| "Litmus" | |||
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| Battlestar Galactica episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 6 |
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| Directed by | Rod Hardy | ||
| Written by | Jeff Vlaming | ||
| Original air date | UK: November 22, 2004 US: February 11, 2005 |
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| Guest stars | |||
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Donnelly Rhodes as Doctor Cottle |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| Episode chronology | |||
"Litmus" is the sixth episode of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series. In the episode, after a Cylon suicide bomber gains access to Galactica, an independent tribunal is appointed to investigate. The inquiry comes to focus on the relationship between Chief Galen Tyrol and the Galactica copy of Boomer, who is still a Cylon sleeper agent. When Commander William Adama is called before the tribunal, he disbands it, calling it a witch hunt. Tyrol ends his relationship with Boomer when one of his subordinates is jailed following the inquiry. On Caprica, Helo rescues the Caprica copy of Boomer as other Cylons look on and conclude he loves her.
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In "Water", Galactica-Boomer unknowingly sabotaged Galactica's water supplies and placed explosives on a Colonial Raptor; Tyrol covered for her in both instances.[1] In "You Can't Go Home Again", Colonel Saul Tigh ordered Tyrol to end his relationship with Galactica-Boomer, and Caprica-Boomer was seemingly captured by Cylon Centurions.[2]
A Number Five copy boards Galactica with a group of civilians and detonates a suicide vest, killing three people and wounding 13. Adama grants the Galactica master at arms, Sergeant Hadrian, broad authority to investigate the infiltration and the other recent security breaches. Despite her concerns that Hadrian's inquiry may become a witch hunt, President Laura Roslin announces the appointment of the tribunal and discloses to the public for the first time the existence of the humanoid Cylons.
At the time of the explosion, Tyrol was meeting secretly with Galactica-Boomer despite Tigh's order. Three deckhands, Cally, Jammer, and Socinus, provide Hadrian with conflicting, false accounts of Tyrol's whereabouts during the bombing. Tyrol also lies to Hadrian during her investigation.
Starbuck speculates that the Cylons were targeting Gaius Baltar's secret Cylon detector project. Head Six later confirms this to Baltar but insists he continue the project, threatening him physically.
At the tribunal, Boomer lies about her relationship with Tyrol and her whereabouts during the bombing. Hadrian tells Tyrol that a hatch leading to a small arms locker, where a Marine guard was found dead, was found open. Boomer told Tyrol earlier that she used this hatch to reach their meeting place, but Tyrol lies, saying he had no idea how the hatch could have been left open. Confronted with the deckhands' contradictory statements, Tyrol invokes his right against self-incrimination. Socinus confesses to leaving the hatch open deliberately to aid the Cylons and insists that, "whatever happened, it was me," and Tyrol had nothing to do with it.
Adama and Roslin discuss the tribunal's report. Adama expresses doubt regarding Socinus's testimony. Roslin intuits Tyrol is hiding something, but Adama remains confident in him. Hadrian calls Adama before the tribunal and accuses him of compromising the ship's security by allowing Boomer and Tyrol, whom she describes as "Cylon agents", to continue their affair. Adama refuses to participate further in the inquiry, calling it a witch hunt. Hadrian orders the Marines to return Adama to the witness chair, but they instead obey Adama's order to confine Hadrian to her quarters. The inquiry is closed despite a tribunal member's protest that Adama lacks the authority.
In a press conference, Roslin attributes the open hatch to negligence by Socinus and announces that he has been imprisoned. This moves Tyrol to confess the truth to Adama. Despite Tyrol's insistence that Socinus lied to protect him, Adama refuses to release Socinus, saying he committed perjury one way or the other, and demands better conduct from Tyrol. Tyrol meets with Boomer and ends their relationship. He asks whether she left the hatch open; she refuses to answer.
Caprica-Boomer's apparent capture is revealed to be a ruse to test Helo's feelings for her. As Boomer watches with a Number Five and a Number Six, Helo heads for Cylon forces to attempt a rescue, confirming to the Cylons that he loves her. The Five and Six beat Boomer so Helo will think she struggled. Under cover of night, Helo destroys a Centurion and "rescues" Boomer as the Five and Six look on.
On his blog, executive producer Ronald D. Moore asks, "Was it wrong for Adama to dissolve a legally constituted judicial tribunal... simply because he sensed it becoming a witch-hunt or was he actually protecting the larger concepts of justice?"[3] as one of a series of difficult political questions he felt Battlestar Galactica asked during its first season. He poses the question as one for valid debate and does not suggest an answer.[3]
Amanda Keith of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group compares Tyrol to Adama. Though Tyrol runs a tight deck, he also has a soft spot for his subordinates, as evidenced by his toleration of his deckhands' illicit distilling. Like Adama, he also inspires profound loyalty; hence what Keith calls Socinus's "boneheaded move".[4]
Susan A. George writes that the narrative of Tyrol being involved with a deceptive, dangerous woman (Boomer) and being nearly destroyed by her fits into the tradition of film noir. In George's view, Boomer threatens "male authority and the hierarchical command order".[5] Commenting on the scene in which Six chokes Baltar, threatens that he must finish the Cylon detector, and then kisses him, George observes a "mix of sadism and eroticism... characteristic of the femme fatale."[5]
Simon Brew of Den of Geek praised the episode, calling Adama's refusal to release Socinus and insistence that Tyrol bear the consequences of his bad actions "quality writing and thinking".[6] Susan Tankersley of Television Without Pity gave the episode an F, calling the tribunal "hamfisted" and commenting, "The fact that [Hadrian] was very nearly right [about Tyrol and Boomer] is completely overshadowed",[7] a point Keith echoed. Keith said the episode has "some surprising gems" but is overall "largely flawed".[4] Writing retrospectively in the middle of the series's second season, Jacob Clifton of Television Without Pity said he liked the episode, comparing it favorably to the second-season episodes "The Farm", "Final Cut", and "Scar"; he gave the last of these an A-.[8]