Battlestar Galactica (2003)/Pegasus

Pegasus
Season 2, Episode 10
Airdate	September 23, 2005
Written by	Anne Cofell Saunders
Directed by	Michael Rymer
Nielsen Rating	2.0
Fleet Survivors	49,605
← 2x09 Flight of the Phoenix	2x11 → Resurrection Ship (1)
Battlestar Galactica (2003) — Season Two

For the battlestar named Pegasus, see Pegasus (ship).

Pegasus is the tenth episode of the second season of Battlestar Galactica, and is the twenty-third episode overall.

Edward James Olmos (Commander William Adama), Mary McDonnell (Laura Roslin), Katee Sackhoff (Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace), Jamie Bamber (Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama), James Callis (Dr. Gaius Baltar), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Grace Park (Sharon Valerii)

Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Chief Galen Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Karl "Helo" Agathon), Paul Campbell (Billy Keikeya), Nicki Clyne (Cally), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Felix Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (PO Anastasia "Dee" Dualla)

Guest Star: Michelle Forbes (Admiral Cain)

Guest Star: Graham Beckel (Colonel Fisk)

Guest Stars: John Pyper-Ferguson (Captain Cole "Stinger" Taylor), Sebastian Spence (Whiplash)

Cast: Leah Cairns (Racetrack), Fulvio Cecere (Lt. Alastair Thorne), Mike Dopud (Gage), Derek Delost (Vireem), Vincent Gale (Chief Peter Laird), Michael Jonsson (Pegasus Guard #1), Peter-John Prinsloo (Lt. Mei "Freaker" Firelli) (extended version)

Uncredited: Leo Chiang (Tattooed pilot)

Plot Summary

Galactica goes to Condition 1 during a visit from President Roslin because an unidentified Cylon basestar-sized target has appeared in system. Apollo, Kat and the alert fighters head out to figure out what it is, and Galactica begins receiving Colonial signals from the new ship. Adama orders a hold on the jump, and shortly thereafter it's confirmed both by communications and visual from the alert Vipers—the new ship is the Colonial battlestar Pegasus, under the command of Admiral Helena Cain. Galactica's not the last battlestar after all.

Cain meets with Adama and Roslin while Tigh talks with XO Fisk from the Pegasus. Cain tells the story of Pegasus' escape from the Cylons by blind-jumping away from the fleet yard where Pegasus was in for maintenance, and Fisk tells about Cain's handling of things since the war, specifically a disturbing story about Cain executing her former XO for disobeying orders. Cain takes command of the fleet, then cuts off contact with Roslin and refuses to send supplies to the fleet, instead choosing to only supply Galactica. Tigh, disturbed, goes to Adama with Fisk's story, but Adama says that they need to look at the context of the story—if Cain didn't look at the context of their destruction of the Olympic Carrier, she'd get the wrong idea about that just like they might be getting the wrong idea about whatever Cain did to her XO.

Baltar visits the Pegasus to check on their Cylon prisoner, who turns out to be a brutalized, catatonic Six unit. Baltar's Six reacts emotionally, nearly having a nervous breakdown and yelling at Baltar for being dispassionate in dealing with the raped and beaten Cylon. Baltar asks her to leave him alone for a while so he can deal with the new Six, and she does so. Afterwards, he discusses the situation with Cain. He tells her that they've used the stick, and now it's time to use the carrot—the Cylon can be manipulated psychologically, and constant physical abuse isn't going to get them anywhere. Cain orders Fisk to get Baltar whatever he needs.

Cain meets with Adama in her ready room and discusses the Cylon fleet situation—it appears that the Cylons have been following the Colonials at a distance. An entire Cylon fleet is following them, along with one huge, unidentified Cylon vessel. Adama suggests an attack, and Cain agrees. Cain then discusses the situation on Galactica with him. She wants to integrate the crews, starting by reassigning Apollo and Starbuck to the Pegasus. Adama doesn't like it, but there's nothing he can do. He fills Starbuck and Apollo in on their transfer orders, which they're not happy about, and he orders them to do it.

Pegasus's CAG is planning a photo recon mission to try and figure out what the unidentified Cylon ship is, taking a Raptor to the system where the Cylon fleet is and hiding behind a moon until the Cylon fleet passes, then taking readings. Starbuck disagrees with his plan and says that the Cylons won't go near the moon because it's a blind spot. She suggests that they use the Galactica's stealth fighter, and Taylor pulls her from the mission, then assigns Apollo to fly the Raptor for him. Apollo gives Starbuck a surveillance package and tells her to take the Blackbird and "take some pretty pictures".

