Previously, on Battlestar Galactica, well, the last episode happened – there’s an algae planet, but the star for that planet is about to supernova and the Cylons have arrived; Starbuck’s been hit and gone down; Sam and Lee are fighting over rescuing Starbuck; Hera’s alive, but sick, and Athena knows it; Tyrol had a funny feeling about a mountain that turned out to be the temple of the Eye of Jupiter, a marker that points the way to Earth – and, oh, the Cylons want the Eye. Adama’s gonna nuke or blow up either the planet or the temple to keep everything away from the Cylons; D’Anna wants to go down to the temple to see the faces of the Final Five Cylons; and, again Adama’s gonna nuke something.
Whew. That was essentially all of last week in just under 100 words. Adama’s still going ahead with the nuking of the temple, which has succeeded in getting the Cylons to recall their heavy raiders.
Sam and Lee are pointing guns at each other, freaking out about Starbuck. Lee sends Dee to go rescue Starbuck. ADAMA IS REALLY CLOSE TO NUKING THE TEMPLE AND EVERYTHING AROUND IT, LIKE, HE’S PUT THE KEYS IN THE THINGY! Over at Cylon HQ, they’ve turned around the heavy raiders, all except D’Anna and Baltar. The Threes, D’Anna’s model, defied the group and sent that last raider on. AAHHH SO MANY DRAMA DRUMS! Adama sees that the Cylon raiders have turned around, and stands down the nukes.
Aw, Helo and Athena – they’re super emotional and sad, and Helo’s coming up with plans to rescue Hera. Athena’s begging Helo to do something, and crying. WHAT THE HELL?! They’re both crying, and then HELO SHOOTS ATHENA – NO WAIT THIS MAKES PERFECT SENSE SHE’LL RESURRECT AT THE BASE SHIP WITH HERA! CYLON GENIUS!
Okay. I will try to be less capsy, but this is a good episode, kids. I’ll do what I can.
Medics are taking away Athena’s body, and the President and Adama are there, questioning Helo. They’re worried that Athena’s going to betray them, Helo’s sure that’s not going to happen. Roslin’s pissed that they’ve put the entire fleet at risk, but Helo quite rightly points out that this entire damn mess is Roslin’s fault. Roslin accepts that, sort of, and at this point is just hoping that Sharon Agathon is trustworthy.
Athena regenerates! I think it’s Caprica Six that is there for her when she comes to? Athena tells Six that both Hera and herself are safer on the baseship, but I think she’s just telling a story.
On the planet, Lee’s outlining their plan of attack on the Cylons. Dee is sneaking forward with her fellow Communications dude, when the dude gets shot and killed. Dee, showing pure badassery, runs the hell down the mountain.
The Chief and Callie are in the Temple, trying to figure out what the Eye of Jupiter is; there’s all this ancient-looking script. D’Anna and Baltar are right near the temple, too, but D’Anna’s nervous. She’s worried she’s going mad. Baltar urges her to have faith, and between the beard and the hair, Baltar looks more like White Jesus than any mortal has a right to. Ah! Head Six tells Baltar that he’s the chosen one, not D’Anna, which Baltar already knows, smug bastard.
Lee, Sam and all of their friends are lying in wait for the Cylons, who show up right on cue. The area is conveniently hilly and covered in brush, making for easy hiding. (PS, this planet looks awfully habitable too, but I guess its star is about to explode?) Sorry, anyway, lots of gunfire, one of the civilians gets shot (killed?), and they took out a Cylon.
Hey, Starbuck! Her hands are all burned in their gloves, and that shit looks PAINFUL. She seems kinda out of it. But Dee shows up! Starbuck greets her by yelling at her for not announcing herself. Dee gives Starbuck a painkiller, and then gets justifiable bitter for just a second that Dee has been ordered by her husband to bring Starbuck back to Apollo.
HEY, HERA AND ATHENA ARE REUNITED! Hera stops crying as soon as Athena picks her up; she recognizes her mother, despite the fact that Boomer’s biologically identical and clearly has been caring for Hera. Hera’s belly’s hard with some sort of intestinal problem? Athena needs to take Hera back to Galactica so Cottle can take a look at her. And then Boomer says maybe it would be for the best if she snapped Hera’s neck. Caprica Six throws a knock-out punch, getting Boomer away from the baby, and ushers Athena and Hera to a captured Raptor that can take them back to Galactica.
