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The Oath (Battlestar Galactica)
Encyclopedia
"The Oath" is the fifteenth episode in the fourth season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica
. It aired on television in the United States and Canada on January 30, 2009 and in the UK on Sky One on February 3, 2009.
In the previous episode, the fleet's leadership announced its plan to upgrade the fleet's jump drives using Cylon
technology to triple its reach in searching for a final home. Felix Gaeta
, betrayed by Cylons on several occasions, vehemently opposes the plan. Finally, he makes a pact with Tom Zarek
, as of then not fully disclosed, to, in his words, rectify things that have gone wrong. The episode has a survivor count of 39,643.
's weapons lockers. Kara Thrace
notices the uprising, and tries to get confirmation on what is happening, but is denied the information, being repelled on the grounds of her status being unknown after the events of Sometimes a Great Notion
. Officers of the fleet who have mutinied, among them prominent people like Racetrack
, Narcho and Skulls, take Lee Adama
hostage upon arrival on the Galactica. He is promptly rescued by Thrace. They flee together, and decide to try to remedy the situation to whatever extent is in their reach.
Rebel crew imprison Samuel Anders
, as well as Karl Agathon
and his wife Sharon Agathon, and their child, Hera Agathon, together with Caprica Six in a brig cell. In the CIC, Admiral Adama and Saul Tigh
are taken hostage and sent to the brig as well. Adama and Tigh manage to overwhelm their captors and break free. Lee Adama and Capt. Thrace help President Laura Roslin
(who has decided to take an active role in government again) meet with Gaius Baltar
in order for her to use Baltar's wireless transmitter to address the fleet and bring the people back into order; afterwards they join up by coincidence with Admiral Adama and Tigh. Together they make their way to Storage Bay Two, from where Galen Tyrol
has promised to take the Admiral and the President into safety onto the rebel Cylon basestar.
Zarek keeps control of the situation from Colonial One. His intentions were, as it turns out, to have Admiral Adama killed, and he is unsatisfied that this didn't happen.
Alone in the storage bay, Baltar and Roslin come back closer together. They realize that they finally have more in common than it seemed all along. Roslin finally makes it off the Galactica with Tyrol's help; Gaeta however orders their Raptor to be destroyed. Saul Tigh and Admiral Adama defend the storage bay from where the Raptor took off, only to be attacked by rebel marines. Both Tigh and Adama's as well as the Raptor's fate remain uncertain at the end of the episode.
praised how the episode "showed, again and again, characters using the mutiny as an excuse to settle old scores, or, even worse, to let off all of the steam that's built up over this awful four-year journey" and appreciated that the writers acknowledged through Lee "one of the few characters who still has a relatively clean conscience" and that Gaeta and Zarek have a point about the Cylon alliance. Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune
felt that the episode "worked on a number of levels: There was the slow-building mystery of what the rebels were actually up to -- the tension slowly ratcheted up as various facets of their plan were revealed. Despite all the slam-bang action -- which was expertly directed by John Dahl -- the episode threaded through a critique of Adama and Roslin's methods and actions."
Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica is an American military science fiction television series, and part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The show was developed by Ronald D. Moore as a re-imagining of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series created by Glen A. Larson...
. It aired on television in the United States and Canada on January 30, 2009 and in the UK on Sky One on February 3, 2009.
In the previous episode, the fleet's leadership announced its plan to upgrade the fleet's jump drives using Cylon
Cylon (reimagining)
Cylons are a race which appear in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series and its prequel Caprica. They have several forms, some of which resemble and even mimic the behavior of humans, while others are mechanical in appearance and function.In the first DVD, one of the show's creators...
technology to triple its reach in searching for a final home. Felix Gaeta
Felix Gaeta
Lieutenant Junior Grade Felix Gaeta is a fictional character on Battlestar Galactica played by Alessandro Juliani.- Character overview in his early career :...
, betrayed by Cylons on several occasions, vehemently opposes the plan. Finally, he makes a pact with Tom Zarek
Tom Zarek
Thomas "Tom" Zarek is the name of a fictional character on the Syfy series Battlestar Galactica. He is played by Richard Hatch, who had previously portrayed Captain Apollo, a character on the original Battlestar Galactica series of the late 1970s....
, as of then not fully disclosed, to, in his words, rectify things that have gone wrong. The episode has a survivor count of 39,643.
Plot
Gaeta helps Zarek to jailbreak from the Galactica onto Colonial One. There, Zarek talks Lee Adama into leaving Colonial One and returning to Galactica, to request from Admiral Adama the reason for letting Zarek go. In the meantime, Gaeta organizes a full scale mutiny onboard Galactica, with the civilians arming themselves using weapons from GalacticaKara Thrace
Kara Thrace is a fictional character in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica franchise. Played by Katee Sackhoff, she is a revised version of Lieutenant Starbuck from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series...
notices the uprising, and tries to get confirmation on what is happening, but is denied the information, being repelled on the grounds of her status being unknown after the events of Sometimes a Great Notion
Sometimes a Great Notion (Battlestar Galactica)
"Sometimes a Great Notion" is the thirteenth episode in the fourth season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. It aired on television on SCI FI and Space in the United States and Canada respectively on January 16, 2009 and on Sky One in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2009...
