Mr. Wydey's
TV Series Episode Guides

Battlestar Galactica remake

The name is the same but the TV mini-series then the TV series have changed the characters around, brought in new ones and generally rewritten the plot-line. But the people of the 12 colonies are still fleeing the Cylon tyranny and hoping to become asylum seekers at Earth.
"The Cylons were created by man . . . They Rebelled . . . They Evolved . . . They look and feel Human . . . Some are programmed to think they are human . . . There are many copies . . . And they have a plan."

Battlestar Galactica II: main cast

   The show features: (left to right in picture)
Edward James Olmos as Commander William Adama
Jamie Bamber as Captain Lee 'Apollo' Adama
Mary McDonnell as President Laura Roslin
Katee Sackhoff as Lieutenant Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace
Grace Park as Lieutenant Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii, a Cylon infiltrator
Jim Callis as Dr. Gaius Baltar, boffin & traitor, and
Tricia Helfer as Number 6, a Cylon haunting Baltar

+++ The mini-series (2003) +++

In the UK, Sky One lumped the 2-part mini-series into one episode, which reduced it from 4 hours to 3½.
   Built by Man, the Cylons revolted and they fought the 12 colonies to a standstill. Nothing was heard from the Cylons for 40 years, then they returned to finish the job in a mixture of robot and humanoid forms.
   A blonde Cylon android (Number 6) bamboozles the leading scientist Baltar into letting her screw up the colonies' defence systems, then the Cylon fleet attackes. The humans have no answer to the Cylons' new weapons and the battlestar Galactica, which is about to be decomissioned and turned into a museum, becomes all that stands between the Cylons and the destruction of the humans.
   Starbuck is now female but still a gambling cigar smoker. Boomer is also female but Oriental instead of black. Education Minister Laura Roslin, who is 42nd in the line of succession, becomes president by default. and Captain Lee Adama, son of Galactica's commander, gets to save her life and his father gets to kill a humanoid Cylon with his bare hands.
   Baltar is being haunted by guilty visions of his Cylon blonde, Number 6, and he becomes Galactica's resident Cylon expert. His blonde points out a Cylon gadget aboard the ship and Baltar frames a PR bloke for planting it; and the guy turns out to be a Cylon!
   Commander Adama wants to stand and fight the Cylons. The President tells him the war was lost and the only hope for humanity is to gather up the survivors and run for their lives. Boomer's crewman 'Helo' gives up his seat for a refugee and is left behind on Caprica. Adama says he can take the fleet to the lost 13th human colony: Earth. But he admits privately that Earth is just a legend and he merely gave his troops some hope.
   And finally, we learn that there are 12 humanoid Cylon types and Boomer is one of them!

+++ Season 1 (2004) +++

101 33
Five days on from the events of the min-iseries, the fleet of refugees is being attacked with monotonous regularity by the Cylons. They strike exactly thirty-three minutes after every faster-than-light jump. No one can get any sleep and many believe there is a traitor among them. The problem is to work out how the Cylons are tracking the fleet before everyone drops dead of exhaustion and all of the pilots in the defence force are killed. The ship Olympic Carrier is suspected of being a nest of Cylons and has to be destroyed. And at the end of the episode, the fleet is carrying just 47,973 human survivors of the millions who inhabited the 12 colonies.

102 Water
Boomer, who doesn't know she's really a Cylon, blows up Galactica's water supply and 60% of it is lost. The fleet has to find another source of water before riots start. Apollo is brooding about destroying the suspected Cylon-inhabited Olympic Carrier. There is another Boomer back on Caprica with the crewman, 'Helo' whom she'd abandoned. He thinks she came back for him. Haunted Baltar gets an assistant and wipes out Starbuck at Pyramid. The Galactica's Boomer ignores instructions not to see water on a planet and the fleet is saved. And her boyfriend, Chief Petty Officer Tyrol, covers up the fact that she nicked the detonators for the bombs that destroyed the water tanks.

103 Bastille Day
The President and Apollo think it would be a good idea for a shipload of convicts to mine water from the planet found in the previous episode. Only the convicts bust out of their cells and take Apollo and the ship's crew prisoner. Their leader is Tom Zarek, a 'freedom fighter', who wants a presidential election. Meanwhile, Baltar's ghost Cylon makes him get hold of a nuclear warhead as a component of his gadget for detecting Cylons. Starbuck leads a team to free the prisoners but Apollo makes the convicts shape up as he agrees that there should be elections. So Madame President tells him that she has cancer and they will get the elections.

104 Act of Contrition
This episode is full of Starbuck's flashes back. 13 pilots are killed when old equipment fails and she gets the job of training new ones for the Viper fighters. But she keeps remembering how she had an affair with trainee pilot Zach Adama, fiddled his exam results and got him killed. And Commander Adama wasn't pleased to hear what really happened to his dead son. Meanwhile, her doctor tells the President to try prayer for her cancer and Starbuck bails out in a planet's atmosphere after shooting up 8 Cyclons fighters.

105 You Can't Go Home Again
Commander Adama set both Galactica's Viper pilots and civilian pilots looking for Starbuck. He devotes so many resources to the search that his XO, Colonel Tigh, and the President gang up to tell him to forget Starbuck and move on. On Caprica, Helo and his version of Boomer run into some mechanoid Cylons. On her planet, Starbuck has to cut her way into a crashed Cylon fighter and figure out how to work the organic controls. And just as Galactica is about to jump onward, she rolls up in the Cylon fighter.

