Season 2, Episode 13:
Epiphanies
In Galactica's sickbay, a near-comatose and hallucinating Roslin is quickly wheeled in. The prognosis is grim—despite being in intensive care, her spreading cancer gives her just days to live at most.
At the same time, Doc Cottle reports seeing several abnormalities in the blood of Sharon's unborn child, causing Roslin to tell Bill that Sharon's pregnancy should be terminated because it's a danger to the Fleet. Although Baltar tries to interject by stressing how valuable the child is, Roslin is firm in her stance, and Bill breaks the news to an angered Helo.
At the same time, Roslin experiences flashbacks to her life before the attack on the Twelve Colonies. She learns that she has cancer, then goes to attend a meeting with President Richard Adar, who she has been having an affair with. While Adar says that Roslin is a valuable member of the cabinet, her methods of dealing with the Colonies' educational alliance have forced him to ask for her resignation. Roslin tells him that she refuses to do it until she returns from Galactica's decommissioning ceremony, and leaves his office. On her way home, she glimpses Baltar and Number Six kissing near a well.
In the present, Kara and Kat are testing the weapons systems on their Vipers when one of the guns malfunctions, shooting off a piece of shrapnel that nearly destroys Kara's windshield. After they arrive back on Galactica, Tyrol analyzes the gun and concludes that it was sabotaged, leading Lee (who was promoted back to Captain of Galactica's air wing) and Kara to investigate the matter.
Their investigation leads them to a worker in Galactica's armory, Asha Janik. After being detained for questioning, Janik declares that she is part of an underground movement, Demand Peace, which wants to ally with the Cylons. They subsequently discover the leader of the movement, Royan Jahee, and have him arrested in an attempt to stop the movement. After Jahee's arrest, another ship is sabotaged—this time, a vital refueling ship that is damaged by a suicide bombing.
With Head-Six urging him to protect Sharon's child, Baltar is given a tour of Colonial One in preparation for his control of the Presidency, and is given a letter that he is told should only be opened after her death. Afterwards, he visits Gina onboard Cloud Nine, where she is hiding out. Gina informs him that she has joined Demand Peace, but bites Baltar's tongue when he attempts to kiss her, as she is still traumatized from the sexual abuse she suffered on Pegasus.
On Galactica, a group of Marines arrive and try to take Sharon for the operation, but they are confronted by an armed Helo, who tells them and Adama to reconsider their actions. When it looks like the situation may escalate, Baltar intervenes and explains that he has made an incredible discovery about the fetus - its fetal blood will destroy the cancerous masses within Roslin's system. The abortion is scuttled and the blood is transfused into Roslin, who begins to recover.
Afterwards, Baltar is convinced by Head-Six to open Roslin's letter, and discovers that he should think more about others than himself. He is offended by her response.
At the same time, Jahee is released by Roslin, on condition that he stop his attacks. Jahee goes to Cloud Nine and visits Gina, who is in hiding after shooting Admiral Cain and working with the movement. Although she's doubtful about the movement's legitimacy, Jahee reveals that Baltar had pledged his support and provided them with a special gift—a working nuclear warhead from his lab.
Tropes:
- Applied Phlebotinum: Hera's stem cells magically cause Roslin's cancer symptoms to lessen.
- Clark Kenting: Gina's cover among Demand Peace includes a pair of glasses, her hair done up in a ponytail, and a black dress.
- Continuity Nod: The warhead Baltar gives to Demand Peace is the same one that was used to detect who was or wasn't a Cylon in the Fleet.
- In a flashback President Adar tells Roslin that one of the interesting things about being President is not having to explain yourself to anyone. Roslin mentioned this in an earlier episode, and quotes him again when giving orders to terminate Sharon's pregnancy.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Or at least reduced it somewhat. It seems everyone involved forgot to mention that President Adar had offered an unconditional surrender during the attack on the Colonies, which the Cylons ignored. At the very least it would've disrupted the Demand Peace movement as they debated whether it was true or not.
- Hypocrite: The Demand Peace movement decries the Galactica crew for "jeopardizing the Fleet" with alleged military heavy-handedness… by jeopardizing the Fleet with sabotage on Galactica and an act of terror that damaged a critically important mobile tylium fuel refinery ship.
- Magic Antidote: The fetal blood comes across as this. There was originally a plan to have a longer explanation involving how the blood affected the cancer, but it was cut for time, as the producers believed it would be too much Technobabble for audiences.
- Mama Bear/Papa Wolf: Sharon and Helo are, understandably, very distressed by Roslin's order that their baby be aborted. Sharon attempts to fight off the marines who come for her with a chair and Helo almost draws his sidearm on Adama during a confrontation in the halls, only stopping due to Baltar's timely intervention.
- Near-Death Clairvoyance: Roslin recovers an all-but-forgotten memory of seeing Baltar with Number Six on Caprica as she comes close to dying from the cancer abscesses. As she has a picture of Shelly Godfrey from last season in her "Known Cylon Agents" folder, she now realizes the significance of this.
- Necktie Leash: Head-Six grabs Baltar by his tie at one point when he calls her insane for suggesting he use the nuclear warhead in his lab as capital to gain power. To the guards standing nearby it just looks like Gaius grabs his own tie.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Helo attempts to stop the Marines from getting access to his wife (and making her have the operation to abort their child), to the point that he threatens to pull his sidearm on them. Only the intervention of Baltar, who proposes another option, stops the confrontation before it escalates into bloodshed.
- Suicide Attack: Members of the Demand Peace movement use this as their modus operandi, in a blatant case of Irony.
- Tongue Trauma: Done in self-defense, as Gina bites Baltar's tongue when he tries to kiss her. He wisely backs off after that, especially when he gets his own blood on his fingers.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Jahee and the rest of the Demand Peace movement other than Gina never appear again for the rest of the series, although it's likely that they were killed by Gina's detonation of the nuclear device in “Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2”.
