Battlestar Galactica
"Exodus, Part 2"
Air date: 10/20/2006
Written by Bradley Thompson & David Weddle
Directed by Felix Alcala
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
I called "Exodus, Part 1" the setup, and now I can call "Exodus, Part 2" the payoff. It's a worthy one —good but not flawless — elevated into the realm of the standouts by virtue of two potent character arcs fully realized by the end.
The rest of the time it plays like a highly entertaining — albeit highly telegraphed — action/adventure, in which all avenues must absolutely and unequivocally arrive at the predetermined solution because the previous episode made so very much of promising that solution's delivery. When "Occupation/Precipice" aired, I figured you could easily get ten episodes out of the New Caprica arc. But after last week's "Exodus, Part 1," it became very clear that New Caprica was quickly going to be left in the rear-view mirror. It's Galactica to the rescue or bust.
I'm not sure if that decision was a good thing, a bad thing, or a neutral thing. Clearly, an occupation is a storyline that could've sustained more than four episodes, especially when the series went so far as to jump forward in time and reinvent itself. At the same time, with all that had been accomplished in "Occupation/Precipice," the show probably needed to move along to keep momentum from flagging — which, by the way, I would argue is somewhat what happened in "Exodus, Part 1." And since so much already happened off-screen — both with the one-year leap as well as the four months of unseen occupation — the story's structure naturally had to be geared toward the escape. I just wonder if it could have been and done more.
Not that we didn't have enough. "Occupation/Precipice" had so many storylines and characters that I'm still in awe of it, and in terms of pure action, "Exodus, Part 2" pulls out all the stops.
Before the action, however, the story first deals with one of those many storylines/characters: Ellen Tigh. Anders tells Tigh that he'd better "take care of" Ellen for her betrayal — because if Tigh doesn't, someone else will. What follows is a scene of Shakespearean tragedy in which Tigh poisons his own wife. (When Ellen says that she'd do what she did again if it meant saving her husband, it reveals a mindset that's at odds with Tigh's soldier mentality — because the mission must be maintained at the individual's expense, not vice versa.) Can you agree with Tigh's mindset? Probably not, but you can probably sense a warrior's code at work. In Tigh's mind, this is a mercy killing carried out because he loves her and wants to be sure she dies on his terms and not someone else's. It's a character-defining moment.
Soon the bombs are falling, and we learn the nature of Galactica's rescue plan. Strictly speaking, this is not a rescue mission so much as an orchestrated diversion to keep the Cylons busy while the residents of New Caprica flee to their now-unlocked ships and save themselves. Adama's plan involves a series of clever tactical maneuvers that make for some entertaining, frenetic action and impressive visual FX sequences.
I don't know, however, if I'm quite convinced by from a plausibility standpoint. The use of FTL jumps as a battle tactic strikes me as a dangerous tech card for the writers to play; it has an arbitrary nature and opens a can of worms. In one scene, the Galactica FTL-jumps to a point high in the sky above New Caprica City, does a free fall while on fire, launches its Vipers, and then jumps away just in time to avoid crashing into the ground at terminal velocity. It's a noisy and cool scene, but isn't FTL being used here like a magical teleportation device rather than a function to explain interstellar travel? Don't get me wrong: The notion of FTL is pure fiction in any case, but when they draw attention to it like this, it seems like it's the writers' fictional tech that's outsmarting the Cylons rather than the plausible ingenuity of the characters.
As was said by Lee in the last two episodes and the beginning of this one, Adama's mission is a hopeless one, and a point comes where the Galactica is under heavy fire, outnumbered by four basestars with the FTL engines down, and the situation looks hopeless. Obviously it's time for the Pegasus to charge in for the rescue, in what's one of this series' most spectacular battle sequences. In keeping with the epic scope of the episode, the Pegasus is sacrificed in this battle — a tactical maneuver on Lee's part. (Wouldn't it have been a TV coup if the Galactica had been destroyed instead and next week the show was called Battlestar Pegasus? Kidding.)
