Cast

James Callis as President Gaius Baltar
Edward James Olmos as Admiral Adama
Mary McDonnell as Laura Roslin
Katee Sackhoff as Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
Jamie Bamber as Cmdr. Lee Adama
Michael Hogan as Col. Tigh
Tricia Helfer as Number Six
Grace Park as Sharon "Boomer" Agathon

Tahmoh Penikett as Karl "Helo" Agathon
Aaron Douglas as CPO Galen Tyrol
Dean Stockwell as Brother Cavil/Number Five
Lucy Lawless as D'Anna Biers/Number Three
Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek
Kate Vernon as Ellen Tigh
Luciana Carro as Louanne "Kat" Katraine
Kandyse McClure as Anastasia "Dee" Dualla
Leah Cairns as Lt. Margaret "Racetrack" Edmonson
Callum Keith Rennie as Leoben Conoy
Nicki Clyne as Cally Henderson
Michael Trucco as Samuel T. Anders
Alessandro Juliani as Felix Gaeta
Rekha Sharma as Tory Foster

Synopsis

Leaving "Pegasus" behind to guard the remnants of the fleet, "Galactica" jumps back to New Caprica to attempt a daring rescue of the rest of the human race.

High Points

• The way Tigh deals with Ellen. We all knew Tigh was a bad-ass, but that's just impressive.
• "Hey, if a Raptor can jump into atmosphere, why not Galactica?"

Low Points

• Finding out where Starbuck's daughter Casey really came from. It makes sense, given that Leoben is a manipulative villain, but it's still a bit of a heartbreaker.
• Seems awfully convenient that the broken hull of Pegasus would manage to collapse in such a way that part of it takes out one Basestar, and the rest splinters off and takes out a second Basestar. It may defy physics and/or common sense, but damn did it look cool.

The Scores

We had a few hints of the original plan last week, but this time around we get to see all those crazy plans come to fruition. We've seen smaller ships like Raptors jump into a planetary atmosphere, but seeing something on the scale of Galactica itself is just insane. Desperate times, I suppose... Ultimately, though, this week's episode is (mostly) the logical conclusion of last week, so I can only give it 5 points here.

The effects exceeded even the generally-high expectations I have for Galactica, especially Galactica dropping like a rock in the atmosphere, the destruction of Pegasus, and even those little subtle details (like the rain of ash as Caprica-Six, Baltar, and Xena prepare to leave, and the fact that Galactica looks fire-charred after that atmospheric stunt). 6/6.

Story: We've got plenty of swerves. Tigh proved to be even harder than we all thought, and Starbuck being a bit softer than we all thought, especially with the "hey, here's Casey's real mother" bit at the end. Both of those will, I suspect, come back to haunt those characters later on. 5 points for both answering questions and raising new ones.

Acting: Seeing Tigh crying out of one eye after he dealt with his own wife... I mean, really, his frackin' WIFE... (Oh yeah, seeing Baltar finally realize just how badly he's screwed up, staring down the barrel of a gun held by Gaeta of all people, that was pretty swell too.) 6/6.

Production: A lot of this overlaps with the special effects, admittedly, but things like the rain of ash after most of the buildings on the surface of New Caprica just help remind you that this is a real universe. Also, we were free of weird production errors like the magical teleporting Cally from last week. 6/6.

Emotional response: This is one of the biggest payoffs in the series to date. Seeing just how far Tigh will go really got this episode four or five points by itself, and all that other stuff (like Apollo finally coming back to his senses and becoming the kick-ass commander we all knew he could be, after that nice speech from Dee) is just gravy. 6/6.

Overall, this episode was pure concentrated awesome in pretty much every way. 6/6.

Which gives Exodus, Part Two a grand total of 40 out of a possible 42.