BATTLESTAR GALACTICA EPISODE 3

EP:301 OCCUPATION

Four months into the Cylon occupation of New Caprica, the human settlement is a bleak and paranoid place. President Baltar and a newly created human police force are

mere tools of the all-powerful Cylon Occupation Authority. But the planet’s oppressed residents cling to two frail hopes: that their resistance movement will weaken the Cylons, and that Admiral Adama and his fleet will return to rescue them all.

Kara Thrace has been a prisoner of the Cylon named Leoben since the occupation began. He has confined her to an apartment and treated her with unusual civility. Although she resists him violently, he calmly downloads to a new body whenever she kills him. Her surreally domestic surroundings and his maddening immortalitydrive her to desperation. For his part, Leoben confidently believes that, with the help of his God, he can win over his prisoner’s mind – and heart.

Colonel Tigh, by contrast, languishes in a barren cell until his wife, Ellen, secures his release by sleeping with the Cylon leader. Now missing an eye because of Cylon torture, Tigh swiftly reunites with the insurgency’s leaders, Tyrol and Anders. Tyrol has obtained security plans for a police graduation ceremony, and a disillusioned police trainee, Duck, volunteers to blow himself up at the event. Horrified, Tyrol argues that this act crosses a moral line. Tigh, however, insists that it’s just a military tactic, like sending a soldier out to die on a traditional battlefield. He approves the plan, and Duck begins preparations for his suicide mission.


Far out in space, Admiral Adama presides over a diminished and dispirited fleet. His son, Lee, commander of the Pegasus and new husband of Lt. Dualla, resents his father’s obsession with rigorous training for a rescue mission to New Caprica. Lee refuses to believe the mission can succeed; his father doesn’t dare believe that it can’t.

At odds with his son, the Admiral’s closest confidant has become the Cylon prisoner Sharon, who has slowly earned his respect and trust. Then, in a major breakthrough for their cause, the insurgents successfully radio a hidden Raptor that Adama has ordered to observe New Caprica. Through his tenuous contact, Adama and Tigh reaffirm their determination to rescue the planet’s human population. But this glimmer of hope is overshadowed as Tigh’s grimly determined suicide bomber takes his place among the police graduates – and ignites a tragedy.

EP:302 THE PRECIPICE

The Cylon leaders are frustrated by Duck's horrific suicide bombing, which they perceive as a setback to their noble experiment of living peacefully with humans. As a result, they order the human police to arrest hundreds of suspected insurgents in a major crackdown. Though the insurgency's leaders — Tyrol, Anders and Tigh — miss the round-up because they're radioing the Galactica from their hidden headquarters, Tyrol returns home to the agonizing sight of his baby, abandoned and crying. His wife, Cally, has disappeared into a Cylon prison.

Laura Roslin urges Tigh to stop the suicide bombings. He refuses, and soon another insurgent blows herself up at a power substation. In retaliation, the Cylon leaders force President Baltar to sign a death warrant for two hundred suspected insurgents, including Cally, Tom Zarek and Roslin. At this, both Gaeta and Jammer, former Galactica officers who have collaborated with the Cylons, develop serious second thoughts about their new allegiances. But second thoughts won't be enough to save their fellow humans from the firing squad.

Elsewhere on New Caprica, Leoben brings a special guest to visit Kara Thrace: a little girl named Kacey. He insists that Kacey is his and Kara's biological daughter, a product of Cylon fertility experiments. Kara resolutely ignores Kacey until the toddler is accidentally injured. Then, as Kacey hovers near death, Leoben is glad to see that Kara's maternal concern awaken.

Meanwhile, on the Galactica, Adama dispatches a small team to meet up with Tigh's resistance fighters on New Caprica. Lee objects to such a risky mission, especially because Sharon Agathon, a Cylon, is to lead it. Adama concedes that Lee and the Pegasus must lead the remainder of the civilian fleet deeper into space for their safety, while he and the Galactica will attempt to rescue those on New Caprica. Adama reinstates Sharon as a lieutenant in the Colonial Fleet, and she departs.

Back on New Caprica, Ellen Tigh has another tryst with Cavil. He threatens that Tigh will be arrested and tortured again unless Ellen provides the Cylons with significant information about the insurgency. Terrified, Ellen tells the Cylons about the planned rendezvous between Anders and the reinforcements arriving from the Galactica. With their Centurions about to execute two hundred prisoners and an ambush set to gun down Anders and Sharon, the Cylon leaders are poised to cut out the insurgency's heart.

