Act of Contrition

Overview

Series: 1 (2004 / 2005)

Production Number: 1.04

When several Viper pilots are killed in a freak accident, Adama turns to Starbuck for help - but her involvement in the aftermath of the accident and in training new pilots causes the truth surrounding Zak Adama's death to finally surface.

Summary

A freak accident kills 7 of the Galactica's pilots and puts 13 more in sickbay
The Service of the Dead for those killed brings back memories for Starbuck of her relationship with Zak Adama and his death
As a result of the accident, Adama asks Starbuck to oversee the traiing of any new pilots they can find in the fleet
Starbuck accepts the duty, but is uncompromisingly hard on the first batch of recruits, washing them all out after only a day's training
Lee Adama confronts Starbuck on her actions, challenging her that it is because of what happened with Zak, rather than on any inability of the recruits behalf
After speaking to Starbuck, Lee sees his father - comments Lee makes (the result of his misunderstanding an earlier conversation with his father) lead Adama to calling Starbuck to his cabin
When Stabuck arrives, they discuss the trainee pilots - the nuggets - and the conversation eventually comes around to Adama wanting to know why Lee said he had to talk to Starbuck
At first Starbuck tries to dodge the issue, but Adama forces her into a full confession of her role in Zak's death, causing her to break down in tears
Angry and betrayed, Adama orders her to reinstste the trainees and to "Walk out of this cabin - while you still can."
Training for the nuggets resumes, but on the next flight, they around pounced on by a numebr of Cylon Raiders, which Starbuck takes on almost single-handed
In the dogfight, Starbuck disables a Raider, but it collides with her Viper, crippling it, and both ships fall into the gravity well of a nearby moon
Surviving re-entry into the moon's atmosphere, Starbuck's Viper is nevertheless ruined, and she is forced to eject
At the same time all this is going on, Roslin's cancer is confirmed as inoperable by the Galctica's CMO. Roslin states she wants to try alternative therapy - Kamala extract

On Caprica:

Helo and Valerii are tracking the source of the signal they previously picked up out in the woods (Water)
The signal leads them to a reataurant in the city, which has a radiation shelter under it, stocked with everything they need to survive - water, food, blankets - even anti-radiation medication
Their arrival at the restaurant is observed by Six

Review

THE CYLONS WERE CREATED BY MAN. THEY REBELLED. THEY EVOLVED. THEY LOOK AND FEEL HUMAN. SOME OF THEM ARE PROGRAMMED TO THINK THEY ARE HUMAN. THERE ARE MANY COPIES

Re-cap

Starbuck seated in her Viper as Lee Adama turns to face her from the hanger deck; “Zak failed basic flight; but he didn’t – because I passed him.” (Mini-Series)
Helo and Valerii picking up the coded message on their handset. Helo; “I can’t decode it, but it means there’s someone...” Valerii, excited, “Someone in the military…someone still alive and kicking here on Caprica!” (Water)
Roslin sitting with Lee Adama; “I have cancer, and I fear that knowledge of my illness will erode hope; so this has to say between you and me.” (Bastille Day)
Lee facing Starbuck as she cools her heels in the brig. “Zak was my brother!” Starbuck, sneering. “What was he to me? Nothing? Same old Lee…you haven’t changed either.” (mini series)

Teaser

We fade into the teaser, with Starbuck fighting with her Viper, the engine pitch rising as her visor reflects yellow flames. She struggles to reach the joystick as we cut to an exterior view of the Viper burning up as it hits an atmosphere belly-first and starts sliding into a flat spin…

…And suddenly we’re on Galactica, with Lee and Starbuck in a bunkroom as he tosses a helmet to her. “You are so unprepared!” she laughs as she catches it. “Shut it!” he retorts as she heads out of the room. “The worst in the history of CAGs, actually!” she adds, ducking out of the room.

On the hanger deck, Tyrol’s crew are towing a Raptor into the hanger from the deck lift as the intercom announces, “Raptor pilot Dwight “Flat Top” Sanders entering hanger deck 12B, deck hands please report.” The Raptor’s side door swings open and Flat Top himself emerges, and starts to inspect his ship (possibly checking for any exterior damage, given the nature of his recent landings (Bastille Day). As he does so, a group of pilot approach him. “We’re talking about one thousand!” someone calls and fist are raised in salute, and Flat Top’s arms go up. “One thousand!” a female voice shouts even louder. A sash goes over Flattop’s head and to calls of “hero!” he’s lifted up onto the shoulders of the other pilots, as a chant to a familiar tune starts up, “Raptor pilots flyin’ high…!”

