Lay Down Your Burdens
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Battlestar Galactica episode | |
|---|---|
| “Lay Down Your Burdens” | |
 |
|
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 19 and 20 |
| Guest star(s) | Dean Stockwell as Brother Cavil |
| Writer(s) | Ronald D. Moore Anne Cofell-Saunders Mark Verheiden |
| Director | Michael Rymer |
| Production no. | 219 & 220 |
| Original airdate | March 3, 2006 March 10, 2006 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Downloaded" | "Occupation" |
"Lay Down Your Burdens", Parts I and II are episodes of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series.
[edit] Plot
[edit] Part I
Survivor Count: 49,579
Captain Starbuck is green-lit to lead a group of 20 Raptors back to Caprica to rescue the human survivors led by Samuel Anders. The team utilizes a captured Cylon navigation device wired into the Cylon prisoner Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, to increase the Raptor's jump range which will get them to Caprica in ten jumps. On the first jump however, they lose track of a Raptor piloted by Racetrack, whose mis-jump causes her to land inside a nebula, where a hidden planet is discovered that can support human life.
Back at the fleet, Vice President Gaius Baltar is under stress, finding himself behind in the polls with two weeks until election. Once Racetrack returns with data on the new planet, Tom Zarek considers it an opportunity for permanent colonization. Baltar finds the notion ludicrous until Zarek convinces him to push the idea in his campaign believing the cooped up fleet will support it overwhelmingly. President Laura Roslin suspects the Cylons may already know of the hidden world, and that their stay should only be a temporary "pit stop"; just long enough to gather fresh water and to grow food supplies.
In Galactica's hangar, Chief Galen Tyrol is found after sleepwalking, restlessly asleep on the deck by Cally. He suddenly snaps and physically assaults her after she wakes him from a horrifying nightmare. Later, he seeks help for his problem with religious counselling from a rather sarcastic priest named Brother Cavil. Tyrol explains he dreams of jumping off a hangar bay catwalk to his death. Cavil believes it is Tyrol's subconscious desire to kill himself manifested from a fear that he too could be a Cylon "sleeper agent" like Boomer. When the Chief asks how Brother Cavil can be so certain he is actually human, Cavil sarcastically reassures Tyrol, "Well maybe because I'm a Cylon and I've never seen you at any of the meetings," and then insists that he should return to his duties without worry.
On Caprica, Starbuck's rescue team arrives and locates the survivors. To their dismay, however, what was once a large population of several hundred resistance fighters has since been reduced to a handful of no more than sixty dispossessed and traumatized wanderers. The survivors inform their rescuers that they are being pursued by the Cylons who drove them from their base earlier that morning, but it is too late. Immediately they come under attack, and Part One ends as a hail of gunfire and explosive ordnance crash down around the small group.
[edit] Part II
Survivor Count: 49,550
On Caprica, after Starbuck's rescue team has an 18-hour standoff with the Cylons, they find their enemy has completely withdrawn.
At the fleet, Cally is recovering from her beating by Chief Tyrol. Tyrol comes to apologize, and Cally not only emphatically forgives him but also reveals that she has harbored feelings for him. Roslin secretly meets with Baltar and asks that he table his idea for settling the planet he calls "New Caprica" until after the election. Baltar refuses to Roslin's dismay, then she confronts him about seeing him back on Caprica with the blonde Cylon woman, recalling her deathbed vision. However, Baltar knows she has no proof of this and calls her bluff, stating that while he may have saved her life, he won't save her political career as well.
Starbuck's rescue team eventually returns to Galactica and there, Chief Tyrol notices a copy of Brother Cavil among the Caprican survivors and alerts the guards. The man admits to being a Cylon with a message for the humans and is taken to the brig along with Boomer, since she knew he was a Cylon agent and didn't warn them. Boomer later explains to a dejected Helo that she didn't warn them because she believes Adama killed her baby, so she no longer cares what happens to her.
Roslin meets with the Cylon man, who is joined by his sarcastic twin, Brother Cavil. The Cylon man gives the message, stating that two Cylon "heroes" (a Number Six and Number Eight), have convinced the rest of the Cylons that the attack on the Colonies, along with the pursuit of the fleet, were errors. He states that they thought they could become greater than their creators by stealing their lives and taking their place. Instead, this only made them become what they hated the most; human. They decided to make "other plans" and offer humanity a "reprieve". Roslin and Adama don't believe it, and Roslin orders they be vented into space.
