Dirty Hands

"Dirty Hands" An episode of the Re-imagined Series
Episode No.	Season 3, Episode 16
Writer(s)	Anne Cofell Saunders Jane Espenson
Story by
Director	Wayne Rose
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)
Production No.	316
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	2007-02-25
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate
DVD release
Population	41,400 survivors
Additional Info
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
A Day in the Life	Dirty Hands	Maelstrom
Related Information
Official Summary
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Listing of props for this episode
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Summary

Teaser

• A group of deckhands, with Chief Galen Tyrol at the head, are prepping Racetrack's Raptor for an mission.
• Tyrol reminds Figurski, Pollux and Sanchez not to leave as they have to work on additional engine refits. A number of deckhands, one literally missing a hand and using a prosthetic arm, are busy with their work. Complaints about fatigue are deflected by Tyrol.
• Viewers see tylium fuel, refined from its ore state into a gasoline-like liquified state, being pumped into the Raptor.
• Seelix is returning bags of cleaned laundry to Figurski, Pollux, and Redford. She's not too happy as, despite high marks on the written exam for Viper pilot flight training, Seelix has been denied promotion because she was considered to have mission-essential duties and could not be transferred. Pollux is left surprised, believing that others don't want the "knuckledraggers" to rise in rank.
• Tyrol, who heard about the failed promotion from the CAG, apologizes to Seelix. Figurski teases too much about Seelix's fate and her unglamorous laundry work, which causes Seelix to attack Figurski before Chief Tyrol breaks it up. Seelix goes back to laundry delivery, obviously depressed in spite of Tyrol's attempt to have her look at her work on the hangar deck as critical to the Fleet's safety.
• Racetrack and Skulls, her ECO, launch from the lift from the hangar deck to the port flight pod. They fly through the motley of civilian ships and begin plotting their course, passing the Space Park, when a malfunction occurs in the reaction control jets and one of the main engines. The vehicle is out of control.
• Racetrack yells for Skulls to sit in the copilot seat and moments later, both eject from the wayward vehicle. The Raptor tumbles on a collision course with Colonial One at the same area of the ship where President Laura Roslin and Tory Foster are handling their daily business.

Act 1

• After the Raptor collides with Colonial One, Adama is on board to help move Roslin's office to a different part of the ship. He makes a Freudian slip about having a bed ready for her if she feels too cramped on Colonial One. Both of them get a smile out of it.
• The discussion moves to the recent issues aboard the refinery ship - poor quality, demands by the crew, and lack of fuel. They decide to get to the bottom of the issue.
• While interviewing the captain of the refinery ship, Xeno Fenner, who makes demands and statements indicative of class struggle. He then quotes from Baltar's book - the President immediately has him arrested on charges of sedition. Adama is unaware of the book.
• The Admiral calls Tyrol and tells him to get a crew and head to the refinery ship. Cally Tyrol has been reading Baltar's book and is openly critical of how unfair things are.
• Roslin has Baltar's room searched for the next pages of the book that he has been disseminating with the help of his lawyer. They start a strip search when he produces the last pages from his underwear. Roslin tells him that all copies have been intercepted.
• On the refinery ship Tyrol finds the place a dangerous mess - maintenance is overdue, machinery is broken, people are dangerously overworked, and morale is very low.
• Tyrol tells them that they need to start processing tylium and is told, that it isn't going to happen - they have removed all the pressure valves from the equipment.
• Tyrol returns to Galactica and reports his findings. While concerned, the President orders the arrest of the refinery leader in order to get production restarted.

