History Recap / BattlestarGalactica2003S02E17TheCaptainsHand

* MeaninglessVillainVictory: The girl who is discovered in the container says her parents won't let her have an abortion, and the religious beliefs of the colony she was from before the Cylon attack forbade it despite its legality. Though pro-choice herself, President Roslin understands that there are less than fifty thousand humans left in the universe, and that they will have to grow their numbers if they're to survive as a species. In the end, she outlaws abortion via executive order… after the girl has had her abortion and has applied for asylum aboard ''Galactica'' so she doesn't have to go back to her parents.

* PreviouslyOn: After showing Fisk's death, a line by Adama establishing that Garner is now the commander of ''Pegasus'' is added, which wasn't actually stated in a previous episode.

On the ''Pegasus'', Kara realizes that the missing Raptors went missing while checking a distress call and relays the information to Garner, only for him to confine her to quarters because he disn't like her. Lee meets with the angered Kara afterwards and suggests she needed some discipline, but she relays the information to him as well, leading him to send search teams to investigate further.

* CassandraTruth: Trying to make sense of the transcript of the Raptor crew's last, broken message to ''Pegasus'' before jumping, Starbuck reasons that they were saying "Received distress call" and headed into a trap. Garner dismisses the idea immediately.

* CassandraTruth: Reading between the lines of the transcript of the Raptor crew's last, broken message to ''Pegasus'' before jumping, Starbuck reasons that they were saying "Received distress call" and headed into a trap. Garner dismisses the idea immediately.

* CassandraTruth: Reading between the lines of the transcript of the Raptor crew's last communication before jumping, Starbuck reasons that they were saying "Received distress call" and headed into a trap. Garner dismisses the idea immediately.

* AbortionFalloutDrama: The ''Galactica'' plot of the episode revolves around a woman from Gemenon who wants to abort her pregnancy. As Gemenon strongly believes that GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion she had to sneak aboard to get away from her parents. Roslin is supportive of her situation and has always held pro-choice beliefs, but with the human population at dangerously low numbers she's very reluctantly forced to outlaw abortions (but only ''after'' the girl who kicked off the plot has terminated her pregnancy). The switch increases her support among the Gemenese but gives Baltar a platform to build his Presidential campaign on when he speaks against her ban.

* IdiotBall: Garner nearly gets the ''Pegasus'' destroyed by being stubborn, secretive and refusing to listen to any advice, as well as abdicating his command when things go south. Everyone calls him out on being a terrible leader afterwards.

* IronicEcho: Garner's need to ignore orders and go on a rescue mission is one to Bill doing the same thing at the end of "[[Recap/BattlestarGalactica2003S02E10Pegasus Pegasus]]", right down to both of them using a variant of the line, "I'm getting my men back".

* CallBack: When discussing whether or not to outlaw abortion, Bill references Roslin's "we need to make more babies" discussion they had in the miniseries.

* AbortionFalloutDrama: The ''Galactica'' plot of the episode revolves around a woman from Gemenon who wants to abort her pregnancy. As Gemenon strongly believes that GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion she had to sneak aboard to get away from her parents. Roslin is supportive of her condition and has always held pro-choice beliefs, but with the human population at dangerously low numbers she's very reluctantly forced to outlaw abortions (but only ''after'' the girl who kicked off the plot has terminated her pregnancy). The switch increases her support among the Gemenese but gives Baltar a platform to build his Presidential campaign on when he speaks against her ban.

* AbortionFalloutDrama: The ''Galactica'' plot of the episode revolves around a woman from Gemenon who wants to abort her pregnancy. As Gemenon strongly believes that GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion she had to sneak aboard to get away from her parents. Roslin is supportive of her condition but with the human population at dangerously low numbers she's forced to outlaw abortions, but only ''after'' the girl who kicked off the plot has terminated her pregnancy. The switch increases her support among the Gemenese but gives Baltar a platform to build his Presidential campaign on when he speaks against her ban.

* 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, 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.

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 (who is running against her 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.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Cole Taylor (''Pegasus''[='=]s former CAG) is mentioned as being locked in the brig for insubordination, but is never mentioned after this episode and his fate is never revealed.

* DoubleStandard: Briefly discussed. Lee rails at Kara for being able to buck authority and get away with it, while he got severely reprimanded and nearly lost the ship when he tried to do the same thing.

