Plot

A vicious injury ends the mutiny attempt aboard the Demetrius, Kara leads her crew to the Cylon rebel's Basestar, and Roslin begins to understand Gaius Baltar's appeal to his followers. Meanwhile, Anders attempts to secretly find answers to his purpose as a member of the Final Five.—Kevlar01

Helo has relieved Starbuck of command but not everyone agrees and Lt. Gaeta is shot. A compromise is reached and Starbuck, Athena and Anders take Leoben to see if his story checks out. They follow Leoben's coordinate and find space filled with destroyed Cylon ships. Satisfied that Leoben has been telling them the truth about the Cylon civil war, they decide to connect the Raptor's FTL to the Basestar and return to the Demetrius. Before they can do so, one of the Number 6's recognizes a member of the crew and takes her revenge. When Starbuck meets the ship's Hybrid, she doesn't understand the message entirely but it's apparent that they must find D'Anna Biers and the Final 5 if they are to find Earth. Back at the fleet, President Roslin is suffering from the effects of her cancer treatment and has long conversations with another patient, Emily Kowalsky, who is a convert to Gaius Baltar's monotheistic preachings.—garykmcd

Last time on Galactica: Leoben (Callum Keith Rennie), Kara Thrace's (Katee Sackhoff) biggest fan/psychological torturer on New Caprica, met up with the Demetrius -- Kara/Starbuck, specifically -- to propose a truce between the Rebel Cylons and humans so that everyone can find Earth, live happily ever after, and eat cheese. Or some such.

In order to do that, Kara would have to jump to the Cylon Baseship and have a wee chat with the Hybrid. That sounded fine to Kara but the rest of the crew was not having it. Thus commenced a good old fashioned Mutiny on the Space Trash Scow. At the last moment of last week, Helo (Tahmoh Penikett), Starbuck's XO, was relieving crunchy Cap'n Thrace of her command.

Which drops us into this week's episode which opens, appropriately, with Kara's response: "You son of a bitch."

No doubt, say the true believers at home. Let's see, she gets visions, she explodes into nothing and resurfaces alive and unharmed and ready to lead the troops to Earth... ye gods, what does a woman have to do to get a witness around that place?

Starbuck being Starbuck, she offers to hit the jump coordinates herself and darts for the switch -- but before she can complete the task, she's restrained and Athena (Grace Park) puts her in a headlock. Helo calls for the Marines to come in and escort her into confinement. Seelix (Jen Halley), who needs the littlest reason to become extra surly, takes Starbuck's guns.

"You're wrong Helo, you're so gods-damned wrong!" Starbuck growls, but Helo will not be moved -- he decides it's better to take Leoben and his proposal back to the fleet. Kara warns him that he's throwing away their last chance to find Earth. Sam (Michael Trucco), meanwhile, is watching all of this in disbelief and mounting anger, and reminds them that they're going to go back to Galactica as mutineers -- how would Adama deal with that? Helo says he's comfortable with letting Adama sort everything out, and orders Gaeta to re-enter the coordinates to rendezvous with Adama's fleet. Seelix declares she's comfortable with airlocking Kara's "cylon ass."

And believe it or not, that's when everything gets frakked.

Sam tells Gaeta (Alessandro Julliani) to abort the jump and raises his gun. Gaeta keeps on going. Sam busts a cap and shatters Gaeta's shin bone! He starts yelling that Captain Thrace is in charge here goddammit, and let her go! Gaeta's saying frak a frakload! The viewers at home see the bones in his leg! Starbuck plugs the wound with space coagulant and jabs some morphine into his thigh! Blood! Confusion! Mass hysteria!

The Marines, standing off on the sides until now, cart Gaeta off to a bunk. Helo tensely asks is Starbuck's plan is to give orders at gunpoint, and she sagely observes, ya know, he's probably right -- risking everyone's live on a gut instinct, probably not the best idea. Instead, she proposes that the Demetrius jumps to the fleet, while she and Leoben jump in a Raptor to the base ship. Sam volunteers to go with her, which is probably a better idea than leaving him at the scene of his most recent crime.

