"The Hub": Battlestar Galactica season 4 episode 9 explained

"The Hub" is the season 4 episode in which the Resurrection Hub, the centre of the Cylons' ability to come back from death, is destroyed. Colonial pilots and rebel Cylons attack it together to free the one Cylon who may know the names of the Final Five. Meanwhile Laura Roslin, carried off on a rebel basestar, has visions of her own death and hears Gaius Baltar admit what he did before the Fall. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub")

Plot#

The jumps. The episode picked up after the basestar's unplanned jump away from the fleet, which had carried off Roslin, Baltar and Karl Agathon. An Eight found that the Hybrid was panicking after the shooting of Natalie, the rebel Six, aboard Galactica, and kept jumping the ship. But the Hybrid was following the Resurrection Hub, so the joint mission could still go ahead. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub"; Battlestar Galactica, "Guess What's Coming to Dinner?")

Each jump pulled Roslin into a vision. She found herself in an empty Galactica with Elosha, who led her to sickbay. In the only occupied bed lay Roslin herself, dying. Over the jumps she watched Kara, Cottle and the Adamas gather at the bed, and saw William Adama reading to her. Elosha, speaking to the dying Roslin, chided her for her lack of empathy. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub")

Roslin's order. The Eight working with Helo knew things only his wife should, because she had his wife's memories from Athena's download aboard a basestar. Roslin took Helo aside and gave him an order: when the Three was rescued, he was to bring her straight to Roslin, not to the Cylons. Helo hated going behind his new allies' backs, but she insisted. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub"; Battlestar Galactica, "Rapture")

On the Hub, Cavil and Boomer took the Number Three, D'Anna, out of storage and told her about the civil war. They wanted her to talk the rebels down. She threatened to shout out the names of the Final Five instead. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub")

The briefing. In the basestar's hangar, Helo and an Eight briefed a mixed group of Colonial pilots, Sixes and Eights. Some of the humans said they didn't trust Cylon pilots. A Six pointed out the Cylons were as well trained as they were, and the Eight reminded them they had learned to trust Athena. Elsewhere, Baltar tried to convince a Centurion that God loved it too. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub")

The attack. The rebel basestar launched 25 Heavy Raiders, towing Vipers into range. Missiles took out the Hub's FTL drive so it couldn't escape. Cavil realised the rebels meant to destroy it and called it mass murder, since death would become permanent for every Cylon. D'Anna broke his neck, and Boomer fled. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub")

Helo and the Eight flew a Raptor to the Hub and found D'Anna beside Cavil's body. Helo froze at the sight of rows of inert Eight bodies until the Eight got them moving, dragging D'Anna along. A badly damaged Colonial Raptor, its pilot wounded, jumped away from the fight. Once Helo reported he had D'Anna, the Vipers fired nuclear missiles into the Hub, destroying it and at least one of its escorting basestars. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub")

The confession. A missile strike on the basestar killed Baltar's Centurion and left Baltar badly wounded. Roslin sent the Marines out, dressed his wounds and gave him painkillers. Drugged, he told her about his guilt. He had given the Cylons the access codes before the Fall, without knowing what they were for. Roslin pulled off his bandages and let him bleed. He begged her to stop. On the next jump, Elosha stood with her over her own deathbed and told her humanity couldn't be saved case by case. Roslin checked that Baltar was still alive, re-dressed his wounds and put him on a drip. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub"; Battlestar Galactica (miniseries))

D'Anna. On the basestar, Helo told the Eight he was taking D'Anna to the president. The Eight was furious, and D'Anna remarked that double-crossing was very human. Alone with Roslin, D'Anna joked that Roslin was one of the Five, then refused to name anyone until she was safely with the fleet. With the Hub gone, she was the last Three there would ever be, and the names were all she had. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub")

The basestar jumped back to the meeting point, where William Adama had been waiting. In the landing bay he told Roslin he'd missed her. She told him she loved him, and they held each other. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub"; Battlestar Galactica, "Sine Qua Non")

What it reveals#

Destroying the Hub changes what a Cylon is. Since the miniseries, death had been an inconvenience for them. From here every death is final, for the rebels who helped destroy it as much as for Cavil's side. The rebels chose mortality over being ruled by Cavil, which makes them more like the humans they're now allied with. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub")

Roslin's arc is the heart of the episode. Elosha's visions push her to face death and to show more compassion, and two things follow: she spares Baltar after hearing the worst thing he could tell her, and she finally says what she feels about Adama. The visions show her dying aboard Galactica, but she doesn't die there in the end. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub"; Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")

Baltar's confession hands Roslin the truth about the breach, on a Cylon ship, with no witnesses. (Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub")

Characters#

• Laura Roslin: has visions of her death, hears Baltar's confession and admits she loves Adama.
• Gaius Baltar: preaches to a Centurion, is wounded and confesses.
• Karl Agathon: leads the strike and follows Roslin's secret order.
• Number Eight: the rebel Eight working with Helo, and Boomer on the Hub.
• Number Three: D'Anna, unboxed and rescued, now the last of her line.
• Number One: Cavil, killed by D'Anna on the Hub.
• Elosha: the priest, dead since Kobol, who guides Roslin's visions.
• Hybrid: the rebel basestar's Hybrid, whose jumps trigger the visions.
• William Adama: seen at Roslin's deathbed in the visions, then waiting for her return.

(Battlestar Galactica, "The Hub")

Continuity#

• The mission was set up when the rebel Cylons allied with the fleet to destroy the Hub and unbox D'Anna, and the basestar's sudden jump came after Sharon Agathon shot Natalie. (Battlestar Galactica, "Guess What's Coming to Dinner?")
• The episode runs at the same time as "Sine Qua Non", in which Adama waits in space for the basestar to come back. (Battlestar Galactica, "Sine Qua Non")
• Elosha was killed by a landmine on Kobol. (Battlestar Galactica, "Home, Part I")
• D'Anna's demand for safety goes nowhere good. In the next episode she takes Roslin hostage to force the Final Five out into the open. (Battlestar Galactica, "Revelations")
• Roslin's death comes not in sickbay but on the new world the fleet finally settles, on a last flight with Adama in the finale. (Battlestar Galactica, "Daybreak, Part II")