We cut back to Lee and Starbuck, now in another bunk room as Lee enters with a tin of red paint. But – he’s forgotten to bring a brush. “Oh! You are the absolute worst!” Starbuck chides, but Lee holds up his forefinger, and then sticks it into the paint pot.

On the hanger deck, Tyrol appears, checking a manifest as the chanting reaches his ears, “Raptor pliots flyin’ high..” as Flat Top, still up on the shoulders of his peers is matched around the hanger bay. Aghast, Tyrol looks around. “What the hell’s this? Flattop’s thousandth landing and nobody tells me?” He turns on one of his crew. “Now we look like idiots! Find a wagon!” She scoots off with a “Yessir!”

In the bunk room, Lee and Starbuck are finger-painting “1000” onto the flying helmet when Adama walks in. “You’re not ready yet?” he states. Distracted, Starbuck reaches for the paint pot and misses, sending it tumbling to the floor, spilling paint everywhere, and narrowly missing splashing Lee. She bursts out laughing, and Adama deadpans, “Someone’s going to have to pick that up.” Starbuck points immediately at Lee, while looking at Adama. He hand comes up and he points at her, also looking at Adama. Realising they are pointing at each other, they both snort with laughter and Starbuck playfully slaps Lee’s hand away.

Watching them, Adama feints impatience and waggles a hand. “Let’s go. Come on!” before turning and leaving the room.

In the hanger bay, Tyrol locates a trolley full of kit next to a rack of drones of some description. He starts off-loading the kit from it and gets others to help him, then directs one of his crew to take the trolley over to the pilots, who lower Flattop into the trolley.

Outside, Adama, Starbuck and Lee walk down a corridor and Starbuck starts telling the story of Adama’s 1,000th landing, despite Adama’s admonishment that, he doesn’t “remember telling you what I did.” Unabashed, Staruck continues the tale, which involves the battlestar Atlantia and a “running battle” between Adama and the ship’s LSO, and which Adama claims has “all been over-exaggerated.”

In the hanger bay, the rack of drones is manoeuvred by a lift truck as the pilots continue to parade, now turning Flattop and his trolley in a small circle not too far away.

Back in the corridor, Starbuck continues her tale, which finishes with her impersonating Adama blowing a raspberry. Walking behind Lee and Starbuck, Adama wryly admits, “I was young.”

On the flight deck the pilots start turning the trolley faster and faster, while in the corridor, the tale continues…

In the hanger bay the trolley-turning becomes trolley-spinning and something jostles the rack off drones, causing a clip on one of the restraining straps to fail. A drone swings dangerously loose. The trolley-spinning gathers more pace, a small crowd now gathered around, either participating in the spinning, or watching. The strap securing the drone fails, and the drone falls to the deck, its motor igniting to send it flying across the deck – straight into Flat Top’s trolley.

Out in the corridor, Starbuck’s tale is interrupted by a sudden explosion, and the Galactica shudders. Alarms sound and a fire team is called to the hanger deck. “Let’s go!” Adama orders, running for the hanger bay, Lee and Starbuck with him as more crew run in that direction as well….and we fade to the opening titles.

Acts

After the titles, we’re back in Starbuck’s Viper as it spins ever deeper into the atmosphere of a planet and she continues to fight for the controls. As the camera cuts to an exterior shot, we see the Viper beginning to break up as plasma streams away from it. In the cockpit, the altimeter begins unwinding at an alarming rate, and we see the red/black of space give way to grey “sky” reflected in Starbuck’s helmet as we fade out to white…

…Which becomes the floor of the hanger deck as Sergeant Hadrian, the Master-at-Arms, picks up the broken restraining buckle from the communications drone. She states the buckle is corroded, the strap worn through. “Old equipment, worn strap fails, drops a million-cubit drone to the deck. Kills thirteen pilots, lands seven more in sickbay.” She and Tyrol cross the hanger to a scene of destruction – wreckage and fire damage abound. “We got lucky,” she adds. “If that had been a missile instead of a comm drone, it would have taken out the side of the ship…”

In the Ready Room, Lee briefs the surviving pilots on the services for the dead. As he informs the shocked pilots the hanger deck will remain closed during the accident investigation, and gives details of uniforms to be worn at the services, Adama enters the room. As he does so, he passes the picture on the wall at the back of the room, and lays a hand on it, as is the tradition of Colonial pilots (33). As he is seen by Crashdown, the call to attention is given, and Adama walks to the front of the room. “As you were,” he responds, and the pilots resume their seats. Adama steps up to Lee’s podium. “May I?” he asks. “Yessir,” Lee replies, as the camera angles on Thrace. There is a white flash, and a brief image of people milling around in the open air. Another flash follows, and we’re planet-side somewhere (Caprica?) at a military installation. Pilots and flight crew pass by, and through them William Adama strides towards a figure as the camera watches from over the shoulder. Moving behind the figure as she salutes, we see Adama return the salute and ask, “Are you Lieutenant Thrace?”

