Everything you were afraid to ask about "Battlestar Galactica"

Season Three

The third season begins four months into the Cylon occupation of New Caprica. Things are looking pretty grim: Tigh has lost an eye in Cylon prison; Starbuck is being held prisoner in an apartment-like cell; Baltar is a puppet leader for the Cylons; Tyrol and Anders have become members of an insurgent group, planning suicide-bombing operations. Back on the Battlestars, the crews are training for a rescue mission: Adama has grown a mustache; Apollo has married Dualla and gained a lot of weight.

When Tyrol manages to communicate with a ship from the fleet, the rescue plans are set in motion. Before that happens, Tigh learns that his wife has betrayed plans to the Cylons, and poisons her. Suddenly, the Galactica and Pegasus jump into orbit and execute their evacuation plan, allowing the human inhabitants of New Caprica to jump to safety. In the process, the Pegasus is destroyed and the Galactica is heavily damaged. As a reward for her assistance during the operation, Galactica's copy of Boomer, Sharon Agathon, is renamed Athena.

As they leave New Caprica behind, the Cylons take Baltar and Hera (the hybrid child) with them. The Cylons allow Baltar to live with them on the Cylon Basestar as long as he helps them find Earth. He agrees, and is sent to investigate a Cylon Basestar that has become infected with a deadly virus. Once there, he discovers an Earth satellite -- the apparent source of the plague -- but doesn't tell the Cylons what he found. They torture him.

The Galactica also discovers the infected Basestar and takes several of its sick passengers as prisoners. They develop a plan to exterminate the Cylons by executing the prisoners near a Resurrection ship -- a ship on which dead Cylons' consciousnesses are downloaded into new bodies -- but the prisoners are killed by Helo before the plan can be carried out. In an unconnected story line on board the Basestar, one of the Cylon models (Number Three, played by Lucy Lawless) begins purposely killing herself. Every time she dies and downloads into a new body, she has visions of the "Final Five" Cylons. She becomes obsessed with discovering their identities.

The humans land on an Algae planet to replenish food supplies. While exploring the planet, Tyrol discovers the Temple of Five -- a lost tomb that holds the "Eye of Jupiter," an item of religious significance that has something to do with finding Earth. Suddenly Cylon Basestars jump into orbit and request a meeting. The Cylons also want the Eye of Jupiter, as it turns out, and promise to leave the humans alone if they can have it. Adama refuses.

Meanwhile, Athena and Helo learn that their baby is alive on the Cylon Basestar. Helo kills Athena so that she can download into a new body on the Basestar and bring back their baby. The plan works. Athena and Caprica Six escape from the Basestar and return to Galactica with Hera.

The nearby star suddenly goes supernova -- allowing Tyrol to see the Eye of Jupiter. At the same time, Baltar and Three arrive at the temple. Three begins to have visions, but after she sees the face of the final Cylon, she dies, and Baltar is taken prisoner by Tyrol. All return to the Galactica and jump to safety. Back on the Basestar, the Number Three Cylon model is permanently disabled.

Later, when the fleet is replenishing its fuel near a giant planet, Starbuck begins to have flashbacks and behave strangely. She catches glimpses of a Cylon raider during a routine mission, follows it and is crushed by the atmospheric pressure. Goodbye, Starbuck.

On board the Galactica, Baltar is tried for his collusion with the Cylons, and Adama is selected to be one of the trial's five judges. For reasons that are somewhat confusing, Apollo becomes part of Baltar's defense team and resigns from his post. As the trial progresses, Lampkin gets Roslin to admit that her cancer has returned, and, following testimony from Apollo, Baltar is found not guilty and released.

As the season ends, Tory Foster (Roslin's aide), Tigh, Anders and Tyrol begin hearing strange music around the ship. They begin quoting Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" and meet up in a ventilation chamber. They realize that they're all Cylons.

Suddenly, the fleet is under attack and everybody rushes to battle stations. Apollo flies into combat. Starbuck -- back from the dead -- appears next to him in her Viper. She says she has been to Earth. The camera zooms out, and back in, showing the planet Earth.

Razor Flashbacks (short vignettes shown in the weeks preceding "Razor")

During the final day of the Cylon War, the young William Adama flies a combat mission in his Viper. He crash-lands on a snowy planet, and discovers that the Cylons are conducting experiments on human prisoners -- building humanoid Cylon models. Suddenly, a giant Basestar takes off nearby, and he learns, via radio, that the war has ended.

Battlestar Galactica: Razor

This special "Battlestar Galactica" extended episode takes place during Apollo's tenure as commander of the Pegasus. It centers on Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen), a Pegasus crew member who is chosen by Apollo to be his new executive officer.

In a flashback, we learn that she arrived on the Pegasus just minutes before the Cylon attack. We also learn that Adm. Cain and Gina, an undercover Cylon agent, were lesbian lovers. After the initial battle, Cain orders a revenge attack against the Cylons, during which Shaw learns that Gina is a Cylon. Cain places Gina in the brig, where she is brutally tortured and raped. We also learn that Shaw was responsible for the murder of civilians on board the Scylla, a civilian ship.

Back in the present(-ish) day, a mission is launched to rescue several members of a missing science team. They've been kidnapped by a splinter group of Cylons conducting experiments on humans. Starbuck and Shaw lead the team, which is given a nuclear warhead and told to destroy the Cylons' Basestar.

When the warhead malfunctions, Shaw stays behind to detonate it. Before dying, she walks up to the ship's hybrid -- a kind of Cylon that is installed in a vat and controls the ship's navigation. It tells her, "Kara Thrace will lead the human race to its end." Shaw tries to warn the Pegasus, but her transmission is garbled. The nuke detonates, and the Basestar is destroyed.

Next page: Keeping your Cylons straight