Both 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.
Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) withholds this theory when he addresses the fleet, leaving them to believe that the thirteenth tribe was human.
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.
Kara Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) has Leoben (Callum Keith Rennie) help track the origins of the beacon.
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.
Devastated, Admiral Adama acquires a handgun from a marine and attempts to goad Tigh (Michael Hogan) into killing him.
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.
[3] 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.
[1]The "fox in the river" story told by Admiral Adama comes from the novel, and also from real-life incidents with wildlife swimming out to sea near Weddle's home in Malibu, California.
[1] The decision to have Lt. Dualla commit suicide in this episode was made after the writing staff felt there had to be fallout from discovering that Earth was a nuclear ruin.
The scenes where Dualla finds the set of jacks and where Laura Roslin holds the plant cutting were added by director Michael Nankin.
[1] Cost estimates indicated that the script, as originally written, would be $300,000 over budget (about two-and-a-half times what the studio would have permitted) and a number of scenes were cut.
However, Nankin restored the scene in which Helo, Dualla, Adama, and Roslin ride back to Galactica in the Raptor.
Later, during writing sessions for the episode "Rapture," D'Anna Biers has a vision in which she confronts the Final Five Cylons in the opera house, and apologizes to one of them.
"[1] A clue to the final Cylon's identity was inserted into several episodes, when Col. Tigh sees Ellen's face on the Number Six model.
Other characters were considered as the final Cylon model, but the writing staff agreed none had the same resonance as Ellen Tigh.
The strike proved so vexing that the studio did not give approval for shooting to occur until the night before it was to begin.
Actress Kandyse McClure improvised the lullaby her character hums before committing suicide, and series composer Bear McCreary used the melody for part of the episode's musical soundtrack.
[1][6] The final shots for the episode "Revelations" were filmed in the three hours immediately preceding the shooting of the beach scenes for "Sometimes A Great Notion."
[2] According to Nielsen live-plus-seven-day ratings data, an additional 0.7 million viewers watched the episode via time-shifted digital video recorder, a 32 percent increase over the day-of-delivery airing.
Goldman felt that the episode did not back down from the deeply powerful storylines from the past, and praised the emotions of the fleet after finding Earth in ruins.
The Guardian also praised the performance between Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell's characters, as well as the standoff between Adama and Tigh.
[10] Marc Bernardin of Entertainment Weekly stated that a lot had been going on in the episode, but criticised the writers' decision of having Ellen as the fifth Cylon.
[12] Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune praised Nankin's directing, particularly "the moment in which we see Kara Thrace, silhouetted in black against a dark blue sky, preparing to burn “her” body—that’s sent a shiver down my spine.