Season 3, Episode 3:

Exodus, Part I

At the resistance hideout, a panicked Tyrol runs in and tells Tigh that he just received a document from the informant showing the route the captured detainees are taking out of the settlement, and freaks out that they are going to be executed. Tigh tells him to regain his composure, and says they can triangulate the route and rescue them. They set to work assembling a team to find and rescue the detainees.

Tyrol, Seelix and an assault team find the location where the convoy is, and Tyrol sees Cally running down an embankment. As he runs to her and pulls her out of the way, the assault team opens fire on the Centurions who have walked over the ridge and pointed their weapons at the detainees, and a firefight erupts. All of the Centurions are killed in the ensuing battle, and the detainees are saved. Meanwhile, Jammer flees the scene and Cavil is injured but not killed. Seelix sees the wounded Cavil on the ground and leaves him to die, and the detainees and assault team leave.

At the canyon where Anders and Sharon are meeting, Marines have also set up flanking positions to defend against a possible counterattack. The attacking Centurions are swiftly cut down by the Marines, though not without several casualties. In the aftermath, the Marines discover that one of the attackers had a hand-drawn map, which Anders realizes is the same one Ellen was supposed to destroy.

On Colonial One, Caprica-Six and Baltar lie in bed, and it's revealed that he is having trouble performing in bed because of his hatred of himself for signing the execution order for the detainees. At the same time, D'Anna is elsewhere on the ship, having dreams about a tent and holding a child. Perturbed by her dream, D'Anna goes to wander through the settlement.

Onboard Galactica, the crew is making final preparations for the rescue mission. Racetrack performs a spiritual ceremony to bind the pilots together, and Lee says goodbye to his father before he heads back to the Pegasus. Bill tells his son that if Galactica and the rest of the fleet aren't back in 18 hours, he and the Pegasus should leave New Caprica behind and continue the search for Earth with the remaining spaceborne ships.

In the settlement, D'Anna visits a seer named Dodona Selloi, who sits in a tent and complains about the taste of chamalla. Selloi tells D'Anna that the Lords of Kobol have seen her situation, and are saddened for her. She then tells her that he has seen D'Anna's dream, and knows that a half-human hybrid is alive, then tells her about a prophecy where she will hold the child in her arms and finally understand the impact of the Cylon occupation.

Afterwards, D'Anna goes to Doc Cottle and asks him about the alleged death of the hybrid. She asks why he decided to cremate the body instead of performing an autopsy on it or studying it further, but Cottle lies and says that it was Roslin's decision.

At the resistance hideout, Sharon and Anders rendezvous with the rest of the group, and assault weapons are distributed to them by Galactica's gunnery sergeant, Erin Mathias. Roslin tells Anders that he must protect Hera and Maya at all costs, and he subsequently asks two of his men to keep a security detail on her. Anders also reveals to Saul that Ellen was conspiring with the Cylons, to the latter's shock and disbelief.

At the Detention Center, a high-level meeting of the human Cylon models, along with Baltar, has been called. Cavil relates to the group that he was left to die after the attack on the convoy, and had to cut his own carotid artery with a rifle casing in order to download into a new body. He is bothered by how traumatic the resurrection process has become, and says that there has been too much bloodshed. The other Cylons don't know how to proceed, and a copy of Doral/Five suggests that they could nuke the city as a last resort.

Elsewhere in the center, Sharon infiltrates the facility in order to obtain the launch keys for the grounded ships. She finds the room and obtains the keys, but is stopped by D'Anna, who recognizes her and says that Hera is still alive. Sharon states that Bill wouldn't lie to her, and shoots D'Anna in the legs to prevent her from calling for help or downloading to a new body, then leaves the center.

On Galactica, Bill is given the word that Sharon has retrieved the launch keys for the ship. He turns to the crew and tells them that he is proud of all of them, and gives the order to jump to New Caprica…

Tropes:

• The Bus Came Back: Captain Kelly, who is present in the CIC after being absent since the beginning of the second season.
• The Cavalry: Mathias' group of Marines taking out the Centurions who ambush Anders and Sharon.
• Continuity Nod: Roslin tells Anders that Hera is "the shape of things to come", echoing a similar line said by HeadSix in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II".
• Dreaming of Things to Come: D'Anna's dream about Hera.
• Immortal Life Is Cheap: Briefly discussed by Cavil, who mentions being too impatient to bleed to death after the ambush, and cut his carotid open with an empty shell casing to bleed out faster.
• It's All My Fault: Baltar still has a bout of this as a result of signing the execution order, to the point that he can't have sex and laments how much bloodshed has occurred.
• Just in Time: Tyrol and the assault team showing up to save the detainees just before they're executed by the Centurions.
• Knee-capping: Sharon does this to D'Anna when the latter confronts her in the Detention Center.
• The Loins Sleep Tonight: Baltar has trouble getting it up with Caprica-Six in his despair over signing the execution order for the detainees.
• Moral Myopia: Cavil complains about the humans leaving him to bleed to death for hours and Doral sarcastically tells Baltar what a noble race humans are. This is after Cavil was shot just as he was ordering the slaughter of a bunch of unarmed and innocent detainees.
• The Prophecy: Selloi tells D'Anna about the half-Cylon hybrid.
• Remember the New Guy?: Erin Mathias, the head of Galactica's Marines, is introduced in this episode, although she wasn't seen in any of the prior episodes. Made even stranger by the fact that she is present during the events of Razor (an Interquel that takes place during the second season), where she led the assault team on the Basestar. Yet, she is not present in episodes taking place just before or just after it.
• Resurrection Sickness: Cavil's description of his repeated deaths at the hands of the Colonials.
• Rewrite: The events of the previous episode are reframed with a slightly different sequence of events, including what happens when Cally is running (away from sustained gunfire in "Precipice", versus her getting pulled out of the way by Tyrol before the Marines shoot in this episode) and where she was running (in a forest in "Precipice", but still in the quarry in this episode).
• Rousing Speech: Bill gives one to the command crew just before they begin the rescue mission.
• Seers: Dodona Selloi, who advises D'Anna on her dream and the prophecy about Hera being alive.
• Took a Level in Badass: Seelix, who went from a deckhand in her last appearance (in season 2) to an accomplished sniper who provides covering fire during the convoy rescue at the beginning of the episode.
• Undying Loyalty: Sharon refuses to accept that Hera is alive when D'Anna tells her, because she knows that Bill wouldn't lie to her.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Dodona Selloi (the oracle D'Anna visits) disappears after this episode, and is never seen when the colonists escape the planet nor any time afterwards. She was originally intended to appear in the later episode "Maelstrom", but scheduling conflicts meant that the actress playing her (Amanda Plummer) never returned to the part.