucked up thing anybody has ever said on this show. Gross me out to the infinite power. "Although her mother died during childbirth, Casey's heart never failed. I think she gets that will to live from you...I've seen her path. It's difficult but rewarding. She'll know the mind of God in this lifetime; she'll see patterns that others do not see. She probably gets that spiritual clarity from me," he says, smiling up at Kara like a lunatic. She's sitting on the stairs, behind the chain link of the banister; looking through bars. "She'll be hungry soon," he says. "There's food on the table." He gets up to leave; Kara doesn't move. Her mother was a monster, a drunk and abusive in ways we don't want to know about. She has refused motherhood, even stable love, on the off chance that she'll have a daughter, and hurt that daughter. And Leoben knows this. "You wouldn't let your own child starve, would you?" She stares him down. "It's not my child. I don't even know if it's human." He nods: "Half human." He assures her that somewhere, Kara does know that Casey's her daughter, and just can't admit it. He takes off, and she begs him to "take this" with him. "Hey! Don't leave me alone with this!" The baby stares up at her sweetly. Her face is full of rage and disgust and fear: "I don't know who or what you are, but I do know this: I'm not your mother."
Laura lectures Tigh on the subject of: Suicide Bombers Are Obscene, No Matter How Effective They Are. He asks her if she's working for the Cylons now, sarcastically, and she slaps him across the face. Everybody's quiet. Anders watches her. "Sorry," she says. "There was no excuse for that." Tigh just laughs at her like the crazy old coot he's turned into. "See, little things like that? They don't matter anymore." Nothing matters anymore: "I got one job here, lady: to disrupt the Cylons. Make them worry about the anthill they kicked down here, so they're distracted and out of position when the old man comes down out of orbit." He laughs about how deeply the bombings have engaged the Cylons' attention, and says he won't give that edge up. "We are talking about people blowing themselves up," she repeats, like he missed that part, and he muses about how half the time she's got air-lockin' ice water in her veins, and other times she comes off as "just a naïve little schoolteacher." He repeats his thing about how he's been sending people on suicide missions in two wars now, and it doesn't make a difference if they're "in a Viper or walking onto a parade ground": in the end they're just as dead. One thing that torture has done for Tigh. Well, two things actually. The first is that I really, really like him now. Actually ever since "Scar." And the second thing is that he talks like a motherfucking genius now. I love it when he opens his mouth. Remember when he was like, "What the hell?" and then he'd take a drink and then Starbuck would call him a shit-eater, and he'd go "What the hell?" and take a drink? Now it's like he writes a fucking symphony every single scene. It's awesome: "So take your piety and moralizing and high-minded principles, and stick 'em someplace safe, until you're back in your cushy chair on Colonial One again. I've got a war to fight." Maybe his suckiness was located in his eye -- like with that rapper Houston that fought his eyeball for the forces of good -- and that's why he's become terrifying and beautiful all of a sudden. Good show, you crazy old bastard!
At the first building the Cylons ever built on New Caprica, Boomer and Caprica discuss how fucked up everything is, basically, and how detaining people in the middle of the night does not lead to warm feelings and cozy robot/people hugging sprees. On the other hand, Caprica notes, suicide bombs. Valid. Jammer approaches Boomer -- remember they were friends on the Deck Crew when she was secretly boning his boss a million years ago -- and stammers and acts weird because nobody knows the etiquette of resurrection, or if you can be friends with people who stick you in concentration camps, even if you join their fucked-up paramilitary police, on and on like this, and he can't say the word "friends," so he keeps hopping around it, and the only thing more painful than this is the sadness in her eyes and the need to ignore all that: "Yeah, Jammer. Just spit it out." So he does, and she goes very quiet: "They got Cally on the last raid." How come everybody acts like this is such an awful thing? Seriously. That is the very definition of "not my fucking problem."
