Collaborators By Luke Hung

            We start off in a launching bay where we see a bound and gagged Jammer on his knees. A Milla Jovovich look alike is reading of charges that Jammer has been found guilty of, which include multiple murders. The jury calls itself ‘the Circle’ and it’s made up of six members Tyrol, Tigh, Anders and three no names. Jammer tries to bargain for his life mentioning his freeing of Cally. This gives Tyrol pause, but seeing as one of the other Circle’s member’s child was killed during one of Jammer’s sweeps no one else seems to care. They leave him in the launch tube crying and begging for mercy and vent him into space. Actually a pretty decent death scene for Jammer who played a large role in the web episodes and was a bit player during the first two seasons, see ya Dominic Zamprogna we hardly knew ya. Later Tyrol snuggles up with his baby and asks Cally if she was helped by one of the secret police. It takes a few seconds for her to remember but Cally does recall one of the New Caprica Police cutting her loose, which just ups Tyrol’s guilt level. Hey, vigilante justice is hard work of questionable morality.
In Colonial One, the camera does a pan through Adama, Tigh, and Roslin and a yet unidentified fourth person. All of whom seem to be in agreement that someone was in an impossible situation and they magnanimously forgive…. Baltar. Holo-Six walks in and calls them crazy. Damn straight they are crazy - forgive Baltar? Are you shitting me? Of course they are it’s a dream sequence. Instead of being on Colonial One, Baltar is imprisoned and naked on a Basestar.
Back on the Galactica, Anders and Starbuck are making small talk. It seems that Starbuck has unilaterally decided to return to active duty. Anders seems okay with it and leans in for a little loving, but gets rejected. Damn, I thought when you got married rejection didn’t happen anymore. On the real Colonial One, Tom Zarek who is currently the President of the Colonies is explaining to Roslin that he will nominate her as his Vice President and when the Counsel of Twelve confirms her, he will resign making her President. Roslin wants to know what he wants for this great deal and he just asks to be included in the government. Given his refusal to aid the Cylons while on New Caprica and his ‘willing’ surrender of the Presidency to her, she offers to re-flip the script and after she’s nominated President she will nominate him as Vice President. He agrees happily and they set the date three days hence.
Tigh, on Galactica’s bridge, chaffs at the presence of Gaeta. He calls him a whole bunch of unpleasant things and asks if Gaeta knows where he misplaced his eye. It’s nice that everyone isn’t suddenly the best of friends when they leave the planet, but why does it always have to be Tigh busting balls. Adama pops in just in time to keep Tigh from strangling Gaeta. Adama tries to get Tigh to “sleep it off” but Tigh is reluctant. Adama insists and Tigh goes but leaves with a few parting shots, in particular calling Helo a toaster lover. I like Pop Tarts, am I a toaster lover too?
Tigh, instead of sleeping it off, hangs out with his ‘Circle’ boys. They convict another person of collaborating with the enemy, which carries the sentence of death. It sounds very legal like, but that’s how vigilantes make themselves feel just, they wrap themselves in the coat of law but act outside it. Anyway they mention that there are nearly 60 more people to assess and they only have three days to do it. One of the no names comments that it wouldn’t take him an hour to convict them all. Tigh promptly slams him face first into the table. “We are not thugs, this is about justice.” Sure whacking someone’s face into a table screams calm impartialness. Tigh lets him up and they go on to their next target, Felix Gaeta. Anders and Tyrol argue that all their evidence in circumstantial. Tigh counters that Gaeta was on the distribution list for the death list memo and once he knew he should have done something. Milla calls for the vote, they all vote guilty except for Anders who quits the whole deal and Tyrol who refuses to vote until they get the group back up to six.
On a Basestar, a number three approaches Baltar. She informs Baltar that his survival was put to a vote and out of the seven humanoid Cylons models its deadlocked three to three, with the Sixes holding the deciding ballot. That should be a slam-dunk for Baltar as the Sixes seem to have a soft spot for him. I find it interesting that there is supposed to be 12 models and only seven have voted in this matter. What are the other five doing? Are there five more? Hell, are there hundreds more? Later Caprica-Six walks in and says her feelings for Baltar have clouded her judgment and they have to stop. Oh, oh, Baltar doesn’t need to be a genius to read the writing on the wall and starts talking about how much he helped the Cylons and how he loves and needs Six. She walks out mid plead only to be replaced by an ominous Centurion.
