- "My responsibility as President is, first and foremost, to protect and preserve this fleet and its future. In the end, that outweighs any other consideration. It has to."
- —President Laura Roslin
Laura Roslin was the President of the Twelve Colonies, having served as Secretary of Education under President Richard Adar, and sworn into office as the highest ranked government official who survived the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Roslin subsequently became the political leader of the remnants of the Colonial Fleet, along with Commander William Adama.
Despite never being elected to office, Roslin served two terms as president, and was believed by some in the Fleet to be a religious figure essential to the fulfillment of the prophecy in the Book of Pythia, which told of a dying leader who would lead the people to a promised land, but would not live to see it. In spite of this prophecy, Roslin, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer on the day of the Cylon attack, ultimately survived to witness the Fleet's arrival on a planet they named Earth, though she passed away soon afterwards.
Biography[]
Background[]
In the years leading up to the Fall of the Twelve Colonies, Roslin lost her immediate family. Her mother died from cancer while undergoing Doloxan treatment. Roslin later lost her sisters Cheryl and Sandra along with her father in a car accident caused by a drunk driver.[1]
In terms of career, Roslin began as a school teacher, as her mother had been. She gained political experience while working with the Mayor, Richard Adar, who later successfully ran for president and whom she engaged in a sexual relationship with. As Secretary of Education Roslin saw a prolonged teachers' strikes over pay, which became progressively hostile, but avoided getting involved due to her relationship with Adar. Following a terminal breast cancer diagnosis, Roslin had a change of heart and met with Naylin Stans of the union, offering to hear out their demands on the condition they abandon their disruption tactics. Though this was a win for the Adar administration, he was dismayed by Roslin's acts, as it not only legitimised the strikes but risked convincing them they could do it again. He demanded her immediate resignation, but was willing to keep Roslin on until after her scheduled visit to the Battlestar Galactica for its decommissioning ceremony.[2]
Fall of the Colonies[]
Roslin met with government aide Billy Keikeya on board the government-chartered civilian transport, Colonial Heavy 798. Arriving at Galactica several hours later, Roslin asked the ship's CO, Commander William Adama, for permission to install an interactive computer system on board the ship to offer educational information to visitors. The decision was turned down on Adama's belief it would insult the crew who had died on the ship to install networking. With the decommissioning ceremony concluded, Roslin departed Galactica on the transport, with a Viper Mark II piloted by Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama serving as an escort.
On route back to Caprica, patchy news broke out of the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies, but information on what colonies were attacked was at the time unknown, and all civilian ships were ordered to hold position on their designated routes to keep free from the combat areas. Fearing the destruction of the Cabinet, Roslin took control of the transport as a refugee aid ship to help stranded ships. Not long after established radio contract with an official on Caprica who established the Cylons had rejected Adar's unconditional surrender, the Case Orange beacon was transmitted, which confirmed Adar's death. With no one else responding to the alert, Roslin was declared the new president. Following this news, the priestess Elosha followed her through the oath-swearing ceremony to legally confirm her presidency.
In her first act as president, Roslin ordered the nearby Galactica to assist in rescue operations. However, Commander Adama refused to recognize her authority and instead ordered the ship to jump to the Ragnar Anchorage for safety while it rearmed for the war effort. The appearance of two Cylon Raiders complicated the matter, and the ship was believed destroyed when Captain Adama sent out an electromagnetic pulse that appeared to indicate a nuclear explosion. Following this, the ship, now dubbed Colonial One, continued in Roslin's efforts to find stranded ships. Over several hours, a Raptor separated from Galactica piloted by Lieutenant Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, helped located dozens of ships carrying over 50,000 people. When Cylon raiders discovered the fleet, Roslin reluctantly ordered the FTL-capable ships to immediately depart to Ragnar Anchorage, giving up thousands on non-FTL ships to the Cylons.