106 Litmus
Finding a humanoid Cylon suicide bomber on Galactica precipitates an Inquisition by Sergeant Hadrian, the Master at Arms. The President decides to announce to the fleet that Cylons can look human. Helo is still wandering about on Caprica with his Boomer, watched by the Cylons. When Commander Adama is hauled before the Inquisition, he shuts it down and had Sergeant Hadrian confined to her quarters. One of CPO Tyrol's crew ends up in the brig after lying to cover up the Chief's relationship with Boomer, so the Chief decides that he has to dump her.

107 Six Degrees of Separation
Baltar argues with Number 6 over the nature of God and she deserts him. Later, Ms Godfrey, another version of Number 6 (one that everyone can see) accuses him to sabotaging Caprica's defences for the Cylons. She has a security tape which proves his guilt and Baltar is discovered trying to destroy it. The Chief is getting nowhere with the Cylon fighter which Starbuck acquired and she is not rehabbing her injuries. Helo and his Boomer are still messing about on Caprica (and getting personal), and someone writes "Cylon" in the locker belonging to the Boomer on Galactica. Suddenly, Baltar's accuser disappears and he is proved innocent; it was all a plot by the Cylons to raise Baltar's status by making him look like someone conspired against by the evil Cylons. And at the end, Starbuck hauls herself out of bed and starts the captured fighter's engines.

108 Flesh and Bone
One of the ships in the fleet supervised by Battlestar Galactica finds a Cylon. Adama wants to destroy him but the President wants to talk. So Starbuck gets the interrogation job. The Cylon tells her there is a nuclear warhead somewhere in the fleet. Starbuck moves on to torture. Boomer goes to Baltar and gets him to try his Cylon detector on her, but he tells her she's not a cyclon. Finally, the prisoner tells the President that Adama is a Cylon, so she decides not to waste any more time on him and has him spaced forthwith.

109 Secrets and Lies (Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down)
The President volunteers Adama to take the first test with Baltar's Cylon detector. 48,000 tests needed, each taking 11 hours, which means he will be busy for 61 years, Baltar calculates. The Cylons on Caprica think their Boomer is a traitor and she is now on Helo's side. Adama finds Col. Tigh's drunken, troublemaking wife on one of the ships in the fleet and she wants to make things up with Tigh. A damaged Cylon scout ship starts messing about but its attack on Galactica fails. Baltar says Mrs. Tigh's Cylon test is negative; but he might be lying.

110 The Hand of God
Battlestar Galactica and the fleet are short of fuel and the president starts seeing snakes! An asteroid full of fuel ore turns out to be crawling with Cylons. Adama decides to go for a surprise attack and Baltar points out a target for a big bang (picking it at random). On Caprica, it's the 37th day wandering about for Helo and his Boomer, who is sick. Adama gives Apollo the family's lucky cigarette lighter. He flies through a tunnel (Star Wars style) into the refinery and zaps the Cylons big-time. The president's visions are all connected with some religious stuff and Baltar tells his imaginary Cylon that God wanted him to destroy the Cylon base.

111 Colonial Day
The President created a new Forum of Twelve and Tom Zarek, the resident terrorist, gets himself nominated for the vacant post of vice-president. Starbuck and Apollo are involved in the security operation around the election and there is an assassin floating around. Back on Caprica, Helo deduces the existence of replicated humans, which the Cylons have created as infiltrators, not realizing that's exactly what his Boomer is. The President put up her own candidate as an alternative to Zarek. The assassin is captured, and then killed in custody. The President dumps her man in favour of Baltar, who is duly elected. Zarek insists that he did not kill the assassin; but the XO's dodgy wife has become his ally. And on Caprica, Helo sees a pair of Number Six humanoid Cylons and his Booker killed another Boomer!

112 Kobol's Last Gleaming (Part 1)
Adama beats his son at boxing, Helo shoots his Boomer on Caprica (but not dead), Baltar screws Starbuck (who's thinking about Apollo) and upsets his phantom Cylon, and the Boomer on Galactica is thinking about suicide to stop something bad happening. The President, who has cancer, has six months to live. Her fortune teller thinks she'll lead the fleet to Earth and the ancient myths and prophecies seem to be coming true.
   Vice-Pres Baltar makes a fool of himself by talking to both the President and his phantom Cyclon, who tells him it's not safe to stay on Galactica. Boomer's survey craft finds an Earth-like planet – Kobol, birthplace of mankind. A survey mission, which includes Baltar, is ambushed by Cylons. Boomer shoots herself but not dead. And at the end, Starbuck heads for Caprica in the captured Cylon fighter to retrieve the Arrow of Apollo after learning that Adama has no idea where to look for Earth.

