“Hero” is episode eight of season three of the new Battlestar Galactica.
The ‘Previously…’ is focused mainly on Adama’s speech from the decommissioning ceremony in the miniseries.
On Colonial One, President Roslin, Tory and others are sorting through things; Tory asks what to do with Gaius’s painting. Roslin wants it in the bathroom over the toilet. She comes across the dossier that Billy prepared for her on Commander Adama. There’s a photograph of him as the commander of the Battlestar Valkyrie, his command before Galactica. Tory comments that it’s coming up on Adama’s 45th anniversary in the Colonial Fleet. His commissioning date is a few days away, and the president wants a ceremony to award Adama a medal for 45 years of devoted service.
Adama arrives in CIC to be told three Raiders are inbound, not in standard formation. Two look to be pursuing, and firing upon, the third. Starbuck and Kat head in and take out the pursuers; the lead Raider is heading for Galactica. And contacts Galactica. When a man’s voice says it’s Bulldog, Adama orders the Vipers to hold fire and to escort the Raider in, prisoner drill.
Prisoner drill seems to involve standing in front of the weapons of a probably-armed Raider. The Raider lacks the red light they normally have. It opens and a man drops out. He salutes Adama and asks if it’s really him. Adama says yes, it is. Welcome home, Bulldog.
In the past, Adama is at a meeting of several senior officers. He’s told that if he’s discovered, this conversation never happened. Adama has one condition; there’s only one pilot he trusts for the stealth ship.
Dr Cottle confirms that Bulldog isn’t a Cylon; Adama is telling the president that Bulldog is one of his. He disappeared and was thought to be captured. The president wants to meet Bulldog. Cottle confirms that Bulldog is relatively healthy. Physically.
Bulldog is eating in Adama’s quarters; the admiral asked how he escaped from a Cylon baseship. Well, Bulldog was locked in a cell for three years. The accommodation was lousy, the service slow. After a while, Bulldog felt the institution no longer had anything to offer him, so he left. Then he laughs. Bulldog says that a while ago, the Cylons started getting really sick. A virus. He realised he was immune. Thanks to the events of the previous episode, “A Measure of Salvation”, Adama is familiar with viruses. Bulldog was being kept in a cell and an D’Anna Biers was taunting him. So, he punched and killed her.
Roslin and Tory join Adama and Bulldog. Adama explains there was a black ops mission where Tauron colonists were mining on a moon too close to the Cylon Armistice Line. This risked provoking the Cylons. Bulldog was the recon pilot sent there to gather evidence, but the Taurons ambushed him and shot him down. Adama says he made a bad call. Bulldog’s ship was gone and there was no sign of ejection or distress call, so he thought Bulldog was dead. Evidently, he survived long enough for the Cylons to catch him. Afterwards, Roslin wants to speak to Adama alone. Because she knows the story is untrue. Adama tells her to trust him; his mess, he’ll fix it.
D’Anna wakes from a dream where she was cornered and killed by Colonial Marines in what looked like a battlestar. She’s in bed with Gaius Baltar. And Caprica Six.
Tigh is still in his quarters after Adama had a go at him in “Torn” – Starbuck came out of her funk – when Adama arrives to tell him that Bulldog is back. He stole a Raider and flew there. Tigh asks if Adama is there to talk to his friend or his XO, because last time Tigh checked he was neither. Is Adama going to tell Bulldog what he did? Because sooner or later he will find out. And it’s sooner rather than later, because Tigh makes a point of telling him.
The mission involved spying on the Cylons. And the Cylons may have taken offence to that. Or they may not; they don’t seem the sort to respond in unplanned ways.