Battlestar Galactica

Episode #101 - "33"

This document is ©2005, John Larocque. All rights reserved.

The Cylons were created by man. They evolved. They look human. Some are programmed to think they are human. There are many copies. And they have a plan.

Synopsis

Aboard Colonial One, Baltar is receiving waking dreams of Number Six at his house on Caprica. "God has a plan for you, Gaius. He has a plan for everything and everyone." He tells her that he believes in a world he can understand, "a rational universe, explained through rational means." "I love you, That's not rational." "No, but you're not rational. You're also not really here. Neither am I." The fleet completes Jump 237.

Helo's replacement Crashdown is in Sharon's Raptor and upsetting her with news that the "Cylons look like us now... A Marine told one of the pilots that we marooned some guy back on Ragnar because the XO thought he was a Cylon." "You know what? I don't give a frak." After Crashdown leaves, Tyrol tells Sharon she's being rough on him and she replies that "he's not my ECO, he's some refugee from Triton I've been saddled with."

"I don't fly with stims. They blunt your reflexes, your reaction time..." "Come on, Kara, gimme a break. "Why are we arguing about this?" "I have no idea. You're the CAG, act like one... We're not friends, you're the CAG... And now one of your idiot pilots is acting like a child and refusing to take her pills. So she either says 'Yes, sir' and obeys a direct order, or you smack her in the mouth, and you drag her sorry ass down to sickbay, and you make her take those pills." "Well, I'm glad I'm not working for you... So do I have to smack you in the mouth, Lieutenant?" "No, I'll take my pills."

Baltar is experiencing another waking dream with Number Six. "Do you want children, Gaius. Procreation is one of God's commandments. I want us to have a child." He wakes up when he hears Billy mention the name Dr. Amarak. Billy says Amarak has "uncovered important information regarding how the Cylons were able to defeat Colonial defences." Baltar says that he used to work with him at the ministry of defence. He is noticeably worried and suggests that he speak to him instead of Billy, but Billy replies, "I think he wanted to speak directly with the President. Sounded urgent." Laura instructs Billy to bring him on board after the next cycle.

Commander Adama orders the use of stims, and Lee argues with Kara over her refusal to take them. "I don't fly with stims. They blunt your reflexes, your reaction time..." "Come on, Kara, gimme a break." "Why are we arguing about this?" "I have no idea. You're the CAG, act like one... We're not friends, you're the CAG... And now one of your idiot pilots is acting like a child and refusing to take her pills. So she either says 'Yes, sir' and obeys a direct order, or you smack her in the mouth, and you drag her sorry ass down to sickbay, and you make her take those pills." "Well, I'm glad I'm not working for you... So do I have to smack you in the mouth, Lieutenant?" "No, I'll take my pills." The fleet completes Jump 238.

Dualla informs Tigh that the Olympic Carrier may have been left behind. The Olympic Carrier is a civilian vessel listed as having 1,345 souls. Tigh berates Dualla for her uncertainty and makes a speech to the CIC crew. "Yes, we're tired. Yes, there's no relief. Yes, the Cylons keep coming after us time after time after time. And yes, we are still expected to do our jobs." Adama adds, "We make mistakes, people die. There aren't many of us left."

On Laura's whiteboard on Colonial One, the human population of the fleet is now listed at 47,972. Laura inquires about Dr. Amarak and Billy informs her that he was on the Olympic Carrier. Number Six tells Baltar "God's watching out for you... Dr. Amarak posed a threat to you. Now he's gone. Logic says there's a connection." "A connection maybe, but not God. There is no God or gods, singular or plural. There are no large invisible men (or women for that matter) taking a personal interest in the fortunes of Gaius Baltar." "Be careful. That which God gives he can also take away."

After 33 minutes the Cylons fail to appear. Adama advises the fleet to wait and to keep the clock going. The Colonials are now 132.15 hours without sleep. Ten minutes later the Cylons still haven't appeared and Adama instructs Lee to set up a combat patrol around the fleet and for the other pilots to land immediately. Crashdown makes some comments on sleep deprivation, and Lee tells Sharon he's heard "you're holding up better than anybody in the squadron." "I'm tired like everybody else." Kara jokes, "'Cause she's a Cylon." Lee, Kara and Sharon remain on patrol while the other pilots return.