113 Kobol's Last Gleaming (Part 2)
Battlestar Galactica reaches its Season 1 finale. The Boomer on Caprica steers Helo to the Arrow of Apollo and tells him she's pregnant. Adama sack the President when she tells him she has sent Starbuck to get the Arrow. Adama sends troops to break into Colonial One and arrest the President. Galactica's Boomer gets the job of taking out a Cylon basestar at Kobol. The nuclear weapon won't release so Boomer lands on the basestar, goes wandering off, mets a whole gang of other Boomers and gets the hell out just before the nuke goes off.
   On Caprica, Starbuck has a fight with a Number 6 Cylon after getting the Arrow and meets up with Helo and his Boomer. Baltar survives the raptor crash and he goes wandering about on Kobol with his Number 6 Cylon, who tells him he's involved in the next step in God's plan. Apollo mutinies rather than arrest the President so she surrenders to prevent bloodshed and ends up in the brig. And at the end, Galactica's Boomer shoots Adama!

+++ Season 2 (2005) +++

201 Scattered
After Adama is shot by Sharon the Cylon, alias Boomer, he has lots of flashbacks to the time when he and Col. Tigh were washed up but dreaming of rejoining the Colonial Fleet. A Cylon base star appears at Kobol so Col. Tigh orders the fleet to jump to the emergency destination. But Galactica is alone at the end of its jump. The rest of the fleet wasn't issued with updated jump co-ordinates. Meanwhile, on Kobol, Baltar's imaginary Cylon No. 6 has given him an imaginary daughter, and on Caprica, where the Arrow is, Starbuck, Helo and their Sharon the Cylon aren't getting on.
   Adama needs surgery, there's no doctor on Galactica, only a medic, so they need to find the fleet. But they'll have to return to Kobol and spend 12 hours calculating where the rest of the fleet went with the Cylons attacking them. Col. Tigh tries to think what Adama would do. Down on Kobol, Chief Tyrol and the crew of the crashed Raptor come under fire and lose one of the survivors.
   A lieutenant on Galactica works out that if he networks the ship's computers with the ones on Kobol, making them vulnerable to a Cylon virus, he can reduce the calculation time to 10 minutes. Galactica returns to Kobol and gets into a fire-fight with the Cylons while one of their viruses crashes through layers of firewall in the network. But the network completes the calculations in time and Galactica rejoins the fleet.
   The medic has kept Adama alive with internal heart massage and a proper doctor gets to him. More flashbacks about Tigh & Adama getting reinstated. Col. Tigh tells the unconscious Adama he never wanted to command Galactica. To be continued . . .

202 Valley of Darkness
Galactica is attacked by a Cylon computer virus, which sabotages the power system. Centurions board the ship and begin slaughtering the crew. Apollo persuades the marines guarding the brig to release himself and President Roslin so he can fight the Cylons and the President can be taken to a safer place. Apollo finds that the Centurions can be 'killed' only with head-shots using explosive rounds – of which he can find only seven!
   In the Command Centre, Colonel. Tigh realizes that the Cylons are not planning to blow up Galactica, their plan is to vent the atmosphere to kill the crew, and then use the battlestar to destroy the rest of the fleet. To Tigh's frustration, only the 'disloyal' Lee Adama seems to have any success in stopping the Cylons and he saves the day.
   Meanwhile, on Caprica, Starbuck and Helo end up at Starbuck's old apartment, get her old pickup truck working and go off joy-riding. And on Kobol, Chief Tyrol and his party return from collecting medical supplies – but they are unable to do anything for a wounded crewman, who croaks. Number Six warns Baltar that he won't be the last of the Raptor crew to die. She adds that of all the humans, only Baltar will live to see Earth.

203 Fragged
The team stranded on Kobol, under the command of Crash-Down, spots the Cylons building a missile battery. They think it will be used to wipe them out then they realize it's an anti-aircraft battery, which will be used when a rescue mission from Galactica arrives. Aboard Galactica, Adama gets a his surgery at last. Col. Tigh is back on the booze again, big-time, and he's being pestered by the press and the Quorum of Twelve, who all want to see the President. She's off her head in the brig and hallucinating about as much as Baltar!
   Crash-Down orders an attack on the AA battery. Mrs. Tigh, another boozer, tells her husband she visited the President in the brig and it would be okay to show her off in her crazy condition. Apollo leads the rescue mission to Kobol. The President's aide talks a guard, who comes from a highly religious planet, into getting some medication for the President.
   The rescue mission arrives but Crash-Down's force doesn't attack because one of the women won't follow orders. Then Baltar shoots Crash-Down as he's trying to impose discipline at gun-point. The sound of the shot sends the Cyclons after the team but the Chief takes out the dish controlling the missile battery. 4 members of the team are rescued: the Chief, Baltar and the 2 women.
   The President is fully compos mentis when the press and the Quorum reach her, and she convinces them she's the dying leader who will lead them to salvation, as written in the Scrolls. Baltar escapes a murder charge by telling Apollo that Crash-Down died a hero leading his team into battle with the Cylons. Adama will live, the surgeon says. And Col. Tigh dissolves the Quorum and declares martial law to keep control away from the President.

