2-11
Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace prevents a potentially deadly face-off between the battlestars Galactica and Pegasus when she returns at the last second from her unauthorized mission in the blackbird stealth fighter, bearing stunning recon photos of the Cylons' "resurrection" ship.
Unable to resist this tempting target, Commander William Adama and Admiral Helena Cain establish an uneasy truce as they agree to prioritize the destruction of the resurrection ship, and table their personal and professional conflicts - for now.
Adama remains distrustful, however, when he learns that Cain's survive-at-all-costs attitude led her to order the Pegasus crew to abandon its own civilian fleet months ago. Disturbed by this news, President Laura Roslin suspects that, as soon as the resurrection ship is destroyed, Cain will jettison Galactica's civilian fleet, as well.
As he continues his power struggle against Cain, Adama must make an impossible decision, on the eve of a battle that could change the face of the Cylon war and decide the fate of the human race.
Resurrection Ship (Part 2):
2-12
The battlestars Pegasus and Galactica go head-to-head with Cylon baseships in a battle that will change the face of the war. But for Lt. Kara Thrace, the real war is with her conscience, as she steels herself to carry out Commander Adama's order to assassinate Admiral Cain.
When Lee Adama hears from Kara of the order, he confronts his father and challenges the morality and the legality of the order - but Commander Adama remains resolute. For the good of the fleet, he tells his son, Admiral Cain must be eliminated.
Meanwhile, in the Pegasus brig, Pegasus crewmembers brutally assault Galactica prisoners Chief Galen Tyrol and Lt. Karl Agathon, as revenge for the murder of one of their officers. Only a timely intervention by the Pegasus's XO halts the beating before it becomes fatal.
As the battle to destroy the Cylons' "Resurrection Ship" intensifies, members of both battlestars' crews are forced to decide how much of their humanity they are willing to sacrifice in order to survive. Ultimately, the fight that begins with heroic self-sacrifice ends in a white-knuckle test of two Commanders' courage - and their character.
Epiphanies:
2-13
Cancer-stricken President Laura Roslin lies near death in the Galactica's sickbay. Still lucid and in command, she orders that the pregnancy of the Cylon spy Sharon be terminated, after inexplicable properties are discovered in a fetal blood sample.
Dr. Gaius Baltar, who, as vice president, is poised to assume the presidency upon Roslin's death, protests that a half-human, half-Cylon child would make an ideal case study; the child's father, Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon, also is outraged by Roslin's decision.
Admiral Adama is determined to carry out Roslin's final decree until Baltar discovers that the hybrid fetus's blood cells might possess fantastic healing properties.
Meanwhile, a secret group of Cylon sympathizers resorts to sabotage to demand that humanity sue for peace with the Cylons. Adama arrests their leader, Royan Jahee, but the group continues its violent revolt, bombing the tylium refinery ship, leaving the fleet short of fuel and vulnerable to enemy attack.
An even more ominous threat emerges when Baltar once again connects with Gina, a flesh-and-blood version of the Number Six who lives in his head. Gina has infiltrated the sympathizers' ranks, in an effort to promote the Cylon agenda.
Baltar realizes that President Roslin doesn't trust him to succeed her as president - and that she might, in fact, know of his affiliation with Caprica Six, who sabotaged the Colonial defenses. He discreetly arranges for a nuclear warhead to fall into the hands of Gina and the Cylon sympathizers, placing the entire fleet in mortal jeopardy.
Black Market:
2-14
A thriving black market in food, medicine and luxury items has developed within the fleet, serving the rich and depriving the needy of essential goods.
When Pegasus's commanding officer, Commander Jack Fisk, is found brutally murdered in his private quarters surrounded by a cache of cigarettes, liquor and jewelry, Lt. Lee Adama is appointed chief investigator.
Lee discovers that Fisk was fronting a racketeering operation that ostensibly involves other prominent military and civilian authorities. The suspects include Quorum representative Tom Zarek and Vice President Gaius Baltar, who is angered by President Laura Roslin's suggestion that he resign, for the good of the office.
The investigation becomes personal for Lee when a gang of black-market thugs kidnaps Shevon - a prostitute with whom he has developed an intimate relationship - and her young daughter, Paya. The gangsters threaten to kill Shevon unless Lee abandons his investigation.
Intensifying his efforts, Lee tracks the gang's ringleader, Phelan, to the Prometheus, a renegade freighter packed with contraband. During a tense standoff, he brokers a Machiavellian deal with the criminals while gaining unsavory insights into human nature - including the true depth of his own depression and the burden of a guilt he has carried for far too long....
Scar:
2-15
The colonial mining ship Majahual has been working around the clock for a month extracting essential metals from an asteroid. The fleet has moved on, leaving Galactica behind to guard the miners from persistent Cylon raids.
