“Torn” is episode six of season three of the new Battlestar Galactica.
Gaius is on a beach with Number Six. He thought she’d abandoned him for her Cylon comrades. He finds her more unpredictable than her flesh and blood counterparts. Number Six tells him to learn all he can about Cylons; he will need it in the days ahead. Cylon psychology is based on projection, how Cylons choose to see the world around them. Gaius asks what she really is. An angel of god sent to help him, just as she’s always been. Gaius wakes.
Gaius is examining the red band that runs along the wall of the Cylon baseship. D’Anna tells him they are all part of one ecosystem. Gaius can feel it breathing. Caprica Six enters and asks D’Anna what Gaius said. She hasn’t asked him yet. They ask now; does he know how to find Earth? Not really, no. Unfortunate. That would have justified keeping him alive a little longer. Gaius starts rapidly explaining that, although he doesn’t know exactly where it is, he knows a great deal about its probable location. And what do they care about finding Earth? The Cylons are looking for it, too. They’ve decided it will be their new home.
Vipers are doing a training exercise. Starbuck ends up colliding with Narcho’s (Sebastian Spence). Starbuck lands her Viper with no fuel. Apollo tells her if she wants to die, he’ll open an airlock, but don’t take one of his Vipers with her. She’s done with flying. Probably justified; Starbuck could do with some serious counselling.
Colonel Tigh, another needing help, is drinking in his quarters. He thinks he hears Ellen in the corridor outside and goes looking, grabbing a woman who isn’t Ellen.
Kasie runs up to Starbuck. Her actual mother, Julia, says that Kasie has been asking to see Starbuck. She sent messages. Maybe Starbuck could come visit. Starbuck says the last thing she needs is a 2-year-old friend and Kasie doesn’t need Starbuck in her life.
Apollo is back to being fit and has lost his excess weight. Helo says he told Apollo he could do it. Apollo wants Helo to remind him to never let that happen again. Ever.
Gaeta is with President Roslin and Adama; he’s been piecing together Gaius’s work on the path to Earth. Roslin wants to know how they can trust the research isn’t more lies. Because one think Gaeta learned about Gaius is his extraordinary capacity for self-preservation. Gaeta think Gaius wanted to find Earth because he wanted to get there. He runs down some of the same details Gaius explained to the Cylons, which leads to the Scroll of Pythia and a reference to a great lion with a mighty blinking eye, red and blue. And a note saying that blinking equals pulsar. They’ve found two close together, in a nebula. One appears red, one appears blue. It could be the nebula looks like a lion.
Caprica Six tells Gaius they sent a baseship to investigate the nebula. Gaius is feeling conflicted. Caprica Six tells him that vanishes when his life is in the balance. She mentions projecting and, when Gaius inquires, explains that, unlike daydreaming, Cylons see the environment as they wish. He sees a hall; she sees a forest.
Gaius is on the beach with Number Six again. He says it seems a coincidence he sees something similar to Cylons. Is it a coincidence> Is he a Cylon? Caprica Six asks him what he said.
Boomer is talking to Racetrack in the pilot’s ready room. When she’s called Boomer, she says that’s a different person. Helo out for suggestions for callsigns, and goes with Athena. Tigh enters and is invited to join a card game Starbuck is at. He doesn’t appreciate those who remained on Galactica saying they had it rough. Starbuck agrees with Tigh’s statements. Which is unusual and disturbing.
Gaius tells Caprica Six that on New Caprica, he only saw seven Cylon models. Those same seven are on the ship. There are twelve Cylon models, so who are the other five? He’s told they don’t talk about that. Ever.
The Cylons lose contact with the baseship they sent to the nebula. It was hit by a disease, one that could affect any Cylons sent to look. Meanwhile, both Starbuck and Tigh are causing problems on Galactica.
The story continues in the next episode, “A Measure of Salvation”.