Back to the firefight on the planet – Cylons are closing in, and Tyrol’s not figured anything out yet. There’s an impressive tossing of a live grenade, which takes out some Cylons, but it’s time to fall back to a meet-up position, as the temple’s full of explosives – they’re gonna blow it before they let the Cylons take it. No Eye of Jupiter for our friends, it seems.
With Dee and Starbuck, the Raptor’s structurally okay, there’s just some wiring that needs to be fixed. Starbuck’s in lots of pain, her hands are bandaged, she’s on a lot of morphine, and she can’t fly them out of there. Out of nowhere, she tells Dee that Lee won’t cheat, but Starbuck herself isn’t so honorable.
Hey, D’Anna and Baltar (and Cavil?) made it to the temple! They pull the detonators out of the explosive, just as the Chief is having a crisis of confidence as to whether to blow the temple or not. Lee takes over, and sets off the fuse, but it’s too late – the Cylons disconnected them all. Head Six explains to Baltar that the Eye is the image you see to your left. (Now is not the time to ask what the hell Head Six is, or how she knows this, but still, how does she know that?!)
Back on Galactica, Gaeta informs us that the planet is going nova. Tyrol suddenly understands that the nova the sun will create is the Eye of Jupiter.
Meanwhile, Dee is flying the Raptor back to Galactica, something I’m guessing she hasn’t done since basic training? But its Dee, so no worries.
In the temple, Cavil tries to shoot D’Anna, as it is forbidden to look upon the final five, but Baltar shoots him first. D’Anna steps into the circles, and is transported somewhere, where there is lots of light and five glowing figures. Of course, we can’t see their faces, but D’Anna can. She apologizes to one of them, reaches out to that person’s hand, but it’s Baltar’s hand instead and she’s pulled out of the vision. She’s not doing well – eyes unseeing, nose bleeding – and she dies, as Baltar yells “AM I ONE OF YOU!?” – without answer. He steps into the circles himself, and before he can be magically/religiously transported, Tyrol’s at his side with a gun to his head, and a, “Welcome home, Mr. President.”
The Cylon fleet’s jumped away, and now Galactica is fighting to get everyone home before the planet explodes and, well, wipes absolutely everything out. All the rescue ships get back, and Galactica goes back to the fleet. A body bag comes off the Raptor, and Tyrol unzips it to show Tigh – it’s Baltar, but he’s not dead, just unconscious. He’ll be going to the brig. Sam and Starbuck hug, Lee and Dee hug, Lee and Starbuck look at each other, awkward, and HEY IT’S HERA! Athena brought her back, and, oh, Caprica Six came back too. Athena says they shouldn’t shoot Caprica Six, so they don’t, but they do take her to the brig.
Tigh, Adama, Gaeta, Roslin and Tyrol are trying to figure out what the Eye of Jupiter meant – Gaeta thinks that where another sun supernovaed 4000 years ago – right when the 13th tribe was headed to Earth – could be the next place they’re supposed to head.
Helo and Starbuck scene! Starbuck’s in her bunk, hands bandanged. Their friendship is the best. Helo asks if Starbuck has any photos of her old apartment in Caprica, she somehow does, and Helo shows her that the painting she did on her wall is an exact match for the Eye of Jupiter. Starbuck says she’s been doodling it all her life, she “liked the pattern” (which, hon, concentric circles in different colors, not really a pattern? This has literally nagged at me for YEARS.) Starbuck is reminded that Leoben said that she had a destiny, that it had already been written.
D’Anna’s resurrecting, and Cavil’s there for her. He tells her that her model is fundamentally flawed. The other Cylons have decided to box her entire line. All of her models memories are being put into cold storage. BUT THEN HOW WILL WE FIND OUT WHO THE FINAL FIVE ARE?! Cavil says goodbye to D’Anna, and that, it seems, is that. We close with a shot of the resurrection room, or is it just all of the “boxed” D’Annas? Either way, there are dozens if not hundreds of the tanks we’ve seen.
Bonus Hera and Athena picture:
Monchichi and her screencaps are incredibly appreciated, as always.