At Ragnar, Roslin gave news of the war situation to Commander Adama. The conflict was effectively over with no military left for Galactica to reinforce. She proposed the total abandonment of the Twelve Worlds, with the Fleet heading out in search of a new home with Galactica as its escort. During preparations to leave, it was discovered from both Commander Adama and Roslin's scientific adviser, Dr. Gaius Baltar, that Humanoid Cylon models had infiltrated Colonial society, and could be in the fleet itself plotting against it. To rally people behind Roslin's plan and keep hope, Commander Adama publicly lied about knowing the location of Earth, claiming it to be a secret known only to the Adar administration, the Admiralty and himself. Adama admitted the deception to Roslin, and in return for Roslin keeping his secret and allowing him to retain control of the military, he acknowledged Roslin's authority over the civilian fleet as president.
First Term[]
Roslin began building the foundations of a civilian government by collecting a census on the remaining population while Cylon attacks forced the Fleet to jump every thirty-three minutes. Working tirelessly throughout these attacks without any sleep, Roslin was forced to make another tough call and authorized Galactica to destroy the Olympic Carrier, a ship suspected of being tracked by the Cylons. Ultimately, the destruction of the ship ended the attacks, yet Roslin continued to question whether she had made the right choice considering the 1300 lives lost on the ship.
Though Roslin and Adama continued to have a wary relationship, Adama integrated her into the decision process. Roslin and Adama agreed to keep the knowledge that Cylons now appeared human a secret. She later authorized the conditional pardoning of prisoners aboard the Astral Queen. However, Tom Zarek, a former terrorist with a political agenda, successfully freed the prisoners, took control of the ship and broadcasts calls for Roslin to step down from office and hold immediate elections. Roslin refuses to negotiate and presses Adama for an armed response, though she was less than pleased when Lee ended the situation by giving the prisoners control of their ship and promising that the scheduled presidential elections would take place in nine months.
Having appointed Lee as her military liaison, she admits the truth of her cancer to him. She later seeks treatment from Galactica's doctor, Sherman Cottle, though she opts to use an alternative, psychoactive drug, chamalla, rather than endure the same doloxan treatments that she had watched her mother suffer through.
Following a suicide bombing aboard Galactica by copy of Aaron Doral, Roslin holds a press conference revealing the truth about humanoid Cylons and releasing pictures of Aaron Doral and Leoben Conoy. The news was greeted with a stunned reaction throughout the Fleet. A resulting independent investigation aboard Galactica was launched by Adama, though Roslin cautions against this course of action.
As a result of her press conference regarding the Cylons, a copy of Leoben Conoy was captured aboard the Gemenon Traveler. Despite Adama's desire to kill him immediately, Roslin insists he be interrogated. When Conoy claims that he has planted a nuclear warhead within the Fleet, Roslin travels to the Gemenon Traveler and stops the torture being inflicted on him. Agreeing to release him if he tells her where the bomb is, Conoy informs her that there was no bomb and that Adama was a Cylon. She subsequently orders him to be thrown out of an airlock, a method of execution repeated multiple times over the course of Roslin's administration. While Roslin becomes suspicious of Adama as a result of Conoy's claim, her fears are allayed by Baltar's invention of a Cylon Detector.
Soon after, Roslin reconstitutes the Quorum of Twelve aboard Cloud 9. However, the election of Zarek as the Sagittaron delegate disrupts her agenda when Zarek insists on the election of a Vice President of the Twelve Colonies. Marshall Bagot, the delegate from Virgon, nominates Zarek, while Roslin chooses Wallace Gray as her preferred candidate. However, Gray fails to win enough support in the Quorum to defeat Zarek and was replaced at the last minute by Baltar, the Caprican delegate. The resulting vote was a tie, which allows Roslin to cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of Baltar.
Kobol[]
Shortly before the capture of Leoben Conoy, Roslin has a set of visions that are uncannily prescient to future events. During a press conference soon after, she hallucinates a dozen snakes crawling over her podium. Disturbed by these events, she consults Elosha and admits that she has been using chamalla. On hearing about the snakes, Elosha reveals that it matches a prophecy in an ancient text written by Pythia 3,600 years ago concerning the exodus of humankind, which foretells that a dying leader will guide the remnants of humanity to the promised land.
