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Battlestar Galactica
"Downloaded"
TV episode
Written by Bradley Thompson and
David Weddle
Directed by Jeff Woolnough
Original air date: February 24, 2006
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On Cylon-occupied Caprica, the
resurrected Number 6 and Boomer are viewed as heroes by the
Cylons; in the fleet, Caprica-Valerii gives birth to her baby.
Read the summary of the episode at the Battlestar Wiki
Notes from the BSG
chronology
The episode opens with a scene said to take place "nine months
ago", set moments before the Cylon attack on Caprica in
"Humanity's Children",
indicating the "present day" scenes take place nine months after
the destruction of the Twelve Colonies. The scene
following it indicates that Boomer's "death" at the point of Cally's gun in
"Resistance"
was ten weeks after the Cylon assault.
The opening titles show the fleet at a population of 49,579,
down five from the previous episode
"The Captain's Hand",
accounting for the deaths of Commander Garner, Buster, Shark,
and the crew of Raptor 314 in that episode. This population
number is also the same as that shown in the TV movie Razor,
a flashback story that aired shortly before the premiere of
season four. This and the promotion of Apollo to commander of
Pegasus after the death of Commander Garner in
"Razor" Part 1, would seem to place Razor just before this
episode. However, this population count would mean it ignores the deaths of
Major Shaw, a Raptor crew, and an SAR marine in
"Razor" Part 2.
Didja Know?
This episode is the first to state that Boomer is a Number
Eight, D'Anna is a Number Three, and Doral is a Number Five.
This is also the first episode in which the humanoid Cylons are
referred to as skin jobs (by Anders). The term "skin job" seems
to have been borrowed from the 1982 film Blade Runner, which
featured "replicants", synthetic people nearly indistinguishable
from humans.
PopApostle has taken to referring the Number Six that Baltar
sees in his head as Head Six. Picking up from that, the version
of Baltar that the resurrected
Caprica Six sees in her head will be referred to as Head Baltar.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode
Baltar
Caprica Six
Number Six (another Six model)
Number Three
Number Eight
Head Baltar
Boomer
Cally (in flashback only)
Tyrol
Admiral Adama
Number Five
Caprica-Valerii
Helo
Paramedic Layne Ishay
Dr. Cottle
Hera Agathon
Jean Barolay
(member of the Caprica resistance)
Sam Anders
Apollo (in flashback only)
President Roslin
Colonel Tigh
Head Six
Hilliard (member of the Caprica resistance)
Number Four
Tori Foster
Starbuck (mentioned only)
Maya
Didja Notice?
At 9:48 on the Blu-ray, a clock is seen atop a building in the
Caprica cityscape. In reality, it is the Vancouver Clock Tower
in Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada, where the series was filmed.
This episode is the first mention of "boxing", the Cylon term
for keeping a humanoid Cylon's consciousness in cold storage.
The human resistance on Caprica refers to Cylon Centurions as
bullet-heads.
Boomer's apartment number on Caprica is 502.
As Boomer does pull-ups in her apartment on Caprica, the towel
on her right shoulder keeps changing position. Then, when she
finishes her pull-ups, the towel is gone from her shoulder and
she picks it up from the floor.
Boomer has what appears to be a widescreen, flat panel TV in her
apartment set in a vertical position!
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At 12:56 on the Blu-ray, Caprica
Six sees photos of young
Boomer's fictitious parents,
family, and friends. |
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Caprica Six states that she lived on Caprica for two years
before the Cylon attack against the Colonies.
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The jacket Boomer puts on in her apartment on Caprica is
a bit reminiscent of the Colonial Warrior jackets seen
in BSG70. |
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A Cobray M11/9 submachine gun is seen hanging behind Anders at
17:00 on the Blu-ray. He carries it later while setting the
bombs at a Cylon-occupied building.
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We get our first full exterior look at Baltar's house on
Caprica at 17:36 on the Blu-ray. |
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The child born to Helo and
Caprica-Valerii is a girl, just as she predicted in
"Home" Part 2. They name her Hera.
At 21:16 on the Blu-ray, a Number Six is seen walking in Caprica
City with a bald black man. His face is not seen, but he is
presumably a Number Four. Another similar figure is seen in
profile view in the background of the cafe at 23:47. Possibly
the actor who's played Four in the past (Rick
Worthy)
was not available for
this episode or the producers wanted to save some money by just
using a silent extra seen only from behind. The figure seen in
the cafe is obviously not actor Rick Worthy!
The cars seen in the Caprica parking garage at 21:21 and later
on the Blu-ray are a 1984 Avanti, 1972 Citroën DS (with Caprica
license plate SEXYMOM and bumper sticker reading "C-BUCKS RULE";
C-Bucks is short for the Caprica Buccaneers, Caprica City's
professional pyramid team for whom Anders and much of his
resistance force used to play), 1969 Rover 2000 TC, and 1946
Tatra 87 (with license plate TS 72 48; possibly a European plate
since the car was originally made in Czechoslovakia). It's
interesting to see that the production is already using unusual,
rarely-seen automobiles on Caprica, just as they would later do
in 2009 for the prequel TV series
Caprica.
Number Three takes a Desert Eagle pistol off of Anders at 28:45
on the Blu-ray.
When Number Three finds that the unconscious
Anders is wearing Starbuck's dog tags, she remarks to the others
that Starbuck was there "a couple of weeks ago". But Starbuck
was on Caprica many months ago, not weeks, by the "present day"
of this episode. It's possible that the Caprica scenes here take
place about two weeks after the events of
"The Farm", in which Starbuck returned to the fleet. In that
case, the birth of Hera plotline takes places months after the
Caprica scenes even though we jump back-and-forth between the
plotlines as if they are taking place at the same time.
Starbuck left her dog tags with Anders in
"The Farm". She
will get them back from him in
"Lay Down Your Burdens" Part 1.
Starbuck's dog tag shows her serial number as 462453.
At 33:11 on the Blu-ray, a box or crate is seen against a wall
of Baltar's lab with the word "FAUNUS" stenciled on it. Not sure
what this means (if anything) in the context of the show. Faunus
is the Roman name of the Greek god Pan, god of the wild,
shepherds, and flocks.
Roslin orders Dr. Cottle to fake the
death of Hera in order to prevent
Caprica-Valerii from raising it. The baby is given to a woman
in the fleet named Maya (who lost her own baby) to raise. Maya
is told the baby is from a Pegasus officer who can't
keep the child for political and religious reasons and the
"truth" must remain secret. The later episode "The Eye of
Jupiter" reveals that even Admiral Adama did not know that Hera's
death was faked; only President Roslin, Tory Foster, and Dr.
Cottle knew the truth.
At 34:16 on the Blu-ray, Roslin's whiteboard still lists the
population of the fleet as
49,579, despite the birth of Hera. It makes sense since Roslin
and Cottle have just faked Hera's death.
While awaiting rescue in the collapsed parking garage, Head
Baltar says to Caprica Six, "Life is short. But the next
one's not. Let your heart adrift and your soul will get caught."
As far as I can tell, this is an original "poem" written for the
episode. But it does appear that the quote was reused in the
2012 thriller novel Rattlesnake Island by Randall N.
Dunn.
After letting Anders escape, Caprica Six tells Boomer that the
Cylons need a new beginning, a way without hate. In "Lay Down
Your Burdens" Part 2, Cavil tells Adama it was the war heroes
Caprica Six and Boomer that convinced the Cylons to take a
different tack than wiping out the human fleet.
Unanswered Questions
Where did Dr. Cottle get the infant corpse to present as the
deceased Hera to her parents Helo and Caprica-Valerii?
