Jeff Vleming wrote The Captain’s Hand, which first aired on 17 February, 2006.

How will the series handle the idea of abortion? President Roslin (Mary McDonnell) contemplates what is to be done about choice, when Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) finds a pregnant woman hiding on ship. What will the choice mean for her political career?

Apollo (Jamie Bamber), on the mend and newly promoted to major, is being sent to Pegasus as the new Exec. It’s nice to see that the relationship between him and Dualla (Kandyse McClure) is growing.

A pair of Pegasus Raptors issue a suspicious distress call before disappearing… what happened out there? Commander Garner (John Heard) is less than thrilled with the fact that Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) didn’t know about their disappearance. He speaks to Apollo about how to deal with her.

Garner is ill-suited to command; he was an engineer, and more than a little paranoid, and is unable to think outside of routine or order.

And Starbuck? She may have a theory about the missing Raptors. But Garner has no use for her, and relieves her of duty to send her back to Galactica. She and Apollo get into it, and they both take brutal shots at one another.

When another signal is received, Starbuck and Apollo suggest it may be a Cylon trap, something Adama (Edward James Olmos) agrees on and overrules Garner’s orders. And all of this is going to lead to a huge event before the end of the episode, as Garner makes huge mistakes, and knows he’s an engineer, not a commander.

Both Tom Zarek (Richard Hatch) and Doc Cottle (Donnelly Rhodes) make welcome appearances.

Zarek is aware that he may not be able to beat Roslin in a campaign, but he thinks Baltar (James Callis) may be able to do it. Zarek offers to help and support him.

The abortion question is handled pretty smartly. Cottle simply does the operations; he’s been doing it for a long time. Adama is unsure of how to handle it, but straddles the line of compassion and order. But what about those who have religious beliefs about the subject? And what about the fact that the number on the whiteboard, indicating the number of human survivors, doesn’t go up very often?

Downloaded first aired on 24 February, 2006. It was written by David Weddle and Bradley Thompson.

Boomer’s (Grace Park) child is born.

And if you thought there was a lot of political issues around it before, it all gets ramped up now!

But perhaps Roslin is ready, she won’t execute the child, but she will keep the birth a secret, and hide her somewhere in the fleet with a family who will raise her as their own. But they have to convince Helo (Tahmoh Penikett) and Boomer that the baby is dead first.

It’s also been awhile since we’ve checked in on Caprica. So the story takes us back there, and the Cylon models there as well as Anders (Michael Trucco).

We get to see the rebirth process for the Cylons as both Six (Tricia Helfer) and Boomer download to new Caprica models. The Cylons have been working on rebuilding Caprica for themselves.

The reborn Six is haunted by a mental illusion of Baltar, and the Boomer is the one killed by Cally (Nicki Clyne). They are surrounded by other Cylons of the same model, as well as D’Anna (Lucy Lawless), and Doral (Matthew Bennett) all of whom are there to help ease the transition into their new life.

Six is supported by D’Anna, but her interacttions with Baltar seem very familiar, seen from the other side. D’Anna thinks Six may be able to help the Boomer still referring to herself as Sharon. Is she really sent to help Sharon, or is there a deeper plan by the Cylons here as things are revealed to Caprica Six that tshe didn’t know – like the fact that Baltar is still alive and on the Galactica. Do they plan on ‘boxing’ them both?

Her mental Baltar helps her to navigate the problems.

This is something we never got with the original series, a look at Cylon culture, and watching it all, Anders and his resistance team. And they are determined to cause as much pain to the Cylons as they can in an effort to reclaim Caprica. But he’s going to end up in some serious trouble before episode’s end.

We’re also reminded that we haven’t seen half of the human model Cylons yet. And though they may look human, we are reminded a number of times, that they are not. They can be cold and brutal in their logic and their violence.

Next time we finish off season two, and damn if this series isn’t even better than I remember it.