It makes for epic drama, but it leaves out some of the more realistic aspects of this series. I found myself wondering: Can a skeleton crew really pilot a battlestar through such a crucible of fire? Also, given the levels of trickery on display here, couldn't a way have been devised from the outset that used both battlestars to carry out the mission, with the sacrifice of one ship drawn up as an acceptable outcome? Perhaps it would've been too big of a risk, but it seems like it would've caused more confusion for the Cylons and made more sense than the Galactica going it alone.
I quibble on logic, but the truth of the matter is that these scenes are exciting and well executed. Much like "Pegasus," this is an episode that's less grounded in reality, and a little larger than life.
There's plenty of action on the ground as well, nicely shot in the Saving Private Ryan cinema verite style. (Duplicating the feel of documentary footage, it seems to me that SPR basically set the visual format for all realistic movie war footage ever since. One wonders if it has become easier to stage war action simply by adjusting the shutter speed on the camera.)
On the character front, we've still got Kara and Leoben in a twisted situation where she has become somewhat more submissive to life in captivity simply because her maternal instincts have kicked in to care for Kacey, allegedly her daughter. Leoben, meanwhile, seems to want some sort of admission of love from Kara, no matter how staged. Kara ends up in one of the most skin-crawling kissing close-ups imaginable. For the life of me, I don't know what Leoben even thinks he gains by getting such a coerced and false "I love you" out of Kara. One suspects this is not about love and the Cylon procreation plan (cf. Helo and Sharon); this is more about power in the rape-predator sense. When Kara stabs Leoben in mid-kiss and then twists the knife, we feel simultaneously glad and unclean.
Meanwhile, Baltar is the ultimate Cylon stooge. As the Cylons plan their evacuation, he sits powerlessly until D'Anna invites him to join the Cylons as they leave (since the humans will surely want his head). There's a showdown between Baltar and Gaeta that manages to keep both characters alive and supply Baltar an avenue for dignity: He will stop D'Anna from setting off a nuke. I find myself wondering what goes through this guy's head. He's clearly been suicidal, yet he couldn't take a bullet to stop the executions in "Precipice." Now he's willing to kill D'Anna to save humanity. When that doesn't go as planned, he ends up joining the Cylons because he simply has nowhere else to go.
As with the good dramatic victories, this one does not come without a substantial cost. Specifically, Maya is killed during the exodus, hybrid baby Hera survives, and D'Anna finds her, in keeping with her premonition. Despite every dire warning being issued by Roslin and Tory, Maya and the child could not be secured, and now the baby finds its way into the hands of the Cylons. Just wait until Sharon finds out. I love how victories on this show include ominous failures that hint at future disaster.
There are character costs as well. The episode's celebratory shots aboard Galactica have substantial power, but not for the reasons you would've thought. Adama is raised up on the crew's shoulders and cheered, but the scene is really about Tigh and Kara, who have been left very damaged by what has happened. The music (a solemn counterpoint to the celebration) and the focus on these two characters says more than dialog ever could, or would need to. Consider: Tigh lost his wife in an even worse way than a random Cylon killing, and Kara learns that Kacey is not her daughter, but simply a random child that was kidnapped and inserted into a very elaborate and cruel deception. In its subtle way, you can almost see Kara's spirit break in this scene.
It's realizations like these that elevate "Exodus, Part 2" into something more than the action-packed conclusion of a plot. The residents of New Caprica have made their escape, but what happened while they were there will leave more than its share of scars.
Previous episode: Exodus, Part 1
Next episode: Collaborators
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38 comments on this post
Mon, Dec 24, 2007, 3:33am (UTC -6)
From the tense decoy scene to the insane in-atmosphere jump to launch the vipers and finally the four basestars on one battlestar pounding. I seriously thought this would be the end of the Galactica, and the show would move on to Pegasus; quite ridiculous and unprecidented really, but for a moment I genuinely believed it. The pull away shot of Galactica seemingly going down followed by Pegasus charging in to save the day is the most satisfying action shot of the whole series run. Completely took my breath away.
Wed, Mar 12, 2008, 9:44pm (UTC -6)
Fri, Apr 18, 2008, 4:00am (UTC -6)
Could watch the action scenes both space and ground over and over again.
