Act of Contrition

"Act of Contrition" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 1, Episode 4
Writer(s)	Bradley Thompson David Weddle
Story by
Director	Rod Hardy
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	104
Nielsen Rating	2.5
US airdate	2005-01-28
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate	2004-11-08
DVD release	20 September 2005 US 28 March 2005 UK
Population	survivors
Additional Info
Full Credits
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Bastille Day	Act of Contrition	You Can't Go Home Again
Related Information
Official Summary
R&D Skit – View
[[IMDB:tt{{{imdb}}}|IMDb entry]]
Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
			@ BW Media
Promotional Materials
Online Purchasing
Amazon: Standard Definition | High Definition
iTunes: [{{{itunes}}} USA]

Overview

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

On Galactica

• It is Dwight “Flat Top” Saunder’s 1,000th deck landing, which brings Galactica’s pilots down to the hangar deck to celebrate.
• As the celebrations continue, a communication drone stowed on the hangar deck breaks loose from its restraints, falling to the deck and igniting its motor. The drone flies across the hangar, smashing into the celebrating pilots where it explodes, killing Flat Top and twelve others and putting seven more in sickbay.
• As the surviving pilots prepare for a memorial service for their fallen comrades, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace has flashbacks to her first meeting with William Adama, following the death of his son, Zak.
• During the memorial service itself, she, Lee Adama and Bill Adama all have flashbacks – to Zak Adama’s funeral and (in Thrace's case) to her telling Zak he has qualified as a Viper pilot.
• Following the service, Commander Adama asks Thrace to oversee the training of any new pilots they can find in the Fleet.
• Thrace is initially hesitant, and the Commander guesses the cause is Zak's accident. He reassures her that his son’s death was not her fault – which causes Thrace to remember her admission to Lee Adama: that she passed Zak Adama through his basic training when he had in fact failed (Miniseries).
• She reluctantly accepts the duty, but memories of Zak Adama continue to haunt her as she plays cards with Gaius Baltar, oblivious to a conversation that takes place between Crashdown and Felix Gaeta concerning Baltar’s Cylon detector – a conversation that leaves Boomer very uncomfortable.
• Elsewhere on Galactica, President Laura Roslin is examined by the ship’s medical officer, Doctor Cottle. His diagnosis is not good: her cancer is inoperable. Roslin decides that she wants to try alternative therapy using Chamalla extract – something with entirely unproven effectiveness.
• Later, Thrace meets her first batch of recruits. They are all pilots – but none have ever flown a Viper. With no simulators aboard Galactica, the newbies – nuggets – are thrown straight into the cockpit of the real thing.
• Their performance during their first training flight is hardly stellar, and Thrace is uncompromisingly hard on the first batch of recruits, washing them all out.
• Captain Adama confronts her on her decision, and realizes it is caused more by guilt about Zak Adama than on the ability of the trainees. When she refuses to reinstate the trainees, he takes the matter up with Commander Adama.
• Commander Adama initially supports Thrace's decision, but a misunderstanding between him and Lee Adama causes him to meet with Thrace to discuss Zak’s death.
• When Starbuck tries to dodge the issue, Adama pins her down, and she admits the truth: Zak botched his final training flights, but she passed him because she was in love with him and they were engaged – but Zak really wasn’t the right material for flying Vipers.
• Angered and hurt, Adama orders her to reinstate the trainees and to get out of his cabin.
• Starbuck leads a handful of the trainees on a training flight, only to have a group of Cylon Raiders show up.
• In the ensuing dogfight, Starbuck takes care of the Raiders (with Hot Dog's aid), but her Viper is damaged after dispatching (but not destroying) the last Raider, losing first her transponder and then complete flight control. Her Viper goes into a flat spin as her Viper and the last dead Raider fall into the gravity well of a nearby moon. The moon's thin atmosphere tears the uncontrollable Viper apart, forcing her to eject.