Cottle informs Roslin that her cancer has spread to her lymphatic system, giving her perhaps six months to live. Soon after, a recon mission from Galactica discovers a habitable world with ruins across the surface. Reviewing the photos of the ruins, Roslin has another vision that Elosha confirms to be the City of the Gods on Kobol. Roslin has two further visions of the Arrow of Apollo and the Tomb of Athena and accepts the scriptures as fact. Though Adama considers permanent settlement on the planet, Roslin tries to convince him they should use a captured Cylon Raider to return to Caprica and retrieve the Arrow of Apollo, which would open the Tomb of Athena and point the way to Earth. Uncomfortable with Roslin's newfound religiousness, Adama asserts his authority over the military to deny her the use of the Raider.
Resolved, Roslin convinces Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace to steal the Raider and return to Caprica by admitting that Adama does not know where Earth is. Upon learning of her deception, Adama asked Roslin for her resignation; her refusal results in him sending a Marine boarding party to Colonial One to arrest her. Though Lee ultimately sides with the President during the armed standoff, Roslin agreed to surrender to prevent bloodshed. Adama was shot soon after by a Cylon agent, and Colonel Saul Tigh assumes command of Galactica and refuses Roslin's request to be released.
From her cell, Roslin rallies support from the Quorum by convincing them of her role in the Sacred Scrolls in response, Tigh dissolves the Quorum and declares martial law. With the help of several sympathetic crew members of Galactica, Roslin escapes with Lee and hides within the Fleet with the help of Zarek. Declaring herself publicly to be the "dying leader" foretold by Pythia, Roslin asked the Fleet to follow her back to Kobol. Nearly a third of the Fleet heeds her request and jumps back to Kobol, where they rendezvous with Starbuck and the recovered Arrow. A search party led by Roslin heads to the surface and Elosha was soon killed by a landmine, which deeply shakes Roslin.
A recon team led by Adama intercepts Roslin's group, and Adama and Roslin resolve their differences, with Adama agreeing to help her find the Tomb. After locating it, the group places the Arrow in the bow of a statue of Sagittarius, which activates a projection showing the way to Earth. Upon returning to the Fleet, Adama reinstates Roslin as president.
Return to power[]
After Roslin's reinstatement, her condition begins to worsen. She is told that she has, at most, about a month to live.[3] Shortly thereafter, Rear Admiral Helena Cain of Battlestar Pegasus and Commander Adama came to the brink of a shooting war with each other over Cain's disregard for civil liberties and the civilian fleet.[4] Roslin realizes that Cain does not accept her as the true President, and with her health rapidly deteriorating, convinces Adama to have Cain assassinated pending a major operation against a Cylon fleet, with Cain secretly planning the same action against Adama. Though neither is ultimately willing to follow through, Cain is still killed by Gina Inviere, a Cylon she had imprisoned and tortured, and Roslin promotes Adama to Rear Admiral.[5]
Weeks after the Pegasus joins the fleet, Roslin is admitted to the Galactica's sickbay, on the verge of death. At the height of her illness, Roslin has a flashback of an encounter between Baltar and Caprica Six prior to the Cylon attack, but is not able to fully process her memories. As part of these flashbacks, it is revealed that President Adar had demanded Roslin's resignation due to a conflict between the two regarding her efforts in resolving a labor dispute, her position effectively secured by the Cylon attack and resulting governmental upheaval.[2]
As Roslin nears death, her life is saved by the apparent curative properties discovered in the blood of the half-human/half-Cylon fetus carried by Sharon Agathon, whose pregnancy Roslin had previously believed should be terminated. Ostensibly cured of her cancer, she returns to her duties.[2]
After recovering and processing her memories of Baltar and Six, Roslin asks Baltar to resign his post as Vice President. His pride already wounded by the letter Roslin left him in the event of her death regarding his ascension to the position of "President", Baltar refuses. Roslin says that she will never give him another chance to do so.[6]
Following her return to duty, Roslin discovered she had fallen behind in her work, and sought to again regularize internal trade within the Fleet. To these ends, she sought to curtail rampant black market trading that had spread through the fleet which Lee Adama began investigating. However, he in the end reported to Roslin that their system would never be perfect, and there would always be some unavoidable black market trading in the Fleet. Lee killed Phelan, the leader of the established black market network (an unscrupulous man that had the network dealing in drugs, killing with impunity, and engaged in the sexual exploitation of children, etc.), and let the survivors continue black market trading with the warning that if any of these unsavoury actions were continued, he would destroy them all. Roslin was less than happy that Lee had made this decision and that trade could not be totally regulated, but begrudgingly accepted it.