The viper pilots' deadliest foe is an enemy Raider that they've nicknamed "Scar" - the combat-savvy reincarnation of countless Cylon warriors that boasts a growing list of human kills. Hiding out in the asteroid belt, Scar is a master of hit-and-run attacks that are decimating the war-weary Viper squadrons and forcing them to throw inexperienced replacement pilots into the fray.
The shaken pilots, led by Capt. Lee "Apollo" Adama, cover their distress at the mounting casualties by adopting a hardboiled demeanor. But neither booze nor a lustful encounter with Lee can vanquish the battle-fatigue or the demons that haunt Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace.
Tempers explode between Kara and Lt. Louanne "Kat" Katraine, who insists that Starbuck is dangerously off her game. A fierce competition ensues as to which of them will obliterate Scar.
But when Scar traps both Starbuck and Kat in an ambush, Kara must swallow her pride and support her brash young rival in a climactic dogfight against the Cylons' top gun.
Sacrifices:
2-16
Fleet-wide paranoia reaches a new peak when word leaks out that the Cylon Sharon is secretly being kept alive aboard the Galactica.
Sesha Abinell, a civilian who is grieving her husband's tragic death during a Cylon raid several weeks earlier, is incensed by the thought of a Cylon agent being trusted to provide intelligence to Galactica's officers. She is convinced that the Cylon is manipulating Admiral Adama and leading the fleet to its destruction.
Assisted by three sympathizers, Sesha takes drastic action. She pulls a weapon in a bar aboard the luxury ship Cloud Nine and holds its occupants hostage - among them Ellen Tigh and the uneasy romantic triangle of Lee Adama, Anastasia Dualla and Billy Kekeiya. Sesha's demand is simple: Turn over the Cylon spy Sharon Valerii to be executed, or else the hostages will die.
Lee is at first able to avoid detection; he tries to undermine Sesha and her accomplices by triggering mechanical malfunctions. He is soon flushed out, however, and Sesha makes it clear to Admiral Adama that if Sharon isn't surrendered to her, she will kill his son.
Kara Thrace makes a bold move in an effort to rescue the hostages, but the op goes terribly wrong and Lee is critically wounded. With time running out, Admiral Adama endorses a desperate plan to end that stalemate, with disastrous consequences. Sesha's wrath exacts a heartbreaking toll when an innocent human life is sacrificed on her altar of vengeance.
The Captain's Hand:
2-17
On the Galactica, movement inside a cargo container draw the suspicion of Tyrol and his deck crew. When the box is opened, a stowaway is found inside, a pregnant 17-year-old girl named Rya Kibby. Once in custody, she asks to be brought to Doc Cottle.
Meanwhile, a pair of Raptors from the Pegasus, out on a training exercise in a region of intense radiation that interferes with communications, relay a garbled distress signal back to the Pegasus, under the command of the recently promoted engine room chief, Commander Barry Garner. Before Garner and his crew can verify the Raptors' transmission, the Raptors jump away and vanish from the fleet's dradis screens.
Ratcheting up the tension aboard the Pegasus is the running feud between Garner and flight training supervisor Capt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, a battle of wills that is only made worse by the arrival of Garner's interim XO - Lee "Apollo" Adama, newly promoted to the rank of major.
Back on the Galactica, Rya Kibby's desire to exercise her legal right to an abortion, and the revelation that Doc Cottle has been providing this service to women in the fleet for the past few months, becomes an incendiary political issue. The fleet's pro-life Gemenon faction threatens to pull its support for President Laura Roslin unless she condemns the practice of abortion and makes it illegal.
Aboard the Pegasus, Commander Garner proves unequal to the responsibility of commanding a battlestar. He insists on mounting a quixotic rescue mission, despite Starbuck's insistence that the signal the Raptors followed was almost certainly a Cylon trap. But when Garner disobeys a direct order from Admiral Adama and orders the Pegasus to go after its missing aircraft, it's up to Apollo to take action and prevent the Pegasus and her crew from becoming the Cylons' next victims.
As the abortion debate flares throughout the fleet, Roslin is forced to take a stand on the issue. Recognizing that every potential life counts in a shrinking human population, Roslin ponders an executive order that will create a wedge issue - one which Gaius Baltar is almost certain to exploit as he launches his own surprise bid for the Colonial presidency.
Downloaded:
2-18
On Caprica, the reincarnated Number Six and Sharon Valerii are hailed as "Heroes of the Cylon" for the key roles they played in the near-destruction of the human race.
But these are tortured heroes. Six's thoughts are haunted by Baltar, just as she haunts his thoughts on the Galactica. Sharon, meanwhile, has so fervently embraced her love for Tyrol and the fake human memories the Cylons created for her undercover mission, that the Cylon leadership - D'Anna and Doral - are thinking of "boxing" her: putting her consciousness into permanent cold storage, a living death.