204 Resistance
Colonel Tigh accuses Chief Tyrol of being a Cylon and in league with Galactica's Boomer, who shot Adama, so he ends up in her cell. The woman, whose life Baltar saved on Kobol by shooting Crash Down, blackmails him into helping the chief. Outraged by Tigh's declaration of martial law, the rest of the fleet stops sending supplies to Galactica. Driven by his wife, Tigh gets tough with them.
   On Caprica, Starbuck and Helo are ambushed by human survivors who think they're Cylons. But they reach a truce with them the others, who are a professional pyramid team who were training in the mountains when the Cylons nuked Caprica. As the resistance movement gains momentum, Col. Tigh sends marines to the other ships to take supplies by force, and they have to start shooting when a mob attacks them.
   Baltar gives Chief Tyrol a lethal injection to force Sharon the Cylon to tell him how many more Cylons are in the fleet. She tells him 'eight' and the chief gets the antidote. Apollo devises a plan to get the President off Galactica but her aide, Billy, decides he can't break the law to that extent. Col. Tigh chooses not to shoot Apollo's Raptor to bits and the President escapes and Tom Zarek, the fleet's 'freedom fighter' [see Episodes 103 & 111] hides her.
   Chief Tyler is released. Commander Adama interrupts Mrs. Tigh bullying her old man when he visits Tigh's quarters for a drink and to find out what the hell is going on. And as Sharon the Cylon is being taken along a corridor in Galactica, and exposed to ritual humiliation by a mob, the woman who got Crash Down killed shoots her.

205 The Farm
On Caprica, the Resistance try to ambush a Cylon raider at a refuelling station and run into an ambush themselves. Starbuck is shot and wakes up in hospital, where Simon, her doctor, tells her that Anders, the pro pyramid player, didn't make it. He tells Starbuck that she'd be more valuable to the human race as a mother than a warrior, as there are few women left capable of having children.
   On Galactica, Adama returns to duty and orders a search of the fleet to locate the president and his son. Kelly, who shot Sharon the Cylon, is in gaol. Tom Zarek thinks the people need a heartfelt message, like Apollo denouncing his father. President Roslin chooses to play the religious card instead. She says she is the voice of the prophet Pythia and invites other ships to go with her to Kobol for a rendezvous with the Arrow of Apollo. 24 ships leave the fleet, to Adama's dismay.
   The resistance are looking for Starbuck and Helo's Boomer turns up again to tell them where to look. Starbuck wakes up with a new scar and becomes suspicious. She finds that she's a prisoner of the Cylons and kills Simon. Then she finds a room full of women, including Sue-Shaun of the resistance, hooked up to machines. Starbuck destroys the power supply at Sue-Shaun's request and escapes an encounter with another version with Simon with help from the Resistance.
   Boomer arrives with a Cylon ship to pick everyone up. She says the Cylons are trying to create human/Cylon hybrids in breeding farms. Helon retrieves the Arrow of Apollo and Anders tells Starbuck to go to Kobol with the Arrow while the Resistance goes after the Cylon baby-farms.

206 Home (1)
President Roslin is still confident of using the Arrow of Apollo to open the Tomb of Athena on Kobol and find the way to Earth. Her 24 ships are carrying over one-third of the survivors of the human race; and they're all arguing. So Roslin tells the waverers they're free to rejoin Adama's part of the fleet. Then an unknown ship arrives at Kobol. It's Starbuck with the Arrow, Helo & Boomer.
   When he meets Sharon the Cylon, Apollo pulls a gun on her and Helo pulls a gun on him. Roslin defuses the situation then orders Boomer to be tossed out of the airlock. She saves herself by saying she can find the Tomb of Athena. She is told that Helo, the father of her baby, will go out of the airlock if she doesn't co-operate fully.
   On Galactica, Adama appoints another Viper captain to replace his son despite Col. Tigh's objections. Then he faces a mob of noisy press-persons; and decides he's not going to do it again in a hurry. When the new captain tries some exercises with the Vipers, the whole thing ends in a total shambles.
   President Roslin decides she can use Boomer's feelings for her unborn baby and Helo to her advantage. Tom Varek sees himself as the man really in charge of Roslin's fleet. One of his associates suggests it would be a good idea if Apollo didn't survive the trip to Kobol, especially if the scriptures say that some will die there.
   The new captain screws up a refuelling operation. On Kobol, Cylons attack the expedition looking for the tomb. Boomer takes out the last of them. Finally, Adama receives a talking-to from his lady petty officer, and she convinces him it would be a good idea to head for Kobol and put the fleet, and the family, back together.

207 Home (2)
President Roslin's expedition on Kobol runs into serious rain and Adama is studying the Book of Pythia on Galactica to find out where Roslin is going. Varek's buddy is getting antsy about bumping Apollo off. No 6 does a Christine Keeler pose in a chair for Baltar and he accuses her of prattling on about their mythical baby. She tells him he doesn't have a Cylon chip in his brain, he's just crazy and she's his subconscious. Then she challenges him to have a brain scan.
   Adama takes Billy, Roslin's assistant down to Kobol. Varek's pal suggests framing Sharon the Cylon, who knows her baby is a girl, for killing Apollo. Then the pal tells Sharon that the Boomer who shot Adama on Galactica was murdered and everyone was cool with it. Adama finds the president's expedition and tries to throttle Sharon. At least the Chief is glad to see her.
   Sharon pulls a gun on Adama but shoots Varek's pal. She tells Adama she makes her own choices and gives him the gun. The gang uses muscle-power, not the arrow, to open the Tomb of Athena. When Starbuck puts the arrow on a statue of an archer, however, the door closes and the group is sent somewhere else – the tomb proper. They find a star map and a direction to Earth.
   On Galactica, Adama tells the fleet they have to stick together and puts the president back in charge. But Sharon ends up in the brig. No. 6 tells Baltar that Sharon is going to bear their child. By then, Baltar knows there's no Cylon chip in his head and that he's not crazy (allegedly). No. 6 says she's an angel sent by god to protect him.

