Battlestar Galactica

Episode #105 - "You Can't Go Home Again"

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

Gaeta informs Adama, "In the last four hours we've combed everywhere within a 200 click sphere of Starbuck's last known position. No ship, no ejection seat, no debris. So we're extending the radius another 50." Gaeta takes an educated guess that she's landed on the moon. "It's cold as hell down there but she could survive on the surface." They've estimated that Kara has over 46 hours of oxygen left before she runs out. Tigh asks, "What if the Cylons appear?" "They won't. Not for a while... Sending a patrol instead of a Baseship tells me they didn't even know we were here... If we send out eight fighters to search an entire star system for 60-odd ships, it would take us weeks." "Assume they're better and faster. It'll take them days." They then discuss options for searching the moon. Tigh states, "It's gonna be slow going. Can't see squat through those clouds." "Send the ships below the cloud cover. Tell the pilots to take a hard look the old fashioned way," which Gaeta dubs the Mark 1 eyeball. Laura offers to make use of the civilian ships to increase the odds. Adama replies, "Frak the odds, we're gonna find her," before thanking her.

On Colonial One, Number Six asks Baltar, "How long do you think it'll be before the Cylons wonder what happened to their missing patrol and send another one here to look for it?" She then answers her own question -- three at the most. Baltar panics and gives Laura some advice. "You are compromising the security of the entire fleet while we search for one solitary pilot." "It is a risk, but those pilots put their lives on the line for us every day." Baltar reveals, "I happen to know the pilot personally." Number Six comments, "Not as personally as you'd like. Guess you'll never get to find out if she's a real blonde." On the moon, Kara is taping up her wounded leg. "Get to higher ground. Then they see you. Then they rescue you." Vipers led by Captain Apollo are now in the upper atmosphere, encountering much turbulence. "We are being tossed around like beach balls around here." He runs low on fuel and has to return to base.

On Caprica, it's Day 15. Helo tells Sharon, "I don't think anyone's left out there." "There must be someone. We can't be the only two people left in the world." "Good news is my leg's much better. And we've got enough radiation meds to last three months. I say we load up as much food as we can.." "... and move out. Try to find a Raptor or a transport or something we can fly off Caprica." He goes upstairs to prepare Sharon some breakfast by toasting some pop tarts in a chrome toaster. A pair of mechanical Cylons have entered the restaurant and Helo can see the reflection of one of them in the toaster. Sharon comes upstairs and asks, "Is breakfast ready?" right after the toaster pops. The Cylons are alerted and a firefight ensues. He orders Sharon to "get out of here" and destroys one of the Cylons. When he wakes up and the smoke clears, Sharon is now gone from the restaurant and the fallout shelter. He steps outside and shouts her name. "Sharon, where are you?"

On the moon, Kara is praying. "Lords, it's Kara Thrace. I'm running low on O2 and I could use a lucky break." She makes her way over a hill and sees the downed Cylon fighter. "Lords, I owe you one. Looks like I found my ride out of here, if I can fix you up." On the Galactica, Tigh is concerned with the security risk of spreading out the civilian ships. "We should consider pulling the civvies into a defensible formation." Adama repeatedly refuses. "I said no! We're gonna find our missing piliot. And we're gonna bring her home. We leave no one behind." On the moon, Kara pops a button on the ship and notices a mass of fleshy substance. "Frak me. Are you alive?" She keeps digging at it.

On the Galactica, Lee instructs Tyrol to provide him with another Viper, and is told he's out. "You can push people a hell of a lot further than you can machines." Kara's oxygen supply has now five hours left when Lee reports back to Commander Adama and Tigh. "You can't see anything at all from altitude, not to mention the crap in the air that keeps screwing up our ships. Thirteen Vipers down for repairs." "We need more eyes." Tigh asks, "Where you gonna get 'em?" "Pull the CAP. Redeploy the Combat Air Patrol to the search." "Bad idea. The CAP is the fleet's only defense. If all our Vipers are frakkin' around the moon when the Cylons come calling, we're maggot meat." Adama suggests bringing the fleet closer to the moon. "You gotta be kidding... Starbuck would be the first one to tell you not to do this." Lee explodes and accuses Tigh of wanting her dead. "Leave her behind. Get rid of the foul-mouthed insubordinate that keeps challening your authority." "You are way out of line, mister. I'm not the one confusing personal feelings with duty." Adama sides with Lee and tells him, "Get as many birds up in the air as you can and find our girl."