Finally thirty minutes into the episode, Lee tells his dad about thirteen missing people. Adama, at first, doesn’t think it’s a big deal “we left a lot of people back there.” Lee corrects him that these people were confirmed rescued and then went missing. Adama asked to be updated if anyone else turns up missing. Lee leaves telling his father he’s on the way to the gym to jump some rope. Adama is unimpressed. Lee looking for approval states, “I’ve lost half a stone.” Adama “keep on jumping.” The expression on Lee’s face was awesome. Keeping with the food motif Gaeta is at the mess hall eating alone. It looks like his presence is so offensive that people are actually getting up and leaving. Starbuck sits next to him and pretends to act nice for about two seconds before she calls him a traitor. He tells her about how he gave information to the underground, but Starbuck doesn’t care and keeps bitching at him. He senses that thing could get worse and walks out before it’s too late.
Back to Tigh’s tribunal and they appears to have replaced Anders’ relatively rational voice with Starbuck’s. Who historically has been more than a little impulsive and recently kind of unstable. Surprising, she asks a very fair question. “This isn’t really legal?” They all state that it is. I don’t see how that’s possible? Execution following a questionable hearing by very passionate people whom with the exception of Tyrol lost important life partners on the planet. That doesn’t sound just and legal to me. However their statements appear sufficient for Starbuck as she examines the first case. She takes all of a second to decide that Gaeta is guilty before the remaining members pressure Tyrol to agree. Tigh even busts out the “I killed my wife for collaborating card.” Anders busts into he meeting to pull Starbuck out for a moment. He asks why she replaced him. She says someone got to pay, Gaeta may not be the one who did the things to her but he’ll do. See what I mean about passionate people and ‘justice.’ She goes further telling him to get lost. She hates everyone and she want him to go away before she hurts him more. Anders appears to have conceded that argument. He returns Starbucks dog tags and with a kiss leaves.
In the very next scene the Circle grabs Gaeta and plops him in the launch tube. Milla goes into her “you are guilty of” spiel but includes a detail we didn’t hear the first time, “as duly authorized by the President of the Colonies.” Holy shit, Zarek has granted this body fiat to execute the worst collaborators. Well maybe it is legal, but I still submit it isn’t just. When the jury and executioners care more about revenge and making themselves feel better; justice isn’t served, passion is. They ask Gaeta if he has any defense and Gaeta has nothing to say. Gaeta refuses to beg, but that’s not good enough for Starbuck. She kicks him and tells him to beg. “Tell them about the dog, and the bowl. How you helped the insurgency.” She repeats enough of his spy stories for Tyrol to figure out that he was the source of their inside information. Tyrol cuts Gaeta lose. The fact that they were about to execute one of the key reasons that they got off the planet seems to drag the wind out of Circle’s sails and several tribunal members walk off and the others stare off into space.
In the next scene Adama and Roslin are confronting Zarek. He is seen explaining his rationale behind the executive order to Roslin and Adama.  No martyrs, no political speeches, no long trials, the worst or the worst will be executed and that’s all. Well that’s final. Adama calls his Presidency a farce. It’s clear he would militarily end Zarek’s Presidency if Zarek wasn’t willing surrendering it. Roslin says even the guilty get representation, but Zarek counters with did she want her Presidency to be known for, mass criminal trials? She obviously decides that she doesn’t because in the very next scene she gets sworn in and she extends a general pardon to all. During the swearing in, Gaeta is seen putting on his uniform. He returns to the mess and again eats alone. Before too long Tyrol sits next to him and they both eat, saying nothing.

Overall the episode was a B+

Acting: B+, Very nice acting all around, particularly Dominic Zamprogna in his death scene. I personally think it’s very tough for guys to scream and beg convincingly alone with bright lights on their faces. All the secondary characters were good and in some respects better than the main cast, which is saying a lot. Hogan’s performances have been kicking ass and taking names.

Plot: B+, Nice progression with the plot. Even though they tried to wrap Gaeta up with a bow at the end of the hour it demonstrated that there are consequences from living on the planet under Cylon rule. The Starbuck breaking all ties seems a little over the top but I’ll let it go.  

Action/Episode Energy: B+, It was a well-paced episode. It moved smoothly although it was a little squeezed in the beginning. It seems that the actual episode length is shorter than the others, but that could just be my perception.