EP:303 EXODUS PART 1

As Adama (Edward James Olmos) prepares to rescue the human population of New Caprica, Lee (Jamie Bamber) bids his father farewell and takes the remains of the fleet to a safe point to await the outcome of the daring mission. On the ground, things are heating up. Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) leads a rescue team to save Cally (Nicki Clyne), Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) and others from summary execution.

Meanwhile, Sharon (Grace Park) must fight her way out of an ambush set up by the Cylons, who have been tipped off about her arrival. Humans and Cylons alike face agonizing choices. Tigh (Michael Hogan) learns that Ellen (Kate Vernon) has been feeding information to the Cylons. Kara (Katee Sackhoff) must wrestle with her love for Kacey (Madeline Park), her half-Cylon child. And the Cylons grimly ponder their options as they lose control over the humans on New Caprica – the final solution may be to put an end to this misguided experiment in peaceful co-existence by nuking the colony.

Adama’s rescue effort becomes a desperate race against the clock. Sharon infiltrates the Cylon detention center and recovers the launch keys to the human ships. When Adama gets word of her success, he orders Galactica to Jump to New Caprica and engage the Cylon fleet.

EP:304 THE EXODUS PART 2

Panic grips the Cylon high command as explosions rock New Caprica and the resistance leaders rally the human population to rebel against their overlords. In orbit above the planet, Galactica tries to fight off four Cylon base ships, which threaten to tear it apart before it can complete the rescue mission.

This climactic confrontation propels both humans and Cylons toward moments of personal crisis. Lee remains aboard Pegasus, far away from the battle, safeguarding the civilian fleet. Was his decision to preserve the human race the right one, or should he go back and die in battle beside his father? On New Caprica, Laura and Tyrol lead resistance fighters toward the civilian ships that are their only hope of escaping the planet. Tigh (Michael Hogan) agonizes over what to do with his wife, who’s been exposed as a Cylon informant.

Kara becomes separated from her half-Cylon child (Madeline Park), and risks her life to rescue her. Baltar (James Callis) wrestles with the possibility of fleeing the planet with his Cylon protectors, and the Cylon leaders -- D’Anna, Caprica Six and Boomer-- wonder if the moment has come to nuke the humans and move on. As the epic battle hurtles toward its stunning conclusion, all of them will be startled by the twists fate has in store for them.

EP:305 COLLABORATORS

In the wake of the human exodus from New Caprica, there are many scores left to be settled. Without Laura or Adama’s knowledge, a secret jury has been formed aboard Galactica. Made up of Tigh (Michael Hogan), Tyrol, Anders and other members of the resistance, its role is to pass judgment on those who collaborated with the Cylons. There are no lawyers or argument, and a guilty verdict means death.

At the same time, the Cylons have their own jury assembled to determine the fate of Baltar, with the vote hanging on a reluctant Number Six. With all this in motion, Laura and Tom Zarek strike a deal for her to return as president while Zarek stays on as vice-president.

Laura is at first shocked when Zarek admits he set up the secret jury to deal with collaborators. His logic, however, is undeniable: better to deal with this now his way, the quick and dirty way, than to have long trials that could divide the fleet and leave Laura with blood on her hands. But can a quick and dirty “trial” justly decide the fate of people like Jammer (Dominic Zamprogna), who joined the Cylon-organized police force and took part in raids, but also saved Cally from execution?

And how will the jury treat Gaeta, who served under a duplicitous Baltar but, unbeknownst to any of them, was the source of all the leaked information that allowed the insurgency to operate against the Cylons?

EP:306 TORN

On Galactica, divisions begin to appear between those who remained on the ship during the Cylon occupation of New Caprica and those, like Starbuck and Tigh, who suffered under the Cylon yoke on the planet’s surface.

Tigh spearheads the discontent, his faith in human loyalty shattered by the betrayals he experienced on New Caprica. Starbuck, unable to shake off the pain of her long Cylon imprisonment, falls into step with him. After Lee and Kat fail to settle the simmering rebellion, Adama is forced to put his leadership on the line to hold Galactica together.

Meanwhile, in the Cylon fleet, Baltar plays a slippery game with the Cylons in order to persuade them he’s worth keeping alive. When a crisis hits the Cylon fleet and a base ship is infected with a deadly virus, Baltar must prove his worth by volunteering for a dangerous mission.