On the moon, Kara is inside the ship and inserting her hands into the fleshy matter. "I guess the only thing flying you, is you. This must be your brain. You don't need it. Good thing I brought one of my own." She tosses out the brain, she looks at her counter and sees she has fifteen minutes of oxygen left. "Frak. Even cockroaches have to breathe. How the hell do you?" On the hangar deck, Lee gets a phone call from Laura. "Do you know that your father just redployed the combat air patrol?" "Yes, Madam President, it was my idea. We need every Viper we've got." "Isn't the fleet defenceless without the CAP?" "Only for a short time. Because after that, Kara's oxygen will be gone and she'll be dead... We don't leave people behind." "But we have left people behind. You know that." "Not this time." In CIC, Gaeta reports that Blue flight has run out of fuel. "Have them stay on the search. Send the tanker to them." "Trying to tank in that turbulence, sir, will be extremely hairy." Kara's oxygen counter on CIC has just ran out, and Adama speculates she might have a reserve supply. Tigh remarks, "We are putting people at risk." "We are not quitting."

On the moon, Kara finds an oxygen tube aboard the fighter and sticks it iin her mouth. Laura calls Adama, and offers her condolences. Adama informs her that the search will continue. "We don't know if Starbuck's dead." "I was told that her oxygen had run out a half an hour ago." "That's an estimate. She may have a reserve supply. We'll continue the search as long as there's a chance she may be alive." "And how long will that be?" "Until I say stop. This is a military decision, Madam President." Laura has had enough and makes an unscheduled visit to the Galactica in her shuttle. On the moon, Kara shoves her jacket into the hole and releases oxygen into the sealed ship. "First on my list, sealing you up, figuring what controls what." As she tries to figure out the four basic functions (power, pitch, yaw and roll), she fires off a few rounds of ammunition by acccident before finally powering it up.

In the hallway Tigh asks Laura to order a stop to the search and tells her, "It's gone beyond military needs. It's personal. For the Commander and for Lee too... Because of [Lieutenant Thrace], and because of Zak Adama." "The Commander's dead son?" "It's complicated. It would take about three weeks to explain." "We've got about three minutes. Talk fast." They head into Adama's office, where she states the facts. "This isn't military, it's personal. Neither of you can let go of Kara Thrace because she's your last link to Zak... You've lost perspective... You're putting your pilots at risk and exposing the entire fleet to possible attack every moment we stay here." "Tigh informs them they've spent 43% of aviation fuel reserves in the search. Laura continues, "That's unacceptable. Operations in the moon's atmosphere have put one third of your fighters out of action, putting the lives of over 45,000 people and the future of this civilization at risk for your personal reasons." She tells them to clear their heads. The meeting ends when Adama calls CIC. "Terminate search operations. Bring everyone home. Prepare the fleet to make a jump into the next system. We're leaving."

In CIC, Lee asks his father, "Why did you do this?" "Kara was family. You do whatever you have to do. Sometimes you break the rules." "And if it was me down there instead?" "If it were you, we'd never leave." After Adama orders them to start the clock for the next jump, Dualla reports a dradis contact. "It's a Cylon raider, sir." Adama aborts the jump, declares action stations and order Vipers to intercept. Laura asks, "Why only one Cylon this time?" Tigh responds. "Could be a lone recon mission, or the vanguard for a Cylon Baseship about to jump on top of us. Either way, we're gonna have to take it out before we jump."

Hot Dog and Apollo prepare to launch, but Hot Dog's Viper fails to function, so only Apollo makes it out. The Cylon fighter avoids all fire from Apollo, and employs some expert flying. "Lords, this bastard's good." Then he loses the ship, as it's now directly above his. "The Cylon is now flying in formation with me, right above my head. This thing is acting weird." Finally he sees letters taped on the wings -- "STAR" on the left and "BUCK" on the right. "Ha ha! It's Starbuck! The Cylon raider is marked Starbuck. It's written under the frakkin' wing." "Bring it into the bay. If it does anything, take it out." "Wilco, Galactica. It has got to be her. This thing is flying with some serious attitude." There is a huge cheer on CIC.