. Officers of the fleet who have mutinied, among them prominent people like Racetrack
Margaret Edmondson
Margaret Edmondson is a fictional character in the television series Battlestar Galactica, portrayed by actress Leah Cairns.- Character biography :...
, Narcho and Skulls, take Lee Adama
Lee Adama
Leland Joseph "Lee" Adama is a fictional character in the television series Battlestar Galactica. He is portrayed by actor Jamie Bamber. He is one of the main characters in the series.-Early life:...
hostage upon arrival on the Galactica. He is promptly rescued by Thrace. They flee together, and decide to try to remedy the situation to whatever extent is in their reach.
Rebel crew imprison Samuel Anders
Samuel Anders
Samuel T. Anders is a fictional character from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series, played by Michael Trucco...
, as well as Karl Agathon
Karl Agathon
Karl C. Agathon is a fictional character on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica TV series, portrayed by Tahmoh Penikett.-Background:...
and his wife Sharon Agathon, and their child, Hera Agathon, together with Caprica Six in a brig cell. In the CIC, Admiral Adama and Saul Tigh
Saul Tigh
Saul Tigh is a fictional character on Battlestar Galactica played by Michael Hogan. The character was named Paul Tigh in early scripts, and was renamed due to legal issues, according to producer Ronald D. Moore. He is one of the main characters of the show.-Overview and personality:Saul Tigh is a...
are taken hostage and sent to the brig as well. Adama and Tigh manage to overwhelm their captors and break free. Lee Adama and Capt. Thrace help President Laura Roslin
Laura Roslin
Her first actions include organizing all FTL-capable ships together and convincing Commander William Adama to abandon a retaliatory attack on the Cylons. President Roslin and Billy Keikeya, her aide/press secretary/chief of staff, establish a working office space aboard her transport, renamed...
(who has decided to take an active role in government again) meet with Gaius Baltar
Gaius Baltar
Gaius Baltar is a fictional character in the TV series Battlestar Galactica played by James Callis, a reimagining of Count Baltar from the 1978 Battlestar Galactica series...
in order for her to use Baltar's wireless transmitter to address the fleet and bring the people back into order; afterwards they join up by coincidence with Admiral Adama and Tigh. Together they make their way to Storage Bay Two, from where Galen Tyrol
Galen Tyrol
Galen Tyrol is a character on the television series Battlestar Galactica. Tyrol is responsible for the maintenance of the Vipers and Raptors aboard Battlestar Galactica...
has promised to take the Admiral and the President into safety onto the rebel Cylon basestar.
Zarek keeps control of the situation from Colonial One. His intentions were, as it turns out, to have Admiral Adama killed, and he is unsatisfied that this didn't happen.
Alone in the storage bay, Baltar and Roslin come back closer together. They realize that they finally have more in common than it seemed all along. Roslin finally makes it off the Galactica with Tyrol's help; Gaeta however orders their Raptor to be destroyed. Saul Tigh and Admiral Adama defend the storage bay from where the Raptor took off, only to be attacked by rebel marines. Both Tigh and Adama's as well as the Raptor's fate remain uncertain at the end of the episode.
Development
Throughout, it becomes clear that a substantial portion of the civilian population is opposed to the alliance with the Cylons, and, while fearful of its own actions, as is especially visible in the CIC, wholeheartedly takes a role in the insurrection. This episode brings the narrative of Felix Gaeta's character to a new point, with him finally drawing conclusions from his previous failed encounters with the Cylons, and personally being disappointed in the course of events since the fleet has allied itself with the rebel Cylons, as well as being disappointed in Admiral Adama, calling him not the man he was when they started their search for a new home.Ratings
Total viewership dropped significantly again for this episode. Total viewership dropped to just 1.560 million same-day viewers, down from 1.717 million total viewers the week before and 2.1 million same-day viewers for the Season 4.5 premiere two weeks earlier.Critical reception
Alan Sepinwall of The Star-LedgerThe Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.The Newark Star-Ledgers daily...
praised how the episode "showed, again and again, characters using the mutiny as an excuse to settle old scores, or, even worse, to let off all of the steam that's built up over this awful four-year journey" and appreciated that the writers acknowledged through Lee "one of the few characters who still has a relatively clean conscience" and that Gaeta and Zarek have a point about the Cylon alliance. Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
felt that the episode "worked on a number of levels: There was the slow-building mystery of what the rebels were actually up to -- the tension slowly ratcheted up as various facets of their plan were revealed. Despite all the slam-bang action -- which was expertly directed by John Dahl -- the episode threaded through a critique of Adama and Roslin's methods and actions."
External links
- "The Oath" at Battlestar Wiki
- "The Oath" at SyfySyfySyfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...