Sun, Mar 1, 2009, 7:43am (UTC -6)
Wed, Mar 4, 2009, 6:10pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Apr 30, 2009, 9:47am (UTC -6)
ROFLMAO
Thu, Aug 13, 2009, 5:56am (UTC -6)
"The notion of FTL is pure fiction in any case..."
That's kinda cutting yourself short, isn't it? While going Faster Than Light is impossible based upon current knowledge, there are many ways around that.
BSG's FTL Drives seem to bend space, i.e. create an artificial wormhole, which is a real-world theory which so far is plausible when it comes to the math, but unachievable due to our limited technology.
In fact, I remember reading somewhere that artificial wormholes are the most probable way space travel will come about in the future, as other concepts such as Star Trek's warp drive, which changes the laws of physics, and other series Hyperspace or Subspace, which depend on an alternate universe for which there is no proof of as of now, are mathematically impossible now. Wormholes are proven through math, however.
------------
Also, if you remember, the series has used the FTL as a plot point before. I.E. the Raptor's jumping into a very low Caprica orbit to avoid the Basestar's detection grid.
Wed, Sep 2, 2009, 5:45am (UTC -6)
within general relativity)
Thu, Feb 24, 2011, 1:18am (UTC -6)
I still can't get over how utterly amazing this show was. It's like a great book, you can just pick it up and read it every year and it won't get old.
Thu, Apr 7, 2011, 8:48pm (UTC -6)
K+L Forever
Mon, Aug 1, 2011, 8:20am (UTC -6)
As for the rest of the episode, it's hard not to draw comparisons with the Occupation arc that opened DS9's sixth season. When the Pegasus predictably arrived to save the Galactica, I was reminded of the Klingons in "Sacrifice of Angels".
DS9's arc was six episodes long at a time when this kind of storytelling on television was unheard of. BSG's arc lasted only four, at a time when it is much more common. It seems this limit was imposed by the network, but it still seems like a cop-out. Why take such a big risk and then set everything back to normal by the first quarter of the season? It was still a great episode, but a lot of it just feels a little too easy.
Sat, Aug 6, 2011, 4:38pm (UTC -6)
Tue, Sep 27, 2011, 1:11am (UTC -6)
Sat, Nov 19, 2011, 4:51pm (UTC -6)
This particular episode has awesome action sequences, masterfully done, as well as deeply moving scenes. Yes, many events happened too quickly and easily, but that does not detract from the enjoyability of it.
Adama shaves off his soup-strainer: We're back in business, baby!
Wed, Dec 28, 2011, 10:03pm (UTC -6)
Sun, Jan 29, 2012, 11:09pm (UTC -6)
I personally think this is where Michael Hogan dramatically takes over this series.
Sun, Feb 26, 2012, 3:25pm (UTC -6)
At the end of season 2 I had mixed feelings; sad that the "life aboard a fleet of spaceships" theme was ending, but excited about the possibilities of the new "occupation/resistance" setting.
Now, at the end of this episode, I find myself really bummed at the idea of everything "going back to normal." All I can say is that Tigh better not go back being the whipping boy or I'll be very disappointed.
Mon, Jul 9, 2012, 8:44am (UTC -6)
I think when you combine both parts of Exodus as one episode, it is just shy of 4 stars. 3.9 stars, I'd say...
Sun, Jul 22, 2012, 4:10am (UTC -6)
Wed, Sep 19, 2012, 12:35pm (UTC -6)
So true. Tigh became the best character in the series following this episode.
Tue, Jul 30, 2013, 6:26pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Jan 2, 2014, 9:26pm (UTC -6)
I knew Pegasus would jump to the rescue but I still smiled when it happened. Pegasus died a brave death. I LOVED Gaeta pulling the gun on Baltar. Good for him.
Why'd he let Lucy Lawless take the baby? When will Apollo lose that spare tire? Talking to myself I know. But have to talk about the show with somebody :)
Sat, Jan 4, 2014, 6:15pm (UTC -6)
"Ok this one had me tearing up at the end. [...] Good for him. Why'd he let Lucy Lawless take the baby? When will Apollo lose that spare tire? Talking to myself I know. But have to talk about the show with somebody :)"
I'm right there with you, Cureboy! :)
I originally watched the first Galactica and TNG when they aired, but never really got to watch much of the later Trek series. I later watched every single episode of Star Trek on dvd with my now ex-girlfriend and her son; they both loved it so much that they also bought every series on dvd after we split up :) But ufortunately mother and child lost interest in BSG after the initial episodes; it just wasn't their thing. I kept on watching (how could I not, after "33"?), but just didn't have anyone to talk to about it. So frustrating...