In the hangar bay, the wounded Kara is wheeled out on a stretcher and she talks to Lee. "Like my new toy?" "Boy, when you take a souvenir, you don't screw around. Oh my gods, you smell like a latrine." In sickbay, she is reunited with Commander Adama. She tells him, "Don't have any ambrosia but the doc can fix you up with some really nice stuff. It's not bad, is it? The knee?" "Doc says its too early to tell, but knkowing you, you'll be fine." He kisses her on the forehead and asks her if she needs anything. "A stogie would be nice." Adama came prepared and gave one to her. "It's my last one, so enjoy."

Ron Moore's Commentary

Commentary

Lee gives Hot Dog his wing pins, a signal that he's now one of the squadron. He likely was acknowledging his conduct from the previous episode, including not leaving his leader.

This episode brings some needed healing into the family Adama. Since the Destruction, Lee had already reconciled with the details of his brother's death. However, Kara needed to come to terms with her guilt. Rescuing Kara (their last link to Zak) was what brought this to a definite resolution, with both father and son being brought closer together over the ordeal.

Lee's emotions got the better of him when he accused Tigh of wanting to see Kara dead. His father lost his cool with Tigh over Kara as well. Adama also said that he still hadn't come to terms with what happened to Zak, and that if it were Lee down on the moon, he would never have given up looking for him.

President Roslin and Colonel Tigh were on opposite sides in the pilot episode. Here, they took common cause in aligning themselves against the Commander and Lee. They saw the two Adamas putting lives at risk and expending fleet resources past the point when it would be reasonable to assume that Kara was already dead.

Commander Adama told Lee, "She's gonna press" and Lee replied that he was with him. Yet after meeting with Laura and Tigh, they both backed off and conceded her point.

Cylon ships are biological constructs with their own functioning brain.

How did Kara seal the Cylon fighter before she got it off the planet? Did she use her jacket (which seems unlikely) or find another method?

Kara's knee injury and her ability to fly become an issue in "The Hand of God."

Number Six repeats back the blonde reference Baltar made to her in "Bastille Day," and intimates that he had a romantic interest in Kara.

The chrome toaster was a visual joke that refers back to Baltar's comment from the pilot episode that the original Cylons looked like walking chrome toasters.

"I've had this [thumb ring] on my finger for eight years, and I've always had to take it off for jobs, and I've always lost it for like a week, and then found it. And I didn't wear it in the miniseries, and then finally I was like, 'I'm not taking this off.' It hurts to get it off, and I don't want to take it off every day, because I'm gonna lose it. And it's just turned into like my thing, I guess I've had it on for so long. And so I made up some story about how it's Zak's, so I could keep it on. And it works 'cause Eddie's played with it a couple of times." -- Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) on 8/10/2005 (soruce: LVRocks)

In the Sky One episode guide, which is based on the original script, "Kara awakens to find herself hanging upside down from a cliff on a deserted moon. She struggles for a moment with her harness, then falls 100 feet to the ground, seriously injuring her leg." In the episode she was dragged by her parachute, hits her knee on a rock and cuts the parachute loose.

Deleted Scenes

Six taunts Baltar (#2 on the SciFi site) -- Baltar and Laura are alone on Colonial One when Number Six tells him, "Amazing. The Cylons fighters are about ready to rain death upon humanity at any moment, and you're actually thinking about what it would be like to have sex with her, too?" (Number Six is referring to Laura Roslin)

Dr. Cottle briefs Adama on Starbuck's injury (#1 on the SciFi site) -- This conversation occurs just before Adama sees her in sickbay. Cottle is smoking a cigarette as he's talking. "How's she doing, doc?" "Got a knee like a smashed melon. I'm surprised she could crawl, much less walk." "Painful?" "Damn right. She isn't going to be walking, much less flying any time soon." "Don't let her know that yet." "Good luck keeping that from her for very long. She's in there." "Thank you, Doc."