Season 4, Episode 3:
The Ties That Bind
It has been three weeks since the Demetrius left the fleet in search of Earth. Kara, Anders, Gaeta and Seelix have been following their star charts constantly, trying to get a fix on Earth's location. However, Kara finds out that many of the crew members are unsure if she's being truthful about her claims. Despite their requests for more clarification, Kara coldly dismisses them and tells them to do their jobs.
Afterwards, she meets with Anders, who reminds her how everyone onboard volunteered to help her. She thinks that he's not being serious and they start arguing about their marriage. Eventually, their anger towards each other dissolves into lovemaking. Later, as they lay in bed, she asks him whether their marriage was real, and says that she feels like an outside observer to herself.
On Galactica, Cally is looking for her husband, and follows him to Joe's Bar after finding a cocktail napkin in their apartment. She finds him having a conversation with Tory (about his loss of identity), but mistakenly believes they're flirting instead and yells at him before leaving. She leaves as Galen chases after her and Tory looks on passively.
Bill is also tending to Roslin in sickbay as she undergoes another round of cancer treatment. He quotes a passage that appears to affirm his feelings towards her.
On Colonial One, Lee is officially sworn in as the Caprican delegate for the Quorum of Twelve. He takes part in a press conference with Roslin where reporters ask questions about the Demetrius, then tells her afterwards that even though they are hiding the true nature of the ship's mission, he still trusts Kara's judgement.
Lee convenes with the Quorum for his first meeting. Tom Zarek, who is the Vice President, tells Lee beforehand that Roslin wants to keep him on the sidelines, and is still harboring a vindictive nature because of his actions during the trial. He eventually convinces Lee to trust him and focus their efforts in finding out what other secrets Roslin has hidden, and leaves behind a docket of classified material for him to view when the meeting breaks momentarily.
On a Cylon Basestar, the first Cavil is resurrected after being shot by the Centurions, and asks for a status report. Another copy of himself says that he's been kicked off the ship in an apparent coup.
On the "rebel" Basestar, Natalie and the dissenting Cylon models are discussing what to. Natalie tells them that Cavil (who has been escorted to the ship by a Centurion) boxed the Three model, which was on a quest to discover a truth about the Final Five. They all agree that Three's model should be unboxed, and despite Cavil's reservations, he goes along with the plan.
Cavil later reports to the dissenting factions that the Three model's consciousness is being downloaded to a resurrection ship and can be visited. However, when the rebel faction arrives at the designated meeting site, they discover that it's a trap. Cavil orders a group of allied Basestars to begin attacking the rebels, despite Boomer's concern that what they're doing is murder…
The Quorum meeting continues with Roslin refusing to answer questions about the Demetrius citing security concerns. Lee attempts to defuse the situation, but Roslin chastises him for acting as her spokesperson and attempts to disregard the issue. The Quorum goes into an upheaval, with Zarek using his executive power to allow Lee to speak. Lee accuses Roslin of using an executive order during the trial to form a tribunal and trying to consolidate power. The Quorum erupts in rage at Roslin, who unsuccessfully tries to bury it as a topic.
In the Tyrols' apartment, Galen tries to prove his innocence to Cally. She refuses to hear any of it, and goes to the sickbay for sedatives to help her sleep. When she returns to the apartment, she finds a note asking to meet at a weapons locker, and follows Galen assuming that he's cheating on her.
She hides in a maintenance tunnel and listens as Galen meets with Tigh and Tory, and is shocked to the core to discover that her husband is a Cylon when Tigh mentions it. As they continue their meeting, Cally knocks a plate, which causes the assembled group to split up and leave preemptively. Cally runs back to her quarters, but not before Tory discovers a panel jarred loose near the meeting room.
When Cally arrives back at her apartment, she confronts her husband and accuses him of using her to bear a hybrid child. She strikes him with a wrench and knocks him unconscious, then steals a key from him and flees with Nicholas to the launch tubes, intending to kill herself and her child.
Once there, she goes to activate the launch tube airlock, but is stopped by Tory, who manages to calm her down and explain that she and Galen only recently discovered they were Cylons. She takes Nicholas from Cally, then suddenly knocks her unconscious.
When Cally wakes up, Tory is on the other side of the airlock with Nicholas, and vents her into space using the launch controls.
Soon after, Bill hears the news about Cally's body being found outside the airlock, and delivers the news to a motionless and silent Galen…
Tropes:
- Bait the Dog: Tory convincing Cally not to commit suicide with her baby seemed like a good deed. Knocking her out, taking her baby, and then launching her out the airlock did not seem like such a good deed.
- Berserk Button: Cally accusing her husband of simply using her to bear a hybrid child, then beating him with a wrench.
- Book Ends: The romance (and eventual marriage) between Galen and Cally began and ended with one of them beating up the other (Tyrol in a confused rage in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I", and Cally with a wrench in this episode).
- Break the Cutie: Cally loses it after finding out that her husband is a Cylon, and beats him into unconsciousness with a wrench and tries to kill herself and their infant son in response.
- The Bus Came Back: Sekou Hamilton (one of the press corps members) returns after being absent for nearly two seasons.
- Driven to Suicide: Cally tries to do this along with her child when she finds out that Tyrol, Tory and Tigh are Cylons.
- Four Lines, All Waiting: The plot focuses on several plotlines, including Lee's role as a delegate, the Demetrius searching for Earth, the rebel Cylons and Cally's discovery of the Final Four.
- Heel–Face Turn: The "rebel" Cylons, who go against the other Cylons and decide to unbox the Three model.
- He Knows Too Much: Cally, which causes Tory to airlock her.
- Heroic BSoD: Tyrol sits in stunned silence when Bill breaks the news of Cally's death.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Nicholas, who is rescued by Tory before Cally tries to airlock herself.
- Interrupted Suicide: Cally attempts to send herself (and her baby son) out of the airlock when she finds out that Tyrol is a Cylon. Tory discovers her as she's doing the deed, stops the airlock, and kindly talks Cally out of it. She then inverts it horribly by taking the child away and forcing Cally out the airlock alone.
- Killed Off for Real: Cally.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Cally mistakenly assumes that her husband is cheating on her when she finds him having a conversation with Tory in Joe's Bar. In her attempt to find out what's really happening, she discovers an even worse truth: her husband is a Cylon.
- Relationship Upgrade: Boomer is revealed to be in a relationship with Cavil.
- Sherlock Scan: Tory deduces that someone has eavesdropped on the Final Four meeting because a tile is out of place in the room.
- Shout-Out: The Final Five meet in a weapons locker with the designation 1701D.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Kara and Anders's argument devolves into them angrily having sex.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Tory does this to Cally after stopping her from doing it to herself and taking Nicky with her.
- Time Skip: It has been three weeks since the end of the last episode.
- Two-Fisted Tales: An in-universe version. Bill reads a book to Roslin called Love and Bullets, which includes a murder mystery in Caprica City.
- Wham Episode: With the Enemy Civil War between the Cylon factions reaching a head, and Cally's death at the end.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Several of the Quorum members from prior seasons (including Sarah Porter and Marshall Bagot) aren't present when the Quorum reforms in this episode, and their whereabouts are never mentioned.
