“Valley of Darkness” is episode two of season two of the new Battlestar Galactica.
Billy bumps into Dualla in a corridor and things are a bit awkward between them. Colonel Tigh is standing over the unconscious Commander Adama in sickbay, telling him he’d better get well when power starts going out all over Galactica. The Vipers land on the hangar deck as Tigh calls CIC and is told by Gaeta that the Cylon virus from the previous episode, “Scattered”, got through. It’s knocked out main power and the auxiliary units. Emergency power is up and running. The Viper pilots are congratulating themselves but Apollo isn’t so cheerful; one attacker got through. He’s filled in on what’s known to be happening by Jammer.
Captain Kelly is informed that Cylons are onboard Galactica; the ship that got through contained Centurions. Apollo, Hot Dog, Flyboy and Kat are talking about the fight when they blunder into a Centurion and Flyboy is killed. Apollo nearly gets caught by the Centurion when its head is blown off by marines. The marines fill them in and tell them that standard ammo doesn’t make a dent in the Cylons. Explosive rounds are the only way to take them down. And that was their last round. Apollo writes a message for Hot Dog to take to CIC and he and Kat will accompany the marines.
Gaeta is warning the rest of the fleet to keep away because of the Cylons when he’s jammed. Billy is in the brig with President Roslin and the guard, Venner. She wants to be let out so as not to die in a cage light a rat and Venner complies. the door opens, but it’s Apollo and the others. Apollo tells them to get to sickbay. He gives Billy a gun but Roslin declines. Apollo tells them to head away from gunfire. He and the others are going to head towards it.
In CIC, on hearing that the Cylons are in two groups, one going fore, one aft, Tigh says he’s seen this before. The Cylons are heading to secondary damage control and auxiliary fire control. In damage control, they will override the controls and vent the ship to space. In fire control, they will then turn the guns on the rest of the fleet.
Apollo and the others get to a small arms locker. There are some bodies inside, and Jammer, who came in to hide. There are only six explosive rounds; one for each of them and a reload for Apollo. Galactica has only a limited amount of time to stop the Cylons, who are wreaking havoc in the ship – there are quite a few dead – before they manage to take their objectives and wipe everyone out.
On Caprica, Helo and Starbuck are planning to find a Raptor. Starbuck was expecting decaying corpses in the street; Helo says the Cylons were picking up the bodies and transporting them to mass incinerators. Starbuck winds him up about his girlfriend’s family. Helo says she seemed like the real Sharon. He fell in love with a machine; call him an idiot and be done with it. Starbuck tells him he’s an idiot. But the Cylons have a way of making them all look like idiots. Starbuck wants to pick up something from her apartment. Much of said apartment is as might be expected. It’s a mess, Starbuck didn’t have much in the way of food there and the power frequently went out because of not paying the bill. What’s unexpected is that it’s filled with paintings done by Starbuck. Starbuck paints.
On Kobol, Gaius is dreaming that they’re rescued by Galactica. He’s holding a baby and Adama asks if that’s the shape of things to come. That’s Gaius’s understanding. So Adama drowns the baby. Gaius jolts awake and asks Number Six why anyone would want to drown a baby. She tells him the answer is all around. Human skulls, from sacrifices. Kobol isn’t like the fairy tales and scriptures say. Gaius thought it was supposed to be paradise. Perhaps for a while, then humans’ true nature asserted itself. It’s all happened before and will happen again. Adama will try to kill their baby.