And we’re back in the present as Adama faces his pilots. “Give me your eyes,” he orders softly. The pilots look up slowly. “I know this has been a hard day. There’s been plenty of them lately. I can guarantee you there will be more to come,” he pauses briefly, and we see Thrace with her eyes downcast. “Remember your self-esteem, your self-respect and your self-worth,” he continues, causing Thrace to look up in discomfort – but is it purely the discomfort from the loss of her fellow pilots? “Hold strong to them, because people are watching. You’re the guardians of the fleet. They need to know that they can count on you.” Again, the camera angles on Thrace, once again with her eyes downcast as she swallows. She looks up at Adama as he adds, “Even at a time like this.” The white flash repeats, and we’re back at the military base, a younger Thrace in conversation. She turns and walks forward, and we hear Adama ask, “Are you Lieutenant Thrace?” as she salutes. Adama introduces himself. “I’m sorry sir,” she replies. “I was planning on coming to see you tomorrow after the funeral.” “You don’t need to explain anything,” Adama responds, returning us to the present, as Thrace once again looks up at Adama, her look bordering on guilt.

We cut to the service for Galactica’s dead Elosha the priestess (Mini-Series steps up to give the address. As we do, the camera pans to Starbuck and Lee, and a new voice echoes the words Elosha is speaking, and a flashback takes us to Zak Adama’s funeral as a priest gives the same address. As the priest speaks, Lee comforts Caroline, his mother, her face veiled, but framed by blonde hair. Then he steps forward and places a Viper pin on his brother’s coffin. On Galactica, as CAG, he performs the same ritual for the dead pilots, placing the pins on their flag-shrouded forms.

We see Adama look across to Starbuck, and we’re once again in the past, as they stand together on the other side of Zak’s coffin from Lee and his mother, and we see Adama reach and take Starbuck’s hand in his own – and we’re in a flashback within a flashback as Starbuck recalls spending time in bed with Zak, causing her to tense and close her eyes at the funeral – and we’re back in the present as Lee completes his duty and returns to the ranks, taking up a position next to Starbuck.

The service for the fallen of Galactica and the burial of Zak Adama continue to intertwine, with images of both serving to convey the past and the present through the mixed emotions of Adama, Lee and Starbuck, the emotionally-charged scene ending as Zak’s coffin descends into his grave, and pressure doors close on the bodies of the fallen.

Following the service Adama and Starbuck share a drink in Adama's quarters, in which Adama states they must start training new pilots. Thrace states she’s not sure she is the right person for the job. Adama challenges her: “You know someone better?” She admits she doesn’t, but within almost 50,000 people in the fleet, there must be some flight instructors among them. Adama confirms there are two – but they are civilian flight instructors in the fleet, “I need someone to teach combat tactics.” Starbuck continues to try to make excuses as to why she isn’t the person for the job, but Adama cuts her off. “Let’s get down to it. This is about Zak. It’s not your fault. You had nothing to do with what happened,” – a comment that causes her to look away. “It was an accident,” Adama states, and we flashback to Starbuck’s admission to Lee that she passed Zak through basic flight school when she should have failed him. “His technique was sloppy and he had no feel for flying, but I passed him, because he and I…because I felt something, and I let it get in the way of doing my job, and I couldn’t fail him…”

In the present, Starbuck stops the memories by sipping the drink Adama gave her as he states Zak passed basic flight, and as such, what happened to him could have happened to any pilot. “You did your job to the best of your ability. That’s all I can ask….I need new pilots, and I want you to train them.” Confronted with this plea from the heart, Starbuck agrees. She finishes her drink and stands, uncomfortable in Adama’s presence. Mistaking her discomfort for something related to the recent deaths on the Galactica, he steps up to her. “Just give them the attention and professionalism that you gave my son,” he says, trying to reassure her, “and they’ll be one hell of a squadron.” He then gives her a fatherly hug.

As they do so, Starbuck’s discomfiture is complete, she hugs back, but her face is drawn as she stares over Adama’s shoulder – and we are suddenly back in her Viper as it continues to flat-spin, the altimeter unwinding wildly, and Thrace beginning top panic as smoke curls up past the cockpit canopy….

