And Helo has finally had enough. This is actual treachery, by the book sabotage, Leoben is talking about: consorting with the enemy, secret plans. "Get him the frak out of here! Cuff him and lock him in storage!" He pushes Kara against the bulkhead, searching for her eyes: "What is going on with you? Kara!" He shakes her, trying to make her eyes focus. She swears he can help. "The Cylons, they understand about Earth." And I would have to say that this is the point where she fucks it up. Because we know what she means, and she's right, but she's not saying anything right. She's talking prophet language, bird language, but this is not a poetic world: this is the real world. She's not remembering fast enough.

"And you believe him. After everything he's done to you? Kara, he kept you locked up for months on New Caprica. The frakkin' mind games?" And Kara's response makes total sense, unless you need it to make sense, and then it falls apart: "I swear to Gods, this is not a dream. It's real." Karl nearly shakes with fear: Captain Thrace, she dead.

Sam drops by to visit handcuffed Leoben, bleeding on the floor of his makeshift cell. And by "visit," I mean "beat the shit out of." Leoben welcomes him politely: "I'm glad you're here! You and Kara, did you get things worked out? Because you should. You weren't meant to be enemies." They will not harm their own. He explains politely, with a fist and a kick, that Sam and Kara aren't enemies: Sam and Leoben are. He asks again, beating him brutally, what he wants from her this time. "The same thing I've always wanted: for her to understand her destiny." Which is not and will never be good enough, for anybody. Anybody except Kara, whose call it is. The price of democracy is that people have their voices, even if they're nuts.

"It's good enough for her." He tries weakly to stand. "What is the most basic article of faith? That this is not all that we are." This is how he gets you: this is how Leoben comes for your soul. How much is theatre, how much is just programming, how much is manipulation? I never questioned it when he talked about how special Kara was, because it makes me happy somebody's telling her. And Sam's more special than he or Leoben even know, so by all rights he shouldn't be this creepy. But there's something about his methodology, his wording, that is chilling. "C-Bucs rule," he laughs, spitting out blood as Sam stares. "What did you just say?"