Furthermore, Roslin suffers more problems when her longtime aide Billy is killed during a hostage crisis regarding a group of anti-Cylon activists who seek the death of Cylon traitor Sharon Agathon. Billy is replaced by a new aide, a woman named Tory Foster. Unlike Billy, Tory is shown to be a cold-blooded realist and supports Roslin in her most controversial action in the series, when she fakes the death of Sharon and Helo's baby and orders the child be secretly adopted by a female fleet member.
When Rya Kibby, a young Gemenese woman, stowed away to the Galactica in order to have her pregnancy terminated, President Roslin insisted that the girl was within her rights to control her own body; abortion had been legal under colonial law before the Cylon attack, and Roslin considered this law to be still in effect. Roslin commented that she had been fighting during the course of her entire political career in support of pro-choice policies; however, Admiral Adama reminded her of the day following the attacks on the Twelve Colonies, when she told him that the human race, in order to survive, would have to retreat and focus more on reproduction. She then conferred with Dr Baltar, who confirmed that if the Fleet population continued its constant rate of decline, the human race would become extinct within 18 years. Subsequently, she reluctantly put forth an Executive Order banning the interference in any further pregnancies. The Gemenese girl's pregnancy had been terminated before the order was announced so neither she nor Dr Cottle could be held criminally liable.[7]
This decision undoubtedly weighed heavily in the upcoming elections for the new Presidency, especially since Dr Baltar, while admitting that he had to support her decision as a member of her administration, publicly announced his private objection to the ban and announced his candidacy for president. This allowed Baltar to present himself as the "scientific rationalist" versus Roslin being seen as a religious as well as a political leader. While the Gemenese and Sagittaron colonies are more religiously fundamental, the rest of the Twelve Colonies are shown as more secular.[7] However, this issue was not enough, and Baltar trailed Roslin heavily in all polls until a new, habitable planet was discovered. Baltar leapt on the issue, prompted by Zarek and Gina Inviere, to push for colonization of the planet as a wedge issue to win the election. President Roslin continued to push for the search for Earth as a final settlement. As most of the people wished for land under their feet and a roof over their heads that wasn't the deck of a starship, Baltar gained considerably in the polls.[8]
Vice-President Baltar and his political advisor Tom Zarek were able to successfully capitalize on the colonization issue, and public opinion swung in favor of settling the planet, christened New Caprica, and electing Baltar. During the night of the election, vote totals remained very close until approximately 5 hours after polls had closed, at which point Baltar was leading Roslin by roughly 5000 votes, with three ships yet to have their votes tallied. At that point, Roslin's campaign manager secretly called on Colonel Saul Tigh, who was among the military officers supervising vote-counting aboard Galactica. Tigh then signaled Petty Officer Anastasia Dualla, who left the room and commandeered an incoming ballot box, replacing it with one apparently prepared ahead of time and containing forged votes which favoured President Roslin. When these votes were tallied, President Roslin was announced as having won re-election. Tom Zarek was suspicious of the results, but Baltar personally assured him that Roslin would not engage in electoral fraud.[8]
The small conspiracy quickly unraveled, however, when Lieutenant Felix Gaeta noticed that the forged ballots had Vice President Baltar's first name spelt correctly (Gaeta knew that the ship in question had a set of misprinted ballots). He brought this to the attention of Tigh, who insisted that he would handle the situation, after which Gaeta grew suspicious and personally alerted Admiral Adama. Adama, in turn, privately informed Roslin, who then herself confessed to authorizing her campaign manager's subterfuge. Adama eventually convinced Roslin that, despite the likelihood that a Baltar presidency would be "disastrous," they should announce that there had been a "tabulation error" and allow Baltar to take office rather than betraying their principles.[8]
On New Caprica[]
After leaving office, Roslin settled on New Caprica. She resumes her old occupation as a school teacher and aids in the care of Sharon Agathon's half-Cylon, half-human baby, Hera.[8]
During this period, the relationship between Roslin and Adama evolves. During Adama's sole visit to the colony, Roslin shares her dream of building a cabin in the mountains of New Caprica with Adama, and the two are shown spending the night smoking a native herb, and talking about what is to become of the fleet.
