Season 4, Episode 6:
Faith
After being relieved of her command by Helo, Kara tries to jump the Demetrius to the rebel Basestar herself before being restrained by Sharon. On Helo's orders, Gaeta tries to jump the Demetrius back to the Galactica, but is stopped by Anders, who fires a handgun round into Gaeta's leg.
Kara sees what is happening and tells everyone to calm down. She offers to take a Raptor with Sharon, Anders, Jean Barolay and Conoy to the Basestar to investigate. Helo tells her that she has 15 hours to return before the Demetrius jumps back to the fleet.
The Raptor crew prepare their expedition. During this time, Gaeta's leg injury begins to get worse, and he tells Helo that he doesn't want his leg amputated. The Raptor leaves the Demetrius and jumps to the rebel Basestar, and navigates through debris to find the Cylon ship.
Once onboard, the Raptor finds a confusing and desperate situation. Sharon finds a large group of other Eights, who ask for her help mutinying against the Sixes onboard, which she rejects. Kara meets with Natalie and the other rebel leaders, and Conoy convinces the other Cylons that they have to work together.
On Colonial One, Roslin tells Tory that she will be staying on Galactica to finish her cancer treatments. She warns Tory to watch out for any sudden moves by the Quorum. Roslin later meets with another cancer patient in Galactica's sickbay, and they discuss their conditions and whether the Lords of Kobol are real.
On the rebel Basestar, Barolay encounters a copy of Six who recognizes her as the one who killed her in a particularly traumatizing way on New Caprica. When Barolay refuses to admit remorse, the Six kills her, and is nearly killed by Anders in turn when Kara intervenes. Natalie sees the situation and kisses the distraught Six, then executes her with Anders's weapon. She tells the Colonials that the Six's death is permanent because there is no Resurrection Ship in range.
Kara visits the Hybrid and listens to its sayings, while Sharon tries to couple the Raptor's jump drive with the Basestar's. When Sharon's preparations are complete, the Hybrid is disconnected. It screams, which alarms a Centurion who shoots the Eight disconnecting the Hybrid. After the hostile Centurion is killed, the Hybrid tells Kara a prophecy about a dying leader finding the Opera House and Kara being a harbinger of death before deactivating. Sharon declines to comfort the other Eight as she passes away, so Anders does it.
Afterwards, the group discuss the Hybrid's message. They come to the conclusion that the Final Five are part of the Thirteenth Tribe, and that the Number Three (D'Anna) model will lead them to Earth. The Basestar and Raptor return to the Demetrius just before it jumps back to the fleet, and Kara reports to Helo that the Cylon ship has been secured…
In Galactica's sickbay, Roslin has a dream where she envisions nearly dying and going to be with her mother, but pulls back and says she isn't ready. She awakens and goes to find the other cancer patient, but is told that the woman died while Roslin was sleeping. Roslin later meets with Bill and they speak about recent events, with Roslin telling him to believe that they will find Earth soon.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: Sam Anders nearly puts his hand in the Cylon datastream aboard the Basestar, experimentally, before being interrupted by a call from Starbuck. It's not established in this episode what would have happened if he had. Later episodes where he becomes a Hybrid, and the use of the datastream in his Hybrid tank by all the Final Five to share memories in the finale, indicate that it would indeed have responded to him.
- Boom, Headshot!: Natalie killing the distraught Six.
- Call-Back: The Hybrid's prophecy that Kara is a "harbinger of death" is the same one that was told to Kendra Shaw by the First Hybrid in Razor.
- Continuity Nod: Roslin's mother having cancer (and being seen in her dream) was previously mentioned in "Act of Contrition".
- Cruel Mercy: Discussed. Kowalski considers the Lords of Kobol to be arrogant and unjust, because she survived the Fall of the Colonies while her family died, then was saddled with inoperable cancer soon after and has spent most of the journey laid up in a hospital bed.
- Did Not Think This Through: The stress of concealing his Cylon identity AND dealing with a rapidly unraveling Starbuck is really affecting Sam's judgement in the episode. He ends up having a force-five freakout when Helo and co. mutiny, pulling a gun and shooting Gaeta, and nearly blowing his cover by trying to link up with the Cylon interface and using his newfound superstrength against a Six.
- Dissonant Serenity: The Hybrid, who becomes lucid and speaks to Kara after a copy of Eight is killed and her blood mixes with the Hybrid's tank.
- Eye for an Eye: Natalie asks the Colonials if her killing the Six that killed Barolay is enough human justice for them.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: The Eights are having second thoughts about following the Sixes' lead in the civil war now that they've ended in dire straits, which leads them to approach Athena and ask for her help in rebelling. She tells them off for being so lacking in conviction.
- Irony: Barolay dies without ever learning that her longtime associate Sam Anders is a Cylon.
- Knee-capping: Gaeta suffers a serious leg injury as a result of Anders shooting him (though not in the knee), and is told that it's in danger of developing gangrene.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Barolay comes into contact with a copy of Six she drowned a year earlier on New Caprica. The Six copy wastes little time getting revenge on Barolay by killing her.
- Mercy Kill: Natalie executing the Six that killed Barolay has shades of this. The Six was struggling with the trauma of New Caprica and nothing her "sisters" did could help her. Natalie's emphasizing that she won't be resurrecting indicates she was trying to give the other Six some peace.
- The Mutiny: Subverted. Kara defuses the mutiny onboard the Demetrius by offering a compromise. Later, the Eights try to convince Sharon to help them stage a mutiny, but she refuses, and one later repents for her sins while dying.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Sam and Kara have this collective response after Sam shoots Gaeta in the leg.
- Near-Death Experience: Roslin has one in Galactica's sickbay, where she envisions her mother and Kowalski beckoning her to join them in Elysium.
- Rule of Symbolism: One of the camera shots shows Kara's eye and upper forehead, which is similar to the design of the Eye of Jupiter.
- Shout-Out:
- Baltar's wireless speech uses phrases from Hamlet.
- The Cylons killing one of their own to stop a conflict breaking out is a reference to Lawrence of Arabia. Originally it was to be Baltar doing the same on New Caprica, as part of the Sagittarian Aborted Arc.
- Special Guest: Nana Visitor as Emily Kowalski, the cancer patient Roslin speaks with in Galactica's sickbay.
- The Topic of Cancer: Roslin and Kowalski extensively discuss cancer and the gods being vindictive and cruel while both are in Galactica's sickbay.