Tigh talks to Adama about his speech in CIC earlier. "If the crew doesn't hate the XO than he's not doing his job. Besides, gotta make the Old Man look good." "I always look good." Gaeta reports dradis contact with the Olympic Carrier, and Adama declares action stations and starts another 33 minute countdown, hoping his suspicions are wrong. Baltar is asking Number Six questions. "If they were left behind, why didn't the Cylons destroy them? Why are they showing up now?" "The Olympic carrier's been infiltrated by Cylon agents. They've been tracking the ship all along." "No... then that means..." "Logically, in order for you to survive, the Olympic carrier should be destroyed."

The Olympic Carrier pilot initiates communication with Sharon's Raptor. "We had trouble with our FTL drive. Took us almost three hours to fix... They were closing in on us when the rest of you were jumping. I thought we were goners and then they broke off. Someone must've been watching out for us... One more thing, Boomer. I've got a Dr. Amarak on board. He claims he has an urgent matter to discuss with the President. He's been driving me crazy... He says he knows something about a traitor in our midst and he's unwilling to share any more than that."

Baltar is completely unravelled. "Madam President, I strongly recommend that we cut off all wireless communication with that ship right away." Laura asks why, and then Baltar follows up with an incredible outburst. "Wake up, all right! The only reason the Olympic Carrier is still flying is that the Cylons let them survive. They've been tracking that ship all along. There's probably a Cylon agent on board right now! ... Cut off radio communication with that ship before they send, via broadcast signal, another computer virus to infect our ship surely before they blow us all up!" On CIC, Adama overhears, and orders all transmissions from the ship jammed and initiates wireless silence.

CIC is informed that the Olympic Carrior is now on a direct course with the Galactica. Adama sends out Vipers to intercept, Lee scans the windows of the vessel and we notice there are no people inside. Lee fires a few warning shots across the bow, but the ship maintains its course. Dualla tells CIC they've got nukes aboard, and Adama tells Laura, "We have to eliminate the Olympic Carrier immediately." She hesitates, while Number Six taunts Baltar, demanding that he confess his sins and repent to God. After he tells her "I repent," Laura gives the order. Kara can't believe the orders. "No frakking way," but Lee follows through and it is destroyed. The Cylons arrive and the fleet makes a final jump.

On Cylon Occupied Caprica, it's been six days since the attack, and Helo has been taken prisoner. Earlier he had been chased by mechanical Cylons through the forest. A Number Six model takes off the hood covering his head and asks him "Are you alive?" He replies with his name, rank and serial number. "Agathon. Karl C. Junior grade Colonial Fleet. PK 789934." "I know who you are Helo. It's all right. I'm a friend." She kisses him and is shot in the back by a Sharon model, dressed in her uniform.

The episode ends with Billy increasing the whiteboard count to 47,973. "A baby was born today."

Ron Moore's Commentary

1/13/2005 -- Why 33 minutes? The truth is, there's no real answer. It's just a random number that felt right when I came up with the idea that our people were under continuous, relentless attack since the end of the pilot. I wanted it to be a short interval, just long enough for them to grab a bite to eat, jump in the shower and maybe try to catch a catnap before dragging themselves back to their duty stations and begin the whole tedious, terrifying ordeal all over again.

A deeper truth is, I was never interested in coming up with an explanation for Why? Never. I mean, I suppose I could've come up with a sufficiently important-sounding bit of technobabble that would've made sense (you see, the Cylon double-talk sensors tracking the Olympic Carrier's nonsense drive signature needed 15 minutes to relay the made-up data wave through the pretend continuum, then the Cylon navigational hyper silly system needed another 10 minutes to recalculate the flux capacitor, etc.) but what would that have really added to the drama? How does explaining that 33 minute interval help our understanding of Laura's terrible moment of decision, or bring us to any greater knowledge of Dualla's search for her missing family and friends, or yield insight into Baltar's morally shattered psyche?

