Nina's Known Universe

'Litmus'
Original US Air date: FEBRUARY 11, 2005



***These articles are full of Spoilers from the entire series to date as aired in the USA...Continue At Your Own Risk--Moreover, the format assumes the reader has seen all of the episodes and specials aired through the first half of season 4, up to and including “Revelations”***


^Borrowed material is duly credited^





Read the Prior Episode Commentaries Here






Re-Watch the Episode Here First






^Time Line^





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^Day 17: A suicide bomber nearly kills Adama and Tigh; investigation centers on Galen Tyrol


When Aaron Doral turns up on Galactica and detonates a device made from the ship's own munitions, Adama orders a full investigation - and Galen Tyrol's relationship with Boomer becomes the focus of the investigation.





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Imperial Commentary



Primarily focusing on the storyline surrounding Chief Tyrol and Sharon/Boomer while also bringing into focus some of the lesser characters from the Deck Gang, we will also address the threat that the cylons now look human and most importantly this episode addresses the very common occurrance of 'witch hunts' during times of social crisis.



A 'witch hunt' being characterized best by President Roslin who states that the people require that someone be held responsible. Not just "there was a cylon agent aboard and thats whose fault it is" the people want to know who allowed that agent on board in the first place and so on. Human beings require closure. More often than not however, their closure is attained by creating more havoc than the original crisis caused in the first place.



This is simply due to our need to place blame. The problem with placing blame is often the wrong person ends up going down for circumstances that were more likely the result of several individuals errors and not just his...as is the case in this episode Not to mention that as flawed beings we are prone to misplacing our loyalty or rather misinterpreting the scope of that loyalty.



From the get go we have Tyrol sneaking off to visit Boomer in the inspection space above the refurbished water tanks {according to the guys at Wiki} I didn't hear them state it on the show but it doesn't mean they didn't. Cally watches the door for him. Boomer indicates that she snuck in the backway thru Causeway C. Meanwhile, Doral, a #5 cylon agent is strolling thru Galactica like he owns the place. He had official documents that the marine seemed to think were sufficient to allow this civilian access to the ONLY military vessel left to mankind...as far as they know at this point anyway.



We see the first error right away. The President and the Admiral chose to withhold the knowledge that the cylons can look human. Had this little detail been shared then the cylon Doral would have never cleared security. Their reason for not sharing was simple enough; fear that everyone would start accusing each other of being cylons. Of course they could have just released the image of the 2 cylons they knew about and not mentioned that there may well be other models.



There is something about the cylons that sends Adama into a rage whenever he sees one. Maybe it's what he witnessed years ago that we are made aware of during the Razor Flashbacks, maybe its just in his nature. Whatever the case, Bill Adama was going to rush Doral in the hallway but Tigh tackled him and saved his life from the suicide bomb.



Sgt Hadrian, the Master at Arms is shocked to learn the news about the cylon-human skinjobs and that there may be more. Commander Adama wants to know how the cylon got thru their security measures. {uh cuz your raptor pilot is a sleeper and she is leaving doors open without realizing.} The Sgt requests a free hand. Meaning she can follow the evidence whereever it may lead without Command Review and create an Independant Tribunal to persue the matter.



Command Review - from what I gathered from this episode - basically means that where military personnel are involved, the Commanding Officer, being Bill Adama has the right to override any judgements and can deny access to certain classified details or as was the case in this episode, the Commander can end any investigation if he feels it has been resolved or crossed lines. Adama grants her request for a free hand at this time. She encourages him to reveal the cylons to the public before taking her leave.



Chief Tyrol catches his deck gang making a still. He flicks them crap about trying to kill themselves and tells them if they bring him the right stuff he will show them how to do it right. This little moment between the Chief and his gang set the stage for their dedication to covering for him later in the episode...FYI...if you dont have your stories straight a simple "I have no idea where he was - he wasn't here - maybe he was in his rack." Is more than sufficient. Not to mention you avoid making liars out of each other.