EP:307 THE MEASURE OF SALVATION

As Adama and Laura debate using biological weapons against the Cylons, Baltar is being tortured by D’Anna, intent on determining who is responsible the virus.

A team from Galactica boards the infected baseship and finds hundreds of dead and dying Cylons. It’s an intelligence windfall. Adama orders the team to tap into the dying Hybrid and to return with the surviving Cylons.

Adama sends Starbuck in to interrogate them. The deal she offers the Cylons is simple: cooperate and you get the vaccine and live; resist and you die – forever. Simon (Rick Worthy) reveals that Baltar is helping the Cylons find earth and Lee gets an idea: if the virus is spread by resurrection, it may be possible to set a trap and use it to destroy the Cylon race. Helo (Tahmoh Penikett) is outraged – this is genocide, the extinction of his wife’s race – but Adama and Laura take the idea seriously.

Meanwhile, the Cylons hold Baltar responsible for the virus and are torturing him for more information. Number Six talks him through the pain, filling his mind first with pleasure and then with a warning. As Galactica’s trap is sprung and the Cylons move in, Baltar must once again choose between his own people and his captors while Helo must decide how far his loyalties will go.

EP:308 UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Adama must confront the darkest moment of his military career when Lt. Daniel Novacek, a pilot believed killed on a secret mission years ago, escapes from Cylon custody and arrives on Galactica.

As Laura (Mary McDonnell) plans to boost morale by celebrating Adama’s (Edward James Olmos) 40 th year of service, the Admiral’s world is thrown into turmoil by the appearance of a pilot he thought was dead. Three years ago, Lt. Daniel Novacek (Carl Lumbly) was believed to have been killed on a top-secret mission in Cylon territory under Adama’s command. Now, after enduring three years in a Cylon prison, Novacek has escaped, stolen a Raider, and made his way to Galactica. His arrival forces Adama to confront his betrayal of one of his pilots and the possibility that his actions may have provoked the Cylon attack on the Colonies. While Tigh (Michael Hogan) stokes the conflict by telling Novacek of Adama’s hand in his fate, Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) uncovers evidence that suggests that Novacek’s escape may not be what it appears to be…

EP:309 UNFINISHED BUSINESS

When the crew gathers below decks to blow off steam in the boxing ring, the fight card is haunted by memories of what happened on New Caprica.

In an effort to clear the air and bring the ship together again, Adama allows the crew to hold a “dance”: an impromptu boxing tournament where rank is forgotten and anyone can challenge anyone else.

But as the fights unfold, with Tigh playing referee and ringmaster, it becomes clear that the ring is haunted by thoughts of the recent past, of the shattered promise of a peaceful life in New Caprica, of the divisions that have emerged within the fleet and on Galactica.

Things take an unexpected turn when Adama challenges Tyrol; both men take their best shots, but the younger and stronger Tyrol has the advantage over his commander. That bout, however, is only a prelude to the main event: Apollo and Starbuck. As they go toe to toe – and as Sam and Dualla watch from the sidelines – the memories come flooding back: the promises made and broken, the feelings that once brought them together only to tear them apart.

EP:310 THE PASSAGE

The fleet faces starvation when the food-processing machinery is contaminated, while Baltar discovers that D’Anna is using the power of resurrection to search for spiritual enlightenment.

When the fleet’s food-processing machinery is contaminated, the threat of starvation looms. Sharon is sent out to find a planet that can supply food for 38,000 people. She finds a planet with a rich supply of algae, but it’s on the opposite side of a massive star cluster and passage will expose people to massive doses of radiation and disable the navigation systems of the civilian ships.

Adama develops a plan to use the Raptors to guide the civilian ships through, but it will take an enormous toll on the pilots. When Kat expresses her concerns, Kara turns on her, while Kat’s old colleague Enzo threatens to reveals dark secrets from her past.

Meanwhile, Baltar discovers that D’Anna is using the power of resurrection to look beyond the physical world. He follows her, hoping to learn more about what she’s doing – and more about himself.

EP:311 THE EYE OF JUPITER

While working on the algae planet, Tyrol discovers the Temple of Five , reputed to be the home of the Eye of Jupiter, which will guide the ones who discover it to Earth. His report is intercepted by the Cylons, who request a meeting with Adama (Edward James Olmos) and Laura (Mary McDonnell). Their proposal: let us have the Eye and we will let you leave unharmed. Adama’s counter-proposal: make any move to take the Eye and we’ll nuke the planet.

