Scattered (Battlestar Galactica)

Infobox Television episode | Title = Scattered


Caption = Saul Tigh has a flashback, remembering his first meeting with William Adama
Series = Battlestar Galactica
Season = 2
Episode = 1
Airdate = July 15, 2005
Production = 201
Writer = David Weddle & Bradley Thompson
Director = Michael Rymer
Guests =
Episode list = Episode chronology
Prev = Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2
Next = Valley of Darkness

"Scattered" is an episode of the reimagined "Battlestar Galactica" television series, the first of Season two.

Plot

Survivor Count: 47,875

With Commander Adama in critical condition, Col. Tigh is forced to take command of the "Galactica". Capt. Apollo is put in the brig under arrest by Tigh for disobeying the order to arrest President Laura Roslin (and for putting a gun to Tigh's head), despite Apollo's father having just been shot in cold blood. Roslin herself occupies the adjacent cell in the "Galactica" brig and is shocked to hear from Apollo what has happened to the Commander.

It seems that "Galactica"-Boomer has told the Cylons the position of the human fleet while she was on the basestar. The Cylons jump in and attack, and Tigh orders the fleet to undertake an emergency FTL jump to the standby co-ordinates in order to escape them. The "Galactica" CIC is in disarray after they reappear in space at the set jump co-ordinates but with no other ships of the fleet present. They figure out that the regular update of coordinates had not been transmitted to the rest of the fleet, and "Galactica" has become separated from them. Tigh blames himself for not checking first before ordering the emergency jump.

On Kobol, Dr. Baltar is shown in his mind a baby girl that Number Six claims is their child. The survivors of the crash hear an upper atmosphere sonic boom signalling the arrival of enemy ships. They are ordered by Lt. Crashdown to hastily move into a nearby forest for cover. Too hastily, it turns out, as they have left a med kit behind that is needed by a desperately wounded Specialist Socinus. Crash has to send Tarn back to retrieve medical supplies he "left behind", however Cally and Chief Tyrol do not believe that it is prudent for Tarn to go alone and convince Crashdown that they should join him. Tarn is killed by a Cylon ambush as they bring back the supplies.

Lt. Gaeta determines that in order to find the fleet, the "Galactica" must first jump back to its original position, where the Cylons are likely waiting for them, to get a star fix and then jump again to the fleet's position. However, using standard methods this would take hours - too long for "Galactica" to hold off the Cylons. To minimize computation time for the second jump, Col. Tigh disobey's Adama's standing orders and reluctantly allows Gaeta to network the "Galactica"'s damage control, fire control and navigation computers, although this will put the ship at risk of infection by a Cylon computer virus. Gaeta constructs a multilevel computer firewall in order to try and defend against just such an attack.

In the moments before jump, Tigh goes to the brig where he brutally interrogates Boomer, but she tearfully states she didn't know she was a Cylon agent. He appears about to shoot her in the head, but pauses, thinking better of it. In medical, Adama is stabilised but he has slipped into a coma.

Tigh paroles Apollo, so that he can continue to act as the CAG and take part in the forthcoming battle against the Cylons. However, Apollo must return to the brig whenever he is off duty.

Tigh returns to CIC and "Galactica" makes its first jump to the battle front and begins computations for the second. Even with all computers networked it will take a full ten minutes. The battle is fierce and one of the attacking Cylon ships (which eventually turns out to be a Cylon Heavy Raider) manages to make it past the defending Vipers but is hit by "Galactica" 's guns and crashes into the starboard landing bay. No serious damage appears to be done however.

Meanwhile Vipers take action to hold off other attacking Cylon Raiders. Immediately, the Cylons attempt to hack "Galactica" 's new network. Gaeta is amazed at how quickly the Cylons are breaking through his firewall levels. At last the jump calculations are completed and Gaeta hurriedly disconnects the network, just as the Cylon virus breaks down Gaeta's last computer firewall. "Galactica" makes its second jump and is reunited with the fleet.

Back on Caprica, Starbuck lambasts Helo for falling for Caprica-Sharon when he knows that she is a Cylon - a killing machine. While they are distracted, Caprica-Sharon leaves and steals the Cylon Raider that Starbuck used to get to Caprica. Starbuck and Helo are stranded together.

The episode ends with a shot of the Cylon Heavy Raider which crashed into the Galactica's starboard landing bay, which had been converted into a museum, as a group Cylon Centurions emerge from the wreckage of their ship with weapons drawn.

External links

* at the Battlestar Wiki