208 Final Cut
The press were making trouble over the 'Gideon Massacre' during the supply strike (when marines had felt threatened by a mob and opened fire), so Commander Adama and President Roslin gave a female journalist, D’Anna Biers, unlimited access to Galactica to put a human face on the men and women who are protecting the fleet. Meanwhile, Mrs. Tigh got a threatening message on her mirror and the ship that was supposed to send her husband to Cloud Nine was sabotaged.
   Lots of interviews, pregnant Sharon the Cylon started bleeding in her cell and the reporter tried to set Col. Tigh up as a violent drunk. 'Kat' Katraine, one of the pilots, freaked out because she was on stims and crash-landed her Viper. Then Biers came across Sharon in the sickbay. Adama confiscated that tape, then returned it and told the reporter to use her own judgement. Then we learned that she'd given him the wrong tape.
   Cylons attacked as Baltar was about to do his interview; mainly because his 'angel' had told him the reporter could be useful to them. The lieutenant in charge of the squad that did the shooting on Gideon took the Tigh's prisoner but nothing happened. Col. Tigh thought that the reporter's film stunk but Adama felt that it did its job of showing the human face of the military.
   And on occupied Caprica, the human Cylons liked it, too. They were happy that Boomer's baby was okay, at the sacrifice of a couple of their ships in a mock battle, because 'the child's life must be protected at all costs'.

209 Flight of the Phoenix
Helo is an outcast among the Viper pilots, the Chief keeps thinking about his Boomer and Kelly, who shot her, is out of prison and a hero. A lot of the pilots don't believe Earth exists and morale is at rock bottom. Worse, Galactica's computers keep overloading systems and causing power black-outs. Mr. Gaeta blows up when Col. Tigh tells him to check the program code line by line. The Chief decides to build a new fighter as an off-duty project. No one else wants to be involved but his crew comes round eventually.
   The systems failures become worse and Baltar diagnoses a Cylon logic bomb left by the virus invasion at Kobol. Adama tells Helo to consult his Sharon about the problem. She says the virus is turning the ship against the crew. Col. Tigh, who has been pouring scorn on the new fighter project, tells the Chief where to find a couple of surplus engines. Adama tells the President that the computer problems are the prelude to an all-out attack by the Cylons.
   Mr. Gaeta wants to wipe all the hard drives and cold-restart the system from backups. Adama asks the President if he can trust Sharon to help with this. The President says it might be possible. Sharon plugs herself into the computer as a huge gang of Cylon ships arrives. The computer wipe is completed and Galactica comes back to life as the Cylons are paralyzed with a virus. So the Viper pilots blow them away.
   Sharon ends up back in her cell, the new fighter is a success when Starbuck tests it, and Helo becomes persona grata again for suggesting a carbon fibre skin, which makes it a stealth fighter. The new ship is named Laura after President Roslin, who tells Adama that Sharon co-operated because she, like everyone else, wanted to live. And at the end, the Chief goes for a word with Sharon-in-the-cell.

210 Pegasus
Galactica detects an unknown ship, which turns out to be the Battlestar Pegasus under the command of Admiral Cain. They found Galactica by accident while tracking the Cylon fleet. Pegasus was in a shipyard when the Cylons attacked and the Admiral escaped by doing a blind jump. The President has her doubts but Adama accepts that he has to surrender command of his fleet to a senior officer. Cain tells him he'll be left in full charge of Galactica and she's surprised to see the Secretary for Education as president.
   Meanwhile, Col. Tigh has a drink with the XO of Pegasus and learns that Admiral Cain shot his predecessor in front of the crew for refusing to order a suicide mission. Pegasus also has a Cylon prisoner. Apollo bangs heads with his opposite number, as does Chief Tyrell. Baltar visits the prisoner on Pegasus and finds a severely brutalized Type Six, like his constant companion. Baltar says they've used the stick on the Cylon, now it's time for him to use the carrot.
   Pegasus has been tracking a Cylon fleet containing 2 base stars and a huge, unidentified ship. Adama agrees to attack it. Then Cain tells him she wants to integrate the Battlestar crews, implying that Adama is too soft and there should be more brutality. Apollo and Starbuck are included in a whole list of transfers. Starbuck is cheeky to the man in command of the Vipers and is taken off an recon mission, so Apollo tells her to use the new stealth fighter to take some pictures of the unknown Cylon ship.
   A lieutenant from Pegasus questions Sharon the Cylon with ultra-violence so Helo and the Chief get stuck in to him and the lieutenant croaks. They are taken to Pegasus and court martialled and sentenced to death with what Adama thinks is indecent haste. So he sends out a force to retrieve them from Pegasus, and as the episode ends, the Battlestars seem to be on the verge of civil war.