The Cylons bring another piece of news: Sharon and Tyrol ’s baby is alive, but not well. Sharon is initially skeptical, but when Adama confirms that Laura hid the baby at her school, she and Tyrol being to make plans to rescue her.

As the standoff continues, tensions rise in both camps. On the Cylon baseship, D’Anna’s sense that she and Baltar share a destiny that might not include the others sows dissension, while on the algae planet, efforts to protect the Eye are complicated by Lee’s simmering affair with Kara, especially since Lee is counting on Anders, Kara’s husband, to rally the civilians to the cause. Then the Cylons launch a flight of raiders, bound for the algae planet, forcing Adama to show he’s not bluffing.

EP:312 RAPTURE

The human-Cylon standoff over the mysterious Eye of Jupiter has reached a breaking point. On the algae planet, D'Anna, Baltar, Brother Cavil, and a team of Centurions prepare to assault the Temple of the Five, where the Eye supposedly lies hidden.

Blocking their way are Apollo and Anders, who must defend the Temple long enough for Tyrol to find the Eye and escape to the Galactica. Tyrol has no idea exactly what he's looking for; he knows only that it's hidden in this sacred building. At the same time, Apollo and Anders are preoccupied with Starbuck, whose Raptor has crashed among the distant hills.

Realizing that Dualla's observation post is fairly close to the crash site, Apollo orders his wife to risk her life to save the woman who may tear their marriage apart. Dualla, furious and sad but ever the good soldier, obeys. She sets out through Cylon sniper fire to reach the downed Raptor, where she finds Starbuck conscious but painfully burned. Dualla must administer first aid and then, with Starbuck's help, repair the Raptor and fly them to safety. Neither woman misses the irony of this forced collaboration.

Meanwhile, on the Galactica, Athena resolves to infiltrate the Cylon fleet and rescue her daughter Hera. She persuades Helo to shoot her, allowing her to die and then resurrect in a new body aboard the Cylon resurrection ship. Helo is left behind to hope not only that his wife returns safely with their child, but also that she remains loyal to the human race no matter what torture or temptations she faces from her own people.

On the planet, the Centurions strike the Temple defenders. In a pair of bloody skirmishes, Apollo and Anders buy all the time they can, but soon that time's up. Apollo orders Tyrol to retreat to the evacuation point and blow up the Temple. Tyrol, reluctant to commit sacrilege, hesitates to comply. His delay allows D'Anna, Cavil, and Baltar to enter the Temple and detach the explosives' detonators. Now the Cylons hold the Temple and the humans are shut out.

At that moment, the sun lets out a helium flash, the prelude to a supernova that will obliterate the planet in less than an hour. Tyrol is stunned to realize that the star looks exactly like an elaborately colored image that he studied inside the Temple. Somehow, the supernova and the Eye are connected — but now D'Anna and Baltar, not Tyrol and Apollo, are in a position to decipher that last, vital clue to Earth's location.

EP:313 Taking A Break From All Your Worries

Gaius Baltar, captured on the algae planet and now imprisoned aboard the Galactica, stealthily knots a makeshift noose as the fleet sleeps around him. Then, urged on by the Six in his mind, he hangs himself. Losing consciousness, he imagines awakening in a new body aboard a Cylon resurrection ship, proving that he was a Cylon all along. The Sixes who greet him there, however, declare that he is human after all — and then they try to kill him. He revives back aboard the Galactica to find that unexpected visit by Felix Gaeta exposed his suicide attempt and saved his life. He's back in his cell, facing interrogation about his knowledge of Cylon operations.

Hoping to make Baltar talk, Roslin pretends to lose her temper and orders him summarily executed for treason. Although Roslin's fury is uncomfortably sincere, Baltar only begs for a fair trial; he doesn't confess Cylon secrets. Adama and Roslin then order Doc Cottle to inject Baltar with a dangerous experimental cocktail of hallucinogenic drugs that the military once tested for use in interrogations.

Meanwhile, Apollo and Tyrol discuss their marriages over drinks at a makeshift bar aboard the Galactica, but later, when Apollo returns drunk to his quarters, he balks at having the same discussion with Dualla. Certain that Apollo loves Starbuck, Dualla believes that her marriage is over.

