Season 4, Episode 9:
The Hub
Onboard the Rebel Basestar, the Hybrid is reconnected and immediately jumps the ship away from Galactica and the rest of the fleet.
Roslin experiences several visions as the ship jumps. She sees herself walking in a corridor and is greeted by priestess Elosha, her late spiritual advisor who died on Kobol. Roslin warmly greets her and asks what's going on. Elosha and Roslin walk through Galactica to its sickbay. They see Roslin lying in grave health on one of the beds, and surrounded by Dr. Cottle, Bill, Lee and Kara, before the vision ends.
The Hybrid is stabilized and a copy of Eight reports that it was in distress due to something that happened to Natalie aboard Galactica. The Eight then says that the Hybrid is following the Resurrection Hub, and that they should plan out their attack strategy.
Afterwards, Helo and Roslin meet in private. She asks him to bring the unboxed D'Anna directly to her after they secure the Hub, and not to the other Cylons. Meanwhile on the Hub, Cavil and Boomer unbox D'Anna, who is understandably confused about the situation and the ongoing Cylon civil war.
On the Basestar, the Viper pilots and Cylon pilots (including several copies of Sixes and Eights) agree to put aside their differences and trust each other so they can finish the mision. Elsewhere on the ship, Baltar tries to question the Hybrid to little success. Roslin watches as he storms off in frustration, but the Hybrid suddenly shouts out that D'Anna has been unboxed and jumps the Basestar again to the Hub.
Cavil and Boomer are alarmed by the arrival of the rebel Basestar. They ask D'Anna to calm the rebels down, but she threatens to reveal the names of the Final Five instead. When Cavil realizes that the rebels are going to destroy the Hub, D'Anna breaks his neck while Boomer runs away in fear.
The rebels deploy squadrons of Heavy Raiders and Vipers, which begin attacking the Hub and its defending Basestars. They destroy the Hub's FTL drive, and Helo and a copy of Eight dock with it using a Raptor. Elsewhere, a Raptor pilot is heavily damaged and jumps back to the fleet as he's hit with fatal weapons fire in his cockpit.
A missile explosion hits the rebel Basestar in the area Baltar is in, seriously injuring him in the process as well. He is brought to the Basestar's sickbay and given treatment, but tells Roslin in a morpha-fueled haze that he was the one who gave the Cylons the access codes before the fall of the Colonies. Hearing this, she angrily tries to let him bleed out, but changes her mind after she has another vision where Elosha asks her to have mercy on him. She rebandages him and saves his life.
Helo and the Eight disembark the Raptor and find D'Anna, then bring her back to the Raptor. Once they leave, he orders the Vipers to destroy the Hub. They fire nuclear missiles into the Hub, destroying it and one of the defending Basestars.
D'Anna is brought to Roslin despite the Eight's objections. When asked about who the Final Five are, D'Anna says that she will only reveal it once they're back with Galactica and the Fleet, and that the subterfuge was a waste of time because she'd have said the same thing if the rebel Cylons were present.
In space, Bill is reading his book when the Basestar jumps back in. He grins with happiness and lands in the ship's docking bay. Roslin meets him and admits that she loves him. He tells her that it's about time, and they hug.
Tropes:
- Big Budget Beef-Up: The battle of the Resurrection Hub takes up a substantial part of the episode.
- The Bus Came Back: D'Anna returns after being "boxed" in the previous season.
- The Cameo: Lorena Gale as Elosha, who returns posthumously after dying in "Home, Part I".
- The Comically Serious: The Centurion that Baltar speaks to says nothing and remains completely stoic... though it does do a Quizzical Tilt, providing some mild humor and a little characterization for an otherwise completely emotionless robot.
- Contrived Coincidence: Cavil and Boomer unbox D'Anna at the same time that the Colonials and rebel Cylons are about to attack the Resurrection Hub, which, as Helo notes to Roslin, means they don't have to go to the trouble of finding her a body when they retrieve her before blowing the Hub. The Colonial-rebel alliance forces know this ahead of time because the rebel Basestar's Hybrid reveals D'Anna is back.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Vipers make short work out of the Hub's defenses, eventually nuking it and one of the defensive Basestars.
- Foreshadowing: When the Basestar catches up to Bill's Raptor the constellations seen through the window include Orion, Taurus and Gemini, indicating that the fleet is closing in on Earth.
- The Gadfly: D'Anna Trolls Laura by telling her she's one of the Final Five and letting her sit with the knowledge for several seconds before admitting she's just saying it to screw with her.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: D'Anna lampshades the Eights' tendency towards this by quipping that Boomer will be loyal to Cavil "until she sees something shiny".
- I Lied: Cavil responds this way when the newly-downloaded D'Anna reminds him that he said she'd never go through the process again. D'Anna quickly counters that he genuinely believed it at the time and is lying now.
- Last of Her Kind: As D'Anna notes to Laura, she is now the only copy of Number Three left in the universe, since there was no time to unbox the others before destroying the Resurrection Hub.
- Macross Missile Massacre: The Vipers destroy the Hub with a salvo of nuclear missiles.
- Metaphorical Marriage: Laura's visions culminate in Bill taking off his wedding ring and slipping it onto her finger as she flatlines.
- Moral Myopia: Cavil angrily comments that the rebels are going to commit "mass murder" by destroying the Resurrection Hub, despite being part of the race that orchestrated the massacre and destruction of the Colonies and also massacring hundreds of the rebel Cylons in a sneak attack recently.
- Must Make Amends: Roslin saving Baltar's life after initially making him bleed out from his injuries.
- My Greatest Failure: Baltar still harbors guilt for allowing the Cylons to obtain his defense grid codes before the fall of the Colonies, and tells Roslin as such.
- Neck Snap: D'Anna breaks Cavil's neck after hearing the Hub is going to be destroyed, making all Cylon deaths permanent. Unfortunately, Boomer did have time to download him before escaping.
- Nuke 'em: The Colonial-Cylon alliance destroy the Resurrection Hub this way.
- Quizzical Tilt: The Centurion Baltar speaks to does this while Baltar is comparing it to a dog waiting for a treat from its master.
- Relationship Upgrade: After three and a half seasons of a friendship that blossomed slowly but surely into the love of a lifetime, Laura Roslin finally comes clean with her feelings for Bill Adama:Laura: I love you.
Bill: About time. - Spirit Advisor: Elosha, who appears in Roslin's visions.
- The Day the Music Lied: When D'Anna tells Roslin that she's one of the Final Five there's an appropriately dramatic music cue...which fizzles out as D'Anna starts laughing because it's not true.
- What You Are in the Dark: Roslin almost goes through with letting Baltar bleed out, in anger over him revealing he was responsible for everything happening... but decides to redress his wounds and let him live.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The plot shares many similarities with "Resurrection Ship, Part II", including a joint military operation being conducted, the two sides having a tenuous alliance, a Cylon resurrection facility being attacked, and at least one side planning to double-cross the other.
