During a night out on the Galactica, Apollo leads Starbuck, Cassiopeia and Sheba to a forgotten observatory onboard the ship where they receive a mysterious transmission. After discovering a wayward Cylon Basestar very close to the Fleet, Adama decides the Galactica has the element of surprise on their side, and plans to attack. When Apollo and Starbuck propose infiltrating the basestar and destroying its scanners virtually guaranteeing the Galactica a surprise first strike. Baltar provides essential information about the internal arrangement and configuration of the basestar to enable them to narrow the odds of failure.
Armed with Baltar's knowledge and piloting his Cylon Raider, Apollo and Starbuck successfully board the Basestar and explosive charges in optimal places to cripple the ships scanners. Allowing the Galactica to sneak up on it. The Galactica manages to get in the first strike, which proves decisive when the Galactica and the basestar bombard each other with laser fire. Boomer leads the viper squadrons on a risky attack of the Cylon Raider force. Baltar's Raider is about to be shot down on its way back, since a device designed to differentiate their ship from the Cylon attackers is lost, but Apollo "waggles" the ship in order to signal to the Galactica that they're a friendly.
Later that evening, Starbuck finds Apollo trying to find another transmission like the one before. The pair eventually leave and narrowly miss receiving the full Apollo 11 moon landing transmissions from Earth...
Tropes:
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Pulled off awesomely by Starbuck and Apollo against the Cylons during the raid on the Basestar.
- Continuity Nod: Sheba mentions Serina, who hadn't been mentioned by name since her untimely death near the beginning of the series.
- Dirty Coward: Again, Baltar ever the pragmatist sells out the Cylons in order to survive.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After a season of running around and hoping they've been going in the right direction, the Colonials finally receive a signal from earth, though neither Apollo nor Starbuck sticks around to learn of their discovery.
- "Hell, Yes!" Moment: "They're waggling!"
- Martyr Without a Cause: Sheba accuses Apollo of being one of these ever since Serina's death.
- Missed Him by That Much: The series ends with Apollo and Starbuck just barely missing a (relatively) clear transmission of the Apollo 11 mission.
- Recruiting the Criminal: Baltar knows more about the layout of a Cylon Basestar than any other humans. But Adama, Apollo, Boomer, and Starbuck aren't too thrilled with having to rely on him to be truthful.
- The Reveal: That mysterious message Apollo discovered near the beginning of the episode? The one most everyone else assumed was a Cylon lure? The end of the episode reveals it's footage of the Apollo 11 landing.
- Sarcastic Well Wishing: Baltar when wishing Apollo and Starbuck "Good Luck" on the mission. Not that nobody didn't see it coming, he got the expected Disapproving Look from everybody around. Despite acknowledging that he couldn't care less for anyone else but himself, he has a good reason for wanting the mission to succeed.Baltar: "Well, if they don't succeed, I die too."
- Stuff Blowing Up: The Basestar, making an explosion almost worthy of the Death Star.
- Tired of Running: Adama says this almost word for word when Tigh suggests they can outrun the basestar.
- Wham Line: "Tranquility Base here; the Eagle has landed".