Down on Caprica the Six and Doral stand on their rooftop with Sharon/Athena who was supposedly kidnapped by the cylons as far as Helo knows. Their game is simple. Get Helo to rescue Sharon, prove he loves her, then they will of course make love because that is what you do when you get rescued, you frak the rescuer. LOL



President Roslin struggles to make the Cmdr understand how the public will react to this news about the cylons. Pointing out that investigation is not enough...the public will demand a name, someone screwed up somewhere. Roslin is the first to use the term 'WitchHunt".



Down on the hanger deck Sgt Hadrian begins her investigation by questioning the deck gang about their whereabouts during the time just before and during the bombing. She also asks about the whereabout of Chief Tyrol and gets a different answer from each of them.



Lateron we will have a bit of rank pulling down on the deck when Sgt Hadrian shows up to escort Lt Sharon Valerie {Boomer} and Chief Tyrol to the Independant Tribunal. Crashdown tries to intervene but as Sgt Hadrian is acting within the scope of her investigation the Lt has no choice but to allow his friends be escorted off the deck. As the trial convenes, Sgt Hadrian starts off by asking Sharon about her physical relationship with the Chief, which at this time is still in violation of the Colonial Code of Conduct. Sharon claims their relationship was ended after orders from the XO.



Let's just jump the gun here and go over the chain of events that lead them to this point. First, the Powers That Be failed to inform at least the security teams of the truth about the skinjobs. Second, the idea about fraternization between crew members should have been tossed out the window as soon as it was realized how few people were left.



There is a reason behind the code of conduct. For one it prevents senior officers from making bad calls based on emotional attachments to their subordinates. Like covering for them when they black out or find bombs strapped to their pilot chair. For two it discourages sneaking off {dareliction of duty} and lying about it for fear of being courtmartialed and tossed in the brig for conduct unbecoming an officer. Had they not been forced to sneak, perhaps they would have saved their relationship for off duty hours.



Ok, so these 2, Boomer and Tyrol are not supposed to be fracking around. Then you add to that the bond between a deck chief and his gang and you have yourself one doozy of a cover up. In all likelyhood, though it is never revealed, it was Boomer that left the hatch open allowing Doral access. Her sleeper program is very likely in communication with the other cylons in the fleet that are not sleepers. It makes a degree of sense though it has never really been confirmed just how the cylons communicate with each other.



Situations have come up in which Sharon the sleepers program was overridden by her concious will so it makes sense that there are other cylons near by that keep sending her subconcious signals telling her what to do next. She would never have blown herself up but leaving a hatch open is not that traumatic so her concious mind would not have fought the signal {I am assuming}. I figure the Doral had her leave it open since he seemed to know right where to go...and when.



As this tribunal unfolds we will see Specialist Socinus {So-sin-us} take the fall for his Chief. He will take responsibilty for the hatch being left open because he did leave his post and he did lie about seeing the chief. He assumed that he left it open because he didn't know that Sharon had used the same hatch. But did he? Or was he was backstepping after making it seem the chief had lied and so to fix that error he went for broke and took all the blame? Covering for the Chief and taking full responsibilty denying that the Chief had any thing to do with it and even claims he left the hatch open on purpose. Did he? Or did he just cover for the Chief?



What I don't understand and perhaps it boils down to simple love or plot seeding...but why didn't the chief tell the Cmdr about Valerie using that hatch? He broke it off with her because he was pissed about Socinus having to rot in the brig so why cover for her at all anymore? We viewers know that she had more cyloning to do so we assume it was plot driven.



When Adama speaks to the President about it, they also discuss the fact that the Chief envoked the 23rd Article of Colonization, being the equivelant to our own Fifth ammendment being the right to remain silent and not being compelled to offer testimony that may incriminate ones self. Cmdr Adama asserts that he can't be held liable for his taking the 23rd. Roslin states that Tyrol must be hiding something, Adama says that if Tyrol really wanted to take the ship down, he could and that the Cmdr was putting a stop to the tribunal before it went any further. They had their name, their scapegoat, time to get back to the business of running for their lives.



