Battlestar Galactica (2003)/The Farm

The Farm
Season 2, Episode 5
Airdate	August 12, 2005
Written by	Carla Robinson
Directed by	Rod Hardy
Nielsen Rating	2.0
Fleet Survivors	47,857
← 2x04 Resistance	2x06 → Home (1)
Battlestar Galactica (2003) — Season Two

Resistance is the fifth episode of the second season of Battlestar Galactica, and is the eighteenth episode overall.

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

Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh), Aaron Douglas (Chief Galen Tyrol), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Nicki Clyne (Cally), Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta), Kandyse McClure (PO Dualla)

Guest Star: Michael Trucco (Samuel Anders)

Guest Star: Rick Worthy (Simon)

Guest Star: Lorena Gale (Elosha)

Special Guest Star: Richard Hatch (Tom Zarek)

Cast: Tamara Lashley (Sue-Shaun)

Plot Summary

Cylon Occupied Caprica

Kara wakes up in Caprica Buccaneers pyramid player and Resistance fighter Anders's room, with Anders, and gets dressed. They discuss strategy. The Resistance convoys out into the middle of nowhere and is ambushed by Cylons, an attack which ends with the Resistance troops scattering and Starbuck, shot in the gut, collapsing unconscious next to her truck.

She wakes up in a hospital, suspiciously with lights, power, and supplies, tended to by a doctor named Simon. Simon claims to be part of the Resistance movement. He tells her that she'll be fine, claims that Anders brought her in and then subsequently died on the operating table, and keeps her under heavy sedation.

The Resistance team, led by a most assuredly not-dead Anders, returns to the scene of the battle and finds Kara missing. Sharon reappears, claiming to know where Starbuck is.

During one of her un-drugged periods, Starbuck clandestinely removes the IV and painfully sneaks down the corridor, only to overhear the supposed Resistance doctor talking to someone. That someone is revealed to be yet another Six unit. Distraught, she returns to her room.

Starbuck breaks a mirror in her hospital room and stabs the doctor in the neck, killing him. She escapes down the corridor, only to find a room filled with female Colonials strapped to hospital beds and attached to machines. It is a Cylon breeding farm, and they are attempting to use the Colonial women to breed children. One of them is a friend of Kara's, one of the Buccaneers from 2x04 Resistance, and she asks Starbuck to cut the power to the facility, even though it will mean her death and the death of everyone else hooked up to the machines. Kara reluctantly does it.

Continuing towards the hospital's exit, she encounters a Six unit entering the building. She smashes its head in with a fire extinguisher and gets outside, only to nearly be recaptured by another, identical, uninjured doctor at the bottom of the stairs. She is rescued by Anders, Helo, and the rest of the Resistance team, some of whom are killed in the ensuing battle with Cylon Centurions.

Sharon arrives in what appears to be the Cylon equivalent of a Colonial Raptor, a large Cylon troop-ship, and uses its weapons to take out the Centurions attacking the Resistance.

Boomer informs them that there are many "farm" facilities and that none of them are terribly successful. Starbuck understandably wants to use the ship to go around destroying the "farms", but is convinced that they need to return to the Galactica with the Arrow of Apollo. Retrieving the arrow and saying goodbye to Anders, Starbuck and the others board their ship and take off.

Galactica

Adama returns to duty to a standing ovation from his bridge crew. He orders the crew to quarantine the fleet and search every ship until they find Apollo and Laura Roslin.

Apollo and Roslin are with Tom Zarek, now on the Astral Queen prison ship. Zarek attempts to convince Apollo to record a message denouncing his father, and Apollo starts to do it but is unable to finish. Roslin takes over, "pulling the religion card" and sending a message to the entire fleet claiming that she will lead them to Kobol and do what must be done.

Adama seems mildly unstable throughout the entire sequence of events, asking Tyrol at one point whether or not he loved the Boomer Cylon and musing on whether or not the human-form Cylons are really "toasters" or whether or not they are more human than machine. He sentences Crewman Specialist Cally to thirty days in the brig for a safety violation, unauthorized discharge of a firearm, but nothing more serious.

Astral Queen, with Roslin aboard, signals the fleet to depart for Kobol. Almost a third of the fleet goes with them.

Commander Adama visits Boomer's corpse in the morgue, asking the question "Why?" He breaks down in tears.

Notes

• Simon claims the hospital has 223 patients.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Kara promises Anders that when she returns to Galactica, she'll send a rescue party to Caprica.

• Roslin sends out a message informing the fleet that a signal will be sent out to those who wish to follow her to Kobol. Nearly a third of the fleet jumps.

• A new Cylon is revealed: Simon.

• The Cylons have been unable to reproduce, something they believe God commands of them, so they've resorted to using human women. Helo and Sharon are the only success, believe to be because they love each other.

• Sharon steals a Heavy Raider. She, Kara, and Helo leave in it to bring back the Arrow of Apollo.

Characters

• Kara has become intimate with Anders and developed feelings for him.

• Adama resumes command of Galactica.

• Cally is put in the brig for discharging her firearm.

• It's implied the abuse Kara suffered from her mother was also physical.

• Kara had a sample of her ovaries removed.

Referbacks

• Flesh and Bone: Boomer mentions that Leoben told Starbuck that she was special.

Trivia

The Show

• This episode apparently had trouble getting past the network censors.

Quotes

• Kara: Are you a Cylon?

Simon: What do you think?

Kara: I think you didn't answer the question.

Simon: I am most definitely not a Cylon. Of course, I don't know what you'd expect me to say. If I was a Cylon, I certainly wouldn't admit it.

• Adama: Did you love her, Chief?

Tyrol: Excuse me?

Adama: Boomer. Did you love her?

Tyrol: I thought I did.

Adama: When you think you love somebody, you love them. That's what love is: thoughts. She was a Cylon, a machine. Is that what Boomer was? A machine? A thing?

Tyrol: That's what she turned out to be.

Adama: She was more than that to us. She was more than that to me. She was a vital, living person aboard my ship for almost two years. She couldn't have been just a machine. Could you love a machine?

Tyrol: No, sir. Guess I couldn't.

Adama: Cally discharged a firearm without permission, endangering the lives of her shipmates. 30 days in the brig. Dismissed.

Tyrol: Thank you, sir.

Adama: You'll see her again, Chief.

Tyrol: Excuse me?

Adama: There are many copies. You'll see her again.

• Simon: We have 223 patients at the moment. Two doctors and five teachers masquerading as nurses.

Kara: I know a teacher masquerading as President.

• Simon: Pending lab test results on ovaries, complete removal will proceed tomorrow. They've lab tested positive and subject will be removed to processing facility for final disposition.

Number Six: Is that regret I hear in your voice, Simon?

Simon: If it is, it certainly is none of your concern.