Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down

This article is about the Battlestar Galactica episode. For 1990 film starring Antonio Banderas, see Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!.

"Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down"
Battlestar Galactica episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 9
Directed by	Edward James Olmos
Written by	Jeff Vlaming
Original air date	UK: December 13, 2004 US: March 4, 2005
Episode chronology
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Episode chronology

"Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" is the ninth episode of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. Its script was originally titled "Secrets and Lies".

Actor Edward James Olmos, who portrays Commander Adama on the show directed this episode.

Plot

After her encounter with the Cylon agent Leoben Conoy, President Roslin remains suspicious that Commander Adama is a Cylon. She exploits the romance between her aide Billy Keikeya and Galactica bridge officer Anastasia Dualla to detect anomalies in Adama's behavior, and Dee admits that the Commander has been making off-the-record transmissions to another ship. Roslin asks Adama to be the first person to undergo Dr. Baltar's "Cylon Detector" blood test, which is now fully operational but takes eleven hours to complete.

A lone Cylon Raider appears, possibly on a recon mission, but is disarmed by the combat air patrol. It does not jump away from the fleet, and Col. Tigh deploys a Raptor to gather data on the enemy. Tigh has command because Adama is off the ship with no explanation; shortly thereafter, he reappears with Col. Tigh's estranged wife, Ellen, whom Tigh believed had been killed during the attack on Picon. Although her wild and flirtatious behavior has always been typical of her, Adama remains concerned over her history of encouraging Tigh's most self-destructive impulses--not to mention the suspicious nature of her sudden reappearance.

Back on Caprica, Helo and Sharon avoid capture by running through a sewer system. Helo wonders why the Cylon search has intensified, and Sharon states that she "overheard" the Cylons discussing plans and deployments. She claims there is a base in the city of Delphi and that they should go there to find a ship for escape off Caprica.

At a dinner, Ellen drunkenly flirts with Apollo and shrugs off Adama and Roslin's questions about how she was overlooked for so long. Adama, Apollo and Roslin go to Dr. Baltar's lab to check the results of Ellen's blood test. A harried Baltar explains that neither her nor Adama's test is complete because, under direct orders from Adama's and Roslin's conflicting agendas, he has had to switch between them twice already. Tigh then barges in with accusations (created by Ellen) that Adama has been pursuing his wife romantically. The shouting is cut short by a call from the CIC: the Cylon Raider has changed course. Tigh orders fighters scrambled as the Raider attempts a kamikaze dive towards Galactica; only the intervention of the Vipers launched on Tigh's hunch prevent it from succeeding. Adama praises Tigh and asks him to keep anything from coming between their friendship, even Ellen.

At the end of the episode, Baltar declares Ellen to be a non-Cylon, to Adama's relief. Afterwards, however, talking to Number Six, Baltar refuses to confirm to her whether or not he told the "truth" about Ellen's results.

External links

• "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" at the Battlestar Wiki
• "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" at Syfy
• "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" at TV.com
• "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" at the Internet Movie Database