…to become the smoke from her cigar as she plays Baltar at poker. At the same time, a second game is underway at the same table, as Boomer and Crashdown wager on the outcome of the card game. Oblivious to them, Starbuck is lost in more memories - she and Zak in bed together. With Crashdown betting on Starbuck, Baltar thanks him for his vote of confidence and throws money into the pot to stay in the game – but fails to draw a response from Starbuck. To break the growing silence, Crashdown asks Gaeta – another observer of the game – how he and Baltar are getting on with the Cylon detector. “What Cylon detector?” Gaeta asks, as Boomer casts a nervous look from him to Baltar, seemingly engrossed in his cards, and back to Gaeta. Crashdown starts to push the matter, but we’re back with Thrace as she recalls her time with Zak, as she leaves their bed and then tells him he’s passed flight training. “By the skin of your teeth – but you passed.” We hear him telling her he doesn’t want any special treatment from his father – and certainly not from her, and we’re back in the present as the conversation on the Cylon detector continues, Gaeta still feigning innocence.

"Something smells horrible in here. Is that you, Crashdown?" Baltar asks. Crashdown sniffs. "Uh, yeah. It’s me." The Cylon detector conversation now broken, Baltar nods to Starbuck, "Your card." Starbuck stares blankly at him. "Your card," he repeats firmly, but she is still in the past, trying to reassure Zak that no favours have been given. “I’m your flight instructor. I’m not going to send you to Vipers if I don’t think you’ve got the chops.”

Past and present suddenly merge from Starbuck’s perspective: the card game, making love to Zak, his funeral, the service for Galactica’s dead pilots, finally returning to the card game. “Maybe you’d like to take a break?” Baltar offers. Her look is withering. Putting down her cards, she states, “I’m out of here,” and leaves the table – and losing Crashdown his bet. “Okay, she can’t do that,” he states as she leaves. Across the table, Boomer takes her winnings from the table, “She can and she did.” She kisses the coins and leaves the table herself.

And so do we, heading to CYLON-OCCUPIED CAPRICA, where we join Karl C. Agathon, call sign “Helo”, on his 14th day on Caprica. Once again it is raining, and it appears late in the day or possibly at night as he and Valerii approach a building of some description. Peering through the window of what appears to be a cafeteria, Valerii announces, “This is it,” and Helo opens the door – which does not appear to have been locked. “A restaurant,” he states, as they step inside, Valerii carrying some form of detector. She informs him they are almost on top of the signal and we hear the click-click of the scanner. “I don’t get it.” Helo states, “How does a military-encoded signal end up coming from inside here?”

He starts searching the place, working his way back behind the serving counter, seeking some sign of a transmission system, but can’t find anything. “Is that thing working?” he calls to Valerii, who is back out in the front of the restaurant. “I’ve checked it three times,” she confirms. The scanner indicates they are right on top of it, and she walks towards a book case. Clearing the books off a shelf, she reveals a door, and then pulls the entire bookcase over to get to it. The door leads down a staircase to…a radiation shelter. The door is unlocked and inside they find bottled water and other supplies by the rack full, all of it seemingly untouched. On one side of the room is a rack of large batteries hooked up to a disaster beacon. “Set to go off if there’s an attack?” Valerii announces after giving it a cursory glance in the light of their torches.

Helo looks at her, “Some poor slob goes to all the trouble of building a fallout shelter, stocks it, has a beacon, the whole plan – and then what? What happens to him?” Valerii looks around the darkened room. “Let’s just call ourselves lucky and leave it at that,” she replies quietly, a slight edge to her voice. Opening one of the food packs, Helo removes a cracker and holds it for Valerii to take a bite out of it, which she does so greedily – and the camera cuts to the restaurant upstairs as a hand appears at the rain-soaked window, reaching to touch it cautiously before running along it, and we see Six arrive at the door of the restaurant. She pauses a moment, looking inside, then walks on, her hand still brushing the glass….

Back on Galactica, Roslin is aboard, and appears to be in sickbay as the Galactica's Chief Medical Officer (CMO, a Major Cottle (Bastille Day) pulls back the curtain and enters. “Madame President,” he says gruffly, before Roslin requests he closes the curtain. When he has done so, he lays into her for waiting five years between scans for breast cancer. He confirms the original diagnosis was correct: her cancer is too advanced to be operable, all they can hope to do now is try and, “shrink the tumour with gamma treatments and follow that up with IVCIS and Dilloxin – did he explain to you the side effects of Dilloxin?” Roslin replies, “Hair loss, nausea and muscle degeneration. I watched my mother endure two years of Dilloxin before she died.” She then announces she would like to explore alternative treatments, which earn her a dry, “Prayer?” from the doctor. “Witty,” she replies, without any amusement. “Have you ever heard of….Kamala extract?” This earns her an outright, “Oh gods. You’re one of those.” The doctor then goes on to state all the stories about Kamala are anecdotal, “nothing but a lot of loose talk and false hope.”

