Near the beginning of the episode, Apollo remarks to Dee that
it's been almost a month since he suffered a gunshot wound (in
the previous episode "Sacrifice").
The opening titles show the fleet at a population of 49,584,
down six from the last episode,
"Sacrifice", though seven people
seemed to have been killed there: Billy Keikeya, Sesha Abinell,
Kern Vinson, Nelson Page, George Chu, and two unnamed Marines.
Possibly another birth took place in the fleet in the month
since the events of the earlier episode to make up for one of
the seven deaths.
The recap of previous episodes has two scenes that have not
appeared before: Adama and Tigh discuss the promotion of
Pegasus Chief Engineer Garner to commander of said ship;
and Gina Inviere telling Baltar he must betray Roslin and run
for president.
Lt. Richard "Buster" Bayer
(dies in this episode)
Lt. Hoshi
Lt. Lyla "Shark" Ellway
(dies in this episode)
Dr. Cottle
Lt. Steve "Red Devil" Fleer
Stinger (mentioned only)
Admiral Adama
Sarah Porter
Ensign Abel Thornton
Colonel Tigh
Sergeant of the Guard on Pegasus (unnamed)
Lt. Gaeta
Ensign Charles Bellamy
Playa Palacios
Didja Notice?
Apollo and Dee are seen to be having a sexual interlude in the
pilots' bunks at the beginning of the episode. The episode audio
commentary reveals there was a shot cut of a pair of boots
hanging outside the bunk door to indicate a need for privacy, as
also established in "The Lab".
Dee remarks that the Pegasus is often called the Beast
and Galactica, the Bucket.
Apollo got promoted to major shortly before the beginning of
this episode.
Several times in this episode, comm systems monitors on
Pegasus show Galactica servers as
message input and relay components, even when
Pegasus is out of comm range of the other
battlestar. It seems like it should show
Pegasus servers instead. Most likely, the
production simply used existing graphics instead of creating new
ones that were
Pegasus-specific for shots that are on screen
for only a couple seconds.
This episode is the first appearance of Tory Foster, who
replaces Billy as Chief of Staff for President Roslin. She later
turns out to be one of the Final Five Cylons in "Crossroads"
Part 2.
Tory Foster tells Roslin she worked for the Federalist party in
Delphi.
Delphi is a city on Caprica, as mentioned in several previous
episodes.
President Roslin remarks to Tory that her only real political
rival is a convicted terrorist. She is referring to Tom Zarek.
Commander Garner refers to himself as a snipe. This is naval
slang for someone in the engineering staff of a ship.
Gemenon representative Sarah Porter implies that Gemenese
children are the "property" of their parents until they reach
legal adult status.
Commander Garner's wristwatch seen throughout this episode is a
Gruen, an American watch maker from 1894-1958.
Baltar tells Roslin that he made initial calculations on how
long humanity could survive based on the population of the fleet
over seven months ago. He now calculates the end of the humanity
within 18 years at current rates of attrition.
Pegasus makes the FTL jump without having to retract the
flight pods, unlike Galactica.
When
Pegasus attempts to rescue two of her lost
Raptors, three Cylon baseships jump into the sector and launch
an attack on the battlestar. This may have been a nod by the
writers, and a red herring to fans, that the
Pegasus was about to be destroyed, as the BSG70
Pegasus was "lost" while facing off against
three baseships in the original series episode
"The Living
Legend" Part 2.
The electromagnetic interference (EMI) from a nearby binary star
helped the Cylons set their trap. In
"Sacrifice", Caprica-Valerii warned
Adama that the Cylons might take advantage of EMI from a pulsar
to set up an ambush in the future.
Garner's sacrifice in the engine room to return the FTL drive
function to
Pegasus is very reminiscent of Spock's sacrifice
to save the Enterprise at the end of the 1982 film
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.
Apollo is promoted to the rank of commander at the end of this
episode so that he may assume command of
Pegasus after Garner's death.
Near the end of the episode, Roslin's whiteboard shows the
population of the fleet at 49,579, accounting for the deaths of
Buster, Shark, Commander Garner, and two unnamed Raptor pilots.
Apparently no one was killed during the three basestars' assault
on the
Pegasus!
Having instituted a ban on abortion in order to keep the human
species proliferating, Roslin tells Sarah Porter she should be
happy with having won that "pound of flesh". The term originated
in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice.
Starbuck is transferred back to
Galactica, and becomes the new
Galactica
CAG with Apollo
now giving up that role to assume command of
Pegasus.
Apollo resents/envies Starbuck's ability to buck authority and
get away with it, telling her he tried it once and almost lost
everything. What is he referring to?
Baltar announces he is running for President at the end of the
episode.
Notes from the audio commentary by Ron Moore on the
Blu-ray release
New, tighter helmets are introduced for the pilots in this
episode. The new helmets are intended to make it easier to see
the actor's face in it.
