While writing the novel, Kesey made notes in which he urged himself to make the novel's protagonist quit living, and this became the theme of this episode as well.

The title is taken from the Ken Kesey novel, Sometimes a Great Notion. This episode was written back-to-back with the Season 4.0 episode, ' Revelations.' According to co-writer David Weddle, the title of episode was chosen as co-writers David Weddle and Bradley Thompson outlined their story for the producers. Ellen reassures him that 'everything is in place' and they will be 'reborn, again, together.' Shocked, Tigh realizes that Ellen is the final member of the Final Five. In the vision, Tigh sees his wife Ellen ( Kate Vernon) during the destruction of the planet. Tigh walks into the sea and receives a flashback of his life on Earth.

As the fleet prepares to leave Earth, which is determined to be uninhabitable, D'Anna ( Lucy Lawless), devastated by the knowledge that history repeats itself, decides to 'get off the merry-go-round' and remain on Earth to die, rather than being hunted by Cavil. Adama eventually steps back into the CIC, and announces that he will find a home for the fleet, orders a search for nearby habitable star systems, and invites their new Cylon allies to join them. Tigh reminds Adama of his duties as commander of the fleet. After Tigh refuses, a dejected Adama reminisces about past memories. Devastated by this, Admiral Adama acquires a handgun from a marine and attempts to goad Tigh ( Michael Hogan) into killing him. Lee Adama ( Jamie Bamber) and Anastasia Dualla ( Kandyse McClure) revisit their relationship, and after their nostalgic evening together, Dualla returns to her quarters feeling more joyful than she had in months, then with a smile promptly commits suicide with a shot to the head. In the fleet, President Roslin ( Mary McDonnell) burns her book of Pythia, and is unable to address the fleet, feeling discouraged she led the fleet to their doom, believing the prophecy a false lost cause.

In shock, Thrace takes the body and burns it on a pyre, and decides to not tell anyone about what she found, making people believe she lost the signal. After Kara recites what the Hybrid has told her, a shaken Leoben retreats, with Thrace wondering what she is. However, what they find is a crashed Colonial Viper, containing a corpse with Starbuck's dog tags. Kara Thrace ( Katee Sackhoff) has Leoben ( Callum Keith Rennie) help track the origins of the beacon. Meanwhile, Samuel Anders ( Michael Trucco), Galen Tyrol ( Aaron Douglas) and Tory Foster ( Rekha Sharma) receive memories showing they had lived and died on Earth 2,000 years ago. Admiral Adama ( Edward James Olmos) withholds this theory when he addresses the fleet, leaving them to believe that the thirteenth tribe was human. They postulate that the thirteenth tribe consisted of a different kind of Cylon which existed over 2,000 years ago and moved from Kobol to populate that planet, calling it Earth. The rebel Cylons say the mechanical Cylon remains resemble older Centurions of theirs, but are of a kind unknown to them. Baltar ( James Callis) conclude that bodies they exhume are not human, but Cylon. The episode was not given an opening title sequence, but the survivor count for the episode was 39,651.īoth the Human fleet and the rebel Cylons are disillusioned after finding Earth devastated by a nuclear holocaust, which occurred at least 2,000 years before the events of the episode. The episode continues from 'Revelations', where both the colonial fleet and the rebel Cylons finally found Earth, only to find it devastated by a nuclear holocaust at least 2,000 years before, and the discovery leads to despair all across the fleet. It received a Nielsen rating of 1.6 and was received positively throughout. The episode was also the last to be written before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. The episode title is a reference to the novel of the same name, written by Ken Kesey. This episode is the first after the mid-season finale of the fourth season (' Revelations'), which aired in June 2008. It aired on television on Sci Fi and Space in the United States and Canada respectively on Januand on Sky One in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2009. ' Sometimes a Great Notion' is the eleventh episode in the fourth season of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. Kara Thrace on Earth, burning the found body on a pyre.

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