It doesn't, of course. The answer, however artfully it may (or may not) have been crafted can only subtract from the experience we have in watching the episode. Not knowing the how's or why's of the Cylon attack puts us in the same seat as the characters we're watching. They're in the dark, and we're in the dark. The relentless attack is unfathomable in its origin and unstoppable in its execution. It's mortality coming at you on a loop. If you only had 33 minutes before the next time you could die, what would you do? And what about the time after that? And the time after that? At a certain point, you stop caring about why it's happening, all you know is that it is happening, and it's happening to you.

So the mystery of 33 will be permanent on this show. No explanation, not even the attempt. Let it just be a number that seemed like an eternity for five long days on the battlestar Galactica.

10/2004 -- I didn't originally plan that storyline. But when we watched the final version of the mini series, I think we were all struck by Talmoh's performance and regretted that he was dead, presumably. So when I seriously started to plan out season one, I thought it would be interesting to cut back to Helo and follow a story about him on Caprica. (source: Dreamwatch)

1/13/2005 -- It wasn't until after the miniseries had premiered and we were starting to talk seriously about the series itself. There's a continuing storyline on Caprica all the way through and eventually in the finale Starbuck goes back as well... It was pretty much a hopeless situation [on Caprica]. There was nothing the Galactica could do in the face of the destruction but presumably there were pockets of survivors here and there who had to be abandoned. [Helo] embarks on a very solitary journey with the other Sharon and it's really a mystery. Why is she doing what she's doing and what are the Cylons about? Why isn't he running into other people, why aren't they seeing other dead bodies, what's going on on Caprica? (source: Now Playing)

1/30/2005 -- There was a scene cut from "33" where we saw Laura being given her copy of the photo [the one touched by the pilots in the Ready Room] along with a card that said it was taken on the roof of the capitol building on Aerilon during the attack. The photo was inspired by the famous shot of the fire-fighters raising the flag at Ground Zero that became iconic. I thought the Colonies would have their own version of this -- a snapshot taken in the moment that becomes a symbol of the day they can never forget and of all they had lost. The photo itself is of a soldier falling to his knees (possibly shot or simply overcome by emotion) as he stands on the rooftop over looking the devastation of his city, while the Colonial flag waves at the edge of frame. The inscription below the photo on Laura's plaque reads, "Lest We Forget" in itself a reference to the inscription on the watch presented to John Wayne's character in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

3/4/2005 -- If Sharon came out of the woods, and shot Six and grabbed him and took off, he would think that it was his Sharon, even though our Sharon is back on Galactica. And I had no idea where that led and what that was going to be, but I knew it was really interesting and I was in love with it, so I wrote it... It took me a couple of episodes, but very slowly an idea started to dawn on me that the Helo/Sharon storyline on Caprica was actually key to the entire Cylon agenda. That what the Cylons were really about, that one of the really big goals was, would be eliminated through that storyline. (source: Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down podcast)

Commentary

We learn that Dualla is from Sagittaron in the scene where she's inquiring about survivors from the Colony. The pictures and mementos of dead family members on the hallway walls were deliberately reminiscent of the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy in New York.

According to Socinus, there were 5,251 survivors from Sagittaron at the last count.

Kara upbraids Lee for using the expression, "Be careful out there." "Our job isn't to be careful, it's to shoot Cylons out of the frakkin' sky. 'Good hunting' is what you say." This is the first use of the expression "good hunting" in the series. It is used by Lee in "Water," Tigh in "Bastille Day," Laura in "The Hand of God," Lee and Gaeta in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I," and Commander Adama in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II."

Adama defers to Laura's authority by giving her the final decision regarding the fate of the Olympic Carrier.

Tigh is sober and alert in this episode and remarks to Adama that "all of this has me feeling more alive in years," with Adama replying that it's good to see him without a cup in his hand for a change. Adama's cup remarks are repeated in "Six Degrees of Separation."

What happened to the humans on board the Olympic Carrier? If there was nobody on board during Lee's visual scan, than that means that the human population was destroyed prior to the last jump. There were reliable rumors that an alternate version was shot, where it was possible that humans were still on board at the time the vessel was blown up.