211 Resurrection Ship (1)
Starbuck, in the stealth Viper, gets pictures of the unknown type of Cylon ship and returns to find Galactica and Pegasus menacing each other but not shooting. Peace breaks out when Starbuck transmits her pictures to Admiral Cain, who promotes her to captain and makes her the CAG of Pegasus. Cain decides to go after the Cylon fleet and Starbuck agrees with the Admiral's objective – to kick the Cylons out of the 12 colonies. Meanwhile, the President warns Adama that he has to hit Cain before she hits him.
   Sharon the Cylon has cracked ribs but she and the baby are undamaged otherwise. Adama apologizes to her for the assault. Helo & Chief Tyrell are on execution hold until after the big operation. Admiral Cain pays a visit to her prisoner to give the Type 6 a kicking. Adama starts wondering why Pegasus has civilians in the crew. Col. Tigh has a drink with his opposite number and leans that Cain stripped 15 civilian ships for parts, left behind people useless to her and shot 2 families when the husbands refused to join Pegasus.
   The prisoner on Pegasus tells Baltar that the unknown Cylon ship is a resurrection ship – when Cylons die, their consciousness is downloaded into another body here. So taking it out means that any Cylons who die in pursuit of the human fleet will stay dead.
   Cain sets a trap for the Cylons. Cain puts a force of marines on Galactica with orders to kill Adama and his staff after the attack. Adama tells Starbuck to shoot Cain in the head on his order.

212 Resurrection Ship (2)
Helo & the Chief are beaten up in their cell; until the Colonel in charge of Cain's assassination team intervenes. Admiral Cain gives Starbuck a lecture on not flinching when she has to do something distasteful. Apollo isn't happy with his dad's assassination plan. Adama asks Sharon why Cylons hate humans so much. She tells him it's not necessarily hate. Maybe humans just don't deserve to survive.
   Apollo destroys the FTL drive on the resurrection ship, then he crashes into something and ends up adrift in space in a leaky spacesuit and hallucinating. The Cylons base & resurrection ships are destroyed as Apollo imagines himself floating in the sea. Then he's shocked back to life aboard a rescue ship. Adama calls off his assassination plan, as does Cain.
   Baltar refuses to kill the Cylon prisoner on Pegasus when she takes a gun off a guard and gives it to him. So the Type 6 goes after Admiral Cain instead, who gets a military funeral. Starbuck tells Apollo 'at least they both got back alive'. He says he didn't want to make it back alive. Helo and Chief Tyrell are released. The Cylon escaped from Pegasus after killing the admiral. And at the end, President Roslin promotes Adama to admiral.

213 Epihanies
President Roslin has reached the end of the line, so lots of her memories intercut with the story. Someone has been sabotaging ammunition for the Vipers. Roslin thinks the Sharon pregnancy should be terminated right away. Baltar doesn't agree, and he's seeing his blonde Type Six Cylon again. She reminds him that he has a nuclear warhead in his lab, and he can use it to prevent the destruction of 'their' child.
   Adama tells Helo that letting the child be born could endanger the fleet. Apollo arrests a peacenic in a workshop. There's a resistance movement in the fleet; it thinks Adama's refusal to negotiate with the Cylons and make peace is a big mistake. Saboteurs wreck a civilian ship's FTL drive. Baltar gets a presidential tour as part of the hand-over procedure, and he finds that the Cylon who escaped from Pegasus is a member of the peace movement. She says Baltar has to turn everyone against Adama, paving the way for the Cylons to save everyone. Baltar says no.
   Sharon goes fighting to her abortion. Baltar finds that blood from Sharon's child might cure the president's cancer. And surprise! The treatment works! Cancer-free, the president goes to see the peacenics' spokesman. Baltar learns that Roslin doesn't trust him after reading her parting letter to him. So he gives his nuclear weapon to the fugitive Type Six Cyclon as proof that he's on her side.

214 Black Market
Supplies were running low in the fleet and President Roslin wanted to do something about the black market; such as taking trade out of the hands of criminals. Col. Fisk, commander of Pegasus, didn't think much of Roslin's plan and he was buddying up to Baltar – until he was strangled by the black marketeers.
   Captain Apollo was recreating with a hooker on a ship called Cloud 9, remembering his girlfriend, who was killed by the Cylons and reliving being lost in space. Admiral Adama told him to investigate Fisk's murder. Apollo found a good collection of loot in Fisk's quarters. Baltar turned up there and got exceedingly sniffy with Apollo. Fisk was up to his neck in the black market, Apollo concluded, and getting too greedy.
   Col. Tigh had been trading with Fisk and Apollo had dealt with the black market to get antibiotics for the hooker's kid. Apollo was jumped by the strangler and his boss, who kidnapped the hooker and her kid, and left behind the dead strangler. President Roslin gave Baltar a chance to resign and return to his research work, but he decided he wanted to be vice-president.
   Tom Zarek, the 'freedom fighter', told Apollo that Fisk had been trying to starve him into co-operating. He added that giving Apollo the strangler meant that the black marketeers wanted to do a deal, and that Apollo should check out a freighter called Prometheus. The head of the black market told Apollo that they were essential to the fleet and helping it. But Apollo got the drop on him and shot him.
   Apollo told the rest of the black marketeers that they were still in business as long as there was no more killing and they didn't hold back essential supplies. And was his hooker grateful for getting her kid back? Like hell! The president didn't like the deal but she had to put up with a monitored black market.

