Battlestar Galactica — 2x11 — Resurrection Ship, Part 1
Synopsis
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.
Remarkable scenes
- Starbuck doing the recon mission by herself in the Blackbird.
- The Galactica and Pegasus vipers swarming each other.
- All the vipers charging Starbuck.
- Starbuck transmitting photos of the Cylon fleet to Cain.
- Cain's meeting with Roslin and Adama. Roslin to Cain: "You wanna cut through it, fine. You have Pegasus, he has Galactica. Two heavily armed, very powerful warships. Now I am sure Pegasus would prevail in any fight--" Adama, interrupting: "I wouldn't count on that." Roslin, not sure exactly how to respond to Adama's interjection: "But certainly there'd be heavy damage and you'd take significant casualties. So you can go out there and fight it out or you can compromise. And those are the only two options on the table, period."
- Cain promoting Starbuck to captain and making her commander of the Pegasus air group.
- Cain: "I will say that our ultimate goal is that we should return to the twelve colonies and kick the Cylons the frak out of our homes. What do you think of that captain?" Starbuck: "I think that's the best idea I've heard all day, sir."
- Roslin to Adama: "I'm afraid this can only end one way. You've gotta kill her."
- Six: "You know what I miss? Sports." Baltar: "You're joking." Six: "No. I used to go to the pyramid court just before game time, scalp two tickets. If I timed it right, I'd just be sitting down at the horn. Sit back, let the energy of the crowd flow over me. Waves and waves of emotion. Like electric current." Baltar: "Why'd you get two tickets?" Six: "One for me and one for you. I knew I'd never get you to go, pyramid was far too low brow for you. But I always liked to feel that you were there with me."
- Cain to Baltar: "You know, this thing used to sit in our mess and eat our food and listen to our stories." Cain to Gina: "Didn't you? You just sat there, listening to us, pretending to be our friend." Cain kicks Gina in the face and screams: "Didn't you?!"
- Gina lunging at Baltar, then suddenly letting him go.
- Gina, crying: "I wanna die. Will you help me do that? Will you kill me please?"
- Tigh having another drinking session with Fisk, getting Fisk to admit that Admiral Cain stripped a civilian fleet of equipment as well as personnel who she deemed valuable, and had the families executed of anyone who refused to go.
- Baltar outlining the resurrection ship and its purpose to Admiral Cain.
- Adama: "What can I get you?" Roslin: "A new body. Perhaps one of those young Cylon models from the resurrection ship." Adama: "I can't see you as a blond." Also, I love the violin and piano music (dubbed Roslin and Adama on the soundtrack) played during this scene.
- Starbuck's mission briefing.
- The simultaneous assassination plots.
Review
Hot off the heels of Pegasus, Resurrection Ship, Part 1 opens with a marvelously tense teaser with wonderfully complimentary music. The game of chicken the vipers were playing with each other was just fascinating to watch, and very original. I like how neither Cain nor Adama could quite bring themselves to fire on the other and that the situation was eventually diffused when Starbuck returned from her against-orders recon mission.
Gina has a few more touching scenes. I loved Cain's hostility toward her, then later Gina asking Baltar to kill her to end the pain. Finally, the scene when Baltar gives her some clean clothes and we get to see the terrible injuries she's sustained on her back (as well as the side of her left breast ;)) almost makes your own back kind of sting. I like how she was backed up all the way to the wall, keeping as much physical distance from Baltar as possible. It makes sense; someone who's been through that much abuse doesn't want to touch anybody for any reason.
Then of course, there's the nice plot point that Gina, being suicidal, does not want to be resurrected into a brand new body with her painful, horrible memories of her experiences aboard the Pegasus identifies for Baltar the function of the resurrection ship, hoping that Cain will be successful in destroying it so she can die and these bad memories will be gone forever. Finally, there's something delicious about how Roslin is the one who convinces Adama to kill Cain, and that Adama dismisses it completely until he learns the full extent of her megalomania. Also, it's worth noting that both Cain's and Adama's assassination plans take advantage of the lax security after a major military victory, which is exactly what Boomer did in Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2. I find something fascinating about that.
Resurrection Ship, Part 1 naturally loses a little bit of momentum being the middle part of a three part story. It has to pick up on a cliffhanger then ends with another one. This lack of a definitive beginning and end to the episode makes it slightly weaker than Pegasus, but not by much. The episode manages to retain its profound origins while taking the drama further into a fascinating direction.