“I take that as a yes,” Roslin interrupts. Realising he’s beaten on this one, the doctor agrees to put out a “med request” to the civilian fleet. As he leaves the examination area, he pauses and turns to her. “And for what it’s worth,” he says quietly, “I would seriously….consider prayer…”

Elsewhere on the ship, Starbuck reviews a file of potential pilots Lee Adama has just given her. She’s less than impressed with what she’s reading. “Diamonds in the rough,” Lee responds to her critique. “They’re the best pilots in the fleet.”

“Great,” Starbuck responds, as she heads into the Ready Room, still reading the file. “Attention on deck!” she orders as she walks to the front of the room. The eight people in the room continue to chatter, leading her to order them onto their feet before reminding them they are joining the Colonial fleet, “not some afternoon club.” Ordering them back into their seats, she takes up her position at the podium and introduces herself. “Pilots call me Starbuck. You may refer to me as God.” She then goes on to inform the “nuggets” that while they’ve all flown before, they’re now into something new, but as Galactica doesn’t have any flight simulators, they are going to be put right into the cockpit – today. She then gives them a (very) quick overview of the Viper Mk II, stating that they’ll all be practicing launch, approach and landing manoeuvres, adding – as she spots the cocky one in the group – that anyone not playing attention is “liable to end up as a puddle of something to be hosed out of the cockpit by the Chief of the Deck.” She then pounces on Mr. Cocky as he passes a lewd comment. “Mr. Constanza, right?” “Uh, yes – God…sir….” he replies. “Not any more,” she states flatly. “From now on your name is ‘Hot Dog’. And when God speaks, Hot Dog, you listen.” She then adds more quietly as she leans over him, “Maybe if you’d learned that on your first day at the academy, you wouldn’t have washed out.”

Following the briefing, we join the new pilots out in Vipers as they attempt to make combat landings on Galactica. Starbuck follows another female pilot in as she attempts a landing – and comes close to putting her Viper through the landing deck, earning her a wave-off from the LSO. Back in the Ready Room, Starbuck washes-out the entire group of eight.

In the rec room, she is confronted by Lee. “What re you doing here Kara? You can’t wash them out on their first day.” Pouring herself a drink, Thrace replies, “I just did,” leading Lee to point out that he has “40 Vipers and 21 pilots and that’s it. We’re sitting ducks until we finish water ops. We can’t even maintain a CAP. Gods forbid the Cylons show up.” Thrace wants to move on to the next group of pilots – but they haven’t even flown before, and as far as she is concerned, the first group is done. She then starts to walk away, and Lee calls her back. “Lieutenant Thrace! This is not a request!” She cuts him off dismissively, returning to stand toe-to-toe with him and tell him she is the flight instructor, and her word is scripture, and as such she will not - repeat not – pass another student who isn’t ready.

“So that’s what this is about,” Lee replies softly. “It’s not about them. It’s about Zak.” Her face hardening, Starbuck steps closer to him, “Careful,” she warns, fury bubbling in the word. Lee faces her without moving. “Step back,” he orders. For a moment she continues to stare at him, then turns and leave the room, propelling us back into the cockpit of her Viper as she fights to reach the ejection handle, the altimeter still unwinding wildly. Reaching the handle, she pulls it and the Viper’s canopy is blown away before the ejection motor on her seat kicks-in, firing her from the doomed fighter.

As she disappears into the clouded sky, we are back in Adama’s quarters and he is backing her against Lee. “If Starbuck says they can’t cut it, they can’t cut it.” He adds she is one of the finest pilots he’s known, and it would only take her a day to judge people’s ability in the cockpit. Lee states he’s not arguing that point, but rather that she is allowing personal feelings cloud her judgement. “What are those feelings?” Adama asks. “About Zak,” Lee replies after a pause. “We’ve talked about Zak,” Adama states, a comment that confuses Lee. Adama goes on to say he and Starbuck talk about a lot of things. “We’ve been aboard this ship for over two years. We know each other very well. When I asked her to be the instructor, I knew it was going to release a lot of loose baggage. She acknowledged it. She’s a professional. She’ll do her job.”

Still confused, and looking not a little angry, Lee agrees, but suggests Adama talk to her anyway. When he agrees, Lee pauses. “Personally, I think she’s trying to work out her guilt over what she did for Zak. I think she’s trying to make up for it by beating up on these guys.”

This time it is Adama’s turn to look confused. “Guilt? Over what? What did she do for Zak?”