215 Scar
A mining ship has found a rich vein of ore, and Pegasus is starting to build new Vipers, but extracting the ore is taking time and a Cylon raider called 'Scar' is lurking in the debris field around the mining site and picking off Vipers. The episode flashes back and forward between Starbuck & Kat duelling with Scar.
   Viper pilot Louanne Katraine (Kat), who cracked up earlier [Episode 208 Final Cut] while living on stims, is now challenging Starbuck for the top pilot role. Sharon tells Starbuck that the Cylons won't attack en masse now that their resurrection ship has been destroyed. They will just pick off Viper pilots, who can't be replaced easily.
   Raw pilots are doing dumb things and getting themselves killed. Starbuck keeps thinking about Anders on Caprica, she can't get laid and she's on the booze. Apollo sends the scrapping Starbuck & Kat out to where Scar is likely to be found and the duel commences. Starbuck lures Scar into an ambush, instead of taking on the Cylon herself and getting herself killed, and Kat gets the credit for destroying Scar.
   Starbuck takes the edge off Kat's triumph at the celebration party by reciting the names of the Viper pilots who have died along the way. Apollo tells her she did the sensible thing, letting her wingman take the shot at Scar, and if she can't get Anders out of her head, she now has something to live for.

216 Sacrifice
The media, and others, are spreading rumours of a Cylon prisoner on Galactica. Billy, President Roslin's aide, thinks she should tell the truth about Sharon; that they know very little about the Cylons so it would be a bad idea to kill their only source of information, as some agitators want. Then Billy proposes to Dee, who turns him down because she fancies Apollo. Later, Billy finds them together in a bar on Cloud 9.
   Apollo spots trouble developing and gets Ellen Tigh out of the way before terrorists take the bar over. On Galactica, Adama questions Sharon about ambush points along their course and tells her the fleet knows she's on his ship. Mrs. Tigh returns to the bar while Apollo is busy confusing the controls for the air supply with her drink. The terrorists tell Adama he has 2 hours to hand Sharon over.
   Apollo takes one of the terrorists prisoner but Sesha Abinell, a terrorist leader whose husband was killed by the Cylons, threatens to start shooting if he doesn't surrender. Elsewhere on Cloud 9, Starbuck takes charge of a group of Marines. She realizes what Apollo has done when the prisoners complain that their air supply is failing and she goes into the bar with a toolkit to 'repair' the oxygen line.
   Starbuck is rumbled. When the shooting starts, she plugs Apollo (accidentally) before being extracted by the Marines. Sharon refuses to identify the other Cylons in the fleet, the President says 'No deals with terrorists' but Adama tells them they can have Sharon's body in exchange for the prisoners. Only what is delivered is the long-dead, autopsied body of the Sharon which shot Adama, not the one from Caprica. So there's a shoot-out in the bar and love-sick Billy gets himself killed before the terrorists are written off.

217 The Captain's Hand
Pegasus [alias The Bucket] lost 2 Raptors on a training exercise and Apollo, now a major, & Dee are now an item. Chief Tyler found a pregnant woman lurking in a container on Galactica [alias The Beast]. Rekha was from the religious sect and she wanted asylum. Apollo was assigned to Pegasus, and he found that Starbuck, the CAG, didn't know about the missing Raptors because the captain, Commander Garner, had told the air crews not to talk to her. Garner, an engineer, believed that everything needed to be done by the book and he didn't approve of Starbuck's free-lancing.
   Meanwhile, there was a presidential election coming up and Tom Zelek, President Roslin's only rival, told Baltar he'd support him as a science candidate against Roslin's religious bias. Rekha wanted an abortion but the religious sect considered her to be her parent's property and abortion an abomination. Adama reminded Roslin of her view that having babies is the only way to save the human race.
   Starbuck decided that the missing Raptors heard a distress call. Cmdr. Garner had her locked up for shipping back to Galactica. When another Raptor heard the distress call, Apollo concluded that it was a Cylon trap. Adama ordered a Raptor recon mission. Baltar manoeuvred Roslin into banning abortion. Garner jumped Pegasus to the source of the signal and put Apollo under arrest.
   The missing Raptors were found with the crews dead then 3 Cylon base stars arrived. Pegasus took heavy damage and Garner went to Engineering to get the FTL drive back on-line, leaving Apollo in command. Garner died saving his ship, so Admiral Adama promoted his son to commander and made Apollo captain of Pegasus.
   Roslin told the religious sect that Rykha, who had had her abortion before the ban, was getting asylum and staying on Galactica. Apollo and Starbuck decided they were okay again. And finally, Baltar told Roslin he opposed her policy of removing freedoms, and he would stand against her at the presidential election.

218 Downloaded
9 months earlier, Baltar's Type 6 Cylon was 'killed' in the attack on Caprica and downloaded into a new body, acquiring a phantom Baltar – just as he has a phantom Type 6 on Galactica. 10 weeks later, Galactica's Sharon was killed by Kelly and she woke up again in a new body on Caprica, which the Cylons are rebuilding. "Death is just a learning experience for Cylons," to quote the lady herself.
   The Sharon from Caprica gave birth on Galactica. "Caprica 6" (Baltar's former consort) is a Cylon hero and a female Type 3 asks her to help sort out the reborn Sharon (a Type 8), who still feels part of Galactica's crew and in danger of being 'boxed' – having her personality stored rather than loaded into a body. Caprica 6 tells Sharon that she was once close to a human and she is surprised to learn that Baltar is still alive. They find that their bonds to humans have made them natural allies.
   President Roslin is wondering what to do with Galactica Sharon's machine baby, which is half-human, Baltar reminds her. The phantom 6 tells Baltar they're going to have to take 'their child'. Roslin decided to have the child raised by someone else in secret so the Cylons can't find it. On Caprica, the Resistance blows up a café where human Cylons gather.
   The bomb goes off as Caprica 6, Galactica's Sharon and the Type 3 are heading for Sharon's quarters. Caprica 6 is injured and the Type 3 offers to do her in so she can be downloaded to a new body. Caprica 6 declines the offer. Then the Type 3 captures Anders of the Resistance (Starbuck's boyfriend).
   On Galactica, Sharon and Helo (and any Cylon spies around) are told their child didn't make it and the kid is handed over in secret to a foster mother. Caprica 6 and Galactica's Sharon kill the Type 3 and free Anders. They now have 36 hours to change things for the better before the Type 3 downloads into another body. They feel they have to show that wiping out the humans is a mistake and that Cylons and humans can co-exist.

