Battlestar Galactica (2003)/No Exit

No Exit
Season 4, Episode 15
Airdate	February 13, 2009
Production Number	4A17
Written by	Ryan Mottesheard
Directed by	Gwyneth Horder-Payton
Fleet Survivors	39,556
← 4x14 Blood on the Scales (2)	4x16 → Deadlock
Battlestar Galactica (2003) — Season Four

No Exit is the fifteenth episode of the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica, and the sixty-eighth episode overall.

Edward James Olmos (Admiral William Adama), Mary McDonnell (Laura Roslin), Katee Sackhoff (Kara "Starbuck" Thrace), Jamie Bamber (Lee Adama), James Callis (Dr. Gaius Baltar) (credit only), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Grace Park (Sharon "Boomer" Valerii)

Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Chief Galen Tyrol), Michael Trucco (Samuel Anders)

Guest Star: Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh)

Guest Stars: Donnelly Rhodes (Dr. Cottle), Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster)

and Dean Stockwell (John Cavil)

Co-Starring: John Hodgman (Dr. Gerard)

Cast: Kerry Norton (Medic Layne Ishay), Darcy Laurie (Dealino)

Plot Overview

As Tyrol is assigned to repair Galactica's foreboding wear and tear, the bullet in Anders's brain unleashes a flood of memories that reveal the connection between the Final Five and the other Cylons.

However, everyone is unaware that the opposing faction of Cylons have been hiding Ellen since her resurrection about a year ago. And she has secrets to reveal as well.

Notes

Prologue

• This has all happened before

And it will happen again

The Cylons were

Created by Man

They rebelled

Then they vanished

Forty years later

They came back

They evolved

50,298 Human survivors

Hunted by the Cylons

Eleven models are known

One was sacrificed

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• The Thirteenth Tribe abandoned resurrection technology after they began to reproduce. Each of the five were warned by a man and woman, respectively, only they seemed to be able to see. The five then reinvented resurrection. After their Cylons attacked, they were reborn on a ship in Earth's orbit. They then left to warn the Twelve Colonies to treat them well, but they were travelling at relativistic but subluminal speed. By the time they got to the Colonies, they and the Centurions were already at war. They had successfully made hybrids, but nothing that could live on its own. The Final Five made the deal with the Cylons to end the war and they would help them make humanoid models.

• The Centurions from the Colonies believed in a single God. This is what the Final Five believed could be the component that change everything and stop the cycle of violence.

• The Final Five created eight humanoid models. Number One was the first, named and physically modelled on Ellen's father. He grew to be jealous of the Number Seven model named Daniel. He contaminated the amniotic fluid which were maturing all the copies, corrupting the genetic formula, destroying the entire model.

• Cavil has known about the Final Five the entire time as he eventually had them killed, boxing them before he began planting them in the Colonial society, Tigh being the first followed by Ellen.

• Following the destruction of the hub, Cavil demands information on resurrection technology, which she insists was the product of all five of them. He doesn't believe her and he opts for surgery to find the secrets in her brain.

• Before he's carted off for surgery, Sam warns Tigh to stay with the fleet and that the miracle is "starting to happen."

• Facing reinstating a new Quorum, Lee notes that they've become defined by their ships and not the planets they came from and a new Quorum should reflect this.

• The damages Tyrol found are discovered to be far more extensive than thought. Tyrol offers a Cylon technology, an organic resin that the basestar is made of. Once applied, it will grow into the metal, eventually taking the load as it matures. Adama is initially dead-set against it, but eventually gives Tyrol the okay to apply it.

Characters

• It's revealed that Ellen resurrected after Tigh poisoned her. She's initially horrified upon seeing her surroundings before she calms down and remembers everything.

• Adama reinstates Tyrol as Chief as he oversees the repairs to Galactica.

• Caprica-Six is now living in Tigh's quarters.

• Roslin intends to maintain title as President, but will relinquish duties to Lee.

• According to Sam, Tyrol and Tory were madly in love and were planning on getting married.

• Boomer is let in on Ellen's presence and her nature. However, as she's supposed to bring Ellen in for surgery, she takes her out in a Raptor and jump away.

• The bullet in Sam's head gives him access to information before his Colonial life. However, Cottle pressures Kara the importance of having it removed. She delays it in hopes that he has the answer for her. The bullet is removed and he'll live, but Kara is told there's no brain activity.

Referbacks

• The episode begins by flashing back to Ellen drinking from the poisoned cup Tigh gives her in "Exodus" part 2.

• The point-of-view from the Cavil's basestar with Ellen is taken through the algae planet that housed the temple that revealed the faces of the Final Five to D'Anna ("Rapture") and the destruction of the resurrection hub ("The Hub").

Trivia

The Show

• Number Seven shares his first (if not only) human name with that of Daniel Graystone, the man who created the Cylons on the Twelve Colonies about 60 years ago, as revealed in the prequel series Caprica. In fact, although the DVD of the pilot episode had yet to be released as of this episode's airing, Graystone's name, among other details, had been circulated, which lead to some speculation about a connection between the two. In his podcast, Moore acknowledges this, but does not elaborate.

• In the prologue, the seven Cylons models are shown in order of not necessarily their appearance, but the order of their revelation in the series.

Behind the Scenes

• Very shortly after this episode aired, fan speculation ran rampant that Daniel/Number Seven was tied to many of the then unsolved mysteries in the show, specifically that he is Kara Thrace's father. Although Ron Moore allowed such theories to flourish without commenting, this was the exception, as he felt that it had gotten out of hand (referring to it as the "Cult of Daniel") and would detract such proponents' perception of the series finale, officially debunking in his podcast for the episode "Islanded in a Stream of Stars" that the the absent Cylon has any connection to the series' answers. The character's use, as Moore explained, was to both explain the gap in the model number, as well as provide a piece of Cavil's backstory, likening it to the story of Cain and Abel.

Quotes

• Ellen: Tell me more about this rapport you have with John.

Boomer: He's teaching me to be a better machine, to let go of my human constructs.

Ellen: What about the swirl? Has he taught you that yet?

Number One: If you'll excuse me, I have some people to kill.

Ellen: Why, John, I think you're blushing.

Number One: No, it's just the faulty blood pressure in this miserable body you've designed for me.

• Tigh: You heard what he said, right? The Centurions couldn't build skinjobs, so we showed them how, then gave them resurrection. It all traces back to us.

Tyrol: No, no, no. He said we ended the first Cylon War. We bought time for humanity, right?

Tigh: The Old Man said humans had to own up to what they made, but we made the skinjobs. It's all about what we made. The destruction of the Colonies.

Tory: But the humans on Kobol made us. Go back far enough, it's always them.

Tigh: Yeah, you point a finger back far enough and some germ gets blamed for splitting in two. No. Maybe we share the guilt with the humans, but we don't get to just shove it off onto them.

• Ellen: I know what you did to Daniel.

Number One: That Seven didn't thrive. Sad. And it's too bad we're not made out of something more sturdy. Metal - that might be nice.