BSG - "You Can't Go Home Again"

[Independent George]

I believe they're referring to Lee jumping back to New Caprica and covering Galactica's retreat, only to ram Pegasus into a basestar and sacrifice what might just have been the Fleet's most valuable asset. There's a parallel there of doing something that a lot of people consider to be extremely stupid for what can be perceived as sentimental rather than pragmatic reasons.

Except it's not stupid - one Battlestar had to stand off 3 Base Stars simultaneously in order to cover the retreat. Galactica would have gotten wrecked much faster had they reversed roles, and I think a previous episode had made a point about the Pegasus having automated systems that allowed it to function with a smaller crew. Yeah, they would have been better off walking away with the Pegasus instead of the Galactica, but there was a much lower probability of success if they attempted it that way.

[Mickey_Rat15]

I believe they're referring to Lee jumping back to New Caprica and covering Galactica's retreat, only to ram Pegasus into a basestar and sacrifice what might just have been the Fleet's most valuable asset.

That's the crowning moment of damnation for him. He's shown as a bad commander through the episodes before, visually also underlined by him becoming quite puffy over the course of his command. Ignoring the battleplan over new Caprica, where Adama sr. specifically decided to use an understaffed Galactica for the suicidal stunt of jumping into New Caprica's atmosphere and then serve as a meat shield and decoy to cover the retreat of the civilian ships. Lee has nothing better to do, then jump the fully working Pegasus into the fray in order to save his father. He uses a fully functional battlestar, that is faster, heavier armed, better armored and which also houses facilities to replace and construct Vipers and Raptors on it's own, to save the aging, underarmed, heavily damaged Galactica with his father on board. You can't make a worse gambit and it ends with the loss of Pegasus in exchange for a barely working heap of junk. *slowclap*

To be fair, the narrative hands him the Idiot Ball with superglue. They were going to to get rid of the Pegasus. After all, the show is called Battlestar Galactica not Battlestar.

[Wolf359]

I love that of all things, it’s a chrome toaster that gives Helo away to the Centurions.

[Mecha82]

I believe they're referring to Lee jumping back to New Caprica and covering Galactica's retreat, only to ram Pegasus into a basestar and sacrifice what might just have been the Fleet's most valuable asset.

That's the crowning moment of damnation for him. He's shown as a bad commander through the episodes before, visually also underlined by him becoming quite puffy over the course of his command. Ignoring the battleplan over new Caprica, where Adama sr. specifically decided to use an understaffed Galactica for the suicidal stunt of jumping into New Caprica's atmosphere and then serve as a meat shield and decoy to cover the retreat of the civilian ships. Lee has nothing better to do, then jump the fully working Pegasus into the fray in order to save his father. He uses a fully functional battlestar, that is faster, heavier armed, better armored and which also houses facilities to replace and construct Vipers and Raptors on it's own, to save the aging, underarmed, heavily damaged Galactica with his father on board. You can't make a worse gambit and it ends with the loss of Pegasus in exchange for a barely working heap of junk. *slowclap*

To be fair, the narrative hands him the Idiot Ball with superglue. They were going to to get rid of the Pegasus. After all, the show is called Battlestar Galactica not Battlestar.

I was thinking same thing. There was no way they could had gotten rid of Galactica since it's show's titular ship until final episode. Granted that I do wish they had found way to keep Pegasus as well so that they would have had 2 Battlestars but still.

[Seaward]

I believe they're referring to Lee jumping back to New Caprica and covering Galactica's retreat, only to ram Pegasus into a basestar and sacrifice what might just have been the Fleet's most valuable asset. There's a parallel there of doing something that a lot of people consider to be extremely stupid for what can be perceived as sentimental rather than pragmatic reasons.

Except it's not stupid - one Battlestar had to stand off 3 Base Stars simultaneously in order to cover the retreat. Galactica would have gotten wrecked much faster had they reversed roles, and I think a previous episode had made a point about the Pegasus having automated systems that allowed it to function with a smaller crew. Yeah, they would have been better off walking away with the Pegasus instead of the Galactica, but there was a much lower probability of success if they attempted it that way.

