Season 2, Episode 13

Battlestar Galactica: Epiphanies

Synopsis

Near death, Roslin is rushed to the hospital. She has a flashback to her tenure as education secretary on Caprica. She sees Baltar and a Six model (“Caprica Six”) outside a government building, and talks with a teacher’s alliance spokesman looking for favors from the Adar administration.

Meanwhile, Kat has a weapons malfunction during a training mission. Several rounds have been intentionally weakened.

Dr. Cottle informs Adama that Roslin doesn’t have much longer, and Athena’s Cylon-hybrid fetus has “abnormalities.” Roslin tells them she wants the baby terminated. Head Six angrily tells Batlar that he must protect the baby, using both his his political power and the nuclear device to do so.

Adama tells Helo that the baby must be terminated. Helo is understandably pissed. Athena angrily smashes her head into the glass windows of her cell, saying nobody will touch their child.

Adama tells Lee and Starbuck to investigate the ammo sabotage. They find a lady named Asha on the flight deck who screams epithets against the military and demands peace with the Cylons. They find protest paraphernalia in her possession. Tigh thinks it’s ridiculous.

Adama arrests Royan, the leader of the peace movement. Lee and Starbuck discover a plot to explode a bomb on a mining ship. They try to stop it but are too late. Adama angrily tells Royan to stop the bombings.

Billy gives vice president Baltar a letter from Roslin that is only to be opened upon her death, upon his succession to the Presidency.

Baltar visits Gina who is hiding aboard Cloud Nine and joined the very peace movement led by Royan. Gina says the fleet is crumbling, but when Baltar is president, Adama can be removed.

Through another flashback, we learn Roslin was having an affair with President Adar. She tells him that she brokered an end to the teachers’ strike. Adar is unhappy because he didn’t want to negotiate. He asks for Roslin’s resignation.

A team of marines escorts Sharon to the sick bay. Helo tries to stop Adama when Baltar says he has new information about the baby’s blood. It has a heightened resistance to disease, and kills cancer cells on contact, and may cure Roslin’s cancer. Baltar takes some blood from Sharon’s baby and injects it directly into Roslin. Just as the cure is administered, Roslin has a flashback to Baltar and Six making out by a government building – and realizes that woman is a Cylon.

Dr. Cottle reports that Roslin’s cancer is gone. She visits Royan in jail and asks him to call off the attacks as a precursor to negotiations. He is released from prison.

Baltar talks with Head Six in his lab. Six doesn’t understand why he saved Roslin and denied himself the presidential office. Baltar opens the letter from Roslin. It’s congratulatory but moves to a criticism of Baltar’s selfishness. Baltar angrily tears it up.

On Cloud Nine, Royan gives Gina has a suitcase from Baltar. Inside is the nuclear warhead.

Thoughts

That Adar asked Roslin to resign before the destruction of Caprica makes her presidency seem serious accidental. We also learn that she disagreed with his dislike of negotiations, and note that Adama is unwilling to negotiate with Royan.

Baltar gains some stature for denying himself the presidency but takes a more subversive and stealthy path – giving a nuclear warhead to the peace protestors. He grants Roslin life with the cancer cure but only to protect the hybrid baby. And the nuclear warhead eventually leads to the Cylon takeover on New Caprica in the season finale.

Personally, I think hybrid baby blood curing Roslin’s cancer was a bit goofy. Supposedly the producers originally had a more plausible fetal stem cell explanation, but the explanation scene ran too long.

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