So don't worry, we're right there with you - try googling "Shankly Gates" ;)
Thanks, Jammer, for this great site.
Thu, Jun 12, 2014, 9:43pm (UTC -6)
Sun, Mar 22, 2015, 5:00pm (UTC -6)
I know that behind the scenes it was getting too expensive to maintain the Pegasus sets, but it was still disappointing. One other online reviewer (Kethinov, I think) said that he would have scrapped the Colonial One sets instead, by having Colonial One and a few other ships do the ramming instead while Pegasus repaired its FTL and jumped out to fight another day. Sigh, what could have been...
Despite that, still a 4 star ep for me.
(*) The way Lee Adama looks back at the Pegasus CIC in flames is very similar to the scene in STDS9's "Changing Face of Evil" when Sisko looks back at the burning bridge before heading to the escape pods. Given that RDM worked on DS9, it's an interesting thing to note.
Tue, Apr 14, 2015, 12:29am (UTC -6)
1) Galactica in a fiery atmospheric entry. My favorite bit is the quick cut to CIC where we see things bouncing around and hear the turbulence -- you just know this isn't in the flight manual. (Yeah, maybe it's a cheat -- we've come a *long* way since the miniseries where an FTL jump was a huge deal.) But it's a great shot with great effects. One of my favorites in the whole series.
2) The pull-back of Galactica getting pounded, followed by the Pegasus salvos. Another series favorite.
3) Tigh and Ellen. And I also think Ellen knew what was in the glass. Which leads to another emotional moment on the hanger deck when Adama congratulates Tigh "You brought them back" and Tigh responds "Not everyone."
I'm surprised they didn't spend more time on New Caprica.... but after Precipice, they really had to get them off the planet before one side exterminated the other....
And "Battlestar Pegasus". Yeah, that would have been fun.
Tue, May 19, 2015, 7:23pm (UTC -6)
Realistically, Adama should have taken command of Pegasus after Caine was killed.
In an alternate scenario, Galactica could have been sacrificed and Pegasus then renamed Galactica.
Thu, Apr 27, 2017, 3:22pm (UTC -6)
Mon, Aug 14, 2017, 2:52pm (UTC -6)
The scene at the end in the hanger always chokes me up when Tigh says "Not everyone" and his haggered face says so much more than those two words. And to add insult to injury, after Tigh has had to do unspeakable things to save so many, and lost so much, it's Adama that is carried away by the people and hailed as a hero.
Nitpicking - in the Miniseries, 33 and I think a few other episodes, it took, or was implied to take, quite awhile to calculate a jump, spool up the FTL drive and make a jump, but here it seems Galactica can now do it in seconds?
Thu, Sep 7, 2017, 8:18pm (UTC -6)
I was appalled.
Yeah, whatever, humanity is definitely not worth saving if you ask me.
Wed, Jan 2, 2019, 12:29pm (UTC -6)
That opening quip wasn't hyperbole btw. Star Trek literally, after filming, sealed off the sets and shampoo'd and scrubbed down every single surface and carpeting.
Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 8:31pm (UTC -6)
Sat, May 23, 2020, 10:01pm (UTC -6)
But it's also incredibly powerful on an emotional and visceral level. Rewatching this, I think BSG brought tears to my eyes for the first time I can think of-- Tigh poisoning Ellen and then returning to the Galactica "not all of them". The nature of these stakes and losses and torments is so personal and profound with this whole arc.
Also, rewatching I picked up on a likely connection between two moments I always already liked: the extra twist of the knife Starbuck gives Leoben, and the moment she finds out her daughter is not hers-- It's a delayed-action twist of the knife by Leoben and I love how it just destroys her as the final twist after all she had been through and thought she was free from.
Beautiful, moving episode.
