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Battlestar Galactica
"Lay Down Your Burdens" Part 1
TV episode
Written by Ronald D. Moore
Directed by Michael Rymer
Original air date: March 3, 2006
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Starbuck leads a rescue mission back
to Caprica; meanwhile, the fleet discovers a habitable planet.
Read the summary of the episode at the Battlestar Wiki
Notes from the BSG
chronology
Tom Zarek states that the population of the fleet has been
cooped in the metal boxes of their ships for nine months,
indicating how much time has passed since the rag-tag fleet fled
the devastated colonies.
During the first presidential debate between Roslin and Baltar,
the moderator states that Baltar declared his candidacy a month
ago (in "The Captain's Hand").
On this same night, Head Six states that the election is now two
weeks away.
After the second
presidential
debate, the election is said to be three days away, so this
episode covers about 11 days.
Didja Know?
The "Previously on Battlestar Galactica..." segment at
the beginning of the episode contains moments that were not
previously broadcast, culled from deleted scenes of earlier
episodes.
The opening titles show the fleet at a population of 49,579,
the same as the Razor
two-parter and "Downloaded".
However, as stated in the study of
"Downloaded", this population count ignores the deaths of
Major Shaw, a Raptor crew, and an SAR marine in
"Razor" Part 2.
This episode has a number of similarities to the two-part season
one finale "Kobol's Last
Gleaming".
The title of this episode touches on a line spoken by D'anna
Biers in "Final Cut", "No pay.
No rest. No hope of ever laying down the burden and letting
someone else do the job."
Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode
Chief Tyrol
Baltar
Head Six
President Roslin
Tory Foster
Starbuck
Lt. Gaeta
Helo
Racetrack
Lt. Hamish "Skulls" McCall
Admiral Adama
Joseph Adama (mentioned only, deceased)
Caprica-Valerii
Tom Zarek
Cally
Apollo
James McManus
Brother Cavil (a Number One model Cylon)
Dee
Colonel Tigh
Headcase
Swordsman
Anvil
Chinstrap
Gumball
Raw Meat
Toyon
Strakus
Playboy
Polo
Casey
Adonis
Gully Man
Star Cloud
Callan
Tough Guy (mentioned only, dies in this episode)
Carousel
(mentioned only, dies in this episode)
Sam Anders
Jean Barolay
Didja Notice?
At the beginning of the episode, leaflets in support of Baltar
for president are seen. Some of the slogans are "PEACE IS OURS TO
MAKE", and "WE DESERVE PEACE AND SECURITY, WE DESERVE A HOMELAND, WE
DESERVE GAIUS BALTAR".
This episode introduces Brother Cavil, the first of several
Number One model Cylons we will meet in the course of the
series.
In his quarters on board Pegasus at 14:38 on the
Blu-ray, Apollo is eating noodles out of a bowl with chopsticks.
His father was also seen doing the same in
"33".
Yet another tradition we inherited from the Twelve Colonies of
Kobol!
A newswire service in the fleet called the Colonial Dispatch
is mentioned in this episode.
At 16:19 on the Blu-ray, a fleet newspaper called the
News-Review is read by Baltar.
The dateline on the article about the presidential debate in the
News-Review
is 23-77-32.
The front page article of the
News-Review
is titled "Baltar Takes the Heat in First Debate". Notice that
part of the headline is cut off at the bottom!
The article text itself is mostly related to real world
political matters, even mentioning state legislature, state
governor, and Democrats! The article has replaced the names of
real world figures with either "Mr. Baltar" or "Mr.(!) Roslin".
Racetrack appears to have been assigned to Pegasus at
this point.
Talking to Apollo, Dee remarks on the newly-discovered planet
having "rivers of milk and honey." This is a reference to a
phrase about the promised land of Israel in the Bible.
Baltar and his running-mate Zarek decide to make the settlement
of the newly-discovered planet and the abandonment of the search
for Earth the major plank in their election platform. In the
BSG70 chronology, there was a similar plan when the Council of
Twelve decided to settle the planet
Domia instead of continuing the search for Earth in
"No Place Like Home",
an issue of the BSG comic book series published by
Realm Press.
Brother Cavil seems to be playing
with Tyrol. Cavil, we soon learn, is a Cylon, and we will learn
much later that Tyrol is one of the Final Five Cylons,
manipulated by the Number One series of Cylons (like Cavil).
Cavil seems to be trying to get Tyrol to kill himself, as he is
disdainful of the Final Five.
During Roslin and Baltar's second presidential debate, Roslin
remarks about Baltar, "There he goes again." This is probably an
intentional reference by writer Ron Moore to Ronald Reagan's
line of "There you go again" in a 1980 presidential debate
against Jimmy Carter. The line has become part of the political
lexicon in the United States, meant to indicate that an opponent
is using hyperbole or twisting the facts.
Since the scenes of the pre-election life in the fleet are
interspersed with the scenes of the SAR Raptor squadron making
the ten hyperjumps back to Caprica to rescue Anders' resistance,
it gives the impression that it took about ten days for the SAR
squadron to get to Caprica. Is time-dilation involved in the
making of an FTL jump?
During the reconnaissance on Caprica, Starbuck is seen armed with
a Heckler & Koch
G36K and Helo with an Armsel Striker shotgun.