But after a year on New Caprica, the Cylons discover the colony, which under Baltar's leadership immediately surrenders. While Roslin does not actively participate in the underground resistance movement, Colonel Tigh subordinates himself and his insurgent force to Roslin and Vice President Tom Zarek's de facto government-in-waiting. Roslin and her aide, Tory Foster, make a detailed list of the colonists who collaborate with the Cylons for later use, if and when the Cylons are ever driven off the planet.
When Tigh orders the use of suicide bombers, Roslin is arrested on suspicion of aiding in Tigh's decision. Roslin is freed by Baltar, who knowing that Roslin would never approve of such tactics, attempts, unsuccessfully, to get her to join him in jointly denouncing Tigh's actions. Days later, Roslin is re-arrested and nearly executed alongside a large group of suspected resistance members, but is saved by the resistance. One of the other suspected resistance members is Zarek, who used the opportunity to confirm that she tried to steal the presidential election. When she admitted she did, he told her he wished she had gone through with it.[9]
During the Exodus from New Caprica, Roslin evacuates aboard Colonial One, referring to it as "my ship" to Vice President Zarek who defers to her, tacitly acknowledging her inevitable return to the office.
Second Term[]
Aboard Colonial One Tory Foster apologetically informs Roslin that Isis/Hera and her adoptive mother cannot be accounted for and are believed to have been either killed or recaptured during the exodus from New Caprica.
After the fleet is reunited after their escape from New Caprica, Vice President Tom Zarek ascends to the presidency in light of Baltar's abandonment of the office during the exodus. Zarek agrees that as soon as a new Quorum of Twelve is elected is found, he will name Roslin as his VP, then step down, making her again President, as he knows he could not continue as President without Adama's support. For his cooperation, Zarek asks for only a place in Roslin's new administration; but in appreciation of his refusing to cooperate with Baltar on New Caprica, Roslin says she will name him the new VP which clearly surprises Zarek. Before Roslin can take office, however, Zarek in conjunction with Tigh forms a retribution tribunal known as "The Circle", empowering them to investigate allegations of collaboration and to summarily try and execute the collaborators, all in secret and without normal due process protections. When Roslin and Adama find out, they halt the Circle proceedings. Zarek justifies his actions saying that the fleet needs quick justice to prevent chaos and that Roslin's new mandate needs to start with clean hands. After she takes office, Roslin declares a general amnesty for all Cylon collaborators and establishes a Truth and Reconciliation Committee to bring the fleet together.
Upon meeting a delegation from the Cylons (Gaius Baltar, a Brother Cavil, a Number 3 and Boomer), after discovering the "Temple of the Five" on a newly discovered planet (nicknamed the "Algae planet", due to its large swathes of algae), Roslin's theft of the hybrid baby Hera is revealed. There is a stand-off between the humans and Cylons, complicated by the planetary system's star being on the brink of going supernova. Roslin's religious insights prove useful when it comes time to determine what parts of the Temple's inscriptions relate to Earth, and perhaps what parts relate to the Cylons. She starts to see that there may be more than a single purpose for the Temple and that its role in Colonial religious doctrine might not be the only one — perhaps it had messages for both the Cylons and humanity.[10]
During the escape from the Algae Planet, Baltar is captured by the Colonials.[11] Following his capture, Baltar is subjected to sleep-deprivation, force-feeding, and a radical form of hallucinogen-based interrogation, and then offered the possibility of escaping execution in exchange for cooperation, as Adama, Tigh and Roslin seek to learn any clues to Earth's location. When all of these stratagems fail, Baltar asks for a fair trial. Roslin rejects Adama's suggestion that Baltar be made to "simply disappear", and orders him to be given a fair trial for his crimes, even after a warning from Tom Zarek that doing so will provoke dangerous unrest among the fleet's civilian and military populations alike.