Fri, Dec 4, 2020, 1:38pm (UTC -6)
I remember the first time I saw it, I caught the line in CIC about preparing for turbulence and thought “huh?” Then- oh! (Were I to nitpick, I find it odd that turbulence would even be noticeable, compared to what the Galactica often takes in battle, plus the sheer size of the ship.)
Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 3:08pm (UTC -6)
I still wish the Pegasus had survived though. A damn fine ship. Just as Kendra Shaw was a damn fine human.
Could not the Colonial fighters have come back to the Pegasus instead of Galactica, to help defend it? Or could not the Pegasus have been present from the start and fired from a far out range?
Or else sacrifice the Galactica in battle, evacuate to the Pegasus (on the perimeter) and redub that ship the Galactica?
Perhaps a slight adjustment to the scene might have added a little more weight. For instance, just go all out and have about 15 Base Stars descend upon the Pegasus, so it literally is completely overwhelmed and goes out with even more of a blaze of glory. In that way, it would show that even had the ship been fully staffed with a crew at optimal performance, there was no way for it to win. And show it then proceeding to do the same move and take out say 7 Basestars in that final explosion.
Beautiful moving episode nevertheless.
This could have all been avoided, if the Colonials had spent the year on New Caprica repurposing unused ships into a Death Star to welcome the Cylons if they ever came.
Sun, Sep 5, 2021, 10:52am (UTC -6)
Yes, the episode is almost pure payoff, but what a payoff. Lee comes to his father's rescue in superbly dramatic fashion. Kara twists the knife into yet another Leoben. Roslin takes her place in Colonial One. My god, Saul and Ellen. Just heartbreaking.
The Adama manuever. WOW. Forget the plausibility of it. Forget the science of it. The sight of Galactica plunging like a stone into New Caprica's atmosphere brought a very heightened sense of drama and risk.
Oh, my goodness. And that brief moment when it looks like Galactica wouldn't make it. "Then that's it. It's been an honor." There was a not-so-insignificant part of me that really believed it, especially as the camera pulled out, showing Galactica getting bombarded by four basestars.
And then I jumped off the couch screaming YEAH LEE GET 'EM GET 'EM GET 'EM as Pegasus came to the rescue. Forget the tactics. Forget the plausibility. Just great drama.
And yet, for all of that payoff, there's still that "where do we go from here" on the hangar deck at the end, as Adama is carried off in celebration. And that's right after he congratulated Tigh on bringing them all back home, only for Tigh to weep "Not all of them." Oh. And Starbuck's haunted expression as Kaycee's real mom found her? Gold. Just gold.
Again, four stars. Not just for the events of this episode, but for setting up other threads that would be picked up later in the series.
Mon, Dec 19, 2022, 3:32am (UTC -6)
There was a lot of emotion in that episode as well as action. The Ellen Tigh scene was very emotional as a viewer as was the end scene you mention with broken Tigh and Kara. Top marks.
Tue, Mar 7, 2023, 8:10pm (UTC -6)
The battle scenes were well done, chaotic etc. though I'm not a huge fan of them (wasn't with DS9 either like in "Sacrifice of Angels" for example) -- bit hard to understand the strategy with vipers potentially killing civilians and Galactica descending (almost landing) and then jumping away. The jump drive is a bit too magical.
Felt like a season-ending episode with the military together again on Galactica -- seen this before. But what's cool is how the experience on New Caprica has changed almost everybody (Tigh and Kara in particular) and the series can reset again. Glad Ellen is gone and I guess it makes sense how Tigh dealt with her (poison just happened to be lying around) -- he's a true soldier. Liked Kara's expression on Galactica when Kacey's real mom comes looking for her -- the extent the Cylons will go to with their deception...
Baltar looked like he was finally ready to be killed but I think he knew Gaeta, the idealist, wouldn't do it. Certainly the story about stopping the nuke helped but Baltar was literally at his breaking point -- this was good to see. And he's been invited to go with the Cylons to wherever...
3 stars for "Exodus, Part 2" -- felt kind of odd to see this type of ending (again) in only the 4th episode of the season. Also have to feel the Cylons are idiots and should not be overwhelmed by 2 battlestars when they had 4 basestars and presumably way more raiders than the good guys had vipers/raptors. Definitely satisfying and raises interesting questions on where the series goes next.
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