218 - Downloaded

Summary
On Galactica, Sharon's baby is born, while on Cylon occupied Caprica, two "Heroes of the Cylon" are reborn.

We begin with a flashback to the fall of Caprica, showing Baltars house being destroyed. Several flashbacks occur as Sixes memories are downloaded into her new body. She begins hallucinating the Baltar is there, having truly fallen for him. We fast forward to a few weeks back, and watch the rebirth of Galactica Boomer. She wakes up disoriented, until she sees another Boomer, at which point she freaks out. We return to present day Caprica, where the Cylons are rebuilding the city. Six has kept her hallucinations secret, believing that she would be destroyed as defective. She is approached by a D'anna who tells her of her celebrity status and that her help is needed in healing another recent rebirth, Galactica Boomer, who if she can't be healed will be "boxed" : putting her consciousness in cold storage and never loading it into a new body again.

Six and Boomer are considered war heroes. Six for her seduction of Baltar and infiltration of the Colonial defense system which allowed the near complete destruction of the Colonies, and Boomer for her acts as a saboteur and attempted assassination of Adama. Six and Boomer talk, and Boomer reveals to Six that Baltar lives and is vice president of the Colonies. Wondering why Number Three never told her, Six realizes that Three had manipulated her, hoping that her discussions with Boomer would drive her mad, so that three could have them both boxed.

Meanwhile, Anders and the Resistance plan an attack on the cylons, targeting a popular cafe. The hope is to show the Cylons that no where is safe, and that the pain of constantly dying will force them to abandon the planet. They set the bomb but Anders is unable to escape as a Centurion arrives. The bomb detonates, destroying the cafe and trapping Six, Boomer and Three who were protected by being in a stairwell at the time of the blast. Six is buried under some rubble and Three declares her dead, but Six speaks. Three offers to put her out of her misery so that she would be reborn, but Six recognizes this as a plot to box her and refuses. Three discovers Anders and tries to kill him, but is stopped by Boomer and Six, the later arguing that questioning him might be more useful. Boomer, on seeing Starbucks dogtags realizes that Anders is important to her, while Three explains StarBuck was on the planer a few weeks back. As Three toys with Anders, an argument breaks out between the Cylons. Boomer is told she is a broken machine, while Six realizes that what they have been doing is wrong, and that the genocide of the human race cannot be what their loving god had intended. She now realizes what Three fears: That Her and Boomers new celebrity status and their unique perspectives based on the love of humans puts them at odds with a society built on unity and could result in changes to the status quo which Three upholds. While Three declares them corrupted, Six explains to Boomer that this is why Three wanted them boxed. That because they both know murder and genocide are sins in the eyes of God, that letting them tell this to other Cylons could cause a a change, that the Cylons might see the war and death as a mistake.

As the rubble shifts, Anders makes a break for it and having regained his weapon, fires at Three, but is stopped by Boomer. As Three prepares to kill him, she is struck by Six and killed. Six tells Anders to leave and returns Starbucks dogtags. Boomer returns his gun as well, and a somewhat confused Anders escapes. Six realizes that it'll be at least 36 hours before Three is reborn, and the 2 heroes pledge to start a new beginning for the Cylons, a way to live in Gods love without hate or lies.

Meanwhile, on Galactica, Sharon has gone into labor, but there are complications. Doc Cottle delivers the premature baby by C-Section and a nurse places her in an incubator while Doc fights to save Sharons life. Proud parents Helo and Sharon name her Hera. While the parents beam however, a high level meeting is held to decide the fate of the child. Realizing the value of the child to the Cylons, desperate actions are decided upon. The decision made to hide the child to protect her, Doc Cottle convinces a heartbroken Helo and Sharon that their baby has died, causing Sharon to hysterically attack Cottle, choking him until she is restrained. Meanwhile Roslin has given the child to a woman named Maya, who unaware of the childs true nature, is led to believe she is from an anonymous Pegasus officer. Helo is helped by Tyrol and spreads the ashes of the dead child into space. Six is devastated, and blames Baltar for not protecting "Their Baby". That in failing to protect her, he violated Gods Will and that Humanity will pay for his Sin.


Review
An excellent look at Cylon society. The reborn Six is suffering from the same problem as Baltar, in that she sees him where he doesn't really exist. Obviously, there is some sort of real connection between the two, but what? The interplay between the characters was excellent. Sharons anguish on being told her baby had died was projected excellently by Grace Park. The guards turning their guns on both Sharon and Helo show too well how they regard his relationship with Sharon. We've seen alot more marines as of late. Obviously some of them have to be transfers from Pegasus. This episode showed a good look into Cylon society, with them rebuilding and going about their normal days. All in all, one of the better background episodes this season.

Observations:
We now know some of the Cylons actual Model numbers: "D'anna Biers" is Number Three, "Aaron Doral" is Number Five, and "Sharon Valerii" is Number Eight. Six is obviously, number Six.
The time stamp on the destruction of Baltars home is "9 months ago", establishing a time line for the series.

Unanswered Questions:
A fake child would be easily detected. Where or how did they find another preemie to trick Sharon? Was this the aborted fetus from the last episode?
What happens now between Helo and Sharon?
What will happen to Sharon?
Also, how the hell do the human cylons tell each other apart?
What happens when Three is reborn? Does she realize Six killed her?