Islanded in a Stream of Stars

"Islanded in a Stream of Stars"

"Islanded in a Stream of Stars" is the twentieth episode in the fourth season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. It aired on television in the United States and Canada on March 6, 2009.

Plot

Repairs on Galactica continue, but it seems little headway is being made. The ship's systems are fluctuating, and a major hull breach kills about 60 people. Lee "Apollo" Adama struggles to convince the newly elected Fleet Quorum that Galactica can be saved, but many councillors are worried about becoming dependent on the Cylons for military protection. Others demand that Galactica be stripped for parts. Laura Roslin, confined to her bed in the ship's hospital, convinces Admiral William Adama to abandon Galactica and move everyone over to the Cylon Basestar. Ellen Tigh tries to convince Colonel Saul Tigh that Roslin is right, but he refuses: The decision is Adama's alone.

Karl "Helo" Agathon's marriage to Sharon "Athena" Valerii is falling apart, as she cannot overcome the loss of her child, Hera, or the knowledge that her husband slept with the Number Eight known as "Boomer". Trying to save his marriage, Helo tries to get Adama to approve the launching of a Raptor to find Hera but Adama has already permitted Sonia to secretly take a Heavy Raider to the "The Colony," which is revealed to be analogous to the home world of the Centurions and the humanoid Cylons. However, Cavil is revealed to have moved The Colony prior to the Cylon civil war. As sending Helo out in a Raptor would be a suicide mission, Adama refuses permission.

Gaius Baltar, who is continuing his religious broadcasts to the Fleet, encounters Caprica Six. Rejecting his romantic overtures, she notes that she has changed while he has not; Baltar breaks down over the loss of his former lover. Subsequently, Baltar meets Kara "Starbuck" Thrace in the ship's head where Kara tells him that she discovered her own body on Earth and asks him to analyze her dog tags. Baltar finds blood on the tag that came from a body which was already dead whose DNA matches Starbuck's. Baltar reveals what he has discovered at a burial of those lost in the hull breach and calls Starbuck an angel. As he preaches about eternal life, Starbuck slaps him and the service breaks up. Later, Apollo meets with Starbuck and offers her his unconditional love and support. Starbuck puts a photo of herself on the memorial wall of the dead.

Aboard the stolen Raptor, Hera keeps crying for her mother, infuriating Boomer. Unable to bring herself to sedate Hera, Boomer reveals her "Cylon projection" dreamworld in an attempt to calm the child. As Hera can see the world, she and Boomer bond, and the latter begins to develop strong emotional ties to the child. On arrival at the "colony", a Cylon base on top of a small, rocky planetoid, Cavil takes Hera, declaring that soon she will have many playmates. As the child weeps and calls out for her, Boomer sheds tears, unwilling to part from Hera.

After an emotional breakdown, Admiral Adama realizes the ship must be abandoned. He meets with Colonel Tigh, who initially resists the evacuation order but gives in after a brief discussion. All civilians are to be removed over the next few days, arrangements are to be made to put the military personnel aboard the Basestar, and Galactica is to be stripped for parts. Rather than let the ship break down, Adama intends to "send her off in style."

Galen Tyrol, Tory Foster, Saul Tigh and Ellen Tigh meet and discuss what to do with Samuel Anders, the fifth of the Final Five Cylons, while he is still unconscious. They agree that hooking him up to a hybrid tank may help bring him out of his comatose state. But after several days in the hybrid tank, there is no apparent change. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, Sam's wife, goes to Anders's bedside alone and decides to kill him rather than let him live in a vegetative state. But as she aims a gun at his head, Anders awakens. He babbles, but his raving also indicates that he's aware of the threat to his life. With one hand, he subdues Starbuck and she drops the pistol. The other Four meet to discuss what is happening. Anders continues to babble and some of his rants indicate he is reintegrating and perhaps even repairing his mind. He quotes the opening line of the children's rhyme "There's a hole in the bucket". ("Bucket" is a nickname for the Galactica - also, the rhyme ends in the same way that it begins.) The Galactica's power and temperature fluctuations were because Anders was connecting to the ship, as the hybrid tank and the Cylon polymer used to repair the battlestar is giving him the power to interact with the ship's computers. Tigh deems this too dangerous to continue, as Anders might jump the ship. Anders is disconnected from the hybrid tank, and he falls into a coma again.

A few days later, Starbuck meets with the comatose Anders. She brings Hera's drawing of the song (the song which helped awaken the Final Five in the episode "Crossroads", and about which further complications were revealed in the episode prior to this one, "Someone to Watch Over Me"), and states that together they will discover what is going on. She reconnects him to the ship's power systems. He awakens again and says "new command."

External links

• Islanded in a Stream of Stars at Battlestar Wiki (listed correctly as episode 18)
• Episode review at official website