21 Years Ago, an Iconic Sci-Fi Series Delivered Its Most Mind-Blowing Cliffhanger

'Pegasus' transforms what looks like a miracle into a total nightmare

A catastrophic Cylon attack has wiped out the Twelve Colonies and almost the entire Colonial Fleet, leaving fewer than 50,000 humans alive. The old Battlestar Galactica, which was being decommissioned when the Cylons attacked, becomes humanity’s only remaining warship. Its outdated technology turns out to be a blessing, leaving it unusually resistant to Cylon infiltration.

For a season and a half, this is a fundamental truth of Battlestar Galactica: Galactica is all humanity has left.

Then another Battlestar jumps into view.

It’s difficult to overstate how enormous this moment feels when you first see it in season 2’s tenth episode, called “Pegasus.” The title refers to the newer, larger, more powerful Battlestar that everyone thought was destroyed alongside the rest of the Colonial Fleet. Yet suddenly it’s there, drifting through space near the Galactica. Even better, it’s commanded by Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes), a decorated officer who outranks even Commander William Adama. It makes for some incredible television.

For a brief period, Battlestar Galactica treats this miracle like the best thing that has happened since the world ended. The crews eagerly swap stories, and Cain appears to be exactly what everyone desperately needs: a capable military leader who somehow shepherded an enormously valuable warship through the apocalypse.

Adama respects her, too. In the episode’s audio commentary, executive producer David Eick points out a subtle element of Olmos’ performance: Adama tends to avoid eye contact with people he doesn’t respect. Yet he looks directly at Cain. For a man as devoted to military tradition as Adama, the hierarchy is clear. Cain is an admiral. Adama is a commander. He falls in line like the good soldier he is.

Then the darkness starts oozing through the cracks.

Galactica saved a civilization. Pegasus saved itself.

The first signs are easy to dismiss. Pegasus is more disciplined than Galactica. Its crew is tougher and cruder. Cain makes personnel decisions Adama doesn’t like. But this is the military, and Cain is unquestionably in charge.

Then Gaius Baltar (James Callis) meets a Cylon prisoner aboard the Pegasus. She's another version of Six (Tricia Helfer), but the woman he finds is almost unrecognizable. The crew tortured and sexually assaulted her to the point that she has essentially shut down. Members of Pegasus talk about abusing her casually and crack jokes about it.

The implications are especially disturbing because of when “Pegasus” aired. The episode premiered Sept. 23, 2005, when American culture was deeply immersed in debates over torture, Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay, and the treatment of enemy combatants. Battlestar Galactica had already engaged directly with that conversation in season 1’s “Flesh and Bone." Ronald D. Moore even acknowledged in Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion that he was influenced by Abu Ghraib and contemporary reports of prisoner torture.

The Cylons make such questions uniquely uncomfortable. They nearly exterminated humanity and are still hunting the survivors. They can look human and resurrect after death. Is a Cylon prisoner even a prisoner at all? Or just a “toaster” wearing skin?

“Pegasus” is less interested in whether the Cylons deserve humane treatment than it is in what happens to the humans who decide they don't. The chief interrogator aboard Pegasus, Lt. Alastair Thorne, quickly turns his attention to Sharon (Grace Park), Galactica's Cylon prisoner. When Helo (Tahmoh Penikett) and Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) realize Thorne is sexually assaulting her, they intervene, and Thorne dies in the struggle.

Cain sentences Helo and Tyrol to death without so much as a trial. That’s when Adama finally breaks rank.

Until this point, his rigid code compells him to accept Cain’s authority, even when he disagrees with her. Military discipline means something to Adama, but so does the reason that discipline exists in the first place. Adama demands his men back. Cain refuses.

“I’m getting my men,” he tells her.

Adama sends Marines to Pegasus and launches Vipers to escort them. Cain launches her own fighters to intercept. And then “Pegasus” just ends. Within hours, what felt like a miracle had become a nightmare. Viewers had to sit with that cliffhanger for more than three months. Battlestar Galactica didn’t return with “Resurrection Ship, Part 1” until Jan. 6, 2006. That’s sadistic even by Battlestar Galactica standards.

Adama and Cain survived the same apocalypse

What makes “Pegasus” endure isn’t simply that Cain turns out to be a monster. She’s Adama’s foil: another military commander trying to maintain order after the civilization that gave that order meaning has disappeared. Both are willing to make brutal decisions to keep people alive. But what are they really saving? And at what cost?

Galactica attached itself to a civilian fleet. That makes everything harder for Adama. His ship must defend vulnerable civilians, preserve precious resources for noncombatants, and answer to a civilian government that can challenge his authority. His crew is messy, emotional, and sometimes downright insubordinate. In other words, Galactica sacrifices military efficiency because it chooses to remain human.

That’s what makes Cain such an effective challenge to Adama. She isn’t his opposite so much as an example of what he could become if his worldview were taken to an extreme. Adama has imposed military authority, imprisoned people, threatened force, and made difficult decisions because survival sometimes requires them.

If anyone has reason to hate the Cylons, it’s Adama. A Cylon shot him twice in the chest in the season 1 finale. Yet Adama still believes that prisoners deserve rules, trials, and protections. Because order matters.

That tension keeps Battlestar Galactica from offering an easy answer to the question it posed back in “You Can’t Go Home Again.” Compassion without logic and reason can get people killed. Survival without compassion can turn the survivors into monsters.

Twenty-one years later, that's what makes “Pegasus” such a huge turning point for the series. It seemed like a miracle that humanity found another Battlestar. But the real miracle is that Galactica, despite everything its crew has endured, still resembles the civilization it is supposed to be saving.

Battlestar Galactica is available to stream for free on Pluto TV.