Act 2

• Tyrol visits Fenner and Cavett. Cavett, who was incarcerated on New Caprica by the Cylons, is experiencing hallucinations and is injuring himself. Tyrol asks for the seals, to Fenner's anger.
• Tyrol yells at both to tell him where, when Fenner relents and tells the location of the seals.
• The seals are replaced. Milo asks to flip the switch. Tyrol asks Milo's age: 12. The production resumes. Tyrol looks around to see many very young faces; many of the refinery workers are children.
• On Colonial One, Tyrol explains that the parents are passing down their skills to their children, not because they choose to, but because it is the only thing they are allowed to do. Roslin understands the problem, and offers to gather a list of colonists with any relevant experience that can be used to supplement the workers on the refinery ship.
• A young man named Danny Noon, pulled from Dogsville, questions Tyrol on the hanger deck on why he is tasked to work on the refinery ship. As Figurski tells Tyrol of the young man's farming experience, Noon denies any actual experience, having worked for one summer for money for college before the Cylon attack on the Colonies. Before Tyrol can consider reassigning the man, Figurski warns that letting the young man go may cause more to deny their experience as well, setting back the conscription process. Tyrol does not interfere.
• As Tyrol walks away, he finds a copy of Baltar's underground manifesto. Turning the page, he notes one page entitled "The Emerging Aristocracy and the Emerging Underclass." He decides to go to Baltar.
• Interviewing Baltar (who now knows that his book has circulated), Tyrol tries to separate fact from fiction. Baltar (now possessing only a mattress on the floor, with no bed frame) explains that he is really born on a dairy farm outside of Cuttlesbreath Wash on Aerelon. When Tyrol questions further, particularly Baltar's posh accent, Baltar explains (as he begins to speak in his native Aerelon voice) that he began to mimic Caprican speech starting at 10 years old so that people would not believe he was from Aerelon, a "drab, ugly rock condemned to be the food basket for the twelve worlds." Baltar left Aerelon after his 18th birthday.
• When Tyrol indicates that the strife was left on the Colonies and begins to leave the brig, Baltar disagrees, indicating that the social strife has followed the people, and that the aristocracy will continue to hold on to their power.

Act 3

• The fresh labor on the refinery ship is helping and tylium ore is again being refined, per Fenner. He notes that some problems in the process was where the contaminants were accumulating and that work is being done to clean up the process.
• A malfunction occurs on the refinery ship conveyor, but Fenner warns that the belt has to be repaired while running, else, shutting it down will seize the whole system. Worse, not fixing the problem soon could cause an explosive chain reaction with the ore stuck in the system.
• Tyrol tries to get the problem part, but can't reach it. Danny Noon manages to reach underneath to restore the belt to operation but suffers a piercing injury as he exits from under the belt.
• Watching this suffering becomes too much for Tyrol. He slowly walks over to the belt systems main power levers and pulls them, shutting down the entire fuel operation. He tells everyone that the plant is offline and that the workers are on strike.
• Several pilots, including Kara Thrace, are trying to get a flight, but Pollux tells them that they are strike, and that only vital missions are being serviced.
• Chief Tyrol is arrested in placed in Galactica's brig. Admiral Adama tells him that the Colonial Fleet shoots mutineers like Tyrol and the deckhands.

Act 4

• Tyrol tries to explain his side, but Adama warns that no one on this ship can disobey orders. To prove how far he will go, he makes a phone call.
• Adama orders Cally Tyrol to be taken to the starboard hangar deck. When the Chief asks why, Adama tells him he is taking her there to be shot as a mutineer.
• Tyrol is terrified, but Adama continues to elaborate: Orders, no matter how one feels about them, must be adhered to. If even one person hesitates to fulfill an order or feels that orders are optional, everyone will perish, including Tyrol's son. Adama tells him that this is not his desire, but that he would put ten Callys against the wall to be shot to ensure the survival of the Fleet.
• Tyrol resigns. Adama releases him and lets him speak to Cally, who mistakenly believes that Tyrol has won. Adama releases her. Adama releases the Chief as well, reminding him that he wanted to speak with the President on the labor issues.
• On Colonial One, Tyrol and President Roslin talk over drinks about the cultural vocations that some colonists are locked into by birth, which Roslin understands but cannot see how to change. Tyrol suggests a plan where other colonists, including professional types who inhabit Colonial One, get their hands dirty with many tasks, allowing some sharing of low-level chores. For high-stress jobs, Tyrol recommends that crew rotations are recommended. Roslin agrees.
• Tyrol recommends a training program, but Roslin defers it and wants Tyrol's union to give some ground in collective bargaining. When Tyrol is confused about the mention of a union he believed long gone, Roslin explains the necessity of the union and his leadership to ensure that the Fleet doesn't tear itself apart.
• Later, back on the hangar deck, Chief Tyrol is announcing work assignments when Captain Thrace arrives to complain about a missing nugget who did not report for training. She asks for Diana Seelix, who is both visibly confused and excited. Tyrol, in on the ruse, presents Seelix with ensign pins, promoting her to the basic officers rank needed to train as a pilot.
• Thrace continues to play the nasty drill officer and orders the smiling Seelix off to the pilots ready room. Thrace herself cracks a smile as Tyrol asks her to "be nice" to her new recruit.

