Please be aware that this post contains detailed spoilers for episode 19 (4.21) (”Daybreak Part 1”) of the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica so do not read on if you have not seen the episode and do not want to be spoiled

One Sentence Review

A flashback heavy episode that sets things up for the final showdown

Plot Summary

The episode opens with a series of flashbacks to events on Caprica before the Cylon attacks.  It starts with Adama trying and failing to get out of doing something for an hour. We then see Baltar with Caprica 6 in a stretch Limo and Baltar getting a phone call which upsets him and causes him to change his plans. We then cut to Roslin and the end of a baby shower for one of her sisters. It then moves to Starbuck and her meeting Lee for the first time when he visits her and Zach.

The flashback moves back to Baltar and Caprica 6 and we discover the phone call was from his fathers nurse who has been stabbed in the hand by him (his father). He has an antagonistic relationship with his father and we find out he was telling the truth about coming from Aerilon and changing his accent. We then move back to Roslin and see her getting a visit from the police who inform her that her sisters and her father have been killed in a traffic accident by a drunk driver. After clearing up the remnants of the previous nights party she leaves the house and goes to the central square where she enters the water feature and gets drenched by the fountain. This forms a segue back to Roslin on Galactica in the present.

On the hanger deck we see Lee co-ordinating the dismantling effort, and agreeing to leave the dismantling of the launch tubes for the end of the process. In Adama’s quarters we see him packing up his things into boxes to go to his quarters on the basestar. Events shift to Baltar and Paula and we find his support has grown significantly and his followers are a majority on half the civilian ships in the fleet, head 6 appears before him and tells him the end times are approaching and he will be the author of humanities final chapter. We then go back to a Baltar flashback and we see him entering his house with an attractive woman and finding Caprica 6 there. As he gets ready to call the police she tells him that she has found a new home for his father and that he (his father) loves it.

Back on Galactica we see Starbuck with Anders trying to make sense of the music notes. It then cuts to the bridge and Hoshi trying and failing to clear up a spillage and Tigh saying he will never make Admiral like that. It then moves to the brig and Helo talking to Tyrol and Tyrol being very bitter about the 8s saying you can trust any of them.

Events move to the colony and we see Hera continuing to draw stars. We find out that she has not been eating and Cavil orders her to be fed intravenously. Boomer tries to stand up for Hera but her views are dismissed and Simon gets ready to insert the drip.

On Galactica Adama runs into Hotdog who is moving the pilots photographs from the memorial wall to ensure they are not left like some have been. As Adama inspects the remains of the wall he comes across a picture of Hera with Athena, as he walks away he stops comes to a decision and turns around and picks up the picture. On the Hangar deck Baltar is arguing with Lee, trying to get a seat on the council for his followers, Lee agrees to give Baltar 5 minutes to make his case. We then move back to Adama who is with Starbuck and Anders, Starbuck admits that what Baltar said was the truth and that she does not know who she is to which Adama responds that she is his daughter. Adama then gets Starbuck to plug Anders in so he can ask him a question. We then see a flashback of Anders on Caprica getting interviewed and he says he plays not for the stats or prizes but for getting moments when he can feel the perfection of creation. We then see his ramblings are linked to the flashback and Adama gets Starbuck to ask his question.

Events move back to Lee and Baltar, and after a heartfelt appeal from Baltar Lee rejects him due to Baltars track record and not being able to trust him Baltar agrees with Lee and tells him that he would not trust him either. We then cut to a flashback of Lee on Caprica recovering from a drunk night out and trying to chase a pigeon out of the house. As we move back to the present on the hanger deck, Adama appears with Starbuck and he starts to put a line of red ducttape down the centre of the deck. Adama then announces that he knows where Hera is, and we see peoples response to the news and find out that he will be launching a volunteer only rescue mission. We see Helo talking to Athena and we see that Athena has lost hope and thinks that things wont be alright to which Helo responds that she is wrong.

We then get another Roslin flashback (about 3 months later) and see her  talking to someone on the phone and refusing to join Adars presidential campaign and agreeing to go on a date with a Shaun Ellison and thinks the name sounds familiar. Events cut to the present and we see her put her wig on and move from her bed.

On the Hanger deck Adama makes a speech asking for volunteers for his mission and tells people who want to volunteer to go to the starboard side of the red line, everyone else to the port. We see most of the notable characters volunteer, Cottle tries to volunteer but Adama does not let him as the fleet cant afford to lose a doctor. Baltar looks like he is agonising over the decision with his followers looking to him but eventually stays where he is to the port side, the scene ends with a frail Roslin arriving to volunteer. We see that only about a fifth of the people volunteered.

We then see a the scout raptor recon mission and find out that the co-ordinates are near a black hole, but they find the cylon colony. In the mission planning session we find that there is only 1 safe spot to jump which the Raptor found due to cylon ships jumping in while they were taking recon pictures.

My Thoughts and Speculation

When this episode is watched as a stand alone episode it does not quite work due to the flashbacks  not making sense due to not seeing the whole of the picture (part 1 of 3). It is also curious that Adama opens the flashbacks but we do not discover what he is trying to get out of. This episode is obviously primarily a set up piece for the final battle that is to come, and I think it is a safe assumption that galactica will not survive the fight.

One of the main feature of this episode where the flashbacks and it is unclear why they are in the episode, one possibility going back to earlier in the season is that these may indicate who is going to die next week as they seem to be linked to the peoples family and I thought back to the early season 4 episode faith and what was said there. If that is the case things do not look good for Adama, Lee, Starbuck, Baltar and Roslin (well Roslin is a shoe in for certain death anyway). Out of the flashbacks the most informative one was Baltars where we discover he was telling the truth in his broadcasts about originally being from Aerilon and changing his accent. I just hope that we dont go the soap opera melodramatic route and have Roslins blind date be the person who killed her family in the traffic accident.

Aside from being fairly certain the Roslin and Galactica will die, I am also fairly sure that Baltar will have a change of heart and volunteer, it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if he had been standing on the starboard side to begin with. I was half expecting him rather than Adama to be the one that helped Roslin over. It also looks likely that there will be a reconciliation with Caprica 6 if he does so as well given the pleading looks she was giving him. It was surprising that inner 6 did not appear to him to help him cross the line.

The volunteer scene was also good in that most people did not volunteer, normally they have a cliche seen in which most people or everyone does, but this time it was only around a fifth of the people who did. Adama’s refusal of letting Cottle join is another indication that he views it as a suicide mission, since if he thought there was any hope of survival he would have wanted someone of his caliber on board to treat the injured. The only unanswered question is did Adama have enough people left to crew the Galactica, and also will any of the cylons want to join him as it appeared that there was a fairly short gap between the initial announcement and the call for volunteers. Note by cylons I am not just referring to “skinjobs” but also centurions as they are also sentient to some degree. Though that side of the story and the centurions themselves seem to have been forgotten.

While I doubt everything can be wrapped up next week, I do have faith that a satisfying conclusion will be reached, it just a pity that RDM did not see fit to go for a fifth season to wrap things up in, rather than four which has left too many threads under-developed though hopefully some will be resolved through TV Movies and the spin off series.

Episode Rating

7/10 – At least when watched as an individual episode may improve when the conclusion is shown