Season 2, Episode 11:

Resurrection Ship, Part I

After Galactica's and Pegasus's Vipers are dispatched against each other, both squadrons begin circling each other in a dangerous game, waiting to see who will fire first. While they maneuver around each other, Kara is still on her stealth mission to the unidentified Cylon ship. She pilots the Blackbird into the ship and takes several pictures, and is startled by what she sees. Kara leaves the area before the Cylons realize what she is doing.

As the Vipers circle each other, Cain orders Taylor to arrest Lee, who is getting ready to pilot a Raptor on a recon mission. Meanwhile, Kara jumps into the range of both Battlestars and is confused about what is happening, only to quickly identify herself as a friendly when both sets of Vipers move to engage her.

As both sides remain wary and ready to fire on each other, Kara uploads the pictures from the recon mission, which many copies of Cylon bodies within the unidentified ship. Roslin orders both Bill and Cain to her ship for a discussion.

Onboard Colonial One, Roslin blasts both of them for endangering the fleet's safety, and orders them to agree to a mutual truce. Both begrudgingly agree to set their differences aside and figure out an attack plan on the Cylon fleet. After Cain leaves, Roslin tells him that she can't be trusted, and orders him to kill her in order to protect the fleet. Bill is bothered by the idea of assassinating an admiral, but even more concerned with Roslin's rapidly-fading condition.

Baltar is still questioning Gina in her holding cell, and she asks him to kill her so she can be free of the pain and torture she's endured. Baltar tells her that is impossible, as she would simply download to a new body. Gina then sees the pictures of the unknown Cylon vessel, and tells him that if it were to be destroyed, she and any Cylon in the fleet would be permanently gone if they were killed.

Baltar reports his findings about the vessel, named the Resurrection Ship, to both commanders. Cain realizes that destroying the ship would be a huge blow to Cylon operations, and promotes Kara to acting CAG of Pegasus (over Taylor) as a reward for her success in the recon mission. Kara subsequently restores Lee to active duty and begins planning an attack on the ship.

While Lee visits Helo and Tyrol (who are still locked up in the Pegasus brig) and informs of what's happening with the attack plan, Kara devises an all-out assault that involves both Battlestars and all available Vipers. Although Bill is hesitant about the commitment of all of the fleet's available fighters, he agrees to the attack.

After the mission briefing, Bill orders Kara to shoot Cain in the head after the completion of the mission, with Lee as her backup, while Cain orders Fisk and a group of Pegasus Marines to kill Bill and the rest of the Galactica command staff after the attack. Both sides get ready for the attack…

Tropes

• Being Good Sucks: Despite Cain's actions (which nearly result in both ships' fleets firing on each other), Bill is reluctant to do anything until Roslin basically orders him to assassinate Cain.
• Body Backup Drive: The Resurrection Ship itself, which houses inactive copies of various Cylon models.
• Call-Back: "Case Orange" is the emergency presidential succession protocol that was enacted in the miniseries, which appointed Laura as the next President of the Colonies. Here, it's part of a secret codeword to enact an assassination and hostile takeover of Galactica command by Admiral Cain.
• Everyone Has Standards: Cottle is very gentle with Sharon and calls what happened to her "unforgiveable". It clearly doesn't matter to him that she's a Cylon
• Fan Disservice: Viewers are treated to a long glimpse of Gina as she's puting on clothes (seen from behind)… except that her back is covered in scars.
• Foreshadowing: Kara is making plans to rescue Anders and the rest of the Buccaneers from Caprica.
• Gallows Humor: As her cancer gets worse, Roslin jokingly comments to Bill that she would consider transferring into a nice, young Number Six body from the Resurrection Ship. He replies that he can't see her as a blonde.
• Game of Chicken: Both the Pegasus and Galactica Viper squadrons engage in this in the opening sequence.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Gina asks Baltar to kill her so that she can be freed from her pain at the hands of the Pegasus crew. She later tells Baltar that she will die permanently if the fleet takes out the Resurrection Ship.
• Kick the Dog: If the revelation that Cain ordered a civilian fleet to be stripped for parts wasn't enough, her casual direction to Fisk to kill Bill (and supposedly the rest of the command crew) firmly establishes her on the side of evil.
• Manly Tears: After his meeting with Roslin, Bill quickly wipes away a tear when he turns away from her.
• Military Mashup Machine: The Resurrection Ship, which is a glorified mobile Cylon factory.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Both Bill and Cain decide that the only way there will ever be peace in the fleet is to kill the other (though they come about their solutions separately).
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Averted with the Resurrection Ship, which provides a way for the Cylons to resurrect if they are killed in the Fleet.
• Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Inverted. Tigh offers the suggestion that the Blackbird deliver a nuclear payload into the Resurrection Ship, but Kara discards it, on the grounds that the Cylons would detect the radiation and jump away before they get close.
• Only Sane Man: The standoff between the Galactica and Pegasus ends with Starbuck of all people pointing out that they're all "friendlies" and need to stand down. Even Tigh is happy to find out she pulled one of her crazy stunts.
• Pet the Dog: Adama apologizes to Sharon for her assault, as it happened on his ship. When ordering her back to her cell he uses "her" rather than "it" for the first time.
• Rank Up: Cain promotes Starbuck to Captain and makes her CAG.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: While Adama dances around referring to what happened to Sharon, Cottle openly calls it "unforgiveable".
• Space Friction: Notably averted, as Kara turns off the Blackbird's thrusters and drifts into the Resurrection Ship on inertia alone.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: The final scene alternates between Adama and Cain as they each lay plans to assassinate the other. Though their means differ slightly (Cain orders her subordinate in military terms ("terminate Adama's command"), while Adama makes an upfront request of Kara ("I want you to… shoot her in the head")), both dialogues end up being nearly identical.