Kara paces and plays with her pretty pretty hair and spirals out into crazier and crazier territory, thinks about rage and moms and Cain. Lee. The kid giggles and flops around cutely on the couch, chases Kara around the dining table, talks to her in crazy kid language. Kara picks her up, giggling, and puts her back on the couch for what must be the twentieth time. "Frack!" she screams, and hides in the bathroom, back against the door, listening to her mind shatter and fall apart and there's a scream in the back of her head and finally she drags herself to the mirror and stares into it and tries to pull it together. There's a tiny little scream, and a tiny little thump. She heads out into the room: Casey's not on the couch. But at the foot of the stairs, there's a pair of little feet, and Casey's not moving, and to her head on the cement there's a pool of blood, and it's growing.
Do you have kids? Because that's actually the most horrific thing I've ever seen on the show. Surely there's some kind of Hays Code thing about no little kids dying on TV. That was like all of that movie IT crammed into three seconds. You know how they say like "my flesh crawled"? It's like every hair on your body goes the wrong way of its own accord simultaneously, and your skin slips around on your bones and muscles, and your skin and everything go cold, like your body is trying to get away before your brain even realizes what it just saw. And then there's Kara, looking at this, feeling her mom knock her across the room and seeing how tiny Casey is, and that's how they get you.
Casey lies in a hospital bed with a bandaged head. Leoben brings Kara a cup of coffee as she stares down; she takes it after a moment and looks up at his face. A Raider flies over. He sits and watches her intently as she sips. Fucking anything but little kids. I cannot do that shit. I would rather watch "Pegasus" a hundred times than that shit. Auugh. I'm shivering just thinking about that.
Boomer enters Cally's cell; she doesn't look up. "Hi, Cally," she says, and identifies herself in the particular: "It's me. Boomer." Not Number Eight, but the particular Boomer that dated the love of your life, that you shot with an ugly face. Cally won't look up; when she does, the face is back. "I wish I had a gun." I'd turn around and leave even if I didn't fucking hate Cally. Rude. Boomer sighs. "Are you all right? Physically, I mean?" Cally snarls at her. "What do you want from me?" Boomer looks around herself, finally crouches at Cally's side, trying to connect. "Look. A lot's happened in everyone's life, but I want you to know... I want you and Galen to know that I'm happy for you? Especially since you started a family," she smiles. "Something him and I talked about once before," she says sadly. Dumb, Boomer! Why the fuck do you think she shot you in the first place? Cally jumps up at her, like a beast; Boomer jumps back: "Can you get me out of here?" She's not sure, because of the separation of ministries... "Then frack you, Sharon. You stupid fracked-up toaster. How many times do I have to shoot you, anyway? If you can't help me, then just go away and leave us alone." "Us," is it? Boomer stares down. Question: How come Cally's the only one that gets to act like this? How come Dualla's turned from some girl into a pretty cool chick, but Cally's as nasty and classless as she was to start with? I promised myself and Aaron Douglas I wasn't going to hate her anymore, but I can't find my way around this one. I don't know what else to say. I just fucking hate her. ... No, I just figured it out: this scene is about everything I hate about her, so it makes me crazy. It's not that she's acting poorly or out of character, it's just all the things I can't get past with her, in one short scene.
This is a woman who is so sold on her own status as a victim that any time she reacts to anything, it's both A) nasty and B) self-congratulatory. She's so meek and mild and whatever, so when she does speak up it's with vulgarity and violence, but none of that would be necessary if she had any sense of self at all in the first place. She acts out of weakness and entitlement: "What can you do for me? Then fuck you." This is the kind of woman who marries her abuser, which... is what she did, so never mind. I get it. Totally my shit, and I get that now, and I apologize. But I mean, lay her down alongside Boomer: two women who loved the same man. And one of them kept her mouth shut about it and felt yearning feelings of victimhood and love, and the other one went through an identity crisis the likes of which nobody's ever seen before, and tried desperately to hold herself together for his sake. How can Cally ever think she wins that fight? If she can't even believe in herself enough to get over this jealousy shit when she landed the guy, had his baby, and her rival is a member of the Nazi party, when does she actually calm down? Never, and I don't even care anymore. I know she's not going anywhere, and I want Chief to be happy, so me and Cally will have a truce, and meanwhile I'll be over here with Boomer and all the other people who aren't selfish and pointless and mean -- who actually try, and change, and grow.
