“Sometimes a Great Notion” is episode eleven of season four of the new Battlestar Galactica.
In the previous episode, “Revelations”, a Colonial signal detected by Starbuck’s Viper led the fleet and the Cylon base ship to Earth. Which is a radioactive wasteland.
Those on the ground are looking at the ruins. Helo tells the admiral that the rest of the planet is the same. No signs of human life. D’Anna says their scouts are reporting the same. Starbuck and Leoben are following the faint distress signal.
Gaius tells a marine that radiation is in the water and food chain; make sure no-one eats or drinks anything. Adama is told that the planet was nuked about 2,000 years ago. D’Anna says their teams are finding the same. Roslin says they traded one nuked civilisation for another.
People are waiting in the hanger when Apollo, Adama and Roslin return on a Raptor. She’s unable to say anything, just shaking her head, then asking Adama to get her out of there. People are shouting questions and Apollo tells them a statement will be made in due course.
Starbuck has found something from a Colonial aircraft; Leoben has found part of a Viper’s fuselage with ‘757NC’ on it. Which means something to Starbuck. Leoben asks what. Her ship’s number is 8757NC.
Bones are being dug up, then something that is not a bone is found. The head of a Cylon Centurion. Back on Galactica, the Cylons say it’s similar, but not from one of their Centurions. They’ve never seen the design before. Roslin thinks that those of Earth created their own Cylons. Gaius says that’s what they thought. But they’ve got 257 skeletons from four different sites on the planet. He’s taking a while to get to the point and Tigh comes straight out and says the bones aren’t human. They’re Cylon. All of them. The Thirteenth Tribe was Cylon.
Apollo tries to get Roslin to speak to the Quorum. Adama tells him to carry the ball. Tigh wants to speak to Adama but gets the cold shoulder.
On Earth, Tyrol stops by a damaged wall, with markings and a sooty humanoid shadow on it. He hears things and touches the shadow. Getting a memory of himself, by the wall, in a city that is now destroyed. Just before a nuclear weapon hits it.
Starbuck is asking Leoben if her Viper is here, who flew it? And what did she fly back to Galactica? He says that maybe she is better off not knowing. Starbuck reminds Leoben he’s always telling her not to run from the truth. Why the change of heart? Because he has a feeling she might not like what she finds.
Dee finds Apollo in the pilots’ briefing room. He’s remembering the pilots who gave their lives for the dream of a new beginning on Earth. He doesn’t want their sacrifice to be meaningless. Dee says he’s got that look again. The one he had when the admiral took Galactica back to New Caprica and Apollo stayed behind with Pegasus and the civilian fleet. When he thought he’d never see his father again. Apollo asks what he should tell the Quorum. There’s no happy way to spin this. Dee says to tell them the truth. That’s what people need to hear.
Starbuck and Leoben have found the Viper’s cockpit. And it’s occupied. By a very dead pilot, one with blonde hair. And has Starbuck’s dog tags. If that’s Starbuck, then who is the living Starbuck? Or what? Even Leoben backs away, not knowing what to think. Except that he was wrong. About Earth. Starbuck says the Hybrid told her something. That she was the harbinger of death, leading them all to their end. Is it true? Leoben is leaving, shaken for once, as Starbuck is asking what she is.
Tyrol was only the first of the Four to have memories of living on Earth. The others do too. People are giving up and things are falling apart, as they finally got what they were looking for, to find it wasn’t what they were after.
The episode was designed to function as a finale to the series if necessary, even though that would have left many things unfinished. One thing that is revealed as a result of that is the identity of the final Cylon model.