You know something? If everything was too easy or there were no surprises, life just wouldn't be that fun. So not two minutes into the episode, the Galactica is already ready for battle. There is an unidentified ship coming straight for them. They assume it is a Cylon basestar, but it is sending a colonial signal. When they hail this ship, the people onboard identify themselves as the Battlestar Pegasus. By the time the intercept vipers can in fact confirm the identity of the ship, Commander Adama is already celebrating the arrival of Admiral Cain. That's right, it really was another colonial ship, and TVgasm readers should love captain of the ship. It's ranking officer is Admiral Cain, played by Michelle Forbes who starred as Lynne Kresge during the second season of 24 and took an unfortunate fall soon after she discovered a traitor among Palmer's staff, but we have loved her ever since her stint as the medical examiner with the odd mole in Homicide: Life on the Street.

The presence of another human ship is northing short of a miracle. One of the reasons why the Galactica was able to make it while the rest of the fleet was getting slaughtered was because of its age. It was old and didn't have a lot of the modern technology and weaponry that newer Battlestars enjoyed. This ended up being a blessing in disguise because the Cylons weren't able to exploit that technology for their own use. With this in mind, the crew of the Galactica waited in the hangar for the arrival of a landing party from the Pegasus.

When the members of the Pegasus crew came aboard, I was kind of surprised at how formal things were going. There was no small significance in the fact that they made contact with other humans, because it immediately boosts the moral of everybody in the fleet. Everybody had assumed that they were the only humans left in existence, and even thought the Pegasus was clearly a special case, if they could survive, maybe there was others out there. Despite what I would consider one the most exciting times in Galactica memory, Cain and the rest of the people accompanying her to the Galactica weren't exactly excited to see everybody, and when she met Adama, she wanted to make it clear who was in charge by telling him "Welcome back to the colonial fleet". Despite the low-rent Dido playing the background, I didn't get the sense that they thought this moment was special at all.

So, what exactly happened? The various officers of the Pegasus split up and started to talk with their counterparts on Galactica. Cain was in Adama's quarters, telling her story to him and the President, who was conveniently on board when all of the craziness was happening. They stumbled upon the Galactica while tracking what they thought was a Cylon fleet. It turns out this Cylon fleet was actually the colonial fleet. Well, that is a great explanation, but what we really needed to know is how the Pegasus had escaped the Cylons. As it turns out that story is not so surprising. They were docking for repairs and scheduled rest and relaxation at Scorpion when the Cylon attack happened. In order to get away, they did a blind space jump. It was a bold move because just putting in some numbers into the computer and telling to jump into space gives you a pretty good chance of jumping into the middle of a star or planet or something. That didn't happen and the Pegasus has spent the rest of the time trying to kill as many Cylons as possible.

As soon as Cain stepped onto the Galactica, you could tell that maybe her priorities were not the same as the members of the colonial fleet she just bumped in to. For better or worse, Adama has bought into the idea that his main job should be preserving the fleet and helping humanity continue. Cain, on the other hand, is still squarely in the mindset that they are at war, and they should be trying to kill as many Cylons as possible. How determined is she to go to war? Well, Colonel Tigh and the Ex-O of the Pegasus got together. It turns out the Ex-O of the Pegasus is also an old codger who likes to drink (and was killed with Susan Lefforts at the Night Owl), and when Tigh introduced him to some of Chief Tyrel's special stash, Tigh learned some interesting information. It turns out Cain had shot an officer of the Pegasus for refusing an order, and this wasn't a "he was court-martialed and shot for treason" type of thing; Cain shot him in the head on the bridge with everybody watching. Although the guy from the Pegasus tried to laugh it off, Tigh knew that there was something seriously wrong with the Pegasus.

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Posted by J-Unit on October 2, 2005 11:20 PM