Battlestar Galactica Episode 2:17 The Captain’s Hand
Guest Star: John Heard as Commander Garner
“The engine room is like finely tuned watch and everything in it needs to be monitored and maintained in a very precise fashion. Nobody freelances. Everything is done in the proper way, at the proper time, in the proper order….” Commander Garner.
Previously on Battlestar Galactica
Lee is shot during the rescue attempt at Cloud 9 Lounge, Dualla is by his side. The Pegasus Six encourages Baltar to betray Roslin and run fro President in the next election. Pegasus has lost two Commanders in a matter of weeks.
Start of the Episode
Pegasus
Raptor Training Exercise
Two Raptors leave Pegasus on a training exercise. The Raptors are getting interference on her Dradus system caused by a binary system. The decide to put some distance between them and the fleet.
Lee and Dualla cuddle up in her quarters. Dualla asks Lee if he is ready to go into the belly of The Beast, which is Pegasus. Adama has sent Lee to serve as the CO for the new Pegasus Commander Garner, and to serve as a buffer between Garner and Starbuck, the acting Pegasus Pilot Training Officer. Also, Lee has been promoted to Major.
On the flight deck, Cally and the Chief hear a weird noise in a transport vessel. Chief decides to go in and check it out. He discovers a teenage girl stow away who asks if it’s the Galactica. She is looking for Dr. Cottle.
Back to the Raptor training, the Raptor picks up a weird distress call. The try to send a messages to the Pegasus, but it comes in gargled. The Pegasus engineer tries to decipher their call, then the Raptors disappear off the Dradus screen.
Opening Credits
Population Count: 49,584
Lee arrives on Pegasus and is greeted by Starbuck. The meet up with Garner, who tells them that the just lost two Raptors on a training mission. Starbuck is shocked and Garner says if she was down at the flight deck she would know that they had pilots missing.
Starbuck confronts her pilots about why no one informed her about the missing Raptors. A pilot informs her that they are not allowed to tell anyone outside of Pegasus crew about flight deck situations. Starbuck is annoyed and yells some more. She asks whose idea it was and she figured out it was Garner. She calls Garner “barely competent and paranoid.”
Garner and Lee discuss Starbuck. Lee almost sticks up for her… almost. Garner talks about how the engine room guys (Snipes) are not treated the same as pilots, who are fly by the seat of their pants glory hounds. He says that the engine room is like a finely tuned watch. Says that everything needs to be run with precision or the whole thing falls apart. He tells Lee that he thinks the fly boys can learn a thing or two from the snipes.
President Roslin looks longingly at a picture of Billy. She is approached by her new aid Tory for a campaign meeting. Tory gives her a Poll, and Roslin acts excited. She says that Roslin has a lot of support. Roslin quips that it helps that her only rival is a convicted Terrorist.
Quick cut to Tom Zareck, our convicted Terrorist, talking about his political chances versus the prophet/politician Roslin. He says he can’t win, but maybe you can… quick cut to Baltar. Baltar acts hesitant, and Zareck tries to entice him more. Zareck says he wants to back a man of conviction, who remembers his friends.
Lee shows up on flight deck. Starbuck and some of the pilots make disparaging remarks about Garner. Lee starts yelling at them, tells them to focus on the missing pilots. They need to come up with something. Lee wants to know everything about the missing pilots.
The stow away girl is in Dr. Cottle’s office. Seems she’s pregnant but wants to terminate the pregnancy, but the Geminese have issues with abortion. Adama questions Cottle about his abortion practice. Adama questions the girl. The girl is adamant about the abortion. Adama tells her that her parents have contacted him. She is scared to go back to them. Cottle prompts her to apply for asylum, and she takes his suggestion. Adama grunts unhappily.
Commercial Break
Roslin political meeting. The Gemini ambassador is pissed. She wants the girl sent back. She thinks abortion is obscene and says Roslin will lose their support if she supports it. Roslin discusses the political ramifications with Tory, how she won’t outlaw abortion, then Tory leaves. Adama says “she’s not Billy.” Adama decides to remind Roslin of her “we need to start having babies” speech after the Cylon attack.