During the Trial of Gaius Baltar, it is revealed that Roslin's cancer has reappeared and that she is once again taking chamalla. Lee Adama, acting as part of Baltar's defence, argues that this makes her an illegitimate witness in Baltar's trial because of chamalla's hallucinogenic effects.[12] Baltar is acquitted, leaving Roslin with nothing but her secret illness exposed. She begins to experience shared visions (with Sharon Agathon and Number Six) which involve the human-cylon hybrid child, Hera.
In the opening fourth season premiere He That Believeth In Me, the return of Kara Thrace, presumed dead by the fleet for two months, alarms and angers Roslin, as she is convinced that Thrace's resurrection verifies her as a Cylon. Thrace's own conviction that she has visited Earth leads to conflict when Kara insists that the route given to the fleet by the Eye of Jupiter is false, and that they are pulling away from Earth's correct route, causing her great pain. Panicking, she attempts to force Roslin to turn back by infiltrating her quarters and aiming a gun at her head. She is apprehended, but not before Kara gives Roslin the chance to shoot her. Roslin fires the gun but misses at close range. Adama later chastises Roslin, accusing her of not trusting Kara because she fears she will lose the people to a new "visionary" and die alone, powerless.
As Roslin begins to deteriorate further, she discovers that the continued political intervention of Lee Adama (now a member of the Quorum) has placed a strain on her ability to maintain her normal routines of classified police sanctions concerning fleetwide security, as well as her relentless bias against Baltar. She briefly bonds with a cancer-ridden patient, Emily Kowalski, who shares with Roslin views on death before succumbing to her illness. Roslin then resumes her duties.
When Kara Thrace returns to the fleet in a crippled Cylon Basestar, Laura, along with Baltar, is invited aboard by a rebel Cylon crew, who are on the run and intent on finding D'Anna Biers (Number Three), who knows the identities of the Final Five Cylons. Roslin is taken hostage along with Baltar and several Galactica pilots when Sharon "Athena" Agathon guns down Natalie Faust, a more assertive copy of Number Six and the leader of the rebel Cylons, in a misguided attempt to thwart the vision she shares with Roslin from coming to pass.
As the Cylon Basestar jumps towards the location of the Cylon Resurrection Hub, Roslin begins to experience visions of her impending death, and gradually begins to learn she has taken much in her life for granted, including the love of William Adama and his family.
Roslin gives the go-ahead for a mission to destroy the Cylon hub and retrieve the resurrected D'anna, but also requests that she be given exclusive access to her, violating an agreement between the humans and Cylons to mutually question D'anna.
During the assault on the Hub by the human and Cylon alliance, Baltar is severely injured in an explosion, and in a delirious state of self-loathing and desperation, he confesses to Roslin that he is to blame for the attacks on the Colonies. Roslin, initially angry, attempts to murder Baltar by removing his dressings and allowing him to bleed to death, but her conscience tears at her until she relents, and she chooses to spare her enemy rather than die with blood on her hands.
The Basestar returns to the fleet, where Laura reunites with Adama and finally declares her love for him, to which he replies, "About time".
Final weeks and death[]
Upon returning to the fleet with Adama, Laura does not immediately take back her role as President, instead of watching Lee Adama take full control of the role and handling a hostage crisis initiated by D'anna. After the location of Earth has been verified from the co-ordinates supplied by Kara Thrace's Viper, an emotional Laura orders the fleet to jump to Earth, where the crew discover to their horror that the planet is a nuclear wasteland and virtually uninhabitable. Laura then suffers a crisis of faith due to the guilt of leading her people on a pointless journey. She burns the book of Pythia, chooses to stop taking her cancer medication, and also develops a romantic relationship with Admiral Adama.
During Tom Zarek and Felix Gaeta's Mutiny on Galactica, Laura evades capture initially because the plotters are unaware that she had secretly taken up residence in Adama's quarters. She is shepherded by loyalists to an abandoned auxiliary docking port after attempting to make a broadcast denouncing the mutiny. From the docking port, she is spirited away to the rebel Cylon baseship. The rebel Cylons remain loyal to Laura and form a de facto government in exile around her. They originally try to jump away, but after she makes a passionate speech in support of Adama, they decide to stay and a Two even helps her make a broadcast about the mutiny through Gaeta's jamming. Her heart is broken by Zarek's false report that Adama and Tigh had been killed, but her spirit is not; she vows to defeat the mutineers and commands her Cylon forces to attack Galactica. Gaeta tries to jump away instead, but Galen Tyrol disables Galactica's FTL drive. Faced with having to fight Roslin and lose more lives, Gaeta stands down and Adama and his loyalists retake the ship moments later. Roslin is visibly relieved when Adama contacts her to let her know he's in command again and to stand down and Roslin (and even a Number Eight) breaks down crying and the two are joyfully reunited later.