But in a surprising turn of events, Starbuck asks that Athena join her too. Athena speaks their language, Kara explains, and can smooth the way if everything goes sideways. Seelix says, "Hell yeah -- let the Cylon go." Way to be a team player, Seelix!

Athena, in spite of Helo's protests and the little fact that she's been badmouthing Starbuck for the entire stinky little mission, agrees. Helo protests that the Raptor doesn't have enough fuel to make the jump and the return trip. No, says Starbuck...but the base ship does.

Helo asks Hot Dog (Bodie Olmos) what the latest time is that they can leave and still meet up with the fleet. The answer is 15 hours and seven minutes, "and that's cutting it really close."

Helo tells him to set the countdown clock. "We'll be waiting here until the clock runs out."

And the credits roll!

Survivor count: 39,675. Mathias, we hardly knew ye. It's never a good thing to be a recognizable bit player in this series. Keep reading and you'll see what we're talking about.

Back on Galactica, Tory is helping Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) pack up her documents. Roslin has two more treatments to go, but it looks like she's barely hanging on -- and she's completely bald. She tells Tory (Rekha Sharma) that she's going to be needing her a lot more in the coming weeks, because...and she starts to cry...she's not quite sure of what she's doing. The President's voice breaks, but she regains composure and tells Tory to keep a keen eye on everything that comes across her desk. Tory -- who, if a reminder is needed, is a Cylon -- assures her that she'll do her best.

The Demetrius. Kara, Athena and Leoben are boarding the Raptor. Starbuck tells Leoben that if it's a trap, he dies first. Then she asks Athena if she needs to watch her back with her, but Athena gives Kara her word.

When Athena gets up and walks past Leoben, he tells her, "It'll be like a homecoming for you. The other Eights talk about you all the time." This jars Athena; she tells another crew member to keep Leoben away from her. It's Barolay (Alisen Down). Kara tells her she didn't ask for volunteers, but Barolay corrects her -- she did just that, back on Galactica. And she's with Kara to the end.

And we're back...to another secondary character, Gaeta, who desperately needs medical attention, and he knows it. Gaeta's not looking so hot, and he tells Helo that he knows that every minute they spend floating around in that gigantic staph playground makes it more likely that he won't survive the journey. Helo tells him they're not going back to the fleet before the last window he gave Starbuck. Sorry, old chap!

The Raptor jumps to the base ship coordinates...and it's littered with the remains of Cylon fighters and war ships. It looks like they weren't lying about a civil war, Athena says. Starbuck says she hears music, and Leoben explains that a certain harmony vibrates all around us. Few can hear it, he says, and Starbuck's one of them.

Starbuck, looking more excited, says she can feel that this is the place she's supposed to be. Athena glumly asks if she has any idea of where they're supposed to go -- and that's when she sees a comet from one of her paintings. It's the base ship, she says, halfway laughing through teary eyes. This is what she was meant to see!

Then the proximity alert goes off, and one of the nearby wrecks explodes, sending debris hurtling at the Raptor and cracking its window.

Everything goes to a blur...and then, we see Kara awaken, her forehead bloodied.

Pulling back to the exterior -- they're on the base ship. Athena is examining the Raptor's hull, when a crowd of Eights/Sharons walk up to her. They call you Athena now, one says, and reverently tells Sharon that she was the one who informed their plan. It was she that joined the humans, had a child, and proved to them that they can go against their programming, the lead Eight says. But Sharon is more creeped out by them than anything else. It's only when they ask a favor of her that she gets angry: Leadership under the Sixes has proven disastrous, they said - and say, now that you're here, will you help us lead a mutiny against them?

(Wow. Why didn't Sci Fi mention that this was All Mutiny Friday?)

