Season 2, Episode 18:
Downloaded
Baltar is freaking out over being labeled as the man who destroyed the Colonies in his lakefront house on Caprica, and begs Six to protect him. She tells him to get down just as a nuclear shockwave rips through the house… and wakes up a few moments later in a Cylon resurrection tank, surrounded by other Cylon models.
As she struggles to regain her bearings, Six is surprised to see Baltar standing above her, but before she can say anything, he tells her that only she can see and hear him and suggests not saying anything. Six asks the other Cylons what happened to Baltar, but they don't have an answer for her.
Ten weeks later, Boomer is being escorted through the halls of Galactica as crew members shout at her before Cally steps out and shoots her point-blank in the abdomen. As Tyrol tries to comfort Boomer, she also downloads to a resurrection tank and awakens, only to be greeted by a copy of herself and several other Cylons. Boomer screams when confronted with her situation.
In the present, Six is sitting on a park bench in the city of Delphi, which is being rebuilt by the Cylons. While HeadBaltar chastises the Cylons for trying to act like the human race after destroying them, a copy of Number Three (D'anna Biers) comes over and sits with her. Three tells Six that the latter has been regarded as a hero by the Cylons, to the point that they've given her the nickname of "Caprica-Six". Three also asks her to visit Boomer, who can't shake off her identity from Galactica. Six offers to visit Boomer and see what she can do.
Later, Caprica-Six visits Boomer's apartment and tries to convince her that they should follow the teachings of the Cylon God. Boomer has none of it, telling Six that she betrayed the Galactica crew after they put their trust in her. When Six tries to sympathize with Boomer by telling her about how she loved Baltar but lost him, Boomer responds that Baltar isn't dead.
Confused, both of them realize that Three has been manipulating them so that their human emotions would come out and both of them would be "boxed" (put into cold storage indefinitely). At the same time, several members of the Caprican Resistance, including Samuel Anders, are staking out the area and plan to conduct a bombing attack in the same apartment complex where Caprica-Six and Boomer are.
On Galactica, Sharon is going into labor, and Cottle remarks on the fact that Cylon physiology is very different to humans. Cottle performs a C-section to get out the baby, who is a girl, although she is premature and taken to an incubator. Afterwards, Helo and Sharon decide to name the child Hera.
Afterwards, the upper command crew meet to discuss what should be done with the child. Bill states that the Cylons will try to take it if they find out about it from their sleeper agents, and Baltar points out that the child is half-human.
In the apartment, Caprica-Six and Boomer are surprised by the arrival of Three, who wants to see their reactions. Sensing that she wants to sabotage them, they lie that Boomer has decided to shed her former identity and wants to move out of her apartment. All three of them enter the building to go pack her belongings. At the same time, Anders and the other resistance members arm their bomb in the building's parking garage, but he is unable to leave when a Centurion blocks his path, forcing him to shoot it and take refuge under a vehicle before the bomb explodes.
In the aftermath of the detonation, Three, Caprica-Six and Boomer all wake up in the rubble of the building's stairwell. Although Three tries to suggest that Caprica-Six (who has injured her leg) should kill herself and resurrect, Six refuses, realizing Three's ploy. The trio discovers Anders nearby under rubble and pull him out. Although Three tries to shoot him, Six and Boomer counter that he should be interrogated first, and Boomer discovers that he's wearing Kara's dog tags.
Three explains that Sharon was on the planet a few weeks ago and returned to the fleet, and Boomer realizes that Anders is an important person to the resistance. At the same time, Three mocks Anders and accuses Boomer of being a broken machine that thinks she's human, while Caprica-Six realizes that murder and genocide are not what the Cylon God would want.
Six subsequently realizes that she and Boomer are being targeted for boxing by Three because they are unique personalities in Cylon culture, and could cause a shift in the way Cylons act towards humans. While Three contends that both of them are a waste, Boomer understands that they could cause a paradigm shift in the way the Cylons think if they convince them that the attack on mankind was a mistake.