Suddenly, it is clear to Lee that once again he and his father have been talking at cross-purposes; that far from knowing the truth about Zak’s situation, as the comment “We’ve talked about Zak” lead him to believe, his father actually knows nothing about Kara’s role in passing Zak for Viper duties when he was clearly unsuited to the role. Refusing to comment further, Lee closes the conversation by telling his father he’ll have to ask her, before apologising and turning to leave. When Adama tries to stop him, Lee breaks through the gulf imposed on them by their respective ranks, “Dad…you have to ask her.”

In the locker room, Starbuck looks at the photo of her with Zak and Lee, recalling once again the moment she told Zak he had passed, replaying the words in her mind before the intercom calls her to Adama’s quarters.

As she arrives, Adama informs her Lee was just with him, and that he thinks she washed-out the nuggets without giving them a chance. “They didn’t cut it. That’s it,” she replies with a shrug. Adama presses her, stating Lee believes she’s letting personal feeling interfere with her judgement – her feeling about Zak. When she denies this, Adama nods and steps around his desk to stand in front of her saying the Lee believes she is feeling guilty over something she did for Zak. “What did you do for him?”

She tries to deflect the question by bouncing it back in Lee’s direction and denying she knows what he might have been talking about. Adama stops her. “Don’t dance with me Kara. I love you like a daughter; I don’t deserve that,” his face settles into a look of sorrow, as she struggles to find the words, finally admitting. “Zak failed basic flight,” and the sorrow slowly fades from Adama’s expression, as she continues, “He wasn’t a bad pilot, he just had no feel for flying.” As Adama’s face becomes a mask, she admits that Zak failed three manoeuvres during his final flight exam. Lowering her head, she states, “The bottom line is your…son…didn’t have the chops to fly a Viper….and it killed him.” She looks up to meet Adama’s look, the pain reflected in his eyes, and we flash back to Caprica.

Adama is walking with Thrace. “He told me that he thought you were an amazing instructor, and that he was involved with you, and that it was serious. He asked me to come to his graduation from flight school and watch him get his wings.” Thrace admits she read the letter Zak wrote, and Adama asks her if she could tell him what his son was hinting at, a “surprise…about you?” “We were going to, ah….You know what, it’s not important,” she evades. Adama stops her. “You were engaged, right?”

And in the present, Adama finally speaks, his voice a whisper. “You did it because you were engaged.” The words finally break Thrace, who admits her love for Zak while fighting tears, and admits it got in the way of her judgement because he wanted his wings so much, and she didn’t want to be the one who crushed his dream. She looks to Adama for any sign of understanding, but his mask remains fixed, “Reinstate the trainees to flight status.” Agreeing to, Thrace adds that she just wants him to understand – but he cuts her off, his anger adding a lower growl to his next words, “Do your job….and walk out of this cabin while you still can…” for a moment she stands in front of him, then she turns and walks out of the cabin, the tears flowing. Watching her go, Adama’s mask finally slips, and we hear him catch his breath as he tries to maintain control.

Then we are back in Starbuck’s Viper as she once again ejects. This time we see her seat blast her out of the cockpit before the angle shifts to show the battered Viper falling through thick cloud. Now separated from her ejector seat, which is tumbling behind her, Thrace falls through the sky, windmilling herself into a free-fall position – and we’re back among the trainees and Starbuck arrives, now in her flight suit, with the news that they are all reinstated, and that they’re going to try it again. She then selects three of them – Cat, Chuckles and Hotdog to fly the first round with her.

We join Starbuck and her recruits in combat training runs in their Vipers, with hotdog living up to his name as he breaks formation with his patrol leader – Chuckles – to attempt a “kill” on Starbuck. While he’s successful, his victory is short-lived: Cat then “kills” him – leading to the lesson for the moment: never leave your leader.

Listening to the radio com in CIC, Tigh gives a grudging “Well I’ll be damned!” He demands to know what has got into Starbuck, as she actually sounds like a real instructor for a change. The comment earns him a hard look from Adama as he enters CIC. Moving to the plot table, Adama unrolls a chart as Tigh adds that Thrace may actually make pilots out of some of the nuggets. Again Adama doesn’t respond, but beside him, Lee gives him a careful look.

The mood is suddenly broken by an announcement from Starbuck: “Holy frak! We’ve got incoming!”

Moving to his console, Gaeta confirms: multiple contacts – Cylons! As Tigh demands to know why they didn’t see them coming, Lee orders the alert fighters launched. Tigh then orders the fleet to Condition One. Outside, Starbuck requests the cavalry, and then orders her trainees to punch it for home, eight Raiders in pursuit.