Athena's not having it. You pick a side, she says, and then you stick. "You don't cut and run when things get ugly. Or else you'll never have anything - no love, no family." Well, dang. That's downright moving. The speech has its desired effect. She tells them to either help her or get out of her way. They let her by.

Galactica. Roslin is in sick bay with another, far worse off patient who is loudly wailing. She goes over to see the woman, who is listening to the radio. And what should be playing but Gaius Baltar's (James Callis) Traveling Gospel Hour! Roslin offers to turn it off, but the woman bellows no, telling her in so many words to shove off. Shock.

Later the woman apologizes, offering Roslin a scarf. They joke about what color she wants her hair to be when it grows back. Then the woman warns Roslin, quite seriously, that her condition is going to get a lot worse.

The Base Ship. Natalie/Six (Tricia Helfer), the head of the faction, is not pleased to see Kara and the other humans on board. She snarls at Leoben that she's put up with his model's obsession with Starbuck, and she agreed that the rebel Cylons should seek an alliance with the humans but really, this is too much. She suggests they take the Raptor and its jump drive, but Kara reminds her that the Cylons have no idea what to do with them -- and Leoben stresses that the only way to find Earth is to let Kara talk to the Hybrid. Delay any longer, he warns, and the Cavils and the other Cylons will find them.

The Sixes reluctantly agrees to work with them. Athena goes over the watery control system to speak with the ship, as Sam watches with interest. She puts her hand in the water, and relays that the Raptor can jump the base ship if they slave the Cylon ship's nav systems to the Colonial's. However, the Hybrid is damaged and has to be taken off line. Natalie protests, saying that taking the Hybrid off line might blind the Hybrid, even kill it. But as Starbuck reminds them, they don't have much of a choice.

Meanwhile Sam lurks near the watery system, surreptitiously reaching towards it to see whether his Cylon side hooks up with it -- but his wife interrupts.

Athena orders Barolay to grab cables from the Raptor to hook the base ship to it, and tells one of the platinum blonde Sixes to assist her by finding a specific communications cable. Sam says he's going to stay back in the control room.

At the Raptor, as the two of them are pulling out the necessary equipment to connect the two ships' systems, the Six reminds Barolay that when the latter was an insurgent on New Caprica, Barolay killed her. Barolay cockily shrugs it off, offering to do it again.

Not a smart response.

Enraged, the Six slams Barolay's face repeatedly against the wall of the Raptor, crushing the bridge of her nose. Barolay stands dazed for a moment before collapsing to the ground -- dead.

Allow us to pause here and point out that there are three things a character should never, ever do in a science fiction series if they intend to be around for the long haul:

a) Wear a red shirt. (Too easy, but true.)

b) Start telling a story, then offer to finish it "once we get back from this easy-peasy mission." If you don't know what I'm talking about, rent "V."

c) Declare their undying love/loyalty to somebody else, and say they're going to be there until the very end.

Now, back to our story: Sam and the rest run in to see what happened, and with Athena drawing her gun to cover him, thrashes the Six and puts his pistol to the back of her head, execution style. Sam intends to kill her, although it's unclear whether, as one of the Final Five, he actually can.

(See the Hybrid's speech that is lovingly transcribed in the synopsis for "Six of One.")

Natalie/Six comes in to see Sam arguing with Starbuck; he wants to kill the Six to avenge Barolay, she wants him to stand down. After finding out what occurred, Natalie/Six agrees to mete out justice herself. The platinum blonde Six sadly talks about how it felt to die, and how horrifying it was, then tells Natalie, "I'm glad it's you."

Natalie kisses her sister before putting her hand over Sam's and pulling the trigger. As they all get over the shock Natalie reminds them that there's no resurrection ship around, which means that Six is just as dead as Barolay.

Finally...they get to the Hybrid (Tiffany Lindall-Knight), who is busily speaking in non-sequiturs. "...Repressurizing. The children of the one reborn shall find their own country. Intruders swarm like flame. Like the whirlwind. Hope soaring to slaughter all their best against our hulls."

