"Crossroads": the Battlestar Galactica season 3 finale and Final Five reveal explained

"Crossroads" is the two-part finale of Battlestar Galactica's third season, first aired on 18 and 25 March 2007. It puts Gaius Baltar on trial for what he did as president of New Caprica, splits the Adamas over it, and ends with two of the show's biggest moments: four people in the fleet discover they're Cylons, and Kara Thrace, dead since "Maelstrom", flies out of a nebula saying she's found Earth. It's the bridge between seasons 3 and 4 in the episode guide. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II")

Plot#

Part I. Baltar went on trial for treason, charged over the months he'd spent as president under the Cylon occupation. His lawyer was Romo Lampkin, and Lee Adama had stepped in to help him. Lampkin set out to show the court as a mob that had made up its mind before the trial began. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "The Son Also Rises")

Saul Tigh took the stand and came apart. He turned up drunk, and Lampkin pushed him on his wife until he admitted he'd killed Ellen. Tigh had been hearing a strange piece of music that nobody around him could hear. Samuel Anders and Tory Foster were hearing it too. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")

Laura Roslin testified next. Lee got her to agree that Baltar had helped save her life when she had cancer. Then he asked whether she was taking chamalla again, and she admitted her cancer had returned. Chamalla can cause hallucinations, and her credibility went with it. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part I")

Roslin, meanwhile, was having visions. She and Sharon Agathon both dreamed of chasing Hera through the Opera House on Kobol, with Caprica Six there too. Out ahead of the fleet, five basestars attacked a Raptor on reconnaissance, which barely got away. The Cylons were tracking them. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part I")

William Adama, one of the five judges, clashed with Lee over his part in the defence and made it plain he thought Baltar was guilty. Lee resigned his commission. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part I")

Part II. Felix Gaeta, who'd worked beside Baltar on New Caprica, testified that Baltar had willingly signed the order to execute Roslin, Tom Zarek and others. It wasn't true. Lampkin moved for a mistrial over what Adama had said about Baltar's guilt, and called Lee to the stand to back it up. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II")

Lee took the stand for the defence. His testimony turned into a long speech. The fleet had forgiven everyone else for the things they'd done to survive, he said, from his own attack on the Olympic Carrier to his father's coup and Tigh's suicide bombers. Baltar was being singled out because he made people ashamed, not because he was uniquely guilty. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "33")

The tribunal found Baltar not guilty, three votes to two. Adama was one of the three. Lampkin cut him loose straight away, and Baltar walked out a free man with no friends and nowhere to stay. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II")

As the fleet reached the Ionian Nebula, Galactica's power faltered and the music got louder. Tigh, Galen Tyrol, Anders and Tory Foster each followed it, found the others there, and recognised the song. They were Cylons. Then the alarm sounded. A Cylon fleet had jumped in. Tigh made his choice in front of the others: whatever else he was, he was an officer of the Colonial Fleet, and that was the man he meant to be. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II")

Lee, now a civilian, climbed into a Viper anyway. In the middle of the battle another Viper pulled up beside him, clean and undamaged. Kara was flying it. She told him she'd been to Earth, she knew where it was and she was going to take them there. The camera pulled back through space to show a blue planet. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II")

What it reveals#

Four of the Final Five are people the audience had known for years. Tigh has been on Galactica since the miniseries. Tyrol ran the hangar deck. Anders fought in the resistance on Caprica and New Caprica. Tory is Roslin's aide. None of them had ever shown a sign. The fifth stays hidden until season 4. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion")

The song is Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower", arranged by the show's composer. Inside the story it's a signal that wakes something in the four. The show doesn't explain it here. Season 4 links the melody to the music Kara's father played, which becomes the key to the fleet's last jump. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II"; Battlestar Galactica, "Someone to Watch Over Me"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

The trial is the show putting its own choices on the stand. Lee's speech lists the war crimes and mutinies the fleet forgave, and the verdict says Baltar can't carry the blame for all of New Caprica. It costs Lee his commission, and it puts him against his father in public. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II")

Kara's return turns the series towards its endgame. She was dead, the fleet held a memorial, and now she's back with a destination. Whether she's still Kara, and what brought her back, drives the final season. (Battlestar Galactica, "Maelstrom"; Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II")

Characters#

• Gaius Baltar: on trial for treason and acquitted.
• Lee Adama: helps the defence, resigns his commission and testifies for Baltar.
• William Adama: sits as a judge and casts a not guilty vote.
• Laura Roslin: testifies against Baltar and is forced to reveal her cancer is back.
• Saul Tigh: admits killing Ellen, hears the music and chooses to stay a Colonial officer.
• Galen Tyrol, Samuel Anders and Tory Foster: the other three who hear the song.
• Felix Gaeta: perjures himself against Baltar.
• Sharon Agathon: shares Roslin's Opera House vision.
• Number Six: Caprica Six, in Colonial custody and part of the vision.
• Kara Thrace: returns in the final scene.
• Romo Lampkin: Baltar's lawyer.

(Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part II")

Continuity#

• Kara's death in the gas giant's storm is three episodes earlier. (Battlestar Galactica, "Maelstrom")
• Razor aired between this finale and season 4, and introduced the Hybrid's warning that Kara would lead humanity to its end. (Battlestar Galactica: Razor)
• Season 4 picks up in the middle of this battle, with Kara back aboard Galactica and the four new Cylons hiding what they know. (Battlestar Galactica, "He That Believeth in Me")
• The fleet follows Kara to the first Earth, a dead world where she finds her own body. Ellen Tigh is revealed as the last of the Five. (Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion")
• The Opera House vision plays out for real during the rescue of Hera in the finale, "Daybreak". (Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")
• The trial's roots are on New Caprica. See "Exodus" for how the occupation ended. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")