Season 1, Episode 02:
Water
Boomer awakens suddenly and looks around, confused. She is sitting in an equipment room in Galactica's flight deck, and she is soaking wet. As she tries to collect her bearings and figure out what happened, she opens a nearby bag and discovers a cache of explosives and detonators.
As she puts on a clean change of clothes and dries off, she opens a nearby locker and discovers that several more detonators are missing. She freaks out and goes to find Tyrol.
Elsewhere, the crew of Galactica are preparing a formal ceremony to welcome President Roslin. As she arrives on the ship, she thanks Bill Adama and the rest of the crew for their assistance during the Cylon attacks in the previous episode. Roslin goes to Lee after and asks him if Bill is doing this because he enjoys the formal nature of it, but he responds that his father is doing it out of respect for her newly-inaugurated position.
As the Virgon Express, a civilian ship, docks alongside Galactica, Bill and Roslin meet and discuss the fleet's activities. Bill explains the Galactica's water-recycling abilities to her, and how it transfers water to ships that don't have their own onboard supply.
Back on Caprica, Helo and Sharon head towards her Raptor in an attempt to escape the planet, only to discover that it's crawling with Centurions when they arrive. With no clear goal in sight, both of them decide to try and locate another ship.
Onboard Galactica, Boomer finds Tyrol and hurriedly explains that several explosives are missing. Tyrol tries to calm her down, and believes that someone is trying to frame her. Suddenly, a series of explosions rips through Galactica's water tanks during its refueling procedure. Several tonnes of water vents into space before the crew contains the damage.
Later, the crew investigates and realizes that 60% of Galactica's reserves have been lost as a result. Gaeta tries to figure out the cause of the explosions, reason that the detonation of a nuclear warhead on the ship during the fight at Ragnar Anchorage caused the water tanks to weaken and burst. However, Tyrol states that it was likely sabotage. He covers for Boomer by saying that it is unlikely they will find the culprit, due to the weak security throughout the ship.
Bill orders several Raptors to scout nearby systems and try and source a planet that has enough water for the fleet to restock. He later tells the senior command staff, Roslin and Baltar that he believes that a Cylon infilitrator is aboard Galactica.
Later that night, Helo and Sharon are camping out in the Caprica surface when they hear a coded transmission on their radio. Convinced that other people are still alive on the planet, the duo make plans to continue searching.
Back onboard Galactica, Bill and Gaeta ask Baltar about his progress on creating a working Cylon detector. Although Baltar makes several excuses, he convinces Bill that his need to work on the project is important. Bill subsequently assigns Gaeta to help the doctor. As they leave together, Baltar (clearly bothered by someone "watching" him) ducks into a room with several pilots including Starbuck, and offers to play a card game with them.
As Boomer and Crashdown travel through a nearby system, they discover a planet rich in water reserves. As they check the planet's supplies, the Cylon side of Boomer awakens and tries to detonate explosives that have been planted in her chair. However, she overcomes her programming and relays the planet's location back to Galactica.
When they arrive back on the Battlestar, Boomer asks Tyrol to check the Raptor for explosives, and he discovers the one affixed to her chair. He later meets with her and says that he has turned the evidence over to the Master-at-Arms, and is confident that the investigation will be solved.
Onboard Colonial One, Roslin requests a meeting with Lee. When he arrives on the ship, she tells him that she was impressed with the way he assisted her during the reception on the Battle, and offers to make him a special advisor in the form of military protocol. Lee is unsure about the offer, but she tells him it will help assuage his guilt over what happened with the Olympic Carrier…
Tropes
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: Galactica's formal ceremony for President Roslin, in order to inaugurate her new role.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Boomer, during her attempt to detonate the explosives strapped to her seat. She manages to overcome her programming and stop herself from triggering the device.
- Continuity Nod: Reference is made to the events of the previous episode ("33"), and the survivor count has been adjusted accordingly. At the end of the episode, Roslin references Lee's guilt over shooting down the Olympic Carrier while bestowing his new advisory title.
- The nuclear missile hit on the starboard flight pod during the miniseries is also referenced, as having weakened the water tanks and making them easier to blow open.
- Conveniently Close Planet: Averted.Tigh: The galaxy's a pretty barren and desolate place when you get right down to it.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The mechanics on the flight deck wear white jumpsuits in this episode. The white uniforms never appear again in the rest of the series.
- Easy Amnesia: Boomer doesn't remember how she came to be in the equipment soaked in water and sitting beside a bag of explosives (which was caused by her Cylon programming). In the end, she lets Tyrol take the lead in the investigation, and the issue isn't brought up again.
- Fantastic Measurement System: The Colonials measure liquid in "JPs." Though it's not clear as to whether this is analogous to liters or gallons, or even what "JP" stands for.
- Fighting from the Inside: Boomer, as she attempts to stop herself from detonating the explosives on the Raptor.
- Infinite Supplies: Subverted. Galactica runs on a recyclable source of water, but their (and, subsequently, the fleet's) supplies are jeopardized by the explosives Boomer set off, forcing them to find a replacement source.
- Manchurian Agent: Boomer.
- Mars Needs Water: Inverted; it's the humans who need water, and because they're in interstellar space, the problem is finding a suitable ice-bearing asteroid or planet.
- One-Word Title
- Plausible Deniability: Tyrol covers for Sharon by telling the investigators that the trail to find the culprit behind the sabotage is long gone, and gives the explosives to the ship's Master-at-Arms to let her handle the matter.