Just then the marines come in and request Adamas presence at the Tribunal.



During his interrogation by Sgt Hadrian, Cmdr Adama states his reasons for withholding that skinjobs exist, he confirms that it is believed that cylons planted the bomb in the water tanks and that he feels there are still skin jobs in the fleet. He also claims that he allowed Tyrol and Valerie's relationship to continue because he is a 'soft touch'.



She begins to grill him about that relationship being the cause essentially blaming the Cmdr for the lax in security aboard ship {Be sure to read the episode notes at Litmus for more details surrounding the tribunal and other interesting tidbits about the disheveled nature of the crew.}. He states that "You’ve lost your way, Sergeant. You’ve lost sight of the purpose of the law: to protect its citizens, not persecute them. Whatever we are, whatever’s left of us – we’re better than that."



As he informs them the trial is over and that they will all be escorted back to their ships, the Sgt orders the guard to return Cmdr Adama to his seat. The Cmdr stares into the face of his subordinate and advise him to make his choice...calls him 'son'...Of course the marine is going to follow the Old Mans orders and not the Sgts.



Back on Caprica we see it is dark now and Helo is heading out. If he goes South, then the cylons assume it means he doesn't love Sharon and plans to leave her for dead. If he goes North, then he plans to go find Sharon proving his love. Sharon states that Helo "is a good man - he always does the right thing". This statement sums up Helo the best over the entire series for he will over and over 'do the right thing'.



They - the six and Doral - will proceed to beat the crap out of Sharon/Athena to make it appear as though she had been interrogated then Helo will find her being drug thru some underground place, bloody and beaten, primed for rescue by her Knight her shiny flight suit.



Back on Galactica Baltar visits the wounded Kara. You have to laugh at Baltar's more than obvious attempts to endear himself to Kara. Visiting her in sickbay and bringing her a cigar. {Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and other times its a bribe for meaningless sex}. She is still healing from being drug by her parachute in the last episode 'You Can't Go Home Again'. Kara questions Baltar about his super secret Cylon project and puts the idea in his head that maybe the bomber was headed to his lab. Many viewers think she was just fraking with him to make him go away.



His head six pops in to console him as he wanders the halls babbling to himself about the detector. She becomes very upset when he suggests that he plans to destroy it. Now why would an imaginary Cylon want him to finish the cylon detector? Clearly he is meant to {according to the devine plan behind all this} know who all the sleepers are even though he never shares this information with anyone.



Is it possible that Baltar was chosen not just because he is easy to manipulate but because he is truly brilliant and perhaps has the only mind capable of recieving the messages from the devine so clearly? Additionally he may well have been chosen for having the capacity for compassion - he simply had to face the nightmare of others in order to bring it out {Deannas torture on the Basestar during season 3 probably helped his clarity}. His knowledge of any sleeper would force him to watch this person or persons closely to see of they knew or not and in the end learn that being cylon does not always equal being evil.



Are we to believe that Baltar has known all along that the Chief and XO were sleepers? That seems unlikely since he would have already known who at least 2 of the final 5 were when he was onboard the basestar during season 3 discussing the subject with Caprica and then later Deanna. And surely he tested himself. Of course this may be one of those flubs that the writers are desperately trying to unpaint themselves from having created a corner so to speak with Baltar and what he did or did not know all this time in regard to the Cylons identities.



Bill Adama will get uppity with Chief at the end telling him that his man is sitting in the brig because the Chief couldn't keep his fly zipped. But in reality the kid is sitting in the brig because A the Cmdr and President didn't clue in security about the cylon skinjobs and B because the Cmdr needs his vipers to fly and the Chief keeps them flying. Otherwise it would have been the Chief sitting in the brig.