In the wake of the failed coup, during which most members of the Quorum of the Twelve are assassinated, Roslin appoints Councilman Lee Adama as Vice President and agrees to his suggestion of a reorganized Quorum based not on the original Twelve Colonies, but on representatives from each ship in the fleet, including the rebel basestar whose councilman, Sonja Six, she warmly congratulates on her election to the new Quorum and welcomes into the government.
She also develops some form of mental link between herself, Caprica Six, Sharon "Athena" Agathon and the child Hera. This resulted in her collapse when during "Someone To Watch Over Me", when she somehow sensed that Hera was taken by Boomer to Cavil. This link may be connected to a comment made by Ellen Tigh about something manipulating the entire events happening in the Battlestar Universe.
Ever since her collapse, Roslin has been in sickbay and is clearly not doing well. She convinces Adama that he has to abandon Galactica which is now falling apart. After hearing Cottle and Layne Ishay discussing Adama's planned rescue mission of Hera, Roslin, when alone, gets out of bed, gets dressed and makes her way to the hangar to volunteer for the rescue mission despite hardly being able to walk. She asks Adama jokingly if he was planning on going without her and he accepts her help on the mission. She is given injections to keep herself on her feet for two days, but is warned it will use up what little life she has left. With both she and Vice President Adama taking part in the mission, Roslin appoints attorney and political kingmaker Romo Lampkin as a reluctant acting president; she and/or Admiral Adama similarly brevets Lieutenant Louis Hoshi to the rank of Rear Admiral and commander of the fleet. During the battle, Roslin serves in sickbay and helps Hera avoid Cavil and other Centurions that have boarded Galactica as well as finally realizing the truth of her Opera House vision.
After Hera is rescued and the Cylon colony is left to fall into a black hole, Kara Thrace inputs a set of coordinates into the navigational computer and the Galactica jumps far away to a habitable blue planet with a moon. The recognizable continent of Africa is seen clearly from orbit. The planet is our own Earth. Joined later by the rest of the colonial fleet, the colonials decide to settle on the new world where primitive humans already live. Roslin, while sitting with Adama, asks him what the name of the planet should be, to which he replies "Earth", naming it after the devastated planet they found some time ago since this new world has ended up being the sanctuary they were always looking for. Now with Roslin close to death, Adama asks Roslin if she wants to see the wildlife of the planet closer and he then takes her on a flight across the African continent in a Raptor. During the flight, she utters her last words, "So much... life," and dies peacefully. Heartbroken, Adama puts his wedding ring on Roslin's finger. This fulfils the prophecy that the anointed leader will "guide the caravan of the heavens to their new homeland" but the leader will not live to enter the new land. Adama buries her on the hilltop where he intends to build their cabin and visits her grave often. Lampkin is last seen exercising leadership among the settlers.
Sources[]
- ↑ Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Daybreak, Part Ⅱ".
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Battlestar Galactica, episode: "Epiphanies".
- ↑ "Flight of the Phoenix". Battlestar Galactica (2004 series).
- ↑ "Pegasus". Battlestar Galactica (2004 series).
- ↑ "Resurrection Ship". Battlestar Galactica (2004 series).
- ↑ "Black Market". Battlestar Galactica (2004 series).
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "The Captain's Hand". Battlestar Galactica (2004 series).
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 "Lay Down Your Burdens". Battlestar Galactica (2004 series).
- ↑ "Exodus". Battlestar Galactica (2004 series).
- ↑ "Taking a Break From All Your Worries". Battlestar Galactica (2004 series).
- ↑ "Rapture". Battlestar Galactica (2004 series).
- ↑ "Crossroads, Part Ⅱ". Battlestar Galactica (2004 series).