Battlestar Galactica Episode 4.08 Sine Qua Non

As Natalie dies amid a haze of visions, Admiral Adama banishes her murderer, Sharon Agathon, to the brig. Meanwhile, the rebel Cylon baseship has jumped away inexplicably, carrying Roslin, Baltar and many of Galactica's pilots. Have Roslin and the others have been kidnapped? That's the consensus.

The President's absence creates an especially chaotic leadership vacuum because Adama doesn't trust Vice President Tom Zarek. With Zarek's grudging permission, Lee Adama recruits eccentric lawyer Romo Lampkin to seek an interim president that the Admiral and the Quorum of Twelve will follow.

Adama is quietly agonizing over Roslin's fate, but he has no idea where to start searching for her until a battered Raptor jumps into view. It's the same one that carried Roslin to the baseship, but pilot Eammon "Gonzo" Pike the only one aboard, and he's dead. Adama angers the Quorum by jumping the Galactica to where Pike's Raptor came from, leaving the fleet undefended.

There, the Galactica discovers wreckage from human and Cylon ships, and possibly from the elusive Cylon resurrection hub itself. Tigh speculates that the hub was destroyed and the humans lost in a battle, but Adama refuses to accept that Roslin is dead. Although Adama returns to the fleet, he leaves Raptors behind to continue the search, straining resources and risking lives.

Next, Doc Cottle drops a bombshell on the overburdened Admiral: Caprica Six is pregnant. Knowing of Tigh's interrogation sessions with the Cylon prisoner, Adama guesses who the father is and furiously confronts Tigh. Tigh - shocked by the news that he may be a parent - fires back, accusing Adama of letting his emotions rule his decisions regarding Roslin. The fight escalates and the two men come to blows before wryly reconciling.

With voices on all sides warning him that he is too emotionally involved in the search for Roslin, Adama eventually decides to relinquish his command until the President is found.

Soon afterward, Romo Lampkin tells Lee that his hunt for an interim President is over: He has decided that Lee himself would be the best candidate.

Then Lampkin, an unstable man filled with grief and guilt, pulls a gun. He demands to know why the human race, imperfect and doomed, deserves to have hope. At gunpoint, Lee defends his idealism, insisting that he can help lead humanity to a better future. Lampkin spares Lee's life, and the younger Adama is sworn in as the interim president of the Twelve Colonies.

After the ceremony, Admiral Adama formally turns command of the Galactica over to Tigh. Adama isn't going to stop searching for Roslin, but he will no longer endanger the fleet to find her. Instead, he has a new plan that will risk only one life - his own.