Starbuck and Anders also confront their similarly dysfunctional marriage. Anders still believes that they fought so hard to be together because they were meant to be together. Nonetheless, he gives Starbuck his permission to go to Apollo — if she truly loves Apollo.

Apollo and Starbuck try to discuss their plight and end up arguing. Though they remain drawn to each other, they aren't able to trust that their future together will be worth destroying two marriages. If they can't commit to a decision soon, however, their uncertainty will cost them both their spouses and each other.

Baltar, lost in a drug-induced hallucination, finds himself struggling to stay afloat in a dark, watery abyss. His only lifeline is Adama's voice. The Admiral stands over Baltar's hospital bed and promises to save him from drowning if he shares information about the Cylons. Terrified, helpless, and physically near death from his suicide attempt and the drugs, Baltar talks.

Freed from the drug-induced stupor, he is taken to a clean, well-lit room for a friendly conversation with Gaeta, his friend and former adviser. Unfortunately for Baltar, he still doesn't say exactly what Gaeta needs — or wants — to hear … and he might find out only too late that Gaeta is no longer his friend at all.

EP:314 The Woman King

Assigned to supervise a burgeoning civilian refugee camp housed on the Galactica's starboard hangar deck, Capt. Karl Agathon faces a restive population, including many Sagittarons. Considered insular and backward by their fellow Colonial citizens, the Sagittarons are used to discrimination — and to fighting back. Worse, the civilian doctor overseeing the refugees, Dr. Mike Robert , diagnoses a number of the Sagittarons with Mellorak sickness . The disease is curable if it's treated within 48 hours. Untreated, it's fatal — and the Sagittarons don't believe in medical care.

To Agathon's frustration, the sickness spreads and refugees start dying, all because the Sagittarons refuse treatment. Then a distraught Sagittaron mother, Mrs. King, tells Agathon that her grown son died even after she allowed Dr. Robert to treat him. Mrs. King believes that Robert murdered her son.

As Agathon ponders the woman's claim, he grows increasingly sympathetic to the Sagittarons' plight — and thus increasingly alienated from his own comrades. Soon, another sick Sagittaron dies after being treated — against his will — by Robert. A riot erupts in the hangar bay as angry, frightened refugees insist that Robert is murdering them out of ethnic hatred.

After breaking up the fight, Agathon takes the Sagittarons' case directly to Colonel Tigh and Admiral Adama. He denounces Robert as a disruptive man and, possibly, a killer. Adama rejects those allegations. Tigh, who came to trust Robert in the resistance movement on New Caprica, then pursues Agathon into the corridor and accuses him of always taking the wrong side in any fight. Agathon, disgusted, strikes his superior officer.

Soon afterward, his daughter Hera falls ill, and Robert cures her successfully. At this, even Agathon's wife Sharon suspects that her husband is overreacting to the Sagittarons' paranoia.

Agathon, however, can't put Mrs. King out of his mind. He secretly inspects Robert's medical files and discovers evidence that, on New Caprica, the doctor discriminated against certain groups: higher percentages of Picons and Sagittarons died under his care than did Capricans. Doc Cottle catches Agathon with the files and dismisses his concerns, even after Agathon begs him to perform an autopsy to see how Mrs. King's son really died.

Stonewalled, Agathon returns to his quarters. In the middle of the night, however, Mrs. King awakens him. She has come to tell him that Lt. Dualla, herself a Sagittaron by birth, is sick — after being treated by Dr. Robert. With his friend's life now on the line, Agathon must take drastic action to stop the doctor — even if it means the end of his own career.

EP:315 A Day in the Life

On the forty-ninth day since the Cylons were last seen, the fleet awakens to a quiet morning. Tyrol volunteers himself and Cally to do maintenance on a damaged airlock, disregarding Cally's plan to spend the day with their infant son, Nicholas. As they work, Cally and Tyrol argue about how to balance the demands of their jobs and family. Then, suddenly, the airlock's systems sense a pressure change caused by a small leak into space. The doors automatically slam shut, locking Cally and Tyrol in. To escape, they must repair the leak — if they can.

Today is also the anniversary of Admiral Adama's wedding to Caroline, Lee and Zak's mother. Though he and his wife loved each other, their marriage failed long ago. Haunted by these memories, Adama struggles to focus on his duties for the day. Most important, President Roslin asks him to assign Lee to supervise a committee of lawyers devising an unprecedented trial for Gaius Baltar.

