When The Hand Of God begins, Laura Roslin is giving a press conference concerning the pressing need for tylium ore, which is the basis for fuel that’s needed for the Faster Than Light drives aboard all the ships in the fleet. While she’s in the middle of answering questions, Laura suffers an icky hallucination where she sees a pile of slithering snakes writhing all over her hands on the podium. She abruptly cuts off the press conference and leaves. Meanwhile, the Galactica has its Raptor scout ships out on deep patrol, looking for signs of tylium ore. One such patrol, with Boomer and Crashdown aboard, literally comes across the mother lode when they find an asteroid with massive deposits of tylium ore. But there’s a big catch: the very same asteroid is also home to a superior force of Cylons.

As Tigh, Lee, and Gaeta look over the recon data of the asteroid brought back by Boomer and Crashdown in Galactica’s CIC, Lee reluctantly writes it off because of the enormous Cylon presence. Yet as Tigh points out, the fact remains that the fleet is low on fuel, and can only make so many more FTL jumps before they run out completely. Commander Adama brings the discussion by his subordinates to a close by stating that they will take the tylium from the Cylons…which is easier said than done, since the Galactica and her Viper squadrons would be going up against a considerably larger Cylon force. Yet Adama argues that as long as the element of surprise is on their side, they have a shot. Plus, he has another ace up his sleeve. While Tigh and Lee plot out the attack, Adama visits Starbuck--who’s still busy training the new Viper pilots--for some added advice, because of her ability to think out of the box. But thanks to the leg injury that she sustained in "You Can’t Go Home Again", Starbuck has to sit this mission out, leaving Lee in charge of leading the attack, which will be an all or nothing gamble for the entire fleet.

The Hand Of God is an absorbing episode right from the first frame. The title actually refers to two of the characters within the show--Laura, who discovers that her Chamalla herb-fueled visions may well be portents that she is full-filling an ancient prophecy, and Baltar, who must advise the Viper pilots on the precise point to hit the Cylon facility on the asteroid. Not having a clue a to what to tell them, he goes to Number Six for advice, who simply tells Baltar to look to God for the answer. The battle for the asteroid is a nail-biting conflict that keeps you on the edge of your seat, and on top of all of this is the chilling foreshadowing at the end of an even greater confrontation to come at the home of the gods.