Kara announces her presence, but the Hybrid continues. "Replace internal control accumulators four through 19. They'll start growing ripe on us pretty soon. Compartmentalize integrity conflicts with the obligation to provide access. FTL synch fault stands uncorrected..." Then, perhaps to Kara, "No ceremonies are necessary."

Galactica, sick bay. The woman, who we find out is named Emily (Nana Visitor), tells Roslin that she voted for her in the last election, and she doesn't like the way Baltar talks badly about her. The reason she listens, she says, is that a near-death experience changed the way she thought about her faith. She says she had a dream in which she was crossing a river, and on the other side waited all of her family that had died. At first she was afraid, she said, but she felt a warm presence hovering all around her that told her not to be scared. Roslin counters that lots of sick people have vivid dreams like hers, but Emily is insistent. She was there, she said. Cut to: A scene of Emily, standing on a boat, staring out at the water. She felt it, she says, the cool breeze, the spray from the bow. Maybe Baltar has stumbled onto something, she offers. He talks about the river that separates our world from the next, that there's more to our existence than we can see with our eyes. That there's a power we can't begin to understand. Roslin looks intrigued.

And...back on the base ship, as a Centurion stands nearby, the Hybrid natters on. "Then shall the maidens rejoice at the dance. Structural integrity of node seven restored. Repressurizing. The children of the one reborn shall find their own country. End of line. Reset." And so it goes....

"I don't understand," Kara said. The Hybrid throws in more technical jargon until she busts out with, "The obstinate toy solder becomes pliant. The city devours the land. The people devour the city...."

Leoben tells Kara, "You can't hurry here. You have to absorb her words. Allow them to caress your associative mind. Don't expect the fate of two great races to be delivered easily."

The Hybrid is now repeating: "Intruders swarm like flame. Like the whirlwind. Hope soaring to slaughter all their best against our hulls." Flash back to the Demetrius: The clock is down to four hours. Time is running out for the away mission...and for Gaeta. The Hybrid continues: "All these things it wants and many more. Not because it wishes harm, but because likes violent vibrations to change constantly."

Enter Athena, announces that ship is rigged and ready to go. Time to pull the Hybrid off line. She asks if Starbuck has gotten anything from the Hybrid, and Kara whispers, "Not a frakkin' thing."

Frustrated, Starbuck says to unplug the Hybrid so they can leave. Natalie/Six glances at one of the Eights, giving her the go-ahead. The Eight bends to the floor, removes a panel, and grabbing a cable that looks like a combination of wire and veins, pulls it apart.

The Hybrid begins to scream.

This rouses the Centurion, who shoots the Eight. Athena and Starbuck pour bullets into the Centurion until it goes down. Meanwhile, the blood of the Eight is dripping into the Hybrid's bath, as it continues to scream and stare at nothing.

Starbuck leans over it and says, "What do you want from me? Please...I need you."

With that, the Hybrid stops, looks directly at Kara and smiles, meaningfully. It raises its hand out of the goo surrounding it, putting it on Starbuck's cheek and proceeds to utter the following words, which hearken to pivotal past scenes -- and can we just say it had better damn well amount to something or this recapper's going to have a stern talk with Ronald D. Moore?

"Thus will they come to pass. A dying leader will know the truth of the opera house. The missing three will give you the five, who have come from the home of the thirteenth. You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will bring them all to their end. End of line."

Having dropped that massive bomb of guilt on poor Starbuck, the Hybrid fades out.

Back on Galactica, the cancer patients continue to talk, Roslin's gods facing off with Emily's concept of the afterlife. Emily questions the belief of the Gods handing out people's fate arbitrarily. Roslin remembers, with tears and terror, her mother's slow death, and her realization that there were no fields of Elysium stretched out before her, that it was nothing but darkness.

