Battlestar Galactica "The Oath" TV episode Written by Mark Verheiden Directed by John Dahl Original air date: January 30, 2009

Opposition to the Cylon alliance turns violent with those in support of the union finding themselves under a deadly attack.

Read the summary of the episode at the Battlestar Wiki

Didja Know?

The opening titles show the fleet at a population of 39,643, down 1 from the previous episode, "A Disquiet Follows My Soul", presumably due to the death of Chief Peter Laird in the teaser of our current episode. Yet, this seems to ignore the deaths of two marines during the mutiny on Hitei Kan in "A Disquiet Follows My Soul" unless two births also occurred in the fleet.

Admiral Adama

Colonel Tigh

President Roslin

Tom Zarek

Lt. Gaeta

Specialist Gage

Charlie Connor

Narcho

Private Paley

Marine Maldonaldo

Jacob Cantrell

Jeanne

Racetrack

Skulls

Chief Peter Laird (dies in this episode)

Apollo

Lt. Hoshi

Sam Anders

Hardball

Marine Nowart

Hot Dog

Starbuck

Athena

Hera

Helo

Specialist Tyrol

Lt. Thorne (mentioned only, deceased)

Private Stewart Jaffee (dies in this episode)

Caprica Six

Redwing (mentioned only)

Baltar

Paulla Schaffer

Priestess Elosha (mentioned only, deceased)

Reza Chronides

Quorum Tauron Delegate Dahlia

Number Eight

Captain Kelly

Specialist Vireem

Didja Notice?

As the episode opens, Admiral Adama pours himself a cup of coffee (or some similar beverage). Colonel Tigh indicates he's lost the taste for it since "they started grinding it out of algae." This refers to the so-called algae planet, where the fleet harvested massive amounts of edible algae after the events of "The Passage".

Before and during the mutiny, Lt. Gaeta's gaze seems to linger slightly on Lt. Hoshi. This may be an indication that he is worried about his former lover surviving the mutiny (even though the decision to depict the two as lovers in the "Face of the Enemy" webisodes was not made until well after this episode had been filmed).

Starbuck indicates that it was she who gave Lt. Costanza his "Hot Dog" call sign.

At 14:10 on the Blu-ray, notice that, in her locker, Starbuck has a shot glass full of various-sided dice! Sure, she's a bit of a gambler, but maybe she also plays Dungeons & Dragons!

At 16:21 on the Blu-ray, the whiteboard behind the President's desk shows the fleet population at 39,644, one more than seen in the count during the opening titles. This is because the opening title count takes into account the death of Chief Laird in the teaser of this episode, but no one on Colonial One is yet aware of that death at this point.

At 19:24 on the Blu-ray, after escaping the mutineers on the hangar deck, Starbuck grumbles, "Semper frakking fi." The Latin motto of the U.S. Marines is Semper fidelis, "always faithful". Her remark suggests that the Colonials have a similar motto, which she feels they've betrayed.

In the brig, Sam Anders tells Athena that, despite being one of the Final Five, "I don't have any more answers than you do." That's true at this time but, ironically, he is the one who later reveals a great deal about the origin of the Final Five and Earth when his memory is jarred due to a head injury in "Deadlocked".

When Baltar calls Gaeta in CIC from the secondary storage bay, he mentions a secret held between them. This refers to the human deaths Gaeta was indirectly responsible for on New Caprica when he revealed the names of resistance members to Sweet Eight, as previously revealed in "Face of the Enemy".

Adama and Tigh wield Beretta CX4 Storm rifles in the shootout with the mutinous marines at the end of the episode.