Adama finds Lee berating his pilots for careless flying — a lecture borrowed verbatim from Adama. Afterward, Lee tells his father that he's too busy to take on Roslin's assignment. He admits, however, that before the military took over his life, he once wanted to be a lawyer like his grandfather, Joseph. Surprised, Adama is forced to consider how little he knows about his son — and how easy it is for personal and familial dreams to die beneath the demands of duty.

Both men are called to their duties moments later when the leak threatening Tyrol and Cally defies repair and starts to expand. With the locked chamber now hemorrhaging atmosphere, the young parents have less than half an hour before suffocation, depressurization, and hypothermia combine to kill them.

Lee, Starbuck and Athena quickly fly a Raptor outside of the ship to the airlock doors. Inside, Adama watches gravely from an observation window as Tyrol and Cally, facing death, renew their commitment to their marriage and son. Then Adama orders the outer doors blasted open. Tyrol and Cally are vented into space, retrieved by the waiting Raptor, and rushed to sickbay.

As Tyrol and Cally cling to life, Lee is debriefed by his father. Adama, who has spent the day meditating on his broken family, is in an unusually open mood. As father and son talk, secrets buried by time and silence arise. This conversation will either widen the rift between the only surviving members of the Adama family — or help to heal it.

EP:316 Dirty Hands

Mid-flight, a Raptor catches fire and crashes into Colonial One. No one is killed, but when impurities in the craft's tylium fuel are discovered, Roslin and Adama demand answers from Zeno Fenner , the foreman on the tylium refinery ship Hitei Kan. Fenner has shut down his ship's production, insisting that broken machinery, unsafe conditions, and sheer exhaustion make it impossible for his workers to do their jobs well.

Although the fleet's fuel supply is now dangerously low, Fenner threatens to disrupt production further if these problems aren't solved. Then he quotes from a subversive new manifesto about class conflict that Gaius Baltar has written and had smuggled out of his cell. In response, Roslin orders Fenner arrested. Adama sends Galen Tyrol to the Hitei Kan to replace Fenner and get the tylium flowing.

Tyrol can't help but empathize with the disgruntled refinery workers. One of his working-class deckhands, Seelix, was recently denied elite pilot training for suspiciously arbitrary reasons; his wife, Cally, even agrees with Baltar's declaration that a new aristocracy of privileged Capricans is systematically oppressing the fleet's working poor. But Tyrol also understands that someone has to do the dirty jobs for the fleet to survive at all.

Torn between these positions, Tyrol coerces the refinery's crew to resume work, but also negotiates with Roslin on their behalf. She proposes that everyone in the fleet with the correct skills should be drafted to take shifts aboard the Hitei Kan so that no one gets trapped forever in an intolerable job.

This solution inevitably creates new problems. One of the draftees, Danny, is a young man who has been chosen only because he briefly worked on a farm to earn money for college. He's understandably scared and angry about his new forced employment.

Seeking better answers, Tyrol reads Baltar's book and visits the imprisoned ex-President. Despite himself, he ends up considering Baltar's subversive ideas. Soon afterward, aboard the Hitei Kan, the rickety gears of a conveyor belt jam, nearly causing a deadly disaster. Danny saves the day, worming his body into the machine to fix the jam. But as the gears clank into motion, Danny is snagged and seriously injured.

Seeing this young man — who once dreamed of a college education — bleeding on the floor of the refinery jolts Tyrol into action. He shuts down the Hitei Kan and declares a strike. His workers cheer, but Adama immediately arrests Tyrol for mutiny — and declares that all mutineers will be shot. This time, Tyrol must negotiate not just for his workers' rights, but also for their lives.

EP:317 Maelstrom

Kara Thrace is unraveling. While asleep, she dreams that she's in her old Caprican apartment with Leoben, struggling to cover up the colorful mandala that she painted long ago. While awake, she hallucinates that a little girl — her younger self — is with her aboard the Galactica.

In desperation, Kara visits a religious oracle, but the woman frightens her by saying that Leoben and even Kara's abusive mother are all part of Kara's great destiny. Indeed, Socrata Thrace, a hard-edged former soldier, had always justified her abuse of her daughter by claiming that she was raising Kara to be a special warrior.

