Epiphanies (Battlestar Galactica)

Infobox Television episode | Title = Epiphanies


Series = Battlestar Galactica
Season = 2
Episode = 13
Airdate = January 20, 2006
Production = 213
Writer = Joel Anderson Thompson
Director = Rod Hardy
Guests = Colm Feore as President Adar
Episode list = Episode chronology
Prev = Resurrection Ship, Part 2
Next = Black Market

"Epiphanies" is an episode of the reimagined "Battlestar Galactica" television series.

Plot

Survivor Count: 49,598

Cancer-stricken President Laura Roslin lies near death in the "Galactica"'s sickbay. Elsewhere in space, a dangerous incident with Kat's Viper leads Chief Tyrol to discover sabotage of Viper ammunition by a civilian crewmember named Asha Janik. Janik admits allegiance to "Demand Peace", a secret group of Cylon sympathizers who believe the fleet's "attack-and-run" tactics are becoming futile and the Cylon war unwinnable. The only way ahead is to negotiate with the Cylons.

Still lucid and in command, Roslin orders that the pregnancy of the Cylon spy, Boomer, be terminated as she views it as a threat to the entire fleet. At Number Six's behest, Vice President Gaius Baltar, who is poised to assume the presidency upon Roslin's death, protests that a half-human, half-Cylon child would make an ideal case study. According to Six, it is their child, after all. The child's biological father, Karl "Helo" Agathon, is also outraged by Roslin's decision.

As President Roslin's condition deteriorates, the Galactica crew begins a death watch, and Vice President Gaius Baltar becomes Acting President, taking President Roslin's place on Colonial One and, with Number Six, begins to realize the ramifications of his Presidency. He and Number Six decide that the hybrid child must be saved.

Admiral Adama is determined to carry out Roslin's final decree until Baltar discovers that the hybrid fetus's blood cells may possess fantastic healing properties which could cure Roslin's cancer. The abortion is halted.

Meanwhile, Adama arrests Royan Jahee, who comes to Galactica representing the Demand Peace group, but the group continues its violent revolt, bombing the tylium refinery ship "Daru Mozu" and leaving the fleet short of fuel and vulnerable to enemy attack.

An even more ominous threat emerges when Acting President Baltar meets with Gina, the flesh-and-blood version of Number Six. The Demand Peace representative reports back to her after leaving Galactica, and though no details are given she appears to be their leader.

In a hospital bed delirium state, Roslin has flashbacks of the moments before the Cylon attack at Caprica, and recalls a vision of Baltar meeting the tall blonde Cylon woman (Number Six) on Caprica. She realises the truth - Baltar was working with the Cylons. However as Roslin recovers thanks to Baltar's experimental treatment, Baltar reads a succession letter Roslin had written to him in the event that she died making him president. The tone of the letter, which makes it clear she has never trusted him or thought highly of him, turns Baltar against her.

When Royan Jahee returns to the leader of the Demand Peace group, Gina aka Number Six, she rejects President Roslin's demand that the attacks be stopped while they negotiate as merely being a delaying ploy. However, Royan Jahee has returned from the Galactica with a gift for Gina from Vice President Baltar: the nuclear warhead which was given to him by Adama when he claimed that he needed a source of radiation to complete his Cylon detector. Putting it in the hands of Gina and the Cylon sympathizers has placed the entire fleet in mortal jeopardy.

External links

* at the Battlestar Wiki