Some kind of pineapple-haired insurgent that looks like the witch girl from Runaways crossed with the gothic homeless of 1996 Seattle sneaks a bomb into a building in a bulky jacket. Could not look more suspicious. A member of the SS grabs her and she shoots him, then heads into the center of the building and blows herself up.
Doral shows the Cylons the video: "Twenty-three Cylons critically wounded." Fourteen had to be boxed. Boomer stupidly brings up the human casualties (four dead) and Doral keeps talking: "The power substation was crippled." Half the city's without power, and the best estimate puts recovery at two weeks. Congratulations, Suicide Girl: you just managed to make living in a concentration camp less awesome. Three asks Caprica if she still thinks they're being too hard on them; Caprica is unresponsive. Cavil calls it "a very serious, straightforward problem: increase control, or lose control." He calls for stronger measures, and Three agrees on behalf of the Threes. Simons -- hi Simon! -- agree, and Dorals agree, and ask if Sixes agree. They do. A Six looks over at Caprica: "Most of us do, anyway." Agree with what? Something even more horrible yet!
Three tosses a document down on Gaius's desk. "What is this?" It's just an order for the summary executions of all the detainees listed on the , requiring his signature. He looks at them obnoxiously: "My signature?" Doral's like, "Totally! You're the President!" Caprica is worried; Three is awesome: "Read it later sign now," she sighs, all in a line like that. He looks up and seems ready to balk, so Caprica gets in the middle of it. "Just because you've decided to do this doesn't mean you have to drag him into sin with you!" Threes laugh at her: "Don't you lecture me about sin," they say. "I'm not the one who committed the first act of Cylon-on-Cylon violence in our history." Gaius asks about that, and Three explains: "She crushed my head in with a rock, back on Caprica. Interesting she didn't tell you... " Caprica loses a bit of her smooth and yells that she had to do it, but it's not like she was proud of her actions. Cavil sighs that this is all very interesting, but go ahead and sign the thing. Gaius protests that they don't need his signature, and Three smiles deliciously. "Actually, we do: we are here as allies and friends of the legitimate New Caprica government, so everything we do requires your signature." (This would be so crazy if they were talking about Iraq!) "In other words," Cavil explains -- and it's a good explanation for something that's always confused me, complete with air-quotes -- "they're worried what 'God' might think if they commit murder: they're covering their existential asses." That is... so scary. True and scary, how much sense that makes.
Gaius stands his ground, and everybody gets irritated. "You're going to have to salve your consciences some other way," he blusters, and one Doral explains they can always find another President, while another cocks a gun to his head. Caprica shouts, "Stop this!" And everybody stares at everybody else for awhile. "This is crazy!" Doral shoots her in the head and she falls onto the floor. I guess that's a genie out of the bottle now. The other Sixes are clearly thrown by her death; Boomer stares down, horrified and disgusted. Gaius murmurs a prayer to the singular God, and Cavil's like, "Duh, she'll be back. ... But you won't if you don't sign that thing, unless you're a Cylon, which is still doubtful." Doral screams at him, gun to his head, to sign it. Over and over and over.
Six Fugue! Chip Six sits on his desk in a very clean and happy office. "There's nothing you can do, Gaius. It'll be okay." He's like happy to see her; I don't know if it's because he thinks she's Caprica Six or because she is Caprica Six or if he's just happy to see Chip Six or what. All the above. "Help me." She explains, back in her usual role of pointing out to him the things he can't actually admit for himself, that he has to sign it, or else they are going to kill him. Not some other time but right this second. "I can't. I won't! You can't force... " She leans in sweetly. "Sometimes you have to do things you hate, so you can survive to fight another day." He looks down at the page, back in his office. But he's already signed it. The Cylons all stare down at him. Three takes it brightly and leaves; he begins to cry. Boomer's eyes are full and she swallows deeply as she looks at him and waits for Caprica to come back.
"I, Sharon Agathon, do now pledge my faith and my loyalty to the protection of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, and will carry out the lawful orders of my superiors as an officer in the Colonial Fleet."