Back on Galactica, the Pegasus deck crew and Galactica deck crew are intermingling, and things aren't exactly friendly. The Pegasus deck crew makes lewd remarks about Boomer, which aren't received well by the Galactica crew. During the "conversation", Tyrol and Helo realize that Pegasus interrogator Thorne is planning to do the same thing to Boomer that was done to the brutalized Six on Pegasus.

In the cell, Thorne questions Boomer perfunctorily, then has the Marine guard hold Boomer down over her cot while he gets ready to rape her. Helo and Tyrol show up, a brief struggle ensues, and Thorne is accidentally killed. Tyrol and Helo are taken into custody by the Pegasus guards and taken to Pegasus awaiting trial.

On Pegasus, Baltar brings food for the catatonic Six, then orders the Marine guards to leave. He talks to her openly about his feelings for the Six unit who's appeared to him in his head and tells her that it's not a trick, he's not going to take the food away. After a moment, Six slowly, painfully reaches over and takes a piece of fruit.

Apollo and Taylor head out on their Raptor mission, and Taylor comments on the fact that Apollo seems distracted. Apollo tells him it's because two of his friends are on trial for murder, and Taylor tells him that he needs to file it under "not his problem".

On Galactica, Cally and Adama are walking and talking about Chief Tyrol when a call comes down from CIC. It's Tigh. He's just gotten off the phone with Fisk, and the court martial is over. Adama wonders when the trial started, and Tigh says he doesn't know, but Tyrol and Helo have been sentenced to death for treason. Adama orders Tigh to get a Marine strike team to a Raptor and prepare to launch alert Vipers, then heads for CIC.

Adama calls Cain and the two spar verbally about the trial. Cain assures Adama that she gave them a fair trial, and Adama calls for a jury trial. Cain claims that she doesn't have to do anything, and Adama orders the fighters launched. Cain asks what he's doing, and Adama tells her bluntly that he's getting his men back, then hangs up. Cain orders Pegasus' fighters launched as Fisk and her bridge crew stare at her disbelievingly.

In space, the battlestars' Viper wings square off against each other against the backdrop of the Fleet.

TO BE CONTINUED

Notes

• The survivor count increased by 1752 from the previous week, reflecting the addition of the Pegasus crew to the fleet.

• This episode had the highest Nielsen rating of the evening for Sci Fi Friday.

• This episode marked the end of the first half of the season and the beginning of a several-month hiatus. The show resumed in January.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Kara discusses with Roslin and Adama about coordinating a rescue plan for the resistance fighters on Caprica. However, the idea is criticised due to the number of jumps the plan would take.

• It's discovered the battlestar Pegasus also survived the Cylon attacks. Its commander, Helena Cain, is an admiral and is therefore Adama's superior officer.

• Pegasus had been trailing the Cylon fleet that had been trailing Galactica and its fleet. Their recon has spotted a large, protected, yet unidentified ship in their midst. Cain prepares a coordinated attack to take it out.

• Colonel Fisk tells Tigh the story of how, during the attacks, her original XO defied an order and she shot him in the head, making him the new XO.

• Chief Laird is said to be a civilian that got "drafted." He explains he was on the Scylla when he got picked up, but doesn't elaborate.

• Pegasus helps to replenish Galactica with supplies and resources, but Roslin is concerned none of the sort is getting out to the civilian fleet.

• Kara secretly takes the blackbird to do her own recon on the mysterious Cylon ship.

• In their attempt to stop Pegasus's interrogator Lt Thorne as he attacks Sharon, Tyrol and Helo inadvertently kill him. Cain puts them through a brief court martial and readies to have them executed. This leads to Cain and Adama in a dispute over the two and leads them to both launch their alert Vipers at each other's battlestars.

Characters

• Cain integrates the crew and has Kara and Lee transferred to Pegasus.

• Cain tasks Baltar to examine their Cylon prisoner. To his and Six's horror, it's a copy of her that has been subject to obvious physical and sexual abuse. He manages to convince Cain to use a more humane touch and Six leaves him with her.

• Sharon is interrogated by Lt Thorne and begins raping her, but is stopped by Helo and Tyrol.

Referbacks

• Adama refers to his log of the shooting down of the Olympic Carrier from "33".

