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Recap / Battlestar Galactica 2003 S 03 E 12 Rapture

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Season 3, Episode 12:


After issuing an order to fire nuclear warheads at the algae planet, Bill orders Tigh to enter his launch codes, to the latter's and Roslin's shock and disbelief.

Seeing that Bill is not threatening to back down, the Cylons recall the Heavy Raiders. D'anna ignores the order and continues to head towards the surface. Seeing this, Bill reconsiders and cancels the launch order, to everyone's relief. The Cylons discuss D'anna's confusing and illogical actions, and a copy of Cavil says they will have to make a decision about what to do with her entire line.


On the planet's surface, Anders is still being held back from rescuing Kara. He threatens that if she's dead, he'll shoot the Major. Lee responds that he'll let him if he's right. The situation is defused when Lee orders Dualla and a sergeant to find Kara's Raptor.

Helo and Sharon are discussing the revelation that Hera's alive, and she bars him from mounting a rescue mission on his own. Knowing what has to be done, Helo tells Sharon that he loves her and shoots her in the head, allowing her to download to a nearby Resurrection Ship. Helo meets with a shocked Bill and Roslin afterwards, who ask him what he was doing. Helo counters that if Roslin hadn't faked his child's death, none of this would be happening.

While Lee's team prepares a bomb to take out any incoming Centurions, Dualla and the sergeant continue on foot. They are ambushed by the Cylons and the sergeant is killed in the attack. Dualla takes an alternate route to the Raptor, where she discovers Kara alive but with her hands burned from the crash. Dualla hides her pain at Lee's affair while repairing the Raptor, while Kara receives morpha injections for the pain and talks about her various relationships in her delirium. Dualla manages to get the Raptor operational and manages to leave the planet's surface, despite her inexperience with piloting.


At the site, Lee and the others engage the Centurions but only manage to damage some of them before retreating to higher ground. He radios Tyrol, who is still in the temple attempting to translate the language on the obelisk, and orders him to destroy it. Tyrol reluctantly sets up C4 charges in the temple.

The Heavy Raider with Baltar, D'anna and a copy of Cavil arrives outside the Temple and disable the detonators before entering. Nearby, Tyrol and his group meet up with the Marines and try to detonate the charges to no avail. Suddenly, the planet begins to rumble as the sun's supernova begins, and Tyrol realizes that the sun itself is the Eye of Jupiter because it looks exactly like the drawings in the Temple. Tyrol and a group of Marines go back to investigate.

Sharon successfully downloads to the Resurrection Ship, and is greeted by Caprica-Six, who tells her that Hera is sick and that her condition is getting worse. They head to Hera's nursery and discover Boomer taking care of her, to Sharon's anger. Sharon picks up Hera, who stops crying, and surmises that she has an intestinal blockage, noting that the Cylons have no concept of pediatric care.


Sharon and Caprica-Six discuss what to do, and the former plans to take her back to Galactica to get proper care. She notes that Six would not want the child to die, but Boomer takes Hera hostage and threatens to break her neck if Sharon doesn't leave. Caprica-Six knocks out Boomer instead and breaks the latter's neck, then agrees that Hera is too valuable to lose. They head out of the ship together on a captured Raptor.

In the temple, Baltar, D'anna and Cavil enter and survey the room. Baltar notices a gun that was left behind in the previous group's haste to leave. D'anna notes that there is a beam filtering in through the top of the temple and tries to enter, but is impeded by Cavil, who points a gun at her. Baltar picks up the sidearm and shoots Cavil instead, allowing D'anna to enter.

Upon walking into the beam, D'anna sees the Final Five in the opera house. She can see their faces, and tells one of them that she's sorry for not recognizing them before. The vision stops before she can say anything further. She falls down, having been critically injured from the beam. Baltar catches her and asks her what she's seen, but she can only respond that he was "right". She dies before answering whether Baltar is a Cylon or not. When he tries to use the beam himself, it dissipates. He is suddenly confronted by Tyrol, who knocks him out with the barrel of his gun and leaves with him in a Raptor.

On Galactica, Bill and the command crew order a recall of all forces after seeing the sun begin to supernova, and barely escape after all of the Raptors land.

Afterwards, the various parties reunite on the hangar deck. Tigh orders Caprica-Six and Baltar to be taken to the brig. Sharon, Hera and Helo reunite, and Anders and Kara hug while she looks at Lee. In a meeting afterwards, while comparing the supernova to the drawings in the temple, they realize that the Thirteenth Tribe was using it as a map. Gaeta notes that there is a similar-looking nebula several thousand light-years away that they should head towards. Afterwards, Helo approaches Kara and compares a picture of the mandala she painted in her apartment on Caprica to a picture of the mandala in the Temple of Five; they are identical. A stunned Kara wonders if she really does have a "special destiny".

D'anna downloads to the Resurrection Ship, only to discover a copy of Cavil waiting for her. He tells her that she won't have to go through the resurrection process again, and reveals that the Cylons have made a decision to box her entire model. She argues that she wanted to seek the Cylon's true purpose and the identity of the Final Five. Cavil counters that she is inherently flawed. He pulls a data drive out of the resurrection tank, and D'anna collapses, deactivated, while other Cavils perform the same process at other resurrection tanks…

  • Action Mom: Sharon conducts a solo mission on the Resurrection Ship to rescue her daughter.
  • Afraid of Needles: Kara, when Dualla is injecting her with morpha on the Raptor.
  • *Click* Hello: When Baltar is surprised by Tyrol pressing his sidearm against his head.
  • Continuity Nod: At the end of the episode, Kara tells Helo that she is destined to fulfill a prophecy, just as Leoben told her in "Flesh and Bone".
  • Death Glare: When Helo glares at Roslin for attempting to browbeat him for sending his wife over to rescue his daughter.
  • Four Lines, All Waiting: The action jumps back and forth between multiple sites on the planet, the Basestar and Galactica itself.
  • Mama Bear/Papa Bear: Both Sharon and Helo get elements of this as they rescue Hera/chew out Roslin, respectively.
  • Neck Snap: Caprica-Six does it to Boomer after the latter threatens to break Hera's neck.
  • Outrun the Fireball: Galactica narrowly escapes from the sun as it goes supernova.
  • Pistol-Whipping: Tyrol does this to Baltar in the temple.
  • Prophecy Twist: Despite Baltar believing that it is he who is meant to discover the temple's secrets, D'anna activates it instead… and is mortally wounded by the beam while doing so.
  • Psychic Nosebleed: A fatal one, after D'anna sees the faces of the Final Five.
  • Put on a Bus: The entire D'anna/Three model is boxed by Cavil at the end of the episode.
  • Race Against the Clock
  • Secret Keeper: Cavil
  • Team Killer: Caprica-Six breaks Boomer's neck.
  • Wham Episode: Baltar returns to the fleet (along with Caprica-Six), the fleet discovers their next destination and the entire D'anna/Three model is boxed by the Cylons.
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • Both Roslin and Tigh give Bill this when he continues issuing orders to launch the nukes.
    • Helo gives Roslin a Death Glare when she tries to justify faking Hera's death, and tells her that none of it would have happened if she had been truthful with him and Sharon.


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