Starbuck is trying to come up with something on the missing Raptors. She checks out the pilots last radio transmission. She believes they may have received a distress call. Lee and Starbuck bring her suggestion to Garner. He refuses to listen to her. He seems to have heard about her “barely competent and paranoid” comment. Garner confines Starbuck to her quarters.
Lee confronts Starbuck in her quarters. They discuss her being a problem everywhere she goes. . He yells a bit. Starbuck wants to know what his problem is. He says his problem is her. She says he life is hard, and he makes a quip about being shot (by her, of course) she cries and he looks all sad.
Another Raptor goes out looking for the missing Raptors and picked up a distress signal. Lee brings it to Garner, tells him it may be a trap. Garner decides that this is Starbuck’s theory, so he decided that it’s bunk. Garner wants to jump the ship. Lee tells him that he thinks it’s a Cylon trap. Garner doesn’t really care.
Commercial Break
Garner contacts Adama. Adama thinks it may be a trap. Garner wants Lee to back him up, but Lee says he thinks it’s a trap too. Adama wants to send a recon mission, instead of the whole Pegasus. Garner kicks Lee off the deck.
Roslin talks to Baltar about the abortion issue. She asks him about population predictions. Baltar says that the population will be extinct if they stay on the course they are. Roslin then goes on the radio saying she is outlawing abortion. She is teary eyed in doing it.
Back on the Pegasus, Lee and Starbuck finds out that Garner is going to jump anyway. He sends Starbuck to join the pilots. He confronts Garner who says he is going to save his men, despite orders. Lee tries to get him relieved from duty, and Garner wants Lee removed from the deck. They both yell at the poor Security goon, until he makes a decision…. and removes Lee.
Gaeta informs Adama that the Pegasus jumped. Adama grunts unhappily.
The Pegasus jumps to clear space, and finds two Raptors. Upon inspection, the birds seem intact, but the pilots are dead. Suddenly, three Cylon Base ships jumped into range, and launch nukes….
“Oh, my gods.” — Commander Garner
Commercial Break
Pegasus is in a killer battle. They are getting hit but nuclear detonations, and their FTL drive is knocked out. Starbuck and the Vipers take on the Cylon raiders. The security goon releases Lee and he returns to the deck to find things in chaos and Garner screaming to his engine room crew. Lee questions Garner. Garner decided he needs to go down to the engine room and turns over the ship to Lee. Lee quicky takes charge, giving orders. Pegasus jumps into action with the Vipers covering them.
Lee has the Pegasus focus on one of the Cylon base ships. They fire at the ship, and score a hit.
Garner is down in engineering. There is a hull breach and someone needs to go and stop it to get the FTL drive on line. Garner is the only one who will do it. He orders them to close the hatch on him
The Base ship is running, but the other two are coming hard. They are getting their ass handed to them Without the FTL drive they are screwed.
Garner is trying to fix the breach, but he is losing oxygen quickly. Garner is working on the last valve, banging away, losing strength. With his last bit of energy, he turns it, and seals the hull. The FTL drive is working. Garner is not (he’s dead folks).
Lee calls back the Vipers, and preps the jump. Starbuck lands on Pegasus, and they jump.
Lee is in Adama’s office. Adama notes that Lee is kind to Garner while Starbucks was a bit more harsh. Adama asks Lee what he thinks Garner’s flaw was. Lee says that he was used to working with machines, and command was about people. Adama tells Lee to remember that. Then he promotes Lee to command of the Beast.
Lee is touched.
Roslin is confronted by the Gemini ambassador for not prosecuting the stow away girl. The ambassador is all upset. Roslin says the law was in place after the girls abortion. Roslin tells her to bug off.
Starbuck says that Lee is screwed. Starbuck is now the Galactica’s CAG. They shake hands. Lee tells her that he was mad because she bucked authority and getting away with it and when he tried to buck authority he almost lost everything. The joke and hug. Best Friends Forever.
Roslin holds a press conference. She says she will lose some ground in the polls because f her decisions. Baltar interrupts. He starts off defending the situation, but he says he can’t support it. He calls it an affront to freedom. He then announces his candidacy for President. Roslin and her flunkies walk away. Six applauds Baltar.
Closing Credits