Meanwhile, Starbuck and Anders get themselves "reacquainted" in a bunk room. Commander Apollo enters to introduce himself to Anders, but a drunken Starbuck barely acknowledges Apollo's presence, save to make some very insensitive remarks about his new relationship with Petty Officer Dualla.
As election day comes, Baltar has a 5000 vote lead over Roslin, however the final batch of votes from the Zephyr wins Roslin the election, against all predictions. Lt. Gaeta who was in charge of the ballot counting, spots a major irregularity with the Zephyr's ballot papers and reports the matter to Col. Tigh. Tigh takes the ballot box from Gaeta and then dismisses him. The truth is that Tigh himself, in collusion with Dualla and Tory Foster (Roslin's campaign assistant), has rigged the ballot in favor of Roslin. Gaeta takes the matter to Admiral Adama, who had no knowledge of the vote rigging.
Adama confronts Roslin on Colonial One, and she admits to knowing that Foster was going to rig the vote, although she did not know that Tigh or other Galactica personnel would be involved. She stresses that Baltar cannot become President because he is working for the Cylons and explains to Adama what she saw back on Caprica. Although he has some sympathy with her aims, and has no wish to see Baltar as President, Adama still insists the vote rigging was illegal and cannot be allowed to stand. He is also worried of the effects of such an action upon Roslin herself, telling her that it would "eat away" at her in the years to come.
Roslin reluctantly cedes the victory to Baltar, who duly becomes President of the Colonies. Adama explains to Baltar that the original vote count was a "tabulation error". Baltar, who had believed initially that Roslin would never be so dishonest as to rig the vote, knows that this isn't true. However, he decides to let the matter rest and orders Adama to take the fleet to New Caprica.
Baltar later meets with Gina (the former Pegasus Cylon prisoner) and tells her they can live together at the new settlement, but she says she isn't going. After making love to her, Baltar goes to Colonial One to swear in as President. Gina then sets off the nuclear warhead Baltar gave her terrorist group. The blast destroys Cloud Nine and a few other ships that were near it.
The story then moves one year ahead. The last of humanity has begun to stagnate as the fleet has settled "New Caprica City" (pop. 39,192), which is nothing more than dreary rows of ramshackle structures and tents, surrounding landed spacecraft including Colonial One. Above New Caprica, the remaining larger ships orbit with skeleton crews. These include Galactica where Admiral Adama is now assisted by Helo, and Pegasus, where Commander Apollo is now assisted by Dualla.
A dishevelled President Baltar has turned Colonial One into a messy bachelor pad, complete with prostitutes and drugs. Gaeta works as his aide, although Baltar largely ignores him. As Roslin stated during the election, Baltar is woefully unprepared to handle executive policy of any kind, and the other humans have gradually realized just how incompetent he is.
Laura Roslin has returned to teaching, and works inside a makeshift school assisted by Maya, the foster mother of Isis, (actually Hera, the now one-year-old Cylon-hybrid baby).
Tyrol is now leader of a disgruntled worker union renouncing the deplorable conditions under President Baltar. At his side is a pregnant Cally.
Anders, now married to Starbuck, is currently bedridden with pneumonia. Dr. Cottle has no more antibiotics left to give him, but Starbuck meets Tigh and is told that Apollo has antibiotics stored away on Pegasus for his pilots. Starbuck reluctantly calls Apollo, but neither seem to wish to talk to each other. Before Apollo can reply to Starbuck's call, a fleet of Cylon ships suddenly appears. Admiral Adama wants to stay and fight the Cylons, but Apollo, knowing they are understaffed and outgunned, convinces him to jump away. Adama has all ships jump from orbit, leaving New Caprica undefended. Adama's last words before the jump are "we'll be back."
Meanwhile, the Cylons proceed to invade the human settlement. The Cylon Leoben Conoy is searching for Starbuck, but finds only the bedridden Anders.
Elsewhere President Baltar meets with Cylons Five (Aaron Doral), Six and Eight (Boomer). It's not clear which copies these are (though Six does recognize Baltar) but it can be heavily implied that they are the two "hero" Cylons. Eight says they will not attack, unless the humans resist. Baltar asks how the Cylons found them. Five explains that it was "by accident": they detected the signature of a nuclear explosion a light-year away. President Baltar surrenders to the Cylons on behalf of the people of New Caprica.
Meanwhile, Starbuck, Tigh, Tyrol, and other abandoned Galactica crew can only look on as Cylon Centurions march through the New Caprica settlement. Tyrol asks Starbuck what she wants to do. She replies "the same thing we always do: fight them until we can't."