Bonus Scene

• Chief Tyrol has finished sorting out a handful of children who were mistakenly picked in the pool of conscripts to aid on the refinery ship. He returns to his quarters to pick up some paperwork.
• Cally Tyrol notes that most of the conscripts are from poor colonies, and that the work involved actually don't involve any genuine skills. She noticed that no one from Colonial One was in the list of conscripts.
• Galen berates Cally for what he feels is yet another recitation from Gaius Baltar's book. He warns her that, if he pushes too hard with Fleet leadership, they may pull him off of the assignment of assigning conscripts, where someone like Colonel Tigh may be ordered to manage, with more dire results for everyone.
• Cally tries to encourage her husband to continue fighting for the rights of the workers as he did as the union leader on New Caprica. As she continues to press for his support, he tells her that the New Caprica union is over and leaves without further discussion.

Questions

• Will Baltar's book help his image among the working class of the Fleet in his upcoming trial?
• Is it possible that Tom Zarek somehow assisted Baltar in the writing and distribution of his book?
• Has the Fleet's tylium reserve been re-stocked at all since "The Hand of God"?
• Have these class differentiations amongst the colonies been problematic before the destruction of the Twelve Colonies?
• Besides occupations that are related to the "working class" and other professions such as news reporters, what other occupations exist within the fleet besides those positions found on Colonial One and Galactica?
• Have the Colonials truly lost the Cylons or are the Cylons continuing on different plans?
• Why wasn't Tigh mentioned along with Dualla as another member of the "working class" that rose to be part of the Fleet leadership as he was born on Aerelon and started his career as an enlisted man?
• Besides Baltar's testimony, is there any real solid evidence that Baltar was born on Aerelon?
• With the information provided by "Unfinished Business" and "A Day in the Life", have the attitude and admiration towards Admiral Adama changed significantly to the point that his crew feel more indifferent or resentful of him?
• Besides the six Colonies that were mentioned, how were the other colonies, such as Picon considered?

Analysis

• Not having any real options for defending his actions during the Cylon occupation of New Caprica, Baltar has opted to use class warfare as a distraction from the real issues and to drum up support as a victim of "the aristocracy". His booklet appears to inspired by classic Marxist/Leninist rhetoric. Historically, such approaches to political change and power are most effective when conditions are unacceptable and dangerous for large numbers of workers.
• Adama's explanation and pending orders to execute Cally and the rest of the knuckledraggers to force Tyrol to call off the strike is reminiscent of the style of leadership found with Admiral Cain. However, once Tyrol relented and called off the strike, Adama immediately displayed his familiar style of leadership by informing Tyrol of his meeting with Roslin.
• This is the first time that an emergency cockpit ejection from a Raptor is shown during the series.
• Ever since her murder of Boomer and following detention and eventual release, Cally has displayed an attitude of disrespect towards the Fleet leadership, especially to Adama recently. Her recent demeanor and naive assumption that Adama would not do anything more than arrest the strikers may highlight a growing problem amongst the military workers that are beginning to dissent from the leadership.
• This episode, as well as "The Woman King" display an ongoing theme since Season 2 that focuses on how human beings are self-destructive by nature without any Cylon intervention. As was stated in "A Day In The Life", the Fleet hadn't encountered any Cylon forces for approximately 2 months. This state of complacency has allowed the typical in-fighting amongst the colonials to resume, especially with the depreciating state of quality of life amongst the ships in the fleet.

Notes

• A number of main characters are not present at all during this episode: Lee Adama, Sharon Agathon, Karl Agathon, Saul Tigh, Felix Gaeta, and Anastasia Dualla.
• According to Bradley Thompson, this episode was originally a different story titled "Our Enemies, Ourselves". When developing "The Woman King", it was felt that both episodes dealt with the same themes. As a result, "Dirty Hands" was created instead.
• The 79th Academy Awards were shown during the episode. The ratings should be taken lightly.
• The prop department still hasn't produced any Ensign rank insignia yet. Like in "Scar", Lieutenant j.g. insignia are used instead.
• Cally is still dealing with the injuries she sustained in "A Day in the Life".
• One of the deckhands has lost an arm, but is using a prosthesis to work.
• Dogsville is still in use.
• Baltar reveals that he is allegedly from Aerelon. He displays his native accent, traces of which he claimed to have heard in Sharon Valerii's voice in "Flesh and Bone".

Official Statements

Jane Espenson, in an interview with tvsquad.com, made the following remark: "The episode, co-written with Anne Cofell Saunders, is called 'Dirty Hands,' and as you might guess, it's a look at the people who do the dirty work in the fleet. Knuckle-dragging fun!"

Guest Stars

• David Patrick Green as Xeno Fenner