On Caprica

• Karl Agathon and Sharon Valerii are tracking the source of the signal they previously picked up out in the woods (Water).
• The signal leads them to a restaurant 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 a copy of Six.

Questions

• Why does Galactica's doctor, Major Cottle, smoke, knowing full well the medical implications of cigarette smoking? (Answer)

Analysis

• This episode emphasizes many of the goals set at the series' creation to make a sci-fi series that is grounded in realism. The logistical limitations on the Fleet are readily apparent: this episode highlights how difficult it is for Galactica to train new combat-ready pilots, as there are no reserve pilots and civilians with little or no prior flying experience are all that they have to work with.
• Further, this episode shows that sometimes accidents simply happen on a battlestar: this is not a perfect, pristine in-story universe but a worn, run-down real world. The accident on the flight deck occurred not through sabotage or some sort of technobabble space anomaly, but simply because an old piece of equipment wore out.
• The realism highlighted by this episode is again apparent in the climactic scene between Starbuck and Commander Adama, in which she reveals that she was responsible for his son's death. The dramatic situation it focused on is not centered around some sci-fi concept, but the interactions between people which could have occurred on present-day Earth. If the script for this episode were ported onto another series set on a modern-day Navy aircraft carrier, there would be few if any changes to it; it is a drama script, which happens to be set in space, which was one of the goals of the series.

Notes

• It is 48 hours since the prisoner uprising on the Astral Queen.
• Water replenishment ops are still underway.
• 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.”
• Cylon Raiders have guns of an apparently similar nature to those mounted on Vipers.
• Zak and Starbuck were engaged, and that led to her passing him for flight duty.
• Adama's relationship with Starbuck is not as long-standing as the miniseries 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. (More humans are discovered in the second season episode, "Resistance)."
• Small inconsistency in set dressing: The books on the shelf that covers the fallout shelter's entrance are rectangular. The books in Adama's study however all have their corners cut.
• The Colonial military use what appear to be HumVees and Deuce-and-a-half trucks.
• While the Viper is burning on entry into the atmosphere, the Viper's altimeter is going in reverse, indicating altitude gain.
• Ron D. Moore states on the DVD commentary that the munition activation that kills several pilots was inspired by a similar event on the USS Forrestal in 1967.
• Also according to the DVD commentary, the ejection sequence at the beginning of each chapter is an homage to The Right Stuff.

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...didn'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

• Ron D. Moore discusses Cottle's smoking:

  Moore: Because smoking is cool. Don't let anyone tell you different, kid. [...] Seriously, we're showing people doing what people really do and not all of their choices are smart ones. We smoke, we drink, we have sex with the wrong partners -- we make lots of bad choices and some of them we do knowingly and in full cognizance of the risks and consequences. Dr. Cottle obviously knows the risks associated with smoking and he elects to do it anyway — that's his choice.

• Bodie Olmos talks about his most challenging day on-set:

  Olmos: Interesting[ly] enough, probably the first episode I was in, "Act of Contrition". I was so excited, nervous and amazed that I was on the show. That for me was a rough day, let me tell you! I could hardly sit still and the day seemed so long. I just wanted to be good, and make sure I knew what this character was all about, which is very difficult. I think it evolves. One minute you may think he is like this but then you see that he actually believes something else. So I was definitely glad to make it through that one.

Guest stars

• Michael Hogan as Colonel Saul Tigh
• Tahmoh Penikett as Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon
• Aaron Douglas as Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol
• Jill Teed as Sergeant Hadrian
• Donnelly Rhodes as Dr. Cottle
• Lorena Gale as Elosha
• Tobias Mehler as Zak Adama
• Colby Johannson as Lt. Dwight "Flat Top" Saunders
• Bodie Olmos as Brendan "Hot Dog" Constanza
• Lucianna Carro as Louanne "Kat" Katraine
• Terry Chen as "Chuckles" Perry
• Bill Meilen as Caprica Cleric

External Links

• Contrition at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.