When the building shakes due to rescue efforts from the Centurions outside, Anders grabs his gun and shoots at Three before Boomer subdues him. Three grabs the gun and tries to shoot Anders, but has her head bashed in instead by Six, who says she will see her soon. Six then gives Anders back the dogtags and tells him to escape, then tells Boomer that they will enact a new plan together to change the way the Cylons think…
On Colonial One, Roslin decides to secretly hide Hera, and convinces Cottle to tell Hero and Sharon that Hera died from complications. When Cottle reports the news, Sharon nearly strangles him to death before collapsing in grief, and later, Helo and Tyrol empty Hera's "ashes" (which were faked remains from another deceased civilian) out of a Raptor. Roslin then gives Hera to an adoptive parent, Maya, who lost her baby previously.
Afterwards, Baltar hears the news and is confronted by Head-Six, who tells him that the plan was for Hera to lead the next generation of Cylons, and that the human race has incurred God's vengeance for letting her die...
Tropes:
- Big "NO!": Boomer lets out a horrified one, along with a Skyward Scream, after she is resurrected.
- Body Backup Drive: The Cylons download into new bodies, so long as there's a Resurrection Ship in range. Even the dog-level-intelligence Raider ships resurrect.
- Brain Uploading: Boomer's memories were uploaded to the Cylons' systems after her death. She's not happy when she's downloaded into a new body.
- The Bus Came Back: Caprica-Six returns after being killed in the Miniseries, Boomer returns after her death in "Resistance" and Anders and the Caprica Resistance were last seen in "The Farm". Lucy Lawless as Number Three returns for the first time since "Final Cut". A downloading scene in Season 3 shows images from this episode and the end of "Final Cut", implying that the Three here is the same one from the movie theatre.
- Deadpan Snarker:
- Cottle, when Sharon goes into premature labor."I find it absolutely amazing you people went to all the trouble to appear human, and didn't upgrade the plumbing."
- Head Baltar, continually."Well that's a charming way to deal with emotional problems. One might almost call it inhuman. Oh that's right, you are."note
- Cottle, when Sharon goes into premature labor.
- Due to the Dead: Helo and Tyrol scatter "Hera's" ashes into space through the open hatch of a Raptor.
- Fake Shemp: Copies of Leoben and Simon are seen in wide shots on Caprica, but they were played by doubles as the crew understandably thought such small appearances weren't worth bringing in Callum Keith Rennie or Rick Worthy for.
- Faking the Dead: Roslin, Tory and Cottle fake Hera's death and give her to an adoptive mother in order to keep her out of Cylon hands.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The vehicle Anders hides under when the bomb goes off (and which is later seen partially destroyed) has a Caprica Buccaneers bumper sticker on it, as well as a license plate that reads "SEXYMOM".
- Heel–Face Turn: Caprica-Six and Boomer let Anders go free and decide to start their own movement within the Cylons that doesn't rely on death and destruction.
- Hypocritical Humour: Three claims "Humans don't have the respect for life we do" right while getting the gun ready to murder Anders.
- Mama Bear: Sharon grabs Cottle by the throat after being told that her baby has "died".
- Premature Birth Drama: Sharon goes into labor too early, forcing Cottle to intervene to save the baby. Roslin and Cottle use complications from the early delivery as a cover story for switching the baby out to get her away from Sharon and Helo.
- Shout-Out: Anders and his group refer to the humanoid Cylons as "skin-jobs", the derogatory term used for Replicants in Blade Runner. The slur will be used frequently from this episode on.
- Spirit Advisor: Head-Baltar to Caprica-Six.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Discussed (and lampshaded) by Roslin herself."I don't make suggestions, Mr. Baltar—if I wanted to toss a baby out of an airlock, I'd say so."
- Tragic Keepsake: The carved elephants that Boomer got from her parents when she joined the Colonial military. As she points out, the whole backstory is a lie but she still has the elephants as she can't let go of her cover identity.
- Wham Shot: The Reveal that Caprica-Six has her own Head-Baltar, hinting that the "Head" characters are actually real and have a far more eldritch origin to them than previously thought.
- Villain Episode: For the Cylons.
- Villains Out Shopping: We see the Cylons doing mundane things on occupied Caprica, from rebuilding parks to watching ships taking off from the starport.
- You Are Number 6: Three points this out by listing the nearby Cylons by their model numbers. The fact that Caprica-Six has gained an individual name and Boomer is refusing to give hers up is deeply troubling to Three.