In CIC, Adama demands, “Where’s the base ship?” but Gaeta confirms they only have 8 Raiders. Tigh states it was only a matter of time before the Cylons found them. The alert fighters are launched with an ETA of two minutes, as Starbuck tries to shepherd her nuggets home – but the Cylons have the edge in velocity. This forces Starbuck to take action – instructing her trainees to continue heading for the Galactica, she flips her ship and goes head-on at the Cylons. “Starbuck’s going to take on all eight,” Tigh states in answer to Adama’s demand to know what she’s doing, “And is going to get herself killed.”

Among the nuggets, Hot Dog reverses course and takes off after Starbuck, who has closed the range. The Radiers open on up her – using guns, not missiles – and she starts manoeuvring as Hotdog turns up, opening fire alongside of her and taking out a Raider. Seconds later he is hit, forcing him to break off as Starbuck further disperses the Cylon force, hitting, but not destroying one of them, while taking out another. Heading away from the fight, Hotdog can do little as his main engines burn out.

And suddenly, we’re left with just one Cylon and Starbuck...and the Cylon has the upper hand. Watching from CIC, Adama and his crew hear her state the Cylon is right on her tail, but she’s got it covered – and then her ident vanishes from the screens, causing Lee to turn away, and Duella to report Starbuck’s wireless and transponder just went out. A second later, the Alert One Viper reports they’ve spotted Hot Dog, but have no visual ident on Starbuck.

Meanwhile, over a moon of a gas giant, Starbuck goes head-to-head with the last Cylon Raider and cripples it – but before she can get out of the way, it strikes her Viper a “glancing” blow, killing all her flight systems, and both craft start tumbling towards the atmosphere of the moon. Then the pieces fall into place, as all the “flash” scenes of Starbuck fighting to control a doomed Viper come together in a single scene, culminating in her ejection and free-fall planet-wards before the screen blanks to those immortal words...

To be continued

--Colonial Archivist 18:13, 6 Jan 2005 (EST)

Questions

Analysis

A somewhat contrived episode that still manages to work, despite a weak start, and the very obvious set-ups that occur throughout.

The bon homme between Starbuck, Apollo and Adama as seen in the teaser doesn’t work. Coming on top of the clear division between Adama and Apollo following the latter’s activities on the Astral Queen (given this episode takes place some 48 hours after the events in Bastille Day), the level of comfort and ease that Adama demonstrates just doesn’t sit well with his character as seen to date – or indeed, elsewhere in the episode.

Also, while hi-jinx are to be expected, even in the most dire situations – the crew are going to have to let off steam at times – the whole “1,000th” landing idea smacked too much of a contrivance to get Galactica’s pilots together in order to knock a bunch of them off.

Moving on, there is Adama's cosy tête-à-tête with Starbuck regarding the role of instructor. There are two problems with the scene:

No matter how Adama feels about Lee's actions regarding the Astral Queen, it's hard to see him going straight over the head of Galactica's CAG and asking a pilot under Lee's direct command to take on what amounts to a senior, and important role. Doing so could undermine the CAG's authority and place him at odds with the nominated pilot. And it has been established that Adama is a stickler for protocol.
The cuddle at the end of the scene does not fit Adama as he has so far been established. Until now, Adama has been portrayed as approachable but aloof. Personnel of all ranks have been comfortable in talking to him openly, and have clearly regarded him with respect. However, there has always been a degree of separation

between him and those around him. Therefore, it is hard to accept Adama as a man given to heartfelt hugs with junior officers - no matter what their past - and the hug can be seen for what it is: a transparent means of adding the depth needed within their relationship to set him up for the inevitable revelation of her part in Zak's death.

And this is the big failing of this story: taken on their own, each scene is very much a set-piece, contrived and directed towards three things: Adama learning the truth about his son's death; the capture of a Cylon Raider and Starbuck's MIA situation. In these latter regards, “Act of Contrition” could be said to be little more than a 40+ minute set-up for the next episode. Again, in this, the arrival of the Cylons at the end of the show came as absolutely no surprise – nor did the lack of any accompanying basestar. Perhaps the only thing we were saved from was the expected cliché of the rookies earning their Viper wings through a baptism of fire….

BUT – and this is the nub of the matter: the entire story is beautifully constructed in terms of the balance between the past, the present and – in Thrace's case – the future; and the acting throughout is outstanding. Indeed, it is fair to say that the framing of the episode is its saviour. The interweaving of past and present, Zak's burial and the service for those killed in Galactica's hanger bay; the gradual revelation of Starbuck's relationship with Zak (even with the outcome – their engagement – being somewhat obvious), serve to lift this episode from the mundane, with Starbuck's struggle aboard her Viper serving not only to break the episode into distinct “acts”, as well as conveying Zak's actual loss in a Viper accident of some description.

