Battlestar Galactica "Home" Part 1 TV episode Written by David Eick Directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan Original air date: August 19, 2005

Starbuck returns to Roslin’s side to find that 1/3 of the ships have broken away from Adama’s fleet to follow her; the prophecies continue to unfold in bloody fashion.

Read the story summary at the Battlestar Wiki clone site

Notes from the BSG chronology

This episode takes place immediately after "The Farm".

Didja Know?

The opening titles show the fleet at 47,858 survivors, one more than in the previous episode, "The Farm". Presumably the increase is due to the return of Helo, who has been on Caprica since the Cylon attack against the Colonies and was never part of the rag-tag fleet. Elosha and an unidentified individual are killed on Kobol later in the episode and their loss in the count is seen at the beginning of "Home" Part 2. 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this story

Commander Adama

Dualla

Colonel Tigh

Apollo

President Roslin

Elosha (dies in this episode)

Tom Zarek

Sarah Porter

Marshall Bagot

Meier

Starbuck

Caprica-Valerii

Helo

Lt. Olin Perry (mentioned only)

Jy Mueller (mentioned only)

Catman (Captain George Birch; previously a lieutenant, promoted to Captain in this episode)

Playa Palacios

Sekou Hamilton

Kimmit

Baltar

Head Six

Cally (mentioned only)

Hot Dog

Kat

Sweetness (Lt. Emmitt Jones)

Lt. Gaeta

Racetrack

Billy Keikeya

President Adar (mentioned only)

Dr. Cottle

Didja Notice?

Colonel Tigh says the 24 ships that have followed renegade President Roslin to Kobol make up over a third of the people in the fleet.

Dee states that the 24 ships that have fled the fleet are 12 transports, 7 freighters, 3 construction platforms, a private cruiser, and a mining ship. Tigh implies that the mining ship was called Monarch. The three-disk design of the ship is similar to the (unnamed) mining ship seen in episodes of BSG70, notably "Exodus".

One of the ships in Roslin's break-off fleet is the Adriatic, though it is only named and not identified on screen. Meier indicates that Adriatic is a ship capable of firing ship-to-ship missiles. The ship is later one of those lost in the star cluster in "The Passage". The Spacedock YouTube channel points out that the ship may be the one seen below as the Colonial fleet flees New Caprica after the arrival of the Cylons in "Lay Down Your Burdens" Part 2. The same model ship appears in the Colonial Fleet Yards in flashback scenes of "Razor" Part 1 and in Blood and Chrome, and appears to be based on a design by fan Todd Boyce. The ship design also makes an appearnce during the space battle with the Reavers in the Firefly universe in the Serenity movie! (Images from Spacedock.)
Possibly the Adriatic in "Lay Down Your Burdens" Part 2.	Colonial Defender class ship
Colonial Defender originally designed by Todd Boyce	Reaver ship from Serenity

At 5:59 on the Blu-ray, notice that there are six cargo transport ships of the same type as the Gemenon Traveller (seen in "Flesh and Bone"). At least one of these ship types is also still part of Adama's fleet (seen in the distance at 10:36 on the Blu-ray), so there are at least seven total in the unbroken fleet.

When Apollo first sees Caprica-Valerii, his mind flashes back to the moment Boomer (the same Cylon model) shot his father. This occurred in "Kobol's Last Gleaming" Part 2.

As Tigh and Adama discuss who to promote to the position of CAG since Apollo has gone AWOL, notice that Adama is cracking open walnuts with just the fingers of his right hand! This obviously indicates his tension and anger at his son's betrayal. It may also be a reference to Captain Queeg in the 1954 film The Caine Mutiny, who would roll ball bearings in his hand when under stress.

Tigh's first suggestion for CAG is Lt. Olin Perry; his name and rank are seen on the personnel file in front of Adama at 10:39 on the Blu-ray (except that Tigh seems to flop Perry's file in front Adama after we've seen that the commander already has it in front of him!). Presumably, Olin Pery is no relation to Donald "Chuckles" Perry, who was a rookie pilot killed in the raid on the Cylon tylium refinery in "The Hand of God".

Tigh's second suggestion for CAG is Mueller. The personnel file Adama is looking at at 10:50 on the Blu-ray belongs to Mueller, indicating his first name is Jy. His mother is Arina Mueller. He has the Golden Falcon campaign ribbon (also a Silver-something ribbon) and served aboard the battlestars Erasmus and Night Flight ("Night Flight" seems like an odd name for a battlestar, usually given mythological, historical, or space-related names). He also served at Aerilon Homebase, possibly located in the city of Yulu on Aerilon. For unstated reasons, Adama considers him a malcontent.

The new CAG, Captain George Birch is revealed to have the callsign "Catman" in the closing credits.

At 10:44 on the Blu-ray, the microphone Adama uses at the podium during the press briefing is seen to be a Shure brand.

Baltar mentions spending time at the Euclid River as a boy, presumably on his homeworld of Aerilon.

Baltar is upset that "that idiot" shot Boomer before he could ask her to identify the remaining Cylons in the fleet. Cally shot Boomer in "Resistance".

Elosha points out that the Scrolls of Pythia speak of a lower demon who helps the people in a time of crisis. Caprica-Valerii seems to be this "lower demon".

Zarek tells Meier that he does not believe in what Roslin is saying about the Pythian prophecies and Earth, but he does believe in "the power of myth". This may be a reference to the book The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), about the role of myth and religion in human society.

The pyramid ball that Starbuck brought back from Caprica is a repainted miniature (5-inch) soccer ball.

The new CAG attempts to guide the docking of a ship called Striker with a refinery ship. Striker is the same type of ship as the Celestra.

At 33:00 on the Blu-ray, we get a more global view of Kobol than previously seen.

Roslin's shuttle lands on Kobol in Galleon Meadow. The Sacred Scrolls state the founders of the 13 Colonies boarded a "galleon" that departed from this meadow.

At 34:27 on the Blu-ray, one of Roslin's party on Kobol is carrying an Armsel Striker, a South African shotgun, though it is depicted as a grenade launcher here. Caprica-Valerii later takes it from the man's body when he is dropped by Cylon Centurions and she uses it to blow up one of the Centurions.

Notes from the audio commentary by Ron Moore and David Eicke on the Blu-ray release

The mine triggered by Elosha in this episode is a bouncing Betty, a type of mine developed by Nazi Germany in 1935.