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Survivors:

Battlestar Galactica 3: Measure of Salvation
Air Date: 11/10/2006

Written by: Michael Angeli
Directed by: Bill Eagles

Cast

Tricia Helfer (Number Six)
Mary McDonell (Laura Roslin)
Katee Sackhoff (Kara "Starbuck" Thrace)
James Callis (Gaius Baltar)
Grace Park (Sharon "Boomer" Valerii)
Edward James Olmos (William Adama)
Jamie Bamber (Lee "Apollo" Adama)

Plot Summary

Conclusion. Galactica sends a team to probe an infected baseship, and learns from dying Cylons how Baltar is helping their adversaries; the virus inspires Lee to come up with a new strategy.

Apollo formulates a plan that threatens the very existence of the Cylon culture. Adama and Roslin must decide whether to follow through on the plan to use a biological weapon against the Cylons.
D'Anna Biers (Number Three) believes Baltar knows who created the virus that infected and disabled the Cylon baseship. She is willing to take extreme measures to learn the truth.

Episode Recap

The Galactica's scout ships find a Cylon baseship in the Lion's Head nebula, adrift and helpless. Apollo and Sharon (now flying under her new callsign, "Athena") lead a team onto the ship to explore. Among a multitude of dead Cylons, they find only five who are still, but only barely, alive.

Apollo and Athena hurry back to the Galactica with these prize prisoners. Doc Cottle quarantines them all for study and identifies the virus that has infected the Cylon ship. Humans are immune to this particular pathogen — and so is Athena, as the mother of a half-human child. All other Cylons, however, aren't so lucky. While Cottle can design a vaccine that will halt the virus's effects, special antibodies in the Cylons' blood will soon destroy the vaccine. In other words, if the prisoners don't receive frequent new injections, they'll die.

Tempted by hope of receiving this dubious cure, the Cylon prisoner Simon tells the humans everything he knows. He explains that the virus can be transmitted through the Cylon resurrection process, then mentions that Dr. Baltar is alive and assisting the Cylons in their quest to find Earth. Adama and Roslin are stunned by this revelation.

In fact, deep in the heart of the Cylon fleet, D'Anna and Caprica Six have turned against Baltar. They believe that he knew about the virus all along and led them to the nebula in order to kill them. To make him confess, they torture him. Wracked with pain, Baltar flees to the comfort of the Six in his mind, who might offer his only hope for salvation.

Back on the Galactica, Lee Adama has a chilling brainstorm: if they maneuver the Galactica within close range of a Cylon resurrection ship and kill their Cylon prisoners, the infected prisoners will then download to new bodies, spreading the virus to the Cylon fleet in the process. The disease will then rage freely throughout Cylon civilization, eventually wiping out the entire race.

Shocked, Helo argues that the act is morally wrong. Admiral Adama shares his doubts. Athena grieves at the thought of her people's demise but tells Helo that she must remain loyal to her human comrades. Roslin, her duty to safeguard the survival of humanity foremost in her mind, believes that the genocidal attack might be justified. But as she prepares to make her decision, it is humanity's collective soul rather than its survival that is at stake...

Remarkable Scenes

- The boarding party approaching and boarding the basestar.
- The boarding party realizing that the Cylons were infected by a disease.
- The basestar exploding.
- Simon telling the story of the infected basestar to the Colonials.
- Simon telling the Colonials that Baltar is still alive.
- Apollo proposing to Roslin that they use the disease to wipe out the entire Cylon race.
- Helo arguing against genocide.
- Imaginary Six helping Baltar through the torture.
- Baltar lecturing D'Anna on the hypocrisy of Cylon fundamentalism.
- Athena revealing that Doc. Cottle discovered she's immune.
- Adama: "Posterity really doesn't look too kindly on genocide." Roslin: "You're making an assumption that posterity will define this as genocide. If they do, at least there'll be someone alive to hate us for it. The Cylons are our mistake, we created them... All right Admiral Adama, as President I have determined that the Cylons be made extinct. The use of biological weapons is authorized." Adama: "So say we all." Roslin: "So say we all."
- The battle.
- Adama revealing Cottle's findings regarding the origins of the disease.

Additional Notes

-As of the beginning of this episode, there are 41,420 survivors, two fewer than at the beginning of the previous episode, "Torn."
-Lymphocytic encephalitis is an actual disease caused by the Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus. Encephalitis is the acute inflammation of the brain. Brain damage and death can occur as a result of the inflammation.

As Doc Cottle stated in the episode, it is usually carried and transmitted by rodents. Unlike the Colonial survivors, humans on Earth are not immune, although infection does not result in symptoms in most healthy adults. It can, however, be deadly for persons with compromised immune systems.

- This episode contained a warning about violent content and mature subject matter.