WHAT? That's AWESOME! Adama congratulates Sharon on her commission. He is so far ahead of the curve with this shit: the Cylons have been trying everything they can to swallow humanity whole since before the Armistice; it's about time he started biting back. Become the enemy, make them into your image, until nobody knows the difference anymore.
Sharon and Helo stand alone, holding each other, in their matching uniforms. She's still kind of agog. "You know what this means to me?" Helo tells her how one of the first things you learn in the Academy is that symbols matter: uniforms, flags, banners, even mascots. "They're like pieces of your heart you can look at." He looks her in the eye and tells her the uniform means a lot to him. "I know it does, Helo. It means a lot to me too. I won't betray it." Aww.
They kiss, but you have to fill in the blanks, which goes something like, "... Until I find out they stole our baby and told us it was dead -- moments after I narrowly missed a forced abortion -- and the deposed president has been living off our baby's blood ever since like some fracked-up vampire. Because at that point I will kill each and every one of you bitches." And she'll be right, too, and I will cheer her on.
As the crew clears her Raptor for flight, she asks permission to ask Adama another intense question: "How do you really know that you can trust me?" He looks at her evenly: "I don't. That's what trust is. Good hunting, Lieutenant." She salutes' Bill and Helo salute back, the two men that love her best in the world. I am so, so scared about this baby thing now! I can't stop thinking about it!
Cavil touches Ellen's leg on their gross couch where they do it, and he says that last time was really something, and she smiles sexily. "Thought you might like that." He notes that she "didn't do the twist this time," and she shakes her head: "No, this was the swirl." Things I Don't Need In My Head, take one billion. Well, Cavil wanted something "memorable," she giggles, and out of nowhere he asks after Saul. She freezes. "Fine?" And when, pray tell, is his meeting with the insurgents? Ellen's freaked and doesn't reply. "... Why do you think she left him out of detention." She gets her shit together and becomes awesome again, grinning and shimmying at him: "I thought it was because of the twist." That too, he admits, but "having him out there gives us advantages... " She tells him straight up she doesn't know anything about anything, and he asks if they can't just consider her denials as read and move on: "I want a specific place and time for a high-level meeting of the leadership. Or we'll pick up Saul again, and this time he'll lose more than an eye." Ellen realizes how fucked she actually is.
Chief tells Tigh about the rendezvous, and finally has to tell Tigh the liaison officer is Sharon. "I hope that's your idea of a joke?" asks Tigh, crusty overclocking, and Chief shakes his head: Adama totally commissioned her. "She's a serving officer, which is... more than you can say about us." They discuss the best places for the rendezvous; Anders has a canyon on a map already picked out for the Raptor to land. There's a knock at the door, and they hide all their super-secret spy stuff, but it's just Ellen with some crackers and treachery. Anders points at the map, saying he's going to meet the Galactica party halfway from the canyon to the city; they wrap up the meeting and memorize all their stuff, and Tigh leans over to throw away all the evidence. Ellen takes them -- "Don't get up" -- and stands at the fire, slipping the notes into her pocket. I really, really feel for Ellen, dude. This is not going to go awesome. I do have one question: why was she screwing Cavil just now? I can think of a million different reasons, and it seemed like it was the end of their arrangement, but I don't know. She's a mystery.
Gaeta runs into Colonial One, screaming for Gaius, missing him where he sits near the fore door of the office. "Tell me you didn't sign this!" he screams, and Gaius begs him to leave him alone. This is the only time he didn't obey the dictates of his conscience: the only time he can't fool himself into thinking he did the right thing. This, of all things, is his fall. That fascinates me. Even Gaius has a line; he just had to cross it before he knew that. Gaeta screams at him some more and he tries to explain how he didn't have a choice, but he's not trying very hard, because now he knows what we've always known: he's a weak little pansy that always takes the easy way out. I feel terrible for him! This is weird! "There are over 200 names on this list," Gaeta screams, ordering him again and again to look at the names on the list. You already know all the names on the list, which makes it worse, because you're like, "No way." Gaius is hollow and looking even more destroyed than ever: "I've seen them," he cries. Screams. "There was nothing I could do!"
