D'Anna asks initially that the four can leave at their own will, but after Tory Foster (Rekha Sharma) joins them (at first only under the guise that Laura needs her medication and she being her assistant, is obliged to do so).
After Tory's defection, Colonel Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) admits to his friend and commanding officer that he too is a Cylon in order to prevent what he sees as useless slaughter.
Lee uses Tigh's life, as well as those of fellow Cylons Samuel Anders (Michael Trucco) and Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas), as leverage, but D'Anna refuses, at one point arming the Basestar's nuclear weapons.
Landing in the ruins of a large city, they are left speechless when they find Earth to be a desolate, radioactive, lifeless world.
[2] Joanna Weiss of the Boston Globe called it "one of the most tense, well-executed episodes [she] can remember," praising the acting of Callis and Olmos in their respective keynote scenes.
"[6] Robin Brownfield of SyFy Portal praised the episode overall, but found the trip to Earth to be anticlimactic: "I know the sudden change of venue was necessary to move the story along, but it seemed a bit too rushed.".
The mid-season finale of Battlestar Galactica was watched by 1.8 million total viewers for a 1.4 household rating; the largest audience for an episode of the show since the Season 4 premiere.