• Cain reminds Adama of the independent tribunal he shut down in "Litmus".

Trivia

The Show

• Though the omission of scenes for time is quite common, "Pegasus" is unique in that an entire act's worth of material was excised. Though the Sci-Fi Channel offered a chance to air it as a 90 minute special, the decision was to simply edit it to fit the standard time limit as the aforementioned option would require additional material that would be little more than filler. What's been dubbed the "extended version" remains unaired and exclusive to DVD, though portions of some of these scenes are used in recaps for subsequent episodes.

• This episode was nominated for the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.

• During its initial airing, the 3rd act was proceeded by an advisory warning.

Extended version

• Executive producer Ronald D. Moore has stated that there was enough material left after editing to expand this episode by fifteen minutes; plans are currently in the works to put an extended cut on the eventual DVD release. Scenes filmed but not aired include:

• A conversation between President Roslin and Commander Adama on their way to meet Cain's ship where they talk about her reputation and how she was promoted to Admiral at a young age, skipping over others in line for promotion.

• Additional dialogue between Adama, Roslin and Cain where the Admiral explains that the Pegasus avoided the Cylon virus because her networked systems were down for repairs and that they were able to avoid contracting it later by deducing the nature of the virus and securing the systems before bringing them back up.

• A scene where Admiral Cain goes to the brig to observe Caprica-Sharon.

• An extension to the briefing between Cain and Adama in Cain's quarters, in which they explain the physical difference between Galactica and Pegasus, because Pegasus is a newer model "Mercury-class battlestar".

• An extension to the subplot briefly alluded to when Roslin complained that Cain wasn't resupplying the civilian fleet with needed technical equipment. In the additional scenes, Roslin eventually threatens to cut off tylium-fuel resupply to Pegasus from the civilian refinery ships unless she starts giving supplies to the civilian fleet. It also builds on Cain's view, seen briefly in the original broadcast, that Roslin is just the Secretary of Education and not the real President, so Cain doesn't feel she needs to do what she says.

• Also there was an alternate rape scene where Tyrol and Helo arrive at Boomer's cell when she is actually being raped. In the aired version, the rape is stopped at the last minute. Unlike the other deleted scenes, this one won't be edited back in as it doesn't "really" happen now.

Behind the Scenes

• There are three versions of the controversial rape scene. The one in the aired version stops just before penetration; the extended version shows the rape beginning; and a more brutal version that director Michael Rymer found too horrific to keep.

Allusions and References

• In the original series, the Galactica encountered the battlestar Pegasus in the two-part episode "The Living Legend". The Pegasus, commanded by Commander Cain (Lloyd Bridges), had been missing in action, presumed lost before the Cylon attack which destroyed the rest of the Colonial Fleet. It was last seen engaging three Cylon basestars in an effort to hold them off long enough for Galactica and the Colonial Fleet to escape at the end of the episode, which ended with the Pegasus missing and presumed lost yet again.

• The abused version of Six seen in this episode's official name is "Gina". Ronald D. Moore chose the name based on a nickname he had seen fans of the original series use for the new BSG on the internet, GINO ("Galactica In Name Only"). He thought it would be funny to name a Cylon something like "Gino", and Gina was born.

Goofs

• Upon identifying the unknown vessel as Pegasus, Adama orders Dualla to "step down to Condition 1." However, Condition 1 is the highest alert level, and it can be surmised that the intended line was to refer to Condition 2, or to step down from Condition 1.

• After being told about reassignment, Lee places the sheet of paper on the desk. In the initial shot, he is leaning forward with his left arm, but in the next shot, he appears to be leaning forward with his right.

• In the extended cut, when Laird is talking with Tyrol next to the Blackbird, just before Cally shows up, Laird's right arm moves suddenly between shots.

Quotes

• (Fisk and Tigh drinking)

Fisk: We were going after what we thought was a little Cylon comm relay. Easy target, right? Turns out it wasn't a comm relay at all. It was a staging area full of fifteen squadrons of Raiders.

Tigh: Whoa.

Fisk: Admiral Cain ordered our XO to attack. Those two were real close. He had served with her for years. But here's the thing: he refused the order.

Tigh: What'd she do?

Fisk: She asked for his gun, shot him in the head with it in front of the whole crew. And then she turned to me.

Tigh: What did you do?

Fisk: Well, I ordered the frakkin' attack. What do you think I did?

