In which the writers, in an attempt to avoid a contemporary euphamism for "abortion," put a massive lie in Roslin's mouth.
"I have fought for a woman's right to control her body my entire life."
Yeah, except for that one time you were all set to murder Sharon's baby against her will.
I'll try not to thump my Bible too much in this review, mostly because the writers did their best to edge around the subject matter with similar tact.
The B-plot of this episode...
Okay, that's not correct. This episode doesn't really have an A- and B-plot, it just has one plot that gets less screen time than the other. This episode sets out to do two things that need to be done before the end of the season:
1) prove that there are no competent officers left in the Pegasus chain of command, thus justifying Adama's decision to put his son in command, and
2) give Baltar a platform from which to launch his Presidential campaign.
And it does both of those reasonably well.
Way back in "The Farm" we got these really creepy overtones from Simon the Cylon about what life after the apocalypse would mean as far as reproductive rights goes. Honestly, if re-building your society is your first priority, and if the statement that finally convinces the Commander to give up the fight and run away is "we need to start making babies," then, well, you need to start making babies.
In the series bible, there was this idea about how in Season 1, Roslin was going to ban contraceptives for everyone except female Galactica crew, and I for one would like to have seen that plotline make it onto the screen. (Incidentally, in this version, said decision irks civil-liberties-minded (!) Adama, who declares martial law because of that, not because Roslin got Starbuck to commandeer the Raider.)
Hell, in the aftermath of a real disaster that takes your population down to 50,298 (which, I hasten to add, is smaller than that of my suburb), I'd imagine that two laws would very quickly be passed. 1) every single male between 20 and 40 would be immediately conscripted ("Dirty Hands" skirts this issue, but only in an oblique way). 2) every single female between 20 and 40 would be required to marry and begin having children. Basically, you'd have to divide your population up between soldiers and baby-makers (old folks would have to raise the kids, I guess). Then Baltar's rant at the end of the episode about curtailing freedoms and making us more like the Cylons would ring true.
And even though that didn't happen, I'm still quite happy with the episode we got (besides, what I'm proposing would probably be too dark even for that show). Adama discovers that Dr. Cottle has been providing abortions on his ship for 5/8 months (delete whichever is appropriate; I'm not really going to discuss the Season Two Timeline Discontinuity here. Follow that link to an article written by people with even more time on their hands). Now, per the series bible and an early Season 1 commentary, Adama is supposed to be the main "Republican" on the show. (For what it's worth, I think this is the last time he's to the right of Roslin on an issue; they've certainly traded places by "A Measure of Salvation.") I think he'd be royally pissed that Cottle's been doing this sort of thing, but they have a brief glaring contest and then appear to get over it.
Roslin doesn't really have that option. The latest girl is from Gemenon, the planet of the devout wingnuts who believe that children (or at least female children) are the property of their parents until they turn 18. The Gemenese representative, basically a stand-in for Elosha (who died earlier in the season), pressures Roslin to force the girl to return to her parents.
(The writers mention, back in the commentary for "Home, Part 1," that they were deciding whether to kill Billy or Elosha in that episode, and that killing Elosha meant that they were sacrificing a plotline later on in the season where the priests would lean on Roslin for some sort of action. I would be willing to bet that they simply revived that plotline after Paul Campbell left, with the Gemenese rep standing in for Elosha.)
Roslin points out that abortion was legal in the 12 colonies and so it is still legal today. (Ah, but unless the Colonies had their own equivalent of Roe v. Wade, I kind of doubt that abortion was legal on Gemenon. Oh well.) So the Gemenese delegate storms away in a huff, and if she hadn't appeared earlier in the show, I would have assumed she'd been cast simply on her ability to do that, because she has to do it twice in this episode and then we never see her again (maybe she got nuked on Cloud Nine along with Lee's hooker-girlfriend).
Adama and Roslin have a chat where she lies in the manner discussed at the top of the page, and Adama points out that Roslin's first commandment was "make babies." She consults with Baltar, who by this point is already planning to "betray Roslin and run for President" (as Gina-Six conveniently tells us in the re-cap of the far superior versions of "Epiphanies" and "Black Market" that somehow never made it to air). Baltar tells her that the human race will be extinct in less than 20 years.
So Roslin gives a speech. Now, Roslin isn't my favorite character on the show; throughout the Miniseries and Seasons 1 and 2.0, she spends a lot of time being obstructive, liberal, holier-than-thou, and dying. (This in contrast to Baltar, who spends most of his time being deceptive, crazy, holier-than-thou, and living.) But credit where credit's due; the character is very well-written and almost flawlessly acted, and for my money this is one of Mary McDonnell's best scenes in the show (others including her confession scene in "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2," her absolutely heartbreaking "Captain Apollo" moment in "Crossroads, Part 1," and her "every bomb, every bullet" oath against Zarek and the subsequent "he is alive" appeal to the Cylons in "Blood on the Scales"). You can tell this is one of those hard decisions that she's going to regret, like the destruction of the Olympic Carrier.
In a way, this is the closest the show ever comes to "In the Pale Moonlight," that (in)famous Deep Space Nine episode where a Starfleet officer sells out his principles to keep the Federation alive. You get the sense that something similar is going on here... but you wonder if, in Roslin's personal log, she would have admitted that she'd do it all over again.
Baltar takes this opportunity to stab her in the back, the slimeball, and announce his candidacy for President. He's already been told to run by Zarek and, in the aforementioned flashback-to-something-that-never-actually-happened, Six. Head-Six shows up and applauds his decision, agreeing with her physical counterpart and continuing to blur the distinction between them even though by this point, especially with the introduction of Head-Baltar just around the corner, the writers have to know what she really is. I'm not complaining, but it's not like they're doing the slower members of the audience any favors (three of the four people I've watched "Downloaded" with were utterly confused by Head-Baltar).
Here's the thing about the abortion issue: nobody brings up the rights of the unborn or the right to privacy or anything like that (nor do they shy away from using the a-word). This is about Roslin being forced to make a hard decision that goes against her own political stance for the good of humanity. Which is probably the only way they could do this sort of an episode without completely showing their political colors and alienating part of their (decreasing) audience, but is still, all things considered, probably the best way for a drama like this to do it.
The other plot, the one that a lot of people mistake for the A-plot, is a lot more straightforward. Lee gets sent over to Pegasus to be the de facto XO to Barry Garner (John Heard, clearly having a ball and making this one-shot character more interesting than Fisk ever was), who disobeys orders, falls into a trap, and has to re-enact Star Trek II without any of the literary references or age-induced gravitas that made that film the masterpiece it is. Lee and Kara also argue, due in no small part to the fact that she frakking shot him in the previous episode, but it turns out that his real beef with her is that she can always get away with everything while he can't. (Was he already writing his "Crossroads, Part 2" speech in his head?)
Anyway, Garner pulls a Spock and Pegasus is able to jump away. Lee gives Garner a glowing report, even though the whole fiasco was Garner's fault in the first place, and then Adama puts Lee in command of Pegasus. Lee tells Dee he's leaving Galactica, not her, but that scene gets left on the cutting room floor and then put into the re-cap of several subsequent episodes. (I adore the full version of that scene, where Dee comes in on Lee and Kara embracing and doesn't get jealous, and then Kara tells Lee she'll leave the boots outside so he and Dee can get some privacy, and then Lee tells Dee Kara never jokes about that sort of thing. Maybe the reason I don't mind the Lee/Dee scenes being gutted is the fact that they're still in the deleted scenes on the DVD.)
From here through "Exodus, Part 2," it's full speed ahead, all guns blazing, with very little to complain about. Arguably the start of the longest run of great episodes the show had.
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