4x20 Daybreak (2) - Battlestar Galactica Episode Guide

Battlestar Galactica

- Episode 04x20

Episode: 04x20
Title: Daybreak (2)
Type: Regular Episode
Production Code: 422
First Aired: Mar. 20, 2009

Season 4 » Episode #20 - Daybreak (2)

Battlestar Galactica - 04x20 Daybreak (2)

Summary: Admiral Adama leads Galactica's final battle and rescues Hera from the Cylon Colony. Starbuck draws upon the meaning of Hera's musical notes to lead the fleet to a habitable world. The fate of the fleet and its relationship to Earth is revealed.

Watch Episode Videos

Recap: Islanded in a Stream of Stars (01:51)

Who appeared in this episode?

Lee Adama	played by Jamie Bamber
Caprica	played by Tricia Helfer
Sharon 'Boomer' Valerii	played by Grace Park
Lt. Sharon 'Athena' Agathon	played by Grace Park
Chief Galen Tyrol	played by Aaron Douglas
Captain Karl 'Helo' Agathon	played by Tahmoh Penikett
Ensign Samuel Anders	played by Michael Trucco
Romo Lampkin	played by Mark Sheppard
Dr. Sherman Cottle	played by Donnelly Rhodes

Season 4 / Episode 20: - Daybreak (2)

Admiral William Adama: [Just before the final battle with the Cylons] Just so there'll be no misunderstandings later... Galactica has seen a lot of history, gone through a lot of battles. This will be her last. She will not fail us if we do not fail her. If we succeed in our mission, Galactica will bring us home. If we don't... it doesn't matter anyway.

Season 4 / Episode 20: - Daybreak (2)

Head-Six: [walking together through New York City's Times Square 150,000 years later] Commercialism, decadence, technology run amok... remind you of anything?
Head-Baltar: Take your pick: Kobol; Earth - the real Earth, before this one; Caprica before The Fall.
Head-Six: "All of this has happened before..."
Head-Baltar: But the question remains: does all of this have to happen again?
Head-Six: This time, I bet "no."
Head-Baltar: You know, I've never known you to play the optimist. Why the change of heart?
Head-Six: Mathematics. Law of averages. Let a complex system repeat itself long enough, eventually something surprising might occur. That, too, is in God's plan.
Head-Baltar: You know It doesn't like that name. [she gives him a look] Silly me. Silly, silly me.

[More Quotes]

MISTAKES/GOOFS

GEOG: They're supposed to be in Africa, yet near the end when Admiral Adama and the President get in the Raptor they're situated in front of a stand of paper birch. These are trees found only in North America.
DATE: As they plan out the deployment their population on the map of earth, the map shown is of Earth today, not as it would have been at a time pre-language humans. A visible example is of Tasmania's disconnection from Australia which occurred only 10,000 years ago.
FAKE: As the camera pans up over Adama sitting by Laura's grave a small, low to the ground fence can be seen behind him. The area is supposed to be undeveloped and uninhabited.

TRIVIA

In the extended DVD cut of this episode, the scene where Cally interrupts Tyrol and Boomer in the workroom, then warns Tyrol to "be careful", is a deleted scene that was filmed for the original miniseries. Because of this scene, Nicki Clyne (Cally) gets screen credit for the extended cut, even though she didn't film any new material.
SPOILER: Ronald D. Moore decided all the ships from the Colonial fleet would be destroyed into the Sun after watching a documentary about the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, who burned his ships after his men reached Mexico, so they wouldn't be tempted to move back.
Towards the end of the episode, when the people are heading off in different directions and the camera slowly pans towards Karl, Sharon and Hera, if you look carefully at the bottom left of the screen, just as Karl says "There's game on this planet" an out of focus fly can be seen landing on the camera lens and move towards the corner edge of the screen.
Late in the writing process, it was realized that the "opera house" sequence could be shown to parallel the ongoing battle on Galatica. Anders' hybrid tank was set up on the CIC balcony, and it was arranged that the other four Cylons be near him, so that the "final five" could be posed in a manner similar to that shown in the opera house dream. In order for the actors to be visible at the appropriate angle, however, a safety railing had to be removed from the CIC balcony.
CAMEO(Ronald D. Moore): man at the New York City newsstand reading about the discovery of Hera Agathon's corpse while Six and Baltar comment about it behind him