On Colonial One, Billy looks on at Bill and Laura having a meeting. She's looking a bit better than last week, but she looks so tiny in her big club chair! Legs crossed primly at the knees. She is such a good actor that she seems to have actually shrunk a little, for this scene. Maybe it's just that she's so regal all the time that she seems to tower over everybody, and when she turns it off she gets tiny again. I will meet Mary McDonnell one day and then I will know if she is to scale. Here, though, she looks imminently frangible and it's very sad. She's asking how Gina got off the Pegasus undetected, and Adama notes the "chaos in the aftermath of the attack," which brings up the assassination. "Thank the Gods," breathes tiny, sick Laura, "you did not have to do what I advised. That makes me very happy." He agrees that the Gods should be thanked, and then changes the subject immediately, because she's just helped him lie to her that Gina killed Cain before Adama could get to her, instead of calling it off for mysterious Adama-type reasons. He asks how she's feeling, and Roslin says that she could sleep for about a year. "You, however, do not have that luxury, because you have a new job." Billy hands her a jewelry box, mentioning that it took some time to track down the guy specifically. "Rumor has it that I know very little about military protocol," she grins, "but I do believe that someone who commands more than one ship is called an Admiral." She giggles and shrugs cutely, and congratulates "Admiral Adama," handing him the box, which contains the Admiral insignia. She smiles over at Billy, so proud, as Bill opens it and thanks them both quite graciously. "I...um...I never gave up hope. I just stopped trying to get these a long time ago." She smiles and says it just goes to show that you should never give up hope, and calls him Bill. "Same goes for you, Laura." She gives that soft sigh that gets me every time, the "hmm" that always sounds like she's about to faint or like she just saw something incredibly beautiful and might cry. I hate it.

The whole hope v. cancer thing is too much for Laura, so she nods curtly: "All right." She puts out a hand and Adama grabs it, neither of them consciously, to help her stand. He looks at her face, touches her chin, and they smile at each other. There's a really nice, sweet, real mixture here of Mary and Edward and Laura and Bill, and the respect they all have for one another and the incredibly powerful acting vibes they are sending out, and it hits you in the deeply nonverbal part of your brain that's usually reserved for the visual arts. I don't know how else to explain it. It's a deep feeling. Olmos leans forward, off-script, and kisses her lips, and she looks into his eyes and smiles. It's the most profoundly romantic thing this show has ever accomplished, because there's so much in it, so much admiration and love and respect and comfort and acceptance. Laura does the "hmm" again, and I'm sure at least part of it has to do with how Edward James Olmos is amazing and he will totally rewrite your scene as it's happening to make it more awesome and ambiguous, and he probably doesn't know most of the time that he's about to do it and where or how the genius will hit. It's so candid and weird and perfect and sad. Billy takes Laura's arm, and we see her supported by them both for a second -- fully supported; she looks like a strong breeze might carry her off -- and then Adama watches Billy lead her off to bed, his heart clearly breaking. Maybe the best song ever to play on this show starts up and he looks down at his Admiral buttons and he cries, turning back to look at the door she's just walked through. Wow.