* AbortionFalloutDrama: The ''Galactica'' plot of the episode revolves around a woman from Gemenon who wants to abort her pregnancy. As Gemenon strongly believes that GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion she had to sneak aboard to get away from her parents. Roslin is supportive of her condition but with the human population at dangerously low numbers she's forced to outlaw abortions, but only ''after'' the girl who kicked off the plot has terminated her pregnancy. The switch costs her the support of the Gemenese and gives Baltar a platform to build his Presidential campaign on when he speaks against her ban.

* RelationshipUpgrade: Lee and Dualla.

* 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.

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.

* MeaninglessVillainVictory: The girl who is discovered in the container says her parents won't let her have an abortion, and the religious beliefs of the colony she was from before the Cylon attack forbade it despite its legality. Though pro-choice herself, President Roslin understands that there are less than fifty thousand humans left in the universe, and that they will have to grow their numbers if they're to survive as a species. In the end, she outlaws abortion via executive order… after the girl has had her abortion and has applied for asylum aboard Galactica so she doesn't have to go back to her parents.

* The PeterPrinciple: 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.

* IdiotBall:
** Garner nearly gets the ''Pegasus'' destroyed by being stubborn, secretive and refusing to listen to any advice, as well as abdicating his command when things go south. Everyone calls him out on being a terrible leader afterwards.

* 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, though even then Baltar is the only person in the fleet who would have the faintest prayer of actually beating her in the election.

** Roslin, for supporting abortion even though it is obviously stupid to do so. 50,000 people in the fleet would be enough if all were young adults and sexes were balanced, but (1) the demographic is more weighted towards middle age (low number of children among crews of ships), (2) there seem to be more men than women (who are more important for reproduction) and (3) there is a number of young women in the military who will NOT live long enough to have children.

** Garner nearly gets the Pegasus destroyed by being stubborn, secretive and refusing to listen to any advice, as well as abdicating his command when things go south. Everyone calls him out on being a terrible leader afterwards.

On Galactica, Tyrol and other engineers are busy offloading containers when they hear a noise from inside, and open it to discover a pregnant girl who asks for Dr. Cottle's help.

Lee reports to the Pegasus and meets Kara, and they head to meet with the new commander, Barry Garner. A seasoned engineer and deckhand, Garner argues with Thrace for not being aware that the two Raptor crews are missing, causing her to leave in anger. Garner then tells Lee that Kara is a problem for the ship's operations, while she goes to talk with other pilots on the ship and learns that Garner is a paranoid leader who doesn't let anyone outside his inner circle know what's going on.

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 (who is running against her 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.

On the Pegasus, Kara realizes that the missing Raptors went missing while checking a distress call and relays the information to Garner, only for him to confine her to quarters because he disn't like her. Lee meets with the angered Kara afterwards and suggests she needed some discipline, but she relays the information to him as well, leading him to send search teams to investigate further.

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.

In the confusion, the Pegasus' 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 control of the Pegasus.

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...

* AlmostOutOfOxygen: The Pegasus escapes and normalizes the oxygen in the compartment where Garner is, but he can't be saved.

* DeadAllAlong: The Raptor crews after jumping to investigate the jump signal, and whose corpses are discovered by the Pegasus crew just before they're attacked.

* FieldPromotion: Lee is given a promotion to Commander of the Pegasus by his father after Garner's death.

* IronicEcho: Garner's need to ignore orders and go on a rescue mission is one to Bill doing the same thing at the end of "Pegasus", right down to both of them using a variant of the line, "I'm getting my men back".
* MacrossMissileMassacre: The three Basestars try this against the Pegasus. It doesn't work.
* MeaninglessVillainVictory: The girl who is discovered in the container says her parents won't let her have an abortion, and the religious beliefs of the colony she was from before the Cylon attack forbade it despite its legality. Though pro-choice herself, President Roslin understands that there are less than fifty thousand humans left in the universe, and that they will have to grow their numbers if they're to survive as a species. In the end, she outlaws abortion via executive order... after the girl has had her abortion and has applied for asylum aboard Galactica so she doesn't have to go back to her parents.
* 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.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Cole Taylor (Pegasus' former CAG) is mentioned as being locked in the brig for insubordination, but is never mentioned after this episode and his fate is never revealed.