Haunted by these memories, Kara joins Hotdog on patrol. Over a planet swathed in clouds and radiation, she spots a Cylon Heavy Raider. The fleet mobilizes to back her up, but the Raider doesn't appear on dradis and Hotdog never sees it. Undaunted, Kara pursues it toward the planet, straight down into a dangerous swirling storm — which looks exactly like the mandala. Kara gives up the chase and turns back only seconds before her ship breaks up in the dense, turbulent atmosphere.

Later, although some of Kara's fellow pilots doubt that the Cylon ship existed at all, Lee Adama puts his faith in her and refuses to ground her for the incident. Kara struggles to pull herself together, but her hallucinations of her childhood and the mysterious mandala grow worse. Finally, she tells Lee that she doesn't trust herself to fly. Lee insists that she's capable and promises to fly as her backup until she regains her confidence.

On patrol with Lee, Kara again sees the Cylon Raider and again dives toward the mandala-shaped maelstrom. Lee follows, desperate to stop her, but Kara plunges straight into the turbulent heart of the storm.

As the crushing atmospheric pressure begins to rip apart her ship, Kara passes out. She returns as if in a dream to her old apartment, where Leoben greets her and leads her into a vision of her past.

Six years ago, on the day that Kara became a Fleet officer, she learned that her mother had terminal cancer. When Socrata answered her daughter's sympathy with harsh cruelty, Kara fled from her, never to return.

Kara believes that her true reason for running away then was her fear of facing death. Now, with her body trapped in a doomed Viper and her mind lost in visions, she must overcome that fear if she is to be whole.

EP:318 The Son Also Rises

The aftermath of Kara Thrace's Viper crash is a time of mourning for her husband and friends, but the business of the fleet grinds on despite their grief. Most significantly, Gaius Baltar's trial is approaching. Admiral Adama is chosen by lottery to serve as one of five officers on the judges' tribunal, and, as Racetrack prepares to ferry Baltar's lawyer home from a meeting on the Galactica, a bomb explodes aboard her Raptor. She survives, but the lawyer doesn't.

Laura Roslin refuses to let terrorism derail a fair trial for Baltar. She assigns him a new defense attorney: the eccentric Romo Lampkin, who, accompanied by his cat, coolly declares that he was born to handle this case. Admiral Adama reassigns Lee from the pilot squadron to lead Lampkin's security detail. With Kara's death haunting them both, Adama isn't comfortable with his son flying a Viper.

Lee is irritated by his new job until Lampkin mentions that Lee's grandfather Joseph, a prominent defense attorney, was his mentor. Intrigued, Lee supervises Lampkin's first meeting with Baltar, then agrees to accompany the lawyer to Colonial One to collect case files. When the landing signal officer, Aaron Kelly, reminds Lee that his father has forbidden him to fly, Lee rebelliously boards the Raptor anyway.

It's only because Lampkin's cat escapes that Tyrol, pursuing the animal beneath the Raptor, spots another bomb attached to the craft's underside. Lee and Lampkin have barely escaped another attack. Furious, Admiral Adama berates his son for taking irresponsible risks.

Clues indicate that the bomber is a member of the crew, which provokes tension and suspicion among the pilots and deckhands. The only person seemingly unconcerned about the attempt on Lampkin's life is Lampkin himself. He's absorbed in a devious plan to win supporters for Baltar.

First, he meets with Caprica Six and manipulates the Cylon prisoner into confessing her love for Baltar. Next, he confides in Lee, saying that his entire plan is rooted in lessons he learned from Joseph Adama. This conversation cements Lee's increasing desire to walk in his idolized grandfather's footsteps.

The bomber strikes again, and this time, Lampkin doesn't escape the blast. He survives, but he's temporarily confined to a hospital bed. Officially, Lee's job is to find the bomber hidden in his crew. Unofficially, and in defiance of his father, he now believes that he has another calling: to help the injured Lampkin defend the most hated man in the fleet.

EP:319 Crossroads Part 1

Part 1 of 2. Baltar's trial commences, with the prosecution presenting evidence of treason committed on New Caprica amid testimony from Col. Tigh and President Roslin.

EP:320 Crossroads Part 2

Conclusion. Season 3 ends as Gaeta testifies against Baltar about the execution list that the accused signed on New Caprica; Roslin finds a disturbing link between her dreams and the Kobol Opera House.