The NCP descends on town en masse for the last raid. Everybody screams and runs about all crazy. Two of them appear at the schoolhouse, and by the set of her jaw you know Laura knows what comes , even if you can't believe it yourself.
Boomer bitches at Three that killing Tyrol's wife is going to turn him, and his labor union -- which is a good point, it's an organized faction -- against the Cylon, but Three scoffs. "In your view, there's no reason to kill anyone, right?" But see, they made this decision already. All of them together. "Just like when we decided to listen to you and Caprica when we came here, to start this new and glorious chapter in Cylon/human relations." Boomer points out that none of this democratic robot voting prattle has anything to do with killing Cally. (Meanwhile, I just took a vote among all the Jacob models, and we said, "Don't care, but if you hurt one hair on Roslin's gorgeous head... ") Three ignores her: "Nobody likes mortal death, Boomer, but... she tried to murder you. Maybe it's God's justice?" "Tried to," my entire ass; you don't get the points for that failure; you don't get to not be a murderer just because your murder was poorly executed. Boomer looks back at Cally, in a truck, making more horrible faces.
Zarek climbs into a truck to Roslin for what turns out to be the sweetest, funniest, scariest couple of relationship scenes in the whole thing. "Need a lift, Mr. Vice President?" She's sitting in the cargo area of a military truck with her hands tied. "Haven't seen much of you lately," she says vaguely, and he tells her he's been in detention for four months. He refused to collaborate with the Cylon partnership, and Baltar "got a little pissed." He's proud, and rightly so. She shows him her cuffs: "He's a little pissed at me too." Zarek laughs. They're about to die and they know it. I've never liked Zarek as much as I do in this episode.
Boomer drops the Raptor in the valley and steps out with a contingent of Marines; Anders's party makes their way toward her, along the river. He waits with his group behind a big tree and soon enough, she calls out from across the shallow ford: "Go Panthers!" Adama's favorite team, and the rivals of the Buccaneers, Anders's team. "C-Bucks rule!" he shouts. She comes out from the green, trudges across the river, and Anders comes to meet her. She throws her arms around him and they are very still: "Sam. Been a long time." He looks at her apologetically -- "I see you every day" -- and her smiles falls a bit. They nod together, sad, and he takes her back to his party.
The trucks head out of New Caprica City; Gaeta runs from truck to truck looking for Cally.
"Lords," Kara prays, "please don't take her life. It was my mistake, don't punish her for it." Leoben puts his hand on her shoulder and comforts her: "It was an accident, Kara." Which somehow makes me sure it wasn't. Casey opens her eyes and Kara gasps: "Casey, Casey. Oh my Gods, honey." She smiles down at her and caresses her face, puts her hand in Leoben's without looking, her other hand on her daughter's arm. Casey seems to look at us between them; maybe I only want to see her as somehow sinister because I want all three of them to be playing a game. Even Leoben's taken aback by Kara's sudden turn. I hope she's fooling.
The jeeps full of detainees head out into a canyon, and Cavil orders Jammer to "let them stretch their legs." So...they're dead, I guess. He calls for a five-minute rest break and everyone unloads from the truck. Cavil watches, Cally snivels. "Tell me something, Laura," says Zarek. "Last year you tried to steal the election, didn't you." She smiles up at him: "Yes, I did... Tom." He laughs. "Wish you'd gone through with it." She nods. "Me too." Me too!
Boomer hears something, at the rendezvous, and then there's strafing fire everywhere; a Marine goes down as the meeting party retreats.
Jammer grabs Cally and hauls her away, still wearing his mask. He pulls out a knife and cuts her zip cuffs. "Run. Run, don't look back. Go." He pushes her down the bluff; she gets to her feet and starts running. Jammer watches. The NCP see the Centurions coming, and run off like little bitches. Cavil steps away, and Zarek pulls Laura back as their hands flip inside out, becoming guns. And Cally runs. And as the Centurions open fire, she drops to the ground.