Emily offers Roslin her hand, and comforts her with the idea that Roslin's mother wasn't afraid of all that -- Roslin was. Emily offered that nobody really knows what's out there, and it is at that moment that pain wracks her body to the point of convulsions, and Dr. Cottle comes in to sedate her. He tells Roslin that the only thing to be done is to make Emily comfortable. Roslin leans in and gently touches her forehead to Emily's before leaning back, crying and clutching Emily's scarf tightly.

On the base ship: Leoben, Natalie/Six, Athena, Sam, and Starbuck stand over the dying Eight. Natalie is horrified that she doesn't seem to see them any more, but Sam explains that she's looking past them. "I've seen that many times," Sam says, "but never in the eyes of a Cylon." The Eight says to Athena that she was right, and begs her forgiveness. She reaches out to take her hand, and Athena moves to touch her, but ultimately pulls back. After seeing this, Sam leans in and tells her it's OK...and she dies. The rest begin to talk about what the Hybrid meant when it said, "The missing three will give you the five, who have come from the home of the thirteenth."

Natalie solves part of the puzzle: The home of the thirteenth is the home of the thirteenth tribe of humans -- Earth.

Starbuck responds, "And the five...is your final five." If they came from the home of the thirteenth, that means they know how to find Earth.

So, what about the three? What did they mean? Of course: D'Anna. Natalie/Six puts it together: She can recognize them!

Sam suddenly looks very worried. As the rest of them leave the room, he stays for a moment to contemplate the dead Cylon on the floor.

Galactica: We see the ship from Emily's dream, only this time Roslin is on it with her. Emily smiles and says, "We're here!" On the shore across from them, her family is waiting. Then Emily disappears from the boat, and Roslin sees her running to her loved ones on the shore. Then Roslin sees something else -- her loved ones, including an elderly woman in a blue suit smiling brightly. Roslin looks relieved.

"Mother. You're OK," she whispers, before adding, "I'm not ready."

The Demetrius: The countdown has hit a minute. Helo is pacing, agonizing as he stares at the scanners, but he instructs the crew to prep for jump. The clock runs out, then starts to ascend as they move into time overdue. Helo begins the countdown to jump. Five! Four! Three!!!...then, a massive flash. It's the base ship. Athena hails them. "The baseship is ours," she says. "Mission accomplished." Wonder how Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) is going to react to seeing that."

Galactica: Roslin goes to the Admiral's quarters, and as he scowls and drinks his whiskey, he asks how she can believe the bull Baltar is spinning. Roslin replies that she just feels that something is changing. Adama doesn't seem so sure, but he does acknowledge the various changes: Kara dies, then comes back to life unscathed. Lee turns in his wings. "Helo, Athena, Gaeta, will I ever see those kids again?"

Roslin reassures him that they're going to find Earth. Together.

"I used to think Earth was just a bad dream," Bill whispers. "I used to use it as a carrot for the fleet."

"What made you change?" Roslin asked, and Bill smiles, wider that we've ever seen him.

"You," he said. "You made me believe."

Previous synopsis:

While on board the Galactica, President Roslin (Mary McDonnell), undergoing her cancer treatments, encounters a young woman named Emily (Nana Visitor) who is dying of cancer in sickbay. She challenges the President's views on faith after she shares a dream that leads to her listening to Baltar's (James Callis) sermons that are broadcast every day. Meanwhile on the Demetrius Helo (Tahmoh Penikett) leads a mutiny with most of the crew following him, until Anders (Michael Trucco) shoots Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) in the leg. This snaps Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) to her senses and she takes Athena (Grace Park), Leoben (Callum Keith Rennie), Anders and crewman Barolay (Alisen Down) to Leoben's baseship. When they arrive they decide to make a truce with all of the cylons on board so that the cylons can escape death and so Starbuck can see the hybrid. The hybrid tells her that she is the harbinger of death, and that D'Anna Biers (Lucy Lawless) needs to be unboxed so that she can identify the final five cylons who can lead them all to Earth. While on board the baseship Anders begins to try and understand his connection with the cylons and becomes unsettled when they begin talking about D'Anna being able to indentify the final five