Elsewhere on Caprica, the human resistance, under the leadership of Kara Thrace's lover, Samuel Anders, is preparing to strike a savage blow, however futile it might ultimately be, against the Cylon occupation. As the fates of Caprica Sharon and Sam Anders converge, the future of two peoples hinges upon an arbitrary twist of fate.
On the Galactica, the captive Sharon gives premature birth to Hera, the child she conceived with Helo. As the infant fights for her life, she becomes the focus of intrigue. President Roslin and the Cylons hidden within the fleet scheme against each other for control of the newborn girl, and to determine whether she will become a symbol of hope ... or a harbinger of human extinction.
Lay Down Your Burdens (Part 1):
2-19
Aboard the Pegasus, Capt. Kara Thrace briefs a room full of Raptor crews and marines for a dangerous, volunteer-only mission to Caprica, to rescue the civilian survivors on the planet's surface. Using information obtained from the captive Cylon Sharon, they've linked their Raptors' navigation systems to the superior navigational capabilities of their captured Cylon heavy raider.
Meanwhile, in separate private quarters on the Galactica, President Roslin and Vice President Baltar each prepare notes for their first presidential debate, to be televised to the fleet. As Roslin memorizes her talking points, Baltar is hectored by Six's religious exhortations to have faith that the election will unfold as "God intends."
As the rest of the fleet watches the start of the presidential debate, Specialist Cally finds Chief Tyrol asleep under a Viper. She reaches out and wakes him - and he explodes to consciousness, reflexively lashes out and pummels her with a raging, brutal assault. Then he regains control, is horrified by what he's done, and calls desperately for medical assistance.
After the first debate, President Roslin enjoys a commanding lead over Baltar in the polls. Then, as if in response to Baltar's sarcastic plea for a miracle, one of the raptors from the Caprica rescue mission returns early with stunning news: Because of a miscalculated jump, they've accidentally discovered a habitable planet, in a region of space that will hide them from the Cylons' sensors.
On the advice of Tom Zarek, Baltar uses the planet's discovery as a political wedge issue. He fans the civilian population's desire for a new home, a safe home, an end to the constant running. Popular opinion swings sharply against Roslin, who is unprepared to give up the search for Earth.
Tyrol seeks counseling from a priest named Brother Cavil, who gets the chief to talk about the nightmares that have plagued him for weeks. Finally, Cavil helps Tyrol confront what's really bothering him: Somewhere deep down inside, Tyrol is afraid that he might, like Sharon, really be a Cylon.
Light-years away on Caprica, the Colonial rescue mission reaches Sam Anders and his surviving resistance fighters. No sooner are Kara and Sam reunited, however, than they find themselves caught in the midst of a Cylon ambush.
Lay Down Your Burdens (Part 2):
2-20
As the sun rises on Caprica, Starbuck and Anders discover that the Cylons have vanished. Brother Cavil declares it to be a miracle. But when the rescue team and civilian survivors return to the Galactica, the real reason for their survival become clear: Brother Cavil is a Cylon - his duplicate counseled Tyrol - and he has come here to deliver a message: The "Heroes of the Cylon" - Number Six and Sharon Valerii - have persuaded the Cylon leadership that trying to destroy the humans was an error. From now on the two civilizations will live apart, in peace.
At the same time, voting continues in the Colonial presidential election. President Roslin approaches Baltar and proposes that, whoever wins, colonization of the newly discovered planet should be postponed until further study is done. Baltar spurns her offer, so she confronts him about Number Six, but he remains unfazed by her accusation.
Panicked at the thought of Baltar taking control of humanity's fate, Roslin instructs her aide to take all necessary steps to steal the election. The plot, however, is discovered by Lt. Gaeta, and Laura and Adama must choose between denying the will of the people and letting a man they suspect to be a Cylon collaborator take power. For Laura, the question is difficult, but the answer is never in doubt: she and Adama allow their plot to unravel. Baltar wins.
As President Baltar is sworn in, his Cylon lover, Gina, enacts a final vengeance against the fleet, detonating a nuclear warhead that destroys the Cloud Nine luxury liner. Despite the tragic loss of several ships, colonization of the planet - dubbed "New Caprica" - goes ahead over Adama's objections.
Time passes; more and more of the fleet's population relocates to the surface, leaving only skeleton crews aboard the Galactica and the Pegasus. Through it all, Adama remains uneasy; he anticipates the return of the Cylons. And a year later, his fears are borne out, as a Cylon invasion force jumps into the system and lands on New Caprica. Outflanked and overpowered, Adama and his son Lee order their battlestars out of the system - leaving the civilian colony defenseless as a Cylon occupying force arrives to announce the dawn of a new era....
