MONDO EXTRAS

Starbuck is unable to see the humor in all of this, shouting at Lee about his XO's crazy-ass strategies, and how she nearly killed them both. And in Kara's defense, usually it's the opposite problem: if Starbuck breaks a nail, Galactica abandons the entire Fleet and risks thousands of lives to get her a Band-Aid. She's understandably confused, then, by the razor action of Kendra, even though it saved her life and everybody else's. Lee reminds her that Kendra's the XO, and asks her not to attack Kendra, but Kara's not hearing that. She starts to scream, and Kendra goes still: "Questioning orders is a bad idea on this ship, Captain."

At the putative Cylon comms relay, Helena's Blue Squad can take on twelve Raiders, for sure. Then at least fifteen squadrons of Raiders jump in. "This isn't a comms relay," she realizes -- it's a staging ground. A trap. Belzen and Fisk scream out warnings: they have to recall their squad and jump before the army hits. But Helena scrambles the reserves and orders them out, to cover Blue while they accomplish their mission. Their total force is outnumbered four to one, but Cain won't budge. The weapons grid goes down, like a sign from the Gods -- although actually, thanks to Gina, and the true name -- that this is a bad idea. This is a trap and Helena knows it. Where do you go when you can't get out? Consider your imperative. The mission is simple: knock out communications for the Cylons. It's a gamble, but for all she knows it could be decisive. They're only Raiders. She orders the gun crews to operate manually, and Belzen tries to reason with her. A trap, an untenable set of circumstances, is all the more reason to hit them as hard as possible.

Belzen fucks up, coming around to speak quietly. Her first friend, the only friend we know about, the only friend in this story that we know she trusts with her true name. And what he says cuts like a razor: "This is exactly what you said we wouldn't do." What began as a kick-ass move, a sign of trust and power, a stand that could prove her meaning and the meaning of humanity, a guerilla trump card, becomes something horrible: Helena, whispering in her ear. Helena telling Cain that this is also a costly thing. "Even if we succeed, is this really worth the lives the plan would cost?" All of this is too close. Those lives are already lost. This guerilla war is a blind jump. Sam Anders and the C-Bucs never expected to live this long either. He's missing the point, pushing on the bruise, and doing it in front of people. He's become a problem. He's her family, the only person who knows her true name, and he's betraying her with it. And if we are going to survive, we have to burn off those parts that don't work: those little voices, those Chip Helenas, that say, "No," when every fiber of our being that must say, "Yes, yes," or we'll be swept away by the storm. She demands his sidearm, she fires his own gun into his head. Not her gun, but his. This is a gift. Fisk becomes the XO, picks up the PA phone with a quickness, orders the strike.