219 Lay Down Your Burdens (1)
Baltar is on course to lose the presidential election but his phantom Cylon wants him to have faith, Starbuck is leading a volunteer-only party to Caprica to recover survivors and Chief Tyrol is freaked out and he beats up Cally when she goes looking for him. Sharon has helped to install Cylon computers in Raptors to extend their jump range, and she tells Helo that she keeps thinking about their little girl.
   A priest tells the Chief his problem is that he's screwed up and they have a long chat. Tyrol tells the priest he keeps dreaming about killing himself, and they come to the conclusion that the Chief is worried in case he's a Cylon, like his Sharon, and he has no way of telling if it's true or not. Brother Cavil tells him to go back to work and let his crew help him.
   One of Starbuck's Raptors goes to the wrong jump co-ordinates and finds a barely habitable planet lurking inside a nebula, which will probably protect it from detection by the Cylons. Tom Zarek thinks suggesting a permanent settlement on the planet will separate Baltar from Roslin and win the election for him. The voters like the idea when Baltar tells them settling on the planet will give the fleet a chance to stop running.
   2 Raptors end up inside a mountain when they jump into Caprica's atmosphere. Starbuck finds Anders and the survivors of the Resistance. Then the Toasters attack and they end up cut off from the Raptors and under heavy fire. To be continued . . .

220 Lay Down Your Burdens (2)
On Caprica, Starbuck & Co. end up under fire in an old fort and they don't seem to have had the good sense to have left anyone with the Raptors so that they could be used in a rescue. The Cylons suddenly stop shooting. Sharon reckons they want the women for a baby farm. Starbuck vows not to be taken alive, but when she goes out on a recon of the area, she finds that the Cylons have gone.
   On Galactica, Chief Tyrol apologizes to Cally for breaking her jaw and she forgives him because she fancies him. President Roslin can see herself losing the election because all people will talk about is 'this frakin' planet', and she knows colonizing it will be a disaster. She meets Baltar secretly and asks him to postpone the issue of permanent settlement until after the election. Baltar won't agree so Roslin lets him know that she knows about the blonde with whom he was lurking on Caprica just before the Cylons attacked.
   Starbuck returns to Galactica with the news that the Cylons have left the colonies. Among the survivors, Chief Tyrol spots a twin of the priest who counselled him last week, so both Cylons are arrested. Sharon also ends up back in a cell. The Cylon from Caprica has a message. Occupying the Colonies and pursuing the fleet were mistakes. The Cylons should have followed their own destiny but they hijacked the humans' destiny. But from now on, machines and humans will go their own ways.
   Election Day Adama's staff supervise counting the ballots. Dee, working with Col. Tigh, substitutes a box of ballots to give victory to Roslin. Tom Zelek is sure that someone cheated but Baltar won't believe that Roslin is corrupt. Lt. Gaeta finds that the ballots from Zephry are forged. Col. Tigh says he'll take care of it but Gaeta tells Adama, too. Roslin admits to Adama that she knew something was going on, but not the details, and that she thinks Baltar is working with the Cylons (but has no proof).
   Adama knows that making Baltar president is the wrong choice but he does it anyway. Baltar visits the fugitive Cylon from Pegasus. She won't be going to New Caprica but she's up for some rumpy-pumpy. President Baltar's first Executive Order is to settle New Caprica. The Type 6 Cylon lets off the nuclear weapon that Baltar gave her, destroying Cloud 9 and nearby ships. Adama thinks this could be the start of a Cylon attack but President Baltar insists on going ahead with settling New Caprica.
   One Year Later : Gaeta is working with President Baltar. After 380 days, Galactica has just a skeleton crew and Adama, who has grown a moustache, thinks the ship is no longer effective. Anders has pneumonia but the doctor tells Starbuck he's been out of antibiotics for months. Chief Tyrol is a union boss, who's fomenting a strike. Martha Roslin is teaching again and Sharon's baby is thriving with her foster mom.
   Starbuck asks Apollo for help with some antibiotics as a Cylon fleet arrives. The remnant of the human fleet jumps away. The Cylons tell Baltar: "As long as you offer no resistance, you won't be harmed." They found the humans by accident; they detected the signature of a nuclear detonation in the nebula. Baltar surrenders but Starbuck has other ideas. "We're going to do the same as we always do," she tells Chief Tyrol as Clyons fly overhead and centurions stomp through New Caprica City. "Fight them until we can't."

+++ end of Season 2 +++

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