(pause)

Fisk: (busts out in vaguely forced-sounding laughter) No, no, I'm just joking! I'm just kidding, you know.

• Tigh: I figure if you seen one old battlestar, you've seen them all.

Jack Fisk: Yeah, well, she's an old one. I can't believe the Cylons didn't kick your ass up one side and down the other in this bucket. (off Tigh's look) Sorry. I'm sorry. No one gets to insult your ship except you.

Tigh: You're godsdamn right. And just for that, you have to skip this round.

• Lt. Mei "Freaker" Firelli: And this is the complete Pegasus onboard digital library. Everything, from the Articles of Colonisation to Zarek's trial record. You did have to erase your computer memory drives, correct?

Gaeta: Uh, yes we did. Thank you.

Lt. Mei "Freaker" Firelli: Thank Admiral Cain.

Gaeta: Got any porn in there?

• Baltar: It suffered no serious head injuries and therefore no physical damage to its neural pathways or cognitive reasoning centres. But it's quite clearly traumatised, which would suggest that its current condition is psychological in nature. Had you thought of that? No. It shows that the Cylon consciousness is just as susceptible to the same pressures and cleavages as the human psyche, and can be manipulated in the same fashion. Simply put, Admiral, you have already used the stick; it's time to use a carrot.

• Cain: (talking about Pegasus) Ship's nearly twice the size, needs half the crew.

Adama: Makes me feel that Galactica is a relic.

Cain: Galactica is not a relic; it's a classic. And I, for one, happen to appreciate the classics.

• Adama: Starbuck. Watch out for yourselves. I think they're gunning for you both.

Lee: I think they're gunning for all of us.

• Captain Cole "Stinger" Taylor: This is a photo recon mission. We are interested in o­ne Cylon ship in particular, which is larger than anything we've encountered before. Analysis to date suggests they will be in this star system next. We will hide behind this moon, which has an abnormally large magneto tail and will mask our DRADIS signatures. We'll power down, hide near the surface, wait for the fleet to pass by. Starbuck?

Kara: Yeah.

Captain Cole "Stinger" Taylor: You have something to add?

Kara: Your plan sucks.

Captain Cole "Stinger" Taylor: You're a heartbeat away from being in hack on your first day.

Kara: I like hack.

• Baltar: (to Gina) The food is yours. It's not a trick. I'm not going to take it away at the last second. You know, I, um... I'm just going to talk right now. I don't expect you to say anything. Back on Caprica, before the attack... and sometimes I forget there was a world before the attack. I knew someone, a woman, unlike any other woman I'd ever known. She was unique, beautiful, clever, intensely sensual. When she wasn't in my bed, she was in my thoughts. She was a Cylon. And she changed my life in a very real, very fundamental way in that I have quite literally never stopped thinking about her, because I love her. To this very day, I love her. And she looks exactly like you. My name is Gaius Baltar, and I'm here to help you.

• (Tigh calls Adama from CIC):

Tigh: I just talked to Fisk. Court martial's over.

Adama: Over? When did it start?

Tigh: I don't know, but they've been found guilty on all counts. She's going to execute them both for murder and treason.

Adama: I want a marine strike team in a Raptor in five minutes. Prepare to launch alert fighters. (hangs up and turns to Cally) We have work to do.

Cally: Yes, sir.

• (Adama confronts Cain via ship-to-ship wireless)

Adama: You told me they'd get a fair trial. What kind of a trial could they have possibly had?

Cain: I assure you I heard them out. I weighed their statements against those of the guards, and I took into consideration their service records and commendations. It was a difficult decision, Commander, but I dare say it was a fair one.

Adama: They have the right to have their case heard by a jury.

Cain: I am a flag officer on detached service during a time of war. Regulations give me broad authority in this matter.

Adama: (covers the phone mouthpiece) Launch the fighters. (raises the phone) You can quote me whatever regulation you'd like. I'm not gonna let you execute my men.

Cain: I highly suggest you reconsider that statement, Commander.

(DRADIS beeps)

Fisk: Admiral, Galactica's launching Vipers and a Raptor.

Cain: Commander? Why are you launching Vipers?

Adama: Please arrange for Chief Tyrol and Lieutenant Agathon to be handed over to my marines as soon as they arrive.

Cain: I don't take orders from you.

Adama: Call it whatever you like. I'm getting my men.

Cain: You are making such a mistake.

Adama: I'm getting... my men. (hangs up)