"Exodus": Battlestar Galactica season 3 episodes 3 and 4 explained

"Exodus" is the two-part story in which the fleet comes back for the settlers on New Caprica, first aired on 13 and 20 October 2006 as episodes 3 and 4 of season 3. The resistance steals back the launch keys, Galactica drops through the planet's atmosphere to give them air cover, and Lee Adama gives up Pegasus to save his father's ship. The battle itself has its own page, the Exodus from New Caprica. This page covers the episodes, scene by scene, and what they set up for the rest of the series. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")

Plot#

Part I. The Cylons had rounded up a group of settlers for execution, Cally among them. Galen Tyrol worked out where they were being taken from cracked Cylon coordinates and led an armed team in. They took out the Centurions before the firing squad could shoot, and the prisoners got away. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part I")

The rescue plan hinged on the launch keys the Cylons had taken from the ships on the ground. Without them nothing could lift off. Sharon Agathon slipped into the Cylon detention centre to find them. A Number Three, D'Anna, caught her there and told her that Hera, Sharon's daughter, was alive. Sharon didn't believe her. She shot D'Anna in the legs and got away with the keys. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part I")

D'Anna had her own reasons to think so. She'd dreamed of an oracle's tent and went looking for it. The oracle, Selloi, told her the child lived, and warned that the girl would undo what the Cylons had built on New Caprica. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part I")

Saul Tigh, who'd lost an eye in Cylon detention and been running a suicide bombing campaign since, found a map that showed his wife Ellen had been giving the Cylons the resistance's plans. She'd done it to buy his release. Laura Roslin told Samuel Anders to look after Maya and the baby she was raising, and to get them off the planet. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "Occupation"; Battlestar Galactica, "Precipice")

In the fleet, William Adama knew Galactica might not survive the plan. He told Lee to keep Pegasus with the civilian ships and take them away if Galactica fell. Then he spoke to his crew in the hangar, saying the job ahead would make them legends, and took his ship in. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part I")

Part II. Anders confronted Tigh about Ellen. Tigh made her a drink with poison in it. He told her he loved her while she died, and stayed with her body. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")

Galactica jumped into New Caprica's sky. It fell through the atmosphere, launched its Vipers on the way down and jumped back out before it hit the ground, scorched but in one piece. The Vipers went for the Centurions on the ground while settlers ran for the ships. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")

Kara Thrace had spent the occupation locked in an apartment by Leoben Conoy, who'd brought her a little girl called Kacey and told her the child was hers. When the attack came she pretended to give in, told him she loved him and kissed him, then stabbed him to death. She got out with Kacey and Anders. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")

Back in orbit, four basestars closed in on Galactica, which was taking a beating while it covered the civilian ships. Adama had nowhere to go. Then Pegasus jumped in. Lee had disobeyed his orders. He got his crew off in Raptors, set Pegasus on a collision course and rammed a basestar. It blew apart, and the wreckage took out a second one. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")

On the ground, D'Anna was meant to set off a nuclear warhead left in New Caprica City once the Cylons pulled out. Felix Gaeta held Gaius Baltar, the president who'd signed whatever the Cylons put in front of him, at gunpoint and sent him to stop it. D'Anna decided not to set it off. Baltar and Caprica Six found Hera alive next to Maya's body, and D'Anna took the baby. Baltar left with Caprica Six and the Cylons. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")

The fleet regrouped. Roslin took back Colonial One. Tigh came aboard Galactica, and when Adama welcomed him home, Tigh gave a bleak answer about Ellen. On the hangar deck, a woman recognised Kacey as her own daughter, and Kara watched her go. Roslin was told nobody could find Maya or the baby. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")

What it reveals#

The big reveal, for the characters, is that Hera is alive. Sharon and Helo had been told their daughter died soon after birth, but she's the baby Maya was raising. Now the Cylons have her, and D'Anna, not a human, ends up holding the child the oracle warned about. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part I"; Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")

The Cylons aren't of one mind. D'Anna chases dreams and oracles, and she calls off the nuclear strike she was meant to carry out. Caprica Six is still tied to Baltar. The Cylons who seemed so certain at the start of the occupation leave it arguing. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")

The cost lands on Tigh, who killed his own wife to protect the resistance. He walks out of New Caprica a hero with nobody waiting for him. Kara gets the cruellest twist. She'd started to love the child Leoben gave her, and the child was never hers. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")

Pegasus is gone, so Galactica is the last battlestar again. Lee's choice also says a lot about him. He saves his father by disobeying him, which is exactly what Adama would have done. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")

Characters#

• William Adama: takes Galactica into the atmosphere and expects to die over New Caprica.
• Lee Adama: commands Pegasus and rams it into a basestar.
• Saul Tigh: leads the resistance and poisons Ellen.
• Ellen Tigh: the informer, killed by her husband.
• Galen Tyrol: saves the prisoners from the firing squad.
• Sharon Agathon: steals the launch keys and learns Hera is alive.
• Kara Thrace: kills Leoben and escapes with Kacey.
• Leoben Conoy: Kara's jailer, who told her Kacey was hers.
• Samuel Anders: resistance fighter charged with getting Maya and the baby out.
• Laura Roslin: back in charge of Colonial One by the end.
• Gaius Baltar: sent by Gaeta to stop the nuke, he finds Hera and leaves with the Cylons.
• Number Three: D'Anna, who visits the oracle and takes Hera.
• Number Six: Caprica Six, who leaves with Baltar.
• Hera Agathon: the baby everyone thought was dead.

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

Continuity#

• Settling scores starts straight away. A secret group called the Circle tries and executes people who worked with the Cylons on New Caprica. (Battlestar Galactica, "Collaborators")
• Hera spends the next stretch of the season with the Cylons. Sharon gets her back by dying aboard a basestar so she can download there, then carrying her daughter out. (Battlestar Galactica, "Rapture")
• Baltar's time as president catches up with him at his trial, where Tigh admits under cross-examination that he killed Ellen. (Battlestar Galactica, "Crossroads, Part I")
• Ellen's story isn't over. She turns out to be the last of the Final Five, which means she was a Cylon the whole time. (Battlestar Galactica, "Sometimes a Great Notion")
• For the battle as a whole, and how Pegasus's loss changed the fleet, see the Exodus from New Caprica. The ship's earlier story is in "Pegasus" and Razor. (Battlestar Galactica, "Exodus, Part II")