There are clues confirming that Sharon #1 is a Cylon sleeper agent, including her irritation with Crashdown over human Cylons, and her apparent ability to handle sleep deprivation better than her co-pilots.

Number Six is forcing the skeptical, rational Baltar into accepting the Cylon religion that he openly mocked in the pilot episode. She presents him a choice: repent to God or risk being exposed by Dr. Amarak. There is no evidence that Laura's decision to blow up the ship was Cylon-influenced, but in Baltar's susceptible frame of mind, Number Six wanted an association between his repentence and Laura's decision. These themes are revisited later this season in "Six Degrees of Separation."

She also tells him that God has a plan for him, and that she wants them to have a child. She finally reveals God's plan for him again in the season finale, tying in these bits of dialog with the Helo/Sharon storyline on Caprica. Did the original Number Six model want to have a baby with Baltar? Did his escape from Caprica in the pilot episode force the Cylons to consider other options? Did one of the Number Six models already conceive Baltar's child back on Caprica during the two years he was with there?

Was Dr. Amarak really on the Olympic Carrier or were the Cylons conspiring with Number Six to manipulate Baltar and the rest into thinking that he was there? Was it already pre-determined by the Cylons that the ship was going to be destroyed, in order to protect Dr. Baltar?

The Sky One episode guide, based on the original script, lists the Olympic Vessel as having 342 civilians.

Deleted Scenes

Apollo and Starbuck banter (#1 on SciFi site) -- Humurous exchange between Kara and Lee on patrol. "Hey Apollo, what number is this? Have we passed 200 yet?" "Try 237." "You tellin' me I missed 200." "That's exactly what I'm telling you... What, were you planning something special?" "Nah. Just like to keep track of things like this, I mean 200 was such a nice round number, and I'm gonna have to wait for 300." "Don't even joke about it."

Starbuck requests a transfer (#4 on SciFi site) -- Lee enters the bathroom. "OK. Two minutes till pre-launch brief. People, two minutes." He starts brushing his teeth and Kara tells him, "I'd like a transfer, sir." "All transfers in writing, please." "I'll go find a pen."

President Roslin receives a gift (#2 on SciFi site) -- Billy hands Laura a package containing a framed picture identical to the one that the pilots touch in the Ready Room, with the words "Lest We Forget" written on the plaque. "What's in the package?" "It's a gift from the captain of one of the ships." Billy reads the note that accompanied the picture: "President Roslin, please accept this on behalf of the people of Aerilon. It was taken on the capital of our Colony during the attack." Moore describes this scene and the picture in detail in his blog dated 1/30/2005.

Adama is in his bunk when Gaeta forwards him a phone call from Laura.
Laura: "We have a problem. One of our vessels, the Tauranian traveller, is saying that they want to break away from the fleet and make a run for it on their own. I've been negotiating with them, but I have failed."
Adama: "OK."
Laura: "OK? Without your protection they don't stand a chance."
Adama: "Madam President, if there is a captain out there that feels he can do better on his own, I'm not gonna stand in his way."
Laura's whiteboard reads 49,317.
Laura: "There are 900 people on that ship. The survival of our race mandates we increase our numbers. This takes priority over any individuals who wish to go their own way."
Adama: "Let's cut to the chase here. You want me to board that ship and take it over."
Laura: "Yes I do."
Adama: "Boarding parties are armed. If there is any kind of resistance, I don't wanna be... This is no time to start shooting civilians."
Laura: "Understood. Thank you, I will be in touch."
Adama: "There's one more thing. You might want to consider moving to the Galactica. The FTL's on your ship..."
Laura: "Thank you, but I'm staying here."
Adama phones up Gaeta.
Adama: "Launch alert fighers. Tell them to take three very close passes on the Tauranian traveller."
Gaeta: "Any message for her captain?"
Adama: "I think he will get the message. Thank you, Lieutenant."

Apollo praises his pilots (#3 on the SciFi site) -- Lee speaks to Kara and the other pilots on patrol. "Winger, T-Bone, Wedge, you'll be second team. I um... I don't wanna make a speech, or anything, but um... well, the last five days you've done a hell of a job. I'm proud of you. Apollo out."