Chief Tyrol is all about his crew. He breaks it off with Sharon, gives her a lecture about all he had done for her, the covering up and all that so one of his 'kids' can take the fall, he then asks her about the Hatch, she gets indignant but never denies it stating he got the only answer he was ever going to get.



Hindsight being 20/20, the various archetypes almost scream at you now that we know where all these characters end up in Season 4. The statement made by Sharon-Athena about Helo always doing the right thing is basically all we need to know about his character and his motives. He may be a dutiful soilder but he is also compassionate and ethical - his ethics often conflicting with his duties later in the series.



Doral is a classic 'shit-stirrer' poking every bees nest he can find even among the cylons. He seems giddy while teasing Sharon that her Hero doesn't love her and if he runs he dies. While Tyrol's loyalties always seem to fall with his crewmates or fellow man fighting for the good cause, he doesn't blatently go against orders like Helo but he does get into a pickle or two down the road making a stand against the powers that be more than once.



It is only been 6 episodes and yet we already know so much, so much that we didn't really pay any mind to earlier due to not realizing how heavily the mystical would play into the show. For example we know that head six is not just some delusion of Baltars, she is a physical power of some kind that only he sees for now {I still say she manifested solid to become Shelley Godfrey having the power to be seen if she chooses} otherwise they would have found Shelley (Next Episode)...you don't just stash a 6 foot tall hot blonde in that sea of gene pool left overs. LOL



We also know that whatever head six is, her manipulations of events is not so clearly one sided. Taking me back to the idea that some higher power wants the cylons and the humans to end up together. We now also know that Cmdr Adama's father was a civil liberties attorney and that the Cmdr has a working knowledge of the law even though this information won't come up again until late in season 3.



Realistically, I am not sure what Sgt Hadrian hoped to accomplish. Granted in normal everyday function of her duties, uncovering a conspiracy or collaberation with the enemy seems the best course of action. But suppose that Adama hadn't stopped the inquiry? Suppose Sgt Hadrian and her tribunal decided that ultimately Cmdr Adama was responsible for the bombing by withholding the intel regarding skinjobs and by allowing the Chief and Sharon to carry on which of course lead to the deck gang covering for the Chief?



Just what did she plan to do? Have him removed from command perhaps? To what end? Surely the good Sgt knows their aren't any other qualified Commanders available to command the military in this crisis and we all know what happens later in the series when Col Tigh takes command. In all situations one must find the middle. The law has never been black and white especially in a survival situation. It was good that the skin jobs existence was revealed, the rest as the Cmdr called it was a Witch Hunt surrounding Sharon and Tyrol.



If Cmdr Adama were a bad leader like say Admiral Cain, then the lesser of two evils would be the logical way to go...but you cannot watch this show and think for a moment that Cmdr Adama does not have the best interest of humanity at heart and the chops to make the hard decisions that have to be made and made quickly. And he clearly has the loyalty of his crew. As Socinus said, if we turn on each other now, we won't have each others backs when the time comes.



Here is to hoping Bill is the final cylon! ;)


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Thank you for reading, ~99


^Additional^ notes copied from http://en.BattlestarWiki.org regarding this episode - full text is available here.

Litmus is a chemical substance used to determine whether a solution is acidic or basic. In politics a litmus test is a question posed to a candidate in order determine whether or not he or she will be nominated for a certain office, thus deciding a political career. {Like whether or not a judge is for or against abortion.}



Number Six intimidates Baltar with the line, "Don't make me angry, Gaius. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." This is a possible play on the classic Bill Bixby line from the pilot episode of the Incredible Hulk. The line is partially repeated in flashback in "Six Degrees of Separation" and again in "Collaborators" by Adama.


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Speaking of Shelley Godfrey - the next episode - Six Degrees of Separation - will finally introduce us to this elusive accuser of Baltar and then we can discuss her role and her true identity in more detail.


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Thank you for reading,
~99


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