Alongside of this sits the central performances, which are among the strongest we've seen to date. In this, Edward James Olmos clearly silences any critics of his acting abilities. With barely a turn of the lips, an opening or narrowing of the eyes, he conveys everything we need to know about Adama's reaction to Thrace's admission in his cabin: confusion, hurt, betrayal, loss, anger and finally – fury. It's been a while since such a range of emotional reactions have been so powerfully portrayed, and full kudos to Mr. Olmos and to the episode's director and director of photography for the manner in which the scene is crafted.

Katee Sackhoff deserves praise as well in her handling of Thrace's memories and dilemma. Here, for the first time, we get to see what goes on behind the “Starbuck” mask; and the flashback scenes to her time with Zak are handled with extraordinary poise, and add the required depth needed to reinforce her guilt at his loss, and her fear of what might happen should she ever be put in a similar position again – or that Adama should ever discover the truth.

Returning to the story itself - as with previous episodes, other arcs are moved along, either directly, or through dialogue. It is through the latter that we learn that the water situation in the fleet is still not resolved, and that operations are continuing on the ice moon discovered by Boomer and Crashdown in “Water”; we also learn – via the card game – that secrets on Galactica are proving hard to keep: rumours are already spreading that Gaeta is assisting Baltar in the development of his Cylon detector.

Given a more direct reference is Roslin's illness. In a nice follow-on from “Bastille Day” she meets the Galactica's medical officer. Something of a cliché himself (a healer killing himself through smoking), the doctor is unsurprisingly direct to the point of bluntness in confirming the original prognosis of the cancer. Even so, he is a useful foil for opening a new mini-arc to Roslin's character: her determination to fight the cancer through orthodox and possibly unorthodox means.

Turning to Helo's situation on Caprica, it is now clear that the Cylons want him to remain with Valerii. The receipt of the "military signal" and the discovery of the cosy little "radiation shelter" as a result is too much of a coincidence. The shelter is a honey-trap, and Valerii is about to become the bait.

Overall, a vastly different episode from all that has gone before and one that is, as stated before, saved from mediocrity only in the interweaving of the various story elements – future, present and past – and the outstanding performances from both Sackhoff and Olmos, well-supported by Jamie Bamber and James Callas.

--Colonial Archivist 18:14, 6 Jan 2005 (EST)

Notes

It is 48 hours since the prisoner uprising on the Astral Queen
Water replenishment ops are still underway, although there was no direct evidence of this, merely a throwaway line from Lee Adama
The Galactica has a remaining contingent of 40 Vipers on top of her 5 Raptors (revealed in “Water”), but now only has 21 combat-ready pilots and a further 8 newbie “nuggets”
The Colonial military use HumVees and Deuce-and-a-half trucks!
Cylon Raiders have guns of an apparently similar nature to those mounted on Vipers
Zak and Starbuck were engaged, and that lead to her passing him for flight duty
Adama's relationship with Starbuck is not as long-standing as the mini appeared to suggest: they have only served together for 2 years
Word is leaking out about Baltar's “Cylon detector”
Helo and Valerii still appear to be the only “people” left alive on Caprica. Neither seem in any hurry to get off the planet.

Noteworthy Dialogue

In Adama's Cabin, with Thrace and Adama, discussing comments made earlier by Lee Adama:

Adama: He said something else. That you might have been feeling guilty about something you did for Zak. What did you do for him? Thrace: I don't know. You'd have to ask Lee. Adama: I'm asking you. Thrace: Well I don't kn- I, ah...I don't really know what he was talking about, so... Adama: Don't fence with me, Kara. I love you like a daughter. I don't deserve that. Thrace: Ummm...Zak...failed...basic flight. He wasn't a bad pilot, he just had no feel for flying...and, um, when it came to his final check ride he...busted...three of the test manoeuvres, and I should have flunked him, but I didn't. The bottom line is your...son...didin't have the chops to fly a Viper...and it killed him. Adama: (following a flashback): You did it because you were engaged. Thrace (breaking down): Because I made a mistake...because I was just...I was so in love with him...and I let that get in the way of doing my job...and um, and he um, he just wanted it so much, and I...I didn't want to be the one who crushed him... Adama: Reinstate the trainees to flight status Thrace: I will...but I just want you to understand...that I... Adama: Do your job Thrace: Yes sir... Adama: And walk out of this cabin...while you still can...

Official Statements

Statistics

Guest Stars

Writing & Direction

Written by Toni Graphia
Directed by Alan Kroeker

First Run Air Dates & Releases

UK Airdate: 8 November 2004 (Sky One)
US Airdate: (Sci-Fi Channel)
DVD Release: N/A