The scene doesn't really make much sense, though. I can understand Lee jumping in to save Galactica and I understand the implied reasoning that Adama was more valuable to the Fleet than Pegasus was, but the fact that Pegasus had to be sacrificed seems contrived. She jumps in, destroys one basestar with her forward guns, and then...what? Why ram the basestar?

Did she take so much damage that her jump drive went down? Doesn't seem likely, she's a bigger and tougher ship who was in the fight for less time than Galactica. Did Lee plan from the start to use the ship as a giant missile? That seems to be implied by Adama's line about Lee knowing it was a one-way trip and leaving all his Vipers behind with the Fleet. But if that's the case, why? Could Pegasus really not stand up against three basestars for as long as it took Galactica to get her jump drive up?

So there's the rub. Based on evidence presented by the series prior, people end up assuming that Lee needlessly ran the most powerful ship in the Fleet into some basestars to protect the outdated, falling-apart Galactica for sentimental reasons.

[Seaward]

I believe they're referring to Lee jumping back to New Caprica and covering Galactica's retreat, only to ram Pegasus into a basestar and sacrifice what might just have been the Fleet's most valuable asset.

That's the crowning moment of damnation for him. He's shown as a bad commander through the episodes before, visually also underlined by him becoming quite puffy over the course of his command. Ignoring the battleplan over new Caprica, where Adama sr. specifically decided to use an understaffed Galactica for the suicidal stunt of jumping into New Caprica's atmosphere and then serve as a meat shield and decoy to cover the retreat of the civilian ships. Lee has nothing better to do, then jump the fully working Pegasus into the fray in order to save his father. He uses a fully functional battlestar, that is faster, heavier armed, better armored and which also houses facilities to replace and construct Vipers and Raptors on it's own, to save the aging, underarmed, heavily damaged Galactica with his father on board. You can't make a worse gambit and it ends with the loss of Pegasus in exchange for a barely working heap of junk. *slowclap*

To be fair, the narrative hands him the Idiot Ball with superglue. They were going to to get rid of the Pegasus. After all, the show is called Battlestar Galactica not Battlestar.

I was thinking same thing. There was no way they could had gotten rid of Galactica since it's show's titular ship until final episode. Granted that I do wish they had found way to keep Pegasus as well so that they would have had 2 Battlestars but still.

I did wonder, at one point, if it might have been acceptable for Galactica to have been destroyed, but then have Pegasus renamed Galactica. From a visual standpoint it might have been neat; the Mercury-class draws a lot more from the classic Galactica than the Jupiter-class did.

On the other hand, so much of the show seemed to be about Galactica's age and worn status, especially towards the end, and you wouldn't get that with the relatively shiny and new Pegasus. I recall from somewhere the idea that they removed Pegasus because she made things a little too comfortable for the Fleet.

[Beastro]

I believe they're referring to Lee jumping back to New Caprica and covering Galactica's retreat, only to ram Pegasus into a basestar and sacrifice what might just have been the Fleet's most valuable asset.

That's the crowning moment of damnation for him. He's shown as a bad commander through the episodes before, visually also underlined by him becoming quite puffy over the course of his command. Ignoring the battleplan over new Caprica, where Adama sr. specifically decided to use an understaffed Galactica for the suicidal stunt of jumping into New Caprica's atmosphere and then serve as a meat shield and decoy to cover the retreat of the civilian ships. Lee has nothing better to do, then jump the fully working Pegasus into the fray in order to save his father. He uses a fully functional battlestar, that is faster, heavier armed, better armored and which also houses facilities to replace and construct Vipers and Raptors on it's own, to save the aging, underarmed, heavily damaged Galactica with his father on board. You can't make a worse gambit and it ends with the loss of Pegasus in exchange for a barely working heap of junk. *slowclap*

To be fair, the narrative hands him the Idiot Ball with superglue. They were going to to get rid of the Pegasus. After all, the show is called Battlestar Galactica not Battlestar.

It's worth noting that in the original it's heavily implied that Pegasus survived the diversion and would be back had the show not been cancelled.