History Recap / BattlestarGalactica2003S02E17TheCaptainsHand

In the confusion, the ''Pegasus''[='=]s FTL drive is knocked out. Panicked by the staff's confusion, Garner goes down to the engineering deck himself to fix the drive, while transferring command to Lee. Reeling from what has happened, Lee orders the ship to target one of the Basestars and succeeds in destroying it, while Garner attempts to repair the drive in a room which is leaking oxygen.

Reunited with the Fleet, Lee meets with his father, who asks why Garner couldn't handle command. Lee responds that Garner didn't know how to manage people, while Bill rewards him with his Commander's rank and command of the ''Pegasus''.

* MacrossMissileMassacre: The three Basestars try this against the ''Pegasus''. It doesn't work.

* MyGreatestFailure: Bill considers giving Garner command a monumental screw-up on his part, and [[MyGreatestSecondChance makes up for it]] by giving Lee command.

* ThePeterPrinciple: Garner is clearly an excellent engineer who understands how a Battlestar runs on a mechanical level but he's completely out of his depth when he's put in charge of the human crew. Lee notes as much when discussing the man with Admiral Adama.

Elsewhere on the ship, Lee and Dualla have begun a serious relationship, and he reveals to her that he has been promoted to Major while laying in bed with her. At the same time, a training mission being conducted by two Raptor teams results in them losing contact with the fleet after jumping to their destination.

On ''Colonial One'', Roslin is introduced to her new assistant, Tory Foster, and discusses the upcoming Presidential election with her. Tory notes that Roslin already has impressive support from most of the fleet, and that Tom Zarek (her only competition in the election) has no hope of catching up. At the same time, Zarek goes to Baltar and convinces him that they could do a lot together and Baltar could become President, even though the latter is opposed to the idea.

Bill meets with Cottle in ''Galactica''[='=]s sickbay and asks who the young girl is. Cottle informs him that she came to see him because he has been abortions for women in the fleet for some time, and although Bill wants to send her back to her family, the girl takes Cottle's suggestion of requesting asylum onboard ''Galactica'' seriously and asks if it can be done.

Adama and Roslin discuss the matter, with Roslin arguing for a woman's right to choose and Bill arguing that the fleet needs to have more children, echoing words she said to him just after they fled the Colonies.

Roslin meets with Baltar and discusses the abortion issue with him so she can make a decision. Baltar tells her that, at the current projection rates, the fleet population will die out in eighteen years if abortion isn't outlawed. Roslin subsequently orders a Fleet-wide ban on abortion, though not until the young girl on ''Galactica'' has already had the procedure done and received asylum onboard the ship.

Reunited with the fleet, Lee meets with his father, who asks why Garner couldn't handle command. Lee responds that Garner didn't know how to manage people, while Bill rewards him with his Commander's rank and command of the ''Pegasus''.

* MilitaryMaverick: Subverted with Garner. He disobeys orders to save his men, is backed up by his crew in this decision against the outsider observer (aka Lee Adama), jumps into unknown territory… and learns that yes, it was a trap. It very nearly costs the fleet its most powerful warship and gains them nothing because the Raptor crew was DeadAllAlong. Oops.

Roslin holds a press conference to discuss her decision to outlaw abortion, but her moment is upstaged by Baltar, who makes a surprise announcement by both arguing against her position and revealing that he is running for President. As Roslin and Tory hastily leave to figure out what to do, [=HeadSix=] applauds Baltar and the reporters eagerly shout questions at him…

* OneHundredPercentAdorationRating: It's strongly implied by Tory that Roslin has this at the start of the episode, outside of Zarek and his followers, plus a few Gemenese who don't think she's hardline enough on abortion, thus technically making it more like a 98.5% Adoration Rating. Her banning abortion naturally causes her approval ratings to tumble with all but the Gemenese, though even then only to the point where it just gives Baltar a glimmer of hope of being able to beat her, as opposed to the LandslideElection she would otherwise have likely enjoyed over Zarek.

* AbsenteeActor: Sharon does not appear in this episode.